Iraqi police get it on, hold their own.

Iraqi police killed three insurgents on Thursday during a gunbattle in a northwestern Baghdad neighborhood that was a flashpoint of violence earlier this week, a city police officer said.
About 30 rebels, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, set up a false checkpoint in Baghdad's al-Ghazaliya neighborhood. After a 30-minute gunfight, police detained one of the insurgents, the officer said.

So much for the benefit of the doubt....

A prominent West Bank gunman carried a smiling Mahmoud Abbas on his shoulders Thursday, endorsing the presidential candidate and prompting questions of whether Abbas is identifying with violent groups.
The highlight of Abbas' visit to the Jenin refugee camp next to the northern West Bank town of Jenin was his encounter with a group of gunmen led by Zakaria Zubeidi, the local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group with ties to Abbas' ruling Fatah party.
Zubeidi, who is idolized in the camp for his swagger and wanted by Israel for organizing attacks and sending suicide bombers into Israeli cities, took center stage in welcoming Abbas to the camp. Zubeidi and other gunmen hoisted aloft Abbas, who smiled and waved to about 3,000 Palestinians gathered around. Some in the crowd were armed.
Abbas won Zubeidi's ringing endorsement. After Abbas left the stage, Zubeidi, with gunmen firing in the air, warned that he would deal with anyone who tried to challenge the elected Palestinian leadership. In his address, Abbas referred to the 2002 battle, in which 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed, recalling that Arafat called the camp "Jeningrad." The crowd responded with a healthy cheer.
"When we demand security," Abbas said, "we demand it for all our citizens, including our wanted brothers who also deserve a life of security and safety," he said, in a reference to Zubeidi and his group, evoking another big cheer.

What would be terrorism, Alex.

Three terrorist groups warned Iraqis against voting in Jan. 30 elections, saying Thursday that people participating in the "dirty farce" risked attack. All 700 employees of the electoral commission in Mosul reportedly resigned after being told they would be killed .

Dead Terrorist Alert!

An Israeli drone fired a missile at Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing four, witnesses said.
The drone targeted militants planting explosives by a building in the town a short time after Israel had sent in more troops and armored vehicles to Khan Younis, witnesses said.
The Israeli army confirmed that the air force had targeted an armed group in a raid on Khan Younis and that the target was hit.
Two of the militants killed belonged to an armed faction of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah, and had been involved in bombarding Jewish settlements with mortar bombs in the past two weeks, group members said.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

About 10 Israeli tanks moved into the Khan Younis refugee camp early Thursday, and two Palestinian gunmen were killed by tank fire, residents said. Military officials said the incursion was aimed at stopping the firing of rockets and mortars by Palestinian militants at nearby Jewish settlements and Israeli army bases.

It's who you know that matters.

Weeks of working sources, days of planning and waiting, hours of driving across roadless Afghanistan - that's what went into the raid. A raid that turned up nothing, anyway, until a suspicious-looking man walked in from the desert.
The soldiers snatched him up, and he turned out to be Abdul Wadud. The captain commanding the Fort Bragg-based Special Forces team talked to the provincial governor, Jan Mohammad Khan, who said Wadud was definitely a Taliban leader.
His capture made the work of the raid worthwhile.
But now the Green Berets are being told to let him go.
The word the team gets is that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother has called the American ambassador in Kabul to complain about Wadud's capture. The embassy called Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, who called the Special Forces task force.
Meanwhile, back at the team's firebase, the Afghan admits that he is a former Taliban brigade commander. The soldiers say he tells them that he scouts compounds for Taliban commanders to use as safe houses.

Iraqi 911.

Leads generated through a hotline to report insurgent activity in Iraq demonstrate that the Iraqi people want to bring an end to the violence against innocent civilians and critical infrastructure, a top officer in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division told reporters in Baghdad today. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, the division's assistant commander for support, said the tips hotline received more than 400 calls during the past few months. These enabled the coalition to take prompt action — from freeing several women who had been kidnapped for ransom to identifying and destroying vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices Hammond said "were rigged and ready to explode."

