Monday, March 31, 2008

More Bits from the Brits: Machines, Airlines, Sex and Nazis



GUESS WHAT THIS Machine does??


DON"T READ FURTHER UNTIL YOU GUESS


While we are reading through the English papers, we stumbled upon the above.

Looks like a battery charger or perhaps some kind of measuring instrument.

In truth, and in fact, it is a new machine designed by a German to kill people. A suicide machine.

Times Online


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Bags of Terminal 5 embarrassment for BA
April 1, 2008, Times Online.

Terminal 5 (thankfully not one I would or must go near) is imploding.

British Airways was caught up in a new row yesterday over the scale of the missing baggage mountain at Heathrow caused by the chaos at Terminal Five.

The airline claimed on Sunday night that 15,000 bags were being stored at the airport after missing their flights because of the failure of the automated baggage system.

But Jim Fitzpatrick, the Aviation Minister, said in the House of Commons yesterday that the true figure was 28,000 — almost double BA’s claim. He said that it would take up to a week for the bags to be reunited with their owners.

Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive, said yesterday that the number of bags was 19,000.


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And our most favorite bit from Times Online

March 31, 2008

Sex, Nazis and videotape: Max Mosley orgy is big news in Germany

Roger Boyes, Berlin

The Germans are second only to the British in their fascination for newspaper stories involving Nazis and sex. Television documentaries entitled "Hitler's women" regularly get top viewing figures.

No suprise then that Bild, Germany's mass circulation newspaper (readership estimated at 12 million), had as its front page splash a gritty black and white photograph of a black-clad prositute and a naked grey-haired Englishman. "Uproar over Nazi Sex party!" said the headline. "Five hour orgy on video, Whores wear Nazi uniforms". The newspaper stresses that the man is only allegedly Max Mosley.

But inside the newspaper -- on page 19 close to the usual Formula One coverage -- Bild makes clear that Mr Mosley is of prime initerest to German readers: educated in the elite German boarding school Salem, a friend of Michael Schumacher, and that rare Englishman -- a fluent German speaker. A photograph of Oswald Mosley making a Hitler salute underlines the fact that the family has two generations of links with Germany.
(spelling mistakes are not mine, I simply cut and pasted)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To be honest, I know that I am fascinated by nazis and sex. I am sure most Americans are. We can't get enough of that interesting combination. I know I look for images of old men with prostitutes dressed as nazis. A new mag - Old men and Nazis. Subscription: 1. Says a lot I think (prurient interests and all) about the Germans (not all Germans of course, just a few). Then again, it was actually someone not from Germany also involved in the predilection of nazis and old men. Says something about the Brits and the Germans.






Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe - once an exporter of food to Africa and the world. Zimbabwe - once an advanced and modern state, moving toward greater opportunity for its people. Zimbabwe - a nation of poor, but fed and relatively safe people for any African country. We have to face it, Africa as a continent is not the most stable of lands - almost every attempted genocide in our history has occurred on that continent and given the facts, Zimbabwe was a paradise compared to the hell of so many others.

The farmers produced more than enough food for all the people of Zimbabwe and the exports made Zimbabwe wealthy.

Today, the country is one of the largest importers of food. Its population is starving. Its wealth, gone. Robert Mugabe's reign of terror may be coming to an end.

MAY be coming to an end.

More than five years ago Mugabe seized the land belonging to white farmers. He expelled them. Their land confiscated by the government now sits fallow. His reign of terror MAY be coming to an end.

Why? An election was held and APPARENTLY he lost. Now, in Africa, losing usually means you have to kill a few thousand people and you suddenly win, so it is too early to celebrate, but the opposition has claimed victory and gone in to hiding.
The Independent, April 1, 2008, Opposition Leaders go into hiding

This man WILL, if God is just, end up arrested and tried for crimes against the people of Zimbabwe and imprisoned and or given a pass to hell. He deserves it.




Image from BBC


UPDATE: At 84, he needs to just go away - he has lost. He is trying to weazel a way to escape justice. His purge needs to be purged.


Zimbabwe's opposition leader and a government minister have denied reports that a deal has been reached for President Robert Mugabe to step down. April 1, 2008, BBC.

Speaking of the Independent

Ken Livingston. A dinosaur that should have died out when the meteors hit the earth or perhaps when global cooling killed them off ... may have a competition for Mayor of London. let's all be religious at this time and pray to God that someone sends Livingston out into the cold, on the streets to stand in line.


Boris: I will sweep out Ken's 'Marxist cabal'
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Boris Johnson pledged yesterday to sweep away the "superannuated Marxist cabal" installed at City Hall by Ken Livingstone, as he launched his campaign to become Mayor of London.

A Great Depression

The English paper, The Independent, has on its cover an image of people in line, reminiscent of the lines of the Great Depression.



One line in that article was of greater interest to me: unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent.

PERHAPS. Perhaps it is 4.9 or 4.8 or 5.1 or 4.89 ... perhaps.

Perhaps if we are at or around 4.8, we have excellent employment. Not perfect, but no capitalist state has complete employment.

The rise in prices is serious, attributed in large part to fuel costs. Another serious rise is in food - attributed to fuel and some food stuffs increase can be attributed to the shift in farming from traditional wheats/grains and vegetables to corn for ethanol. That is a growing issue and whether felt at this moment or not, will soon impact dramatically the poorest of people. As badly as we might have it, the worst will be felt elsewhere.

Blogging

Apparently everyone blogs now. I assume many blog for the same reason I do - to keep track of articles and events without printing off paper and filling filing cabinets. Celebrities also blog - even the dumb ones (subjective opinion about the fact they are dumb or that there are dumb ones, but they are by virtue of what the majorty believe). I do not find very many world leaders blogging. I could only imagine a Bush blog - full of howdy do's and whatchamacallits and other blather. Brown - well, who knows, a few cheerio's and rights and that would be about all he could muster.

On the other hand, Mahmoud Amindinejad has his own blog, and he updates it occasionally. It seems that the overwhelming response from the world public is in favor or neutral. Only a few wish him ill health - usually Americans.

Sniff Sniff Sniff

We know where you are and your cell phone just told us.

The technology is here and now and Facebook will be the access point for many curious folks.
The Times of London, April 1, 2008

And once again for the brain dead ... it isn't the government.

Population Issues - Islam passed Catholicism

Muslims more numerous than Catholics: Vatican
Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:29pm BST

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.

He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world's population -- or about 2 billion people.

The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.

Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world's population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.
The Catholic Church understands this conundrum -- Just Do It!

He said the data on Muslim populations had been compiled by individual countries and then released by the United Nations, adding the Vatican could only vouch for its own statistics.
(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Andrew Roche)

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Danger Will Robinson

The robot, Robie, I believe, would, in every episode, yell out "Danger, Danger, Danger Will Robinson." Some rock monster or perhaps just Dr. Smith lurking close by and plotting some devious coup to upstage yet another of his lame brained escapades. It seemed that everything was dangerous for Robie that robot.




He was a funny robot and with the exception of a few episodes, always trying to help/save the Robinson family (especially Will).

You would think everything was dangerous if you watched every episode back to back.

Today we have our own Robie ... the media.

