July 01, 2009

As Crusader Pointed Out So Eloquently Below

...the Honduran el presidente was attempting the Hugo-ian subversion of a happily democratic state.

..."Manuel Zelaya trampled the Honduran constitution by pushing for his illegal referendum to allow him to rule indefinitely, and by firing the top military official, Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, when he refused to comply with Zelaya's unconstitutional orders," said Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla.

Zelaya, the ousted leftist leader, ignored a ruling from the Honduran Supreme Court, warnings from the military and opposition by a sizable swath of his country's population when he maneuvered to amend his country's constitution, apparently in hopes of extending his own rule.


In light of Obama's pitiful, miserable reaction to a clear attack on a free and functioning society, I was wondering how many American Central American ex-pats had voted for him...while watching more cold-weather-state types laying down $400+ grand for Honduran beach houses last night on "House Hunters International".

Free of revolutionary tumult for generations, there's a considerable number of Americans who have made Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama home for the better part of the year, or just moved there permanently. Some established households have even started shifting to Panama and Honduras, as Costa Rica starts to tug the welcome mat back a smidge:

The Costa Rican government recently proposed several new measures in regards to immigration that could severely change the retiree and expat situation. Their aim, in theory, is to dually combat the large influx of mainly Nicaraguan migrant workers as well as the increasing stream of North American moving to the country. With the proposed increase in monetary qualifications for both prospective rentistas and pensioners, many would-be North American expats may be turned off by such a move, particularly in the current financial environment.

The Costa Rican immigration authority, Migracíon, has recently been quoted as saying that the immigration situation in the country is “out of control” and that stricter requirements are desperately needed. In response, the government has proposed to increase immigration requirements for pensioners from $600 a month to $2000 a month, while rentistas face an increase from $1000/month to $5000/month. Basically, to qualify for Costa Rican residency you will have be able to prove that your pension or monthly income equals or exceeds the amount for whichever category you fall into, rentista or pensioner.

In light of these astronomical increases, it is clearly evident that potential retirees and expats could get hosed on this one. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, the average pensioner in the U.S. receives around $1100 a month, far below the prescribed requirement. And, as the U.S. has one of the highest pension averages in the world, these requirements would have a worldwide effect; for example, Canada - a major contributor to the Costa Rican expat and retiree scene - has an average of around $700 a month.

The government in San Jose continues to claim that these requirements are “easily attainable”, which, from their point of view, is understandable. Milk the cow. If a steady cash flow continues to arrive via North America, it is not surprising that a government would try to keep pressing to see what the ceiling is; that is merely good business. However, in this case it would appear as if the proposed requirements far and away exceed any rationality.


That's pretty benign on its face, right? But (having heard first hand from a Panamanian dwelling ex-pat, whose neighborhood is swelling with migrating retirees) there are other rumblings causing a general sense of unease. So you pack up and move to friendlier environs. Easy cheesey. And you live in your American bubble that everything's hunky dory.

No one ever seems to consider the fact that the third world country they've just bought a home in could go wonky at any time ~ that rules could change overnight. It has a beach, I have a piece of paper that says I own it, the natives are friendly and I'm a U.S citizen, so why worry?

I'm having problems visualizing the Obamanator sending in the Navy (à la Bush in Lebanon) to off-load terrified American 50-somethings who don't read the paper, probably voted for him and have no clue why Spanish speaking thugs with weapons frogmarched them out of their hacienda at zerodarkthirty.

If they have any awareness of what's happening at all, I hope they have the sense to worry. Not only about the Hondurans, but ~ considering the American Precedent's endorsement of constitutional circumvention ~ whether anyone at home will answer when they light up the Bat Signal for help.



I wouldn't count on jack from this guy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:42 AM | Comments (3)

June 22, 2009

Quote of the Day

That it's from a Frenchman and not a deafening chorus of American feminists is an embarrassment.

..."In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.

"The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement—I want to say it solemnly," he said.
"It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."
It has no business ANYWHERE.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:50 PM | Comments (7)

June 17, 2009

But...Wait a Minute

... have watched with horror the new footage of violence committed against the youth almost every hour. In at least one film clip, Arabic-speaking men treat a young protester like a piece of meat getting ready to be cut in the local butcher shop. The activists report seeing many of these Arabic-speaking men among the anti-riot police force in the streets of Tehran. This poses a special problem for students committed to nonviolent protest. The cornerstone of nonviolence strategy is to talk to your oppressor, to remind him of your humanity and to show him his family members in the crowd. How do you do all that when your oppressor has been imported from abroad, selected from oppressed, poor Palestinian or Lebanese communities?
Iranians don't speak Arabic either? Somebody better tell you know who, because...
...In his speech, Mr. Obama uses to call “people of Iran”, however, translators of White House make it look as “Nation of Iranian”! This is exactly what Islamic occupiers of Iran want!
They also wants to make benefit of a short sentence that was used by Mr. Obama to say Happy New Year in Farsi! But in 3 words, 2 of them are Arabic!
So, Farsi was not the main language that was used by Mr. Obama.
...he seems to think EVERYBODY does.

Schmaybe keeping his mouth shut during the current unpleasantness isn't such a bad thing after all.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:53 PM | Comments (4)

June 04, 2009

Twenty Years Ago Today

It seems like yesterday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:35 AM | Comments (4)

May 15, 2009

It's 10 P.M.

Do you know where your kids are?

TIJUANA, Mexico — The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.


For God's sake, stay on the north side of the border, kiddies.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:07 AM | Comments (6)

April 27, 2009

Ho Boy

This sounds inflammatory enough, doesn't it? Another rampaging wife beater ambushes cops?

Two deputies from a troubled sheriff's office in Florida had no warning a confrontation with a National Guard soldier accused of beating his wife would turn deadly, the sheriff said.

Deputies Burt Lopez and Warren "Skip" York used a stun gun to subdue Joshua Cartwright, but he was able to start shooting at them from the ground. Both Lopez and York died.

"Within seconds he sat up and began firing a weapon that came out of nowhere, it was somewhere on his body we assume," Okaloosa County's Interim Sheriff Ed Spooner told more than 300 sheriff's office employees who gathered Sunday night to pray and hear an explanation of the shootings.


Dear God, I am so sorry for their loss. It is tragic beyond all reckoning. So it is with some trepidation and little law-enforcement experience that I put to you the question major dad asked me as he read this in the paper yesterday:

"Why would you attempt to arrest a domestic violence suspect at a shooting range?"

Why? Are we missing something? He's armed for sure, supposedly beats his wife, therefore prone to violence...aren't you kind of asking for a rumble? Why not wait 'til he gets home, puts the guns up and takes a shower? Or stops at the grocery store, leaving the guns in the car. Any place but 'Locked and Loaded'-ville.

What a tragedy. Even more so if it didn't have to turn out that way.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:15 AM

April 22, 2009

While the Craig's List Killer Was Getting All the Press

...in a "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" kind of way, what in the sam HELL was going on in Albuquerque?

Police ID 7th body found at construction site

Medical examiners have identified a seventh woman whose remains were uncovered from an area razed for a housing development in Albuquerque, police said Tuesday.

Police Chief Ray Schultz said Doreen Marquez of Albuquerque was 27 when she was last seen in October 2003.

Marquez was one of 11 adults and one fetus whose remains were found on a 92-acre site at the edge of the city that was being leveled in preparation for a residential subdivision. Four of the victims have yet to be identified.

...Albuquerque police have sifted through 40,000 cubic yards of dirt in the area they say is one of the country's largest crime scenes.

Yeeps and jeeps!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:57 AM | Comments (3)

April 10, 2009

Hang in There, Big Guy

We're pullin' for ya.

Report: American Ship Captain Held Hostage Failed in Escape Attempt

UPDATE: WHAT?!?!?!

...Around midnight local time, Phillips jumped off the lifeboat and began swimming, according to Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the sensitive, unfolding operations.

One of the pirates then fired an automatic weapon, the officials said, although it was not clear if the shots were fired at Phillips or into the air, and he returned to the lifeboat.

The USS Bainbridge, which is several hundred yards away, has rescue helicopters and lifeboats but is keeping its distance, in part to stay out of the pirates' range of fire.

Its sailors were able to see Phillips moving around and talking after his return to the lifeboat, and the Defense Department officials think he is unharmed.
My Disgust O Meter is clanging and I hope it's a malfunction...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:12 AM | Comments (18)

April 02, 2009

My Heart

...is BREAKING.

Afghanistan's women are no longer in vogue.

It was only a few years ago that Laura Bush, who normally shied from causes that could be considered controversial, took up their banner. "The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists," the first lady said in a radio address shortly after President Bush launched the U.S-led invasion to overthrow the Taliban following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "The plight of women and children in Afghanistan is a matter of deliberate human cruelty, carried out by those who seek to intimidate and control."

That was then. This is now:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has just signed a law that forces women to obey their husbands' sexual demands, keeps women from leaving the house -- even for work or school -- without a husband's permission, automatically grants child custody rights to fathers and grandfathers before mothers, and favors men in inheritance disputes and other legal matters. In short, the law again consigns Afghan women to lives of brutal repression.

Our kids are DYING over there for THIS? The misogynist BASTARDS!!!! (Yo, Miss Liberated Michelle!) I hate them with every fiber of my being. And WHAT are our principles coming to that we have to read a headline like THIS:
Muslim Women in U.S. Struggle to Balance Western Freedoms and Islamic Culture

...and copy like THIS:
...But while there are plenty of comforts from their home countries, Muslim women say they’re constantly caught balancing their lives between the freedoms they have in Western culture and the restrictions they face from religious and societal pressure. They worry about whether they’re following the habits of "a good Muslim woman."

...for the sake of their fanatic version of twisted, violent, demented religion? Despicable. DeSPICABLE.

In this land ~ that was founded to free people from the yoke of gods and kings ~ to tolerate such servitude and blatant discrimination and inhumanity?

It makes me ILL with rage.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:06 PM | Comments (6)

March 13, 2009

And I Bet They Get Less Time

...than Michael Vick.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:52 AM | Comments (2)

March 01, 2009

Seven More Reasons Islamic "Republics" SUCK

The bull-necked president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at the mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.


Someone definately "deserves to die" and it's not loose women.
...Kadyrov's bluster shows how confident he is of his position. "No one can tell us not to be Muslims," he said outside the mosque. "If anyone says I cannot be a Muslim, he is my enemy."

Fine. Count me in.

They're monsters.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:22 AM | Comments (3)

What a Shame They Couldn't Vote

...her off the island. And all this time I thought she had a halo and everything ~ "Newspapers dubbed her the new Joan of Arc, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy greeted her with a hero's welcome in Paris and a special service in her honour was held at Lourdes."


Betancourt Criticized By Ex-Hostage

...But the most provocative revelation of "Out of Captivity" deals with Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician kidnapped a year before they were marched into the gulag they say she dominated.

One of the Northrop Grumman employees alleges she was haughty and self-absorbed, stole food and hoarded books, and even put their lives in danger by telling rebel guards they were CIA agents.

"I watched her try to take over the camp with an arrogance that was out of control," Keith Stansell of Bradenton told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

"Some of the guards treated us better than she did."

Is it French thing?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)

February 22, 2009

Brother, Reading This?

..."This is a horrible tragedy, but it gives us a window," said Abdul-Ghafur, editor of the anthology "Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak." "The next time a woman comes to her imam and says, 'He hit me,' the reply might not be, 'Be patient, sister, is there something you did, sister? Is there something you can do?'
The chances are greater the imam will say, 'This is unacceptable."'

"GREATER"? "The chances are GREATER"?!?!?! You've got bigger problems than you know. Get your misogynist, intolerant, religious heads out your asses.

Until the day EVERY Muslim religious leader in these United States tells each and every schwinging schwanz in their mosque to keep their filthy hands to themselves, until there is outright condemnation ~ in EVERY instance ~ of the marginalization and virtual enslavement of Muslim women, regardless of WHAT the males think that book tells them they can do, you will be looked at with suspicion and DISGUST. (Kind of how I look at my liberal sisters when they conveniently ignore the subjugation of your women abroad and HERE.)

How inconvenient that this murderous asshole exposed the flaw in your whole "religion of peace wants to co-exist with our neighbor and not get glared at while shopping" charade. Until the mouths in the mosque are preaching what the mouthpieces in the street are pretending to believe (while claiming their aggrieved status as a persecuted people, no less), there will be no end to the 'misunderstanding' you all love to hold close. When, in the face of such beastiality, the best one of your "moderates" can do is hope for a "greater chance" that an imam would chastize the beater vice the beatee? As an American woman, I should accept so pitiful a response as answer to my questions about the very humanity of your religion, less mind its place in this most equal and free of countries in the world?

It makes me sick. YOU. Make me sick.

And your prevarications excusing atrocity have no place here.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:26 PM | Comments (7)

February 18, 2009

Some People Are Interpreting This

...as:

"Doncha Just Love Hamas!
Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You!"


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
­
For Immediate Release February 2, 2009
January 27, 2009
Presidential Determination

No. 2009-15

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT: Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration

Needs Related to Gaza

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the "Act"), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA


I hope they're wrong.

It could be a little more stimulating than anyone wants.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:54 PM | Comments (8)

Some People Are Interpreting This

...as:

"Doncha Just Love Hamas!
Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You!"


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
­
For Immediate Release February 2, 2009
January 27, 2009
Presidential Determination

No. 2009-15

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT: Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration

Needs Related to Gaza

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the "Act"), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA


I hope they're wrong.

It could be a little more stimulating than anyone wants.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:54 PM | Comments (8)

February 12, 2009

We Watched This on World News Tonight Last Night

...and, for reasons unfathomable, thought of Skyler immediately. I'm assuming it had nothing to do with the duct tape. {8^P

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:56 PM | Comments (4)

February 06, 2009

Right Now Watching the Octo Mom on World News Tonight

She's a whack job.

So happy we working types can help her breeding program.

Ebola Adds: "The only thing she's missing is the shoe to live in."

I think she's missing a good deal more than that...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:50 PM | Comments (5)

Remind Me Again Why the U.N.

...is always screaming the Joos are the bad guys...?

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday it has halted all aid shipments into the Gaza Strip due to interference by the ruling Hamas militant group.

...Earlier this week, Hamas police took thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:41 PM | Comments (1)

Allah Forbid That Your Ignorant, Brain-Washed Minions

...should actually be able to READ the religious ramblings.

...The book appeared among gifts left for the cleric at a major Kabul mosque after Friday prayers in September 2007. It was a translation of the Quran into one of Afghanistan's languages, with a note giving permission to reprint the text as long as it was distributed for free.

...But as some of the 1,000 copies made their way to conservative Muslim clerics in Kabul, whispers began, then an outcry.

Many clerics rejected the book because it did not include the original Arabic verses alongside the translation. It's a particularly sensitive detail for Muslims, who regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God's word.

...The country's powerful Islamic council issued an edict condemning the book.

"In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, 'Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,'" Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge's chambers waiting for a recent hearing.


In the mullahs' defense*, translating the Bible into English got one old boy in a whale of a lot of trouble, even AFTER he died...
...With the help of his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, and many other faithful scribes, Wycliffe produced dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures. They were translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which was the only source text available to Wycliffe. The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!

...the caveat being* that it wasn't last year ~ it was around 1380 A.D. .


You've got to love these Islamic know-it-all guys. It's like a constant loop of "Let's Do the Time Warp Again!"

I'd say "Groundhog Day", but that was funny and these a$$holes aren't. Ever.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:09 PM | Comments (4)

February 05, 2009

There're Ambulance Chasers, Guys Who Want the Boob Job Back And Then?

There's this guy.

The ex-husband of one of the nine people killed at a Christmas Eve party has been asked by a landlord to pay the dead woman's rent.

Broadcrest Foothill Apartment Homes claims Alicia Ortiz broke her lease and gave "insufficient notice to vacate."

Ortiz and her 17-year-old son were killed by her sister's disgruntled ex-husband.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:33 AM | Comments (8)

January 30, 2009

Someone Needs to Write This Guy

...a letter.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed former President George W. Bush for pushing Israel to "wipe out" the Hamas leadership in Gaza during his final days in office.




Schmaybe one of those left over Obama exercises meant for Imadinnerjacket. Simple fix ~ white out "Ayatollah", script in:
"Hezbollocks Jefe Hassanass Nastyassroller"

It'll get to the right orifice office.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 AM

January 26, 2009

And Here I Thought It was a "Green" Way

...to recycle those prayer rugs.

Indonesia's top Islamic body banned Muslims from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, the chairman of the group said Monday, citing concerns it would corrupt their faith.

Besides eventually ruling the world, can anybody tell me why you'd want to be Islamic? There just doesn't seem to be a lot of joy in it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:09 AM | Comments (5)

December 09, 2008

I'd Found the Concept From the Beginning

...to be a complete perversion of everything America stood for. That ~ in a shared national tragedy ~ one life lost could be judged more worthy than another. That the multi-million a year stockbroker's death should be rewarded proportionate to his earning power compared to that of the Mexican dishwasher at Windows on the World, or the maid in a corporate loo. It sickened me and still does. Conceived originally as Americans to Americans, I'm glad to see the "Solomon" who apportioned the combined largess based on wealth and status, however late the admission, feels the same.

..."The 9/11 fund, I believe, was the right thing to do because it was a patriotic act by the American people to come to the rescue of these people in need," he told Washingtonian magazine in March.

"If Congress had asked me, 'Well, what do you think of this program?' I would say don't do it again. Here in Washington, if a car bomb goes off, do not set up a victim-compensation program. Or if you're going to do it again, next time make it much simpler. Have a person with the authority simply dole out the same amount to families of all of the dead. Don't ask one person to act like Solomon and try to calculate the value of lives. To be judge, jury, accountant, lawyer, rabbi, etcetera is very, very difficult," he told the magazine.


"X" amount of dollars divided by "X" amount of victims is how it should have played out. Honestly, I DON'T give a rat's ass that your stockbroker husband with his $2 mil a year salary hadn't thought to buy life insurance. That dishwasher/maid/bellhop never MADE enough to buy life insurance, but his loss was JUST as devastating to his family, however insignificant his existence in your eyes.

The whole exercise was a travesty.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:24 AM | Comments (2)

November 22, 2008

And Justice for All

Unless, of course, you happen to NOT be a Muslim? Then not so much.

..."Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, told Reuters. "Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."

I just love those Religion of Pieces guys. I can't wait 'til the prevaricating a$$holes finally take over the world.

That'll show us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:29 AM | Comments (2)

October 23, 2008

Oh, We Learned, Alright

"At this point, it doesn't really matter," she said Thursday. "What matters is for people to know my account of what happened and for all of us to learn from it."
And you don't need a damn book deal.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 PM | Comments (2)

October 04, 2008

So. Seen Anything About Ike or Houston or Galveston on the News Lately?

Just askin'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 PM | Comments (6)

September 22, 2008

Offensive Tribal

..."Female genital mutilation is not necessarily a one-time event," Mukasey said. He noted that the board in a previous case had granted asylum in to one woman whose "vaginal opening was sewn shut approximately five times after being opened to allow for sexual intercourse and child birth."
...acts. Good for Attorney General Mukasey. Shame her liberated American sisters aren't generally as concerned.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:31 PM | Comments (2)

September 03, 2008

I've Always Wondered About the Poor Pizza Guy

And why he was killed in such a horrific manner. This doesn't really answer anything.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:16 PM | Comments (2)

August 21, 2008

Well, Lord I HOPE So!!

...Conservatives say women at the wheel create situations for sinful temptation. They argue that women drivers will be free to leave home alone, will unduly expose their eyes while driving and will interact with male strangers, such as traffic police and mechanics.
It is easier (and safer for all concerned) to get there when you can frickin' see, although judging by the picture accompanying the article...
...old girl came damn close to using the Braille method.

'Splain to me again why we need to keep sending these 7th century misogynist goat herders $700 billion a year? In the name of humanity, if ANY thing says "Drill Now!", it's that picture. Let them pull that sh*t on their own dime.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:50 PM | Comments (4)

August 19, 2008

I Guess This Means

...things haven't changed much.

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Sound depressingly, horrifyingly familiar?

Today's history slice brought to you by the Stone Age, a commenter over at HotAir...

...and Rudyard Kipling's "The Young British Soldier".

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:19 AM | Comments (3)

August 12, 2008

Once It Was Just a Big, Fuzzy Panda Bear

That would be the Archbishop of Canterbury's view of Communist China.

...But one of the things which struck me there was that we were not talking just about a moral vacuum in general, but a vacuum in what was once before the Cultural Revolution essentially something which guaranteed everyone's welfare.

The Evening Standard points out an inconvenient fact or two about cuddly communists.
..."During the Great Leap Forward of 1958-61, the guarantee ran out for 40 million Chinese, leaving them equally dead. Others survived by eating leaves and bark or, in remote provinces, babies."

Walden, author of China: A Wolf in the World? goes on to observe with a note of sarcasm: "The regime guaranteed the welfare of intellectuals, too, notably when it encouraged them to speak out during the Hundred Flowers episode of 1956. Mao then scythed them down."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:13 PM | Comments (7)

August 11, 2008

"Have You Ever Heard Him Talk So Tough?"

The CNN anchor is asking about the President who just used phrases like:

"...dramatic and brutal escalation."

...along with...
"...and is unacceptable in the 21st Century."

Tough talk. Raising tough questions:
"The question on the table is, if the U.S. cannot do anything to protect Georgia, do they [Poland, Baltics, Caucusas, etc.] then throw their lot back in with the Russians?"

Link as soon as I have one.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:25 PM | Comments (7)

August 03, 2008

I Doubt the Arab World

...would be as obliging.

More than 180 Fatah supporters who fled into Israel from the Gaza Strip were in Israeli custody Sunday, after a dramatic escape from a Hamas crackdown that left nine people dead in fierce fighting.

...The incident punctuated one of the new realities of the conflict:

Palestinian infighting has become so bitter that some Palestinians fear Israel less than they do each other.

What ever would Imadinnerjacket say about that?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:39 PM | Comments (3)

July 28, 2008

BASTARDS!!!!

Pet thefts rise as economy hits dog-gone low

Some dognappers are stealing pets for quick profit

...Black market pets There’s a black market for dogs, Peterson says. People sell them on the roadside out of vans, at flea markets, or through online classifieds. Craig’s List tries to combat this by banning the sale of pets except for a small adoption fee, but that doesn’t stop some petnappers. A Spanaway, Wash., family recently was reunited earlier this month with their stolen Great Dane after someone posted it for sale on Craig's list for $150 this month.

Kerwick, the policeman who works with canines, says that while some dogs are targeted for stealing, most dog thefts are crimes of opportunity. “The average guy doesn’t wake up in the morning and think about stealing a dog for a family member or himself, but the dog is there, there’s no one watching, and they take him,” he says.


Not mine, you don't. Not worth even trying.

I'd hurt you. BAD.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:30 PM | Comments (5)

July 21, 2008

Cast the First Stone

Eight women and one man convicted of adultery are set to be stoned to death in Iran, activists said Sunday.

Lawyer and women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, said the nine were convicted of adultery in separate cases in different Iranian cities.

"Their verdicts are approved, and they may be executed at any time," she told reporters.

...Most of the nine come from areas of Iran that have low rates of literacy and some did not understand the cases against them, she said.

One of Sadr's colleagues, Mohammad Mostafai, said his client, Malak Qorbani, had plead guilty to adultery even though she did not know the meaning of the charge.


Amazing what those 7th century secret religious police types can persuade someone to do.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 AM | Comments (7)

July 06, 2008

Reason 978 That Coddling Certain Islamic 'Sensibilities' Sucks Wind

Police: Jonesboro Man Killed Daughter Who Wanted Out Of Arranged Marriage
Victim Had No Contact With Husband For 3 Months

A 25-year-old Jonesboro woman is dead after police said she told her father she wanted out of an arranged marriage.

Police said they found Sandela Kanwal’s body inside a home on Utah Drive in Jonesboro. They said Kanwal had been killed by her own father, Chaudry Rashad.


This daddy needs to die.

Note to Islamic immigrants: When you move to the twentyFIRST century United States, check your seventh century shit at the door, yo. If you feel you shouldn't have to compromise either your 'religion' or 'culture' for western living, I think England has available space. (Plus, the police dogs tromping around your home during the homicide investigation? In England, they wear booties. Win, win, right?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:11 PM | Comments (6)

July 03, 2008

Definition of a "Whack Job"?

Right next to this picture...

...in the "W's".

...He declared: 'It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'

Have they ALL lost their EVER loving, tea sipping BRAINS?

So, I'm curious, George. What DOES it mean to be "English" these days?

IS there such a thing anymore?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:32 PM | Comments (5)

June 30, 2008

And We Should Be Pouring Dollars Into Africa

...WHY?

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was greeted with hugs at an African summit on Monday, a sign that African leaders won't shun him despite Western demands they take a tough stance over his re-election in a tainted vote.

Talk about your moral authority...they'd rather keep the hand chopping, baby burning, machete massacre going than be seen as caving to whitey. What sorry, spineless, excremental individuals, and I weep for the everyday African ~ black, white, green or purple ~ who lives his life perpetually in fear of madmen and their animals.

If that murderous, inhuman, raving lunatic gets hugs from African 'leaders' (and I use the term loosely), then Africa pretty much deserves what it gets.

If they cannot turn away from his heinous hide, I cannot abide the thought of a DROP of American blood spilled for Africa.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:17 PM | Comments (8)

June 12, 2008

NO!! You Don't Say!?!?!?!

It's gobschmacked I am. Shock and awe.

Report: Troubling texts at Va. Islamic school

The books say it’s OK for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts

McLEAN, Va. - Textbooks at a private Islamic school in northern Virginia teach students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to a federal investigation released Wednesday.

Other passages in the school's textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists."

The passages were found in selected textbooks used during the 2007-08 school year by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which teaches 900 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax and receives much of its funding from the Saudi government.

...The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel formed by Congress, last year recommended that the school be closed amid concerns that it promotes violence and too closely mimics the conservative Saudi educational system.


I mean, get the f*ck out, even! The ingratitude of it all.

We need more understanding, subterfuge, submission, repression, virgins, burquas and bombers to go with that oily, ignorant bunch of seventh century misogynists. Imagine all the gas we'll conserve if we go to their schools HERE. Think green!!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 AM | Comments (4)

June 05, 2008

Need a Biscuit?

Break a rock.

Myanmar's military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food and has stepped up a campaign to evict the homeless from aid shelters, an international human rights group said Thursday.

...In mid-May, people near the hard-hit delta township of Bogale were forced to "break rocks and level a field" to construct a helicopter landing pad in exchange for biscuits sent by the U.N.'s World Food Program, the report said.

Others in Bogale were given rice soup and shelter on condition that they cleared debris and built an official camp, the report said, adding that authorities told displaced survivors in nearby Labutta they would not receive food unless they worked.


Staggers the imagination.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:11 PM | Comments (3)

As major dad Says, "Don't Kill the SON of a Bitch"

"Let the fat, hairy bastard sit in one of those 5' by 7' rooms in the federal prison up in Terre Haute. One hour a day of fresh air and no human contact other than those friendly guards. For as long as it takes him to die naturally." That sounds about right.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said Thursday that he would welcome the death penalty for his confessed role as mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time," Mohammed told a military judge who warned that he faces execution if convicted of organizing the attacks on America. "I will, God willing, have this, by you."


I don't think we should be stupid enough to reward him with martyrdom. I HOPE we're not that stupid.

Let him rot and never be heard from again ~ finally a worthy use of tax dollars.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:32 AM | Comments (5)

June 04, 2008

Doesn't This Just Have "BITE Me"

...printed all OVER it?

Jordan Summons Danish Cartoonist on Blasphemy Charges

A Danish cartoonist and ten newspaper editors have been summoned by Jordan's public prosecutor on charges of "blasphemy" for reprinting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, it is reported.

According to the Copenhagen Post, prosecutor Hassan Abdullat has subpoenaed the 11 Danes for drawing and reprinting cartoons they say offend Islam, charging them with "threatening the national peace."

Under Jordanian law, reproducing images of the Prophet Muhammad inside — or even outside the country — is illegal under the Jordanian Justice Act, the newspaper wrote.

...But the Danish foreign ministry said that the journalists would not be forcibly deported, as the printing of the controversial cartoons is not a punishable offense in Denmark.


Islamic Rage Boy says, "See?"

"We can be reasonable."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:15 PM | Comments (6)

June 03, 2008

A Wild, Horrible Ride

A car plowed into a bike race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring 10 others.

The 28-year-old driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep when he crashed into the race Sunday, police investigator Jose Alfredo Rodriguez said Monday.


The picture is so awful, you'd swear it was a computerized frame from Death Race 2000. Unbelievable and our hearts go out to the victims.

However, along down towards the end of the article, this sentence kind of popped out at me...

...Campos [the driver] said he is an American citizen living in Brownsville.

...and I wondered if indeed he IS American, how will the justice wheels spin in Mexico compared to how they attempt to influence them here?

I think Mr. Campos falls into the category established by the preacher in the movie Blazing Saddles:

"Son? You're on your own."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)

April 30, 2008

Trust Me, We Know

..."If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully during an interview in his office in the city of Jalalabad.

His colleagues laughed approvingly. "This is Afghanistan, not America," Qayum said.


We know.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:41 PM | Comments (5)

April 29, 2008

"We Are Absolutely Funding the War..."

"...against us."
T. Boone Pickens talking to Maria Bartiromo a few minutes ago. Gobs of great information delivered in that spare, to-the-point way he has.

Oil's staying at at least $100pb due to a static 85 million bpd production, but ever increasing demand. It may drop a tad below, but not far. No place here to get any more, since ANWAR's off the table as well as western government lands. ("Got a Democrat Congress." ::snort::) So he's long on oil.

How do we get out of it? "Natural gas. Best thing we have going for us. Plenty of supply and home grown." He suggests taking NG out of power production and switching it to transportation, using nuclear, clean coal and wind generation to take up the slack. Boone's already put his money where his mouth is on the NGV idea and is getting ready to announce his financing ~ with no partners ~ of the largest wind farm operation to date (4000 megawatts), which is 6 times bigger than anything now.

Biggest surprise? In her intro, Bartiromo said, "Author of 'The First Billion is the Hardest'" and the 80 year old pointed out he didn't have his first billion made until he hit 70.

There's hope, then, if I can stay away from QVC long enough.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:55 PM | Comments (3)

April 28, 2008

The Deal With the Islamic Devil

...that the women of Iraq get to pay for.

Barbaric 'honour killings' become the weapon to subjugate women in Iraq

Murder of a girl who became infatuated with a British soldier highlights a disturbing new trend

At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass, her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood reveal the true horror of the scene.

The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone.


I lost my mind over this at the very beginning, but women's rights wound up thrown under the Mohammedan bus in the rush to get a deal ~ ANY deal ~ done constitution-wise...
..."The draft aborts the democratic process Iraqis hoped for and is a big victory for political Islam," said writer Adel Abdel-Amir. "Islamic law, not the people, has become the source of authority."..

...Language guaranteeing "rights and freedoms" is subordinate to the primary position given to Islam, opponents say....

...The prominent women's rights campaigner denounced wording that grants each religious sect the right to run its own family courts -- apparently doing away with previous civil codes -- as an open door to further Islamicise the legal system...

...Souhail said the United States, a crucial backstage player keen for a deal that meets U.S.-backed deadlines, had let the Shi'ite Islamists and Kurds in government do as they wish.

"We have received news that we were not backed by our friends including the Americans. They left the Islamists to come to an agreement with the Kurds," she said.


Damn. Their. Eyes.

And DAMN the worthless feminists in this great country, who haven't the moral fiber to speak up for our sisters around the world, who suffer unspeakable degradation, are treated so appallingly at the hands of these animals in the name of Allah. Elitest, pretentious, entitled c-words. DAMN. Their. Eyes.

I HATE slavery, which is what the Islam practiced by these inhuman beastmasters is for the women of their ugly, ignorant, foetid, bloodsoaked male bondage club. Why isn't Reverend Wright out there saying "God DAMN the Islamic male ANIMAL" when he's on his litany of injustices rant? Where's the Vanity Fair exposé on the threats Islamic women in the "civilized" world (Britain, Denmark...?) face, less mind the bestial practices in everyday life for those behind the sharia curtain?
Where's the ribbon for those women?

And these United States colluded to deprive the women of Iraq of the FREEDOM they promised ALL its people.

DAMN. GEORGE. BUSH's. EYES LIES.

I am so deeply ashamed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:28 PM | Comments (3)

I Can See Where They'd Have a Problem With Her

Iran takes new shot at Barbie, calling US doll 'destructive'

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the "destructive" cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.

In the latest salvo in a more than decade-old government campaign against Barbie, Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the doll and other Western toys are a "danger" that need to be stopped.


She's got to be their WORST nightmare. Those misogynist burqua boys're BIG on role models like this...
Official: Female suicide bomber kills 3 at checkpoint in Iraq

...but a reading, writing, voting, driving, all American Second Amendment babe...

...gets their caftans fearfully flapping. Barbie will infiltrate the darkness, never fear.
She's a freedom force to be reckoned with.

A warm Swill Salute to Supertechnogirl for her artistic masterpieces (and one great article).

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:31 PM | Comments (5)

April 23, 2008

"Oh, the South Side of Chicago Is the Baddest Part of Town..."

They need to dump whoever's playing Bad Bad Leroy Brown.

5 Shot Dead On South Side

Three men and two women were fatally shot Wednesday afternoon inside a home in the Chatham neighborhood, police said.

CBS 2's Kris Habermehl reports the victims were all adults and it was possibly a domestic incident. Police say area residents have nothing to worry about, and the situation was contained to the home.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:00 PM | Comments (9)

All your base are belong to us!


Terminator anyone? Looks like a prior Marine in Atlanta has finally figured out how to make the neighborhood safe at no cost to the taxpayer and no bodily harm to anyone and he's being sidelined for it. He built the polite, roast headed terminator.

"I cleared out when I saw it," says Matthew Williams, a 23-year-old who lives in a nearby shelter. "People are starting to get used to it. People leave right when they see it."

Atlanta police spokeswoman Lisa Keyes says the department hasn't received any complaints about the Bum Bot but Terrill will risk charges if he intentionally sprays water on someone with the cannon or damages someone's property.

So, you're liable to be sued now if you shoot someone with a supersoaker now? Or only when your large robotic friend shoots someone?

Terrill bought the bar four years ago, plowing his profit from selling an apartment complex into the smoky dive. He named it O'Terrill's, gave it an Irish theme and decorated it with knickknacks he and his wife, Linda, had lying around.

At first, he walked around, indoors and out, with an assault rifle on his shoulder to scare away vagrants, but police told him to put away the gun. Then he used a spotlight. But the bar was still being vandalized, and guns were stuck in his face several times.

His wife suggested he patrol a safer way — using a robot.

An environmental engineer by day, Terrill gathered the makings of his vigilante for three months. A three-wheel scooter gives the Bum Bot mobility. A home-alarm loudspeaker attached to a walkie-talkie gives it a voice. Its head is a former home meat-smoker. The red lights are from a 1997 Chevrolet, and it's powered by four car batteries.

Now, I'm sure there are some nice bums, but most bums (at least in the Pensacola area) don't give two shits for anyone except themselves. Also at some level, it's your fault they're a bum: at least that's what they think. Now you owe all of them money. Hell I got jumped by a bum after coming out of a club at three in the morning going to my car. Twice. Obviously not vietnam vets because their skills in the arts martial were less than amazing, but beating the crap out of someone who's jumping you is a great destressor. I did rip my favorite jeans though. My feelings for bums, thieves, or other vagrants that use the night for their dastardly deeds do be this: Terminate them. If ya can't do that, then video tape them and threaten to wet their panties.

Posted by Ebola at 10:54 AM | Comments (12)

We, the 'Bitter Believers' People

...are to blame.

U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Gangs; Second Amendment to Blame?

Officials: More Than 90 Percent of Weapons Used by Mexico's Drug Gangs Come From the U.S.

U.S. gun stores and gun shows are the source of more than 90 percent of the weapons being used by Mexico's ruthless drug cartels, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials.



The funky cold Medina in la vida loca.

A World News Tonight hack job (watch the middle video for starters), complete with machine guns, 40mm grenades and hand grenades not normally available at any law-abiding gun store we've been in.

But we're bitter about that whole Constitution thing anyway.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:49 AM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2008

"When Men..."

"...Become Gods."

And a black woman's hoax crumbles Olympus?

Stay tuned.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:38 AM | Comments (3)

April 15, 2008

We Have a Wonderfully Talented LOCAL(!) Cartoonist

...who pretty much nailed reaction to this headline:

Jimmy Carter Embraces Hamas Official


We LOVE this guy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:14 PM | Comments (8)

April 10, 2008

"Circle of Men Prayed..."

"...cried during temple raid"
Oh, I'll BET they did.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:06 PM | Comments (21)

April 09, 2008

Dhimmi Carter

...(or is that just "dim") is going to Syria to chat up Hamas. Since they're so touchy about garments over there, I asked our favoritest super EE-ville Photo-shopper genius to help me with a Pelosi primer for the former Prez.

I think he surpassed even his loftiest efforts, don't you?

Thank you, Mr. Summers.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:37 PM | Comments (9)

April 08, 2008

Remains of the Day

... The investigation began with a tip about an amateur historian who had displayed the mummified remains of a black soldier, draped in a Civil War-era uniform, in his house.
There's stiff competition in grave-robbing circles.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:08 PM | Comments (5)

April 04, 2008

In the Name of All That Is Holy: Will the Violence NEVER

...cease?

Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete has condemned witchdoctors who kill albinos and harvest their body parts in the hope it will bring prosperity.

He said 19 albinos had been murdered since March 2007, and another two were missing presumed dead in the east African country.



Targeted by birth.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:05 PM | Comments (4)

April 03, 2008

"Life Couldn't Be Better!"

"I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world!"

CBS News 1994: Mugabe Reassures White South Africans

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:53 PM | Comments (3)

BREAKING NEWS: Nasty Stuff

And they couldn't pay me eNOUGH to be there. God help those folks.

Police take journalists from Zimbabwe hotel

Troops surround hotel housing foreign reporters covering election

Security agents and paramilitary police in riot gear surrounded a hotel housing foreign journalists on Thursday.

A man who answered the phone at the hotel said they were taking away some reporters.


The man's a vicious lunatic who's been backed into the proverbial corner. And the collective blind eye the world has shown him is responsible for the demise of one of the few garden spots of Africa..

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:53 PM | Comments (6)

March 27, 2008

Fundamentalism is Islam and Christianity

The bible's got some really nasty verses, too: even some coming straight out of Jesus mouth[Luke 19:26-27]:

"He replied, 'I will tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them -- bring them here and kill them in front of me.' "

Christians ~ and not just American/European Christians ~ have a bad habit of thinking that Jesus was a non-Jewish hippy, with an easy going attitude and a great soul insurance plan.

In the end however, fundamentalist Christians don't actively pull the Hitler "I must kill everybody" button out like the charming Islamic sects do. Actually, fundamentalist Christians talk a lot of shit and then go back home most of the time.

Posted by Ebola at 06:04 PM | Comments (11)

March 24, 2008

So How Come That Restriction Doesn't Work

...for car bombs?

...But a turning point came in 2004. U.S. troops and insurgents fought fiercely in Fallujah. Zobaie battled U.S. forces in the nearby town of Zaidan, where he grew up. By mid-2005, he had grown wary of the foreign fighters and radicals, with their brutal tactics and rigid interpretation of Islam. They banned smoking, satellite television, even Pepsi because...
...the prophet Muhammad never drank it.

As major dad points out: Muhammed never drove a Hyundai, either.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:42 PM | Comments (6)

March 03, 2008

A Crisis of Faith

...I could really get behind.

After almost five years of war, many young Iraqis, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

"I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said:

"The religion men are liars...."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:30 PM | Comments (1)

February 21, 2008

I Hope They

...SCORE!!!

38 lacrosse players sue Duke, city over rape case

Former and current Blue Devils claim they suffered emotional distress

...The players accuse Duke of ignoring, suppressing and discrediting evidence that proved the players innocence, with idly standing by while the players suffered abuse and harassment on campus, and with imposing discipline that implied the team was guilty. Duke suspended and then canceled the highly ranked team’s season in the wake of the rape allegation.


Multiple direct hits, please.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:38 PM | Comments (3)

February 20, 2008

A Plot to Bump His Pudginessness Off?

You can bet his rotten teeth it's not just because of the 'ending the ceasefire' threat.

I'm inclined to believe it may also have something to do with being close to getting his sheepskin...

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is quietly resuming seminary studies toward attaining the title of ayatollah — a goal that could make the firebrand cleric and his Mahdi Army an even more formidable power broker in Iraq.

That would be a robe of a different color. I wonder if he got the message?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:28 PM | Comments (5)

February 14, 2008

I HATE

...these guys.

Saudi Arabia to execute woman for 'witchcraft'

...The Saudi court cited an instance in which a man allegedly became impotent after being bewitched by Falih, the rights group said.

An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Falih could not be sentenced to death for witchcraft because she had retracted her confession. But a lower court subsequently reissued the death sentence for the

benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country,"
the group's statement said.

So let's just whack the little lady because it's good for public morale. As far as an Saudi/Islamic man and impotence goes, everyone knows limpness has to be a woman's fault. Why do you think they promise them 72 virgins instead of 3 and a blue pill? Because they got the goods, man. For a more benign example with the same privileged, Islamic male excuse:
Breast kisser sentenced

ST. JOHN'S — An Iranian man studying in Newfoundland has been sentenced to three months in jail for kissing a woman on her breast while the two were sharing an elevator. Farhood Azarsina, 25, pleaded guilty last week to sexual assault. Mr. Azarsina, a PhD student in engineering at Memorial University, admitted kissing the top of the woman's breast while the two were on an elevator at the St. John's school on Sept. 27.

...Judge Orr said the fact the assault took place in an elevator, an enclosed space, added to the trauma.

Mr. Azarsina said he didn't realize the seriousness of the offence in this country.

"You can't expect all males to control themselves when the breasts are out," he said.
No, by God, you can't. Catmeat IS catmeat and, if catmeat calls, you need to be ready. That's why it's necessary to whack witches who wimp your wang.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM | Comments (7)

February 13, 2008

Just Whose Border Is It

...anyway?

U.S. border officers found a wire between two fences along the U.S.-Mexican border that, when stretched taut, could have seriously harmed or even decapitated Border Patrol agents, Congress was told Wednesday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:23 PM | Comments (19)

February 12, 2008

Some People Have Memory Like a Camel

Police foil plot to kill Muhammad cartoonist
Cartoonist and his wife living under police protection

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said.

The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said.


(I love how you just get 'expelled' for fixin' to murder someone. That's quite a lesson taught there.)

Reminds me of a recent Doonesbury favorite...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:31 AM | Comments (2)

January 30, 2008

Depends What Your Version of "IS...

...LAM" is. Can't have those ugly un-truths filtering through.

Malaysia bans 11 books on Islam

Malaysia has banned 11 books for allegedly giving a false portrayal of Islam, such as by linking the religion to terrorism and the mistreatment of women, an official said Wednesday.

The government ordered the books -- most of them released by U.S. publishers -- to be blacklisted earlier this month "because they are not in line with what we call the Malaysian version of Islam," said Che Din Yusoh, an official with the Internal Security Ministry's publications control unit.

"Some of them ridicule Islam as a religion, or the facts are wrong about Islam, like associating Islam with terrorism ... or saying Islam mistreats women," he said. "Once you mention something which is not correct, it's not proper."


See? No mention of a fatwah for the authors! Now that's civilized behavior.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)

January 27, 2008

"Are You Going to Kill Me Now?"

Rescue. And redemption.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)

January 24, 2008

It's Best Not to Be a Smug Beeyatch

...until AFTER sentencing, eh?

A judge sentenced a woman to nearly the maximum prison term for negligent homicide after hearing a recorded jail conversation in which she made light of the cyclist she killed.

...[Superior Court Judge] Cruikshank said he found a telephone conversation between Arrington and an unknown male friend, a week after L'Ecuyer was killed, to be "breathtaking in its inhumanity."

During the conversation, the man told Arrington that an acquaintance believed she should get a medal and a parade because she had "taken out" a "tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot."

Arrington laughed. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded, "No, it's not."


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:59 AM | Comments (6)

January 21, 2008

"Peace, Eh?"

Oh, you bet. Sing it, my brother.

Thanks, Hot Air.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:02 AM | Comments (2)

January 04, 2008

Pffft

..."I just wanted to help my daughter write a compelling story," she said. "There is no more compelling story than the struggle and sacrifices of our military and their families."
Oh, gag me. And on the Today Show, no less.

Selfish, stupid bitch.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:58 PM | Comments (10)

December 06, 2007

Something We Can All Get

...behind.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:08 PM | Comments (3)

A Gentle Reminder For Those Who Natter About Osama Bin Laden

There's a pair we've been after for longer, in a smaller place...

Bosnian Serb warcrime suspects Karadzic, Mladic evade capture

International forces in Bosnia staged a raid Thursday in the hunt for genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic, as a Serbian prosecutor said Ratko Mladic -- Karadzic's main war crimes accomplice -- remained elusive.

In a pre-dawn operation, troops from the European Union and NATO searched the home of an associate of former Bosnian Serb political leader Karadzic, who along with his former military chief Mladic is one of the most wanted men in Europe.


...and damned if they just don't scamper out of harm's way every time. They never caught Mengele either, come to think of it, and not for lack of resources

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:51 AM

November 26, 2007

I Don't Think It's So Much That the Teddy Bear

...was named 'Mohammed' (a truly bad teddy bear name if there ever was one)...

A British primary school teacher has been arrested in Sudan, accused of insulting Islam's Prophet by letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Mohammed, her school said on Monday.

Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, aged 54 from Liverpool, told Reuters they feared for her safety after receiving reports that young men had already started gathering outside the Khartoum police station where she was being held.


...but that she let her mixed gender class VOTE on what to name him in the first place.
...Gibbons, who joined Unity in August, asked a girl to bring in her teddy bear to help the Year 2 class focus, said Boulos.

The teacher then asked the class to name the toy. "They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Mohammed. Then she explained what it meant to vote and asked them to choose the name." Twenty out of the 23 children chose Mohammed.


Concepts of democracy and female decision-making are not part of the training track, I'll betcha. You can kiss Teddy Ruxpin adios.

And, in keeping with the best traditions of TRoP, the seven year old 'catmeat-in-training' accomplice is on the hotseat as well.
...The bear itself was not marked or labeled with the name in any way, he added, saying Sudanese police had now seized the book and had asked to interview the 7-year-old girl.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:15 AM | Comments (5)

November 20, 2007

The Message From the Saudis Is Nothing

...if not 'clear'.

The Saudi Justice Ministry Tuesday issued a "clarification" of a court's handling of a rape case and the increased punishment -- including 200 lashes --meted out to the victim.

...The woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes. But that sentence was more than doubled to 200 lashes and six months in prison by the Qatif General Court, because she spoke to the media about the case, a court source told Middle Eastern daily newspaper Arab News.


And a judicial system that lets you trade up for a stiffer sentence is nothing if not 'justice'.

Medieval, even.

...It said the case was treated normally through regular court procedures, and that the woman, her male companion and the perpetrators of the crime all agreed in court to the sentences handed down.

I'm sure the affirmative was nothing if not 'sincere'.
(..."Currently she doesn't have a lawyer, and I feel they're doing this to isolate her and deprive her from her basic rights," he said. "We will not accept this judgment and I'll do my best to continue representing her because justice needs to take place.")

If the lash count (as in, you know, 'blood and chunks o' flesh flying through the air, with horrific pain and scarring IF she lives') went up exponentially, why aren't those arbiters of social justice also now slicing off a couple perpetrating schwanzes? You know...blood all around! How biblical! But that would change the rules and it would seem the rules say only women bleed.

Which is okay, too, you know, since...

"...And what they were saying to me is they want to reach out. They want American women to know what they're like. And these women do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women, this group of women that I was with.

That's their culture. That's their tradition. That's a religious choice of theirs."


...she CHOSE that life.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:17 PM | Comments (5)

November 19, 2007

It's Not Enough

....Megan's parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan's death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors' driveway and encouraging them to move away.
But it's a start. The parents responsible...
...“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”
...should immediately be social pariahs in town and, if there's any justice, hounded from it by villagers with torches and pitchforks.
...Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.

“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”

Bastards. Inhuman, despicable, self-centered, monstrous bastards.

And if it had been my sweet child, I would plant myself on the sidewalk in front of their house and never move. Until they did.

UPDATE: Wow.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:58 PM | Comments (7)

November 05, 2007

There Was an Interesting Discussion About Waterboarding

...on the News Hour last week. And now I see 'waterboarding is torture' addressed in today's WaPo...

Waterboarding Used to Be a Crime

...thanks to this post on Volokh. At the end of the post is another which notes an ABC News story:
Bush Administration Blocked Waterboarding Critic
Former DOJ Official Tested the Method Himself, in Effort to Form Torture Policy

Add his name to this reporter's, this guy's, THIS guy, any given SERE School student and well, you'll understand why I found Rich Lowry's comments to be so true Friday night.
...I think waterboarding -- look, reasonable people can conclude it's torture, but I sort of apply a commonsense standard here. Journalists are volunteering to be waterboarded to see what it's like. You would not do that with any infamous, obvious torture techniques. Journalists wouldn't volunteer, "Please, pull out my fingernail. I'm really curious how that feels."

No, they wouldn't. Neither would a suit at the DoJ. I'm not a lawyer, humanitarian or volunteering myself for it anytime soon, BUT...

He makes a valid point.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:48 PM | Comments (25)

October 25, 2007

"I'm Certain That They Were Just Taking Food and Water..."

"...that regular Americans just would not consume."
Touché!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:51 PM | Comments (1)

October 24, 2007

Are You Allowed to Actually Say 'BREAST'

...to these misogynistic assholes*?

US First Lady Laura Bush arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday, her third stop in a Middle East tour aimed at promoting awareness of breast cancer and restoring Washington's image in the region.

Bush's plane landed at an air base north of Kuwait City, where she was received by Education Minister Nuriya al-Sebih, the only female member of the cabinet.


I was thinking how droll the whole campaign is ~ chattering at people who don't allow women to be SEEN (Period!) by doctors and who don't allow women to BE doctors, so maybe something could be seen. Makes diagnosis damn near impossible.

As far as the protests about 'why DOESN'T she SAY something', I think her outfit says it all, frankly.

A vision of American 'BITE me' in an uncovered head, perfect make-up and PANTS suit. You'll remember the notable suck-up who wasn't as courageous.

*Anything who can CHOOSE whether or not to wear a caftan while their women are FORCED to wear a carpet.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:43 AM | Comments (12)

October 22, 2007

Oh, San Diego...

En fuego. 250,000 evacuated so far and more to come, including my cousins who are trying to figure out how to get to Qualcom Stadium. My aunt in Carlsbad is frantic. Not only is she worried about the kids and their family not being able to make it north, my uncle (Col. USMC/Ret) took off this morning to teach a tax class to Marines getting out at Miramar MCAS. I-15 is closed and I-5 is now a parking lot. Sometimes that Irish stubborness works against you...
Live feed from the NBC affiliate.

It's staggering.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)

October 13, 2007

How Awful to Be Hounded...Have Your World Upset

...by an 'unfounded claim'.

A former Duke University men’s lacrosse coach has sued the university after resigning earlier this year under the pressure of allegations that three of his players raped a stripper, school officials said Friday.

Mike Pressler’s lawsuit apparently stems from a financial settlement the school reached earlier this year with Pressler, although school officials did not give details.

“Mr. Pressler, aided by his attorney, reached a fair and final financial agreement with Duke University in the spring of 2007,” Pamela Bernard, Duke’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. “We are disappointed that he is now trying to undo that agreement with an unfounded claim against Duke."


Ah. Irony so dee-licious, I could eat a bowl full.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:19 AM | Comments (4)

October 03, 2007

More on everyday life in Zimbabwe.......

From Cathy Buckle's blog, how would you like this plumbing bill?

A geyser in my roof burst this week and when the plumbers got it out the original price was hand written in marker pen on the side of the tank alongside a dated sticker from the shop where it had been purchased. The date stamp was from a local hardware store and was machine printed: "02. 2000" was still legible. The price, written in clear red letters was one thousand, nine hundred and eighty five dollars. The plumbers gave me a quote to repair the geyser by welding the numerous leaking joints, flushing the sludge which had gathered (thanks to our filthy and very intermittent local water supply) and reinstalling the tank. The quote was for twenty six million dollars. To replace the geyser with a new one, the plumbers quote, before labour, was for one hundred and twenty million dollars. In just seven years the price had gone from under two thousand dollars to 120 million dollars - which, in reality is actually 120 billion dollars because 3 zeroes were slashed from our currency a year ago.

At least you can get a plumber, unlike trying to get anything to eat, I suppose.

Posted by Crusader at 04:26 PM | Comments (7)

October 02, 2007

A Dust Bowl Hell Hole

...of his own making.

Ringed by a clutch of Zimbabwean soldiers clicking automatic weapons, Charles Lock handed over the keys to his farm and drove off his land for the last time.

Scores of white farmers, the last survivors of President Robert Mugabe's land grab, and thousands of their black workers are going through similar agonies.

They now face the final deadline. As from today, any white farmer still on his land will be deemed to be trespassing on state property.


Once the Garden of Africa, all their natural resources are staggering against the ropes now.
.
..The GOZ is attempting to offset this by encouraging investment from China and other Asian nations.

...who aren't as offended by tyrants and dictators, not to mention only being in it for what they can pull OUT of the country, vice build IN it.
...The economic decline has resulted in renewed shortages of food, fuel, electricity, and other critical imports. A once-thriving industrial sector is suffering. Forty-eight formal businesses closed in 2004, bringing the number of closures to 350 since 2002. The official unemployment rate of over 70% excludes hundreds of thousands of former farm workers who were internally displaced by the GOZ's fast-track land reform program.

Zimbabwe's once robust social services continue to collapse due to the economic crisis, the AIDS epidemic and the extraordinary brain drain. Over the past five years an estimated 25% of the population has left Zimbabwe in search of economic opportunities and political protection. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world, with a prevalence rate of 24.6% among the adult population. Life expectancy dropped from 61 years in 1990 to 34 years in 2003; infant mortality is 76 per 1,000 live births; and under-five child mortality is 123 per 1,000 live births.


I'll revisit one of my favorite quotes from "Dark Star Safari":
Even the kindly winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Reverend Desmond Tutu, had said,
"The man is bonkers."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:16 PM | Comments (3)

September 07, 2007

Is That a Good Thing?

To be on Bin Laden's required reading list?

...Bin Laden also recommended reading books by American authors Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst, officials said. Chomsky's book cites various examples of American imperialism, while Scheuer's book argues that the U.S. does not understand the Islamic predicament.

Personally, I'd be willing to take a pass.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:28 PM | Comments (6)

August 29, 2007

"A Lordship and Titles. Gold. That I Should Become Judas?"

Princess Isabelle: Peace is made in such ways.
William Wallace:
Slaves are made in such ways.
It's not the only way. I think the Scots could stand to see the movie again.
How Societies Commit Suicide
Scots and Italians surrender to Islam.

In an effort to ensure that no Muslim doctors ever again try to bomb Glasgow Airport, bureaucrats at Glasgow’s public hospitals have decreed that henceforth no staff may eat lunch at their desks or in their offices during the holy month of Ramadan, so that fasting Muslims shall not be offended by the sight or smell of their food. Vending machines will also disappear from the premises during that period.

Apparently the bureaucrats believe that the would-be bombers were demanding sandwich-free offices in Glasgow hospitals during Ramadan. This kind of absurdity is what happens when the highly contestable doctrine of multiculturalism becomes a career opportunity for the semi-educated and otherwise unemployable products of a grossly and otherwise unemployable products of a grossly and unnecessarily swollen university system.


A Swill Salute to Amy Alkon.

And honestly ~ keep telling those MN airport cabbies to piss off.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:54 PM | Comments (9)

July 28, 2007

How Do You Know the Guy's Effective?

When the footdragging status quos and murdering thug lobby want him gone.

Tempers flare between Iraqi, U.S. officials
Iraq prime minister reportedly wants Petraeus replaced for arming Sunnis

A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post.

...Sami al-Askari, a key aide to al-Maliki and a member of the prime minister’s Dawa Party, said the policy of incorporating one-time Sunni insurgents into the security forces shows Petraeus has a “real bias and it bothers the Shiites,” whose communities have been targeted by Sunnis in Iraq’s sectarian conflict.

“It is possible that we may demand his removal,” al-Askari said.

A lawmaker from the al-Sadr blo, who wouldn’t allow use of his name because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said al-Maliki once told Petraeus:

I can’t deal with you anymore. I will ask for someone else to replace you.

I hope Bush has made it clear this guy's bulletproof.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:19 PM | Comments (5)

July 24, 2007

Islam's Concept of 'Honor'

...just gets more 'HORRIFIC'.

A Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man.

Banaz Mahmod, 20, was subjected to the 2-1/2 hour ordeal before she was garroted with a bootlace. Her body was stuffed into a suitcase and taken about 100 miles to Birmingham where it was buried in the back garden of a house.


How convenient to have your religion excuse every manner of inhuman perversion. Sweet Mary, Mother of God/Baby Jesus/God the Father (none of whom, incidentally, require this sort of thing)...is there no end to this?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:31 PM | Comments (4)

July 13, 2007

And the Beat Insanity Goes On

Court of Appeals takes up Corrie lawsuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear arguments Monday whether there is merit to a lawsuit by the family of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old activist from Olympia killed by a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003.

The defendant in the case is Caterpillar, which made the D9 bulldozer involved in her death.

...Cindy and Craig Corrie, the woman's parents, allege Caterpillar violated human rights and committed war crimes by knowingly selling its equipment to the Israeli army, which used the bulldozers to raze Palestinian homes and endanger people. Rachel Corrie was run over by a bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier as she tried to block a home from demolition.

"We are essentially arguing that you cannot knowingly provide substantial assistance — the means to commit war crimes, which is essentially what Caterpillar has done here," said Maria LaHood, with the Center for Constitutional Rights, on the Corries' legal team.


I can see how their daughter was WHACKO impassioned enough to jump in front of a bulldozer to begin with ~ family genes will out, you know. And, as major dad succinctly notes: on these grounds? If we were Mercedes-Benz, we'd be poopin' our drawers right about now, since they've recently qualifed as 'weapons of mass-destruction'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:11 AM | Comments (10)

July 12, 2007

If the Courts Won't Play Dhimmi Ball

...then it's fatwa time!

Islamic Society of Copenhagen can’t accept the secular laws of Denmark, and therefore they plan to seek support in the Middle East for a fatwa against Jyllands-Posten, if the newspaper is acquitted in a pending civic case, which a number of Muslim organizations has initiated against the paper, and if the European Human Rights Court also makes a decision that goes against the legal demands of the Muslims.
This is tomorrows top story in Jyllands-Posten.

...”No Muslim will ever forget that the prophet was insulted,” says Kasem Ahmad.

I know a judge who lost a pair of pants who won't give up, either. For God's sake, give it a rest already.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:45 PM | Comments (2)

BREAKING NEWS

MSNBC is reporting:

President Musharraf vows to crush Islamic extremists in Pakistan

No link yet. You go, guy! Maybe Zawahiri shoulda held off on the "Kill the Pakistani!!" YouTube for a week or so.

Now they've just pissed him off.

UPDATE: Got it.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vowed on Thursday to crush Islamic extremists in every corner of Pakistan, after the captured chief cleric of the Red Mosque led funeral prayers for his slain brother.

The army crackdown on the radical mosque has raised Musharraf's standing among moderates and foreign backers worried about rising extremism in Pakistan.


But WHAT kind of whacko move was this?
...Officials released Ghazi’s body directly to his relatives, who carried it to his ancestral village in Punjab province for burial on Thursday.

Captured cleric leads brother's funeral
Police escorted Aziz, who was caught during the eight-day siege while trying to flee disguised as a woman, to Basti Abdullah so that he could lead the prayers at his brother’s funeral at a seminary set up by his father.


I'm not too sure about that. I like our "you shoot up the government, you don't get out for the funeral" way of handling men in girls' clothing here. EsPECIALLY when you know he's just going to run his mouth ~ WHY give him the platform?

These people are strange.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM | Comments (5)

July 09, 2007

What Is Wrong

...with this picture?

...Rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi told the private Geo TV network that his mother had been wounded by gunfire.

“The government is using full force. This is naked aggression,” he said. “My martyrdom is certain now.”


To paraphrase John Kerry, "Would it were so, Ghazi old boy." Gunfire woundage caused, no doubt, by your trying to steal her burkha like the other brave Islamic Presbyterian 'martyr'/aka: YOUR BROTHER who buggered outta Dodge the other day. What? No tablecloths left in the dome?

UPDATE: Rumor has it that he's martyred at long last.

The leader of the rebel mosque being stormed by Commandos in Islamabad has been killed, according to the Pakistan government.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:12 PM

July 02, 2007

Islamic Terrorists Presbyterian Carpooling

...saves gas and the environment.

One of the seven people arrested in last week's failed car bombings in London and at Glasgow's airport is believed to be have been involved in the incidents at both locations, ITN reported Monday.

Also Monday, Britain's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said at least 19 locations were searched as part of the “fast-moving investigation.”

According to reports obtained by ITN, one of the suspects arrested in connection with the Glasgow attacks was the driver of one of the cars found in London tied to the foiled bombings.


They're gonna have to work on the whole carbon offset concept, though. Flaming cars, flaming gas, flaming Presbyterians (as opposed to Presbyterian flamers) and buildings in flames do NOT reduce your carbon footprint ~ I don't care what the manual says.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:30 PM

Oh, Jumpin' Jihadi...

I sure hope there aren't any South Asian doctoral candidates/medical interns Presbyterians Googling in the U.K. any time soon.

Oy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:33 PM

June 29, 2007

Walk Like An Egyptian

...might just mean a normal gait after all.

Egypt Officials Ban Female Circumcision

The death of a 12-year-old Egyptian girl at the hands of a doctor performing female circumcision has sparked a public outcry and prompted health and religious authorities to ban the practice.

The girl, Badour Shaker, died this month while undergoing the procedure in an illegal clinic in the southern town of Maghagh. Her mother, Zeniab Abdel Ghani, told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that she paid about $9 to a female physician to perform the procedure.



Poor puddin'. As a mother who'd been through the same horror, how could you do that to your little girl?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:54 PM | Comments (3)

More Fun With Islamic Presbyterian Rage Boy

This site has Ebola...well...laughing really hard.




Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:20 PM | Comments (5)

Presbyterians at Play

Thank God they found them.

Police have confirmed that not one, but two massive car bombs were set to explode in the heart of London's West End.
The first, in Haymarket, was packed with petrol, gas cannisters and nails, and was defused after police were alerted by an ambulance crew called to an incident at a nearby nightclub.
The second was in a car that was illegally parked nearby and towed to the Park Lane car pound.

...In a news conference Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said the second car, a blue hybrid Mercedes, was parked a few hundred yards from the first in Cockspur Street which runs between Haymarket and Trafalgar Square.

It was issued with a parking ticket at around 2:30am before being towed to the Park Lane car pound where staff alerted police.


There has to be a way to track incendiary German engineering, you would think. This second one is a hybrid, so definately late model, right? It's not like they picked up a pair of trashed Yugos for a couple hundred bucks cash.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:11 PM | Comments (3)

Big Time Wrestling in a Big Time F*ck-Up

I know it's all cartoons and staged mayhem with steroid monsters. But ya think maybe there'd have been one braincell left between the lot of them that might have kicked in and whispered "Maybe a three hour tribute to a guy who just murdered his wife and seven year old son is in...questionable taste...maybe. What is your braincell telling you?"

Obviously, one braincell ~ in damage control mode ~ is saying "Nobody told us!". Amazing, when the rest of the country knew. Of course, in true, big time wrestling fashion, the real one/true braincell is saying, "Let's get that DVD up for sale, ASAP!"