Just in case you were wondering.

Thanks to better body armor and faster and more sophisticated medical care, more than twice as many wounded soldiers are surviving in Iraq than in previous conflicts. More than half return to duty within 72 hours.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

Deadly violence flared in southern Gaza Thursday, with three militants killed during an Israeli raid aimed at thwarting militant attacks on nearby Jewish settlements.
Two from the Islamist movement Hamas and one from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of the dominant Fatah faction.

Reflections from the gene pool.

A man is accused of using an air compressor to defeat an ignition interlock device.
Michael Simo, 41, had the device installed in his car after being convicted of multiple drunken driving offenses. Drivers are supposed to exhale into the device, and if it detects enough alcohol on the breath, the car won't start. Police said Simo used an air compressor to make it seem like he was breathing into the device.
Brian Raab, 39, of Buckingham, who also has a history of DUI offenses, was driving Simo's car when an officer found the two at a parking lot near Raab's home.

Reflections from the gene pool.

A family fight turned uglier when their pet pit bulldog joined the brawl. Christina Lyman told authorities she was trying to break up a Christmas evening altercation between her brother and sister, Nicholas Lyman, 19, and Yvonne Lyman, 22, both of Indianapolis.
That's when the family pit bull entered the fray and "turned on all three parties," according to Cpl. Chad Gillenwater of the Hawkins County Sheriff's Department.
Arriving at the home, Gillenwater said he found dents in the siding, a broken storm window and torn screen from the fight, and Yvonne Lyman outside in a "violent and intoxicated state."
The officer found Nicholas Lyman and Christina Lyman inside. Both appeared to have been drinking as well.
All three Lymans were suffering from dog bites and had to be taken to the emergency room for treatment.
Nicholas and Yvonne Lyman were charged with domestic violence assault. Yvonne Lyman also was charged with disorderly conduct. No action was taken against the dog.

Final death throws.

Ukraine's election commission rejected the entire appeal by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych against results showing he lost this week's repeat running, saying he had not proved there were any mass violations, a commission member said.
Yanukovych now has the option of appealing to the Supreme Court. The prime minister has refused to accept results showing a solid victory for Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in Sunday's vote.

Keeping the pressure on.

Plotters of the double car bombing in the Saudi capital yesterday were spooked by a gunbattle with police earlier in the week and launched their attack hastily, failing to penetrate the security installations they targeted, a Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Iraqi tough guys kicking in.

They’re commandos, elite forces battling terrorists — and they’re Iraqi.
Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are working together to protect their homeland. And they’re trained by American soldiers to do it.
These unit's train to become part of Iraq’s security force, which currently has 120,000 members and a small-but-growing number of skilled fighters from all parts of the country.
The school teaches the Iraqi soldiers to handle raids, ambushes and light infantry tactics.
“I feel good because we are fighting the terrorists,” said one Iraqi commando.

Evolve or die.

Victor Hanson on the current state of the democratic party.

http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200412300838.asp

Osama's darkest fear.

Good take on why Osama Fears elections.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/37261.htm

Sacked in the backfield.

U.S.-led forces in Iraq have captured a senior member of the al Qaeda-linked network led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a raid in Baghdad, the Iraqi government said on Thursday.
It said Fadil Hussain Ahmed al-Kurdi was captured along with two other suspected insurgents. It said Kurdi, a 26-year-old Iraqi Kurd also known as Ridha, was the brother of Umar Baziyani, a Zarqawi lieutenant captured in May.

How big is big?

The quake that set off the devastating tsunami literally shook the Earth to its core, scientists believe, accelerating its rotation and shortening days by a fraction of a second. It may be necessary to add a "leap second" in years to come in order to correct the change.

You have the right to remain stupid.

Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 8,500 feet.
The beam appeared Monday when the plane was about 15 miles from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI said.
"It was in there for several seconds like the plane was being tracked," FBI agent Robert Hawk said.
The pilot was able to land the plane, and air traffic controllers used radar to determine the laser came from a residential area in suburban Warrensville Heights.
Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude. Authorities had no other leads, and are investigating whether the incident was a prank or if there was a more sinister motive.

Reflections from the gene pool.

A burglary suspect broke into a house, tore open gifts under the Christmas tree and began preparing a batch of methamphetamine before he was caught, investigators said.
The homeowner called police early Dec. 16 when he arrived home and saw someone inside. Deputies said they noticed a strong odor of ammonia and saw a makeshift meth lab fueled by a can of propane fuel.
"What's so odd about this thing is that he was apparently cooking dope in the residence he broke into," said Craighead County sheriff's investigator Gary Etter. "You don't really see that happen much."

Operation payback time.

U.S. forces launched a new offensive Wednesday against insurgents in an area south of the capital dubbed the "triangle of death," where militants ambushed an elite Iraqi police unit in a Baghdad neighborhood known for its loyalty to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, killing 29 people, most of them civilians.

Another skeleton falls out of Saddam's closet.

SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq — Workers digging the foundation of a new hospital in this northern city discovered Wednesday a burial site that a regional human rights minister said could contain the remains of hundreds of people.
Officials said the bodies were believed to be of Kurds killed while fleeing Saddam Hussein's army as it tried to crush an uprising following the 1991 Gulf War.
Speaking at the site of the dig, Salah Rashid, the regional Kurdish human rights minister, said "there are mass graves all over Kurdistan especially in areas that were under the control of the Iraqi government."
"This grave dates back to 1991 when Saddam's regime came to crush the Kurdish uprising," Rashid said. He predicted that at least 400 bodies would be found there.

Little pig...little pig...let me in!

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made a campaign run Wednesday through West Bank towns living in the shadow of Israel's separation barrier, urging Israel to tear down the huge structure that he said would never help peace.
Abbas, the front-runner in the Jan. 9 presidential election, made the appeal in Tulkarem, a town of 40,000 on the line between Israel and the West Bank, blocked on two sides by the 25-foot-high concrete slabs of the barrier. Israel began building it to stop a wave of Palestinian suicide bombers who were infiltrating unhindered from the West Bank.
"I say to our neighbors ... no fence will bring peace or bring you security," Abbas told a rally at a Tulkarem stadium just 500 yards from the barrier.
~yeah, well...I think they're gonna hold on to it for awhile.

Riyadh brawl...Dead Terrorist Alert!

Militants in the Saudi capital launched coordinated car bombings against the police ministry and a troop recruitment center and battled security forces in attacks that caused oil prices to jump and signaled that Muslim extremists are keeping up their fight despite the kingdom's crackdown on al-Qaida.
Seven militants were killed in the gunbattle with police in a northern district of Riyadh, Al-Arabiya television reported. The clash broke out about the same time as the the two car bombings — a remote control blast near the Interior Ministry and a suicide attack on the recruitment center.

Some more persecuted Christians.

PROVIDENCE, RI- Some residents are dismayed over the removal of a Ten Commandments tablet that had been at Roger Williams Park for four decades.
City officials removed the monument with the basic Christian tenets with no advance announcement. The act surprised some people, including Raymond Dempsey. ''I wish we could have known about this before. We could have had a rousing dialogue."
The monument was given to the city in 1963 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, whose Ten Commandments tablets in other places -- such as Austin, Texas, and two counties in Kentucky -- have sparked legal battles that have gone all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

American troops backed by warplanes battled insurgents in the Iraqi city of Mosul today, killing around 25 guerrillas in fierce clashes after being attacked by suicide bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. A military spokesman said a suicide vehicle bomb exploded near a US military outpost in Mosul, and a second suicide attack targeted a US patrol responding to the first blast.
He said that when the patrol reached the outpost, around 50 insurgents attacked with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire.
15 American troops were injured with no deaths reported.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

Saudi police killed a suspected militant in a shootout in Riyadh and captured two wanted militants after a gun battle in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Wednesday, state television and security sources said.
Security forces also killed a man early on Wednesday who had lobbed a hand grenade from his car at police combing a residential area in the capital Riyadh following a clash with militants the day before, state television said.