Riding motorcycles without a helmet is dangerous (for example - Gary Busey)
Riding on skateboards without helmets and pads is dangerous
Drinking and driving is dangerous
Operating heavy machinery after taking cough syrup may be dangerous
Opening bay doors in the back of a grocery store when a monster is outside will be dangerous when the tentacles reach in and rip you apart.
Going into a dark house at night looking for a phone is dangerous.
Smoking is dangerous.
Video games can kill and/or are dangerous.
Asbestos is dangerous.
Global Warming is dangerous.
Driving on the LA freeways can be dangerous.

Living apparently is quite dangerous.


And now, Mobile phones MORE dangerous than smoking.
The Independent, March 30, 2008

We are all doomed. Especially given the fact that children younger than 12 have cell phones and use them. For those of us who are between 20-50, we have had years of no cell phones. Children today get cell phones as soon as they can walk, or very nearly thereafter.

Does Anyone Else Dislike ......as Much?

Or insert whatever it is you do for remuneration? And I do not mean dislike ALL the time, just whenever it is that one aspect of your job gets to you. I would prefer to have my teeth extracted without anesthesia than grade. Silly I suppose, unless I have had it done (once). I have also had a filling without the use of any anesthesia (once). I prefer those experiences to grading.

Whatever our job might be, we probably procrastinate doing something. We don't like paper work, we dislike meetings, we do not care for those who are our superiors - I dislike grading. I had a fingernail pulled off once, again without anesthesia. It was painful and bloody and if I could get away without grading for an entire semester and have one fingernail pulled off, I would probably go for that deal. That deal was painful and it took 3-4 months for the nail to grow back. It was very unpleasant, but preferable to doing grading.

I am planning on a trip soon, to England and I am thinking about grading while I fly. I will have a huge stack by that time and the question I will think about until the moment I get off the plane will be - should I bring the grading along to do on the plane, or not. I could watch a movie, sleep (and hopefully if I work it right, the flight will not be full and I should get a row to myself), or grade. I also wonder whether it will take my mind off flying. Thousands of flights a day leave each airport, hundreds of thousands of flights a day take off and land on some runway in some city somewhere. My problem is, unlike the chance of losing a fingernail through some fluke accident or teeth being pulled out (unless you are a spy) grading may actually be preferred, to being on a plane that doesn't land properly. A fear of flying - maybe. A dislike for sitting on a plane for ten hours - for sure. Grading? I prefer grading to flying.

Maybe it is relative to something we dislike even more. Like doing homework/assignments / reading texts. I dlsike flying more than almost anything else I can think of, short of meeting al-qaida, any where.

Obama Obama Obama ... misstatements of facts

Had it been Hillary, the national media would have had a field day (and perhaps rightly so - given the vast right-wing conspiracy out to get her). But it wasn't Hillary, it was Obama and the error was not as significant as Bosnia and ducking for cover, but ... still, it leaves one wondering.



LA Times, march 30, 2008. Obama has overstated Kennedy's aid to his father



The Kennedy connection, and dear lord, why does every Democrat do this (try to entangle themselves in the Kennedy myth), is apparently non-existent. See the post from Wednesday 4/2 on why everyone wants to be a Kennedy, including Obama.

Two Films Everyone Should See

(and then re-see every few years)


Consider the decade and time of each event.

1) The Killing Fields (fictionalized account)
April 30, 2008, Dith Pran died in New Jersey of cancer


2) Ghosts of Rwanda (non fiction) OR Hotel Rwanda (fictionalized account)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Earth Hour

Around the globe at this hour - whenever this hour hit or will hit, lights go out. From Australia, Greece, Thailand, to Poland, Ireland to ... Google, the lights have gone out. Google blackened its normally white page to black for the hour.

Oh what savings, now pat yourselves on the back and give it another go.

Here is a suggestion and one that would accomplish much more than the empty gesture of EARTH HOUR.

Google - leave your page black ALL THE TIME.

Sydney Music House and all other earth landmarks - DIM your lights EVERY DAY. Turn them off earlier and turn them on later EVERY NIGHT.

Office Buildings - cause all offices that can possible do so, to have their lights on dimmers and or resort to minimal hall lighting when necessary EVERY NIGHT.

REMOVE 1 or 2 LIGHTS from every office and home EVERY DAY/NIGHT.

Have all super markets and other shopping areas dim their lights and turn off a percent of all lights and leave others on dim - EVERY NIGHT.

And then lets not talk about this again. Let's just do what we need to and stop making an issue of something that seems so reasonable EVERY DAY not just for hype.

Doing the above will save more energy than your world wide effort done every year could possibly and let's just stop with the patronizing and do what we can do that is no problem to do, prudent behavior.

UPDATE March 30, 2008: Apparently (in Australia)- no change during Earth Hour.

What Really Happened - Israel

This is one point of view. I believe it is more correct than not and while biased (what isn't) it is as fair as is possible in its presentation.

It restates in one sliver of time and space what I have argued in the longer article on our future. It is time, well beyond time, for those people who wish peace, to stop violence and threats of intimidation, hate and aggression - and do it now before it is beyond the point of return and millions perish.

The link is to terrorismawareness.org

Friday, March 28, 2008

Liveleak

A 15 minute diatribe by a Dutch politician has Europe (and the Dutch government in particular) in an uproar. He first placed the 15 minute video on Liveleak and when removed, put it on a webpage served by an American company outside the reach of Dutch laws. That company pulled the video.


The first company - LIVELEAK recently placed an ad or response to why it pulled the video.

More interesting details about this.

Gert (the Dutch fellow) had not even released the video [READ: No one had seen it.] and NETWORK SOLUTIONS told him he could not put the video on their server - ostensibly because it violated some terms of their codes. Fine. But they had never seen it.

Can you say censorship.

Sidenote:
What is truly sad is soooooooo many young people wake up every day and feel that something they believe in has been censored by the government. What we do not realzie is censorship will not and has not come from the government.

Back to NETWORK SOLUTIONS. They received so many complaints from Muslims and presumably non-Muslims that they pulled it BEFORE it was ever shown - BECAUSE it violated some term in their agreement.

Perhaps it is the same terms as those hizbollah/al-qaida violated when they used NETWORK SOLUTIONS and posted their videos and nothing was done, immediately.

(I have yet to discern which evil branch used Network Solutions - they are quite different and I am not implying nor suggesting they both did, only one to my knowledge. Which one, I am unsure. The larger point is, that it really doesn't matter which one. they are two peas in an evil pod.

Abandoning the Ship

I still say 'don't discount her making a comeback' but more democrats have jumped ship. Even Bill has quieted down. Senator Leahy - drop out. Howard Dean - get it done by July 1. Senator Casey - jumped on the bandwagon, literally on the bus with Obama. The Kennedy's - split, but the big names on Obama's side. Bloomberg if he supports anyone will be Obama over Clinton.

It looks like the rules she supported a year ago have come back and bit her in the butt. By excluding Florida and Michigan delegates for upping their voting day, Hillary will lose the nomination. With those votes, many more super delegates would have supported her because she would clearly have the popular vote behind her.

Then there are those Dems who want Gore to jump in and take the nomination from both. Talk about throwing out votes. The most elitist of liberals support Gore.

Sad day that Hillary will realize she and Bill have been sidelined and her political future is over. It would be questionable whether NY will take her back. How do you readjust when you have been throw overboard by the major Democrats.

She is realizing how much people do not like her and she isn't enjoying it.

Still ... don't discount these two. She and Bill are two very dangerous people in politics. Like sharks among seal pups.

