shite that matters
The Spanish-language radio station in Miami that crank called Cuban leader Fidel Castro faces a 4,000 dollar fine, according to federal regulators.What if the other party is a scumbag dictator?
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday recommended that the station be fined 4,000 dollars for broadcasting a telephone conversation without notifying the other party.
Sudan has ordered the removal of Syrian missiles and weapons of mass destruction out of the African country.Between this, the recently attempted mass-casualty chemical attack in Jordan supplied with Syrian WMD, and the Iraqi angle with Saddam Hussein possibly smuggling his WMD into Syria, we have ourselves the makings of one helluva story.
Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources said the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria remove its Scud C and Scud D medium-range ballistic missiles as well as components for chemical weapons stored in warehouses in Khartoum. The sources said the Sudanese demand was issued after the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry confirmed a report published earlier this month that Syria has been secretly flying Scud-class missiles and WMD components to Khartoum.
I got out of the cab and watched as one person after another jumped to their deaths 90 stories up as the flames hit them. Behind me was the cavalry, a river of sirens and lights careening down the avenues — ambulances, Harleys, ladder trucks, black & whites— weaving through traffic, all throttle and brake, honking, cursing, firemen craning their heads out the windows to look upwards, gaping at the damage, radio to the ear. It was the last thing they would never remember.Read the rest...
I turned away and was staring at the South Tower when the second plane hit. The concussion took my courage. It was an explosion beyond description, I felt that it was 1945 and I was in Berlin, or maybe Pearl Harbor in ‘41.
IRAQI OIL EXPORTS SINCE THE END OF THE WAR IN APRIL 2003 HAVE REACHED $8.7 BILLION. THE REVENUES WERE DEPOSITED INTO THE ACCOUNT OF THE IRAQI DEVELOPMENT FUND. (AL-ZAMAN, IRAQ, 4/22/04)The Iraqi oil revenues are not being deposited directly into the accounts of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, they are being deposited into the Iraqi Development Fund.
I would like to translate to you the gist of a report from Basrah by the Arabiya reporter about the heinous crimes today in that City. One of the most irritating phrases that really anger me is the attributing of such crimes to unknown assailants. What do you mean unknown? Which idiot can mistake the identity of these criminals: particularly, the crime of today - all the typical characteristics of Al Qaeda: the simultaneity, the car bombs, the calculation of the time at the rush hour and particularly at the start of schools just when the children are on their way. Everything is so typical. Yet this is what the “objective” reporter Diar Al Ommary (a well known ex-you know who, by the way): “most people are saying that the explosions were caused by rockets fired from Helicopters of the British Army (and he repeats the allegation that it was the American Army!). People say that the actually saw the Helicopters firing the missiles. And you know they say that the British troops avoided these locations today which was contrary to their daily routine” As for the reason why the British (or American) forces should do something like that, it is suggested hurriedly just because they want to attack and hurt the Iraqi people, and on and on of the same talk. This kind of allegation was repeated every time an outrage like this happened, especially immediately in the aftermath of the crimes.Mohammed at Iraq the model writes:
I don’t know whom these people are trying to fool. No gentlemen, it is not the British, nor the Americans, not the Jews. It is your pious “Salafi” friends (your financiers) and a motley collection of assorted criminals so well known by everybody including you.
As for the U.S. and allies, I don’t know why they allow you to spread such lies, when they can crush you like cockroaches with a mere whisper into some certain ears; especially after such heartbreaking outrages. You murder children and don’t even have some remnant of decency left to at least keep quiet, but have to blame it on others, to shelter the true criminals. But let me just tell you this: Every little drop of blood from a severed limb of a child going to school, every school bag with their books and pencils strewn on the scene of the crime, the little poor shoes soaked in blood with bloodied remains of little feet still inside them; these before anything else spell your eternal damnation. You have no God. I mean you may think that you have a God, but it is some terrible bloodthirsty figure of hate and rage, a figment of your insane imagination; most certainly not the Compassionate the Merciful Allah we believe in. Your filthy beards and turbans are covered with blood and excrement forever, rabid dogs, unbelievable monsters, misanthropes.
Why should I be strong while watching others run away; Spain, Honduras, Thailand, human organizations, the UN and all the others who want (and it’s their right I must say) to avoid the dangers. But why did they disappoint us? Why abandon us in this moment when we really need them? Will they come back when conditions improve? Most likely, but who will need them then!!?
I’m with the coalition but I can’t do it my friends. I’m surrounded by armed criminals who wouldn’t hesitate for a minute before shooting me for just speaking out, yet I do speak, and not only on this page.
You, there in the free world, cannot witness against criminals without witness protection programs. We have nothing of this. Just under trained and half corrupted policemen and few newly graduated army soldiers and the law system, we inherited from Saddam and haven’t really changed it yet, is far from being efficient.
Why do others get discouraged easily? Don’t mistake me. I’m upset but will NEVER run away like some people did.
I wasn’t like this before. I was afraid most of the time. I have always looked for safety above all. I lost faith in the whole world and I wasn’t ready at all to make the slightest sacrifice for the sake of others. I was trying to leave my country and find a better job in a safe place, BUT, The brave solders (who don’t hold shares at Halliburton or Bechtel) who crossed seas and oceans and came to my country to fight for our freedom -and don’t anyone dare say the opposite, as I met so many of these soldiers and had hundreds of letters from them and there families and I know their motives; they fight for their country’s safety and for our freedom and they are proud of what they are doing- gave me the faith and showed me that man should not care only about himself, his family or his country, these are not enough to make a human being. These guys are MUCH better than me because I have to fight for my issue and they fight for me. They deserve the respect of the world and so do the people who support them. They always give me hope to go on no matter how difficult it seems.
I think I’ll have to skip celebrating my birthday this year, but that will not make me less determined than before, and I know that even if other countries pull out of Iraq, we will always have the strongest and greatest nation on our side, the wonderful people of the USA, together with the UK, Italy, Japan and the rest of the coalition forces. We owe you a lot and I pray, and I’m sure, that one day we will be able to return some of your favors and I’m talking about the people not the politicians although I don’t deny those the credit they deserve for doing their job as good as they can. When that day finally comes, you will know for sure that the great efforts and sacrifices you’ve made were not in vain.
Rania al-Baz has been hailed as a hero for letting newspaper photographers snap pictures of her face and for frankly discussing her case after she said a beating by her husband earlier this month left her unconscious.
Her story has been widely reported in the Saudi media. A Saudi princess stepped forward to pay al-Baz's medical bills. Representatives of the new Saudi National Human Rights Association visited her in the hospital.
Al-Baz told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that once she is back at work, she will press a violence-against-women awareness campaign.
"I known many women in Saudi Arabia are badly beaten and when I recover I will do a program addressing that," she said.
She said she also will try to tackle other topics, like rape, that are usually not publicly discussed in conservative Saudi Arabia.
MR. RUSSERT: Israel assassinated Hamas leader Rantisi. Do you support that assassination?Kerry's defense of Israel in their decision to kill one of the world's leading terrorists is a very positive development.
SEN. KERRY: I believe Israel has every right in the world to respond to any act of terror against it. Hamas is a terrorist, brutal organization. It has had years to make up its mind to take part in a peaceful process. They refuse to. Arafat refuses to. And I support Israel's efforts to try to separate itself and to try to be secure. The moment Hamas says, "We've given up violence, we're prepared to negotiate," I am absolutely confident they will find an Israel that is thirsty to have that negotiation.
MR. RUSSERT: On Thursday, President Bush broke with the tradition and policy of six predecessors when he said that Israel can keep part of the land seized in the 1967 Middle East War and asserted the Palestinian refugees cannot go back to their particular homes. Do you support President Bush?
SEN. KERRY: Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: Completely?
SEN. KERRY: Yes.
If this holds, and Saddam was indeed funneling money to and through al-Qaeda-connected banks, what does this do for John Kerry’s credibility? He stated on Sunday that Saddam had no connections to Al-Qaeda, an assertion that has now taken on the mantle of Absolute Fact. Nowadays the idea that Saddam had anything to do with terrorism is regarded as proof of a mind that refuses to accept reality. This, despite the payments to the suicide bombers’ families. This, despite the terrorists who had refuge in Iraq. This, despite the training camp. This, despite al-Ansar. This is something I’ve never understood: the belief that Iraq was somehow hermetically sealed off from the politics of the Arab world, as though it was actually located somewhere north of Turkey, as though it was immune to the temptation of using these transnational forces to its own advantage. At the very least you’d expect Saddam to buy these guys off, if only for insurance purposes. But no: Saddam was the one principled leader who refused to deal with terrorist organizations, because . . . he was secular? Please. A guy who commissions a Qu’ran in his own blood is not exactly unaware of the fundamentalist currents in his culture.
I don’t think he was behind 9/11; I don’t think he organized it, supported it overtly, or even knew what was up. That’s different from saying “Saddam had no connection to Al-Qaeda,” which strikes me not only as a rash and premature judgment, but one that seems willfully blind to the realities of the region. To say something like that with confidence does not suggest, shall we say, evidence of a flexible, nuanced worldview. Because, well, you might be proven wrong. And then what? How do you recover from such a conspicuous admission of naivete?
The electorate might want to inquire: who else don’t you suspect?
I’m waiting for the oil-for-food / oil-for-palaces / oil-for-TotalFinaElf /oil-for-terror story to go mainstream. And I don’t think it will. The big papers may do a round-up; the smaller papers may use a few grafs in their international coverage; USA Today might do something, but in the end it’ll be chalked up to bureaucratic fumbling and inefficiency. If context is required, the reporter will bring up Tyco and Enron: a lesson about Bigness and Accountability, etc.
Let’s say Saddam’s bribes ended up in a bank in the Caymans, and Dick Cheney had been on that bank’s board in 1999. Would the allegation of such a transfer be a story? Damn straight. As it should be. So if Claudia’s story doesn’t hit your hometown paper this week, you might ask why. And I can answer the question.
If it’s not on the AP or NYT wire, it didn’t happen.
Are we clear? Good.
First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using the proper names for things? Those are not “contractors” in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway. They are MERCENARIES and SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE. They are there for the money, and the money is very good if you live long enough to spend it.
Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It is a WAR PROFITEER, bilking millions from the pockets of average Americans. In past wars they would have been arrested -- or worse.
The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?
An al-Qaida-linked terrorist cell recently dismantled in Jordan was plotting to detonate a chemical bomb capable of killing thousands of people and to attack the U.S. Embassy and prime minister’s office with poison gas, officials said Saturday.Another big story that is getting very little attention by our media.
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Officials close to the investigation told The Associated Press that several terror suspects arrested in Jordan last month have confessed the plots were hatched by Jordanian militant Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, thought to be a close associate of al-Qaida boss Osama bin Laden.
The officials, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity, said the terrorist cell was planning to attack Jordan’s secret service — the General Intelligence Department — with a chemical bomb that would have killed as many as 20,000 people and caused large-scale destruction within a half-mile radius.
Jordanian officials say the arrests occurred after suspected militants entered Jordan from neighboring Syria in at least three vehicles filled with explosives, detonators and raw material to be used in bomb-making.
Dear Ladies,
The last two days have been the hardest two days this battalion has faced in over 30 years. Within the blink of an eye the situation went form relatively calm to a raging storm. You've known that since arriving there has been violence; attacks have been sporadic and mostly limited to roadside bombs. Your husbands have become experts at recognizing those threats and neutralizing them before we are injured. Up to this point the war has been the purview of corporals and sergeants, and the squad they lead.
Yesterday the enemy upped the ante.
Early in the morning we exchanged gunfire with a group of insurgents without significant loss. As morning progressed, the enemy fed more men into the fight and we responded with stronger force. Unfortunately, this led to injuries as our Marines and sailors started clearing the city block by block. The enemy did not run; they fought us like soldiers. And we destroyed the enemy like only Marines can. By the end of the evening the local hospital was so full of their dead and wounded that they ran out of space to put them. Your husbands were awesome all night they stayed at the job of securing the streets and nobody challenged them as the hours wore on. They did not surrender an inch nor did flinch from the next potential threat. Previous to yesterday the terrorist thought that we were soft enough to challenge. As of tonight the message is loud and clear that the Marines will not be beaten.
Today the enemy started all over again, although with far fewer numbers, only now the rest of the battalion joined the fight. Without elaborating too much, weapons company and Golf crushed their attackers with the vengeance of the righteous. They filled up the hospitals again and we suffered only a few injuries. Echo company dominated the previous day's battlefield. Fox company patrolled with confidence and authority; nobody challenged them. Even Headquarters Company manned their stations and counted far fewer people openly watching us with disdain. If the enemy is foolish enough to try to take your men again they will not survive contact. We are here to win.
The news looks grim from back in the States. We did take losses that, in our hearts, we will always live with. The men we lost were taken within the very opening minutes of the violence. They could not have foreseen the treachery of the enemy and they did not suffer. We can never replace these Marines and Sailors but they will fight on with us in spirit. We are not feeling sorry for ourselves nor do we fear what tomorrow will bring. The battalion has lived up to its reputation as Magnificent Bastards.
Yesterday made everyone here stronger and wiser; it will be a cold day in Hell before we are taken for granted again.
I've been visiting the BBC Arabic site in the last few days and I found a forum where people from many Arab countries –including Iraq- post their opinions about some hot topics, the main of those is Iraq and terrorism of course. I wasn't surprised to see that most Arabs (especially from Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are forming one side of the debates while Iraqis and people from the rest of the gulf countries are taking the other side. But I was surprised when I found that the almost all the Iraqis who took part in the debates are on our side, maybe 95% of Iraqis expressed their rejection to the violent behavior of some Iraqis and condemned the terrorists attacks on both Iraqis and the coalition saying that the Arab world must stop supporting the terrorists and the thugs from inside Iraq. It's also surprising that many of those Iraqis live in areas that are recognized to have a public anti American attitude in general like A'adhamiya, Diyala and Najaf. I feel that those people are still afraid to voice their points of view in public in such hostile atmospheres but the internet is providing them freedom and safety to say whatever they believe in.
Here, I translated three of the posts made by Iraqis and for those who can read Arabic or have a way to translate web pages, here's the link.
"What's happening in Fallujah and Baghdad now is the doings of the enemies of Iraq and his people and I mean our "brother Muslims and Arabs" who fear that the fire might reach their kingdoms and let Iraqis go to hell. Iran is supporting Muqtada while our Arab brothers are sending us human bombs to kill our children and all this is in the name of Islam and Arab nationality and the satellite channels are tearing apart and distorting the reputation of every honest Iraqi patriot saying that he's a dirty American agent, so for god sake, enough of what you're doing to Iraq and Iraqis. We did nothing to harm you, so what is this all about?".
Zahawi-baghdad
"To put things clear, we should know who is supporting Sadr, they're a bunch of lost men who spent their lives serving in Saddam's army and he found no one else to support him. The solid truth is that those thugs need to be taught a lesson and this may be in various ways. Iraq must be saved from those men in any possible way".
Abdul Hussein – Hilla
"The martial show for the Mahdi army that Muqtada made is tearing apart the national unity and therefore Iraq needs the liberating forces to remain to prevent the country which was the origin of civilization from being ruled by fanatics who can see no far than their chins".
Saad Yaseen-Diyala.
News broadcasts in Iraq can be biased, inaccurate and incomplete - to put it mildly. Your contribution will create a television alternative owned and operated by Iraqis. This will provide better information, counter efforts to provoke and help reduce tensions.Click here to read more about this noble cause and make a donation.
What this little girl could see from her doorstep was a bunch of sweaty probably irritable Americans---and shell casings, torn branches, and debris from the battles. She wasn’t touched by any of it, even though her house had been. It was us she saw, and she saw us as potential friends. The little girl trusted adults to do the right thing. Her parents must be the most amazing people in the world.
I got out of the Hummer and saw her mother standing at the gate, waving good bye. There are some gestures that are universal----putting your hand on your heart ought to say something. She held her hand over her heart and said her name, which I simply cannot reproduce. But then she took my hand and kissed my cheek, and I remembered other days, in France, where cheek kissing seems charming rather than affected. I kissed her cheek and we stood there and smiled at each other, and then we had to go.
When you think of Iraq, don’t think of terrorists or Saddam Hussein. Think of Rania and her mother’s hospitality, of the American soldiers sweating on her doorstep and sipping tea from little glasses on a ninety-degree day. Muktadi Sadr does not represent Iraq and no matter how many people he kills or attacks, he never will.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger turned into a real-life action hero last week - by saving a swimmer from drowning.Pimp.
The 56-year-old was vacationing with his family in Maui, Hawaii, when he helped the struggling swimmer by diving into the sea and bringing him back to the beach.
An onlooker says, "Arnold sat with this guy for quite a while as he had cramps, was breathless and a bit shaken up.
"He was also overawed by having just been rescued by the Terminator.
A secure and free Iraq is an historic opportunity to change the world and make America more secure.I stand behind President Bush for his leadership in the war against terror and despite the fact that he's wrong on some other issues (spending, illegal immigration, Ashcroft's war on porn, Michael Powell and the out of control FCC), the war on terror is the single most important issue in the political arena.
I fully understand the consequences of what we're doing. We're changing the world, and the world will be better off and America will be more secure as a result of the actions we're taking.
I also know that there's an historic opportunity here to change the world. And it's very important for the loved ones of our troops to understand that the mission is an important, vital mission for the security of America and for the ability to change the world for the better.
One of the things I've found, John, is that, in calling around, particularly during this week — I spoke to Prime Minister Berlusconi and President Kwasniewski — there is a resolve by these leaders that is a heartening resolve. Tony Blair is the same way.
He understands, like I understand, that we cannot yield at this point in time, that we must remain steadfast and strong, that it's the intentions of the enemy to shake our will. That's what they want to do. They want us to leave. And we're not going to leave. We're going to do the job.
And a free Iraq is going to be a major blow for terrorism. It'll change the world. A free Iraq in the midst of the Middle East is vital to future peace and security.
Maybe I can best put it this way, why I feel so strongly about this historic moment. I was having dinner with Prime Minister Koizumi, and we were talking about North Korea, about how we can work together to deal with the threat. The North Korea leader is a threat.
And here are two friends, now, discussing what strategy to employ to prevent him from further developing and deploying a nuclear weapon.
And it dawned on me that, had we blown the peace in World War II, that perhaps this conversation would not have been taking place.
It also dawned on me then that when we get it right in Iraq, at some point in time an American president will be sitting down with a duly-elected Iraqi leader, talking about how to bring security to what has been a troubled part of the world.
The legacy that our troops are going to leave behind is a legacy of lasting importance, as far as I'm concerned. It's a legacy that really is based upon our deep belief that people want to be free and that free societies are peaceful societies.
Some of the debate really centers around the fact that people don't believe Iraq can be free; that if you're Muslim, or perhaps brown-skinned, you can't be self-governing or free. I'd strongly disagree with that.
I reject that. Because I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul, and if given a chance, the Iraqi people will be not only self-governing, but a stable and free society.
We're at war. Iraq is a part of the war on terror. It is not THE war on terror, it is a theater in the war on terror, and it's essential we win this battle in the war on terror. By winning this battle, it will make other victories more certain in the war against the terrorists.
And now is the time to make sure that the American people understand the stakes and the historic significance of what we're doing. And no matter where they may stand on this war, the thing I appreciate most about our country is the strong support given to the men and women in uniform. And it's vital support.
It's important for those soldiers to know America stands with them. And we weep when they die and we're proud of the victories they achieve.
One of the things I'm also proud of is what I hear from our soldiers. As I mentioned, I pinned the purple heart on some of the troops at the hospital there at Fort Hood, Texas. Guy looks at me and says I can't wait to get back to my unit and fulfill the mission, Mr. President. The spirit is incredible. Our soldiers who have volunteered to go there understand the stakes. And I'm incredibly proud of them.
So long I'm the president, I will press for freedom. I believe so strongly in the power of freedom. You know why I do? Because I've seen freedom work right here in our own country.
I also have this belief, strong belief that freedom is not this country's gift to the world.
Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world. And as the greatest power on the face of the Earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom.
I feel strongly that the course this administration has taken will make America more secure and the world more free, and therefore, the world more peaceful. It's a conviction that's deep in my soul. And, you know, I will say it as best as I possibly can to the American people.
I look forward to the debate in the campaign. I look forward to helping — for the American people to hear, you know, what is the proper use of American power? Do we have an obligation to lead or should we shirk responsibility? That's how I — that's how I view this debate, and I look forward to making it, Don. I'll do it the best I possibly can. I'll give it the best shot. I'll speak as plainly as I can. One thing is for certain, though, about me — and the world has learned this — when I say something, I mean it. And the credibility of the United States is incredibly important for keeping world peace and freedom.
I think Bush did very well and helped himself with this press conference. Most of all, he comes off as sincere and passionately committed--and I think on the War on Terror he is. He makes the "Bush Lied--Bush is Hitler" crowd seem like the fringe (at least in this country) nitwits that they are. This man believes in his mission. Either the voters will or they won't. That is another matter. (I suspect, in the end, that they will, but that's just my hunch of the moment.) I also think he should give more press conferences because, although he certainly does not have the verbal skill of a Clinton, he does not seem as if he is trying to gull anyone either. Against the media, which is populated with people desperate to stand out from the crowd to make themselves known, he automatically looks good. In any case, come Fall, this may prove to be one of the most interesting elections ever, because the American public will definitely have a decision to make.UPDATE: Here is the complete transcript of the press conference.
It’s the 9th of April and I feel safe! And I don’t care what those ‘political experts’ on the newspapers and TV channels, say about the ‘occupation’, deteriorated security and ‘unemployment’. You can’t understand this, because you never experienced real fear this long. Let me tell you about it, as I’m one of those who passed Saddam’s filthy test of life.That's why we fight.
The statue fell and with it, horror fell. You don’t know what it means to be scared to death most of your life, brothers and sisters. I knew that and I faced it during the reign of evil and darkness. I was afraid to talk, I wasn't allowed to think and I wasn't allowed to feel…I wasn't allowed to love.
How dare anyone imply to me how should I feel? And who they think they are, those who try to put words in my mouth? I’m alive and I’m free, and I have the right to say whatever I feel and chose the words I like. No one will tell me again what to say and what to feel.
Yes, it’s the 9th of April. I lit the 1st candle today to celebrate my 1st year, as a free man and no one will prevent me from celebrating. I, who the earth is no longer enough to contain my feelings, I who have wings now, and I don’t have to carry an ID…I’m Iraqi. I have the right to wander through my country southwards and northwards, without being stopped by someone to ask me who I am and where I’m going. I’m the son of the 9th of April.
A paper found in the rented apartment of one Moroccan terrorist said, "We must develop immigration into Western countries as the path to the glory of Islam and the destruction of the Godless pagans."de Borchgrave's knowledge and understanding of global politics, particularly in the Middle East, are very impressive and like I said yesterday, he's the kind of person I think we need to lead the charge in the war on terror.
The Fifth Column is alive and well in the U.S. Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American citizen who was the prime mover behind the American Muslim Council (AMC) and a number of other U.S.-based Islamist-sympathizing organizations, is the man who certified 75 Muslim chaplains for service in the U.S. Armed Forces. He is a self-described supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah and was arrested at Heathrow last summer as he flew in from Libya on his way back to Washington. He had a little contretemps at the airport, unable to give British customs a plausible explanation for the $340,000 he was carrying in cash.
Mr. Alamoudi, now in jail in Virginia awaiting trial for allegedly lying to immigration authorities, was the most prominent leader of the Muslim World League in America, a Wahhabi Saudi front, made up of some 40 groups run by a small circle of trusted and wealthy individuals.
Mr. Alamoudi was directly involved in 16 Islamist front organizations. The network is controlled through four different layers of front organizations connected to Muslim charities and businesses in Northern Virginia. The FBI has gathered enough evidence to put away several prominent figures. But diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia -- and Saudi influence on the price of oil -- have limited expulsions to 16 Arab clerics with Saudi diplomatic passports who were proselytizing impressionable young minds with inflammatory cliches about Jews and Christians.
Dad,I feel better now.
Things have been busy here. You know I can’t say much about it.
However, I do know two things. One, POTUS (President of the United States) has given us the green light to do whatever we needed to do to win this thing so we have that going for us. Two, and my opinion only, this battle is going to have far reaching effects on not only the war here in Iraq but in the overall war on terrorism. We have to be very precise in our application of combat power. We cannot kill a lot of innocent folks (though they are few and far between in Fallujah).
There will be no shock and awe. There will be plenty of bloodshed at the lowest levels. This battle is the Marine Corps’ Belleau Wood for this war. 2/1 and 1/5 will be leading the way. We have to find a way to kill the bad guys only. The Fallujahans are fired up and ready for a fight (or so they think). A lot of terrorists and foreign fighters are holed up in Fallujah. It has been a sanctuary for them. If they have not left town they are going to die. I’m hoping they stay and fight.
This way we won’t have to track them down one by one.
This battle is going to be talked about for a long time. The Marine Corps will either reaffirm its place in history as one of the greatest fighting organizations in the world or we will die trying. The Marines are fired up. I’m nervous for them though because I know how much is riding on this fight (the war in Iraq, the view of the war at home, the length of the war on terror and the reputation of the Marine Corps to name a few). However, every time I’ve been nervous during my career about the outcome of events when young Marines were involved they have ALWAYS exceeded my expectations. I’m praying this is one of those times.
The only Sept. 11 suspect ever convicted walked out of jail Wednesday smiling and laughing, freed less than 2 1/2 years into a 15-year sentence after judges ruled the evidence was too weak to hold him pending a retrial.This is a spit in the face to all the victims of 9/11 and their families.
El Motassadeq has acknowledged training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan and being close friends with Hamburg-based suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. He has denied knowing of the plot to attack the United States.
Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn.Talk about some fucked up priorities. The United States is fighting a war against enemies that spit on freedom and equality, so what does the government focus on? They want to rid the world of porn. Listen up John Ashcroft, we don't need your religious right agenda, we need you to rid the world of TERRORISTS! Consentual sex is not a bad thing, and if an adult wants to buy it or watch it, why the hell should you or I care? When the United States government starts trying to ban the same things as the Taliban, we're in real trouble.
In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains.
Department officials say they will send "ripples" through an industry that has proliferated on the Internet and grown into an estimated $10 billion-a-year colossus profiting Fortune 500 corporations such as Comcast, which offers hard-core movies on a pay-per-view channel.
What the hell is the sense of fighting against religious extremists abroad if we're just going to have them run our own government?Amen.
There is tragedy....I am so often impressed with the comments on my favorite weblogs that I've decided to begin posting them on a regular basis.
Great tragedy....
You see, we (America) have the strength to crush such cruelness. But we do not have knowledge of how to do so without crushing those who are innoncent.
I must concur with an above post....your life, your freedom is worth more than deserving a Saddam regime. And yes, I believe it even valuable and worthy, enough so to be worth the spilling of American blood. Even mine if that is what freedom costs.
To those who are muslim and fear that Islam will be forbidden under an American influence. Such is not the case. In fact, I encourage you to visit the U.S. and discover that you can worship as you please. You can congregate and lift up prayers as you see fit.
We don't want you're oil. We want you to be an example of something better. An example to your neighbors. An example of freedom....and it is our hope that said example will be successful. And then hatred, anger, pain, sorrow, death can diminish.
Sincerely,
theSaj
Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly.Thanks to Charles Johnson of LGF fame for pointing me to this, and countless other topics of disussion so often ignored and so important to our hopes for a peaceful future for ALL people (Note to terrorists and those who support them: that includes Americans and Jews). LGF continued to follow the story:
That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.
Markos Zuniga has disappeared his post on how little he cared about the security personnel torn apart in Fallujah, and replaced it with a Kerryesque flip-flopping non-apology that ends up saying pretty much the same thing: Daily Kos.The Daily Kos gets the gas face.
Something else seems to have disappeared from Daily Kos, though; at least two of his advertisements from Democratic candidates.
UPDATE: Not only did Zuniga delete his original post, he also deleted it from Google’s cache and from the Internet Archive. (Hat tip: Thom™.) Pretty thorough butt-covering, I’d say.
When I read yesterday on Little Green Footballs and this morning on Instapundit of the comments of Markos Zuniga of Daily Kos, seemingly gloating (at least to some extent) over the slaughter of Americans in Fallujah, I felt literally sick to my stomach. Zuniga is a young man of the left, still in his twenties, justifiably applauded for his pioneering use of the Internet in political organizing. In the old days not long ago (August 2001), he would have been among our best and brightest, our most idealistic.A voice of reason in crazy times.
But something happened in the cataclysm of 9/11, a fracture that, instead of repairing in the normal way, has just grown worse. In the intervening relatively short period, a great portion of the left has almost unthinkingly placed itself in a classical Laingian double-bind—its hatred of Bush unable to co-exist with its natural idealism. Back in the Early Paleolithic Period, when I first joined the left, it was this idealism that motivated all of us. I assume it did for Zuniga et al. But some kind of cognitive dissonance set in after those planes came crashing into the World Trade Center. They refused to accept that anything good could happen under another name (Republicanism, conservatism, Bush, etc.). Good only comes from the names they traditionally associate with it. So heinous and barbaric acts are excused by people who under other circumstance would never do that. It’s depressing and it’s frightening.
