1/03/2007
4/26/2005
Al-Zarqawi prefers PCs over Macs
Al-Zarqawi eluded raid but left clues, source says
By Richard Engel
NBC News correspondent
Updated: 8:05 a.m. ET April 26, 2005BAGHDAD, Iraq - American special forces were tracking Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al-Qaida in Iraq, near the town of Ramadi two months ago, but the Jordanian-born terrorist leader escaped by jumping out of a moving vehicle, a senior U.S. military source tells NBC News.
Al-Zarqawi did, however, leave behind several key pieces of intelligence, the source said, the most important of which was his laptop computer.
Photos of suspected insurgents released by the military last month were taken from the "My Pictures" folder of that laptop, the source said. It was also full of telephone numbers.
Also left behind in the car was a bag with about $100,000 in euro currency. Another bag contained mini, plugin harddrives, the source said, and evidently al-Zarqawi was using these to distribute information to his network in Iraq.
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4/24/2005
AP: Ousted Ecuador President Flies to Brazil
From the AP wire
Ousted Ecuador President Flies to Brazil By MONTE HAYES, Associated Press Writer QUITO, Ecuador - Ousted Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez flew to political asylum in Brazil on Sunday, four days after he was toppled by massive street protests and sought refuge from angry demonstrators in the Brazilian ambassador's residence. [...] Gutierrez's enemies say he should be tried for abuse of power, corruption and the violent repression of protests that prompted Wednesday's congressional vote to remove him from office. His supporters say he was removed from power illegally, and the Organization of American States has asked Ecuador's new government to explain how Congress justified its decision to remove him for "abandonment of the post" when he was still in the Government Palace issuing orders. Congress justified dismissing Gutierrez under a constitutional clause allowing lawmakers to remove a president for "abandonment of the post," even though he was still in the Government Palace issuing orders. Backers of the measure argued that since Gutierrez had not faithfully carried out his responsibilities, Congress should declare the presidency vacant.That's the problem. Congress can just "declare" the presidency vacant and that he did not "fulfill his duties" rather than following their accusations with a judicial process which investigates these claims (Monicagate in the U.S., anyone?). It's no surprise Ecuador has had 3 presidents run out of office since 1997.
In a resolution Friday, the OAS avoided explicit recognition of the government of President Alfredo Palacio, who was sworn in by Congress after Gutierrez was removed. It was not known when the OAS delegation would arrive. So far, no country has recognized the new government as legitimate.Again, no surprises here.
4/23/2005
Análisis de un lector ecuatoriano
Luis Gomez of NarcoNews has posted, "Analysis from an Ecuadoran Reader," (Fabián Avila)
Enter the NarcoSphere to read his native perspective. (Lo siento gringos, lo es en Espanol)
Okay okay, "sorry gringos, it's in Spanish"
Minister of Defense: "Ecuador requires no recognition from the international community..."
Again, from La Hora:
QUITO--"The new government of Ecuador requires no recognition from the international community because it is complying with a disposition of the Constitution for presidential succession," expressed the National Minister of Defense, General(R)Solón Espinosa, Friday. "There has been no recognition for a simple reason, because the present government is complying with a disposition that is evident in the Constitution of the Republic", he affirmed. Espinosa added that the constitution, "says that when the president abandons the presidency of the Republic, the vice president will assume the functions by the time he leaves." - AFPMeanwhile, Gutiérrez also said via phone to his supporters, that Congress dismissed him "in an unconstitutional way, with 60 votes, without political judgment and without his having abandoned the charge (of the president)."
Gutiérrez: "I have not abandoned power."
Roughly translated from the article printed in La Hora.
"I continue being the President of Ecuador. I am with a clear conscience that I have done these things with honesty, because the same old politicians, the Ecuadorian oligarchy do not want the Courts to be depoliticized. I am not a thief, on the contrary, I charged the debt to the debtors, the delinquents. [sic] (--ed. unable to translate)." indicated Gutiérrez, via telephone to LA HORA MANABITA. Gutiérrez admitted that by being isolated he cannot formulate statements to the press; nevertheless, he maintained a dialogue with members of Patriotic Society. "The oligarchy does not want an honest President, a President of the people, to continue in the Presidency", he said and demanded the members of his party be solidly united.If you can read Spanish, continue reading the rest of the article at La Hora.
4/22/2005
OAS to send group of people on mission to Ecuador, or something.
From the OAS press release following the convening of the Permanent Council earlier this afternoon:
The Organization of American States (OAS) today decided to send a high-level mission to Ecuador “to work with officials of that country and with all sectors of Ecuadorian society in their effort to strengthen democracy.” The decision to send the mission was made in accordance with Article 18 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and in keeping with an invitation issued today by a delegation of Ecuador during a special session of the Permanent Council. The resolution adopted by consensus also refers to the OAS Charter, noting that one of the Organization’s essential purposes is “to promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention." [sic] ... The delegation of Ecuador came to the OAS today “to demand its solidarity” with the Ecuadorian people and government.I guess "nonintervention" can be translated into "not sending in blue helments like the U.N." but rather provide Democratic cheerleaders to encourage a return to stability of the democratic process. P.S. How the heck do you "demand solidarity"??? Solidarity is such a commie word. You can read the OAS draft resolution on the Ecuadoran crisis here. It's a cute testament to the hope that graduates with degrees in "international relations" have a future in joining organizations who have no power to enforce their friendly little "resolutions" while people riot and loot in the streets.
Ecuador Crisis Coverage: Russian Intermission Report
From Ecuador's La Hora newspaper:
Moscú expresa preocupación por crisis política en Ecuador Moscú--El Ministerio ruso de Asuntos Exteriores expresó hoy, viernes, su "preocupación" por la crisis política en Ecuador y se pronunció a favor de una solución en el marco de la Constitución y el orden en ese país andino. "Moscú sigue con atención el desarrollo de la situación política en Ecuador que se ha agudizado los últimos días", dice la nota del ministerio difundida a la prensa. Según el Ministerio ruso, la crisis en Ecuador es grave por las manifestaciones masivas en la capital y otras ciudades del país que llevaron a la destitución de Lucio Gutiérrez como presidente y su reemplazo al frente de la jefatura del Estado por el vicepresidente Alfredo Palacio. "Expresamos nuestra confianza en que la sociedad ecuatoriana podrá salir de la crisis, evitará la violencia y logrará un compromiso en aras de la estabilización y el desarrollo democrático del país", añade la nota. EFEI don't feel like translating this morning, so here is the Freetranslation.com rough translation (with a few obvious errors fixed).
The Russian Department of Exterior Matters expressed today, Friday, its "worry" by the political crisis in Ecuador and was pronounced in favor of a solution in the framework of the Constitution and the order in that Andean country. "Moscow continues its attention on the development of the political situation in Ecuador that has been intensified in the last days", the note of the department diffused to the press says. According to the Russian Department, the crisis in Ecuador is serious by the massive demonstrations in the capital and other cities of the country that carried to the dismissal of Gutiérrez as the president and his replacement by the vice president Alfredo Palacio. "We express our confidence in which the Ecuadorian society will be able to leave the crisis, will avoid the violence and will achieve a commitment for the sake of the stabilization and the democratic development of the country", adds the note.My question is, why the heck does Russia give a flying monkey dookie about Ecuador's troubles? I can't locate the article I read on the newswires yesterday, but after SOS Rice returned from her visit to Moscow, there was talk about Russia's new "soft approach" to politics...something about a "department of cultural relations" to "peacefully" and gently deal with Russia's neighbors. Last time I checked, Ecuador was not a neighbor...unless Putin is stuck in his old Commie Mode and thinks Cuba is still their Caribbean missile silo.
Historical Apologism: Case #4,539
(AP) - Japan's prime minister apologized Friday for his country's World War II aggression in Asia in a bid to defuse tensions with regional rival China, but a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the apology needed to be backed up with action after Japanese lawmakers made a controversial visit to a war shrine. Just hours before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized, a Cabinet minister and more than 80 Japanese lawmakers visited a Tokyo shrine to Japan's war dead. China's Foreign Ministry expressed "strong dissatisfaction over the negative actions of some Japanese politicians" in visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which also honor's Japan's executed war criminals. |
4/21/2005
Ecuador Crisis Coverage: Part 1
All reporting by Luis Gomez and Dan Feder of NarcoNews (unless otherwise noted).
***'s indicate time elapse between updates. All updates will be added to this blog post so check back here or go to the Narcosphere.
(The MSM can go play in traffic for their lack of coverage)
***UPDATE*** Uh-oh...according to the AP, the Latin United Nations is setting deadlines for action...
***UPDATE*** (The last until Friday's 3PM convening of the OAS Permanent Council) From an OAS press release:
A few minutes ago, in a private session with the majority of the Ecuadorian congressmen and congresswomen in attendance, has named Alfredo Palacio as the new president of Ecuador. According to reports on Radio Sucre, congresswoman Cinthya Viteri, president of the Congress, swore in Palacio. The former vice president said in his first speech that the people of Ecuador, particularly the people of Quito, decided to end the dictatorship, immorality, arrogance, terror, and fear. A few moments ago, military sources confirmed that Lucio Gutiérrez has abandoned the Carondelet Palace accompanied by his wife and a few aides. The only information known at the moment is that he has requested political asylum at the Panamanian embassy***UPDATE***
According to Venezuelas Globovision, Lucio Gutiérrez is indeed in the Brazilian embassy, where he has requested political asylum in that country. He seems to have arrived there by helicopter after protesters prevented him from leaving the coutnry by airplane. Protesters hope to prevent him from leaving the country, in order to bring charges against him in Ecuadorian courts. It is still difficult to know quite what is happening in the wake of Gutiérrez abandoning the presidency. Voices on Radio La Luna, one of the main forces behind the movement in Quito, report rumors that members of the military high command, who earlier had declared their support for Gutiérrez despite the obvious popular rejection of his rule, have decided not to recognizes Palacio as the legitimate president of Ecuador. It is not clear where Palacio is at the moment, and for some time now he has not appeared at the presidential palace, Carondelet, or made any statement. Callers from the streets have also reported pro-Gutiérrez agents trying to provoke violence in the streets. All this has led some to wonder if the military is preparing a coup detat against the man who legally took the presidency today with the backing of Congress. Hopefully, Palacios whereabouts will be known soon and nasty rumors of a military coup can be written off as just that.***UPDATE***
The headline at the website for the Brazilian daily O Globo reads: Brasil dá asilo ao presidente do Equador ("Brazil gives asylum to president of Ecuador.") (The articles can't be accessed without a subscription.) This is somewhat surprising Venezuela had already denied Gutiérrez asylum, and he was expected to try to head to Panama. He is now hiding out in the Brazilian embassy, with Ecuadorian police under orders to arrest him on sight. The coup scenario described above seems to have been, as hoped, merely rumor. As I listen to Radio La Luna, whoever is speaking now just closed an emotional commentary saying: Last night, we slept under a dictatorship. This morning, we woke up to a dictatorship. But tonight we can sleep in peace. The new president, Alfredo Palacio, has already suggested the possibility of holding a new constitutional assembly, in response to popular demands for creating a new country. The Organization of American States will hold a special meeting tomorrow to discuss the crisis in Ecuador.Enter the Narcosphere... for the Ecuadorian crisis coverage you sure won't find in the MSM...
***UPDATE*** Uh-oh...according to the AP, the Latin United Nations is setting deadlines for action...
On Thursday, the Organization of American States gave Ecuador a 24-hour deadline to explain how Congress justified dismissing Gutierrez under a constitutional clause allowing legislators to remove a president for "abandonment of the post" while he was still in the Government Palace issuing orders. (AP)¡Ten cuidado, Ecuador! ¡La mala OAS espantosa y grande le atacará! (Translation of "eh" Spanish: "Watch out, Ecuador! The big bad scary OAS will get you!") Somewhat amusingly, Ecuador's legislature outted President Abdala Bucaram for "mental incapacity" in 1997.
***UPDATE*** (The last until Friday's 3PM convening of the OAS Permanent Council) From an OAS press release:
Permanent Representative of Ecuador, Jaime Barberis, described the recent events in his country and said that the situation in the last hours is by no means a case of “an alteration of constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order.” Barberis added that “it is, on the contrary, a case of presidential succession within the framework established in the political constitution and other laws of the Republic.”
Rather's Freight Train of Reality
Arizona Republic editor Phil Boas:
Here’s what newspaper editors and writers should know about this new Internet phenomenon. Bloggers don’t have much respect for you. You are the “legacy media,” the MSM.
You’re the Roman Catholic Church to their Martin Luther and his new high-speed cable modem. |
4/16/2005
Those Ecuadorans...always banging their kitchen wares...
Ecuador President Dissolves Supreme Court
By MONTE HAYES, Associated Press Writer
QUITO, Ecuador - President Lucio Gutierrez declared a state of emergency in the capital city of this Andean nation and dissolved the Supreme Court, saying the unpopular judges were the cause of three days of pot-banging street protests in Quito. |
4/12/2005
E.U. tries to tackle Spanish Arms Dealing to Chavez
12.04.05 | France | Karl von Wogau, Chairman of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence, today urged the EU's plenary session gathered in Strasbourg to ascertain whether or not the sale of weapons by Spain to Venezuela violates the Code of Conduct on Arms Exports of the European Union. During the opening of the plenary session of the European Parliament at its seat in the French city, the German member of the EU parliament warned that the exportation of arms to Venezuela may very well go against the Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, agreed to by countries of the EU and in force since 1998.
Von Wogau urged the president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, a Spanish member of the EUP, to “verify to what extent these actions infringe upon the resolutions” of the code in question, so reported AFP.
According to the German member of the parliament, the contract may very well violate the fourth point of the aforementioned code, which establishes that member States are to refrain from exporting arms to third countries if it entails a threat against the peace, security and stability of the region.
During his address, von Wogau also raised the question as to whether the aforementioned sale is in compliance with the “Principle of Prudence” to which the European Union and its member States must adhere anytime they export arms to third countries.
Last Wednesday, US Secretary of Defence Ronald Rumsfeld openly criticised Spain for the sale of weapons to Venezuela, affirming that it had been an “error” on the part of the Spanish government.
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4/09/2005
Spanish Bio/Chem. Weapons Sold to...Venezuela?
Spain sold €540.000 worth of chemical warfare agents to Venezuela
07.04.05 | During the first semester of 2004 Spain sold chemical warfare agents and radioactive materials to Venezuela worth €539.603 according to a report entitled "Spanish exports of defence materials and related products and technologies". The report, produced by Spain's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, was revealed to Europe Press. Venezuela appeared as the twelfth buyer of such defence material to Spain for the period that saw José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero winning the vote over Partido Popular.
Chemical Warfare
Report's statistics show that Venezuela was the only country under the category "countries to which chemical warfare agents and radioactive materials were sold". Worth noting that the said category includes "biological and nerve agents destined to chemical warfare" of which Venezuela bought €30.374.
Another €509.229 consisted of "paramilitary and security material" which encompasses "firearms or gas weapons, bombs, grenades, explosives, armoured and all terrain vehicles, water canons, telescopic sights and night vision devices, etc."
Double Use
Venezuela was the third buyer of "double use products" (civil and military) accounting for 11.5% of Spain's exports.
The government of Venezuela spent €1.613.742 in "substances for the petrochemical and tanning industries".
Translated by Aleksander Boyd |
4/08/2005
Sgt. Jennings, Bronze Star recipient - We Salute You!
Sergeant Jennings received a wound in the left knee when the patrol was ambushed by rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. Despite his wound, he continued to provide aid to the mortally wounded patrol leader and the radio operator. After providing first aid and calling for a medical evacuation, he continued to engage and eliminated two enemy with precision fire from an overwatch position. Despite the shrapnel wound to his knee, he completed a foot movement to a distant intersection where the patrol was again ambushed by small arms fire. He provided fire in support of the patrol and fatally wounded another insurgent with his sniper rifle. During a lull in the fighting, he removed the shrapnel from his knee with his knife and ignored medical attention in order to support the patrol. On 17 November, he fought between posts at the Al Anbar Provincial Government Center helping thwart an attack by the enemy, firing 200 rounds from a squad automatic weapon over the government center wall to cover a blind spot being exploited by insurgents.
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Children are merely collateral damage, right, Al-Qaeda?
4 Iraqi kids, collecting trash, killed by bomb
(AP)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four children collecting trash were killed Friday by a homemade bomb in Baghdad, and masked gunmen killed an Iraqi Army officer in a restaurant in the southern city of Basra, police said.
The children died in the New Baghdad neighborhood in the southeast section of the city, police Capt. Sabah Hamid Al-Fartosi said. Insurgents frequently use hidden roadside bombs against U.S. and Iraqi Army convoys. |
4/04/2005
Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith: We Salute You
(Click "Battlescape" to watch a Macromedia Flash recreation of the events that unfolded during SFC Smith's selfless act of courage)
UPDATE: Links to video coverage of interviews with some of SFC Smith's family members and a soldier under his command can be found at Blackfive's. ALSO Be sure to watch the Hall of Heroes Induction LIVE on Army.mil April 5, 2005, at 11 a.m. EST UPDATE: The President's Medal of Honor ceremony speech is online now here.
4/02/2005
"We are in the demand mode."
Volunteers to Patrol Arizona-Mexico Border
By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press
TOMBSTONE, Ariz. - About 450 volunteers gathered Friday for a monthlong effort to patrol the Mexican border for illegal immigrants and smugglers, an organizer of the project said.
The idea, according to organizers of the Minuteman Project, is for the volunteers to fan out across 23 miles of the San Pedro Valley to watch the border and report any illegal activity to federal agents — an exercise some law enforcement authorities and others fear could lead to vigilante violence.
Many volunteers were recruited over the Internet and some plan to be armed. Patrols are to begin Monday.
Chris Simcox, Minuteman field operations director, said 450 people were willing to participate in at least one shift in the desert. He wouldn't say how many had registered or had participated in orientation. Others would arrive later in the month, he said.
Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant from California who organized the project, said earlier at least 100 volunteers had registered.