UPDATE:
"Clinton Vows to Stay in Race to Convention"

"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for."


Yippeee.

Rip rip rip ...

Feckless and Dangerous

To be feckless is not to be dangerous per se. To be both feckless and dangerous is to pose a conundrum to those people who seek safety and generally seek the higher good.

March 28, 2008 - BBC - UN says criminals killed Lebanese prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

What is the problem? A few people will read the article and tsk tsk the criminal element in Lebanon, a deadly result of Israeli interference, and place a considerable amount of blame upon Israel for letting the situation get so out of hand.

It is interesting how everything is Israel's fault.

The problem with this theory is ... it is simply untrue.

The UN knows who was responsible for the killing of Hariri. The Canadian prosecutor inducted into the charade by the UN knows who was responsible for the murder of the former PM. The secretary General of the UN knows who was responsible. MI-6 knows who was responsible. CIA knows who was responsible. Mossad knows who was responsible. CESIS knows who is responsible. NKVD knows who was responsible for the murder of the former prime Minister. The French, Greek, German intelligence bureaus all know who was responsible. The Iraqi, Turkish, and Iranian intelligence services are also aware as are the intelligence services of Jordan and Egypt. It seems the only fools who are unaware are the UN.

Unless they made a deal to pretend. It doesn't change the facts of who did it, but they pretended and wrote a report, spent money, and perpetrated a charade for the benefit of Syria and are now done with it.

And some brainless morons believe the UN is the answer to anything.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Sunflowers



Time may pass and the flowers will grow and fade away with seasons, but some things will never change.

The World That Awaits

The world that awaits us in the not too distant future ... not close, not far, not science fiction ... just around the corner, a few minutes walk.

Africa in the 5th through 8th century was animist, Christian, or a derivative on animist/pagan. Palestine and the surrounding area was until the 7th century under Christian, Jewish, or pagan control.

Jerusalem was under Jewish / Roman, and later Christian control.

That was the world before and then Islam.

Today, Islam has spread across North Africa, down the east coast and along the west coast and in to the inner areas of Africa. Islam has spread to Indonesia and Malaysia, in to China and throughout India. In Russia and throughout Europe, across the sea to Canada and the United States, and has recently made small inroads into South and Central America.

Islam was not native to any of these areas. If it was native to anywhere, it existed in Mecca or Medina. Unless we take the originalist view that all people were believers at one time and lost their way, in which case, all humans are Muslim, they just don't know it yet (or rather, forgot and were led astray).

When children are led astray through behavioral issues or due to a poor choice of friends, parents discipline their wayward child. This approach has worked for thousands of years and worked quite well, until recently (the last 40 years). The West decided that disciplining was not appropriate for children and in the last 20 years, laws have been enacted to limit parental disciplining. After all, what can't be accomplished through talking.

We in the West have been proud of our traditions - we value church and state and the separation between these powers; we have become enlightened and no longer believe in Satan or evil as a function of Satan or the demons sent by and as functionaries of Satan, rather we look at the whole Christian issue as a metaphor that precludes hate and violence and values dialogue and compassion. We have moved beyond the values of the past and have become much more enlightened - that nation states are obstacles on the road to perfection of humanity. We loathe war and violence, we champion the child and the victim - and if ever we need to know who the victim is, we look for the loser and they necessarily are the victim for we see that within the West. The victim is always the weaker - women, homosexuals, children. They are always the marginalized and disenfranchised - minorities and they must be cared for and taken care of whether they know what is best or not, we all know what is best for all human beings are the same - we all value compassion and hugs, dialogue, food, shelter, and most especially love. Love after all is the message of Jesus. Love one another, care for each other, love the undeserving, listen to the poor, feed the hungry, embrace those who have been tossed out and marginalized. We are doing God's work and we know it.

When men do bad things it is because they are ill, misinformed, unchallenged, and basically, unloved. We believe that reason and science prevail and will always provide us with hope and light whereas religion has only obstructed human development as it has been practiced. Today we are so much more enlightened, viewing religion as a metaphor and always practicing love and tolerance for all. When people do wrong, they should be tried according to the laws of the righteous and punished until they learn that their behavior was inappropriate and change their ways. That is the hope and dream of the West today, to raise children in an environment free of violence and hate - where we are all one large family, caring for and aiding each other when the need arises. Where we trust and communicate, negotiate and compromise and always love and show compassion for others, but for our geographic position, we too might have followed the wrong path. We believe that we have been commanded to always show compassion, believe that we are all the same, and all cultures are equally beautiful and we can learn from each other if we would only open our hearts.

The West today sits upon a threshold – we can follow the path that leads us to an era of glorious developments in the arts and culture, that brings us into communion with the brotherhood of man and demonstrates to the world that we have learned what it means to be truly egalitarian and compassionate. We have reached the perfection of human development with the brotherhood of man and love for all of God’s creatures. Respect for the animals of earth, the environment, the children – we are learning and realizing we are so dangerous to the creatures of earth, to children, and to the very earth itself that we must work diligently to create a more wholesome and nurturing environment for man and beast to live. Where children will be able to grow up with many different families – from the school family to friends, aunts, uncles, fathers, mothers, neighbors, and others who care and nurture our development and expose us to the greatness of diversity. The truth is so clear after centuries of being bogged down by racist politics and a political party that divides rather than unites, we can finally achieve a more perfect relationship with each other where politics is set aside and we act for all our benefit and not just for the benefit of one political party clearly tainted by racist and elitist ideologies.

Who could argue that civil liberties for all, free from oppression and restriction, free of government tyranny – who could argue that is a bad thing. No one, and that is where we will head if we but join together to make the changes necessary in this country until we join once again with the brotherhood of nations and champion the poor as the rich, the white as the black, the immigrant as the citizen, and the Christian as the Muslim. When that day comes we will truly know heaven on earth and man will be responsible for bringing the change necessary to bestow upon mankind the heaven that was spoken of Biblically. That is the world we deserve. That is the world we should strive to achieve.

If only we got along. Sit down, converse, reach an agreement, show compassion and understanding, appreciation and tolerance - embrace those who hate you. Isn't that a Gandhi rule, or a Jesus rule, for Jesus did not judge lest he be judged, he did not condemn lest he be condemned - he wanted us to love each other and understand our common humanity.

Unfortunately, no one has a monopoly on what He wants, but we can get one thing pretty clear - LOVE. We miss the other parts - justice, punishment, and fear. We prefer metaphors. We are so advanced.

Every morning at least 100,000 people wake up and think of nothing but the destruction of the United States and the immediate aftermath - the collapse of the West. These men, mainly, think of nothing but how to destroy the West - the US. They think, dream, plot, connive, plan, and conspire to bring about the downfall of the United States and the deaths of millions of Americans.

These men (mainly) have been planning this event for decades. Before George Bush, before Bill Clinton - they were in preparation and planning - if only to justify and rationalize their actions they see nothing wrong with the deaths of millions of Americans. This group will never rest, tire, or cease in their planning and plotting to bring about the downfall of the United States and the end of all that we have just agreed was so great about the US.

Gone will be the liberal education, reliance on civil liberties, the simple little pleasures we derive from talking to our children without force or violence, gone will be the advances made by minorities (namely homosexuals and women). Gone in one flash of a nuclear weapon in an American city.

