September 2009 Archives

http://www.kens5.com/homepage/tab1/stories/KENS20090929_MarfaBudgetCuts.1cb5ebcc9.html

Marfa's quiet country lifestyle and thriving art scene make this tiny west Texas town a favorite getaway.

But the city won't keep its police chief and two officers when the police department shuts down October 1.

"It's all about consolidation. What we're trying to do is run our community as efficiently as possible," said Marfa mayor, Dan Dunlap.

According to the mayor, the city will save $90,000 a year by hiring the Presidio County Sheriff's Office to replace the local police department. The sheriff's office already patrols the rest of the rugged border city.

Some residents are having doubts. They are not sure what is going to happen, or if they will be safe.

Also Online

Angela Kocherga's Border Blog

The police department will disappear, but the police chief may still have a job. That is, if he takes a position mandated by state law: the town marshal. The job is part-time, and pays $4,000 a year. So the marshal will likely spend more time back at the ranch, than protecting the streets of Marfa.

Our kids are too fat to walk to school anymore? Is that what this is about?

I walked all the time. Miles! It was good for me. It is good for kids today.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=847190

Seventh-grader Adam Marino is getting a firsthand lesson in civil disobedience.

The 12-year-old and his mother, Janette Kaddo Marino, are defying Saratoga Springs school policy by biking to Maple Avenue Middle School on Route 9. The Jackson Street residents pedal more than four miles together each way to the middle school on nice days despite being told not to by school officials and police.

"I guess you can say that we continue to do what we feel is our right," Kaddo Marino said recently. "We feel strongly we have a right to get to school by a mode of transportation we deem appropriate."

Their methods may be unconventional, but the Marinos are part of a growing number of Americans challenging the sedentary habits of today's youths and what they view as overanxious "helicopter" parenting. As fewer children walk and bike to school nationwide, parents have started groups like the "Walking School Bus," which promotes physical activity and fitness in youth by having them walk to school with adults.

I would like to state for the record that I left Minneapolis on Sunday and never got near Princeton!

I hope they arrest whomever did this quickly. These bombings and fakes are not good for the mental status of people all over.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,557980,00.html?test=latestnews

FBI agents and bomb squads in Minnesota are hunting for explosives -- or evidence of a hoax -- at a high school and two other locations where suspicious packages were planted early Wednesday.

An official told FOX News that the devices found near the school, a post office and a public utility center about 6:30 a.m. "look like" bombs. But authorities in Princeton, Minn., located about 50 miles north of Minneapolis, were trying to determine Wednesday whether they were real or part of an elaborate ruse.

FBI agents were on-scene at the three locations, a law enforcement official told FOX.

The source said he was not aware of any threats that had been called in or made by whoever planted the packages.

Traffic in the area was blocked and diverted. Princeton High School and elementary school students were evacuated, and later all students from the district were sent home.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/white-house-pushes-back-against-newspaper-profile-of-envoy-to-sudan.html

The White House is pushing back against a profile in the Washington Post of the Obama Administration's Special Envoy for Sudan, Air Force Major General Scott Gration (Ret.).

The profile -- "Obama Administration Engages Sudanese Regime It Blasted" -- was published on the eve of today's National Security Council meeting in which Obama administration policy dealing with Sudan will be discussed, and the principals -- Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones (Ret.), and others -- will decided whether or not to send any new proposals to the president for approval.

The story states that Gration wants the US to normalize relations with the Sudan, "the only country in the world led by a president indicted for war crimes," a reference to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

"We would not take a step like that absent significant changes in conditions on the ground," says a senior administration official.

In the story, Gration is quoted saying of the regime, "We've got to think about giving out cookies. Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement."

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/30/whats-happening-in-hardin-montana/

This is the strange story of how American Police Force, a little known company which claims to specialize in training military and security forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural Montana town's nonexistent police force.

After arriving in this tiny city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a police department that has never existed, representatives of the obscure California security company said preparations were under way to take over Hardin's jail, which has no prisoners.

Significant obstacles remain - including a lack of any contracts to acquire prisoners from other jails or other states.

And on Friday came the revelation the company's operating agreement for the facility has yet to be validated - two weeks after city leaders first unveiled what they said was a signed agreement.

Still, some Hardin leaders said the deal to turn over the 464-bed jail remained on track.

The agreement with American Police Force has been heavily promoted by members of the city's economic development branch, the Two Rivers Authority. Authority Vice President Albert Peterson on Friday repeated his claim to be "100 percent" confident in the company.

The lead public figure for American Police Force, Michael Hilton, said more than 200 employees would be sought for the jail and a proposed military and law enforcement training center.

If this study is true, we might be killing thousands of people this year by forcing them to get shots. Interesting conundrum. I say just sit at home and wait it out. That is my OPINION and not a recommendation. You must do what you feel is right.

http://www.homeland1.com/Public-Health/articles/594279-Most-of-Canada-suspends-flu-shots-due-to-study-of-H1N1-risk/

A "perplexing" Canadian study linking the H1N1 virus to seasonal flu shots is throwing the nation's influenza plans into disarray and straining public faith in the government agencies responsible for protecting Canada's health.

Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectious-disease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to catch swine flu. The paper is under peer review, and lead researchers Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Center for Disease Control and Gaston De Serres of Laval University must stay mum until it's published. So far, the study's impact is confined to Canada.

Researchers in the United States, Britain and Australia have not reported the same phenomenon.

Marie-Paule Kieny, the World Health Organization's director of vaccine research, said last week the Canadian findings were an international anomaly and could constitute a "study bias."

Met with intense early skepticism both in Canada and abroad, the paper has since persuaded several provincial health agencies to announce hasty suspensions of seasonal flu vaccinations, long-held fixtures of public-health planning.

"It has confused things very badly," said Dr. Ethan Rubinstein, head of adult infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba. "And it has certainly cost us credibility from the public because of conflicting recommendations. Until last week, there had always been much encouragement to get the seasonal flu vaccine."

British Columbia announced Monday that it is suspending seasonal flu shots for anyone under 65 years old, joining Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia in halting the immunizations. Quebec's Health Ministry announced it would postpone vaccinations until January, clearing the autumn months for health professionals to focus on vaccinating against H1N1, which is expected to the more severe influenza strain this season.

"By the time the H1N1 wave is over, there will be ample time to vaccinate for seasonal flu," Rubinstein said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,557282,00.html

The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn 120 miles from American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.

Four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet high roared ashore soon afterward, reaching up to a mile inland, Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying by a parks service spokeswoman.

Hampered by power and communications outages, officials hours later struggled to determine damage and casualties. At least 63 people were killed in Samoa, police confirmed, and 19 others were killed in American Samoa -- but officials acknowledged the death toll seemed sure to rise.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/09/figures-acorn-helped-franken-steal.html

Figures. ACORN Was Behind Franken's Stolen Senate Seat
Here's a shocker.
ACORN may have helped Al Franken steal the US senate seat from Minnesota.
The Minnesot Star-Tribune reported:

But ACORN does have a special place in its heart for at least one prominent Minnesota politician. Last year, it showered praise on Al Franken, endorsing his run for the U.S. Senate. Franken returned the esteem: "I'm thrilled and honored to receive this endorsement," he gushed in a press release. He added that he was "more motivated than ever to work with ACORN."

...ACORN's registration drives "routinely produce fraudulent registrations," according to a staff report released in July 2009 by the ranking Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The report describes ACORN as "a criminal conspiracy" and details violations ranging from unpaid taxes to a million-dollar embezzlement and cover-up. "To date," the report says, "nearly 70 ACORN employees have been convicted in 12 states for voter-registration fraud."

The latest such scandal broke a few weeks ago, when authorities in Florida accused 11 ACORN workers of falsifying information on 888 voter-registration forms.

In May 2009, Nevada's attorney general charged ACORN and two employees with 39 felonies. Authorities raided ACORN offices after complaints about numerous forms with false addresses and names -- including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys. Forty-eight percent of forms turned in were "clearly fraudulent," according to a Las Vegas election official. ACORN recruited felons living in transitional housing in Las Vegas to act as canvassers and promised illegal bonuses if they signed up more than 20 new voters a day.

ACORN's practices can make fraud difficult to detect. For example, "at election offices around the country, ACORN workers are famous for waiting until registration deadline to dump thousands of new documents on overworked clerks -- making it harder for them to fully vet the registration forms," according to the New York Post.

As a result, fraud often only comes to light by chance. Fraud "has been discovered by cursory checks or by accident," John Samples, an election expert at the Cato Institute, told the Post. "There's a lot more out there to be discovered."

Here in Minnesota, ACORN has boasted of playing a major role in the 2008 elections. It claims to have registered 43,000 new voters, which it describes as 75 percent of the state's new registrations. Franken's margin of victory in the Senate race was razor-thin: 312 votes out of about 3 million cast. And Minnesota's laws on proof of voter eligibility are notoriously loose. Did ACORN folks pull some fast ones to help get their favorite son Franken elected -- a win that handed Democrats the 60-vote, veto-proof majority that they needed to enact their liberal agenda?

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie assures us that Minnesota's system of voter verification protects electoral integrity.

But here's an uncomfortable fact: Ritchie himself was endorsed by the now-notorious ACORN and elected with its help.

Related... 2,812 Dead Voters may have given senate seat to Franken.

All three are free! Sgt Nelson, I welcome you to the World. Welcome home.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9B148PG0&show_article=1

A military judge has dismissed a murder charge against a Marine accused of killing an unarmed detainee in Iraq.

The charge against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was dismissed Tuesday at Camp Pendleton after he agreed to plead guilty to dereliction of duty.

His attorney Joseph Low says the plea agreement calls for no prison time and an honorable discharge.

The 28-year-old Nelson could have faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder.

Nelson was among three Marines accused of killing detainees in 2004 during house-to-house fighting to recapture Fallujah.

One of Nelson's squadmates was acquitted by a military jury of the same charges in April. Nelson's squad leader was acquitted last year in federal court on counts that included voluntary manslaughter.

If the floods do not stay where the Feds tell them, can we arrest Mother Nature?

Seriously, the flood maps are very out of date, but so are the regular maps. Why isn't the profit from this program used to update the maps? Is it because the program is failing and costing billions more than expected? Just a thought.

http://www.homeland1.com/emergency-management-systems/articles/593956-Southeast-floods-didnt-stay-in-federally-mapped-lines/

Federal government maps predict in parcel-by-parcel detail where the water will travel when a megastorm hits.

Those maps anticipated that I-20 would remain high and dry, when flooding actually closed the highway down. The projections envisioned nothing more than a big puddle in the Food Depot parking lot in Austell, but what developed around the store was more like a lake.

And what the maps foresaw as a contained overflow of Cobb County's Noonday Creek became a surge of water that filled the living rooms of homes blocks away.