There was no immediate way to independently verify the count, and it was difficult to distinguish volunteers from counter-protesters, tourists and the merely curious in this town nearly 30 miles north of the Mexican border — best known as the site of the 1881 shootout at the OK Corral.
Gilchrist said the government has said for decades it's responsible for, and will deal with illegal immigration. "We are no longer in the request mode, the suggest mode, or the recommendation mode," Gilchrist said. "We are in the demand mode."
During orientation, volunteers heard speakers supporting the project, including Bay Buchanan, chairwoman of the conservative American Cause organization and sister of former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
"You have accomplished an enormous amount already," she said, noting the effort had drawn the attention of Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has vowed to take legal action against migrant-hunting vigilantes in Arizona.
Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, a supporter of tougher border enforcement, praised the group, telling them: "You are not vigilantes, you are heroes in my book." [--ed. I second that, Congressman.]
The Arizona-Mexico border is considered the most vulnerable stretch of the 2,000-mile southern border. Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol last year, 51 percent crossed into the country at the Arizona border.
In Mexico City, authorities Friday said about 70 officials will keep tabs on the project to determine whether migrants are abused.
"We want (migrants) to know we'll be on alert to make sure their human rights are not violated," said Arturo Salinas, Mexico's assistant interior secretary.
Human rights activists expressed concern the volunteers may abuse immigrants or get into violent confrontations with smugglers.
"The newspapers and the TV cameras are hoping something will go wrong and somebody will get hurt or somebody will do something stupid and that will draw attention," said Robert Ordway from nearby Sierra Vista.
"That ain't going to happen. We're not here to do that. We are here to support the Border Patrol, support the laws of the country and that's what we're after." |
Insurgents attack Abu-Ghraib
At Least 20 U.S. Troops Hurt in Mass Iraq Jail Attack
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Dozens of insurgents mounted a sustained attack on Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad on Saturday, detonating two suicide car bombs and firing rocket- propelled grenades before U.S. troops repelled the assault.
At least 20 U.S. soldiers and 12 detainees were wounded in the carefully planned attack, which began at around 1500 GMT and lasted for around an hour, the U.S. military said.
"A group of between 40 and 60 insurgents attacked the U.S. forward operating base at Abu Ghraib," Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for detainee affairs, told Reuters.
"They detonated two VBIEDs (suicide car bombs) and also fired rocket-propelled grenades into the prison camp ... it was a sustained attack," he said. Mortars and small arms fire were also directed toward the prison, on Baghdad's western edge.
"The attacks were intermittent. They would fire RPGs and then stop, then they would attack again," Rudisill said.
U.S. forces responded with heavy weapons, eventually bringing the situation under control. It was not known how many insurgents were wounded or killed in the battle. |
3/29/2005
Keyword: UN Peacekeeper Sex Scandal in Congo
NOT Keyword: "animal sex young girls"
For those of you (apparently there are quite a few of you) surfers who are stumbling on to my site via Google/Yahoo/MSN looking for information in the UN sex scandal in the Congo, I will be organizing a new post this week with updated information just for you.
Hey, gotta give the public what they want.
3/28/2005
Pfc. Pathetic
U.S. Army Iraq Veteran Guilty of Refusing Orders
By Andy Buerger Reuters
DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - A U.S. military court convicted a 23-year-old Army mechanic of willfully disobeying orders for refusing to perform duties after a year-long tour of Iraq, an army spokesman said Monday.
Specialist Blake Lemoine, who returned to Germany in May 2004, said he wanted to quit the army due to religious beliefs.
The special military court sentenced Lemoine to seven months confinement, reduction in rank to private and gave him a bad conduct discharge, said Bruce Anderson, deputy public affairs spokesman for the 3rd Corps support command.
Lemoine, who had condemned the invasion of Iraq, was charged for repeatedly refusing to obey orders from commanders between Jan. 10 and Feb. 15 at a base in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt.
Lemoine, from Moraville, Louisiana, told a recent news conference in Germany sponsored by anti-war groups that even though he volunteered to join the army, he had changed his mind and wanted to leave.
"It was simply a slow realisation that serving in the U.S. military at this day and time contradicts my religion and to continue to do so would make me a hypocrite," he said last week.
Lemoine had also been quoted in German newspapers as saying: "The contract with the U.S. army is a slavery contract." He also spoke out against U.S. army violence against Iraqis, saying: "Iraqi civilians are often treated worse than animals."
Lemoine joined the army for three years, a term which would have ended on Feb. 13, but extended his enlistment at some point for a further eight-month period.
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3/25/2005
Chocolate Christ
Chocolate Crosses Move Into Mainstream
By MATT SEDENSKY, AP
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A symbol of Christianity that sits atop church steeples, dangles from necks and hangs on walls is now ending up in the mouths of the faithful, over the objections of some religious officials.
A mass-produced chocolate cross is being sold this Easter by Russell Stover Candies Inc. in about 5,000 stores nationwide, which experts say is apparently a first for a major American company.
"Obviously they've seen that there's a market for chocolate crosses at Easter," said Lisbeth Echeandia, a consultant for Candy Information Service, which monitors candy industry trends. "I don't see it growing tremendously but I think there would be growth in the Christian market."
However, not all Christians are happy about it. Chomping on a chocolate cross can be offensive to some, said Joseph McAleer, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese in Bridgeport, Conn.
"The cross should be venerated, not eaten, nor tossed casually in an Easter basket beside the jelly beans and marshmallow Peeps," he said. "It's insulting."
Nonetheless, Kansas City-based Russell Stover, the third-largest American chocolate manufacturer, said it is targeting some of the most devout Christians — Hispanic Americans.
Pangburn, which Russell Stover bought in 1999, has long had a hold in that market. The milk chocolate cross is about 6 inches high, adorned with a floral bouquet and filled with caramel made of goat's milk, popular in Mexico and Latin America. Its packaging features Spanish more prominently than English.
Russell Stover President Tom Ward doesn't expect the chocolate cross to overtake the chocolate bunny, but he does expect it to bring in new customers who "wouldn't buy rabbits."
"I think it's a market that's potentially overlooked," said chocolate expert Clay Gordon, who runs the chocolate Web site Chocophile.com.
Ward said Russell Stover considered making other traditional images out of chocolate but eventually opted not to.
"A molded Jesus, for example, would not be a good call and a cross with Jesus on it wouldn't be a good idea either," Ward said. |
3/24/2005
"And if they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadoran people."
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Goldámez, or more commonly known as just "Romero."
"...We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."Psalm 116:15 "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." (Click to learn more)
Nevermind the Word of God...
(AP) Being a practicing homosexual is no bar to becoming a priest, the Scottish Episcopal Church says, a stance that puts it at odds with the Anglican Communion in other parts of the world.
[...]
The Scottish bishops expressed regret at the decision to request the withdrawal of U.S. and Canadian Churches from the ACC.
"We are conscious that as a church we are much indebted in our life both to a significant presence of persons of homosexual orientation, and also those whose theology and stance would be critical of attitudes to sexuality other than abstinence outside marriage."
"We rejoice in both," the bishops' response said. |
3/20/2005
John McCain on the emergency convening of Congress for the passing of the Schiavo legislation
"I hope we're not ... making this human tragedy a political issue," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told ABC's "This Week." "We've got plenty of other issues that are political in nature for us to fight about."
3/17/2005
"Mr. Bush, tear down this wall!"
"Mexico has been very responsible in security matters," he said, noting that his government had invested heavily in poor areas, hoping that more job opportunities at home would reduce the number of Mexicans going illegally to the United States to find work. |
3/13/2005
Mubarak sounding more and more like Putin every day...
"Arab nations have taken serious steps on the road of reform, but the road is still long and we have to go ahead confidently, out of conviction that reform is an uninterrupted process derived from the nation's will and not demanded from others," Mubarak said, opening the three-day gathering. |
3/08/2005
Maskhadov: May he rott in Hell.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, one of Russia's most wanted men, has been killed in Chechnya, according to Russian news agencies who quoted Russian federal forces in the northern Caucasus.
[...]
Maskhadov has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Russian forces in the region and has been blamed by Russia for involvement in many other attacks on non-military targets including the Beslan school hostage massacre last September and a mass hostage-taking at a Moscow theater in 2002. |
3/07/2005
Headlines that make you go "zOg?!?" - 1
The first people I thought of upon encountering these headlines...
Bolton Tapped to Be Next U.N. Ambassador
This guy was just born to be a diplomat. I mean, who can resist those lusty long lockes?
The most famous mullet in the world, some say...
Meanwhile...
Carter Arrested on Drunken Driving Charges
The picture says it all.
3/01/2005
The Men in Black continue to trample on States' rights
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.
The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.
The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. The court in 1988 outlawed executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes. Three years ago justices banned executions of the mentally retarded.
Tuesday's ruling prevents states from making 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution.
"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.
Juvenile offenders have been put to death in recent years in only a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia. Kennedy cited international opposition to the practice. (Notice the exclusive club of nations we've been admitted to who still legalize killing little children for sport. --ed.)
"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," he wrote. (Kennedy, show me where the heck it says we should confer with international law in the AMERICAN CONSTITUTION!??!?! --ed.)
In a dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia disputed that there is a clear trend of declining juvenile executions to justify a growing consensus against the practice.
"The court says in so many words that what our people's laws say about the issue does not, in the last analysis, matter: 'In the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty,"' he wrote.
"The court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our nation's moral standards," Scalia wrote. (Boo-yea! Did I just see this in print??? --ed.)
Justices were called on to draw an age line in death cases after Missouri's highest court overturned the death sentence given to Christopher Simmons, who was 17 when he kidnapped a neighbor, hog-tied her and threw her off a bridge in 1993. Prosecutors say he planned the burglary and killing of Shirley Crook and bragged that he could get away with it because of his age.
The four most liberal justices had already gone on record in 2002, calling it "shameful" to execute juvenile killers. Those four, joined by Kennedy, formed Tuesday's decision: Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Justice Clarence Thomas and Scalia, as expected, voted to uphold the executions. They were joined by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
|
2/01/2005
1/25/2005
On blogcation...
Hey gang,
As you could probably tell from my last post, my friend Eric's family is going through a difficult time right now grieving the loss of a loved one.
For the next few days (or until Eric comes back), I will be taking a blogcation to the tropical, exotic cyber-isle of Vince Aut Morire
I will be hanging out there so make sure you stop by for a visit. I can assure you, you'll encounter the same crazy commodities you're accustomed to here at Whatsakyer?.
And since I'm not too good on writing letters or sending postcards (just ask the woman...), you'll have to come visit ME instead!
See you there!
kyer
1/23/2005
Gena Woodward, mother-in-law of my dear friends Eric, and mother of his wife, Merri, respectively, passed away early this morning.
I know there are two little children who will be needing extra prayers of comfort for some time now.
To my readers, please keep the Staley family in your prayers as they bond together through this difficult time.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:3-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:1-6
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:3-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:1-6
1/21/2005
No...I have not disappeared...
Sorry all for the lack of updates but I've been pretty occupied this week. For the most part, I have been taking care of Ashley this week at my house--drug store runs, doctor's visits, fixing soup and toast and the such.
Taking care of sickies should be considered a full-time job. But it does have good benefits in the hug department. I'm very thankful I was able to take care of her this week.
Anyway, I have a TON of posts in the works--I'm considering one itemized gigantic post. We'll see. I'll try to get postin' either tonight or this weekend. If we have this big snow storm they're calling for, then I'll really have no excuse now, will I?
So check back soon.
UPDATE: (1-22/23-05) Due to only intermittent internet connectivity (possibly a weak signal, possibly due to the storm?) I have been unable to do much posting. Hopefully soon my connection will improve. Or else Comcast will have a very unhappy customer. ::takes deep breaths, counts to 3million::
1/20/2005
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
1/16/2005
Have the Splodeydopes™ * finally wised up?
Top PLO Body Calls for End to Attacks
Sun Jan 16,11:09 AM ET Middle East - AP
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - A top PLO decision-making body called on Palestinian militants Sunday to halt attacks against Israel, charging that the violence gives Israel an excuse to carry out military operations. |
1/14/2005
*NEWSFLASH* -- Anything you put in your body will cause cancer
January 12, 2005
BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter
Eating lots of red meat and processed meat can increase the risk of colon cancer by as much as 50 percent, a major study has found.
But a separate study found eating lots of fruits and vegetables did not protect against breast cancer. Both studies are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In the meat study, American Cancer Society researchers examined surveys of nearly 150,000 adults. Men and women aged 50 to 74 were asked about their eating habits in 1982 and 1992-93, and were followed through 2001.
Those who ate at least three ounces of red meat per day in both surveys were 29 percent more likely to get cancer in the distal colon near the rectum than those who ate little or no red meat. Among those who ate the highest amounts of processed meat, the risk was 50 percent higher.
Red meat includes beef, pork, ham and liver. Processed meat includes bacon, sausage, hot dogs, ham, bologna, salami and lunchmeat. Three ounces is equivalent to a large fast-food hamburger |
1/12/2005
More on the "tsunami generation" of exploited children
Sri Lanka Probes Alleged Child Trafficking
Wed Jan 12, 1:53 PM ET
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
BATAPOLA, Sri Lanka - Police have arrested a 63-year-old Sri Lankan man on charges of trying to sell his two young granddaughters after their home was destroyed and their mother killed by the Asian tsunami — a case that highlights the vulnerability of children in the wake of the disaster.
The United Nations (news - web sites) and international aid agencies have expressed concern that child traffickers are exploiting the chaos in countries hit hardest by the tsunami, and trying to abduct and then sell orphans into forced labor or the sex trade.
"There is definitely a danger. The opportunity is there. The situation will attract (traffickers)," said Udaya de Silva, a police inspector in charge of crimes against women and children in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.
[...]
UNICEF said the disaster's aftermath could create a double tragedy — increasing the likelihood that people who have lost everything will be tempted to sell off children who are an economic burden.
"There is a clear danger that as time goes by, people will become more desperate," said Sajeeva Samaranayake, a UNICEF program officer for child protection. "They will have other needs." |
UK's Prince Harry Heils Hitleresque Fashion
LONDON (AFP) - Britain's Prince Harry apologized after he was pictured on the front page of The Sun newspaper in a Nazi soldier's uniform which he wore to a fancy dress party.
Thursday's edition of the Sun features Prince Harry, younger son of Britain's Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, wearing the uniform with an armband showing a swastika, emblem of the Nazi Party.
A spokeswoman for the royal family who was contacted by AFP read a statement of apology.
"I am very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize," Prince Harry said in the statement.
A source close to the royal family said the party took place sometime after January 1.
Doug Henderson, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North and a former armed forces minister, said Prince Harry should not now be allowed to become a British Army officer.
"After the revelations this evening I don't think this young man is suitable for Sandhurst," the army officer training school, he said.
"If it was anyone else the application wouldn't be considered. It should be withdrawn immediately," he said.
[But wait...it gets better! --.ed]
The Board of Deputies of British Jews welcomed the apology, according to Sky television.
"We're gratified that the prince has apologized. The incident was in bad taste, especially in the runup to the holocaust memorial day, which the royal family will play a leading role in commemorating," it said.
Holocaust memorial day is marked on January 27, the day in 1945 when the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz, the most infamous of the Nazi World War II concentration camps. |
Make Kyer Go Ha Ha Series: Joke #1
An old cowboy sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. As he sat sipping his drink, a young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the cowboy and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?"
He replied, "Well, I've spent my whole life, breaking colts, working cows, going to rodeos, fixing fences, pulling calves, bailing hay, doctoring calves, cleaning my barn, fixing flats, working on tractors, and feeding my dogs, so I guess I am a cowboy."
She said, "Well, I'm a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about women. When I shower, I think about women. When I watch TV, I think about women. I even think about women when I eat. It seems that everything makes me think of women." The two sat sipping in silence. A little while later, a man sat down on the other side of the old cowboy and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?"
He replied, "I always thought I was, but I just found out I'm a lesbian."
1/11/2005
Europe's Immigration Woes
BERLIN - Islamic extremists accused of plotting to kill Iraq's prime minister in Germany are smuggling battle-hardened fighters from Iraq to Europe, raising a potential new terrorist threat on the continent, according to German officials. |
1/07/2005
More on the prostitution, rape of Congolese girls by UN soldiers
Report: U.N. Troops Exploited Congo Girls U.S. National - (AP)
By LEYLA LINTON, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - United Nations peacekeepers in Congo sexually exploited women and girls, some as young as 13, a U.N. watchdog office said Friday in a new confirmation that efforts to curb abuses by U.N. troops are not working.
Peacekeepers regularly had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money, investigators from the world body's Office of Internal Oversight Services found. [ie: prostitution. --.ed]
"We have had and continue to have a serious problem of sexual exploitation and abuse," William Lacy Swing, the United Nations' special representative to Congo, said at a news conference.
"We are shocked by it, we are outraged, we are sickened by it. Peacekeepers who have been sworn to assist those in need, particularly those who have been victims of sexual violence, instead have caused grievous harm."
Charges of sex abuse and other crimes have been lodged against U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world for decades. Officials have found it difficult to crack down because the United Nations doesn't want to offend the relatively small number of countries that are willing to provide peacekeepers. [What the...--.ed]
[...]
The abusive behavior in Congo continued even as the investigation was going on in Bunia between May and September, the report said. It also said some military officers tried to block the investigators' work.
The misconduct was "serious and ongoing" and investigators found it "disturbing" that there was no program in place to deter misconduct or protect civilians from abuses, the report added.
[...]
The investigators looked into 72 allegations against military and civilian U.N. personnel, which resulted in 20 case reports, all but one involving peacekeepers.
"In six cases, the allegations against the peacekeeper were fully substantiated, and underage girls were involved in all of them," the report said. It said none of the peacekeepers admitted to the allegations. |
[...] The peacekeepers over the last year have been accused of gang rapes, sexual harassment and bribing children as young as 12 or 13 with eggs, milk and a few dollars to have sex in bushes, on the bare ground or under mango trees. |
India's Untouchables... remain as they are.
India's untouchables forced out of relief camps
KESHVANPALAYAM, India (AFP) - India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged.
Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India's rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed.
"The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste," Ramachandran said.
