The Whiskey River

First he hates you, now your evil.

2005-03-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

This time, Democratic Party chief Howard Dean didn't have to scream to get some attention.
The former presidential candidate told party faithful at a Kansas fundraiser last week that the party's conservative opponents are "evil". "This is a struggle of good and evil," he told the gathered activists, who paid $100 apiece to hear the new Democratic chairman. "And we're the good."

The Iraqi people speak!

2005-03-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

More than 2,000 people demonstrated Tuesday at the site of a car bombing south of Baghdad that killed 125 people, chanting "No to terrorism!"
More than 2,000 people held the impromptu demonstration on front of the clinic, chanting "No to terrorism!" and "No to Baathism and Wahhabism!"
Wahhabism is a reference to adherents of the strict form of Sunni Islam preached by Osama bin Laden, while the Baath party was the political organization that ran Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

And about that economy thing...

2005-02-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

The number of Americans claiming initial jobless benefits fell unexpectedly by 2,000 last week to the lowest level in more than four years as the U.S. labor market continued to strengthen, a government report showed on Thursday.
First-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid dropped for the third consecutive time, to 302,000, in the week ended Feb. 12 from 304,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department Said. It said there were no special factors to account for the drop in claims.
Last week's decline marks the lowest level since October 2000, before the economy tipped into recession.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-02-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

A high school chemistry teacher was arrested after students claimed he taught his class how to make a bomb, authorities said.
David Pieski, 42, used an overhead projector in class to give instructions in making explosives to students at Freedom High School, including advising them to use an electric detonator to stay clear from the blast, an Orange County sheriff's arrest report said.
In Pieski's classroom in Orlando, authorities found a book labeled "Demo," which includes the chemical breakdown for a powerful explosive, the arrest report said.
One student said he set off an explosive device at a golf course on Jan. 6 and videotaped it, an arrest warrant said. The videotape shows an explosion, and the voice of a young man can be heard shouting, authorities said. Pieski was charged with possessing or discharging a destructive device and culpable negligence. Pieski, who was booked into the Orange County Jail on Monday and released on $1,000 bail, declined to comment.
School Superintendent Judy Cunningham said Pieski was reassigned to a desk job after he was interviewed by authorities. He is still earning his salary.

Attention on deck!

2005-02-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will be honored at this Friday's Conservative Political Action Conference for the key role they played in defeating Sen. John Kerry in last year's presidential race.
"These guys could have just gone on with their lives, but they felt strongly that John Kerry's record was being misrepresented," Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the event, said. "We thought this sort of example of citizens stepping forward under adverse conditions should be recognized," Lessner added. "They are impressive."

The UN hard at work.

2005-02-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday. In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions.
Arthur Ventham, a former Australian army officer and customs officer, joined the operation in 2002 and worked at various sites in Iraq and neighbouring states.
He said that at Iskendurun in eastern Turkey, some officials had refused to work.
When he asked one of his bosses why, he was told: "They were friends or relatives of potential clients, and are only in the mission so the company could secure future contracts in Nigeria, Comoros and another African country.
"When I said that this was unfair on everyone else, I was told that it was general practice in Cotecna."
Other inspectors had spent most of the day in hotel rooms while others drank beer and talked to the local people.
Inspectors were supposed to check lorries to make sure the UN sanctions regime was being enforced.
At another monitoring site where the UN was supposed to check humanitarian aid supplies, Mr Ventham noticed "the team leader and his fellow countrymen [the nationality is unstated] spending the majority of their time in each other's rooms drinking vodka as opposed to managing and leading the team".
There he noticed small vessels and barges moving to a small island each night.
"I mentioned this to a number of other inspectors saying there was plenty of scope for smuggling and what were the UN doing about it.
"I was extremely surprised by the response that it was common knowledge smuggling was going on at Um Qasir [and that] the oil was being sold on the black market to augment the regime."

Happy birthday to me!

2005-02-16T11:13:00.000-08:00

North Korea, which relies on outside aid to feed its people, marked the 63rd birthday of leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday with feasts of pheasant and venison for the capital's elite.

Best Friends Forever.

2005-02-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

Iran and Syria on Wednesday said they would unite against any challenges or threats to their nations' livelihoods, a move that could raise the stakes in the ongoing international dramas involving both countries.

More rumbles from the DNC implosion.

2005-02-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

After praising Kerry for giving his failed presidential bid "everything he had," ex-DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe complained that his attacks on President Bush were too weak. The top Dem cited Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention as a prime example. "I think, to be honest with you, Kerry's speech was ridiculous," McAuliffe said. When he received the final approved draft of Kerry's convention speech, he recalled, "I just threw it in the air and said, 'Why don't we just say George Bush is a great guy?'" "Meanwhile," the outgoing chairman griped, "Republicans go to New York and spend four days ripping our face off and they go up 10 points in the polls."

It's official folks...YEEAAARRGH!

2005-02-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

Democrats elected Howard Dean chairman of their national party on Saturday, casting their lot with a skilled fund-raiser and organizer whose sometimes caustic, blunt comments can lead to controversy. The 447-member DNC chose Dean on a voice vote to replace outgoing party chief Terry McAuliffe. The former Vermont governor and presidential candidate had promised to rebuild the state parties, take the offensive against Republicans, and better explain party positions on issues.

Those busy little bees.

2005-02-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

Israeli military sources said Hamas has used Israel's ceasefire pledge to rebuild its military capabilities. The sources said this includes production of the Kassam-class short-range missiles, anti-tank rockets and mines.
At the same time, Hamas was said to have restored strongholds destroyed by Israel's military. The sources said the strongholds have included weapons factories and warehouses.
"Hamas and other groups are preparing for another offensive," an Israeli military source said. "They are being encouraged and paid by Iran to stage provocations that would end the ceasefire."

What one Iraqi can do.

2005-02-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

Early on January 30, outside a school that had been converted into a polling station, 29 year old Sgt. Abdul Amir saw a suspicious man approach.
One of the security guards did his job and saw this man running at him who was a suicide bomber, says Lt. Charles Heaton with the First Cavalry Division.
According to eyewitnesses, Amir grabbed the bomber, pushed him far from the crowd of voters and was blown to shreds when the bomb belt detonated. He probably saved dozens of lives.
Abdul Amir prevented a disaster, says the school principal, who now wants the school to be renamed in Amir's honor.
Even Amir's family while mourning his loss is proud of his death.
He died to save others," says his sister, Amira Kadum. He is a true hero.
On national TV, Iraqi Prime Minster Ayad Allawi called Amir the young democracy's first champion.
Amir's colleagues have turned his police car No. 955, damaged in the blast into a makeshift memorial. All that's left are his police badge, shoes and legacy.
Since the incident, people have been more supportive. We're getting more tips on insurgents, says Amir's colleague, Hosein Maki.
There have been other positive effects. Police say the number of recruits has actually increased since election day after word spread about Sgt. Abdul Amir's selfless act. And despite the relentless attacks by insurgents, many Iraqi police say they feel stronger now, due, in large part, to the courage of a fellow cop, doing his duty, so that others could do theirs.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-02-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

Iraq has arrested a former general in Saddam Hussein's military who has been identified as a leading financier of the Sunni insurgency. The Iraqi Interior Ministry reported that the general has been captured and charged with helping finance the insurgency. The ministry identified the general as Khamis Masin Farhan Al Ugaydi, also known as Abu Saba.