Relying strictly on federal flood maps to determine whether a property merits flood insurance can lead to financial disaster for homeowners, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found in an examination of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Many property owners whose homes were ruined had no idea that their standard homeowners insurance policy would not cover damage caused by a massive flood. Those who did understand the policies probably had no ink-ling that a property located outside the flood zone still faced a significant chance of getting hit.

"Who would think we need flood insurance, especially in landlocked Atlanta," said Jennipher Ward, whose Austell home was swamped last week.

The current system that relies on homeowners to understand the complexities of flood risk doesn't make sense, said Birny Birnbaum, a former insurance regulator who is a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

"It's really analogous to telling a consumer, when you go get a health insurance policy it's your responsibility to pick the illnesses you are insured for," Birnbaum said. "It's crazy."

Companies don't cover it

Insurance companies sell flood insurance for the federal government. But they have long refused to take on the risk of covering flood damage because of its potentially catastrophic nature. "The risk from an event like that is too great for any carrier to take on," said Justin Tomczak, a spokesman for State Farm Insurance.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/4000-govt-doctors-to-resign-en-masse-in-karnataka/102370-3.html

Nearly 4,000 government doctors in Karnataka would resign en masse on Wednesday in protest against the government's refusal to accept their demand on salary hike.

President of the Karnataka Government Medical Officers Association, H N Ravindra, told PTI that one or two doctors would, however, be on duty at taluk and district-level hospitals even after resigning to maintain health services.

The Association has set October 14 as the deadline for the Government to accept its demand. "If the Government does not accept our demand, we will not come to work from October 15," he said.

Government doctors at the "beginners level" get a monthly pay of Rs 18,500 which the Association has demanded be raised to at least Rs 35,000.

The government has offered a pay hike ranging between Rs 3,000 and Rs 8,000 which the Association has rejected.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/09/the-capstone-concept-and-situational-awareness.html

The Army has released a draft version of its capstone concept, as most of you know from reading Small Wars Journal. The biggest change for my money has to do with the approach to "situational awareness" (SA) -- that is, how do you know what is really going on?

Clausewitz's concept of friction engages every area of war, but no area more clearly than this. One of the reasons that "rear-echelon" commanders enjoy such a stable level of respect from front-line forces, year after year and war after war, is that friction means they are always writing orders based on incomplete information that is old by the time the orders come down.

Front-line forces suffer from an incomplete awareness, too, though: consider the soldier who notices a guy in his town that he's not seen before. He stops him, questions him, and now has to decide what to do with him -- without benefit of knowing exactly who may have dealt with him before, or what they knew. He can get that information if he detains the guy and takes him back for processing, but (a) if the guy is innocent, he's freaking out the guy's family and friends about 'evil occupiers arresting people for no reason'; and (b) as a COIN campaign becomes more successful, as in Iraq, warrants have to be issued before detentions can be an option.

I am not a Truther who is obsessed with The Messiah's birth certificate or lack thereof. However, the lack of any kind of documentation is intriguing. Why is all this paperwork hidden?

Team Obama has been insulting, slandering and suing anyone who even wants to see these papers. Why? It was bad enough when Clinton's papers were semi-secret, why is Obama even more secretive? He has promised to be the most transparent Government ever and has instead gone to extreme lengths to hide his past. Why? Why? Why???

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=111286

A commentator at Canada Free Press who earlier exposed the Democratic National Committee used two separate forms to affirm Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility to be president has heard back from readers and research - and now reports Democrats failed to certify their candidate's eligibility in 49 of the 50 states.

The writer, JB Williams, further reports that in most cases, certification of eligibility was also missing from DNC filings during the primaries.

"In most states," Williams writes, "it appears that the DNC never certified constitutional eligibility for Barack Hussein Obama, despite their many claims of proper vetting and certification, all of which we now know to be false."

As WND reported, Williams released copies of two documents apparently prepared by Democrats to certify Barack Obama as their nominee for president, one that contains language affirming his constitutional eligibility and filed in Hawaii (where state law requires the specific language) and another omitting the language and filed in the remaining 49 states.

The first includes a verification that Obama and Joe Biden, then-candidate for vice president, "are legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/appease_does_apocalypse_for_weak_9HzomoUqSd9gZJINIwtJlL

DID it surprise a single Post reader that Iran's been hiding a big nu clear weapons development fa cility? It stunned our president when he learned about it months ago. Then he kept it secret from you.

Obama didn't want you to know how much progress Iran had made. It's an embarrassment.

And it raises the pressure on the White House to act -- something this president's squirming to avoid. But the Iranians have now realized we know, so they tipped it themselves.

Obama had no choice but to come clean.

Yesterday, he interrupted the G-20 summit to go public -- before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did. Flanked by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's dead man walking, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, our president offered more uselessly vague rhetoric in response to proof of a major "covert Iranian enrichment facility" and its implications.
HEAT'S ON: The president, at the G-20 summit Thursday, appeared with British and French leaders yesterday to reveal Iran's secret nuke plant.
HEAT'S ON: The president, at the G-20 summit Thursday, appeared with British and French leaders yesterday to reveal Iran's secret nuke plant.

Obama's statement amounted to, Ooooh, I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down . . . maybe . . . eventually . . . but not really . . . let's talk . . .

Only Sarkozy made a serious attempt to get the Iranian leadership's attention, stressing the consistent failure of negotiations and the need for action. He understands that a decade of talking with Tehran brought zero results.

Obama cringed.

Shouldn't we be ashamed that a French president's leading the fight to protect Israel and the free world?

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1255401.html

Honduras' de facto president Roberto Micheletti believes he is on a calling from God, a divine mission to fix roads, address a tanking economy and boost municipal budgets.

Micheletti said he will tackle swine flu and a teachers' strike, but is adamant: It's not his job or within his power to resolve the thorny issue of the former president hunkered down in the Brazilian Embassy for the past week, he said in an interview with the Miami Herald on Friday.

On Sunday, he issued a 10-day deadline for Brazil to decide how it plans to deal with Manuel ``Mel'' Zelaya, the former head of state who sought refuge at their embassy, which Brazil said it would ignore.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=126820&d=28&m=9&y=2009&pix=world.jpg&category=World

"The group attacked at the mosque compound was in fact a group of non-Jewish French tourists who visited it as part of their trip," said Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby.

"There was a large group of Jewish settlers who gathered outside Al-Aqsa and tried to break in," said Abu Raed, a Palestinian witness. "Some of them entered and went all the way to the heart of the compound, where there were people praying ... They were Jewish settlers dressed as tourists," he said. After entering the sprawling compound, the group was confronted by about 150 Muslims who raised slogans, police and witnesses said.

Police later blocked off the compound as speakers from mosques in the Old City urged people to gather at the site to protest.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, slammed the "dangerous escalation" and called for protests. "The occupation bears full responsibility for all the consequences and developments that will follow from this crime," it said.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound is the third holiest site in Islam and has often been the flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, erupted there after former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit in September 2000.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198985.php

Toilet Paper News

Last month, the Cuban state-run toilet paper company, Cimex, announced that it is unable to supply adequate toilet paper to the nation until at least December 2009. Budget cuts slashed imports and Cuba has a shortage of raw materials to manufacture enough toilet paper to meet demand. Therefore:

"Until more supplies are produced, citizens are encouraged to conserve toilet paper by tearing off fewer squares, switching from two-ply to one-ply or using cigar wrappers."

It's assumed that the guidance referring to cigar wrappers applies to specifically-grown, broad tobacco leaves as opposed to the actual people who wrap cigars.

Notably, the Cuban broadleaf tobacco is considered by many to be the world's finest so individuals using it as a toilet paper substitute can bask in the knowledge that they are wiping with the very best.

Meanwhile, people who arguably do wipe with the very best, Americans, are being criticized for using plush three-ply toilet paper. Americans prefer and seek softness in toilet tissue and environmentalists contend that old-growth forests are being destroyed because of the preference.

"The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods."

Consequently, the challenge for environmentalists is to convince the American public to adopt a cult-like, save-the-planet mentality and welcome scratchiness in toilet tissue -- or -- get a law passed.

Nevertheless, the toilet paper situations in Cuba and in the U.S. have at least one thing in common -- an underlying utopian philosophy. In Cuba, it's Marxist utopianism where everyone shares in the sacrifice, except for those who do the divvying, of course. In the U.S., it's environmentalist utopianism where everyone shares in the sacrifice, also except for those who do the divvying.

In conclusion, one result of utopianism in Cuba is the people being told to wipe their behinds with leaves, just like the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon did, and it could be argued that the environmentalists would be happy if the same thing happened in the U.S. (More ....)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556143,00.html

The FBI has released long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the fertilizer bomb went off. They don't show the actual explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

The tapes were obtained by an attorney and provided to The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman, the newspaper reported Sunday.

Some of them show people fleeing their buildings through corridors cluttered with fallen debris.

The FBI this summer released more than 20 recordings made from surveillance camera tapes recovered in downtown Oklahoma City. A Utah attorney, Jesse Trentadue, obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Trentadue gave them to The Oklahoman because of their historical value. The Oklahoman has agreed to provide copies to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54514

Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are "easily breached," and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons "linked to terrorism" and 530 aliens from "special interest countries" were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol Director of Media Relations Lloyd Easterling confirmed this week--as I first reported in my column yesterday--that his agency is planning for a net decrease of 384 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.

A Department of Homeland Security annual performance review updated by the Obama administration on May 7 said the Border Patrol "plans to move several hundred Agents from the Southwest Border to the Northern Border to meet the FY 2010 staffing requirements, with only a small increase in new agents for the Southwest Border in the same year."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/25/new-jersey-school-district-stranger-national-spotlight/

Auerswald declined to indicate exactly what the review would entail or possible ramifications. As critics of the video claimed it amounted to "indoctrination," the tension at B. Bernice Young Elementary School escalated to such a degree that the school was placed temporarily on lockdown after its principal received death threats.

The video of the students at the Burlington, N.J., school shows them singing songs seemingly overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again."

One song that the children were taught quotes directly from the spiritual "Jesus Loves the Little Children," though Jesus' name is replaced with Obama's: "He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama."

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58M0FI20090923?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

U.S. authorities closed the world's busiest land border crossing on Tuesday after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and U.S. agents, U.S. officials said.

"The port is closed and will remain closed for several hours," U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman Angelica Decima said after the incident at the congested San Ysidro crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego.

The suspected smugglers shot across busy lines of traffic at U.S. agents when they tried to stop three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States, the officials said.

The agents returned fire, and three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Nobody knows? This is because putting the guy in a LazyBoy and giving him a hot latte is not going to convince them to give up too many secrets.