[...]
Vijaya Lakshmi, spokeswoman for South India Federation of Fishermen Societies, agreed and said one could not wish away a centuries-old caste system when a disaster struck. |
A possible "tsunami generation" of child slaves
UN Fears Gangs May Traffick in Tsunami Children
Tue January 04, 2005 05:46 PM ET
By Thomas Atkins
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it was concerned children orphaned or separated from their parents by Asia's tsunami may be falling prey to criminal gangs bent on selling them into slavery.
The U.N. said it had received reports of adults posing as foster parents and children being shipped from Indonesia to Malaysia for sale, adding to worries about a "tsunami generation" of children also under threat of disease and hunger.
U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) officers were alarmed when a colleague in Kuala Lumpur received an unsolicited mobile phone text message offering children to order, UNICEF spokesman John Budd said by telephone from Jakarta.
"Three hundred orphans aged 3-10 years from Aceh for adoption. All paperwork will be taken care of. No fee. Please state age and sex of child required," the message read.
Although the message mentioned no fee, Budd said: "If you read that text message, and if it is true, then either they have 300 orphans for sale or they have the capacity to seize children according to orders received."
Children account for at least a third of the 150,000 people killed by the Dec. 26 tsunami. The killer waves ripped children from their parents' arms, battering some to death and leaving others to survive alone. |
1/06/2005
Lazy Linkage
- U.S. Marine in Mysterious Case Declared Deserter Can anyone honestly say they are surprised Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun fled like the Benedict Arnold he is?
- Official Says 30,000 Terrorists in Iraq Meanwhile, reports reveal about 300,000 coalition troops are lurking in the country
- Radical Islamic Group Aiding Relief Cause Who says would-be martyrs can't make good missionaries?
- Dems Ask McAuliffe to Remain Party Chair To read Eric's mind in advance, "Oh please, please, please, pleaaase!"
1/05/2005
“The word is out that they’re going to be cold and miserable. Those guys who want to get their jihad on like it’s spring break won’t want to do that now,” |
1/03/2005
Palmero, not Mancuso: a double standard?
Y mientras discutimos a nuestros amigos del sur...
(And while we are discussing our friends from the south...)
The Narco-Terrorist Who Came in From the Cold
By Sean Donahue,
Posted on Wed Dec 29th, 2004 at 03:18:55 PM EST
U.S. authorities have remained strangely silent regarding the Colombian government's decision to delay or cancel the extradition of AUC Chief Salvatore Mancuso on cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges.
THE NARCO-TERRORIST WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD:
Why Isn’t Mancuso being Extradited?
On December 11, Stewart Tuttle, head of the Political Affairs division of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota looked on as Salvatore Mancuso, commander of Colombia’s largest and most brutal network of right-wing death squads, ceremonially surrendered his Berretta to Colombian Peace Commissioner Carlos Luis Restrepo.
But Tuttle and his superiors were strangely silent a week later when the government of President Alvaro Uribe announced that it would not extradite Mancuso to the U.S. to face cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges as long as the death squad leader agreed to “cease all illegal activities” and encourage other paramilitaries to take part in the government’s demobilization process. While the U.S. hasn’t formally dropped its extradition request, neither the U.S. Embassy nor the U.S. State Department has issued a public statement about Uribe’s decision to delay or cancel Mancuso’s handover to U.S. authorities – which is highly unusual to say the least, given that Mancuso is the head of a terrorist organization and is accused of conspiring to smuggle over seventeen tons of cocaine to the U.S. and Europe. [yet...they gladly accepted a F.A.R.C. terrorist, instead.--.ed]
THE CHARGES AGAINST MANCUSO
The U.S. State Department has classified Mancuso’s organization, the “Self Defense Forces of Colombia” (AUC,) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization – the same legal designation that it applies to groups like Ansar al-Islam, al-Qa’ida, and Hamas. According to its website, the policy of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Office, which compiles the list of terrorist organizations, is to “make no concessions to terrorists and strike no deals” and to “bring terrorists to justice for their crime.”
Involvement in the operation of a Foreign Terrorist Organization is a capital offense under the PATRIOT Act.
According to the State Department’s 2004 Human Rights Report on Colombia, compiled under Tuttle’s supervision, the AUC remains actively involved in terrorist operations throughout Colombia: “Despite cease-fires declared in the context of demobilization negotiations conducted by the AUC--an umbrella organization of different paramilitary terrorist groups--with the Government, these terrorists continued to commit numerous unlawful and political killings, including of labor leaders, often kidnapping and torturing suspected guerrilla sympathizers prior to executing them. They also conducted kidnappings for ransom and committed ‘social cleansing’ killings of homosexuals and other supposedly ‘undesirable’ elements. The AUC terrorists often interfered with personal privacy in areas where they exercised de facto control, and regularly engaged in military operations in which they endangered civilian lives by fighting in urban areas and using civilian dwellings as combat shelter. AUC terrorists displaced thousands through both terror-induced forced displacements of suspect populations and military operations that drove peasants from their homes. AUC terrorists regularly threatened and attacked human rights workers and journalists who criticized their illegal activities. They also recruited child soldiers. Important strategic and financial areas continued to be heavily contested, especially as the Government eradicated coca crops, and created anti-kidnapping task forces.”Mancuso has been the main public face of the AUC since the disappearance of the organization’s founder, Carlos Castano last year. Sources in the Colombian human rights community allege that Castano is currently in hiding in Israel. [Why Israel, I've yet to find out.--.ed] Mancuso’s role in massacres, disappearances, and assassinations would be sufficient grounds for his prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But the U.S. also claims that Mancuso was involved in a major cocaine trafficking operation designed by Castano to fund the AUC. In a September 24, 2002 press conference announcing the indictment of Castano, Mancuso, and a third AUC leader, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said: “Today's indictment charges AUC leaders, not as the anti-FARC freedom fighters they claim to be, but as criminals - violent drug traffickers who poison our citizens and threaten our national security. According to the indictment, Carlos Castaño directed cocaine production and distribution activities in AUC-controlled regions of Colombia, including protecting coca processing laboratories, setting quality and price controls for cocaine, and arranging for and protecting cocaine shipments both within and outside of Colombia. Castaño and his co-defendants used violence, force and intimidation to maintain this authority over cocaine trafficking activities. For example, the indictment alleges that Castaño resorted to kidnaping and threats, and that Salvatore Mancuso caused the brutal murder of another Colombian drug trafficker as retribution for failing to pay a drug debt.”He went on to emphasize the seriousness of the charges, saying “The men named in the indictment are accused of selling one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs: cocaine. Cocaine, including its derivative form crack, remains the most frequently mentioned drug in 14 of the 20 cities in the Drug Abuse Warning Network. In addition, cocaine accounted for 50 percent of all drug-related episodes in emergency rooms between 1999 and 2000. Today, we see more clearly than ever the interdependence between the terrorists that threaten American lives and the illegal drugs that threaten American potential. As today's indictment reminds us, the lawlessness that breeds terrorism is also a fertile ground for the drug trafficking that supports terrorism. To surrender to either of these threats is to surrender to both.”Tough words. But the U.S. has not followed them up with action. Earlier this year, the Colombian government suspended its own arrest order against Mancuso and allowed him to address the Colombian legislature – the U.S. remained silent. And military aid has continued to flow to Colombia even though the State Department admits that there are widespread ties between the Colombian military and the AUC and human rights groups have documented the role of the AUC in the election of President Uribe. TALKING WITH TERRORISTS Despite the State Department’s stated policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists, both the Colombian and the U.S. press reported that U.S. Embassy officials met with representatives of the AUC in May 0f 2003 to discuss the indictements against Castano and Mancuso. (See Luis Gomez’s report) Colombian sources place Stewart Tuttle, and his deputy, Alex Lee at these meetings, and it seems clear that neither man would have jeopardized his career by meeting with terrorists in possible violation of the PATRIOT act without authorization from somewhere much higher in the chain of command. In the weeks that followed the revelations about these meetings, Tuttle and Lee, who had previously met frequently with U.S. visitors to Colombia disappeared from the Embassy’s briefing room. During this time, an Embassy official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the meetings had taken place, but insisted that the Embassy was merely trying to reiterate its desire to have Mancuso and Castano surrender themselves to U.S. authorities. (Does this mean that if they were stationed in Afghanistan or Pakistan, Tuttle and Lee would meet with representatives of al Qu’aida to reiterate their desire to see Osama bin Laden surrender for prosecution.) Apparently, however, Tuttle no longer sees the need to reiterate the U.S.’s desire to put Mancuso behind bars. And its hard to believe that the Colombian government would cancel its plans to extradite Mancuso without consulting the Bush administration. What remains to be seen is who in the U.S. decided to let Salvatore Mancuso get away. So much for the “war on terror.” |
''They threw the ball in the FARC's court in order to make it look like the FARC's fault,'' Silva said.The extradition occurred on January 1. U.S. Ambassador William Wood said he wanted Uribe to approve the transfer A.S.A.P.--that was on December 5. I was a bit perplexed upon reading Sean's article, "The Narco-Terrorist Who Came in From the Cold" (posted in full above)... and subsequently learning that Mancuso would -not- be extradited on the condition he complied with the peace accords (etc...)--As Sean said, Washington's silence (almost) went unnoticed. Yet... Uribe had no difficulty shipping FARC's Palmero up North... Go figure. Apparently the definition of a terrorist is flexible when it is politically convenient. Negotions and deals pointless in Colombia. Uribe's crew knows this. As Ralph Peters of the NYPost once said in regards to dealing with terrorists, "Negotiations are the heroin of Westerners addicted to self-delusion." What makes anyone believe for a second Mancuso will tow the line? Afterall, a terrorist, by any other name, would hang just as sweet...
In South America: More of the same
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Peruvian police and troops on Monday launched an offensive to retake a police station in a southern Andean town and end a three-day siege by ex-soldiers demanding the resignation of unpopular President Alejandro Toledo. |
There are two recent historic parallels: One in Mexico, the other in Venezuela... And history, again, as a New Year begins, knocks on the door of our América... It was 11-years-ago to the date that the indigenous Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials) uncloaked in Chiapas, Mexico, offering the first resistance to centralized global economic powers on the first day that the North American Free Trade Agreement was to take effect and begin the systematic looting of Mexico's natural and human wealth. And the military officer Humala's announcement that he will surrender, so quickly into the revolt, is reminiscent of the day in 1992 when a young military officer in Venezuela named Hugo Chavez turned himself in after a similar revolt, telling the TV cameras that he was retreating, "por ahora..." ("for now...")The Andes are are a-changin' mis amigos...
With chaos comes lawlessness
COLOMBO (AFP) - Women activists urged Sri Lankan authorities to step up protection for tsunami survivors amid unconfirmed reports some had been molested or even gang raped at refugee shelters.
The rights group, Women and Media Collective, urged stepped up protection for women and children who were more vulnerable after they were driven out of their homes by last week's tsunamis that killed more than 30,000 people.
"We have received reports of incidents of rape, rang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue operations and while resident in temporary shelters," it said in a statement.
|
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Undermining U.N. Respectability
Hey Jan Egeland, read it and weep:
More examples of American selfishness
BOSTON - A Kentucky widow, moved by the cries of grief she heard in reports about the tsunami disaster in south Asia, invited her entire town to a New Year's Eve bash to raise money for the victims. In California, a college offered free basketball tickets, with a gift for relief efforts the only price of admission.
A group of children in a Seattle suburb stood out in the rain offering "Hot Chocolate for Tidal Wave Relief!" and raised $255.
In ways large and small, people around the country have found ways to help victims of one of history's worst natural disasters.
[...]
Oxfam said Friday it had received almost $6 million in unsolicited donations since the disaster on Dec. 26 [THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS! After most "stingy" Americans have spent their fair share on gifts!--.ed]. The American Red Cross reported almost $44 million in donations from Americans by Thursday evening.
|
12/31/2004
Evolve or Die -- Victor Davis Hanson tells the Left what's up.
* Quit idolizing Europe. It was a far larger arms merchant to Saddam than was the United States; it supplied most of Dr. Khan’s nuclear laboratory; it financed much of the Oil-for-Food scandal; and it helped to create and tolerate the Balkans genocide. It has never freed any country or intervened to remove fascism and leave behind democracy — silly American notions that are to be caricatured except when it is a matter of saving Europeans.
* Stop seeing an all-powerful United States behind every global problem. China is on the move and far more likely to disrupt environmental protocols, cheat on trade accords, and bully neighbors. The newly expanded Europe has a larger population and aggregate economy, stronger currency, and far less in trade and budget debts than does the United States — and is already using that economic clout for its own interests, not global freedom from dictators and autocrats.
* Don’t believe much of what the U.N. says anymore. Its secretary general is guilty of either malfeasance or incompetence, its soldiers are often hired thugs who terrorize those they are supposed to protect, and its resolutions are likely to be anti-democratic and anti-Semitic. Its members include dozens of nations whose odious representatives we would not let walk inside the doors of the U.S. Congress. The old idea of a United Nations was inspiring, the current reality chilling. |
Who said Martha got off easy?
Report: Stewart Loses Contest in Prison (AP)
NEW YORK - Martha Stewart, who built a billion-dollar media empire based on her holiday and home decorating tips, was unable to lead her team to victory in a prison decoration contest, a magazine reported.
Stewart and a team of fellow inmates at a federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va., crafted paper cranes to be hung from the ceiling, People magazine reported in an article posted on its Web site Wednesday. They lost out to a competing team that built a nativity scene showing "pictures of snow-covered hills and sleds and clouds on the wall," the magazine quoted an inmate as saying.
Each team was given $25 worth of glitter, ribbons, construction paper and glue to build a display based on the theme "Peace on Earth," the magazine said. |
12/29/2004
East Coast could become the Least Coast
US also faces tsunami threat
27/12/2004 08:16 - (SA)
Paris - Cities on the US East Coast and in the Caribbean could be wrecked by a tsunami unleashed by the collapse of a volcanic island in the eastern Atlantic, British scientists believe.
A massive chunk of La Palma, the most volcanically active island in the Canaries archipelago, is unstable, says Simon Day, of the Benfield Grieg Hazard Research Centre at University College London.
He calculates that its flank could collapse the next time the volcano, Cumbre Vieja, erupts.
If so, that would send a dome-shaped wall of water up to 100 metres high racing across the Atlantic at 800 kilometres per hour, hitting the western coast of Africa and southern coast of England within a few hours.
Some eight hours after the collapse, the US East Coast and Caribbean would bear the brunt.
Cities from Miami to New York would get swamped by waves up to 50 metres high, capable of surging up to 20 kilometres inland, according to Day's research. |
12/28/2004
Susan Sontag bites the dust
"I believe in the soul, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, [and] that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap."
-- Kevin Costner, Bull Durham
|
Poll shows most troops support the war (even if you don't)
Poll shows troops in support of war
Mon Dec 27, 8:27 AM ET
By Robert Hodierne, Army Times
Despite a year of ferocious combat, mounting casualties and frequent deployments, support for the war in Iraq remains very high among the active-duty military, according to a Military Times Poll.
Sixty-three percent of respondents approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, and 60% remain convinced it is a war worth fighting. Support for the war is even greater among those who have served longest in the combat zone: Two-thirds of combat vets say the war is worth fighting.
But the men and women in uniform are under no illusions about how long they will be fighting in Iraq; nearly half say they expect to be there more than five years.
In addition, 87%% say they're satisfied with their jobs and, if given the choice today, only 25% say they'd leave the service.
Compared with last year, the percentages for support for the war and job satisfaction remain essentially unchanged.
A year ago, 77% said they thought the military was stretched too thin to be effective. This year, that number shrank to 66%.
The findings are part of the annual Military Times Poll, which this year included 1,423 active-duty subscribers to Air Force Times, Army Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times.
The subscribers were randomly surveyed by mail in late November and early December. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6%.
Among the poll's other findings:
• 75% oppose a military draft.
• 60% blame Congress for the shortage of body armor in the combat zone.
• 12% say civilian Pentagon (news - web sites) policymakers should be held accountable for abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
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12/24/2004
Merry Christmas
Shamelessly taken from Jim, because he said it best:
Merry CHRISTmas everyone!
Why Is It Merry?
Posted by Jim Price - 12/24/2004 2:02:52 AM
As I sat here in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, I began to wonder if anyone that happened across this blog might wonder why Christmas should be a Merry event.
- Because Santa Clause brings us presents?
- How about getting to see all of the family we seem to drift away from through the course of life each year?
- I know! It's the relief brought about by a few much-needed days off from work...right?
All perfectly valid and good reasons to be merry, but is there something else?
Yes! Read on:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Ever heard the phrase, "Jesus Is The Reason For The Season"? It's true. Christians are especially merry at Christmas time, not just because of the family, the food, fun, presents, and vacation we enjoy- we know that Christmas is the hallmark of joy. It is the celebration of the most signifigant turning point in Earth's history. You see, God loves us, and although He cannot tolerate our sin, He found a way to redeem us, and bring us back into fellowship with Him.
He sent His son Jesus to earth, to be born as a man; to grow up as we do; to fully experience life in all of its wonders, amazement, and yes, even temptation. But unlike us, Jesus did not give into temptation- ever. Not once did He ever sin. That is why He was able to become the perfect sacrifice on the cross for our sins. He took our guilt upon Himself, willingly, and died to make us free.
And that is why we celebrate His birth. Furthermore, that is the real reason why Christmas is merry!
Merry Christmas to you! Enjoy this holiday season; slow down and get to know your family and friends again. Most importantly, if you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, you won't have to look far to find Him. He's patiently waiting for you to notice that He's already found you. But only you can decide to let Him in.
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12/23/2004
U.N. Peacekeepers involved in rampant sex scandal in the Congo
Straight from a...British source?
(all emphasis mine)
Source: The Times (UK)
Sex scandal in Congo threatens to engulf UN's peacekeepers
By Jonathan Clayton and James Bone
They should be rebuilding the country, but foreign workers face serious accusations
HOME-MADE pornographic videos shot by a United Nations logistics expert in the Democratic Republic of Congo have sparked a sex scandal that threatens to become the UN’s Abu Ghraib.