Thanks, Joe.

Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Beyrle, the only World War II soldier to fight for both the Americans and the Soviets, died on Sunday a hero for two nations. He was 81.
The wartime feats of Beyrle, a member of the 101st Airborne's "Screamin' Eagles," still seem improbable.
After parachuting into Normandy on D-Day in June 1944, he was captured by the Germans. Battered and starved, Beyrle escaped from a Nazi prison camp and found Soviet troops advancing toward Berlin. He joined their ranks and fought for weeks, then was injured and taken to Moscow, from whence he eventually made his way home to Muskegon, Mich.
He wore a vest filled with American medals on one side and Russian on the other. Beyrle attributed his fate to a higher being.

On the horizon.

Militant groups including al Qaeda are exploiting the seven-nation Horn of Africa region to hide, recruit and train members and possibly plan attacks.
"We find the terrorist networks here using the fact that there is a lot of ungoverned space in the Horn of Africa," said Maj. Gen. Samuel Helland. "Because of (this) ... it's very easy for a terrorist organization to establish a presence ... It's very easy for them to train, equip, organize and use the facilities that are present to gain a foothold."
The Horn of Africa region encompasses the territories of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia.
"I think we can say with some level of confidence that there are al Qaeda operatives in the Horn of Africa. This is ungoverned space they thrive in. It is a place where there is chaos. It's a place where there is no governance. There's no rule of law. It's all based on warlord relationships, and they just go ahead and blend in with them," he said.

Sacked in the backfield.

U.S. forces have captured a man described as a senior commander of a militant group linked to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi government said on Wednesday.
It said in a statement the 33-year-old Iraqi, whom it named only as Abu Marwan, was a leader of the hitherto unknown Abu Talha group, affiliated to the Jordanian militant whom Osama bin Laden this week endorsed as his lieutenant in Iraq

Reflections from the gene pool.

A man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting his friend through a protective vest on an apparent dare, police said.
Alexander Joseph Swandic, 20, died of a gunshot wound to the heart Monday after donning a protective vest and asking David John Hueth, 30, to shoot him, police said.

Winning the war.

Persistent arrests of prominent al-Qaida leaders, plus increased intelligence sharing by America with other countries, have acted to prevent the world's most notorious terrorist organization from being able to launch any successful, large-scale, mass casualty attacks, according to a half a dozen serving and former U.S. intelligence officials interviewed by United Press International.

Islam fills Marxism shoes.

Interesting bit on the new Marxism in France

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/29/news/muslim.html

Well, you can't say you didn't see this coming.

A fresh crisis in relations between Russia and the West over Ukraine has threatened to erupt after Moscow said international monitors who gave the country's presidential election a clean bill of health were not objective, just as European leaders hailed the result.
The Russian statement, the first from Moscow since the weekend's election results were announced, suggested that the Kremlin might refuse to recognize the victory of Viktor Yushchenko, who led the "orange revolution".

Lurch returns....again!

Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark has joined the team of Jordan-based lawyers defending Saddam Hussein.
Mr Clark - who held office in the 1960s under President Lyndon Johnson - said his principal concern was protecting the rights of the former Iraqi leader.
Left-wing activist Mr Clark is an outspoken critic of American foreign policy on Iraq and visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in February 2003 just before the US-led invasion.
After leaving office in 1969, he became active in the anti-Vietnam War movement. More recently, he has offered legal advice to numerous figures at odds with the US government including former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

Oh what wonderful news!