This guy is what waterboarding is for.

http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2009/09/feds-unsure-if-arrest-of-najibullah.html

Federal agents from Denver and New York to Pakistan are still racing to solve an Al Qaeda bomb plot, unsure whether the arrest of three suspects has put the terror gang out of business.

"They're still looking," a senior counterterror official told the Daily News. As to whether they have identified all the conspirators, "nobody knows the answer for sure," the official said.

FBI arrest documents showed prime suspect Najibullah Zazi, 25, an Afghan, visited the city from Colorado on the 9/11 anniversary carrying a laptop with bomb-making notes he wrote. Specific attack plans or targets remain unknown, a Justice Department statement said.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3794482411

New Zealand has sent 71 members of its special forces to boost NATO forces in Afghanistan and support the government of president Hamid Karzai, prime minister John Key said on Monday. Accusations of widespread fraud are calling into question Karzai's dominant position in last month's vote count.

His legitimacy is seen as key to the country's future democracy and stability.

Quoted by New Zealand public radio, Key refused to specify what the SAS mission was but he described it as a dangerous assignment, and said he could not rule out the possibility of casualties.

He said the SAS forces would be deployed for 12 to 18 months.

The SAS troops will be under the control of the commander of the NATO international security assistance force in Afghanistan, but overall command will be retained by the chief of the New Zealand defence force, through an SAS commander in the field, Key said.

Another group of about 130 New Zealand troops is working in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan province on civilian reconstruction projects.

This is the Arab view of the Bary case, which is getting way out of hand. I am wondering if the part I highlighted is expected to fool anyone who has read the Koran?

This is too good!

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=126605&d=21&m=9&y=2009&pix=world.jpg&category=World

The Barys thought that now it was an open and shut case. Mohammad thought he would go to Orlando and the police would hand over his daughter to him. He was so naive; he did not even hire a lawyer. (He was provided one by the court).

Also he was in for a surprise. His daughter came to court with the evangelical Christians who had come prepared with false allegations: "Rifqa's father would kill her as the Qur'an prescribed 'honor killing' for apostates."

Qur'an (4:89) - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them"

Qur'an (9:11-12) - "But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then are they your brethren in religion. We detail Our revelations for a people who have knowledge. And if they break their pledges after their treaty (hath been made with you) and assail your religion, then fight the heads of disbelief - Lo! they have no binding oaths - in order that they may desist."

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/09/michael-chertoffs-book-on-homeland-security.html

Michael Chertoff's book on Homeland Security
Posted By Uncle Jimbo

Elise Cooper for BLACKFIVE

Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has written a book, Homeland Security: Assessing the First Five Years. This book takes readers through a range of homeland security issues from complacency among Americans to preventing cyber attacks. Blackfive.net was able to interview Secretary Chertoff about his thoughts and statements from the book.

Chertoff points out that Americans feel safe today since no major attack has occurred since 9/11. He states, "In certain circles, the view that the threat is exaggerated has rapidly gained currency. It is precisely this attitude of complacency that led to the tragedy of September 11th."
Blackfive.net received the same response from someone personally touched by 9/11, Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon. She concurred with Chertoff, stating that "At least on Sept. 10th the public was unaware of the nature of the threat. Now we are awake and it is being ignored."

Former Secretary Chertoff makes the reader try to understand the different threats to Americans' safety. He noted that besides the Islamic extremists, there is the threat of groups such as MS13, whom he calls "transnational criminals." Chertoff explained to blackfive.net that "the truth is terrorism is imbedded in the flow of criminality. Currently, terrorism can be found through crime."

http://www.homeland1.com/Public-Health/articles/589899-The-hand-sanitizer-concern-amidst-H1N1/

"H1N1 has certainly created a different way of thinking about what we're doing in the way of influenza prevention," said Darlene Ruscitti, DuPage County's regional superintendent of schools. "But these are things we have to be aware of, and we need to make superintendents aware that people have brought up the issue of the alcohol content in these."

Ruscitti first got a call from a concerned parent two weeks ago, worried about hand sanitizers being flammable and the dangers should they be ingested. Ruscitti has since called several local fire departments and been reassured that the alcohol content on the smaller bottles is too low to be flammable. But she says she keeps looking at the hand sanitizer on her own desk and can't help but worry about its 65 percent alcohol content.

To be effective, health officials deem it necessary to have at least 60 percent alcohol, roughly the equivalent of whiskey, in hand sanitizer. Some schools in Florida and Canada have banned hand sanitizers because of the high concentration of alcohol.

But at a time when officials are more concerned about swine flu, many believe some parents and educators may be overreacting.

"If [students] are monitored and they're taught how to use it properly, I think the benefit far outweighs the risk," said Sheila Grogan, head of the DuPage County division of the Illinois Association of School Nurses.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198892.php

North Syracuse police went to 115 Elm St. in the village around 1 a.m. after a man called 911 to report that two men kicked in his front door and attacked him. One of the males reportedly was wearing a ski mask, according to officer Jeffrey Tripp of the North Syracuse police.

The resident, identified as Jeff Bush, 22, and another person in the home fought with the men, then fatally shot one with a shotgun, according to Tripp.

The other alleged assailant, who was fighting with the other resident, was also shot by Bush, police said. He died while being taken to a hospital, police said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,552021,00.html

The "Resale Round-up," launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, enforces new limits on lead in children's products and makes it illegal to sell any items that don't meet those limits or have been recalled for any other reason.

The strict standards were set in the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act after a series of high-profile recalls of Chinese-made toys.

The standards were originally interpreted to apply only to new products, but now the CPSC says they apply to used items as well.

"Those who resell recalled children's products are not only breaking the law, they are putting children's lives at risk," said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. "Resale stores should make safety their business and check for recalled products and hazards to children."

In order to comply, stores, flea markets, charities and individuals selling used goods -- in person or online -- are expected to consult the commission's 24-page Handbook for Resale Stores and Product Resellers (pdf) and its Web site for a breakdown of what they can't sell.

Violators caught selling anything on the enormous list face fines of up to $100,000 per infraction and up to $15 million for a related series of infractions.

CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson says the fines are intended for large companies with serious infractions.

"CPSC is an agency that has used its penalty powers over its 30-year history against companies," Wolfson told FOXNews.com. "CPSC is not seeking to pursue penalties against individuals hosting a garage sale or yard sale, we are encouraging them to take the right steps to not resell recalled products."

But FOX News Legal Analyst Bob Massi says the law makes no distinction for families and small resellers.

"Most people having garage sales at this point don't have much anyway, so to have a fine levied against them is tantamount to harassment," Massi told FOXNews.com. "And if you or I asked 100 people about this, they would never even know the law exists."

This is not an old story, it just sounds like it because this Tribute has been addressed before. That anyone is still thinking about putting this into the Memorial is disgusting. Of course, the fact that the Memorial is not even started yet is disgusting, also.

Get the Memorial started already! Get it finished! Show the terrorists that they have NOT won anything.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198834.php

The September 11 Memorial and Museum planned for the former World Trade Center site will display a memorial to the 19 hijackers with photographs and witness testimony. According to museum president Joe Daniels:

"Let the perpetrators speak for themselves," Daniels said.

The museum has possession of videotapes the hijackers made in preparation for the suicide attacks and Reuters previously reported that visitors could play back the tapes, citing Daniels.

"That's a powerful and important thing that visitors to this museum need to hear -- bearing witness to the actual testimonials of those who committed the atrocities," Daniels told a news conference.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/16/2009-09-16_fbi_unit_set_for_more_antiterror_raids_in_queens_sources_fears_of_madridstyle_su.html

FBI agents with bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the Colorado home of an Afghan national linked to an Al Qaeda terror cell and a plot to attack the New York City subway systems.

The search Wednesday in Aurora, Colo., came as the NYPD and an elite FBI team poised for additional raids in Queens in a hunt for bomb-making materials, sources told the Daily News.

An earlier Queens raid turned up nine knapsacks and cell phones, raising concerns about bombers detonating simultaneous blasts like the 2004 attack that killed 191 commuters in Spain.

Bombers in the 2005 London subway attack that killed 56 people also used knapsacks. An FBI counterterrorism bulletin issued Monday cited the British terrorist attack.

FBI agents with a search warrant arrived Wednesday at the home of Najibullah Zazi, 25, who one day earlier had protested his innocence in the apartment's front doorway.

His bold denials amazed some counterterrorism sources, who described the bushy-beared Zazi as a figure well-known to investigators.

"Zazi has certainly had some bad connections to people overseas," said a source familiar with the ongoing case.

http://www.military.com/news/article/ambushed-marines-aid-call-rejected.html?col=1186032325324&ESRC=marine.nl

Ambushed Marines' Aid Call 'Rejected'
September 10, 2009
Agence France-Presse

Ambushed Marines' Aid Call 'Rejected'

NATO-led forces are investigating the death of four Marines in eastern Afghanistan after their commanders reportedly rejected requests for artillery fire in a battle with insurgents, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Tuesday's incident was "under investigation" and details remained unclear, press secretary Geoff Morrell told a news conference.

A McClatchy newspapers' journalist who witnessed the battle reported that a team of Marine trainers made repeated appeals for air and artillery support after being pinned down by insurgents in the village of Ganjgal in eastern Kunar province.

The U.S. troops had to wait more than an hour for attack helicopters to come to their aid and their appeal for artillery fire was rejected, with commanders citing new rules designed to avoid civilian casualties, the report said.

Morrell said the helicopters were not hampered by any restrictions on air power but had to travel a long distance to reach the Marines at the remote location near the Pakistan border.

"I think that it did take some time for close air support to arrive in this case, but this is not a result of more restrictive conditions in which it can be used," he said.

"It was the result, as is often the case in Afghanistan, of the fact that there are great distances often between bases where such assets are located and where our troops are out operating."

Morrell could not confirm whether appeals for artillery fire were denied by commanders.

According to the McClatchy report by Jonathan Landay, the U.S. advisors assisting Afghan forces had been assured before the operation that "air cover would be five minutes away."

The incident comes after the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, issued new restrictions on the use of military force and air raids in a bid to prevent civilian deaths.

McChrystal has warned that civilian casualties caused by the NATO-led force risk alienating the Afghan population and jeopardizing the war effort.

But the general and other top military officials have insisted air support and fire power would not be restricted when U.S. troops were under direct threat.

Bombing runs by coalition forces have declined sharply since McChrystal took over command in June, U.S.A Today reported on Wednesday, citing military statistics.

Tuesday's firefight in eastern Afghanistan involved a 13-member team of U.S. Marine and Army trainers assigned to the Afghan national army, the report said.

Eight Afghan soldiers and police and an Afghan interpreter also died in the battle, which lasted for hours with insurgents unleashing a barrage of gunfire and rockets from mountain positions, the report said.

When an Afghan soldier demanded helicopter gunships, U.S. Major Kevin Williams replied through an interpreter: "We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We've lost today."