The expert was a Frenchman who worked at Goma airport as part of the UN’s $700 million-a-year effort to rebuild the war-shattered country. When police raided his home they discovered that he had turned his bedroom into a studio for videotaping and photographing sex sessions with young girls.
The bed was surrounded by large mirrors on three sides, according to a senior Congolese police officer. On the fourth side was a camera that he could operate from the bed with a remote control.
When the police arrived the man was allegedly about to rape a 12-year-old girl sent to him in a sting operation. Three home-made porn videos and more than 50 photographs were found.
The case has highlighted the apparently rampant sexual exploitation of Congolese girls and women by the UN’s 11,000 peacekeepers and 1,000 civilians at a time when the UN is facing many problems, including the Iraqi “oil-for-food” scandal and accusations of sexual harassment by senior UN staff in Geneva and New York.
The prospect of the pornographic videos and photographs — now on sale in Congo — becoming public worries senior UN officials, who fear a UN version of the scandal at the American-run Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. “It would be a pretty big problem for the UN if these pictures come out,” one senior official said. (You mean, when they come out!--ed.)
Investigations have already turned up 150 allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers and UN staff despite the UN’s official policy of “zero-tolerance”. One found 68 allegations of misconduct in the town of Bunia alone.
UN insiders told The Times that two Russian pilots based in Mbandaka paid young girls with jars of mayonnaise and jam to have sex with them.
They filmed the sessions and sent the tapes to Russia. But the men were tipped off and left the area before UN investigators arrived.
The Moroccan peacekeeping contingent based in Kisangani — a town on the Congo River with no road links to the outside world — had one of the worst reputations. A soldier accused of rape was apparently hidden in the barracks for a year.
In July 2002 the rebel commander Major-General Jean Pierre Ondekane, who subsequently became Minister of Defence in a postwar transitional government, told a top UN official that all that Monuc (the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) would be remembered for in Kisangani was “for running after little girls”.
An international organisation examining the sex trade between Monuc and local women found that in March there were 82 women and girls who had been made pregnant by Moroccan men and 59 more by Uruguayan men.
According to UN insiders, at least two UN officials — a Ukrainian and a Canadian — have had to leave the country after getting local women pregnant.
Jordan’s Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein, a special adviser to the UN Secretary-General, who led one investigative team, said in a confidential report obtained by The Times: “The situation appears to be one of ‘zero-compliance with zero- tolerance’ throughout the mission.”
Sexual exploitation and abuse mostly involves the exchange of sex for money (on average between $1 — 52p — and $3), for food — for immediate consumption or to barter — or for jobs, especially affecting daily workers, the prince’s report said.
In addition, victims spoke of incidents of rape, as well as “rape disguised as prostitution” where a girl was raped and then given money or food afterwards to give the appearance of a transaction having taken place.
Three civilian UN staff have already been suspended.
A man who worked for the UN’s investigative arm in Kinshasa has resigned after being accused of consorting with a prostitute.
The Frenchman with the homemade pornography accused of paedophilia was sent back to France in October and is in jail facing charges of sexually assaulting a minor.
“The fact that these things happened is a blot on us. It’s awful,” Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN’s under-secretary-general for peacekeeping, said.
“What is important is to get to the bottom of it and fight it and make sure that people who do that pay for what they have done.” (riiiiiight...pardon me if I don't hold me breath.--ed.)
The UN has now plastered its code of conduct on UN premises in Congo. The code forbids sex with prostitutes or women under the age of 18 — even though the Congolese age of consent is 14.
But the UN continues to hand out free condoms to peacekeepers because of the fear of Aids. (Oh yes, because it would be just terrible if one of the U.N. peacekeepers contracted AIDS from a 14 year-old, wouldn't it???--ed.)
A second internal UN report, also obtained by The Times, detailed the extent of prostitution by “street girls” and “girlfriends” in Kisangani.
“One strategy is to find another UN staffer with a ‘girl friend’ and ask the girl if she knows a friend. She will usually be only too happy to comply and a more or less suitable candidate will be dispatched to the staff member’s house,” the report said.
Mireille Byongo, 20, a prostitute from Goma, said that she had had no problem gaining admission to the town’s UN barracks.
“The guys on duty at the entrance know why we have come,” she said. She said she had once gone to the tent of her Moroccan “boyfriend” and found him with a young girl aged “anything from 10 to 12”. Disgusted, she left.
“Never forget this is Heart of Darkness country. People do things here just because they can,” one female UN employee said, in a reference to Joseph Conrad’s novel about the abuses of the former Belgian Congo. |
Source: The Times (UK)
| Which member of the JLA are you? Superman Rocketed to earth by his parents to escape thier doomed planet Krypton. Kal-El(Clark Kent)'s contact with the Earth's yellow sun gives him amazing abilities that he uses to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. He fills the role of leader in the JLA.
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| Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
12/22/2004
When inherent Qur'anic "truths" run wild...
Naysayers of Christianity often scoff, "Bah..I can't believe you actually take the Bible literally"
Well, I hope those same people at least take the Qur'an seriously.
WORD. FOR. WORD.
[...] When during the trial Scot began to read Qur’anic verses that discriminate against women, a lawyer for the Islamic Council of Victoria, the organization that brought the suit, stopped him: reading the verses aloud, she said, would in itself be religious vilification. Dismayed, Scot replied:
"How can it be vilifying to Muslims in the room when I am just reading from the Qur’an?” |
12/21/2004
Definition of the American Spirit
BRUNSWICK, Ga. - With the Battle of the Bulge raging in western Europe during World War II, workers at a Brunswick shipyard were determined to deliver one more ship by year's end. To get the job done, laborers were needed around the clock on Christmas Day. About 1,500 volunteered — and they worked for free. |
Imperialist MTV colonizes African televisions
[...] MTV Networks will reach a milestone in February when the turn of a switch starts an MTV outlet in Africa, the company's 100th channel worldwide and first based on that continent.
Most of its American audience is probably unaware of the extent to which MTV and its sister networks have blanketed the world in an aggressive expansion drive. That may soon change. |
[...] MTV Indonesia includes a regular call to prayer for its Islamic audience. |
Russian Regression...
MOSCOW - Russia has restricted rights to such an extent that it has joined the countries that are not free for the first time since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, Freedom House said Monday, marking Moscow's march away from the Western democracies it has embraced as diplomatic partners.
[...]
"Russia's step backward into the 'Not Free' category is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system," Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said in a statement.
"These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries, such as Ukraine." |
When Jesus slept with men...
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A group of Christian protesters in Scotland has called on police to prosecute a theater company for blasphemy because it is putting on a play about a gay Jesus. |
D'oh!
Oh, how sweet it is!
"Conservatives have been waiting for 25 years to have all the stars aligned," says Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, which favors less government. "We have very high expectations because we now feel that Republicans have all the levers of power." |
12/20/2004
CRAP.
12/17/2004
"Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack?"
"The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors," Layden said. "To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it -- it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind." |
12/15/2004
Burying war dead--the PC way
I know this is a long one, but trust me, it is worth reading. It saddens me to no end that we have to satisfy the PC crowd when honoring our fallen heroes.
(On a side note, does anyone know how to do that "click here for more" code where it compresses the post but then instantly expands it when you click? Ahem. Patrick. Ahem.)
USA TODAY
Divisions over Iraq war delay a soldier's tribute
By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY
The young soldier tried to sound brave, but his mother could hear the fear in his voice all the way from Iraq (news - web sites). Before the satellite phone cut out, he made a request - the prayer of every soldier in peril: "Just don't forget me."
Those were the last words Regina Gilbert ever heard spoken by her only child. Three weeks later, Pfc. Kyle Gilbert was killed in Baghdad, leaving his parents and community the sad but seemingly simple task of granting his final wish.
In a town divided by the war, there was a symbolic solution: Name a bridge - a span between opposite sides - for Kyle Charles Gilbert (1983-2003).
It seemed an idea everyone could embrace. But not, as it turned out, if Kyle's marker bore the likeness of an American eagle. Or the slogan "Freedom isn't free." Or the name "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
In the end, it took a year to honor Kyle Gilbert. "We just wanted to remember Kyle," his mother says. "But things got politicized."
Brattleboro's struggle to remember its fallen son illustrates how the Iraq war can divide people, even when they're merely trying to honor the dead, even when they try to do so without offending anyone.
The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has risen from about 255 when Kyle Gilbert was shot to 1,286 as of Sunday. More and more communities face the same challenge: To remember the warriors without necessarily endorsing the war.
Kyle Gilbert's parents never imagined that memorializing their son could be such an ordeal. But he had never asked for much, besides pizza, and so they resolved to do whatever it took to grant his last wish.
Gilbert joined a peacetime military with no intention of killing or dying. When he enlisted shortly after graduation from high school in 2001, he wanted to develop his interest in electronics, earn money for college and learn to jump out of airplanes as his father had in Army Special Forces a quarter-century earlier.
He was in jump school at Fort Benning, Ga., with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division on Sept. 11, 2001. "Kyle knew what that meant," his mother says. "He knew there was going to be a war."
At jump school graduation, according to tradition, father and son exchanged their silver wings pins, and Bob pinned his to Kyle's chest.
Eighteen months later, the 82nd Airborne marched into Baghdad. Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s statue fell, and President Bush (news - web sites) flew onto an aircraft carrier in the Pacific and declared major combat over. Kyle and his buddies made friends with local kids and went swimming at one of Saddam's palaces.
A town's twin cultures
In Brattleboro, which has been called a college town without the college, the war was more complicated. The community has two cultures: One traces its origins to communes that sprouted here in the 1960s; the other is rooted in traditional, conservative, rural Vermont. The first group was most concerned with opposing the war, the second with supporting the troops.
The town commons was the site of many anti-war demonstrations. One attracted about 1,000 people. Given Brattleboro's population of 12,000, it was one of the nation's largest demonstrations per capita.
There also were demonstrations in support of the troops, some of which coincided with war protests. The Gilberts sent Kyle photos of the former.
Early on, he mailed them a makeshift postcard on a piece of ripped cardboard with Arabic lettering at the edges. "I'm OK," he wrote. "You might have seen the 82nd Airborne on TV. ... Don't worry about me. I'll keep my head lower than my ass. ... I should be home by Halloween."
But as the months passed, the fighting never really stopped. Dates for coming home were pushed back. He was lonely, and increasingly he was scared.
"I could kinda tell, just from his voice, that things were changing," Regina says. "You just know your own son's voice."
Later, someone in Kyle's unit sent the Gilberts photos taken during the summer of 2003. In them he looks, his mother thinks, "like a different person" - thinner, older. "He doesn't look 20," she says.
When Kyle called home July 18, Regina greeted him by his baby name: "Hey, Bud-Bud!"
That seemed to get to him. After they'd talked for a while, he said, "Just don't forget me."
"You're my only baby!" she cried. "That's not gonna happen." Then the satellite phone connection, always delayed and tenuous, was cut off.
Hit by a sniper
On Aug. 5, one of Kyle's buddies in the 82nd Airborne called his mother, who also lived in Brattleboro. The next morning, the mother called Regina and told her "they're doing fine."
There had been no U.S. military deaths in Iraq for four days. Commanders had begun to hope that their campaign against guerrilla leaders had worked and that U.S. troops could begin to concentrate more on building goodwill among the Iraqi people.
That night Kyle was riding in a Humvee at the front of a patrol convoy in west Baghdad when a sniper opened fire. One shot hit a soldier in the back of the vehicle, knocking him out onto the road. Kyle and a sergeant leapt out to get him. There was more sniper fire, and both men were hit.
In Kyle's pocket was his last will and testament and a handwritten note. It began, "Dear Mom and Dad, By the time you read this I will have died for my country. Please don't be sad."
On Aug. 8, Regina was sitting at her desk at a food wholesaler reading USA TODAY, which she'd begun to buy for the war news. Two soldiers had been killed Aug. 6 in Baghdad. One was identified as Staff Sgt Brian Hellerman of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 235th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Kyle's unit.
"The name of the other solider had not been released," the article said.
"I don't feel so good about this," she told a co-worker. Then the phone rang. It was Bob. An Army officer was in town, looking for them. Bob didn't know any officers, so he had an idea what he wanted.
Kyle Gilbert was the first person from Brattleboro to die in Iraq. On Aug. 12, five months after he went to Iraq, he came home to a welcome unlike any the town had seen in many years. When the hearse got off Interstate 91, people had been waiting at the exit for hours. Unbidden, they lined the route into town, often four and five deep. Some followed the hearse on foot toward the funeral home.
The procession moved slowly through Brattleboro, past Kyle's high school, the hospital where he was born, the neighborhood where he grew up. Past the alignment shop and the car wash where he earned the $4,000 for big rims and tires for his souped-up red 1969 Chevelle.
Everyone was struck by the silence, broken only by the slow pounding of a single bass drum. Waiting at the funeral home, Regina heard the drum get louder and louder, and knew her son was coming.
Sam Haskins, a local Vietnam veteran, wondered how members of the 82nd Airborne who came to town for the funeral would react to anti-war demonstrators. A sergeant told him not to worry: "We're fighting so they have the right to do that."
Honoring sacrifice
On Veterans Day 2003, a local writer named Judy Gorman saw President Bush laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. It prompted her to write an op-ed column for the Brattleboro Reformer in which she argued that Bush had been "remarkably reticent in honoring the sacrifices made by the known soldiers" in Iraq. (Story: Memorial efforts across the U.S.)
"Let's do it for him," she wrote. Gilbert was Brattleboro's "hometown hero," so why not give his name to the newly reconstructed bridge that carries Main Street over Whetstone Brook?
She didn't expect anything to come of it. But a reader sent a $100 check to the newspaper. Other donations followed. In January, the town council voted to name the bridge for Gilbert. Residents, many of them moved by memories of his homecoming, raised more than $10,000 for a memorial at the bridge.
Choice of words
As devised by the town manager, the Gilberts and a group of veterans, the design called for a granite monument 4 feet high. The face bore the likeness of an American eagle with a scroll in its talons. On the scroll was "FREEDOM IS NOT FREE" and below it: "BRATTLEBORO SUPPORTS ALL THE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED OUR NATION OR MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE DURING OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM."
But after the design was circulated among town officials, Sam Haskins, the Vietnam vet, got a call from Jerry Remillard, the town manager. "He said, 'We have to change this to make people happy,' " Haskins says.
Some people considered the eagle to be jingoistic, "Freedom isn't free" to be a pro-war slogan, and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to be Pentagon (news - web sites) propaganda. Even the word "supports" was seen by some as condoning the war.
Pat DeAngelo, a council member, threatened to disclaim responsibility for the memorial unless the language was changed. "This was supposed to be an apolitical statement," she told the Reformer." 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' definitely is not."
Gorman, the writer who'd started it all, called the wording "bellicose."
Regina Gilbert was stunned. Freedom wasn't free. Didn't everyone support the troops, if not the war? She wasn't political; at 41, she'd never even voted.
"They said they didn't want a war memorial, but we weren't promoting a war," Bob says.
But the Gilberts agreed to change the wording. "We couldn't let people forget Kyle," Regina says. "We kept going for Kyle."
The bridge was named on a cold Veterans Day morning last month. The memorial reads: BRATTLEBORO REMEMBERS ALL THE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED OUR COUNTRY OR MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE IN IRAQ.
Above those words is the inscription: AS KYLE SAID, 'JUST DON'T FORGET ME.'
"Now I know we'll never forget him," Bob Gilbert told a crowd of several hundred, "and I think you won't, either."
Five anti-war protesters stood silently across the street, holding signs: "We Mourn All Victims of War" and "Honor Vets by Ending the War." One protester was Bob Bady, who took an hour off from work to be there. He felt the memorial's presence glorified the war, however inadvertently, and ignored Iraqi victims.
"We did something that needed to be out there," he later said of the protest. "I don't think we caused a whole lot of discomfort."
Pain persists
Sixteen months after Kyle's death, the Gilberts have not been able to bring themselves to go through the five containers of his personal items shipped from Fort Bragg. "You send off your son," Regina muses, "and everything comes back in a box."
She's bitter about the war - on Nov. 2, she voted for the first time - but not about how the memorial turned out.
"No matter how divided the community, we couldn't have done it without them," she says. "We can't hate the protesters. We need to keep that freedom of speech."
The Reformer concluded that the compromise wording seemed "palatable to all." Remillard, the town manager, says that although the Gilberts "would have preferred something more direct," even the substitution of "remembers" for "supports" made sense: "It speaks to the future more than the present."
In the days after the memorial's dedication, pedestrians frequently would stop and touch the fine, smooth Vermont granite. But now more and more pass by. It is becoming part of the landscape.
Will Kyle Gilbert's simplest, most urgent wish - "Don't forget me" - ultimately be the hardest to grant? |
Myanmar continues to hold Suu Kyi under house arrest
From Dec. 6 2004
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Myanmar has extended Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, Malaysia's foreign minister said Monday, confirming recent reports from Yangon that the junta had decided to keep her in isolation.
"It is confirmed," Syed Hamid Albar told reporters. "But we don't even know if there is an end-date. They only say they have not released her...(she is) going to continue to be placed under house arrest."
Syed Hamid earlier hosted a meeting a conference of officials and diplomats from East Asian nations, attended by Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win and several of their Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) colleagues. Nyan Win declined comment.
Suu Kyi, 59, is the 1991 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She has spent most of the past 15 years confined to her home in Yangon, with no telephone and requiring official permission to have visitors.
Her National League for Democracy said last Wednesday that Myanmar's rulers would extend Suu Kyi's isolation until at least Nov. 27 next year. There had been no official word from Yangon.
Syed Hamid said Myanmar should heed world opinion and release Suu Kyi to help national reconciliation and boost the junta's credibility.
"I think they should look at their roadmap so that it has got credibility and it is believed by the international community they are going to proceed as they have promised," he said.
"I think it should include finally the release of Aung San Suu Kyi if we talk about democracy," he said.
Myanmar's fellow ASEAN members have urged Yangon to release Suu Kyi, whose continued detention has proved an embarrassment to the forum in its dealings with Europe and the United States.
ASEAN, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, has a long-held policy of not interfering in its members' internal affairs.
Washington, which has condemned Syu Kyi's detention and imposed sanctions on Myanmar, has said it will have to think about whether to deal with ASEAN at a senior level when Myanmar chairs the group in 2006, after Malaysia's turn in 2005.
Despite mounting international pressure, Myanmar has refused to budge, instead issuing assurances it is committed to moving toward democracy at its own pace.
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Kim Jong Ill forgets he is 3 feet tall (4 with the hair)
"If sanctions are applied against the DPRK (North Korea)..., we will regard it as a declaration of war against our country and promptly react to the action by an effective physical method," the unidentified spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Japan swiftly shrugged off the North Korean warning (emp. mine--ed.), with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi suggesting the threat of an "effective physical" response might be part of a political strategy by Pyongyang.
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(Non-corrupt) food for (non-corrupt) thought
Here's everything we need to know about the moral decrepitude of the United Nations:
The United Nations flag in front of the building in NY was flown at half-mast for the death of Arafat, but NOTfor the death of Ronald Reagan.
"Marine Chooses Wedding Ring Over Finger"
VICTORVILLE, Calif. - When Marine Lance Cpl. David Battle learned he'd either have to sacrifice his ring finger or the wedding band he wore, he told doctors at a field hospital in Iraq to cut off the finger.
The 19-year-old former high school football star suffered a mangled left hand and serious wounds to his legs in a Nov. 13 fire fight in Fallujah. Battle, who is recovering at his parents' home in this desert city 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, came under attack as he and fellow Marines entered a building. Eleven other Marines were wounded.
Doctors were preparing to cut off Battle's ring to save as much of his finger as they could.
"But that would mean destroying my wedding ring," he said. "My wife is the strongest woman I know. She's basically running two people's lives since I've been gone. I don't think I could ever repay her or show her how grateful ... how much I love my wife, my soul mate."
With his approval, doctors severed his finger, but somehow in the chaos that followed, they lost his ring.(Idiots...--ed.)
Although Battle was disappointed, his wife, Devon, said she was honored.
"I can't believe he did that," she said. "At first I was mad when he told me, but then I realized how lucky I am to have him in my life."
The couple, who met in the eighth grade, were married in June, just two weeks before Battle left for Iraq. He hopes to eventually return to the Marines, and to replace his wedding ring, but that will have to wait until he recovers.
In the meanwhile, Battle's high school has planned a banquet in his honor next week.
"We need to make more David Battles," said Daniel Pierce, the school's assistant head coach. "He is one amazing guy."
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12/13/2004
1 year ago...
...I was born again by the redeeming blood of Christ, my Lord and Savior.
1 Peter 1:3-4
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you..."
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Job 8:13
"Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless."
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O.J. TV coverage upstaged; Connor "the Fetus" vindicated
In arguing for death last week, prosecutors called Peterson "the worst kind of monster" and said he was undeserving of sympathy. Geragos begged of jurors: "Just don't kill him. That's all I am asking of you. End this cycle." |
The death sentence came almost two years to the date after the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who married her college sweetheart and was soon to be the proud mother of a baby boy named Conner. [...]
The remains of Laci and the fetus washed ashore about four months later, just a few miles from where Peterson said he was fishing in the San Francisco Bay. The case went to trial in June, and the jury of six men and six women convicted Peterson last month of two counts of murder. |
12/11/2004
"Day trips and X-rays and Brooklyn--Oh my!"
Alright kids, two orders of business.
Today, Saturday, December 11 2004, Ash and I are taking a much needed mental-health day trip to what is probably the most mentally taxing city in the country--New Yoik City (Brooklyn and Manhattan to be more precise). I'm takin' the lil' lady to see "the big Christmas tree" at Rockafella' Centa and stroll down (actually up, since we're coming from Brooklyn) 5th Ave.
Also of newsworthy notoriety, yesterday, Friday, December 12 2004, I called my local medical imaging/deli and found out the cost of a c-spine x-ray and was told it was a brisk $165.
Being a rather unemployed college graduate at the time--I think I might wait a few weeks until that nice 9-5 job with med benefits falls in my lap (or when Big Guy helps me get off the couch).
So no more telling me not to be stubborn! Now it's just a matter of getting the dough.
P.S. If I see the advertising promo for the Ben Franklin documentary on the History Channel where they reveal he was not only a patriot and an inventor but a "playboy" ONE MORE TIME--I'm going to scream.
P.P.S. Personal comp. health insurance plans suck.
12/10/2004
Kerik removes name from consideration for top DHS job
From the AP:
[...] Kerik said the problematic issue arose as he was completing documents required for Senate confirmation. "I uncovered information that now leads me to question the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ as a housekeeper and nanny. It has also been brought to my attention that for a period of time during such employment required tax payments and related filings had not been made."
Kerik said he feared that the disclosure of the issue would generate intense scrutiny that would "only serve as a significant and unnecessary distraction to the vital efforts of the Department of Homeland Security." |
12/09/2004
Health Hiatus
The past few months (perhaps, since the summer)--I have been slowly losing the dexterity and strength in my hands. I have also been exhibiting elbow pain and a general "heavy" feeling in my left arm as well as pain in my right hand.
Having seen my physician, the possibility of carpal tunnel syndrom (spelling?) has been raised. The doc also ordered a neck/spine x-ray as well for good measure. Now I just have to get past my stubborness and actually get them taken.
Point being, I have since realized this morning that it is no longer a matter of blogathy (blog apathy) that I have been struggling with post-November 2, rather it has been a fatigue of a different sort. I've found myself dreading simply copying and pasting the table code I often use for my various news topics, let alone commenting on newsworthy items. Laziness, possibly, but I find now it is rather a matter of the aforementioned concern.
So bear with me fellow readers and bloggers alike. I have about a dozen topics (several of them which will be a bit dated, but I will still post nonetheless) in queue. Posts may trickle in as energy and strength (and time!) permits.
Thank you.
12/08/2004
ETA estalló siete bombas a través de España
MADRID. - (el mundo) Dos llamadas en nombre de ETA han avisado al diario 'Gara' de la colocación de siete artefactos en Ávila, Valladolid, León, Santillana del Mar (Cantabria), Málaga, Ciudad Real y Alicante. Los comunicantes advirtieron de que harían explosión de forma simultánea a las 13.30 horas, tal y como ha ocurrido. Los siete lugares habían sido acordonados y desalojados aunque ha habido cierta confusión con algunos de ellos. Diez personas han sido atendidas en Santillana aunque sólo una de ellas, una niña, ha resultado herida leve.
Las Fuerzas de Seguridad, que se encontraban en estado de alerta, acordonaron y desalojaron las zonas, aunque algunos de los artefactos no estallaron exactamente donde se había señalado. Todos ellos estallaron con apenas unos minutos de diferencia.
Casi todos los explosivos estaban situados en lugares que en su denominación incluyen la palabra España [...] |
Two calls made in the name of ETA notified the daily 'Gara' of the placement of seven explosive devices in Ávila, Valladolid, León, Santillana del Mar (Cantabria), Málaga, Ciudad Real and Alicante. The callers explained that they would detonate the explosives in a simultaneous fashion at approximately 1:30PM, just as it has occurred. The seven places had been cordoned off and evacuated although there has been confusion in some of the areas. Ten people have been attended to in Santillana although only one of them, a girl, has turned out to be slightly injured.
The security forces, on the alert, cordoned off and evacuated the zones, although some of the explosive devices did not explode exactly where they had been indicated. All of them exploded within close proximity to one another.
Almost all the explosives were situated in places that in their denomination included the word "Spain" [...] |
"Monday [was] a public holiday in Spain to celebrate the 1978 constitution, bitterly opposed by ETA for enshrining the Basque region as part of Spain. Police had warned of a possible ETA attack."Spain is definitely wrestling with domestic (ETA, among others) and Islamic terrorism in their own way (this instance, as well as the March 11 train bombings by al-Qaeda). And to think I was in Madrid only a month before it all went down. It was a weird feeling hearing about the attacks on the news last March.
Wikipedia has a fairly decent write up on ETA.
12/06/2004
Bliggity Bloggity Bam!
not feeling like bloggin' today--but tonight/tomorrow expect posts on the Tillman story, the (rightfully just) defrocking of a lesbian Methodist "pastor", the ETA bombings in Spain (ay Dios mio...) and more blogtastic fashizzle for all 2 of you to read!
12/04/2004
U.N. = Unbelievable
International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December marks one year since the signing conference for the United Nations Convention against Corruption was held in Mérida, Mexico.
In the last year, over 110 countries have signed on to the Convention and nine have ratified it. Ratificiation by 30 Member States is necessary for the Convention to enter into force. |
Tommy Thompson reveals America's Achilles' heal...
WASHINGTON - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned Friday, warning of a potential global outbreak of the flu and health-related terrorist attacks. “For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do,” he said.
|
Brits bomb the memory of a million victims...
LONDON (AFP) - Nearly half of Britons have never heard of the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in southern Poland, according to a BBC television poll that was conducted just ahead of the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation.
Forty-five percent of the 4,000 people questioned for the survey by BBC Two said they had never heard of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, the television channel said Thursday. |
11/30/2004
Dutch Doctors of Death
In another rather unsurprising medical development--the Netherlands, the same country who brought you socialized medicine, legalized prostitution and hash cafes, comes "ethical infantcide" for those young ones not deemed viable for productive, long-lasting lives.
(more)
1Wikipedia: Eugenics
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP)- A hospital in the Netherlands — the first nation to permit euthanasia — recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.
The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives — a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.
In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident.
The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital's guidelines have come to be known, would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life of newborns deemed to be in similar pain from incurable disease or extreme deformities.
The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it's best.
Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness.
The hospital revealed last month it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors. There have been no legal proceedings against the hospital or the doctors. |
"mandatory pre-marital screenings for 'genetic diseases of a serious nature' and 'relevant mental disease.' Those who are diagnosed with such diseases are required either to not marry or to agree to 'long term contraceptive measures' or to submit to sterilization."1This goes way beyond determining a baby is an "inconvenience at this point (in a woman's) life"--This just plain determines the life is plain worthless. Every life is precious as it is a gift from God--His perfect creation no matter how imperfect we deem the life to be in terms of frailty. Killing a child inside of the womb is no different than outside. Mercy killing, indeed.
1Wikipedia: Eugenics
11/29/2004
Conservationists call for more funds, commitment to protect tigers
Via AFP:
More information: 5tigers: The Tiger Information Center Forever Tigers Save China's Tigers The Tiger Foundation Adopt a Tiger Tiger Link Tigers in Crisis
HANOI (AFP) - A large injection of funds and commitment from the international community is needed to prevent the world's critically endangered tiger population from dwindling any further, conservationists warned.
Out of the eight sub-species of tiger that roamed the earth's jungles and forests 60 years ago, the Bali tiger, the Caspian tiger and the Javan tiger are now extinct, while less than 20 South China tigers remain.
"Across its range, this magnificent animal is being poisoned, electrocuted, blown up by land mines, trapped, snared, shot and captured," according to global conservation organization, the WWF.
Tiger populations have plunged from around 100,000 at the turn of the last century to between 5,700 and 7,000 today, most in isolated pockets stretching from India to southeastern China and from the Russian Far East to Indonesia.
But those remaining face a multitude of threats, warned S.C. Dey, secretary-general of the Global Tiger Forum, on the opening day of the New Delhi-headquartered international organization's general assembly in Hanoi.
"Increased human-tiger conflict due to rising human population, shrinkage and degradation of tiger habitat and declining preybase pose a serious threat to the survival of the tiger," he said.
Poaching, a lack of public will to protect the animals and the drive towards modernization in Asia's developing countries compound the problem, Dey added.
The decline of tiger populations last century was primarily the result of culls either because they were viewed as dangerous animals or because hunting them was considered a noble sport by colonial and indigenous elite.
Subsequently, commercial trade of tiger skin and other parts of the cat for alleged medicinal purposes have become a major threat to their existence.
"The majority of these animals are sought to meet the demands of a continuing illegal wildlife trade," according to the WWF.
The Bengal, Sumatran, Indochinese and South China sub-species were placed on the most endangered appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1975. The Siberian tiger was listed in 1987.
Preventing these sub-species from becoming extinct requires "significant financial input", massive public education and awareness campaigns and the concerted, unified efforts of conservationists and governments, Dey said.
Currently, manpower and funds assigned to protect tiger populations were inadequate in many tiger-range countries, while "conservationists are very often branded as anti-development" and face local resentment, he added.
Dey stressed, however, that the world has a duty to protect the cats, who as top predators keep populations of other wild animals in check, thereby maintaining the balance between herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed.
"The tiger occupies the apex of one such eco-system pyramid and our effort to save the tiger is aimed at deferring ecological disaster," he said.
"Strategies have been broadly worked out. What is required is to refine and implement them, so that the tiger continues as a dynamic asset of nature not only in years to follow, but in centuries and the millenium to come." |
More information: 5tigers: The Tiger Information Center Forever Tigers Save China's Tigers The Tiger Foundation Adopt a Tiger Tiger Link Tigers in Crisis
Cult of personality still reigning supreme in China
SHAOSHAN, China (AFP) - In Mao Zedong's hometown of Shaoshan, 'long live Chairman Mao' booms from speakers as people tumble out of buses onto a small square, donning caps emblazoned with their tourist group affiliation.
They chatter excitedly as they approach the six metre (19.8 feet) tall bronze statue of the dictator outfitted in thick shoes and double-breasted military coat, before stopping to pose and snap photos in front of the revered revolutionary leader.
Twenty-eight years after his death and despite wide recognition in China that he committed grave errors which caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, Mao is still regarded by many as the country's greatest modern leader.
"I worship him. Most of the people coming here worship him," said Wang Ming, 35, a resident of eastern Nanjing who traveled more than 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) to Shaoshan in central Hunan province.
"He had a rebellious spirit and he led such a small and tiny army to fight against Kuomintang (the political party driven to Taiwan by the Communists in 1949), and he saved the country and the people."
At a strategically placed flower stand that sits on the small square, tourists line-up to buy bouquets that cost as much as 399 yuan (48 dollars). They place them gently and respectfully at the base of the statue.
Though even state media today continues to remind people that Mao was just a man and not a god, here the admonishment seems to fall on deaf ears.
People pray in front of his statue by bringing their hands together and kowtowing three times -- a ritual that in ancient, feudal China was reserved for the emperor alone.
"I pray that he may give me strength and courage to live a good life," said Zhu He, a visitor from northern Hubei province. |
On any given day Mao's hometown is overrun with more than 4,000 tourists, or about 1.5 million visitors a year. It has become a money spinning attraction that symbolizes one of the great contradictions of the politics of the ruling Communist Party of China.
Mao's vision of an egalitarian, Communist utopia has largely become an anachronism in a country that increasingly defines itself with market capitalist values. |
Where once the Communist Party could justify its self-appointed totalitarian rule over its 1.3 billion people because the historical forces of the proletarian revolution were in its favour, 25 years of market economic reforms has vanquished that mandate. |
*Gasp!* Human smuggling across the Tex-Mex border???
Via: A.P.
By JUAN A. LOZANO
HOUSTON - The first trial stemming from the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt was set to begin Monday in federal court, more than 1 1/2 years after 19 illegal immigrants died in a packed, sweltering trailer on a Texas highway.
Victor Jesus Rodriguez, Claudia Carrizales de Villa and Fredy Giovanni Garcia-Tobar each face 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. Each faces up to life in prison if convicted.
[sic]
Prosecutors say the three were part of a smuggling ring that tried to transport more than 70 immigrants from South Texas to Houston in May 2003.
Seventeen of the immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic died in the packed, poorly ventilated tractor-trailer, which authorities estimate reached 173 degrees. Two others died later |
11/28/2004
upDATE
Major site renovations have been undertaken as of late. Still working on more--thus the reason posts have been slow.
I will try to finish my post on the assassination plot against Pres. Bush while he was visiting our Southern Neighbors sometime later today (Sunday), football and sleep permitting.--(Monday! Football and sleep won!)
In the meantime, check out Eric's updated site, and Patrick'sdaily gems.
11/23/2004
Ozzie KIWI dolphins make Flipper look like a clown(fish)
File this one under "How freakin' cool is that???"
(more...)
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A pod of dolphins circled protectively round a group of New Zealand swimmers to fend off an attack by a great white shark, media reported on Tuesday.
Lifesavers Rob Howes, his 15-year-old daughter Niccy, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 300 feet off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on New Zealand's North Island when the dolphins herded them -- apparently to protect them from a shark.
"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).
Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back just as he spotted a nine-foot great white shark swimming toward the group. |
11/22/2004
U.S. troops say they find 'atrocity sites' in Fallujah
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops have found close to 20 "atrocity sites" used by insurgents to imprison, torture and kill hostages in Fallujah, a U.S. military officer said Sunday.
Marine Maj. Jim West said that in addition to numerous weapons caches, troops clearing the city after a major U.S.-led offensive had found rooms containing knives and black hoods, "many of them blood-covered." |
Kevin Sites explains himself to the Marines
Kevins Sites: Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1
The Fallujah incident from his perspective.
Someone said a few days ago on FNC that the media has every right to be embedded right alongside the troops on the frontlines--on behalf of the American citizens who pay for the war.
Reports from the military themselves would more than suffice for me.
House Condemns Criticism of Boy Scouts
House Condemns Criticism of Boy Scouts
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The House on Saturday commended the Boy Scouts and condemned legal efforts to limit government ties to the group because of its requirement that members believe in God.
A nonbinding resolution, passed by a 391-3 vote, recognized the 3.2 million-member Boy Scouts for its public service efforts. But the main thrust of the debate was what the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said were the "strident legal attacks" on the group.
The Pentagon agreed last week to tell U.S. military bases around the world not to directly sponsor Boy Scout troops. The warning resulted from legal challenges to government relations with a group that bans openly gay leaders and compels members to swear an oath of duty to God.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others say that direct government sponsorship of such a program amounts to discrimination. (more...)
|
Idiot honored for his un-funniness
AP) Hundreds of people gathered to see the unveiling of [Tim] Allen's star, the 2,270th on the Walk of Fame. |
Onward Christian Soldier
Onward Christian Soldier
By WILLIAM LOBDELL
William Lobdell is a Times staff writer who covers religion.
Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times December 8, 2002.
In 1989, Anthony launched his own war on dishonest religious broadcasters, using the skills he learned as an intelligence operative with the U.S. Air Force to ferret out corruption. "I do enjoy the hunt," he says. "But I'd much rather be out of a job."
For now, he and his half-dozen investigators soldier on in a target-rich environment: the unregulated industry of televangelism is estimated to generate at least $1 billion through its roughly 2,000 electronic preachers, including 80 nationally syndicated television pastors. Trinity's forces dig through trash bins, search computer databases and go undercover with hidden cameras. Their victim's hotline turns up informants, victims and new scams. They enlist double agents in their fight. And they provide their research to academics, fellow watchdog groups, government agencies and the media, including The Times. (more...)
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11/18/2004
al-Zarqawi HQ believed to be found
(AP) BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops sweeping through Fallujah on Thursday said they believe they have found the main headquarters of the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
In video shot by an embedded CNN cameraman, soldiers walked through an imposing building with concrete columns and with a large sign in Arabic on the wall reading "Al Qaida Organization" and "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
Inside the building, U.S. soldiers found documents, old computers, notebooks, photographs and copies of the Quran. (more...)
|
I finally know...
...my diagnosis:
blogathy
Anyone in possession of the antidote? Eric? Patrick? Beth? Red? Anyone?
11/16/2004
I never count my fetuses before they are viable
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican defender of abortion rights, made progress on Tuesday in his embattled bid to head the committee that reviews judicial nominations, party aides said.
Specter emerged from a closed-door meeting with Senate Republican leaders with a smile but no prediction on whether he will become Judiciary Committee chairman -- though a handful of Republican lawmakers have publicly voiced support in recent days and have said they expect him to get it.
"I never count any chickens before they hatch," Specter, 74, of Pennsylvania, said after the meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
|
11/15/2004
RE: Sabotage of the 2004 Election
From David Keene, American Conservative Union
Blast A Fax to the Leadership of the House and Senate .
(This seems a tad alarmist, but what the hey. I figured I'd pull an FNC - I report, you decide.)
Billionaire Socialist George Soros and Moveon.org are actually trying to sabotage the 2004 Presidential Election -- after the fact!
And People For The American Way (PFAW), Common Cause and six ultra-liberal members of Congress -- led by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) -- have jumped on the Soros/Moveon.org bandwagon.
These organizations have already generated hundreds of thousands of letters to Congress requesting a General Accounting Office investigation of the vote in Florida, Ohio and New Mexico.
The intent is clear. Following the example of third world Banana Republics, these leftists simply cannot accept the fact that George Bush won the election fair and square and are determined to steal it after the fact.
Can they succeed? I don't know -- but they will continue to do grave damage to this country in the process if we do not take a stand to nip this movement in the bud right now!
Joining Conyers in this fraud on the American public are are U.S. Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Robert Wexler (D-FL), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Robert C. Scott (D-VA) and Melvin Watt (D-NC).
Conyers demanded that the GAO "immediately undertake an investigation into the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election."
Conyers predicted his election investigation efforts "will probably lead to congressional hearings."
Keep in mind, that after the election we all heard the liberal battle cry of "we must heal the wounds." It should be obvious by now that liberals have no interest in healing the wounds that they themselves inflicted. Rather they seek to deepen the wounds and further divide the country.
We can't let them get away with it.
The media has also joined in. Greg Palast of Harpers Magazine wrote, "I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry"
Palast -- not wanting to be confused by the facts -- is basing this extremely flawed hypothesis on the empirically discredited exit polls conducted on election day that falsely declared Kerry the winning.
Frankly, these folks are nuts!
We've already heard the stories of Kerry supporters seeking psychiatric help after election day.
PFAW sent a letter to supporters that read -- in part -- "PFAW Foundation's Election Protection team is supporting efforts to impound voting machines... in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico."
And the liberal bloggers are rabid. One of their number -- Austin King -- is claiming that there was a secret plot by Karl Rove and the RNC to steal the election and says he would "very much like to see someone put in jail for this..."
Others are claiming that Diebold -- the company that manufactured many of the new voting machines nationwide -- participated in a Republican conspiracy to rig the election.
And still others are claiming that the recent assault on Fallujah is nothing more than an attempt to bump these ludicrous claims from the media.
I know what some of you are thinking. A movement this ludicrous should simply be ignored. But history teaches us that doing nothing would be a big mistake. The movement is already widespread and the press -- foreign and domestic -- is more than willing to give this movement credibility.
It was just this type of divisiveness that spawned the rise of totalitarianism in post World War I Europe, because it went unchecked. And it is just this type of divisiveness that causes political and economic instability in many third world countries today.
If this type of divisiveness goes unchecked, the same could happen here.
At the very least, the stature of the United States will be diminished and we will become so bogged down in division that it will be literally impossible to move forward to effect positive and proactive change.
We must convince Congress to put a stop to this madness and move forward.
|
Islam, Persecution Growing Fast in Africa
By: Jim Jacobson, President of Christian Freedom International
In the early 90s Muslims comprised between 1 percent and 2 percent of the population in Rwanda. Today that figure is 5 percent, census returns show. The number of mosques has risen to 570 from 220.
"In Uganda, Islam is growing so fast. Every single minute we are getting people converting," Sheik Harun Sengooba of the Union of Muslim Councils for East, Central and Southern Africa, said to Reuters.
In South Africa, Islam is growing among blacks in a country where 80 percent of the 45 million people are Christian.
Currently, less than 2 percent of South Africans, or about 650,000 people, are Muslim. But the semi-autonomous Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) estimates 74,700 Africans are Muslim from fewer than 12,000 in 1991.
Islamic non-governmental groups in Africa, many backed by Gulf oil cash, grew from 138 in 1980 to 891 in 2000, more than twice the rate of increase in the total number of Africa's NGOs in the period.
Along with the growth of Islam, naturally, religious persecution targeting Christians is on the increase as well.
For example, in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, religious violence targeting Christians has killed at least 5,000 since 2000, when 12 northern states predominantly inhabited by Muslims established Islamic Sharia law.
And, in Sudan, since 1983 an estimated 2 million persons have been killed; approximately 4 million have been displaced internally as a result of fighting between the Islamic north and mostly Christian south.
|
11/12/2004
"Hoo-ah, King David!"
Tell me...
...this guy isn't tougher than John Wayne.
Go ahead. I dare you.
(more...)
Go ahead. I dare you.
"We respect the law of war, unlike our adversary who uses mosques. In almost every single mosque in Fallujah we have found an arms cache, we have found IED factories, we have found fortifications, and we have even found weapons repair facilities. We have been shot at by snipers from minarets, and we've also seen the use of schools for the storage of weapons. This is the enemy that we fight. It does not respect the religious mosques or the children's schools. |
11/11/2004
Veterans Day 2004 - Have You Thanked a Vet?
"The more things change, the more things stay the same..."
Dear America,
Oh, how I've missed thee! So much has gone on since you've been away...
It has now been eleven (11) days since George Walker Bush has been re-elected and surprisingly, the reactions from the left have been pretty timid...you might even say their means of venting have been subtle.
Thankfully, compared to 2000, we are no longer a divided electorate. I mean, after all, what's a few million votes and a couple of red blotches mean anyways?
Donnah was even nice enough to singlehandedly deliver Florida for the GOP...(although I prefer to say it was God's divine providence as worked through Donnah dearest, but see it as you may!)
Three days after the election, the media melee was still in full force, refusing to relent in their struggle to undermine the GWOT. Even once widely-respected former White House reporter Hellen Thomas successfully destroyed her journalistic reputation by subjecting the American public to her communist verbal diarrhea.
Meanwhile, as talks concerning the need to "reinvent" the core values of the Democratic Party so they are more than just "the opposition party," began--some junior Democrats have apparently been left out of the loop. As the Associated Press reports:
"[John Edwards is] hardly going away. He's positioned himself for a full-out presidential run in 2008, a campaign that in a way he's already begun. [...] That's despite his liabilities: He's leaving the Senate after a single term; he has little foreign policy experience; he couldn't deliver his own state or any other in the South for Kerry, despite boasting that 'I will beat George Bush in my backyard.' But he now has the experience and public exposure of a national campaign. "Well, at least they were kind enough to offer one piece of encouragement. Word on the street is, even Howard "Yeeaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggh!!!!!" Dean may be up for the top spot as the head of the DNC...should Queen Hillary permit it... One piece of advice I can give the Democratic faithful is to first learn to tell the difference between an undesirable outcome of a hardfought and legitimate election and the barbaric killing of 3,000 men, women and children who merely inhabited a building. Perhaps it was/(still is?) just too difficult for them to swallow the reality of a better tomorrow: Dubya didn't just win where he won. He mostly won where he lost, too. Even Dirty Jersey voted strongly for Bush. Travis argues Bush successfully won the "election trifecta" and thus a true mandate from the people. Steve (via Sharon Hughes) got all mathematical and shizzle on me while I wasn't looking. Eric asks Michael Moore when the last time he saw his penis was... while the wonderful Michelle Malkin turns his artful attack into something Moore beautiful. (Is it possible to use the words "beautiful" and "Moore" in the same sentence?) Patrick is poignantly poetic while Liberal Larry leaves us laughing. Arnold reminds us who the losers are .... while fantastic Frank J. reminds us who the real enemy is and always has been... Nick and Pat defend the intelligent faithful... and finally.... ...VIETNAM VETS ARE VINDICATED. Sincerely, Wife, kids, job, and responsibility P.S. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you! You'll be so proud of me... I passed my global test!!! P.P.S. Get ready kids, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkk!!!!!!!!
11/03/2004
Kerry Calls Bush to Concede
I definitely need some time for this to set in... Expect my post later on this evening when I take my first breath return from my blogcation.
Meanwhile, for those of you so inclined to gloat, Will over at Vodkapundit has one heck of a treat for you... (ahem...ERIC....ahem...)
Proverbs 24:17-20
"Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from him.
Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of the wicked,
for the evil man has no future hope,
and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out."
--
Is this not true?
11/02/2004
AP: DNC faking endorsements in New Jersey
Via AP:
| GOP charges dirty politics in fake Schwarzkopf campaign call
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer
November 1, 2004, 5:56 PM EST
TRENTON, N.J. -- Lifelong Republican Richard Bonnet pays attention to politics, so when he found a message on his answering machine from Norman Schwarzkopf saying he was voting for John Kerry this year, he was momentarily stunned.
"I thought I saw Bush down in Florida, with Schwarzkopf standing on the stage next to him," Bonnet, 69, of Howell Township, said Monday. "So I called up the Monmouth County Republican headquarters and they said he was a Bush supporter."
On Sunday, the retired general gave Bush a strong endorsement in Tampa, Fla. Schwarzkopf's spokeswoman, Lynn Williams, said Monday that the recorded message was totally fake.
The taped message begins with a man identifying himself as Schwarzkopf.
"In 2000, I voted for George W. Bush, but this year I'm voting for John Kerry." The man goes on to say that Bush took his eye off the ball when it came to finding the people responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed nearly 700 New Jersey residents.
"John Kerry has a real plan to make our military stronger and to go after terrorists wherever they hide," the man says on the tape. "We need a vote for change, vote for John Kerry."
A voice then says the message was paid for by the Democratic National Committee. A call to the DNC was not immediately returned Monday.
Brian Nelson, spokesman for the New Jersey Republican State Committee called the tape dirty politics and said Republicans were trying to find out who was behind it.
Bonnet said he was disgusted by the tape.
"Schwarzkopf is such a great American and a great general, and this defames him," said Bonnet. "He's one of our proud citizens of New Jersey."
Schwarzkopf was born in Trenton. His father, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, was the head of the New Jersey State Police when Charles Lindbergh's son was kidnapped. He led that investigation.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press |
A message from President George W. Bush:
"Tomorrow, Americans will choose who will lead our country during a time of war and economic opportunity. And the choice on Tuesday comes down to a few issues of great consequence. The first choice is the most important, because all our progress depends on our safety.
Since September the 11th, 2001, I have led a relentless campaign against the terrorists. We have strengthened homeland security. We removed terror regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are on the offensive around the world, because the best way to prevent future attacks is to go after the enemy.
My opponent has a different view. Senator Kerry says September the 11th didn't change him much, and his policies make that clear. He says the war on terror is "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation." He has proposed what he calls a "global test" that would give foreign governments a veto over American security decisions. And when our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq needed funding for body armor and bullets, Senator Kerry voted against it.
The direction of the war on terror is at stake in the election of 2004. And when you go to the polls on Tuesday, remember this: I will do whatever it takes to defend America and prevail in the war on terror, and I will always support the men and women who do the fighting.
The second choice in this election concerns your family budget. As a candidate, I pledged to lower taxes for families, and I have kept my word. We doubled the child tax credit, reduced the marriage penalty, and dropped the lowest tax bracket to 10 percent. Now working families keep more of their paychecks, and America's economy is growing faster than any other among major industrialized nations.
My opponent voted against all our tax relief for working families. His votes would have squeezed about $2,000 more in taxes from the average middle-class family. Now Senator Kerry is promising to increase federal spending by more than $2.2 trillion. And to pay for all that new spending, he would have to raise taxes on American families. I will keep your taxes low because I know it's not the government's money, it's your family's money.
The third choice in this election involves your quality of life. As President, I signed historic education reforms to bring high standards to the classroom and make schools accountable to parents, and our children are making progress in reading and math. We've strengthened Medicare, created health savings accounts, and expanded community health centers to help more Americans get health care. I'm proposing a series of practical reforms to make health care more affordable and accessible by expanding health savings accounts, allowing association health plans, and protecting patients and doctors from junk and frivolous lawsuits.
My opponent has a different approach. Senator Kerry voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, but he has pledged to weaken the accountability standards. He's voted 10 times against medical liability reform. And now, he's proposing a big-government health care plan that would do nothing about rising health costs, and would cause millions of Americans to lose their private health insurance and end up on government programs.
Finally, this election presents a choice on the values that keep our families strong. I believe marriage is a sacred commitment, and I will always defend it. I will continue to appoint judges who strictly interpret the law. And I will keep working to move this good-hearted nation toward a culture of life.
On these issues, my opponent and I are miles apart. Senator Kerry was part of an out-of-the-mainstream minority that voted against the Defense of Marriage Act. He believes there ought to be a liberal litmus test for judicial appointments. He voted against banning the brutal practice of partial birth abortion. I believe that reasonable people can find common ground on difficult issues, and I will continue reaching out and bringing Americans together to protect our deepest-held values.
All of these choices make this one of the most important elections in our history. These past four years, you have seen how I do my job. Even when you might not agree with me, you know where I stand, what I believe, and what I intend to do. Soon, the decision will be in your hands. And however you decide, I urge you to get out and vote on Tuesday."
VOTE BUSH!
11/01/2004
MEMRI: "Osama Bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States Not to Vote for Bush"
Via Middle East Media Research Institute:
The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera(1) on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state")(2) to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."
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"Missing (Parts) In Action team -- Some Assembly Required"
Via Army News Service:
(emph. mine)
"True grit keeps amputees on the run in Army Ten-Miler"
By Sgt. Lorie Jewell
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 26, 2004) They didn't take home any top awards in the Army Ten-Miler, but the performances of service members who lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq was, to many, nothing short of heroic.
Army Capt. David Rozelle, who lost part of his right leg below the knee in a June 2003 land mine explosion in Hit, Iraq, spearheaded the effort to put together a team of amputees from Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the Oct. 24 race, a kickoff to the annual Association of the United States Army meeting.
Dubbed the "Missing (Parts) In Action team -- Some Assembly Required“ -- the group included Staff Sgt. Andrew McCaffrey, Sgt. Ethan Payton, Marine Cpl. Dan Lasko, Navy Corpsman Jose Ramos and Airman 1st Class Anthony Pizzifred. Also running on the team was Lt. Col. Barbara Springer, chief of physical therapy; Capt. Matt Sherer, a physical therapist; and Spc. Harvey Naranjo, a certified occupational therapist assistant.
"It's important for people to see amputees recovered and back in action," Rozelle said prior to the race start, adding he had no doubts that each would make it across the finish line. The same steely mettle that helped steer them off the battlefield after suffering horrific injuries will carry them through the 10-mile route, Rozelle said.
"It's guts, nothing but guts. Some may walk, but that's okay. What matters is that they will finish," he said.
Rozelle, who served as team captain, has been relentless in not letting his injury prevent him from being the best Soldier he can be. He commanded a cavalry troop from Fort Carson in Iraq; after a medical board cleared him to remain on active duty earlier this year, he took command of a 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment headquarters troop. He's been alerted that he'll be deployed again to Iraq next year.
An expert skier, Rozelle hit the slopes again in December for a Disabled Sports USA ski clinic. In April, he participated in the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, put on by the Veterans Administration and Disabled American Veterans. With his prosthetic running leg, he completed a June Hope & Possibility 5-Miler in Central Park with several other Soldiers and service members from Walter Reed. And just a couple weeks ago, he finished a marathon -- a one-mile swim, 25 miles on a bike and a six-mile run. He plans on running in the New York City marathon next month.
More than 13,000 runners trekked across the Army Ten-Miler finish line in wet, cold weather. Rozelle predicted a 10-minute mile pace and came in just under that, at one hour, 38 minutes -- not far behind McCaffrey and Payton, both of whom ran without their prosthetic arms. McCaffrey finished in 1:34; Payton, 1:35. Ramos, who also left his prosthetic arm behind, came in with a time of 2:04.
"I finished, that's all I wanted to do," said Ramos, who lost his left hand to a rocket-propelled grenade while patrolling with Marines near Fallujah a couple of months ago.
The race was even tougher for Lasko and Pizzifred, who picked up their running prosthetics two days before the race. With no time to try them out and get any needed adjustments, they ran cold turkey.