France wants to be buddies, arms Libya.

2005-02-07T14:24:00.000-08:00

France wants a fresh start in relations with the United States and both sides have much to contribute to a renewed transatlantic partnership, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Monday.
He made the remarks before a visit to Paris Tuesday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice aimed in part at repairing ties damaged by the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which France opposed.
"The moment has come for a fresh start in our relations," Barnier said in an interview with the French daily Liberation which was conducted late last week.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
France and Libya have launched a high-level dialogue on defense and military cooperation.
France plans to use the dialogue to win agreement for several defense and military programs in Libya. The French Defense Ministry has been discussing cooperation programs that would include training, intelligence exchange and exercises between the militaries of France and Libya.
Over the weekend, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie held a two-day visit to Tripoli in the first such trip by a Western defense leader to the North African state. This was the first visit by a French defense minister to Libya since the United Nations Security Council lifted an arms embargo in 2004. The European Union has also taken steps to restore weapons sales to Tripoli.

More from the religion of peace.

2005-02-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

For a few weeks now, Muslims in the U.K. have been complaining about and vandalizing billboards in their neighborhoods featuring scantily clad women because the show of skin offends them.
Of particular concern are posters for the show "Desperate Housewives," which show more cleavage than the locals in some parts of East London would like. A group called Muslims Against Advertising has deemed them offensive and encouraged people to tear them down or deface them.
Speaking to the Indo-Asian News Service , Ahmed Shiekh of the Muslim Association of Britain said the issue is not one of free speech "because freedom of speech should end when you offend others."

Those socially enlightened students.

2005-02-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

A professor at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas may be punished because he offended one of his students by saying in a lesson on economic planning that homosexuals tend to plan less for the future than other groups.
Hans Hoppe, described as a conservative libertarian economist with 20 years experience at UNLV, says that during the lesson he gave several examples of groups that tend not to plan for the future, among them the very young, the very old, childless couples and homosexuals. He said discussion of homosexuals took up about 90 seconds of a 75-minute lecture.
Within days of the lecture a student had lodged an informal complaint about its content. The university is now threatening Hoppe with a letter of reprimand and wants him to give up his next pay increase.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-02-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

A man has been arrested after police found him asleep in his car with a meth lab in it while the car was parked in front of the county jail.
Kirk Alan Marvel, 42, whose address wasn't available, was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.
Black Hawk County sheriff's deputies noticed Marvel's car stopped at an intersection near the jail about 4 a.m. Tuesday. Deputies approached the car after it hadn't moved during two green-lights.
Marvel was found asleep behind the wheel, officals with the sheriff's office said.
Inside the car was found crushed pseudoephedrine pills, lithium batteries, a can of starter fluid and a plastic bucket filled with sludge, court records said.
Marvel was being held in Black Hawk County jail on Wednesday under $150,000 bond.

This will keep you up at night.

2005-02-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

U.N. human rights experts Friday expressed concern about possible "irreversible psychiatric symptoms" developing among suspected terrorists entering a fourth year of virtual solitary confinement at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The conditions of detention, especially of those in solitary confinement, place the detainees at significant risk of psychiatric deterioration, possibly including the development of irreversible psychiatric symptoms," the U.N. experts said in a statement.

Someone had a little too much caffeine.

2005-02-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

North Korea will turn U.S. military bases in the region into a "sea of fire" if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean media on Friday quoted a communist officer as saying.
"If the U.S. imperialists ignite flames of war, we will first of all strike all bases of U.S. imperialist aggressors and turn them into a sea of fire," North Korea's Central Radio quoted officer Hur Ryong as saying, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Hur was also quoted as saying that the North Korean military will "thoroughly incinerate the aggressor elements that collude with the U.S. imperialists," in an apparent reference to South Korea and Japan, both of which host U.S. military bases.

I give this one three snaps up high.

2005-02-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

Uruguay has unveiled what gay activists say is the first monument in Latin America honoring sexual diversity.
The rose-colored block of granite shaped in the form of a triangle went up this week in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo.
Set atop a concrete column, the monument is inscribed with the words: "Honoring Diversity is Honoring Life."
Uruguayan gay activists celebrated the unveiling as an important recognition of the homosexual community in this traditionally conservative Roman Catholic country of 3 million, located between Argentina and Brazil.
"From our little country we are telling the world that sexual diversity is something very positive," said Fernando Fontan, the head of a local gay rights group.

Since when can't you take pride in your work?

2005-02-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

The commandant of the Marine Corps has counseled a senior subordinate for saying publicly, "It's fun to shoot some people."
Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, an infantry officer who has commanded Marines in both Afghanistan and Iraq, made the comments "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."
He added, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis continued. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

You think this guy sleeps at night?

2005-02-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

U.S. and Iraqi security forces are getting closer to capturing or killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terror mastermind in Iraq, and they missed him by "one hour maybe" as recently as two weeks ago, Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naquib said Thursday."We are following him, I must say that. I think we missed him twice or three times, but hopefully next time we will be able to capture him," Naquib said. Pressed for more details, the minister said, "We missed him by about one hour maybe" on at least one recent occasion. "We will get him - very soon."

Those crazy Iranians.

2005-02-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

Iran will never scrap its nuclear program, and talks with Europeans are intended to protect the country's nuclear achievements, not negotiate an end to them, an Iranian official said Wednesday.
The remarks by Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council, are the latest in a hardening of his country's stance amid ongoing talks with European negotiators. They also reflect Tehran's possible frustration at the lack of progress.
Europe is pressing Iran for concessions on its nuclear program, which the United States claims is aimed at producing atomic weapons. In exchange for nuclear guarantees, the Europeans are offering Iran technological and financial support and talks on a trade deal.
"We have the power to negotiate because we keep our (nuclear) achievements in our hands and we are negotiating to protect them," Mohammadi said Wednesday. "It's definite that we will protect our scientific achievements as a basic pillar, whether talks make progress or not."

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-02-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

German police carried out a series of raids Wednesday on individuals suspected of providing financial and other support to Islamic extremist activities outside the country.
Thirty-three apartments and four businesses were searched early Wednesday morning, most in the southern state of Bavaria, police said.
The action was directed primarily against 24 people suspected of supporting the network, largely of Arab origin including people of Lebanese, Iraqi, Egyptian and Tunisian nationality.

A day late and a dinar short.

2005-02-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

Iraq's leading Sunni Muslim clerics said Wednesday the country's landmark elections lacked legitimacy because large numbers of Sunnis did not participate in the balloting, which the religious leaders had asked them to boycott.

It's official folks.

2005-02-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

The United States has developed new evidence which bolsters earlier indications that North Korea is the source of nuclear material exported to Libya, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The new data also involves more proof that Pyongyang reprocessed all 8,000 spent fuel rods from a nuclear facility at Yongbyon, enough to fuel about a half dozen nuclear weapons.
Nine months ago, international inspectors came up with the first evidence that North Korea may have provided Libya with nearly two tons of uranium hexaflouride, the material that can be fed into nuclear centrifuges and enriched into bomb fuel. Libya surrendered its huge cask of the highly toxic material to the United States when it dismantled its nuclear program last year, it said.
Now, intelligence officials say, extensive testing conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee over the last several months has concluded that the material did not originate in Pakistan or other suspect countries, and one official said that "with a certainty of 90 percent or better, this stuff's from North Korea."

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-02-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

A drunken German who bought three hand grenades at a flea market in Bosnia has been arrested after throwing one out of the window to see whether it worked.
The 36-year-old took the three hand grenades home to Frankfurt as souvenirs where he kept them in a drawer for ten years.
But after drinking heavily with friends he showed one of them the explosive devices and decided to pull the pin on one after his pals claimed they did not believe they were real.
The grenade exploded between two blocks of flats and police who quickly traced the man thanks to eye-witnesses seized the two other unexploded grenades.
He was released after he sobered up and faces charges of illegal possession of explosives.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-02-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

Oman has acknowledged the detention of hundreds of nationals amid a crackdown on Al Qaida.
The sultanate has refused to give details of the crackdown. But government spokespeople said the crackdown was meant to foil plots to attack the country.
Omani Information Minister Hamad Bin Mohammed Al Rashdi said authorities have detained an unspecified number of people. He did not deny reports that more than 300 people have been arrested in the crackdown in late January.

More Palestinian peace efforts.

2005-02-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

Hamas and Hizbullah have agreed to continue the war against Israel.
Leaders from the two groups met in Beirut and discussed strategy amid efforts to arrange a Palestinian Authority ceasefire with Israel. The Islamic insurgency organizations rejected the ceasefire and said they would maintain the war against the Jewish state.
"They agreed that the option of resistance and steadfastness was the only choice to confront the current situation," Hizbullah said in a statement after the meeting.
The statement said the Jan. 30 meeting comprised of Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Masha'al. Both groups have received significant support from Iran.

Hollywood, take a bow.

2005-02-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

Citizens United, headed by former Whitewater investigator David Bossie, is set to release this week three billboards in view of the Kodak Theater where the Oscars are to be held later this month.
The billboards will, with a touch of sarcasm, "thank" Hollywood for helping to re-elect George Bush.
The ads will feature such liberal celebrities as Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Affleck, Martin Sheen, Chevy Chase, Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn all of whom the billboards credit with the President's November victory.
Both versions of the Citizens United ad thank Hollywood for its unwitting help in returning the President to the White House.
One of the ads expresses gratitude for "4 more years" and the other proclaims, with glee, "W. Still President."
Already, word of the billboards has Hollywood in a tizzy and the Citizens United campaign has been featured on CNN and Fox News.
Making the experience more painful for the disappointed Hollywood big wigs is the location of the three billboards their proximity to the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards.
Worse, the billboards are set to be displayed for the entire month of February, which will have them proclaiming their message on the night of the Oscar awards on Sunday, Feb. 27.

Oh the humanity!

2005-02-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Deprived of their flat-screen TVs, mobile phones, pizza deliveries and long visits from lovers, inmates at Mexico's top security prison complained on Monday they are being treated "like dogs."
A government crackdown in prisons, aimed especially at drug lords and other violent criminals, has the prisoners of La Palma jail close to Mexico City up in arms at the "subhuman" conditions they face.
On Monday, they paid for a full-page advertisement in Mexico's top daily Reforma and called on President Vicente Fox to respect their human rights. They also want the right to buy the soft drinks of their choice from the jail's small store.
Over the past month, Fox has sent troops into prisons across Mexico, including La Palma. In cell-by-cell searches, soldiers have stripped inmates of their illegal luxuries. Conjugal visits have been halted too.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-02-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

Kuwaiti Police burst into suspected terrorist hideouts throughout a tranquil suburb Monday, arresting a reputed terror boss and setting off a ferocious gunbattle that killed at least four of his followers and a bystander.
The raid - the fourth in three weeks - reflected a new sense of urgency in the battle to crush Islamic extremists deeply opposed to the presence of U.S. forces in this oil-rich emirate.
Kuwait's prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, called for the "uprooting of this phenomenon and the removal of this cancer before it spreads," Faisal al-Hajji, the acting information minister, told the state-owned Kuwait News Agency on Monday.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

2005-02-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

Egyptian Security forces clashed with Islamic militants in the mountains of Sinai on Tuesday, killing a suspect in last year's deadly bombings of beach resorts on the peninsula, the government said.
The gunbattle erupted as police were chasing militants believed involved in the October bombings at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, which killed 34 people, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry identified the suspect killed Tuesday as Mohammed Abdel Rahman Badawi, saying he took part in the Sinai bombings and was found armed with an automatic rifle and a handgun.

You say you want a revolution?

2005-02-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

King Gyanendra dismissed Nepal's government and imposed a state of emergency on Tuesday, cutting off his Himalayan nation from the rest of the world as telephone and Internet lines were severed, flights diverted and civil liberties severely curtailed.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-02-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

A trio of Swiss businessmen have launched a new drink for gay people called Queer Beer.
Michael Hutmacher, 32, came up with the idea with two friends and has now founded a company, Lemonhead, to market it.
He said: "My business partner, who is gay, and I were talking about how to corner the homosexual market and came up with the idea for a drink aimed specifically at gay men and women.
"It really was just a crazy idea at first, but we've now come up with a product."
Hutmacher, from Zug. added: "Our beer is a humorous attempt to identify with the gay scene and we hope it will help people to feel relaxed with their sexuality and not hide away."
And he added despite its provocative name the lager wasn't just aimed at homosexuals but also straight people.
Moel Volken, from gay rights organisation Pink Cross, said the beer was an excellent idea.
"I'm happy to see that homosexuals are being taken seriously as consumers. I just hope that the beer tastes good," he said.

Howard hates you....

2005-01-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

The frontrunner in the race to head up the so-called party of compassion and understanding said unabashedly on Saturday that he "hates" the opposition.
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for," former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean told Democrats gathered at a Manhattan hotel.
Dean said that despite his hatred for the GOP, he "admires" their discipline and their organization.
~Hate: 1 a : intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.
b : extreme dislike or antipathy.
Now doesn't that leave you with a warm cuddly feeling.
Send Howard a thank you note.

If you don't have anything good to say...

2005-01-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

A bitter-sounding Sen. John Kerry dismissed the historic Iraqi election on Sunday, warning Americans not to "overhype" the watershed event.
"No one in the United States should try to overhype this election," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press."
The failed presidential candidate questioned the historic referendum's legitimacy, saying, "It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't vote."
Kerry also pooh-poohed reports of a surprisingly high 72 percent turnout by Iraqi voters, insisting instead that the election has "gone as expected."
Asked if he thought Iraq was now less of a terrorist threat, Kerry at first said, "No, it's more. And, in fact, I believe the world is less safe today than it was two and a half years ago."
But he changed his answer moments later, after "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert pressed him on the bizarre claim.
"I'm glad Saddam Hussein is gone, and I've said that a hundred times," he insisted.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

2005-01-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

Kuwaiti security forces stormed a building in a residential part of the capital and exchanged gunfire with suspected terrorists on Sunday,
The clash was the third battle this month between security forces and suspected militants. Kuwait, a major ally of the United States, has been battling some fundamentalists who oppose the presence of the American military in their country.
The Interior Ministry said Sunday that one was killed, another suspect was injured and a third was arrested, the ministry said in a statement.

Soros claims his pound of flesh.

2005-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

Billionaire investor George Soros, the biggest financial contributor to the failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush in November's election, said Democratic challenger John Kerry was a flawed candidate.
Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, spent $26 million in last year's campaign that he said was undermined by the candidate he supported.
``Kerry did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative,'' Soros, 74, said yesterday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ``That had a lot to do with Bush being re-elected.''
The Kerry campaign ``tried to emphasize his role as a Vietnam War hero and downplay his role as an anti-Vietnam War hero, which he was,'' said Soros. ``Had he admitted, owned up to it, I think actually the outcome could have been different.''

Russia dusts off their trenchcoats.

2005-01-30T08:43:00.000-08:00

Russia runs more than 100 known spies under official cover in the U.S., senior U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement officials say. And those are just the more easily spotted spies working under the classic guise of diplomat. An unknown number of so-called nocs who work under nonofficial cover as businessmen and -women, journalists or academics undoubtedly expand the Russian spy force. "They're baaaaack," says a former senior U.S. intelligence official who worked against Moscow during the cold war. "They're busy as hell, but I don't think we've really got what it is that they're doing."

Can't keep freedom down.

2005-01-30T08:19:00.000-08:00

Iraqis danced and clapped with joy Sunday as they voted in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying insurgents who launched eight suicide bombings and mortar strikes at polling stations. The attacks killed at least 36 people.
After a slow start, men and women in flowing black abayas, often holding babies formed long lines, although there were pockets of Iraq where the streets and polling stations were deserted. Voters prohibited from using private cars walked, hitched rides on military buses and trucks, and some even carried the elderly in their arms.
Officials said turnout appeared higher than expected, although it was too soon to tell for sure. Iraqi officials have predicted that up to 8 million of the 14 million voters, just over 57 percent would participate.
Polling stations officially closed Sunday evening, but the elecion commission said anyone still in line would be allowed to vote.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-01-29T07:29:00.000-08:00

British forces swooped to arrest a group of people in Basra suspected of plotting to create carnage at Sunday's elections with a bombing campaign aimed at polling stations and coalition troops.
Operating with Iraqi special forces, 200 men of the Scots Guards mounted simultaneous raids on four houses in the centre of Basra.
Troops came under fire as they hit one house just 150 yards from a polling station. A blast bomb was thrown at the soldiers but there were no casualties.
Troops were continuing to search the houses and a number of finds were made, including at the house next to the polling station in Basra's old town.
British commanders believe that the men targeted in the raids were plotting to mount large-scale attacks on polling stations and British forces.
Scots Guards commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Harry Nickerson said information had been received to suggest that there were four insurgents, or insurgent groups, who were keen to disrupt the election and a decision was taken to arrest them and search their homes.

Mikey still pouting.

2005-01-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

Disgruntled conspiracy filmmaker Michael Moore blasted the Democratic Party on Thursday, saying its field of candidates for 2008 consists of "a lot of wimps and losers."
"The Democrats are going to have a very hard time winning the next election. The Republicans have a number of star players and the Democrats have a lot of wimps and losers."
Moore was particularly irked that so many Democrats, including Clinton, voted to confirm Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week.
"It was a disgusting sight and indicative of who the Democrats are. They are lazy and they're cowards and I'm just hoping that the more they continue to act like that the more it will encourage Americans to run against them."
Moore said the GOP is much more aggressive. "Bush and the Republicans have no shame and will resort to anything in order to win. The Democrats show up to a gun fight with a butter knife and thus they lose."
The radical movieman said he "prayed nightly" that Bush's "many scandals" would catch up to him and end his second term prematurely.

Biden serves up Iran.

2005-01-28T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sen. Joseph Biden and Iran's foreign minister clashed Friday over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, with Biden hinting at the possibility of armed conflict unless fears of an Iranian weapons program were put to rest.
The rare and frank public exchange between a senior American politician and a ranking member of the Iranian government came at a dinner during the World Economic Forum held in this Alpine resort town.
Biden spoke after Kharrazi had said his country's insistence on the right to uranium enrichment was not up for debate at present talks with Germany, France and Britain designed to banish fears over Iran's nuclear plans. Iran has suspended all enrichment activities during the negotiations but has refused to mothball the program, which can be used to produce fuel for reactors or the core of nuclear warheads.
"Iran cannot be ignored," said Kharrazi. Repeating that his country had no intentions of producing nuclear arms, he said that nonetheless, "Iran's rights cannot be denied."
Biden said that both liberal and conservative U.S. government politicians believed "that it is not in our interest ... for you to acquire nuclear capability for nuclear weapons and intermediate or long range missile technology."

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-01-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

"Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd 'Commando' Brigade Combat Team prevented an apparent kidnapping of eight Iraqis Jan. 26 in western Baghdad.
"During a patrol in Baghdad's Khadamiyah district, the Soldiers noticed a suspicious vehicle about 8:30 p.m. They stopped the vehicle and found three Iraqis bound and gagged.
"They detained five suspects in possession of four pistols, an AK-47 assault rifle and a sub-machine gun outfitted with a silencer. The kidnap victims included a sheik and an administrator from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil."

More persecuted christians.

2005-01-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

A group of parents in rural Virginia are attempting to shut down a 65-year-old, off-campus religion class for public school students because they say it stigmatizes students who don't attend.
The weekly Bible classes in Staunton, which are held at a church near the elementary school there in the middle of the school day, are attended by 80 to 85 percent of the first-, second- and third-graders in the district.
But a small minority of parents doesn't like the classes, calling them an innapropriate Christian outreach program, so they want the school board to put an end to the program for everyone.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-28T08:55:00.000-08:00

A bank robber in the southern Dutch town of Chaam was able to subtract the cost of his gun from his fine.
The unnamed stickup man, 46, managed to convince a criminal court in Breda, near the Belgian border, that the $2,600 he spent on his pistol was a legitimate business expense.
The judge accordingly reduced the amount of restitution from $8,750, the amount stolen from the bank, to $6,150.
"You can compare criminal acts to normal business activities, where you must invest to make profits, and thus you have costs," explained Leendert de Lange, a spokesman for the national prosecutor's office.
De Lange went further to state that drug dealers could also deduct the cost of vehicles used to make deliveries of illicit substances within reason.
Dutch criminals had better be prepared to present receipts.
"You can't just tell the judge you spent 10,000 euro without any proof," de Lange said.
Day-to-day expenses don't count either, only costs directly related to the crime, said Gerard Sta, director of the Office of Criminal Assets, told De Standaard newspaper of Amsterdam.
"The idea is that crime does not pay," summed up de Lange, "but you are allowed to claim your expenses."

FICA...State...Suicide Bomb....

2005-01-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

Syria was said to have deducted a portion of the salaries of its government workers to help the Palestinian war against Israel.
Western diplomatic sources said the initiative was launched by regional authorities in Syria to deduct the salaries of public sector employees and divert the money to Palestinian terrorist groups based in Damascus. The sources said at least one region has begun such an effort.
In the northern province of Aleppo, authorities ordered the deduction of 50 Syrian pounds, or $1, from the monthly salary of each government employee. The practice began in December 2004 and involved several thousand employees.
The Levant News Service said the proceeds from the deductions were pooled in a lottery offer. The first prize was a German luxury car. The rest of the money would be sent to Palestinian Terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Kim gets a new toy!

2005-01-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

North Korea appears to have bought a complete nuclear weapon from either Pakistan or a former Soviet Union state, a South Korean newspaper says, quoting a source in Washington. Seoul Shinmun quoted the source on Thursday as saying the United States was checking the intelligence.
The purchase was apparently intended to avoid nuclear weapons testing that could be detected from the outside.

Everybody jihad tonight.

2005-01-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

Hamas swept seven out of 10 councils in first-ever Gaza Strip local elections seen as a test of strength between the Islamic militant group and new President Mahmoud Abbas, final results showed on Friday.
"Hamas's victory proves Islam is the solution," blared a slogan from loudspeakers as thousands of supporters celebrated in the streets beneath fluttering green Hamas flags.
"Our people have a consensus on the choice of jihad and resistance and the election has underscored that concept," Hamas spokesman Muhir al-Masri told reporters.
Candidates from the Hamas list won 75 of the 118 council seats compared to 39 for members of Abbas's Fatah movement and their allies, final figures from the electoral commission showed.
Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, has won many hearts in Gaza not only for its role in the fighting but also for charities that help the needy in the absence of support from the crumbling Palestinian Authority.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-01-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

Pakistani police arrested 17 Afghans suspected of being Taliban militants, including a former Kabul police chief and a provincial governor, police said on Friday.
The men were arrested in overnight raids in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob told Reuters.
"Seventeen have been arrested, all Afghans," he said. "They have been staying without legal documents. Some of them held important positions in the previous regime in Afghanistan. One was a governor and another the police chief of Kabul," Yaqoob said, while declining to identify the men.
A senior police official said the suspects included Mullah Sher Dil, governor of the southern province of Helmand under the Taliban, and Mullah Ibrahim, a former police chief in the capital.
He identified two others as Mufti Rehmatullah and Mullah Abdur Razzak but said he did not know their ranks.
"We are interrogating them and hope to arrest more people," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

You can't keep freedom down.

2005-01-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

Joyful tears and frequent applause marked the start of U.S. voting Friday in Iraq's first independent elections in more than 50 years.
Iraqi expatriates began casting votes at 7 a.m. inside an abandoned store in this Detroit suburb. Periodically, cheers would erupt from one of the 15 polling stations.
"We feel happy now. This is like America, this voting," said Zoha Yess, 64, who moved to Inkster nine years ago. "We want fair, good government."
Overseas voting continues through Sunday, which is election day in Iraq itself.
Nearly 26,000 Iraqi expatriates in the United States registered to vote during the Jan. 17-25 sign-up period. An oversized, homemade Iraqi flag hung from the ceiling of the voting site in Southgate. One poll worker could be seen weeping.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-01-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

Authorities in Iraq have arrested two close associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, including the chief of the terror mastermind's Baghdad operation, the government said Friday.
Qassim Dawoud, a top security adviser, told reporters that the arrests of the al-Zarqawi lieutenants occurred in mid-January but gave few details.
Dawoud said one of the men, Salah Suleiman al-Loheibi, headed al-Zarqawi's Baghdad operation and had met with the Jordanian-born terror leader more than 40 times over three months.
The other was identified as Ali Hamad Yassin al-Issawi.
Friday's announcement brings to three the number of purported al-Zarqawi lieutenants arrested this month.

You can't keep freedom down.

2005-01-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Iraqi expatriates began casting ballots in Sydney on Friday, several jostling to be among the first to vote in Iraq's first independent elections in more than 50 years.
"This is a long dream that now comes true," said 56-year-old Karim Jari before casting his vote. "We hope this is a new beginning."
Australia is one of 14 nations where Iraqis living outside their country can vote and the first country in the world to begin collecting ballots because of its time zone. In Iraq, the vote is Sunday; elsewhere, it runs Friday through Sunday.
About two dozen people jostled to be among the first to vote at 7 a.m. Friday in Australia.
Rebwar Aziz, who was lived in Australia since 1992, got the honor.
"This is freedom for Iraqi people," the 38-year-old bus driver said.
He rejected the wave of attacks by insurgents in Iraq aimed at disrupting the vote there.
"The point is if you need freedom, you have to fight for it," he said. "I feel great. I can't express my happiness."
Many historians consider the last free elections in Iraq to have taken place in 1954, when opposition won seats in an election held under British colonial influence. Iraq was a constitutional monarchy at the time.
As voting got under way in Sydney, a group of about a dozen protesters of the Communist Party of Iraq began shouting in Arabic and waving banners with Arabic and English slogans including: "No to American terrorism. No to Islamic terrorism."
But they quickly were drowned out by a larger contingent who cheered, chanted, clapped and danced outside the polling station.

No reason to go to war?

2005-01-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

A scientist considered the father of Iraq's nuclear program said Thursday that his nation would have developed atomic weapons in the early 1990s had Saddam Hussein not ordered the invasion of Kuwait.
The invasion sparked the U.S.-led Operation Desert Storm in 1991, which drove Iraq out of Kuwait and marked the end of Baghdad's nuclear and biological weapons program, said Jafar Dhia Jafar, the scientific head of Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
"By the end of 1990, about 8,000 people were involved directly or indirectly in the nuclear program," said Jafar, presenting his new Norwegian-language book, "Oppdraget", which means The Assignment, describing the program.
"We were three years away, give or take a year," said Jafar, who fled Iraq during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Iran works on it's tough guy image.

2005-01-26T16:10:00.000-08:00

Iran will carry out an "astonishing" retaliation to any attack against the Islamic republic by Israel or the United States.
"We will counter any stupid action by Israel and its master with firmness and in an astonishing way," said Brigadier-General Mohammad-Ali Jafari.
"We pushed the Baathist enemy from our country within one and a half years," he said, referring to the opening campaigns of the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
"With the experience and skills from that war and in the case of any invasion, the invaders will be defeated in less than one and a half months," Jafari said.
"Even though the US and Israel do not have the courage to invade the Iranian nation, the Revolutionary Guards are in very good state of readiness to response to threats," General Yahya Rahim Safavi said.
"The US can not bring security to the Middle East by pushing Iran aside. And if they plan conspiracies, the Iranian nation and its leadership will stand against expansionism with firmness," he said.
And a foreign ministry statement rejected calls from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres for the world to take action against Iran's nuclear ambitions, seen by the US and Israel as a cover for weapons development.
"The unfounded claims of Israeli officials were made to deviate world attention from Israel's organised terror activities and efforts to further strengthen its nuclear power," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
"Israel's continued trampling of the rights of the Palestinian people on flimsy excuses cannot wipe out the roots of their struggle or weaken their resistance and they will eventually be vindicated," Asefi said.

The return of the goosestep.

2005-01-26T16:00:00.000-08:00

Germany is struggling to contain an embarrassing and potentially explosive debate on the Holocaust, just as it prepares to join other nations in commemorating the victims of Nazi aggression at Auschwitz.
The far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) provoked outrage on Friday by walking out of a minute's silence for Nazi victims and referring to Allied strikes on the German city of Dresden in 1945 as a "bombing holocaust."

Turner blows a piston.

2005-01-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

Ted Turner called FOX an arm of the Bush administration and compared FOX NEWS's popularity to Hitler's popular election to run Germany before WWII.
"While FOX may be the largest news network , it's not the best", Turner said.
He followed up by pointing out that Adolf Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII. He said the network is the propaganda tool for the Bush Administration.
"There's nothing wrong with that. It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy. Particularly when the news is dumbed down," leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff," he said.
A FOXNEWS spokesperson responded: "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind -- we wish him well."

Big man weighs in.

2005-01-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday that judges should look to historical practices when ruling on religious issues. Speaking at the University of Michigan, Scalia criticized judges for using what he called "abstractions" to interpret religious issues when they should be looking to the text of the Constitution itself.
"The Constitution says what it says and does not say what it does not say," he said.

And about that Iraqi election thing...

2005-01-26T11:21:00.000-08:00

While the American press touts the prospect that Iraq's Sunni population will boycott next Sunday's election, Sunnis themselves are telling pollsters a different story. A State Department official told reporters that when Sunnis are surveyed on whether they intend to vote, the number who say yes "approaches 50 percent."
Fifty percent would be a higher turnout than the U.S. had in the 1996 presidential election, and around the same number who voted in the last four out of five White House races.
In the 1988 presidential contest, for instance, 50.3 percent of eligible American voters went to the polls. Four years later 55.1 percent showed up. In 1996, turnout dropped to 49 percent. In 2000, it was 51.3 percent.
Turnout in non-Sunni areas is expected to top 80 percent - meaning that a third more Iraqis intend to vote in their election that Americans did last November - when 60 percent voted in what pundits ballyhooed as a record.

Call 'em as I see 'em.

2005-01-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

During Tuesday's Senate hearings on the confirmation of Secretary of State nominee Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd said he was "dismayed" that his motives in opposing her have been questioned."I am particularly dismayed by criticism I have read that Senate Democrats by insisting on having the opportunity to debate this nomination have somehow been engaged in nothing more substantial than petty politics or partisan delaying tactics," Sen. Byrd said, his voice reportedly rising in anger.

Condi gets the nod!

2005-01-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

Condoleezza Rice won easy confirmation Wednesday to be President Bush's new secretary of state, despite strong dissent from a small group of Democrats.
The Senate voted 85 to 13 to confirm Rice, who succeeds Colin Powell as America's top diplomat and becomes the first black woman to hold the job.
Plans were made for her to be sworn in at the White House Wednesday night, take her place in the State Department Thursday morning and have a more elaborate swearing-in by Bush at the agency on Friday.

Sacked in the backfield.

2005-01-26T06:43:00.000-08:00

French authorities arrested four more people Wednesday morning in a round-up of suspected terrorists believed to have been plotting attacks in Iraq.
The arrests followed the detention Monday of seven others who authorities believe were preparing assaults on U.S. forces in Iraq. It was the first operation of its kind by the French government since reports surfaced last year that French citizens or residents were joining the insurgent ranks.

Those crazy Italian judges.

2005-01-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

An Italian judge’s decision to drop terrorism charges against five Islamic militants prompted indignation and outrage among government politicians on Tuesday as the country buried its latest soldier killed in Iraq.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he was “enraged and dumbfounded” at the decision, Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli said it was “stomach turning” and several politicians called on the president to order disciplinary action against the judge.
The judge, Clementina Forleo, ruled there was no evidence the three Tunisians and two Moroccans were involved in anything beyond what might be considered “guerrilla” activities in times of war, and not terrorism.
They had been arrested last year on charges of recruiting suicide bombers for action in Iraq under a law introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when governments around the world tightened anti-terrorist legislation.
The five are still being held on lesser charges, such as trading forged documents.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

Three 11-year-old boys and a 10-year-old girl tried to hijack a school bus Friday morning.
One boy held a knife to the driver's neck as she guided the bus down a rural road in Oliver, near Punxsutawney in the central part of the state.
He ordered driver Janet McQuown to stop the bus and get off, after which the pint-sized hoodlums apparently planned to drive the bus to Las Vegas themselves.
But McQuown, 52, wouldn't be cowed, calmly telling the boy to give her the knife. After she asked several times, he handed it over.
After she got the knife away, she told the kids to sit down and be quiet, then drove another 20 minutes to Mapleview Elementary School in Punxsutawney.
Once there, she told administrators, who took aside the not-so-fearsome foursome and called the cops.
Two boys were taken into custody by state police, while the other boy and the girl were picked up by their parents.
Charges against them could include attempted robbery, attempted kidnapping, aggravated assault, simple assault, criminal conspiracy, risking a catastrophe, harassment and disorderly conduct.

Germany remembers as Russia relives.

2005-01-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

The memory of the Nazi genocide "is part of our national identity," Schroder said. "Remembering the era of National Socialism and its crimes is a moral obligation — we owe that not only to the victims, the survivors and the relatives, but to ourselves.
"It is true that the temptation to forget and suppress it is great, but we will not succumb to it," Schroeder promised.
He vowed German leaders would protect the country's growing Jewish community "with the power of the state against the anti-Semitism of the incorrigible.

A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.
In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist."

Nothing but free food for Mikey.

2005-01-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

Michael Moore's gamble to hold his film "Fahrenheit 9/11" out of the documentary category to boost its best-picture prospects backfired. The movie was shut out across the board.

Mel picks up three nods.

2005-01-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

Mel Gibson's religious blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" picked up nominations for cinematography, makeup and original score.

Your tax dollars hard at work.

2005-01-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

Even though Condoleeza Rice's confirmation as the nation's next secretary of state is not in doubt, Democratic senators will use debate time Tuesday to pummel President Bush's Iraq war policy.
"This is all a proxy to debate Bush foreign policy, his preemption doctrine, to debate what's taking place in Iraq. That's all this is about," Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback said. "Rice is enormously qualified the most qualified secretary of state we've ever had nominated." He added: "She's going to do a tremendous job, she's going to get the vote ... this is all to scuff up the Bush foreign policy."Sens. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Barbara Boxer of California and eight other Democrats are lined up to get their licks in on the Senate floor, even though many of them may wind up voting for Rice, currently the president's national security adviser, at the end of the day anyway.
Republicans, by contrast, are expected to rally behind Rice and the president with briefer speeches. Nine hours have been set aside for the debate, divided equally between the two parties.

A few more Chinese...

2005-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

A group of suspected illegal immigrants was being questioned early Tuesday after federal officials forced their single-engine plane to land here.
The Cessna carried at least four suspected illegal immigrants who were detained along with the craft's pilot by homeland security officials in connection with a possible smuggling operation.
Online records of the Federal Aviation Administration show the 20-year-old plane is co-owned by Afzal Hameed of Dover, Del.
Capt. Jeff Humphrey, San Antonio police special operations commander, said that the five suspects were under investigation in connection with a smuggling operation involving Chinese nationals.
Federal agents and San Antonio police surrounded the plane after it landed.
Federal authorities said that those aboard the craft appeared to be Chinese.

Is it to early to start drinking?

2005-01-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

Che...Bin Laden...
Bartender!

Boxer gets a little punch drunk.

2005-01-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

After accusing Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice of lying during hearings last week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer may have indulged in a few falsehoods of her own while questioning Dr. Rice.
To justify her tough grilling, the Golden State Democrat repeatedly invoked war casualties from her home state, saying they amounted to 25 percent of the 1,400 GIs killed in the fighting.
According to OpinionJournal.com says that's not true. "The number of California servicemen who've died is 157, which is about 11.5% of the total, less than half the proportion Boxer claimed," they noted.
She also had her facts wrong when she claimed that her fellow senators voted to authorize the Iraq War based solely on Bush administration claims about weapons of mass destruction.
In fact, the Senate's Iraq War resolution also cited Saddam's "brutal repression of its civilian population thereby threatening international peace and security in the region" and its refusal "to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq, including an American serviceman, and by failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait."

Sacked in the backfield!

2005-01-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

Iraqi security forces have arrested the "most lethal" top lieutenant of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq. A man allegedly behind 75 percent of the car bombings in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion, the prime minister's office said Monday.
Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a Jan. 15 raid in Baghdad, a government statement said Monday.
Two other militants linked to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group also have been arrested, authorities announced Monday.

A little light reading...

2005-01-21T16:01:00.000-08:00

The original thoughts of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders will be made available in English next year in a book, "The Al Qaeda Reader," whose publisher says is intended to educate the American people.
The book, which has been criticized by some who suffered in al Qaeda attacks, offers a history of the radical Muslim group, with interviews with bin Laden and his associates and a tract on Islamic struggle by his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahri.

Terrorists slaughter during wedding.

2005-01-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

A Terrorist rammed an ambulance into a crowd of Shiites celebrating a wedding near Youssifiyah, a village 12 miles south of the capital. Seven people were killed and 16 wounded.
Salah al-Ameri, the groom's cousin, said the homicide attacker stormed a garden where the wedding was taking place and detonated the vehicle. The bride and groom were hurt, he said.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

A 40-year-old Arvada woman who police say wanted to be seen as a, "cool mom", is suspected of supplying drugs and alcohol to high school boys, and having sex with them.
Sylvia Johnson faces charges of sexual assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Police say she had parties for the boys almost every week between October 2003 and October 2004.
She's accused of giving them marijuana, methamphetamine and alcohol.
Investigators said Johnson told them she wasn't popular in high school, but recently felt like "one of the group."
Police began investigating her after one of the boys told his mother about the alleged encounters.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Michelle R. Shelton, 32, of Kansas City, was arrested Thursday on a child endangerment charge. Police said the boy did not suffer any obvious injuries from taking the highly addictive drug. He remains in state custody.
Police first began investigating Shelton a year ago when officers said they saw her escorting drug users into the apartment complex where she and her son lived. Police said some residents at the complex told investigators Shelton sometimes gave the boy crack cocaine to "calm him down."
Social workers were sent to the apartment where they took hair samples from Shelton and her son to test for illegal drugs. The tests came back positive, police said.
According to court records, Shelton told detectives she found empty crack bags and drug paraphernalia throughout her home after parties her son attended.

The horror of it all.

2005-01-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

A student whose vacation plans were spoiled has sued to end summer homework in Wisconsin, claiming it creates an unfair workload and unnecessary stress.
Peer Larson, 17, had lined up a camp counselor job last June, but honors pre-calculus homework turned his summer into a headache.
"It didn't completely ruin my summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home and at work," the high school junior said Thursday. "I just didn't have the energy or the time for it."
Attorney Timothy Baldwin, predicted the case would be dismissed.
The Jan. 10 lawsuit names a math teacher, three school administrators and the state's superintendent of public instruction. Wisconsin's attorney general's office will assign a lawyer to respond to the suit, said spokesman Brian Rieselman.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

A 6-foot man allegedly on the run from Florida authorities since September was found this week curled up inside of a television.
After receiving a tip that Alfred Blane, 45, of Ponce de Leon, Fla., might be in Decatur County, police went last Friday to a mobile home near Bainbridge College, where a woman told police he was hiding under a mattress inside.
Lending the department's police dog, Thomasville officers accompanied the Florida authorities inside the residence. The officers searched the house thoroughly, even checking a freezer and washing machine, said Lt. Tim Watkins of the Thomas County Sheriff's Department.
Meanwhile, the dog kept poking around a television, an older floor model, Watkins said. When officers unscrewed the back of the television, they found a balled-up Blane inside, he said, adding that Blane is between 5-foot-10 and 6-feet tall.
Blane escaped in handcuffs from two sheriff's deputies in September as they tried to place him in the back of a police car, said Capt. Stan Sunday of the Walton County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
After being arrested again, Blane was placed in the Walton County Jail on Friday and faces numerous charges, including burglary, possession of methamphetamine, battery on a law enforcement officer and escape.

Haj in full swing.

2005-01-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

Haj pilgrims pelted stones at symbols of the devil on Friday, with many saying they were targeting President Bush and other world leaders seen as oppressing Muslims.
Many pilgrims said they were thinking of Bush and his allies while they were hurling pebbles at the site where the devil is said to have appeared to the biblical patriarch Abraham.
"Yes, the devil is Bush and that other one from Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. And there's British Prime Minister Blair too," said Egyptian Tia'amah Mohammed.
"We throw the stones so we can vent our anger at them."
British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who converted to Islam following her capture by the Taliban in 2001 in the buildup to the Afghan war, said: "During the stoning I couldn't help thinking of Bush, Blair and Sharon."

And more from the religion of peace.

2005-01-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

Somali militiamen, allied with Islamic clerics who rule by sharia law, have dug up hundreds of skeletons from an Italian colonial-era cemetery and thrown them in the trash, sparking anger in the Italian and Somali capitals. The motive for the mass exhumation by gunmen allied with the clerics who rule northern Mogadishu remained unclear on Friday. Witnesses said hundreds of corpses were dug up over the past five days and thrown away at a dump near Mogadishu's airport. Gunmen told residents near the cemetery in south Mogadishu that the courts ordered them to clear the site of non-Islamic elements, witnesses said.

Dead Terrorist Alert!

2005-01-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

Al-Qaida's leader in Iraq said in an audiotape Thursday that one of his top lieutenants was killed in last year's U.S.-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said top aide Omar Hadid was killed during fighting when U.S. and Iraqi forces recaptured the city.
It was the first public report by the insurgents that Hadid, a leading guerrilla commander in the city, was dead. It was widely believed that Hadid, who was in his 30s, fled the city as it was being attacked.

Should I stay or should I go now..

2005-01-21T06:53:00.000-08:00

A soldier who sued the Army for requiring him to serve past the date of his enlistment contract apparently wants to stick with the military, after all.
Spc. David Qualls, 35, has volunteered for another six-year stint in the National Guard, Capt. Kristine Munn, a National Guard spokeswoman, said Thursday.
"It's interesting, knowing his past," Munn said. She said she wasn't sure if Qualls would qualify.

The Palestinian cival war: Chapter 1

2005-01-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of armed Palestinian police deployed across the northern Gaza Strip on Friday to prevent rocket fire on Israeli communities, raising hopes that the two sides have found a way to end more than four years of bloody conflict and resume peace talks. The deployment, with officers wearing red berets patrolling in shiny new pickup trucks, came after Israel and the Palestinians renewed security coordination earlier this week.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi kills Muslims at prayer.

2005-01-21T06:34:00.000-08:00

A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad Friday where worshippers were celebrating a major Muslim holiday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 40, police and hospital officials said, the country's latest violence in the lead-up to this month's elections.
The car blew up outside the al-Taf mosque in the capital's southwest, where Shiites were celebrating one of Islam's most important holidays, Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice. The feast coincides with the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Friday's blast was the second outside a Shiite mosque in the capital this week and it came a day after a chief terror leader in Iraq berated Shiites in an Internet audio recording that appeared aimed at sowing division in the country.

FOUR MORE YEARS!

2005-01-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

George W. Bush swore the oath of office for a second term as president of the United States on Thursday, pledging to seek "freedom in all the world" as the surest path to peace in an era of terrorism across the globe. Bush raised one hand and placed the other on a family Bible as he vowed to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution in a 35-word pledge as old as the Republic.

INAUGURATION DAY!

2005-01-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

Please come to Boston for the springtime...

2005-01-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

Authorities have launched a manhunt across the Northeast for four Chinese nationals described by the FBI as potential terror suspects who may be heading for Boston.
Authorities insisted that there was no confirmed threat.
Federal law enforcement officials said they had received a tip Wednesday about an unspecified threat against Boston, and released photographs of the two Chinese men and two women they were seeking.

Rice moves forward.

2005-01-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

The Senate Foreign Relations Commitee on Wednesday confirmed Condoleezza Rice as the nation's next secretary of state by a vote of 16 to 2, sending her name to the full Senate for approval.
Senators voting "nay" to putting Rice in charge of the State Department were Democrats Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts. The vote came after two days of tough questioning Rice, who currently serves as President Bush's national security adviser.

Those busy little North Koreans.

2005-01-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

North Korea has built large underground facilities to function as command posts for the military, government ministries and security units. The Pyongyang regime has moved 180 defense industry plants underground and production workers are conducting regular wartime production exercises, according to intelligence sources quoted by the Yonhap News. South Korean military experts said that if North Korea is secretly developing nuclear weapons in such underground sites, there would be no way of detecting it, even with ultra-modern spying equipment the U.S. military has deployed in Korea.

Why we are looking at Iran and Syria.

2005-01-18T14:55:00.000-08:00

A Sunni insurgency commander said his group obtained money and equipment from Iran and Syria. The Iraqi Defense Ministry videotaped the commander of Mohammed's Army as saying that his group obtained cash and vehicles from Iran and Syria for car bombings and other attacks against the U.S.-led coalition and Iraq's military and security forces. The commander, identified as Muayad Yassin Aziz Al Nasiri, was captured late last year in Iraq after a tip from a Syrian undercover agent who defected and helped the Iraqi Defense Ministry
~Just a couple of friendly countries going about their own business.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

A Canadian man, upset that his 9-year-old son was benched during a hockey game, allegedly choked the team's coach in a fit of rage, Toronto police said on Monday.
The father, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, allegedly reached over a partition to grab the coach after the boy was kept on the bench during Sunday's game.
"Several attempts were made by witnesses to stop the attack but they were unable to before the victim collapsed to the floor," Toronto police said in a release on Monday.
The father appeared in court on Monday on a charge of choking. Newspaper reports said the coach finished the game after the incident and did not appear to have sustained serious injuries.

Must read from Iraq.

2005-01-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

LTC Tim Ryan is Commander, Task Force 2-12 Cavalry, First Cavalry Division in Iraq. He led troops into battle in Fallujah late last year and is now involved in security operations for the upcoming elections. He wrote the following during "down time" after the Fallujah operation.

The return of Lurch...again.

2005-01-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

In an emergency filing, Michael Newdow argued that a prayer at Thursday's ceremony would violate the Constitution by forcing him to accept unwanted religious beliefs. His request has been rejected by two lower courts.
Newdow also asked that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who is designated as the justice to hear emergency appeals for the D.C. Circuit, recuse himself because he is scheduled to swear in Bush and thus has a conflict of interest.
Rehnquist previously has sworn in four presidents since becoming chief justice in 1986.
Two lower courts have rejected Newdow's request to ban the prayer, suggesting he couldn't show actual injury in hearing it. In his ruling last week, U.S. District Judge John Bates also said the court did not have authority to stop the president from inviting clergy to give a religious prayer at the ceremony.
~Does anybody else feel like they are in a Friday the 13th movie?

No grudge here.

2005-01-18T12:37:00.000-08:00

Testifying before senators at her confirmation hearing, Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice was grilled Tuesday by Democrat Sen. John Kerry about Iraq both before and after the war to depose Saddam Hussein.
Kerry, in his first appearance at the Foreign Relations Committee since his unsuccessful presidential bid, was withering in his criticism. And unlike other colleagues, he said he was reserving a decision on whether to vote for Rice.

If you can't play nice, don't play at all.

2005-01-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

India accused Pakistani soldiers Tuesday of firing mortar shells across the dividing line in Kashmir in the first violation of a 14-month cease-fire between the South Asian nuclear-armed rivals. The cease-fire was the longest since an insurgent campaign in the divided Himalayan province began in 1989. Both countries claim the mainly Muslim, former princely state in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.
A senior army official said there were no casualties on the Indian side of the heavily militarized frontier known as the Line of Control, and Indian troops had not retaliated. "It certainly is a violation of the cease-fire. We have exercised full restraint," Maj. Gen. Deepak Summanwar told the private NDTV news channel. "Seven to eight rounds of mortars were fired. All our patrols and ambushes have been alerted."

Looks like Hamas is on board.

2005-01-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

At least six Israelis have been hurt in an apparent suicide bomb attack by Palestinian terrorists on a Gaza Strip checkpoint, reports say.
The attack came hours after Mahmoud Abbas, the newly-elected Palestinian leader, arrived in Gaza hoping to get terrorist groups to declare a ceasefire.
The Hamas group has reportedly said it carried out the latest Gaza attack.

Fat lady starts warming up.

2005-01-18T11:30:00.000-08:00

Al Qaeda is "heavily damaged," constantly on the run and so financially strapped that it is having trouble making payments to the families of its dead fighters.
"Al Qaeda Central is heavily damaged," said the official, who requested anonymity. "But they're still plotting. These guys don't do anything else."
The official provided no details on the plots or targets being concocted by Al Qaeda Central, the name U.S. officials have given Osama Bin Laden's henchmen to distinguish them from loosely affiliated splinter groups.
Bin Laden's goons have complained that slipping jihadists into the country has become increasingly hard to do. Al Qaeda reportedly has looked into infiltrating the border with Mexico, but a senior FBI official said that it has never been proven they succeeded.
"People denigrate the Department of Homeland Security but the 'target' itself talks about the difficulty of getting into this country and operating," the counterterrorism official said.
Al Qaeda Central also can no longer field teams of terrorists focused solely on operations, fund-raising, propaganda or acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Money woes also are plaguing the once-powerful terror group.
"They have financial problems, including even their ability to take care of families of Al Qaeda fighters who have gone down," the official said.

Everything comes full circle.

2005-01-18T11:22:00.000-08:00

Norma McCorvey, the woman whose lawsuit challenging the state of Texas' abortion ban led to the landmark Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion nationwide, now wants the court to change its mind.
On Tuesday, McCorvey plans to ask the high court to vacate its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which remains a lightning rod for debate.
The court allows parties to its judgments to ask the court to vacate or overturn rulings.
McCorvey, now a born-again Christian, challenged Texas' abortion ban under the pseudonym Jane Roe.
In recent years, she has become a outspoken opponent of abortion, arguing that the procedure may harm women and goes against Christian teachings.

Reflections from the gene pool.

2005-01-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

A woman fell to her death while trying to do a handstand on the railing of a second-floor hotel balcony, sheriff's officials said.
Molly Jerman, 23, of Cape Coral died Sunday. While attempting a handstand, she toppled over and dropped to the hotel patio, according to the Lee County sheriff's department.
Just before she fell, she had called out to a friend, "Watch to see what I can still do," a police report said. Foul play is not believed to be involved, officials said.