WWE Monday Night Raw Chris Benoit Tribute Show 2007-06-25 XviD-SC-SDH

WWE Monday Night Raw
Chris Benoit Tribute Show
American Bank Center
Corpus Christi, Texas
June 25, 2007

This special Monday Night Raw Chris Benoit Tribute Show is deadicated to the memory of the Rabid Wolverine Chris Benoit and his wife Nancy Benoit (Woman) and their son Daniel Benoit who were found dead today in their Atlanta, Georgia area home.

...Rest In Peace Chris Benoit you will never be forgotten and you and Eddie Guerrero
are now together again!!!

StoneCold420
June 25, 2007


Rest in the fiery pits of Hell, maybe.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:07 AM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2007

With Friends Like This

...you might as well stay enemies, n'est pas?

A very serious failure occurred on the part of India's Meteorological Department (IMD) yesterday, when they failed to provide adequate warnings for a devastating tropical cyclone that hit Pakistan. Cyclone 03B, which struck the coast of Pakistan at 02 GMT June 27, has killed at least 17 and left 250,000 homeless in that nation, according to early news reports. Under mandate from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), India is responsible for warning the shores of all nations along the North Indian Ocean, including Pakistan. Cyclone 03B was at least a strong tropical storm when it hit Pakistan, and was probably a Category 1 hurricane. Microwave satellite imagery near the time of landfall (Figure 1) shows a well-developed tropical cyclone with spiral banding and a cloud free eye. Yet IMD never even gave the storm a name, and merely classified it as a a "deep depression," with winds less than tropical storm force (39 mph). At 00 GMT June 26, two hours before landfall, the position of Cyclone 03B given by IMD was probably in error by at least 60 miles. One hour later, at 01 GMT, with landfall just one hour away, the IMD shipping advisory said that landfall was still 12 hours away. The IMD website, with the warnings, was offline and not available for approximately twelve hours beginning with the landfall period. It's important not to judge IMD before all the facts are known, but I can't fathom any excuse that can account for what appears, at best, to be criminal incompetence. I hope the WMO fully investigates this complete failure of India's Meteorological Department to protect the lives and welfare of those living along the Pakistani coast.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:31 PM | Comments (5)

June 20, 2007

Sweet Jesus, I Thought This Headline

...was from Gaza at first.

Texas Crowd Kills Man After Car Hits Kid

Then the 'Texass' clicked.
A crowd attacked and killed a passenger in a vehicle that had struck and injured a child, police said Wednesday.

Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night. The man who was killed had been trying to stop the group from attacking the vehicle's driver when the crowd turned on him, authorities said.


But that's where we are, in this day and age? It's now okay for murderous mob vengeance after what, I'm assuming, was an accident? Hell, even if it wasn't an accident ~ you hold the perpetrator for the authorities.

What kind of animals were in this crowd anyway?

Damn if it doesn't remind me of that horrible photo taken the day two young, young British soldiers took a wrong turn on the streets of Northern Ireland. They tried desperately to get away, but were swarmed, pulled from their car and beaten to death. There's a haunting, heartbreaking photo taken of the one kid's terrified face peering out from the broken car window, just before the mob reaches in. God help me, it's so awful I've never forgotten it.

UPDATE: Good God. 'Animal' question answered.

...Morales was beaten to death by as many as 20 men and left lying in a parking lot, Piatt said. A preliminary autopsy listed blunt force trauma as the cause of death.

The little girl, 3 or 4 years old, was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The driver, who got away from the crowd, is cooperating with investigators, police said.

They sicken me.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:36 PM | Comments (14)

June 14, 2007

And the Flying Fickle Finger of Blame Points to

...the JOOS!

Bethlehem - Ma'an – The Fatah movement on Wednesday accused Israel of propelling the Palestinians into the current state of security chaos.

Spokesperson for the movement in the West Bank, Dr. Jamal Nazzal, told the Italian Radiotelevisione Italiana, known as RAI, "Israel paved the way for the growth of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, by destroying the PA [Palestinian Authority] departments and security forces' buildings between 2000 and the election to power of Hamas."


"Anybody moves, the cook gets it!"

A Swill salute to the American Israeli Patriot for pointing us in the right direction.

UPDATE: Does this mean they're through?

President Mahmoud Abbas will dissolve the Palestinian Authority's government Thursday after fighting between rival parties Hamas and Fatah consumed the Gaza Strip and was expected to call for a state of emergency, sources close to Abbas confirmed to FOX News.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:31 PM

So. The Money Grubbing Piece o' Shit

...won out after all.

Ruth Graham, the ailing wife of evangelist Billy Graham, fell into a coma Wednesday morning and appears to be close to death, a family spokesman said.

"She appears to be entering the final stages of life," said Larry Ross, Graham's personal spokesman.

The news came the same day Billy Graham said he and Ruth will be buried at the recently dedicated Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.


If you'll remember, we covered this last December. Ruth was pretty specific.
...Ruth Graham has told her children that she doesn't want to be buried in Charlotte. She has a burial spot picked out in the mountains where she raised five children, and she hopes her husband will join her there.

Ned Graham has been working to convince his three sisters, Gigi, Bunny and Anne, that their mother's wishes should be followed.


Well, she's 'entering the final stages of life', so what does she know? And old Billy is in no shape to battle the financial Franklin forces:
... Graham, who is 88 and suffers from fluid on the brain, prostate cancer, Parkinson's disease and age-related macular degeneration, responded by saying the decision would be his and his wife's alone.

They make me sick.

UPDATE: Bless her sweet, sweet heart ~ she's gone.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:52 AM | Comments (1)

June 13, 2007

Now Open! The Nifong School of Justice

...New Jersey campus.

Larry Peterson fought for more than 17 years to overturn his conviction on charges of rape and murder. DNA testing led a judge to do just that, in 2005.

...after DNA testing of the physical evidence used at trial revealed no trace of Peterson.

...But in April 2006, Robert Elder, a key witness for the prosecution, dropped a bombshell: He recanted his testimony.

Elder was a chronic drunk and drug abuser and had spent years in and out of county jail. He said that he made up the story that he told police in 1987 — that Peterson confessed to Harrison's murder — to get out of an interrogation that had lasted for three days.

...Without Elder's key testimony, the state's case was finished. In June 2006, nine months after Peterson's release from prison, Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi issued a statement that he would no longer seek to retry Peterson.

But he framed his decision in the negative: There was not enough evidence to persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, leaving the question of Peterson's factual guilt open to argument.


What physical evidence they have completely exonerates him. Anecdotal evidence has been recanted. No other evidence connects the man to the crime.

Mr. Peterson is looking for compensation, not surprisingly. "No one wants to hire a man who has been in prison for so long." Snapped up in the prime of his life, his earning years are behind him.

...Buckman is moving to have Peterson's record expunged. He is also filing two lawsuits: one for damages under federal civil-rights law and another under the New Jersey law that compensates people who can prove in court, by "clear and convincing evidence," that they were wrongly convicted and incarcerated.

He has to PROVE his innocence, even though the evidence that proved his guilt has been disproved and discredited. Is NO evidence 'clear and convincing' evidence? Where do you go from there?

Statements from the victim's family should sound vaguely familiar to those who followed the Nifong rampage.

...Despite the DNA results and Elder's recantation, she still believes Peterson raped and murdered her sister.

"If I had my way, Mr. Peterson would be dead," Harrison says. "At minimum, he would be still in Trenton State [Prison]."


And justice for all.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:13 PM | Comments (2)

Human Rights Abuses and WAR CRIMES?

Get the F*CK out!

'Palestinians committing war crimes'

Armed Palestinian groups have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law during recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, in some cases amounting to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday morning.

...On Sunday, Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Muhammad Swairki, a cook for President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City.


Only in that particular TWSH*, would the call to action be: "Anybody moves, the cook gets it!"

Maybe HRW does now, too.

Nah.

*Third World Shit Hole

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:25 PM | Comments (3)

Boom, Boom!

Out go the lights.

An explosion, apparently from a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker and three others, local media reported. The lawmaker, Walid Eido, was the seventh opponent of Damascus to be killed in two years in this conflict-ridden country.

Eido's son and two bodyguards were also killed in the explosion, according to Future TV, a station allied with anti-Syrian figures. Security officials had reported that the explosion killed four people and wounded 10 others.

A car was in flames and black smoke was seen rising from a narrow street off the main waterfront in Manara, which is in the Muslim sector of the capital. The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station said the explosion came from a bomb-rigged car, a method that has been used to assassinate opponents of Syria over the past two years.



"Look! Nuthin' up my sleeve!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:18 PM | Comments (1)

First Pimp and Now Sugar Daddies

If you haven't read this yet, schmaybe you should. It's not anything we didn't suspect already, but dang if it isn't laid out pretty as a picture.

Who Are CAIR's Paymasters?

Recent tax filings reveal an Islamist group that claims to speak for millions of Muslims in America actually boasts just 1,700 members. So whose interests does it really represent?

...Citing IRS records, the Washington Times reports that CAIR has suffered a whopping 90% decline in membership since 9/11. Its official number of members shrank to 1,700 last year from 29,000 in 2000. As a result, CAIR's annual income from dues sank to $59,000 from $733,000.

Yet over the same period, CAIR's revenues have bounded ahead, reaching $3 million last year. Meanwhile, it has managed to open 25 new chapters in major cities across the country.

So where's it getting its money?


Maybe where Bullwinkle gets his rabbit.
A Swill salute to the the Blogfaddah.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:27 AM | Comments (2)

June 11, 2007

Commonsense Reigns Supreme

But color me shocked. (We are talking Londonistan.)

Father in 'honor killing' found guilty of murder

Brit ordered his daughter strangled for falling in love with wrong man

A father who ordered his daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called “honor killing” was found guilty of murder on Monday.

Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a back garden.

Her death is the latest in an increasing trend of such killings in Britain, home to some 1.8 million Muslims. More than 100 homicides are under investigation as potential “honor killings.”


Newsflash, scumbag: you're not in Kansas your Third World sh*thole anymore.

It's a shame your beautiful, beautiful daughter didn't stand a chance.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:00 PM | Comments (10)

June 10, 2007

You Gotta LOVE a Religion Where EVERYBODY

...gets VIRGINS!! The New York Times thoughtfully prints a few jihadi rules. Of course, not without the obligatory whacko-scary moment while interviewing these scary whackos.

We were in a small house in Zarqa, Jordan, trying to interview two heavily bearded Islamic militants about their distribution of recruitment videos when one of us asked one too many questions.

“He’s American?” one of the militants growled. “Let’s kidnap and kill him.”


Now, back to those rules! Rule number two?
...Rule No. 2: You can kill children, too, without needing to feel distress.

...True, Islamic texts say it is unlawful to kill children, women, the old and the infirm. In the Sahih Bukhari, a respected collection of sermons and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, verse 4:52:257 refers to Ghazawat, a battle in which Muhammad took part. “Narrated Abdullah: During some of the Ghazawat of the Prophet a woman was found killed. Allah’s Apostle disapproved the killing of women and children.”

But militant Islamists including extremists in Jordan who embrace Al Qaeda’s ideology teach recruits that children receive special consideration in death. They are not held accountable for any sins until puberty, and if they are killed in a jihad operation they will go straight to heaven. There, they will instantly age to their late 20s, and enjoy the same access to virgins* and other benefits as martyrs receive.

* I have played 'Ask the Iman' with make-believe mullah major dad, who explains:

"Those worthless female catmeats who are gloriously blown to bits for Islam are immediately transformed into succulent, 20 year old virgins! Allah akBAR, baby!!!"

From this:
...to this...

...just like that! NOW we're talkin' MIRACLES.


(Print version here)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:46 PM | Comments (2)

June 08, 2007

There's a Special Place in Hell For Dogfighters

...but what REALLY frosts my hide is sh*t like this...

...“What is foreign to me is the federal government getting into a dogfighting case,” Poindexter said. “I know it’s been done, but what’s driving this? Is it this boy’s celebrity? Would they have done this if it wasn’t Michael Vick?”

This particular squandered talent, multimillionaire 'boy' is 27 years old. When does that magic 'man-flip' happen now-a-days?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:34 AM | Comments (5)

June 07, 2007

That Would Be Young AMERICAN Muslims

...Muqtedar Khan, an assistant professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware, said it’s important to consider how the question was framed: whether suicide bombing could be justified “in defense of Islam,” a powerful phrase for a community that believes the West is waging a war against Islam.

“When you ask people these questions, people are not just answering, they’re answering to suit their politics,” Khan said. “They do not want to extend any legitimacy to the U.S. war on terror.”


...he's talking about. They just need to explain what is rational about three suicide jetliners or a suicidal Ryder truck bomb in the basement or(fill in the blanks). How your religion trumping your citizenship goes hand-in-hand with being AMERICAN. Maybe it goes with being the citizen of some sh*thole, third world, misogynist cave society. Or a Somali cab driver in Minnesota. But it sure as HELL doesn't go with AMERICAN. (I also notice no Catholics were polled: "Can suicide bombing ever be justified in defense of fish on Friday?" Nor were evangelicals: "Can suicide bombing ever be justified in defense of Jesus when he fights with Santa on South Park?" No one would DARE ask those questions.)

On a lighter note, as of late April, New York City is forging ahead with it's first state sponsored madrassa. Yes, you heard me right ~ an Arabic speaking public school, which will help reinforce the all-American ideals of...well..being AMERICAN before being...um...anything else. It will, right?

Come September, an Arabic-language public secondary school is slated to open its doors in Brooklyn. The New York City Department of Education says the Khalil Gibran International Academy, serving grades six through 12, will boast a "multicultural curriculum and intensive Arabic language instruction."

...Franck Salameh taught Arabic at the most prestigious American language school, Middlebury College in Vermont. In a column for the Middle East Quarterly, he wrote: "even as students leave Middlebury with better Arabic, they also leave indoctrinated with a tendentious Arab nationalist reading of Middle Eastern history. Permeating lectures and carefully-designed grammatical drills, Middlebury instructors push the idea that Arab identity trumps local identities and that respect for minority ethnic and sectarian communities betrays Arabism."


And dang if the new principal of this school isn't out testifying that Muslims distrust the AMERICAN legal system!
Many New York Muslims are deeply distrustful of the American legal system, three local Muslim leaders said at a panel discussion yesterday in Brooklyn.

During the hour-long event, sponsored jointly by the Kings County Courts Community Outreach Program and the Interfaith Center of New York, the panelists said Muslims here, fearing government and press scrutiny, frequently fail to report domestic abuse and hate crimes.

"This is a serious issue based on a lack of trust and fear that exists in the community," a Yemen-born public schools educator, Debbie Almontaser, told several dozen judges who attended the discussion.

Ms. Almontaser, who has been named principal of the city 's planned English-Arabic secondary school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, said she participated in the panel as a Muslim American, not as a representative of the Department of Education.


Well, when Paris Hilton gets to go home after only 3 days in the cooler, I think we all distrust it to a certain extent. But I'm still not gonna vote in a poll that suicide bombing is justified in defense of the heiress, no matter what her mother or US Weekly says is cruel and unusual.

How does your religion trumping your citizenship goes hand-in-hand with being AMERICAN? 'A lack of trust and fear that exists in the community' ~ oh, yeah it does ~ because Islamics feel I'm inferior in my own country and seem willing to overlook the occasional bomb burst defensive Muslims set off when they're feeling...defensive. What will be the question on the lips of all those elitest, leftoid parents who send their children off to serve in The Silky Pony's Army of AMERICAN Love...?

Senator Edwards is outlining a new national security strategy that hinges on the creation of a 10,000-person civilian peace corps to stem the tide of terrorism in weak and unstable countries.

Mr. Edwards's plan, which he presented in Manhattan yesterday, comes less than a week after he called President Bush's war on terror a "bumper sticker slogan" and said the current national security strategy has not made America safer.


You know ~ when they wind up getting snatched up off those same unstable, weak, third world sh*thole streets like the hot light's on at the Krispy Kreme and sawed off heads're rolling like so many donut holes on a conveyor that YouTube seizes? Do you wave your cancelled check to the Khalil School building fund in outrage?

Nah. I'm dreaming. It won't be Al Franken's kid The Silky Pony's Army of AMERICAN Love left unprotected in Khartoum. Or any of the Jolie-Pitt's. Not the ones who send money enabling others to do the WORK of their 'causes' for them. You could call the concept the 'conscience offset system'...if they had one. It'll be the same kids from the same families that are serving and dying now ~ the ones who believe in something.

And what happens when the guy in the video holding the head turns out to have graduated from a NYC public madrassa?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 PM | Comments (8)

This Was Kind of a Surprise

...in Cindy Adams' column today.

. . . Claus von Bulow, of that famous attempted murder trial (wife Sunny still lies comatose a quarter of a century later), battling prostate cancer . . .

I thought she'd left this world long ago.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:12 PM

June 04, 2007

Gracious!

Was it really eighteen years ago?

Our thanks to the Gateway Pundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 PM | Comments (3)

Is It Any Wonder

...that we have NO CLUE what these Presbyterians are talking about? This is written in "ENGLISH" on one of their happy fatwah/catmeat boards, but...honestly here, Shriners. WTF?

"...or fulfilling his dua of jihad as fard ayn..."

They're debating the merits of the twelve year old who sawed off some poor unfortunate's head. No one is doing the Eddie Izzard part : "Ooooh, bad! Very unsocial behaviour! Saw, saw, hack, hack ~ no cake or death! Or jam!" No one is condemning this as something, God forbid, uncivilized, and wholly inappropriate for twelve year olds to even have KNOWLEDGE of, less mind actually COMMIT the atrocity with film at eleven. These creatures whom with we share a planet are critiquing the act like a presidential candidate might examine his fuzzy navel, vice condemning the culture that makes such an act possible. Vice condemning such a gruesome and inhumane, cowardly and despicable act itself. These Islamic fucking loons are awarding virtual style points instead of wondering what sort of life they're condemning their children to. They're more worried about the video 'spin' than the head bouncing across the floor and the monster they just created. Like he's ever going to worry if his mother is beaten to death or his sister raped and stoned to protect the family honor from this point on?

Or worry when the faction that supported the pater familia switches sides, and the cheering goons in black clan gear need to be taken out. Talk about your Mickey Mouse operation...

UPDATE: In the comments, Mike says "We can't kill enough of these people."

Mike is right.

Militants to release video of GIs' capture in Iraq
Web site says video clips will show seizure of 3 Americans in mid-May

An Islamic militant Web site said Monday it would soon release video clips showing the capture of three American soldiers who disappeared following an ambush in Iraq in mid-May. The body of one soldier was later found, but the other two remain missing.

The video shows the kidnapping as well as footage from after the attack, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which said it had obtained the 10-minute, 41-second clip.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:11 AM | Comments (4)

June 02, 2007

Ummm...

Duh.

Empowering Arab women would help prevent increased radicalism within Muslim society in Israel and the Middle East, according to Ephraim Halevy, a former head of the Mossad and the National Security Council.

"If women are truly empowered in politics and society and are thus allowed to become a major social force in the work place and within the family, the direction of the future of the Middle East will be much different than it is today," said Halevy...


Of course, since it's so much more exciting with the cat meat crazies running things...
A radical Islamic group in the Gaza Strip issued over the weekend a death threat against Palestinian women working for the official Palestinian Authority television station, accusing them of dressing immodestly and behaving in a way that violates the teachings of Islam.

The threat, the first of its kind against female employees of Palestine TV, was made by the Righteous Swords of Islam, a relatively new group that is believed to have links with al-Qaida.


...probably a normal, civilized world would be downright pedestrian. No more made-up, secret jihadi du jour clubs, with their goof ass names: "Swinging Sacred Swords of Shannara", "The Prophet's Purveyors of Sword Fish and Cat Meat Comestibles", or even "Dull Wilkinson Swords for Islam" for that matter.

Be a damn shame to lose all that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:45 PM | Comments (5)

May 24, 2007

I'm Sure They Could Find the Pope and Bin Laden Share Responsibility

...for this, if they really wanted to. I mean, they've got just about everybody else.

The father of Josh Hancock filed suit Thursday, claiming a restaurant provided drinks to the St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher even though he was intoxicated prior to the crash that killed him.

The suit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court by Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., does not specify damages. Mike Shannon’s Restaurant, owned by the longtime Cardinals broadcaster who starred on three World Series teams in the 1960s, is a defendant in the case along with Shannon’s daughter, Patricia Shannon Van Matre, the restaurant manager.

Other defendants include Eddie’s Towing, the company whose flatbed tow truck was struck by Hancock’s sport utility vehicle in the early hours of April 29; tow truck driver Jacob Edward Hargrove; and Justin Tolar, the driver whose stalled car on Interstate 64 was being assisted by Hargrove.


So, if your car poops out on the highway, make damn sure there's no DRUNKS on the highway miles behind you, because it's your fault if the DRUNKEN bastard hits someone else and miraculously only kills himself.

You can't say I didn't warn you.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:53 PM | Comments (17)

May 22, 2007

If You Could Talk to the Animals, Just Imagine It!

Thinks of all the things you could discuss!

Supporting Vick
Skins Portis, Samuels ridicule dog fighting as crime

Washington Redskins players Clinton Portis and Chris Samuels defended Michael Vick on Monday by ridiculing the notion that dog fighting is considered a crime.

... "I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not," Portis said. "But it's his property; it's his dogs. If that's what he wants to do, do it."

Portis said dog fighting is a "prevalent" part of life.

Portis, a native of Laurel, Mississippi, added: "I know a lot of back roads that got a dog fight if you want to go see it. But they're not bothering those people because those people are not big names. I'm sure there's some police got some dogs that are fighting them, some judges got dogs and everything else."

"Politicians," added Samuels, who found it hard to keep from giggling while Portis was talking.

...Portis said that if Vick is charged and convicted, "Then I think he got cheated. ... You're putting him behind bars for no reason -- over a dog fight."

"Haven't you seen Animal Planet?" Samuels added with a giggle.


Make that 'think of all the things that could disgust'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:12 PM | Comments (7)

May 17, 2007

I've Got a Update

...on the murder of Cpl. McKay by Bode Miller's cousin. There's a little more background on the friction between the two familes and a line that the murder has 'split the town'. Well, pinheads they may be there, the poll on the page is overwhelmingly on the side of Cpl. McKay.

It mentions that Bode Miller is 'royalty' in that town. Knowing the little I do of that bastion of modern maturity and responsibility's regard for anything other than himself and his own indulgence of the moment, I would urge Franconia to adopt Bosnian orphans or one of Queen Elizabeth's brood in their quest for 'royalty', vice a miserable example of homegrown corrupted gift and privilege.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:55 PM | Comments (8)

May 13, 2007

If This Doesn't Define "DIRTBALL"

...I'll be damned if I know what does.

A cousin of skiing star Bode Miller fatally shot and ran over a police officer, then was killed by a passer-by who grabbed the officer’s gun.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said Liko Kenney shot Cpl. Bruce McKay four times, then ran over him with his car after a traffic stop Friday night.

Gregory Floyd, who was driving by with his son, grabbed McKay’s gun, then shot the 24-year-old Kenney when he refused to put his gun down, Ayotte said.

...Bode Miller, who had bailed his cousin out of jail once, was on his way home to Franconia, his father said. In 2005, Bode Miller was fined $250 for going 83 mph in a 40 mph zone in his hometown of Franconia. According to an article published on Sports Illustrated’s Web site, SI.com, Miller said he chose to contest the ticket “to try to get my fine reduced and to antagonize McKay.”


Bode Miller's dad is already making with the 'he brought that shit on himself' spin. Charming. So it's not just Bode Miller who's the lazy, arrogant piece of shit. It's his whole family.

I sure hope his ritzy racing sponsors read this all the way to the bottom. Imus pales in comparison.
UPDATE: HAH! Why am I not surprised who stepped in and took charge?

New Hampshire authorities said yesterday that they will not press charges against a former Marine who stepped into a deadly shooting and killed a 24-year-old high school dropout who had moments earlier fatally shot a police officer.

The former Marine, Gregory W. Floyd, 49, was driving with his son along Route 116 in Franconia on Friday night when he saw Liko Kenney, 24, shoot Franconia Police Corporal Bruce McKay, 48, four times in the torso. After Kenney drove his Toyota Celica over McKay as the officer lay on the ground, Floyd grabbed the officer's service weapon and shot and killed Kenney. . . .


OO-RAH, Mr. Floyd and Bravo Zulu to you, sir!

We extend all our heartfelt sympathies to Officer McKay's family.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:50 AM | Comments (8)

May 08, 2007

WHAT?!

UnFRICKIN' believable, the limp Richarded corporate toadies dhimmis. Nobody's ever made time for me to dance naked with a bleeding headless chicken either and maybe they should have.

Let me rephrase. I'll make DAMN sure they DO, the next time I hold a payin' job.

HotAir lets Minnesota Somali cabdrivers know where the real pushovers are.

UPDATE: After getting my panties in a wad (Upon getting dressed after returning inside from uninhibited ritual dancing, of course. The bird carcass could be tough to explain...), I have noticed said inflammatory article is dated March 2005. Hmmmm. I wonder what's happened in the meantime. Hold that outrage for just a sec.

UPDATE Redux: Okay, stay outraged. So far I have a REALLY interesting article about how different corporations handled the problem. Dell we know about. WHIRLPOOL, on the other hand, decided to 'just say NO'. Good for them.

...Big employers in the Nashville area have responded in drastically different ways to their Muslim employees' requests to slip away from their workstations for about five minutes to pray.

For example, Whirlpool Corp. chose last year to take a similar dispute before a federal jury, which agreed with the company that the employees' sunset-prayer request created an undue hardship on the La Vergne plant's production schedule.


I have all Whirlpool appliances, anyway. However, another of my favorite slimy corporate targets went along with caving to Muslim demands...
...In 2001, Tyson Corp. opened a processing plant in Goodlettsville, where it packages meats for the region's grocery stores.

The plant's human resources director said the plant has two Muslim prayer areas. The company also posts the daily prayer times and accommodates the workers by rotating them off the production lines every evening when the sun goes down.

''Yes, it's a challenge for some of our managers because they have to move some folks around,'' said Tyson's Gary Denton. But the company is determined to make it work.

''The way we look at it, we're a company of diverse people.''


...giving me all the more reason not to buy their crappy products. And, as ever, these things are facilitated by intellectual sounding, 'I feel your pain' gobbeldeegook and claptrap.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:35 AM | Comments (9)

May 07, 2007

BREAKING NEWS

MSNBC is reporting:

Man killed as backpack explodes in Las Vegas hotel parking garage

No story link yet.
UPDATE: Got it. Oh, man.

1 dead, 1 hurt in Las Vegas parking lot blast
Explosion occurs in parking garage behind Luxor hotel-casino

A backpack exploded in a parking garage attached to a Las Vegas hotel early Monday, killing a man who had picked it up and injuring another person, authorities said.

The man had removed the backpack from atop his car when it exploded shortly after 4 a.m. on the second floor of a parking behind the Luxor hotel-casino, said Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman.

The second person was taken to an area hospital.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:34 AM | Comments (10)

May 04, 2007

I Got Dibs on the T-Shirt Line

Neighbor takes in needy woman, talks marriage, then kills her
When Lisa Salisbury was evicted from a nearby trailer park, Tony Eugene Phillips invited her to live in his house with him, his mother and his two children.

"I was raised to help people out when I could," said Phillips, a construction worker who lived on Bush Street near Ensley.

He and Salisbury eventually became lovers. Then he killed her.


Nasty business, locally. First rule of thumb? If you're a cavalier, murderous BAStard, DON'T take the stand in your own defense. Especially against a lady prosecutor. I've met her. I don't think she has a sense of irony, less mind humor.
...Because he wanted her body to sink quickly, Phillips said he tried to cut off her head with a keyhole saw often used to cut Sheetrock.

That effort failed, but her body sank eventually, and he went home to bed.

...Sounding almost cavalier, he explained why he washed the saw before going to work after he killed Salisbury:

"You don't want to get blood on Sheetrock."


Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:49 PM | Comments (6)

April 24, 2007

The Catmeat Cover-Up Crack-Down

Iran arrests 300 ‘insufficiently veiled’ women
Ahmadinejad cracks down after dress code was loosened over the years

With the arrival of spring, Iranian police have launched a crackdown against women accused of not covering up enough, arresting nearly 300 women, some for wearing too tight an overcoat or letting too much hair peek out from under their veil, authorities said Monday.


In light of this encouraging news from that beacon of Middle Eastern freedom and Islamic rationality, Hugh Hewitt's interview with Frank Gaffney ( of the PBS suppressed "Islam vs. Islamists") couldn't be more timely.

Unfortunately, I think the only ones who'd give a hoot are those of us who already do. Those of us advocating a single sheet of toilet paper, on the other hand, could care less about the subtle distinction between crap and shiite.

UPDATE: Oh, I am loving these quotes!


... "Mr President, I wonder if what the police, supervised by your interior ministry, are doing to women stems from a misunderstanding?" asked Masih Alinejad, a columnist in the Etemad Melli daily.

"Or are people's major problems of injustice and poverty have been resolved?" he asked.

Alinejad recalled that Ahmadinejad asked during his 2005 electoral campaign whether the problem "in our country was two strands of women's hair or fighting poverty, creating jobs and implementing justice?"

Two-thirds of Iran's 70-million population is under 30 and the official unemployment rate stands at about 11 percent. Economists have warned against rising inflation, estimated to hit 24 percent in the current Iranian year.

Even the hardline daily Kayhan said that "being badly-veiled is not the only vice" in the country.

"There are major vices such as going to bed hungry, being deprived of higher education, unemployment and the inability of a large number of people to provide for their basic needs," it said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 AM | Comments (1)

April 19, 2007

Laugh Of The Day

Let's say you were head of a state college in New Jersey and you wanted to hire someone to teach a course on law, ethics and leadership; what qualities would you look for in the candidates to best impress on your students the importance of these ideas? How about honesty? Or maybe proven integrity in their personal lives so they could really be inspiring teachers of the next generation of leaders.

Well, if you're in charge of hiring at Kean University in Union we know who you thought to be the perfect candidate:

James E. McGreevey, who resigned the governorship under a cloud of scandal, has a new job teaching law, ethics and leadership at one of New Jersey's public colleges.

McGreevey is now an "executive in residence" -- a combination teaching and consulting post -- at Kean University in Union, where he is earning $17,500.

..."For a university like us to have the ability of a former governor -- for what we pay him -- it's an opportunity for our students we shouldn't miss," Kean President Dawood Farahi said in an interview yesterday. "It's an unbelievable opportunity for us."

I was prepared to make some snide remark, but luckily I found someone else to make it for me

State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson, a longtime critic of McGreevey, disagrees.

"It seems to me," Wilson said, "Jim McGreevey teaching law and ethics is a little bit like Doctor Kevorkian teaching health maintenance."

Hehehe.

(h/t to LawHawk)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:29 PM | Comments (5)

April 17, 2007

Bless His Brave Heart

...Screams followed an instant later, and the banging continued. When students realized the sounds were gunshots, Calhoun said, he started flipping over desks to make hiding places. Others dashed to the windows of the second-floor classroom, kicking out the screens and jumping from the ledge of Room 204, he said.

"I must've been the eighth or ninth person who jumped, and I think I was the last," said Calhoun, of Waynesboro, Va. He landed in a bush and ran.

Calhoun said that the two students behind him were shot, but that he believed they survived. Just before he climbed out the window, Calhoun said, he turned to look at his professor, who had stayed behind, apparently to prevent the gunman from opening the door.

The instructor was killed, Calhoun said.


Sweet Jesus.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:17 AM | Comments (5)

April 16, 2007

Overheard During the VATech Press Conference Just Now

Reporter: "Do you have a procedure to lock down the campus?"

VATech Official: "It's not in my communication plan."


Considering they had an on campus shooting in August, perhaps it should have been.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:00 PM | Comments (6)

April 11, 2007

So the N.C. Attorney General Has Done the Right Thing

...and in no uncertain terms:

"...Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges."

Alrighty then. Since Imus got us all prepped and we're in an apologizing mood, where's Rev. Al's and Jesse J's,

"Sorry 'bout that. No malice intended, you understand."
...to the Duke lacrosse players?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:01 PM | Comments (4)

April 04, 2007

Proof Positive the Surge ISN'T Working

Since Friday, eight people have been murdered in New Orleans despite the addition of National guard troops, state police and Federal agents. And the killing is done at point-blank range in broad daylight, leaving neighborhoods fearful and police frustrated.

What amazes even federal investigators about New Orleans crime isn't the violence, but the silence.

...Four men were killed Monday alone, bringing the number of murders in the city so far this year to 53. That compares to just 17 for the same period last year. Yet police are frustrated by crime scene after crime scene where many people watch but nobody talks.

..."Of course it's going to get worse until they treat poor people better," [Rev. Robert] Brown says.

But University of New Orleans criminologist Peter Scharf says the answer may be much more complicated, and so far has eluded even a beefed-up federal presence.

"Things that everyone thought would work, didn't," Scharf says.


Killing is definitely the antidote to being poor. Quicker by far than getting an education and/or a job, so it's no wonder they're blasting the beejeezus out of each other, right Rev. Brown?

On a side note, major dad and I had a back and forth the other day about just how long folks ~ claiming to be from New Orleans but living a gazillion miles and eight states away, with no intention of returning ~ will be allowed to vote as 'residents'. Do they cut-off the displacees within a reasonable time frame and have half a hope to turn the city over to it's RESIDENTS or...do they foster a virtual roaming NOLA gypsy nation, who shoulder none of the responsibilities of rebuilding, but dictate policy/doom the city to Nagin clones by virtue of absentee ballots?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 PM | Comments (6)

March 26, 2007

Thanks For Sending Me This

...Sharon darlin'.

His name is Bob Parks.

I like him a lot.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 PM | Comments (6)

March 22, 2007

Our Resident Kos-ite Commentor Would Say

...that we made them do it.

Iraqi Police Say Children Used As Decoys

Police said Wednesday that children were used in a weekend car bombing in which the driver gained permission to park in a busy shopping area after he pointed out that he was leaving his children in the back seat.

The account appeared to confirm one given Tuesday by a U.S. general. He said children were used in a Sunday bombing in northern Baghdad and labeled it a brutal new tactic put to use by insurgents to battle a five-week-old security crackdown in the capital.

...He said it was the first reported use of children in a car bombing in Baghdad.

"Children in the back seat lowered suspicion, (so) we let it move through, they parked the vehicle, the adults run out and detonate it with the children in the back," Barbero told reporters in Washington. "The brutality and ruthless nature of this enemy hasn't changed."


C'mon, Calley. Justify away.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:21 AM | Comments (1)

March 20, 2007

A Update on Saving Your Bacon

...and time at Target.

Target is transferring cashiers who avoid pork
Some Somali Muslims say the retailer is overreacting to customer criticism.

"Overreacting to customers" should be the first rule of customer service, I would think. These people have no clue about free enterprise in what should be a religion free zone. I won't comment further, because then elimosa will show up and natter on about circumcision and Bingley will cradle his crotch and moan like an accident victim and then we'll hear Jesus never died and...I can't take any more of it. Clueless and willfully ignorant are two different things and I'm not indulging the porkless pretenders at this point.

Anyways, a warm Swill salute to Dave for pointing out the latest. Happy Spring!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:29 PM | Comments (8)

March 15, 2007

Good Old CAIR ~ Champion of the Tortured, Downtrodden

...and bacon-free.

...A customer's personal preferences is usually not a factor in deciding whether a religious practice is protected in the workplace, noted Khadija Athman, national civil rights manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.

The customer in question would be the poor soul standing in line at TARGET. Wrapped up in her traditional Muslim garb, the CHECKOUT GIRL scans the customer's eggs along with her milk ~ everything right up to that filthy package of....BACON. Which the TARGET EMPLOYEE REFUSES to TOUCH. Another checker has to be called over to perform the scan and voilá; all is right with the world. The Minnesota Muslim world. Not the customer whose purchases are paying the tab to hire this person and who just got dissed. Maybe even hugely inconvenienced if the store is busy and a stunt double cashier isn't readily available, not to mention the fact that said checker's actions publicly declared part of her humble order was unclean and unfit to be touched.

We're supposed to be understanding...

...He [Dr. Shah Khan, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley] urged people to remember the extraordinary adjustments many Somalis have made in coming to the Twin Cities. "Many of these people are refugees. They may have been tortured. And they came here having never held a book in English," he said. "They're already adapting to our society. We need to adapt to them, too."

...but damned if I don't think Dr. Khan has it ass backwards. I know life sucks there. I watch the news. And, bless their hearts, they made it here. BUT. "The extraordinary adjustments...made in coming"? Were they forced to come here? I'm sure no one's torturing them in St. Paul and the difference should be readily apparent. WE need to adapt to THEM? I think not. We need to show compassion, offer support and get them locked into truth, justice and the American way ~ which will reward them quite handsomely, as I'm more than sure they're aware ~ but they don't get to change sh*t up to suit THEM on top of a piece of that big apple pie. I'm so, SO sick of this. Just sick.

I've got half a mind to let Target know how I feel. So, everyone lament at Dave's, 'cause he gets to experience this crap first hand and thank Ken for finding Dave's post first.

F*ck the American consumer and the right to buy bacon free of hinderance.

Jeez. I'm just gobschmacked.

UPDATE: Big duke 'em outs going on about this on the MN Buzz board, but DANG if I can't help myself cherry picking one of the comments ~ it's a dhimmi classic.

Her religion is first and foremost.

Let's not loose our cool over a piece of meat, and get all bend out of shape over it. When you open your doors to group of people you don't share much with, there is bound to be some culture/religion clashes. If Target doesn't have a problem with this system, you as the customer shouldn't either. Everyone came to America one way or another, so instead of telling the Muslims to go back to their countries why don't you simply go to another store. And PLEASE, do not beat the patriotic drum for us, it will only fall into a deaf ear.


Someone seems confused by the whole concept of 'retail'. The store doesn't dictate to customers what they can expect from customer service and if customers go away, so does the store.

I'm really feeling cranky now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:30 PM | Comments (35)

March 13, 2007

Sweet Baby Jesus

...along with all the gods and little fishes ~ this beats "Twinkie defense" all to hell.

Jury considers death for child-killer Couey
Defense argues man who buried alive 9-year-old has ‘mind of a child’

...“John Couey sits here today a 48-year-old man with the mind of a child,” defense lawyer Alan Fanter said. “A lot of things happened in Mr. Couey’s life, and to Mr. Couey, that he had no control over.”

Couey also was born prematurely and suffered from a birth defect of “floppy ears” that caused him to be bullied and teased in school, Fanter said.


So the defense is "when bad ears happen to bad people, it's not their fault if things go...badder?"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:42 PM | Comments (10)

March 07, 2007

Fucking Sick Little Weasel

Couey guilty in Lunsford murder case
Drifter convicted in kidnap, rape and suffocation of 9-year-old Fla. girl

...Her body was found in a shallow hole, encased in two black plastic trash bags. She had suffocated, and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin.

The jury next must decide to recommend whether Couey, 48, should be sentenced to death.

...The medical examiner, Dr. Steven Cogswell, testified during the trial that he found injuries consistent with sexual assault. He concluded the little girl suffocated after being buried alive, and said that she had managed to poke two fingers through the plastic bags before she died.


I think we can get all the bastard's body parts into one bag and save the state some money.

Of course, he doesn't get to wiggle his fingers either.

Makes it more like 'justice' that way.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:39 PM | Comments (12)

February 14, 2007

Has Anyone Checked the Local

...binjo ditches?

The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Wednesday that Muqtada al-Sadr has left the country and is believed to be in Iran, despite denials from the radical Shiite cleric's supporters.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:04 AM

February 13, 2007

"Is That Fissionable Material in Your Pocket

...or are you just glad to see me?" 'Denial Central' comes face-to-face with an inconvenient truth.

Iran on course for nuclear bomb, EU told
Iran will be able to develop enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear bomb and there is little that can be done to prevent it, an internal European Union document has concluded.

In an admission of the international community's failure to hold back Iran's nuclear ambitions, the document – compiled by the staff of Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief – says the atomic programme has been delayed only by technical limitations rather than diplomatic pressure. "Attempts to engage the Iranian administration in a negotiating process have not so far succeeded," it states.

..."At some stage we must expect that Iran will acquire the capacity to enrich uranium on the scale required for a weapons programme," says the paper, dated February 7 and circulated to the EU's 27 national governments ahead of a foreign ministers meeting yesterday.

"In practice . . . the Iranians have pursued their programme at their own pace, the limiting factor being technical difficulties rather than resolutions by the UN or the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The problems with Iran will not be resolved through economic sanctions alone."

The admission is a blow to hopes that a deal with Iran can be reached and comes at a sensitive time, when tensions between the US and Tehran are rising. Its implication that sanctions will prove ineffective will also be unwelcome to EU diplomats. Only yesterday the bloc agreed on how to apply United Nations sanctions on Tehran, overcoming a dispute between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar.


How do you solve a problem like a whirling nuclear dervish?

And 'head-tilt' on my count, in...three, two, one...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2007

Did Anyone Else See Bashar al-Assad on World News Tonight Last Night?

Gosh. He seems like such a nice guy. And Diane was really tough...

Sawyer: But in America they believe that you are all powerful, and you say the word and the border [crossings into Iraq] will stop.

Assad: Powerful is different from being omnipotent — power that you can control everything completely. You cannot control your border with Mexico, can you? You're the greatest power in the world, you cannot control it with Mexico, so how do you want Syria to control its border with Iraq?


....(Oooo, ZING!) and you still just wound up wanting to hug him.

I think Forest Whitaker should play him in the movie version.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM | Comments (7)

January 31, 2007

Maybe They'd Chill Out

...if they could loosen up.

Predominantly Muslim Pakistan, where most people are banned from drinking alcohol, is set to get a domestically produced, 20-year-old single malt whisky, an official at the company making the drink said Wednesday.

The malt whisky is due to go on sale in July to non-Muslims and its makers are not expecting huge sales.

"There is also a ban on export of alcoholic beverages abroad so this whisky will only be available to a few in Pakistan," said Mohammad Javed, general manager at the Murree Brewery.


I give that factory about a week and a half before barrels go up in flames.
And is THIS the kind of religious mollycoddling/appeasement we have to look forward to, once Islamic cab drivers get their way?
...Muslims, who make up the vast majority of Pakistan's more than 150 million people, have been banned from drinking alcohol in the country since 1977.

Until then, alcohol was legally available for Muslims in bars and restaurants but then prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who is said to have enjoyed an occasional drink, imposed the ban to shore up support from Islamists.


Oh, in a pig's eye!
Throttle your bottle and shout:
"Hell NO, we won't let go!!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:35 AM | Comments (3)

January 26, 2007

The Islamic Version

...of "Baby Boom"?

A dramatic surveillance video released today by Scotland Yard shows a suspected terrorist placing his explosive-laden backpack next to a mother and her child riding on a London subway car.

...On the tape, other passengers on board the subway car can be seen trying to get away from Mohammed except for a fireman, Angus Campbell, who bravely stayed to confront Mohammed.

Prosecutor Nigel Sweeney told the jury, "Mohammed said not that it was a bomb but rather, 'What's the matter? It is bread; it isn't me,' pointing at the backpack."


Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:45 PM | Comments (4)

Set the Professor's WayBack Machine to


...1994.

Irony, thy name is "Rather".

A warm Swill salute to Mike.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:21 PM | Comments (2)

I'm Sure This is Comforting to All Concerned, BUT

...if I remember correctly, they can't handle the ones that are already there.

Plan to tighten UK border controls

Moves to strengthen Britain's borders may see more passengers checked by immigration staff before they even get on a plane, under new legislation.

A leading immigration expert said that he expects the Government's UK Borders Bill to include plans to introduce more passport checks by British staff based overseas.

Similar schemes already operate on the Eurostar train service from France.

Checking that a traveller is allowed to visit the UK before they set off eliminates potential illegal immigrants from being able to claim asylum when they arrive in the country.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:08 AM | Comments (3)

January 24, 2007

Lyin' (?) Eyes

...get second sight.

A Michigan woman who lost a small-claims case because she refused to remove her veil while testifying has been granted a new hearing, court officials said.

Ginnnah Muhammad, 42, will appear before the same judge who told her last October that she had to remove her niqab -- a veil with only a small opening at the eyes -- so he could gauge whether she was telling the truth.

When Muhammad refused, Judge Paul Paruk ordered her to pay a rental car company for damage to a vehicle she rented. Muhammad appealed his ruling.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:16 PM | Comments (3)

About Those Flying Carpets

...in our story. Heidi's done a lot more digging and every rock seems to turn over with a new rock underneath. So what happens next?

HAHAH!! WE’VE BEEN HACKED.
AND WE’RE BEING SLAMMED BY PROXIES OUT OF CHICAGO AND MILWAUKEE.
YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?
WE’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK.

Our website was hacked and this article was removed. Everything was gone - trackbacks, comments, etc. See our post management page? GONE. All of it.


Sounds like a nerve was touched somewhere. And oh, how clumsy! Maybe in Pakistan it goes away for good, but here?

Just darn pisses people off, doncha know.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:56 AM | Comments (2)

January 23, 2007

It's a Sanitation Snake Pit

...that would make Tony Soprano proud. Only it's not Newark ~ it's New Orleans, Nagin and another taxpayer mugging.
Now, budda bing ~ follow the bouncing garbage truck carefully, cher.

New Orleans officials traded a zoning waiver needed by Waste Management to operate the Chef Menteur Landfill for the promise of a portion of the landfill’s revenue, according to a federal audit that deems the deal inappropriate and concludes the city should pay the money back.

Because the federal government was paying 100 percent of the cost of debris removal, the report says, the city was in essence helping itself to an unauthorized federal grant. To cover the cost of paying the city, the landfill’s operators inflated their prices, which was in turn paid by the federal government.

As it turns out, the city hasn’t received any of the approximately $860,000 it is owed under its agreement with Waste Management, which opened the controversial and short-lived Chef Menteur Landfill in eastern New Orleans. But if it’s ever collected, the money should be treated “as a credit to be deducted from the city’s claim for other disaster costs,” said the report, conducted by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Under the city’s agreement with Waste Management, signed by Mayor Ray Nagin in February 2006, the trash hauler promised to “donate” 22 percent of its revenues from the new construction landfill to the city. In a separate document, signed the same day, Nagin used his emergency powers to grant the company a six-month waiver from the city’s zoning law, allowing the landfill to open.

...“Common sense tells us that the beneficiary of a voluntary donation would not normally require the donor to (1) sign a notarized agreement; (2) submit calculation of donated amounts to the beneficiary for validation; or (3) continue donations so long as the donor operated a business that required the beneficiary’s authorization,” the report says. “These requirements provide convincing evidence that the landfill operator’s ‘donation’ of 22 percent of gross revenues was contingent on the city’s approval to operate the landfill.



Damn. This whole time I thought Hizzoner was emulating someone else.
He needs to cut back on his cable.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 PM | Comments (2)

January 22, 2007

ABC News

...has more on the al-Qaeda exchange student program.

Mimicking the hijackers who executed the Sept. 11 attacks, insurgents reportedly tied to al Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip terrorists into the United States to orchestrate a new attack on American soil.

...The plot was discovered six months ago, roughly the same time that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by coalition forces. Sources tell ABC News that the suspects involved in the effort to launch the U.S. attack were closely associated with Zarqawi.

The plan also came only months after Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2, had requested that Zarqawi attempt an attack inside the United States.

"This appears to be the first hard evidence al Qaeda in Iraq was trying to attack us here at home," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, former chief counterterrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council.


Gosh, I just feel so wonderful about the 'amnesty for illegal immigrants' policy. 'Bring the boys over on a student visa and fade into the background' is hardly original. What's sad is that it's STILL plausible.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:20 PM | Comments (1)

In This Week's Version of "Been There, Seen That"

...to the world's complete shock and awe, Moqtada has directed his minions in a ad-hoc production of his
"Scuttle Off to Mosquello" routine.

...In a desperate bid to fend off a feared all-out American offensive, the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, last Friday ordered the 30 lawmakers and six Cabinet ministers under his control to end their nearly two-month boycott. They were back at their jobs Sunday.

Al-Sadr had already ordered his militia fighters not to show weapons in public or at least when U.S. or Iraqi forces might see them. They have not, however, ceded control of the formerly mixed neighborhoods they have captured, killing Sunnis or forcing them to abandon their homes and businesses.

“We announce our return to parliament, we will attend today’s session, and the ministers will resume their work to serve the people,” Bahaa al-Araji, one of 30 lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr, said during a news conference attended by Sunni parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Al-Sadr also has six loyalist ministers in the 38-member Cabinet.


An old favorite by Iraq war standards, the crowd-pleasing, face-saving strategic retreat dance has worked time and time again and NO one ever seems to catch on. But this is a new round of chest thumping and loin girding by the administration, in cahoots with the always trustworthy Iraqi Prime Minister Now al Take-aliki. Are we gonna fall for it again? NeGOTIATE? Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. Fool us thrice...maybe it's time to leave, 'cause we're too STOOPID to stay.

So. Will the fat cleric get to keep his hottie Mahdis? Or will the Americans stick to their guns (literally) and schmear him like tub of mosquepone cheese?

Whuddaya gonna do, George?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:13 AM | Comments (6)

January 19, 2007

Color Me a Blue-Eyed Skeptic BUT

...I think al-Maliki is tucking all these guys away now, just in case the rest of Fat Boy's minions get blasted.

...Maliki, however, has said this month he will crack down on Shi'ite militias and said 400 Mehdi Army members had been arrested in mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq over recent days.

Oh yeah? 400? Show me their ugly mugs behind bars with weeping women at the prison gates and I might start to swallow that pill. MIGHT. And why can you scoop up legions of foot soldiers without protest but when the U.S. is involved in an ACTUAL arrest...
U.S. and Iraqi troops seized a prominent spokesman for Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday, confronting a movement that has a key role in the ruling coalition but is accused by Washington of running death squads.

The midnight raid near Baghdad's Sadr City district, which Sadr's aides angrily called an "American provocation", came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew in to the southern city of Basra to meet the commander in Iraq, General George Casey.


...all hell breaks loose?

Because those 'detained' Mahdi troops cooling their heels in the slammer are just getting a break from the action.

..."We have picked up probably five or six death squad leaders here in the last three to four weeks at very very high level," [Gen.] Casey told reporters at a joint news conference with Gates.

Well, if it's that easy, why weren't we doing it to begin with?
- Right Wing News '04
Smoke and mirrors, my friends.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:02 AM

January 18, 2007

Then There're These OTHER Assholes

At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is:
"I come to slaughter all of you."
I am GOBSCHMACKED CNN chose to open this article with those words. It's almost like they want you to know what these guys are really like and what they're really saying.

major dad believes the English are going to lay back and...um...something to do with a codpiece.

UPDATE: Holy schamoly! It looks like MSNBC is actually reporting the another Australian Religion of Peace (post below this) 'Cat Meat' kinda cleric!

An Australian Muslim cleric has urged children to be martyrs for Islam and referred to Jews as pigs in a series of DVDs, sparking condemnation by the government and further straining tensions with the nation’s Muslims.

Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Sydney’s western suburbs, is the second cleric to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia with controversial comments.

Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly, the imam of Australia’s biggest mosque, was accused of justifying rape in November after a Ramadan sermon in which he said unveiled women were like uncovered meat.


Gobschmacked, I yam.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:02 PM | Comments (2)

Is It Just Me

...or does this guy look like Eminem...

...at first glance?

'Twould seem the old "ALL anti-social, neanderthal, misogynist assholes look alike"* rule holds true.

A Swill salute to Tim.

(* see "BINGLEY, Birthday" pose below)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:48 AM | Comments (8)

January 16, 2007

"You Have to Live Like a State Within a State..."

'...until you take over."
LGF has UK Channel 4's documentary "Dispatches: Undercover Mosque" covered.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:35 PM | Comments (1)

January 12, 2007

Shake It

...UP.

...“Practicing Muslims who live by the word of the Koran and the Koranic books — of course they limit their own opportunities,” she said. “A lot of people who live like me, or practicing Muslims who respect that religion is a private matter, have had it easier than those who think religion should be part of a larger society.

Ms. Subuni said many say, “ ‘I need to pray five times a day because my religion says so.’ ” But she added: “Which employer will accept that? Or, ‘My child shouldn’t take part in music class, because my religion questions this.’ O.K., then we have a problem.”

AS the minister for gender equality, she is particularly troubled at evidence that young Muslim girls are wearing the veil. “I would like to know what is happening in our society that makes families want to put a veil” on our children, she said. “Maybe we don’t need a law. Maybe we need something else so that people don’t feel so insecure that they need to manifest their religion by using their children.”


Ms. Sabuni would be SWEDEN's recently appointed minister for integration and gender equality and "the daughter of a frequently jailed opposition politician in Congo, then Zaire, who fled to Sweden as a political refugee." You know...an immigrant.

And Swedish Muslim groups have a problem with her.

Go figure.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM | Comments (1)

Don't Let the Door Hit You

...in the a$$, you a$$.

Duke Professor Quits Committee Assignments Over Lacrosse Players Being Invited Back

A Duke University professor resigned from her committee assignments, saying she was upset by the administration's decision to invite two lacrosse players accused of sexual assault back to campus.

"The decision by the university to readmit the students, especially just before a critical judicial decision on the case, is a clear use of corporate power, and a breach, I think, of ethical citizenship," Karla Holloway, an English professor and former dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, wrote to Duke's black faculty caucus.


While on the subject of 'ethical citizenship'...once again...don't let the door hit you in the a$$, a$$hole.
EXCLUSIVE: DA in Duke Rape Case Asks to Be Taken off Case
District Attorney Mike Nifong has requested that he have himself removed from prosecuting the Duke Lacrosse rape investigation, ABC News has learned.

A source close to the investigation said Nifong sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper asking his office to assume responsibility of the case. Calls to the Attorney General's office and Mike Nifong's office were not yet returned.


Question for our Swilling lawyerites: Will this free him up for the families to start action against him?
On another front:
Nifong Subpoenas Woman Accusing Duke Lacrosse Players of Sexual Assault

The embattled district attorney prosecuting three Duke University lacrosse players in a sexual-assault case has served his key witness a subpoena forcing her to testify during a Feb. 5 hearing, FOX News has confirmed.

On Thursday, District Attorney Mike Nifong met for several hours with the woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by the three players during an off-campus party in March, WRAL reported. It was there she was served with the subpoena.


I wonder if the meeting had anything to do with the quitting.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:21 PM | Comments (6)

All I Can Say Is

...you GO, girl.

...The fact that Nifong withheld the information and knew it before he indicted their sons has outraged the parents of the accused. "You felt like someone hit you with a baseball bat. … It was almost too much to bear, as we sat there," says Kathy Seligmann, whose son, Reade, is among the three indicted players. "And [Nifong is] sitting 10 feet away from us."

It enraged Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, another indicted player. "I think [I felt] one of the strongest feelings of rage that I've had … I literally had to turn to my husband, because I was shaking from my head to my toe, and say, 'Hold me down,'" recalls Finnerty. Adds Seligmann, "And we had to hold on to each other because when you sit there and put two and two together and realize that it was calculated … set up to make these boys appear to be guilty of something they didn't do."

When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, "I would say with a smile on my face,

'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.'"

For the sake of every citizen who ever has to face 'justice', here's hoping.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM | Comments (5)

When I Grow Up

...I hope I write half as well as the Dragon Lady.

The Michael Nifong Scandal
The Duke rape hoax is redolent of past decades' phony child-abuse cases.

...In his role of avenger of a young black woman alleged to have been brutalized by white males, Mr. Nifong proceeded with similar assurance. His was a crusade. Who but enemies of the good would object?...

...Neither Mr. Seligman nor the other accused Duke students will ever have to contend with a punishment like the one meted out to Gerald Amirault, who was sentenced to a 30- to 40-year term for something that never happened--atrocious sex crimes that never took place, of which there was no physical evidence, or anything resembling a credible allegation. What did it matter that the child's testimony that resulted in Gerald's conviction had claimed rape with a large butcher's knife--one that had magically left not the slightest injury? The jury's most important duty was, the prosecutors informed them, to believe the children and show that they honored their testimony. The same young witness also testified that Gerald was accompanied by a green, silver and yellow robot, R2-D2, from "Star Wars."

What did it matter, either, that special judicial hearings about the Amiraults' prosecution had concluded that it was a travesty, that a tough panel of former prosecutors, the Governor's Board of Pardons, had virtually declared Gerald Amirault innocent and voted for commutation of his sentence--or that he was finally granted parole nearly three years ago, after nearly 18 years' imprisonment? He was almost immediately classified by Massachusetts's Sex Offenders Registry Board as a Level 3 offender. The kind, that is, deemed the most dangerous and most likely to re-offend. This bizarre classification, the board made clear, had to do with the number of counts of sex abuse charged to him--and the fact, too, that he continued to deny guilt. He now has to wear a large tracking device around his ankle, and obey a curfew confining him to the house from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. He has, not surprisingly, been unable to find a job. He is sustained, as ever, by the unstinting devotion of his family, and he grieves now mainly for the loss of the chance he had dreamed of in prison--of earning a salary and finally lightening the burden his wife had carried, uncomplaining and alone, during his years in prison. (He has recently been advised of pending legislation that will require him to pay $10 a day for the global positioning tag on his leg, that tracks him.)

The accused Duke students can be grateful that the case against them has collapsed, and that Mr. Nifong now confronts a serious ethics complaint filed by the North Carolina State Bar. They will never have to face anything like the malignant force which descended on the happy and ambitious Amiraults in 1984, and turned their lives to dust. But Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty have this year had a look into an abyss that has claimed many others, and that is never less than terrorizing. It is a piece of their Duke education they are unlikely to forget.



A Swill salute to Dr. Helen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:13 AM | Comments (4)

January 11, 2007

Note to Self: If Ever Beaten During a San Francisco SingSing

...make SURE you insist a SFPD type interview you at the SCENE.
It could get expensive otherwise ~ ain't no 'free-to-go' about it.

...It especially troubles Johnson that the police failed to take photographs of the injuries. The couple who owned the home where the party took place took these pictures. And it bothers him that police failed to interview the victims.

Now, 10 days later, investigators are demanding that the young men pay their way back to San Francisco to be interviewed. One investigator told a parent, "the kids are affluent, so they can afford it." The Baker's Dozen's attorney says it's ridiculous.

Whitney Leigh, Gonzalez & Leigh Law Firm: "The notion that the police should now put the burden on the families or on these kids to fly back to San Francisco, a place they're now afraid to come to frankly, doesn't seem to make any sense to me."


Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:13 PM | Comments (3)

In the Continuing Saga of "Yes, No, Schmaybe"

...the defense once again throws the bullsh*t flag.

Motions Call for Dismissal in Duke Lacrosse Case
Accuser changes story again about who, where and what happened.

...Based on today's motions, Reade Seligmann could be off the hook -- The Duke Lacrosse accuser's December 21 statements to District Attorney Mike Nifong have just been made public in a 76-page defense motion.

It was because of her statement in that interview that Nifong subsequently dropped rape charges against the indicted players.

According to the filing, in that interview the accuser now claims the attack took place between 11:35 and midnight, which contradicts the accuser's own cell phone records and the cell phone records for Reade Seligmann and his girlfriend.

She recants her April statement that Reade Seligmann was the man who stood in front of her and made her commit a sex act. Now she says Evans was that person and further admits that Reade Seligmann did not commit any sex act on her.

The motion goes on to point out how she recants her April statement that the attacker who looked like Dave Evans had mustache.

The motion also states that the accuser recants her March and April statements that "Matt" Kadam" and "Brett" were three separate people, and now says that they were only two people.

In her December statement, the accuser recanted her statement that she was certain that two of her attackers used their penises to penetrate both her vagina and her rectum, and now claims that she cannot be sure about penile penetration at all.


You know, neither Nifong nor anyone from his office interviewed this poor girl until last month. I'm thinking schmaybe they should have talked to her a smidge earlier, saving the Duke guys' more heartache, their families how many hundreds of thousands in additional legal bills and Nifong himself some tattered shred of reputation.

But, no. Dang if he isn't an incompetent, ornery cuss.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)

Courtesy of Bahrain TV, The Islamic Version of

..."Shalom in the Home".

A Swill salute to The Big Picture.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:58 AM | Comments (4)

January 05, 2007

"Hold That Thought" Addendum

Put another body on the pile.

In the sixth New Orleans murder in less than 24 hours, a woman was killed and her husband shot in their home Thursday about 5:30 a.m., said police, who found the bleeding man kneeling at the door of the couple's Faubourg Marigny home, clutching their 2-year-old son.

...Including another murder on New Year's Day, the latest violence brings the new year's total to at least seven slayings in four days, though one of the apparent killings -- a woman's body found Wednesday rolled up in a throw rug on a Lower 9th Ward street -- remains officially an unclassified death. In the past week, 12 people have been murdered in the city.

...The Marigny shootings -- for which police offered no motive -- capped a wave of bloodshed severe even by New Orleans standards, and came three days after Police Superintendent Warren Riley called a year-end news conference to put a positive spin on the 2006 murder total of 161, which he called the lowest in 30 years. On a per-capita basis, however, even the most optimistic projection of the post-Katrina city's drastically shrunken population makes that figure an increase from previous years.


major dad, Kcruella and I used to love wandering the Bywater and the Marigny.

Damn.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:04 PM | Comments (4)

January 04, 2007

"Calculation Error"

...my a$$ets.

Former Duke Lacrosse Player Sues School
A former Duke University lacrosse player sued the university Thursday alleging that one of his professors unfairly gave him a failing grade because he was a member of the team.

Kyle Dowd graduated in May 2006, two months after a woman said she was raped by three of his teammates at a lacrosse party...

...Dowd, who was not charged in the case, claims in his lawsuit that visiting professor Kim Curtis gave him an F in a politics and literature class that nearly prevented him from graduating, even though he had earned C's on his assignments to that point.

"Defendant Curtis engaged in extreme outrageous and unethical conduct ... due to personal bias and prejudice," the lawsuit says.

The university later changed Dowd's grade to a D, citing a calculation error.


I'd be curious if a certain professor's name is one of the 88 on that little letter...

UPDATE: And thank you, dear Gateway Pundit, for pointing out that she is indeed a member of that verbose and august group of reactionaries, whose well reasoned, ethical and courageous stand inspired this rhetorical gem from a concerned and similarly well -educated college student:

In today’s Newsweek, a student at predominantly African-American North Carolina Central carried the Duke 88’s thinking to its logical, if absurd, extreme. The student said that he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted “whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past.

And I'll be jiggered! There she is!!
Doncha just wanna hug her? And naturally, after reviewing her field of study, she has no natural bias toward jocks or jock straps.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science,specializes in political theory with particular concentration in contemporary continental work and feminist theory. She has written Our Sense of the Real: Aesthetic Experience and Arendtian Politics. She has also published articles on multicultural education, ethical debates among feminists over new reproductive technologies, and the early women's liberation movement. She is currently at work on a book on the feminist movement in the United States that examines the relationship between theory and practice.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:29 PM | Comments (3)

Speaking of Love Hurting, Mullah Omar and the Somali Taliban

...those frickin' taxi drivers are at it again.

Booze, dogs too much for some Muslim cabbies
Drivers refuse service to passengers, Minn. airport officials put up a fight

Some Muslim cab drivers are refusing service to a growing number of passengers with alcohol or dogs, and officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport are trying to fight it.

"Our expectation is that if you're going to be driving a taxi at the airport, you need to provide service to anybody who wants it," said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airport Commission.

Each month, about 100 people are denied cab service at the airport, and refusals for religious reasons have grown in recent months, airport officials said. About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at the airport are Somali, many of them Muslim.

...Last year, the airports commission received a fatwa, or religious edict, from the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society saying "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam."