According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, if a nuclear weapon (dirty bomb) were detonated in Manhattan, given wind conditions and other arrangements, we could see 800,000 people dead in a flash. Hundreds of trillions in property destruction. Thousands dying over several weeks. Millions homeless. Tens of thousands would starve over several months time, hundreds would freeze to death or bake from the heat in summer without shelter. Our GNP would lose at the very least 1-2 trillion over night. And that would be the start.

The federal government would implement martial law. As soon as it was determined that the mass murderers were Muslim, tens of thousands of Muslims would be arrested and incarcerated. Hundreds of Muslims across the country would be killed by vigilante hate groups. Thousands of young people protesting martial law would be arrested and or beaten back by police. The court systems would not accept complaints against police brutality, but would uphold with great latitude the actions by the government. After all, a large piece of the justice system would have been vaporized with Manhattan and with it, much of the tolerance Americans have for hugs and kisses. Immediate passage of new laws permitting government interception of all phone calls and all methods of communication to apprehend all those who assisted or escaped after the attack on Manhattan. While many legal scholars around the globe would decry our domestic actions, their governments would be very quickly (and perhaps secretly) doing the same things.

When the 2nd nuclear suitcase (dirty bomb) goes off on an opposite coast, everything you imagined of heaven on earth went out the window for another 1800 years, and that assumes you are still alive. Assuming it is a city on the West coast and 250,000 are killed immediately, it would be unlikely that every American living did not lose someone in one or another of the attacks. You will find anyone who was not a passionate opponent of anything, would suddenly lose interest in tolerance, compassion, dialogue, and would demand our government blow the shit out of someone and to hell with who is killed. It will be a select few Americans who will argue that at this moment more than any other we must refrain, we must seek the world's help, but the sad thing will be, their voices will be hollow as they sit with the heads bowed down staring at images of lost friends or family members.

The 2nd attack will cause trillions in property damage, knock off another trillion or two from the GNP, send the stock market spiraling from the rock bottom after the first attack into the hole with the 2nd attack. Tens of thousands wounded, hundreds of thousands incinerated, freeways obliterated, harbors destroyed, a city leveled, millions homeless, and again hundreds of Muslims will be killed in the streets or burned with their homes, and no one will raise a finger to stop them.

Those men who wake up every day and plot the destruction of the United States will have won, for the foreseeable future, but the worst was yet to come. Our military is stretched around the globe and cannot be destroyed in one swoop or attack anywhere - we would strike back and it would not be measured. For all the damn fools who believe the US rolled in to Iraq and bombed everything and everyone, you have no idea what bombing everything looks like, or rather, you will find out. The full might of the US will respond and with it, the loss of so many more innocent lives - but we will not care, for we will still be counting the millions dead in the US from the attacks, let alone from the aftermath.

All of the above assumes the attacks occur only in the US. Should an attack occur outside of the US after or before the attacks on the US, a great deal more will change in European countries.

The world will wish it had acted sooner. Americans will grieve with the guilt we did not take action sooner. We will never again think dialogue or compassion is our heaven on earth, for it will be a quarter century before the US rebuilds itself to the point it was at before the first attack. Bin Laden and his compatriots [Note: Bin Laden is used as symbol of an ideology, not only as the man for he will be killed by or before, but the hte he spews will live on] will not imagine that we could rebuild, but we will. He will not understand how we could muster the ability to rise up again, let alone the money and strength necessary to rebuild, and wage war upon those who only wish to die and meet their maker in hell, but we will. The voices of tolerance will be quiet and silenced. The governments of the West will implement their own versions of martial law, restrict immigration, restrict travel, expel illegal immigrants, and hunt down all those who speak hate or opposition to their governments. The West will finally wake up and realize that it is engaged in World War IV, and it will respond, and it will prevail, but at what cost.

Prevail it must for the alternative is oblivion for the West. Prevail it will. There are 1 1/4 billion Muslims on this planet and the majority will, at that time, recognize the danger that awaits us all if the minority are not silenced, and it will happen - or the West will ensure it happens with great loss for all. The brightest and most respected in the Islamic world will see the writing on the wall, and change will occur, subsequent to the months after the two attacks.

That may well be the brightest moment in Christian and Muslim relations in the last thousand years - and it will only take over a million lives to reach that point. We could stop it. It can be stopped before it is too late for the millions in the US, and for those who live their lives today not realizing, that their futures are inextricably linked to the nearly one million Americans who will perish in the attacks.

Let us prevent this now before it is too late.


China and the EU

Plea to China to keep Olympics TV live
By Roger Blitz in London
Published: March 27 2008 19:57 Last updated: March 27 2008 19:57

The International Olympic Committee has asked China to promise not to delay transmissions of the Beijing games, after France raised concerns about Chinese television’s censoring of Tibet protests at the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece this week.

French TV executives have asked the European Broadcasting Union to extract guarantees from Beijing that transmissions will be live and uninterrupted even if protests take place.

************************************************
It is the fact that the EU et al., must consider asking China to guarantee that the television coverage be live without interuption - THAT is why China is not in the same category as Europe or America. THAT is why they cannot be trusted. THAT is why we must never relinquish one inch to China on any issue. They are not in the same category. Until their politically repressive communist system is plowed under, it will remain a threat.

You want the reason why China can't be trusted? The fact the EU must ask to keep coverage live is all we need. More than enough.


UPDATE: April 3, 2008
Witnesses confirm: Chinese soldiers "dressed as monks" sparked the violence

Let Them Come to Berlin



November 17, 1989
Berlin Wall
Benson, LA Times

Flat Earthers

Gore is now saying that anyone who believes global warming is not man made are like those who believe the US never went to the moon because the earth is flat.

Self-avowed "P.R. agent for the planet" Al Gore says those who still doubt that global warming is caused by man - among them, Vice President Dick Cheney - are acting like the fringe groups who think the 1969 moon landing never really happened, or who once believed the world is flat.

A brilliant man who lives among unappreciating people. He needs to, he must go to where he will be appreciated. Mars.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Israel and the Armenian Genocide

Knesset to discuss Armenian genocide

Knesset accepts Oron's initiative, will discuss mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians during early 20th century. Oron: 'Certain ethical dilemmas cannot be avoided.'

Jerusalem officials warn of Turkish reaction.

by: Amnon Meranda
YNet News March 27, 2008


In an unprecedented move, the Knesset decided on Wednesday to appoint a committee to discuss the Armenian genocide that occurred during World War I.

The decision was based on a bill proposal made by Meretz-Yahad Chairman Chaim Oron. Eleven Knesset members voted in favor of the proposal, none opposed or abstained. Oron requested that the Knesset's Education Committee hold the discussion.

"It is only proper that the Knesset, which officially represents the Jewish people, recognize the Armenian genocide," said Oron. "It is especially important at present, as we are dealing with so many cases of Holocaust denial. There are certain ethical dilemmas that cannot be avoided. I am aware of Turkey's objection to the matter, but I believe this is a subject that the Knesset must discuss."

Knesset Member Zeev Elkin (Kadima) said, "I am proud of our efforts, which have brought on this historical achievement, and which other parliaments in the world have succeeded in doing a while ago. Israel should have been among the first countries in the world to recognize this genocide."

State officials warn of tensions with Ankara
Senior State officials in Jerusalem told Ynet on Wednesday evening they believed the decision to be "out of place and undesired." In similar attempts to agree on such things in the past, said the officials, the Foreign Ministry and coalition "got on their hind legs to avoid any embarrassment."