The Americans were assisting Afghan forces in an operation that called for Afghans searching the hamlet for weapons and then meeting village elders to plan police patrols.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/09/israel-excommandos-rescue-american-woman-imprisoned-in-muslim-home-in-islamicoccupied-israel-.html

Israel Ex-Commandos Rescue American Woman Imprisoned in Muslim Home in Islamic-Occupied Israel

Go Israel! (you ever see a story like this coming out of a Muslim country?) Just sayin .....And the dhimmi US Consulate wouldn't life a finger to rescue the American woman hostage.
Ex-Commandos Rescue US Woman Imprisoned in Arab Home

IsraelNN.com) Former IDF commandos secretly entered a Palestinian Authority village on Monday and rescued an American woman and her 2 1/2-year-old son from her Muslim husband, who had beaten and and held her captive for three years. The woman and child flew to the

United States

.
Wednesday night and are en route to her family's home in

Ohio
.

The Arab met the woman during a visit to the

United States
and enticed her to return with him to

Israel
and to the house where he lives with his first wife and several children, according to Voice of Israel government radio military reporter Carmella Menashe, who reported the story.

"She had no idea of where she was and was unable to escape," Menashe reported. The woman wore Muslim clothes, including a veil over her face, and the man threatened her that she never would see her child again and that security agents would pick her up if she fled. She was kept under guard to make sure she could not reveal details of her ordeal on the telephone.

Ah yes, Romance - jihad style.

Her family, knowing she was somewhere in Israel, unsuccessfully tried to get the U.S. Consulate in eastern Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority to help, and the family turned to a friend, a former Israeli combat soldier, who contacted a friend in Israel who also was a former commando in the Israeli Defense Forces.

The "Palestinian" (ha!) tools at the US consulate (chech out their site) would not life a finger against the johad to save an American citizen

No threat? None? Could it be that they failed to find any threat because they did not really look? From my previous posts it is easily shown that the government was constrained by politics from asking real probing questions.

Any bets on how long she lives if she is returned to her family?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550442,00.html?test=latestnews

Florida authorities' investigation into a teenager's claims that her life is in danger for converting from Islam to Christianity found no credible threats to 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, according to a newly unsealed report.

The 7-page summary of the probe into the Bary case by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was unsealed on Monday.

" . . . FDLE's inquiry to date has failed to reveal any evidence of a conspiracy to commit, solicitation to commit, attempt or other efforts to commit any such action or other violence against her," the report said.

The high school student is in foster care in Orlando after fleeing to Florida from her home in Ohio because, she said, she feared being killed by her family for switching religions.

Rifqa ran away from her parents' house in suburban Columbus in July after her parents, Sri Lankan immigrants Mohamed and Aysha Bary, learned she had been baptized without telling them.

She has said she is afraid of becoming the victim of an "honor killing" if she stays with her father and mother. Her parents have said they have no intention of harming their daughter.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198820.php

Osman Warning: Theo Van Gogh Type Threat

(UK) If Muslim extremists are angered enough to issue a fatwa for your death, the British police will inform you by issuance of an "Osman warning" indicating that your safety is at risk and it's your fault. Here's an excerpt from the Osman warning which the individual is required to sign.

"I have been informed that I am not under arrest or caution. I have been advised by the police that as a result of my lifestyle I have caused anger and upset in some sections of the community. This behaviour on my part has included the use of the Internet, making comments to the media, as well as involvement in arranging demonstrations. As a result of this the police have informed me that my safety may be at risk."

The excerpt is from the warning given to Paul Ray, a founder of the arguably moderate English Defense League (EDL). The death threat was posted on the extremist Revolution Muslim chat forum with Mr. Ray's photo, address, and known places he frequents. The Revolution Muslim forum entry promised a repeat of what happened to Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in broad daylight in Amsterdam.

Presumably, the warning given to Mr. Ray was specific to his circumstances but it's not a stretch to conclude that the police are quite prepared to blame the victim as opposed to the perpetrators of terroristic threats.

It's difficult to erase the impression that the Muslim extremists can do anything they please while the police tell the general population to be quiet and don't make them mad. I contend that it's unacceptable for the police to be cheerleaders for political correctness.

Let me sum this article up.
Israel committed war crimes by attacking and threatening Gazan civilians. This needs massive sanctions by the UN on the Evil Israelis.
The Gazans may have committed crimes against humanity by firing rockets into Israel and causing mental stress. Israel deserved it by attacking the people of Gaza.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32858351/

Evidence shows that both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity, during the December-January Gaza war, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly in some respects crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israel Defense Force," U.N. investigator Richard Goldstone told reporters.

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20090911_h1n1_just_another_flu

A(H1N1): Just Another Flu
Stratfor Today » September 14, 2009 | 2118 GMT

It has been five months since the A(H1N1) influenza virus -- aka the swine flu -- climbed to the top of the global media heap, and with the start of the Northern Hemisphere's annual flu season just around the corner, the topic is worth revisiting.

If you take only one fact away from this analysis, take this: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes that hospitalization rates and mortality rates for A(H1N1) are similar to or lower than they are for more traditional influenza strains. And if you take two facts away, consider this as well: Influenza data are incomplete at best and rarely cross-comparable, so any assertions of the likelihood of mass deaths are little more than scaremongering bereft of any real analysis or, more important, any actual evidence.

Now to the details.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109556

President Obama's choice to monitor school safety once boasted that he introduced homosexual advocacy into the school system in Massachusetts by manipulating the message presented to lawmakers.

The revelations about Kevin Jennings, who was named assistant deputy secretary for the office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, come just as several of Obama's "czars" have come under scrutiny for their actions, opinions and affiliations.

Environmental adviser Van Jones resigned last weekend after revelations of his links to communism and his advocacy for the movement that contends the U.S. government conspired to allow or cause 9/11. Harvard professor Cass Sunstein, confirmed this week by the Senate as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Budget and Management, was exposed for his belief that animals should be given legal rights like humans.

Technically, Jennings is not one of Obama's "czars," who are special advisers to the president accountable to no one but the president. Jennings was named to a post in the Department of Education. However, his hiring did not require legislative oversight, such as the Senate vetting process required for other appointees.

Jennings is the founder and former executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, which "works to make schools safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity," according to the government announcement of his appointment.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198795.php

Terror front CAIR supervised police interview of Rifqa Bary's parents on abuse allegations

A report by the Florida Dept of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that has been sealed by the court investigating the Rifqa Bary abuse and honor killing allegations is set to be released today. While the report is still sealed, we can report based on law enforcement sources who have read the report that the FDLE interview of Rifqa's parents was supervised by Hamas front organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to my sources, this is what the report says:

"FDLE/DCF Investigators were accompanied to the Bary residence by Sgt. John Hurst of the Columbus P.D. Child Abuse Squad. The residence is located in an apartment complex. Mr. Babak Darvish, Executive Director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Columbus and Mr. Romin Iqbal, Staff Attorney for CAIR OHIO were present. Investigators interviewed Mr. Bary in a non-custodial setting."

What makes this decision by FDLE and the FL Dept of Children and Families to allow CAIR - who is not a party to the legal dispute and has not notified the court that they are representing the Barys in any legal capacity - is that FDLE/DCF conducted a three and a half hour interrogation of Rifqa, the victim in this case, without her attorney and guardian ad litem being present. We reported on that revelation 10 days ago.

The contrast of treatment between her abusers, who have their interview overseen by the terrorist front organization, and Rifqa, who was interrogated by three adult males without her attorney and guardian present is appalling.

The Left is going out of its way to get this poor girl killed. I think that IF she is returned to her father, every one of the lawyers and activists who are taking the side of Islam over the side of common sense should be forced to serve an equal prison term to her family once she is killed.

Would any of them agree to this? I doubt it. None of these Leftists have any sense of bravery, honor or propriety. They want this child returned to her parents because Christians are automatically wrong. Tell me who Jesus wanted killed. Come on, tell me! Now try to list all the people that Mohammad killed, raped, or both. No wonder the Leftists like Mohammad, he reminds them of Stalin, Mao and Hitler.

Just a reminder, the Koran insists that anyone who dares to question Allah is required to be killed. Little Rifqa has forsaken her life for the sake of her soul and she is under POLITICAL pressure because of it. For those too "caring" to bother reading the Koran, let me point it out for you:

The Qur'an:

Qur'an (4:89) - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them"

Qur'an (9:11-12) - "But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then are they your brethren in religion. We detail Our revelations for a people who have knowledge. And if they break their pledges after their treaty (hath been made with you) and assail your religion, then fight the heads of disbelief - Lo! they have no binding oaths - in order that they may desist." This verse is speaking of infidels (ie. "slay the infidels wherever you find them" 9:5) who obviously became Muslim to escape the sword, but the Hadith make no distinction of how a Muslim came to be a Muslim. Apostasy is always punished by death.

Other verses that seem to support the many Hadith demanding death for apostates are Qur'an verses 2:217, 9:73-74, 88:21, 5:54, and 9:66.

Advocates for killing apostates have pointed out that the supporting hadith are reliable and thus qualify as law according to verse 4:80 - "Whoso obeyeth the Messenger obeyeth Allah."

From the Hadith:

The reason why executing apostates has always been well-ensconced in Islamic law is that there is an indisputable record of Muhammad and his companions doing exactly that.

Bukhari (52:260) - "...The Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.' "

Bukhari (83:37) - "Allah's Apostle never killed anyone except in one of the following three situations: (1) A person who killed somebody unjustly, was killed (in Qisas,) (2) a married person who committed illegal sexual intercourse and (3) a man who fought against Allah and His Apostle and deserted Islam and became an apostate."

Bukhari (84:57) - "[In the words of] Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"

Bukhari (89:271) - A man who embraces Islam, then reverts to Judaism is to be killed according to "the verdict of Allah and his apostle."

Bukhari (84:58) - "There was a fettered man beside Abu Muisa. Mu'adh asked, 'Who is this (man)?' Abu Muisa said, 'He was a Jew and became a Muslim and then reverted back to Judaism.' Then Abu Muisa requested Mu'adh to sit down but Mu'adh said, 'I will not sit down till he has been killed. This is the judgment of Allah and His Apostle (for such cases) and repeated it thrice.' Then Abu Musa ordered that the man be killed, and he was killed. Abu Musa added, 'Then we discussed the night prayers'"

Bukhari (84:64-65) - "Allah's Apostle: 'During the last days there will appear some young foolish people who will say the best words but their faith will not go beyond their throats (i.e. they will have no faith) and will go out from (leave) their religion as an arrow goes out of the game. So, wherever you find them, kill them, for whoever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection.'"

Additional Notes:

Apostasy is taken so seriously by Muslims that it spawned the first of many major wars within the community immediately after Muhammad's death, when several tribes wanted to leave Islam and go back to their preferred religion.