Stick to your guns, my man!! If that same Somali cab driver wanted to rent your apartment and you told him no because eating GOAT is against YOUR religion, welllllllll...that'd be tough on you, right? Not to mention the discrimination lawsuit he'd lay on your a$$ just about that quick.

Turn about's fair play, I'd think. It's almost worth the airplane ticket, liquor tab and chihuahua rental to have one of them tell me "NO" at the curbside.

I'd sue them AND the cab company AND the airport authority AND the city licensing hack office so fast you wouldn't have time to spit out "Mogadishu".

"FATWA" THAT.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:31 PM | Comments (3)

Hold That Thought

Days after the police chief said he believed his department was bringing murders under control in New Orleans, the city logged at least five killings in 14 hours.

They brought the 2007 total to six, including one on New Year's Day.


Um...oy.
At a New Year's Day news conference, Superintendent Warren Riley said homicides in the city had spiked in April, May and July, and he believed new initiatives have brought the problem under control in recent months.

Police spokeswoman Bambi Hall said Tuesday that, after 19 killings in October and another 19 in November, December's total had been 15.

There were 161 murders in the city in 2006.


161 murders with three quarters of the city's population GONE.


-".357 magnum with those fries, ma'am?" ©TPI

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:17 AM | Comments (6)

January 03, 2007

Love Hurts

Pakistani loses ears, nose for love marriage
Members of wife's tribe assault man for marrying without family's OK

Armed men cut off the ears and nose of a Pakistani man who married one of their tribe for love after he and his family refused to hand over his wife, police said on Wednesday.

The attackers also chopped the ears off the man’s brother and severed his mother’s hand in the latest “honor” crime to hit Pakistan’s conservative rural areas.


...has a whole different meaning in Islamic Shari‘ah. On a related note, Florida Cracker notices the Woebegon Somali citizens of Minneapolis are lamenting the "rode outta town on a rail"-ness of their Somali Taliban counterparts, setting back assimilation plans for their own fair burg's randy inhabitants.
...They made the whole country a respectable place," said Salah Warsame, 47, of Minneapolis, another of the rally's organizers. "Once they started being accepted throughout the country, the enemies of Somalia started getting worried."

Maybe they should talk to this guy. He's gonna be in Congress shortly and seems to be singing off the same sheet of minuret music.
("THRILLS" the crowd, even.)
1st Muslim congressman thrills crowd in Dearborn

Speaking in Dearborn late Sunday night, the first Muslim elected to Congress told a cheering crowd of Muslims they should remain steadfast in their faith and push for justice.

"You can't back down. You can't chicken out. You can't be afraid. You got to have faith in Allah, and you've got to stand up and be a real Muslim," Detroit native Keith Ellison said to loud applause.

Many in the crowd replied "Allahu akbar" -- God is great.

...But Ellison, speaking at the annual convention of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, said that Muslims can help teach America about justice and equal protection.

"Muslims, you're up to bat right now," he said. "How do you know that you were not brought right here to this place to learn how to make this world better?"


Hang in there, Dearborn. Help is on the way.

UPDATE: The Gateway Pundit is pleased to report the groom had his nose sewn back on. Unfortunately, everyone else is still missing digits and appendages.

Aren't these just the loveliest people?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)

January 01, 2007

"Ridiculous" As I Might Appear

...it does seem I wasn't the only one who wanted him dead...just not THIS way.

...The American role extended beyond providing the helicopter that carried Mr. Hussein home. Iraqi and American officials who have discussed the intrigue and confusion that preceded the decision late on Friday to rush Mr. Hussein to the gallows have said that it was the Americans who questioned the political wisdom — and justice — of expediting the execution, in ways that required Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to override constitutional and religious precepts that might have assured Mr. Hussein a more dignified passage to his end.

The Americans’ concerns seem certain to have been heightened by what happened at the hanging, as evidenced in video recordings made just before Mr. Hussein fell through the gallows trapdoor at 6:10 a.m. on Saturday. A new video that appeared on the Internet late Saturday, apparently made by a witness with a camera cellphone, underscored the unruly, mocking atmosphere in the execution chamber.

... The cacophony from those gathered before the gallows included a shout of “Go to hell!” as the former ruler stood with the noose around his neck in the final moments, and his riposte, barely audible above the bedlam, which included the words “gallows of shame.” It continued despite appeals from an official-sounding voice, possibly Munir Haddad, the judge who presided at the hanging, saying, “Please no! The man is about to die.”

...The Shiites who predominated at the hanging began a refrain at one point of “Moktada! Moktada! Moktada!”


Oh, that's f*ckin' great. Wouldn't you agree?

And who delivered the carcass home? It wasn't the much vaunted 'Iraqi' Airforce.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 AM | Comments (9)

December 29, 2006

There Are a Million Reasons Why

...this guy should die. But I think this way is a huge mistake. Why hasn't he been in the Hague like Milosevic or just about any other dictator guilty of heinous crimes? I'm especially concerned about quotes like this:

"We think he might be executed by tomorrow as a gift for the Iraqis," he [Saddam's lawyer] told BBC News 24.

And hanging is barbaric. Understandably, of course, there are tens of thousands who would gladly yank the trap open fifty times over if they could. But it's barbarism just the same as our troops fight on the streets everyday and what the Iraqi people cower from in their everyday lives. We're perpetuating it. And the visceral anti-American bias seething through the Arab mind. This will be seen as the U.S.'s puppet court.

He should have faced justice in a world court, on a world stage, with the WORLD condemning him.

Damn. I just do NOT feel right about this. He could well be swinging as I write this and I pray for our kids over there.
And every American on the street here.

UPDATE: Well the argument's philosphical and moot anyway, since I guess they'll be breaking into programming in a couple hours.

Official: Saddam to Be Executed Tonight

The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.

...An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Also to be hanged at that time were Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, the adviser said.


At least they're replaying his greatest hits so everyone's 'why' is fresh in their minds.

I imagine it's going to be pretty interesting in the streets of Baghdad shortly.

Keep safe you guys.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:40 PM | Comments (24)

December 28, 2006

BREAKING NEWS: Bring It On

The North Carolina State Bar filed an ethics complaint Thursday against Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong, accusing him of breaking four rules of professional conduct when speaking to the reporters about the sensational case.
Only four?

Anyway, it's about damn time.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:33 PM | Comments (4)

December 22, 2006

This Man

...is despicable.

Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges, a defense attorney said.

Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault.

Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.


DOESN'T KNOW? Dismiss the rape charges for that?

Cynic that I am, I think it's more the fact that almost everyone's DNA including Santa's was in old girl's panties/nether regions EXCEPT the Duke students'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 PM | Comments (8)

December 12, 2006

He's the Dead NJ State Trooper


But his killer's the one with her name on a NYC College community room.

New York City college students who share a community room named for an escaped cop killer called the fugitive their hero Tuesday as the school's officials demanded the removal of the honor.

A handful of campus groups at the City College of New York commended the school for allowing them to work in the name of domestic "terrorist" Assata Shakur, now believed to be hiding in Cuba.

"We know that many Black people that fought for better conditions in the 70's were framed," the groups said in a statement released to FOXNews.com. "We consider Assata Shakur to be one of the people who were wrongfully and purposefully framed for her activities.

"And we consider her a hero and role model for standing up for our people and putting her life on the line."


Doncha just love these young, passionate kids?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:02 PM | Comments (22)

Oh

...PUH-LEEZzzzz...

Blair Shocked by Holocaust Denial Meeting

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:53 PM | Comments (1)

Little Children Throwing Stones Should Be Shot

And almost were.

Hamas gunmen fire on Fatah protesters
Hamas gunmen opened fire on demonstrators from the rival Fatah movement in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding four people in the first factional violence following the deaths of three children in a drive-by shooting, officials said.

The demonstration was organized to protest the deaths of the children, whose car was riddled with bullets as they drove to school Monday morning. Fatah officials have accused Hamas of being behind the shooting. The children's father is an intelligence officer and Fatah loyalist who is considered an enemy of Hamas.

Saleh Hammad, a local Fatah leader, said the demonstration was peaceful, though he acknowledged that some children had provoked the Hamas militiamen by throwing rocks at them.

"Even if one or a few children lost their temper and stoned the members of the unit, this is not a reason to be fired at," he said.


Hamas continues to impress with their version of 'governance'.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:06 AM | Comments (3)

December 01, 2006

When Imams Fly

Air marshals, pilots and security officials yesterday expressed concern that airline passengers and crews will be reluctant to report suspicious behavior aboard for fear of being called "racists," after several Muslim imams made that charge in a press conference Monday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Six imams, or Muslim holy men, accused a US Airways flight crew of inappropriately evicting them from a flight last week in Minneapolis after several passengers said the imams tried to intimidate them by loudly praying and moving around the airplane. The imams urged Congress to enact laws to prohibit ethnic and religious "profiling."

Federal air marshals and others yesterday urged passengers to remain vigilant to threats.

"The crew and passengers act as our additional eyes and ears on every flight," said a federal air marshal in Las Vegas, who asked that his name not be used. "If [crew and passengers] are afraid of reporting suspicious individuals out of fear of being labeled a racist or bigot, then terrorists will certainly use those fears to their advantage in future aviation attacks."

But Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said Muslims "have to walk around on eggshells in public just because we don't want to be misconstrued as suspicious. You have to strike a balance between legitimate fears which people may have, but not allow passengers to have so much discretion that they can trigger a process that would violate a traveler's basic civil rights."


"Violating a traveler's basic rights" would include hijacking or blowing their airplane up, too, right? So I think safety and following the rules (or else...) trumps CAIR's pitiful whining. Especially over six assholes who brought that unwelcome 'attention' on themselves. People would have been reporting K-Fed if he'd acted like that. Matter of fact, he's the poster child for profiling ~ as soon as you see him you think 'SCUMBAG'.

My brain doesn't automatically flash "terrorist" when I see a fuzzy cleric or the 7-11 Pakistani guy. I don't start thinking that way until they get unruly on my airplane.

So in the spirit of the Friday FO thread, I nominate CAIR.

Via LGF.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:13 AM | Comments (2)

November 28, 2006

"Fuzzy Flying Clerics Need More Love, Too"

Part Deux.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted "Allah" when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.
"I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.
Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.
"That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane."


"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:52 AM | Comments (4)

So the Government Says 'No Worries', Eh?

Right. I can do the math.
+

+

The guy on the right orders a
+ a pinch o' and Voilà!
Everyone in the diner winds up looking like...

...they work with Homer Simpson.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:16 AM

November 27, 2006

You Can't Sugar Coat THIS, Baby

Krispy Kreme store closing for 4 months
Landmark doughnut shop gets new digs, will give away free doughnuts on Sunday
That would be our iconic, 40 year old Krispy Kreme donut shop ~ it of the swooping roofline and "HOT" sign. Supposedly it'll open again but, like Tony Bourdain says, 'closed for remodeling/vacation' is often a death notice. At the very least, critical condition/ICU.
And like the friendly neighborhood watering hole types they are, Krispy Kreme is treating it's long time Pensacola employees with all the love and respect the corporate offices can muster.
...All current managers will stay on the payroll, said Smith, but production workers and wait staff -- many with 20 to 30 years' experience -- will be required to go through a rehiring process to retain their old jobs.

Smith said laid-off employees will be given severance pay and are eligible for unemployment, and those rehired will retain their seniority.

But some employees are skeptical about the rehiring process.

"When Krispy Kreme came down here to meet with us, I thought they'd have a (human resources) person with them. But they didn't," said Roderick West, a 13-year production employee at the shop. "They just told us we could go to work at the Krispy Kreme in Destin, but you'd have to commute, and that doesn't make sense."

West, who works part time at a local furniture store, said he wasn't sure he wants to return to Krispy Kreme.

"You've got people that have been there 33 years, and all they're getting is two weeks' severance. I just don't think it's right the way they're doing it," he said.


Me neither. I think Krispy Kremes may be a hard sell here after this.

I hope so.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:17 AM | Comments (10)

November 22, 2006

Well, Well, Well, My Fuzzy Little Clerics...

There's a bit more information coming out about your prayer flight. And it's looking like you might not be the innocent, aggrieved holy men you claim to be.

Airline checks claim of 'Muslim while flying' discrimination

A passenger who had seen them pray passed a note expressing concern to a flight attendant, US Airways spokeswoman Andrea Rader told The Associated Press.

The passenger thought the imams -- who were speaking in Arabic and English -- had made anti-U.S. statements before boarding and "made similar statements while boarding," said Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

Once on board, Knocke said, the six split up into groups of two and did not sit in their assigned seats.


Anyone can get booted off a plane for that, especially when they refuse to return to their ticketed seat. So that's on you. As one of your ignorant-about-Islam fellow passengers says in an interview, while she didn't see what transpired on the plane, she'd noticed you guys already.
"I saw them in the terminal before we boarded the plane and then they all sat in different seats....I saw them before they got on the plane and then I saw them standing up on the plane...They were all huddled together but when they started boarding, right before they started boarding, they all separated from each other..."

Can you say 'PROVOCATION'? I can.

As well as "this is just a test"...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:18 AM | Comments (6)

November 21, 2006

Um...Noooo...

...Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam.

...Shahin expressed frustration that — despite extensive efforts by him and other Muslim leaders since even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — so many Americans know so little about Islam.

If up to now they don’t know about prayers, this is a real problem,” he said.


The REAL problem is that Muslims don't know enough to RESPECT their fellow AMERICANS. If he was flying on a Sunday, the Pope wouldn't stand in the aisle of a USAir Flight and subject the whole plane to Mass, would he? And I'll BET there were concerns, since no one would expect the Pope to stand, pray and blow the frickin' plane up.

Three Islamic individuals suddenly standing and praying in the aisle would have me worried. They wouldn't have gotten half a prayer out before I'd tackled their asses.

You live HERE, pinheads. Not Riyadh. Not Baghdad. Not Teheran.

HERE. Keep that sh*t in your seat.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 AM | Comments (6)

November 13, 2006

Since the "60 Minutes" Guys Are Too Old to Travel

...and Peter Arnett's a frustrated has been, thank GOD the U.N. can pick up interviewing murderous dictator/rebel leader/fascist thugs where they left off. It's always good to have your replacement in the bag.

'Most wanted' man meets UN envoy
Talks in the bush with the Lord’s Resistance Army leader have raised hopes of an end to one of Africa’s most brutal wars. But there was little sign of any breakthrough

JOSEPH KONY, one of the International Criminal Court’s most wanted men, accused of massacre, rape and abducting children, strolled out of the jungle yesterday to shake hands with the United Nation’s highest humanitarian official.
The reclusive leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army kept Jan Egeland, UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, waiting for two hours at Ri-Kwangba close to the Congolese border.

...The LRA has waged one of Africa’s most brutal and bizarre civil wars.

Tens of thousands of people have died and almost two million people have been forced to flee their homes since Mr Kony took up arms in Uganda against a Government accused of neglecting northerners.

The former altar boy claimed to have been instructed by the Holy Spirit and once said that he wanted to govern northern Uganda according to the Ten Commandments. The LRA abducted thousands of children to fight in its ranks, and tortured opponents by cutting off their lips, arms or legs. Girls were kept as sex slaves.

Mr Kony, and four senior commanders, have been charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes, including killing civilians, rape, and abducting children.

Peace talks have stalled repeatedly on this issue as rebel negotiators demand an amnesty to allow Mr Kony to leave hiding.


If they were serious about helping this guy, they'd be on the phone to Jimmy Carter. And once they deep-six Bolton, the U.N. can do this kind of intervention work all the time.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:22 AM

November 06, 2006

Paging Ollie North

Round Two seems to have started.

Group: Sandinista Leader Ortega Wins Nicaragua Presidency
Leftist Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega appeared Monday to have easily defeated four other presidential candidates in his long quest to return to power 16 years after a U.S.-backed rebellion helped force him from office, according to a respected electoral observer group projecting victory based on a sampling of the votes.

Sweet Jesus. Who woulda thunk it? Not Ollie North.
...The prospect has horrified Mr North, who is now a conservative political commentator and activist. He told Nicaraguan television it would be "the worst thing" and was cause for concern. "My hope is that the people of Nicaragua are not going to return to that. That's not good for your country. That's not good for my country."

The Sandinista leader, 60, still has the moustache but has renounced revolutionary Marxism and promised to rule as a centrist moderate and reconciler. His campaign uses pastel pink and John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance anthem.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:50 AM

November 01, 2006

GOOD!

If they send his a$$ back to Ethiopia when he walks out of prison, even better.

Jury convicts father in genital mutilation of girl
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the first case of its kind in U.S.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:32 PM | Comments (2)

October 31, 2006

Moqtada, Moqtada ~ He's Our Man!

If he can't manipulate al-Maliki like a little girl, NO one can!

The signs of the militias are everywhere at the Sholeh police station.

Posters celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls. The police chief sometimes remarks that Shiite militias should wipe out all Sunnis. Visitors to this violent neighborhood in the Iraqi capital whisper that nearly all the police officers have split loyalties.

And then one rainy night this month, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., a 20-year-old budding journalist, his unit said. At the time, Stanton and other members of the unit had been trailing a group of Sholeh police escorting known Mahdi Army members.

"How can we expect ordinary Iraqis to trust the police when we don't even trust them not to kill our own men?" asked Capt. Alexander Shaw...


No American should have to ask that question.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:12 PM | Comments (2)

October 30, 2006

Rest Easy, Paris

A young woman lies near death after being caught by a "yoot" Bus-B-Q. Parsing the report at Powerline,

Meanwhile, the French government says it will step up "transport security." Maybe they intend to follow our example and ban liquids and gels on buses.

That would be typically French ~ the failure to notice that our ban of flammables 'on' the bus means carried by passengers 'ON' the inside.

Not spread like a Dijon honey Bus-B-Q glaze 'on' the outside.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:10 AM

Surrender In Virdhimmia

Via Michelle Malkin comes this story concerning the College of William and Mary:

WILLIAMSBURG -- Officials at the College of William and Mary have removed a 2-foot-high gold cross from a campus chapel they say is increasingly used for nonreligious events.

"In order to make the Wren Chapel less of a faith-specific space, and to make it more welcoming to students, faculty, staff and visitors of all faiths, the cross has been removed from the altar area," read a recent e-mail to Wren Building employees.

The e-mail came from Melissa Engimann, assistant director for historic campus, according to The Flat Hat college newspaper Web site.

The chapel is in the Sir Christopher Wren Building, which was finished in 1699 and is used for some of the school's biggest ceremonies. Incoming freshmen take the honor pledge in the chapel during orientation, and seniors march through it on their way to commencement.

Of course, don't you dare question the motives of the Administrators:

(William and Mary President Gene R. Nichol) "Let me be clear. I have not banished the cross from the Wren Chapel. The chapel, as you know, is used for religious ceremonies by members of all faiths. The cross will remain in the chapel and be displayed on the altar at appropriate religious services.

"But the chapel is also used frequently for college events that are secular in nature -- and should be open to students and staff of all beliefs. "

So is he saying that before there were guards at the door that stopped jews from entering when the cross was there?

And anyway, how far had they sunk before this that all that is left is a 2 foot cross?

As Michelle says "How about leaving the cross where it stands and telling students to grow up and demonstrate real tolerance?"

Amen to that.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:38 AM | Comments (4)

October 26, 2006

Of Course It Was

...taken out of context. He'd say something like that, but in a whole string of other hateful shiite they forgot to quote.

...A spokesman for Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali said the cleric’s comments in a sermon last month had been taken out of context in a report in The Australian newspaper. But the spokesman, Keysar Trad, didn’t challenge the accuracy of the translation.

“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat’s,” The Australian quoted Hilali as saying.

The uncovered meat is the problem,” he was quoted as saying. “If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred,” he said, referring to the head covering worn by some Muslim women.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:57 AM

October 24, 2006

It's the Real Thing

A quarrel that has surfaced this week between Venezuelan workers and the local subsidiary of soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola Femsa might, at first sight, appear to be nothing more than a routine labour dispute.

But, at least according to some economists, it just may be a taste of what is to come under President Hugo Chávez's recipe for "21st-century socialism".

Since Monday, hundreds of unemployed ex-contractors have blocked delivery trucks from distributing the soft drink around Venezuela in demand of what they allege is $2.8m worth of severance arrears owed to more than 10,000 former workers. Coca-Cola alleges that the protest action is "illegal".

The former Coca-Cola employees, however, are being actively encouraged in their protest by a government-backed commission from the Venezuelan legislature, which is controlled 100 per cent by government allies.

"The company should be expropriated," said Iris Valera, a pro-government deputy who is supporting the labourers, adding that Coca-Cola's four plants should be converted to produce a homespun Venezuelan brand soft drink.


Great idea.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:19 PM | Comments (2)

October 23, 2006

Hunting High

...and low, á la Français.

On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized.

...In France, a high school teacher received death threats, forcing him into hiding, after he wrote a newspaper editorial in September saying Muslim fundamentalists are trying to muzzle Europe's democratic liberties.

...Michel Thooris, head of the small Action Police union, claims that the new violence is taking on an Islamic fundamentalist tinge.

"Many youths, many arsonists, many vandals behind the violence do it to cries of 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great) when our police cars are stoned," he said in an interview.

Larger, more mainstream police unions sharply disagree that the suburban unrest has any religious basis. However, they do say that some youth gangs no longer seem content to throw stones or torch cars and instead appear determined to hurt police officers — or worse.

"First, it was a rock here or there. Then it was rocks by the dozen. Now, they're leading operations of an almost military sort to trap us," said Loic Lecouplier, a police union official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris. "These are acts of war."


Not an encouraging assessment, given the national mettle of France in wartime.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)

Nowadays, When You Think About Something

...THIS cool...

Thieves lead to discovery of Egypt tombs
Curse protected 4,200 year old graves of royal dentists

...The thieves launched their own dig one summer night two months ago but were apprehended, Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters.

That led archaeologists to the three tombs, one of which included an inscription warning that anyone who violated the sanctity of the grave would be eaten by a crocodile and a snake, Hawass said.

A towering, painted profile of the chief dentist stares down at passers-by from the wall opposite the inscription.


...one also has to think of the Taliban and if fundamentalist Islam had Egypt by the throat.

They would be setting the charges the second the tomb door was found, if they'd allowed anyone to go looking at all.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:59 AM | Comments (1)

October 22, 2006

TWO Years Old

Her father. With a pair of scissors.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM | Comments (3)

¡Sí, Se Puede!

The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display.

In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive."

Jeez, who needs Baghdad insurgents? Or a fence?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:18 AM | Comments (1)

October 21, 2006

One Last Bit of Perspective on the CNN "Story"

I'm not sure how many of you clicked through Bingley's link to the pitiful excuse of an excuse. If you survived the initial shock and disgust, but had neither the patience nor the stomach to wade throught the comments, buried therein was a gem. A Cpl Barrett from Portland OR vented, thought about it...and came back to vent again.. After the understandable anger at spending tours in Iraq and wondering where the US media was. When our kids desperately need support and the American people needs to hear their stories. He noted:

Why do you think, for example, that they don't show the video of the Crocodile Hunter's death? It is because there is a point where enough is enough. I don't know why I should support a station that graphically shows my brothers in arms dying.

Bless his heart. BLESS. HIS. HEART.
A stingray accident versus our life's blood.
It doesn't get more upside down than that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 PM | Comments (2)

What Mohammad Said

...She passed the man a coin and walked off, quietly completing the most mundane of daily tasks while wearing a garment -- the full-face veil, or niqab -- that has caused a raging debate about how well Britain's nearly 2 million Muslims are integrating into society.

...After she walked away, the vendor, Mohammad Dehbourzorgi, a Muslim who moved to Britain 22 years ago, sounded almost contemptuous. He said he agreed with Jack Straw, a top official in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government and leader of the House of Commons, who started the controversy this month by complaining that veils create distance between individuals and cultures.

‘Try to be English’
"Jack Straw has a point," said Dehbourzorgi, who was wearing blue jeans. "If you come to England, then try to be English."


Or American or French or wherever your travels land you. (The upside is, the WaPo actually quoted this guy. I would have thought that would work against their normal bias.) If you still want to kill your sister to cover something you did, not let her learn to read, drive a car or feel that the Koran says you should help kill the Pope ~ stay in Pakistan or Afghanistan or Wherevistan that Stone Age crap flies. The only 'Stan' I want in the States ends with '- Laurel & Oliver Hardy'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM

October 19, 2006

Well, As They Say

..."the Grasso's always greener on the other side". Better luck next time to YOU, Dick.

Former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso will have to repay "tens of millions of dollars" to the Big Board after a court rejected his motion to dismiss certain claims, the New York Attorney General's office said on Thursday.

...New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Grasso in 2004 for return of some of the $187.5 million in salary, bonuses and retirement compensation plans he received....

Judge Ramos denied Grasso's bid to seek damages from the NYSE over losing his job in 2003, concluding that Grasso had resigned and was not fired as he had claimed.

...Grasso, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, sought $48 million in compensation, plus interest, that he said was still due him.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:05 PM | Comments (4)

October 18, 2006

After a Loud SNORT of Derision

...I have come to the conclusion we're doomed. First ::roll eyes:: of the morning...

In the wake of the Miami-FIU brawl, the NCAA says it would consider helping schools and conferences develop a standard policy to curb on-field violence.
..."The NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Conference have principles of sportsmanship to which the University of Miami is committed," Miami athletic director Paul Dee said. "It is important for us to use opportunities such as these to re-emphasize this commitment to sportsmanship."

"I think it's more in how they look at power and intimidation, and a lot of young people look at that as a physical thing," Stratten said. "You see that from guys who grow up in that kind of environment."

So because they grew up as thugs and can handle a ball, we must let convicts be convicts? And I don't see ANYTHING U of M is committed to other than the almighty $halala dolla.

Then there was this.

A judge has ruled not to interfere with a decision on whether cult leader and convicted killer Yahweh Ben Yahweh's parole should be terminated because he has advanced cancer.

...Yahweh, who is linked to nearly two dozen gruesome killings in the 1980s, said he wants to die with dignity at home in the Miami area, according to a motion filed earlier this month.


Oy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:46 AM | Comments (6)

October 17, 2006

Protecting the Vunerable From Harm

You would have thought that meant the American public.

SICKENING VICTIM ACT FOOLED JUDGE

IT WAS all just an act. Lynne Stewart, a former lawyer who specialized in spreading terror and hate around the world, lumbered into a courtroom looking sick, crestfallen and oh, so sorry.

She bounced out of the bleak room hours later like she'd just won the lottery. And, well, she had.

...A clearly admiring Judge John Koeltl sentenced her to just two years and four months in prison.

"I can do that standing on my head!" Stewart crowed after court.



They always seem to forget that if it were up to the animal they collaborated with, they most likely wouldn't have a head.

What a traitorous toad.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:53 PM | Comments (7)

Bad Enough to Be Accused of Stealing as a State Representative

...but stealing from LABOR UNIONS?! That's a really, really B-A-D idea.

Brian M. McLaughlin, 54, is accused in an indictment of stealing money from several organizations in which he held official positions, according to a statement from federal prosecutors in Manhattan. He and his associates are accused of stealing from labor unions, the state of New York and not-for-profit groups.

...He also is a seven-term Democratic state assemblyman.


A warm Swill salute to the Gateway Pundit for what might be a short-lived story.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:59 PM | Comments (2)

October 16, 2006

O'Reilly Takes Apart a Professor

...for being in that "1/4 of the population".

...JIM FETZER, BELIEVES BUSH ORCHESTRATED 9/11: Well, you are wrong, Bill, because you haven't studied the case. We've created an organization consisting of experts and scholars, pilots, aeronautical engineers, mechanical engineers, structural engineers, physicists. We've been examining what the government's been telling us. And, frankly, Bill, it's a fantasy.

None of the major claims made by the government can be sustained. We've been looking at this from every point of view. The government has a story it wants to sell us? We're not buying it.

O'REILLY: OK, you don't have to buy anything. You're American. You want to be a nut? You can be a nut. And you are a nut, because in order for any conspiracy of this magnitude to take place, thousands of Americans would have to buy into it, would have to know about it, and would have to keep their mouth shut about it. That's never going to happen. You're like the guys who think that the space aliens kidnapped Elvis or something like that; that's where you are, in my opinion.

So your opinion is that Bush murdered everybody on 9/11 to seize control and make him the dictator of America, or whatever the crazy thing is. And my opinion is, you're nuts.


major dad adds,
"Making George Bush the world's greatest actor when they told him in the schoolroom and the most malevolent, ee-ville GENIUS the world has ever seen. Ever. EVER."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:16 PM | Comments (4)

“Draconian, Inhumane and Ludicrous.”

That's what her supporters are saying about the government wanting to put convicted terrorism enabler Lynne Stewart away for thirty years. I dunno ~ I sure don't see it that way. Dumped in a spider hole until Ahmadinejad’s Iman of the Twelfth of Never comes back and THEN some isn't long enough for my thinking.

But it's neither here nor there now.

Civil rights lawyer jailed on terror charges
Attorney helped sheik who wanted to blow up New York City landmarks

Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison on a terrorism charge for helping a client, a blind sheik who plotted to blow up New York City landmarks, communicate with his followers.

Stewart, 67, could have faced up to 30 years in prison.

She smiled as the judge announced his decision to send her to prison for less than 2½ years.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:57 PM | Comments (4)

Can I Hear That Chorus From Kumbaya

...one more time?

A VIDEO last week showed the Taliban’s military commander Mullah Dadullah beheading eight men accused of spying for British and US forces in Aghanistan.

...MOHAMMED Dadullah Akhund is the perfect image of a Mad Mullah terror leader. Black beard, black turban, and one leg missing.

When he is not being filmed cutting the heads off victims he is seen embracing suicide bombers before sending them to their deaths.


One person's religious fundamentalist is another person's terrorist. Stop the ugly stereotypes and embrace our differences. We need to reach out more and identify the root causes.

Understand the anger and disenfranchisement that drives regular, friendly chaps to bad hair, goats and anti-social behaviour.

(Pffft. "Mullah Dadullah" ~ sh*t. Who names these guys?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:14 AM | Comments (2)

October 10, 2006

"No Matter What We Do the Fact Remains

...there is evil in the world."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:46 PM | Comments (8)

Just Lovely

DODDS schools worldwide told to watch for violent MS-13

Department of Defense Dependents Schools is trying to stop one of the most dangerous U.S. gangs — MS-13 — from gaining a foothold among students, according to a newsletter sent to its schools worldwide.

“While attending civilian schools in the U.S., future DoDEA students could be exposed to widespread gang activities, influence and violence,” the newsletter states. “Some may be recruited as members or associates into an MS-13 clique.”

MS-13 stands for Mara Salvatrucha — roughly translated, “Salvadoran Gang.” It is organized and highly violent. In some areas, gang members purposely mutilate individuals to create an atmosphere of fear, according to the newsletter.


They're mostly in the Virginia/D.C. area ~ color me surprised on that one. No reports of an actual DOD school infiltration yet, but with the internet...
...Charles Steitz, a spokesman for DODDS-Pacific, said school officials across the region have seen no on-campus gang activity, but they’re aware of community concerns.

Earlier this year, however, Kadena Air Base on Okinawa established a joint service task force to investigate a brief rise of gang-related activity involving a small group of high school teens linked through MySpace.com, said Capt. Xavier Rivera, with Kadena’s 18th Security Forces.


...you can meet the strangest people.

( A previous hispanic gang/military post. )


Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:54 PM

October 09, 2006

The NY Post Has a Lively Front Page

Bush Blasts Nuke Kook!!
Heh. Can't beat that. And Bush did sound firm and presidential. Why is it some losers people just can't seem to get over LOSING and have to get their little digs in regardless of the situation?
"Reports of North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon is an extremely dangerous and destabilizing event," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

Kerry also used the occasion to criticize Bush. "Weapons of mass destruction pointed at our allies and strategic partners represents a shocking failure of President Bush's security policy, and a threat to the interests of peace and stability in the world."


He's shocked ( SHOCKED !!) he tells you.
-Sen. John Kerry emotes his shock at the shocking developments that have shocked the world.

He's so shocked he's frozen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 PM | Comments (5)

October 07, 2006

Dear Northview High School in Century, FL

Don't let your "perfect" 6-0 record fool you. As "SPORTSMEN" ~ which is what I thought high school sports were really all about ~
YOU
SUCK.

Chiefs roll to perfect 6-0

The numbers game certainly fell in Northview's favor Friday, on the scoreboard and on the sidelines.

The Chiefs beat a thread-bare Tallahassee John Paul II Catholic roster -- all 12 of them -- 41-0 to remain undefeated.

"It was a win," Northview coach Cody Keene said. "We know we had them out manned but our kids did what they had to do and their kids played hard."

...John Paul II (1-6) tried to postpone the game because of its lack of available players. The Panthers began the season with just an 18-man varsity roster which has since been thinned because of injuries.

The two schools originally had agreed to reschedule for Oct. 20, but Northview decided to enforce a new rule and asked John Paul II to either play the original schedule or forfeit the game and be held responsible for the Chiefs' lost revenue. Northview has averaged between $6,000 and $8,000 this season.


So the unbeaten team of integrity says 'okay' ~ "AGREES" ~ to a delay. Then a single lightbulb erupts in a Century brain and they realize if beating 18 football players is easy, they should be able to kick the sh*t out of a team with only TWELVE. (Throw in the 3 hour bus ride from Tallahassee to Century for gravy) So QUICK!! AGREEMENT DO OVER! "Their kids played hard." What an ASS. Their kids played the WHOLE F*CKIN' GAME.

And what lovely life lessons for the Century players.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)

October 04, 2006

If You Can Kill THREE Birds With One Stone

...what the hell ~ give it a whack!


The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee (SDCC), headed by Reid, sent an e-mail with the subject line "Heckuva Job!" to supporters Wednesday. The e-mail contained a photo of President Bush, Foley, and former FEMA director Mike Brown during a visit to Florida following a hurricane. Beneath the photo appears the caption: "It's Time for a New Direction."

UPDATE: In one of those weird web coincidences, lookee, lookee, lookee here what the Gateway Pundit's put together. Goes hand in glove with this post, n'est pas?


Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:57 PM

October 03, 2006

Not to be Outdone By Your Average Celebrity

...dodging into rehab, good ol' boy Mark Foley is now also claiming he was...dumdumdum DUMB...

ABUSED as a CHILD.
UPDATE: By a member of the CLERGY

Two THREE image makeover standards down.
What's next on the People Magazine 'rehab'/be-a-victim-your-ownself list?
Hmmm?
UPDATE: Good GRIEF! SKEPTICS !!
...Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former colleague, said on Fox News Channel: "I don't buy this at all. I think this is a phony defense. The fact is, I think he's responsible for what he did here and I think it's a gimmick."

Oh, where's the love?


Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:22 PM | Comments (8)

BREAKING NEWS on MSNBC

State-run radio: Commercial airliner hijacked in Greek airspace.

No link yet just a headline. I'm looking.
Nothing anyplace else.

FOX has the headline now, too. And now Drudge has

Turkish Airlines spokesman says hijacked aircraft has landed at an airport in Brindisi, Italy...

UPDATE: MSNBC has a smidge more.
A Turkish commercial airliner has been hijacked in Greek airspace, Greek state-run radio said Tuesday.

The plane had taken off from Tirana, Albania, and was destined for Istanbul.

The plane has landed in the Italian city of Brindisi, a Turkish Airlines spokesman said.


UPDATE: Oh, good Lord. The POPE made me do it.
Turkish television channel NTV, quoting unnamed security officials, reported that the plane was hijacked by two Turks to protest Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey next month.

And the plane lands in ITALY, of all places.

UPDATE: Thanks to our cub reporter Jimmy "Gunslinger" Olsen in the comments, I can add this:

Earlier reports on Tuesday that two hijackers were protesting Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey were apparently incorrect; authorities now say that the single hijacker has requested political asylum.

The hijacker, who according to passengers sneaked into the cockpit when the rest of the crew was busy, told the pilot there were two hijackers, Italian police said. But passengers have reported seeing only one.

Turkish officials said the hijacker, identified as Hasan Ekinci, wrote a letter to the pope in August asking for help in avoiding service in the Turkish army.

"I am a Christian and don't want to serve a Muslim army," he wrote, adding that he had been attending church since 1998.


I'm quite sure I wouldn't want to serve in the Turkish Army either, but there are better ways to draft dodge.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:53 AM | Comments (5)

October 01, 2006

A Note to the GOP

I wouldn't try gambits like this...

Breaking news, male prostitution ring being run out of Democratic Congressman's apartment
In reality, this is not breaking news. It's old news about Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank. In this Washington Post story, Congessman Frank's gay lover claims that Frank even knew about the operation.

...to excuse a pedophile and a cover-up that smacks of election year desperation like this.
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Hastert's office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were "over-friendly."

...The House leaders said it is their duty to ensure House pages are safe. They said they are creating a toll-free hot line for pages and their families to call to confidentially report any incidents, and will consider adopting new rules on communications between lawmakers and pages.

The boy who received the e-mails was 16 in the summer of 2005 when he worked in Congress as a page. After the boy returned to his Louisiana home, the congressman e-mailed him. The teenager thought the messages were inappropriate, particularly one in which Foley asked the teen to send a picture of himself.

The teen's family contacted their congressman, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who then discussed the problem with Reynolds sometime this spring.


They don't even begin to equate.
Whatever you think of prostitution, homosexuality or Barney Frank personally, those are adults. Consenting ADULTS.

Not some sick SOB stalking teenage boys, who have no hope for protection from the leaders of the 'family/conservative values' party, because they need his slimy a$$ in his slimy seat. I don't care when anybody but the Republican leadership knew about this ~ I didn't elect them. But if Hastert and his fellow dirtballs KNEW even a WEEK before the story broke that this degenerate was playing both sides of the aisle and DID NOTHING? Then they don't need to be House leaders anymore and should resign their positions as such. They have made a mockery of 'leadership' and 'integrity'.

And conservative bozos who bring up Barney Frank and homosexuals as if that mitigates a CHILD PREDATOR?

Mr. Foley should be very happy that none of those pages had a father (or mother) with protective impulses like major dad, Bingley or I. No one would have shot him but the face in his booking picture would look very different from the one on his campaign posters.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:28 PM

They Need to Get These Cabs Lit

...BEFORE Bingley and I get there for the GOP Convention...or I'll thump someone, I'm sure.
"WHAT?!", you ask? Aren't they talking about Mogadishu?

Muslim Cabdrivers May Have to Signify Alcohol-Free Cars

No, gentle reader. They're talking about MINNEAPOLIS.
Hundreds of Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport may soon be required to put different colored lights atop their vehicles after refusing to take customers they know are carrying alcohol.

The proposal, which would allow airport workers to direct travelers to cabs more efficiently, needs approval from the airport’s taxicab advisory committee, and airport officials hope to have the lights ready by year’s end.

If the proposal is adopted, cabdrivers without the light who refuse a fare will be sent to the back of the line, which often means a three-hour wait.

Some said they would rather wait for another fare than carry a passenger with alcohol. “It is forbidden in Islam to carry alcohol,” said Muhamed Mursal, a cabdriver.

Pat Hogan, an airport spokesman, said a handful of drivers began refusing to carry alcohol 10 years ago. Now he estimates that three-quarters of the 900 airport cabdrivers are Somali, most of them Muslim.

...Some travelers are taken aback by the idea that they might be refused a ride.

“They’re really kind of imparting their religious views on the public,” said Katie Patterson of McKinney, Tex. “I can understand if somebody’s drunk; that’s a whole different issue. But to just bring in a closed container, maybe you should look for other work.


Ya think? But suggesting that is probably discriminatory, insensitive and racist. You know, like something the Pope would say. Which is also probably what it's going be called if this "back of the line blue light special" gets approved.

I can't discriminate against a Muslim if he wants to rent my apartment and cook goat.
So why can he tell me to piss off if I want to rent his cab with duty free liquor in my bags?

My Uncle Sam didn't raise no dhimmi.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:54 PM | Comments (12)

September 29, 2006

I Am SMOKIN' Mad

(And probably should have waited until the red glaze cleared from my eyes, but I've never had that kind of self control.)
Don't let the headline fool you.

'It is Time for Muslims to Reciprocate'
This week a Berlin opera house cancelled a performance of Mozart in the latest of many crises over religious sensitivities. A moderate Muslim asks: Have we learned anything?

The voluntary closing of the Deutsche Oper Berlin because of the anticipated sensitivities of Muslims hearing about their Prophet’s severed head assumes great symbolic significance in the age of globalization in which we live. Images, events and words—as we saw in the case of Pope Benedict a few days ago—have the capacity to inflame societies across the world in a matter of hours.


Let's clarify that point ~ just Islamic societies. There are no riotous Baptists, no one burns cars when Falwell speaks, nor riots in the streets at the words of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. Get my drift? It's not 'societies'...it's JUST Muslims.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, in one sense could be viewed as a symptom of this growing crisis between the two civilizations. Five years ago, the world was poised at the crossroads: one road led to a clash of civilizations and another toward dialogue and understanding. Developments after September 11 have confirmed in the minds of millions across the world that there is a global conflict in progress. Nearly 3,000 American lives were lost on that day and another 3,000 have been lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Muslims have lost their lives in these wars. As a result, an entire generation of young Muslims is coming of age that sees the world through the lens of an ongoing attack on the foundations of its faith.*

*I interpret that as "you brought that sh*t on yourself and CONTINUE to do so." Did I get that wrong?
It is time for Muslims to reciprocate these gestures. As a Muslim committed to interfaith dialogue, I would appeal to the president of Iran not to make provocative remarks about the Holocaust nor to threaten the Jewish population with extermination. It is time for all of us to think about the boldness of the theater owners in Germany. They did, after all, stop a production of Mozart, the quintessential iconic Germanic figure, in order to express their belief in the dialogue of and understanding between civilizations.

Nooooo, they did it out of fear of VIOLENT ISLAMIC retribution, not a chance for dialogue. If they wanted to TALK, they wouldn't have spent a gazillion dollars getting a production together that subsequently had to be cancelled thanks to implied threats of Muslim goonism. They could have simply picked up the phone and dialed the local mullah. What a canard and seeing it in print defies belief.

This is the precise, mealy mouthed BULLSHIT that passes for 'moderate' in the Islamic world and that the MSM swallows whole hog.

NOWHERE does Mr. Akmed call the 9/11 MUSLIM hijackers MURDERERS.
NOWHERE does Mr. Akmed mention the tens of thousands of Muslims MURDERED by fellow MUSLIMS in the name of ISLAM.
NOWHERE does Mr. Akmed CONDEMN ANY of the slaughter in ALLAH's name.

Oh yes, it's presented to us and we have the presence of mind to call it the bullshit that it is. We can see the prevarications and the skillful blame spin game and note that there is NO acceptance YET AGAIN of ANY responsibility on the part of Islam OR it's increasingly strident but FEEBLE apologists.

BUT this Newsweek goes to the WHOLE WORLD and Islamic clerics everywhere will be waving Mr. Akmed's piece as if they now had PROOF positive that Islam has M-O-D-E-R-A-T-E-S ~ that there are lucid and reasonable faces among the mob. What a f*ckin' shell game.

DE-ASSKISSALATION, people. "It's Time for Muslims to Reciprocate" my ass. It's time for them to F*CKING STOP.
Or for US to stop THEM.

Enough already.

Michelle Malkin has transcripts of forbidden op-ed letters. No transcripts of 'moderate' voices raised in protest.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 AM | Comments (4)

September 28, 2006

The European Union Quietly

...cuts out the middle guy.

EU starts social allowances payments to Palestinians at the start of Ramadan
The European Commission announced Monday that it started the payment of social allowances to 40,000 of the neediest Palestinian families through the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) .

"We are happy to organize the payment at the start of Ramadan," Commission spokesperson for external relations, Emma Udwin, told reporters in Brussels.

Families have been identified from those normally supported through the social welfare scheme of the Palestinian Authority and will receive 270 euro each.

The Middle East Quartet (EU, US, UN and Russia) last week supported an extension of the TIM for a three month period and an expansion of its scope.

"The TIM is helping to meet the most urgent needs of the Palestinian people, and following the Quartet decision, we will be able to do even more," said EU Commissioner for external relations Benita Ferreo-Waldner.

The TIM was established last June by the European Commission at the request of the Quartet and the European Council to facilitate needs-based assistance to the Palestinian people.

The EU and the US stopped all financial payments to the PA Authority after Hamas was elected early this year causing great hardships to the Palestinian population.


Another report here.

"Please don't burn our Fiats" disguised as welfare payments. I LIKE it!

Besides, it's been hard to fund an Intifada since the Saddam/Saudi sugar daddy pipelines were broken.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:17 PM | Comments (7)

But If I Stood Outside HIS Mosque Yelling the Same Things

...betcha they hook me up for something.

Radical Muslim who made death threats against Pope escapes prosecution
A furious row has erupted after it emerged that a notorious preacher will not be prosecuted for issuing a death threat to Pope Benedict over his remarks about Islam.

...But Scotland Yard has concluded that 'no substantive offences' were committed on September 17.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:23 PM

The Ongoing Failure

...of Imagination.

...As we approach the fifth year without a second successful terrorist attack upon U.S. soil, a chorus of skeptics now suggests that 9/11 was a 100-year flood. They conveniently forget the deadly explosions in Bali, Madrid, London, and Mumbai, and dismiss scores of attacks planned against the United States and others that have been disrupted. [1] The idea that terrorists are currently preparing even more deadly assaults seems as far-fetched to them as the possibility of terrorists crashing passenger jets into the World Trade Center did before that fateful Tuesday morning.

As one attempts to assess where we now stand, and what the risks are, the major conclusion of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission deserves repetition: The principal failure to act to prevent the September 11 attack was a "failure of imagination." [2] A similar failure of imagination leads many today to discount the risk of a nuclear 9/11.

...Lest this seem too hypothetical, recall an actual incident that occurred in New York City one month to the day after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A CIA agent, code-named Dragonfire, reported that Al Qaeda had acquired a live nuclear weapon produced by the former Soviet Union and had successfully smuggled it into New York City. [3] A top-secret Nuclear Emergency Support Team was dispatched to the city. Under a cloak of secrecy that excluded even Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, these nuclear ninjas searched for the 10-kiloton bomb whose blast could have obliterated a significant portion of Manhattan. Fortunately, Dragonfire's report turned out to be a false alarm. But the central takeaway from the Dragonfire case is this: The U.S. government had no grounds in science or in logic to dismiss the warning.

A nuclear terrorist attack on the United States would have catastrophic consequences even for other countries. After the nuclear detonation, the immediate reaction would be to block all entry points to prevent another bomb from reaching its target, resulting in the disruption of the global "just-in-time" flow of goods and raw materials. Vital markets for international products would disappear, and closely linked financial markets would crash. Researchers at RAND, a U.S.-government-funded think tank, estimated that a nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach in California would cause immediate indirect costs worldwide of more than $3 trillion and that shutting down U.S. ports would cut world trade by 10 percent. [4]

The negative economic repercussions would reverberate well beyond the developed world. As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned, "Were a nuclear terrorist attack to occur, it would cause not only widespread death and destruction, but would stagger the world economy and thrust tens of millions of people into dire poverty." [5]

How does one assess the probability of an unprecedented event that could have catastrophic consequences? Since there is no established methodology, the soundest way to proceed is to ask and answer the core questions: who, what, where, when, and how?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:28 PM | Comments (7)

September 26, 2006

I Notice There's Been a Change in the Headline

Where this morning the opera was pulled because it was 'inflammatory', this latest headline has a different tenor (snort) all together.

Mozart opera withdrawn on fears of Islamist attack

Indignation erupted across Germany's political spectrum on Tuesday after a renowned opera house said it had dropped a controversial production of Mozart's Idomeneo from its programme because it feared becoming a target of Islamist extremists.

Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister, attacked the decision by Berlin's Deutsche Oper not to show the 200-year-old work as "crazy", "ridiculous" and "unacceptable".

...Bernd Neumann, culture minister, said it showed "the democratic culture of free speech is in danger".

...Unlikely bedfellows have been united in protest at Deutsche Oper's decision. Conservative MPs from Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party found themselves agreeing with Dieter Wiefelspütz, a Social Democratic security expert, calling the cancellation "a concession to terrorists" and a "shameful" move, respectively.


Of course, there's always one apologist included for balance.
...A retired German Muslim leader who asked not to be named said he was concerned.

"This is typically the kind of reaction that shapes this persecution complex among young Muslims when what we need is a policy of de-escalation."


Thank you, Herr Doktor Freud.

Personally, I would instead counter with a swiftly implemented policy of DE-ASSKISSALATION.

Either way un-Medieval Mozart is schpinning in his potter's grave.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:30 PM | Comments (7)

September 25, 2006

Manly Taliban Religion of Pieces Types

...are up to their old tricks wimmens-wise.

Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead the head of a women's department in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Monday, a security official and a relative said.

...Ama Jan was on her way to work, getting into a car outside her house, when the gunmen struck, said her nephew, who identified himself as Farhad.

"She died on the spot," he told reporters.

...A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, said Ama Jan was killed because she worked for the government.

"We have told people time and time again that anyone working for the government -- including women -- will be killed," Khan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.



Bless her brave heart. When the hell is someone gonna lay the hurt on the a$$holes that they deserve?

Or at the very LEAST (educated women of the LIBERAL LEFT, I'm talking to YOU here...) call them what they ARE?


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)

September 24, 2006

Searching for Answers Sunday

Are you as sick of these guys...

...as I am? Is this all they have in their day to do?

I've about had it with their 'anger' and 'outrage' and their ugly f*ckin' mugs as big as a cowpaddie on my 'puter screen every f*ckin' day.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:19 AM | Comments (7)

September 21, 2006

If Only Mr. Karr Would Do the Same Thing

...as his 'puter.

Child porn case against Karr hits a snag
Prosecutors can’t find computer that allegedly contained illegal images

Efforts to prosecute one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr on child pornography charges should not be jeopardized even though his computer that allegedly contained the images was lost, Sonoma County authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities seized the computer from Karr’s home in 2001 and copied the entire hard drive onto paper, including the five illicit images, said Sheriff’s Department Lt. Dave Edmonds. He said authorities looked for the computer for the past two weeks, but have had no luck.


FIVE images? FIVE? Oh yeah, baby ~ he's a criminal mastermind. And the sheriff's department looks like bumbling, fumbling....astronauts or something. Get this guy WEASEL outta the news, for cryin' out loud. There's a war on! The Mets clinched the division! Natalee Holloway! The world's full of disasters, so please...something, anything but this.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:05 AM | Comments (3)

I Doubt It's Just Me But...

...I can't recall seeing such dire headlines EVER during Easter or Christmas or Passover, for instance.

U.S. general: More violence during Ramadan
Military expects increased attacks in Iraq during Muslim holy month

Holey and in pieces. That's one helluva religion.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:35 AM | Comments (17)

September 19, 2006

Another Religion of Pieces Joke

"Honor" killings.

Honour killing claims life of six-year-old
A six-year-old girl was killed in an arson attack on her family home by men who disapproved of a relationship her older brother was having with a teenager, a court heard today.

Alisha Begum, the youngest of 12 children in her Bangladeshi family, became the innocent victim of an attempt to warn her sibling off seeing the 15-year-old when a blaze swept through her Birmingham home earlier this year, prosecutors said.


Those have always been mutually exclusive terms in my book. But ~ unlike the Muslim protestors at Westminister yesterday calling for the Pope's MURDER ~ should you be inclined carry a hand lettered, anti-ISLAMIC HONOR KILLING sign to Crown Court and stand on the sidewalk with it...I'll bet you're hauled off to see the same barrister prosecuting this case.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:09 PM | Comments (3)

September 18, 2006

Via Tim Blair

...a timely Bill Leak cartoon.

It's not funny because it's true.

An Al Qaeda-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters raged across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence.

...The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."

...However, State Minister Mehmet Aydin, who oversees the religious affairs in Turkey, said he expected Turkish authorities to cancel the visit if Benedict does not offer a full apology.

"We are expecting the authorities to unilaterally cancel this visit. The pope's coming to Turkey isn't going to foment the uniting of civilizations, but a clash of civilizations," he said.

The secretary-general of the Turkish HUKUK-DER law association submitted a request to the Justice Ministry asking that the pope be arrested upon entering Turkey.

..."Muslims have all this while felt oppressed, and the statement by the pope saying he is sorry about the angry reaction is inadequate to calm the anger — more so because he is the highest leader of the Vatican," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

...."This has gravely hurt the feelings of the Muslims across the world, including those from China," Chen Guangyuan, president of Islamic Association of China, was quoted as saying in an interview with the Xinhua news agency.

..."We are afraid," said Sonia Kobatazi, a Christian Lebanese...


When Muslims get "gravely hurt feelings", they usually 'gravely hurt' people back. It's inconceivable to me that major dad and I have batted around this horrible hypothetical more than once since the Pope's speech, but we have.
"What happens if one of these whack jobs (and/or their toadies) offs the old guy?"

I mean, what does? Outrage, fist waving, desk pounding with a little 'he brought that sh*t on himself' sprinkled on top from the apologists? Who avenges the Pope? Who speaks for His Holiness while the Islamic world dances in the street at the murder of a truly peaceful man? More importantly, who would lay the hammer of God down if the unthinkable happened? There is no mechanism for retribution and justice.

I really think everyone will be really mad and that's about it. It's terrifying.

UPDATE: One more for the roll call...

A notorious Muslim extremist told a demonstration in London yesterday that the Pope should face execution.

...outside Westminster Cathedral no less. Can't you go to jail for yelling "GO BACK where you CAME from!" outside an Islamic mosque in the U.K.? So what gives?

Macabrely enough, his line reminds me of Caiaphus in 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.

CAIAPHAS

Fools, you have no perception!
The stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high!
We must crush him completely,
So like John before him, this Jesus must die.
For the sake of the nation, this Jesus must die.

ALL (inside)

Must die, must die, this Jesus must die.

CAIAPHAS

So like John before him, this Jesus must die.

ALL (inside)

Must die, must die, this Jesus must, Jesus must, Jesus must die!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 AM | Comments (4)

major dad Says "The Rat Bastards"

I agree.

A nun shot four times at the Somali hospital where she worked forgave her killers as she lay dying, colleagues said Monday in the wake of her slaying, which has focused attention on Islamic radicalism in the Horn of Africa.

Sister Leonella, 65, muttered the words “I forgive, I forgive” in Italian after being shot by gunmen Sunday, the Rev. Maloba Wesonga told The Associated Press at a memorial Mass for the nun in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:22 AM | Comments (3)

September 17, 2006

Allah Got Some 'Splainin' to Do

...when ~ in his name ~ shooting a defenseless, geriatric nun four times in the back...

An elderly Italian nun who devoted her life to helping the sick in Africa was shot dead by two gunmen at a hospital Sunday in an attack possibly linked to worldwide Muslim anger toward Pope Benedict XVI.

Sister Leonella, 65, was shot in the back four times by pistol-wielding attackers as she left the Austrian-run S.O.S. hospital at lunch time after finishing nursing school for trainee medics. Her bodyguard was also slain.


...makes you a man.

Michelle Malkin has thoughtfully provided Pope Benedict's email address.
benedictxvi-at-vatican.va

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:17 PM | Comments (1)

I Wouldn't Be So Quick to Invoke John Paul's Name

...my little Muslim friend.

"We hope that Pope Benedict XVI will follow the steps of Pope John Paul II, who carried out a series of constructive steps to conduct an interfaith dialogue," Al Sabah said.

Perhaps it wasn't in your local paper. I can assure you he had no patience with autocrats ~ religious or otherwise. He would gladly visit to minister, saint that he was...but it was at your peril.

And sometimes it was really, really hard to keep your desk when he left.

UPDATE and BUMP: Goodie. He (Pope Benedict) stuck to his "I'm sorry you don't have the sense Allah gave you" guns.

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was “deeply sorry” about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that didn’t reflect his personal opinion.

“These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought,” Benedict told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.

...“At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims,” the pope said Sunday.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:53 AM | Comments (2)

September 16, 2006

Hold On Little Doggies!!

Pope sorry for remarks
This al-Reuters headline is a little misleading. Lemme guess why...
Pope Benedict is sorry Muslims were offended by a speech on Islam that provoked fury around the world and led to calls for the leader of the Catholic church to apologize, an aide said on Saturday.

"The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," said Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in a statement.


He's just sorry they don't have a clue and not sorry for what he said. The New York Times could use a little schooling in comprehension.
The New York Times said in an editorial the Pope must issue a "deep and persuasive" apology for quotes used in his speech.

"The world listens carefully* to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly," it said.


* One would guess 'not' at the Times.
The German chancellor gets it.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German politicians defended his comments, saying he had been misunderstood.

"It was an invitation to dialogue between religions," she told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper in an interview.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:18 AM | Comments (5)

September 15, 2006

Do You Know What's Hysterical About This Headline?

Muslim leaders demand apology for Pope's 'medieval' remarks

The words he quoted...were.

Any excuse for a street riot and a helluva way to demonstrate the modernity and tolerance of your beliefs.

UPDATE: Hmmmm. I wonder how this Islamic cleric meant for his words to be interpreted?

At least one Muslim leader, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric of New Delhi's historic Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, extolled Muslims to "respond in a manner which forces the Pope to apologize". He did not elaborate.

Throw bottles, wave thousands of convenient Vatican flags then burn them, kill each other in the streets, burn down each others shops, blahblahblah ~ the usual or something more sinister? But I am tickled to death to see a quote like this (even if anonymous) in the al-Reuters story.
..."What one can say as an academic is one thing and what a Pope can say is another," the source added.

But another diplomatic source praised the Pope for "calling a spade a spade".

"I see this as a wake up call for Christians. It will be interesting to see what the next step will be, but I don't think he has to apologize for anything, nor do I think he will," the diplomatic source said.

I HAD to lift this from frolickingmole's comment over at Tim Blair's.

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
—Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).”


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 PM | Comments (3)

"Don't Use Your 14th Century Quotes" Reflux REDUX

I should have said "Don't use your 14th century quotes on 14th century neanderthals mentalities". Yes, yes ~ they're burning sh*t in the street YET again


...to prove how advanced and tolerant Islam/Muslim culture really is.

Turkish official......compares pope to Hitler
Politician joins outcry across Muslim world over pontiff's comments in Islam

Everybody's Hitler these days ~ give it a rest, why doncha.
...Turkey's top Islamic cleric, Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Bardakoglu, asked Benedict on Thursday to apologize about the remarks and unleashed a string of accusations against Christianity, raising tensions before the pontiff's planned visit to Turkey in November on what would be his first papal pilgrimage in a Muslim country.

...On Friday, Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths.

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world*," Kapusuz blurted out in comments made to the state-owned Anatolia news agency. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."


*Isn't that the oddest thing for him to say?

..."Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

Oh, you're tellin' us...

"Can't we all just get along?"-Sponge Bob, after a night of drinking heavily.©TPI

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:39 AM | Comments (3)

September 14, 2006

This pretty well hits....

the nail on the head.

The damning evidence was on the front page of yesterday's Post: A dra matic photo showing more than 100 Taliban terrorists in formation last July for a graveside funeral for one of their own in Afghanistan. The image was shot from high in the sky by an unmanned American drone - which fed a continuous satellite feed back on the ground.

A ripe target for a surprise missile strike? It certainly would seem so.

But according to a statement yesterday from U.S. Central Command in Afghanistan, "a decision was made" - preposterously - "not to strike the group of insurgents at that specific location and time" because the site was a cemetery with a funeral in progress.

Huh? This pretty well sums my thoughts on the whole thing:

How many Coalition soldiers will die because 100-plus Taliban were allowed to walk free will never be known, of course. It can't be.

This much is clear, though: The Taliban never show mercy - and they are contemptuous of those who do.

War is about killing.

Or being killed.

About winning.

Or losing.

Time to change the rules.

When are we going to start fighting this like a war, and put the lawyers back in the courtrooms instead of the battlefields?

Posted by Crusader at 11:15 AM | Comments (7)

Don't Use Your 14th Century Quotes

Muslim religious leaders have accused Pope Benedict XVI of quoting anti-Islamic remarks during a speech at a German university this week.

Questioning the concept of holy war, he quoted a 14th-Century Christian emperor who said Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things.

...The emperors words were, he said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Benedict said "I quote" twice to stress the words were not his and added that violence was "incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".


...to criticize us, old man...
Religious leader Ali Badda Kolu said the Pope's comments represented what he called an "abhorrent, hostile and prejudiced point of view".

Whilst Muslims might express their criticism of Islam and of Christianity, he argued, they would never* defame the Holy Bible or Jesus Christ.

He said he hoped the Pope's speech did not reflect "hatred in his heart" against Islam.


...or we might be forced to blow up more of you infidel** donkey bottom wipers. Say you're sorry now, or I pull the pin on the bomb attached to this martyr in the market. (Yes, yes ~ virgins sold separately.)

(* GOT that?! NEVER, ever, ever. N-E-V-E-R. Religion of pieces peace, you know.)

(**Just so we're clear on this 'infidel' thing...)

Reactions to the grotesque jihadist decapitation of yet another "infidel Jew," Mr. Berg, make clear that our intelligentsia are either dangerously uninformed, or simply unwilling to come to terms with this ugly reality: such murders are consistent with sacred jihad practices, as well as Islamic attitudes towards all non-Muslim infidels, in particular, Jews, which date back to the 7th century, and the Prophet Muhammad's own example.

According to Muhammad’s sacralized biography by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe. He appointed an "arbiter" who soon rendered this concise verdict: the men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, the spoils to be divided among the Muslims. Muhammad ratified this judgment stating that it was a decree of God pronounced from above the Seven Heavens.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:11 AM | Comments (1)

September 12, 2006

Time to (Yet Again) Find a Kinder, Gentler Way

...to call them what they are.

Call for Bush to stop using 'Islamic fascists'
Feingold says term offensive and unconnected to global terrorism fight

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on President Bush to refrain from using the phrase "Islamic fascists," saying it was offensive to Muslims and has nothing to do with global terrorists fighting the United States.

"We must avoid using misleading and offensive terms that link Islam with those who subvert this great religion or who distort its teachings to justify terrorist activities," Feingold said Tuesday in a speech to the Arab American Institute on Capitol Hill.


Well, first point, Russ...this is about the sixth thing the President has called these murdering bastards because of the general outcry when trying to find something inoffensive to call these Muslim (whoops) Islamic extremist (can't use that anymore) homicidal (nope ~ right out) murdering bastards terrorists Presbyterians of Peace. (See, Russ? It's really hard.)

Secondly ~ as far as "linking Islam" to these murdering bastards? A fine point: THEY DID THAT THEIR OWNSELVES, YO. (Remember? "9/11", "jihad", "fatwa", "infidel", "Allah Akbar", blahblahblah... W's pretty smart and deviously evil, but even ROVE couldn't pull all that out his patootie.)

There also seems to be a disconnect between how Muslims Islamics THOSE people view their situation and how they act. On World News Tonight last night (yes, LAST night, the 9/11 anniversiary) ABC sensitively aired a short piece on "Islamophobia". Specifically in London. (yes, the same London of the bombings) They spoke to three of THOSE people, who:

a) talked of the lack of opportunity for these young murderers people being a root cause of their season of discontent. (the male interviewee)

b) complained that people move to a seat as far away from her as possible when she sits next to them on a public conveyence in her full Islamic regalia. (Fatima, the first female interviewee)

c) says that even a hairdresser said how pretty she was ("I am Miss England!") but her looks are different than the usual beauty contestant. "But I am also a Muslim," she replied. (Miss England)

All of THESE people complain about the reaction Joe Brit in the street has to them. And they all piss and moan and ululate, but not one of them ever addresses the rot within their own society ~ at their very doorstep. The hate and ignorance that gets passed out and fomented in the mosques of their own neighborhoods, by their own neighbors. Yet Joe Brit, who gets blown to bits on the tram ride home, should take care not to hurt feelings. He should understand they feel marginalized. Or the President of the United States ~ who watches helplessly as citizens die in the most cowardly, heinous, barbaric manner ~ should mind his tongue. They never address those things they do which marginalize themselves ~ they want to remain in splendid isolation, with the rest of us abdicating to their needs.

I can't imagine, say, Vanessa Williams (when she still had her Miss America crown) answering her hair dresser's compliments ("I am so proud to be the first black Miss America!") with "But I am also a Baptist/Catholic/Druid/WTF EVER/*insert your religion here."

No you're not, baby. You're Miss England (perhaps the first of whatever country's ancestry to make it, granted). You should be delighted to be so and that's as much as anyone should hear from you.

You sure wouldn't be wearing that crown or snappy pink suit in Afghanistan.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:16 PM | Comments (6)

Sherman, set the Wayback machine for.....

Japanese bow and grin for the camera but get nowhere in Washington.


Out of Washington last week came definite word that the U.S. is talking very tough to Japan. The talk went on between Special Envoy Saburo Kurusu, who had flown dramatically across the Pacific, President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. By week’s end, Kurusu’s ears burned with the words that U.S. officials repeated again and again: “Watch out! You’re on Hitler’s list, before we are!”

The “issues” between Japan and the U.S. are simple and clear. Japan wants the U.S. to stop helping China and Russia (at least via Siberia), and cease its economic restrictions against Japan. The U.S. answer is a flat “No.” Worst of all, from Kurusu’s standpoint, Americans do not even seem worried by the prospect of war with Japan, whereas the Japanese are worried stiff by the fearof war with America. The defenses of Manila and Hawaii are stronger than ever. The Navy is ready for action. At week’s end, Saburo Kurusu suddenly called off his conferences at the State Department to do a little more thinking.

Life, 12/1/1941 issue, page 36.

What happened just a week after that was published?

Pearl Harbor.
Nagumo's First Air Fleet had left its harbors on November 26, 1941, for the December 7 attack

And what of the "...stronger than ever...." defenses of Manila?
12/8 – Philippines attacked, 10 hours after Pearl Harbor
12/23 - Decision made to evacuate Manila, fall back to Bataan
1/1/1942 - Japanese troops entered Manila
5/6/1942 - Surrender of Philippines

Just last night I was reading a March 1942 edition of Life, reading their last report from their reporter in the Philippines before he (and his wife) were able to make their way out. They spoke of a Filipino boy strapped and tortured on the front of a Japanese tank in Manila for the offense of...touching it. And that was just a few pages apart from a report from a correspondent who had been with the AVG (Flying Tigers) as they fought in Rangoon until it fell. That alongside ads telling housewives how they could grow their gardens better to help the war effort. (Humorous side note- there is also an ad for Allison Inlines trumpeting the high praise(!) of the British for the P-39 Aircobra. Heh.) Breathtaking reading from the reports at the time.

But how does this fit in to our world today? Who is raising a (figurative) garden to try to help todays War effort? Could you imagine the uproar if a new AVG was even thought of being raised? Are we even being asked to sacrifice anything for this new War? I just don't see it. But what I do see is a population with no connection to the sacrifices of our fighting men and women overseas. I see very few signs that our nation is willing to give up anything. And it saddens and concerns me, the more I read of these 60+ year old magazines, as I am not sure we have what it takes to actually win this new War. How many of our common citizens are willing to give up anything for the freedoms they hold dear, myself included? I am actually more worried that most hold little or nothing dear, other than themselves. As long as you can drink your Starshmucks and drive wherever you want whenever you want in whatever you want, who cares what those odd little brown men are doing over there in the Middle East, right?

And as for our new breed of reporters, well let's see. I have yet to come across a single story in these old Lifes that are reported from the Japanse Army/Navy point of view, and I am fine with that. If you are trying to kill me or my countrymen, I could give a rats patootie about your input on the matter. I either want to see your arms in the air as you give up, or your toes in the air as you are laid in a grave. And I feel the same way about the WW2 Japanese as I do about the modern Islamists in that respect. I have no respect for the mealy-mouthed journalists in the Middle East who want the picture from the terrorists view. I don't care what the root causes are, as I'll worry about that after they are dead and pacified, and those left are living as civil humans. Right now we have a war to win.

The average person on the streets knows what the terrorists are doing, and how bad they really are. They just seem to lack the fortitude, motivation, and willingness to give up anything in the short haul to even keep what we have or have better in the future. And I really fear that if/when they wake up, we will be past the point of being able to fight it in a humane fashion. We will be at the point that it will only be fought as Total War. And more Nukes in the hands of those that brought us the Tehran Embassy Crisis of November 4, 1979. Sorry to ramble, but reading what our parent/grandparents did just makes me really wonder if we still have what it takes to stand for what is right, and if we really even still know what is right. Memorials and anniversaries ain't it. Working to prevent the need for future ones is. That is how we should remember and act.

We need to fight to win, nothing less. Finish what they started.

Posted by Crusader at 09:36 AM | Comments (2)

September 08, 2006

Nutjobs Update

Now this will get the kooks in a dither:

A controversy over words at BYU this morning. A professor is on paid leave for suggesting the government is responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center.

The man on paid leave is Dr. Steven Jones. He's a physics professor involved in the so-called "9-11 Truth Movement." Jones believes unnamed government agencies orchestrated the fall of the twin towers and he says there's evidence to back it up.

Two weeks ago he published his theory in a paper called "Why Indeed did the World Trade Center Buildings Collapse?" In it, the professor says the towers fell not because of planes hitting them but rather pre-positioned demolition charges. He cites research conducted at BYU on materials from ground zero, asserting those materials show evidence of thermite, a compound used in military detonations. He says terrorists could have never set those charges.

The State Department has released a rebuttal to Jones' theory in a 10-thousand page report.

BYU made this statement last night.

"Physics Professor Steven Jones has made numerous statements about the collapse of the World Trade Center. BYU has repeatedly said that it does not endorse assertions made by individual faculty.

"We are, however, concerned about the increasingly speculative and accusatory nature of these statements by Dr. Jones."

The university added, "BYU remains concerned that Dr. Jones' works on this topic has not been published in appropriate scientific venues."

It is rare for some in Dr. Jones' position to be under review because he has taught at BYU for more than two decades. He began his career at the university in 1985 and has been known for his cold fusion research. Other professors will teach his classes while he's on paid leave. He will be allowed to conduct research in his field but the university is reviewing his actions.

I'm sure we'll hear the usual screams about free speech, academic freedom, yada yada yada, with a dash of Rovian Conspiracy thrown in. Well, probably mostly that. BDS is awfully common in The Academy.

Stayed tuned and we'll see how this develops.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:42 PM | Comments (13)

September 07, 2006

You Know These Guys

...were talkin' sh*t.

Cell phones, complete with a charger and data chips, were found in the body cavities of four inmates at a maximum-security prison, and they had used the phones to direct criminal activities on the street, officials said Wednesday.

...Capt. Juan Ramon Arevalo, director of the Zacatras prison, said the gang members had introduced the cell phones, wrapped in plastic bags, into their bodies through their anuses. The phones were relatively small - about as long as an adult forefinger.

Authorities also found nine cell phone chips, each slightly larger than a fingernail, and one charger.


So what's to stop Ali Blabla (intent on blowing up an airliner, etc.) from being anal retentive, too?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:11 PM | Comments (23)

August 30, 2006

A New Ward Petition

Just when you thought he had disappeared, the Ivory Toweristas have come up with a petition in support of poor Ward Churchill.

I'm sorry, that's "Courageous Professor Ward Churchill."

My bad.

The actions of the University of Colorado in this case constitute a serious threat to academic freedom.

Is that the freedom to lie? The freedom to be hired solely because you claimed (falsely, it seems) to have the desired ethnic blood?

They indicate that public controversy is dangerous and potentially lethal to the careers of those who engage it.

No, they hopefully show that lying to get your job, and being promoted way over your head or qualifications (only a Masters degree from a school whose name he even misspells on his website), will someday come around and bite you and the racist fools who hired you very publically in the ass; and that can only be a good thing.

They suggest that professors—tenured and untenured alike—serve at the pleasure of politicians and pundits.

No, they suggest that these people should be -gasp- actually qualified.

They call into question standards of scholarship and peer review at Colorado 's flagship institution.

This I actually agree with. Who the hell was on the tenure committee for Churchill? Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do!

They endanger not only those scholars working in that area where historical inquiry, critical social commentary, and political activism intersect—an area that defines the true locus of academic freedom in an open and democratic society—but also those historically disenfranchised "others" who are struggling to have their perspectives and programs represented in, and legitimized by, the academic mainstream.

Here's the whole crux, isn't it? There's no mention of that nasty little word 'truth' in that statement, is there? Just a fear-mongering cry of 'how dare you question what I'm doing!' Well, I will because I'm, you know, paying for it, and because, well you're inventing facts, etc. Just because you have a 'theory' and you want to 'study' it doesn't make it right. Academics should be seeking the truth, not "struggling" to have every "perspective legitimized".

Thus, for a variety of reasons that go well beyond the scholarship and politics of a particular individual, we urge the University of Colorado to reverse its decision to fire Professor Ward Churchill.

PS - And for [insert your deity of choice here]'s sake please do not allow them to look into my research!

UPDATE: A Swill Salute to Pirate Ballerina for their most excellent petition.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:56 AM | Comments (8)

August 24, 2006

Bloodless Ways to Hit the Iranian Street

...right where it hurts the mullahs most.

...The obvious next diplomatic step is to show Iran that the world meant what it said by following through with the toughest achievable sanctions. A myth has developed in some circles that there are "no good options" available to pressure Iran, but that's more excuse than analysis. Iran's mullahs are unpopular at home and their citizens will notice if they are declared a global pariah state. Sanctions on travel by Iran's government officials, diplomats and sports teams may be largely symbolic, but such symbolism will not be missed on the Persian street.
Iran is also vulnerable economically. Sanctions on banks that deal with Iran can limit the regime's access to global credit markets for trade and other financing. Despite its oil exports, Iran also imports some 40% of its refined gasoline. A ban on selling gasoline to Iran would surely lead to gas lines and other shortages there, with possible domestic political repercussions. And it is domestic discontent that the mullahs rightly fear the most.

The worry in the West is that Iran would respond to a gasoline embargo by playing its oil card in retaliation, withholding its supplies and sending world oil prices perhaps to $100 a barrel. But the mullahs can't eat oil. Amid other economic sanctions, they would need their income from oil sales more than ever. They are also watching closely to see if the world is serious when it says it won't allow them to go nuclear, and they know better than anyone that gasoline imports are their biggest political danger. They'll know a wrist slap from a serious policy.


We've cut North Korea off financially from practically the whole world. Who's still playing with them? Russia, who now with China are the powers still pushing for 'negotiations' with Iran. Let them play ~ we should be quietly choking off everything around them that we possibly can. I mean, if Congress is actually reading their own report...
...Anyone who still thinks a nuclear-armed Iran won't pose a serious, and perhaps mortal, threat ought to consult this week's bipartisan staff report from the House Intelligence Committee. Drawing on open-source information and mindful of classified background, the report lays out the history of Iranian nuclear deception and its attempts to promote trouble throughout the Middle East. It notes that "Iran probably has an offensive biological weapons program." And it discusses in detail Iran's support for Hezbollah and other terror groups, as well as its continuing support for insurgents who are killing Americans in Iraq.

"A nuclear-armed Iran would likely embolden the leadership in Tehran to advance its aggressive ambitions in and outside of the region, both directly and through the terrorists it supports--ambitions that gravely threaten the stability and the security of U.S. friends and allies," says the House Intelligence report. With a nuclear arsenal that they felt protected them from retaliation, the mullahs would also be more likely to use conventional military force in the Middle East. The domino effect as Turkey, Egypt and the Saudis sought their own nuclear deterrent would also not be "stabilizing," to cite the highest value of our Middle Eastern "realists." And don't forget President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vow that "Israel must be wiped off the map."


...there shouldn't be a problem.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:38 AM | Comments (1)

And No One to Thank For This

...but us.

‘Shiite giant’ extends its reach
Sadr’s armed movement becomes pivotal force in fractured Iraq

...Millions of Sadr's supporters turned out in December elections to give his movement the largest bloc in parliament, which in turn put him in control of four government ministries. Thousands of male followers abandoned their homes and jobs when a bomb destroyed a Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 22, rallying at Sadr headquarters on a night and day of retaliatory bloodletting that plunged Iraq into sectarian war.

While opposition to the U.S. military presence in Iraq remains one of its core tenets, the Sadr movement's militia, called the Mahdi Army, took heavy casualties in two military uprisings against better-armed, better-trained U.S. forces in 2004. Today, according to Sadr leaders and outside analysts, the movement is husbanding its strength and waiting for American troops to go.

Sadr "clearly is the most potent political figure, and the most popular one," in Iraq, said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. "Unless directly provoked, Sadrists will lay low, because they know the Americans' time in Iraq is coming to an end," he said. "Why would they risk another major loss of fighters if it's not necessary?...

...Americans in their eyes are already defeated -- they're going to leave."


Yup, that would be us. We've had nothing but grief from these fat little clerics, thanks to our risk aversion induced indecision and the time honored Middle Eastern "cease-fires" we fall for that allow them to breathe and regroup. He and his army should have been dealt with mercilessly when the Sadr City insurgency first erupted. But we let him scuttle back to his lair (just as the Israelis are doing with Hezbollah's robed and bearded Shelob) immunized from further prosecution military or otherwise. He gets to gloat that he played us like a rabab, (tangentially increasing his supporters fervor with his display of canniness against the great Satan) and we get to wring our hands in frustration when the fruits of our non-labor ripen, as they inevitably must.

They've learned that you can stab us in the eye and draw blood, but, as long as you drop the stick the second we act like we might mean business, you can snatch it back and slice at us over and over again, as long as your mouth is saying something entirely different from what your hand is doing. You keep carving away until we withdraw completely from the field of battle in quiet indignity.

It's worked every time.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:17 AM

August 21, 2006

I Find His Track of Faith

...disturbing.

"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

So what did the Rev. and Watertown City Councilman Timothy LaBouf do that disturbs so many?
The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."


I can think of someone else who ought to stuff a sock puppet in it...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:20 PM | Comments (2)

ABC News Reporter Jake Tapper

...has his own blog at the ABC site and it often has little gems in it. (Plus he just seems like a really decent guy ~ that helps.) One caught my eye today, unfortunately illustrating the point of my Andrew Young/Ray Nagin rants.

...Right now am working on a World News with Charles Gibson spot about the political football Wal-Mart has become, along with the recent anti-Semitic, anti-Korean, and anti-Arab comments made by civil rights icon Andrew Young. (For which the former UN ambassador has APOLOGIZED, though when I spoke with the man who conducted the interview for the LOS ANGELES SENTINEL -- the black newspaper Young made the comments to -- he asked me what Young had to apologize for.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:41 AM | Comments (2)

August 20, 2006

Protecting Your Rear

Kofi says you can.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to recommend Monday that the rules of engagement of the enhanced UNIFIL force to be deployed in Lebanon include opening fire on Hizbullah where necessary, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Whether you do or not is up to you...
"This is to date the most explicit expression of the upgrade to the UNIFIL force that has yet been received," one senior diplomatic official said.
Nevertheless, even if the UNIFIL forces had authorization to open fire, whether they would indeed do so and subject themselves to a firefight with Hizbullah is questionable. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office reserved judgment, saying they wanted to see the recommendation before responding.

...since those cranky bastards tend to fire back. Oh hell, let's be honest ~ sometimes they even fire first. What are the French to do?! I know...give it to the Italians!
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a telephone conversation in the afternoon with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Sunday, said that Israel would like to see Italy lead the force, a change from the widespread expectation that France would be heading it up.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 PM | Comments (2)

Get Me To the Church On Time

In one piece would also be loverly.

Snipers lurking on buildings and in a cemetery sprayed bullets into Shiite Muslim religious processions in the capital Sunday, killing at least 20 people in another spasm of sectarian bloodletting that many Iraqis fear is pushing them toward civil war.

I just don't get the Religion of Pieces. Shooting parishioners walking to mosque like fish in the proverbial 'wrong prophet' barrel on one of their bigger holy days is something you do? That's okay with whatever your version of the Koran says and whatever spaceship whatever prophet you bow to arrives on? I mean, really? That's OKAY? And that same prophet in his spaceship calls the U.S. 'Satan'? And I should feel bad for whatever it is we've done to try to move you, your prophet, his spaceship and all your religious, murdering buddies out of 700 A.D.? Must be cultural. None of that sh*t is okay in anything we have here, whether it's King James, Roman Catholic, Telmudic, Pastafarian or Wiccan tree scrolls. Granted it's boring, but at least we get where we're going.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:47 PM

In Quiet

...there is opportunity.

Equipment stolen from Katrina memorial site
Thieves make off with $100,000 in building equipment in New Orleans

Thieves hauled off $100,000 worth of heavy equipment that was being used to help build a Lower Ninth Ward memorial to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

A Bobcat excavator and a Bobcat T300 Skid Steer Loader, both of which require trailers or flatbed trucks to transport, were removed from the site sometime between midnight and 6:30 a.m. Saturday, construction company officials said.

In the neighborhood that remains nearly pitch black at night almost a year after the levees failed, the equipment didn’t last three days at the site.


My first question would be: WHY, in a "neighborhood that remains nearly pitch black at night almost a year after" are we building 'memorials' and not using the resources for cleaning the mess up or repairing/rebuilding homes? (Even new homes someplace else?) If the place "remains a largely vacant, debris-stained portion of New Orleans", just who the f*ck was the memorial for?

Memorials are for the DEAD...when everything else is DONE.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:12 PM | Comments (2)

August 19, 2006

Mayor Nagin?

Excuse me?

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago.

In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class."

"And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different response," the mayor said.


FUCK you.

You're a miserable excuse of a elected "leader".
And I would hope to God things would be handled differently anywhere BUT New Orleans, because NO ONE deserves the magnitude of the negligence, ignorance and ineptitude evidenced on your watch. In all honesty ~ in spite of all your pandering ~ there are simply parts of New Orleans that should NEVER be rebuilt and it ain't black and it ain't white and it ain't green, orange or purple. It's called 'underwater'. And what a fine 'thank you' to the tens of thousands of folks who poured into the Gulfcoast in the aftermath of Katrina. Or, if they couldn't be there personally, gave so generously? Or how about communities LIKE MINE, you arrogant ass? We already looked like this when Katrina went by (thanks to Cat 4 Ivan in Sep '04 AND then a CAT 3 named Dennis made landfall right on top of an already devastated Pensacola Beach in Jul '05), but we opened our arms to anyone from your city who could make it here. Our FEMA blue roofs could always shelter more folks. But you've probably never heard of us, big city guy that you are and all. And, big city guy that you are and all, you most likely have no concept what your pitiful, disgusting, ignorant, race baiting mouth is doing to the attitudes of the MILLIONS of Americans who gave in a heartfelt effort to do everything to SAVE YOUR CITY. They see the BILLIONS of dollars, federal and charitable, being poured into the gaping black hole that has ALWAYS been New Orleans' nightmarish fiscal legacy. Of course the Federal Government's a mess to deal with, but New Orleans and Louisiana have had an unimaginable carte blanche. Americans have seen Congress and the administration handing out hundreds of millions of dollars like candy, with no accounting for anything. They see the resources committed solely to YOUR city (Like Missippi, Alabama and Texas have no needs equaling yours?), YOUR evacuees still in Houston, Atlanta, PENSACOLA, et al, stretching and straining local resources and yet you're calling the rest of us racist? And no where in all your rhetoric has there ever been an admission of your own culpability, your own INCOMPETENCE ~ all the while that damning finger of yours is waggling in every face but your own. You are going to curdle and squander every last bit of good will left. Race plays no part in that, I assure you.

As for Miami getting it better, let me leave your sorry ass with something written about Miami's response to Andrew, from Hugo survivors.

In McClellanville, it never occurred to anyone that the federal government would come rebuild their town. Instead, the citizens got to work a few hours after the hurricane. They dug their own homes out of the mud and the slime that Hugo left behind; then they went next door and dug their neighbors out. They went on that way for months. There was help from outside, of course, especially from private charities, and nobody in McClellanville felt shy about taking it. But no one counted on it, either.

Three years later, most of the scars left by Hugo have disappeared. Folks hardly even talk about it anymore–or didn't, until Andrew. Since then they've been watching the news stories out of Miami with interest. Once in a while, a reporter calls to ask if the people of McClellanville have any advice for the people of Miami. They always choose their words painstakingly.

"I don't want to insult your community," Thames says carefully. "But I think that, in certain respects, you're going about things wrong down there. This thing is an act of God–there isn't anyone responsible for it. It's done, and you just have to put it behind you and get on with it. There's always a lot of political hype after a disaster. But when it comes down to clearing away the rubble and debris and getting started on the rebuilding, you'd better do it yourself."


We are so tired SICK TO DEATH of your schtick. Now.
STFU already and act like a leader...for once.
Brendon Loy in and on Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke". I haven't watched any of it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:59 AM | Comments (13)

August 18, 2006

"Light as a Feather"'

...and different degrees of 'dead'.

The Jerusalem Syndrome

The outrage of so many outraged people outrages me. On the scales of world opinion, some Muslim corpses are light as a feather, and others weigh tonnes. Two measures, two weights. The daily terrorist attacks on civilians in Baghdad, killing 50 people or more, are checked off in reports under the heading of miscellaneous, while the bomb that took 28 lives in Qana is denounced as a crime against humanity. Only a few intellectuals like Bernard-Henri Lévy or Magdi Allam, chief editor of the Corriere della Sera, find this surprising. Why do the 200,000 slaughtered Muslims of Darfur not arouse even half a quarter of the fury caused by 200-times fewer dead in Lebanon? Must we deduce that Muslims killed by other Muslims don't count - whether in the eyes of Muslim authorities or viewed through the bad conscience of the west? This conclusion has its weak spots, because if the Russian Army - Christian, and blessed by their popes - razes the capital of Chechnian Muslims (Grosny, with 400,000 residents) killing tens of thousands of children in the process, this doesn't count either. The Security Council does not hold meeting after meeting, and the Organization of Islamic States piously averts its eyes. From that we may conclude that the world is appalled only when a Muslim is killed by Israelis.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM

August 17, 2006

The Affidavit From the Flight Crew of United 923

...confirms they had every reason to divert into Boston.

A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday.

...The flight, with 182 passengers and 12 crew members, landed safely with the escort of two F-15s after the pilot declared an emergency on board because Mayo spoke of being in Pakistan and made other remarks the crew believed were references to building a bomb.

...According to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Daniel Choldin filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz confirmed Thursday that authorities found a screwdriver and an unspecified number of cigarette lighters in her bag, items which are banned under new security regulations. Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that matches were found Mayo's bag.

...Later during the flight, according to the affidavit, Mayo asked a flight attendant: "Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?" The flight attendant didn't know if she made a mistake because the flight was actually Flight 923, or if she was referring to Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

During that time, she was "biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement. She appeared very agitated," the affidavit said.

She wrote in a note and said to flight attendants that she had been in a country illegally, and later said she had photographs of Pakistan. Her U.S. passport indicated that on Aug. 15 she had left Pakistan and entered the United Kingdom, according to the affidavit.

Flight attendants summoned the captain, who spoke to Mayo. During the conversation, she made reference to there being "six steps to building some unspecified thing."

"She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates," according to the affidavit.


Then she dropped trou and proceeded to pee on the floor, among other things. Speaking for my chicken-hearted self, if I was sitting back in coach, I'd be like "put this thing on the deck before SHE does." And wouldn't object if somebody did some tub thumping in the meantime.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 PM | Comments (4)

You GOT to Be

...sh*ttin' me!

Report: Arrest made in JonBenet case
Suspect detained in Thailand in connection with ’96 murder, DA source says

The family of slain 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey expects arrests in the ten-year-old mystery surrounding her murder, NBC News reported Wednesday.

Jon Ramsey, JonBenet’s father, was told by Colorado authorities that an arrest was made overseas in connection with his daughter’s death in 1996, MSNBC-TV reported.


Color me gobschmacked. That's a headline I never thought I'd see anywhere but the National Enquirer. Nancy Grace and the rest of the foam-at-the-mouth shellac-heads will be all over this.
UPDATE and bump: Yeesh! This is unbelievable and he is unbelievably creepy.

Well, just being 'creepy' never convicted anybody. (At least I hope not.) They're saying they've got DNA samples from the scene (and probably took samples from him when they arrested him), a palm print on the doorjamb, plus one well defined bootprint next to the body as hard evidence. Will it match? And is Mr. Karr going to do a rapid about-face when he gets here and lawyered up?

Of course, being in Thailand when they nailed him for a murderous sexual assault against a six year old isn't going to help him any.

UPDATE: Well, it just keeps getting more twisted.

Relatives say suspect studied JonBenet case
Teacher held in girl’s murder wrote term paper about case in college

UPDATE: He's a whacko.
...Court records show a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of their "ceremonial marriage" in 1985, claiming she feared for her life when she agreed to wed him in 1984, when she was just 13 and he was 19.

Karr admitted she was a minor, documents show, but he disputed she was 13. A judge granted the annulment, and they didn't have any children.

Karr later married Lara Karr, who was 16 when their twin daughters died the day they were born on Sept. 1, 1989. The girls, Angel and Innocence Karr, are buried in the cemetery of a rural church in a family plot.

Twins die after home birth
Former Sheriff A.C. Tice and others recalled the death of the newborns partly because of the circumstances: They were born at home rather than in a hospital.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:30 AM | Comments (13)

August 16, 2006

Now Here's a REAL Man For You

Just like shootin' fish in a barrel.

Country star accused of killing tame bear
Troy Lee Gentry allegedly shot enclosed animal with bow and arrow

...Authorities allege that Gentry purchased the bear from Greenly, a wildlife photographer and hunting guide, then killed it with a bow and arrow in an enclosed pen on Greenly’s property in October 2004.

The government alleges that Gentry and Greenly tagged the bear with a Minnesota hunting license and registered the animal with the state Department of Natural Resources as a wild kill.

Gentry allegedly paid about $4,650 for the bear, named Cubby. The bear’s death was videotaped, and the tape later edited so Gentry appeared to shoot the animal in a “fair chase” hunting situation, the government alleges.

...Gentry’s manager, Johnny Dorris, said Wednesday that Gentry, an outdoorsman and hunter, expects to be exonerated.

Gentry “relied on the knowledge and expertise of a local guide to obtain the proper permit,” Dorris said in a written statement. “Troy felt what he did was legal and in full compliance of the law and was surprised to hear of the indictment.


It would be hard to get much more revolting than that. Maybe we should zip strip ducks to his carnival games, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:20 PM | Comments (4)

Hezbalkah Just Says "No"

Hezbollah balks at withdrawal from south
Lebanese officials work on compromise

Hezbollah refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel on Tuesday, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and endangering a fragile cease-fire.

...Hezbollah's reluctance to get its men and arms out of the border zone reflected nervousness over the continuing presence of Israeli soldiers on Lebanese soil. But it also demonstrated the militant Shiite Muslim movement's increased assertiveness here after a war of more than a month during which it stood off the Israeli army while Lebanon's national army stood aside.

‘Insensitivity and immorality’
In a televised speech Monday evening, Nasrallah accused those who are pushing Hezbollah for immediate disarmament of "insensitivity and immorality." He recalled that Lebanon's Shiite-inhabited areas took the worst battering and suffered the highest number of casualties during 33 days of warfare in which about 800 Lebanese civilians were killed and 750,000 were driven from their homes.

"Those people have performed veritable miracles," he said, referring to the Shiite Muslims who are the largest sect among Lebanon's 4 million inhabitants.

"And at this emotionally difficult and fateful time, some individuals speaking with wooden tongues sit behind desks in their air-conditioned offices and talk about these issues," he added. "This is inappropriate and wrong. I advise that no one exert pressure, bearing in mind that the most ferocious battle in the history of Lebanon has just been waged south of the river."


And why is the Lebanese government working on a compromise with these snakes? Nasrallah had already agreed to the U.N.cease-fire resolution ~ it gave him his 'great victory' over Israel, recognising Hezbollah as a separate entity to bargain with ~ so the world at large should deal with this. He doesn't get to hide behind the Lebanese all of a sudden.

UPDATE and Bump: Quite a thoughtdful analysis from Nick Blanford, the Times [U.K.] Correspondent in Lebanon.

Analysis: why Hezbollah will not be disarmed
"I think you can forget about Hezbollah being disarmed. It is just not going to happen. Hezbollah doesn't want to be disarmed and there is nobody else willing to do it. In that simple fact lies the potential for future trouble.

..."Even if the Lebanese Government had been crazy enough to try to force the army to do it, I think the army would have refused. A lot of its senior officers are loyal to President Emile Lahoud, the last leading ally of Syria to remain in office in Lebanon.

"Many people regard the army as almost a proxy of Hezbollah.

..."I think Hezbollah realises that they made a big mistake by kidnapping those Israeli soldiers on July 12. They have already admitted that they thought it would cause nothing more than a mini flare up, they didn't expect the powerful military reaction they got from the Israelis.

..."But I think it is clear that the reason why Hezbollah is now promising to pay a year's rent for homeless Shia families and compensate them for damaged property is because they have a lot of work to do to bring their supporters back on board.

"What is more, I think the recriminations are about to start in earnest from the other sectarian communities in Lebanon, who stayed quiet during the war out of loyalty to the country. Shias only represent 35 per cent of Lebanon - the rest is divided between Sunnis, Christians and Druze. Overall, the conflict has made an already polarised society even more polarised.


A good read.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:28 PM

August 15, 2006

'Ouch' From an Unexpected Source

The Guardian's Polly Toynbee is en fuego.

The grand assemblage of Muslim MPs, peers and leaders of 38 key groups who signed an open letter to the prime minister last weekend are almost certainly right. British foreign policy has helped foment murderous extremism among British Muslims.

The London bombings a year ago might not have happened had Labour taken the French stand. If Tony Blair and his cabinet had never hitched Britain to George Bush's war chariot, it is unlikely that al-Qaida-inspired terror cells would plan mass murder from British airports. Before, Islamist terror was focused on faraway countries - Indonesia, the Philippines, Algeria, Somalia, Russia - and the twin towers. If we had only kept our heads down, terror's hot breath might have passed over us.

Every minister hotly denying this obvious truth sounds absurd - but makes the wrong point altogether. The point is that a democratically elected government's foreign policy can't be moulded by threats from murdering religious maniacs. There are 1,001 good reasons why we should never have supported, let alone joined, the war in Iraq. But the one truly bad reason would have been fear of terrorism.

Those signing the letter steer perilously close to suggesting the government had it coming. The Muslim leaders wrote: "The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all." They urge the prime minister to "change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion. Such a move would make us safer." Maybe it would, but there can't be many, pro- or anti-war, who think sparing us from threats by God-blinded killers should be the number-one priority in foreign policy.

...It goes with the selective amnesia that forgets about the Kosovo Muslims Blair and Clinton saved from genocide. It goes with a distorted memory of the Taliban as anything other than ruthless despots to their people (especially their women) and unprovoked originators of terror against the rest of the world. As for Iraq, invasion was dangerously misguided, but selective Islamic memory forgets that Saddam murdered Muslims.

In the great disaster of Blair's foreign policy, the irony is that most Britons would agree with the Muslim leaders' critique, both on Iraq and Lebanon. But that does not lead to any "understanding", let alone appeasement, of terrorists. What is their cause? It's not a viable Palestinian state (though that would help). It's not better rights in Britain to jobs and respect (that would help). It's not to bring democracy to corrupt Middle Eastern governments propped up by the west (democracy is a western abomination). Their cause is to impose a fantasy caliphate across some mystically united Muslim world - even as conflict between rival Islamic sects in Iraq kills thousands more Muslims than infidel invaders.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (2)

May I Offer Another Theory Why

...THIS might be true?

Charities fail to attract cash as 'human crisis overlooked'
CHARITIES are facing difficulties paying for humanitarian relief work in Lebanon because the public has shunned their appeals.

... Mark Astarita, the director of fundraising at the British Red Cross, told The Times that the complex political issues surrounding the Middle East conflict were deterring even the most generous. “It has proved very tough indeed to raise money from the general public and, although we are usually successful with corporate donors, this has proved a very difficult appeal for them to respond to,” he said.


I would submit it's difficult to raise the money for two reasons. One is the less-than-a-week-old foiled KoolAid bombing plot and the British Muslim community's very public but less than condemnatory reaction to it...
ON FRIDAY last week I agreed to add my name to a letter to the Government from Oxfam, other non-governmental organisations and individuals to express, in the wake of the Middle East crisis, our commitment to the fundamental humanitarian principle that all innocent lives should be valued equally.

As has been made apparent to me over the past few days, the letter was open to several interpretations. It has never been my contention that the Government ought to change foreign policy because of terrorist threats within our borders. We must never be held to ransom by those who would deliberately shed innocent blood in the name of their cause. I firmly believe that justice, righteousness and national interest should be our policy compass. So when ministers such as Kim Howells and Douglas Alexander argue that “no government worth its salt would allow any policy to be dictated by threats of terror”, we are at one.


The second would be the fact that people, despite their earnest wishes and generous giving, are sick of their hard earned, well intentioned dollars going to the bad guys.
Money sent to Pakistan for earthquake relief may have ended up in the hands of the alleged airplane bomb plot ringleader, Rashid Rauf, thanks to a charity set up by his father and uncle.

Documents examined by ABC News show that Rauf's father, Abdul Rauf, and his uncle, Mohammed Mumtaz, established the London-based Crescent Relief in 2000. The charity, currently run by Mumtaz, has since sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Pakistan for humanitarian purposes.

Officials say they believe Rauf, who has lived in Pakistan for the last few years, helped distribute the charity money and may have diverted some of the funds for his alleged terror plot.


It's like buying the stick used to poke your eye out and you can only do that so many times before you smarten up. Or run out of eyes.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:34 AM

August 14, 2006

"If Terror Is to Be Defeated..."

'''...first you have to drain the swamp."
On the Times U.K. editorial page

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:35 PM | Comments (2)

File This Under: Can't We

...just...

Serbs suggest partition of Kosovo
The head of Serbia's delegation on the future status of Kosovo has suggested partition of the disputed territory if no way can be found for ethnic Albanians and Serbs to live together

...all...
Nigeria hands Bakassi to Cameroon
Officials from Nigeria and Cameroon have held a joint ceremony in the disputed oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to mark its transfer to Cameroon.

... But the court ruling has not gone down well with Nigerians living in the peninsula, the BBC's Alex Last reports from nearby Calabar.

Most Archibong residents have said they would rather leave their ancestral land than be ruled by Cameroon, such is their level of mistrust.


...get...

Somalia's PM calls for ceasefire
Somalia's interim Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi has called for a ceasefire with the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls the capital.
He called on the Islamists to join peace talks in Sudan, to which Mr Ghedi said he would send a delegation.

...Talks between the interim government and the courts are very important for the future of Somalia, Prime Minister Ghedi said.

Tensions between the government and Islamists have prompted fears of escalated conflict.


...along?
Hundreds die as fighting curbs hopes for peace talks
BATTLES raged across the north and east of Sri Lanka yesterday in the bloodiest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire, thwarting hopes of renewed peace talks.
Nearly 200 people were killed over the weekend with the heaviest fighting reported on the approaches to the city of Jaffna in the north. The violence followed two weeks of fighting near the eastern city of Trincomalee in which about 500 people have died and at least 60,000 have fled their homes.

...The scale and ferocity of the latest fighting made many Sri Lankans fear that full-scale war had returned after months of smaller clashes.


Sigh.
Buoyed Hezbollah plans next move

Probably...
Hope for new talks with North Korea pinned to aid from South
Scarcely more than a month after refusing to ship food and fertilizer to North Korea, South Korea is proffering "strictly humanitarian" aid to help rescue the North from flooding reminiscent of the disasters that preceded the famine of the late 1990s.

...South Korea's Unification Ministry, after having rejected North Korea's request for five hundred thousand tons of rice as well as fertilizer after the missile shots but before the flooding, responded eagerly to resume efforts at reconciliation despite US pressure to hold out for a return to six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons.


...not.
'The Street Is Not With Us'
An Arab envoy on the chasm between Israel and Hizbullah—and between Arab leaders and their people

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:13 PM

'Wuv a Puppy' Post

I just got an email from my Louisiana Lab Rescue friend, with pictures of schweet wabbies who need homes desperately.

I'll share it, if anyone's looking for a wonderful wab.
(The parent rescue site is Labs 4 Rescue.)

How do I know about them? Well, as of a couple weeks ago, we're the proud parents of Beauregard ~ a rootin' tootin' 85 pound, 14 or so month old Gumby boy. (I'd post a pic, but he hasn't held still long enough.) I stumbled across his picture on the website and he looked so much like my schweet Schmacks, I sent the link to major dad sayin' "I found our boy". He's a treasure.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:10 AM | Comments (4)

August 13, 2006

"Green Helmet"

...says he's just a singer in a rock and roll band
simple civil defense worker.


The AP does some spin control. (click through photo) They ALL could use some.

UPDATE: WOW! Lucky thing AP got it's puff piece done!! He's not feeling so great now.

Thirteen killed as Israel keeps up strikes on Lebanon

...Two rescue workers, including the chief of the Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre, Salam Daher, were wounded by shrapnel during raids near the hospital where they had been rushing to help extinguish the fire, police said.


Better keep those coolers running and the bodies on ice, folks. It'll be a bit before he can get back to corpse compositions.

A warm Swill Salute to Little Green Footballs

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 PM | Comments (4)

Perhaps We Should Call Them

...HezBALKah
CNN's "Late Edition" is reporting that Hezbollah forces south of the Litani River in Lebanon are refusing to lay down their arms when the cease fire goes into effect later today (our time). They are also reporting the Syria continues to ship arms into Lebanon even now.

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you.

News has it that the Lebanese Army refuses to go into the area per the cease fire agreement if Hezbollah has anything left that could hurt them.

...The resolution, approved unanimously by the U.N. Security Council on Friday, calls for boosting the number of U.N troops in the area from 2,000 to 15,000.

They would be joined by 15,000 Lebanese troops and charged with ensuring Hezbollah could not operate anywhere between the Israeli-Lebanese border and the Litani River.

The Lebansese government has postponed discussions on the plan until they can 'consult' with hezbollah's negotiator.
The Lebanese cabinet postponed its meeting Sunday to discuss implementing the U.N. resolution aimed at ending fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

A Lebanese government minister said the meeting was postponed one to two days at the request of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a key negotiator with Hezbollah.

The postponement will give government officials more time to meet with Hezbollah leadership to discuss details of implementing the U.N. resolution, the Lebanese minister said. (Posted 11 a.m.)


And already 200 Hezbollah rockets have hit Israel today.
UPDATE: Captain Ed notes an additional angle to the postponement:
The cease-fire agreement appears to have created a crisis in Lebanon's government, as a Cabinet meeting of Siniora's government has been abruptly cancelled. The Cabinet was supposed to vote on a plan to deploy their army into southern Lebanon and to displace Hezbollah. That has now been indefinitely delayed -- which means that Israel is not bound by the agreement to stop fighting:

Oy.

Transcript/link to report as it becomes available.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:20 PM | Comments (6)

August 11, 2006

Of Course They Are

Muslim groups say British policies fuel militancy

...In an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, leading British Muslim groups and politicians said his foreign policies on issues such as Iraq and the Israel-Hizbollah war were putting civilians at increased risk of attack in Britain and elsewhere.

"The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all," they said in the letter, published in the Times newspaper.


Lovely threat, that ~ Allah's version of "you brought that sh*t on yourself, man..."

"Iraq and the Israel-Hizbollah" ~ please. And the Muslim excuse for 9/11 is what? There was no Iraq, no Afghanistan, no NOTHING. I hope to God the British don't fall for this crap the way the Spaniards did. There will ALWAYS be a grievance for these lunatics and I'm pretty f*cking sick of the CIVILIZED world caving in to their murderous bi-polar rages. For you to come into someone's home, their country, by CHOICE and live with all the freedoms associated with it (as opposed to your fetid family hut in Stone Ages-stan) and then do your best to destroy it ~ all the while lecturing them on their transgressions against you...? We should all kick ourselves in the ass. HARD.

They do it because WE LET THEM.

I want the British MAD, God damn it. I want US mad ~ I want EVERYBODY mad.
Enough of this sh*t.

UPDATE: As usual, The Gateway Pundit has much more.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:26 PM

August 10, 2006

We're Up to SIX

...of the missing eleven Eyptian students.

...El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20, and Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20, were arrested at a residence in Dundalk, Md., outside Baltimore, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Chicago police detained Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, at OHare International Airport as he was attempting to book a flight to Montana, the FBI said. Immigration agents later took El Ela into custody.


With everything that's gone down today, it's worth revisiting our Homeland Security Chief's initial reaction to these guys going missing.
...Sensitivity toward Muslims is so raw that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff this week felt compelled to express disappointment that the FBI put out an alert for 11 Egyptian students who failed to show up at Montana State University. They entered the country on visas, then vanished. Chertoff said not to worry, just a bunch of kids cutting class. No threat here.

I'll bet he wish he could eat those words.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:10 PM | Comments (4)

Now That's a Power Drink

...we could all do without.

The suspected terror plotters arrested in Britain had planned to conceal their liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera.

ABC News has learned exclusively that the plotters planned to leave the top of the bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage but add a false bottom, filled with a liquid or gel explosive. The terrorists planned to dye the explosive mixture red to match the sports drink sealed in the top half of the container.


The Telegraph U.K very thoughtfully points out how to make a 'liquid/sports drink bomb' and some of the pitfalls inherent in manufacturing 'liquid/sports drink bombs', as does Sky News. The one pseudo safeguard they're talking about...
Measures introduced at UK airports included specific restrictions on taking liquids on board, prompting speculation that evidence had been uncovered of a plot to smuggle liquid explosive devices onto flights.

Passengers travelling with infants were being asked to taste baby milk they intended to carry on their journey in front of security staff.


...is a no go right off the bat, even if the Presbyterian East Asian Criminal doesn't have a false bottom in his pop, and I have personal knowledge of the lengths people will go to. Let me share a dark chapter of my history.

Once upon a time, ths was a youngish Marine Corps Sgt., stationed in her birthplace ~ Iwakuni, Japan ~ for a 6 month long deployment. One of the advantages/disadvantages of that particular slice of Occidental heaven is the fact the it's so God awful far from civilization. It sucks not to have a city close-by, but it's wonderful if you're into spending time in truly rural Japan. Rural as in isolated villages, people unjaded by the average Japanese reaction to gaijiin, sustenance fishing, farming and...raising koi. Yes, the flashy fish.

I had a young LCpl K working for me who'd had a fish fetish before he hit Iwakuni, so you can imagine his ecstacy when he stumbled across an ancient fellow raising world champion koi during a backroads bike trip. He and the old man soon became fast friends, and he'd pedal out to help him every break he had. When it came time for us to rotate back to the States, the old man gifted him with two very small, future champion fish ~ worth at least a couple grand at the sardine size they were at the moment. LCpl K was beside himself with joy. Until he realized getting them home would be a smuggling job of epic proportions between customs, the Air Force and a 25+ hour flight.

Enter the Japanese penchant for gadgets of the miniscule variety. He'd canvassed the ginza for something, anything, to keep his scaley friends alive during the trans-Pacific passage. As luck would have it ~ on his last free day ~ he stumbled over a mini, battery operated aquarium pump. Coupled with an Igloo half gallon insulated jug, he had himself a fishy hide away. After a few dry(!) runs for battery life, the covert koi were tucked into the Igloo with water, food and pump, and boarding the plane for home.

It all went well, as they sailed through every obstacle until about 20 hours later when, at that one last customs hurdle in Anchorage, the officer asked "What's in the jug?"

"Water for the trip!" LCpl K chirpily replied.

"Then you won't have any problem taking a big swig."

GULP. "No, sir."

"Well...?"

GULP. He thought about it for a second and a half and then he gulped 20+ hour old fish water. On terra firma eons later in California, it turns out it had all been for naught. He didn't die from the water, but the fish had. And been dead for God knows how long.

Desperate people will do anything.

Update: We got IslamoSpam in the comments!


Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:27 PM | Comments (4)

Fox News Reporting an Air Canada Flight Diverted

...to Baltimore because of a suspicious package. From what I heard, it was on it's way to Logan ~ I'll have to check. Now it's sitting all by its loneself on the tarmac at BWI.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:12 PM

ABCNews is Reporting

...in a 'Breaking News' banner,

TERROR PLOT COULD HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT WITHIN DAYS, UK OFFICIALS SAY; PRESIDENT BUSH TO MAKE STATEMENT ON THE PLOT WITHIN THE HOUR

Well then it would make sense to step in on those Presbyterian East Asians before they actually killed people.

It would, of course, if this whole 'terror' thing wasn't just Rovian machinations to draw attention away from Bush's Lieberman/Iraq War loss. Which it was. No one is really going to kill anyone ~ they just let you think so.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:39 AM | Comments (4)

On Fox and Friends

...they've got a dapper British guest (Simon Henderson, Washington Institute for Near East Policy) who's explaining how the British goverment takes pains to not to classify their homegrown terrorists as...terrorists. They call them all 'criminals' and, if really pushed, will call them 'East Asian'. (Witness this breaking Sky News report.)

...Sky News' Crime Correspondant Martin Brunt says those arrested were mainly young, British-born Asian men.

Which really irritates the Hindu and Sikh populations in the U.K. with its implications since, as he told the Fox crew,
"When it comes down to it all the people in the past ~ and I'm willing to put money on it today ~ are all British Muslims."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:02 AM

August 09, 2006

Quote of the Day

On integrity.

The BBC's website photo editor, Phil Commes, has also taken a neutral line on the faked photographs from Beirut supplied by Reuters , saying: "One man's color balancing is another man's grounds for dismissal."


Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:47 AM | Comments (4)

August 07, 2006

THAT Would Be a BIG 'Whoops'!

Lebanon's PM: 'Horrific massacre' as 40 killed in airstrike
Lebanon's prime minister said Monday an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Houla left 40 people dead.

"An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," Fouad Siniora told Arab foreign ministers in Beirut.

...Siniora choked back tears, wiping his eyes as he spoke, The Associated Press reported. The ministers applauded.

"If these horrific actions are not state terrorism then what is state terrorism?" AP quoted Siniora as saying.


"How AWFUL! Dreadful! Horrible Israelis!" you say, n'est pas?
But ~ like the $19.95, 1-800-number commercials on TV ~
WAIT !! There's MORE!

A yellow "News Alert" banner is flying above that incendiary headline with the rest...

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Siniora now says one dead in Houla, not 40 as he said earlier.

Al-Reuters photo to follow, I'm sure. Just as soon as they put the mouse down.
UPDATE: Screenshot below (and more on the meeting where he announced the Israeli non-massacre.) I wonder if there was anyone around to applaud when it turns out the casualties were significantly less?

UPDATE Part Deux: MSNBC just got this up a bit ago...

Lebanon retracts claim that Israel killed 40
Prime minister now says one person died in airstrike on village

...while noting in additional news:
U.N.: Hezbollah had fired rockets from nearby
U.N. peacekeepers at a post near Houla reported Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel twice Monday from positions near the U.N. base.

(Damn. I thought those guys were never anywhere near a U.N. outpost ~ all Zionist lies and such!)
MSNBC is also being very careful to distance themselves from any al-Reuters taint...
MSNBC.com was not among the news publications that ran the photo when it was first offered.

(They're using 'RETRACT' a lot today.)


MORE:
These are the ministers (Morroco, Kuwait, UAE, etc.) who applauded his...premature... massacre announcement. Nothing like working a sympathetic audience with theatrics when you've got an agenda to push.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora choked back tears as he told a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Beirut that 40 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the southern border village of Houla, but he later said only one person was killed.

Saniora got strong backing from the foreign ministers, who warned the U.N. Security Council against adopting resolutions that don't serve Lebanon's interests. They decided to send a high-level delegation to New York to press Lebanon's case.

You can always straighten out the details later.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:51 AM | Comments (9)

August 06, 2006

al-Reuters Rears Their Ugly Head

And gets nailed, blogging style.

Reuters employee issues 'Zionist pig' death threat
Worker suspended after telling American blogger: 'I look forward to day when you pigs get your throats cut'

A Reuters employee has been suspended after sending a death threat to an American blogger.

The message, sent from a Reuters internet account, read: "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."

It was sent to Charles Johnson, owner of the Little Green Footballs (LGF) weblog, a popular site which often backs Israel and highlights jihadist terrorist activities.


Woof! (And they only SUSPENDED HIM??!!!) AND al-Reuters has gotten nailed for a lousier Photoshop job than even I could produce and Little Green Footballs is all over it.
*
Reuters admits altering Beirut photo

Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged

...In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience."


"Improperly"? "Woof!!" again. (Call James Carville, because now THAT'S spin!) So THIS is the same fellow responsible for the same ashen faced dead babies being carried by immaculate "rescuers" through multiple scenes and that the blogo-sphere was condemned for questioning? No wonder al-Reuters is pi$$ed at Charles and the crew. Sucks when your blatant misrepresentations and manipulations are exposed like that. Bloggers are a damn royal pain in the a$$.

Thank God.

*LGF .gif

UPDATE: Allah's got a great round-up.
UPDATE Part Deux: The Jerusalem Post has more, including more on the Qana photos which were shot by the same, happy lensman.

...Many have questioned how a photograph that appears so clearly doctored to so many non-professional photographers made it past the Reuters photo editor who oversaw the photographer's work. Others, however, pointed out that since the violence began, news agencies have had to increasingly rely on freelance photographers and writers to cover the breaking news events in the region.

"Everyone is culpable if this photo wasn't vetted in camera-to-print process. Ultimately though, it rests on the photographer. Editors, while casting a suspicious eye, should not have to examine photos for forgeries and fakes for every image that comes into the system," wrote [Photographer Jason] Fritz.


No, they shouldn't. But it makes it easier if they don't want to.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:52 PM | Comments (2)

August 05, 2006

Damn Straight!

What Tony Blair said, that is.

In a press conference early Thursday afternoon, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he finds it astounding that President Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" as a solution to the Middle East's problems.

"If someone else were to call for Iran or Syria to be wiped off the map, people would be tearing the house down!" he added.


A warm Swill salute to Meryl Yourish

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:30 PM

August 04, 2006

On Yet Another Legal Front

I'm sure I have no conception of the suffering this little guy and his family have had to endure and I am sorry for it. But the award was breathtaking.

An appeals court on Thursday overturned a landmark $105 million verdict against a stadium vendor that sold beer to a drunken fan who later paralyzed a girl in an auto wreck.

Ordering a new trial, the three-judge state appeals panel said the trial court improperly allowed testimony about the "drinking environment" at the 1999 football game at Giants Stadium.

The family claimed that vendors for Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. continued to sell beer to Daniel Lanzaro during a 1999 New York Giants game even though he was clearly drunk, and that the concessionaire fostered an atmosphere in which intoxicated patrons were able to still buy alcohol.

Hours later, Lanzaro, then 34, caused the wreck that paralyzed then-2-year-old Antonia Verni from the neck down.


My heartless cynical side kicked in, however, when I read this waaaay down in the column...
...However, the court said a new jury can consider whether other defendants previously excluded can also be held responsible in the case. Those defendants include the National Football League, two bars where Lanzaro drank after the game and a friend of Lanzaro's who drank with him on the day of the accident.

He was barhopping AFTER the game? That turns a tragedy into a 'go for who's got the most cash' lawsuit in my eyes. Of course the jury awarded some ridiculous amount if they think he poured down the stadium steps into his car, then drove off to ruin that poor child's life. Obviously there's no dinero in either local bars or the poor schmuck who was out with him.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 AM

August 03, 2006

All I Can Say is "Hey..."

..."you voted for him."

Experts excoriate recovery leaders
Nagin, council are failing N.O., they say

Without a citywide rebuilding plan or a central agency in charge of redevelopment, New Orleans is likely to squander its opportunity to make a strong recovery as billions of dollars head toward the Gulf Coast, according to top officials with the Urban Land Institute.

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina fast approaches, New Orleans lacks leadership from Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council, said John McIlwain, the senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute.

...'You still have a chance'

"It's virtually a city without a city administration and it's worse than ever," McIlwain said. "New Orleans needs Huey Long. You need a politician, a leader that is willing to make tough decisions and articulate to the people why these decisions are made, which means everyone is not going to be happy."


Squander, squalor...status quo. It's not Bush and it's not the Jooz and it's not institutionalized racism or that we all hate poor people or that Americans aren't generous to a fault.
It's stupidity, duplicity, complicity, avarice and incompetence. On an unimaginable scale.
...In an e-mail asking for his response to McIlwain's criticism of his administration, Nagin replied: "No comment."

Oh, I'll bet. There were some enlightening comments on the NOLA.com forums after this article came out, a couple of which really resonate...
As far as the people speaking, it seems clear to me that Nagin was re-elected mainly by folks who no longer live here and have little or no intention of returning. Nagin might be the first politician in history to have been elected out of spite. And that makes me mad. We, who are here and making an effort, are stuck with the result of that election, while those in Houston and Atlanta who gave us this result are enjoying the more competent governments in those areas.

And...
[I read that article, too]...achris, and literally wanted to cry. Nagin & Company have one, just one, golden opportunity to make great things happen for New Orleans. But with no well-defined, cohesive plan in place and a mayor who is, for all intents, MIA, it's difficult to remain optimistic.

All eyes are on New Orleans now, have been since Katrina. Folks from every part of the world contributed to her recovery. Each day that Mayor Nagin isn't perceived as doing all within his power to guide the city in a positive direction, he further erodes the confidence of not only his constituents but the global community. Why would people from anywhere choose to invest big bucks in New Orleans when they rightfully believe their hurricane relief contributions and tax dollars are being flushed down the toilet???


I haven't read this report anywhere but locally. I don't think a national spotlight is something MSM is willing to shine on this cesspool right now, because it would silence some of those "federal government ain't done enough" refrains. God forbid we should hold a black city administration responsible for the welfare of it's people...ever.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:22 PM | Comments (3)

August 02, 2006

The Jerusalem Post

...does an in-depth take on the Qana rumors.

...Israel Insider cited a CNN report that, it said, noted the victims had died in their sleep. It seemed highly improbable, the piece asserted, that people could have slept "through thunderous Israeli air attacks. Rescue workers equipped with cameras," it went on, "were removing the bodies from the same opening in the collapsed structure.

Journalists were not allowed near the collapsed building... Israelis steeled to scenes of carnage from Palestinian suicide bombings and Hizbullah rocket attacks could not help but notice that these victims did not look like our victims. Their faces were ashen gray. While medical examination is clearly called for to arrive at a definitive dating and cause of their deaths, they do not appear to have died hours before. The bodies looked like they had been dead for days."


When even CNN is questioning the veracity of the reports and pictures, there might just be a problem.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:47 AM | Comments (3)

August 01, 2006

Why Does This Drudge Headline

CUBAN WIRE: CASTRO'S DEATH 'VERY FAR AWAY'
...remind me of ?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:52 PM | Comments (5)

"Your Can Shove Your Re v solution

..right up your East River." Or something like that.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that would give his nation until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment. Instead, Ahmadinejad insisted Tehran would pursue its nuclear program.

"My words are the words of the Iranian nation. Throughout Iran, there is one slogan: 'The Iranian nation considers the peaceful use of nuclear fuel production technology its right,'" Ahmadinejad said


Salamadamadingdong Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes his pizza fighting rhetoric to new levels.
"If some think they can still speak with threatening language to the Iranian nation, they must know that they are badly mistaken," he said in a speech broadcast live on state-run television.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:59 PM

July 31, 2006

We're Not Talking Pugs in Pearls

...or a ripe peach at a fruit stand.

HEIRESS PICKS OUT ASIAN BABY
CASEY Johnson, the 26-year-old Band-Aid heiress who has everything money can buy, is planning to adopt a baby girl from Kazakhstan.

The 5-foot-2 blonde told September's Vanityy in her Beverly Hills house. "I got a crib, and a changing table, and I got a car seat, and a stroller," she said, and an item she couldn't resist: "The cutest leopard baby bikini. Oh my gosh. She is going to be dressed to kill."


Yup. Short of an Easy-Bake Oven, that about covers everything you need to play the 'Mommy Game'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:19 PM | Comments (6)

I Think I Can Do One Better

...than Michelle Malkin in her post today...

"When do terrorists warn civilians?"

...about the leaflets the IDF is dropping to warn Lebanese civilians in Hizbollah target zones. We were watching a FoxNews live report from the scene of the destroyed building in Qana. Their reporter was horrified by the children's bodies being pulled from the rubble and speaking to everyone on site. That included the fellow who (we believe) owned it. He was brokenhearted by the destruction of family, friends and his home, but he was really pissed that the zero dark thirty...
PHONE CALL WHICH WOKE HIM UP AND WARNED HIM TO GET OUT OF THE BUILDING
...didn't give him enough time to get his stuff out. major dad and I looked at each other in utter and complete astonishment.
"The Israelis CALLED this guy to WARN HIM?!!"
(We can only figure he wanted his 'stuff' more than getting the people out safely first.)
I've been scouring Fox and the web all morning for the clip (It was on just as the Israelis were announcing a news conference about the Hizbollah rock barrage taped coming from that site.) and haven't found it yet, BUT I HAVE found numerous instances recounted online where a phone call's been answered to hear 'a voice in broken Arabic' telling them to "get out NOW".

I don't think Hitler was jingling anyone in the U.K. in 1944 either. It's a helluva a way to run a war and still take it in the chops as 'disproportionately forceful murderers'. Hat's off to the IDF.

Now finish the bastards.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:15 PM | Comments (3)

July 29, 2006

And He Shall Be Known By His Persian Name

..."Salamadamadingdong", which translates to

"Maynard Krebs"


Iranian President "Salamadamadingdong" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.

Keeping the culture pure.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:12 AM | Comments (8)

July 27, 2006

Required Reading

While Islamic groups in Britain openly brag about how they are going to subdue the country by violent means or call for beheading those insulting Islam, Bryan Cork, 49, of Carlisle, Cumbria, in the Lake District, was sentenced to six months in jail for standing outside a mosque shouting, “Proud to be British,” and “Go back to where you came from.” One British court ruled that even use of the word “immigrant” as an insult could amount to proof of racial hostility.
...from the Brussels Journal. It's a litany of lessons to be heeded in this age of "fl*p charts", "bl*ckout", "hate crime", "where does it end?" PC/sensitivity madness here. Europe ~ even Australia (!) ~ is already surrendering to the dark side of legislated social behaviours. Religious extremists are now 'entitled', vice ridiculed and condemned.

Swill Salute: the BlogFaddah

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:23 AM | Comments (2)

By All Means, Speak Softly

Groups Urge Sensitivity in Hezbollah Probe
Leaders of the country's Muslim, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities are urging the FBI to use sensitivity if it investigates possible activities by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah on U.S. soil.

Twenty-five groups, including the Islamic Society of North America and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, urged FBI Director Robert Mueller in a letter Wednesday to issue instructions to field offices and agents to avoid unwarranted profiling and respect the legal protections of people they may question.

"We want the FBI, obviously, to protect our nation from those who do us harm, but we want them to focus on actual credible evidence of wrongdoing and not target people based on their ethnicity or religion or based on First Amendment political expression," said Farhana Khera, head of Muslim Advocates, the lead drafter of the letter. "We want to avert any kind of raw fishing expedition-type initiative."


...as long as you USE a big, f*ckin' stick (I mean a BIG one.).

And as long as "sensitivity" doesn't mean not asking enough of the right questions because you might hurt someone's feelings or offend their religion of pieces sensibilities.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:15 AM | Comments (2)

July 21, 2006

What the Hiz folks are shooting at Israel.

Ball bearings in the warheads. Fun stuff.

Posted by Crusader at 02:27 PM | Comments (15)

July 20, 2006

The Only Word for This Is

...DEE-LISH-ious!

EXILED Islamist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed tried but failed to join the naval evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon's capital Beirut, it was reported today.

Bakri attempted to join evacuees boarding a Royal Navy vessel on Wednesday, but was rebuffed "at the harbour gates by sharp-eyed officials", The Sun said in a front page "exclusive".
A Ministry of Defence spokesman in London could not confirm the report, but said: "Our understanding is that's not true, and we've told The Sun that".


Bombs and dangerous stuff just SUCKS when it's coming at YOU, doesn't it?

Omar Bakri Mohammed attempts to whistle "Rule Britannia" to prove he is not THAT 'Omar Bakri Mohammed'. Saavy Royal Navy Tars are not fooled and he is forced to walk a cedar plank back to Lebanon. ©TPI

Argh!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:17 PM | Comments (4)

July 18, 2006

Later Tonight ~ 1969

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:59 AM | Comments (5)

July 17, 2006

Guess They Have to "Grill" Us

...since Zarqawi couldn't make it.

UN rights panel focuses on US record
US officials on Monday faced their second grilling in two months by United Nations human rights experts on alleged violations of international law in the fight against terrorism.

The 18-member UN human rights committee, which oversees countries' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, made it clear that it did not accept US arguments that the covenant did not apply to US actions abroad.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:41 PM | Comments (1)

Even in a Democracy, the Religion of Pieces

...keeps killing it's women.

How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide
For Derya, a waiflike girl of 17, the order to kill herself came from an uncle and was delivered in a text message to her cellphone. “You have blackened our name,” it read. “Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first.”

Derya said her crime was to fall for a boy she had met at school last spring. She knew the risks: her aunt had been killed by her grandfather for seeing a boy. But after being cloistered and veiled for most of her life, she said, she felt free for the first time and wanted to express her independence.

When news of the love affair spread to her family, she said, her mother warned her that her father would kill her. But she refused to listen. Then came the threatening text messages, sent by her brothers and uncles, sometimes 15 a day. Derya said they were the equivalent of a death sentence.

...Every few weeks in Batman and the surrounding area in southeast Anatolia, which is poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or having consensual sex.

Hoping to join the European Union, Turkey has tightened the punishment for attacks on women and girls who have had such experiences. But the violence has continued, if by different means: parents are trying to spare their sons from the harsh punishments associated with killing their sisters by pressing the daughters to take their own lives instead.

“Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughters to kill themselves,” said Yilmaz Akinci, who works for a rural development group. “Rather than losing two children, most opt for the latter option.”


How about losing NO children? How about coming out of the f*ckin' STONE AGE? How about American feminists standing up for these world sisters? Or do you only have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you're a Radcliffe/Barnard grad, Quinnipiac speaker, Newsweek columnist or witty playwright who uses the "V"-word in your title?
Phyllis Chesler:
...Western feminism's failure to confront the problems raised by Islam, Chesler believes, is a result of the creation of a hierarchy of sins, "an intellectual culture in which racism trumps gender concerns". The example she cites as the embodiment of wrongheaded priorities is "gay and lesbian movement activists rooting for the Palestinians who, meanwhile, are very busy persecuting homosexuals, who in turn are fleeing to Israel for political asylum".

The result, she argues, is that "instead of telling the truth about Islam and demanding that the Muslim world observes certain standards, you have westerners beating their breasts and saying, 'We can't judge you, we can't expose you, we can't challenge you.' And here in the west you have a dangerous misuse of western concepts such as religious tolerance and cultural sensitivity so that one kind of hate speech is seen as something that must be rigorously protected. That means, principally, lies about America and lies about Jews."


Of course, she's also been labeled an Islamophobe. Islamic women speaking up, fighting the good fight that holds true, life threatening DANGER for those very thoughts, need back-up. Need to know they're protected. Need a chance to get the word out and a massive condemnation of the basic, deep rooted inhumanity of fundamentalist Islam. You shouldn't have to kill yourself ~ or worry that you should kill yourself so your baby brother doesn't have to go to jail for your murder ~ because you want to wear jeans. (Although I suppose it IS progress after a sort that he could actually GO to jail...God, that's a S-O-R-R-Y excuse for a culture.)

They
make
me
SICK. Go ahead and label.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:38 AM | Comments (11)

July 14, 2006

BREAKING NEWS

Fox is reporting that Israel has hit the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut. They believe the head bubba was in the building, but can't confirm it. There're also reports that that's where the attacks against Israel are being co-ordinated, but that doesn't make any sense to me. There's no reason they'd be running things from such an obvious, vunerable place.

MSNBC is reporting that Hezbollah TV says the Hezbollah HQ has been destroyed, but Sheik Hassan Nasrallah made it out in one piece*. That's a pity. No links yet.

*AP has that story.

All the network news stations are non-stop with this.

There are 2-4 casualties from the most recent Katyusha rocket barrages into Israel. The 2 that hit Haifa have been confirmed to be a new, juiced up Iranian version.
UPDATE: No decision out of the State Dept. yet, but the Iwo Jima is standing by in case they throw the 'evacuate Americans' flag. They'll use the Marines and their helicopters to ferry folks off shore to the ship**.

The head of Hezbollah is on al-Jazeera now, addressing the Lebanese people. "Israeli agression against Muslims"..."Oh dear people, defiant mujahadeen...you are a people of dignity, honor and defiance...we have two options. We're not just Hezbollah and not just resistance..."
UPDATE 1p.m.CST: The Sheik has also threatened Israel that they won't stop at Haifa now ~ they will target it and then move their attacks into the heart of central Israel. MSNBB has more on that.

Speaking in an audiotape aired on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, Nasrallah addressed himself to Israelis, saying: "You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war."

**Military officials are discussing contingency plans for what appears now to be the inevitable evacuation of U.S. citizens.

One official says that the most likely plan would be to use the assets from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based out of Camp Lejeune. The 24th MEU is currently in the Red Sea near Jordan, conducting bilateral and unilateral training exercises.

The most likely candidate from the MEU would be the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima. It resembles a small aircraft carrier, complete with helicopters and light attack aircraft.

One official says that the military is working on the assumption that they would have to evacuate nearly 25,000 people.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:13 PM | Comments (8)

July 13, 2006

BREAKING NEWS

UPDATE and bump: 4:00 p.m. CST ~ Israel has pasted the airport a second time for good measure.

Israel attacked Beirut's airport for a second time Thursday, with helicopter gunships unleashing missiles that set fuel tanks ablaze at Lebanon's only international air facility, Lebanese security officials said.

...while in New York:
The United States cast the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years Thursday, blocking an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

...and then, in Iraq, it appears the Jooz are to blame for the mayhem in the markets, the beheadings ~ all the stuff we thought the insurgents were doing. Says who, you ask? Why no less than the speaker of Parliament.
The speaker of parliament Thursday accused "Jews" of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their "agents" in power.

Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani hinted that the Americans and Israelis did not want to see officials of Sunni and Shiite parties running Iraq because "this is not their agenda."

"They will say that we brought you in a democratic way to the government but you are sectarian people. One of you is killing the other and you don't deserve to become leaders because you are war lords," al-Mashhadani told reporters after a parliament meeting.

Al-Mashhadani is a member of the Sunni Muslim Iraqi Accordance Front while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member of the Shiite Dawa party.

"Some people say, `We saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honor,'" al-Mashhadani said. "These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew."


These people are whack jobs. That ALSO means Zarqawi was an ISRAELI AGENT!! Now that's twisted ~ he shoulda though this out a little before he shot off his yap. But since they don't seem to be real on top of 'reason' as a general rule, I can't see them wasting time on 'connect the dots'.

********EARLIER TODAY*********

The AP is reporting Israel is not ruling out ground operations in Lebanon.

Great. At least the German Chancellor pointed out in this morning's rush to crack on the Israelis that Hezzbollah and Hamas...

"The attacks did not start from the Israeli side, but from Hezbollah's side," she said.

...brought that sh*t on themselves.
Merkel appealed for restraint from both sides in the Mideast. But she suggested they do not share equal blame, repeatedly noting that the violence began with the kidnapping.

"I think that one needs to be careful to make a distinction between the root causes and the consequences of something," she said.


She's about the only one, though.
As far as Lebanon's Sgt. Schulz act?
Hezbollah fighters operate with almost total autonomy in southern Lebanon, and the government has no control over their actions. But Lebanon has long resisted international pressure to disarm the group.

UPDATE: Cheerful Hezbollah campaign videos. (The feed's hurky-jerky, but you'll get the idea.) The music's pretty snappy ~ makes you want to dance...unless you're actually watching what's on the screen ~ beatific mullahs accepting guns and offering them to the sky in perverted thanks, artillery pieces firing...the Lebanese flag with it's famed cedar sideways...
A Swill Salute to Harry's Place.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:22 PM | Comments (5)

Jessica Lunsford's Murderer

...catches yet another break. The jury pool's 'tainted', so there'll be a change of venue.

Jury selection and possibly the trial of the man accused of slaying 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford will be moved outside the 5th Judicial Circuit, a judge ruled this morning.

With jurors dropping rapidly from the jury pool this morning, Judge Ric Howard said seating a jury was simply too difficult.


Oh, I'll bet it was.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:59 PM

There Seems to Be a Lot of This Going Around

The Syndrome is alive and well. From Central America...

A former Guatemalan dictator said a Spanish judge's order for his arrest was unfounded and insisted that as president he was not aware of any atrocities committed by military officials during the country's civil war.

...to a collective "who, us?" in Lebanon
...Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz also demanded that Lebanese army forces be deployed along the border, saying Israel would not allow Hezbollah guerrillas to reoccupy its positions there. Lebanon has long refused to do this, saying that it is not in business of protecting Israel's northern border.

The Lebanese government said Wednesday that it had not known of the Hezbollah operation, did not condone it and bore no responsibility for it. The Lebanese Cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, urged the U.N. Security Council to intervene.


These little countries are amazing. Their governments are so pervasive, they can have the secret police at your door in 5 minutes for flushing at the wrong time. But 200,000 people dead? An Islamic terrorist group controlling the southern half of the country? I mean, honestly ~ how're you supposed to keep up with all that? It's like saying Ken Lay should've known.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:18 AM

July 12, 2006

Good Grief

UNESCO has postponed a decision on a Polish request to change the official name of the Auschwitz concentration camp after members of the World Heritage Committee could not agree on the issue, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

The Polish government wants to change the official name of the notorious death camp where an estimated 1.5 million people were killed during World War II from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to the "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau."

The Poles say the change is necessary to show future generations that Poland had no role in establishing or running the camp.


I never thought the Poles ran it to begin with. Is that a common mistake? To be honest, I never even connect it with Poland physically ~ it's all wrapped up as 'Nazi Germany' in my mind. (major dad's been to a concentration camp in Latvia. Who knew? Those busy, hateful bastards made sure they spread their evil far and wide.) Don't they teach Polish children how they suffered under Hitler's boot?

I guess I'm confused about the confusion.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:45 PM | Comments (3)

July 11, 2006

Grin And Barrett

Ann Althouse has the video of the latest lecturer hired by the University of Wisconsin. He's been hired to teach an introductory class on Islam to freshman. Given the way things are in today's world, that seems like a good idea. So, of course, he's going to spend one full week of class on why and how the destruction of the WTC was actually done by the US Government.

Go read her post and watch the tape, but especially read all the comments. It's simply amazing.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:00 PM | Comments (1)

July 06, 2006

Tiny Bubbles

...in the line...

A North Korean missile launched on Wednesday was aimed at an area of the ocean close to Hawaii, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday.

Make me feel happy...make me feel fine.

UPDATE: "L'Estrange"-d, indeed.

Australia will significantly curtail its diplomatic ties with North Korea over a series of brazen missile tests that have drawn widespread international condemnation, local media reported Friday.

Australia is one of a handful of countries that maintains limited diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

According to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday, the head of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Michael L'Estrange, said departmental dealings with North Korean officials will be canceled.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:14 PM | Comments (5)

Well, Who's to Know?

"Every Mohammed is a terrorist now?" Khan asked.
Western Union makes it hard. I can't say I blame them.
...Western Union's caution is perhaps understandable. Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta sent money from two Western Union agencies in Maryland before boarding a plane he helped crash into New York's World Trade Center.

...The Emirates government has cooperated with the U.S. Treasury in tightening oversight after a 2004 U.S. investigation found that Emirates banks handled most of the $400,000 spent on the Sept. 11 attacks.


I think his complaint should be with his Muslim brethren. They never seem to grasp that concept.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:42 AM | Comments (1)

July 05, 2006

Good News, Indeed

Security forces seized runaway al-Qaida leader in Yemen, Jamal Badawi, who had escaped from Sanaa's main prison with 22 other members of the terrorist group.

The opposition Yemen's Children League Party quoted security sources in the southeastern province of Hadramout as saying security forces captured Badawi in the area five days ago before he was transferred to Sanaa amid strict security measures.

The party said on its Web site Wednesday that the official authorities are keeping silent about the operation for security reasons.

...There was no information about a possible intelligence contribution by the United States in tracing Badawi, the main convict in the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden in October 2000.


Let's try to hang on to him this time, shall we?

A Swill Salute to the Counterterrorism Blog for being the bearer of great news.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:58 PM | Comments (4)

Not ONLY Would This Jack Up Their Flag

...what would happen to "The Sword in the Stone"? (Which is NOT Excaliber, so don't even get me started.)

His dragon-slaying heroics have kept his legend alive through the centuries.

But the Church of England is considering rejecting England's patron saint St George on the grounds that his image is too warlike and may offend Muslims.

Clergy have started a campaign to replace George with St Alban, a Christian martyr in Roman Britain.


Who needs a Jihad when these PC weenies just up and change their history/tradition/sacred symbols to suit Muslim sensibilities on their own?

A Swill Salute to The Gateway Pundit for this horrifying development.

UPDATE: One more good reason to willingly roll over for the IslamoFascists?

Radical Islamic militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were watching a banned World Cup soccer broadcast, a radio station reported Wednesday.

The hard-line Muslim fighters, who have banned watching television, opened fire after a crowd of teenagers defied their orders to leave a hall where a businessman was showing Tuesday's Germany-Italy match on satellite television, according to Shabelle Radio, an independent local station. It said the businessman and a teenage girl were killed.


No more TV to rot your brain.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:07 PM | Comments (8)

June 30, 2006

I'd Heard His Lawyers Were Going For This

...the other day and it looks like it's stuck.

Confession in girl's slaying thrown out
Judge does allow discovery of Florida 9-year-old as evidence

The confession of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford isn’t admissible in court, but the discovery of her body can be used as evidence, a judge ruled Friday.

John Evander Couey, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, gave the confession to detectives, but also told them that he wanted to consult a lawyer. He wasn’t given the opportunity to do so.


I cannot believe ~ CANNOT believe! ~ that the detectives made that egregious, that indefensible, an error in a case of such horrific magnitude. We've watched enough Law and Order to know how NOT letting a suspect chat with his Johnnie Cochran bites you in the a$$ EVERY time. WTF?! Why would they jeopardize the WHOLE thing? I can only think they were desperate to find her and decided that overrode procedure. Fortunately, the judge is allowing the body's discovery to remain. And in case anyone doubts why this animal should rot in hell forever AFTER the state executes him...
Jessica was found kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands tied with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive in February 2005. Two days earlier, Couey told detectives he had kidnapped, raped and killed the girl, and he told them where to find the body.

UPDATE: More from the AP wire.

A judge in Citrus County decided today that investigators compromised that evidence when they ignored Couey’s repeated requests to talk with an attorney.

He said no less than eight times in 46 seconds” that he wanted a lawyer, Circuit Ric Judge Howard said, adding detective Gary Atchison and former detective Scott Grace also failed to tell an FBI polygraph expert of Couey’s request.

Howard said there were two possibilities: “They forgot or ... they didn’t want (the agent) to know.”

“The inescapible conclusion is they chose to ignore it,” he said. “Such police misconduct ... is a professional violation of a bedrock of criminal law.”


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:39 AM | Comments (5)

Mini-Van Driving Soccer Moms They Ain't

And you thought 16 year olds running off gave My Space a bad name? I bid you welcome to the online world of the lovely ladies of the Canadian Jihad.

When it came time to write up the premarital agreement between Zakaria Amara and Nada Farooq, Ms. Farooq briefly considered adding a clause that would allow her to ask for a divorce.

She said that Mr. Amara (now accused of being a leader of the alleged terror plot that led to the arrests of 17 Muslim men early this month) had to aspire to take part in jihad.

"[And] if he ever refuses a clear opportunity to leave for jihad, then i want the choice of divorce," she wrote in one of more than 6,000 Internet postings uncovered by The Globe and Mail.

...The tightly knit group of women who chatted with each other includes Mariya (the wife of alleged leader Fahim Ahmad), Nada (the wife of Mr. Amara, the alleged right-hand man) Nada's sister Rana (wife of suspect Ahmad Ghany), as well as Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal (the Muslim convert from Cape Breton, N.S. who married the oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal). The women's husbands are part of a core group of seven charged with the most severe crimes -- plotting to detonate truck bombs against the Toronto Stock Exchange, a Canadian Forces target, and the Toronto offices of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The women were bound by the same social, political and ideological aims. They organized "sisters-only" swimming days and held fundraisers for the notorious al-Qaeda-linked Khadr family. With the exception of the occasional Urdu or Arabic word or phrase, their posts are exclusively in English.


YOW. Stunningly, stunningly hateful creatures.

A warm Swill Salute to Alyosha Popovich at the TAO of Defiance, who notes...

"On some forums they are derided, disciplined, put in their place and educated, while in other places they are the ones attempting to do the disciplining and educating. And I would at this point commend the Muslims of the rational, scholared and non-insecure varieties, who have to confront these degenerates and put them in place, even as they rant on deliriously, all the while making a mockery of their religion. I have seen great patience and perseverence displayed by those who try to bring these fevered jackasses back to the straight path. Now that is a community service."

Indeed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM | Comments (3)

June 27, 2006

Suzette Kelo

...in the first person.

Where do I stand at this point? I think what I have thought from the very beginning: This is my home, and no one has the right to take it from me, especially for the vague concept of "economic development." I tell you honestly, and from my heart, that nothing will cause me to change my goals or my values.

Mark Twain wrote, "Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live." My illusion has been, and will continue to be, that my home is mine.


Swill Salute to RCP.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:15 AM | Comments (3)

June 23, 2006

Gonzales on the Telly

U.S.: 'Homegrown terrorists' eyed Sears Tower

Court documents: Black Muslim group sought to 'kill all the devils we can*'


...for the press conference. Details abound. Keep the pressure on these bastards, NYT or no.

(Why do I find it so much easier listening to AG Gonzales than that pinch faced SOB Ashcroft? GOD, I really, REALLY despised him.)

UPDATE: The indictments.
*ths notes: This should be our aim as well and we should be committed to always aim well.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:49 AM

June 22, 2006

Bomb Class At 9 AM; Home-Wreck Is At 11

Tim Blair has a report on a nice Jihadi Academy that your earthquake relief dollars may be supporting:


SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ABDUL HADI: Do for Allah.

CHILDREN: Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do ... for ... Allah. Do ... for ... Allah. Die ... for ... Allah. Die ... for ... Allah. Die for Allah. Die for Allah. Give for Allah. Die for Allah. Obey for Allah. Give for Allah. Pray for Allah.

I wonder if they set that to music?

REPORTER: The American Government says they should be banned? And that they say that they're… What do you say about that?

BACHT NAWAZ: Ah, I should say that these people - about Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the people who have been working for us - they are so polite, they are so humble, they are so honest, they are so nice, that it will be injustice if the America asks for the ban on them, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. They are very humble, they don't harm the people, who are innocent people. If they are fighting for the freedom, for the people who are under oppression, then it is OK.

Well, I'm glad we know when it "is OK."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM

June 19, 2006

The Duke Rape Case

...in some deep, DEEP doo-doo. MSNBC's Dan Abrams has gotten his hands on the prosecution documents and they don't add up. VIDEO here. One of his most interesting points? NOT the inconsistencies of the accuser's story, medical reports, etc. but...

"...When you look at of the dates on some of the documents that were subpoenaed by the prosecution, you have the DA making statements about them before he even had access to them. Making statements about this case well before, it would seem, he'd even seen alot of the evidence."

Add today's news to the headline story in Newsweek:
The prosecutor insists his rape case is strong. One big problem: the facts thus far.

...with it's litany of prosecutorial arrogance...
...The media coverage of the case has been enormous. NEWSWEEK put the mug shots of two of the players—Reade Seligmann, 20, and Collin Finnerty, 19—on its cover the week after they were indicted. Some early accounts raised doubts about the guilt of the players, but the story more typically played as a morality tale of pampered jocks gone wild. Lately, as more evidence from police or medical reports have been filed or cited in court documents by defense lawyers, the national and local media have been raising questions about Nifong's conduct of the case and his motivations.

Asked for an interview last week by NEWSWEEK, Nifong declined, but sent an angry e-mail accusing the national media of getting spun by defense lawyers and sticking to his earlier comments to the press. "None of the 'facts' I know at this time, indeed, none of the evidence I have seen from any source, has changed the opinion that I expressed initially," he wrote. He lashed out at "media speculation" (adding, "and it is even worse on the blogs"). He said that he was bound by ethics rules against commenting any more about the case or evidence.

...Nifong called the lacrosse players "hooligans" who were stonewalling. In fact, when police asked the three co-captains who rented the house to come down to the station for questioning two days after the incident, all of them readily agreed. None tried to get a lawyer and all volunteered to take lie-detector tests (the police declined their offer).

...Later, Roberts changed her story and said that a rape might possibly have taken place. But that was after Nifong had helped her get favorable bail treatment for violating probation (she had pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges in another case). Roberts later contacted rap star Lil' Kim's publicist "for any advice as to how to spin this to my advantage."


Read the whole thing. It will curdle your blood. He'll get re-elected on the ruin of those three lives.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:22 PM | Comments (10)

June 16, 2006

Sacre Bleu, Deja Vu!

Le Martha Stewart syndrome, she strikes yet again!

The embattled French co-CEO of Airbus parent EADS on Friday defended his sale of shares in the company before delays in the superjumbo A380 sent the stock tumbling, calling it an "unfortunate coincidence."

Queeks! Zomebody knits eem a Bastille poncho!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (2)

June 15, 2006

So in Mr. al-Maliki's Eyes, American Troops

...are just chopped liver?

Asked about clemency for those who attacked U.S. troops, he said: "That's an area where we can see a green line. There's some sort of preliminary understanding between us and the MNF-I," the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq, "that there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe."

And how many more get to die, since you're floating the idea you can kill us with impunity?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM | Comments (2)

June 14, 2006

1994 ~ Peter Jennings and the Little Guy in Sarajevo

Watch and remember.

It was February 1994 when Eki, a 12 year old boy from Sarajevo, was interviewed by Peter Jennings.
Peter Jennings, "What do your mother and father tell you about what the future is going to be?"
Eki," They don't talk about it."
Peter, "How come?"
Eki, "They don't know what to say."

I was in tears afterwards and major dad said "Someone has to see this and get that kid out of there." Someone did, bless their hearts. George and Helen Priebe of Irvine, Calif. brought his whole family over and they settled in Michigan.

Today the Iraq War veteran, Petty Officer Eki Foco, became a citizen of the United States of America.
He says America is a great place to be.

Well, Petty Officer Foco, it's great to have you.
Congratulations.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:26 PM | Comments (3)

June 13, 2006

Committee: Fire Churchill

Woo-Hoo! Courage in Academia! A majority of Colorado University folks on the panel set up to investigate Ward Churchill have recommended that he be fired. Allahpundit has the links at HotAir. I'm reading the full report now, and it's pretty damning.

Update: the committee went to great lengths to exclude any sort of political discussions from their investigation; they simply looked at the published materials. And on that score, he's toast.

The real tremor from this should reverberate through the heart of every tenured faculty member who was promoted as Churchill seems to have been, solely because of his claimed race. The tenure committee that recommended him for tenure should be censured, or at the very least named, for their shoddy work here and the disrepute it has brought to their university and academe in general.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:44 PM | Comments (7)

Next Time

...drag his a$$ back in the store and use a bigger pipe.

A man is suing an auto-parts store for assault and battery after he attempted to hold up the business and employees responded by beating him with a metal pipe.

Dana Buckman, 46, walked into an auto shop brandishing a semiautomatic pistol last summer, only to have it turned on him by two AutoZone employees, police said. The men beat Buckman with a metal pipe and held him with his own gun.

...Buckman claims the men chased him out of the store and continued to beat him. He is suing the auto shop and the men for the injuries he suffered and for emotional distress.

...But lawyer Phillip R. Hurwitz, who represents Buckman, said the employees crossed the line by pursuing Buckman and attacking him.

"The danger was past," Hurwitz said. "These two employees took it upon themselves to go after Mr. Buckman after he left the store."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:19 AM | Comments (1)

June 09, 2006

Oh Goody

...maybe he felt something after all.

A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling on a gurney when Iraqi police arrived at the site...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:51 AM | Comments (2)

June 08, 2006

Got It Bad, Got It Bad, Got It Bad

Treacher's Teacher's hot for teacher:

TAMPA - Two Hillsborough County middle school teachers have resigned after students saw them having sex in a classroom, a report released Wednesday states.

Foreign language teacher Frances J. Sepulveda, 30, and physical education teacher Bryant J. Wilburn, 29, quit two days after the May 22 incident at Coleman Middle School, 1724 S. Manhattan Ave.

Sepulveda's classroom door was locked and paper covered its window, but a boy and a girl saw the teachers through the window, the report states.

...Sepulveda initially said she and Wilburn were just friends but later acknowledged twice having sex with him in the classroom, the report states. Wilburn said they had sex in the room during work hours "on one or two occasions."

I know it shouldn't, but the breathtaking stupidity of people continues to amaze me at times.

And school in Florida seems a lot more like a carnal college than a house of learning these days, doesn't it?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:41 PM | Comments (3)

Oh

Now they're apologizing for showing Zarqawi's head, explaining it was so they could prove he was dead. They explained that they'd cleaned it up and brushed off the debris so it wouldn't be shown in a 'dehumanizing' fashion; with no disrespect to the body. So, of course, al-Jazeera's jumped all over the pristine, basically woundless face as proof maybe he was only mostly dead.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:47 AM | Comments (5)

June 07, 2006

It's Almost Painful To Read Through

But you must read through Hugh Hewitt's evisceration-via-interview of Paul Campos. Sis and I are frankly at a loss about which quotes to post; there are so many knockouts.

HH: [quoting from PC column]"The War On Terror, we are assured, is a battle for our very survival, and success in Iraq is crucial to that battle." A couple of questions. Number one, do you think the War On Terror is a battle for our very survival?

PC: Oh, absolutely not.

Read the whole thing.

I don't ever want to go near Hugh's woodshed...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:56 PM | Comments (9)

Now That We're Clear of the Whole "6³" Day BS

...did I ever tell you guys how this a$$hole in 1985...

'Night Stalker' wants a new murder trial
Richard Ramirez is on death row for 13 Los Angeles murders

...chased me into the garage at 3:30 in the morning? He'd been busy that evening a little south of us...
On August 24, while the police in San Francisco were scrambling to find the mysterious young man with rotten teeth, the Night Stalker had found another couple whom he could use to play out his violent fantasy—except this couple was not in the Bay Area. They were asleep in bed in Mission Viejo, fifty miles south of Los Angeles.

A computer engineer and his 29-year-old fiancée had just drifted off to sleep when they were suddenly awakened by loud gunshots in the room.


...or he might have been a little quicker through the security gate. This guy is a death penalty case in a solid gold wrapper, but, thanks to the Bird Court of the 80's, tax dollars will keep him warm and safe for the rest of his unnatural days. Mr. Summers says I can't blame her, as he is on death row and could conceivably die one day.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:02 AM | Comments (14)

June 06, 2006

Nine Heads in Boxes

...do not a massacre make.

Police find 9 heads in fruit boxes near Baghdad
Grisly discovery follows similar one on Saturday; bomb kills Iraqi pedestrian

Neither does the eight heads they found Saturday, the innocent twenty four killed Sunday:
Iraq gunmen kill 24 civilians at checkpoint
Gunmen dragged 24 civilians out of their cars at a makeshift checkpoint in a town north of Baghdad on Sunday and shot them "execution style", a senior police official said.

The victims included students, children and elderly men...


...little people...
Mutilated and killed, Iraqi boy is sectarian victim

...or any of the current daily tally.
At least 21 dead today

Nope. "Massacre"? Hell, try to find the words "murdered", "slaughtered", "cold-blooded" or "homocide" anywhere in the reports, less mind "massacre". As I've noticed (and the Gateway Pundit has posted) ~ even though the EVERY DAY deaths per incident is the same or worse, the EVERY DAY deeds as horrific or worse ~ in the eyes of the MSM, "MASSACRE" only applies...

...to us.


Michelle Malkin on smears.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:33 AM

June 05, 2006

Being in Good Hands is One Thing

Using them to choke the life out of your average homeowner is another thing entirely.

Depending on which of Florida's two largest property insurers covers your house or condominium, you'll soon either face a wallop to your wallet, or will have to find a new insurance company.

State Farm plans massive price increases, while Allstate intends to jettison 174,000 policyholders.

Florida's biggest home insurer, State Farm Florida Insurance Co., asked state insurance officials Friday for its largest-ever increase in annual premiums -- one that will more than double the rates paid by many of State Farm Florida's customers in South Florida and in parts of the central and western areas of the state.

The company made two requests, one for an average 58.8 percent rate increase statewide plus a 12.7 percent statewide boost for its 1 million policyholders, State Farm spokesman Chris Neal said. Subject to state approval, the increases would take effect Aug. 15, which is in the middle of hurricane season that starts June 1.

In South Florida, many State Farm Florida customers are facing rate increases of at least 80 percent for their homeowners' coverage. Policyholders living east of Interstate 95 actually could see their rates fall because they buy windstorm insurance from state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Those living west of the interstate face larger premium increases because State Farm Florida insures their homes against hurricane damage.


The "have to find a new insurance company" is a joke ~ there aren't any 'new ones' to be had. And these aren't the gazillion dollar homes on the beach ~ these are houses like ours. Radioblogger has posted an excellent photo essay on New Orleans ~ Nine Months Later, from Mrs. Radioblogger's recent church sponsored 'helping hands' trip. Amid all the destruction, there's one poignant shot of the remains of a beautiful home, the front porch now flying a banner detailing the miniscule insurance settlement they'd received. Despicable.

New Orleans, just like us here in the Panhandle, happily paid their premiums year after year after year, with nary a claim. And those insurance companies never minded pocketing the cash all that time without ever paying out a dime. One storm, one disaster of unimaginable magnitude hits and to a person you think "thank God, we're covered for most of it." Only to find out you're not. Your interpretation of your coverage has nothing to do with the reality of the coverage they're going to tell you you have. And that they'll do everything they can to weasel out of even the little bit they're offering. So much suffering and heartache for something bought and paid for. And then? They bleed you out or drop you.

We're a year and a half post-Ivan here in Bangla-cola and we're a mess. Those folks west of here have no clue what's coming at them.

Despicable.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 PM | Comments (23)

Sharp as a Marble's Robb Needs Suggestions

...on how to find ~ and how not to kill ~ the little bastards who shot out the window GLASS in his ten-month-old baby's room with a BB gun.

I've got a syndrome name for those little sh*theads.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:10 PM | Comments (3)

No, You're Not an A$$hole Anymore

You've achieved victim status.

To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it — intermittent explosive disorder — and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.

"People think it's bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don't know ... is that there's a biology and cognitive science to this," said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago's medical school.

I, on the otherhand, will continue to believe you're just an a$$hole stuck in the same traffic I am, but handling the frustration in an immature and ill-mannered fashion. And you need your a$$ kicked.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:08 PM | Comments (13)

June 04, 2006

Well, He Could Afford a Camel Now

...like, if he wanted one. Jeez Louise, I SO wish I lived in California sometimes.

A jury awarded $61 million to two FedEx Ground drivers of Lebanese descent who claimed a manager harassed them with racial slurs for two years.

Edgar Rizkallah, 43, and Kamil Issa, 36, both of Pleasanton, said in the discrimination lawsuit they were called "terrorists," "camel jockeys" and other epithets in 1999 and 2000 by Stacy Shoun, terminal manager for the Oakland FedEx Ground facility where the two men were contract drivers.


And then I come out of my stupor. But hey! Being blonde ain't easy ~ just look what certain distinguished jerkwads said in the magnetic north post! Oh, baby. I feel a suit coming on and it ain't Prada.

But it could be, if everything works out...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:05 AM

May 31, 2006

Words Fail

...at times like these.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the death penalty for a man who strangled and stomped a 76-year-old man during a robbery, saying the killer's chaotic childhood with abusive parents outweighed the brutality of the crime.

The 4-3 opinion noted that Troy Tenace, 44, expressed remorse when he confessed to police in 1994 and that if he receives the maximum sentence, he won't be eligible for parole until age 96.

The justices were unanimous in upholding Tenace's conviction for robbing and killing Chester Kozlowski on Jan. 28, 1994, in his Toledo home. Tenace robbed Kozlowski because the older man paid him in cash earlier for chimney repairs. The man had been gagged and strangled, and had extensive facial injuries from being stomped with heavy boots.


Well, sh*t, he was an old man anyway, right? How old them judges?

Just curious when your life crosses the line into "not as worthy".

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)

May 26, 2006

When You Think of All the Conniving B$ They Pull on the Show...

...why is it news when they turn out to be weasels in real life?

A former winner on “Survivor” lied to get time off from his job as a state highway worker to join a promotional tour for the reality TV show in Europe last year, an investigation found.

...After his requests for time off were denied, he submitted a false doctor’s excuse saying he was suffering from anxiety and depression and needed a month of medical leave, ODOT’s investigation found.

ODOT said Daugherty’s initial requests were refused because he had already used all but 29 hours of his vacation days, sick leave and personal time. Officials said he even submitted a request for military leave — despite never being in the armed services — because the “Survivor” tour was scheduled to visit a military base in Germany.


Yeah and they'd walk past your gasping a$$ to summit Everest, too, but they're big ratings winners!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:38 PM

"...so they will stop asking tough questions."

Blood money is pouring into Beslan. Some are spending the largesse in better fashion than others.

...Former hostage Valiko Margiyev, 57, lost his 12-year-old daughter in the tragedy. He said neighbors who received no compensation accused victims of allowing themselves to be bought - and he and his wife Svetlana adopted a child from an orphanage to spend their compensation money on.

There is a survivor of the terrorists who stormed the school ~ "the sole survivor among the 32 alleged attackers, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, who was sentenced to life in prison on Friday." I love that "alleged" thing. Makes it all sound like a big misunderstanding. And there has been no death penalty in Russia for ten years ~ something to do with joining the Council of Europe.

The villagers want Russian officials put on trial, too, ostensively to determine who actually set the charges that did the bulk of the killing.

"Putin never answered the main question: Did most of the hostages die at the hands of the attackers or of the Russian military?"

They don't have 9-11 style commissions there to poke and prod, grandstand and fact find. And I didn't know until I read this that they had those questions. Being Russia, I'm not sure that they could believe the answers if they ever got them.

UPDATE: Per Lisa's note in the comments, I challenge you to find "Muslim" anywhere in this report.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:27 AM | Comments (3)

May 24, 2006

"So Why Did You Get Detention, Billy?"

"I used the word "America" to refer to the United States":

The [Michigan] Department of Education asserts that "Americans" includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department's view, "America" happens to include South, Central and North America. Accordingly, when referring to the colonial period, the state bureaucracy requires teachers to refer to "the colonies of North America" or "North Americans." After the American Revolution, the nation is called the United States (not of America).

It is simply amazing:

What a state social studies consultant is telling educators in e-mails about using "America" and "Americans" in tests and courses:

"I have promised teachers that we would delete the use of American [when we are really ONLY referring to the United States] from the GLCEs (grade level content expectations) so that everything is consistent and correct as soon as it was feasible."

"It is ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere."
-- Karen Todorov, Michigan Department of Education

I hope this department gets a major smackdown.

Update: Our Bud Gunslinger posts this link in the comments:


The Michigan Department of Education is not taking the word “America” or “American” out of the classrooms of Michigan...No such edict has gone out to school teachers across Michigan, nor will one, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan...

“These are advisory groups,” Flanagan said. “The conversations and internal communications between members of an independent association have been misconstrued as Department of Education policy. This is not a Department of Education policy, nor will it ever be our policy while I’m here. I would never approve the removal of ‘America’ or ‘American’ from our classrooms. Not on my watch.”

Thank you, Mr. Flanagan (and thank you, Guns!)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:31 PM | Comments (10)

May 18, 2006

The Report's In On My Old Buddy Ward

And it ain't pretty:

Based on the foregoing, the Committee finds by a preponderance of the evidence that: (a) Professor Churchill has engaged in research misconduct with respect to Allegation A regarding the General Allotment Act of 1887; and (b) that such research misconduct was not and could not have been inadvertent and therefore was deliberate. Specifically, the Committee finds by a preponderance of the evidence that...

And believe me there's a lot of evidence that ensues.

But in sadly typical fashion, in spite of all the evidence showing his completely fraudulent nature as a 'scholar,' they can't bring themselves to say "fire the bastard." No, the committee splits and splinters on this and can not resist saying that "the only reason we're investigating him is because of the bruhaha about his WTC remark. Damn you Bushhitler for attacking free speech. And don't question our patriotism." Disgusting. Here's yet another example where people bloviate about respect and integrity yet refuse to enforce any sort of standards that give such terms any meaning or worth.

(h/t to No Brainer)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:17 PM | Comments (8)

May 11, 2006

NOW This Stinks

...like a SEVEN DAY OLD mullet and I mean reeks.

A Durham police detective investigating the Duke University lacrosse case arrested an alibi witness Wednesday on a 2 1/2-year-old misdemeanor warrant.
Taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa said Investigator R.D. Clayton and another officer asked whether he had anything new to tell them about the rape case before driving him to the Durham County jail. He said no and was held for five hours, until a friend posted his bail on a shoplifting charge.

Ernest Conner, a Greenville lawyer who represents defendant Reade Seligmann, said the cabbie's arrest amounted to intimidation. "It appears to me they are trying to pressure a witness who supports our defendant's rock-solid alibi," Conner said.


This is gonna make one hell of a Law and Order episode.

All I can add is "don't get yerself arrested for speeding in Durham." It's like the Hotel California there.
NOTE: Our earlier post notes Mr. Elmostafa's evolving story.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 AM

May 10, 2006

Mullahs Don't Wait For Urban Renewal

So is Giza a goner?

A religious ruling condemning the display of statues has angered Egyptian liberals and intellectuals who fear it could encourage religious zealots to attack the country's pharaonic heritage.

The ruling was issued by the Mufti, the most senior religious scholar in Egypt.

...It was a member of the public who asked the Mufti about Islam's position on statues.

"This reflects the rising religiosity in Egyptian society," said Mohamed al-Sayed Said of the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

He says the European models of progress which guided Egyptian society in the 19th and 20th Centuries have now been eclipsed by the rise of religion.

"There's been really a big retreat to the distant past," he said.

"What we are having at this point is an increasing gulf between secular and religious cultures."


Right now they're worried about fanatics trying to disfigure, deface and destroy the the treasures on their own, but the alternative is terrifying.
"Egypt's future will not be determined by religious or cultural factors. But if the country continues to fail economically and politically, political Islam will become the prevalent ideology," said Mr Said.

"But I'm inclined to think that we still have a chance to evade the prospects of an Islamist takeover if we achieve better in the economy and certainly in relation to political and civic liberties."


"We still have a chance". How awful is that?

And "But they've been here since the time of the Pharoahs!" doesn't carry any weight, either. Just ask the ancient Buddhas Mullah Omar and his hairy henchmen leveled.

A warm Swill Salute to All Things Conservative.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:08 PM | Comments (9)

May 09, 2006

They Don't Seem to Have a Problem

...putting their hand out.

Hamas signaled on Wednesday it still had problems accepting Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence, hours after international peace brokers agreed to temporarily send direct aid to the Palestinians.

...The so-called Quartet of international mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- decided on Tuesday to send direct aid for a three-month trial period but the method of payment still had to be sorted out.

..."The Quartet have conditions. They aim to push the Palestinian government to make concessions that harm (Palestinian) rights and red lines and give the (Israeli) occupation legitimacy," [Prime Minister] Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza.


If you can't stand the heat, get out of the dole line.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:57 PM | Comments (1)

The Duke "Victim" Accuser Has Serious Credibility Problems

...that just keep coming.

Duke accuser initially said 20 men raped her
Police thought woman was 'not credible,' leading school to move slowly

Duke’s response to rape allegations involving members of the men’s lacrosse team was too slow and relied too heavily on secondhand information, a report commissioned by the university has found.

That included assertions by Durham police that the accuser “kept changing her story and was not credible,” the report released Monday said. Relying on such opinion, the report said, was a mistake.

The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman claimed she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that “this will blow over,” the report said. The woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three, the report said.


In the school's defense, if relying on the police report was a "mistake", what is one supposed to rely on? So let's recap. First it's 20. Then it's 3. None of which is mentioned initially as the convenience store security guard and then police officers, attempt to rouse the accuser (I'm gonna lay off the "victim" label.) snockered in a parked vehicle. Of all the mug shots in all the city, the only ones the prosecuter could poop for a line-up happen to be...ALL the white members of the lacrosse team. And the two wealthiest kids get tagged as perps (Addresses and pictures of their homes along with Mom and Dad's net worth released to Newsweek, if anyone's interested in that aspect of 'innocent 'til proven guilty'.) Not a spot of DNA anywhere, which makes sense as one of the accused has reams of paperwork and a (black!) witness to prove he wasn't there at the time (and who now seems to be responding to pressure from the community:"Mostafa, cited as an alibi witness for the accused lacrosse players, told Time magazine that he didn't want to be seen "on the side of the defense only. I want to look like I’m an honest person." ") The other female at the scene first said nothing happened but has since regained memories of being aware of something amiss and firmly supports the story of the accuser. Of course, the favorable intervention of the DA in a separate court case had no bearing on the miraculous retuning of her recollections. A milagro, indeed.

All of this without even questioning the accuser's veracity, lifestyle, mental stability or previously filed complaints for the same thing. You don't have to. It stinks like a five day old mullet on it's own.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:20 AM | Comments (2)

May 08, 2006

Absolutely NO GIRLY MEN in Short Shorts

...need apply.

Iran says no to girly sportsmen

Iran's hardline Islamic regime has had enough of footballers with long hair and plucked eyebrows.

"I will ban athletes with an effeminate look," the head of the country's Physical Education Organisation, Mohammad Ali-Abadi said...


Oh, well, poop. That's just so wrong.

UPDATE: AND NO GIRLS watching girly men! Ya got that? Are we clear here?

Iranian women barred from soccer games
Supreme leader Ayatollah overrules president's earlier decision

UPDATE, Part DEUX: The research keeps pouring in. I'm beginning to extrapolate that only girly men play soccer...

Bush says he’s learning fast about World Cup
'A lot of us grew up without any connection to soccer — me, for example'

Where's Margaret Meade when you need her?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:16 PM | Comments (7)

May 07, 2006

They Are Disgusting, Perverted ANIMALS

I am in tears and all I did was read it.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has linked to an update in The Mudville Gazette from the Jawa Report (There was a WARNING ~ GRAPHIC on this post, so I didn't scroll down.) that the video of the killing is of a Nepalese hostage in 2004. Through MY eyes, it's TWICE as despicable. Another person has been filmed dying a horrible death and a grieving family will know the truth in living color.

Damn them to hell.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 AM | Comments (4)

May 05, 2006

They GOT the Miserable Son of a Bitch!

Now he needs to go away for a very, VERY long time.

Pensacola man charged in fatal shootings of 8 horses, 5 dogs

A Crime Stoppers tip helped connect a man being held in the Escambia County jail with the fatal shootings of eight horses and five dogs in Beulah last month, authorities said Thursday.

Craig M. Smith, 24, of Pensacola, was charged with five felony counts of cruelty to animals resulting in a cruel death and eight felony counts of killing or abusing horses, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said. He was also charged with one count of firearm use during a felony and two felony counts of armed trespassing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:14 PM | Comments (5)

May 02, 2006

The Circle Of Knives

An interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education on the infighting and theological purging going on in the Academy:

...Instead, in a time-honored ritual of the left, a number of academic polemicists choose this moment to pump up rites of purification. At a time when liberals hold next to no sway in any leading institution of national government, when the prime liberal institution of the last centuryorganized labor wobbles helplessly, when most national media tilt so far to the right as to parody themselves, the guardians of purity rise to a high pitch of sanctimoniousness aimed at ... heretics. Liberals, that is.

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that the reason Archduke Ferdinand had to die was that he was a reformer, and reformers are the most dangerous people in the world to a political organization. So here you see the most polemic wings in Academe turn on each other to root out the heretics, the cursed "baby-boomer liberals" who are "a powerful force of accommodation."

Funny, I seem to recall that accommodation and compromise were once powerful elements in our society, honored by the high and the low as tools of reason that made our Republic what it is. But that was in a time when our Republic was honored and respected by the Academy; now they quite clearly despise it for being built on "the atrocities launched by liberal capitalism" (as opposed to the Happy Rivers Of Chocolate and Gum Drop Smiles that the marxists have delivered everytime they've had the chance). And so we are subject to this seemingly unending stream of political tracts from petulant academics, frustrated at both the impotence of their political ideas and their low standing in the court of public esteem (ranking somewhere between Tonya Harding Videos and New Coke, I'd reckon), lashing out at those who would be the most American, those who would dare to compromise the Purity of Essence to make our society a better place. It's ironic how the the pendulum has shifted on this, no? Now it seems to be the ones on the left who so crave the attention and adoration of the middle classes while expressing nothing but contempt for them and all they value.

So where does that leave our polity? You have the Academic hard left slashing away at eachother, the Democratic Party hard left splintering into various bickering factions, the ruling Republican Party spending like drunken sailors (no offense meant to the Navy) and no one generating any enthusiasm, and a great mass of the populace in between who really aren't thrilled by any of the potential choices out there. I know I'm sure not. We may be at as prime a time for a serious third party run as we've ever seen, which makes it all the more important that the Evan Bayhs don't get to put their ideas on the Electoral College in play.

Well, that's enough of that ramble.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:17 PM | Comments (3)

April 25, 2006

They're Just Asking Themselves

...NOW?

The blasts that ripped through an Egyptian resort brought calls for an end to violence from Arabs across the region Tuesday, many of whom questioned why Muslims seem to have become a prime target for terrorists.

..."What message are they trying to send? What are they trying to do?" she asked. "I don't think these people care" if Muslims or Arabs are killed.


Seeing as how they live among you, maybe you could ask them yourselves. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Meanwhile, rat after rat is clinging to the dangling ropes of a sinking ship ~ disavowing any connection to bombs that kill Muslims ~ waiting to fling themselves overboard in case the Islamic word starts to look for the monsters within..
Arab governments were quick to condemn the attacks - as were radical Muslims who have tried to distance themselves from al-Qaida and other global Islamic radical groups that deliberately attack Muslim and Arab civilians.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:05 PM | Comments (2)

April 24, 2006

BREAKING NEWS

17 Dead at Just 1 Hotel After Egypt Blasts
Egyptian Resort City Blasts Kill at Least 17, Wound More Than 150 at Just 1 Hotel, Doctor Says

Three explosions rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab at the height of the tourist season Monday night, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 150 at just one hotel, according to the doctor who runs Egypt's Sinai Peninsula rescue squad.

Dr. Said Essa said he was headed to the scene of the blasts and that his casualty figures were for victims at the el-Khaleeg Hotel only. He said there were casualties from the other explosions but he had no details.

Al-Jazeera television said one of the blasts hit a restaurant, and authorities said more than 20 ambulances and police cars were rushing to the el-Masbat section of the city.


Damn, damn, DAMN.

UPDATE: More from Breitbart.

Three explosions shook the Egyptian Sinai resort of Dahab on Monday, killing 30 people and wounding more than 100, rescue and security officials said.

...The explosions took place at the Nelson Restaurant, the Aladdin Cafeteria and the Ghazala Supermarket, the Interior Ministry said.

An official with the local ambulance service said many of the dead appeared to be foreigners...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)

On the 'New' Iraqi Prime Minister

...from Mash.

We have brought democracy to the Middle East. We have handed over Iraq to an Iranian nurtured and funded Islamist alliance (Dawa and SCIRI). I do not believe this is what the American people bargained for when we embarked on the invasion of Iraq. If we are holding out the hope that these Islamist parties whose stated goal is to bring about an Islamist revolution in Iraq will somehow smell the sweet scent of Democracy and become torchbearers of freedom and liberty, we are likely to be as disappointed as Dick Cheney was when we were not greeted as liberators. This is a far cry from the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction and the defeat of al Qaeda.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:23 AM | Comments (7)

April 23, 2006

Poor Little Angel Puddin'

They had to put the colt down.
Bastards.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:53 AM

April 21, 2006

Execution Iraqi Style

The decapitated heads of two police officials were found early Thursday dumped in front of a government building...
...only THIS was in Acapulco, MEXICO. Their offense?
The heads of police commander Mario Nunez Magana and officer Jesus Alberto Ibarra were found at the same site where four drug traffickers died during a shootout with law enforcement. The heads of the two - who were involved in the Jan. 27 shootout - were accompanied by sign that warned, "So that you learn to respect."
The governor then warned the criminales about his new hardware...
"The criminals should watch out because the good weapons are on their way," he said Thursday.
...and I'm sure they're shaking in their huaraches. It's been a rough year on the Mexican Riviera...
...more than a dozen high-profile shooting deaths as well as several grenade attacks on police stations.

Federal investigators link the violence to a turf war between drug gangs in northern Mexico for lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.


...but at least they have someplace to hide out until the heat is off. Si, se puede.

Michelle Malkin talks "catch and release".


What I WISH He'd Say - by ths

President Bush Responds to Threats From Reconquistas


"I got yer 'si, se puede' right here, you pinche pisados..." -©TPI 2006

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:55 AM | Comments (1)

April 19, 2006

There is Filth Among Us

...cretins of monstrous proportions, whose indescribable cruelty knows no bounds.

Five dogs and 10 horses were found shot Tuesday in Beulah, where residents are comparing the animal- cruelty incident to a horrendous round of target practice.

...Nearby resident Emily Healy said neighbors were joining forces Tuesday to support Davis, 78, who returned to his property Monday about 8:30 p.m. to find the chain on his fence cut and the lock missing.

Once through the gate, Davis found several of his animals shot to death, some with multiple wounds, according to a sheriff's report. Four horses also were shot but were still alive. Several other horses were missing.

"These animals were his life," Healy said. "It was a horrific act for no good reason. The people who did this are some unbelievably cruel folks. It was like horrible target practice. "

Deputies arrived Tuesday to find the slain animals scattered across the property.

A 5-week-old brown colt struggled to breathe in the horse corral.

Another 7-week-old brown colt was dead. It had been shot in its right side.

Two mare quarter horses were alive, but struggling. Both had been shot in the stomach. One was wounded in the right rear leg.

Deputies found another quarter horse in a wooded area near the corral. It was bleeding from the nose and shot in both sides of its stomach and in its left front leg.

Shell casings were strewn around a dog pen where four English setters lay dead. About 200 yards away, another setter was dead in its pen.


There's only three horses left alive ~ one of the mares died last night. The vet who tried valiantly to save her all night long was in tears describing her suffering this evening. She'd been broken up last night, talking about the 3 month old ** colt with the bullet lodged in it's spine. They were hoping the paralysis it was suffering was a symptom of the swelling from the wound and not permanent.

I will lay money that the same criminals behind this have families ~ that they're spawning and breeding and passing on these wonderful, compassionate traits to a whole 'nuther generation. Or worse. Treating their children's fragile young lives with the same high regard shown these animals.

** I had the wrong colt. The poor baby is only

...6 WEEKS OLD.

After the massacre, a fight for life for attacked animals

Suspect sought in animal shooting

Dr. Keith Weekley ran his fingers along the coat of a 6-week-old colt as the partially paralyzed animal struggled with unsteady breath after unsteady breath.

The veterinarian gave the fragile rear legs a gentle push.

"He should be pushing back," Weekley said. "But he can't move his legs."

The colt was shot in the top of its spine Monday night, when gunfire was sprayed inside a 113-acre lot in Beulah. Five dogs, English setters, died on the scene. Seven horses were confirmed dead Wednesday. Three other horses remained in treatment at the Northwest Florida Large Animal Clinic on Quintette Road in Pace.

My God. There are no words for the animals who did this. They are beyond redemption.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:50 PM | Comments (7)

Danube Water Everywhere

...as well as the "if something's got to be done we'll...let someone do it for us" school of crisis management.

TV footage also showed young men playing soccer in Bistret and smoking cigarettes while watching gendarmes and soldiers rushing to fill the breach with sandbags.

“There are enough people there. If needed I will go to help,” a 20-year-old villager told private TV station N24.

Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu appealed to people in the endangered areas to help rescue teams reinforce dykes.

“I heard that some local people did not want to help. I can tell them that we are working to defend their houses and any additional hand is welcomed,” Tariceanu told the state radio.


Didn't we just see those people...?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 AM | Comments (1)

Well, If This Statement is True

"I am very optimistic, this is a time of hope in the kingdom. Things that have been happening under King Abdullah are amazing," said Dowayan, who hails from the relatively relaxed Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on the Gulf.
...then I'm afraid he's probably not long for this world.

UPDATE: A related "wow" in the extended section.

I just found the most interesting board discussion and I wanted share a snippet. The last paragraph is jaw-dropping. It shouldn't be, knowing what we read online and see on the telly every day. But it is.

It never ceases to astonish me how twisted Islam and Koranic interpretations can be.

Dear Michael:

I have to say you raise a very interesting topic. The government in Iran claims that it gives women many rights. Somehow they think it is something of theirs to give and giving women the few rights that they have should be counted as a positive thing in favor of the government, especially when they compare themselves to the neighboring Arab and Islamic countries.

What they fail to understand and what is most troubling and painful to many Iranians, is the fact that we are culturally different from our neighboring countries and our women demand and struggle to achieve equal rights with men and not just a few more rights! So when more people start responding to your questions, you may see some supporters of the regime trying to compare us to our neighbors claiming how much rights we have in our country. And when I say “we” I’m counting both women and men, because I feel it’s both genders responsibility to stand for equal rights.

Interestingly enough the mentality that the Mullahs (the religious clergy men in power) is not only degrading towards women, but also towards men! They see men as animals unable to control their sexual urges and behavior. And it is for this reason that they ask women to cover themselves and it is for this reason that the system in Iran unfortunately blames rape victims as well for not adhering fully to all the rules and regulations in every second of their lives.

Amir Women's rights 2 10/3/2004 7:47 PM

But for you to understand how much respect women have in Iran I will only present you with an interesting part of the Islamic law in Iran:

DIEH in Islamic law means blood money. In certain cases, say manslaughter or injury, the person founded guilty has to pay DIEH to the victim or victims family. Now a MAN’s DIEH is ONE FULL DIEH. A WOMAN’s DIEH is ONE HALF of a man’s DIEH! Surprisingly a man’s left ball (if injured say in a fight) is worth 2/3 of a full DIEH. Now I’m sure your math is very good and you can tell that 2/3 is higher than 1/2. Therefore you can assume that a man’s left ball is even worth more than a woman’s life as far as the Mullahs are concerned! (And please don’t ask why the left ball! I gave up trying to figure these people a long time ago!)

…and I leave you with that.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:49 AM | Comments (3)

More Specifics

...on the Duke lacrosse player's alibi.

ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Key Evidence Supports Alibi in Potential Rape Defense for One Indicted Duke Player

...Over the last few days, sources close to the defense have given ABC News an exclusive look at the evidence behind one player's alleged alibi — evidence that includes electronic records, photographs and witness statements. If that material is authentic, it could prove that it was practically impossible for him to rape, kidnap or assault the alleged victim.

Seligmann's argument is simple: He is innocent and he has an alibi. He attended the party that night, but documents, photos and witness testimony show that he wasn't there long enough or at the right time to attack the alleged victim.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)

April 18, 2006

Dang

Exclusive: Guard Who Saw Alleged Duke Victim Says No Sign or Mention of Rape
ABC News has obtained a tape in which a security guard — who may have been the first person to see the alleged victim of a Duke lacrosse gang rape after the alleged attack — says there were no signs or mention of rape or sexual assault.

ABC News has obtained an audio recording of what is purported to be a private investigator interviewing a security guard at a Kroger grocery store. It was this security guard whose call to 911 brought police to the Kroger parking lot, where they found the woman who claims she was raped by lacrosse team members.

The guard was on duty at the store on the night of March 13, when the two women pulled into the store's parking lot in a dark sedan. The alleged victim, who says three men held her down in a bathroom and kicked, strangled and raped her, was in the passenger seat.

On the tape, which was recorded April 3, three weeks after the lacrosse party, the guard can be heard saying, "There ain't no way she was raped — ain't no way, no way that happened."


The security guard is female. And they've returned two sealed indictments. Dang. What a sh*t sandwich.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:11 AM

April 17, 2006

Your Tax Dollars at Work

6 Killed in Suicide Bombing in Tel Aviv

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up near a fast-food restaurant in a bustling commercial area of Tel Aviv during the Jewish holiday of Passover on Monday, killing six people and wounding at least 35 others, police and medics said.

If you voted for Hamas, that is.

UPDATE And thank YOU, Mr. Zuhri for making my point.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said on Monday that the Tel Aviv attack was part of the Palestinians' right of self-defense.

"Resisting Israeli aggression was rightful as long as it continues," Abu Zuhri said.

"The occupation seized money of the Palestinian people and urged the world not to assist the Palestinians, so this attack took place before those who agree with this aggressive attitude," he said.


Besides a confused, collective "HUH?!", I'm of half a mind to cut off the dollars-for-donuts they're still getting from us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:05 AM | Comments (2)

April 14, 2006

Wait a Minute!

That isn't Nicole Kidman...

A Coffeeville High School teacher has been arrested and charged with having sex with at least four students and involving at least one of them in a plot to kill her husband.

Oh, right. She's a teacher ~ that was the other blonde. Man, I'm mixin' my movies up left and right today.
UPDATE: I really am backwards ~ "To Die For" is about a newscaster but it's based on the...get ready...blonde,get your 15 yr. old lover to whack your hubby teacher, Pamela Smart. Whew.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:38 AM | Comments (4)

The "Five Easy Rider Pieces" Sandwich Scene

...suddenly doesn't seem quite so menacing.

..."It was an accident. I didn't do it on purpose," ...

The hell you didn't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:15 AM | Comments (4)

April 13, 2006

On a Lighter Note

“It is high time now that Muslims in Europe pressed for their rights like enacting laws banning aggression on Islam and enhancing Islamic education”.
Agora's covering an interesting convention. It would appear to be a "Shriners Free" affair, judging by the lack of humor displayed by the speakers.
“The insult of prophets in the name of Freedom of Speech is a crime which cannot be ignored. We therefore ask the European Union to adopt laws to prohibit that kind of insults.”

...The delegate from Denmark was Imam Abdul Wahid Petersen who has declared himself in favor of making Sharia the law of the land.


Jeez! Lighten up, Abdul!
Anyways, it can't be much of a convention without...you know who.

What a shame ~ those guys can parrrrrr-TEE!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (2)

I'm Confused

Is it ten years before he
...has this...

...or 16 days?

Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

Iran will move to ``industrial scale'' uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the Associated Press quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.


UPDATE: Jim at the Gateway Pundit links to a Democratic version of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in an update at the post's end. (I'm a chicken sh*t and not linking because there's 234+ comments and those people scare me.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:17 AM | Comments (7)

What KIND of Idiot

...pays that much money for a dog purchased on a street corner? (To be fair, the goofy little couple that originally owned our Ozzie paid twelvehunnert dollah to a BREEDER ~ for a 'companion' dog, no less ~ and STILL owed $700 when I gave them $200 for him.)

Puppies are often purchased in Mexico for between $50 and $150, then sold at street corners, parking lots and flea markets in Southern California for between $300 and $1,000 each, according to the Border Puppy Task Force.

The smuggled puppies were found during a border stop.
They were seized after a Customs and Border Protection officer noticed a paw reach out from under the front seat Tuesday evening at San Diego's Otay Mesa border crossing, authorities said.

Is there anything Mexican smugglers are not into?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:34 AM

April 12, 2006

Oh Lordy, Here We Go

...Nifong's vow, however, did not satisfy angry community members in the audience. Mostly African-Americans, they asked why he had not taken harsher actions against the accused Duke players.

The alleged victim is black and a student at North Carolina Central University, a historically black college. The lacrosse team members accused of the sexual assault are white.

"Why weren't they arrested?" one member of the audience asked. "Why haven't these records been made public? Is there a double standard of justice and law?"

...However, one woman wondered why Duke University's doctors had been allowed to examine the alleged victim and suggested that they could have disposed of incriminating evidence.

"Why is Duke Medical Center allowed to investigate, to check this female?" the woman asked. "This is a conflict of interest. I believe info has been tampered with."


It's always a conspiracy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:03 PM | Comments (7)

Si, Se Puede?

A leading fundraiser for an Islamic charity allegedly linked to terrorists who has spent nearly two years in federal custody should be deported to Jordan, an appeals panel has ruled.

The opinion released Tuesday by the Board of Immigration Appeals overturned a judge who blocked Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan's deportation last month on grounds that he would be tortured because of his alleged ties to Hamas.

The judge also had recommended that Hamdan, of Buena Park, be released from custody.

...Hamdan was accused of having ties to terrorism but was never criminally charged. Instead, he was convicted of overstaying a student visa he got 27 years ago and ordered deported.


Great. Get 'im gone. My only concern is his being ordered released ~ isn't that when they slip off into the night for another 27 years?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 AM | Comments (2)

April 11, 2006

Put Another Log on the Fire

A lawyer for U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said Monday that State Farm Insurance Co. is destroying documents that could show the insurer has fraudulently denied thousands of claims by Lott and other policyholders whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Zach Scruggs, one of Lott’s attorneys, says his client has a “good faith belief” that several State Farm employees in Biloxi are destroying engineering reports that gave conflicting conclusions about whether wind or water was responsible for storm damage.

Like thousands of Gulf Coast homeowners, Lott’s claim was denied because State Farm concluded that Katrina’s flood water demolished his beach-front Pascagoula home. State Farm says its policies do not cover damage from rising water, including wind-driven water.


Ya think someone would have had a little forethought ~ had the corporate image in mind and maybe paid off the Senator's claim? It's easier to screw over the little guys when the big guys are happy, duh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:03 PM

It Would Seem Nothing Can Be Heinous Enough to Be 'Unforgivable'

...in the Spanish legal system.

The suspects accused of murder will probably face jail terms of thousands of years if convicted, although they could only be held in jail for a maximum of 40 years. Spain has no death penalty or life imprisonment. Spanish prosecutors routinely request symbolically long jail terms in terrorism cases.

Now is not the time to do penance for the Inquisition.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:05 PM

April 10, 2006

This Weekend's March in Dallas


...aired some provocative thoughts.
A Swill Salute to mjolnir910 via Little Green Footballs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:59 AM | Comments (6)

April 07, 2006

Amazing How Quickly One Becomes Less Militant

...and a tad more amenable...

Hamas Hints at Recognition of Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank - A senior Hamas official said Friday the group is ready to accept a "two-state" solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Hamas prime minister said he is unaware of plans by the Islamic militants to change their hard-line government platform

...when the pocketbooks snap shut.
The European Union has cut off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led Palestinian government because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognise Israel, the EU’s executive office said today.

For the time being there are no payments to or through the Palestinian authority,” European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said in Brussels.


UPDATE: We have, too.
The United States has decided to suspend direct assistance to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, while increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians through U.N. agencies, the State Department said on Friday.

Sucks to be them.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:43 AM | Comments (1)

April 05, 2006

Muslim Enclaves in Our Cities

David Kennedy Houck writes about "The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution". Very sobering, but I can't help wondering after reading it: Are not American Indian tribes afforded all these special dispensations from our rule of law already? Don't they operate their own little fiefdoms free and independent of oversight ~ rules and regulations that apply elsewhere have no power within the reservations? I'm thinking specifically of the lawsuit brought against the Thunder Valley Casino by seven women, who have been told to take what would be a Federal sexual discrimination case to a "tribal council", as neither the Feds nor the state have any jurisdiction.

Native American casinos are a $20 billion a year industry. But because many of the casinos are on sovereign Indian land, many state and federal laws do not apply to them.

...The plaintiffs want state and federal legal protections for non-Native Americans working on tribal grounds.


Hello? "Non-native Americans"?! (WTF kind of CRAP is that?) How about "citizens" being afforded the protections of the laws of this country no matter WHERE they set foot IN this country?

How do we keep the same from happening when Sharia wants sovereignty over a 13 year old girl in Baltimore?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 PM | Comments (17)

Taking a Turkey Baster

...to the next level. (Does this man have nothing better to do?)

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says Major League Baseball and San Diego police failed to protect Barry Bonds and should be trying to find out who threw a syringe at him in the Giants’ opener.

It would be like trying to find a needle...never mind.

He could always hire Hammerin' Cynthia McKinney as a bodyguard.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:36 AM

April 04, 2006

Oh, GACK!

The deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, of Silver Spring, Md., was arrested on seven charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.

Doyle had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.


What a pig. I also noticed there were no "allegedlies" sprinkled through the report.

Stick a fork in him ~ he's done.

UPDATE: 'Twould seem MSNBC has noticed that lack of "allegedlies", too, as they've seen fit to add the word to the main page link.

Sex sting
Homeland Security official arrested over alleged Internet child seduction. • FULL STORY
.MORE TOP STORIES
• Iraqi PM rejects new call to quit
• WP: DeLay still defiant | • Video
• Md. women win NCAAs | • Images
Skip navigation Web MSNBC Updated: 7:39 a.m. ET April 5, 2006 MSN Home Hotmail Sign In

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:48 PM | Comments (5)

Naked, Armed With Blowpipes

...and bearing monkeys on their heads,
(I know. You thought the post was about BIngley. It's not.)
...members of Colombia's last nomadic indigenous tribe emerged from the Amazonian jungle at the weekend after spending months on the run from Marxist guerrillas.

Bemused townspeople in the southern city of San Jose de Guaviare looked on as 76 hunter-gatherers of the Nukak Maku tribe walked into its central square and told of their flight from the rebels, who are considered one of the greatest threats to their existence.

"The guerrillas told us they did not want to see us ever again," said one of the few Indians to speak any Spanish.


Hard to believe the jungle's gotten that small. Is it any less a loss than Budda statues?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:48 PM | Comments (1)

April 03, 2006

Downsizing is a Tough Pill to Swallow

Musab al-Zarqawi replaced

IRAQ'S resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor said in Jordan.

"The Iraqi resistance's high command asked Zarqawi to give up his political role and replaced him with an Iraqi, because of several mistakes he made," said Hudayf Azzam, who claims close contacts with the rebels.
"Zarqawi's role has been limited to military action," said Azzam, whose late father Abdullah Azzam was the mentor of bin Laden, the al-Qaeda boss.

"Zarqawi bowed to the orders two weeks ago and was replaced by Iraqi national Abdullah bin Rashed al-Baghdadi," Azzam said.


Saw this yesterday via The Counterterrorism Blog and wondered if it had any credence. Low and behold, it's just showing up on MSNBCcom, so I figured it was safe to share.

I sure wish they'd whacked the little f*cker, instead of moving him down a notch. But hopefully now this means he's vunerable and schmaybe a 'patriot' (or a pragmatic businessman...) will sell him out.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:07 PM

March 29, 2006

This Would Be Counter Productive

Afghanistan's parliament demanded Wednesday that the government prevent a man who faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity from being able to flee the country. Italy granted asylum to Abdul Rahman, 41, and the Foreign Ministry said he would arrive there "soon," maybe within the day.
Wonderful bunch there. They'll let the street finish off what they were prevented from doing.

UPDATE: He's made it safely to Italy. My concern is for the next guy or gal. And the next one after that...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:16 AM | Comments (2)

March 27, 2006

So They're Only "Cold Blooded Murderers"

...if they hit a member of your family?

Bomber comparison gets Arab nixed from county ballot

....The Lebanese-born Merhi made the comments at a September 2002 Democratic fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, where he condemned the September 11 terrorists "as cold-blooded murders" and "crazy fanatics."

When asked whether he would apply the same label to Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israelis, Merhi said, "I can't see the comparison."


He lost his godson in the WTC attack.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM | Comments (3)

Just When You Think Texa$$ is the Last Bastion of Frontier Manliness

...they go and f*ck it up royally. The Dalla$$ POH-leese are now conducting drunk driving sweeps IN the local bars, before the drunk staggers out to his car. OR his designated driver. OR back up the stairs to his or her hotel room. Or just sits there and sobers up on his own.

Be very grateful, citizens of the Big D ~ you're being protected from yourself, before you even do anything.

"Anybody out there who is drinking needs to be aware that you have to drink responsibly, even if you're not driving," criminal defense attorney Barry Sorrels said. "If you're inside a bar, you could be arrested."

Texas law states that anyone who is drunk in public and poses a danger to themselves or others can be arrested regardless of whether they were inside a restaurant or bar, or on a city street.

Sorrels said the key to the law lies in the potential danger. He said it is not illegal to be intoxicated in public. The gray area comes in determining the degree of risk, Sorrels said.

"If (the) TABC is going to adopt this as a get-tough policy, they have to be fair on who they arrest," Sorrels said.

Three people caught in the recent sweep were arrested at a bar inside a hotel at which they were registered guests. All three said they had no intention of driving.

"It's no defense if you're staying at a hotel where you were publicly intoxicated at a bar," Sorrels said.



(NoBrainer's confused, too.) Isn't this the same state where an open container is okay ~ as in 'legal'? I sense a disturbance in the force...

Via the Sunday night NBC news report "Did crackdown on drunken driving go too far?"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:08 AM | Comments (5)

March 23, 2006

The Leaders of the "Religion of Peace " Speak Out

Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity should be killed regardless of whether a court decides to free him.
Wonderful bunch there. I think maybe we should have gone in to save Rahman instead of the Christian Peace types.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:25 AM | Comments (4)

It ALMOST Makes You Want to Send the F*ckers Back

...to the snake pit hell they pulled them out of, along with the ingrates at their organization. I didn't see a simple, grudging "thank you" anywhere in the text.

..."We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end.

“Today, in the face of this joyful news, our faith compels us to love our enemies even when they have committed acts which caused great hardship to our friends and sorrow to their families.

...“We pray that Christians throughout the world will, in the same spirit, call for justice and for respect for the human rights of the thousands of Iraqis who are being detained illegally by the U.S. and British forces occupying Iraq.


Bravo to whoever it was in uniform who risked their lives going in to get them.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 AM | Comments (3)

I Hope Mbube Sleeps Tonight

Decades later, but justice triumphs. How sweet is that?

Three impoverished South African women whose father wrote the song known as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" have won a six-year battle for royalties in a case that could affect other musicians.

The story surrounding the song that never seems to go out of date amounts to a rags-to-riches tale, replete with racial overtones.

...Linda composed his now-famous song in 1939 in one of the squalid hostels that housed black migrant workers in Johannesburg. According to family lore, he wrote the song in minutes, inspired by his childhood tasks of chasing prowling lions from the cattle he herded. He called the song Mbube, Zulu for lion.

It was sung, in true Zulu tradition, a cappella. Linda's innovation was to add his falsetto voice, an overlay of haunting "eeeeeees," to the baritone and bass main line. To this day, this style is called Mbube in South Africa.

The song sold more than 100,000 copies over a decade, probably making it Africa's first big pop hit.

In the 1950s, at a time when apartheid laws robbed blacks of negotiating rights, Linda sold worldwide copyright to Gallo Records of South Africa for 10 shillings - less than $1.70.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:13 AM

March 22, 2006

Let's Hope This Means

...these sorts of amendments're on a roll.

New Hampshire lawmakers gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a constitutional amendment that would limit government's ability to seize private property.

...The amendment would prohibit the taking of private property for use by private developers.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:45 PM | Comments (3)

Some Numbers to Crunch

...if you can't be AT ~ and in support OF ~ the RALLY FOR ABDUL RAHMAN in D.C. on Friday.

Friday March 24
Noon to 1pm
Outside the Afghan Embassy
2341 Wyoming Ave NW.
Washington DC

Michelle Malkin has more.

If you can't be in D.C.,

BE on the PHONE !!

For the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington and Contacting the White House in the extended section.

Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Ambassador name: Said Tayeb Jawad

Address: 2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20008

Telephone number: (+1-202) 483 6414

Fax number: (+1-202) 483 9523

Email address: info@embassyofafghanistan.org

Website: www.embassyofafghanistan.org

Contacting the White House

Mailing Address

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


Phone Numbers

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

E-Mail
Please send your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov.


I can't be there, but I'll BE on the phone.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:31 PM

Except the Guy Running the Place, You Mean

...right?

North Korea has no people with physical disabilities because they are killed almost as soon as they are born, a physician who defected from the communist state said on Wednesday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)

Why Do I Find 'Raised the Case' So Damn Disgusting?

Probably because I want to hear DEMANDED his release in the name of FREEDOM. The FREEDOM paid for WITH, protected and MAINTAINED by, American lives.

Afghanistan said on Wednesday the judiciary would rule on a man facing death for converting to Christianity after the United States and three NATO allies with troops in Afghanistan urged respect for religious freedom.

... The United States, which counts Karzai as a key ally in the region, raised the case with visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday, calling on Kabul to uphold Afghan citizens’ constitutional right to choose their faith.

“We hope that the Afghan constitution is going to be upheld and in our view, if it’s upheld, then of course he’ll be found to be innocent,” said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. State Department’s third-ranked diplomat.


And if it's not upheld, he's dead, Mr. Burns. This administration has talked a fine line about freedom, democracy and tolerance, but when it comes down to crunch time, they fold like a three dollar bill.

Michelle Malkin has more on the current effort to declare him a loon, as Mr. Summers pointed out in comments below. But that's a bullsh*t, easy way out for everyone, including the President ~ gilding the poop lily so everyone saves face. What happens when the next Muslim finds God on a different path or decides she/he's a secular being', but no one hears he's been arrested? What happens to that guy? (If it's a woman, I'm sure she'll be hustled off and hung with little fanfare from her American feminist sisters in arms.)

God, they make me SICK. You can call the Afghan embassy, but I think the White House and all those cushie tushies up there need to be flooded with pissed off emails and calls before anyone else. They TOLD the Afghan people they were FREE from the Taliban, from the horrors of Sharia. Just because Karzai is more visually appealing than Mullah Omar doesn't mean he gets a pass.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:26 AM

March 21, 2006

What Would Hillary and Babs and Susan Say

...to this twelve year old?

"I didn't expect anyone would help me but God. I was really surprised that there were also nice people: the neighbor, the rickshaw driver, the police," she says. "I pray for those who helped release me."

Would they still try to tell her that we're the monsters?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:41 PM | Comments (10)

March 18, 2006

Far Be It From Us

...not to note his passing.

Tens of thousands of mourners packed a square in front of Belgrade's federal parliament Saturday to bid a final farewell to Slobodan Milosevic, who died while on U.N. trial for war crimes.

"Today we are bidding farewell to the best man among us," Milorad Vucelic, a senior official from Milosevic's Socialist party, told the crowd estimated by police at around 80,000, Reuters reported.


In memory of that murdering, heartless bastard we offer...an old favorite.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:58 AM | Comments (3)

March 14, 2006

It Was "Sickle Cell Trait Complications"

...like the torso found on the beach was a 'boating accident' in Jaws.

“I think he made a mistake.”

That’s what forensic pathologist Michael Baden said Tuesday morning about the Bay County medical examiner who performed the first autopsy on Martin Anderson, a 14-year-old boy who died after a confrontation with guards at a panhandle boot camp.

“He [Anderson] did not die of natural causes,” Baden said.


UPDATE: Since this might be largely unfamiliar to non-Florida types, MSNBC has more on the story and the report, plus the video of the beating. I can't stand to watch it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 AM

March 11, 2006

May They Rot in the Veriest Pits of Whatever They Call Hell

The f*ckers who did this. Who could do this. Who have been doing this.

An American who was among four Christian activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said.

And no, I'm not sorry I don't 'get them'. I want the Marines or the Army or a big fat Air Force bomb or, best of all, someone with an instrument guaranteed to cause terror, hideous pain, crying for your whore of a mother, forget the 72 virgins and a torturous death to get them.

Yeah.

That would be good.

Bingley update: Seems they tortured him before they shot him in the head:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American hostage Tom Fox -- who was kidnapped with three other Christian peace activists in November -- has been found shot in the head with his body showing signs of torture, Iraqi emergency police told CNN Saturday.

Because, of course, "Christian Peace Activists" have got all types of secret military knowledge.

Pop quiz: what word is missing from this article describing this act by the "Swords of Righteousness Brigade"?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:47 AM | Comments (5)

March 08, 2006

First: Why Does This Sound Like the Palestinians?

Secondly: Is anyone truly surprised? The place is a snake pit and we've let all the little viperous wrigglers loose.

The US State Department on Wednesday released a damning report on the state of human rights and the security situation in Iraq, describing a weak and corrupt government with little control over its own murderous security forces in the face of a powerful insurgency
.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:15 PM | Comments (7)

Between Taliban at Yale, the UNC Traffic Terrorist

...and now these A$$holes...

Two college students arrested Wednesday in a string of nine rural Alabama church arsons told authorities that the first fires were set as “a joke” and later blazes were intended as a diversion, federal agents said. A third college student was being sought in the serial arsons.

Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee Debusk Jr., both students at Birmingham-Southern College, appeared in federal court Wednesday and were ordered held on church arson charges pending a hearing Friday.

Authorities said they were seeking Matthew Lee Cloyd*, who reportedly is a student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.


...campus life seems to be seriously lacking moral direction.
*MSNBC is reporting they've arrested him.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:29 PM | Comments (1)

Oh?

"The car was bought without knowing who previously owned it," the seller said on the site.
Oh, right. And when you get done, I have this bridge...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:32 AM | Comments (3)

March 07, 2006

If the Leader's Comments Don't Represent the Movement

...then whose do?

A Nation of Islam official who serves on a state hate crimes commission said Tuesday it's ridiculous that she has been condemned for remarks made by the religious movement's leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad's comments were her first since four members of the Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes resigned last week rather than serve with her.

"For those who try to condemn me because of the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's remarks," she said on WVON-AM, "it's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous."

..."Please know I am not the victimizer here, OK, but instead I am the victim," she said. She refused to repudiate Farrakhan and recommended that people who disagree with him, speak with him.


-AP Photo/BRIAN KERSEY
I'm sorry, sweet cheeks, but plenty of Christians have called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell 'crackheads'. I was with you right up to where you didn't condemn his hatefulness. You don't belong in that chair if you can't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:59 PM | Comments (2)

March 02, 2006

You Know, I Did the Same Thing Once

...with a pound puppy.

Meg Ryan, who adopted a Chinese baby less than a year ago, has already changed the name of the tot. “I already had to change her name,” Ryan told Oprah Winfrey. “I thought she was Charlotte and she’s just not…she’s a Daisy.”

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:08 AM | Comments (4)

February 23, 2006

"Practice What You Preach"

What a lovely sentiment, but an impossible dream where Islam is concerned, I'm afraid. Very afraid.

PARIS (Reuters) - After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance toward their Christian minorities.

Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet, including one with a bomb in his turban. Most Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

After criticizing both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries...

..."If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.

Amen to that, Father.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:13 PM | Comments (1)

February 17, 2006

North Korean Cheerleaders

...scan the crowd with their eyes. Surreptitiously searching for signs of the supermarkets, free elections, electricity, hot running water and shelves full of Kim Chee rumored to be in the bourgeois renegade South of the Peninsula.

What they found got Fearress Reader all shook up
...because they came home and told. Vicious little minxes.
He'll teach them to frost his pom-poms! It's off to the Gulag Games, girls.
(The man's unhinged ~ Look at the North Korean propaganda released on his goat farm inspections alone. Yes ~ GOAT farms!)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:41 AM | Comments (2)

February 16, 2006

Speaking of Haiti

...that snake pit of corruption and death has a new President again. I hope the Haitian people finally have someone who works for them, but the reports don't bode well.

Earlier in the day, AP journalists saw thousands of ballots, some marked for Preval, deep in the dump along with a vote tally sheet and four bags meant to carry returns from the election. Discovery of the ballots was initially reported by Haitian TV Tuesday night.

The discovery troubled U.N. officials because the bags were not supposed to be thrown out. “They’re supposed to be kept,” U.N. official Catherine Sung, an electoral adviser who works at the main vote tabulation center, told the AP.

Shown photographs of the signed bags, Sung said they were meant to contain annulled and blank votes. The journalists also saw a green tally sheet of votes, but U.N. officials said that was not important because it was a copy of the original given to political party representatives.

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said Tuesday night after the TV news images of the dumped ballots were shown that someone may have dumped the ransacked ballots to create an appearance of fraud.

When told by the AP Wednesday morning of the discovery of the bags and of a tally sheet at the site, he said: “That’s extraordinary.” U.N. police were dispatched to retrieve what they could.


Where's Jimmay Carter?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (2)

February 15, 2006

The Student Senate at the University of Washington

Student senator Jill Edwards, according to minutes of the student government's meeting last week, said she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce."
...SUCKS. That would not be just any Marine she's referring to, but a wild eyed Navy Cross AND Medal of Honor winner, who also spent 20 months as a Japanese prisoner of war. When I met him, he was a cranky old drunk who could still tell stories like nobody's business. But it wouldn't have mattered if he was a deaf mute, because you were just stunned speechless to be in his presence. And when word would get out that he was at the squadron next door (He spent a lot of time dropping in on them in the early 80's ~ old Marine Corps pilots always come back if they can.), there was a mad scramble out the hangar doors to get a glimpse, damn ~ maybe even have a chance to wave at him as he left. And we envied the hell out of those lucky sonsa bitches. They had a legend who came callin' ~ their very own Marine Corps warrior god. How cool was THAT?

VMA-214 had A-4's then, but they were still Pappy's outfit, still "The Black Sheep". And that's the Marine Miss Edwards is referring to in her objection ~ Pappy Boyington.


A warm Swill Salute Michelle Malkin and our bud, the Florida Cracker.

UPDATE: A Swilling Public Safety Announcement , occasioned by comments on The Jawa Report.

To stoopid, overindulged little college girls,

In this day and age, should you choose to stand forth at a public meeting, spout utter and complete nonsense causing pain and outrage to a fair sampling of the Blogosphere, at least have the grain of common sense to remove all your personal information from your LiveJournal site prior to your opening that blackhole of an orifice. When people snoop for info about the author of such inflammatory rhetoric ~ is she a radical genius, a deep thinker, another Beat Generation poet ~ they find your telephone number and address (besides exposing how vacuous your cranial cavity truly is). That is hugely dangerous in any case, you pretentious twit. What if it had been the Fat Sucker from the X-Files looking for you instead of middle aged, conservative bloggers?! So quit with the narcissistic, braindead LiveJournal entries ~ no one could give a rat's a$$ except other Valley Girls ~ and shut the flock up, already.

T.H. Sister

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 PM | Comments (7)

February 14, 2006

Another "Twixt Them and Us" Quiz

And if the uproar over the Danish cartoons were not bad enough, the chasm between the West and the Muslim world is only likely to take a turn for the worse with the emergence of new video footage showing British troops abusing Iraqi youths.
Britain is tracking down the video miscreants with billy clubs as I write this. Anyone Muslim found ANY of the video murderers with swords yet?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:31 AM

BUM Hunting?

These little bastards need to go away for a very, very long time.

Roberts begged for his life before one of the teens, Christopher Scamahorn, 14, drove a nail into his head with a wooden plank, according to the legal documents.

And how does something so predatory ~ so heinous ~ rate only second-degree murder charges? Because the guy was homeless, didn't have a family and a house in the burbs?
UPDATE: As if by magic, a name appears in the AP headlines, right after I post it in the comments.
Lawyer Wants Lionel Tate Conviction Tossed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A lawyer for convicted child killer Lionel Tate wants the original murder indictment against his client dismissed, saying the law allowing children to be tried as adults is unconstitutional.

A motion to dismiss the indictment, filed by attorney Ellis Rubin, says the authority of prosecutors to "instantly transform this child into an adult" is contradicted by state and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:05 AM | Comments (16)

Amazing How Little Things Have Changed

With few exceptions, the states [in the Muslim world] are marked by poverty, ignorance, and stagnation. It is full of discontent and frustration, yet alive with consciousness of its inferiority and with determination to achieve some kind of betterment.

Two basic urges meet head-on in this area, and conflict is inherent in this collision of interests. These urges reveal themselves in the daily news accounts of killings and terrorism, of pressure groups in opposition, and of raw nationalism and naked expansionism masquerading as diplomatic maneuvers.


...in 60 years.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:46 AM | Comments (1)

February 13, 2006

Major Dad Asked This Very Question

...in the comments yesterday.

Uproar in the Islamic world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has prompted many in the Middle East to ask why Muslims have rarely mobilized to address other pressing issues such as democracy and human rights.

..."Don't you think that injustice, torture, illiteracy and the restrictions on freedoms (in the Muslim world) are also considered an insult to the Prophet...who called for the respect for human rights?"


No answers were forthcoming then or now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:39 PM

Really?

Analysis: Targeted killings often work
Because it means schmaybe the bad guy brains of the operation are dead? It is hard to plan stuff in that condition...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:07 AM

That Took Some Guts

2 knuckled headed fellows with all the best intentions in the world step off the curb into a sea of Muslim protestors demonstrating through the streets of Paris. They spoke not a word, made no aggressive gestures. They wore only the clothes on their backs and...one had a Danish flag with a simple 'Support Denmark', while the other had a placard that said 'Free Cartoonist' and held a faux-severed-hand-on-cardboard, a pen among the fingers. Fortunately, the French police rescued them from the religion of peace protestors. The video here, the story here. Bless their hearts.

A Swill Salute to The Gateway Pundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2006

Them and Us

-Haitham Mussawi / AFP

Rage or revenge? A cleric feeds the fires in Beirut

...For Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is dominated by members of the Alawite sect often seen as heretical by other Muslims, the cartoons are an ideal distraction. By allowing the Danish and Norwegian embassies to be attacked and ransacked in Damascus, he upped the level of global televised violence. A day later, members of a Muslim group with close ties to Syrian intelligence were among the Islamic flag-wavers attacking the Danish Embassy in Beirut, where Assad is still trying to prove that the only alternative to Syrian domination is sectarian chaos. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad exulted in cartoon-inspired hysteria, allowing protesters to try to storm the Danish Embassy, and endorsing a Tehran newspaper's competition for Holocaust caricatures. His now well-established policy is to confront the West, isolate his country, then wave the flag to consolidate his grip on power


What a hideous but perfect photo ~ he might well be standing in front of the World Trade Center. Let there be no groveling for forgiveness from these people. Apologising for cartoons is tantamount to apologising for our way of life. I'm not prepared to do that.

UPDATE: Great op-ed piece from Emran Qureshi in the NYT.

...Muslim societies have paid a dear price for the militants in their midst. Many of the best and brightest within the Muslim world have had to flee to the West to avoid being silenced or killed. Fazlur Rahman, a brilliant and deeply religious Pakistani scholar of Islam, had to flee his native land for the University of Chicago. Similarly, the Islamic studies scholar Nasr Abu Zayd fled Egyptian Islamists for the Netherlands. Naguib Mahfouz, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was stabbed in the neck in Cairo and barely survived; the Egyptian writer Faraj Foda was not so lucky.

In some Western Muslim quarters, the proposed solution is more censorship — that these cartoons and similar expressions should be banned as hate speech. By that logic, shouldn't Salafist diatribes against Shiites also be banned? Shouldn't the writings of Maulana Abul Ala Maududi and his Jamaat-e-Islami, which were instrumental in persecuting the Ahmadis, a Muslim minority in Pakistan, be banned as well? Maududi's religious writings, best sellers among Muslims in the West, are suffused with an intolerant and anti-Western hue.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (16)

February 10, 2006

Got Whale?

Stick to sushi, for God's sake.

Japan's demand for whale meat declining

TOKYO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Whale meat, a cheap source of protein that helped Japan ward off malnutrition after World War II, has dropped in popularity.

Commercial freezers that store whale meat in Japan have 2,700 tons of uneaten stock, while whale burgers and whale spaghetti bologna are being served in school lunch cafeterias, distributed to old people's homes and some whale meat is ending up in pet food, the Times of London reported Friday.

Despite the lack of demand, the Japanese whaling ships say they hope to bring in a haul of almost 1,000 minke whales, a 40 percent increase from last year, when they return this spring.

The Japanese government, which has endured international condemnation for its whale fishing, has begun a campaign to promote the gastronomic delights of the "scrumptious whale."

Japanese officials have argued that it allows killing whales for scientific, not cultural or commercial, reasons.


How many things are morally wrong in this article. The first would be a government promoting commercial sale of a meat it supposedly only harvests for 'scientific reasons'. Bullsh$t! It's no fluke ~ they do it on porpoise and it's enough to make a grown man blubber like a baby.

Bastards.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:15 PM | Comments (10)

You Know

...I really don't get this whole thing. And that's a damn sorry Yahoo headline, holy day or not.

Iraqi Shi'ite mourn free of violence

Major Dad sent me the picture in the extended section. For the life of me, I can't remember the last time blood was shed on St. George's Day (probably when the dragon died) or any of the martyrs' days. The Swiss report I linked to said Ahsoura gatherings have been big suicide bombing targets, so it looks like they kill each other coming and going. If the stampede doesn't get you or you don't go a little crazy slicing yourself up with a knife, the a$$hole with the backpack will pick up the slack. They've got bigger problems than cartoons.

Yahoo here.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 PM | Comments (2)

February 09, 2006

The Religion of Peace With Their Version of Kumbayah

Anna one, anna two...

“Defending the prophet should continue worldwide,” Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, told the crowd. “Let (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, (President) Bush and all the tyrants shut up: We are a nation that can’t forgive, be silent or ease up when they insult our prophet and our sacred values.”

“Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration but let George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to ... we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices,” Nasrallah added.


Sing ...sing a song
A refrain
With human bombs.
Infidels burn, you are glad!
From Beirut to Baghdad.

Sing, sing a song.
Keep it simple
So street mobs go along.
Don't worry when you kill some of your own.
Who cares anyway? 'Cause
The Koran says it's "Okay!"

Big Mo's never wrong,
So make the world sing along.
Danes must say 'you da man'!
It's all in the Koran.

You call Jihad.
Twist religion to force
Others to your God.
No one will ever speak another word
That you don't want to hear.

Your power's in their fear.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:05 AM | Comments (2)

February 06, 2006

An Interesting Twist to the Hamas Victory

We've been myopic to an extent, focusing on how Hamas would begin to deal with Israel and the world at large. It appears others are concerned about that, too.

Israeli security officials told Haaretz that the Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah headquarters in Damascus and Beirut were streaming large sums of money into the territories to spur on terror cells to carry out attacks. The sources said they believed the most extreme Islamic groups were behind the attacks, in order to stymie efforts by Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, whose victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections would make it harder for it to support further attacks, to reach an indirect agreement with Israel regarding a long-term cease-fire.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)

Just an Observation

A moment of reflection. When I hear Muslim, Islam, Allah, ad nauseum, this...

...is all I see. It's THE first image that springs to mind.

I have a sneaking suspicion that's pretty much true for the vast majority of the Western World. And until they join this century ~ the here and NOW ~ and change the mental image we all have firmly implanted thanks to their infantile, emotional, destructive, hateful...damn.

There aren't enough epithets to describe their putridity. They aren't a religion, they're a mob.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 AM | Comments (6)

February 05, 2006

Quote of the Day

And as a Canadian, I just can't believe the Danish would treat their fellow citizens this way.
-a Canadian blogger on the current Cartoon Madness.

It's a shame he couldn't ask Theo Van Gogh for his opinion concerning those same 'fellow citizens'.

UPDATE:MARTIN WALKER

...The editor said he was sorry if he had unwittingly caused offense, but he reckoned that by the principles of a free press, he had a right to print them.

So he does, and there is a fine and politically useful tradition of caricature and satire and puncturing of all sacred cows that makes up part of the discourse of free democracies.

If Muslims who choose to live in Denmark or another European country where this tradition is valued and understood do not like it, then they are perfectly free to leave for more devout and authoritarian shores. They are also free to write letters of protest to the editor, march in protest around his newspaper, boycott the paper and its advertisers and adopt all the other forms of expressing strong, principled and peaceful dissent that are also intrinsic to democratic societies.

Muslims abroad are also entitled to express their views, although wild threats to kidnap European diplomats and the armed takeover of the European Union offices in Gaza Thursday are foolish and self-defeating. Those EU offices have disbursed over $3 billions to the Palestinians, and are one of the few life-support systems that Palestine has. If a poll were taken among Europeans today, there would probably be a considerable majority for leaving the empty offices to the gunmen and keeping the money for deserving causes in Europe.


Would that we could sit back and watch them implode.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:26 PM | Comments (3)

Security is in the Eye of the Beholder

I'd ask the question "HOW ?" but I'm sure the answer is obvious.

USS Cole Bombing Mastermind Escapes Prison

LYON, France — A man considered a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in a Yemeni port in 2000 was among 23 people who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said Sunday.

The international police agency issued an "urgent global security alert" for those who escaped Friday from the prison via a tunnel. It called the escapees "dangerous individuals."


Good to have friends in low places.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM

Islamic Demonstrators Take It a Step Further

...than just melting Danish cheese. Fox News is reporting they've shot and killed a priest in Turkey. (Instapundit has posted a line confirming what I heard.). From UPI's International Editor:

"You cannot have a free media and expect to control it," said Riz Khan, one of al-Jazeera's new stars who comes to the Arabic channel from CNN.
...At a time when many in the West argue that Islam is a "violent religion" Muslim leaders should have called for a more appropriate -- and peaceful -- response. Instead, the violent reaction from Gaza to Damascus is only going to strengthen Islamophobes and raise the level of Islamophobia.

And from a Newsweek interview with Flemming Rose, the Jyllands-Posten editor
...When I go to a mosque, I behave by the rules that exist in that holy house. I will not stand up and make a cartoon of the holy prophet in a mosque. But I think if any religion insists that I, as a non-Muslim, should submit to their taboos, then I don't think they're showing me respect. I think they're asking for my submission. This is a key issue in this debate.

...NewsweekWill Jyllands-Posten apologize?
For what?


Precisely.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:05 AM | Comments (2)

February 03, 2006

I Want a Jihad and I Want It NOW

Because ~ unless I'm mistaken and I hardly ever am ~

This is an Arabic cartoon of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ with Saddam Hussein's Face.


Where was the State Department then, with their...
"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims CHRISTIANS,"

...line of bullshit. Two words. They WEREN'T. They were MIA ~ Missed in A$$kissing.

One of the happy little Danish clerics was on World News Tonight last night "I demand that the Dutch government prove it's liberalism by banning these offensive cartoons." Huh? I wish I was a stenographer ~ I would have had the whole thing for you. It was just another joke until I saw Bingley's post. I'm so, like, "Fatwah THIS, pal" with these people.

Swill Salute to a Little Green Footballs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:30 PM | Comments (5)

Hmmmm...

5 Ala. churches hit by fires; arson suspected
Churches had both black and white congregations

CENTREVILLE, Ala. - Fires destroyed three rural Alabama churches and damaged two others in a string of suspected arsons overnight.

The fires were set “as fast as they could drive from one location to the next,” Bibb County Chief Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Weems said of the cluster of blazes, all near U.S. 82 and Highway 139.


No clues yet.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)

January 30, 2006

Airway Robbery

Ben Stein, in yesterday's NYT.

So here it is in a nutshell: employees are goaded into investing a big chunk of their wages and benefits in UAL stock. They lose that. Then they lose big parts of their pay and pensions. They become peons of UAL. Management gets $480 million, more or less. "Creative destruction?" Or looting?

Wait, Mr. Tilton and Mr. Bankruptcy Judge. The employees were the owners of UAL. They were the trustors, and Mr. Tilton and his pals were trustees for them. How were the trustors wiped out while the trustees, the fiduciaries, became fantastically rich? Is this the way capitalism is supposed to work? Trustors save up, and their agents just take their savings away from them?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:38 AM | Comments (1)

January 27, 2006

Nothing Like Hitting the New Ground

...running.

Eight New Orleans gang members who came to Houston after Hurricane Katrina were arrested in connection with 11 recent killings and other violent crimes, police said Friday.

Crime in the Houston area spiked in the last few months of 2005, and police have attributed some of that to Katrina refugees.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:48 PM

January 26, 2006

WANTED: World Renowned VooDoo Queen ~ Deceased a Plus

...to guard the gate at St. Michael's downtown. To make sure THIS doesn't happen ever again.

Archaeologists and crime scene analysts scoured the grounds of historic St. Michael's Cemetery on Wednesday trying to determine the extent of damage to at least 27 grave sites that are the final resting place for 45 bodies.

Assistant Pensacola Police Chief Chip Simmons said the investigation is ongoing, and fingerprints were taken from various damaged sites.

"It appears they made a genuine attempt to enter caskets or tombs for whatever reason,'' he said.


It's not for nothin' that Marie Laveau is buried in St. Louis No. 1. We need someone to keep watch at night here, to lay a hoodoo voodoo good juju triple witchin' whammy on these midnight marauders.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM | Comments (1)

Oh Ick

Registered sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III is apparently blogging again, this time from a jail cell

...The messages are mostly religious in nature, and do not address the charges that Duncan killed three people outside Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, last year so he could kidnap two small children for sex.

The FBI wants him to keep talking.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 AM

January 20, 2006

I'm Sorry, Dad

"In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest,"
...but no. It's not.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:22 AM | Comments (9)

January 19, 2006

Whatever It Is Chimpy's Been Doing All Wrong?

Now's NOT the time to consider a change in direction.

Bin Laden Warns of Attacks, Offers Truce

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:38 AM | Comments (2)

January 17, 2006

Remembering

...is half the battle.

Family and friends of deposed Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang gathered Tuesday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his death, as authorities kept a close watch on dissidents seeking to further his legacy of political openness.

Visitors streamed into Zhao's Beijing home, where he spent the last 15 years under house arrest after being purged from his position for sympathizing with pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

...According to Hu, a friend visiting Zhao's home saw up to five busloads of people being taken away for questioning.


I think the Hollywood-types forget there are far scarier places in the world to live.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:18 PM | Comments (2)

January 16, 2006

There Are No Words

The West Virginia mining disaster (A Swill Salute to Florida Cracker) has something to do with homosexuals burning in Hell. In my limited imaginative capacity, I really have a problem making a connection. Perhaps you do, too. (God, I hope so.)

So we're all clear on the dogma behind this hatefulness: this is what Jesus would do...how? I thought we were taught he loves us all? I musta read a different book. But I know for a fact I had better manners than that drilled into me, regardless of religious leanings.

Just because you're doing something in the name of the Lord doesn't make it "Christian". Or "right". Sometimes it just makes you an ignorant a$$hole.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 PM | Comments (7)

January 12, 2006

Channeling Tookie Williams

This didn't go too well for his legions of supporters. Glad Governor Warner pushed the doing tests, though.

DNA tests confirm executed man's guilt

Va. man went to his death in 1992 proclaiming his innocence in murder

They used the word "stunned" in the NPR report.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:17 PM | Comments (2)

Another Mecca Stampede

Jeez. They do this every frickin' year. When are these people gonna learn to pass on the left?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM | Comments (6)

Oh, Like That makes a Big Difference

Defence lawyers had acknowledged this week that the tapes were genuine and that Mr Mohamed expected to be found guilty of people smuggling or other charges, but they denied he was a member of Ansar. "He feels himself committed to the 'Islamic holy war', but not to a particular organisation", defence lawyer Rolf Grabow said.
Let's see how long the Germans hang on to him. Their track record has been less than stellar in that department.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:41 AM

January 11, 2006

Pedagogical

Say THAT three times fast! or just read the article.

In the last few years, law school clinics have put the Berkeley, Calif., school system under judicial supervision for disciplining black and Hispanic students disproportionately to their population (yes, that's Berkeley, the most racially sensitive spot on earth); sued the New York City Police Department for its conduct during the 2004 Republican National Convention; fought "gentrification" (read: economic revitalization) in urban "neighborhoods of color"; sued the Bush administration for virtually every aspect of its conduct of the war on terror; and lobbied for more restrictive "tobacco control" laws. Over their history, clinics can claim credit for making New Jersey pay for abortions for the poor; blocking job-providing industrial facilities; setting up needle exchanges for drug addicts in residential neighborhoods; and preventing New Jersey libraries from ejecting foul-smelling vagrants who are disturbing library users.

Fortunately, Bingley's not there very often anymore. We try to catch him on his way out the door.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:59 AM | Comments (1)

January 10, 2006

Vigilantes Are Scary People

...whatever color they come in. I don't give a rat's patootie what you think your God says. If the fella has valid liquor and business licenses (Hell, even if he DOESN'T ~ that's what cops are for. Call them or the city.), your thugs have no business destroying his wares.

They weren't your ordinary thugs. Dressed in bow ties and dark suits, nearly a dozen men carrying metal pipes entered a corner store, shattered refrigerator cases and smashed bottles of liquor, wine and beer, terrifying the clerk but stealing nothing.

The just wanted to leave a message: Stop selling alcohol to fellow Muslims. In urban America, friction between poor residents and immigrant store owners is nothing new. Nor are complaints that inner-city neighborhoods are glutted with markets that sell alcohol and contribute to violent crime, vagrancy and other social ills.

But the recent attack at San Pablo Liquor - and an identical vandalism spree at another West Oakland store later that evening, along with an arson fire there and the kidnapping of the owner a few days later - have injected religion into the debate.


They just wanted to "leave a MESSAGE?" What kind of B$ is THAT? How 'bout picketing his store with placards bearing said 'message', for starters, if you feel that strongly. And since when is destroying someone's personal property and, in many cases, destroying his version of the American dream "leaving a message"? They'd be the first ones screaming if some NeoNazi hate group left their calling cards on a lawn in West Oakland, but I guess terrorizing the immigrant minority is justifiably different.

NOT. How DARE they!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:26 AM | Comments (9)

January 06, 2006

Put A Lid On It

"Fountain" is estimated at $3.6 million.
It's a urinal. That a guy with a hammer chipped. And I bet he gets more jail time than any of those happy little incendiary car buffs in the Paris suburbs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:00 AM | Comments (5)

January 03, 2006

Bless Her Brave Young Heart

"They are not the power. I am the power. I have the will."
A gorgeous young Iranian woman on World News Tonight. Bob Woodruff asked her what she could do, when the old men running the country have the power. She spoke right out.

I'm afraid for her.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:05 PM

December 28, 2005

I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

It was so WRONG and hideously tragic that my teeth gnash every time I think of the Germans letting that murderer go. But (Holy crap, Batman!) THIS is too deliciously hilarious for words.

THE German Government angrily rebuked a former hostage yesterday who is determined to return to Iraq despite being held captive for three weeks by a Sunni gang.

Susanne Osthoff, a 43-year-old archaeologist, announced this week on al-Jazeera television that she would go back to her work in northern Iraq, trying to set up a German cultural centre in Arbil.

Angela Merkel’s new Government, which regards the freeing of Frau Osthoff this month as its first foreign policy triumph, is furious. It made huge efforts to secure her release and is widely believed to have paid a ransom.


It gets better...
Frau Osthoff was unharmed and, according to security sources quoted in Der Spiegel, the sharp-tongued archaeologist made full use of her Arabic fluency to reprimand the kidnappers. It appears they were relieved to see her go.

Sometimes, life's a bitch, Ms. Merkel.

Literally.

A Swill Salute to Captain Ed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:45 PM

December 27, 2005

Well, When They Actually Pay People

...the $57+ billion they say they're out, then I'll cry a river of crocodile tears for them. So far, in our Gulf neck of the woods, that premium you pay every month is more about the privilege of getting another insurance invoice in the mail next month, rather than for protecting your assets.

Hurricane insurance losses $57.6 bln: Advisen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Advisen Ltd. on Tuesday estimated worldwide insurance and reinsurance losses related to the three major hurricanes that hit the United States this year would amount to $57.6 billion, making the cumulative catastrophe losses the largest on record.

One spiff little trick I've learned they're pulling; Say you've got Casa de Bingster insured for $250K. That's the dollar amount you pay for every single month AND what they've agreed replacing your house would cost. We're all square. Then along comes Gertrude and wipes Casa de Bingster to a slab. No worries, as we've got $250K to rebuild with, right? Not exactly, says the adjuster. We're holding back a portion of that insured value when we write you the check because, as you can clearly see since it's gone, it's no longer WORTH the $250K you've been paying for.

Slab + missing house = depreciation, duh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:28 PM | Comments (1)

December 23, 2005

Some People's Names Just Keep Turning Up

...like bad pennies. Geesh.

ROME - A U.S. soldier is being investigated for his alleged role in the March killing in Baghdad of an Italian secret service agent, who had just secured the release of a journalist held hostage, a prosecutor and news reports said Thursday.

Rome prosecutors are investigating the March 4 death of Nicola Calipari, who was killed by U.S. gunfire near a checkpoint as he headed to the Baghdad airport with Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was held hostage by militants for a month.

...According to Apcom, prosecutors also are considering attempted murder charges concerning the other two people in the car: Sgrena and a second secret service agent, who was driving. Both were wounded.


Enough already.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:40 AM | Comments (2)

December 20, 2005

Do I Hear Kenny Loggins?

Ahmadinejad's ban required the "blocking of indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting," according to a statement on the Web site hard-line Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council. The council's members are hand-picked by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to rule on cultural issues.

The ban also includes censorship of content of films.

"Supervision of content from films, TV series and their voice-overs is emphasized in order to support spiritual cinema and to eliminate triteness and violence," the council said on its Web site.

Ahmadinejad's latest order means the state broadcasting authority must execute the decree and prepare a report on its implementation within six months, according to the government-owned IRAN daily newspaper.


But it doesn't sound like the folks're falling for the hard line this go-round ~ and the Revolutionary Council could have...well...a revolt on their hands. And it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
"This president speaks as if he is living in the Stone Age. This man has to understand that he can't tell the people what to listen to and what not to listen to," said Mohammed Reza Hosseinpour as he browsed through a Tehran music shop.

Yeah. What Mohammed says.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 AM | Comments (7)

December 13, 2005

A Big Red "X"

...on the Red Cross. What a surprise.

"Their ability to raise money outpaces their ability to spend it wisely."

God bless (and I take nothing from) their volunteers, but I can't stand these arrogant a$$holes. Ever since they shook Marines out of the barracks to go sandbag multi-million dollar homes in Newport Beach at zero dark thirty one morning. And then charged the soaking wet, freezing kids for their cup of coffee.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:37 PM | Comments (1)

Quote of the Day

"It makes no sense to execute the author of children's books."
A Tookie supporter, on World News Tonight.


UPDATE and BUMP: Florida Cracker has a link to Governor's Clemency Statement that you must read.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 AM | Comments (72)

A Timely Article

...considering our discussion. This was front page news in the local fish wrap this morning.

Man released after judge rules rights were violated
Prosecutors to appeal testimony's suppression in slaying

Sounds like the typical judicial outrage, right? It was until I read it. The murder was in 1997. He was arrested for it in 2000 and has been held without bond ever since ~ 5 1/2 years. The judge let him out, with a monitoring device, because the sheriff's department had used another inmate to solicit information (as opposed to that inmate coming to them). So? Well it turns out, after all these years, that the jailhouse testimony is the only thing they've got.
"In the absence of physical evidence ... the state understands its burden (of proof) and feels that this evidence that Mr. Groves has is absolutely essential in putting this case forward," Molchan said.

Now, there's no mention that this is a capital case, but it could have have been in other circumstances and something similar probably has been in some other state, some other time.

No physical evidence. And a criminal's solicited/rewarded testimony is the whole prosecutorial enchilda.

UPDATE: As for the Corey Maye I keep citing, Balko, the Legal Wonder Dog, is all over a death penalty case that could be any of us. Read his posts. They'll blow your mind. And drop him a note of encouragement ~ I did.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:47 AM

December 08, 2005

Doncha Feel Safer Now?

Officials say a 50-year-old Egyptian man was stopped six days ago at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. Sources say he had a suspicious pair of shoes that tested positive five times for the explosive substance TATP on the interior of his shoes between the heel and sole.

There's a 'BUT' (head) attached to this one...

...Strangely, after holding him overnight, airport security in New York released him. The FBI was notified after he was released. Now the FBI has put out a nationwide alert.

Great to all be singing off the same sheet of music.
The man shot dead in Miami appears to have been deranged, but the missing Egyptian may help explain why air marshals acted as they did.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:52 AM | Comments (7)

December 07, 2005

Amazing How Threats Come Into Play

...right after the race card.

Huffman said she had "heard through the vine" that warring Crips and Bloods gangs have offered a permanent truce if it would save Williams.

"The flip side of that, if we don't save Stanley, is fearful," Huffman said.


Oh, you're a big help making his case, Ms. Huffman. STFU, already.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:42 AM | Comments (3)

December 02, 2005

They Damned Well Better Had

...as far as America's concerned. Of course, as Bingley pointed out, Europe would prefer to write a stern letter.

Five months after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election as president of Iran, some leading figures in Tehran's "mullahcracy" who backed him as a candidate are desperately trying to rein him in.

Sucks when your machinations bite you in the ayatollah a$$ahollah, doesn't it?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:34 PM | Comments (10)

December 01, 2005

They Might Be "Stars"

...but how bright is in question. Continuing the "Monsters" theme from earlier...

Stars rally around Stanley Tookie Williams

I was reminded of a favorite scene on convenient repentence vs retribution by Sharon's post.

Montoya: "Give me everything I ask for!"

The Six Fingered Count: "Yes! Yes! Anything you want!"

Montoya: "I want my father back, you son of a bitch!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:13 PM | Comments (10)

Levee Etouffee

I want this job. I heard there were gonna be openings.

When engineers and Orleans Levee Board officials gather twice a year to tour the city's floodwalls, records show that the inspection requires less planning than the day's final event: lunch

...In advance of the meals, Chief Engineer Stevan Spencer, the board's top flood protection administrator, has personally tended to menu selection and travel arrangements for Levee Board commissioners and other guests, records from 2003 and 2004 show. And when it comes time to settling the check, Spencer has made it his job to seek reimbursement from the Levee Board and hand-deliver payments to restaurants.

Agency records show that attendance during the past two years has ranged as high as 56 people with lunch bills ranging from $682 to $973. At the October 2003 luncheon, 32 of the 39 guests chose the prime rib, at $18.50 a pop

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:02 PM | Comments (8)

Monsters Among Us

Remember the Law and Order episode? Real life is creepier...and far more evil. And now she's on the streets again.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:35 AM | Comments (7)

November 29, 2005

Breaking News

Those little camcorder, slap happy bastards have released a video of the kidnapped peace activists/aid workers.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:22 PM

Banning Piglet Can't Save You

Iraq Bus Attack Kills Two British Muslims
Gunmen ambushed a bus Monday carrying British Muslims to Shiite shrines, killing two Britons and wounding three.
These vermin need eradication. I say we lift off and nuke the site from orbit.
It's the only way to be sure.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:40 AM | Comments (2)

November 28, 2005

While Ramsay Clark Was Explaining Why He Was There

...an Iraqi court official asked the important question.

"Where was Ramsay Clark when Saddam Hussein was killing the Iraqi people?"

I'd be curious to hear Mr. Clark's answer.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:21 PM

What If You Had a Meeting

...and nobody came?

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - The European Union hopes to finalize an anti-terrorism code of conduct with its mostly Muslim southern neighbours, at the end of a summit clouded by the absence of most Arab leaders.

However there was deep discord over the definition of terrorism, and the tensions simmering under the surface at the two-day gathering were reflected when an Algerian minister lashed out at European demands for reform in exchange for more money at the meeting in Barcelona.

"We find it humiliating that the Europeans demand reforms from us in exchange for a few euros," said Abdelaziz Belkhadem shortly after the Euromed summit opened.


If your unsuccessful form of extortion is too embarassing, how 'bout you do it because it's the right thing to do? Be a hero. Pffft. They have no intention of changing a bloody thing and the EU perpetuates this whole mess by offering the bribe before the demands. As far as the discord over an EU "definition of terrorism", more on that here.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:19 AM

November 21, 2005

The "Big Lie"

I'm so sick of the bunch of them. Michael Barone lays it out.

To the charges that Bush "cherry-picked" intelligence, the commission co-chaired by former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb found that the intelligence available to Bush but not to Congress was even more alarming than the intelligence Congress had.

Which is a scary, scary thought, as NOTHING's more alarming than the lack of intelligence in Congress. When I watch Teddy, or Babs, or Maxine Waters, or Nita Lowery (insert Dem. clone of choice here) grandstanding, I turn into that old Larsen cartoon about "What Dogs Hear". You know the one ~ the man is saying "Bad dog, Bad dog!", but all the dog is hearing is "blah blah blah". Color me canine.
UPDATE: Salman Rusdie is on our side? Wow. And this very nice Canadian, apparently. (Who has also noted our national penchant for navel gazing.)
For some unaccountable reason, Americans sometimes respond to being abused and slandered all over the world by turning in on themselves. And this, in the present unsettled state of the world in question, would be nearly the worst thing that could happen. It would leave all of America's allies -- corresponding very roughly to the side of the angels -- up a certain creek without a propulsive device.

The world has left the United States to do too much heavy lifting. It is an urgent matter for countries like Canada to stop mouthing off and heave ho.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (4)

The Pension Razzle Dazzle

Bill Fleckenstein on why oil's not the outrage.

First off, a rant on the lunacy surrounding the fact that oil companies are making money.

The weather vanes in the Senate have held hearings about oil-company price manipulation. There has also been plenty of incoherent chatter about price gouging, much of it coming from TV talking heads who ought to know better.

...If the Senate and TV commentators want to be outraged, why not look into the real abuses occurring in the somewhat obscure pension-accounting arena? It essentially impacts only a few dozen large corporations, but it affects hundreds of thousands of lives.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:09 AM

November 19, 2005

Gettin' It Done the Old Fashioned Way

Though the American media is slow to report it, U.S. forces are relentlessly destroying Zarqawi’s senior leadership.
A fascinating, encouraging read.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (5)

November 18, 2005

Sounds Like Victor Hugo Wrote This

In France, as elsewhere, these places were built as oases of green, Le Corbusier's famous streets in the sky, the diametric opposite of the tight lanes and lightless slums from whence the working class emerged blinking into the light of social policy.
Sheer poetry. Excellent piece on France and Britain's 'isolated blocks'. As well as a whiff of what stinks in France. One name repeated through decades might explain why it took him twelve days to notice the country going up in flames.
Officially Paris, too, boasts social housing in its centre, much of it in wonderful Beaux Arts buildings. But it is almost exclusively occupied by the friends and mistresses of ministers and mayors, as was so shockingly revealed in the Elf corruption scandals recently and other "affaires" during the time President Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris.
Le grande frommage is rotten to the curds and whey.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:01 PM

November 17, 2005

WARNING: Not For the Fair or Faint of Heart

Not the pictures (I couldn't watch; let's just say 'contains stills from Al-Qaida videos'. Bastards.). Certainly not the message (General Patton channels R. Lee Ermy).

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:36 PM | Comments (5)

::GASP::

A Miami jury has ordered Ford Motor Company to pay more than $61 million (yes, you read that right) to the family of a 17 year old boy killed in a roll-over accident.

Ford was liable in the accident because it sold a vehicle with poor handling and stability, the jury said Tuesday

The title I used for this post? The horrified reaction was NOT engendered by the award amount, but by the determination of liability. "Poor handling and stability" is a common result REGARDLESS of the vehicle...
...when his friend feel asleep while driving an Explorer.

The vehicle manufacturer is responsible because the SUV won't drive itself if you're asleep? I know, I know: "cruise control".

This STUFF is outta control.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:31 AM | Comments (1)

November 16, 2005

You Can Try to Pry My FishStick From My Cold, Dead Fingers

...but you jack with my middle-schooler and I might just resort to violence, you f*ckin' loons.

Animal rights group to protest fish-eaters at Brown-Barge Middle

...Immediately after school, at least two representatives of PETA's national office in Virginia will stand outside the school -- one wearing a fish costume -- hoping to pass out literature and "Fish Flakes" trading cards aimed at scaring children off fish.

The "Fish Flakes" cards show cartoon renditions of children who experience a whole range of traumas after eating fish.


Or a WHOPPER of a lawsuit for traumatizing my kid. Maybe we could ward them off with some Molotov-Salmon-Sodas? At the very least, some serious Fish Slapping is in order.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:49 AM | Comments (3)

November 11, 2005

They Can Keep the Nickname

But the Chief's gotta go.

The governing body, however, said Chief Illiniwek remains a “hostile and abusive” image of American Indians.


Personally, I think the guy's a stud.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:01 PM | Comments (1)

But You Can Give Me a Good Old Crucifix in Urine Anytime?

"We're walking around and people are looking at us suspiciously, asking 'Is this what Muslim women are like? Are they oppressed?' That directly offends us," said Sada Ahmed, Harper College student.

"The statement was that people or women wearing the hajad, or veil, are repressed. These women that are walking around campus don't feel that way. They feel liberated wearing the veil," said Ahmed Rehab, Council on American-Islamic Relations.


As opposed to being indirectly offended? What? I missed this when it happened. Maybe you did too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:09 PM | Comments (4)

Dear Governor Corzine

$60 MILLION to get any job is obscene. O.B.S.C.E.N.E. You need to talk to this kid:

18-year-old holds 2-vote lead in mayoral race
Sessions used $700 from a summer job to fund his race

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:51 AM | Comments (5)

November 10, 2005

The Religion of Peace and Love

"I'd say that's a little over the top. Is he God now?"
A Dover, PA resident about Pat Robertson's latest articulation of all the love in his heart. Now, send him $10 so he can keep the spirit flowing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:07 PM | Comments (4)

People Know a Poo* Sandwich

...when they see one.

"Any poll I do, the rest of Louisiana thinks, 'New Orleans is a deep, dark hole, and no matter how much money we send, it doesn't seem to get better.' "

*For Rob {8^P

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:52 AM | Comments (4)

November 09, 2005

BREAKING NEWS

Big bombs go off in a hotel in Amman Jordan.
The Grand Hyatt, the Radisson and the Day's Inn in near simultaneous attacks.
According to the expert on Fox right now, those hotels (esp. the Hyatt) are used for high ranking Israeli visitors, the int'l press, Iraqi diplomats and have been a target of al-Zarqawi's before. At least 12 dead so far.

UPDATE: Three explosions, one at each hotel. They're located in a geographic triangle and the explosions WERE simultaneous. AP saying the first bomb shattered the Grand Hyatt's stone entrance, Reuter's saying the Radisson blast caused by a bomb in a false ceiling.

UPDATE DEUX: Ah. King Abdullah is on his way to the U.S. for meetings. Jordanian news service Petra saying it was suicide bombers.
They(reporters) are saying that Jordan was the place you thought you could let your guard down.

4:30 CST round-up: Fox saying 53 dead, 2 suicide bombers (one who walked into a wedding/Radisson) and one car bomber who couldn't get past the security, so lit it off outside ("A third explosion was reported at the Days Inn Hotel. Muasher said a car packed with explosives approached the hotel but could not cross a protective barrier, so it detonated outside.). Reuters here. The borders are closed and one can assuredly assume there's one whale of a man-hunt in progress. AP latest here.
CONTINUED: MSNBC has the death toll at 57, with hundreds injured and a brief reminder that this is not the only attack lately...

Second attack in months
This is the second attack in Jordan in the last three months. Attackers fired three rockets at a U.S. assault ship docked at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba in August, missing the ship but killing a Jordanian soldier. It was the most serious attack on the U.S. Navy by militants since the USS Cole was bombed in 2000. Two Syrians and an Iraqi were captured during those attacks.

Fox correspondants in the area were also noting that once one went off the beaten path in Amman, it was common to have stones, etc. thrown at your taxi as it went by.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:34 PM | Comments (1)

Speaking of Harsh Language

...South Korea's newest generation says "thanks for the memories".

John and I have discussed the Japanese version of that particular sign at some length here, but, in their defense, the Japanese got their a$$es kicked and just have never gotten over it. Okay, understandable. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. On the otherhand, the only reason the South Koreans can wear Gucci while putting nasty signs up is because we saved their a$$es.
When Bingley's favorite Fearless Leader sends his famished hordes over the border, I hope they remember to take the signs down before they yelp for help.

A Swill Salute to onefreekorea (check out his contacts at the end of the post), via the always timely Gateway Pundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:19 AM | Comments (2)

Word of the Day

sang·froid / 'sän-'f(r)wä/ noun

: self-possession or imperturbability especially under strain

Example Sentence: Le Monde, the newspaper of France's political elite, accused the prime minister of sending a message of "staggering brutality" to the youth of the suburbs, who are for the most part children and grandchildren of African immigrants.

By invoking a law created in 1955 to put down unrest during the Algerian war of independence, Le Monde said, Mr de Villepin had "lost his sang-froid" and was sending the message that "France intends to treat them [the French-born children of immigrants] as it did their grandparents. The prime minister should remember that this spiral of incomprehension, of martial fever and powerlessness has driven the republic to its worst setbacks".

If curfews are "staggering brutality", what do they use when the "unrest" doesn't peter out? Harsh language?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:30 AM | Comments (4)

November 07, 2005

Channeling Governor Blameco

Whatever dope he's smoking, I hope to hell no one else gets ahold of any.

Dominique de Villepin, the beleaguered prime minister, announced that officials in riot-hit areas would be authorised to impose late-night curfews "wherever it is necessary" in a bid to halt the disturbances.

He rejected calls by a police union for troops to be sent in but said that 1,500 reservists were being called up and repeated an appeal to parents to keep adolescent rioters off the streets.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:50 PM | Comments (6)

Quote of the Day

"[W]e were inundated with hate mail. We were disparaged as 'immoral cowards; a nation of effeminate, improbitive [sic], whimpering, timorous poltroons.' And isn’t it racist to say 'I hope you enjoy Islam. I hope you do not expect to move to the U.S. when the Muslims run you out of your own country'?"
~the French Ambassador to the U.S., Jean-David Levitte

Dead to rights, but in June 2004.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM | Comments (2)

Alors Si Je Comprends Bien...

Ten days of your country under attack and you don't pipe up until the afternoon of the eleventh? Hell of a way to run a country, Monsewer President. Ce qui m'agace c'est que; for someone who's so quick to point out...

...how wrong everyone else is, maybe it's time you kept your mouth shut and took a look at the old homestead. Quit playing pique-a-boo with your citizens, and BE the leader you tell everyone else how to be.
UPDATE: Let's play "What's Wrong With This Headline?"

10 Officers Shot as Riots Worsen in French Cities

I'll go first. I think it should read "Officers Shot 10 Rioters".

UPDATE the UPDATE: Three Hundred towns ??!!

PARIS - Rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns overnight and a man hurt in the violence died of his wounds, the first fatality in 11 days of unrest that has shocked the country, police said Monday.

As urban unrest spread to neighboring Belgium and possibly Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm.

I love the 'continued calls for calm' bit. That might have worked before day three, but I'd be packing my bags about now. Looks like a worn, old joke of the Grinch's that holds sadly true to this day.
How many French troops does it take to defend Paris?

Don't know. No one's ever tried it.


"Calm", my derrière.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:11 AM | Comments (8)

November 05, 2005

Chicken Sh&ts and the Honor of Islam

Rebels Dressed as Women Attack Iraqi Police Station
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 5 - Insurgent attacks across central Iraq, including one in which the guerrillas disguised themselves as women, left at least 16 dead on Friday as Shiite Arabs across the country began celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In the deadliest assault, insurgents dressed in women's clothing attacked a police checkpoint in the town of Buhriz, 35 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least 6 police officers and wounding at least 10 others, American and Iraqi officials said. The guerrillas were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, and pulled up in five cars, an Interior Ministry official said. The police officers killed at least two of the gunmen, he added.


Pretty convenient, that "sense of moral superiority to everything around them, including women": you get to keep your women all swathed up in billowing cloth. Who the hell knows who's under those miles of bedsheets? Thank God for democracy and the equality of the sexes. They'd never get away with such bold, manly acts here. We'd see through it in a heartbeat.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:28 AM | Comments (8)

November 04, 2005

You Light Up My Life

...might be Paris' theme song at the moment, but there are pretty awful things afoot all over Europe that aren't getting any press time. And, coincidence of coincidence, they all have one thing in common. You got it. The religion of PEACE.

In June a Danish* newspaper, tired of artists censuring themselves for fear of Islamospastics, called for artists to send in charicatures of the prophet. Twelve brave souls sent in their offerings, which the paper then published. Reaction was swift, pretty predictable and typically Islamospastic-fervent.

'This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims,' Imam Raed Hlayhel wrote in a statement. 'Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world. We demand an apology!'


(Not that any democracy seems to work for these a$$holes, but that's another post.) That was over 5 months ago and things are still fired up. Literally en fuego.

From a City Journal piece, this observation rings ever so true, along with some frightening thoughts for Britain.

Even if for no other reason, then (and there are in fact other reasons), young Muslim males have a strong motive for maintaining an identity apart. And since people rarely like to admit low motives for their behavior, such as the wish to maintain a self-gratifying dominance, these young Muslims need a more elevated justification for their conduct toward women. They find it, of course, in a residual Islam: not the Islam of onerous duties, rituals, and prohibitions, which interferes so insistently in day-to-day life, but in an Islam of residual feeling, which allows them a sense of moral superiority to everything around them, including women, without in any way cramping their style.

...Surveys suggest that between 6 and 13 percent of British Muslims—that is, between 98,000 and 208,000 people—are sympathetic toward Islamic terrorists and their efforts. Theoretical sympathy expressed in a survey is not the same thing as active support or a wish to emulate the “martyrs” in person, of course. But it is nevertheless a sufficient proportion and absolute number of sympathizers to make suspicion and hostility toward Muslims by the rest of society not entirely irrational, though such suspicion and hostility could easily increase support for extremism. This is the tightrope that the British state and population will now have to walk for the foreseeable future; and the sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced, in a single day, by the nightmare of permanent conflict.


Paul Belien of the Brussels Journal noted that there are two reasons for the appeasement of politicians:
The first one is that the Muslim population in Western Europe has become so large that politicians fear what it might be capable of.

...while invoking that most French of disasters in the second...
A second reason why some politicians try to appease the Muslims is that these are now a substantial segment of the voting population. Demographics are deciding the fate of Europe’s democracy. Time is running out. If Sarkozy cannot win the battle today, it is unlikely that he or anyone else will be able to do so tomorrow. If Clichy turns out to be Sarkozy’s Waterloo, it will be a catastrophe not just for France.

I wish I could say my money was on the French...or the Dutch...Danish*...or anyone on the Continent. And I'm so worried for the Brits. As Piglet goes, so goes Picadilly? Or Poughkeepsie.

Perish the thought.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:11 PM | Comments (3)

Sucking Up Means Always Having to Say

...you're sorry. Even if there's a veiled threat involved.

LONDON -- A British judge apologized Thursday to a suspected Islamic militant ordered to appear in court for an extradition hearing on one of the Muslim calendar's holiest days.

..."For me it is not a problem," he(Haroon Rashid Aswat) told the judge. "I can understand it is about technical difficulties. But for these people doing these bombings in this country, they are very simpleminded - they take it as an insult."

(Judge) Workman apologized for the timing of the appearance, saying: "If I had known we would have picked a different day."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:07 PM | Comments (1)

November 01, 2005

Welcome to Our World

They are sick — and tired too — of playing second fiddle to New Orleans. Just like New Orleans, Port Arthur's schools are still closed, but East Texans here say they've been cheated of both help and sympathy.

“People are, frankly, sick of hearing about Katrina around here,” says Wayner Moore, the administrator of Christus Hospital-St. Mary. That, says Moore, is because there was suffering here too.


Has there been any storm before or after Katrina for the past year? I don't think so. On a lighter note, Major Dad sent me a CNN "your emails" link that seems lifted from our post-Wilma discussion the other day. The tenor of the emails chosen is amazing for an MSM column!
People who live in hurricane prone areas should learn to be self-sufficient. It is their responsibility to have at least 72 hours worth of food and water; they should fill their tubs, gas tanks and get as much cash as possible. This country was not built by people who depended on others to take care of them. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960's all of South Florida kept about a week's worth of food and water in their linen closets in case a bomb was dropped. The concept of self reliance is not new, just common sense. The government should not set expectations that they will be there any sooner than 72 hours. They actually did a great job in South Florida -- the people failed their government.
Edi Meadows, Weston, Florida

Gives one a tiny glimmer of hope, pas vrai?
UPDATE: Well...DUH. But the whole concept is racist and insensitive.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:58 AM | Comments (1)

October 31, 2005

And Speaking of the Dead and Undead

Chuckie the Clown
spirit channeled today.

Schumer...Will Alito use his seat like Rosa Parks did to change history for the better?...

Swill Salute to Michelle Malkin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:08 PM

October 28, 2005

Governor Blameco: "What To Do, What To Do?"

Bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina went uncollected for more than a week in the New Orleans area as the federal government waited for Louisiana's governor to decide what to do with them
Doesn't get much better, as Halloween stories go.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:03 PM | Comments (3)

“This isn’t representative of our department,”

Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm.
Well, acting superintendent Warren Riley, I've got a calculator that says "240 divided by 1450 comes out to...16.5% of your officers" hit the road or vaporized exactly when they were most desperately needed. Creeping up on 20% of your police force pulling chocks is pretty representative in my book.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:38 PM | Comments (2)

October 26, 2005

Why Does FEMA Have Lessons to Learn

...but the people in harm's way do not? ABC World News tonight had interviews with 'desperate' people on line for supplies in Miami. A young mother who needed milk for her baby. A quick mention that Jeb Bush had said folks in a storm's path had some responsibility to prepare, but then back to "so many elderly live in Florida and they can't..." An elderly lady whose insulin had no ice to keep it cool. A woman with a bad leg trapped on the 14th floor of her condo tower because the elevators were out. On and on.

HELLO, PEOPLE. You knew for DAYS this was heading right at you. "Desperate"?? When it's only been TWO DAYS? Why ARE you out of gas, when you know there is none, the power's out and they can't pump? Driving around visiting and checking storm damage, no doubt and NOW it's FEMA'S fault? Why DO YOU NOT have canned/boxed/powdered dry milk and bottles of water for your child ~ the child whose life YOU are RESPONSIBLE for? This is FEMA's fault? Why didn't you have a couple bags of ice in styrofoam knowing insulin had to stay cool, or enough supplies laid in when the condo tower elevators worked?
All of you watched what happened after Katrina. Poverty and age are no excuse for laziness, ignorance and the complete abdication of any sense of personal responsibilty for your own disaster preparation. Your being a dumbass is not FEMA's fault.
UPDATE: The irony in this statement is just too frickin' delicious to pass up. Mind you, this is a woman in a five hour gas line only 3 days after the storm.

"This is like the Third World," said Claudia Shaw, who spent several hours in a gas line. "We live in a state where we suffer from these storms every year. Where is the planning?"

Obviously not her responsibility. The lights are on but nobody's home.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:40 PM | Comments (7)

October 25, 2005

I Think the Marine Corps

...needs to go after this asshole.

And just WTF does that mean, anyway?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:53 AM | Comments (12)

Oh, Buy George!!

(And no, I didn't misspell a damn thing.)

UK politician 'received Saddam oil allocations'

More than $600,000 raised from allocations of Iraqi crude oil was deposited into accounts for the wife and campaign charity of George Galloway, the British member of parliament (MP), a Senate subcommittee investigating the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal alleged on Monday.

Documents, including wire transfers, as well as interviews with top officials of the Saddam Hussein regime show Mr Galloway "personally solicited and received lucrative oil allocations from the Hussein regime", the committee alleged.


Last night it was just 85 grand in wifey's account. This is a whole lotta crumpets more.

Galloway fans may see things differently once it all comes out. These are the same folks who gushed...

...What happened next was a rare political moment: to the surprise of the assembled senators, congressional aides, and press, Galloway turned the tables on his accusers, calling attention to the dishonesty and hypocrisy that led to the war in Iraq. This is the story of Galloway's relationship with Saddam Hussein (including details of their private meetings) and of his remarkable visit to Washington in which he dared to set the record straight—not just his own record, but also that of the U.S. government. Filled with the passion and wit that are Galloway trademarks, the book includes the complete transcript of the famed Senate testimony and is packed with facts about the U.S.'s ignominious history in Iraq—facts that are easy to forget but crucial to remember.

...trying to peddle a book called "Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington".

Nah. It'll never happen. The capacity for self dillusion is strong in them, young Skywalker.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:33 AM | Comments (2)

October 17, 2005

"You Da Man!" "No! YOU Da Man!"


Mugabe, Chavez slam U.S. at U.N. event
Zimbabwe leader compares Bush, Blair to Hitler, Mussolini

The leaders of Zimbabwe and Venezuela on Monday denounced President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "unholy men," and blamed the United States and other developed countries for world hunger, pollution and war.


I'm sure W and Tony are crushed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:33 PM | Comments (3)

October 15, 2005

'Splain Me This

After all the death, destruction and dire warnings about the Iraqi Constitutional referendum ~ when it actually goes off without a hitch or buckets of blood, when over 70% of registered voters have purple fingers (Even Sunnis voted in surprising numbers!) and there was very little accompanying violence from Zarqhawi's thugs ~ WHY is loser a$$ Lewis Farrakhan's 150K(!) strong 'More Millions' march the big picture and lead (all DAY Sunday) story on MSNBC? WHY is THAT??
Is it because this is a SCARY picture...
or a bitterly disappointing one for our boys in the MSM?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:47 PM | Comments (2)

October 13, 2005

Our Mayor Noggin Quote of the Week

With much of his city still vacant, Nagin launched his campaign. "My big message is: You can come back to the city," Nagin told a group of about 40 at a shelter here, a three-hour drive from New Orleans. He urged the crowd to "get back to the red beans and rice and gumbo and all those things that you love."
Let's ask the Mayor when his family's comin' back from the new digs in Dallas, shall we? I mean, if it's so great and all. He's also touting how safe the streets are.
Crime is lower than it has been in a hundred years, he told the crowd
(Duh, they ate the criminals and the city's a GHOST TOWN.) It's falling on deaf ears because, while businesses are desperate for workers, there's no place to live if you go back. Then again, a lot of the folks who'd never gotten out of New Orleans before in their lives are pretty happy where they've wound up. Of course the picture wouldn't be complete without the whack jobs like:
...Cyril Neville. The youngest Neville Brother walked onstage at Madison Square Garden wearing a silent message on his T-shirt: "Ethnic Cleansing in New Orleans."

WTF is THAT all about? Inferring there was a white fellow sitting in the center of the hurricane, with a sh$tload of steering levers and a big red arrow pointing to NOLA? Mr. Neville, after making that amazing statement onstage, has a distinctly underdeveloped social conscience, since he's moved his family PERMANENTLY to Austin, with this in explanation...

"Truth is, I was planning on leaving even before the storm hit, because I was so ashamed of the city. ... Living there was just too hard," he says.

"The school system was shot. Talking to city hall about the needs of the needy was like talking to deaf people. And I didn't want to watch the news anymore because night after night it was murder after murder and anarchy and chaos. The second I'd get back to the airport, I felt like I was in a pressure cooker."


This is where the cutesy 'ethnic cleansing' T gets really confusing. Anarchy? Chaos? Ignoring the needy? City Hall "full of deaf people"? But those 'deaf people' were also BLACK elected officials, Mr. Neville, last I looked anyway. And had been for years. So what sort of ignorant, race baiting stunt was that f*cked up T shirt of yours, when you can't even be bothered to try to be part of the solution? Easier to throw those Molotovs from your safe little perch than get your priveleged hands dirty, eh? Too HARD? For a millionaire? You're pathetic.

I Gotta Add This:

...and (Spike) Lee said his film will even consider whether the government's response was deliberately slow.

"I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans," he said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:13 AM | Comments (1)

October 11, 2005

From Bangla-cola to Uncle Sam: A Warm, Fuzzy, Collective...

WTF Are You THINKING???
Let's review for the simple minded, butt licking PUBLIC servants in Washington: We had us a hurricane last year. His name was Ivan. He blowed a lot of sh*t up. If people didn't have FEMA Blue Roofs, they had no roof at all and got to live in one of these:
One year goes by.

There's still a lot of blowed up sh*t. There's still lots of FEMA Blue Roofs. More impressive, there are still thousands of people living in these because all the affordable housing got all blowed up. But they have to be out by March, got a home or NOT. So how does our Federal Government care for it's people displaced in a natural disaster, in one of the POOREST counties in Florida? Why, f*cks them over in favor of the disaster of the month, naturally!

Oakwood manager Ken Smith says he's been forced to turn local people away because of a memorandum last month from the USDA.
It says people displaced by Hurricane Katrina must receive priority over any other applicant.

Ken Smith/Apartment Manager:
"I hate to tell this person that was displaced a month ago that they have priority over a person displaced 11 months ago. Its really not fair."


They'd a never done this to us if we'd been big enough for Jesse to fly in and get his a$$ some TV time, or if our Mayor and Governor had been complete LOSERS. But no, little old Escambia had a plan that was beautifully executed. All we needed was help for our folks afterward. Well, f*ck us to tears, you compassionate conservatives.


The complete WEAR-TV report.

Katrina Evacuees Get Priority on Some Local Housing The affordable housing market just got tighter. The government is now giving Hurricane Katrina evacuees top priority to move into some apartment complexes. That could leave some local families homeless. Misty Lindsay is a full time student and mother of three. She's been on a waiting list at the Oakwood Apartment Complex in Milton for months, but days away from moving in, she learned her slot was given to a victim of Hurricane Katrina.

Misty Lindsay/Searching for Affordable Housing:
"Its just out of balance. At the risk of sounding insensitive, I've waiting five or six months. There are people, some of my family members, displaced from Ivan. They are still in FEMA trailers, not the big ones, travel trailers, but they have been put on the back burner also."
Lindsay and her children have been living with relatives because she can't find an affordable home.
Oakwood manager Ken Smith says he's been forced to turn local people away because of a memorandum last month from the USDA.
It says people displaced by Hurricane Katrina must receive priority over any other applicant.

Ken Smith/Apartment Manager:
"I hate to tell this person that was displaced a month ago that they have priority over a person displaced 11 months ago. Its really not fair."

Cynthia Reeves/creeves@sbgnet.com
"Smith has 20 local families on his waiting list, but will have to turn most of them away."

USDA Area Director, Joseph Fritz, says the directive affects 50 subsidized housing projects in the Florida Panhandle financed by USDA's Rural Development program.
The goal is to help evacuees like this couple from Slidell, Louisiana.

Richard Tranum/Slidell Evacuee:
"Oh yeah, we looked around and we're lucky to have this."

Fritz says the housing targeted for Katrina evacuees is vacant property.
The intent is not to take housing away from local residents, or victims of Hurricanes Ivan or Dennis.
Whatever the intent, Lindsay says its left her homeless.

Misty Lindsay/Searching for Affordable Housing:
"I've met a few women like myself who are in the same situation as me and they're living with family members and there is no housing available for them."



Copyright 2005 WEAR-TV


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:35 AM | Comments (7)

October 02, 2005

Piglet: Disturbing Religious Persona Non Grata


Yup.

Muslims win toy pigs ban

NOVELTY pig calendars and toys have been banned from a council office — in case they offend Muslim staff.

Workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the same Britain that had a little subway problem a couple months ago, courtesy of their own local, coddled, catered to Islamics? I thought it was...
Swill Salute to Michelle Malkin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:31 PM | Comments (6)

September 30, 2005

The Kid Doesn't Have a Leg to Stand On

...so they won't let him play.

It's halftime of a game in Dayton on Sept. 16 -- Colonel White High against Mount Healthy. After Colonel White leaves the locker room, the refs approach the coaches on the sideline. Crew chief Dennis Daly announces, "Number 99 cannot play in this game anymore. He's not wearing shoes, knee pads or thigh pads."

Head coach Earl White just stares at him.

"But he doesn't have any legs!" White says.

"Sorry," Daly says. "It's the rule."


Not anymore, it's not.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:22 PM

"This Country is Not Worth Dying For."

Mayor Koch begs to differ.

Many Americans, myself included, now see her as a person who has come to enjoy the celebratory status accorded to her by the radicals on the extreme left who see America as the outlaw of the world. These radicals are not content to be constructive critics. They are bent on destroying this country.

Some of them want to turn America into a radical socialist state. Others hope to create a utopia. But regardless of their agendas, how can Cindy Sheehan's supporters defend her shameful statement, "This country is not worth dying for."


He points out that America's not buying the 'died for a lie'.
Those who rail against the United States have simply failed to sell their message to the public at large. They keep losing elections, local as well as national. Rather than broadening their appeal, they have narrowed it.


I supported and still support the war in Iraq, because our Congress and President had every right to rely on the advice of the CIA that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. On Sunday, September 25, 2005, Tim Russert of Meet The Press, summed up the situation prevailing before the war, saying, "…post September 11th, there was a fear of terrorism, an inability to know whether there were weapons of mass destruction by the public or by the media. George W. Bush said there were. Bill and Hillary Clinton said there were. The Russians, French and Germans, who opposed the war, said there were. Hans Blix of the UN said there were."

...Of course, Sheehan has the right to state her opinion in a country she believes shouldn't be defended. We who disagree with her statements, we who believe this country deserves our thanks, love and willingness to defend it, also have the right to express our views. Speak up, America.


We're certainly glad you did, Your Honor.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:50 PM | Comments (3)

September 29, 2005

The Daily Howler Via The Governor Blameco School of Tap-Dance

New Orleans finest never, ever cease to astonish and amaze. Now they've turned Pet Psychic and are channeling...wait...wait...it's getting clearer...Bill Clinton!
[cue: unearthly voice with southern twange]"Depends what your definition of looting is."

New Orleans police launch investigation into reports officers looted

...Police spokesman Marlon Defillo said police are looking into the possibility that up to 12 officers were involved in misconduct.

The Police Department has 1,750 officers.

He rejected the use of the term "looting" but said authorities were investigating "the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items during the height of Katrina, from businesses."


A Swill Salute to Michelle Malkin, while Blackfive has thoughtfully linked to the instructional video.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:38 PM

September 28, 2005

Turn the Fan On

The excrement's already starting to fly. Woof! Didn't take those weasely wasscally Dems but an hour to put out a schmear on Dreier. Of course, if he is gay, he's a dummy for just not saying so. Who cares? But it begs the question; how far up someone's butt do you get to climb to try to make/find your point? Like looking into the adoptions of Judge Roberts' kids. The whole thing's disgusting, the whole dirt scraping, all means necessary thing. If he went to teas run by the Chinese and took M.O.N.E.Y., then do something about it. Or if he's an axe murderer, perjurist, congressional intern philanderer, an 'I dare you to catch me' Gary Hart type, or Kiwi Squid pornographer, then DO something about it. Otherwise, leave people to be judged on their merits A.L.O.N.E.. And to be able to expect some amount of peace in a public life.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:34 PM | Comments (2)

September 26, 2005

You Knew It Was Coming...

...but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

WASHINGTON - Whatever the reasons, residents of heavily Republican Texas seemed to get better treatment from the government during Hurricane Rita than the mostly black, poor and Democratic victims of Katrina in Louisiana. The issue of race is likely to linger in the aftermath of the two big storms.

Government mistakes in the first storm, including failure to provide a means of evacuation for tens of thousands of New Orleans residents stranded in flooding low-lying areas, exposed racial and social fault lines.

These divides may be reinforced, rather than diminished, by the government's far more robust response to Hurricane Rita.

Texas is the president's home state, has a Republican governor and is the home of big oil. New Orleans before Katrina was heavily populated by poor blacks who vote Democratic.


I wish I could find the link to the article I was reading this afternoon that headlined with how much wealthier that portion of LA and TX were compared to New Orleans. Buried a couple paragraphs down was a 'not really wealthier, just better off, because these folks owned cars and boats, etc.' backpedal. It was pretty disgusting. The folks in New Orleans are already pulling a Cindy Sheehan 'because of Rita, they've already forgotten about us!', with the implied meaning 'because all them rich Republican Houston socialites are white'. As far as homes and new lives and a chance to put food on the table, I've got a couple forgotten names for you. Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. There's quite a few folks in Florida who would consider themselves to be well ahead of New Orleans in line. And quite a few county governments still waiting on FEMA payments for services they were supposed to be partially reimbursed for. Stuff had to get hauled away. Those contractors had to get paid when they did it. We're one of the poorest counties in the state and we're still waiting. This ain't Palm Beach, New Orleans, beaches or no beaches. And you ain't the Queen of France. Get in line.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 PM | Comments (3)

September 19, 2005

The More It Looks Changed

...the more it stays the same.

KENNER, La. - Officials are responding to complaints that city workers helped themselves to cases of Gatorade, brand-new clothing and other donated items that were intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Philip Ramon, chief of staff to Kenner Mayor Philip Capitano, said the city has removed the official who had presided over the distribution.

...Each evening, after the site closed to the public, city employees browsed the pallets and took supplies, said Robert Shumate, a trucker from Union City, Tenn., who dropped off a load of ice last week and stayed to help distribute the goods.

“I saw it every day,” he said. “It’s like community property over there.”


So why not give them billions of dollars in rebuilding funds? We do it for every other tin-pot dictatorship.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:33 PM | Comments (2)

September 16, 2005

These F@ckin' People Should Be SHOT

Via Crusader, an abomination chronicled in print.

No one has been able to say how many people died inside the convention center; police, military and center officials estimate the number is about 10. Nor has there been any attempt to document the number of assaults, robberies and rapes that eyewitnesses said occurred from the time the first people broke into the convention center seeking shelter on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 29, and when units of the Arkansas National Guard moved into the center on Friday, Sept. 2.

But even without those numbers, what happened in the convention center stands as a harsh indictment of government's failure to help its citizens when they needed it most. That futility was symbolized by the presence in the convention center for three of the most chaotic days of at least 250 armed troops from the Louisiana National Guard. They were camped out in a huge exhibition hall separated from the crowd by a wall, and used their trucks as a barricade when they were afraid the crowd would break in.

The troops were never deployed to restore order and eventually withdrew, despite the pleas of the convention center's management. Louisiana Guard commanders said their units' mission was not to secure the facility, and soldiers on the scene feared inciting further bloodshed if they had intervened. "We didn't want another Kent State," said Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of the active-duty military forces responding to Katrina. "They weren't trained for crowd control."


My God.

My GOD!

And I just started reading.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 PM | Comments (19)

September 15, 2005

One Step

...forward...

Saudi women to get first taste of polls
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi businesswomen will be able to stand for election to a local trade and industry chamber in the first vote of its kind for women in the conservative Muslim monarchy, a top executive said on Thursday.

Saudi authorities allowed businesswomen to take part in a November election of 18 board members of the Red Sea city of Jeddah's Trade and Industry Chamber (JTIC), the chamber's chairman Ghassan al-Suleiman said.


...and two steps back.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Muslim organization has demanded that India's Sania Mirza wear more than her tennis attire during her matches, calling her short shirts and sleeveless shirts "un-Islamic."

A top cleric of the little-known Sunni Ulema Board said he has issued a fatwa against the 18-year-old because of her "indecent dressing" on the court and in advertisements, the Hindustan Times reported Friday...

...He said Islam did not permit women to wear skirts, shorts and sleeveless tops in public, and that she should follow the example of Iranian women who wore long tunics and headscarves while playing in the Asian Badminton Championship in Hyderabad earlier in the week.


If you didn't have to worry about some fanatic doing his duty and executing your a$$ for wearing a TANK TOP, more of these girls and their families would have the courage to say "Fatwa THIS, a$$hole!" But no, we have to respect their 'peaceful' death edicts.

Sania, maybe Salman Rushdie has a room over the garage he can spare.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:10 PM | Comments (7)

On a Lighter Note..Is Mr. Summers Busy?

The always politically correct, religion of peace types at CAIR (Council on Islamic-American Relations) have gotten caught with their hajib down. Or up, as the case may be. It looks as if a three year old was put to work with a Sharpie, retouching an unswathed woman in a press shot into a model of Islamic modesty. JihadWatch has the before and afters. The best part of the entire despicable incident is the response of PhotoShoppers around the world, who have rallied to show CAIR just how a retouching is really done. One shining example from the efforts at Protest Warrior's forum (Swill Salute to LenaWarriorPrincess):

Here's the original, if anyone wants a whack at it. Send me the links and we'll post them in the extended section. Best entry gets Sir Rob's jelly donut. Modestly iced, of course.
UPDATE: Mr. Summers IS a genius jelly donut! I am tickled to present the maestro's entry, entitled:

"Say that again, you f@cking misogynist r@ghead BASTARD?"

I wouldn't mess with that chick. She'll kick your ass.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:28 PM | Comments (10)

September 14, 2005

What Happened in His Childhood...

...to make this LOser so cranky? I mean, everyone knows I despise the Red Cross, but come on!

Maybe he was one of Bingley's cage kids. If so, someone should shoot the SOB that let him out.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 AM | Comments (9)

September 13, 2005

Kinda the Pot Calling the Kettle...

...names.

La. nursing home owners charged in deaths
Two face 34 counts of negligent homicide for refusing evacuation bus

NEW ORLEANS - The owners of a nursing home where 34 people were found dead after Hurricane Katrina have been arrested and charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide for not evacuating their patients, the Louisiana attorney general's office said Tuesday...

... The owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish "were asked if they wanted to move (the patients). They did not. They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these patients," Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said.


Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco haven't weighed in on this one yet. If there's any justice in this world, they oughta be shaking in their boots and talking to their lawyers.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:09 PM | Comments (4)

September 06, 2005

Pretty Hateful

Rehnquist’s judicial philosophy was result-oriented, activist, and authoritarian. He sometimes moderated his views for prudential or pragmatic reasons, but his vote could almost always be predicted based on who the parties were, not what the legal issues happened to be. He generally opposed the rights of gays, women, blacks, aliens, and religious minorities. He was a friend of corporations, polluters, right wing Republicans, religious fundamentalists, homophobes, and other bigots.
But pretty predictable, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:55 PM | Comments (3)

Email From New Orleans - There's Hope

The following is an email I received from a guy who own a bunch of warehouses in NOLA. I thought you might be interested in a non-MSM view of the state of things (I have edited out various personal information):

Oh what a day! Thursday, September 1, 2005 Day 3 since Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005

Fox News calls it America’s Challenge. It is the greatest Natural Disaster to hit the United States. The damage is bad, the flooding is incredible, and the civil disobedience is horrible, but the news media is blowing everything out of proportion. I would like this letter to give my viewpoint of the situation we are in, and to give the facts, without rumors or hearsay.

It may seem crazy to you that I am endangering myself by going to New Orleans, but I want to see for myself how things are, so that I know the future for me and my employees. I had several employees, who are good friends; call me yesterday to find out if they still have a job. I found this odd, but the number who asked was surprising and then I asked others, and they feared the answer. I thought maybe I was too much an optimist, and that I needed to see for myself, so that I can answer honestly. During times like this, many fear that they won’t have a paycheck this week, next week, next month, or next year. The employees need to know whether they should leave New Orleans and make a career change, or stick it out here though the rebuilding.

(My) Construction Manager and I began the day at about 9 AM ... about 50 miles outside of New Orleans. ... He is in charge of all construction, restoration, renovation, and maintenance of all properties. He knows he will be busy for the next six months in rebuilding or repairing the properties. He joined me to see which properties have the greatest priorities.

On our drive to the City, we discussed the stories we would tell the police so that we could get entry. We decided to say that our parents are at their homes, are frightened, and asked us to help them evacuate. We arrived in St. Charles Parish, where there was much damage and entered without being questioned. There were no police. We simply had to drive a circuitous route, because there are downed trees and power lines and flooded streets. Our journey took us through the spillway on a road that is normally flooded. The spillway is a very wide shallow river, which allows flood waters from the Mississippi River to flow into the lake, thereby saving New Orleans from flooding. The river is at an historic low, and helped to save the City in this Hurricane.

Our first stop was at a warehouse that up until last year stored coffee. The address is 10057 Airline Drive and is a 285,000 square foot warehouse. To our surprise, the building had not damage. It is over twice the size of the largest Wal-Mart Superstore and had 155 MPH winds and had absolutely no damage. Later during the day, the Lessee, who is a warehousemen, notified me that there was no damage and no leaks. He said it was Amazing. I agree.

We then wandered through the blockage in the roadways and went to (his) house in River Ridge. A tree had fallen and damaged a gutter pan, and he lost a couple of shingles, but basically no damage. As we were leaving he brought out a rather large hand gun, in holster, and gave it to me and said I might need it. I have never touched a gun before, but felt reassured that if I needed it, it was there. (He) had a large rifle, and bags of ammunition and we proceeded to Elmwood Industrial Park.

Our first stop was at 6040 Beven Street, a 213,600 square foot warehouse used to store coffee. As we approached the building, it was raining, and we noticed gutter pans missing. When we entered, the warehouse, we saw water running down the wall and about a 1 to 2 inch gap on the wall, where it meets the roof, and could see the light coming through. The coffee is stored about 40 feet from the front wall and none of the coffee had gotten wet. There was some ponding on the floor, where the water ran to the lowest point, but none of the water was deeper than 1 inch. I considered myself lucky, since the damage was minimal and can be repaired rather quickly, once roofers are available. In the meantime, the coffee is safe, since it can not get wet.

We then drove several blocks to my brother’s business, Beads by the Dozen ( A Mardi Gras Beads Company ), and found the nearly 200,000 square foot, three building complex. One building was perfectly fine, one building had a blown out door with 5 skylights broken, yet nothing wet. I walked throughout the building and everything was fine. The third building which is only 30 feet from the other space was destroyed. A 20,000 square foot building with about 15 truck doors blown out, part of the roof removed, and the front brick wall lying on the ground. I doubt if it can be saved.

We continued to drive down Edwards Ave, and came across TCI warehouse at the intersection of Mounes and Edwards and there was a large roof lying on the ground. When I say large, I am talking about a 70,000 square foot roof lying on the ground. We then went next door to one of my warehouses, which is 80,000 square feet and is leased to an auto parts distributor. The doors all blew in and about 1/3 of the roof is missing. All of the items on the shelving in the warehouse space is stacked perfectly like nothing happened. The concrete building next to it has 1/3 of the walls missing and the roof collapsed. Water from the fire sprinklers was spewing out of the pipes. It appeared as though a tornado hit this spot.

Two blocks away is my 5725 Powell Street warehouse, which is 89,000 square feet, leased to the US Postal Service, and it did not have a scratch. We then went to 1401 Clearview, one of my coffee warehouses, with 160,000 square feet of space. One truck door was blown in, but all of the coffee was fine, and there was no water in the warehouse. This was the final inspection of coffee warehouses and all our coffee is in good shape.

We then drove through Uptown New Orleans and the University Section. There were tree branches everywhere, but not too many downed trees. The media would make you think that there is not a tree left. That is far from the truth. New Orleans has always been known for its trees, and I feel it always will be.

We passed many warehouses that are owned or operated by Metro warehouses and the Louisiana Warehouse had about 12 blown in doors, their Market Street Warehouse had several doors blown out and a section of the roof, about 50’ by 30’ was missing. There were further damages to the walls.

We went to our Josephine warehouses, and there were 4 doors blown open. And one of the 4 buildings had roof damage, but the product inside the buildings is fine and not wet.

The next stop is a recently restored historic warehouse that was previously a cotton warehouse and is now a copper warehouse located at 1899 Josephine Street, and there is damage to one door, but everything else was fine.

Then we went to the 105,000 square foot Market Street / Waterworks Building which is Leased to Disney Studios. Everything was fine, but the building across the street totally collapsed. The building that collapse was about 40,000 square feet.

Our next stop was at our warehouse at 5200 Coffee Drive, and the only damage was some flashing on the Northern side. No water entered the building and the only loss was the canopy over the outside break area. Next door is Silocaf, and everything seemed fine there.

Next stop was to check my house at St Charles Place and I was pleasantly surprised to see there was not damage and especially happy to see there had been no looting in the area. It was quite depressing to see the Downtown area with about 20,000 homeless people walking with all their belongings in grocery carts walking the neighborhood. These were primarily those who lost everything in St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish. Many of them swam miles to get to high ground in New Orleans. They thought there would be food and drink, but there is none. Hopefully today, the National Guard will start bringing food and drink to people who have had none since Monday.

We did see remnants of looting that had taken place at grocery stores. But homes and businesses other than food or electronic stores were untouched. The stories of the crimes in New Orleans were not seen on Thursday. Please believe me when I say that New Orleans will be back in business soon. Once the electricity comes back on, we will function once again. In the past, we would have been in operation without the electricity, but because of computers, it is hard to operate. Perhaps we will need to go back to previous used forms of communication until power is resumed.

I am so pleased that I visited New Orleans. It is not lost. Our historic structures remain, our French Quarter will be opening again, Bourbon Street will be partying, and business will be opening soon. There will be huge amounts of money coming into the area to pay for the damages, those monies will be spent rapidly, and we may see a boom in business and tourism. People from all over the world will be anxious to see what happened the day Katrina hit New Orleans.

The news media, as it usually does, has created a scenario that is not true. On Thursday, I saw a City that was taking its first steps for a future of great growth. I am being positive, but I think we all must be positive at this time. If the news media is not showing the full story, perhaps you should not watch the one sided stories.

Oh, most importantly, I felt safe and did not need to have a gun nearby. Next time, I will not bring one. I refuse to believe it will take 6 months to get back to business. Expect some of us to be in business in a week or two.

The Media lives for the floating body and the pictures of chaos and looting. There's no screaming headline to be found in "areas dry and undamaged." Let's all hope and pray that there are more folks willing and able to go back and start life anew, that the horrific damage from the water is more confined than we've been led to believe from the views that the MSM have shown us.

And let's hope that the folks in Mississippi and Alabama start getting the help and attention they need.

*dang blockquotes fixed.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:01 AM | Comments (3)

September 05, 2005

Been There, Done That...

Badly.

Residents with cars took to the highways. Others wondered what to do.

"They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya Hill, 57, said at the time. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."

Advocates for the poor were indignant.

"If the government asks people to evacuate, the government has some responsibility to provide an option for those people who can't evacuate and are at the whim of Mother Nature," said Joe Cook of the New Orleans ACLU...

...Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Tanzie Jones, insisted that there was no reluctance at City Hall to open the Superdome, but said the evacuation was the top priority.

"Our main focus is to get the people out of the city," she said.

Callers to talk radio complained about the late decision to open up the dome, but the mayor said he would do nothing different.

"We did the compassionate thing by opening the shelter," Nagin said. "We wanted to make sure we didn't have a repeat performance of what happened before. We didn't want to see people cooped up in the Superdome for days."...

...Col. Henry Whitehorn, head of state police, said he believes his agency acted appropriately, but also acknowledged he never expected a seven-hour-long crawl for the 60 miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

It was so bad that some broadcasters were telling people to stay home, that they had missed their window of opportunity to leave. They claimed the interstates had turned into parking lots where trapped people could die in a storm surge...

...Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Nagin both acknowledged the need to improve traffic flow and said state police should consider reversing highway lanes earlier. They also promised meetings with governments in neighboring localities and state transportation officials to improve evacuation plans.

But Blanco and other state officials stressed that, while irritating, the clogged escape routes got people out of the most vulnerable areas.

"We were able to get people out," state Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc said. "It was successful. There was frustration, yes. But we got people out of harm's way."


Sound familiar, n'est pas? But the storm was Ivan and this report was filed last year. Check out their self congratulatory 'it was successful'. They've been living in LA-La-Lay-the-Blame Land for quite a while and pretty much have the act down pat. The New Orleans disaster plan seems to have been a sham document, compiled only to comply with Federal requirements for funding. It certainly wasn't a working document, as I understand them. A pretty point paper to get that hand out from the Feds again, so NOLA officials could take the money...and run away.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM | Comments (2)

September 04, 2005

Sixty Minutes Has Found the Mayor

The little snippet at the beginning sounds like he's in rare form. And CBS has a reputation for fair and balanced reporting to protect, as we all know...
UPDATE: I will now confess to being a lousy correspondant. I couldn't watch more than the first 5 minutes of it. Turned my stomach. If there is any point-counterpoint at all, I won't be the one to bring it to you. I have failed miserably.


No living soul has yet to ask this guy, to his face and on camera, "what did you, YOU the Mayor, do to prepare your city and it's people?"
UPDATE: The Guard is hitting back, even though the article talks about them 'playing cards' as Rome burns. Or drowns. They're tired of being beat up by the Mayor and the City. And, I dare say, the national press.

The National Guard commander, Lieutenant General Steven Blum, said the reservist force was slow to move troops into New Orleans because it did not anticipate the collapse of the city's police force...

The National Guard commander said the city police force was left with only a third of its pre-storm strength.

"The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans," Blum told reporters in Washington.

"Once that assessment was made ... then the requirement became obvious," he said. "And that's when we started flowing military police into the theatre."...

...Blum said that since Thursday some 7,000 National Guard and military police had moved into the city. President George W. Bush on Saturday ordered an additional 7,000 active duty and reserve ground troops.

Blum said any suggestion that the National Guard had not performed well or was late was a "low blow".

The initial priority of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard forces was disaster relief, not law enforcement, because they expected the police to handle that, he said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:08 PM | Comments (7)

September 03, 2005

It's Been Four Days

Has anyone SEEN this man?

Call 1-888-TUF-LUCK the second you do.
People are lookin' for him.
UPDATE: Well, the loser just surfaced in a CNN interview about 2 minutes ago. He was explaining how he'd sat on Air Force One with the President and Governor and tried to straighten them out. How things needed to be done and he was the only one to see it. Completely and totally revolting performance. Go back to your cave, little man.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 AM | Comments (9)

Who's the Brains of the Operation? And Who's the Heart?

Surely not the mayor and governor. I guess they were gonna leave everybody black, white, orange, green and Venusian there while they lit out.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.


Swill Salute to Free Will via the Blog Faddah.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:58 AM

September 02, 2005

Sign Him Up For $'s For Jesse's Next Campaign

Jackson questioned why Bush has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering?"

"It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence."


Whoops!
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, head of the military task force overseeing operations in the three states, is black. His task force is providing search and rescue, medical help and sending supplies to the three states in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

And I hope, when he retires, he goes lookin' to kick some Reverend a$$. But I KNOW he's too much the gentleman. Pity, that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:11 PM | Comments (5)

Yup

Here it starts.

But he began facing questions about his leadership in the crisis almost immediately. New Orleans officials, in particular, were enraged about what they said was a slow federal response.

Because of the magnitude of the ineptitude that exasperated the disaster, the New Orleans/LA officials will escape completely unscathed and the Administration will be completely culpable. And I'm sure racist, on top of it all.
UPDATE: Please bear with me bumping this, but I just came across something so egregiously wrong, that all my good intentions to focus on the relief efforts flew out the window. It has to do with the gist of my statement above. From the BBC:
The situation has been made worse by a lack of trust between the mainly poor, African-American population left behind in New Orleans and the predominately white police force, our correspondent adds.

He doesn't say military, he says police. On the assumption he's referring to the NOPD, he couldn't be more wrong, nor more inflammatory. The NOPD has it's problem, but white guys running the show are not it, by a long stretch. From a paper titled "Understanding the Recruitment and Retention Needs and Challenges of the New Orleans Police Department", pages 14-16. (I had to type these, as it's an HTML PDF read and I can't cut and paste.)
The race and ethnic breakdown of the NOPD demonstrates a Department that is becoming more similar in composition to the city it serves. This reflects a commitment by the Department to bringing minorities on the force to ensure the NOPD is representative of the community it serves.
NOPD and City of New Orleans Racial and Ethnic Composition

City NOPD NOPD

2000 2002 2000
Blacks 67.3% 54.9% 52.1%
Whites 28.1% 41.5% 45.1%
(Non-hispanic)
Other 4.6% 3.4% 2.8%

This was research done at the behest of the NOPD, which has been suffering (what has become) an astonishing 8% attrition rate in the number of officers every year since 2000. Read and understand the tremendous challenges this police department has been facing, even without a catastrophe of this magnitude. They were a sinking ship desperately trying to right itself before the waters started to rise. But they are NOT a predominantly white police force. The city administration has been predominantly black for almost 30 YEARS. (The last white mayor was named Landrieu ~ yes, their father ~ and his last year in office was 1978.) On top of the horror of watching our fellow Americans in such horrific and unGodly circumstances, fanning the flames of a racist conflict with LIES is unconscionable and disgusting. The BBC should be ashamed ~ which is, I know, something impossible to hope for. But the point is: The damage is already done in that one incredibly stupid and irresponsible statement. It's all over blogs already like it was gospel. No one f@cking thinks to check for the truth because it's just too damn easy to believe it, right? Damn, I wish we were bigger, not that I don't love all our Swillers. But there are times like this when you wish you had a foghorn instead of a walkie-talkie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:12 PM | Comments (10)

Call the Louisiana State/Local Government Response What It Was

Pathetic. Incompetent. Ineffectual. Woefully unprepared. Sorry, weak ass, finger pointing losers.

MSM is seeing a chance to whack away at the Bush administration, while ignoring the responsibilities the Mayor of New Orleans and Governor of LA had to their citizens. Major Dad just fired off an email to ABCNews in the middle of a Prime Time slap at the U.S. military and the Federal government in general. I see Mark in Mexico has found another instance.

Barbour: I really don't. And I think it's very unfair for the federal government, for you to say we knew this was a great powerful storm. This was a category 1 hurricane when it hit Florida. Now that's the truth.

O'Brien: Governor, it was a category 5 storm.

Barbour: The federal government ...

O'Brien: A category 5 storm when it was ...

Barbour: No, it was a category 1 - it was a category 1 storm when it hit Florida. It was a category 5 storm a few hours before it came ashore.

O'Brien: No, no, Governor Barbour...


The National Guard, whatever it's title, is under the control of the Governor. Not the President. The governor. For all Bush haters directing all this twisted, wasted energy at Washington, the square fact of the matter is that the complete responsibility for prepositioning Guard troops and law enforcement, and the first response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster rests solely with the local and state authorities. As should the blame, if prior planning and proper precautions/predispositioning were not taken. In the case of Louisiana, it is most abundantly clear they were not.

File this under: The Mayor Belied, The Governor Cried, People Died. And no, sir. YOU are the disgrace.

City official laments 'national disgrace'
Meantime, Terry Ebbert, head of the city’s emergency operations, warned that the evacuation at the Superdome had become an “incredibly explosive situation,” and he bitterly complained that FEMA was not offering enough help.

“This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace,” he said. “FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control.

You were charged with the care and protection of your people. Now, get out of the way. There's a job to do and better people than you and yours to do it.
UPDATE:
"They don't have a clue what's going on down there," Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night.
Excuse me, but you haven't had a clue from the beginning. Does this man ever show his face anymore? Has anyone seen the mayor of New Orleans in New Orleans?

Barbour: The federal government has been a tremendous partner in this. They have helped ...

O'Brien: Governor Barbour, surely there was enough knowledge in advance that this was a huge killer storm a matter of days, not hours, before it ever struck landfall. And it seems to me the military ...

Barbour: Now, Miles, if this is an interview or an argument, I don't care. But if you want to let me tell you what I think, I will.

O'Brien: OK, go ahead.

Barbour: And what I think is this storm strengthened in the Gulf. We begged the people to leave, and thousands of people left. Thousands of people left New Orleans. The federal government came in here from the first minute - in fact, in advance. They have been tremendously helpful, whether it's the Coast Guard, the Corps of Engineers, FEMA.

O'Brien: But ...

Barbour: I don't think it's at all fair ...

O'Brien: But ...

Barbour: ... and I'm not going to agree to that, because I don't believe it's true.

O'Brien: But conspicuously absent from that short list you just gave us was the military, the Pentagon. This is a type of situation that cries out for the kind of support, the kind of logistics, the kind of coordination the military is ideally suited for. Why weren't more military assets prepositioned and ready for the possibility here?

Barbour: We prepositioned more than 1,000 National Guard, 175 on the coastal counties, 1,000 more 60 miles inland, so that they wouldn't be swept away in the storm. And as soon as it became clear where the storm was going to hit, even Alabama had sent us National Guard. Pennsylvania has offered us and is sending us 2,500 National Guard.

O'Brien: But ...

Barbour: Would I have liked to have had 5,000 National Guard on the ground on Tuesday morning? Yes, that's not - other states are not going to give up their National Guard until they see what's happening to them. I don't blame them.

O'Brien: But I'm talking about assets, like, you know, amphibious vehicles that the Navy has. It has helicopter support, hospital support, the ability to generate power, that sort of thing. We haven't seen that kind of thing, the kind of thing we saw, incidentally, in the wake of the tsunami.

Barbour: Well, I'm not going to be critical of what the federal government has done. We're very grateful for it. You know, it's easy to go back and pick the bones, but we feel like they have tried very hard.

This is the worst natural disaster that's ever struck the United States. Everybody down here is trying hard. Everybody is tired and fractious. So, I don't want to argue with you about it. But a lot of people from all over the country are helping us, and we really appreciate them, because we're making progress. And we're going to recover from what has been a grievous blow to our state, not just the coast. And we're going to rebuild, and it's going to be bigger and better than ever. But we're not going to do it by nitpicking.

O'Brien: Governor Haley Barbour, Mississippi. Thank you for your time, sir.

Barbour: Thank you, Miles.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:35 AM | Comments (7)

September 01, 2005

That Sucking Sound You Hear...

...isn't New Orleans underwater. It's the Louisiana leadership vacuum, sucking the life out of one of the most vibrant places on EARTH. The mayor is a ghostly voice on radio and TV interviews. When was the last time you saw the man downtown. When was the last time you saw him at all?? Shep Smith is right this moment showing video of bodies on the I-10 pilgrimage trail to the Superdome. People who fell along the bridgeway, unable to go any further. The governor is still wringing her hands, being furious, safe in her command bunker. There is no public face for the people to look to. No answers getting to those in the cesspool of that city. No leaders. No one you can point to. "Oh yeah. He/She's in charge and no doubt about it."

There are two words that clarify the difference between Katrina and 9/11. Two words.

Rudy

Giuliani.

Someone needs to grow a pair and fast.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:11 PM | Comments (14)

August 31, 2005

Am I Hearing Bob Livingston Right?

That the governor of Louisiana has NOT declared Martial Law in New Orleans?

UPDATE: Well I'll be damned. The mayor JUST DID, at 7:32 local time TONIGHT. WTF was his first CLUE he had a problem???

7:32 P.M. - N.O. Mayor Ray Nagin declares Martial law in the city and directs the city's 1,500-person police force to do "whatever it takes" to gain back control of the city. He will also enlist the aid of troops.

7:12 P.M. - (AP) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray says he's not taking any criticism from people stranded in New Orleans personally.


Nagin says he understands the city's residents are frustrated, hot, angry and in a state of shock.


But Nagin insists he wants everyone out of the Superdome by tomorrow (Thursday) because they have been stretched to the breaking point and he can't stand to see them in that condition any longer.


7:11 P.M. Governor Blanco on looting: We will do what it takes to bring law and order to our area. This is not a place for that behavior. I'm furious. It's intolerable.


Instead of bitching about the ACoE's to everyone and their mother, maybe he ought to have been watching the freaking news. And she's 'furious'? That's the best she can do? She's the sorriest excuse for a state executive officer I've ever seen outside New Jersey.

She's furious. Oh, that's rich.
UPDATE: They're both seriously negligent, incredibly stupid and totally incompetent.

Managers at a nursing home were prepared to cope with the power outages and had enough food for days, but then the looting began. The home's bus driver was forced to surrender the vehicle to carjackers.

Bands of people drove by the nursing home, shouting to residents, "Get out!" Eighty residents, most of them in wheelchairs, were being evacuated to other nursing homes in the state.

"We had enough food for 10 days," said Peggy Hoffman, the home's executive director. "Now we'll have to equip our department heads with guns and teach them how to shoot."


To allow it to deteriorate to this level before acting...damn!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:10 PM

FoxNews Just Spoke to Senator Shelby...

..."After the tsunami, the United States mobilized immediately to help. It's been a couple of days now and the international and corporate silence is deafening. Have you heard anything?"

Senator Shelby: "In the international community they worry more about what America can do for them..."
UPDATE: Yeah. What he said.

The Silence is Deafening by Neil Cavuto

Maybe I missed it, but I have a question: Where's the global relief effort for us today?

New Orleans is under water. Mississippi is a disaster. Scores are dead. Homes are destroyed. Businesses are shut down.

When this kind of stuff happens to other folks, we're there. When this kind of stuff happens to us, who's here?

I know we're a rich country. But I think it a bit rich so few call to wish us well in this country. Perhaps some have and perhaps I've missed it.

Still, others never miss a chance to bash us if we've done something wrong or done nothing at all.

All I know is a lot of poor folks here got hit here. Would it kill the same foreigners we've helped there, to offer support here?

I don't expect a telethon. But how about a call on a telephone?

Maybe some countries have offered rescue personnel. I just haven't seen them. I'll keep looking. I'll keep waiting. I'll keep wondering.

All I know is for now, the silence is deafening. And the water in New Orleans isn't the only thing that stinks.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:31 AM | Comments (12)

August 30, 2005

What An Asshole

Only word for it. I knew it wouldn't take long for the left to blame the storm on the Republicans. What's amazing is how little time it took. I left the following comment.

What a despicable piece of opportunistic tripe. For someone who has experienced tragedy in their own life to take such advantage of the unholy suffering of hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans only to make a cheap (and hotly disputed) point defies all boundaries of taste, compassion and humanity. All your vast and mighty resources might be better spent assisting in places the average American, one of not so lofty privilege and place, would give their eyetooth at this moment to be able to help. My neighbor is on his way from our own Ivan ravaged hometown to help restore Biloxi's airport. You, sir, are doing what precisely? One shouldn't quote Pat Robertson's hateful words when one's own come so close to channeling them. You disgrace yourself. For shame.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 PM | Comments (5)

August 24, 2005

FAT Is the Problem...

...a FAT HEAD, that is. Puts a whole new spin on "you can't handle the truth!"

Doctor in trouble for calling patient obese
N.H. woman filed complaint; state attorney general asked to investigate
ROCHESTER, N.H. - As doctors warn more patients that they should lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor with a woman filing a complaint with the state saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state.

“I told a fat woman she was obese,” Bennett says. “I tried to get her attention. I told her, 'You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.'"


And good for Dr. Bennett!
Bennett rejected that office’s proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:26 PM | Comments (11)

It's Looking Like...

...the Bush Administration has f@cked this one up royally.

Iraq secularists denounce "Islamist" constitution
Secular Iraqis said on Wednesday a proposed new constitution left no room for doubt about the Islamist path the country was heading down two years after a U.S.-led invasion was supposed to produce greater freedoms.

The document presented to parliament on Monday is suffused with the language of political Islam in defining the state, and assigns a primary role to Islam as a source for legislation.

"The draft aborts the democratic process Iraqis hoped for and is a big victory for political Islam," said writer Adel Abdel-Amir. "Islamic law, not the people, has become the source of authority."..

...Language guaranteeing "rights and freedoms" is subordinate to the primary position given to Islam, opponents say....

...The prominent women's rights campaigner denounced wording that grants each religious sect the right to run its own family courts -- apparently doing away with previous civil codes -- as an open door to further Islamicise the legal system...

...Souhail said the United States, a crucial backstage player keen for a deal that meets U.S.-backed deadlines, had let the Shi'ite Islamists and Kurds in government do as they wish.

"We have received news that we were not backed by our friends including the Americans. They left the Islamists to come to an agreement with the Kurds," she said.


Getting a draft of any f@cking thing signed by an arbitrary date is more important than ensuring a free and open society, huh? Where are all the big mouths of the opinion press or the feminist v-word agenda on this one? I'm just a wee voice in the wilderness here, but, as an American, I sure as hell don't want to be responsible for creating the new Iran. Or condemning my vibrant, educated, free Iraqi sisters to the despicable black hole that is Sharia. And that's what's happening, because the Bush Administration wants to be seen as 'hands off' ~ as long as a 'deadline' is met. "DEAD", indeed.
Oh, that's one hell of a promise kept, Mr. President.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:07 AM | Comments (9)

August 23, 2005

Watching World News Tonight, It Suddenly Struck Me

You know. The difference between (Pat Robertson's hateful dumba$$ aside.)

us:
Sister Mary Michael protests the Da Vinci Code film.

...and
them:
Salman Rushdie

No one's dropped a fatwa on Dan Brown. No one's gonna.
Us and them.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:19 PM | Comments (7)

Marines Who Run the Bombing Ranges at MCAS Yuma...

...find corpses all the time. The coyotes who get the illegals over the border then tell them to head for the 'lights in the night'. The numbers are staggering.

But the incursion is relentless. Since Oct. 1, Border Patrol agents have caught more than 500,000 "undocumented aliens" in the agency's Tucson and Yuma sectors, which include all of Arizona and a 16-mile stretch of California's border. No one knows how many got through.

Those lights are, depending upon where you cross unfortunately, either the beacons on the range towers or the superstructures on base.

The problem stems from federal border policies dating to the late 1990s. First, the government moved to stop illegal immigration in California and Texas. Next, Border Patrol agents clamped down in urban areas along the nation's 1,951-mile border with Mexico.


As a result, smugglers and their human clients have been funneled to a deadly passageway - Arizona's remote desert.


If you luck out and head toward MCAS Yuma, you might actually make it to civilization. There're farm houses and little oasises on the way in where you can steal something to eat or, at least, livestock troughs to drink out of. But if you head out and chase automated range beacons, you're led deeper and deeper into either the desert or the Chocolate Mountains, and further from any hope of ever seeing another human being. Or getting out alive. It's as desolate out there as any of those TV shots of Afghanistan. And there's no way to know which light to choose, or that there even is a choice. A life or death choice. The Marines who go out to change the range beacons might only come to that particular section of range once a month. Less, if it hasn't been used in a while ~ they'll do routine access/tower maintenance. The base SAR (Search and Rescue) crew has stories to tell about who and what they've found. They'll point spots out when you're in the Huey with them in the Chocolates. (As I was lucky enough to be.) The SAR crew will call in location reports of illegals on the move, but they're in no position and have no authority to apprehend them. All they can do is call it in and hope they're caught before the environment gets them. Both groups have told me that the bodies they find often look like Egyptian mummies. It's unforgiving out there.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 AM | Comments (5)

August 18, 2005

FLASH !! This Just In...

Gentle, Grieving Mother Sheehan Channels Daily Kos
No film at 11. If there's a God.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:50 AM | Comments (2)

August 17, 2005

Pffft

Convicted Bali bombers get sentence reductions
Militant cleric gets four and a half months off in honor of independence day
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A militant cleric and 17 others convicted in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people on the resort island of Bali have received sentence reductions of several months to mark Indonesia’s independence day, wardens said Wednesday.

Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual head of the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, was originally given a 30-month prison sentence for his role in the bombings, which killed many Australian tourists.

On Wednesday he was given a 4½-month sentence reduction, said Dedi Sutardi, the chief warden at Cipinang Prison in Jakarta, which means he could be released from prison in June 2006.


Of course, a 30 month sentence for the crime is a joke to begin with, so what's a couple months less in the big scheme of things?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:17 AM

August 12, 2005

Subway Searches, Racial Smirches

My favorite Dragon Lady (Dorothy Rabinowitz) had a column yesterday that dovetails ever so sweetly with one I found today by Charles Krauthammer. Ms. Rabinowitz notes about the ACLU and bag searching...

Taking affront at government security measures in wartime is, of course, a choice available only to a free people, as is the right to cavil ceaselessly about the alleged erosion of our liberties, the dark night of oppression settling on us daily, as the NYCLU has so conspicuously done these last years--though not without echoing choruses from its parent organization, the ACLU, and various crank outposts of the libertarian movement...

...Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared an ironclad ban on anything smacking of profiling with an eye to any particular ethnicity or race. If we have learned anything, the mayor recently declared, "it's that you can't predict what a terrorist looks like."

To which Howard Safir, former police commissioner in the Giuliani administration, retorted on a "Hardball" interview, "We know what the 19 hijackers looked like on 9/11"--and also, he went on to note, what the London train bombers looked like, what those who bombed the Cole looked like, and more. The current mayor's posture on profiling was, he declared, an exercise in public relations that could never work.


Mr. Krauthammer looks back at the repressions visited on the American public during other wartimes:
Civil libertarians go crazy when you make this argument. Beware the slippery slope, they warn. You start with a snoop in a library, and you end up with Big Brother in your living room.

The problem with this argument is that it is refuted by American history. There is no slippery slope, only a shifting line between liberty and security that responds to existential threats.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln went so far as to suspend habeas corpus. When the war ended, America returned to its previous openness. During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt interned an entire ethnic group. His policies were soon rescinded (later apologized for) and shortly afterward America embarked on a period of unprecedented expansion of civil rights. Similarly, the Vietnam-era abuses of presidential power were later exposed and undone by Congress.

Our history is clear. We have not slid inexorably toward police power. We have fluctuated between more and less openness depending on need and threat. And after the Sept. 11 mass murders, America awoke to the need for a limited and temporary shrinkage of civil liberties to prevent more such atrocities.


I'm as leery as the next person about a 'camera in the bathroom' (My TOWACAs are my business, thank you.), but also an eternal optimist that something as abominable as the Japanese internment could never happen again. We, as a people, would never allow it. (We're also alot more informed than the folks in the 40's were ~ there are pens and paper standing at the ready to report anything and everything at any time; hence we'd know now that it was also a convenient land grab of some of the most fertile farmland in California, not just xenophobic security measures.) But the fact of the matter is that the enemy has a pretty distinctive face, and we are conditioned to not upset the hijackers or question evil when we sense it. Rather, we question our senses first.

(Ms. Rabinowitz) Among other lessons of 9/11, we have learned the cost of squeamishness that prevented closer scrutiny of young Arab men entering the country even when their behavior raised suspicions. In an exceptionally powerful series airing on the National Geographic Channel on Aug. 21 and 22, titled "Inside 9/11," an airline ticket-taker recalls being stunned by the strange look on the face of customer Mohamed Atta--particularly the unsettling fury the man exuded. Still, he could not bring himself to raise any alarm: indeed, when he heard later that the plane Atta was on had been one of those that crashed in the terror attacks, the agent felt terrible. Terrible because he had been suspicious of the passenger and thought he could be a terrorist and now the poor man was dead. It was a while before the ticket agent grasped that the man he suspected was, in fact, hijacker-in-chief and pilot of the plane.

They are here as our guests. Your reaction if someone over for dinner afterward proceeded to savage your family verbally, loud enough for his friends to hear and then spray paint your home? You'd dial 911, beat him soundly (well, at least seriously consider it) and throw him out. But if you knew the kind of person he was before you issued the invitation, shame on you.
(Mr. Krauthammer) Britain is just now waking up, post-7/7. Well, at least its prime minister is. His dramatic announcement that Britain will curtail its pathological openness to those who would destroy it -- by outlawing the fostering of hatred and incitement of violence and expelling those engaged in such offenses -- was not universally welcomed.

His own wife made a speech a week after the second London attacks loftily warning against restricting civil liberties. "It is all too easy to respond in a way that undermines commitment to our most deeply held values and convictions and cheapens our right to call ourselves a civilized nation," declared Cherie Blair. You need only read Tony Blair's 12-point program to appreciate how absurd was his wife's defense of Britain's pre-7/7 civil liberties status quo.

For example, point 3: "Anyone who has participated in terrorism, or has anything to do with it anywhere, will be automatically refused asylum in our country." What sane country grants asylum to terrorists in the first place?


Look in the mirror. The absolute howler is the EU convention that says you can't send them back if they face persecution, torture, blahblahblah. That's true and noble in intent for someone fighting for democracy, women's rights in Iran or Afghanistan, or the Dalai Lama. But for those cheerful Londonstan clerics, there's a reason they had to leave in the first place. And that reason should have kept them out. And who wouldn't be happier fomenting hate from a cushy London flat than a cave in Tora Bora?
(Mr. Krauthammer) Blair's proposals are progress, albeit from a very low baseline -- so low a baseline that the mere announcement of his intent to crack down had immediate effect. Within three days, the notorious Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, a Syrian-born cleric who has been openly preaching jihad for 19 years, skipped the country and absconded to Beirut.

Not only had Bakri been allowed to run free the whole time, but he had collected more than 300,000 pounds in welfare, plus a 31,000-pound gift from the infidel taxpayers: a Ford Galaxy (because of a childhood leg injury)...


And then there's just that whole damn inconvenience thing.
(Mr. Krauthammer) Before departing Britain, Bakri complained that it would be unfair to have him deported from the country he reviled: "I have wives, children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law. It would be hard on my family if I was deported."

Wives , no less. Point 10 of Blair's plan would establish a commission to try to get immigrants to adopt more of the local mores.


Hey pal. Lucky you didn't immigrate here. Even natural born American citizens go to jail for that crap. I see the Kuwaiti and Saudi flight students down here all the time and they piss me off royally, but not why you'd think. It's because, at 98 degrees and 100% humidity, they're in their little short sleeves and short shorts while their wives are swathed from head to frickin toe in heavy cloth. I just want to slap those girls and scream
"WAKE the f@ck UP! How can you be at the Winn Dixie, the Wal-Mart and the mall with the rest of us, you're stewing alive, he's dressed like David Hasselhoff and you can still be so blind! Watching our life go by you, HOW does that HAPPEN?!"

God, that pisses me off.
Maybe I'll stop being polite. Maybe I'll touch her sleeve next time and say "You don't have to dress like this unless you want to. Here in the United States you don't have to do anything a certain way unless you want to. Your husband's living like an American. Why aren't you worthy of that, too?"

Or maybe not. I don't want anyone calling the local gendarme. Intervention like that probably qualifies as a hate crime.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:18 AM | Comments (11)

August 10, 2005

Why Is It They Always Want to Be a 'Minister'...

... after they kill five people?

To town's dismay, school shooter to be released
Former loophole in justice system allows gunman, now 21, to be freed

JONESBORO, Ark. - Seven years after taking part in a schoolyard ambush where four students and a teacher were killed, Mitchell Johnson will walk out of a federal detention center Thursday.

His impending release has this northeast Arkansas town on edge, and many still question the fairness of releasing Johnson on his 21st birthday because of a now-closed loophole in the law...

...Woodard has said that her son will not return to Arkansas when he is released from prison in Memphis, Tenn. She said he wants to become a minister and hinted he will move at least a day's drive from Jonesboro and enroll in college.


I vote he lives in a mud hut, does nothing but good deeds for the rest of his life and has to depend on the kindness of strangers for sustenance, even if means he eats roots and bark. He got his break being able to walk out of prison at 21. It won't make up for what he did, but he doesn't rate a cushy college stint followed by a speaking tour and church stipend, either. And that could well happen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:16 AM | Comments (1)

August 09, 2005

Gazillionaire Goons

Rogers reinstated; Selig is furious
Ranger to serve less than 20-game suspension for shoving cameramen

NEW YORK - Kenny Rogers was reinstated Tuesday when an arbitrator ruled that commissioner Bud Selig overstepped his authority by suspending the Texas pitcher for 20 games and fining him $50,000 for shoving two cameramen...

...“There is a standard of behavior that is expected of our players, which was breached in this case. The arbitrator’s decision diminishes that standard and is contrary to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. In my opinion, the decision is seriously ill-conceived,” he said.


Selig finally grows a pair and he gets overruled anyway. I was confused by one part of the Commissar's statement, though. What exactly IS the 'Standard of Behaviour' expected of your players? There's been some damn sorry examples in the news lately and not a peep out of Bud. And another thing...

How many of you with kids out there have a child who gives a rat's ass about Major League Baseball? I mean, a fan. A kid that'll watch the ESPN Sunday night game with you, knows who's on the team and not just go to the ballpark to keep Dad/Mom happy? None of Ebola or his friends care for it even though they all played ball; a couple at the college level. So I ask you guys. What's happened to loving baseball?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:32 PM | Comments (6)

August 08, 2005

A Talent For Stating the Blatantly Obvious...

...helps when writing headlines.

Oil-For-Food Chief Accused of Kickbacks

I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you.
NEW YORK (AP) - Investigators probing claims of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program accused its former chief, Benon Sevan, of corruption for taking illegal kickbacks and recommended his immunity be lifted for prosecution.

The investigators said a former U.N. procurement officer sought a bribe and should have his immunity lifted as well. Alexander Yakovlev also was accused of collecting nearly $1 million in kickbacks outside the oil-for-food program...

...Though both men have quit, diplomatic immunity would cover their actions when they were employed. Volcker's recommendation that Annan waive that immunity was a strong indication of his conviction about the claims against them.

Sevan, a Cypriot citizen believed to be in Nicosia, was being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

He quit FRIDAY and is in Nicosia ALREADY?! (And that would be where, you ask? 'The Cypriot capital' for $5, Alex.) Good luck dragging him back to face the musical 'Grease'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:31 PM | Comments (3)

August 04, 2005

Daddy, Where Do Babies Come From?

If you don't know, the New York Times will find out.

NY TIMES INVESTIGATES ADOPTION RECORDS OF SUPREME COURT NOMINEE'S CHILDREN

**Exclusive**

The NEW YORK TIMES is looking into the adoption records of the children of Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The TIMES has investigative reporter Glen Justice hot on the case to investigate the status of adoption records of Judge Roberts’ two young children, Josie age 5 and Jack age 4, a top source reveals.

Judge Roberts and his wife Jane adopted the children when they each were infants.

Both children were adopted from Latin America.


What a sorry a$$ waste of outhouse paper they've become.

Notice the little guy cuts a handsomer slice of rug than the Guv wanna be below.
I'll bet his girlfriends are less expensive, too.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has posted a NYT response to an email on of her readers sent. It calls the Drudge Report overwrought, among other things. But then, to my ear, they slip up and I've highlighted the offending and offensive passage below:
In the case of Judge Roberts's family, our reporters made initial inquiries about the adoptions, as they did about many other aspects of his background. They did so with great care, understanding the sensitivity of the issue. We did not order up an investigation of the adoptions. We have not pursued the issue after the initial inquiries, which detected nothing irregular about the adoptions.

What low lifes. A child is not an aspect of someone's background.
UPDATE: Talk about crawling up someone's intestinal tract! I shall summarize.
This is almost everything you might, or might not, want to know about Judge Roberts. (AND what the Times wants you to know, whether you want to know it or not.)
It's about everyone else who wants to know about Judge Roberts. (Holy crap, Batman! He zips his pants from bottom to top! E. Ver. Y. Day.)
It's about who has what to say about Judge Roberts... (Ted Kennedy hints it's sink or swim time and he's the resident expert on submersibles.)
...before they even talk to...you guessed it...Judge Roberts. (Boxer Babs says, "And I would have a very difficult time - an impossible time, frankly - voting for someone who doesn't respect the privacy of half the population." Of course, the two halves of the population his children represent are fair game, privacy wise...there are two Americas, as far as the Democratic Party remembers.)

I'm sure by first light tomorrow there'll be six more links added. Hopefully one of them will be to an apology for the Times' craven classlessness. Ya think?
Pffft.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:42 PM | Comments (11)

August 03, 2005

Gives 'Bobbie Sox' a Whole New Meaning

UPDATE: And these are the kinda guys they're so worried about offending.

Fighting words in an anxious London

Prominent British Islamic militants praise attacks, call bombings justified
LONDON - As London braces for another feared attack, two prominent British Islamic militants say British civilians are fair targets.

“We don’t live in peace with you anymore,” said Abu Uzair in an interview on BBC Newsnight.

Abu Uzair and Abu Izzadeen — both British citizens — justified and even praised the attacks, which killed 52 people. “What I would say about those who do suicide operations or martyrdom operations — ‘suicide’ is a phrase coined by the media, they’re completely praise-worthy,” said Abu Izzadeen.


Has everyone gone mad?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just when you think you've heard every over the edge, moonbat, politically correct, non-racial profiling BS-on-crack idea, damned if something doesn't come along that'll just drop that old jaw back on the deck. Excuse me as I scoop mine back into place.
Police to raid in socks

POLICE have been told they must show respect by taking their SHOES OFF before raiding the homes of Muslim terror suspects.

It was one of 18 rules laid down in new guidelines for officers in Luton — a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism.

"Sock it to them ... cops must remove shoes according to memo"


Great googley moogley! I mean, DAMN!
A Swill Salute to The Moderate Voice. (Although I almost wish I hadn't heard...)



Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:09 PM | Comments (7)

No Little Light Shall Shine

This doesn't bode well for an open society.

American journalist shot dead in Iraq

An American journalist has been found shot dead in Basra four days after he wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times criticising the spread of Shi'ite Islamist fundamentalism in the southern Iraqi city. Witnesses said Steven Vincent and a translator were kidnapped by gunmen shortly after leaving a hotel on Tuesday evening. His body was found later that night...

The New York Times opinion piece criticised the failure of British forces to clamp down on what Vincent described as a city that was "increasingly coming under the control of Shi'ite religious groups, from the relatively mainstream ... to the bellicose followers of the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr". The article also focused on the Basra police force, quoting a police lieutenant as saying a few officers were perpetrating many of what he said were hundreds of assassinations of mostly former members of Saddam's Baath party each month. Iraqi Arab Sunni leaders have accused the Iraqi government of sanctioning Shi'ite hit squads that work alongside security and police forces...


UPDATE: A bittersweet paragraph from Mr. Vincent's last blog post, via Smash.
His words do him such honor.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:41 AM | Comments (2)

August 02, 2005

A Global Jihad Primer

From The Christian Science Monitor, all the FAQ's answered. Some answers are obvious...

What do the militants want?

For Islamist militants, the long-term objective is an Islamic superstate, or caliphate. Narrower objectives include the end of the state of Israel and toppling secular Middle Eastern regimes like Egypt's. It is an article of faith that the US and all secular Western states stand in their way, and weakening those states is seen as positive for all their objectives.

Some horrific to contemplate...
What Is their ideal society?

They want a society that applies the Koran literally and adheres to the social practices that prevailed at the time of the prophet Muhammad. It would not be democratic in any modern sense, though there are provisions for shura, or consultation - generally interpreted to mean the leader should take advice from trusted community members. In their interpretation of Islam, women and men have defined roles, and women generally have fewer rights.

Their views stem from the Salafi movement within Islam's Sunni sect, the religion's largest. For a Salafi adherent, interpretation of the Koran stops 1,300 years ago, with Muhammad, his companions, and the three generations that followed them.


How do you drag someone out of the stone ages mentally and culturally? The mind warping power of 'religion' is snicker material when watching the train wreck that is Tom Cruise, but multiply that power times a billion Islamics, divide by the unstable element within every society, multiply that by the blood thirsty encouragement of Koranic verses twisted in the mouths of radical imams, then all dumped into the context of 7th century life...I am hard pressed to see how you begin to deal with it. But you don't let these enclaves fester in your center out of political correctness while you decide. As per my post below; when faced with the choice of a free society and a chance to come into the world as it is now, regression seems the most viable option in Islam. How sad is that? And how terrifying for the rest of us.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:20 PM

July 30, 2005

That About Covers It


"He was saying to them: 'How do I know when I come out, that you're not going to shoot me? I'm scared'."

The only thing I can see fit to add is "Jesus, Lord Jesus, I hope they got them all." It's what the Brits do with them now that matters most.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:42 AM | Comments (3)

July 29, 2005

Go Good Guys, GO!!

New arrests in failed London bombings
Italy says one alleged bomber held; two others reportedly caught in London

LONDON - A suspected plotter in the failed July 21 London bombings was arrested in Rome Friday, Italy said in an announcement that came shortly after London police arrested three men in the case, two of whom also were suspected plotters, according to British media reports.

In Rome, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said that Somali-born Osman Hussain, a naturalized British citizen, was picked up by Italian police. He is suspected of being one of at least four plotters in the botched July 21 attacks.

In London, police said they made three arrests in two raids in the Notting Hill area during their search for suspects in the July 21 attacks, but they would not confirm reports that alleged plotters were among those arrested.

But one police source told Reuters the arrests were “potentially very significant.”


Keep roundin' 'em up, ya'll!!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:47 PM

Cawring Hans Brix Redux

Bring a bag lunch with you. It could be a long one, for once.

6-way North Korea talks to hit record 5th day
Despite prolonged meetings, few signs of progress in nuclear discussions

BEIJING - The top U.S. envoy pledged Friday to keep at nuclear talks with North Korea as long as necessary, meeting again with the North’s delegate as negotiations stretched into the longest round since the six-nation process began...

...Despite the apparent impasse at the talks after a record fourth day — the previous rounds never exceeded three days — he said Friday’s meetings “were not lower than my expectation...”


... as he oozed nothing but encouragement.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 AM

July 26, 2005

Not Just NO...

...but F@CK NO!

Iraq constitution may erode women's rights
Draft proposal would limit rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A part of Iraq's draft constitution obtained by The Associated Press gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance...

...Most worrying for women's groups has been the section on civil rights, which some believe would significantly roll back women's rights under a 1959 civil law enacted by a secular regime...


Somebody needs to nip that sh$t in the bud right NOW. And I wanna hear all my feminist, Hillary idolizing sisters' voices raised against this. Like now, NOW.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:00 PM | Comments (4)

July 22, 2005

One Down

Calif. man gets death sentence for killing girl

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A judge Friday formally sentenced to death the man who kidnapped and murdered 5-year-old Samantha Runnion in a case that led to the expansion of abduction alerts on electronic billboards along state freeways...

...Avila snatched the kicking and screaming girl* as she played outside her Stanton home. Her nude body was found the next day about 50 miles away, left on the ground as if it had been posed. Authorities said she had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.


*The injustice of it all is that he gets to go quietly.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:08 PM | Comments (2)

July 20, 2005

Save Yourself The Commission Expenses...

...I'll betcha any Average Joe could tell you, or make a damn fine start of it.

Muslims Demand Inquiry in London Bombings
Britain's Muslim leaders demanded a judicial inquiry Wednesday into what motivated the four "homegrown" suicide bombers who targeted London, as Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed an international conference on rooting out Islamic extremism.

Especially since you know that somewhere in the excuses list would be the 'you brought dat sh$t on yo self' line.
"The scale of disenchantment amongst Muslim youth is very clear to see," said Inayat Bungalwala of the Muslim Council of Britain. "Various factors are at play: underachievement in education; a high rate of unemployment; discrimination in the workplace; social exclusion, and also the government's own policies, especially in Iraq."

And there it is ~ right on cue. How pathetic. And how dare they? Instead of looking inward at their twisted, repressive society ~ one which makes no effort to mesh with either the real world or their adopted homelands ~ they demand answers from the very people their hatred has victimized. The same Brits whose generous nature has allowed these newcomers to maintain the insular communities that spawn such monsters. Muslim leaders are looking to divert attention from the ugly truths surrounding them and the perversion that is the Islam they teach. Opposition to war is ever so easily manipulated into something else ~ a smokescreen, and canny mullahs will take advantage of every navel gazing bleeding heart. Liberals will be all too quick to take up the clarion call as it suits their purposes and, as time grows distant from the shock of the subway horror, the noise will drown out the truth. If they let it. All the while pudgy faced, well fed Islamic lads will keep trucking off to Pakistan for summer learn-to-kill camps.

Before British society turns its gaze on itself as a root cause of such evil, British society needs to point a lazer beam into Leeds and cauterize the festering wound there. British society should be the ones demanding answers from Muslim leaders, and not the other way around.

UPDATE: Well, well, well. Check out Drudge.

BRITON NAMED AS BOMB PLANNER; MET WITH BIN LADEN
Wed Jul 20 2005 20:20:53 ET

Terror investigators hunting the London bombing mastermind are to question a suspected Al Qaeda planner held in Pakistan.

British-born Haroon Rashid Aswad was seized at a religious school with a suicide bomb belt, explosives and GBP 13,000 in cash.

As I said, who should be demanding the answers here?

UPDATE II: Norm Geras at normblog has something to say concerning navel gazers in today's Guardian. And does he ever say it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:05 PM | Comments (5)

July 13, 2005

Would He Be Britain's...

...Ted Rall?

From the Times U.K. Cartoon Gallery.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:17 PM | Comments (9)

Say Again?

Peculiar brand of tap-dancing while hair-splitting here:

...On Sunday afternoon he went to a shop in Nottingham to buy cigarettes and was first called "Taliban" by the youths and then set upon.

Nottinghamshire police described the incident as racially aggravated, not as Islamophobic, angering Muslim groups and surprising some senior officers.


But I'm pretty sure your average Brit could give a hoot-mon if Muslim groups are angry.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:41 PM | Comments (2)

Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy

Islamic cleric gets life for inciting war
Virginia-based scholar says he 'will not admit guilt'
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A prominent U.S.-based Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison...

...But he was accused of telling a group of young Muslim men just days after the attack that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and nonbelievers was at hand and that Muslims were obligated to engage in holy war. He told the group that defense of the Taliban was a requirement and that U.S. troops were a legitimate target, according to court testimony.


I notice he didn't hotfoot his own little butt over there to throw bombs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:15 PM | Comments (3)

He Ain't Heavy...

AS ZIMBABWE COLLAPSES, AFRICAN LEADERS LOOK THE OTHER WAY

God bless Bono. He has done more to put Africa back on the map than all the usual advocates -- African heads of state, the Congressional Black Caucus and international aid organizations -- combined.


Isn't that one of the saddest lead-in sentences you've ever read? Cynthia Tucker's column today addresses Africa ~ specifically the ruin that is Zimbabwe ~ with refreshing frankness. I don't understand the Cong. Black Caucus or, for that matter, the leading lady liberal lights of the left, who refuse to speak out against these most heinous of injustices (i.e. Mugabe, the Taliban, etc.) because it would undermine their 'we're all black brothers' or anti-war stance. Where's the moral authority in that? Wrong is wrong is wrong. Ms. Tucker speaks to the hypocritical nature of it:
Indeed, if Mugabe were a white colonial oppressor, black African heads of state would be demanding international intervention, and American civil rights activists would be burning him in effigy. Instead, Mugabe's most ardent defenders are African heads of state. When G-8 leaders -- joined by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a native of Ghana -- asked African leaders to condemn Mugabe's relocations, they refused.


I'm sure we're expected to dump another hundred billion bucks into the black holes of their countries' coffers before they'll reconsider.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 AM

July 12, 2005

This Lays It Out There Nicely

In all the breaking news surrounding the bombings in London and our own brand of wet and wild down here, this admission seems to have escaped notice. If these words don't scare the beejeebus out of the 'word terrorist is a barrier' crowd, there is no hope, nor any understanding for it and we need to carry on without them. Protecting their right to be clueless.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The man on trial in the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh (search) admitted his guilt in court Tuesday, declaring he acted out of religious conviction and would do it again if given the chance.

Mohammed Bouyeri (search) also turned to Van Gogh's mother, Anneke, in court and told her: "I don't feel your pain."

"I can't feel for you because I think you're a nonbeliever," he said...

"...I did it out of conviction," Bouyeri said. "If I ever get free, I would do it again."


This is what we're dealing with. There should be no more understanding anything. We understand PERFECTLY. The world needs to respond.
We don't feel your pain, because your beliefs are are a twisted sham. You are monsters and we will crush you. To defend and remain ever free, we will do it again. And again. Until the black stain of your unholy existence is wiped clean from this world.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:17 PM | Comments (7)

July 06, 2005

Sniffle...

One of five children born into a military family in Fort Bragg, N.C., Duncan moved frequently when he was growing up. The high school dropout often felt lonely and displaced, particularly after his parents’ divorce in 1979, the Times reported.

Rape at gunpoint
It was these feelings that prompted him to victimize others: by the time he was 16, Duncan estimated he had raped 13 younger boys, some at gunpoint, it said.

“It was an outlet for my feelings [of] rejections. One from my mother and one from my father,” Duncan wrote in a personal history cited by the Times. He said he didn’t feel wanted at home and at school, he was bullied by peers because of his constant moves.


Oh, I'll bet it was all that awful stuff that 'prompted' him to 'victimize' small boys. Sure glad we never had it so rough ~ hate to think what would've happened. Heh.
So he's all pitiful about moving and then some REAL name calling started...

Duncan was deemed a sexual psychopath at 17, after he was arrested for the rape and torture of a 14-year-old boy in 1980.

...SEXUAL PSYCHOPATH. That's a name. And what happened?
As an alternative to prison, Duncan underwent treatment at the Sex Offender Program and Western State Hospital in Washington state, where he lived during his teenage years. Twenty-two months later, he was kicked out of the program for sneaking off the campus and having rape fantasies, the Times said. A judge then reinstated his 20-year prison sentence in March 1982 and Duncan served 14 years in prison.

So, therapy, prison and halfway programs haven't helped but he's out anyway, with them all knowing what he is and what he does. Now there is dead family who didn't deserve any of this and a little girl traumatized beyond all believing. I'm sorry he had to move alot, but hundreds of military brats move every day and they manage to cope.

Psycho schmycho, it's quite simple really.

He's a monster and he needs to die.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:30 PM | Comments (5)

Ken Finds Some Ward Goodness I Missed

You've got to hand it to Ward; he's got a set of brass ones (handsomely crafted by native craftsmen from indigenous materials, natch). Ken's got the scoop on his latest venture. As each day goes by Ward is turning into Al Sharpton in buckskin (although, in his defense, Rev. Al actually is of minority extraction).

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:03 AM | Comments (2)

June 30, 2005

A New Type Of "Extra-Credit" Assignment

High school chemistry wasn't this fun when I was in school:

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A chemistry teacher who was at least three months behind on her car payments gave passing grades to two failing students who stole and burned her car so she could collect insurance money, a fire investigator said.

It seems to me that they have demonstrated a practical, working knowledge of chemical reactions.

I have to admit at being more than a little troubled by this, however, because I can't help but think what sort of extra-credit activities would be acceptable to, say, Ward Churchill...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)

June 29, 2005

Ward Churchill: Kill Your Officers

Pirate Ballerina has the text of the latest speech by Ward:

You cannot maintain a military projection of force in the field when your own troops are taking out the line officers who are directing them in combat. It is as simple as that. Conscientious objection removes a given piece of the cannon fodder from the fray; fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect.

Nice, huh? Isn't inciting murder/mutiny somewhat outside the realm of 'free speech"? Perhaps I'm just not edjumacated enough to understand his scholarly discourse.

(hat tip Ken)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)

June 26, 2005

Hanging by a Thread...

...the Democratic Party's integrity, that is. The New Hampshire Union Leader spells out in print what we noted in our 'lynching apology' post last week. Only their eloquence quotient trumps ours, so we felt we had to share.

Shifting the blame for an atrocity
JUST WHO OWES lynching victims an apology?

Judging from some of the commentaries we've seen, you'd think the eight Republicans who did not cosponsor the Senate's lynching apology — including Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu — had all been unmasked as former Ku Klux Klan members. (The bill passed on a voice vote with no objections.) But alas, the only former Klansman in the Senate is a Democrat, which brings us to the issue at hand.


Major Dad's point is reiterated"...anti-lynching bills often had majority support in the Senate throughout the 20th century. What stopped them from passing was not the collective action of the entire Senate, but repeated filibusters by a minority of Southern senators.
Who were those senators? They were Democrats.
"
Then the party is taken mightily to task...
...What of the Democratic Party?

It was the Democratic Party, not the U.S. Senate, that defended the institution of slavery, passed Jim Crow laws in the South, worked hand-in-hand with the Klan to repress, murder — and, yes, lynch — black Americans, and stood in the schoolhouse door to block black progress.

According to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, "Leading Democrats supported the Klan, and the party was largely indistinguishable from it. Klansmen beat, maimed, intimidated, and even killed Republicans of both colors who challenged them at the polls, or blacks and whites who tested the bounds of white supremacy by providing education or relief to the black freedmen."

Frederick Douglass in 1892 urged all blacks to support only Republican politicians...


Good stuff and wowsahs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:17 PM | Comments (6)

June 20, 2005

I May Not Live To See The Dawn

But I can not resist posting this quote:

You can take the girl out of Wellesley, but you can’t take Wellesley out of the girl.

It's been nice knowing you guys.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:32 PM | Comments (4)

June 16, 2005

Did Senator Durbin Mean What He Said?

Of course he did. And I read about it and thought perhaps cooler heads would prevail. He'd say 'I didn't mean any blah, blah, blah', his supporters would say 'he never meant to blah, blah, blah' and that would be the end of it. But it seems Senator Durbin is sticking with his comments.

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime _ Pol Pot or others _ that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.

He ratcheted up the hyperbole a couple notches, managing to lump us in with every group of bad guys for the past 100 years, while reciting this:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

Stacked up against the abominations perpetrated against the people of Russia, Europe, Cambodia, et al, broken thermostats and Christina Aguilera seem a little weak as the basis for such withering criticisms. (Ask any Jarhead/Soldier patrolling Baghdad how hot it is, every day.) Express your concerns rationally Senator, without resorting to cheap grandstanding learned at the Ted Kennedy School of Dubious Pronouncements. Maybe someone would listen.
UPDATE: Feel free to EMAIL the Senator. I did. If you love us, let us know what you said. We're nosy that way.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 AM | Comments (17)

Reparations Are Tricky...

...so we'll settle for the golf course.

Shinnecock Indians lay claim to valuable NY land

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The Shinnecock Indian tribe said on Wednesday it was seeking billions of dollars for 150 years of back rent on land it inhabited for 12,000 years in New York state in one of the largest suits of its kind.

The area is part of the Hamptons, known as a summer playground for New York's rich and privileged classes who flock there to escape the heat of the city.

The tribe filed the lawsuit against New York State in the U.S. district court in Central Islip.

The suit, which also names the governor, a local railroad and the town of Southampton, lays claim to 3,600 acres of land encompassing the upscale Shinnecock Hills Golf Course and Long Island University's Southampton College.


Don't you long for the days when a lawsuit was just for a cup of coffee dumped in your lap?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 AM | Comments (11)

June 14, 2005

I Don't Get This 'Lynching' Thing

You mean to tell me that forcibly removing someone from his home, his barn, his street or his place of incarceration to HANG HIM wasn't MURDER until this Senate vote? That a noose around someone's neck by virtue of mob rule or anything other than a jury's determination isn't criminally EXECUTING someone?

Seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynchings. Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in the first half of the 20th century. The House passed three anti-lynching measures between 1920 and 1940, but the Senate passed none.

Why did they have to 'petition'? Isn't the innate heinousness of the act of MURDER, by man or mob, criminal by every measure of our law? If it is indeed so, as I hope to God it is, and the Senate was being goaded to act because, by their very silence, they were complicit in this abomination, then shame and for shame on them, the craven cowards. What they should be apologising for is that they didn't pass ANY Civil Rights legislation. The Southern Senators should be groveling for their predecessors (and current members) who wore white sheets and hoods on weekends and blocked every attempt to pass such bills for years. While people died. For shame, indeed.

My question is for the barristers of our humble company. Do you know if lynching was legal? Not tacitly condoned or ignored by authorities (some of who may have been in those mobs) when their sworn duty was to protect the rights of citizens. But legally considered MURDER and chargeable as such, as if Congress could 'end' lynchings with legislation.

I ask in light of today's rush to enact special hate crimes and circumstance statutes that seem overwrought and unnecessary. If you are murdered for whatever reason, does the state not then owe your life every measure of justice available? You are equally as dead from the car jacker, the home invader, the homophobe and the racist are you not? Perhaps I'm simplistic, but I think every life deserves the same measure of respect and you dilute the enormous impact of the offence by categorizing it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:26 PM | Comments (10)

June 07, 2005

Bring Out Your Dead...

CUSTOMER: Here's one -- nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not dead!!

Zimbabwe's president denies he's dead
‘When did I die and where?’ Mugabe, 81, reportedly asks aide

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe denied rumors that he died of heart failure last week, the official Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.


DEAD PERSON: I don't want to go on the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don't be such a baby.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:14 AM | Comments (4)

June 06, 2005

Ward's Back!

A fantastic post by the Rocky Mountain News on my bud Ward Churchill that really lays out what a 'scholar' he is. From the looks of it the RMN has done a lot more research than Ward ever did...

Thanks to David Kopel at Volokh for the pointer.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:17 AM | Comments (5)

June 03, 2005

"I Pray Allah Will Freeze Your Blood"

Taking text messaging to new heights, a well wisher sends his regards to the phone of Mohammad al-Zulfa in response to his suggestion that his fellow legislators "think - just think - about studying the possibility of allowing women - not all of them, just some - to drive." (Okay, so he's not the most popular guy in Riyadh now. But bless his little pointy head, he tried.) There are those who disagree with him, apparently.

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from strange men, say women in the driver's seat will be free to leave home alone and go when and where they please; to unduly expose their eyes while driving; to interact with strange men such as traffic cops and mechanics.

MeCHANICS ??? BASTARDS !! Having posted numerous times on the strangeness, perfidy and lounge-lizardoid quality of Marine Corps aircraft mechanics, I can only imagine the horrors associated with Arab...'mechanics' (Pffft, PiTU!! You kiss your mother with that mouth??).

"Driving by women leads to eee-ville*," Munir al-Shahrani wrote in a letter to the Al-Watan daily.
And credit card statements, french fry wrappers on the carpet, empty Dasani bottles, sh*t. Just a frickin' mess. Hell NO, no Sheik worth his salt mine should be subjected to that!
"Can you imagine what it would be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men."
We all know what it's like, seeking help from men. Just getting the toilet seat down on a regular basis is Homeric. Fix the thing yourself, sister. That black burqua hides grease stains like a mo-fo.
*Okay, okay, he didn't say it exactly like that. Pretend I'm writing for Newsweek.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:42 AM | Comments (3)

May 31, 2005

Remember Our Rants...

...on parental responsibility, civilized behaviour, accountability at school, blah blah blah? Well, Mr. Beck has noted a doozy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:59 PM | Comments (2)

May 19, 2005

Oh, Good Lord

I don't think he looks anything like her. (Bingley will correct me if I'm wrong.)

"Michael Isikoff has become the Lynddie England of the Washington press corps. For inadequately sourcing a story reporting that the Quran of a detainee at the Guantánamo Bay prison had been flushed in a toilet, the Bush administration has turned the Newsweek reporter into a scapegoat for the disastrous consequences of its torture policy.

More drivel here.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:44 PM

May 11, 2005

This Monster...

...needs to die.

ZION, Ill. - The father of an 8-year-old girl who was slain along with her best friend admitted to authorities that he was the killer, saying he was angry at the girl for breaking curfew, prosecutors said Wednesday.

It gets worse as the day goes on and proves my point. Those poor babies. And bless Krystal's brave little heart.

Hobbs told investigators he was angry that the girl had gone out and went looking for her, authorities said. He told Laura to go home but she refused, so he punched her for disobeying, Pavletic said. Krystal then pulled out a potato knife to try to defend her friend, and he attacked her as well, getting the knife away and stabbing both girls, according to the interviews.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:49 PM | Comments (13)

April 26, 2005

Again on Parental Responsibility

Remember our ongoing litany? Another former Jarhead who blogs has seen fit to wade into the fray. (Major Dad found him courtesy of FoxNewsdotcom.) See? We're not the only cranky anti-entitled children grouches out there! Ah. Strength in numbers. Read it and weep.

Two patients I had to deal with today were real works of art.

Although one was male and one was female, they both were 14 years old and each of them weighed more than my 6"1' large-and-in-charge overweight ass.

Mostly it was the guy who bothered me. In certain cultures, no matter his age, boys are considered superior to girls. Even if a boy is 4 years old and hasn't quite mastered toilet training yet, without the dad around, he is the master of the house, lording over even his own mother.

What this means is that mom caters to his every desire, and about the time he turns 14, he has been enabled into helplessness. He has been getting along so long on the industry of others that he no longer knows how to do things without them. He ends up turning into a blubbering mass of chewed bubble gum every time someone puts any sort of tasks upon him. Tell him to sit in a chair as opposed to lying in bed, and he starts crying and screaming "I caaaaaaaan't."


Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:45 PM | Comments (2)

April 14, 2005

Admit It! We've All Wanted To...

...ya know. Say something like this, when confronted with another loser member of the humanoid herd.

911 dispatcher reprimanded for wisecrack
Apologizes after facetious offer to shoot child

WATAUGA, Texas - A 911 dispatcher was reprimanded for responding to a mother’s plea for help with an unruly child by saying: “OK. Do you want us to come over to shoot her?”

Major Dad and I lost our sense of empathy a long time ago, living in the gang infested turf of Santa Ana, CA. We'd see sobbing mothers every other broadcast of the local LA evening news. Bawling their eyes out over a dead son John, Jose or Antuwan. Seven years old and gunned down on those vicious streets by the gang du jour. Spraying bullets across the sidewalk at some obscure target, while invariably hitting only the 7 year old or the 92 year old granny on her porch. Then the rest of the report would include "3 a.m." Once in a blue moon a reporter would wade into the wails of grief to ask, "what was he doing on the street at three in the morning?" The screaming would cease, an indignant look would appear and the answer always was:

"I can't control him."

You can't control a seven year old ???

Then you don't need to be breeding and WE don't need to pay for your complete lack of parental responsibility when he kills someone with a baseball bat and more excuses fly. 'Want him to shoot the 12 year old?'
Yes, please. We do. But only after he puts you out of our misery first.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:47 PM | Comments (5)

April 12, 2005

Bingley, Take Note...

...you corporate whore, you. I've found you another way to get ahead. Whoops! Make that 'a head'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:55 AM | Comments (6)

April 10, 2005

Get a Grip People...

He's been dead for 93hundred years and has nothing to do with your tribe, my tribe or anybody else's tribe.

WASHINGTON - Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting legislation they say could block their efforts. They say a two-word amendment to a bill on American Indians would allow federally recognized tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe.

John McCain should quit being the suck-up of the ages...

...but the bill has been revived in this Congress by the panel's new chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

...and let the anthropologists/archeologists do their job.

Call me a ghoul, but I find it fascinating when a discovery fleshes out after study. Like the Jamestown burials for instance. Arrowheads lodged in bones, hatchet marks on skulls ~ gads! It's one thing to read about how tough it was, quite another to have the evidence at hand. Or the iceman they found in the Alps a gazillion years ago. Everyone had agreed he'd been caught in a storm and frozen to death until an autopsy revealed murder most foul. How cool is that??! But if a tribe of Primordial Austrian Goatherders had decided he was their sacred popsicle, that glimpse into history would have never happened.

I suppose someone will be shortly claiming these bones, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:20 AM | Comments (14)

April 05, 2005

"I Did Not Come To Praise The Pope..."

...but to, er, drool on myself.

Courtesy of Arthur Chrenkoff is this wonderful essay by a professor of 'cultural theory' at Manchester University.

My favorite bit is this:

The Catholic church had lived through its own brand of flower power in the 60s, known as the Second Vatican Council; and the time was now ripe to rein in leftist monks, clap-happy nuns and Latin American Catholic Marxists. All of this had been set in train by a pope - John XIII - whom the Catholic conservatives regarded as at best wacky and at worst a Soviet agent.

Amazingly devious, these Catholics, no? Wacky John XIII was a closet Soviet agent 900 years before the birth of Marx.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:01 PM | Comments (11)

March 29, 2005

Tin Pots, Hot Spots, Tempests and Despots

You're right. Africa.

I've been doing an admirable job, blonde-wise, of keeping up with the goings, comings and hand wringings about Sudan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Chad...the misery list seems interminable doesn't it? Major Dad's photos from Somalia sit framed on our sofa table (they were one of the first Marine Corps heavy helo outfits in) and he talks sometimes about what a jolt Mogadishu had been. Even to jarheads who'd prowled the depths of Olongapo and thought they knew what third world was. This time though, I find myself nodding 'ah so' or giving Major Dad a smidge more background to the story they just had on the screen because of a book I picked up last year. I'd like to recommend it, if you haven't read it and have an interest in such things. It's called Dark Star Safari: overland from Cairo to Capetown, by Paul Theroux (2003). It's a travelogue. Forty years before he'd been both a teacher in Uganda and Peace Corps worker in Malawi. On the eve of his 60th birthday he determined to go 'walk-about' in the Africa of his 20's. See if it was still there, if any of his friends were, if any of those dusty days spent teaching had sown seeds.

He touches on almost every subject we see on the newscasts; observes, records, talks to locals. Spares no one's ignorance, including those at home. One of my favorite passages in the book happens as he's meeting an old friend, who has become the Ugandan Prime Minister.

I called him back and he said I should come to his office the next day. He said it was a waste of time to give me directions.
"The prime minister's office! Everyone knows where the prime minister's office is. Ask any taxi driver!"
The same bluster-he hadn't changed. From the beginning, when he joined my department as a lecturer in 1966, I had found him interesting. He had just come from Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. in political science. On first meeting him, I asked him how he liked Chicago. He said,"Immensely." Some months later he said he had had several run-ins with the Chicago police, what is now known as racial profiling.
"Each time it was the same. I would be walking home late at night after studying at the library. A police car would pull up to the curb and a white policeman would say, 'Get over here, nigger. Where are you going?'"
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I said, 'Officer, I am not a nigger. Do not call me a nigger. I am Ugandan, an African. I am a student here and I am doing nothing wrong.'" And then his voice became shrill:"'I am not a nigger!'"
Saying he was an African usually worked. One policeman even apologized, saying,""Sorry, we didn't know you were an African. We thought you were a nigger."

He paints such pictures that you can almost smell the market, loathe the aid workers in their white Range Rovers, feel the natural pride in so many of the people trying to hold back the tide. Or pick up the pieces after it's already washed through. A chapter called 'Invading Drummond's Farm' deals with Zimbabwe and Mugabe's destruction of it:

Even the kindly winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Reverend Desmond Tutu, had said, "The man is bonkers."

and:

Later on, near the lake, I chatted with an African who owned a fishing cooperative. He was Joseph, a Malawian, who said the farm invasions were a "disaster." I asked him what he thought of his homeland, Malawi. "Hopeless," he said. He added that he seldom went home, because it so happened that he was successful in his fishing business.
"If I go back to Malawi my relatives will borrow money and eat my food and make me poor."
Joseph explained that protecting what you had achieved was a serious problem in this part of Africa. He was not speaking of the white farmers whose land had been invaded, but he could have been. If someone had money or land or food, onlookers were attracted, feeling they were entitled, and everyone tried to take something.

I'm not suggesting it will change your mind, make a case for intervention...or not, blahblahblah, so no squawking 'agendista'. I just think most of you'd like it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:30 PM | Comments (3)

March 24, 2005

There's No Place Like Home...

...and now the Homeowners' Association can't sell it out from under him.

Court: Marine can't be forced to sell home
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A retired Marine who has waged a five-year fight with his homeowners' association over a flag pole won a battle Wednesday when an appeals court ruled his home can't be sold for lawyers' fees.

In a 3-0 decision, the appeals court agreed with George Andres, and his wife, Anna, that the Florida Constitution protects homes from forced sales except in very limited circumstances - and attorneys' fees are not on the list.


Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:04 PM | Comments (5)

March 14, 2005

The Union Label? Or Libel?

Sheesh, I was gonna vacuum the dump, but then Major Dad had to spoil all those good intentions with an email. With a headline like this:

Marines driven out of UAW lot

The union says Marines in foreign cars, displaying Bush stickers unwelcome.

And I can't leave well enough alone and have to click through. As I often call Bingster and Major Dad, but seldom mean it (really!):

BASTARDS!!

Okay, back to our irregularly scheduled elbow grease.
*Note: Nothing like pissed off Jarheads for getting the word out ~ Marine Corps scuttlebutt enabled us to scoop even Drudge by a healthy time frame.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 AM | Comments (3)

What if the Lights Are On But Nobody's Home?

As would seem to have been the case in the horrific Atlanta courthouse shootings.

Video captures attack
A video camera, which is supposed to be monitored by two guards in a command post, shows Nichols and the deputy arriving in the holding area between two courtrooms, according to a law enforcement official who saw the tape. The video shows Hall guiding Nichols, whose hands are still handcuffed behind his back, into one of two open cells.

Hall releases one cuff and turns Nichols around to unhook the remaining cuff. But the muscular, 33-year-old Nichols then lunges at Hall, knocking the petite, 51-year-old grandmother backward into another cell. Both disappear from camera view. Two to three minutes later, Nichols emerges from the cell, holding Hall’s gun belt and police radio. He picks up her keys from the floor and locks her in the cell.

A few minutes later, he emerges in civilian clothes. He locks the door behind him and calmly walks out of the holding area, carrying the gun belt, according to the official who saw the tape.

Please note: that was 'the official who saw the tape. Not the law enforcement types whose job is monitoring the tape.
Not the law enforcement types who let him damn near kill one of their own under their very noses. Oh, wait. Duh. Their noses would have had to have been at their appointed place of duty for it to happen 'under' them. The explanation should be interesting.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:25 AM | Comments (6)

March 10, 2005

"Ick" With A Capital "I"

I'm sorry, but this (warning! Ickyickyicky link ahead!) little bastard should be charged with a hell of a lot more than "disturbing the peace".

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:48 PM | Comments (11)

March 07, 2005

The Rachel Corrie Award

I wasn't aware that such a thing existed, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Eugene Volokh reports that one

Matthew Abraham, assistant professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, is the recipient of the 2005 Rachel Corrie Award for Courage in the Teaching of Writing.

"Courage in the Teaching of Writing". Roll that around on your tongue for a bit. I wasn't aware that it was such a hazardous profession. "Take care Jones! Those mis-placed modifiers are loaded for bear!"

It seems his nomination was bulldozed through by none other than Noam Chomsky, who said

"Abraham not only organized the symposium, but was also its guiding participant. The leading themes were topics that particularly concerned Edward Said--and Rachel Corrie. That takes a good deal of courage in the public domain in the US, including an academic setting. It includes extremes of abuse and vilification, and for younger people, threats to possible appointment; and in fact more direct threats, including death threats, many taken seriously by police on campuses and in communities....Abraham handled all of this with skill, care, sympathetic understanding, and admirable courage. The same has been true of other initiatives of his in defense of freedom of speech and academic freedom, and of suffering people. It is an admirable record, one of which, I am confident, Rachel Corrie would have very much approved, as I do, very much....In brief, I cannot think of a more worthy candidate."

Who knew Chomsky was a deconstructionist?

Heh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:56 PM | Comments (9)

March 06, 2005

Tender Harvard Souls, Part II

Further to what THS posted below, what really struck me about this whole "issue" was the way it was first reported by the Harvard Crimson:


After some students were offended by Jada Pinkett Smith’s comments at Saturday’s Cultural Rhythms show, the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) and the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations have begun working together to increase sensitivity toward issues of sexuality at Harvard.

Students said that some of Pinkett Smith’s remarks concerning appropriate gender roles were specific to heterosexual relationships.

In a press release circulated yesterday by the BGLTSA—and developed in coordination with the Foundation—the BGLTSA called for an apology from the Foundation and encouraged future discussion of the issue.

Now, ignoring for a moment the blatant descrimination that the BGLTSA is showing towards Lesbian Gorillas and Plushies, if you possibly can, and believe me I know it is difficult and frankly hard to accept, this 'issue' and the grievences that these students air are capture perfectly so much of what is wrong with universities today. These poor coddled little dears spend four years (at least) as supposed 'adults' having every little pea in their collective mattresses legislated away by an administration and a mindset that has been so successful at "increas(ing) sensitivity" that the slightest utterances from people lead to "crises" which need to be negotiated and discussed and apologies must be issued and genuflections, er, genuflected or however one does that.

Get a fucking grip people. The lady gives a perfectly cookie-cutter ok touchy-feely 'inspirational' speech for women (or should I say "womyn"?). Now, if you want to be curmudgenly about the speech you could say it's perfectly legitimate to say that yes girls (and I use that term in a gender neutral, non-patriarchalistic sense) you can "have it all" if you and your husband luck out and both work in fields where you get paid millions of dollars for a few months of reciting lines that someone else has written; it's a tad more difficult when you work at Jiffy Lube and your bride works at Target. This whole "You Can Have It All" mantra of feminism has caused more damage to women (aside, of course, from Leif Garrett) than anything else that came out of the 60s. No you can't have it all. But that's a topic for another rant.

Anyhow, like I said there are reasons to question some elements of her speech, but

“Some of the content was extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable,” he said.

ain't one of them. Part of being a big boys and girls (AIEEE! Gender stereotypes!) is dealing with people who are different from you, shrugging your shoulders and moving along. Sometimes things happen that you don't like, or maybe you disagree with. Hell, sometimes you get a boo-boo on your knee. It's called life. Grow up. Get used to it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:05 AM | Comments (6)

March 05, 2005

Bill Maher and Ward

Jeff Jarvis watched the "interview" that Bill Maher had with Ward Churchill. All I can say is Oh My God. What a completely offensive and simply incredibly vile show. After reading Jeff's comments, and those of Democracy Guy (who very correctly states "I'm not sure my skin has ever crawled as much as it did when I watched Bill Maher "interview" University of Colorado "Professor" Ward Churchill."), I made the mistake of following the link and watching the video myself. Next time I will follow his advice.

I couldn't sit through all of it. But what amazes me is why does Maher even bother having Churchill on? Ward comes off like a mumbly-bumbly maroon who sits there so Maher can recite his case for why americans should be slaughtered. According to Maher America has killed some 30-odd million people at least (I frankly got lost with all the numbers he was force-feeding Ward, who by the way was just so awful I almost felt bad for the guy) so we deserve to be the charter member of some "9-11 of the Month Club" I guess.

If you really want to see it, the video is here. And make sure to read the comments there as well, as most are defending Maher. But you have been warned.

(all the many other Ward and Co. posts can be found here.)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:34 PM | Comments (7)

March 04, 2005

The Wrong Approach To Ward

Insta links to a column in the Rocky Mountain News by Mike Rosen which to my reading strikes several wrong notes on the scandal. While I fully agree that campus speech codes and the like need to be abolished, what we don't need is to set up hiring quotas for conservative professors or set up anti-liberal universities. That's just as bad as what is done now. What needs to happen is for universities and faculty to admit their bias and base hiring and decisions upon teaching ability and scholarship and to develop minimum standards of accountability for tenured faculty and enforce them. Teach a class occasionally? Check. Advise some undergraduates occasionally? Check. That sort of stuff. A segregated university system is in no one's interest.

(yes, yes another Ward post)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:02 PM | Comments (1)

March 02, 2005

The Empire Strikes Back

Insta links to a Rockey Mountain News column about a piece by Ward Churchill's replacement as Chair of the Ethnic Studies Dept. at CU, Emma Perez, that appears in Counter Punch. I have several comments. Firstly, if the quality and tone of the RMN column are indicative of the quality of their service as a whole, I would subscribe in a heartbeat (if I didn't live in NJ and not really lose much sleep over being out of the loop on Rocky Mountain issues); it's quite excellent.

Secondly, let's look at her article, "A Neocon Test Case for Academic Purges: The Attacks on Ward Churchill."

(Previous posts on this topic here, here, here (sort of), here, here, here, here, and finally here. geesh...I had no idea)

We've done some preliminary research and analysis and it's become clear exactly what's at stake and what we're up against. CU-Boulder has been made the national frontline of the neocon battle for dominance in academe.

Who is "we", anyway?

Hmmm, has she been channeling Hillary?

CU-Boulder has likely been made their "test case," their break-the-mould moment in a national strategy. Their local resources and troops (thinktanks, legislative, rank-and-file followers) are already fully mobilized and their national resources are mobilizing in our direction (if not already mobilized), and the infrastructure they already have here is formidable. On Ward's specific case, they are already *at least* 3 weeks ahead of us in organizing, and they are using tactics they have been testing since the 90s.

Hmm, I guess she has. She fails to mention those of us in our pajamas, though. "Tactics they have been testing since the 90s." Ah yes, the fiendish and soon-to-be-banned-by-the-Geneva-Convention one/two punch of quoting someone's own words and researching the veracity of their claims.

Some details from preliminary research:

* The CO governor, Governor Bill Owens, is no ordinary Republican governor. He is an activist leader in their battle for higher education through his role in ACTA (American Council of Trustees and Alumni).

This is exciting, if you think about it, because she clearly states that "ordinary republicans" are not "activist leader(s) in their battle for higher education." Awfully kind of her, really.

ACTA is Lynn Cheney's organization, which hit the headlines a few years ago for creating the rightwing National Assoc of Scholars (NAS) and for proposing post-911 to monitor faculty nationwide for ideological (liberal/left) bias. Gov. Owens is especially active in ACTA's "Governors Project". He has already hosted an ACTA-led conference in CO for state trustees, probably for training them (wouldn't be surprised if some of our regents aren't in this same loop). He is already implementing the Governors Project strategy at less visible institutions. For example, last month the trustee structure at Mesa State College was revised and he appointed 3 new trustees, one of whom is "the intermountain coordinator for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni for teacher preparation reform."


Look at all the proof of the right wing conspiracy cabal! Can't you fools see? And the Regents are involved! AHHHHHHHHH!

Of course, they do sort of have responsibility for the quality of education that CU students (remember them, anyone?) receive.

Also leading in this "Governors Project" is Pataki in NY-no doubt connected with the Hamilton College incident that started all of this.

Hamilton. Wasn't he on Karl Rove's payroll?

* The general strategy in forcing and then manipulating this "investigation" of Ward's scholarship shares key tactics with the neocon sinking of Emory historian Bellesiles in 2001 www.oah.org/pubs. There are also likely to be parallels with the campaign against Linda Brodkey at UT in 1991 as well as other campaigns through which they have been testing and developing their methods and tactics.

I can not hope to improve upon the Rocky Mountain News on this:

Then there is this remarkable assertion: "The general strategy in forcing and then manipulating this 'investigation' of Ward's scholarship shares key tactics with the neo-con sinking of Emory historian Bellesiles in 2001 . . ." In fact, Michael Bellesiles resigned after a panel of scholars from places such as Harvard and Princeton concluded his failure to cite sources for material in his book, Arming America, "does move into the realm of 'falsification.'" Hardly a poster boy for the so-called new McCarthyism.

Back to Ms. Perez:

* Besides suggesting "treason" on the part of Ward and calling for his firing, Governor Owens has already requested Ethnic Studies' budget, one of the most important neocon institutional targets. In a parallel de-funding move, see their successful campaign to pass H.R. 3077

I would humbly suggest that the budget of the Ethnic Studies Department is probably a lot more important to the members of that department than it is to damn near anyone else.

Further, by going after Ward's tenure, they are essentially targeting the scholarly legitimacy of the entire field that, through external and internal review, granted Ward tenure. If Ward's tenure (and his promotion to Full, and his successful post-tenure review) was a "mistake," the next question is "who gave it to him?" Ultimately, by undermining the integrity of tenure in one national field, the neocon Right will pave the way to an attack on the very legitimacy of tenure as an institution. CU Regent Lucero did not mince words in his public statement at the emergency meeting where the 30-day investigation of Ward was announced:

"My displeasure with Mr. Churchill's essay should be abundantly clear, however, the issues regarding faculty responsibilities are still my focus. While the language in the Laws and Policies is in place, setting the standards for faculty expectations and the grounds for discipline, I would argue that they are subjective and dependent on the faculty for interpretation as to whether a professor has crossed a line. I would suggest that the time has come for a revision to the Policies that allows for other forms of adjudication that are not reliant on the faculty for determining subjectively the fate of one of their own. (Feb 3, 2005)"

No, "they" are examining the "scholarly legitimacy" of Ward Churchill, and that sinister next question is exactly the question that must be asked if the concept of tenure is to retain any integrity. It is politicized tenured faculty themselves that are undermining tenure by the slipshod and politically motivated way in which they at times award it.

While I am not in complete agreement with Regent Lucero in terms of investigating faculty soley due to things they've said, I am in complete agreement with his concerns that an alternate and/or supplemental method of evaluating faculty needs to be considered because it is abundantly clear that faculty can not and will not police themselves.

* Neocon students at CU-B (College Republicans) are likely connected with CampusWatch and/or AVOT (Americans for Victory against Terrorism); they are already connected with a very hostile right-wing talk radio talk show host in Denver (that is then feeding to the national level) and they have been using tried-and-true CampusWatch/AVOT-type tactics to create the steady stream of racist, violent hatemail that not only Ward, but ES faculty and students are receiving.

Um, ok. Publish some of it and pursue punishment via the proper channels. And they do have the right of "free association", last I checked.

* While we are confused and disoriented by the barrage of attacks, the state legislature is already moving to get tenure changes written into the books. The tactic is for Owens to make radical demands and push the envelope to the right, opening up space for a conservative Democrat to propose a more "moderate"-looking bill (Senate Bill 85, which includes tenure law changes) that should, if they're smart, pass quickly and easily, possibly even before the next Regents meeting. Reported in the Colorado Daily on Friday Feb 11, the tenure changes appear minor but will be used as footholds for the next deeper round(s) of legislative actions.

There's that darn "we" again. Again, by not acting in a professional manner they have brought this upon themselves. Instead of saying "we'll investigate" they circle the wagons and scream "First Amendment!"

* The CU-Boulder administration seems well-intentioned but to have misjudged the stakes and their opposition. They may have believed they could keep control of the investigation by doing it in-house but the Right is already outflanking them by using this investigation to launch an ideological show-trial; it's a war of public opinion in which the administration has already been outmaneuvered. By the end of 30 days, they could easily be backed into a corner, unable to resist the Right's larger agenda. The Admin's investigation can find whatever it wants (it could even decide to make no move against Ward), but by that point, it won't matter because all the legislative momentum/power will be out of their hands. Ultimately, the neocon agenda doesn't even have to succeed in getting Ward's tenure revoked; the attack on Ward is only one key piece of a larger campaign with several objectives beyond the firing of Ward.

Well, CU's efforts at damage control (let alone self-policing) are certainly well-deserving of their "deer-in-the-headlights" reputation. But the administration, in conjunction with the faculty, is the proper venue for such an investigation.

Unless I'm missing something, it would seem to me that the focus of an investigation is to find the facts, not to "find whatever it wants", but I had a simple upbringing.

* Ward is a prime target. He is vulnerable and, at the same time, has extremely high strategic value. In terms of his vulnerability: he can be isolated from support forces who would traditionally make it hard to attack a tenured faculty. There are faculty who have problems with his being American Indian or who have something against Ethnic Studies, etc etc-these faculty will be reluctant or refuse to defend him (until it's too late). As a revolutionary, he can be counted on to have a significant number of colleagues who strongly dislike him and will be reluctant or refuse to defend him (until it's too late). On top of all this, in the post-911 climate, moderates who would normally disagree with his views but then go on to defend his free speech rights and academic freedom, will hesitate because they are afraid of being cast in with his "anti-americanism" (much like the McCarthy period). In terms of his high value as a target (David Horowitz has already written on this): he's not only tenured, but he's a full prof; he's not only inside ethnic studies but he was chair; he's not in just any university in CO, he's at the institutional flagship of "liberalism" in the middle of a red state.

Boy he sure is a prime target. He's an apparently under-qualified scholar, a plagiarizing "artist", and a guy who seems to have mis-represented (which is a big word that means "lied about") both his ethnicity and his military career. Aside from that he's aces. Oh, and she claims there are racists on the faculty, too. That'll spice up the next faculty meeting. But isn't that the glorious struggle that true revolutionaries embrace?

Hell, I defend his right to free speech. But I also demand that he be held to the same standards in his job qualification as everyone else. And if he lied and committed fraud during the process, he should be booted.

We have to be as clear as possible about the big picture. This is much, much bigger than an individual attack on Ward. What we're looking at is a carefully developed, pre-existing national strategy that has been searching for exactly the right breakthrough "test case." It has found extremely favorable conditions in Ward's situation and in the post-911 climate. As they've been doing already in other areas they want to dismantle the structural footholds (academic freedom/tenure, ethnic studies) that social movements gained for people of color and liberal and progressive intellectuals inside academe during the 60s & 70s. If they are successful in Colorado, it could set a precedent like Bakke. Raising the stakes even higher, Governor Owens has ambitions that reach as far as the White House. The next phases of his career hang on this crucial campaign that will give definitive proof of his leadership ability. If he pulls it off, it's a glorious triple coup-de-grace: undermine the legal foundation of tenure/free speech, hurt/ruin Ethnic Studies...and at no less than the strongest "liberal" campus in the state. His personal investment in this campaign is very high and he is likely to throw his whole weight behind it.

We. Who is "we"? Oh, and Hillary's back. Hurrah! It's a "pre-existing" condition, this conspiracy (which I guess exempts it from coverage by the Right Wing Death Beast HMO) that has been waiting and watching, Sauron-like, for the proper moment to lash out. Muwhahahaha! Yes, it all comes together now...the mass arrests of scholars, minorities rounded up and shipped off to the wilds of northern Minnesota, the vicious attacks on people of different races and faiths (oops, sorry. That was France). And yes, those poor progressive liberals who've only got a foothold in academe (for the benefit of those of us outside the Ivory Tower, "foothold" is defined as "a 10-to-1 majority"); no wonder they feel so beseiged.

While Gov. Owen may indeed have aspirations for higher office, he may also simply be dreadfully embarrassed by the mess at CU. And I'm still trying to figure out that triple.

This is a fight to make history.

Emma Perez is the new chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado

Perhaps. But it's more a fight about history, specifically Ward's and the mess of a process that allowed him to get where he is.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:00 PM | Comments (10)

More Ward Stuff

David Kopel has an excellent post up at Volokh that provides a great summation of the fraud that is Ward Churchill. As I've noted before, the real scandal here is not what he's said but that he was given tenure.

Here is Churchill's faculty page. Please notice the title: "Professor"

Now what does the CU Faculty Handbook have to say about this?

Hmmmmm...

Here are some relevant quotes form the faculty handbook concerning tenured faculty:

(6)1 Professor - Professors should have the terminal degree appropriate to their field or its equivalent, and (A) a record that, taken as a whole, is judged to be excellent; (B) a record of significant contribution to both graduate and undergraduate education, unless individual or departmental circumstances can be shown to require a stronger emphasis, or singular focus, on one or the other; and (C) a record, since receiving tenure and promotion to associate professor, that indicates substantial, significant, and continued growth, development, and accomplishment in teaching, research, scholarship or creative work, and service.

and

2. Evaluation Committee

a. For the purpose of assisting the primary unit in making its recommendations on appointment, reappointment, tenure, and/or promotion, each primary unit shall elect or appoint (having previously voted on the method to be followed) from among its members an evaluation committee for each candidate being considered during an academic year. The committees may consist of both tenured and nontenured members. Such committees shall take into account and carefully evaluate the following:

(1) Information concerning the teaching ability of the candidate including the opinions of the candidate's students and colleagues and other qualified individuals who may have observed the candidate's classroom presentations;

(2) The candidate's scholarly, creative, and/or research efforts, including the opinions of colleagues relative thereto and written publications which the committee should thoroughly examine;

(3) Opinions of others in the candidate's field or in cognate fields who have particular knowledge of the candidate's scholarly, creative, and/or research efforts;

(4) The candidate's University and public service including the opinion of colleagues and others relative thereto;

(5) Any other information submitted by the candidate that the candidate believes will assure an adequate consideration and evaluation of his/her appointment, reappointment, promotion, and/or tenure;

(6) The opinions of members of other units within the University community who are competent to judge the candidate and have a legitimate interest in the appointment, reappointment, promotion, and/or tenure recommendation; and

(7) The opinions in writing of scholars from outside the University and from various locations who are qualified to judge the candidate. Such outside opinions are mandatory in cases of recommendations for tenure and promotion. (The candidate will be asked to provide names of scholars that should be considered in selecting external reviewers.)

Examples of appropriate criteria to be considered in evaluating teaching, research or creative work, and service are included in Attachment 1.

b. After diligently pursuing the procedures outlined above, the evaluation committee shall report its findings concerning appointment, reappointment, promotion, and/or tenure to the primary unit which acts on behalf of the unit.


Am MA from Sangamon State (not Sangaman Ward; check the piece of paper on your wall) somehow does not seem to be a 'terminal' degree.

The many issues that Kopel lists seem to indicate that CU's procedures were not "diligently pursu(ed)."

No wonder 199 members of the CU faculty finds the investigation into Churchill "frightening".

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:27 AM

March 01, 2005

Because of Winn-Dixie

If you recognize anyone, adjust their attitudes immediately.

Cashiering Tips 101

Hello,

I’m your friendly checker. Maybe you call me “the cashier” or “check out girl/lady/register bimbo/whore/missy. I’m a relatively normal person who, for some reason or other, whether it be severe low career expectations, a second job to make up for my insurmountable credit card bills, or to just fuel my alcohol habit, has the relentless task of checking you and your groceries out. I thought maybe some guidelines were in order, to clarify my miserable existence while working my shift.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM | Comments (13)

February 28, 2005

Give It A Rest?

I was sitting watching Nickelodeon with my 11 year old daughter the other day, Friday, I think it was, and a particularly sloth-like day at that, and every half hour there'd be one of those "Kids Today!" or "Kids Can Make A Difference!" or "Buy Transformers Cereal You Little Bastards!" or some such named little vignette that would appear. You know the type: a 'special' 2 minute long or so "Kidumentary" between the end of one show and the start of another which the networks point to when the FCC comes sniffing around and say "Look! We're doing edumacational public interest stuff! Really!"

I do feel sorry for today's youth, however. We got Conjunction Junction; they get stuck with Linda Ellerbee.

Anyhow, after the third or fourth of these (did I mention that I was exceedingly lazy on Friday night?) my daughter turned to me and said "Hrumph. I guess only black kids are special. There's never anything about us normal kids."

Now, my girl is the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful 11 year old you'll ever encounter. But this bothered her a lot. She then said "I don't judge kids by their skin color; it's what's inside that makes you special." I know I certainly could not have expressed such sentiments at her age. But her frustration I guess I'd call it hit me like a bolt of lightning, because she was right. Now, I know that February is Black History Month, but every single one was only black kids talking about being 'special' and 'wonderful' and how they were in effect demanding to be recognized as such. It struck me that there is a real danger that the guilt-laden or perhaps willfully guilt inducing/dispensing network executives were going a bit overboard and are perhaps even running the very reak risk of creating the very conditions that they claim to be seeking to overcome.

As NJ Sue notes in the post below the "ethnic grievance industry" is a very profitable enterprise that needs to keep fomenting crises to justify its existence. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s racism was a real, widespread and more importantly socially acceptable problem. But that is simply not the case anymore. Is there still racism? Of course, but the important thing is that in our society today it is no longer socially acceptable to make racist jokes and innuendos, it is no longer acceptable to make jokes at the office. Our mindset has changed, and it is clearly reflected in our youth.

We were down in North Carolina over last weekend, and I've never seen so many mixed-race couples. Frankly, you see a hell of a lot more of them in "racist hick red state" North Carolina than you do in the New York Times' backyard. And the best part of it is that no one cares. As a kid I never saw any, but by my college days in the early 80s in Virginia it was uncommon but not unheard of; and now it's no big deal.

Our society has changed; we have gotten better to the point where it seems to me racism is no longer a major issue in our society. This is an issue that the left has won, and they need to see that or they run the risk of creating a whole new generation of people who see things in racial terms, which I thought was what we were trying to get away from.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:50 PM | Comments (21)

The Real Ward Churchill Scandal

So now there are reports the CU is going to buy-out Ward Churchill's contract in hopes that he'll just go away. Typical. Spend several million dollars of taxpayer money to get out of the mess that the faculty at CU created instead of addressing the real problem here. No, it's not what he said about September 11th that's the problem. No, it's not that it seems he may have lied about his Vietnam experience, evidently claiming to have been a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne when he may have in fact been a truck driver...and what the hell is it with all these guys of his generation who feel this need to claim they were John Wayne? Geesh. (And I'll ignore the fact that several other tenured faculty members of late who have embellished their war-time resumes have resigned) No, it's not even that he may very well have lied about his ethnicity (though if this fraud is true than it should be enough to get him fired).

No, the real scandal for CU, and for Academe in general, is that he was rushed through the tenure process, a guy who doesn't even have a Phd for God's sake, solely because of his claimed ethnicity, with little to no peer review of his scholarship or teaching. Some committee at CU said "Oh, we need a Native American" as opposed to "We need a teacher and/or scholar". Every tenure-track position that opens up at any college or university is flooded with hundreds of cvs from people with Phds and years of teaching experience; hell, even any instructorship at these schools attracts a boat load of Phds because the jobs simply are not there for the thousands of Phds that get churned out every year. And CU saw fit to rush this guy with only a MA from some whacko 'alternative' university ("Sangamon", whose name he misspells as "Sangaman" on his own CU faculty page, for crying out loud) through because he fit a racial category that they wanted.

CU's reputation is in tatters, as it should be (and I'm not even considering the problems in their Athletic Department). The question is how will they respond.

And how many other Ward Churchills are out there at other universities?

*update: I see VodkaPundit had a post up on this yesterday. That'll teach me to spend the day using the scanner and not surfing...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:30 AM | Comments (7)

February 24, 2005

Today's 'Here's Yer Sign' Story

Dateline:Late Saturday Night, Local Hotspot, Pensacola, FL

An employee was taking out the trash when he noticed a fellow moving swiftly away from the dumpsters area. Once there, he was horrified to discover a badly beaten 22 year old woman, lying unconscious in pools of blood. 911 called, EMT's/Pensacola's finest arrived, description of assailant issued, standard 'catch the rat bastard' stuff.

Our nod to Bill Engvald ?
In this day and age of narcissistic, technologically saavy twentysomethings and camera phones,
never EVER pose for a picture.

Especially when you're sitting at a table with the very same girl you will shortly be causing egregious and most heinous harm to.

If this all works out as it should, he will be rapidly identified. Pensacola's finest can then proceed to TAZER the dogshit out of him (as they are wont to do and their fascist tendencies forgiven in this instance), hopefully with the leads attached to his cajones.

Here's yer sign.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:52 AM | Comments (3)

February 23, 2005

Ward Churchill: "I'm No Indian"

Gosh, I wonder what his Tenure Committee thinks? Seems like he represented himself in a fraudulent manner to them.

*Update: Now the paper is saying they misquoted him.

Stay tuned...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:19 PM | Comments (3)

February 15, 2005

Ambulance Chasers in Boats

Bastards, but you knew it was coming. Funny how they don't give a poo about the asian victims, though; only the Europeans.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:23 AM | Comments (2)

February 14, 2005

September 11th Fantasies Rebuffed

Tim Blair has a link up to an important Popular Mechanics article which puts the lie to many of the September 11th Fantasy lies that abound on the internet; well, it does at least if one is a thinking creature. Go read it, and remind yourself again why we fight.

Personal note: I work in Manhattan, just a few blocks fron the WTC. I saw both planes. I saw everything (except, thank God, I was not close enough to see people jump...but I know of at least one friend of mine who was a jumper) and I have no patience for people who indulge in these thoughts. None.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:35 AM | Comments (2)

February 08, 2005

More Ward Churchill

Marc Cooper has an excellent post up in which he quotes, hell, reproduces an essay from Swarthmore history professor Timothy Burke. Go read it. While I'm pretty sure I don't agree with their politics I do agree with their analysis (aside from the pathetic shots at Glenn Reynolds) of the problem that Churchill represents for academe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:56 PM | Comments (5)

Ward Update 2

Powerline is all over this like a cheap corduroy blazer...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:44 PM

Chair of the Department

There is one common misconception on this whole Ward Churchill brouhaha that I'd like to clear up: being chair of the department is not "the pinnacle of the faculty" as Horowitz alleges. In fact, in many departments no one wants to be chair because the Chair has to deal with all the bureaucratic issues, scheduling issues and faculty issues that arise. To the layman it sounds impressive, but to the academic, the serious academic, it is a lot more work that only succeeds in getting folks (i.e. your colleagues, generally) mad at you.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:48 PM | Comments (6)

Ward Update

Insta has an important update on the Ward Churchill mess, and to me it really cuts to the heart of the issue that I discussed below: should this guy ever have gotten tenure in the first place? If universities, and the folks that work there, want to be taken seriously on 'issues' by the public at large then they really need to take seriously whom they hire. Do they want serious scholars/excellent teachers or do they want to hire folks that satisfy preconceived political notions that they have?

In other words, colleges need to decide what their purpose is. If they want be known where students learn, then they need to tenure good scholars who are excellent teachers. If they want to be known as places where knowledge is pursued, then they need to tenure excellent scholars who are good teachers. Either of these in my mind is the road they should travel, and they are not mutually exclusive, obviously. If they want to be known as politicized, irrelevant institutions they can tenure folks like whom Ward Churchill seems to be.

And let's see where the parents decide to spend their dollars.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)

Why I love that girl

Andrea Harris nails another one.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:49 AM

February 06, 2005

Academic Freedom

Eugene Volokh has a post up in the midst of all this Ward Churchill hoopla where he defends academic freedom. He defines it as follows:

By academic freedom principles, I mean First Amendment protection for those of us at state-run schools, but also contractual protection and the protection provided by the profession's social norms.

Firstly, it seems to me, everyone has First Amendment protection and that's not even an issue here; there is no talk of jailing Churchill or of throwing him into one of Ashcroft's gulags in North Dakota. One of the cherished tactics of the left is that whenever some non-academic has the temerity to challenge things they've said is to wrap themselves in the Constitution and proclaim that their First Amendment rights are under attack (mind you, these are the very same people who have taken away our First Amendment rights by getting "Hate Speech" legislation passed). Nonsense. Let's review the First Amendment, shall we?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It says Congress. There's nothing in there that can possibly be construed as to mean "my boss can't fire me if I act like a walking talking rectum." You have the right to say whatever you like without fear of retribution from the government, no doubt, and that's how it should be. However, your fellow citizens also have that right, and the things they can say include "you're fired."

So in no way, shape or form is this a First Amendment issue.

So why do I agree that Churchill should not lose his job over what he wrote?

Let's look again at what Eugene wrote:

By academic freedom principles, I mean First Amendment protection for those of us at state-run schools, but also contractual protection and the protection provided by the profession's social norms.

He makes a distinction between state-run and private schools, and it's an important one: someone at North Jersey State College should not be fired for saying "Religion is a bunch of hooey" but clearly if that person taught at North Jersey Seminary the school would be perfectly justified in canning them.
As I said, professors already have the 1stA (I'm getting tired of typing "First Amendment") protection we all have, in fact they have more; well, actually we, the people, have less 1stA protection, for while as far as professors are concerned

...(i)f it weren't for academic freedom, we might face serious retaliation for speech — even outside-the-classroom, on-blog speech — that our colleagues claims creates a "hostile learning environment" for students, supposedly constitutes "hate speech" (a vague and broad category), supposedly discredits the institution in the eyes of this or that group, and so on.

Those of us in the 'general' population are quite liable to a number of criminal statutes for any of the above (And I think that that is an affront to our liberty and a gross violation of our freedom which should be corrected immediately...but that's a topic for another time).

So it's really an issue of contractual protection, not 1stA, and "the protection provided by the profession's social norms." Earlier, Eugene makes his most compelling case for Academic Freedom, which I agree with:

But university professors are supposed to do a good job by saying what they think is right, even when that's offensive or alienating to people. Such an ability to express highly controversial views, even views that many people find deeply offensive, is critical for the effective functioning of universities as institutions. If university professors know that expressing controversial views about the war effort, about racial differences, about sex or sexual orientation, and so on will get them fired, then effective scholarship and public debate about these issues would be very much stifled. A "don't offend the customers" or "if it's controversial, don't say it" approach may be perfectly sensible for many kinds of businesses or even government agencies. But it would be awful for universities.

No, simply for what he said Churchill should not lose his job, and nor should we refrain from roundly criticizing him, for our rights are every bit as deserving as his. He may very well end up losing his job if it turns out that he mis-represented his ethnicity during his hiring; if this leads universities to think long and hard about what criteria they use to grant tenure all the better, especially if it leads universities to curb rewarding weak candidates for their ancestry instead of their teaching abilities and/or scholarship. But for right now they deserve to be stuck with him.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:13 PM | Comments (17)

February 05, 2005

As I Was Saying...

Justin Katz provides yet another excellent example of what I was refering to below, the self-created cult of the 'expert', the all-consuming fervent belief that your knowledge equates to your Right and Goodness.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:10 PM

February 04, 2005

Academedia

A little while ago Sheila started a wonderful discussion on Robert Conquest's book The Great Terror: A Reassessment (yeah, yeah, I know; big shock there, Sheila starting a great discussion. Work with me here.). My lovely bride, after only the slightest of hints on my part, was kind enough to get me the book for my birthday, and I took it with me to Brazil to read on the flight and during the various amounts of 'downtime' that one always has on business trips, especially when one is travelling alone.
Brief aside: find the geek in the following scene...Rio de Janeiro, middle of the summer. You're poolside at the swankest hotel in Copacabana. Your eyes drink in the tanned twenty-something ladies frollicking in their tangas (not that, technically speaking, there's all that much that can accurately be described as being in a tanga), the corpulent sixty-year-old men with their tanned twenty-something ladies purring about in their tangas, the tanned slim men lounging together in their tangas, and the pasty white fellow sitting in his LL Bean swim trunks under a large umbrella with a caipirinha in one hand and The Great Terror in the other...
Sigh.

One point that Conquest brings out again and again is how completely ill equiped the intellectuals are to deal with the real world, with Stalin's world. Oh, in realms of theory he is hopelessly outclassed, and both he and they know it, and they revel in rubbing his nose in the fact, they, the political scientists who study the science of history, and debate the science of marxism and the science of economics. Towering intellects who can look back and make brilliant predictions about things in the past, who can expound dense, complicated treatises on matters of arcane yore with such confidence and total conviction of right...by god they know!
But in the realm of...the realm, it is he, Stalin, that theological school dropout from Tbilsi, who brilliantly plays their egos off against one another until he can quite literally liquidate every last one of them.
And how often have we seen this tale repeated? These extremely intelligent people, who can spin brilliant theories that dazzle the mind with their webs of intricacies; people with enormous egos who constantly deride those of less intelligence...ah, they are constantly consumed by their "lessers," and it drives them to new heights of foam-flecked hyperbole.
Look at the pages of the NYT, at 60 Minutes, at Teryy MacAuliffe and his merry band at the DNC, at the BBC; look at the Ivory Tower of Theory's latest wunderkind Ward Churchill. Completely out of touch and unable to cope with, let alone understand, the real world that the rest of us live in; full of immense bile and venom that the 'stupid' people do not immediately recognize the divine and perfect nature of their intellects and instantly ascribe all power and authority unto them.

And completely unable to fathom how a fella who espouses no multi-syllabic ideas, who doesn't subscribe to the cult of obfuscation (let alone Newsweek), is able to eat them for lunch.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:00 PM | Comments (5)

Blech. Just Blech.

This is just so ick.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:48 PM | Comments (8)

Of Iraq, Athens, and US

From QandO Blog:

So died these men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country, though these would furnish a valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the present, you must yourselves realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honour in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer.

Posted by Crusader at 09:02 AM