The sources said however that the ministry must clarify its position and not try to silence the Knesset.

"We believe that the Turks will not be perturbed by the debate itself but rather with its practical sides. Past experience teaches they want to know what level the discussion is being held on and what implications it will have on Israeli policy," said the officials in Jerusalem, stressing that Israel's official stance has not changed.

"Israel's position is that we are aware of the tragedy that befall the Armenian people. There are contradictions in the versions told by those involved in regards to the historical recollection of what occurred," they said.

The Armenian genocide
90% of the Armenian population residing within the territories controlled by the Ottoman Empire were murdered or deported during the massacre. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were murdered or died of starvation and disease during the period between 1894 and 1918.
The slaughter of the Armenian people is considered by many to be the first genocide of large proportions of the 20th century. Turkey has denied reports of the massacre, calling the event a war with the Armenian people and claiming that many of the Armenians were simply transferred to different areas of the empire.

April 24 marks an international day of remembrance for the Armenian genocide, and every year Armenians from all over the world gather to mark the occasion.

In October 2007 the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved a bill naming the slaughter of the Armenians genocide. Prior to the vote on this matter, US President George Bush said that the bill was not the answer to the massacre, and that its approval was likely to damage relations with Turkey.

In October of 2006 Turkey suspended its military relations with France due to a French law passed, making the denial of the Armenian genocide illegal in the country.

Roni Sofer contributed to this report

Dunces in Congress

I know that when I get free plane tickets in the mail, I never wonder who sent them. It's nice to know that members of Congress are no different than us little folks. Apparently they don't wonder who sends them first class airfare to Iraq. After all, that's how you get to be congressmen - that and you have to have a freezer. The other requirement is you know how to lie and lie as often as you can anytime you can.

That is quite a charge and one I cannot substantiate - but I wanted to know what it was like to charge someone with lying when you had no facts. Feels good. I know I'm right.




US: Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip
Mar 26, 2008 7:01 PM (ET)
By MATT APUZZO

WASHINGTON (AP) - Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.


An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.

At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq.

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

"Obviously we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."

During the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush administration's claims that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

"War is not the answer," Bonior, who is no longer in Congress, said at a news conference while on the trip. "There is a way to resolve this."

Though weapons of mass destruction ultimately were never found, the lawmakers drew criticism for their trip at the time.

Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the second-ranking Senate Republican at the time, said the Democrats "sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government."

Al-Hanooti was arrested Tuesday night while returning to the U.S. from the Middle East, where he was looking for a job, his attorney, James Thomas, said. Al-Hanooti pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil and lying to authorities. He was being held on $100,000 bail.

Thomas said Al-Hanooti would "vigorously defend" himself against the charges but he could not discuss the specifics of the case since he had seen none of the evidence.
Al-Hanooti worked on and off from 1999 to 2006 as a public relations coordinator for Life for Relief and Development, a Michigan group formed after the first Gulf War to fund humanitarian work in Iraq. FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided the charity's headquarters in 2006 but charged nobody and allowed the agency to continue operating.

Prosecutors said Al-Hanooti was responsible for monitoring Congress for the Iraqi Intelligence Service. From 1999 to 2002, he allegedly provided Saddam's government with a list of U.S. lawmakers he believed favored lifting economic sanctions against Iraq.

In exchange for coordinating the congressional trip, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil, prosecutors said.

DeCesare said McDermott was invited to go to Iraq by a Seattle church group and was unaware of any other funding for the trip.




UPDATE 3/27/08:

Reacting to the latest news, Mike DeCesare, a spokesman for Jim McDermott, one of the three congressmen, said his boss wasn't aware that the money came from Saddam Hussein's regime when he accepted it.

In 2004, the spokesman said the same thing - about the $5,000 McDermott had accepted for his legal defense fund from Shakir al Khafaji, one of Saddam Hussein's biggest U.S. boosters before the war. Khafaji, who accompanied the congressmen and made the arrangements for their visit, had run "expatriate" conferences in Baghdad for Saddam as recently as 2000. He also provided $400,000 to former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter for Ritter's propaganda film on behalf of the former Iraqi regime. In an interview back in 2001, Ritter told me that Khafaji was "openly sympathetic" with Saddam Hussein.

So if in 2004 you were confronted with the source of the money received by Khafajj, how can you say in 2008 you were not aware when you had been made aware in 2004.

All of this was public record -- available to the lawmakers with a Google or Nexis search. But they went anyway. Reacting to the news yesterday, Jim Thompson pleaded ignorance.
"Obviously, had there been any question at all regarding the sponsor of the trip or the funding, I would not have participated."

BUT in 2004 you would have known, could have known, should have known ... and yet, today you claim you had no idea. That qualifies you to be in Congress.


Liars liars pants on fire.


Retarded People Should Not Breed

(First, I want to make perfectly clear of my purpose in using the word RETARDED - and I should not need to do this because of the negative inference to people who have mental challenges of any kind. This is not intended as any reflection upon anyone with mental challenges, even if the use of the word has a long history of such negative inference. Rather, it is directed to those people who are simply the dumbest stupid shitheads in existence.)

Dr. Abdallah Al-Ash'al, former Egyptian deputy foreign minister, who is currently a professor of international law and political science at the American University in Cairo. The interview aired on Al-Manar TV on March 19, 2008.

Deputy Foreign Minister
Professor
Professor of Law
teaches at the American University in Cairo
has at least seven years of college education

- And he is one of the most retarded people on planet earth.

He is and should be the poster child for parents not having children.
He is and should be the poster child for why we must never make certain practices illegal.

Honestly, our politicians lie and they are contemptible for the act. What is his excuse? He is a complete fool, idiot, moron and thereby should be classified as a retarded rodeo clown and sterilized.

And I am mad not only at this moron, but at our media and at any left-wing nut case in this country who has rambled on about this subject. You twits turn it off and go to bed at night and wake up in a reasonably sane country. You have no idea what the consequences of your actions (the words you write or say) have upon the world. Others hear it and pick up and follow it down the road to oblivion and in some countries where the average IQ rests around 70, it becomes the national mantra. You should be ashamed of yourself. You will grow up and get beyond this idiocy. In countries where the average IQ is 70, they will never get beyond it and you just supported that insanity.

Our $3 billion dollar funding to Egypt should immediately be withdrawn. Let them conspirialize over no money (I am aware conspirialize is not a word).

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Donations

I will build on this post as I find more information, but here is the question of the day:
Who gives more in donations? Blue or Red states. Who gives more to the poor, needy, those who eek out a living and may need a little assistance - which states give more to help? Blue or Red?

The answer is RED.



The leading character at the moment among the Blue, is Barack Obama and he may not want everyone to know exactly how much they gave in donations/charity / those in need. The answer is 1% of his income. "The Obamas' donations to all recipients totaled $2,350 in 2000, $1,470 in 2001, $1,050 in 2002, $3,400 in 2003, and $2,500 in 2004. They also paid federal taxes totaling $311,044 during the same period on their $1.2 million of income."

Why?

When Israel speaks of Hammas or Hizbollah, they speak of killing one man or two men or a group of men who have in the past demonstrated by their actions that they wish to kill Israelis and would very much appreciate it if Israel sent them on their holy journey to heaven.

When Hamas speaks or Hizbollah speaks, they speak of killing Jews, any Jew, all the Jews, every Jew - men and women, children and old. They do not distinguish between which Jew or any Jew, just every Jew.

In the course of routing out and killing the Hamas follower or hizbollah leader, Israel is often at pains to get to them because they tend to hide among women and children and Israel tries very hard to avoid injuring non-combatants. They try.

Hamas relishes the kill. They enjoy watching as children and women are slaughtered - as long as they are Jews.

When Israel speaks of actions against Hamas, they are attacked by virtually every academic who was paying attention. When the US speaks of surgical strikes, they are also attacked by the peace loving folks who just want peace and love. We are regularly condemned for our language and choice of words. Bush is still mocked for his statement that you are either with us or against us.

Yet, if you are Hamas, you can say things that are hateful, inciting, and purposefully antagonizing, that will lead to the deaths of innocents and no one pays attention. People just ignore it and dismiss it as the words of someone who is just rambling and really does not mean it. So we are to excuse these unfortunates for their emotional outbursts, but not if it is Israel or the US.

Why is that? A double standard? That you expect the US and Israel to behave better than the Arab. Do you know how racist that belief is? Do you understand the depth of that racist sentiment? Doubtful.

Words matter. They matter if you are Hamas Cleric Wael Al-Zarad and you call for the Annihilation of the Jews. Broadcast February 28, 2008.

Words matter and must not be dismissed because some cleric utters words and argues for the complete annihilation of every Jew. No, when someone makes a threat and urges anyone who can fly a plane to fly it in to the heart of Israel and kill everyone - words matter.

100 Years of War

Such a great phrase, uttered by one of the usual retardicans. A great catchphrase for the fall (2008) campaign - every time he speaks simply insert '100 year war' and watch him begin to burn. Push his buttons long enough and he'll blow and then sit back and film it for the earliest news time slot available.

Before you get the camera out, we should have a few foundational rules on what words mean to save you the time tripping over your tongue as you rush out to meet the retardican at some speech stop.

When Hillary says she was ducking bullets on her arrival - it is not a code word for anything. It does not mean she was confused by some other moment of arrival and simply messed up on the place. She was never under fire (nor would you place your daughter in that sort of jeopardy) at any time during her eight years, until she went before the grand jury to tell her version of the facts. She was not confused. She did not misstate. She did not slightly exaggerate. She lied.

McCain did not say we will be in a war for 100 years. He did not say we will even be in Iraq in 100 years. He did say that we have a security relationship with Iraq and must, to assist Iraq against foreign invaders and or internal disintegration, and that this failure in Iraq will require us to assist Iraq for a very long time. Putting numbers on things - 100 years, which for anyone is a VERY long time.

That is what McCain meant. That is the case for McCain as president or Clinton or even Obama. The next president and the ten or eleven who follow him will be required to factor in Iraq in any military equation. It will not even be a choice. Obama or Clinton may try to outdo each other in terms of who will pull troops out first or who will pull all combat troops out first or who will pull out ALL troops first ... but they know (and hope you never understand) they cannot remove all American troops and will not for the foreseeable future.

On second thought, forget the camera, the 100 years War has already been explained and only the brain dead will not understand the explanation, and wish to propel this non-issue forward well past its 'use by' date.

Text Messaging

You penalize them, you bark orders at them, and you may even purchase devises to prevent them from completing their objectives ... Students and text messaging.

Now we know why - people who send excessive texts and emails may have a mental illness, according to an article in a leading psychiatric journal.

I guess, if it is an illness, they cannot be held to the same standards as those of us who are not afflicted.

The Guv should be in confession

New York's Governor David Patterson is not one to hide things from the public, which I guess is a good thing after their last governor.

Maybe he should stop talking.

He confessed to affairs, his wife confessed to an affair, and now the governor has confessed to drug use.

He should just stop confessing, or quit now and write an autobiography.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Keep Hope Alive II

On March 9, I posted a link (Keep Hope Alive) to an article concerning Hillary's (lack of) contribution to the Irish peace process. She offers herself up to the presidency based on foreign policy experience that includes Ireland ... and Bosnia/Serbia.

We have sorted out the Irish issue. The other experience she claims is 'experience' to better prepare her for the White House is considered in this CBS media clip (much thanks I am sure, to the Obama campaign).


New bit from Breitbart TV
"Yeah, so, no evasive maneuver. I gotta tell ya, I will give it to the commander of Air Base Eagle. He had that place - you know, not only were there no bullets flying around, there wasn't a bumblebee flying around."


Funny.

This woman claims to have experience and makes up facts we are supposed to accept. Much like the vast right-wing conspiracy that was after her husband, with those baseless charges.

What these 'misstatements' tell us (what the heck, let's call them what they are - lies. Lies she wrote about in her MEMOIR filled with, no doubt, more lies. No wonder she doesn't want everything made public and guess what. If she became president by some miracle under the sun, all the papers go back to being secret again for another dozen years. It could be half a century before we finally get them opened up to the light of day) ... is she is becoming increasingly more frustrated at her standing - that is, behind Obama. She is frustrated and angry and will, given these events, make up more historical events. Pretty soon she will claim she invented the Internet, and Al Gore.

She has just a fractional amount of experience more than Barack - and that isn't saying much.



UPDATE: March 26, 2008. NY Post
Notice the children in the images.


UPDATE: 4/11/08. Politico
Bill is now defending her 'poor choice of words'

"Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and General Wesley Clark – who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers, who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way — both defended her, because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went, they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.
"Now I say that because what really has mattered is that, even then, she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 at night, too.”

The Obama Bargain - Shelby Steele

Steele's argument makes sense. However, we must be careful not to mistake what makes sense for what is in fact the underlying truth in this case. Perhaps there is no single fact or truth that would account for Obama's rise.

Imagine a very junior Senator, less than one full term under his belt, having never served in the military nor any federal position, a law school graduate, community involvement, and then ran for president.

Would that person be thisclose to being nominated for the highest office in this country (by a major political party), and the single most powerful office in the world.

Danes

Until recently it was difficult to tell the difference between the Danish and milktoast.

It is the idea of independence and opposition to the social codes I appreciate. They printed cartoons, offensive to many, drawn from the collective memory of that which we know Islam to be or represent, to us or to the world, at this time. The memory or idea was not pulled out of the collective hate hat. It doesn't work that way. I can draw or write or imagine only those things I can imagine or have experienced. That original publishing resulted in the deaths of over a dozen people worldwide and threats of attacks against everyone and everything associated with the cartoons.

THEN in February 2008, they re-published one cartoon, and the fun began, again.

(START with the first video and watch all 3 clips)

Memri.org Video Clip 1702: Salah al-Din brigades Spokesman on Al Jazeera Calls on Muslims to Bomb, Burn Down Danish Embassies and Kidnap Danish Ambassadors to Slaughter them at Muhammad's Tomb. The press conference aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 18, 2008.


March 4, 2008: a 'debate' between Arab-American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan and Egyptian Islamist Tal'at Rmeih.

March 16, 2008: One of the preeminent Muslim scholars of the 20th century (and 21st as he is still around) - Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi Accuses Arab-American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan of 'Cursing Allah' on Al-Jazeera TV

Bye Bye Goo gle

Or so says web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

Google could be superseded using a semantic web.
March 12, 2008, TimesOnLine

Amazing technology awaits ... and so do those who will watch.

(the secret to making money on this next google-type stock - be aware)

Snow Suspends Spring ... And Other Global Warming Fears

Wisconsin - Spring will have to wait, for that matter, global warming better start - they have too much snow.

The second highest level for a season.

95.4 inches or over 8 feet!!!


then there is Ann Arbor Michigan ...

RECORD year for snowfall since 1880

We should consider the year (winter) that is/was - Afghanistan lost over 300,000 cattle, not to war or bombs but to the cold. The human death toll is above 1500 in China (and not from their brutal human rights repression), for Tibet has more problems than simply the Chinese - six months of the most severe winter temperatures have killed 500,000 animals leaving five million people on the verge of starvation.

Then we have an event in New York, March 2-4 - 2008 International Conference on Climate Change. Approximately 500 people were in attendance - the world's leading authorities on climatology, meteorology, economics, and energy. The message - There is NO consensus on global warming, the science is NOT settled.

Apparently several IPCC members who assisted on the IPCC reports presented by the UN as evidence of global warming, and having shared in the glory of the Nobel peace Prize with the other fellow, Gore - some of these members, in attendance, challenged the conclusions of the IPCC report they had attached their names to (not by choice).

Then the fellow from NASA - Anthony Watts, a meteorologist at NASA who forced NASA's Goddard Institute to correct an error on their modeling of US surface temperatures to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s but rather ... 1930s.

The point of this (my posting this) is not to challenge the fact GW has occurred or may be occurring, but rather that science has no facts to support the phenomena - it is all opinion and guessing. Even the models used are based upon guessing of past temperatures.

For me - the idea of spending trillions to fix something that is a guess is no different than every country on earth would use its entire GNP to build missiles that would be shot into space to clear away space junk.

The synapses that are now synapsing and the dendrites that are having problems comprehending the above incomprehensible mumbo jumbo is exactly the intent. It is that nonsensical - the proposition that the world would spend trillions to reverse something no one can say is happening and if it is, that it would make any difference and even if it did whether our pathetic efforts could change the inevitable course of planet earth. We can't. It would make a lot more sense spending the trillions to save the hundreds of millions who are hungry at this time, the millions who will die in the next year or two rather than silly statements about tens of millions dying from rising water levels in twenty years.

Let's see - 2 million will die this year from starvation and enforced poverty and political repression, genocide. X 20 years = 40 million versus 40-50 million dying in 20 years from rising water levels, maybe.


DO something about the NOW and forget what could be if ...

The immorality is our failure to act now!


Blah blah ditter ditter Sippy sip ditter ditter blah blah

Obama - Campaign Boo Boos

Just a couple, but they do not engender hope for a peaceful resolution to the dispute between Hillary and Barack.

First, Samantha Power (who wrote a fantastic book on the topic of genocide) as an advisor to Obama on foreign policy called Hillary a monster in an interview with The Scotsman. Power resigned.

Second, a retired Air Force general (Merrill McPeak), working for the Obama campaign compared Bill Clinton to Joseph McCarthy. AP, March 22, 2008.

They are together, a Joseph McCarthy monster or a monstrous McCarthy.

Neither label will be appreciated by the Clintons.

Floating Island




325 feet long, tennis court, pool, library, cinema, gym, dining room, quarters for 24 guests, will hold two 27 ft sailing yachts, two cars, and six jet skis.
Daily Mail, March 24, 2008

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Clinton Advised to drop her bid

By none other than New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (and others).

In throwing his considerable weight behind Barrack Obama, Richardson ensured he made the obligatory remarks about Hillary and Bill - My affection and admiration for Hillary Clinton and Prewident Bill Clinton will never waver. It is time, however, for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we will face against John McCain in the fall."

Do not count her out yet and watch your backs.

Passports

Passport snoops: Nosy workers, or something more?
Clinton, McCain, Obama files rifled


BY ZACHARY COILE San Francisco Chronicle

WASHINGTON – Maybe it was just an act of “imprudent curiosity” by low-level employees, as State Department spokesman Sean McCormack dubbed it Friday.
But others saw something more sinister in the breach of privacy that allowed at least four State Department workers to rifle the electronic passport files of all three leading presidential candidates.

The breach is reminiscent of 1992, when a Republican political appointee was demoted for searching the passport file of Democratic candidate Bill Clinton, who was in a battle with then-President George H.W. Bush. The GOP was eager to know if Clinton had tried to renounce his U.S. citizenship to avoid being drafted into service in Vietnam.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called all three candidates to apologize Friday and launched an inquiry by the agency’s inspector general. But Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said he also wants Congress to investigate, “so it’s not simply an internal matter.” Two House committees have begun their own inquiries.

“The circumstances in this case may be different from the George H.W. Bush administration’s snooping into Bill Clinton’s passport records during the 1992 presidential campaign,” said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which will conduct an inquiry. “But it is worth noting that that earlier situation also was characterized as isolated and nonpolitical when the news initially emerged.”

Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles – the Democratic bulldog investigator whose House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating abuses by government contractors – sent a letter to the State Department on Friday demanding details about the private firms whose employees improperly accessed the files.

The two contractors were identified late Friday as The Analysis Corp. of McClean, Va., and Stanley Inc., an Arlington, Va., firm that earlier this week won a five-year, $570 million extension of its contract to perform passport services.

State Department officials said their review showed that Obama’s file was accessed improperly on three occasions.

On Jan. 9, the day after the New Hampshire primary, a Stanley contract employee accessed Obama’s records and was fired within days, officials told The Associated Press. A second worker, employed by The Analysis Corp., looked into Obama’s files on Feb. 21, but was not fired. On March 14, another Stanley employee pried into the Democrat’s files and was terminated.
It was not immediately clear why employees at the two firms were treated differently. But in a statement issued late Friday, The Analysis Corp. said it was honoring the State Department’s request to delay firing its consultant in order to give investigators time to conduct their inquiry.

“This individual’s actions were taken without the knowledge or direction of anyone at TAC and are wholly inconsistent with our professional and ethical standards,” the company said.
In a statement, Stanley said it regretted the “rare occurrence” of private information being improperly accessed.

The Analysis Corp. worker who had pried into Obama’s files also looked into the files of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, department officials said. The worker has been disciplined and removed from working on passport files.

Asked why the employee is still working for the contractor, McCormack said, “I can assure you that person’s going to be at the top of the list of the inspector general when they talk to people, and we are currently reviewing our (disciplinary) options with respect to that person.”

New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton’s files also were accessed last summer during a training session for an employee. The worker, a full-time State Department employee, had been called in to help with the backlog of passport requests.

“Usually in these training circumstances, people are encouraged to enter a family member’s name, just for training purposes,” McCormack said. “This person chose Senator Clinton’s name. It was immediately recognized, they were immediately admonished and it didn’t happen again.”
McCain, who was in Paris on an official trip, called for a full investigation. “The United States of America values everyone’s privacy and corrective action should be taken,” he said.

Obama, in Portland for an event in which he was endorsed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, said Congress must conduct its own investigation.

“When you have not just one but a series of attempts to tap into people’s personal records, that’s a problem not just for me but for how our government functions,” Obama said.

Campaign staffers and the media scrambled to find a motive for the breach.

Passport files often contain mundane details – such as date and place of birth, occupation, family status and physical characteristics. They do not show evidence of travel, such as entrance and exit stamps.

But they can contain sensitive documents that are part of the process of granting or denying passport applications – such as copies of birth or baptismal certificates, medical, personal and financial reports or arrest warrants – as well as the person’s Social Security number.

Privacy experts said the breach of the candidates’ Social Security number alone was a serious concern.

“It’s a key problem because the Social Security number provides access to a credit report, to online phone records, to financial data,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It’s essentially the passport to a person’s private life.”
The employees were caught because of a software system that alerts supervisors when files of a “high-profile person” are searched. The system, which mostly covers politicians and celebrities, was a response to the snooping into Bill Clinton’s passport files in 1992.

But the system clearly has weaknesses. While it can trigger an alert, it can’t stop an employee from accessing a file. And while superiors in passport offices were alerted about the improper access, top State Department officials said they did not learn of the alleged violations until a reporter called Thursday.

Rice, after calling Obama, went before TV cameras to make a public apology.

“I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I, myself, would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file,” she said. “I will stay on top of it and get to the bottom of it.”

Privacy advocates said the breach – which some bloggers already are calling “Passport-gate – is a reminder of the potential dangers of the government storing and sharing vast amounts of the public’s personal information.

David Sobel, senior counsel for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, noted that the State Department’s software would probably never catch an employee who simply wanted to glance at the private files of his neighbor.

“They have put in place a mechanism for the flagging of access involving prominent people,” Sobel said. “But what about everyone else?”

The Washington Times first reported the incident involving Obama

********************************
The story is interesting and not at all very telling of anything except the average American may and could have their records looked at and no one would know.

First, all 3 records were checked. Response: Well, they looked at McCains to cover their tracks.

Second, why did they look at Hillary's passport? EVERYTHING about the woman, EVERYTHING is known and we know. EVERYTHING. We know every detail about this woman including her social security number if you would like to do a little searching. EVERYTHING. So why look at her record? Response: To cover their tracks.

Third, why look at Barack Obama's passport? The article tells us what COULD BE IN A FILE:

-copies of birth certificates
-baptismal certificates
- medical
- personal and financial reports
- arrest warrants
- Social Security number

We all know about his birth certificate and baptismal records. No surprise and no secret.

Medical - it really is not that private even if we believe our records are private. PLUS dum dums, a much easier way to learn what his medical records are - check Illinois Dept of health or whatever they call it in Illinois. The State medical office will possess records on all patients in the state of Illinois and said information would be available to any interested party. Much easier than violating federal law to find information.

Personal and Financial Records: We already know this. Last year for records, Obama and his wife made over $983,826 and received a refund from the federal government. My tax accountant has a copy of Obama's 1040 on his wall so this is surely not secret information. We will also learn about financial records via a trial ongoing in Illinois and nothing in the passport would have any interesting information anyway.

Arrest Warrants - none. We all know that if 1 existed the media would have found it and Hillary would have plastered it on the Drudge Report.

Social Security - What you are not told in this story or any other is Social Security has its own protections for 'special' people in case their numbers are used. the chance his number is ever discovered and used - same as a meteor hitting the Empire State building.

So what is all the hue and cry for?

Politics. To try again to make Bush look bad.

Note: Waxman's comments. The same guy who goes after baseball players and spends tens of thousands of dollars of tax payer money to investigate a baseball player using steroids. He has suggested it is a pattern of behavior and he must investigate to find the truth ... just like the political agenda behind Clinton's file being searched in 1992.

A few examples taken from 1992:

That was the case with Mr. Clinton's file, although political appointees in the State Department were trying to find a rumored note from the Vietnam era in which Mr. Clinton was purportedly either renouncing his citizenship or requesting information on the procedure. The justification for the search was requests under the Freedom of Information Act.


So, members of Congress, Republican most likely, wanted to know whether Clinton had renounced his citizenship. They called up and requested a FOIA search. Because they are the Congress and not Joe Blow, it was pushed to the top and individuals went and did the search.

Would it have been used politically if anything had existed? Yes. Did members of congress ask to see the records, yes. It had nothing to do with rogue individuals in the State Department.

Additionally, they also searched Perot's files ...


Two weeks after they conducted an unusual late-night hunt for the passport files of Bill Clinton and his mother, State Department officials returned to a National Archives depository in suburban Maryland to search and retrieve the passport records of independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, according to a National Archives memo.
The internal memo states that Richard P. McClevey, chief of the State Department's Office of Program Support, and two unnamed department officials visited the National Records Center in Suitland on Oct. 13 "and researched the passport application files for H. Ross Perot."
The memo states that McClevey, a deputy to assistant secretary for consular affairs ...

Iraq - Approaching 4,000

When one American is killed it is too many and God knows we have given enough lives in order that others might be free, vote, raise families, and work very hard to oppose us at various times. Now we approach 4,000 Americans killed in Iraq, well over that number if Afghanistan is counted and over 7000 if you count the Americans killed on September 11 and probably closer to 8,000 when you consider all Americans killed by terrorism and terrorists.

I do have one comment for the faint of heart - when we are attacked again, 8,000 will be the starting number and it will climb exponentially. They will of course express outrage and anger, frustration, and sadness, and guilt. Guilt that they did not bring American troops home sooner and perhaps prevent what will engulf all Americans, sooner than later.

Fine. Whatever.

That will be for another time, but I did wish to point out a few facts for the dimwitted among us.

The greatest and silliest is something of the following:

Americans are dying in a needless war to foist our democracy on people who do not want it. Leave them be and let them kill each other if they want. There is nothing we should do. Its their problem. 4,000 lives to accomplish what and for what have they died.

The argument requires a few underlying assumptions to work:
1) that we are trying to foist democracy upon them
2) that we are trying to foist American democracy upon them

The problem with this is it isn't true. Lack of basic information about Islam - it is already equipped for a democratic process. We are not foisting anything alien to the culture upon them.
We are not trying to foist American democracy on them and no one has ever said we were trying.

3) That some how these people kill and have been killed forever as opposed to more reasonable and civilized peoples elsewhere. It implies two sets of data - us and them where the us are more rational and do not wantonly murder and them who do murder wantonly.

Let's move on ...


May - 2,106 killed
June - 1,185 killed
July - 968 killed
August - 636 killed
September -589 killed
October - 545 killed
November - 467 killed
December - 411 killed

TOTAL: 6,907

Those are the numbers for Americans killed during World War II during a given reporting period.

6,907 American soldiers killed in an eight month period.

Contrasted with nearly 4,000 killed in Iraq since March 2003 (5 years + few days)
(which is 4000 too many)

The problem with the numbers provided above (source is available listed at bottom of page) is they are for the year 1945 and the months AFTER the war while the US occupied Germany.

A country with similar traditions, culture, values, political and economic systems ... and the German people who were freed from the dictatorship and tyranny of Hitler were so welcoming that they killed 6907 US Army soldiers in the last eight months of 1945, AFTER THE WAR ENDED, and another 1,478 American soldiers in 1946.

THAT by people who wanted to be free and who share more with us than the Iraqis ever will.



Go suck on them apples for awhile. Those numbers are most certainly, an inconvenient truth.


Source: Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Death in World War II, Final Report 7 December 1941 - 31 December 1946.
Published 1 June 1953 by the Statistical and Accounting branch, Office of the Adjutant General. The figures are ONLY US ARMY.

Make Mine Freedom - 1948


American Form of Government

Who's on First? Certainly isn't the Euro.