Although it has been perfectly acceptable under Islamic law to kill Muslims who choose to embrace another religion, contemporary Muslims have realized how weak and draconian this causes Islam to appear. (A sound philosophy does not require a death threat to retain believers). As such, there is a modern tendency to deny fourteen centuries of Islamic teaching and even the very words of Muhammad himself - at least for Western ears.

Such defenders disingenuously quote verse 2:256 which states "Let there be no compulsion in religion, for truth stands out from error" and a fragment of verse 10:99-100, "Wouldst thou (Muhammad) compel men until they are believers?" But nearly all Muslim scholars agree that both verses were spoken by Muhammad during an earlier time in his teachings, when he did not have the power to compel others. They are abrogated by later verses, such as verse 9:29, which clearly commands Muslims to fight unbelievers until they relent and either accept Islam or a state of humiliation under Islamic rule (an obvious illustration of compulsion).

These apologists also ignore the fact that apostasy is not mere unbelief, but unbelief that follows belief, which neither of these verses address. Muhammad's recognition of the distinction is reflected in his own deeds, following his capture of Mecca, and in those of his companions following his death.

There is also a difference between saying and believing. Whereas Muhammad knew that people could (and should) be forced to profess that there is no god but Allah, he also recognized that true belief cannot be forced. This may be the reconciliation between his contrasting remarks.

In any event, the damage is done. Islam expanded across the globe by conquering people of other religions and then making life miserable for those who didn't "embrace Islam." Once spoken, a person was locked into the faith. Any sign of false witness - such as not raising their children to be Muslim - was punished with death. Thus did Islam gradually supplant other religions.

Tellingly, the same modern apologists who lie about Islam's mandate to kill apostates do not champion the right of other religions to evangelize in Muslim countries. In fact, they discourage it. They know as well as anyone that Islam cannot compete within the arena of free ideas and must rely on brute force at some level to retain believers.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem

The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem)
May 7, 1982

Dear Cecil:

Cecil, you're my final hope

Of finding out the true Straight Dope

For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat

But none of my cats are at all like that.

This unusual animal (so it is said)

Is simultaneously live and dead!

What I don't understand is just why he

Can't be one or other, unquestionably.

My future now hangs in between eigenstates.

In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't.

If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way

And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.

But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,

Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo.

-- Randy F., Chicago

Cecil replies:

Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!

The SAS is now training terrorists in how to avoid special forces so that the British government can get cheaper oil?

I am not a "greenie". I am tired of oil running our world. I would rather go back to coal and horses than continue with horses. AlGore is a moron, but he is funding, with a tiny bit of his fortune, alternative power sources. Personally, I would double the number of nuclear power plants and find other thermal sources. Better than big ugly turbines in the sky.

Why don't we nuke the terrorist regimes and use the radiation for a new power source?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549526,00.html?test=latestnews

Some of Britain's most elite soldiers have been training Libyan forces in counterterrorism and surveillance for the past six months, a U.K. newspaper said Saturday.

The Daily Telegraph said that a contingent of between four and 14 men from the Special Air Service, or SAS, were working with Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi's soldiers in Libya, a country once notorious for its support of terrorism.

The paper cited an unidentified SAS source as saying that the training was seen as part of the deal to release Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, whose return to Libya last month outraged Americans and raised questions over the nature of Britain's relationship with Qaddafi's authoritarian regime.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other British government officials have emphasized Libya's remarkable transformation from rogue state to Western ally and the need to keep Qaddafi on board since he renounced terrorism and dismantled his country's clandestine nuclear program in 2003.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/09/common-sense-questions-for-obama-after.html

Common Sense Questions for Obama After Last Night's Show
Here are a few common sense questions for Barack Obama after his performance last night:

President Barack Obama: "Our collective failure to meet this challenge - year after year, decade after decade - has led us to the breaking point."
Common Sense Question: If we are at the "breaking point," then why doesn't your government-run insurance plan start until 2013?

President Barack Obama: "There are now 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage."
Common Sense Question: On August 20, you said 46 million Americans were uninsured. What happened to 16 million Americans?

President Barack Obama: "And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage."
Common Sense Question: Does that mean 15 million Americans will lose their health care before your government plan starts in 2013?

President Barack Obama: "We spend one and a half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it."
Common Sense Question: Then why do people travel from around the world to receive health care in the United States?

President Barack Obama: "Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing else even comes close."
Common Sense Question: Didn't the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office say that the health care plan you have endorsed will add $239 billion to our annual deficits over the next ten years?

President Barack Obama: "Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan."
Common Sense Question: If we can pay for "most" of health care reform by controlling waste and inefficiency, then why does a $900 billion health care plan include $820 billion in tax increases?

President Barack Obama: "...no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion."
Common Sense Question: Do you object to House Democrats defeating an amendment in the House Energy and Commerce Committee markup that would have explicitly prohibited federal funding of abortion under a government-run health care plan?

President Barack Obama: "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits - either now or in the future."
Common Sense Question: Do you oppose the House Democrat health care plan, H.R. 3200, which the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said will add $239 billion to our annual deficits over the next ten years and "would probably generate substantial increases in federal budget deficits" thereafter? If so, which Democrat plan are you going to support?

President Barack Obama: "Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan...the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over the next 10 years..."
Common Sense Question: If there is so much "waste and inefficiency" in Medicare and Medicaid - two government-run health care plans - then won't further government involvement in health care lead to further "waste and inefficiency"?

President Barack Obama: "And I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen."
Common Sense Question: Will you agree to meet with House Republican leaders to discuss health care reform, as they requested almost four months ago?

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20090908.aspx

Taliban Threaten Arizona and Nevada

September 8, 2009: The U.S. Air Force fears that the Taliban may attempt a terror attack against the U.S. bases (in Nevada and Arizona), where the operators control (via satellite link) Predator and Reaper UAVs flying over Pakistan. These UAVs have killed dozens of Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in the past year. The terrorists have fired mortars at the Pakistani Air Force bases that the UAVs operate from, but these attacks have been too limited to do much damage, much less interfere with flight operations. The Taliban are getting desperate.

It's unlikely that the Taliban could carry out an attack on the well-guarded bases, in the United States, containing the UAV operators. But the terrorist chatter (electronic, and on the ground) is getting increasingly nasty and strident.

Dozens of civilians in Taliban controlled tribal territory have been accused of being spies (providing location data for the UAV attacks), and executed. Most of these victims are believed to be innocent, as the Taliban have been unable to produce any concrete evidence that the U.S. is relying that heavily, on informants, to provide target locations. Meanwhile, no matter what the Taliban and al Qaeda do, the Hellfire missiles continue to find their targets. Thus carrying out an attack on the UAV operators, in the United States, has become a popular subject of conversation. At least enough for air force security officials to take notice.

Due to this article being from MSNBC, I have to cut out the attacks on Republicans and the oral pleasuring of the Messiah, but it is interesting how even a group as Far Left as this can notice the lack of security at the border.

Not that the Dems care, they register the criminals as soon as they get across! Or out of prison if the Evil Border Patrol incarcerated the innocents first.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32793136/ns/us_news-security

HOUSTON - Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.

"It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they've ever played before," Perry said of the Department of Public Safety's elite investigative unit.

The forces, dubbed "Ranger recon" teams, are the latest effort "to fill the gap that's been left by the federal government's ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico," he said.

http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/hazmat-equipment/articles/589169-the-sniffing-suit-arm-patches-that-sense-deadly-chemicals/

The sniffing suit: Arm patches that sense deadly chemicals

First responders and infantry soldiers may one day wear cheap, reliable toxic chemical sensors on their sleeves, thanks to new university research.

Scientists at Ohio State University have developed a simple, fast process for making extremely pure metal-oxide nanoparticles for gas sensors capable of instantly detecting toxic industrial chemicals and biological warfare agents.

The technique could lead to a generation of sensors that can be worn like unit patches on the sleeves of every soldier and first responder.

"This sensor array technology has broad applications, ranging from toxic chemical detection and emissions monitoring to medical diagnostics, to name just a few," said Patricia Morris, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State.

The Morris sensors are based on the chemiresistive properties of metal oxides.

"What's unique here is that we've made nanoparticles of various oxides that increase the change in electrical resistance relative to larger particles," Morris told Homeland1.

Morris said the challenge was to design a material that reacts quickly and reliably to a variety of chemicals, including TICs, when incorporated in a sensor.

"These are sensors that a soldier could wear on the battlefield, or a first responder could wear to an accident at a chemical plant," Morris said.

The material being used in this research is nickel oxide, which has unusual electrical properties. Laboratories elsewhere are studying nickel oxide for use in batteries, fuel cells, solar cells and even coatings that can change color.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/04/public-private-healthcare-business-healthcare-doug-mcvitie.html?partner=faces_newsletter

Public vs. Private Health Care
A Bitter Aftertaste For French Hospitals
Doug McVitie, 09.04.09, 12:00 PM EDT
My initial treatment at a public health system was great, but the aftercare was 'une catastrophe.'
pic

French health care, like French cuisine, has a somewhat schizophrenic quality to it. Some of the most expensive Parisian restaurants, believe it or not, serve drivel, and a two-day-old-baguette bought in a chic Parisian bakery can taste just as bad as a two-day-old artisanal baguette made in the middle of nowhere. You either love it or you loathe it. But the difference, curiously enough, is not financial; it's not a question of private or public. It's a question of perspective.

Due to sheer bad luck I've been exposed to the full panoply of the public French emergency medical services twice in the past two years, with a third coming right up. I pay a voluntary "top-up" health insurance to the state which leaves me 100% covered. It's a very fair service, and on both cases so far, the medical and surgical interventional couldn't have been of a higher quality anywhere on the face of the Earth. The French doctors know their jobs, take great pride in them and have a can-do attitude that soccer manager Sir Alex Ferguson would pay billions for.
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But this is where the private/public divide manifests itself, and shockingly quickly.

On my second stay at a French hospital (brain hemorrhage) I had had surgery without one stitch, which was truly awesome. But prior to that, while they tried to stabilize my system, I had been left alone with a seriously troubled young individual patient who screamed abuse at me, urinated under the door of his padded cell and hammered at his door violently.

Reposted:

Readers;

I will never forget where I was eight years ago this Friday when nearly 3,000 people were killed in a series of coordinated attacks upon the United States. The date was September 11, 2001 and I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC with my family. I don't remember the exact time that Bragg was "locked down" but once it was, the line of cars trying to get on was literally miles long. Soldiers were abandoning their cars on the side of the road and were walking or running to get on post. To work. To help. To do their jobs.

President Bush designated September 11 of every year as Patriot Day. Webster's Dictionary says that a patriot is "one who loves his or her country and supports its authority and interests." So let's not only remember those that were lost on that day but also remember and honor those that were called to action by either their country or their conscious.