According to Israel Defense Forces figures presented Wednesday, the number of Israeli civilians killed in cold blooded terror attacks and the number of troops killed in battle dropped by 44 percent in 2004, from the previous year's figures.
In 2004, a total of 118 Israelis were murdered as part of ongoing Palestinian violence, down from 212 in 2003.

More Palestinian peace efforts.

Gunmen opened fire early Wednesday on a jeep traveling near the West Bank border village of Baka al-Sharkiyeh, lightly wounding two Israel Defense Forces soldiers riding in the vehicle.

Queer eye for the straight army.

A new army base going up in the northern part of the West Bank will be Israel's most colorful, painted in a dazzling array of pink, brown, purple, light blue and orange, an army weekly reported.
The current edition of "Bamahane," a publication for soldiers, carries a small picture of the Jalameh base, going up near the Palestinian town of Jenin. It shows the stark structure of two-story cement blocks joined at right angles painted in eye-popping shades of orange and pink.
"I'm sick of seeing the ugly and depressing colors of military buildings - always beige and gray," the officer behind the artsy project, Capt. Itsik Koren, told the weekly. "I decided to do something different here."
~It's soooo sheek, I mean oh.. my.. god, just look at way it offsets the barbed wire.

Reflections from the gene pool.

Armed intruders broke into a family's house in Britain, only to apologize and leave again, having realized they intended to beat someone up next door instead, police said.
A woman was upstairs with her children in Swinton, Yorkshire, northern England, when two men armed with a knife and a plank of wood broke in through a back door.
"The intruders made their way upstairs where the occupant was with her two children," a South Yorkshire Police spokesman said.
"It became obvious the intruders had got the wrong address and they left, apologizing. No threats were made, although the woman was in a distressed state."
The men then forced their way into a next door house and beat up a young man -- presumed to be their intended victim -- although he was not seriously hurt, the spokesman added.

Reflections from the gene pool.

A man angry that he got no presents for Christmas burned down his parents' house early the next morning, police said.
Steven Murray, 21, was charged with arson and risking a catastrophe in the blaze that broke out early Sunday. No one was injured.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

Three militants have been killed by police in a shootout in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, security sources say.
The sources said a district in Riyadh had been cordoned off.
One report said the militants opened fire after being stopped at a roadblock, another that they were attacked in a raid on their hideout.

Lets get ready to rumble!

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, winner of Ukraine's re-run of a rigged presidential election, called on his supporters on Tuesday to block the country's government building. "I want to say there should be no government meeting ... Dear friends, I ask you to strengthen a blockade of the government building tomorrow from early in the morning," Yushchenko told thousands of his supporters in the capital Kiev's Independence square. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who has vowed to challenge the election results, said he would return to work and hold a government meeting on Wednesday.

Kofi Annon, please report to the principals office.

The head of an independent investigation into alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program said most of the money illegally obtained by Saddam Hussein came from smuggling, much of which the U.N. Security Council knew about but didn't stop.
"The big figures that you see in the press, which are sometimes labeled oil-for-food — the big figures are smuggling, which took place before the oil-for-food program started and it continued while the oil-for-food program was in place,"
"Without question, there were problems in the oil-for-food area," Volcker said. "But when you look at those $10 billion figures, or $20 billion figures, most of those numbers are so-called smuggling, much of which was known and taken note of by the Security Council, but not stopped."
Volcker refused to speculate on why the council didn't stop the smuggling, but indicated the issue would likely be addressed in his reports. An initial report is expected in January and a final report in the summer, he said

More good news out of Iraq.

Heather Nauert and cameraman Joel Fagen traveled to Iraq to investigate reconstruction efforts, preparations for the upcoming election, and how our troops are battling terror.
"It wasn't until I got there that I realized most are seeing just one sliver of the story in Iraq, and a lot more is going on."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142749,00.html

Those crazy little men at the U.N.

The international response to a catastrophic tsunami in Asia has been quick and generous, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday, playing down his earlier comments that wealthy nations were stingy.
U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland backed off from statements he made on Monday after an annoyed Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States was "the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world."