Sherer ran with a backpack carrying the pair's prosthetic walking legs, backups in case the running legs caused too much pain. He buddied up with Pizzifred, while Naranjo ran with Lasko.
Naranjo came across the finish line carrying Lasko's prosthetic, yelling encouragement for the last 100 yards or so to Lasko, who pushed himself into a sprint for a 2:18 finish.
Despite some pre-race worries about getting traction on the wet pavement, Lasko said he didn't experience any major problem along the course.
"I was a little sore," he admitted, smiling. The longest distance he had run on a prosthetic before the Ten-Miler was five miles, he added. Like Rozelle, Lasko participated in the Hope & Possibility run in Central Park several months ago.
Naranjo had nothing but praise for his run buddy. The new prosthetic rubbed Lasko in the wrong ways quite a bit through the run, Naranjo said.
"Here's a guy who some months ago was laying in a hospital bed, wondering if he'd ever be able to walk again," Naranjo said. "And look at what he just did. He's my hero. These guys are what make me get up in the morning and do what I have to do. I see people everyday overcoming much greater challenges that I have."
Sherer was equally complimentary about Pizzifred, who started feeling pain from the new prosthetic almost from the start. The pair finished with a time of 2:44.
"It was really impressive to watch them run through the pain," said Sherer. "I'll tell you, it's an honor to be associated with these guys. They've given, and they continue to give."
Sherer and others hope to see the MPIA team continue to revisit the Ten-Miler in the years to come. He just hopes future teams will be filled with alumni and short on newly- injured Soldiers. |
"Parables Can Be Powerful"
Via Sir Jim Price:
The other day, my nine-year-old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.
My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He said, "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"
"I see trees and cars and our neighbors' houses," he replied.
"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."
Our son giggled and said, "OK."
"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country," my husband said.
"OK Dad, I'm pretending."
"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death.
Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this son....what do you do?"
"Dad?"
"What would you do son?"
"I'd call the police, Dad."
"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw, but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"
"Dad...but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.
"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that we should all stay out of it," my husband says.
"But Dad...he killed her!" my son exclaims.
"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his own children."
"Daddy...he kills them?"
"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"
"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him," our son says.
"Son, your next door neighbor sees what is happening, but he refuses to get involved as well. He'll not help you," my husband says.
"But Dad, I NEED help! I can't stop him by myself!"
"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.
"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"
"What Daddy?"
"Watching you in the window, he walks over to the old lady's house, breaks down her door and drags her out. He sets her house on fire and then he...he kills her. He does this while he laughs at you and her. WHAT DO YOU DO?"
"Daddy..."
"WHAT DO YOU DO?"
Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him..."Why?"
"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help people who needs them...and they won't help.... You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and... and..... do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds.... so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."
I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's questions and he says..."Son."
"Yes, Daddy."
"Open the blinds, son, because that evil man.... now he's at our front door..."WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?"
My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I'LL DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!"
I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says... "It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before it's too late," my husband whispers.
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Kicking Bin Laden Butt...the Chicago Way...
Via His Excellency, Mr. Donald Sensing:
Does the bin Laden tape signal an approaching end game? Bin Laden can't prevail against "the Chicago way."
Police Officer Jim Malone to Eliot Ness: "If Capone comes at you with a knife, you go after him with a gun. If he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way! And that's how you get Capone!" |
AP: "Schilling makes surprise appearance for Bush"
Via ESPN:
Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling made a surprise appearance Monday morning with President Bush, limping to the stage to give Bush a strong endorsement.
The ace pitcher said Bush was a commander in chief who will ensure troops "have everything they need to get the job done, a leader who believes in their mission and honors their service, a leader who has the courage and the character to stay on the offense against terrorism until the war is won."
Bush stood next to him, and they embraced afterward.
"On Tuesday, we need you to get out and vote. We need you to get your friends and neighbors out to vote - tell them you're voting for President Bush and get them on board, too," Schilling said. "I know everybody wants to be on a winning team, and there's plenty of room on this bandwagon." |
10/31/2004
The Man puts down the NAACP
Via The Los Angeles Slimes:
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has informed the NAACP that it is investigating whether the civil rights organization improperly "intervened in a political campaign" when it posted on its website a speech by Chairman Julian Bond that condemned the Bush administration's policies.Shweeeeeeet...
10/30/2004
Dan Rather was...
...ROCKED BY RAPE.
(mp3...may take a moment to load)Since you children obviously didn't listen to the MP3 (assumption being based by lack of comments posted since this song would obviously elicit at least a handful of remarks) I am reposting the link to the Evolution Control Committee's smash hit (er...yea) "Rocked by Rape". Listen or go play Uno. And since Uno is a crappy game, I'm sure you'll go listen.
10/28/2004
"I'm so ashamed of my father..."
A teacher asked the children what their fathers did for a living. All typical answers came up-fireman, policeman, doctor, etc.
David was quiet, so the teacher asked him about his father. "My father's an exotic dancer in a gay cabaret and takes off all his clothes in front of other men and they put money in his underwear. Sometimes, if the offer is really good, he will go home with some guy and make love with him for money."
The teacher, obviously shaken by his statement, hurriedly set the other children to work and took David aside to ask him, "Is that true about your father?"
"No" said David, "He works for the Democratic National Committee to elect John Kerry, but I was too embarassed to say that in front of the other kids."
Bush, Kerry to appear on ESPN's SportsCenter
Bush: "I'm not sure what I'd like to do after serving the country. But I had a wonderful time in baseball. I loved my time there. I still love to watch the games; there's nothing more therapeutic than watching a baseball game."
Spoken like a man who played stickball until dusk and loves a warm apple pie fresh from the window sill.
Kerry said he has supported stadiums that are funded by taxpayers. "I want to make certain that when you do that again, these other kinds of things are balanced," he said. "The minute you get the public piece in there, then you have a right to demand some sort of public accountability. And the sports people can't have it both ways in my judgment. You can't have the public support a completely private enterprise ... that's where the standards and the fans protection become much more paramount."Wow. Spoken like a man who has NO IDEA WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT and probably has never graced the SportsWorld with his presence except for that unfortunate p.r. driven instance where he turned to the blue-collar schmoe who cut in line in front of him at the concession stand and said, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
This. Was. All. Worth. It.
10/26/2004
"Radio listeners torch blue banner to protest United Nations Day"
This definitely has to be one of THE best news stories I have ever read in my life.
File it under "all-time faves" for me.
A group of talk-radio listeners in Montana burned a United Nations flag to protest a ceremony at the state's Capitol honoring the global body.
On Friday, KGEZ radio host John Stokes in Kalispell, Mont., got wind of a planned ceremony that afternoon at the state Capitol in Helena to honor the U.N. on United Nations Day (though Sunday was actually U.N. Day). Stokes tells WorldNetDaily the ceremony included members of the Montana National Guard carrying and presenting a U.N. flag that was to be hoisted over the building.
"Needless to say, our listeners and I became immediately outraged," Stokes said. "It was suggested by a listener to demonstrate our outrage. A call to patriots went out over the air."
At 1 p.m., the time the Capitol ceremony was to take place, over 30 protesters gathered at Stokes' radio station for the flag burning. Stokes says the crowd included mothers, children, seniors and handicapped citizens.
"We began with the Star Spangled Banner blaring across the airways, saluting the U.S. flag flying high above the station, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and a very appropriate prayer for our nation, our Constitution and the Republic," Stokes explained.
"Then the volunteers provided the pole and gas, and I provided the despicable U.N. flag."
The crowd shouted out a verbal countdown before the flag was torched.
Said Stokes: "Whoosh. It was completely gone in seconds. I hope it was an omen."
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Walker's Game
Orson Scott Card: Why We Are Winning and How We Can Still Lose
Oh yea, go and read this book. Or don't. See if I care.
10/25/2004
Slowly slipping into the minority category? Vote Kerry.
No need to even link to the article here, kids. I'm only talking about one line.
AP: [...] Bush won Colorado big in 2000, by 51 percent to Al Gore's 42 percent. But a weak economy, the state's growing Hispanic population and a competitive Senate race gave Kerry reason to give it another look.I know I know I know. It's referring to immigration policy (or lack thereof) but still. It just struck me as funny because I read it like this:
"Wetbacks stealing the construction jobs you'd never take but wanted to be available to you just in case? Don't like rice and beans? Teenage pregnancy rate up in your local highschools? - VOTE KERRY"Ah, cómo mi imaginación trabaja...
10/24/2004
This will remain seared into your memory...
Note: Movie with sound, therefore prolly not worksafe.
How do you ask a goose to be the last goose to die for a mistake?
From. LC Jon , Imperial Hunter, commenter on T.A.I.R.
Sign #621 that Jimmy Carter has checked out of the Hotel Realidad
Travis of the all-too-groovy All-Encompassingly expands on Carter and Matthew's liberal lunacy regarding what should have been a peaceful alternative reality to the oh-so-unnecessary Revolutionary War.
Travis: "Carter--[sic] is hereby struck from the historical record. as far as i'm concerned, he was never president. in fact, he never existed. one good revisionist historian deserves another."
10/23/2004
"Democracy fever hits Iraqi universities!"
The Most Excellent Jen has an equally excellent entry regarding the explosion of newly democratic principles in the Iraqi halls of academia.
A snippit:
"Politics has become so pervasive that the Higher Education Ministry has posted signs on all campuses that tell students their rights. Among them: 'The freedom of opinion expression is a guaranteed right to the entire academic society, under the rule that this does not interfere with a student's education.'" [...] Let messy, sometimes angry, sometimes too loud Freedom reign!Amen, sista. You Iraqis get on wit yo bad democratic selves, yo.
10/22/2004
School District Bans Halloween out of respect for...WITCHES
Eric beat me to this story by 3 hours and 46 mins. Punk.
"We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," explained Puyallup School District spokesperson Karen Hansen. Hansen says the superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. In addition some families can't afford costumes. It's the third reason some Puyallup parents are struggling with. The district says Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.Eric: "All one of them."
Remember that toy you didn't get for Christmas?
"Homeland Security stiffing agents on foreign-language pay, leaked email shows"
"...we better hope the terrorists don't speak a foreign language." - Bill Conroy
AAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHKERRY
John Kerry during the second presidential debate on October 8th:
Verse of the day: But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5
"...I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that."John Kerry last Saturday, pandering to social conservatives in Xenia, Ohio:
"I will bring my faith with me to the White House and it will guide me,"No. Freakin. Way. That's just unbelievable. The guy will say ANYTHING! ANYTHING I tell you! And it's not just the simple fact he contradicts himself every other day, but it really really crosses the line when he takes something so sacred and personal as faith and blatantly and unabashedly uses it for his own political misdeeds! Proppage: Blogs4Bush
Verse of the day: But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5
"Bill Clinton to run U.N.?"
..."'He definitely wants
to do it,' say insiders"
Sweet merciful crap.
"Critics of the U.N. complain that it's an organization without the muscle and will to put its decisions into effect," a U.N. source told UPI. "There's a good chance that Clinton could significantly change that situation,"Right on! The president who effectively emascualted our military, managed to engage in a "justified" war in Kosovo merely because he was a Democrat, and treated the Bin Ladin threat like a legal issue (or merely a "nuisance", in Kerryspeak)? Yea! scared ya, didn't i? sorry... UPDATE: Check out Aaron's post on this subject titled "Move the UN from US soil: Clinton Aspires to Succeed Kofi" and scroll down to the section: "Clinton Diddled - UN Fiddled" Good stuff, indeed.
Classy First Lady...
...example 462.
There's just no denying it...Laura Bush is just the epitome of class.
10/21/2004
Words can't express...
10/20/2004
Sign #347 that Jimmy Carter has gone completely nucking futs.
Proppage: Alday
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about--this is going to cause some trouble with people--but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today? CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we've fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.Du wha wha? ::head spins:: Dude. Seriously. Lay off the crack.
Psst...Tell ya a lil' secret... Johnny Cash owns.
10/19/2004
"What I saw was what I want to see..."
"...in the heart and the soul of the man who sits in the highest elected office in our country"
This is what it's all about, folks. A man who truly cares about protecting our country. Each and every one of us.
God bless George W. Bush.
Somethin' bout them there Southnas...
Like Slick Willy, Johnny Boy Edwards likes his girls BIG...
See Johnny pimp. See Johnny primp. Go Johnny! Go! Watch Pretty Boy Edwards style his luscious locks
and gaze longingly at himself in a woman's compact...
Note the shiny lip balm...
See Johnny pimp. See Johnny primp. Go Johnny! Go! "And now for something completely different..."
World Net Daily:
Yasser Arafat endorses Kerry
Thinks Democratic senator 'better for Palestinian cause'
That's almost as good as when Marilyn Manson endorsed Bush back in 2000....
Meanwhile... America's newest 527 emerges: Terrorists for Truth
10/17/2004
Benedict Arnolds with Purple Heart band-aids on their self-inflicted boo boos need not re-enlist!
"I'm not going to let this little injury stop me from what I want to do."
Soldiers like Perez make me truly proud to be an American.10/16/2004
Bin Laden and Saddam shared same bed
Brrrrr.......
Does anyone else feel a draft in here? (scroll down to middle of page)"'Backdoor draft' prevents soldiers from being discharged once 2 year commitment is up."
One thing Kerry neglected to mention...he would have to also restructure the hierarchical system of officer rankings and promotion paths. If I'm not mistaken, without a college degree (pending the soldiers don't return after college), the best you can hope to be is a Chief Warrant Officer?
Meanwhile, MTV's "non-partisan" Rock the Vote! campaign has a new video out... (alas, sin señorita Spears)
BUT the one of the other videos has SAMUEL L. JACKSON. He's black and cool and he was in Reservoir Dogs so he has to know what he's talking about.
(I was completely wrong on the scratched segment--thanks to Eric for clearing it up.) To quote his comment,"all the services have some sort of Officer Candidate school that allows enlisted men to become officers without a 4 year degree. That's how Tommy Franks did it."
Engage 200,000 Americans A Year In "Service For College" John Kerry and John Edwards will offer a simple deal to hundreds of thousands of America's young people: if you will serve for two years in one of America's toughest and most important jobs, we will cover four years of tuition at a typical public university. On September 11th, 2001, America experienced the most terrible and deadly attack in its history. John Kerry believes we need to think big and do better and get more young Americans serving the nation. As part of his 100 day plan to change America, John Kerry will propose a comprehensive service plan that includes requiring mandatory service for high school students and four years of college tuition in exchange for two years of national service.I can just see the headlines now...
(I was completely wrong on the scratched segment--thanks to Eric for clearing it up.) To quote his comment,
10/15/2004
Hardcore ultra right-wing fundamentalist Christian Bush-supportin' hackers post fraudulent article on Al-Reuters*!
#40
Senior citizens have rights too, ya know.
I am a senior citizen.
During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well paying job.
I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes.
Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change for the worse.
I lost my job.
I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War.
I lost my homes.
I lost my health insurance.
As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless.
Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an animal,
instead of helping me, they arrested me.
I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants
to insure that a Democrat is back in the White House come next year.
Bush has to go.
Sincerely,
Saddam Hussein
From an email passed along a million times. I'd give credit where credit is due, but I have no clue who...
From an email passed along a million times. I'd give credit where credit is due, but I have no clue who...
Hooray for optimism!
10/14/2004
10/13/2004
New revisions for the next edition of Webster's and Collier's dictionaries...
Frank at IMAO was kind enough to translate some common words of the Liberal lingo, aka "com-speak" (commie speak) for us poor ineloquent conservatives.
Sample:
the rich, the wealthy = you e.g. "We’ll fund things by taxing the rich." progressive (n.) = shrill left-wing nut e.g. "Michael Moore is a prominent progressive."Now you too can properly converse with a liberal! Or at least attempt to...
10/11/2004
Kerry gets his God on...
...and gives black churches the 411 on their emancipation
Man, I wish I was a skilled Photoshopper...I'd have a field day with this article.
Last time I checked, HOPE was found in Christ, who should have been the focal point of your worship that Sunday, not John Forbes Khrist.
Meanwhile...the ACLU, Americans United for Sep. of Church and State and other church-state separation watchdog groups are nowhere to be found....
I mean, c'mon, you don't even have to infiltrate small-town churches and sit through their entire sermons to isolate anything that can even be slightly construed to be "political" or "right-wing."
Plain as day, in print and on-line,
IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!
MIAMI: With just three Sundays left before Election Day, Sen. John Kerry is asking for all the help he can get from black voters and the Almighty. The Democratic presidential nominee attended two church services Sunday, instead of his usual one, worshipping first with Haitian Catholics and then with black Baptists, where the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton tied his election to the civil rights struggle. "We have an unfinished march in this nation," Kerry said at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, as many congregants waved fans handed out by the campaign with his slogan, "Hope is on the way."
Last time I checked, HOPE was found in Christ, who should have been the focal point of your worship that Sunday, not John Forbes Khrist.
Meanwhile...the ACLU, Americans United for Sep. of Church and State and other church-state separation watchdog groups are nowhere to be found....
I mean, c'mon, you don't even have to infiltrate small-town churches and sit through their entire sermons to isolate anything that can even be slightly construed to be "political" or "right-wing."
Plain as day, in print and on-line,
"I see disturbing signs today that some of our churches have been confused by wolves in sheep's' clothing," [Jesse] Jackson said. "How did someone else put their agenda in the front of the line?"Was that a slip up? "How did SOMEBODY ELSE get in the way of our goal of dumbing down the black masses and keep them perpetually sucking on the proverbial Democratic teat?"
"November 2, the power is in your hands, hands that once picked cotton," Jackson said.Wow. Former slaves are still alive today? So that's why they believe so strongly reparations are still relevant...
Speakers avoided criticizing President Bush by name, since they were in church, but he was indirectly vilified. Former Rep. Carrie Meek said Kerry is "fighting against liars and demons. ... He challenges the man who walks with a jaunty step." She rocked her hips in an imitation of Bush's swagger as the congregation cheered and Kerry laughed from his high-backed seat behind the pulpit.Rep. Meek must have been reading from the book of Revelation in the DNC's Doomsday translation. Satan would be pleased. UPDATE: (10-13-04) - IRS Asked To Probe Kerry Appearance At Church Notice the paper's quick change of focus from Kerry's visit to a church to the efforts of the Christian Coalition...
The Zeropean Worldview
"When you look out at the world from Vienna or Stockholm or Manchester and search for something to deplore, what do you see? You see Russia spiraling down into dictatorship after a brief interlude of struggling democracy. You see North Korea, arms salesman to the world's criminals, boasting of nuclear capability. You see genocide in Darfur. And of course, you see the ghastly face of terrorism in Madrid, Bali, New York, Washington, Tel Aviv and most especially Baghdad, where terrorists grab and behead innocent Americans and Europeans, and proudly videotape their savagery. But where do many Europeans focus their wrath? On the United States. ... There is something sickly about the European approach to the world." --Mona Charen
10/09/2004
"I said Saddam Hussein was a threat, BEFORE I said he was not..."
Kerry kan't even keep his story straight for one night...
"Which is it!?!??!?!"
"Well, let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat. Believed it in 1998 when Clinton was president. I wanted to give Clinton the power to use force if necessary."Later on, while answering a question regarding Iran…
"I don't think you can just rely on U.N. sanctions, Randee. But you're absolutely correct, it is a threat, it's a huge threat. "And what's interesting is, it's a threat that has grown while the president has been preoccupied with Iraq, where there wasn't a threat."
"Which is it!?!??!?!""I have a plan. I have a plan to lower the cost of health care for you. I have a plan to cover all children. I have a plan to let you buy into the same health care senators and congressmen give themselves. I have a plan that's going to allow people 55 to 64 to buy into Medicare early. And I have a plan that will take the catastrophic cases out of the system, off your backs, pay for it out of a federal fund, which lowers the premiums for everybody in America, makes American business more competitive and makes health care more affordable. Now, all of that can happen, but I have to ask you to do one thing: Join me in rolling back the president's unaffordable tax cut for people earning more than $200,000 a year. That's all. Ninety-eight percent of America, I'm giving you a tax cut and I'm giving you health care.""pay for it out of a federal fund, which lowers the premiums for everybody in America..." In other words, Kerry wants to implement his own version of HillaryCare. Talk about taking a big chunk out of Hillary's 2008 platform... Bush's response says it best,
"And finally, he said he's going to have a novel health care plan. You know what it is? The federal government is going to run it. It's the largest increase in federal government health care ever. And it fits with his philosophy. That's why I told you about the award he won from the National Journal. That's what liberals do. They create government-sponsored health care. Maybe you think that makes sense. I don't. Government-sponsored health care would lead to rationing. It would ruin the quality of health care in America."Kerry responded by telling Americans where they can stick it if they don't like his "plan,":
"Let me begin by saying that my health-care plan is not what the president described. It is not a government takeover. You have choice. Choose your doctor, choose your plan. The government has nothing to do with it. In fact, it doesn't ask you to do anything -- if you don't want to take it, you don't have to. If you like your high premiums, you keep them. That's the way we leave it."I'd sure like to know where he's going to get the revenue to pay for this "federal fund"... Hopefully, once he figures out how to work out the budget in order to allocate the funding, he'll put it in a lockbox--just to be safe. ( I know. I know. I suck at photoediting. I can't afford Photoshop nor will I pirate it. I wouldn't know how to do a thing with it anyway. But hey, it's not bad for my first MS PAINT edit.)
10/08/2004
Jonah Goldberg is...
A POEM TO FRANCE
By: Don Fichthorn, Major USMC (Retired)
Eleven thousand soldiers
Lay beneath the dirt and stone,
All buried on a distant land
So far away from home.
For just a strip of dismal beach
They paid a hero's price,
To save a foreign nation
They all made the sacrifice.
And now the shores of Normandy
Are lined with blocks of white :
Americans who didn't turn
From someone else's plight.
Eleven thousand reasons
For the French to take our side,
But in the moment of our need,
They chose to run and hide.
Chirac said every war means loss,
Perhaps for France that's true,
For they've lost every battle
Since the days of Waterloo.
Without a soldier worth a damn
To be found within the region,
The French became the only land
to need a Foreign Legion.
You French all say we're arrogant.
Well hell, we've earned the right
We saved your sorry nation
When you lacked the guts to fight.
But now you've made a big mistake,
And one that you'll regret ;
You took sides with our enemies,
And that we won't forget.
It wasn't just our citizens
You spit on when you turned,
But every one of yours
Who fell the day the towers burned.
You spit upon our soldiers,
On our pilots and Marines,
And now you'll get a little sense
Of just what payback means.
So keep your Paris fashions
And your wine and your champagne,
And find some other market
That will buy your airplanes.
And try to find somebody else
To wear your French cologne,
For you're about to find out
what it means to stand alone.
You see, you need us far more
Than we ever needed you.
America has better friends
Who know how to be true.
I'd rather stand with warriors
Who have the will and might,
Than huddle in the dark
With those whose only flag is white.
I'll take the Brits, the Aussies,
The Israelis and the rest,
For when it comes to valor
We have seen that they're the best.
We'll count on one another
As we face a moment dire,
While you sit on the sideline
With a sign, "friendship for hire."
We'll win this war without you
And we'll total up the cost,
And take it from your foreign aid,
And then you'll feel the loss.
And when your nation starts to fall,
Well Frenchie, you can spare us,
Just call the Germans for a hand,
They know the way to Paris.
Proppage: ¡No Pasaran!
"This site was built with love and laughter…"
Laughter, eh? Yea, I'll say...I'm near hysterical on this end.
[This site] was built because we Democrats are a strong multi-religious group. We regularly do the difficult work of finding common ground for our public policy rather than succumbing to the quick and easy “one faith fits all” legislation of today's leadership. We are a beautiful multicolored, multi-faith people. Let us then rejoice and be proud of the ability to find oneness in our diversity! (the hilarity continues...)Apparently, liberal faiths which permit homosexuality and the such are included in this "diversity" mix... Pray for Kerry-Edwards? Indeed.
10/07/2004
10/02/2004
This time, Mrs. Rothfuss, I have a verse for you...
"I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Do you believe this?"
John 11:25-26
Blogging suspended effective immediately until Tuesday, Oct 5
10/01/2004
Kinky Koalas
Big Pimpin'
KOALA bears are to be implanted with contraceptives to keep their numbers down and stop them munching the landscape bare at an Australian national park.The Vatican, a longtime opponent of contraceptive methods, is silent on this one. The Australian Catholic Church is as well.
Around 2000 of the marsupials at the park in Victoria will be given a slow-release hormone which prevents conception for up to six years.
The notoriously fussy eaters survive on a diet of leaves from a small number of eucalyptus tree species.
Conservationists warn that koalas are in danger of dying out along Australia's east coast, as urban sprawl destroys their habitat.
But their population has exploded on Kangaroo Island, and some environmentalists have urged officials to shoot hundreds of the animals there because they are chewing their way through the island's foliage.
The Iraqi Threat: A Retrospective
From Blogs for Bush:
The question was never if Saddam Hussein posed a threat; everyone agreed he did. The question was who was going to do something about it. "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them That is our bottom line." - President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 "If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear...We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 "Iraq is a long way from [the USA], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." - Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998 "He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 "[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." - Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998 "Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998 "Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999 "There is no doubt that ... Saddam Hussein has invigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In adition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies." - Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL,) and others, December 5, 2001 "We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them." - Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002 "We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 "Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 "We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002 "The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..." - Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002 "I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force if necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002 "There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002 "He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do." - Rep.Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002 ''In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members .. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." - Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002 "We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002 "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003
I hope they all eat their words and choke to death after Nov. 2nd.
The question was never if Saddam Hussein posed a threat; everyone agreed he did. The question was who was going to do something about it. "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them That is our bottom line." - President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 "If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear...We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 "Iraq is a long way from [the USA], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." - Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998 "He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 "[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." - Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998 "Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998 "Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999 "There is no doubt that ... Saddam Hussein has invigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In adition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies." - Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL,) and others, December 5, 2001 "We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them." - Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002 "We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 "Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 "We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002 "The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..." - Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002 "I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force if necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002 "There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002 "He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do." - Rep.Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002 ''In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members .. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." - Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002 "We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002 "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003
I hope they all eat their words and choke to death after Nov. 2nd.
Consistently stupid.
Doug's post from over two weeks ago perfectly summarizes the stupidity of the Kerry-Edwards approach to dealing with Iranian nuclear ambitions.
Surprisingly, as you may note from Doug's post on Edwards' explanation of their plan, Kerry has actually remained consistent on an issue for longer than 2 weeks now (as demonstrated during last night's debate).
Consistently stupid.
But consistent nonetheless.
9/30/2004
A Film for Heroes - 1
A confession, an apology, an explanation...
aw heck, a blanket utility post in general.
I need to reconcile the love of Christ that dwells in my heart, with the experiences and intellectual/spiritual differences with Catholicism I hold in my mind.I have only recently become a Christian (this past December, to be exact) although I have been raised with a Christian principled upbringing by my faithful mother. My youth (both in biological years, and in terms of my Christian maturity) can at least partly be to blame for un-Christlike commentary of my last two posts (I have deleted them, for obvious reasons, though you can find the object of my shame at Eric's blog. Traffic to his site is but an added component to my apology.) My sometimes tongue-in-cheek, more often times vicious satirical and sarcastic styles of humor have certainly gotten the best of me over the years. These last two posts are no exception. I will not delve deeply into my theological differences with Catholics. However, I will partially explain where the motivation for the jabs at the pope originated. Eric recently commented on his respect for a man ("John Paul II") who survived Nazism, Communism, an assasination attempt and countless other notable instances. I, too, admire Karol Jozef Wojtyla for his perserverance of spirit and integrity. However, I refuse to bestow any higher degree of admiration or respect for Wojtyla other than that which is reserved for a fellow man. The same goes for the woman known as "Mother Teresa," who has been beatified and is en route to becoming a canonized "saint." Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was nothing more than a daughter of Christ, a saint before she was ever declared so by any "papal authority." These are perhaps, definitive elements of Post-Reformation Christianity. The Reformation was "in part a rejection of the cultic veneration of saints," as explained by Steven Gertz. They are merely those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, declared righteous by God. The Word of God is infallible, not any man on Earth who proclaims himself to be so. While I will always have my strong and unshakable theological differences with Catholics, I hereby apologize for my arrogant, insensitive and un-Christlike commentary of late.
My motivation to acknowledge the error of my ways stems from the infallible Word of the Lord. Proverbs 11:2 "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Titus 3:2 "[...] slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men." Job 11:2-3 "Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated? Will your idle talk reduce men to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock?" James 2:8 "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing right."
UPDATE: I usually seek the permission of the sender (I refuse to subject readers to a blanket "if you email it, it's fair game for posting/ridicule" policy, unless they are a complete idiot and are truly asking for it). However, since Eric and I have since come to an amicable understanding concerning our undeclared pissing match over religious barbeques, I am posting a brief excerpt from an email he sent me that I found to be of great value. And I quote (emphasis mine):
"[...] when I see a member of my team basically telling me that the denomination I voluntarily chose at the age of 14 (I was raised Methodist) is being headed by Satan, who gives Hitler salutes and shits his pants, well, I felt the need to respond. Are there problems in the Catholic Church? Of course, and there are people within it trying to stave off the creeping Liberalism that is desperatly trying to sap the strength of all Christianity. Lutherans are coming out in favor of Islamofascism, Methodists are performing marriage ceremonies for homosexual couples, and Episcopalians (president and CEO, the Queen of England) are ordaining openly homosexual clergy. I'm tired of my faith, Catholicism in particular, and Christianity as a whole, being ridiculed by Hollywood assholes who funnel millions into "religions" such as Scientology (Travolta, Cruise), and Kabbalah (the inappropriately named Madonna, et.al.), while Christians are being oppressed from China to Morrocco. The real enemy is out there, in Damascus, Tehran, Cairo, Falluja, Beijing, and Pyongyang. You can, however, keep your head while visiting Vatican City. Focus, my friend, focus."Focus I will indeed. James 2:8. Our post-9/11 reality has renewed the meaning of the term, "spiritual warfare." The battle between good and evil has introduced a long-standing foe of whom which many of us have only recently become acquainted with--Islamo-fascism. Religion of peace, indeed. God doesn't command Christians to behead "infidels" (non-believers) in His name. He commands us to love them. I am as skeptical and wary of man-advocated doctrines as the next guy, be they from John Calvin or the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (Vatican II). But I do know the one thing we have in common--the Lord Jesus Christ.
9/28/2004
"...we were duped into following yet another privileged agenda."
I won't let this ruin the wonderful status Texas holds in my heart as the best state in the Union (next to my beloved Dullawhere of course!)
There's been a serious lack of me donating my 2 Lincolns, lately.
Truth is, I'm just having too much fun running around my house in my cape lately instead of blogging.
Shame on me!
Shame on me!Smith says he knows most of Crawford's residents are Bush supporters. "If we lose subscriptions we lose them, if they put us under they put us under," Smith said. "But sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe is right."Guess what kids? It's math time! (Well, it's going to get as mathy as kyer can handle) Let's see...a town of 425 citizens... + one newspaper... + the majority of the townsfolk being Bushies... + Smith realizing this...yet not registering it completely that his paper just might fold = stupid! That's kyer math for you.
9/27/2004
I'm front...er..back...er.. "I have returned"
Ever notice how quite a few blogs seem to "shut down" for the most part on the weekends? No? Well I have.
It's funny, because I publish more posts during the busy week, than I do on the lazy weekends. Go fig.
This weekend's excuse:
- Saturday: Ash and I spent the day in D.C. visiting the recently completed (finally!) WWII memorial and also the Korean War memorial too.
- Sunday: It's chizurch in the morning and football all afternoon. News/blogging/life gets put on hold on Sundays.
Eric, totally understands this.
9/24/2004
"Can any true sports fan believe this man?"
9/23/2004
"House Blocks Court on Pledge Case Rulings"
WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation Thursday that would prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on whether the words "under God" should be stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance. In a politically and emotionally charged debate, Democrats said majority Republicans in the chamber were debasing the Constitution in order to force a vote that could hurt Democrats in the election. Supporters insisted that Congress has always had authority to limit federal court jurisdiction, and the legislation is needed to protect an affirmation of religion that is part of the national heritage. (more...)Bravo. And as for the Democrats crying the publicity from this bill would hurt them in the election, all I have to say is, "waaaaaaaaaaaah!" It is issues like these that truly distinguish the Reps from the Dumms, so don't complain because Congressman Akin introduced legislation that reveals your true colors. I bet every Democrat in the House gritted their teeth as they voted "Yea" for this bill as the remembered citizens like lil' ol' me can look up their vote on the Congressional roll call. Rats!
Duct tape: The fixer of all things broken
DUNLAP, Ind. (AP) - An outraged father of a seventh-grader says an assistant principal duct-taped his son's pants to keep them from sagging then sent him back to class.I wish I had seen this first. As a father, Eric has this one covered.
Noah's Ark Expedition: Publicity moreso than Arcaeology
Compiled by Ted Olsen of ChristianityToday on Sept. 22 2004:
National Geographic: Ark expedition was probably about publicity, not archaeology Daniel McGivern's $900,000 effort to investigate a Mount Ararat structure he's "90 percent sure" is Noah's Ark never happened, National Geographic News reports. But the news service says McGivern may have known that the Turkish government wouldn't allow them to climb the mountain due to security restrictions. "McGivern may have been more interested in generating publicity than mounting a serious search, critics now suggest," writes Stefan Lovgren. "By making an early announcement, he may have tried to persuade the Turkish government into granting him a permit. Few expeditions have actually obtained clearance to climb Mount Ararat, which is located in a military zone. The choice of expedition leader—a Turkish academic named Ahmet Ali Arslan, who claims to have climbed Mount Ararat 50 times in 40 years—also raised a red flag with those familiar with previous expeditions." Sources told Christianity Today earlier this year that Arslan would be a boon to the expedition and would help the team get the necessary permits. "The government of Turkey did not issue a research visa, which is sad, but it's their country," McGivern told the conservative news site WorldNetDaily for an August article. "We haven't totally given up, but it's pretty obvious they're not going to give us one." But earlier this month, McGivern told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that he has given up and won't try to put another expedition together. "This was the year," he said. "I don't have Ark fever like many who go year after year. … A good businessman calculates what amount of money and time he will invest and has to know when to walk away. Of course, Noah's Ark is totally different, way beyond business for me. Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in it. It will confirm the faith of millions … and many will be brought to faith. It will change how scientists look at the world."To me, McGivern's motivation, perhaps being the confirmation of or bringing to faith of millions of people the world over, is terribly misguided. It seems McGivern misunderstands the true meaning of faith. Do we need to ever unearth the ruins of Noah's ark (if they even still exist) to justify our Christian faith to the world? Absolutely not. We do not need signs or physical evidence of any sort to prove the legitmacy of the Lord's sovereignty... Those who place their faith in the Lord, already have all the evidence they need in life--His creation as is...and the acknowledgement of the everyday effects of His grace in our lives. By the way, there are quite a few scientists of faith out there who do not require the discovery of an ancient vessel.
9/22/2004
INOP (In need of prayer): HAITI
Government workers and U.N. peacekeepers were burying the dead in mass graves to prevent the spread of disease. Truckloads of bodies in plastic bags were delivered for burial at the Bois Marchand cemetery near Gonaives and police were called in to calm neighbors who angrily protested the mass burials, Cantave said. [...] Devastating floods and mudslides in May, in which about 2,000 people died, further aggravated the humanitarian disaster facing the county. Haiti is chronically vulnerable to flooding because of widespread deforestation caused by Haitians digging up roots to make charcoal for cooking.
[...T]he number of people reported missing since Tropical Storm Jeanne lashed the islands with torrential rains for 30 hours over the weekend was up to 1,250. Some bodies washed out to sea at Gonaives, dozens remained in still-high waters or floating in flooded houses in the city, he said, indicating that the toll could reach as high as 2,000.For those of you are are unfamiliar with Haiti's situation--Haiti is the the most impoverished nation in the Western hemisphere. Nearly 2,000 people died just a few months ago in May due to devastating mudslides and floods.