I am reminding and encouraging everyone to observe a moment of silence this Friday, beginning at 8:46 A.M. (Eastern Daylight Time), the time of the first plane crash on September 11, 2001.
http://911digitalarchive.org/

http://www.september11news.com/

Stay safe.

Zach Taylor

well, I can sum this up:
Do good in school
if you feel sick, stay home,
vote Democratic

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/07/raw-data-obama-speech-american-school-children/

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you - you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.

The Swedes, who are now openly attacking Israel and sending bomb making funds to the "Palestinians", are also upset that they are not allowed to harbor terrorists in their hospitals. Sure, fix them up so they can be tortured in the comfy chair!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9AIDLQO0

A Swedish charity accused American troops Monday of storming through a hospital in central Afghanistan, breaking down doors and tying up staff in a search for militants. The U.S. military said it was investigating.

The allegation that soldiers violated the neutrality of a medical facility follows the reported deaths of Afghan civilians in a U.S. airstrike in the country's north last week. An Afghan human rights group said Monday the strike on two hijacked fuel tankers may have killed as many as 70 civilians in Kunduz province.

Civilian deaths and intrusive searches have bred resentment among the Afghan population nearly eight years after the U.S.-led coalition invaded to oust the Taliban's hard-line Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaida terrorist leaders.

Foreign forces are working to persuade the population to support the Afghan government after last month's presidential election, which has yet to be decided amid allegations of vote-rigging.

On Monday, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan said the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division entered the charity's hospital without permission to look for insurgents in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul.

"This is simply not acceptable," said Anders Fange, the charity's country director.

The U.S. troops came to the hospital looking for Taliban insurgents late at night last Wednesday. Fange said they kicked in doors, tied up four hospital employees and two family members of patients, and forced patients out of beds during their search.

When they left two hours later, the unit ordered hospital staff to inform coalition forces if any wounded militants were admitted, and the military would decide if they could be treated, Fange said.

This woman is obviously nuts! A year in jail to get clean would do her wonders.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,547221,00.html?test=latestnews

California Woman Charged With Kissing 6-Year-Old

Sunday, September 06, 2009

MADERA, Calif. -- A 37-year-old Madera County woman is facing criminal charges after she allegedly planted a passionate kiss on a 6-year-old boy and then spat on the deputy sheriff who arrested her.

Oakhurst resident Krista Arceneaux remained jailed Sunday on $100,000 bail following the incidents Wednesday outside a Bass Lake bar.

Madera sheriff's spokeswoman Erica Stuart says the boy was crossing a parking lot with his family when Arceneaux allegedly ran up to him, told him he was sexy and kissed him. She then ran into the bar and authorities were summoned, according to Stuart.

Arceneaux denied kissing the boy and was taken into custody. Inside the patrol car, she tried to kick out the windows and repeatedly spat on the deputy driving, Stuart said.

Arceneaux was charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, interfering with an officer, possession of marijuana and annoying or molesting a child under 18.

The sheriff's department said it did not know if Arceneaux has retained a lawyer.

Amen. Go read the rest

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204731804574387021307651050-lMyQjAxMDA5MDAwNjEwNDYyWj.html

Since we are moving toward socialism with ObamaCare, the time has come to do the same with other professions--especially lawyers. Physician committees can decide whether lawyers are necessary in any given situation.

At a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., last month, our uninformed lawyer in chief suggested that we physicians would rather chop off a foot than manage diabetes since we would make more money doing surgery. Then President Obama compounded his attack by claiming a doctor's reimbursement is between "$30,000" and "$50,000" for such amputations! (Actually, such surgery costs only about $1,500.)

Physicians have never been so insulted. Because of these affronts, I will gladly volunteer for the important duty of controlling and regulating lawyers. Since most of what lawyers do is repetitive boilerplate or pushing paper, physicians would have no problem dictating what is appropriate for attorneys. We physicians know much more about legal practice than lawyers do about medicine.

Following are highlights of a proposed bill authorizing the dismantling of the current framework of law practice and instituting socialized legal care:

• Contingency fees will be discouraged, and eventually outlawed, over a five-year period. This will put legal rewards back into the pockets of the deserving--the public and the aggrieved parties. Slick lawyers taking their "cut" smacks of a bookie operation. Attorneys will be permitted to keep up to 3% in contingency cases, the remainder going into a pool for poor people.

• Legal "DRGs." Each potential legal situation will be assigned a relative value, and charges limited to this amount. Program participation and acceptance of this amount is mandatory, regardless of the number of hours spent on the matter.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsf/articles/20090906.aspx

Because the Special Forces troops are the product of an exacting screening and training process, they are in big demand by intelligence agencies as well. Special Forces operators (as members of the Special Forces are called) who retired or quit in the last decade have been sought out and offered opportunities to get back in the business. If not with one of the five active duty groups, then with training operations, or to work with the intelligence agencies.

Most Americans tend to forget that the U.S. Special Forces are a unique organization in military, and intelligence, history. No other nation has anything like the Special Forces, and never has. While other nations have some operators skilled in understanding foreign cultures, the idea of training thousands of troops to very high standards, then having them study foreign languages and cultures, is unique to the Special Forces. The war on terror is the kind of war Special Forces are perfectly suited to dealing with. But now that this unique kind of war is under way, we find that those soldiers uniquely suited to fighting it are in short supply. This is largely because Special Forces set high standards, and has resisted all attempts to lower those standards. One hard lesson the Special Forces has learned in past fifty years is that lowering standards just increases the chances of failure, and getting your people killed.

SOCOM is who you call when you absolutely, positively have to get something done. But when it comes to dividing up the budget, SOCOM is not nearly as effective in lobbying for an adequate share of the defense budget. This will cause problems, which will show up when it's too late to just apply money to quickly solve it.

http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/Never-Again-9-6-2009.asp

Never Again?
by James Dunnigan
September 6, 2009

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians remain stalled. The basic reason is that Israel will not accept a deal that destroys Israel, and the Palestinians will not accept a deal that doesn't destroy Israel. The Palestinians insist on the "right of return" (the 4.7 million descendents of the 700,000 Arabs who fled Israel in 1947 be allowed to return to Israel and become citizens). If allowed, this would destroy Israel, as a majority of the voters would be Arabs. Most of these potential returnees have not been allowed to settle down in the Arab countries they fled to, but instead must live in refugee camps. The Western nations, that push the idea of a peace deal, generally ignore the poisonous anti-Israeli atmosphere in the Palestinian, and Arab, world. All these Moslems believe that Israel should not exist, and must be destroyed. They pretend to be otherwise for the West, but their true attitudes can be seen in the Arab and Palestinian media.

Hamas fears that 5-10 percent of the 1.5 million Gazans support al Qaeda type organizations (that is, very conservative Sunni Islam, and the belief any Moslem who does not agree with them, is not a Moslem, and can be killed.) Few of these supporters are willing to act, so there are only a few hundred armed al Qaeda types in Gaza, and since Hamas recently killed 28 members of Jund Ansar Allah, no one wants to anger Hamas. It would be suicidal. But this has turned Hamas into a tyrant and religious bigot (enforcing conservative religious customs rarely seen before among Palestinians). This makes the al Qaeda supporters always ready to get violent, if persuaded to do so by exceptional leaders, or events. That's because the al Qaeda backers generally believe that Hamas is serving Israel, partly because Hamas negotiates with Israel and is seen as not militant enough against Israel and the West. Participating in elections is also seen as non-Islamic by al Qaeda, but democracy is popular with most Palestinians.

Hamas is fighting a low level war against Fatah in the West Bank, where the majority supports Fatah, but where Hamas has the support of 10-20 percent of the 2.5 million population. Hamas is a big believer in terrorism and assassination. So Israel is quietly providing some senior Fatah officials with additional security, meaning Israeli security people inside the West Bank, protecting Palestinian politicians from Palestinian assassins.

Rocket and mortar fire out of Gaza remains low, with only two rockets in June and two rockets and a mortar shell in July. Two mortar shells have been fired this month, along with several rockets (not all the ones that land in desolate areas are found). There are still Palestinian attempts to get through the Gaza security fence, or plant bombs along the fence (to kill Israeli soldiers who patrol the fence.) Israel also bombs tunnels every time rockets or mortars are fired, which discourages Hamas from these attacks on Israel. The smuggling tunnels are essential for the Hamas military buildup (larger and longer range rockets, for the "final battle" with Israel.

Once again, the Obama Regime is trying to erase the United States. What a pity.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=108924

Less than 48 hours after WND reported that under the Obama administration the website for the United States mission to the United Nations had been scrubbed of its flag emblem and archives, those apparently have been restored.

The new site had brought howls and criticisms from previous US/UN officials.

"I think the loss of the American flag (from the home page) is a very telling symbol, that they still have the U.N. seal up there. They had that flag up there when I arrived (as ambassador). It was there when I got there and to replace it with the U.N. seal I think is more symbolic perhaps than the Obama administration realizes. It says a lot to the American public what their priorities are," former Ambassador John Bolton said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546903,00.html?test=latestnews

The top NATO commander in Afghanistan said Saturday that local villagers were among those wounded at the site of an airstrike on hijacked fuel tankers, declaring his resolve to limit civilian casualties that threaten to undermine the war against the Taliban.

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal inspected the spot where a U.S. fighter jet blasted the hijacked tankers early Friday, killing as many as 70 people. The pre-dawn strike occurred despite McChrystal's new orders restricting the use of airpower if civilian lives are at risk.

McChrystal also visited a hospital Saturday where the wounded were taken, stooping low to talk with a 10-year-old boy with severe burns, his arms and legs swathed in gauze.

Local officials have said scores of people died in the fiery blast, but it was unclear how many were militants and how many were villagers who rushed to the scene to siphon fuel from the stolen trucks. A NATO team began an official investigation Saturday amid a clamor from European leaders for answers, with some calling the airstrike a "tragedy" and "a big mistake" that must be investigated.

"From what I have seen today and going to the hospital, it's clear to me that there were some civilians that were harmed at the site," McChrystal told reporters in Kunduz. He did not say if any civilians were killed.

McChrystal waded through knee-high water to view the blackened NATO tankers, which exploded when a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jet dropped two 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs on them a few miles (kilometers) outside the main town in northern Kunduz province.

This makes me want to puke. It is a good thing I am not a Muslim or I would have to kill people out of rage.

Who would think of such a horrible thing anyway?

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804486599&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

An art exhibit depicting various female Palestinian suicide bombers as the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, which opened at the Sokolov House press center in Tel Aviv on Thursday, was quickly taken down following an outcry from the families of those killed or wounded in the attacks, as well as by organizations that represent terror victims.
Paiting of suicide bomber...