That's $4,716.98 per vote folks!

Election officials finished the presidential recount in Ohio on Tuesday, with the final tally shaving 318 votes off President Bush's six-figure margin of victory in the state that gave him a second term.
The recount shows Bush winning Ohio by 118,457 votes over John Kerry, according to unofficial results provided to The Associated Press by the 88 counties. Lucas County, where Toledo is located, was the last to report its results Tuesday.
The state had earlier declared Bush the winner by 118,775 votes and planned to adjust its totals to reflect the recount later this week.
The Kerry campaign supported the recount, but said it did not expect the tally to change the election winner. Supporters of the recount, requested by two minor party candidates, said they wanted to make sure that every valid vote was counted.
The Ohio secretary of state's office claims that the cost of the recount to be $1.5 million, because 3 percent of the ballots in each county have to be counted by hand; many counties lack central counting equipment; and poll workers have to return and count many of the ballots
~When they say they want your vote they mean it!

Circling the wagons.

Once-bitter rivals Russia and China will hold a massive joint military exercise on Chinese territory next year involving submarines and possibly strategic bombers, Russia's defense minister said Monday as the two nations move to bolster already burgeoning military ties.
"For the first time in history, we have agreed to hold quite a large military exercise together with China on Chinese territory in the second half of the year," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
Many observers saw the announcement as Russia's response to a spat with the United States and other Western nations over the disputed election in Ukraine.
Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs Magazine, also described the maneuvers as a gesture aimed at the West.
"It's a response to a series of political defeats Russia has suffered, most recently in Ukraine," Lukyanov told The Associated Press. "It's a reminder that Russia is still a great military power."

You can't make this stuff up.

Staff at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have been given instructions on how to walk through a door, a tabloid newspaper reported. The Sun, Britain's biggest selling daily newspaper, reported that workers at the global broadcaster's offices in Birmingham, central England, had been issued with a memo advising them on how to get through a revolving door. An email, sent to 800 staff -- complete with matchstick man diagrams for ease of understanding -- comes after one worker trapped her foot in the new doors at the BBC's offices in Britain's second city, cracking a toenail, The Sun said.

Under my thumb.

China said yesterday its armed forces had a "sacred responsibility" to crush moves towards independence by Taiwan, whatever the cost, and described relations with the island as "grim".
The warning followed Beijing's announcement this month that it would submit an "anti-secession" bill to the National People's Congress next March.
"They want to give a crystal clear message to the outside world: don't underestimate our determination to use force if Taiwan continues its independence process," said Andrew Yang, defence analyst at the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei.

How big is big?

The earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said today.The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 km south-east of Sumatra island on Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 metres, according to one expert.
“That earthquake has changed the map,” US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut told AFP.
“Based on seismic modelling, some of the smaller islands off the south-west coast of Sumatra may have moved to the south-west by about 20 metres. That is a lot of slip.”
The north-western tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra may also have shifted to the south-west by around 36 metres, Hudnut said.
In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said.
“We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due to the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass,” Hudnut said.

Out of chaos comes hope.

Pakistan offered relief and rescue assistance to India after tidal waves killed thousands of people on its southern coast, as the nuclear-armed rivals began two day peace talks Monday.

The drinking thread is open - pass the ice please....

Educrats find a new cause.

The idea was born one night last year in Birmingham, Ala. Retired educator Eldon "Cap" Lee was one of dozens of administrators, teachers, and parents meeting there to express support for a successful new school called World of Opportunity (WOO) - a school designed to accommodate students forced out of regular public schools due to their poor performance on standardized tests.
It was, in other words, the kind of place where one might not expect to find much support for the test-driven No Child Left Behind federal education law.
So perhaps it was only natural that one evening, as the educators sat around talking about the negative impact of high-stakes testing, Mr. Lee took out his backpacker guitar, and began singing 1960s folk songs.
The themes of struggle and activism in the words they sang rang true on that night in Birmingham four decades after they were written. Soon, somebody started making up lyrics about the No Child Left Behind law, set to the tunes Lee played. Somebody else jotted down the words to the impromptu parodies.
By the time Lee returned to his home in Milwaukee, he was fired up with the notion of creating the CD that is now known as "No Child Left Behind: Bring Back the Joy."
The 15-song album is a combination of original compositions and others set to classic tunes like Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land."

