I have blogged numerous stories like this -- but I truly believe these type of attacks are not getting the attention they need nor or they being interpreted accurately. These are attacks against their own people -- why would they do that, what would be the reason? Because of the
evil Americans, no I don't thinks so. These attacks are aimed directly at freedom, and why would they [terrorist or as I prefer animals] target freedom -- it scares them! If their ideology is so noble, so honorable, and so correct; what do they have to fear from freedom? People will easily choose goodness over evil, lawfulness over unlawfulness; so does this indicate that these animals know what they stand for -- what they want is evil? I think so and this is the reason they fear freedom for Iraq!
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- On the day a Shiite Muslim-led bloc picked its candidate for Iraq's prime minister, insurgents assassinated an official in Diyala province who was a member of that nominee's political movement.
Unknown gunmen shot dead Khalil Ali Shuker as he finished evening prayers Tuesday at a mosque in Muqdadiya, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of Baghdad. A male bystander also was wounded.
Unfortunately, one of the first things I thought after reading the below story was "I wonder how many families will bring up lawsuits"... I am ashamed to think that but this country ought to be ashamed that it could actually happen.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Saying it has exhausted all DNA technology, the New York City Medical Examiner has halted the process of identifying human remains from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center site.
Family members are to be notified by telephone calls and letters saying that further positive identifications are not expected, leaving more than four out of 10 families with no recovered remains for burial.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A woman upset about an impending breakup with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet, police said.
Utility workers recovered the severed member Sunday and surgeons reattached it.
Kim Tran, 35, was charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She was jailed at the Anchorage Jail with no bail set.
Where to these guys find these women?
MAINZ, Germany (Reuters) - President Bush said Wednesday that European diplomatic efforts were just beginning to try to rein in Iran's nuclear program and comparisons with Iraq were wrong.
"Iran is not Iraq. We just started the diplomatic efforts and I want to thank our friends for taking the lead. We will work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their nuclear ambitions," Bush told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
Well at least someone remembers the years, more than a decade, we dealt with Iraq -- inspectors allowed in, inspectors refused access, documents requested, refusal to turn over documents, on and on and on... I really does not amaze me how those opposed to President Bush use shock to sway people -- Iraq is another Vietnam, Iran is another Iraq, etc.; what shocks me is how people "fall for it". Iran is just starting on their path of international deception and if diplomatic means are successful will anyone give credit to US action in Iraq -- I will! One hint, please don't let the UN, France, Germany, or Russia get in involved in dispense financial aid, ala "oil-for-food", or this maybe another 10 year diplomatic approach.
UNITED NATIONS - A letter sent to Secretary-General Annan by representatives of the United Nations staff union may set up the next firing of a top Turtle Bay figure, following a weekend that brought the housecleaning under the new chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, to new heights.
The confidential staff union letter, dated February 17, marked a new round in a battle to investigate allegations of abuse of power by Undersecretary-General Dileep Nair, who heads the U.N. internal investigative arm, the Office of Internal Oversight Services.
Ironically, it was a leak last week of a months-old classified report on sexual harassment by the OIOS that led to the high-profile departure this weekend of the U.N.'s high commissioner for refugees, Ruud Lubbers. Mr. Lubbers' s forced resignation was universally seen at the U.N. as an attempt by Mr. Malloch Brown to pre-empt criticism of the organization.
The letter regarding Mr. Nair, who has been accused by some staffers of sexual harassment in the past, consisted of five separate new allegations, according to two sources who have read parts of it to The New York Sun. The five allegations were described by one source as "merely technical." But another said they regarded serious "hiring, promotions, recruitment, and discipline" issues in Mr. Nair's office.
MIAMI, United States (AFP) - A state prosecutor in Florida's island city of Key West is under arrest after he allegedly ran naked and drunk across a parking lot and hopped into the wrong car.
Albert Tasker of the local state prosecutor's office told police he had been drinking with friends and thought it would be funny to take off his clothes and run to a friend's car in the parking lot, according to the Florida Keys Citizen.
This just hit me funny!
Ever heard your boss or a teacher say "if they are saying or writing bad things about me I am not doing my job"? I guess this falls under that category:
(CNN) -- Osama bin Laden's No. 2 man in al Qaeda lashed out at U.S. efforts to extend democracy around the world in a videotape aired Sunday on Arabic-language TV station Al Jazeera, saying those efforts "will end with your defeat, the killing of your sons and the destruction of your economy."
First -- this will not change the minds of those that support the actions in Iraq and in fact strength the resolve of many... Second -- if the
threat is carried out many of the
fence sitters will become supporters of any actions against the animals -- as usual my opinion!
It is amazing; President Bush is now the reason for suicides!
Outlaw, druggie, Dunhill-smoking, Chivas Regal-drinking, anti-establishment literary icon Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide after becoming depressed about the United States' shift toward conservatism, said one longtime friend who spent the weekend at the Aspen, Colo., home of the late "gonzo" journalist.
[...]
A vehement opponent of President Bush, Mr. Thompson, 67, "was feeling maudlin about the current conservatism sweeping the country," Mr. Jenkins said. [Read more here]
Let's see, President Bush is responsible for
escalating hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, pretty much any national disaster, now suicides, with this kind of power why would anyone not vote for the man!
Can anyone read this -- even those opposed to President Bush -- and not believe Amnesty International has another agenda?
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, women there are no better off than under the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
Without listing a multitude of reasons this is a false claim I will look to one fact -- women voted, and there are many countries that is still not legal... Give me a break, as Matt Margolis states, "Anyone else want to trust an organization that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal?"
This is just strange to me - can anyone explain it to me?
MULTAN, Pakistan - A tribal council in Pakistan has ordered the betrothal of a 2-year-old girl to a man 40 years older to punish her uncle for an alleged affair with the man's wife, police said Monday.
The council decreed the girl must marry 42-year-old Mohammed Altaf, her uncle's cousin, when she turns 18, police said.
Altaf, a farmer, divorced his 32-year-old wife over her alleged love affair with his 20-year-old cousin, Mohammed Akmal. Akmal, a bachelor and also a farmer, has no children.
Altaf asked tribal elders in the village of Kacha Chohan, about 215 miles west of the city of Multan in Punjab province, to convene a panchayat, or council, on Feb. 15 to arbitrate and propose a punishment. As punishment, the elders ordered the girl's betrothal and ruled Akmal should also pay a $3,800 fine to the husband.
Stranger and scarier by the minute.
In 2002, another village council near Multan ordered a woman gang-raped as punishment for her brother's sexual relations with another woman. A court later convicted six men who perpetrated the rape and sentenced them to death. They are appealing the sentences.
Light at the end of the tunnel.
"These types of panchayats are illegal and nobody has the right to take a decision about a child's life," he said. "This country has its legal system and all decisions should be taken under it."
He said that the betrothal of a minor did not itself break the law, but forcing a woman to marry against her will carried a maximum 14-year jail sentence. Underage marriage is also illegal but is only punishable by a fine.
(Hat tip to
Flying Yangban)
Senator Reid introduced an online Social Security calculator which you can access
here… However, I would suggest you read this
information from
The Heritage Foundation…
Sen. Reid, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), and other foes of personal retirement accounts today posted an on-line calculator developed by the far-left Center for Budget Policy and Priorities. Those planning to use this calculator should keep in mind a few of the unsupportable assumptions built into it:
It assumes personal accounts will deliver CBO’s “risk-adjusted” rate of return of 3% not counting administrative costs—less than half of the average return of 7% on equities delivered over the past 75 years. For its “expected” analysis, however, CBO assumes a rate of return of 4.9%, even after accounting for administration costs.[1] This calculator assumes that the average investor will be able to equal, at best, no more than the return on U.S. Treasury Bonds.
It assumes all workers will start collecting full benefits at age 65—even though the age at which one qualifies for full Social Security benefits will reach 67 by 2022. This incorrect assumption allows the calculator to overstate projected Social Security benefits by as much as two years and underestimate personal account earnings by the same margin. [Read the rest here]
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said his country would return to six-party nuclear talks under the right conditions and called for the United States to show sincerity, the North's official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.
In a rare statement on the stalled talks, Kim told a visiting senior Chinese communist party official that the North had never opposed the six-party talks and was committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula
I know I am blogging a lot about the "wishy washy" actions of North Korea - but, I am trying to demonstrate the idiotic diplomacy all administrations have faced for half a century...
USA Today Story
Am I the only one that sees this as a step toward for peace?
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a good-will gesture Monday, a day after the government gave final approval to a pullout from Gaza and a revised route of the West Bank separation barrier that would encompass at least 6 percent of land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.
His only contribution!
GROTON, Conn. (AP) — The USS Jimmy Carter entered the Navy's fleet Saturday as the most heavily armed submarine ever built, and as the last of the Seawolf class of attack subs that the Pentagon ordered during the Cold War's final years.
Really - Just ask North Korea -
(CNN) -- North Korea has accused Japan of aspiring to rule a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" beginning with an invasion of Korea with the assistance of the United States.
Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's state newspaper, said Sunday the Japanese had joined with the United States' "vicious hostile policy" toward North Korea and that the "military threat" they perceive from the Koreans "is a far-fetched allegation fabricated by themselves."
The paper's comments followed a day of talks in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their Japanese counterparts on the two countries' security relationship.
Didn't you know that the Japanese have such a "large" military that North Korea should fear them - give me a break - more "Pyongyang games".
I have already blogged an interesting story about Jimmy Carter conspiring with the enemy (Russia),
here, but
The Spoons Experience has a much deeper look at the Jimmy Carter.
I am considering, after some research, discussing how our greatest alley in the Middle East, Iran, became one of our worst enemies in less then four years of the Carter presidency... Then maybe we can look at how Carter's giving up the canal and military spending cuts further weakened this great Nation...we could go on and on about how this man "the Great American" was the worst president of my lifetime and perhaps ever, but what would be the point - I think many democrats already are aware of this and others are simply in denial.
David Brooks has an interesting idea of a new "Ross Perot" rising out of worry over federal deficits - strange idea, maybe, but he has some interesting points. Some snippets:
There's going to be another Ross Perot, and this time he's going to be younger. There's going to be a millionaire rising out of the country somewhere and he (or she) is going to lead a movement of people who are worried about federal deficits, who are offended by the horrendous burden seniors are placing on the young and who are disgusted by a legislative process that sometimes suggests that the government has lost all capacity for self-control.
[...]
We may as well be blunt about the driving force behind all this. The living and well organized are taking money from the weak and the unborn. Over the past decades we have seen a gigantic transfer of wealth from struggling young families and the next generation to members of the AARP. In 1990, 29 percent of federal spending went to seniors; by 2015 roughly half of all government spending will go to those over 65. This prescription drug measure is just part of that great redistribution.
But what can't last won't last. Before too long, some new sort of leader is going to arise, especially if we fail to reform Social Security this year. He's going to rail against a country that cannot control its appetites. He's going to rail against Republicans who promise to be virtuous - but not just yet. He's going to slam Democrats who loudly jeer at Republican deficits but whose own entitlement proposals would make the situation twice as bad. He's going to crusade against the interest groups who are so ferocious on behalf of their members that they sacrifice the future. [Read here]
USA Today has a shocking new development - NOT - where have they been, this is nothing new in the "Pyongyang game" that has lasted half a century... Just keep reporting even if there is nothing new to report.
BEIJING (AP) — North Korea no longer wants to negotiate with the United States and four other nations in an effort to ease the ongoing standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear program, China's state news agency said Saturday.
The official Xinhua News Agency, citing an anonymous North Korea Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the official reiterated the communist regime's Feb. 10 decision to indefinitely suspend its participation in six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Those parties are the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan.
Can you believe the time and money "brilliant [?]" educators are putting in to this "war over words"? Just as the original protest over President Lawrence H. Summers' comments totally disregarded the question; "is what he said factual?" for the "bigger [liberal] issue", "does it offend", this new round of debate disregards the same question for the concern "could this damage the University's reputation?" whoopee do!
I tell you want damages your University's reputation and demonstrates why liberal academia elites don't earn my attention; your total disregard of facts, truth, and educating choosing instead to worrying about "not offending" and "your reputation".
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 18 - A mood of uncertainty settled over Harvard University on Friday in the aftermath of President Lawrence H. Summers's release of the transcript of his contentious remarks last month about the shortage of women in the sciences and engineering.
Many people were parsing and debating the often dense and rambling 7,000-word transcript, a long-awaited document that quickly became a must-read on campus.
A group of professors and students was collecting names on letters supporting Dr. Summers. Another group of professors, who had criticized Dr. Summers's leadership style at a tense faculty meeting on Tuesday, was continuing to discuss the matter.
Scholars normally immersed in research and teaching were preoccupied with questions about the leadership of the university, to which many of them have devoted their adult lives. [Read more if you really want to]
Thomas Sowell demonstrates the bias of media by comparing the investigation of the two candidates', in the recent Presidential campaign, military records... Some highlights:
One document whose authenticity is not likely to be questioned by the mainstream media is the honorable discharge on Senator John Kerry's web site. Yet who in the major media has investigated why that honorable discharge is dated during the Carter administration, when Kerry's military service ended years earlier?
This is the same media that spent months investigating George W. Bush's military record and, even after key allegations were revealed to be based on forgeries, continued publicizing rumors and innuendoes. They didn't stop even after the President signed Form 180, opening all his military records to the public.
But who in the major media has asked why John Kerry would need to be issued an honorable discharge during the Carter administration, years after leaving the navy, unless his original discharge was less than honorable?
One of Jimmy Carter's first acts as President was to issue an order granting amnesties to draft dodgers who had fled the country during the Vietnam war and also allowing an upgrading of military discharges that had been less than honorable.
There is more to this than simply a strange date on an honorable discharge. The covering memo refers to U.S. Code Title 10, sections 1162 and 1163. Anyone who bothers to read those sections will discover that they are about unusual circumstances for issuing discharges from the military services. [Read more here]