Paiting of suicide bomber shown at Sokholov House.
Photo: AP
SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World

The exhibit, which featured the work of artists Galina Bleich and Liliah Check, consisted of a series of paintings of the women - some with halos around their heads - rendered to look like Renaissance-era portraits of Catholic saints.

Sokolov House agreed to take the portraits down on Thursday afternoon, but another section of the exhibit - sand and dirt that had been taken from the scenes of the bombings and spread out across canvas - remained on the gallery's walls.

The artists defended their work on Thursday, but the victims' families expressed outrage over both the content of the exhibition and the fact that Sokolov House, the headquarters of the Israeli Journalists Association, had agreed to show it.

Dalit Levy, whose 17-year-old stepdaughter Rachel was killed in a suicide bombing as she shopped at the Supersol supermarket in Jerusalem's Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood on March 29, 2002, along with the store's security guard, Haim Smadar, 55, arrived outside Sokolov House on Thursday afternoon with an Israeli flag draped over her shoulders, and placed plastic sheeting on the sidewalk.

"You want art?" she asked a group of reporters who had gathered around her. "Here's art!" she said, before spilling a can of red paint next to a photograph of her stepdaughter and two memorial candles. "This is the blood of our children!"

http://www.homeland1.com/domestic-international-terrorism/articles/587925-Terrorist-hunters-have-become-the-hunted/

"President Obama's decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security," said former Vice President Dick Cheney.

People who have talked to Mr. Panetta recently say his embattled agency is suffering from deep morale problems as agents wonder why the White House seems to be spending more time and effort investigating them than stepping up the war on terrorism.

Career CIA agents now have good reason to fear that Mr. Holder's - and now the president's - special prosecutor, John H. Durham, will be coming after them with both guns blazing and maybe other former top officials in the Bush administration.

"Once Durham starts digging," The Washington Post reported this week, "... the veteran prosecutor could uncover evidence that leads him higher up the chain of command in an inquiry that grows broader than what the Justice Department outlined Monday."

The dangerous precedent this sets is contrary to Mr. Obama's oft-repeated intention to focus on the future, not the past. Instead, his administration is now intent on prosecuting public officials who acted at the time under legal opinions cleared by the Justice Department.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546981,00.html?test=latestnews

A boy allegedly abducted in a custody dispute nearly two years ago has turned up alive, hiding with his mother in a small, specially built secret room at his grandmother's Illinois home, investigators said.

Richard "Ricky" Chekevdia, who turns 7 on Sept. 14, was in good spirits and physically fit after being found Friday by investigators with a court order to search the two-story rural home in southern Illinois' Franklin County, about 120 miles southeast of St. Louis.

The boy's mother, 30-year-old Shannon Wilfong, is charged with felony child abduction. The grandmother, 51-year-old Diane Dobbs, is charged with aiding and abetting. Wilfong remained jailed Saturday on $42,500 bond in Benton, Ill., where Dobbs was being held on $1,000 bond.

Domestic terrorists strike again.

The ELF does millions in damage, but are supported by other Leftist millionaires who help to protect them. Right Mr Soros?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546561,00.html

Two radio station towers north of Seattle were toppled early Friday, a banner left nearby bore the initials of the Earth Liberation Front and an FBI spokesman said authorities haven't found any evidence that other individuals or groups besides the ELF were involved.

The towers were torn down because of health and environmental concerns, according to an e-mail from the North American ELF Press Office, which has represented the shadowy group in the past.

"We have to weigh our priorities, and the local ecosystem in Everett, along with the local residents, do not need additional sports news radio station towers that come at the expense of reduced property values and harmful radio waves," ELF press office spokesman Jason Crawford said in the e-mail.

The ELF is a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. The FBI has taken over as lead investigator in Friday's incident.

The towers apparently were taken down with a track hoe, a piece of heavy construction equipment that was already on the site, FBI agent Marty Prewett said.

The ELF's Web site featured a picture of one of the towers lying on its site with the caption "Earth Liberation Front Topples Two Radio Station Towers in Snohomish County, WA," followed by the words: "Details coming soon."

Crawford told the AP by telephone he believed more than one person was involved. He said he had not spoken directly with anyone who claimed to be involved but received some e-mail from what appear to be locals who support the action.

The towers belonging to KRKO -- a family-owned station in Everett, about 25 miles north of Seattle -- have prompted complaints from neighbors of interference from radio signals on home telephone and intercom lines. The site for the towers is in the town of Snohomish, about eight miles southeast of Everett.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/04/montel-williams-has-a-murder-wish-for-rep-michele-bachmann/

Montel Williams is now a moonbat talk show host for Air America.

The formerly civil TV personality is now a foaming-at-the-mouth nutroots-panderer who wishes GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann dead.

Radio Equalizer Brian Maloney reports:

WILLIAMS (1:30:32): Michelle, slit your wrist.

Go ahead... or, do us all a better thing [sic].

Move that knife up about two feet.

Start right at the collarbone.

Where are the civility police when you need them, huh?

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198694.php

When I read this, I was stunned. Bombshell?:

Based on collection requirements established in 2008, al-Qa'ida, Al-Shabaab, HAMAS, Hizballah, Jama'at ul Fuqra, Lashkar-e Tayyiba, and the Muslim Brotherhood were assessed as potential international terrorism threats to Virginia. While most of these groups are known to have individuals that currently live, work, or frequently travel through Virginia, some groups were included in this threat assessment based more on historic data or emerging significance based on world events. These assessments were largely corroborated by recently released data from the Terrorism Screening Center. According to 2008 ground encounter data, the most frequently encountered groups were al-Qa'ida, HAMAS, and Hizballah. Occasionally encountered groups
and movements included Sunni Extremists, Jama'at Tabligh, Palestinian Islamic Jihadb , Islamic Jihad Unionc, Muslim Brotherhood, and the Taliban.

So, members of al Qaeda were encountered in Virginia? My immediate thought was that the wording here might be technical. So, I went to a definitional footnote to see how 'encountered' was operationalized:

(LES) Encounters include air travel, traffic stops, arrests, firearms purchases, employment checks, and visa applications

Okay, I'm guessing that most of these "encounters" were false alarms based on routine screenings which turn up false positives based on similar names.

I hope.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/09/inhabitants-of-palestine-1851.html

The inhabitants of Palestine, 1851

I just found this survey of Palestine's inhabitants by Geroge Henry Taylor in a geography textbook published in 1851. It has the usual bigotry of Christian-written books of the period, but it is still interesting, especially in terms of how Jews were treated under Muslim rule (contrary to the propaganda spouted nowadays of how well Muslims and Jews lived together before Zionism):

I wish now to give you some notion of the modern inhabitants of Palestine. If you look at the table attentively you will soon perceive that Palestine has been conquered and possessed by many different nations, and, consequently, you may expect to find the results of these conquests in a strange mixture of various nations in the inhabitants. The following list will comprise all the more important classes and races of men who now inhabit Palestine :

1. Turks. 4. Maronites.

2. Greek Christians. 5. Arabs.

3. Druses. 6. Jews.

1. Turks. First, of the Turks. These are the last conquerors of the country and are, consequently, the most numerous. All the towns of greatest importance are occupied by them. The Turks are all followers of Mahommed, and the Koran is their Bible. Under their rule Palestine must ever remain a poor and miserable country. Extortion prevails everywhere. The poor Arab is ground to the dust. All agriculture languishes. Hundreds of acres at this moment lie barren and uncultivated. None like to risk their labour and their money in such pursuits; for when the crops are ripe the tax-gatherer comes and seizes just as much as the pasha requires, taking sometimes nearly the whole of the produce. In consequence of this extortion many of the inhabitants of Palestine prefer to drag out a miserable existence in the towns. Hence poverty, idleness, dirt, want, and disease are common all over the country.

It is finally official. The fight against tyranny is illegal, while the tyrants finally have all the power that the Leftists can grant to each other.

You fools who voted this regime into power in our fair land have much to answer for before the Lord. And I am NOT referring to YOUR Messiah.

I think it is incredible that when this Leftist tyrant found he was finally ready to overthrow his countries constitution, the greatest democracy in the world REFUSED to support his people. The rest of the government did what they could to keep the situation under control. The Supreme Court consulted with the congressional leaders, the police and the military before they moved. Instead of trying the guy in open court and allowing his remaining followers to riot and start a civil war, they hurried him to the airport and out of the country. Where the civil war could be controlled and aborted like a Liberal fetus.

A real American would have supported the Honduran government's enforcement of the constitution and the brave way they preempted a civil war. I know I have been!

Notice that the Leftists running the United States are demanding that democracy be "restored" in Honduras and then demanding that even holding the all ready promised elections is not going to be good enough. The only way that the Administration will accept a Honduran government will be to force the Hondurans to abandon their constitution and restore to power the man who wants to overthrow the core of legal power in the country. What stupidity.

I am going to assume that the Leftists who were elected, much as many other Leftist/Socialist regimes have, to power in this country are looking at the Honduran situation as a way to experiment with OUR country. If they can show that the Honduran Constitution is invalid because Obama and his friends will it to be so, then they will do so here.

Or is there some proof that Obama wants to keep our Constitution?

http://www.stratfor.com/sitrep/20090903_honduras_u_s_terminates_aid

September 3, 2009 | 1903 GMT

The U.S. Department of State announced in an official statement Sept. 3 that the United States has terminated a broad range of foreign aid to Honduras. The statement said aid will be restored when "democratic, constitutional" governance is returned to Honduras, and that several individuals and supporters of the current regime have been identified and will have their visas revoked. Aid had been suspended following the June 28 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The statement also said that the United States would not support the result of the planned November presidential election unless a settlement between Zelaya and the current regime is reached.

I am so sick of the UN hiding what all the people with common sense already know. Why do they even bother hiding it? What advantage do they get from lying to themselves?

I have a theory. The UN is turning a blind eye so that when Iran nukes New York,... the higher ups can all be at a meeting in Geneva, Moscow, or Pretoria at the time. Naturally, a bunch of mid level and lower peons will be left behind so that the survivors can be used as an excuse to 'prove' the UN was not culpable.

Plausible? Would anyone besides me miss NYC?

http://www.debka.com/index1.php

Six nations may reveal data concealed by ELBaradei on Iran's nuclear progress

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 31, 2009, 7:35 AM (GMT+02:00)
Iran is up to "weapon design" stage

US, Israel and four other governments are urgently discussing the release of intelligence that Iran is running covert military nuclear projects parallel to its civilian program after Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, withheld this data from his last report, DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources disclose.

The four governments are Britain, France, Netherlands and Japan. All six had provided ElBaradei with new and detailed information on the advances made by Iran in its race to develop a nuclear bomb for inclusion in his last report on Aug. 28 before he retires next month. But ElBaradei, true to his usual custom of blurring Iran's breaches, omitted the new evidence.