In defense of the defense

Nice take on Rummy...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1228/p09s02-coop.html

The terrorist love fest continues.

In an audiotape broadcast Monday by Al-Jazeera satellite television, a man purported to be Osama bin Laden endorsed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of next month’s elections there.
The voice on the tape described al-Zarqawi as the “emir” of al-Qaida in Iraq and called upon Muslims there “to listen to him.”
The speaker on the tape praised an October statement in which al-Zarqawi declared allegiance to bin Laden and changed his group’s name to al-Qaida in Iraq. The purported bin Laden called the move “a great step on the path of unifying all the mujahedeen in establishing the state of righteousness and ending the state of injustice.”
The speaker said al-Zarqawi and those with him are fighting “for God’s sake.”
“We have been pleased that they responded to God’s and his prophet’s order for unity, and we in al-Qaida welcome their unity with us,” he said.
~Ummm....where did I put that old Air Supply tape?

Well, isn't that special...

Fighters in the Gaza Strip are proud to show off the latest addition to their arsenal of homemade rockets -- the "Yasser Arafat."
Designed to fly farther and strike harder than other makeshift missiles, it is also a powerful symbol of an arms race that defies hopes that Arafat's death last month could be a catalyst for peace.
"Al-Yasser rockets show our love and admiration for our historical leader and symbol of our fight against occupation," said Abu Qusai, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Preview of an independent Palestine.

Palestinians held local elections Saturday for the first time in many years. Hamas, the militant group that is against rapprochement with Israel, scored well in the polls, defeating the Fatah party in many areas.

Indian seashells more important than national security.

Succumbing to pressure from the environmental lobby, the U.S. Senate is blocking legislation already passed by the House that would erect an impenetrable national security fence across the U.S.-Mexican border.This past fall, the House voted to add a 150-foot corridor with a patrol road along the border and a second fence inside the border. The Senate, however, wouldn't go along, CNN said.
Environmentalists are "digging in" over their concerns that the fence would be harmful to endangered species of plants and birds, and would disrupt Indian artifacts, such as seashell fragments.
Meanwhile, California's southern border remains vulnerable to al-Qaida terrorists, who, when captured, have told U.S. interrogators they intend to exploit lax border security to smuggle a nuclear bomb into the country.

Someone's been in the Tequila.

Alarmed by glimpses of sweaty citizens in the buff, the city council in the southeastern city of Villahermosa, Mexico has adopted a law banning indoor nudity, officials confirmed Wednesday.
The regulation, which takes effect on Jan. 1, calls for as much as 36 hours in jail or a fine of 1,356 pesos ($121) for offenders in the Tabasco state capital, 410 miles east of Mexico City.
"We are talking about zero tolerance ... for a lack of morality," said city councilwoman Blanca Estela Pulido of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which governs the state and city.
Opposition party councilman Rodrigo Sanchez said in an interview "I have no idea how you detect the naked. You'd have to have a big operation to try to bring it under control," he added.
Pulido said she was confident that citizens who catch a glimpse of offenders would report them to police — though the law also threatens jail for peeping Toms.

Next stop...Syria!

Syria yesterday denied accusations it was aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq. Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said accusations against Damascus were baseless and were harmful "to the general situation and Syrian-Iraqi relations."
The statement comes after officials said last week the U.S. may initiate incursions into Syrian territory to stop Baathist insurgents from crossing the border into Iraq.
The official said last month's operation in Fallujah had revealed "how much of the insurgency is now being directed through Syria."
There have been reports the past few days of new evidence that elements within the Syrian government itself has been supporting the insurgency and looking to destabilize Iraq.
An Iraqi police chief said one of six people detained on suspicion of organizing a bombing last week in Najaf had confessed to receiving training in a Syrian camp under the supervision of a Syrian military officer.
A report in the Times of London last week said U.S. Marines in Fallujah found a hand-held global-positioning system receiver with transmissions originating in western Syria and the names of four Syrians in a list of 27 fighters contained in a ledger. The U.S. reportedly sent a list of Syrian nationals it would like detained, including the four, but officials say Syria has been unresponsive.

Where's the democracy?

Interesting bit on Islamic democracy.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041227-060231-6946r.htm

Democracy is exploding.

An explosive device blasted a monument to Yugoslavia's late communist leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito in his native village of Kumrovec in northern Croatia, state news agency Hina reported yesterday.
The device was planted at night by the life-size statue of the man who created Yugoslavia after World War 2 and ruled it with an iron fist until his death in 1980, Hina quoted local police spokesman Josip Janzek as saying .
The statue was erected near the house where Tito was born in Kumrovec, close to the border with Slovenia. The village was a venue of organised pilgrimage for communist leaders and youth - Tito's pioneers - until Yugoslavia's breakup in 1991.

Awww....That's to bad.

Sunday's deadly tsunamis that affected tourist resorts across southern Asia have also had an impact on coastal areas in eastern Africa. Officials in Somalia say that hundreds of people may have been killed by the huge waves. The Somalian government has appealed for immediate international help in coping with the disaster.
~Last time I checked sending help to Somalia didn't work out so well.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Arlen Specter is showing his true colors. He says "that he was troubled by Mr. Bush's announcement" that the President was re-submitting the names of several conservative nominees that Democrats had been filibustering.

The only opinion that matters.

Despite a year of ferocious combat, mounting casualties and frequent deployments, support for the war in Iraq remains very high among the active-duty military, according to a Military Times Poll.
Sixty-three percent of respondents approve of the way President Bush is handling the war and remain convinced it is a war worth fighting. Support for the war is even greater among those who have served longest in the combat zone: Two-thirds of combat vets say the war is worth fighting.
In addition, 87% say they're satisfied with their jobs and, if given the choice today, only 25% say they'd leave the service.

Let my people go..go..go....

Israel released 159 Palestinian prisoners Monday as a gesture to the new Palestinian leadership. Dozens of prisoners arrived Monday morning at dropoff points in the West Bank and Gaza Strip some waving Palestinian flags and flashing victory signs.
Seventeen prisoners got off a bus at the Beitunia checkpoint near Ramallah. One prisoner waved a Palestinian flag as the group rushed off the bus to hug, kiss and shake hands with their waiting relatives.
Abdullah Hussein, 43, spent 11 months in the Ketziot military prison in southern Israel. He had five months left on his sentence for providing help to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group linked to Fatah.
~Doesn't seeing terrorists freed give you that warm fuzzy feeling?

Pre-litigation president.

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko said Monday that Ukraine will finally be free after declaring himself the winner of the rerun of fraud-filled presidential elections, while supporters of his pro-Russian opponent vowed to challenge the results in court.
"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square, the center of massive protests following the Nov. 21 presidential runoff that was annulled after fraud allegations.

Yeah, right...

Prominent Palestinian figures appealed Sunday for an end to violence, adding weight to the election campaign of moderate Mahmoud Abbas to succeed Yasser Arafat and launch peace talks with Israel.

Well, isn't that special.

Iraqi militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna Sunday issued a video tape about the bombing of a U.S. army camp which killed 22 people, identifying the suicide bomber as Abu Omar al-Museli.
The videotape posted on the group's Web site showed what appeared to be the explosion at the dining hall of the camp in Mosul. A later shot, apparently taken from a car driving along the base's perimeter, showed the ripped tent housing the hall.