In Paragraphs 18 to 20 of his report, he admits to possessing substantial intelligence but regrets he is unable to use it to confront Iran without betraying his sources and so Iran was not able to fully answer IAEA queries.

US and Israeli sources denounce this evasion as a diplomatic scandal verging on fraud.

The material passed to him left no doubt that Iran was engaged in developing a nuclear weapon and revealed for the first time that it reached the final stages, weapon design, of the process. But ElBaradei decided to keep it hidden on the pretext of not exposing sources.

One official told DEBKAfile that passing the new information to the IAEA director had compromised its sources anyway so there was no point in holding it back any longer.

The seven governments concerned will decide very soon which parts of this unpublished information to air. According to our sources, it will not be attributed directly to any government but to "Iranian exiles" who will present it as coming from inside Iran.

This tactic was employed in 2004, when the opposition Mojaheddin al-Khalq leaders first broke the news of Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz at press conferences in Washington and Paris.

The Israeli foreign ministry denounced the ElBaradei report, released ahead of the nuclear watchdog's regular annual meeting in Vienna on Sept. 7, for omitting "to detail Iran's efforts to obtain nuclear arms or its continued attempts to deceive and conceal those efforts. Neither did it mention Tehran's refusal to cooperate with the IAEA and the international community."

Next month, when the UN General Assembly opens, a special high-level meeting of the UN Security Council will discuss nuclear proliferation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8225093.stm

There are only a handful of people left who can say they saw World War II start.
A German battleship, the Schleswig-Holstein, bombards the Polish coast at Westerplatte, at the start of World War II

The Schleswig-Holstein unleashed a barrage of shells at a Polish fort

Few survive to tell the tale of the German battleship, Schleswig-Holstein, unleashing a barrage of 280mm and 170mm shells at a Polish fort and shattering the dawn breaking over the Westerplatte peninsula in the free city of Danzig on 1 September 1939.

"I took the telescope and looked out at the channel, first right, then left and then at the cruiser which was moored in the bay," Ignacy Skowron remembered. "At that moment I saw a flash of red and the first shell hit the gate,"

The attack began at 0445. Simultaneously, the German Wehrmacht poured across the frontier of Poland from the west, north and south.

Two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany.

The then 24-year-old Cpl Skowron was one of just 182 Polish soldiers defending the military transit depot on the Westerplatte peninsula.

"I grabbed a machine gun," said Mr Skowron. "We got the order and we started to fight back. The cruiser then sailed into the channel and started to fire shell after shell at us. I saw huge trees being snapped in two."

"On the second day there were three attacks before midday. We fought back and then later we heard some noise and there were planes overhead.

"They started to dive-bomb us and guardhouse number five was completely destroyed. Five soldiers were killed."

Cold, hungry, dirty

After the dust lifted, the Germans were amazed to see anyone still alive. The fighting lasted for seven days.

Ignacy Skowron
The Germans saw that their attacks weren't working so they used flamethrowers to try and overcome us with flames
Ignacy Skowron

"The Germans saw that their attacks weren't working so they used flame-throwers to try and overcome us with flames. By the sixth day we were barely managing to survive because we were cold, hungry, dirty, and we hadn't slept. We were struggling," Mr Skowron said.

At the end the German commander, Gen Friedrich Eberhardt, allowed the Polish commander, Maj Sucharski, to keep his ceremonial sabre.

"The German told him that if he had such an army he could fight the whole world," recalled Mr Skowron.

Out of perhaps 3,400 German troops, between 200 and 400 were killed in the battle. Of the Poles, between 15 and 20 were killed.

Mr Skowron, now 94-years-old, was marking the start of the war at a small concrete community centre in the outskirts of his home town of Kielce, in southern Poland.

Westerplatte is particularly important here because many soldiers from the town's Fourth Infantry regiment fought in the battle.

During the ceremony veterans, serving soldiers and residents ate cake and fruit while a choir sang war standards.

A group of young people dressed in period uniforms marched in with the Polish standard. People take the war seriously here.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/09/on-of-islams-heinous-anniversaries-beslan-five-years-on.html

Beslan lessons five years on

MOSCOW. (Maxim Krans, RIA Novosti political commentator) - On September 1, 2004, The North Caucasus town of Beslan became know to the world for a tragic reason. A terrorist group took hostage 1,128 people who gathered at a local school on that day; two days later, 319 hostages including 187 children were killed in the storming of the building. Hundreds of schoolchildren and their relatives were injured.

The predictable blamestorming resulted in an administrative change. The Kremlin began appointing regional governors, rather than electing as before, thus taking full responsibility for the distribution of forces in North Caucasus republics. Special services closed ranks, too: new anti-terrorist divisions began working more effectively; the masterminds of the Beslan attack were killed or sentenced to life in prison.

But can we announce a decisive victory over terrorism? The long list of terrorist attacks committed in the North Caucasus in the past few years suggests not. Some stabilization has been registered in Chechnya, and the counter-terrorist operation was lifted there in April. However, the number of terrorist attacks in the area has recently grown. Local terrorists have re-adopted the practice of using suicide bombers: on July 26, one of them tried to plant a bomb in a Grozny concert hall, but had to set it off during a personal security check, killing himself and several police officers.

Moreover, this increase in violence is spreading to other North Caucasus republics. In Ingushetia, 107 people were killed and nine kidnapped between January and mid-May. The most high-profile attack was against the republic's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who barely survived the attempt on his life. Several Ingush officials were killed this summer, including the construction minister, deputy chairman of the Supreme Court, and former deputy prime minister, Bashir Aushev. A police department was blown up in Nazran. The list is even longer, and more victims might follow.

In Dagestan, underground Islamic groups have started a massive hunt for officials and police and security officers. They get killed there almost every day. In June, a sniper shot a local interior department head. Apart from local officials, terrorists also target other undesirable activists. Natalya Estemirova, who worked for the Chechen branch of the Memorial Human Rights Center, was killed recently in a high-profile attack. She monitored the situation in various "hot spots" in the North Caucasus and reported her observations of growing violence to the international community.

Both federal and local authorities have been fighting separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism in the North Caucasus for one and half decades, but they aren't reaching the underlying reasons of these phenomena.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/01/black-professors-urge-race-based-election-results-in-atlanta/

So much for the Era of Post-Racialism.

A pair of black professors has admitted authoring a memo outlining how and why black voters should make their mayoral candidate choice based on skin color.

WSBTV reports:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,545020,00.html?test=latestnews

In a separate brief, Fathima Rifqa Bary -- who moved with her family from Sri Lanka to Queens, N.Y., in 2000, and later to Gahanna, Ohio, in 2004 -- claims her father selected the cultural center despite eight other mosques that were closer to their home.

"My father was very intent on making sure that his children, and especially me, were raised deeply in the faith of 'Original Islam' which was taught at the Noor Center," an affidavit filed Monday read. "Our family attended the Noor Center gatherings as much [sic] our schedules would allow."

The 17-year-old girl said she became a Christian in November 2005 while at the Korean United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio.

"I hid my Christian faith from my parents as best as I could and had to sneak around to attend Christian campus meetings," the affidavit continued. "I also hid my Bible at home in various locations."

In 2007, after finding the Christian book "Purpose Driven Life," Rifqa claimed her father had a "serious discussion" about the importance of retaining her Muslim faith and Islamic blood line. Later, in 2009, Rifqa claims her father confronted her about whether she had become a Christian.

"Then my father told me that he received numerous e-mails and phone calls from the leaders of the Noor Center community who informed him that he need to deal with this matter immediately," the affidavit continues.

Bary also claims her father threatened to kill and disavow her and that her mother threatened to have her "sent back to Sri Lanka to be dealt with" when she discovered another Christian book in her bedroom on July 17.

http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/09/todays_medal_of_107.html

Today is an interesting day in the history of the Medal, with classic memes, a variation on a theme, and some damn hard fighting and desperate valor, and one very tough aviator.

We open with the Civil War, where we find ourselves with the army of General Sherman, facing off against General Hardee and a good chunk of General Hood's troops defending Atlanta, with a fight at Jonesboro, Georgia, that catches a lot of Victorian-era war memes - leading an assault on the works, leaping into the enemy's position and demanding his surrender (vice just running him through and moving on to kill everything you see), and, of course, two iterations of Capture the Flag. Oh, and by winning this fight, Sherman forced Hood to abandon Atlanta, a not inconsequential outcome.

...

Britain is going through the wonders of Environmentalism that the Messiah is going to bring to us! The joys of living like hippies on a commune, or living in North Korea is coming to us all. Hail Marx and Obama!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/6118113/Britain-facing-blackouts-for-first-time-since-1970s.html

Demand for power from homes and businesses will exceed supply from the national grid within eight years, according to official figures.

The shortage of supplies will hit the equivalent of many as 16 million families for at least one hour during the year, it is forecast.

Not since the early 1970s when the three-day week was introduced to preserve coal has Britain faced the prospect of reationing energy use.

The gap between Britain's energy needs and demand throws fresh doubt on the Government's assertion that renewable energy can make up for dwindling nuclear and coal capabilities.

Over the next 10 years, one third of Britain's power-generating capacity needs to be replaced with cleaner fuels. But last night the Conservatives said that Labour had refused to face up to the problem.

The admission that Britain will face power-cuts is contained in a document that accompanied the Government's Low Carbon Transition Plan, which was launched in July.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/national-news/2009/08/31/222785/China-faces.htm

Two hundred children are suffering from lead poisoning in southwest China, the country's third such case of mass sickening in the past month, an official newspaper said Monday.

Parents in Tongdu, a township in Yunnan province's capital of Kunming, blamed the poisoning on a nearby industrial park while local environmental officials attributed it to vehicle exhaust, the China Daily reported.

The Yunnan official overseeing the province's lead prevention office told The Associated Press that up to 60 percent of children under 14 are suffering from lead poisoning in areas of Yunnan with high mining activity -- including Dongchuan, where the industrial park is located.

The Child Lead Prevention and Cure Office in Yunnan conducted the survey of random children last year, director Liu Dakun said. He declined to take further questions or say how excessive the levels were. He did not comment on this case.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/town-hall-counter-protester-slams.html

More Hope & Change--
Barack Obama gave his marching orders:

Obama: "They Bring a Knife...We Bring a Gun"
Obama to His Followers: "Get in Their Faces!"
Obama on ACORN Mobs: "I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I'm angry!"
Obama To His Mercenary Army: "Hit Back Twice As Hard"

His supporters followed through...
But, don't expect the state-run media to report on this.

The Tucson area Tea Party Coalition held a meeting at Rincon High School in Tucson this weekend. Over 1,000 people showed up at the event... including one violent counter-protester.

The pro-Obama thug disrupted the meeting screaming-- marched to the front of the room holding a sign------
And, then SLAMMED AN ATTENDEE IN THE FACE with his elbow!

Here's the video: