7212. jexster - 2/19/2006 10:53:59 PM

Don't look at me..Wonk digressed off of this highly highly material point:

The administration's second-term efforts to push for greater Middle Eastern democracy, introduced with the soaring rhetoric of Bush's second Inaugural Address, have borne very problematic fruits. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood made a strong showing in Egypt's parliamentary elections in November and December. While the holding of elections in Iraq this past December was an achievement in itself, the vote led to the ascendance of a Shiite bloc with close ties to Iran (following on the election of the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran in June). But the clincher was the decisive Hamas victory in the Palestinian election last month, which brought to power a movement overtly dedicated to the destruction of Israel. In his second inaugural, Bush said that "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," but the charge will be made with increasing frequency that the Bush administration made a big mistake when it stirred the pot


As usual, the Wisdom of the Ages, comes from Stanley Kubrick, to the rescue, to the point

M. Le Canuck

the civilian press are about to wet
their pants ....In other words, it's a huge shit sandwich,
and we're all gonna have to take a bite.

7213. wonkers2 - 2/19/2006 11:54:31 PM

Marc-Albert, Go fuck yourself! If you knew how to read, or bothered to, you wouldn't make that suggestion.

7214. jexster - 2/20/2006 8:07:28 AM

Damn your eyes Wonk - don't digress again!

February 20, 2006
The Provocateurs
How to enrage Muslims worldwide

Somewhere, Osama bin Laden is smiling. He has good reason to be happy. In the last week or so, the West has given his program of a relentless jihad against America new credibility, and delivered thousands of new converts to his doorstep. The Muhammad cartoon controversy, new photos of the Abu Ghraib atrocities, and a video of Iraqi kids being brutally beaten by British soldiers after a protest demonstration have all provided similar – and, more importantly, very visual – confirmation of al-Qaeda's basic contention: that the U.S. and its Western allies are embarked on a crusade to humiliate and destroy the Muslim religion worldwide – and that nothing less than a merciless war against the infidels can stop them.

7215. Marc-Albert - 2/20/2006 8:31:46 AM

Non-Muslims have not been born just to spend the rest of their lives checking every move they make so that they won't "enrage Muslims worldwide".

If you're "smart chikens" (cowards) and shit in your pants cause your're constantly worried we may have "enraged Muslims worldwide", and "bring new recruits to al-Qaeda", that's your problem.

Keep on being worried to death.

7216. Marc-Albert - 2/20/2006 8:50:28 AM

Mon Dieu! One more protest by "enraged Muslims". We must be extra-extra cautious not to enrage them. A little more kowtowing and a few more fulsome apologies should help a little bit.

Every little bit count!

7217. Marc-Albert - 2/20/2006 8:56:58 AM

Now class! repeat after me: Allah is the only God, and Mohammed is His Prophet.

Every little count!

7218. Marc-Albert - 2/20/2006 9:02:15 AM

I bring you peace with the Muslim World!

7219. wonkers2 - 2/20/2006 9:19:46 AM

History Illuminates the Rage of MuslimsHere.

7220. jexster - 2/20/2006 1:12:36 PM

Marc-Albert - Useful Cocksucker for the Internationl Likudnik conspiracy..whodda thunk it?

But what you gonna do about it bitch! Salope!

Send a battalion of Kebeckers to terrorize the mongrels?

If you wanna jack off...I've got some pics I could send

7221. alistairConnor - 2/20/2006 5:54:07 PM

Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.

Rat coward. "Oh uh maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. Sorry about all the broken porcelain."

7222. alistairConnor - 2/20/2006 5:56:18 PM

M-A : there are enough monitors in this hall already thanks...

Neoconservatism, as the latest avatar of US interventionism, is of international interest. If it is declared dead by its leading "thinkers", then I shall be glad to dance on its grave.

7223. jexster - 2/20/2006 6:21:18 PM

Screw U AC...don't let Wonk off the hook for his crimes

7224. wonkers2 - 2/20/2006 6:27:26 PM

What is Fukuyama, if not a neocon? At least he was a neoconsymp? Or a fellow traveler? What did he renounce last Sunday if it was not neoconservatism? Are you splitting hairs on us Jex? Are you going to make me re-read the long article?

7225. jexster - 2/20/2006 7:12:00 PM

Don't worry Canuck...America stands on guard for thee if even if France and Wonk won't

Over There (Enrico Caruso

Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Take it on the run,
On the run, on the run.
Hear them calling, you and me,
Every son of liberty.
Hurry right away,
No delay, go today,
Make your daddy glad
To have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy's in line.
(chorus sung twice)

Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Johnnie show the Hun
Who's a son of a gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly,
Yankee Doodle do or die.
Pack your little kit,
Show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee to the ranks,
From the towns and the tanks.
Make your mother proud of you,
And the old Red, White and Blue.
(chorus sung twice)

Chorus
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there -
That the Yanks are coming,
The Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over
Over there.

7226. jexster - 2/20/2006 7:17:37 PM

He's a muscular Wilsonian Internationalist with latent Marxist tendencies MORON

as against neo-Leninist NeoCon Busheviks and drink-soaked Trotskyite fellow travelers

Next dumb question.

Enrico's singing in French now..I must go..I get all teary-eyed

7227. wonkers2 - 2/20/2006 10:16:39 PM

Jexter, we're going to have to get together next time my wife and I come to your home town so I can grab you by the neck and choke you into reality.

7228. jexster - 2/20/2006 10:43:10 PM

I'll have a fatwah on your decrepit old ass faster than you can say Golden Gate Bridge

Bring it on bitch ;)
You have my number

7229. jexster - 2/20/2006 11:15:00 PM

Just call me Hugo Wonk

Chavez Tells Rice: 'Don't Mess With Me, Bitch'

Actually he said "girl" Translated to the Deetroit vernacular..

To hell with Wiz too..where did the Condimima pic go????

7230. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 2/20/2006 11:52:50 PM

How quickly you turn!

7231. jexster - 2/21/2006 2:32:14 PM

Thanks Wiz!

Fukuyama's topic A at America Abroad TMPCafe. Ivo Daalder and his Steroidal Wilsonians are topic A of a Jexster flame job

Begins Here

But the real class A asshole post is here

Thank you Great Tenor

7232. jexster - 2/21/2006 3:21:33 PM

Iraq to US - Fuck off

Hugo and the Colonia are one thing.

When Merkel grows a pair of cojones - game over.

OOOPS

my bad

7233. wonkers2 - 2/21/2006 4:21:39 PM

Not sure I follow where you are going? If you and Fukuyama are worried that Bush's neocon excesses will lead to a return to isolationism, anti-immigration, anti-free trade, anti-foreign aid, a la Buchanan and Lou Dobbs, I agree. That would be unfortunate. The question is how we are to make our influence felt in the world. For me the answer is less unilateralism, more multilateralism, more trade, etc. These are imperatives as the world grows smaller and more interdependent due to technology.

7234. jexster - 2/21/2006 5:16:02 PM

Don't confuse me with Daalder/Fukuyama puhlees...

I'm in theEnrico Caruso camp...I insist on the the presumption hypocritical lying incompetents!

And if Sweden beats us again in hockey I think we should seriously consider Osama's terms of surrender

7235. jexster - 2/21/2006 10:10:11 PM

Austrian court jails British historian for Holocaust denial



VIENNA -- Right-wing British historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison by an Austrian court on Monday for denying the Holocaust 17 years ago, despite his claim to have changed his views.

7236. wonkers2 - 2/22/2006 10:03:13 AM

Furor Over Cartoons Pits Muslims Against Muslims Here.

7237. wonkers2 - 2/22/2006 10:11:09 AM

Empty Pockets Angry Minds

"India is the second-largest Muslim country in the world, but the cartoon protests here, unlike those in Pakistan, have been largely peaceful. One reason for the difference is surely that Indian Muslims are empowered and live in a flourishing democracy. India's richest man is a Muslim software entrepreneur. But so many young Arabs and Muslims live in nations that have deprived them of any chance to realize their full potential.....

"No wonder so many young people in this part of the world (Middle East) are unpreparedand therefore easily enraged, as they encounter modernity. And no wonder backward religious leaders and dictatorsin places like Syria and Iran--who have miserably failed their youth--are so quick to turn their young people's anger against an insulting cartoon and away from themselves and the rot they have wrought."

Tom Friedman in today's NYT.

7238. ronski - 2/22/2006 3:53:29 PM

Islamofascism and Danish History

7239. robertjayb - 2/22/2006 4:26:27 PM

Another Great British Bank robbery...

LONDON -- A gang of armed robbers tied up 15 employees at a southern England security company and stole the equivalent of $43.5 million, the Bank of England said Wednesday.

The money, about 25 million pounds in bank notes, was stolen overnight from a cash center at Tonbridge in Kent county, a bank spokesman said. No one was injured in the robbery.

At least six men participated in the robbery, Kent police said, and 15 staff members on duty at the security company were tied up during the heist. The thieves, who wore balaclavas and carried handguns, were in the security company building for more than an hour, police said.

7240. thoughtful - 2/22/2006 5:17:48 PM

re friedman's piece, isnt' it also because the indian police have no qualms about firing into rioting crowds to quell them??

7241. wonkers2 - 2/22/2006 5:30:13 PM

I don't know. Anybody?

7242. Marc-Albert - 2/22/2006 6:42:17 PM

NEW DELHI: The editor of a magazine here was arrested on Wednesday for publishing the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

Police said the newly launched magazine "Senior India" had carried the caricatures in an edition that hit the stands on January 15.

Editor Alok Tomar was initially called to a police station for questioning and later arrested when he admitted to publishing the caricatures.

"We arrested Tomar on charges of hurting religious sentiments of a community," said Anil Shukla, additional deputy commissioner of police.

This is the first arrest in India linked to the controversial cartoons that were initially published in a Danish newspaper.

Politicaly correct idiots.

7243. Marc-Albert - 2/22/2006 6:45:08 PM

More Indian news:

LUCKNOW: Unusual causes have unusual effects. As a fallout of UP minister Yaqoob Qureshi's fatwa that he would pay Rs 51 crore for killing Danish cartoonist for caricaturing the Prophet, an unheard of body called the Hindu Law Board on Wednesday came up with a counter bounty.

It has offered Qureshi Rs 101 crore for slaying M F Husain, embroiled in a controversy over depictions of Saraswati and Bharat Mata and owners of an European distillery for using Durga illustrations to promote their wine.

7244. jexster - 2/22/2006 10:34:22 PM

Reap the Whirlwind Quran Flushers
66 Die in Nigerian Toon Violence

7245. alistairconnor - 2/23/2006 4:13:05 AM

Politicaly correct idiots.

Who's the idiot? Hundreds of thousands died in religious conflict during the Partition. Hundreds have died in recent years in rioting over temples. I think enforcing religious respect is a lesser evil.

You exult over deaths in Pakistan and Nigeria, you'd like to see the same thing in India. A few hundred deaths are a small price to pay for freedom of the press.

7246. Marc-Albert - 2/23/2006 7:31:30 AM

It's so easier - and safer - to do it the alistarir way and arrest journalists rather than those people who are the real threat:


Lucknow, February 20, 2006

A Shariat Court has issued a religious decree sentencing the Danish cartoonist, who caricatured Prophet Mohammad, to death.

This was after a Uttar Pradesh Minister announced a cash reward of Rs 51 crore to the person beheading the cartoonist.

The decree was issued on behalf of the Idar-e-Sharia Darul Kaza and Ifta Firangimahal Taksal (Islamic courts) by their Qazi on Sunday.

The Qazi said it has been clearly stated in the Quran that whosoever hurts the Prophet, deserved to be sternly punished.

Asked whether the fatwa had any significance in India, where the Islamic law does not apply, he said, "it is applicable wherever Muslims live".

7247. Marc-Albert - 2/23/2006 7:39:41 AM

It's mush more PC - and safer - to arrest the un-PC journalist than this guy, who has been on the loose for a week.


Pseudo-secularism: Every party should condemn Qureshi

It is disgusting how India’s ‘secular’ parties have refrained from condemning Uttar Pradesh minister Yaqoob Qureshi’s offer of Rs 51 crore to anyone who kills the author of the controversial Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

Only the BJP has come forward to condemn this illegal, politically irresponsible act of the Samajwadi Party leader. Others have tut-tutted but hastened to empathise with Mr Qureshi’s hurt religious sentiments.

The point here is not hurt religious sentiments. Rather, what is at stake is the attempt by Mr Qureshi to mobilise political support on the basis of inflamed religious passions and the notion that it is perfectly fine to smother opinions that you dislike, indeed, kill the propounder of such an opinion.

Mr Qureshi now reportedly plans to hold daily rallies to collect his announced bounty. (...)

7248. alistairconnor - 2/23/2006 9:07:27 AM

I quite agree, M-A, that Qureshi should be condemned, like all demagogues who attempt to make political capital out of religious, racist or nationalistic jingoism.

But that's a separate issue.

7249. PelleNilsson - 2/23/2006 11:53:12 AM

I'm so tired of this cartoon thing. It, and the Paris riots, has prompted a lot of Islamphobes to emerge from their slimy closets and revile one billion people as scum and potential terrorists. It produces the most unlikely alliances, like between Marc-Albert, who is an otherwise cultured person, Jenerator the fundamentalist Christian, Ruth-K a shrill Arab hater who inhabits Worldcrossing, and of course the fellow we love to kick around - concerned, our own Bushophil.

What unite these people - apart from the primitive hate - is that they think they know something about Islam when, in fact, they don't know shit, except some pseudofacts that have passed their prejudice filter.

7250. sakonige - 2/23/2006 1:20:26 PM

classic pelle grouch.

7251. Jenerator - 2/23/2006 1:31:47 PM

Sakonige!!!!!!!

7252. sakonige - 2/23/2006 1:38:58 PM

How are you doing, Jen?

Thought I would stop by and see who was up for a war watch.

7253. sakonige - 2/23/2006 1:58:26 PM

I spend a lot of time online when the clash of civilizations heats up, trying to gauge the time and distance from my homefront so I can plan accordingly. I like to hear what others are thinking about it all.

You know my husband and I have been planning to start a small business in the next two years, as well as sell our home and relocate to another part of the country. The extent of war will impact those plans. We may want to cash out and downsize our home earlier if the economy is going to suffer an oil shock. We need to look closely at what kind of business we want to be dependent on, and what community we want to be part of, under those circumstances.

7254. Jenerator - 2/23/2006 9:53:38 PM

Sakonige,

So many of us have been wondering about you and where you have been. I was told that you *already* started your own business. Anyway, glad to see you. I, too, am reading the boards with almost a sense of foreboding.

Glad to see you.

7255. marjoribanks - 2/23/2006 10:13:44 PM

"foreboding"?

Who is going to war, exactly? From here it doesn't appear very likely that there will soon be another big conflict involving the US.

7256. sakonige - 2/24/2006 1:00:02 AM

Jen, I took a course in culinary arts, pastry. I've been working as a baker in a casino.

7257. sakonige - 2/24/2006 1:02:00 AM

busting my ass, I might add. I got tennis elbow. and a tweeked back. and my feet hurt. Plus, I have to be at work at 4am every day.

7258. alistairconnor - 2/24/2006 4:43:07 AM

A baker in a casino!
How romantic. Sort of like a pianist in a bordello...

Well, the world will always need bakers. In the long term, sourdough rather than fancy pastry.


I share your pessimism for the long term -- I have bad feelings about the state of the world in 10 or 20 years -- but I don't see anything really bad in the next couple of years. But I'm thinking about how to prepare my children for a difficult future.

7259. wonkers2 - 2/24/2006 9:30:16 AM

Detroit Sunnis and Shi'ites: "I hope that Muslim leaders around the world can speak out against the sectarian violence, which is totally un-Islamic and uncivilized," Walid,(head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations)said. Here.

7260. Marc-Albert - 2/24/2006 11:08:09 AM

Is sectarian violence indeed "totally un-Islamic"? Reminds me of that poster (among others) who was in denial that slavery ever existed in Muslim countries, 'cause slavery is condemned by the Koran (???)

Or the Egyptian gov't angrily denying accusations of gay bashing for the simple reason that there are no homosexuals in Egypt, homosexuality being condemned by the same Koran.

7261. Marc-Albert - 2/24/2006 11:14:49 AM

Yeah... Slavery never existed in Muslim countries, there are no homosexual Muslims, and the 3 people who commited suicide in the Muslim world last year were foreign tourists.

7262. PelleNilsson - 2/24/2006 2:58:14 PM

On this issue your infantilism reaches ever greater heights, M-A. Your prejudice has completely taken over from your judgement and common sense. I guss there must be a Freudian explanation for that.

7263. Jenerator - 2/24/2006 3:11:09 PM

Nice way to dodge the issues, Pelle.

7264. jexster - 2/24/2006 3:13:59 PM

Europe Toons etc

A Long Voyage
By Anatol Lieven


The Bush administration is, for once, correct when it says that Europe needs to be much more serious about combating terrorism. Europe is in much more danger than the US. Its vulnerability is vastly increased by the presence of large and disaffected Muslim minorities. The decision of several European countries to support US actions in the Middle East inevitably makes them targets. In fact, there is a good chance that the US and Israel will eventually plunge into conflict with much of the Muslim world, and that Europe will serve as one of the chief battlefields.

7265. PelleNilsson - 2/24/2006 3:59:16 PM

Nothing to contribute, Jen? The old knee felt the urge to jerk, did it?

7266. sakonige - 2/24/2006 4:35:23 PM

alistairconnor, yes, I make sourdough baguettes. I make pate au choux, too. Croissants, gateaus, genoises, pate feuilletee and pate brisee, tortes and tarts and petit fours of all kinds, tuiles and mousses and souffles, sorbets and parfaits and bombes. My instructor learned to cook in France.

7267. jexster - 2/25/2006 12:45:15 PM

They Hate Our Values!
Freedom of Speech NOW!






Ken Livingstone yesterday faced the double ignominy of suspension from office and becoming liable for at least £80,000 in costs after a disciplinary tribunal found him guilty of bringing his position into disrepute by likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard.
More than a year after his late night confrontation with Oliver Finegold, a reporter for the Evening Standard newspaper, Mr Livingstone was told he must stand down for a month from March 1 for his "unnecessarily insensitive and offensive" behaviour towards the journalist.


Made that very point on many occasions. Its an archetype very prevalent in the the New Warsaw Memoral Ghetto aka West Bank. They learned from the masters

7268. jexster - 2/25/2006 12:48:07 PM

Saks...ooo la la! Whip us up a genoise..but AC's gonna have to leave...to a special quarantine section of the Mote.

Bird flu SE France

Quel dommage

7269. robertjayb - 2/25/2006 4:13:45 PM

Ah, Religion. A grand thing, is it not?

IRA-Protestant brawls spread in Dublin...

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Several hundred Irish Republican Army supporters attacked police in Dublin on Saturday to protest an unprecedented parade through the capital by Protestants from Northern Ireland.

In scenes rare for the Republic of Ireland, protesters hurled bottles, bricks, concrete blocks and fireworks at police officers trying to clear the hostile crowd from Dublin's most famous boulevard, O'Connell Street.

Even though the Protestants abandoned their parade, the battles spread to streets near the national parliament and museums, as well as a shopping center and the major tourist district, Temple Bar.

7270. wonkers2 - 2/25/2006 4:45:19 PM

The natives are getting restless all over.

7271. alistairconnor - 2/25/2006 4:49:56 PM

Yes Jex, the end of civilization as we know it (=free range eggs...)

The first infected henhouse in Europe is about ten miles east of where I work. Quel honneur.

7272. alistairconnor - 2/25/2006 4:51:07 PM

Yes Robert, freedom is a wonderful thing. It is vital that the KKK should have the right to organise parades in downtown Detroit. It is also vital that I should have the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.

7273. Marc-Albert - 2/25/2006 6:21:32 PM

to what one could reply:

"American courts have upheld the publication of false, even racist materials, the right of neo-Nazis to rally in Jewish neighborhoods, and the objections of some citizens to the Pledge of Allegiance and to school dress codes on religious grounds.

European governments, on the other hand,have consistently trampled analogous rights, outlawing publication of hate speech, trade in Nazi paraphernalia, and the wearing of distinctive religious clothing, to name but a few recent examples."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/24/opinion/edrojan.php

7274. Marc-Albert - 2/25/2006 6:23:22 PM

"According to the Austrian court that convicted him on Monday, David Irving's offense was to have "denied, grossly played down, approved, or tried to excuse" the Holocaust in print or other media, in violation of a 1992 statute. Although he has not been tried at home in Britain, Irving was convicted and fined in Germany in 1995 for "inciting race hatred."

At best, Irving is a monumentally terrible historian, who, only after publishing dozens of books on World War II, read the notes of the Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann and came around to admitting that the Nazi genocide might actually have occurred. At worst, he is an artless but unrepentant bigot, on the model of America's David Duke or Austria's own Jörg Haider, but without any independent political power.

Why, then, is Irving's Holocaust denial, like other minority and extremist views in European society, of such great concern to lawmakers? If European governments want to guard against the repetition of genocide, they should actively educate their citizens in tolerance and respect for different cultures and beliefs, not gag those who express conflicting ideas.

Europe's suppression of free speech is guaranteed to spawn and incubate precisely the kind of bigotry and sectarian violence it is intended to prevent. Hounded for the unthinkable crime of publishing false history, David Irving appears almost heroic as he stands up to censorship, fines and imprisonment, making him a kind of martyr for neo-fascist groups".

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/24/opinion/edrojan.php

7275. wonkers2 - 2/25/2006 6:36:55 PM

Well, because so many in so many countries in Europe were complicit in the Holocaust there is apparently a felt need to atone for the actions and inactions which allowed it to happen. That's why lies like Irving's are not tolerated or ignored as they might be elsewhere. I don't know why you should find that so disturbing, Marc-Albert. But then you see the world in black and white, with no shades of gray.

7276. jexster - 2/26/2006 5:22:14 AM

Eat my ice EuroTrash

7277. jexster - 2/26/2006 5:25:26 AM

Our Freedom of Assembly will NOT be denied - especially by some fucking Frenchman



We march where we will

Southern man don't need AC around anyhow, rayght Rohbuhrt?

7278. Marc-Albert - 2/26/2006 10:36:58 AM

That's why lies like Irving's are not tolerated or ignored as they might be elsewhere. I don't know why you should find that so disturbing, Marc-Albert.

Obviously, it was also disturbing to the Jewish author of the IHT article.

There are more Holocaust survivors in the USA/Canada than in Europe, yet they don't mind that much that the like of Irving are not thrown in jail in our countries.

7279. jexster - 2/26/2006 10:44:41 AM

Yea they sure do know to whine don't they.

Well whenever they try that with me

"Word up scumbag. This bus don't take Holocaust Passes no more. Expired understand Schlomo - you pay full fair like the fucking French"

They stop whining

7280. Marc-Albert - 2/26/2006 10:49:12 AM

The French....

Apology of crimes against humanity:

Emprisonment: 5 years.
Fine: 45 000 €.

Questioning the existence or scope of crimes against humanity:
Emprisonment: 1 year.
Fine: 45 000 €.

(Loi du 31 décembre 1987)

7281. jexster - 2/26/2006 10:49:21 AM

I realize that EuroTrash hate our values - We have freedoms in Amerika AC...The bastards step out of line hear we give a little free speech clinic



That don't work..we do like we do to Wacky Racky's

Comprends?

7282. Marc-Albert - 2/26/2006 10:57:33 AM

Crimes against humanity that have, as of today, served as a basis for criminal proceedings against alleged apologists/revisionists in France:

The Jewish holocaust
The Armenian holocaust
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade

7283. Marc-Albert - 2/26/2006 11:15:49 AM

Interdiction de stocker des données nominatives sur la race

In France, it's a crime to compile and keep data that, directly or indirectly, reveal the racial, ethnic, religious origin of individuals. This prohibition extends to the keeping of such data on web sites. For this reason, the racial/ethnic/religious composition of the population of France is only guesswork.

Imnprisonment: 5 years
Fine: 45 000 €

(Art. 31 de la Loi du 6 janvier 1978)

7284. Marc-Albert - 2/26/2006 11:27:48 AM

I Canada, a federal regulation makes it an obligation for companies with 100+ employees who want to do business with the federal government to compile and stock "visible minority" (i.e racial) data on their staff.

In France, those companies that comply with the federal regulation would be liable to criminal proceedings.

7285. alistairconnor - 2/26/2006 1:04:29 PM

In my departement, SOS Racisme is for racial profiling : based on the family names of prospective tenants, they get the best apartments (if they have French-sounding names) or the run-down ones, or nothing at all.

It's very difficult to prove, of course. In general, it's true that the French flavour of colour-blindness is spectacularly ineffective, because it often amounts to turning a blind eye to covert discrimination.

7286. jexster - 2/26/2006 3:17:17 PM

Be happy to arrange a personal free speech clinic for U AC..

Paris Exhibit Reveres Arab Golden Age

You are either with us or you are against us...

Your choice Frenchman
We love our values

7287. Marc-Albert - 2/26/2006 9:36:03 PM

On the medium and long term, I'm more worried by the Chinese than by hords of primitive, antediluvian Muslims.




Some companies discover copies of their own equipment at trade shows, copies that are sometimes almost identical with the original product, down to the very last solder joint and paint color. Others, on the other hand, suffer because the fakes are of such poor quality that they threaten to ruin the real brand's reputation.

Know-howing to the Chinese

7288. Macnas - 2/27/2006 4:34:14 AM

On the proposed loyalist march in Dublin and violence it caused:

1. Loyalist bands belting out blood and thunder up O'Connell street and past the GPO (central location of the 1916 Easter rising) = A Very Bad Idea.

2. O'Connell street being the route of the proposed march is at the moment one big building site with barriers, pipes, bricks and rubble everywhere = Another Very Bad Idea.

3. Thinking the population of North side Dublin is that even-minded and cosmo-bloody-politan that they were going to cheer, wave, and enjoy a "celebration of Ireland’s diverse cultural heritage" = A Very Stupid Idea.

Note: To paraphrase Goering "When someone mentions Cultural Heritage, I reach for my gun"

I hate the fact that some langers had to go tearing up O'Connell and have a battle with the police. I hope most of them are arrested and thrown in gaol for a few months.

But I also hated the fact that the "Love Ulster" group was given permission to march here. Not because of the Orange factor, I don't care about that, but because of the people involved such as Jeffery Donaldson and in particular Willie Frazer. Frazer is an apologist for the UDA/UVF who legitimises their killings as justified, and is on record for it. The victims support group he is running is only for those families who lost members to IRA/INLA/etc violence. He is, understandably, very bitter as his Father was killed by the IRA and has lost other relations as well.

That said, He is known to have connections with the UDA/UVF, was involved with Billy Wright, and with Johnny Adair.

His group, FAIR (the main part of the Love Ulster group) excludes those families who lost people to UDA/UVF violence, as Willie Frazer thinks the killings were a natural reaction and "not real victims at all".

So, although I think the rioting in Dublin was wrong and wished it had not happened, I was opposed to the march and am glad that it did not happen. In the end, the group went direct to Leinster House and handed in their letter of protest and went home. Which is what should have happened in the first place.

7289. jexster - 2/27/2006 12:14:35 PM

Hativah, M. Marc-Albert

This Labatt's for you



[NOT an Iraq post} ...Closest country I could find}

7290. jexster - 2/27/2006 12:16:05 PM

7291. jexster - 2/27/2006 12:56:11 PM

My bad..that make that HaTikvah

Barbara Streisand sings

Enjoy..no laughing

7292. jexster - 3/3/2006 1:14:39 AM

AC


Est ce le visage de la première Madame la Présidente?


The Sexy Socialist
In the fusty and unrelentingly chauvinistic gentlemen's club of French politics Ségolène Royal is a one-woman revolution. Little more than a year from polling day in France and the phénomène Ségo is gathering strength. She is up against centuries of ingrained sexism, but there is a growing sense that this elegant luminary of the Socialist party could become France's first Madame la Présidente.

Opinion polls suggest the 2007 presidential elections will pit two of the country's brightest rising stars against one another: Ségo versus Sarko, the ambitious rightwing interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Sarkozy has had the good grace to say he respects his rival, and even President Jacques Chirac's wife Bernadette said she was a serious candidate "who might even win"....

The big question is whether, when push comes to polling day, France is ready for a Royal presidency. This is after all a country where women got the vote only in 1944, where only 71 of the 577 MPs are women and where political parties prefer to pay fines than adhere to legal quotas for women candidates.

"It depends on her conviction, qualities, those around her ... and her courage. But the opinion polls suggest France is ready," said Ms Royal.

"If someone better than me steps forward then I have no problem with that. If I'm the best candidate, then those who think that I won't go all the way just because I'm a woman are very much mistaken."

7293. Ulgine Barrows - 3/3/2006 6:36:41 AM

She's cute.

7294. wonkers2 - 3/3/2006 8:00:41 AM

Cap'n Dirty sez, "Not bad. The Cap'n'd drink her bathwater!"

7295. alistairconnor - 3/3/2006 9:00:07 AM

Yeah, she's the best bet to beat Sarkozy, therefore, by definition, the best candidate for the left.

She's conservative enough ("liberal" enough, in French terms) to avoid frightening centrists; and because she's a woman, she won't lose much support on the left for it (and will likely pick up some crossover support from women on the right).

The leading men in the Parti Socialiste are a bunch of wankers. The only one I have any time for is Henri Emmanueli, but he's too old, and too left, to have any prospects. For my money, and without consideration of sex, the best candidate would be Martine Aubry, but she's not been putting herself forward lately.

7296. Marc-Albert - 3/3/2006 9:10:45 AM

Damn.. for having pushed the compulsory 35-hour work week, Martine almost deserves to be kidnapped and tortured to death for 10 days in a crowded apartment building by 16 youths of mixed racial parentage.

Incidentally, I notice the French steelworkers are signing a deal with their employers today that will do away with the 35 heures week. Kepp on the good work, guys.

7297. wonkers2 - 3/3/2006 9:42:22 AM

BACKLASH TO CARTOON FURY

The Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, the exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born film-maker and member of the Dutch parliament, are among a dozen signatories of a statement warning against Islamic "totalitarianism," the BBC reported. The statement was published in Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly that was one of several European publications to reprint cartoons, first published in Denmark, that satirized the prophet Muhammad and ignited violent international protests. The manifesto published in Charlie Hebdo saie, "After having overcome fascism, Nazism and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism."

NYT 3-2-06

7298. jexster - 3/3/2006 12:34:18 PM

Travelog

The SF Chron has an amazing page 1 pic from AP of a huge demonstation by Muslims in Bombay yesterday.

[Where's marjie???]

The picture vividly brings home just how hated the US has become around the world, a claim that the Busheviks breezily dismiss "Oh they've always hated us"

Well, that's a pile of nativist crap cooked up special for the Bush Booboisie. The Chron foto brought to mind the photo of Bill Clinton's elephant ride.














Ah those were the days..peace, prosperity, progress, the meaning of "is", semen spills, competence

7299. jexster - 3/3/2006 12:42:28 PM

Incidentally, I notice the French steelworkers are signing a deal with their employers today that will do away with the 35 heures week. Kepp on the good work, guys.

Better get their acts straight. They're about to learn what it is like work like a fuckin Injun!


Economic power is shifting fast to the emerging nations of the south. China and India are replacing the US as the engines of world economic growth. The next phase of globalisation, ... will most likely have an Asian face. Americans and Europeans will not find it comfortable. We can already see the beginnings of the backlash as the rising powers begin to spend their new-found wealth. Mittal Steel, the global company headed by the Indian entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal, has launched a multi-billion pound bid for Arcelor, Europe’s largest steelmaker. The hostility to the proposed takeover in France, Luxembourg and Spain has been edged with ugly xenophobia. Bad enough that an outsider wants control of one of Europe’s biggest industries. Financial Times

A goddamn Injun

7300. jexster - 3/3/2006 12:54:27 PM

7297...absurd

Daniel Goldhagen of Hitler's Willing Executioners attempts the same point in the New Likudnik Republic and it is horseshit.

First of all for the comparison of Islam to the Civilized West's two very recent contributions to the the World Horror Hall of Fame.

Second, watch MSNBC today..a Colorado geography teacher opened class the day after SOTU with a riff on Bush as Hitler using text from the speech..he's suspended now

and

Anyone have a publisher for my new venture. Der Angriff - Volkischer Beobachter's Baak or my polemic on the benefits of Negro Removal? or my monograph -

Lincoln Was Right
Back to Africa2010 Campaign Says the Time Is Now
Revisiting the Great Emancipator's Plan to Relocate Slaves in Nicaragua

I didn't think so. Only in ToonTown, USA/EU is this about cartoons

7301. jexster - 3/4/2006 1:43:43 AM

AC probably wasn't aware of the fact because he is a GreenieWeenie and La Belle France doesn't have the Military Channel (basically a fancy infomercial for the worldwide military industrial complex)...I wasn't aware of it either until I watched the History of French Armor (infomercial from the Samur Cavalry School)...

World's Best Main Battle Tank

The Leopard II - non
M1A1 Abrams - mais non!

Voila!


Leclerc Main Battle Tank

Now I understand Jacques Chirac's grand strategery and his recent bellicosity...

Now that Bush has fucked up the ME....He's set Sarko up to send in those Leclercs!!

L'audace toujours L'audace
La Glorie, toujour la Gloire!

Fuck OldErrup eh TD?


TD?

Ou es tu?
Depeche toi!
Il est tard

7302. jexster - 3/4/2006 7:36:09 AM

Marc-Albert

Our Leader has so many evil axes up his ass now, you Canadians better get your shit together b4 his butthole full up




Venezuela aims for biggest military reserve in Americas




Around 500,000 Venezuelans will start a four-month military training programme today to turn them into members of the country's territorial guard. They are the first group of a total of 2m Venezuelan civilians who have so far signed up to become armed reservists.
By the summer of 2007, Venezuela is likely to have the largest military reserve in the Americas, which is expected to be almost double the size of that in the United States

Oh fuck...do ya think
Montcalm's Revenge?

Do we have a right of return? Good french peasant stock

THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers --

7303. jexster - 3/4/2006 2:17:44 PM

Attack Iran? DUH

as in DUHbya

Off the Wires
Iran invites foreign bids for offshore gas field AFP, Sat Mar 4, 10:06 AM ET
Sanctions unlikely first step on Iran: Rice Reuters, Sat Mar 4, 9:24 AM ET
Bush U-turn on Iranian pipeline at BBC, Mar 04 President George W Bush has indicated the US has dropped its staunch opposition to a proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.

7304. PelleNilsson - 3/4/2006 2:36:24 PM

Take your tank fetishism elsewhere. The Sex thread perhaps?

7305. jexster - 3/4/2006 7:53:16 PM

Pelle == UR just cause France will rule Europe with those puppies why don't you

Go to Bratislava - It's Cheap!

Those Leclerc's ARE hot aren't they though. Whew

7306. jexster - 3/4/2006 7:56:04 PM

"upset"

7307. jexster - 3/4/2006 10:40:44 PM

As I was saying....Ou est TD???

Defense cooperation on Chirac's agenda in Saudi

RIYADH (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac began a state visit to Saudi Arabia during which he hopes to talk the oil-rich kingdom into eventually buying French Rafale fighters and a border monitoring system.


His FOURTH visit.
Sarkozy...has a sort hard Pollack edge to it don't it

7308. alistairconnor - 3/5/2006 9:10:43 AM

(Sarkozy is Hungarian. Father an immigrant.)

Yes, the Leclercs are the best if you like that sort of thing... quite possibly the Rafales are the best, I wouldn't know.

But, bottom line, nobody buys them, because it's not a commercial decision, like buying civilian aeroplanes. The Saudis, the Poles etc string the French along, probably causing the Yanks to lower their price etc... then Uncle Sam puts the screws on and they buy US. It's always the same, and funny as hell to watch.

Those Leclercs : they are built mostly in my département, in the valley of the Gier about 20 miles away. The defence industry has just about finished "restructuring" down to zero around here.

7309. jexster - 3/5/2006 1:14:08 PM

You know who buys them don't you?

The UAE Qatar...now how does that fit your worldwide French conspiracy!! Like a fuckin flock of vultures with bird flu, Sarko and Jacques are going to swoop down on the Gulf and eat the carcass.

That Rafale's a pretty hot little sportster too!



The world is bcoming an increasingly disorderly, hobbesian sort of place. I read that the final "tranche" of Leclerc's is to be delivered this year. I'd keep the production lines open. Venezuela may be in the market, India, China....Sweden Russia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran

7310. jexster - 3/5/2006 2:46:28 PM

You'll never guess who got there the week before Bush and signed a nuclear power plant and enriched uranium fuel cooperation pact with the Indians

C'est la guerre!

A French snake..asp viper




Once the inevitable happens and the US is sent packing from the Gulf..Look for a deal with EyeRan plus maybe a couple of Rafale tranches????

7311. alistairconnor - 3/6/2006 7:37:29 AM

It's well known that Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi are as thick as thieves. An interesting bit of fallout from this is the current scandal dominating British politics for the last couple of weeks :

Culture Minister Tessa Jowell declines to resign, and Blair refuses to dismiss her, even though she paid off her mortgage with a 350 000 pound backhander from Berlusconi himself. This payment is apparently in consideration of the alibi provided by her husband, businessman David Mills, in certain corruption charges (among many) laid against Berlusconi. The whole thing came to light when the alibi fell through, and Mills is off to Italy to face charges.

Rather than resign from the government, she's divorcing him. That's loyalty...

7312. Macnas - 3/6/2006 8:24:46 AM

But did you hear about Blairs admission that he considers God to be his judge on the matter of Iraq?

Sounds very like somebody else we know..

7313. alistairconnor - 3/6/2006 8:28:04 AM

well the electors can just get fucked, I suppose. The return of Divine Right.

7314. Macnas - 3/6/2006 8:39:13 AM

The Observer has a by-line:

"Don't wait for God. We will judge you"

7315. Marc-Albert - 3/6/2006 1:03:26 PM

Touche pas à mon Blair.

Don't touch my Tony Blair. He's MY kind of leftie. He is wrong about Iraq, but that's secondary.

7316. alistairConnor - 3/6/2006 2:46:16 PM

Your kind of leftie...

... a right-wing one. Great judge of character : a pal of Bush and Berlusconi.

7317. jexster - 3/6/2006 3:06:46 PM

7318. jexster - 3/6/2006 9:50:06 PM

The US's nuclear cave-in
By Joseph Cirincione

Director of Non-Proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment

7319. Macnas - 3/7/2006 3:38:25 AM

Marc

alistair is correct, my left shoe is more socialist than Blair, and I consider myself conservative.

7320. Marc-Albert - 3/7/2006 7:09:47 AM

Could be, but Blairism is spreading. Look at 'socialist' Spain, look at 'socialist' Chile: orthodox or neo-liberal policies on the economic fronts, sprinkled with social policies that are considered advanced (women's rights, divoce law, gay mariage, secularisation of schools, etc.)

7321. PelleNilsson - 3/7/2006 7:51:17 AM

Same here.

7322. jexster - 3/8/2006 5:36:57 AM

What the Indian Giver Got
by Patrick J. Buchanan

7323. Marc-Albert - 3/8/2006 8:47:39 AM

The coming-out of a closet Blairist

I maintain what I said on Tony Blair. France needs oxygen, and Tony Blair has given dynamism to Britain.


Ségolène Royal who is, as Alistair points out, the chouchou du jour of the French electorate, made quite a stir within her Socialist Party when she expanded on her admiration for Tony Blair and his economic policies during an interview with the Financial Times early last month. She has since repeated her Blairist gut feelings.

Hmmm..Ségolène (what a ridiculous name) will have much convincing to do before the majority of the French (including Le Pen) - who still believe that l'État should play the central role in economic life as in life in general -will agree that the compulsory 35-hour work week is not the best thing that happened to France since the invention of the hot air balloon.

7324. Macnas - 3/8/2006 8:59:52 AM

Well, I work a 39 hour week, or at least I'm supposed to. In practice you end up doing whatever has to be done in the time you have, same as you ever did.

I'm sure it's a similar situation in France.

As for "Blairist" or "Blairism" (did you just make up those words?), his economic policies, or perhaps more correctly Gordon Brown's policies (Brownist, Brownism, doesn't have the same cachet does it?), work well enough I guess.

A lot to be desired in terms of domestic policy though, education and social reform etc. New Labour have not performed as well as they might in this respect, especially considering how long they have been in power.

7325. PelleNilsson - 3/8/2006 9:50:34 AM

Brownian. I guess you are familiar with Brownian motion.

7326. Macnas - 3/8/2006 10:18:18 AM

Are you comparing New Labours domestic policy with random jerking around?

For shame Pelle.

7327. Marc-Albert - 3/8/2006 12:41:35 PM

As for "Blairist" or "Blairism" (did you just make up those words?)

Well, you hear a lot about blairisme in France, and I assumed, I guess wrongly, that these were common expressions in the UK as well.

7328. PelleNilsson - 3/8/2006 1:59:45 PM

But we don't have any poster from the UK here.

7329. wonkers2 - 3/8/2006 7:15:28 PM

Neocons Bail and leave Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice holding the bag: Andrew Sullivan Joins Fukuyama's Mea Culpa on Iraq

7330. Marc-Albert - 3/8/2006 8:17:48 PM

So that's one in the eye for Blairism... But let's keep up giving one in the eye to Blairism - and Brownism if....

Eh!.. Maybe I should have done this in the first place instead of listening to Macnas, but a quick google search shows that the word Blairism has been around a lot in the Anglo press, at least since 1996. There are a few 'Brownisms', as well.

7331. Macnas - 3/9/2006 3:20:03 AM

I bow to your fastidious research and use of non-words.

7332. jexster - 3/11/2006 10:56:56 AM

Slobo Found Dead in Hague Prison Cell

Frees up one for GWB

7333. jexster - 3/11/2006 8:11:00 PM

Leftist Fiesta in Chile for Bachelet Inaugural

7334. Marc-Albert - 3/12/2006 8:23:25 AM

Blairist Ricardo Lagos and Blairist Michelle Bachelet are MY kind of lefties.

7335. PelleNilsson - 3/12/2006 10:54:23 AM

The left-right dichotomy is becoming increasingly irrelevant as politics (in those terms) gravitates towards the center all over the west. We need a new political taxonomy.

7336. Macnas - 3/13/2006 3:31:24 AM

The New Labour dismantling of it's old ethos is all but complete.

The financial policies are those of the ultra-conservative, and I'm sure they'd go back to the gold standard if they thought it would copper-fasten the next election.

They have introduced so much stealth tax in the past 10 years even my own government is taking notes. They are not the party of the worker anymore, (how could they be? that only holds true when you are not in power), but still cling to some of the old banners in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the tories. The hunting ban, and the right to roam initiative, where you can traipse across anyone’s land whenever you like, is seen by some grass-roots party members, and indeed senior party members like John Prescott, as a blow against the privileged upper classes.

All it is, is desperate and ill-thought out, the flailing of a drowning caricature, a red banner waving champion of the working class, before emerging as a conservative centrist, smooth, bland, and neutral.

7337. Marc-Albert - 3/13/2006 7:44:08 AM

What is a "worker" in 2006. And the "working class"? Does Marc-Albert the translator belong to the working class? Or Macnas or Pelle? Or my sister who's been an executive secretary all her life. Or Jocelyne, a fried who is a successful contract carpet saleswoman? Or my neighbour, an insurance salesman? Or Tony, who owns the 18-apartment building where I live (as well as 2-3 others) and work with his hands?

7338. Macnas - 3/13/2006 7:56:36 AM

I'm not arguing that point Marc, I agree.

In Europe at least, for the most part, and most definitely in the U.K. and here, the "working class" as an image still held dear by many Labour party members, is just that, an image, iconic or totemic or whatever rub you care to give it.

The miner being crushed by the owners, the factory worker under the thumb of the "big house" people, it's more or less Labour party folklore now.

As for myself, call me what you like, just pay me my wage and I'll continue to work.

7339. wonkers2 - 3/14/2006 1:38:12 PM

Revolt of the neocons--Fukuyama, Sullivan, Bartlett, Will, Buckley, et al.

7340. alistairConnor - 3/14/2006 2:37:41 PM

Yup - history wasn't so very dead after all. It came back and bit Fukuyama on the arse.

7341. jexster - 3/14/2006 9:06:21 PM

Bush is turning Afghanistan over to OTAN, and for the first time since WWII, US forces will be under a ferrin command.

You do know what this means don't you?

Le char Leclerc se caractérise par sa grande modernité, son agilité (0 à 30 km/h en moins de 6 s) et son caractère évolutif. Son canon long (52 calibres) de 120 mm OTAN, approvisionné en munitions de 120 mm OTAN par un système de chargement automatique, lui permet de triompher, même lorsqu'il combat en infériorité numérique. Il a une masse réduite (56 tonnes) et peut ainsi se projeter facilement. Grâce à sa mobilité, à sa puissance de feu et à sa réelle capacité d'effectuer à grande cadence des tirs précis en marche, y compris en tout terrain et de les renouveler rapidement, ce matériel imprime à la manœuvre un rythme nouveau. Le Leclerc est doté d'une protection composite et modulaire pour suivre l'évolution des menaces et des technologies. Chaque Leclerc est équipé du système d'aide au commandement Finders® qui permet de communiquer en permanence sur la situation tactique dans la zone d'engagement, ainsi que l'état technique des fonctions du char.
Le char Leclerc est actuellement en service dans les arm ées française et émirienne et à ce jour 796 chars Leclerc ont été commandés

7342. jexster - 3/14/2006 9:12:38 PM

800 of those puppies!!!

With close air support...and a national anthem worth singing.




Concerned was right after all

The Bush TerrorWars - a French ruse

Fuckin scumbags...

7343. jexster - 3/18/2006 12:56:06 PM

Mass demonstrations, mini-riot in gay Paris...deja vu all over again



Off to SF Civic Center

7344. jexster - 3/18/2006 7:35:17 PM

Wanna see somethin cool, real slick, check out CitizenSpace (uK)

7345. jexster - 3/22/2006 3:20:12 AM

One third of French say they are racist: survey

PARIS (Reuters) - One third of French people say they are racist, a French human rights watchdog said on Tuesday, after a survey that showed an increase from last year in the number of people who acknowledged being racist.


At least 1/3 are honest

7346. PelleNilsson - 3/22/2006 11:47:18 AM

The Basque separatist group Eta has declared a permanent ceasefire.

7347. wonkers2 - 3/22/2006 11:53:30 AM

That could be good news. ETA has been a pain for Spain, especially in the plain.

7348. alistairConnor - 3/22/2006 4:38:27 PM

Peace in Western Europe. Not a trivial prospect. An historic moment?

But then the comic-opera bandits in Corsica can be relied upon to prove me wrong.

7349. Wombat - 3/22/2006 5:58:54 PM

Wonkers:

Har har. The Basque region is pretty hilly. Now Catalunya...

7350. jexster - 3/22/2006 8:32:06 PM

What ever happened to MarjarBinks? She still in India?

I was enjoying a meal of Sarson da Saag last night, something like Saag de Paneer but with more mustard green than spinach and no paneer. I picked it up at the corner store where the owner told they'd been selling like hotcakes.

I also picked up an Indian Red Bean dish which I compared with a product red beans and rice - perhaps you know em one of those dried products in a bag (made on Plank Road in BR Wonk!!)

Well, lemme tell ya, I ate first hand evidence of the economic challenge that the New Asia is posing the dying hegemon. You see, the Indian shit wasn't preserved, dried, artificially flavored mediocrity. It comes in pouch, like an MRE, very sophisticated packaging. No artifical ingredients, no preservatives, decidedly a cut above in quality. Costs a buck more for the same amount, but then what do their workers make per hour do ya think? Less than my impoverished BushWacked home state perhaps? $5/hr? 3? 2?

Oh yeah. Package info in English, French and Arabic.

If Binks is still in India, Vimal Agro Products Pvt. Ltd is one reason why.

Maybe why India has an immigration problem - Nepal, Bangladesh etc.

7351. marjoribanks - 3/23/2006 12:07:50 PM

Jex,

I am still in India, and rather thrilled about it. The world looks pretty damned sunny from here, 8 per cent annual growth, my mutuals have risen 70% in one year, and the property I bought on arrival has doubled in value since then. Everyone is gung ho, everyone believes that the world is now theirs for the taking, it's the most upbeat - nay, euphoric - national ethos I've ever experienced and I was totally part of the NYC boom times during the dot-com ramping-up.

Totally amazing, and you can examine this phenomenon up and down and sideways (as I have been doing, endlessly) and there is no end in sight to this majestic ascension, it's going to be up, up, up at least until my kids enter college, and even then I don't see what exactly is going to slow this baby down.

Now, your baggie of vegetable grub, I have never heard of or encountered it or Vimal Agro. It sounds good (there are also excellent pre-packaged foods from the iconic southie MTR - Madras Tiffin Room)but there's no cause for me to seek preservative-free packaged foods, since everything I eat is preservative-free fresh food.

Greetings to you, friend. I must be on my way now. Oh, and your wild Lou Dobbs-fuelled nightmares about the Brown menace coming to take away Yank jobs? You don't know the half of it, buddy. Ha. Ha. HA!

See you in San Fran.

Sincerely,

Your friend,

Shri M. Banks.

7352. marjoribanks - 3/23/2006 12:09:28 PM

P.S. Dubya was pretty good over here. He'll be very well remembered by India no matter what.

7353. jexster - 3/23/2006 2:20:44 PM

Lemme know when you visit the Less Developed country Marj.

Why you can take me out to dinner!

Dosa
995 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA
Tasty South Indian fare served in a stylish atmosphere.

7354. jexster - 3/23/2006 2:27:32 PM

P.S....Sure did play well (cept for the riots part) and why not, you guyz took the idiot to the cleaners.

Prospects for the Nook Deal ain't lookin good tho.

You can thank Lou Dobbs and the Dubai Ports Authority yourself.

7355. jexster - 3/23/2006 2:53:45 PM

PPS - Just pulled my Achar Pachranga out of the frig for lunch (mixed pickle in oil)

Hope I don't get dysentery

7356. jexster - 3/24/2006 4:44:31 AM

Riot police seal off Paris streets

The City designed with revolution in mind! Je mange France!*

* - AMEX TV commercial

7357. wonkers2 - 3/24/2006 7:51:44 AM

These people hardly qualify as civilized. Kabul Judge Rejects Calls to End Trial of Christian Convert

7358. alistairconnor - 3/24/2006 8:25:27 AM

An interesting constitutional stand-off... The Afghan constitution specifies freedom of religion; however, religious matters are delegated to an Islamic interpretation... for which there is no agreed written reference.

... so I guess you're right, Wonk.

The world is a complicated place these days...
In the old days, nobody asked American client regimes to keep their hands clean.

7359. wonkers2 - 3/24/2006 8:47:44 AM

I'll take the Unitarians, the Quakers, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the moderate Muslims, the agnostics or the atheists, but I can't handle fanatical fundamentalists, of whatever stripe.

7360. jexster - 3/24/2006 10:13:13 AM

Kulligan...what did you do with the body..fess up

7361. wonkers2 - 3/26/2006 11:08:07 AM

A Muslim woman's critique of custom. Here.

7362. jexster - 3/26/2006 1:36:03 PM

Old soldiers of The Revolution never die, they just slowly, slowly like AC fade to Green

Danny the Red is just a liberal, says students' leader
Daily Telegraph

The head of France's biggest students' union has shrugged off criticism from the leader of the 1968 protests, saying Daniel Cohn-Bendit - alias Danny the Red - is "nothing but a liberal".

Step aside ole hippies with Greenie weenies..make way for the New Generation (what is it called now "Generation Y"??)


Easy on the eyes to boot!

7363. jexster - 3/26/2006 5:53:12 PM

Well there goes the orange and Green Revolution


The Rus Shall Rise Again
Exit Polls in Ukraine Signal Shift:
Pro-Russian party appears headed to victory as President Yushchenko's party is beaten into third.

Next they settle scores with the Pollack Nation..The Time of the Troubles is over.

7364. jexster - 3/27/2006 3:10:41 PM

How George W. Bush Unified Latin America
Che rides again (on a mountain bike)

7365. robertjayb - 3/27/2006 4:40:27 PM

Frightening Mother Jones article you link there, jexster. We've got to get that wall up right away. The dominos are falling.

7366. jexster - 3/27/2006 9:15:42 PM

The solution dear Rohbuhrt is as easy as it equitable and elegant.

7367. robertjayb - 3/28/2006 4:25:04 PM

Victory for center party as Israelis reject hard liners...(TimesOnLine)

ISRAEL was heading for a period of intense political haggling last night after exit polls showed Ehud Olmert’s ruling centre party emerging as the largest party in the general election.
Less than four months after it was formed, Kadima is set to win 29-32 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, fewer than it hoped but still putting it in pivotal position for the task of forming a ruling coalition. A centre-left government looked likely with the centre-left Labour Party set for 20-22 seats.



The shock result was the electoral rout inflicted on the right- wing Likud Party, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, which was reduced to a rump with just 11-12 seats.

7368. alistairconnor - 3/29/2006 3:45:14 AM

Good to see Netanyahu marginalized, he's always been an extremist.

The result is a good thing, it's the end of Greater Israel, the beginning of a realistic attitude : you can't expropriate and colonize people and expect to live in peace with them.

7369. jexster - 3/30/2006 8:17:02 PM

Mosaics


A streaming QTime selection news broadcasts from the middle east

I'm now listening to IDA News Jerusalem Here

How else would I have known that my party United Torah Judaism won 6 seats. At least we beat Meretz, the peacenik party

7370. jexster - 4/1/2006 7:17:40 PM

Whoda thunk it..

Official: Iraq war led to July bombings




The first official recognition that the Iraq war motivated the four London suicide bombers has been made by the government in a major report into the 7 July attacks.
Despite attempts by Downing Street to play down suggestions that the conflict has made Britain a target for terrorists, the Home Office inquiry into the deadliest terror attack on British soil has conceded that the bombers were inspired by UK foreign policy, principally the decision to invade Iraq.

7371. jexster - 4/2/2006 10:01:32 AM

UK Spy Chiefs: Iraq Terror Backlash in UK "for years"

Oh no there goes Jex with "I told you so" again.

Well folks it is no great feat to state the obvious.

7372. jexster - 4/2/2006 10:06:37 AM

toys

7373. PelleNilsson - 4/2/2006 10:50:25 AM

Don't we have a thread Conflict in the Middle East? Yes, there it is, next to last in the tread list. Strange that the Conflict attracts so little interest.

7374. robertjayb - 4/2/2006 9:05:58 PM

Chavez seeks to peg oil at $50...now bushies will be really pissed...(Guardian)

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is poised to launch a bid to transform the global politics of oil by seeking a deal with consumer countries which would lock in a price of $50 a barrel.

A long-term agreement at that price could allow Venezuela to count its huge deposits of heavy crude as part of its official reserves, which Caracas says would give it more oil than Saudi Arabia.

"We have the largest oil reserves in the world, we have oil for 200 years." Mr Chávez told the BBC's Newsnight programme in an interview to be broadcast tonight. "$50 a barrel - that's a fair price, not a high price."

7375. wonkers2 - 4/3/2006 6:22:08 AM

That could be a good or bad bet for either side. On the one hand Chavez says there's enough for 200 years and on the other he wants to lock in $50 a barrel. I wonder if he's counting on actually collecting that from all the countries taking his deal?

7376. alistairconnor - 4/3/2006 8:36:16 AM

I guess he needs price stability to enable the huge investment required for the extraction and processing. And unlike the Saudis, who can produce very cheaply, he's working on a fairly modest price margin. I suppose he needs to greatly expand production to make it worthwhile.

Oddly enough, the USA will surely love him if he makes it happen. They ought to back him to the hilt, because of the prospects of expanded production and price stability.

On the other hand, it's very bad news for the global climate...

7377. PelleNilsson - 4/3/2006 8:39:46 AM

I don't understand that article at all.

7378. wonkers2 - 4/3/2006 10:11:25 AM

I don't either. Bush has neglected South America, and the U.S. will be paying the price as well as some of the newly leftist countries themselves. It looks like Peru may elect someone similar to Chavez in its coming election.

7379. wonkers2 - 4/3/2006 10:15:24 AM

Peruvian election.

7380. Marc-Albert - 4/3/2006 10:34:49 AM

To paraphrase a Los Angeles Times commentator, what difference does it make that Peru (or Mexico, for that matter) elect someone similar to Chavez in its comming elections?

In concrete terms, what price will the United States be paying?

7381. Marc-Albert - 4/3/2006 10:37:07 AM

None.

Furthermore, the only trade partner that really count for the U.S. is Canada :)

Canada/US trade is equivalent to US trade with ALL the South American republics put together.

7382. wonkers2 - 4/3/2006 10:43:44 AM

Well, it will make a difference to the Peruvians where Alejandro Toledo, a moderate, progressive president friendly to the U.S., is being replaced by a populist, nationalist rabble-rouser.

7383. alistairconnor - 4/3/2006 10:58:36 AM

M-A : yes, but Canada hardly counts as a foreign country anyway.
what difference does it make that Peru (or Mexico, for that matter) elect someone similar to Chavez in its comming elections?

Clearly it made a difference for US business interests in Venezuela : Exxon-Mobil has preferred to walk away, rather than renegotiate their oil concessions as joint ventures. Morales is looking to do similar things with Bolivia's gas. In these two cases, and in general with respect to Latin American countries, US corporations prefer to deal with a robber-baron ruling class who are happy to let most of the profits from natural resources go overseas, as long as they get their cut.

This guy Ollanta Humala is nothing like either Morales or Chavez, however... he's very much in the Peruvian tradition of rabble-rousing adventurers. Colourful but bad news.

7384. wonkers2 - 4/3/2006 11:26:31 AM

Good points. Nationalized oil and other industries tend not to be run very efficiently. Staffing gets mixed with politics with the result that too many people are hired and too many of them are incompetent.

7385. alistairConnor - 4/3/2006 2:53:04 PM

On Friday night, France was waiting with, perhaps not bated breath, but amused interest, for Chirac to cut the Gordian knot with respect to our current little crisis.

Briefly : The gummint, personified by handsome, dashing poet Dominique de Villepin, has passed a law to allow easier hiring and firing of people under 26. To fluidify the job market and perhaps improve job prospects a little bit for those who have never had one.
But this law was passed in a (dashing) cavalier fashion by aforesaid Prime Minister, without the usual negotiations etc. Also, just about everyone is feeling insecure about their job and nostalgic for the days when you could walk into one and keep it for three or four decades. And above all, the left is spoiling for a fight...

I was at a political meeting on Friday when Chirac's speech was due, and we delegated a comrade to listen to the radio so that we could react in a timely manner. I saw her making faces, rolling her eyes and laughing...

and it's pretty comical.
OK, says Chirac, the bill has been passed, I'm going to sign it into law; But I ask everyone not to apply it, because the protests are justified and the government is going to consult with the unions then amend it. Well, not exactly the government. The Prime Minister isn't going to negotiate anything; he's a man of action, he doesn't know how. What's more, it seems to be a matter of principle with him, he's not going to back down. So someone else will negotiate instead.

And who would that be? Why Nicolas Sarkozy of course. What, the Minister of the Interior, taking over from the Prime Minister, to negotiate such a crucial matter?
No, actually it's Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of the UMP, Chirac's party, who will be negotiating with the unions. Same person, but not the same thing, you see...

Follow that OK? I thought not. The Old Fella's really lost the plot.

Last Thursday, a couple of million people on the streets. Tomorrow, we'll see...

Not a pre-revolutionary situation - it's not 1830, nor 1848, nor even 1968 we're talking about. Just a rather messy fin de règne.

7386. wonkers2 - 4/3/2006 2:59:53 PM

Is it not true that French employment law is a bit overly restrictive and cumbersome?

7387. Marc-Albert - 4/3/2006 4:55:46 PM

I think we're all getting rather bored by those regular, ritualized French farces (a Belgian paper call them comédies de boulevard). I must say for my part that I read less and less about those ridiculous comédies de boulevard, where grown-up Frenchmen and Frenchwomen apparently take themselves seriously.

The French are becoming the laughing stock of the world, or rather, of those in the world that still bother about the French. As Pele wrote somewhere: maybe France is the new sick man of Europe. A glorified Turkey.

7388. robertjayb - 4/3/2006 8:30:28 PM

Riverbend gets awards---has April Fool (kithbet neesan) tips...

After an internet absence of a few days, I returned to find my inbox flooded with dozens of emails with the subject “Congratulations!!!”. In mid March, “Baghdad Burning” won Best Middle East and Africa blog and received a Bloggie so I thought the sudden surge of congratulatory emails was for that esteemed blog award (we would like to thank the academy…).

But, I was shocked to find out the BOOK “Baghdad Burning” had made the short list for the Samuel Johnson Prize- a prestigious, British award for non-fiction!!

7389. alistairconnor - 4/4/2006 2:23:43 AM

In other news, Alcatel took over Bell Labs.

7390. Macnas - 4/4/2006 2:29:49 AM

My brother and I did some work for them many years ago, making up units for storing pcb's.

7391. PelleNilsson - 4/4/2006 6:07:26 AM

BellLabs will be managed at arm's length because of its defense contracts. So will Thales, the space contractor that Alcatel co-owns with the French government.

7392. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 12:09:16 PM

Both CNN and MSNBC are showing constant live coverage of Paris at the moment.

7393. PelleNilsson - 4/4/2006 12:48:42 PM

How do you know with your crappy dial-up connection? But more to the point: why do they find it necessary to show a manifestation that is less disruptive, and, I understand, less aggressive than the one a week ago? Could it be that they have flown in crews and star reporters who have to earn their keep?

7394. PelleNilsson - 4/4/2006 12:54:14 PM

I looked at MSN. Hahaha! The camera showed a few police loitering around, pedestrians going about their ways and a kid on a skateboard. Clashes, indeed.

7395. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 12:58:28 PM

It's on tv. I may be rural, but I do have a satellite.

And no, I do not wear it on my head.

I didn't say their coverage was good. I said it was constant and live. I didn't even see so much as a flying rock.

7396. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 1:03:51 PM

I spoke too soon. They're throwing rocks now.

And I'm missing no telling how many important phone calls just to share this valuable information on American news coverage of foreign events with my favorite Swede.

7397. PelleNilsson - 4/4/2006 1:20:37 PM

Thanks for your patience and appreciation, arky.

Rock-throwing is part of politics in France. So is car-burning and the heaping of loads of manure on the steps of government buildings as soon as agrisubsidies are threatened. One may have opinions about those practices, but they don't indicate that French society is being ripped asunder.

7398. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 1:25:38 PM

Hey, I teach in an American public school. I can handle all varieties of smartass. ;-)

Plus, I'm having to do some online homework, so it's not like I'm sacrificing much to be here--I'm escaping.

I sometimes tease my world history class by telling them when they take university Western Civilization that the best default answer to anything involving European turmoil from the French Revolution on is "riots in Paris."

7399. PelleNilsson - 4/4/2006 2:09:02 PM

What does world history look like from the perspective of a public school in Arkansas?

7400. Jenerator - 4/4/2006 2:12:11 PM

I thought Alcatel was going out of business? (or did they just leave the US?)

7401. PelleNilsson - 4/4/2006 2:22:11 PM

They just bought Lucent. I wouldn't call that "going out of business".

7402. Jenerator - 4/4/2006 2:37:18 PM

I don't know what's happening with Alcatel. I know several people who were let go because the business was downsizing. In fact, I was a finalist for a Communication Specialist position (the job went to a friend) and she was let go two months later.

Every single person I know who worked for Alcatel said that divisions within the company have moved to Canada.

Perhaps Alcatel is like Siemens in that certain divisions/products/services are successful here whereas others are not.

7403. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 3:19:25 PM

What does world history look like from the perspective of a public school in Arkansas?

You don't even wanna know. Day One lesson is that there is indeed a world out there.

7404. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 3:22:55 PM

But seriously, it does require a lot of background and basics, because after elementary school (which is VERY simplistic) they don't get much instruction about the world at large except in 7th grade geography. The rest is covered in American history and civics courses, and that's all as it relates to the US.

7405. jexster - 4/4/2006 8:27:58 PM

MSNBC feature live coverage from Place d'Italie today.

I was impressed with the French Police who've finally been ordered to control troublemakers, not kick butt

Not only that, those guyz know what they're doing. It was cool. 4000 riot police deployed (not all there) but there had to be a couple hundred in triangular phalanxes which were moving strategically to trouble spots (obviously some good command and control) coordinating facing with plain clothes in the crowd who'd sneak up from behind and move the problem toward the phalanz...doing this repeatedly and taking full advantage of Hausman's copy of Pierre L'Enfant's anti-revolution layout to prevent problems with Les Barricades...

They had a mess - not only the usual police baiters but muggers taking advantage of police distraction to mug demonstrators - have never seen that ever...have been at a few of these things too.

7406. arkymalarky - 4/4/2006 8:54:25 PM

not only the usual police baiters but muggers taking advantage of police distraction to mug demonstrators

I apologize for laughing. That sounds like an idea that could really catch on.

7407. alistairconnor - 4/5/2006 3:54:59 AM

The general assumption is that the bad elements are ay-rabs from the quartiers, who don't give a crap about the work-contracts issue, but just like breaking stuff and stealing things.

Question the general assumption!

Bands of breakers/muggers, hooded, marred last week's demonstrations, and the police, in general, seemed fairly unconcerned about them, concentrating more on bailing up ordinary decent demonstrators.

In fact, there is some suggestion (detailed eye-witness accounts circulating on the internet) of connivence between the two violent factions (cops and breakers).

This doesn't seem to be happening this week.

There is probably a rational explanation for this change. How about this one :

The cops are under the direct control of the Minister of the Interior, a certain N.Sarkozy. (Footnote : His sole aim in life is to be elected President next year.) Last week, while ostensibly staying united with his Prime Minister, a certain D.Villepin (footnote : who has a great presidential destiny behind him), he wasn't necessarily too upset to see things getting out of hand.

But this week, he's Mister Fix-it, responsible for cleaning up the mess Villepin made.

Just one, personal interpretation.

7408. Marc-Albert - 4/5/2006 6:32:42 AM

Bands of breakers/muggers, hooded, marred last week's demonstrations, and the police, in general, seemed fairly unconcerned about them, concentrating more on bailing up ordinary decent demonstrators.

We've occasionally had "casseurs" too in local demonstrations and it doesn't work the way you think it works.

Unlike the "ordinary decent demonstrators", whose job is to valliantly confront the cops, the casseurs have Kristallnacht in mind, smashing shop windows and car windshields to their heart's content, when the police is occupied elsewhere. They are much harder for the police to spot and control before the damage is done.

I don't watch news on TV, but I understand the casseurs had a field day in more than a dozen French cities and towns yesterday.

Otherwise I tend to agree that your Sarkozy in a cynical opportunist. Proof that this son of a Hungarian immigrant is fully integrated to French society.

7409. Marc-Albert - 4/5/2006 6:42:44 AM

The general assumption is that the bad elements are ay-rabs from the quartiers, who don't give a crap about the work-contracts issue, but just like breaking stuff and stealing things.

Well, you're stuck with millions of Ay-Rabs and Ay-Rabble. Enjoy!

7410. alistairconnor - 4/5/2006 6:53:42 AM

"it doesn't work the way you think it works"

I thank you deeply for these words of wisdom from afar. I bow to your superior experience, intelligence and racism.

7411. Marc-Albert - 4/5/2006 7:12:42 AM

You forgot to mention my cynicism.

7412. Marc-Albert - 4/5/2006 7:38:57 AM

Due process, the French way



Sidestepping the legislative and executive branches, the Trotskyist FO and Communist CGT labor unions gleefully prepare to negociate directly with Sarkozy to scrap the recently voted and promulgated law. Well, aren't laws, as Adolf Hitler said, mere scraps of paper?

As a translator in an Anglo-Saxon country, I always hesitate before translating "due process". That concept is rather alien to the the French, whose history and modern political and constitutional practices are not exactly based on due process. I usually opt for the clumsy "application régulière de la loi", but none of the accepted French equivalents are satisfactory.

7413. jexster - 4/5/2006 10:38:27 AM

Our position is that whatever grievances a nation may have, however objectionable it finds the status quo, aggressive warfare is an illegal means for settling those grievances or for altering those conditions. Let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a useful purpose, it must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, US Prosecutor - Nuremberg

7414. wonkers2 - 4/5/2006 1:55:49 PM

For Pelle, Macnas and any other slugs from the "old country." :-)

General George Patton expounds the traditional American view of immigration. He was addressing his troops who were about to embark on the invasion of Sicily, July 9, 1943. He urged,

"When we land we will meet German and Italian soldiers whom it is our honor and privilege to attack and destroy. Many of you have in your veins German and Italian blood, but remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestors of the people we shall kill lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and continued as slaves."

David Kennedy in the Atlantic Monthly, November 1996
"When we land

7415. wonkers2 - 4/5/2006 2:19:47 PM

Kennedy went on to point out that Patton's characterization of American immigration did not apply to African slaves who were the largest source of immigrants during the first three centuries after the discovery of the New World.

7416. wonkers2 - 4/5/2006 2:24:10 PM

And he goes on to point out that, contrary to Patton's forumlation, there was also a considerable element of involuntariness in the great European migration to America as well.

7417. alistairConnor - 4/5/2006 2:32:28 PM

the Trotskyist FO and Communist CGT labor unions gleefully prepare to negociate directly with Sarkozy to scrap the recently voted and promulgated law.

... at the invitation of the President. I have already said, all thinking people in France are completely aghast at Chirac's initiative, which indeed side-steps the executive (Villepin) and the parliament.

Simple political expediency : Chirac can't afford to change Prime Ministers, therefore he's trying to keep Villepin on as a lame duck for another year. He already did exactly that with Raffarin, long past his use-by date before he was fired.

7418. wonkers2 - 4/5/2006 2:39:22 PM

And what was the reaction in America?--recurrent episodes of nativism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-foreign radicalism, revival of the KKK, culminating in anti-imigration legislation in 1920.

7419. wonkers2 - 4/5/2006 2:50:10 PM

David Kennedy's prescient article on immigration.

7420. Macnas - 4/6/2006 1:47:26 AM

Yeah, Patton, he was a funny fish.

I'd look at his words much like those of a team coach exhorting his players to bring the game to the other team.

7421. Marc-Albert - 4/8/2006 11:22:58 AM

"When I first arrived in Paris after three years in Moscow, a Russian friend joked that France was the only truly successful communist country in the world.

"At the time, I put that down to Russian humour (...)

France's problem with capitalism

7422. Dubai Vol - 4/8/2006 12:21:12 PM

Thanks for posting that Marc-Albert. While it doesn't surprise me, it's interesting to see it graphically demonstrated. What is the official French work week now? Thirty-five hours?

My travels in the provinces lead me to like the French (as opposed to Parisiennes, whom everyone justifiably reviles), and I hope they can sort out their problems. But I really think they are on the wrong track now.

Patton? Clever and highly successful general. Absolutely barking mad. Quoting his pep talks is hardly a persuasive argument. Helluva general thoough....

7423. wonkers2 - 4/8/2006 12:56:21 PM

Patton's pep talk wasn't particularly accurate, but it was an accurate statement of a traditional American attitude about immigration and more particularly about their own ancestors.

7424. wonkers2 - 4/8/2006 5:14:50 PM

Bush planning nuclear strike on Iran. Here.

7425. alistairConnor - 4/9/2006 2:28:15 PM

Thank you M-A, I got a good laugh out of this :
The ghettoes already exist in France, even if their inhabitants have access to free health care and a decent dentist.

7426. jexster - 4/9/2006 9:53:48 PM

As I was saying Marj,no surprise here

India Nuke Deal in Trouble


Look on the bright side. India didn't lose anything because India didn't give anything

7427. Marc-Albert - 4/10/2006 5:25:24 AM

Paris, April 10, 2006

7428. alistairconnor - 4/10/2006 6:18:47 AM

Actually, Villepin's train wreck of a government leads me to re-evaluate his contribution to the Iraq war.

I have been resistant to the notion that Villepin and Chirac actually made things worse through their intransigeance, but in retrospect...

7429. alistairconnor - 4/10/2006 6:35:58 AM

The numbers in Message # 7421 indicate that there is, indeed, a "French model" worth defending... rather heartening really. Every time our dear leaders try to force "reality" down our throats, "the street" says no... and "reality" backs down.

The left has had remarkably little to say through the whole upheaval. Very wise, in my view. The whole employment flexibility/security issue will be a major issue for a couple of decades to come, but there's no reason why we can't get it right. I mean, if the Scandies can do it...

7430. wonkers2 - 4/10/2006 6:56:21 AM

In addition to the nuclear proliferation issue, fears of loss of jobs to India may contribute to the deal's problems.

7431. alistairconnor - 4/10/2006 9:48:33 AM

Bye Bye Silvio!


Exit polls give around a 52/48 split in favour of the left.

7432. jexster - 4/11/2006 11:44:48 AM

A Proud-i Day for Italia
Prodi Claims Victory in Italy

Inno Di Mameli
Fratelli d'Italia
L'Italia s'è desta
Dell'elmo di Scipio
S'è cinta la testa.
Dove'è la Vittoria?.
Le porga la chioma;
Chè schiava di Roma
Iddio la creò.
Stringiamoci a coorte,
Siam pronti alla morte:
Italia chiamò!

7433. alistairConnor - 4/11/2006 12:14:25 PM

yes, ironically enough Berlu was beaten by his own electoral fiddling.

Like the good democrat he is, he changed the electoral law at the last moment... went to full proportional for the lower house, on the presumption that the left would not be able to unite : wrong; added seats to the Senate for Italians living overseas, presuming they would go to him... and that's where he lost in the end.

7434. Marc-Albert - 4/11/2006 5:42:31 PM

The diaspora vote

Europe:

L’Unione (Prodi): 247 895 voix (52,92%)

Forza Italia (Berlusconi): 114 780 voix (24,5%)


South America

L’Unione: 77 911 (29.64%)

Forza Italia: 23 384 (8.9%)

Independent lists: 83 972 (31.78%).


United States:

L’Unione: 15 148 (33.95%)

Forza Italia: 15 461 (34.65%)


Canada:

L’Unione: 15 425 (44.04%)

Forza Italia: 8 578 voix (24. 49%)


Australia

L’Unione: 14 864 (52.46%)

Forza Italia: 9 401 (33.18%)

Interesting. A hell of a lot more Italians in South America (Argentina mostly) took part in the elections than in North America. Also, one third voted for lists specifically dedicated to South American Italians.

Berlusconi only won in the US... and that by a narrow margin.

7435. jexster - 4/11/2006 7:20:18 PM

Wednesday 13 Raby` al-awal 1427 A.H.
Iran joins world nuclear technology club
Iran News Agency Reports

7436. wonkers2 - 4/12/2006 6:55:23 AM

Bialis are from New York, not Italy. biali

7437. alistairconnor - 4/12/2006 7:06:11 AM

Berlusconi only won in the US... and that by a narrow margin.

He won in Sicily too...

7438. PelleNilsson - 4/12/2006 8:34:09 AM

...by a large margin.

7439. alistairconnor - 4/12/2006 9:34:40 AM

Well, that just shows that Italians in the US get a bad rap... only 34.65% of them belong to the Mafia.

7440. alistairconnor - 4/12/2006 10:03:14 AM

Hey, I'm not alone in making the connection...

Troubling coincidence

Seven minutes after Silvio Berlusconi's defeat in the Italian elections became certain, the most wanted mafioso in Sicily, Bernardo Provenzano, was arrested outside his home town of Corleone
[...]
The amazing news that the fugitive who had evaded capture far longer than any other criminal in history was finally under arrest came at 11.28am, just a few minutes after it became clear that the crucial last seats in the Italian Senate had gone to Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition, and that Silvio Berlusconi's government was finished. Last year Piero Grasso, Italy's anti-Mafia prosecutor, caused a storm by saying that Provenzano had been protected from capture by politicians and policemen.

7441. jexster - 4/12/2006 10:20:11 AM

Wonk don't get precious with me. Tony has one every morning. He's Napolitano (in New York - napolitan ricotta - rigolt sopressata - supasat etc)

7442. jexster - 4/12/2006 10:21:56 AM

What's he doin eatin Russian food in Satriales?

I want my HBO monthly $ back

7443. wonkers2 - 4/12/2006 12:36:52 PM

Well, we'll have to let the Wizard of Whimsy arbitrate that one. BTW, my wife and I are headed for San Francisco tomorrow for ten days to visit the kiddies. If you want to get together for lunch, coffee or a beer give me a call. My cell phone is 248-646-0563. I have StFYC privileges.

7444. robertjayb - 4/15/2006 7:01:57 PM

Venezuela passes Saudis in oil reserves...(The Independent)

...Venezuela has just overtaken Saudi Arabia in its estimated oil reserves to become number one in the world. Venezuela is here to stay.

When the reports of the country's latest good fortune came through to New York, a banker turned to me and said: "Surely by now George Bush must realise God is not on his side." Even under the old estimates, Venezuela already had its place as a major oil producer guaranteed for the next 80 years. Now it would appear to stretch into infinity. Together with the Middle East, Caracas will be the major force in world energy markets.

The bushies will learn to love Hugo Chavez, if they don't kill him first.

7445. wonkers2 - 4/15/2006 7:11:39 PM

Jex: wrong #. Cell: 248-396-9593. The weather here is worse than Detroit.

7446. PelleNilsson - 4/16/2006 3:42:15 AM

This Stratfor document explains the economic factors behind the story. It also illustrates why "reserves" are a dynamic quantity.

7447. jexster - 4/18/2006 10:02:21 AM

The Price of Tea in China

7448. alistairconnor - 4/18/2006 10:22:25 AM

Subscriber site, Pelle. Explain it succinctly for us.

We'll just have to learn to love crusty old Uncle Hugo...

7449. PelleNilsson - 4/18/2006 12:08:47 PM

Strange. I googled Chavez + oil reserves and gaineed access.

In brief. Chavez has proposed long term - very long - oil contracts at 50$ per barrel. Venezuela has vast quantities of super-heavy crude which are not counted as "reserves" because the cost of extracting and refining that kind of oil is 40$/barrel and no oil company is willing to take on the heavy up-front investments without long term guarantees.

7450. sakonige - 4/18/2006 11:58:39 PM

I don't understand why oil is considered fungible when there are such different grades of oil.

7451. Macnas - 4/19/2006 4:53:44 AM

50 dollars looks a hell of a lot better than 70.

7452. sakonige - 4/19/2006 11:46:19 AM

what I mean is, how can oil from one source be substituted for oil from any other if there are such marked differences in grades?

7453. PelleNilsson - 4/19/2006 12:13:05 PM

Hi Sakonige!

That's why Venezuelas super-heavy crude is not included in the "proven reserves". With today's technology it cannot be substituted for any other quality of crude. If Chavez's ploy succeeds Venezuela will move from, I think, 5-6th place to the top of the league in the proven reserves game. But not for long I suspect. There must be lots of super-heavy stuff around in other parts of the world.

7454. sakonige - 4/19/2006 12:16:27 PM

Hi, Pelle.

So why is it often remarked that a loss of Iranian oil, for example, would simply be supplied from some other source?

7455. PelleNilsson - 4/19/2006 1:32:14 PM

As I understand it the "fungibility" of oil does not refer to its quality or where it is produced but to the fact that that whoever produces oil needs to sell it.

7456. sakonige - 4/19/2006 1:46:22 PM

I thought fungible meant exchangeable or substitutable. In the case of oil, it would mean that oil from one source could be transparently substituted for oil from another.

7457. alistairConnor - 4/19/2006 3:08:49 PM

Sakonige: You need to look at the mind-blowingly erudite and sane discussions at The Oil Drum for these sorts of questions.

It's true that if you take away one oil supplier, then you can always buy oil from another. But prices are fixed by supply and demand, and there is no excess capacity that can be simply switched on. Take out Iranian oil and you're talking $100 a barrel.
At that sort of price, demand destruction kicks in : a lot of people simply can't afford to drive their car, or heat their house, or run their factory (African oil consumption is probably declining for that reason) and at some point, supply equals demand again.

Currently, I'm thinking that demand destruction will kick in on an impressive scale when the $US bubble bursts. If the dollar loses half its value, then the price of oil doubles for you lucky people, and people have to make hard choices about energy use.

7458. alistairconnor - 4/20/2006 3:26:48 AM

"le modèle anglo-saxon" is a buzzword in France : meaning cold heartless capitalism, as opposed to the supposedly more humane French economic system.

French companies operating overseas have no such scruples however, and Peugeot Citroen have just announced they are relocating their British plant to Slovakia.

7459. Marc-Albert - 4/20/2006 6:11:46 AM

There was an article in a French paper recently about the 10 largest French companies who did exceedingly well in 2005, paradoxically harvesting unprecedented profits while the French economy is stagnating and unemployment is hovering around 10%.

The reason is simple: the Big Ten's prosperity rest on profits made outside France, some of them are actually losing money in France. They invest less and less in France proper, and more and more elsewhere. By now, some are French in name only.

7460. Marc-Albert - 4/20/2006 6:15:25 AM

L'ingratitude

"French colonisation is responsible for a genocide against the Algerian people, as well as against our identity, our history, our language, our traditions. We no longer know if we are Amazighs (Berbers), Arabs, Europeans or French."



President Bouteflika is back in France for medical treatment.

Expect a rash of anti-French measures and statements once he’s back in Algeria. Late last year, back from an unprecedented 5-week stay at the Val-de-Grâce military hospital for unspecified medical treatments (a rumor says he has stomach cancer), he took as series of anti-French measures such as closing some 50 private French-language schools and making a series incendiary speeches against French colonization in Algeria. Negotiations for the renewal of the Franco-Algerian friendship treaty have been stalled.

Now he’s back to Val-de-Grâce hospital for, they say, routine follow-up check-ups. The problem for the French is that the longer he stays in France, the more anti-French he becomes when he’s back in Algeria.

I should think that if he’s sick again and French doctors save his life again, he will probably break diplomatic relations with France this time around once he’s back in his country..

7461. Wombat - 4/20/2006 8:39:47 AM

Maybe the hospital food is lousy.

7462. jexster - 4/20/2006 7:37:48 PM

China Mistakenly Called by Taiwan's Name 39 minutes ago



The meeting between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao began with a gaffe Thursday when an announcer referred to China by the formal name of Taiwan, which China considers a rebellious province.

As Bush and Hu stood at attention outside the White House, an announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of the Republic of China, followed by the national anthem of the United States of America."

7463. jexster - 4/24/2006 9:29:06 AM

Just You Wait AC
{Amuruhkuh hatin pétasse]





HEADLINE: CSI: Trade Deficit

BYLINE: By PAUL KRUGMAN

BODY:

Forensics are in. If you turn on the TV during prime time, you're likely to find yourself watching people sorting through clues from a crime scene, trying to figure out what really happened.

That's more or less what's going on right now among international finance experts. The crime in question is the U.S. trade deficit, which according to the broadest measure reached an amazing $805 billion last year. The mystery is how we've been able to run huge deficits, year after year, with so few visible adverse consequences. And the future of the U.S. economy depends on which of two proposed solutions to the mystery is right.

Here's the puzzle: the trade deficit means that America is living beyond its means, spending far more than it earns. (In 2005, the United States exported only 53 cents' worth of goods for every dollar it spent on imports.) To pay for the excess of imports over exports, the United States has to sell stocks, bonds and businesses to foreigners. In fact, we've borrowed more than $3 trillion just since 1999.

By rights, then, the investment income -- interest payments, stock dividends and so on -- that Americans pay to foreigners should be a lot larger than the investment income foreigners pay to Americans. But according to official statistics, the United States still has a slightly positive balance on investment income.

How is this possible? The answer, almost certainly, is that there's something wrong with the numbers. (Laypeople tend to treat official statistics as gospel; professional economists know that putting these numbers together involves a lot of educated guesswork -- and sometimes the guesses are wrong.) But depending on exactly what's wrong, the U.S. economy either has hidden strengths, or it's in even worse shape than it seems.

In one corner are economists who think the official statistics miss invisible U.S. exports -- exports not of goods and services, but of intangibles like knowledge and brand-name recognition, which allow U.S. companies to earn high rates of return on their foreign investments. Proponents of this view claim that if we counted these invisible exports, which they call ''dark matter,'' much of the U.S. trade deficit would disappear.

The dark matter hypothesis has been eagerly taken up by some journalists, who like its upbeat message. It seems to say that the U.S. economy is, as a cover article in Business Week put it, ''much stronger than you think.''

But there's a problem: U.S. companies operating abroad don't, in fact, seem to earn especially high rates of return. Why, then, doesn't the United States seem to be paying a price for all its borrowing? Because according to the official data, foreign companies operating in the United States are remarkably unprofitable, earning an average return of only 2.2 percent a year.

There's something wrong with this picture. As Daniel Gros of the Center for European Policy Studies puts it, it's hard to believe that foreigners would continue investing in the United States ''if they were really being constantly taken to the cleaners.''

In a new paper, Mr. Gros argues -- compellingly, in my view -- that what's really happening is that foreign companies are understating the profits of their U.S. subsidiaries, probably to avoid taxes, and that official data are, in particular, failing to pick up foreign profits that are reinvested in U.S. operations.

If Mr. Gros is right, the true position of the U.S. economy isn't as bad as you think -- it's worse. The true trade deficit, including unreported profits that accrue to foreign companies, isn't $800 billion -- it's more than $900 billion. And America's foreign debt, including the value of foreign-owned businesses, is at least $1 trillion bigger than the official numbers say.

Of course, optimists have a comeback: if things are really that bad, why are so many foreign investors still buying U.S. bonds? And they point out that those predicting problems from the trade deficit have been wrong so far. But I have two words for those who place their faith in the judgment of investors, and believe that a few good years are enough to prove the skeptics wrong: Nasdaq 5,000.

Right now, forensic analysis seems to say that the U.S. trade position is worse, not better, than it looks. And the answer to the question, ''Why haven't we paid a price for our trade deficit?'' is, just you wait.

7464. alistairconnor - 4/25/2006 4:51:24 AM

No Jex, America is my friend.

Right now, in fact, I'm trying to think of ways of converting my debt into $US. Any hints?

7465. jexster - 4/25/2006 6:42:19 PM

Strong Euro eh? Well sorry that's above my pay grade..I'm a socialist. Try Wonk..if he doesn't know, I am sure his buddies at the yacht club will have some boffo ideas!

7466. alistairconnor - 4/26/2006 4:57:14 AM

Well me too. But since the US has been living off hot cheques for a while, I reckon it's my turn.

Schematically : if I could borrow $100K in the US, I could pay 85K euros off my mortgage. Then, in a year or two, I could pay back the loan with, say, 20K euros...

7467. Macnas - 4/26/2006 5:47:08 AM

In principle maybe, but the problem is your principle sum is too small for it to work out.

By the time you're finished with costs and transactions, you'll be worse off than before you began.

7468. alistairconnor - 4/26/2006 7:08:40 AM

Ah. What you're saying, is I need ten million dollars of debt.

Well, maybe I can fix that.

7469. Macnas - 4/26/2006 8:22:01 AM

I think we all need 10 million dollars of debt.

Bet I'd have more fun getting there than GWB.

7470. wonkers2 - 4/28/2006 3:13:06 PM

Bad news: Iran is stiffing the United Nations Security Council. Here.

7471. robertjayb - 5/1/2006 3:09:41 PM

Bolivia nationalizes natural gas production...

Tsk. These uppity brown people...

LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales ordered soldiers to immediately occupy Bolivia's natural gas fields Monday and threatened to evict foreign companies unless they sign new contracts within six months giving Bolivia majority control over the entire chain of production.

Morales said soldiers and engineers with Bolivia's state-owned oil company would be sent to installations operated by foreign petroleum companies.

"The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," Morales said in a speech from the San Alberto petroleum field in southern Bolivia to decree a nationalization of the natural gas industry. The field has been operated by Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA in association with the Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF SA and France's Total SA.

7472. PelleNilsson - 5/3/2006 9:24:12 AM

"the most desperate, despicable, seedy, grubby, hopeless, lying, hideously incompetent bunch of third-rate, double-dealing disasters this great nation has ever seen"

That sounds like contemporary anti-Bush stuff, but in fact it was said more than 10 years ago. By who about whom, do you think?

7473. wonkers2 - 5/3/2006 10:34:09 AM

Hmmh? Michael Moore about Bush I?

7474. alistairconnor - 5/3/2006 10:53:15 AM

he he.

Currently, Chirac is looking more likely to be impeached than Bush. But he'll probably just fire Villepin instead. Funny business about some false corruption allegations against Sarkozy. Bigtime scandal, they are talking Watergate à la française...

7475. concerned - 5/3/2006 6:48:26 PM

I think rodomontade of that caliber would be beyond 'Rat intellectual capability.

7476. jexster - 5/3/2006 7:13:11 PM

For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.

Martin van Creveld
Professor of Military History
Hebrew University, Jerusalem

7477. PelleNilsson - 5/3/2006 11:13:23 PM

John Prescott, the current deputy prime minister, about John Major's Tory government.

7478. alistairconnor - 5/4/2006 4:37:29 AM

I'd just like to point out that the deliquescence of "New Labour" in the UK is all the Tories' fault.

You govern for that long, with such a feeble opposition, and you get arrogant, flabby and sloppy. That was John Major's position, and now it's Blair and Prescott's.

Gordon Brown is of course the cuckold of the farce.

7479. Macnas - 5/4/2006 6:59:37 AM

I think Prescott, more so than Blair, embodies the decline of the English Labour party.
His talent has always been being able to dish out good, sharp criticism, delivered in a manner that endeared him to the traditional labour voter.

That's all the talent he had though, and the traditional labour voter has become extinct. In the last few years he has tried to keep himself on an imaginary battle line by trying to attack what some might see as the landed gentry, a very vocal exponent of the hunting act, which bans traditional fox hunting with dogs, and the right to roam act, which allows anyone to traipse across large tracts of heretofore private property.

At the same time he has become smug and complacent, still in place as a sop to the labour party that once was, that drew its strength and definition from being anti-Thatcher/anti-Tory.

Now he is to Blair what Tebbit was to Thatcher, and his party are the new Tories. His song and dance routine during the last days of Majors government, where he lambasted the government for the many sex scandals it was involved in, has come back to bite him in his fat arse as he himself commits the same sins and has those same sins aired in just as public a manner as he delighted in before Labour came to power.

7480. jexster - 5/4/2006 11:18:44 AM

The Legacy: The Weakening of Global Institutions
G. John Ikenberry, Princeton

As if it weren't enough that we Americans have to live with his incompetence, delusions, and depradations. The whole world has to and for a long, long time.

7481. robertjayb - 5/5/2006 3:32:46 PM

alistair,

As a Kiwi and a Greenie you may find this Salon article of interest.

Twilight of an ancient knowledge...

If you don't subscribe get a day pass.

7482. wonkers2 - 5/7/2006 10:09:19 AM

In The New Yorker's May issue there is a long (16 pages of fine print)and fascinating article by Andrew Solomon about contemporary Libya, Bush's "success story" in the Middle East. Qaddaffi is a goofy but shrewd character who recently has been attempting a U-turn in his relations with the West. In his ability to control the Islamist fanatics in Libya he has much in common with Saddam Hussein. Libya is a strange and contradictory country which sits on proven oil reserves of 40 billion barrels of sweet crude, the largest reserve in Africa and may have as much as 100 billion barrels. Libyans have learned to do little else but live off their oil revenues and the government and economy are incredibly inefficient. Oil production is down to 1.7 million barrels a day from the 3 million peak in Libya's pre-Qaddafi hey day of oil production.

According Solomon's article, the greatest value so far from our rapprochment with Qaddafi is the information we got from all the nuclear plans and records he turned over.

George Wolf, Bush's Asst. Sec. of State for Non-proliferation told Solomon that "The Libyans had the design of a nuclear weapon, sold by the A.Q Khan network...Libya's decision to turn over not only equipment but also the documentation, shipping invoices, plans, etc., provided a treasure trove of materials that were instrumental in establishing the credible case that mobilized countries against implicated individuals and companies abroad. We would not have been able to convince many of these countries or the I.A.E.A. of the cancer-like festering A.Q Khan network without that documentation. The information that enabled us to break up the network was critical."

7483. jexster - 5/7/2006 12:03:10 PM

Where in the hell is Marc-Albert. Canadians have turned against the War..the one in Afghanistan! A few casualities, a little blood and they wanna cut and run from the Clash of Civilizations which we here in the USA! USA! USA! know as World War III (GWB says so)...

Well we ain't got your backs no mo girlie-men...we'll send you all of our Mexican and towel-headed terruhrisses, and you can kiss our red white and blue asses when that CP Tower in Toronto gets kissed by an Airbus 300

7484. jexster - 5/7/2006 12:04:13 PM

Wonk will put you in charge of Canadian border patrol.>This means WAR...you ain't wid us, you agin us

7485. wonkers2 - 5/7/2006 12:06:14 PM

Sorry, Jexter, I'm considering a move to Canada depending on the elections in November. Or perhaps, back to my paternal roots in Sweden, if Pelle is agreeable. [San Francisco is too expensive.]

7486. jexster - 5/8/2006 8:07:14 PM

You WILL man that sloop on Lake Huron 24/7 DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!

7487. wonkers2 - 5/8/2006 8:10:08 PM

The Cap'n sez, "AYE AYE, Sir, but the sloop's on Lake St. Clair (smallest of the Great Lakes, idiot!).

7488. jexster - 5/10/2006 2:35:12 AM

Can't say I didn't warn you......


Letter From Sweden
An Economy With Safety Features, Sort of Like a Volvo

7489. jexster - 5/10/2006 12:52:55 PM

Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening, and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone. Pooty Poot

7490. Jenerator - 5/10/2006 3:23:30 PM

Pelle is wonkers' dad!!!!!!!???????????

7491. anomie - 5/10/2006 4:37:34 PM

The Modern Marvels show just announced that Sweden has the most pleasure boats per capita of any country. One for every 6 people. The U.S. is 4th. One for every 12.

7492. wonkers2 - 5/10/2006 4:39:49 PM

Ha!Ha!Ha!

7493. anomie - 5/10/2006 4:56:44 PM

It's true. I bet you can lookitup! But they may be including the old Viking ships still floating about.

7494. jexster - 5/10/2006 7:27:37 PM

Pelle is Cap'n Dirty's bastard child...shhhh..

7495. wonkers2 - 5/10/2006 7:39:16 PM

The Cap'n sez, "Not likely, but now that you mention it, the Cap'n does have fond memories of a beautiful Swedish au pair years ago."

7496. alistairconnor - 5/11/2006 3:29:17 AM

Ano : That can't possibly be right. New Zealand is number one, or has it been overtaken by Sweden?

7497. alistairconnor - 5/11/2006 3:30:59 AM

In case you missed it :
The full text of Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush

If you're going to war, you might as well know what for.

(or you could trust the mainstream media to tell you?)

7498. PelleNilsson - 5/11/2006 5:18:23 AM

I think it depends on how you define "pleasure boat". We have one of those. Does it count?



We have it because we need it, not because it gives us "pleasure".

7499. jexster - 5/11/2006 5:30:44 AM

Jesus Christ (PBUH) AC....at least our brave French friends will be along side us as we change another regime...Try it you'll like it!

for what it's worth Ivo Daalder who coauthored a book on the "Bush Revolution" thinks the Moron will back down in the face of certain disaster - just like he did last time...Like I said, for what it is worth....Daalder, like all those experts is just a courtier in the Hall of Mirrors

The debate is raging over at the Courtier Corner..TMPC...

It is Called "Balancing" Comrade Wolf

Ole Pooty Poot's comin on strong now...I suspect the Polish Question will be dealt with directly.

7500. jexster - 5/15/2006 10:37:26 AM

Contentmnent in Caracas - award winning Austalian journalist John Pilger's look at the "Bolivarian Revolution"

7501. Marc-Albert - 5/15/2006 12:24:28 PM

Pilger is a liar and a hypocrite. He's the one who "popularized" the idea after Gulf War One that the Americans irradiated millions of Irakis and caused the death of 500,000 newborns and children with DEPLETED URANIUM.

7502. robertjayb - 5/15/2006 12:55:49 PM

Poor people wanting clean water and education! That is dangerous.

Better hurry up with the invasion...

Oops! Sorry. We're otherwise occupied.

7503. robertjayb - 5/15/2006 1:12:26 PM

Can't be too careful...

May 15,2006 | WASHINGTON -- The United States is imposing a ban on arms sales to Venezuela because of what it claims is a lack of support by President Hugo Chavez's leftist government for counterterrorism efforts, the State Department said Monday.

For nearly a year, there has been a nearly total lack of cooperation with anti-terrorism, Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman, said.

As a result, U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items, will not be permitted, she said.

Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the United States but relations between Chavez and the Bush administration have sharply deteriorated. Chavez has called Bush a "terrorist," and denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

7504. wonkers2 - 5/20/2006 6:47:33 AM

Western Powers Disagree on Iran Proposal

"European officials say there is a consensus among them that Mr. Lavrov was angry because of an earlier speech by Vice President Dick Cheney denouncing Russia for its increasingly authoritarian and bullying behavior. Several wondered whether Mr. Cheney, worried about the direction the Europeans were taking the talks, was not in fact trying to antagonize Russia to discourage it from cooperating on Iran.

"American officials say that it is no secret that Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are deeply distrustful of the European effort. Instead, they support efforts to topple the Iranian regime from within, though not through military action." Intrigue on Iran negotiations.

7505. jexster - 5/21/2006 9:20:50 PM

The French may like to think that Chanel No 5 is their scent but we all know that garlic and stale Gitanes are much more representative. Daily Telegraph UK

7506. alistairconnor - 5/22/2006 5:10:56 AM

To which one is tempted to reply : Undoubtedly true, but who wants to be liked by British tourists? Smile at them, and they'll never bloody go away.

7507. alistairconnor - 5/22/2006 5:21:25 AM

Hail King Ottokar!

After nearly a century of domination by the evil thuggish Bordurians, Syldavia voted in a referendum this weekend to reclaim its sovereignty, and will be seeking a seat at the United Nations, and early entry to the European Union.

7508. Marc-Albert - 5/22/2006 6:11:38 AM

Is Milou wearing a flea collar?

It was damn stupid meddling of the European Union to demand that at least 55% of Montenegrines vote for sovereignty for independece to be recognized by EU countries.

Yesterday's vote was 55.4% in favor. But, what if it had been 54.4% ? There would have been total confusion and it might have increased the risk of civil war. A majority would have been denied its rights.

The Canadian parliament avoided that dangerous trap when it adopted the so-called "Referendum Clarity Law" over a decade ago. Those in Canada and Quebec who adamantly oppposed Quebec independence clamored for a minimum 66% or 60% minimum pro-independence vote. They considered 55% the bare minimum.

The Chrétien gov't saw the danger of those proposals. What if 52% or 54.8% of Québécois vote for independence and independence is therefore rejected? There would be complete pandemonium. Canada's continued rule in Quebec would be taited by illegitimacy. The 55% proposal was wisely rejected, and 50% + one vote - the only widely accepted option - was maintained.

7509. wonkers2 - 5/23/2006 9:48:38 AM

Affirmative action controversial in India, too. Meritocracy vs. eliminating the caste system.

7510. jexster - 5/24/2006 5:55:19 PM

Canada's Turn is Coming

National Post apologizes for anti-Iran story



A Canadian newspaper apologized on Wednesday for a story that said Iran planned to force Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive clothing to distinguish themselves from Muslims.

The conservative National Post ran the story on its front page last Friday along with a large photo from 1944 which showed a Hungarian couple wearing the yellow stars that the Nazis forced Jews to sew to their clothing.

The story, which included tough anti-Iran comments from prominent Jewish groups, was picked up widely by Web sites and by other media.

"Is Iran turning into the new Nazi Germany? Share your opinion online," the paper asked readers last Friday.

But the National Post, a long-time supporter of Israel and critic of Tehran, admitted on Wednesday it had not checked the piece thoroughly enough before running it.

"It is now clear the story is not true," National Post editor-in-chief Douglas Kelly wrote in a long editorial on page 2. "We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story."

The story was based on a column by Iranian expatriate writer Amir Taheri, who said a law being debated by Iran's parliament would force Jews to sew a yellow strip of cloth to their clothes. Christians would wear a red strip while Zoroastrians would wear a blue one.

Iranian legislators dismissed the story.

The story and the column appeared at a time when the international community is pressuring Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran is also under fire for comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he doubted the scale of the Holocaust.

Asked about the Post story last Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Iran "is very capable of this kind of action." He added: "It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany."

A spokesman for Harper said the prime minister had started off his comments with the words "If this is true."

7511. jexster - 5/30/2006 11:15:06 AM

This is a Euro's comment to Cole's post today about the incredibly shrinking Karzai hold on Afghanistan...Somehow I think there may be more than one Euro who thinks this way. Somehow, a shitload more than just one. Just a hunch EuroBoiz...what's your Informed Comment

We in the EU don't share your values anymore

7512. jexster - 6/2/2006 5:21:43 AM

Is the European Union in Crisis?
By G. John Ikenberry

7513. Magoseph - 6/7/2006 12:18:22 PM

Posted at Random, Pelle

7514. PelleNilsson - 6/7/2006 1:01:33 PM

Yes, I saw it, but there are two reasons I won't respond. First, I never respond to that poster. Second, the author of that article is what Americans call a liberterian (in Europe a 'neo-liberal')and reading him just makes me angry.

7515. concerned - 6/7/2006 8:47:08 PM

Re. 7510 -

I see you're kissing up to the Iranian mullahs now, jexster. No wonder LWnuts can't make any headway against a 35% popular prez.

7516. jexster - 6/8/2006 12:47:33 AM

I am not kissing up to them...seems Bush is!

7517. jexster - 6/8/2006 12:55:43 AM

From The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed
Linked in Lies Have Consequences...

But the most important consequence of the Iraq war is its destabilization of the Middle East. If neoconservatives such as Ledeen and their critics agree on anything, it is that so far there has been only one real winner in the Iraq conflict: the fundamentalist mullahs in Iran. For decades, the two big threats in the Middle East—Iran and Iraq—had counterbalanced each other in a standoff that neutralized both. Yet the Bush administration, despite having declared Iran a member of the Axis of Evil, proceeded to attack its two biggest enemies, Afghanistan and Iraq. "Iran is unquestionably the biggest beneficiary of the war in Iraq," says Milt Bearden.

Perhaps it is not surprising that the Bush administration is now rattling its sabers against Iran, which has been flexing its muscles with a new nuclear program. As a result, according to a Zogby poll in May, 66 percent of Americans now see Iran as a threat to the U.S. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national-security adviser to President Carter, has argued that starting the Iraq war was a catastrophic strategic blunder, and that taking military action against Iran may be an even bigger mistake. "I think of war with Iran as the ending of America's present role in the world," he told Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. "Iraq may have been a preview of that, but it's still redeemable if we get out fast. In a war with Iran, we'll get dragged down for 20 or 30 years. The world will condemn us. We will lose our position in the world."

To Michael Ledeen, however, Iran's ascendancy is just one more reason to expand the Iraq war to the "terror masters" of the Middle East. "I keep saying it over and over again to the point where I myself am bored," he says. "I have been screaming 'Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran' for five years. [Those in the Bush administration] don't have an Iran policy. Still don't have one. They haven't done fuck-all."


Pucker up ButterCup

7518. jexster - 6/8/2006 1:06:33 AM

New Concessions to Iran



In a major western concession, Iran is to be allowed to retain some uranium enrichment activities if it reaches agreement with the US, Russia, Europe, and China on its nuclear programme. Diplomats said yesterday that the terms of a new package of proposed rewards delivered to Tehran on Tuesday by Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, state that Iran must freeze uranium enrichment activities before and during the talks.

Once "confidence is restored in the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme", it would be allowed to resume enrichment on a scale to be determined. "Those are rights under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," said a diplomat.
...The terms being offered vindicate Iran's brinkmanship. By stalling, bluffing and threatening, it has improved the terms on offer from the west in less than a year. The new package is more generous than that offered last August by Britain, France and Germany when the talks collapsed and Iran lifted its uranium enrichment freeze.

Mullahs, Schmullahs!
Looks like Bush has left his band of Useful Idiots twisting slowly, slowly in the wind.

Iraqi Ties to Iran Create New Risks for Washington

Then there's Somalia

Now Iraq is no longer the latest Islamic State!!!

How many wars will this Idiot lose before we're rid of him TD?

7519. alistairconnor - 6/8/2006 2:11:51 AM

There is another reading of the projected Iran compromise : that Russia and China have backed off from their support of the mullahs, leaving Iran too isolated to maintain its uncompromising stance. However, it's clear that their stalling has strengthened their position, mostly because the strategic value of their oil production has been enhanced over the past year...

all Great Game stuff.

7520. alistairconnor - 6/8/2006 2:36:25 AM

Looks like the US is set to secede from the world :

Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy secretary-general, has accused Washington of using the international body "almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool" while failing to defend it at home :

"Much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," Mr Malloch Brown said in a speech in New York on Tuesday. Depending on the UN while tolerating "too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping" was "simply not sustainable", he said. "You will lose the UN one way or another."

John Bolton, the US envoy and an outspoken critic of the UN, called the comments "a very, very grave mistake". He said he told the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, yesterday morning: "I've known you since 1989, and I'm telling you, this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time." He called on the secretary-general to repudiate the speech.

7521. Macnas - 6/8/2006 6:33:56 AM

Cletus Stump sez:

Well now, I know it’s been a while since I had a chance to talk to y’all, but I reckon the time is ripe. Now, a whole pile of stuff has been going on in the recent past, lots of talk of oil and war and such.

I’ve thought on it, long and hard too, and I reckon I’ve seen the light at the end of this dark tunnel people think we’re in.
Fact is, it’s all part of Gods plan, yessir, a divine plan, of which we are all a part of and have a part to play.
Now our president, Mr. Bush, now see, he’s a vital part of this plan, an essential cog in the divine machine. He is working towards a new world where we, as Americans, can hold our heads high. Now I know, I know only too well, the news from Iraq ain’t all good, no sir, not by a long chalk. But that’s the way war is, a price has to be paid to secure this evil part of the world and make it safe for Americans to do business and help people.

We need the oil that God has given us in order to continue our important work around the world, making it a safe place, bringing the wonder of democracy and free markets to these benighted peoples. We must remove those evil ones who seek to impede the progress that our president has begun. I do believe God is working through him, and we all need to support him in everything he does.

Now take this gays and marriage thing. All the president is saying is that marriage is for ordinary folks, the gays can hook up with each other some other damn way, but marriage is a holy institution and is just for people like us. Now what right-minded person could have an issue with that I’d like to know, but it seems that the elected representatives of this great country see things differently. I say this; it’s a foolhardy man that goes against something as obviously ordained by God himself as this honest piece of legislation.

God has always tested those closest to him, and things like high gas prices and dead boys being sent home in boxes are a sore test of our loyalty to god and our president.
But, and here is the light I was telling you about earlier, but, if we persevere, stay true and on the course as set by Mr.Bush, we will come into the light once more. We’ll destroy the evil terrorists, root and branch. We’ll get the oil flowing again from the spiteful desert. We’ll harvest the god-given gift of oil that is ours by right, be it in foreign lands or under the useless, tangled wilderness of Alaska.
Gas prices will fall, yessir, and our brave boys will return victorious.

So stay true, stay loyal to our great leader. To do or think otherwise just wouldn’t be American.

7522. jexster - 6/8/2006 12:51:43 PM

Suck My Mullah TD

Ahmadinejad: Iran to talk, U.S. gave in

7523. jexster - 6/8/2006 12:53:52 PM

Stalling strengthened more than their balance sheet AC...look for more of it!

7524. jexster - 6/8/2006 6:16:36 PM

And the winner is...

Gen. Barry McCaffrey on Iran via "The Belgravia Dispatch"

Barry's right for once...and Mahmoud knows it

IraQ War is Over and the Winnner Is; Iran

McCaffrey
U.S. public diplomacy and rhetoric about confronting Iranian nuclear weapons is scaring neighbors in the Gulf. They will not support another war. They have no integrated missile and interceptor air defense. They have no credible maritime coastal defense system to protect their ports and oil production facilities. Our Mid-East allies believe correctly that they are ill-equipped to deal with Iranian strikes to close the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. They do not think they can handle politically or militarily a terrorist threat nested in their domestic Shia populations. A U.S. military confrontation with Iran could result in Sadr attacking our forces in Baghdad - or along our 400 mile line of communications out of Iraq to the sea. The Iranian people have collectively decided to go nuclear. The Chinese and the Russians will not in the end support serious collective action against Iran. The Iranians will achieve their nuclear weapon purpose within 5-10 years. Now is the time for us to create the asymmetrical alliances and defensive capabilities to hedge the Iranian nuclear threat without pre-emptive warfare. We can bankrupt and isolate the Iranians as we did the Soviet Union and create a stronger Gulf Alliance that will effectively deter this menace to our security.

As with virtually all the retired generals HELL NO WE WON"T GO

7525. jexster - 6/8/2006 6:37:05 PM

Old soldiers never die, but before they fade away, they deliver messages from their comrades still in arms....

make no mistake

7526. concerned - 6/8/2006 9:53:24 PM

Yep. Jexster's definitely playing kissy-colon with the Iranian thugocracy.

7527. concerned - 6/8/2006 10:01:17 PM

Say, jexster - can you tell what the guy in the framed photograph is doing?

7528. jexster - 6/9/2006 11:40:32 AM

Oh..reminds me..will the archivist please repost TD's on the Capture of Saddam?

How many more wars is he gonna lose TD?

Suck my mullah

7529. jexster - 6/9/2006 11:45:59 AM

At Least Abdullah's Nobody's Fool...

More Symbol Than Leader - LAT

Now he's a martyr..way to go Morons


The trouble is none of it is real Martin Seiff UPI

Abdullah, a 29-year-old Saudi secretary, put the third point of view: "I consider Zarqawi as nothing more than propaganda for the Americans. He's just a name, a rumor so that they have somebody to blame everything on."

7530. jexster - 6/9/2006 12:22:25 PM

Gentle reader, are you getting enough vicarious pleasure from the slaughter of Iraqi women and children to justify this price tag? Is murdering "ragheads" that important to you? If so, you are one sick person, just like every member of the Bush administration.

Paul Craig Roberts
Contributor National Review
Former editor WSJ

7531. jexster - 6/9/2006 7:40:26 PM

God damned French

Spoiling Concerned's litte party - again

Zarqawi Has Won
Le Monde | Editorial

7532. jexster - 6/10/2006 2:59:13 AM

Grateful Iraqis show Georgie how to suck Mahmoud's mullah

Iraq tries to mediate in Iran nuclear crisis

7533. jexster - 6/10/2006 1:15:27 PM

Georgie's Doin a Heckuva Job!

'He is alive with God'
In the tradition of Islamic martyrs, Zarqawi's wake is celebrated as a wedding



That's almost as good as the GossIA's fuck-up in Somalia. Out get them AlKaders, he wound up funding the Islamist Militias!



He made something out of nothing..sorta like his buddy God

7534. jexster - 6/12/2006 8:40:13 AM

Bush Iran Strategy Suffers Major Diplomatic Defeat

7535. jexster - 6/12/2006 12:05:19 PM

Will the White House Moron Bring on Armageddon?
Paul Craig Roberts (conservative)

John Bolton, a notorious neocon warmonger who could not be confirmed as America's ambassador to the UN by even the compliant and corrupt U.S. Senate, got the job as a recess appointment. He is using the platform to push America into war with Iran.

Bolton told the Financial Times (June 9) that the Bush Regime has no intention of reaching an agreement with Iran. Time is running out for diplomacy, Bolton told the Financial Times. Iran has a short time remaining in which it can give up its right under the nonproliferation treaty to enrich uranium for nuclear energy or be attacked. Bolton said that U.S. security guarantees for Iran "were not on the table."
There is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Every physicist knows that the enrichment requirement for weapons is many times greater than for nuclear energy and that Iran can barely achieve the latter. Despite the facts, Bolton told the Financial Times: "They've [Iran] got both feet on the accelerator, which is why we have a sense of urgency. Each day that goes by gives Iran more time to continue to perfect its efforts for mass production."

We've got two more years with this Idiot. We - means YOU - Old Europe

7536. PelleNilsson - 6/12/2006 12:52:51 PM

We are not worried, jex. Bush's America is just a joke here, a tragic joke, yes, but still a joke. From respect to scorn: that's the trajectory of America under the leadership of what must be the most inept reelected president in the history of the US.

7537. concerned - 6/12/2006 9:40:39 PM

Easy enough to sit back in the Second Class world Power Cheap Seats and prevaricate about how Xlowntoon's (lack of) foreign policy ever garnered anything but derision simply because you dislike GWB.

7538. PelleNilsson - 6/12/2006 10:49:35 PM

So you think Sweden is a second class world power? That's as fine a compliment as our country has ever received.

7539. Macnas - 6/13/2006 3:00:09 AM

Wonder what Ireland is, steerage class?

But hey, it's better than meandering around the world since WW2 beating up third world countries. That's in a class all on it's own.

7540. jexster - 6/19/2006 4:32:16 AM

Brokeback Mtn. - Hindu Kush

Thanks be to Allah George broke the back of the Taliban

Taliban attacks kill 30 in Afghanistan -AP



Deja vu..all over again

"1983

The Muslim insurgency remains locked in military stalemate against Soviet and Afghan troops. The government controls the cities, while the guerrillas control the countryside. There are conflicting reports on the success of the regime in either neutralizing the insurgency movement or crushing it with the aid of some 110,000 Soviet troops. Reports on the war are sketchy and probably biased, since they are based on accounts given either by Pakistan-based rebel groups or by journalists taken on conducted tours by the government. President Karmal is firmly in command of the ruling PDPA. Infighting between the Parcham and Khalq factions of the party is less evident in 1983 than in previous years, and it appears that the Soviets have succeeded in bringing them under control. Afghanistan continues to depend on the Soviet Union for economic aid and food assistance."

7541. jexster - 6/21/2006 10:36:15 AM

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Uneasy at election victories by leftists in Latin America, the United States may soon feel the region's wave of change lapping up against its southern border if a former indigenous welfare officer wins Mexico's presidential election on July 2.


Obrador-Calderon

7542. concerned - 6/22/2006 1:55:43 PM

An interesting tidbit I noticed about world economic conditions.

From: (Morningstar) Stock Strategist: The Bright Side of the Emerging-Markets Correction

According to The Economist magazine, emerging markets accounted for more of the world's total output than developed economies in 2005. This hadn't happened since before the 20th century. Further, of the 32 largest emerging-market economies tracked by The Economist, not one experienced a recession in either 2004 or 2005. Before that, every single year during the past three decades saw at least one of these countries in recession, if not worse, and we're now solidly into a third consecutive year of unfettered growth in 2006.


Now if they would stop with the stock market correction already, everybody would be happy.

7543. jexster - 6/22/2006 2:14:24 PM

Binks Brigade Advancing Near Basra 1918

7544. concerned - 6/23/2006 8:11:41 AM

Broken link to your picture, jex.

7545. jexster - 6/23/2006 8:28:30 AM

Not on my computer..an interesting site letters from troops Binksies in the First Colonization, US in the Second
http://warpost.blogsome.com/wp-admin/images/gws_indtradv_01.jpg

7546. jexster - 6/23/2006 8:32:34 AM

More pictures


Hungary 1956



Iraq 2003

7547. jexster - 6/24/2006 8:24:29 AM

They're baaaack

Oh Give Me a Home Where the Taliban Roam....

• "I think the Taliban realize they have a window to act,” Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, commander of the 22,000 U.S. troops in the country, said in a recent interview. “The enemy is working against a window that he knows is closing.”
  
  Except that the power of the U.S.-created Afghan government is receding, not growing, and the Taliban’s “window” only closes when Christ comes again.
  
  Aaugh! The last time a nation’s civilian and military leadership was this incapable of learning from experience was under the Ching Dynasty
  
  
• They are caught in a hurricane, and all they can do is spit in the wind. The rest of us should get ready for the house to blow down....
  
  William Lind
  
  
  

7548. jexster - 6/24/2006 8:58:55 AM

Eat Your Heart Out Binks..

Fareed Zakaria's stalking me. I drew a reply to a blog post over at TPMC from "postGlobal" inviting me, and you Binks, even Pelle to a discussion of William Perry's OpEd Bomb Korea NOW

There are two POSTGLOBALS, the two moderators David Ignatiu and Fareed Zakaria...

7549. jexster - 6/28/2006 9:13:11 PM

From arc of crisis to arc of disasters Pat Buchanan surveys the wreckage of Bush foreign policy.

Incontestable.

Time for an “Agonizing Reappraisal”

by Patrick J. Buchanan


Gazing across what Zbigniew Brzezinski once called the “arc of crisis,” U.S. foreign policy appears to be disintegrating.

7550. concerned - 6/29/2006 10:03:07 PM

Re. 7531 -

Meaningless. That's like saying Al Capone 'won' when he died of syphilis.

7551. jexster - 6/30/2006 9:43:19 AM

Fiddling While Afghanistan Slides Away

7552. jexster - 6/30/2006 9:44:02 AM

No it isn't TD.

7553. jexster - 6/30/2006 9:51:08 AM

LOSER

Get used to it. You and Cheney/Dumbsfeld/Bush wear it so well. Anyone else we can think of??

' Whatever the meaning of the killing of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by a U.S. airstrike earlier this month, it has not lessened Iraq's violent nightmare, or calmed tensions in the Middle East. Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called him "the prince of martyrs" and vowed revenge on the U.S. Some reports suggest that the two U.S. soldiers captured at Yusufiyah were tortured and killed by Zarqawi's shadowy successor. The three weeks after his death have witnessed daily bombings with dozens of casualties throughout Iraq. And Zarqawi's demise has stirred up trouble throughout the region, as controversies on how to respond to it have erupted among secularists and fundamentalists, Sunnis and Shiites. '

7554. jexster - 6/30/2006 12:53:51 PM

Tertiary Syphillis for LOSERS: Too Late for Penicillin LOSER

7555. jexster - 6/30/2006 4:25:01 PM

Did y'all see Keveni Spacey on the Daily Show???? He's lived a few years in London and remarked that every time he comes back here he's floored by the fluff reporting of the US media..Like the US and Euro are different planets...You can this in Financial TImes and the Brit papers and for our Euro viewers, you can see REAL U.S. news, they carry the Daily Show with Jon Stewart - CNN International

7556. jexster - 7/1/2006 4:43:49 PM

27.06.2006 Adam LeBor. "Don''t meddle in our affairs, Gorbachev warns the West"
Times Online, 26.06.2006


Getting to be quite the thing to do these days. Everybody's doing it

7557. jexster - 7/2/2006 7:31:46 AM

The Adhan from Mecca (MP3)

Allahu Akbar
Allah is Great
(said four times)
Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God (Allah).
(said two times)
Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
(said two times)
Hayya 'ala-s-Salah
Hurry to the prayer (Rise up for prayer)
(said two times)
Hayya 'ala-l-Falah
Hurry to success (Rise up for Salvation)
(said two times)
Allahu Akbar
Allah is Great
[said two times]
La ilaha illa Allah
There is no god except the One God (Allah)
For the pre-dawn (fajr) prayer, the following phrase is inserted after the fifth part above, towards the end:
As-salatu Khayrun Minan-nawm
Prayer is better than sleep
(said two times)

7558. concerned - 7/2/2006 1:30:35 PM

There he goes again, sucking up to the sheetheads, America's enemies.

7559. jexster - 7/2/2006 5:13:42 PM

You better learn it..at the rate Bush is losing wars these days, your forehead will be calloused b4 you know it.

7560. jexster - 7/2/2006 6:21:38 PM

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Shoe's pretty comfortable eh TD?

America has degenerated into a cultural complex that would have been familiar to the ancient Neo-Assyrians. Let us state the bald fact that the only belief which holds our army in the field in Iraq is the lie that they are there to avenge 911, because Saddam was behind it. It is a conspiracy theory view of history, lacking in even the vaguest foundations of truth. The elites of America were persuaded to accept the invasion of Iraq on the equally misguided assertion that Saddam had some form of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and was within range of acquiring some deterrent status. This too is absurd: prior to the war, there was no credible evidence of anything resembling credible evidence of a WMD program or capability in Iraq which was capable of delivering any form of attack.

7561. jexster - 7/2/2006 7:01:49 PM

The Great King, The Mighty King, the King of America (Newberry abpve)

The policy of atrocity is rooted in the desire to eradicate the will to resist, and then the existence itself of another population. It requires an elaboration in order to both justify its necessity, and to create the necessary rationalization and dehumanization of the target peoples. In short, people will destroy other people like animals, but only if they are first convinced that the target people are animals, and then convinced that these animals are rabid – diseased.

The creation of this substratum of unreality among the military and civilian class of a nation is part of the purpose of a place-cult. It relates the worthiness of people the triad of place, god and descent, and asserts that all are the same thing – that to threaten one is to threaten all of them.

Let us again be blunt: having saturated the American military with the propaganda that Saddam was behind 9/11, that Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism and thus preventing future attacks, and that Saddam was in possession of the capability of producing mushroom clouds – it is inevitable that the American military would commit war crimes as a matter of policy.

Let me repeat that – if one primes ones military with genocidal propaganda, they will behave accordingly.

7562. concerned - 7/2/2006 10:45:54 PM

Re. 7559 -

No, it won't. And it certainly won't have bedsores, like your forehead does.

7563. concerned - 7/2/2006 10:49:40 PM

Anatole Lieven and you both suck up to the sheetheads, jex. Another LW communicable disease.

7564. concerned - 7/2/2006 11:02:14 PM

I'll join one of those nondenominational Muslim mosques.

7565. concerned - 7/2/2006 11:04:06 PM

One of those where they don't actually believe in bowing to Allah Oop.

7566. concerned - 7/2/2006 11:09:52 PM

Meanwhile, you'll be kowtowing to the militant fascist fundamentalist sheetheads. I know your kind, jexster. Liberal? Bullshit.

7567. jexster - 7/3/2006 2:07:37 AM

Nothing liberal or conservative about it TD

You and people with your mindset are a major reason why Bush is losing the War on Terror, Lost the war on iraq and in afghanistan..

A matter of fact not ideology

7568. jexster - 7/3/2006 2:08:01 AM

That you and Bush are losers..

7569. jexster - 7/3/2006 6:32:54 AM

TD...


Which "sheethead" do you suppose we're supporting with our blood and treasure????

I am so confused...



Dulami and his Accord Front of Sunni Islamists - think Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas


PM Mailiki, Radical Shiite Islamist Dawa Party (modeled after Stalinist Commies) with Dulami


Or perhaps your tastes are for more contemplative godly radicals

No intro needed for these 3








You Bushies sure are generous with "America's enemies"


So which is your personal fave??

7570. jexster - 7/3/2006 10:35:19 AM

LONDON (AFP) - People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.


No shit..maybe they've run out of dumb slogans

7571. jexster - 7/3/2006 11:35:07 AM

Too Disgusting for DuneCoon TV


US soldier charged with killing, raping Iraqis 52 minutes ago



A former U.S. soldier was arrested and charged with killing four Iraqi civilians and raping one of the female victims, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Steven Green, 21, who was stationed in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, appeared in court in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is expected to be sent to Kentucky where he has been charged with the attacks that took place in March 2006 near Mahmudiya, Iraq.

Green, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted, is charged with going to a house near Mahmudiya with three other people to rape a woman living in the house, according a statement by the U.S. attorney in Kentucky.

Green allegedly shot and killed an man, a woman and a 5-year-old girl. After raping a second female, described as an adult, Green shot and killed her, the statement said.

The arrest in the case came amid a series of other investigations in which U.S. troops are suspected of killing civilians in Iraq, including an investigation into the suspected role of U.S. Marines in the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the western town of Haditha last November.

The Association of Muslim Scholars condemned the US military for the incident of alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman, and the murder of her family, by GIs. The story is so explosive that most Iraqi newspapers have declined to report it. Cole

7572. jexster - 7/20/2006 8:37:20 AM

Letter from Rasha in Beirut; and the Israeli Siege Notes



From Rasha [a young woman] in Beirut:

"Dear All,

I am drafting this entry in this unusual diary at 11:30 pm. I have about half an hour before the generator shuts down. Most of Beirut is in the dark. I dare not imagine what the country is like. Today was a relatively calm day, but like most calm days that come immediately after tumultuous days, it was a sinister day of taking stock of damage, pulling bodies from under destroyed buildings, shuttling injured to hospitals that have the capacity to tend to their wounds more adequately. The relative calm allowed journalists to visit the sites of shelling and violence.

The images from Tyre, and villages in the south are shocking. Images from Haret Hreyk (the neighborhood in the southern suburb that received the most "focused" shelling) are also astounding. The number of deaths is yet uncertain, it increases by the hour as bodies are pulled from the landscape of destruction. In the southern suburbs, some people may be trapped in underground shelters under the vestiges of their homes and apartment buildings. And yes, there is a problem of space in morgues in the south and the Beqaa, because none of the towns and villages are equipped to handle these numbers of deaths. The IDF has destroyed almost entirely the village of 'Aytaroun. ...

Evacuations, Privilege, Solidarity

Today was a particularly strange day for me because I was granted an opportunity to leave tomorrow morning. I hold a Canadian passport. .. I have the choice to sign up for the evacuation, but the European and North American governments have been so despicable, so racist that I don't want to subject myself to a discrimination of that sort.The Swedes, the Danes and the Germans have evacuated their patriots with blond hair and blue eyes


They cannot do this and drive me away. They will not drive me away. This is one of the most recurring mistakes that the IDF makes....

7573. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 7/20/2006 2:05:51 PM

7574. wonkers2 - 7/21/2006 5:59:46 AM

An encouraging Muslim voice from DetroitHere.

7575. wonkers2 - 7/21/2006 8:15:23 AM

Jordanian intelligence official: "For the Islamic fundamentalists, democratic reform is like toilet paper. You use it once and then you throw it away."

7576. wonkers2 - 7/21/2006 8:16:05 AM

Above quote from Ted Koppel NYT op-ed July 21, 2006.

7577. jexster - 7/24/2006 10:46:44 AM

Afghanistan Close to Anarchy, Warns General

7578. jexster - 7/24/2006 10:47:50 AM

Take a look at today's headlines..any day's for the past year...

It is a World Roadmap of Failure

7579. wonkers2 - 7/28/2006 3:25:41 PM

UN Rights Body Tells U.S. to Shut Secret Jails.

7580. wonkers2 - 8/11/2006 3:11:14 PM

India may be in danger of Al Qaida attacks. Here.

7581. jexster - 8/12/2006 2:15:55 AM

High Wycombe, Islamic Fascists,and Marjar Binks is Missing

Call DHS!

7582. alistairconnor - 8/14/2006 4:19:28 AM

Seymour Hersh on the Lebanon

Interesting : the Cheney clique saw it as a dress rehearsal for taking out Iran's nuclear infrastructure. If that is so, then the thousand or so deaths will not have been in vain (in the hypothesis that the clique will recognise that the insanity of the project has been demonstrated).


Israel's two main objectives :
1) destroy the Hezbollah's bunkers and infrastructure through air power
2) turn the Lebanese population against the Hezbollah

having manifestly failed, surely we can put behind us the idea that the US will try something stupid on Iran?

(encouraging sign : Rumsfeld had reservations about the Lebanon adventure)

7583. jexster - 8/14/2006 8:25:42 AM

Great article! They're gonna have a tough time covering this up. The "Cover=up" Congress may do the Knesset's bidding but the reverse isn't true.

The long-knives are out in Israel and they eat PM's for breakfast. They don't even bother to wipe up the blood

7584. jexster - 8/14/2006 8:31:17 AM

I wouldn't be too sanguine AC....As the article points out, Bush pressed Israel to invade Syria. The only thing that stopped him was Olmert who thought him "nuts"

If I were Chirac, I'd create some distance now. It is dangerous, politically and otherwise, to find yourself too close to GWB. He can be hazardous to your health and those of hundreds of thousands most of whom don't even know his name.

End of the month is crunch time. That's when Ahmadinejad's gonna tell the UNSC to shove it, and George Bush has a very important election coming up

7585. jexster - 8/14/2006 9:21:59 AM

"Putting Iran in the Crosshairs -"


Mearsheimer Walt excerpt

Message # 5941 in thread 161

7586. jexster - 8/14/2006 9:38:05 AM

AC..here's another. If you've nots seen Michael Young's article, "Hezbollah's Other War,".

Young argues that Hizbullah was looking for a way to destroy the new liberal, prosperous, and open Lebanon that was emerging in the post-Syrian era.

GeorgieOldeMerde you're doin a heckuva job!

7587. jexster - 8/16/2006 12:11:06 AM

Ray Close, a retired CIA analyst of Arab affairs, writes to Juan Cole

The Building War on Iran

7588. jexster - 8/16/2006 11:00:06 AM

More AC... from me @ Cole

At 8:32 AM, johnMccutchen said...
Close fails to mention a key, the key wild card here - the attitude of the Pentagon.

3 points:

1. Sy Hersh's latest article on the Bush Administration involvement in the planning of the Lebanon invasion is but one in a series transparently based on leaks from the military.

2. In his latest, Hersh reports that Rumsfeld was opposed to Bush's urgings that Israel attack Syria, a plan Israel viewed as "nuts". I take this as evidence that Rumsfeld can no longer stand up to the Generals-in-Revolt

3. Kahlilzad's assertions about Iranian involvement in Iraq were flatly denied yesterday by a General Staff officer in Iraq.


None of this means that Close is wrong to worry. To the contrary, Bush, desperate to salvage his political position at home and in the Middle East, may well undertake equally desperate measures even if that means wrecking the chain of command of the US military.

Recall the Nation's famous Alfred E Neuman cover "Worry"?

Now is the time.








At 6:57 PM, johnMccutchen said...
Further to the missing element in Ray Close's analysis - the Revolt of the Generals - this appears in today's Los Angeles Times


Group Says Iran Is 'Not a Crisis'


Former generals and officials seek to prevent an attack on suspected nuclear sites and to overhaul policies toward Tehran and Baghdad.

7589. wonkers2 - 8/17/2006 6:47:55 AM

How they recruit terrorists in the UK. Islamic groups know just when to pounce.

7590. jexster - 8/17/2006 7:31:04 PM

Israel Yesterday's News???


That's what Fourth Generation War expert and CONSERVATIVE, my Senate Gallery bud from back in the day thinks (see Lies)



Bill Lind says America now has a Jewish Question



The Clusterfuck of Catastrophe continues. The Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History brought to you courtesy of the worst President in US history.



Lind's off only on the timing. Nasrallah will keep things quiet for a while as he consolidates his victory. He's no dummy.



Neither is Jacques Chirac whose country will lead the UNIFIL but who announced today that he'd only send 200 troops!



Watch him leave the Moron twisting slowly in the wind again when the UNSC turns its attention to Iran's nukes.



Scarborough wonders is bush "Just plain stupid?"



Next stupid question.

7591. Macnas - 8/21/2006 2:52:02 AM

I think anyone who looked at the last 20 odd years of the Leb's history could have seen that the IDF were doing a helluvajob fooling themselves that they could crush the Hezbollah with a few weeks of all-out war.

There are really only 2 good roads in the whole of Southern Lebanon, one goes kind of through the middle and the other goes along the coast. You can't get a lot of armour into S.Leb if you don't have control of those roads and the hills that overlook them. And even if you do control them, getting enough people and materials into the area in-between is very difficult.

The Hezbollah were already there, they had occupied the old UN positions and camps, and the old Israeli sponsored SLA/defacto forces positions. All these positions are key, as they command the high ground between the many valleys/wadis and overlook the roads and tracks through the area. But, more than that, they had fortified the towns wherever they could.

The old positions are all easily identified and are already on a hundred maps complete with exact co-ordinates enabling the IDF to shell and bomb the shit out of them with precision. It was in the towns, where some people stayed (and fought, apparently) and where the Hezbollah took up positions with very good anti-tank weapons (Syrian supplied) that the IDF armoured thrusts were blunted.

And now, even if the peace holds (it seems the IDF is pissing on it already) it's still going to be the Hezbollah who own the area, now even more so. They have a huge support organisation that's going to be rebuilding towns, houses, schools, medical centres and roads right now as we discuss this.

The IDF can't control the Syrian border, and can't stop munitions coming into Leb. They can't dissuade hundreds of young people from joining the Hezbollah either, especially as it was so heavy handed and killed so many of their friends and family. So essentially, all that was achieved was the destruction of some rocket launchers, which are so easily replaced they don't even have to come from Syria, and the revitalisation (as if they needed it) of the Hezbollah in South Leb.

I'll state it again, I think Israel is a legitimate nation that has every right to defend itself. But I also think they took advantage of the hostage taking situation (remember that?) to create a war scenario where they could have a free hand in S.Leb against the Hezbollah, and they made a proper hames of it.

7592. jexster - 8/21/2006 3:56:55 PM

Blair "Feels Betrayed by Bush on Lebanon"
By Simon Walters
The London Daily Mail

Saturday 19 August 2006

The alliance between George Bush and Tony Blair is in danger after it was revealed that the Prime Minister believes the President has 'let him down badly' over the Middle East crisis.

A senior Downing Street source said that, privately, Mr Blair broadly agrees with John Prescott, who said Mr Bush's record on the issue was 'crap'.

The source said: "We all feel badly let down by Bush. We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have faith in a man of such low intellect?"

The disclosure comes ahead of a mini recall of Parliament to allow MPs to vent their fury over Mr Blair's handling of Israel's war with Hezbollah and whether the recent terror plot in Britain was affected by his role in the Iraq war.

7593. alistairconnor - 8/22/2006 3:02:55 AM

Here's the clearest analysis I've seen about electoral fraud in Mexico

If the numbers are accurate, then there are only two legitimate options open to the electoral commission : hold a new election, or declare Lopez Obrador the winner. It seems they are likely to do neither...

“Taqueo and Saqueo”

These preliminary recounts demonstrate mainly two kinds of fraud: “taqueo,” or the stuffing of ballot boxes with false votes as if putting extra beans inside a taco, and “saqueo,” or “looting,” that is, the disappearance of legitimate ballots cast.

A significant problem, now, for Mexican democracy (for those who claim that the election was fair, and also for those who view this evidence as proof of electoral fraud) is that there is no way to tell, inside each ballot box, which of the ballots were legal and which were not; nor which ballots were stolen and which were not.

In some past post-electoral disputes for state and local offices, the Trife electoral court has opted, based on this kind of evidence, to annul the results from those precincts where stuffing or looting occurred.

If the Trife follows the law and its own established precedents, and annuls the results in these 7,442 precincts where the fraud took place, it would reverse the official results and López Obrador would emerge the victor by more than 425,000 votes nationwide.

Specifically, Calderón would lose 1,225,326 votes from his tally, while López Obrador would lose just 556,600; a difference of 668,726. When factoring in IFE’s claim that Calderón has a more than 243,000 vote advantage, López Obrador would still win the election by those 425,000 votes plus some.

In other words, if the Supreme Electoral Court determines that only half of the problematic precincts are to be annulled, López Obrador would still be declared the presidential victor. To continue to impose Calderón, at this point, would require the court’s endorsement of results from at least 4,000 precincts that the recount has demonstrated were scenes of the electoral crimes of ballot-stuffing and ballot-theft. By failing to annul those precincts, the court would, in effect, annul the legitimacy of the Mexican State, lighting the fuse on a social conflict much larger than anything that has yet occurred in the wake of the fraudulent election.

7594. alistairconnor - 8/22/2006 5:46:54 AM

I really hate it when the conspiracy theorists are right.

Guardian poll shows the Tories have a big lead over Labour...

This shocks Labour strategists who had expected a big boost from the Great Big Terrifying Islamic Extremist Airline Bomb Plot :

Only 20% of all voters, and 26% of Labour voters, say they think the government is telling the truth about the threat, while 21% of voters think the government has actively exaggerated the danger.

A majority, 51%, say the government is not giving the full truth and may be telling less than it knows.

7595. alistairconnor - 8/22/2006 6:06:24 AM

Iran is handing over its response on nuclear issues right about now...

Watch that oil price.

Iran's formal position, that they merely want to control the entire nuclear cycle for electricity production, is both coherent and plausible on its face. They are conscious of the time limit on their oil reserves, and wish to be dependent on no-one in securing their energy future. Decades of pariah status do not incite them to confidence.

The nuclear-bomb subtext is also plausible and coherent. But nobody is claiming it's imminent (except perhaps Condoleeza "Mushroom cloud" Rice?). It strikes me that it's urgent to calm down and temporize some more.

It's unfortunate that both sides are presided by shiny-eyed brinksmen.

7596. jexster - 8/22/2006 4:15:21 PM

Iran has the West by the balls. I wanna know AC, will JC fuck Bush on that issue as he did with Lebanon?

In any event, Iran will have a bomb before Bush leaves office and if he's insane enough to try to do something about it (more than BS symbolic sanctions), look out

7597. jexster - 8/22/2006 4:16:44 PM

Afghanistan Descends Into Chaos Once Again

Nelofer Pazira, the journalist who starred in the film "Kandahar," has gone back to the southern Afghan city for the first time in four years. There she found
residents living in fear as Islamic insurgents extend their deadly reach still deeper into the country.

7598. alistairconnor - 8/23/2006 2:45:19 AM

In any event, Iran will have a bomb before Bush leaves office
Bollocks. Unless they cut a deal with the Pakistanis (and there's no evidence of that as far as I know), they are at least a decade away from even having enough fissionable material for a bomb.

Their centrifuge technology is too immature to cut it at the moment, and they don't have any functioning reactors to produce plutonium, which is the easy road (as N.Korea did)

My own opinion is that Iranian society and governmental structures will have evolved favourably before they have managed to produce a bomb, so that it will be not a lot more problematic than India's is by then (i.e. much less of a worry than Pakistan's...)

UNLESS the US tries to interfere (US pressure produced the nationalist backlash that gave the world President Ahmadinnerjacket).

7599. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:55:04 PM

Iran Urges Europe on Counterproposal


Tehran, Iran - Iran urged Europe on Wednesday to pay attention to what it called "positive" signals in its counterproposal to a nuclear incentives package aimed at persuading Tehran to roll back its nuclear program. Russia and China backed Iran's call for negotiations to end the standoff.

But the US and France said Tehran's offer falls short, setting the stage for a possible fight at the UN if the West pushes for sanctions.


I did get carried away with that estimate (at least better than Israel's six months....six months ago!)

Blame Le Grand Jacques...


That old renard is setting Bush up again

7600. jexster - 8/23/2006 7:17:11 PM

Iran's War Games: Blow of Zulqifar




Imam Ali's sword

7601. wonkers2 - 8/24/2006 7:40:51 AM

Is Iran an imminent nuclear threat or does it have trouble making light bulbs? Sweating Out the Truth in Iran.

7602. jexster - 8/24/2006 8:58:39 AM

Don't worry ....Hanoi John McCain'll take em out

7603. jexster - 8/24/2006 10:38:15 AM

Guess who just entered into an oil supply contract with China?

7604. alistairConnor - 8/26/2006 11:09:58 AM

Europe's biggest ever peacekeeping force will be substantially deployed to Lebanon within days.

Best news for a long time. Clear chain of command.

Boots on the ground = facts on the ground.

If the Israelis and Palestinians decide to be smart, there could be Euro troops in Palestine before long, too.

7605. jexster - 8/26/2006 3:12:29 PM

Boots on the ground

Getting all those snappy martial cliches down, I see.

Hurl

7606. jexster - 8/26/2006 3:14:20 PM

See Message # 8206 in thread 156

How about the Land of the Two Rivers before Palestine. Be a good ally

7607. jexster - 8/26/2006 3:14:59 PM

Send in the Capis Blanc

7608. wonkers2 - 8/30/2006 2:27:14 PM

The Israelis are breeding a scab on the end of their nose and our noses, as well. Israel rebuffs Annan's request to lift blockade.

7609. Macnas - 8/31/2006 1:52:30 AM

re 7604

We'll have to wait and see. Senior military often have ego's bigger than filmstars, that's what usually causes these things to desend into fuckupidness.

7610. alistairconnor - 8/31/2006 1:57:24 AM

Can you expand on that? rather frightening...

7611. jexster - 8/31/2006 11:46:58 AM

Some interesting numbers....


2005 Defense Spending, Selected ME Nations

Saudi Arabia $25.2 Billion*
Israel $9.6 Billion
Iran $6 Billion*
Kuwait $4.27 Billion
Qatar $3.02 Billion
Oman $3.02 Billion
UAE $2.65 Billion

*includes domestic law enforcement

source:IIS

7612. ronski - 8/31/2006 3:26:30 PM

Being e-mailed lately:


Now that Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter Olympics these are some questions people the world over are asking.

These questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website (...the questions were really asked).

Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow?(UK)

A We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? (USA)

A: Depends on how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto-can I follow the Railroad tracks? (Sweden)

A: Sure, it's only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada? (Sweden)

A: So it's true what they say about Swedes.

Q: It is imperative that I find the names and addresses of places to contact for a stuffed Beaver. (Italy)

A: Let's not touch this one.

Q: Are there any ATM's (cash machines) in Canada? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax? (UK)

A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada? (USA)

A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Ca-na-da is that big country to your North...oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Canada? (USA)

A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada? ( UK)

A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)

A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in Canada? (Germany)

A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you sell it in Canada? (USA)

A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)

A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada? (USA)

A: Only at Thanksgiving.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? (Germany)

A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Veganhunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada, but I forget its name. It's a kind of big horse with horns. (USA)

A: It's called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.


Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go?
(USA)

A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.

7613. Wombat - 8/31/2006 3:29:46 PM

Tee Hee!

7614. Wombat - 8/31/2006 3:30:29 PM

The Canadians do celebrate Thanksgiving in October, however.

7615. jexster - 8/31/2006 8:11:41 PM

Good catch Ronski...am going to email now!

7616. jexster - 8/31/2006 9:32:24 PM

Bush's Kurdenfrage:
The K is for Kommuniss


The Kurds and the KGB
The secret history of the Barzani dynasty

7617. jexster - 9/2/2006 10:44:36 AM

IranScam

The U. S. Army has just released a report that light water reactors – which 25 nations, from Armenia to Slovenia as well as Spain, already have and are covered by no existing arms control treaties – can be used to obtain near weapons-grade plutonium easily and cheaply.2 Within a few years, many more countries than the present ten or so – the Army study thinks Saudi Arabia and even Egypt most likely – will have nuclear bombs and far more destructive and accurate rockets and missiles





2. Henry Sokolski, ed., Taming the Next Set of Strategic Weapons Threats, U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute, June 2006, pp. 33ff., 86.



Lessons From Iraq and Lebanon: Gabriel Kolko

7618. robertjayb - 9/5/2006 4:24:22 PM

BBC is reporting Tony Blair will step down as PM in nine months. Pushed by a get-out-of town letter from several MPs. Another bushie casualty.

7619. jexster - 9/5/2006 6:06:54 PM

ABC news is reporting that Pakistan has a deal with Osama et al.

They will withdraw Paki forces if Osama & Co. stop attacking

7620. jexster - 9/5/2006 6:08:35 PM

Bin Laden Given Free Pass in Pakistan

7621. jexster - 9/5/2006 6:15:25 PM

7622. robertjayb - 9/5/2006 9:31:23 PM

Princess Kiko of Japan has given birth to a son.

7623. jexster - 9/6/2006 7:55:06 AM

The Taliban Can

Report: Taliban Taking Over Again


Reuters has the Pakistan Peace Treaty details.

7624. jexster - 9/6/2006 7:57:01 AM

Report: Taliban Taking
Over Again

by Sanjay Suri

LONDON - The Taliban have regained control over the southern half of Afghanistan and their frontline is advancing daily, a group closely monitoring the Afghan situation said in a report Tuesday.

7625. jexster - 9/8/2006 6:00:08 AM

India Getting Chummy with EyeraN?

The IraQization of Afghanistan

7626. robertjayb - 9/8/2006 10:12:47 AM

bushies pay for bad press on Castro...

MIAMI (Reuters) - At least 10 Florida journalists received regular payments from a U.S. government program aimed at undermining the Cuban government of Fidel Castro, The Miami Herald reported on Friday.

Total payments since 2001 ranged from $1,550 to $174,753 per journalist, according to the newspaper, which said it found no instance in which those involved had disclosed that they were being paid by the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

Why doesn't the rest of the world trust us? I just can't figure it out. Can you?

7627. jexster - 9/8/2006 7:17:39 PM

Stick a Fork in Afghanistan

Fascinating interview

RAY SUAREZ: On Tuesday, Pakistan's government and pro-Taliban rebels signed a deal to stop crossing the border into Afghanistan. In return, the province will be granted more autonomy.

What is life like in Afghanistan five years since the Taliban were thrown out of power?

For that, we turn to Sarah Chayes, a former National Public Radio reporter who covered the U.S. military operation in 2001. She moved to Afghanistan in 2002 and has lived there ever since. She now runs a cooperative that makes soaps and skin creams from local agricultural products. She's also the author of "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Fall of the Taliban."

7628. jexster - 9/9/2006 11:20:52 AM

7629. concerned - 9/12/2006 2:55:14 PM

From NIS News: Minister Welcomes Sharia In Netherlands If Majority Wants It



THE HAGUE, 13/09/06 - Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner considers the Netherlands should give Muslims more freedoms to behave according to their traditions. Muslims refusing to shake hands is fine with him. And Sharia law could be introduced in the Netherlands democratically, in the minister's view.

Muslims have the right to experience their religion in ways that diverge from Dutch social codes, accordign to the Christian democrat (CDA) minister. He thinks Queen Beatrix was very wise not to insist on a Muslim leader shaking hands with her when she visited his mosque in The Hague earlier this year.

Integration Minister Verdonk did previously scold an imam who would not shake her hand. Without directly referring to this incident, Donner considers "a tone that I do not like has crept into the political debate. A tone of: 'Thou shalt assimilate. Thou shalt adopt our values in public. Be reasonable, do it our way'. That is not my approach".

Donner strongly disagrees with a recent plea by CDA parliamentary leader Maxime Verhagen for a ban on parties seeking to launch Sharia (Islamic law) in the Netherlands. "For me it is clear: if two-thirds of the Dutch population should want to introduce the Sharia tomorrow, then the possibility should exist," according to Donner. "It would be a disgrace to say: 'That is not allowed!'."

Donner makes his remarks in an interview in a book entitled, 'The country of hate and anger' (Het land van haat en nijd). The book was written by journalists Margalith Kleijwegt and Max van Weezel of weekly magazine Vrij Nederland. Minister Verdonk will be presented with the first copy today.

Sounds like this gutless worm Donner is anticipating a bit, no?

Western Europe under sharia. Sound good to you, AC and Pelle? (I wouldn't be surprised if such an eventuality really doesn't bother you two that much.)

7630. concerned - 9/12/2006 3:26:43 PM

Theory that U.S. orchestrated Sept. 11 attacks 'not absurd': Venezuela

This appears to be the nutjob fascist Chavez's fallback position after even the densest LW morons began to question his repeated assertions that the US was about to 'invade' Venezuela.

7631. alistairconnor - 9/12/2006 3:31:00 PM

A two thirds vote for sharia law? That could only happen if the Dutch converted en masse (or emigrated to New Zealand due to rising sea levels)

but why not, after all?

Although they would have to secede from the European Union. Sharia not being compatible with EU definitions of human rights.

7632. Macnas - 9/13/2006 2:03:02 AM

Con,

The chances of the Dutch, of all people, converting to Islam, are somewhere up there in the same odds as the disintegration of France (remember harping on about that?) and you having Billy Clintons lovechild.

The Dutch have fooled people for years with Amsterdam. In reality they make you look like a foot-stamping radical.

7633. concerned - 9/13/2006 7:13:21 AM

Re. 7632 -

Think demographics, Mac.

7634. concerned - 9/13/2006 7:16:21 AM

& you say the Dutch are fooling themselves now? Wouldn't be the first time.

7635. Macnas - 9/13/2006 7:37:21 AM

Fuck demographics, lets bomb Holland now and sink that benighted sandspit back into the sea so we can deny it to the muslims.

It's the only way.

7636. RickNelson - 9/13/2006 7:58:31 AM

LOL mac, LOL!

7637. RickNelson - 9/13/2006 8:04:11 AM

Ever read "Hatreds Kingdom" by Dore Gold?

It's promoted by the conservative wing in the U.S. and every other paragraph refreshes you about the horror of 9/11. It explains Wahabbism as the ultimate source of todays terrorism. Seeking to define that as Wahabbism started the dictate of harsh response to any infidal. Sort of interesting in a way, and bizarre all in the same turn. Its flustered contempt, its finality of absolutist Saudi consipiracy, its need to hate back at the noted hate.

Not suprising.

7638. concerned - 9/13/2006 8:28:22 AM

Re. 7635 -

You Yourapeons are on record for expelling Jews and Muslims throughout history. You wouldn't be hurting your reputation any by doing it again:)

7639. concerned - 9/13/2006 8:33:10 AM

Re. 7637 -

LW 'thought' on the matter, to the extent it exists (as a tool to rationalize Lefty emoting) of course insists that Wahhabism is necessarily no less innocuous than, say, Zen Buddhism.

Now, let's all hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya'.

7640. alistairconnor - 9/13/2006 9:52:20 AM

Encouraging sign :

Palestinian hostages to be released
JERUSALEM, Sept. 12 — An Israeli military court on Tuesday ordered the release of 18 Palestinian lawmakers who are members of Hamas, including the speaker of parliament, a development that could help improve the climate for talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The Israeli court ruling came a day after the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, announced a tentative agreement on a national unity government with the aim of ending the isolation of the current government, led by Hamas.

7641. jexster - 9/13/2006 11:42:04 AM

7639

As reality bites yet again, the Bushevik gulps another slug of Kool-aid and hallucinates strawmen, Frenchmen, girlie-men, liberuhls and terisses....


What We’ve Learned About Suicide Terrorism Since 9/11
by Robert A. Pape

Robert A. Pape is professor of political science at the University of Chicago and the author of the forthcoming Cato Institute paper "Suicide Terrorism and Democracy: What We've Learned since 9/11."


The attacks of September 11th, 2001 brought us face to face with the horror of suicide terrorism. In the years since, pundits have painted al Qaeda as a fearless enemy motivated by insatiable religious hatred. Amid prognostications of doom, we lost sight of the truth: that suicide terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy, and that beneath the religious rhetoric with which it is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims. Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism....


Any wonder then that Bush has not only lost 4 wars (Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan), he is also losing his phony war on terror?

The problem is, almost everything that President Bush understands about his own war on terrorism is wrong. According to nearly a dozen former high-ranking officials who have been on the front lines of the administration's counterterrorism effort, the president is not only fighting the wrong war -- he is fighting it in a way that has actually made the threat worse. The war on terrorism, they say, has been mismanaged and misdirected almost from the start, in no small part because the president simply does not understand the nature of the enemy he is fighting.

"I hate the term 'global war on terrorism,' " says John O. Brennan, a CIA veteran who served as the first director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the primary organization set up by Bush to analyze all intelligence about terrorism and coordinate strategic operational planning. "I hate the tough talk, you know, the 'we're gonna kill these guys' stuff."

Brennan is not alone. In a survey conducted this summer, more than 100 top foreign-policy experts -- including former secretaries of state, CIA directors and high-ranking Pentagon officials -- were asked if the president is "winning the War on Terror." Eighty-four percent said no.

7642. jexster - 9/13/2006 11:47:48 AM

7640 - Now for discouraging signs...

1. Israel Rejects 'Insufficient' Palestinian Unity Govt (Wash Times)

2.Hamas MPs May Be Part of Shalit Deal (Jerusalem Post)

3 U.S. Wary of Palestinian Plan - LAT

4. More Palestinians Urging an End To Paralyzed Governing Authority - WaPo

7643. jexster - 9/13/2006 7:32:28 PM

Peaceful, Pastoral, Prosperous

"Kurdistan - The Other Iraq"

Just saw a Kurd econ development spot on one of the cable news nets.


The Other Iraq - not for long

7644. alistairconnor - 9/14/2006 2:04:30 AM

1. Israel Rejects 'Insufficient' Palestinian Unity Govt (Wash Times)

-- yeah, but look at what they do, it's more important than what they say. They released the hostages, and they released them immediately after the announcement of a coalition government.

2.Hamas MPs May Be Part of Shalit Deal
-- probable, but not a bad thing in itself

3 U.S. Wary of Palestinian Plan
yeah, but the US is irrelevant. i.e. is part of the problem, not part of the solution. I think even Olmert has realised this, that's why he's started dealing with the Palestinians.


4. More Palestinians Urging an End To Paralyzed Governing Authority
Normal enough, since Hamas and the Israelis have brought the people to the edge of starvation. But now that the infrastructure can start functioning again, hope can return. And it appears that Hamas has agreed to stop the feckin' rockets.

7645. jexster - 9/14/2006 7:25:21 AM

Hamas brought starvation?

Puhleeze...they should've ended that farce two years ago, for reasons I have splained -

7646. jexster - 9/14/2006 7:32:35 AM

3. Yeah the US is part of the problem but the other part is Israel - joined at the hip. The last thing Olmert is gonna do is make any concessions of any kind. He will do a prisoner exchange as he could have at any time previous before he did the killin..Every Israeli government since Ben Gurion has had but one ultimate goal - Total domination not only from the Jordan to the Sea, ethnically cleansed but no physical threat and no demographic threat: Jews are totally secure, Jews hold all military power, Jews control all natural resources, all neighbors are powerless and totally subservient.


And the US is extremely relevant unfortunately for the simple reason that this program is underwritten with a blank check.


Thus it was and ever shall be ....

7647. concerned - 9/14/2006 11:46:03 AM

Pope's speech stirs Muslim anger

Questioning the concept of holy war, he quoted a 14th-Century Christian emperor who said Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things.

Well, getting up in the morning appears to stir Muslim anger, fwiw. But the Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire's ass for that crack.

7648. jexster - 9/14/2006 12:03:29 PM

The Emperor was pissing his pants as the Turks were at the gates the decrepit Empire (50 years out anyway). That's why he whined....

The Fourth Crusade

Of all the turbulent events that occurred during its long life, the Fourth Crusade had the most devastating effect on the empire. Although the stated intent of the crusade was to conquer Egypt, the leaders of the Crusade ran in to trouble when they found that considerably fewer men had responded to the call than had been expected. As a result, they could not afford to pay the Venetians for all the ships they had hired. After some time spent arguing over what to do next, the Venetians came up with a new proposal, and under their influence the Crusaders sailed to Constantinople, sacking the town of Zara (which was an enemy of Venice) on the way. In 1204 the Crusaders were able to gain entry to the city, via deception, and soon their troops poured into the city of Constantine, a city that had withstood every siege for nearly a thousand years. The Crusaders ransacked the wealth of a millennium, stretching back to the days of the Roman Empire. Buildings were burned down, and the four bronze horses which famously stand in Saint Mark's Square in Venice today, were looted from the Hippodrome at Constantinople. As a result, a short-lived feudal kingdom was founded (the Latin Empire), and Byzantine power was permanently weakened. After an initial rise of the power of Bulgaria in the first half of the 13th century, the Serbian Kingdom under the Nemanjic dynasty grew stronger and, with the weakening of Byzantium, formed a Serbian Empire in 1346.


Fall

After the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, three successor states were established. These states included the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The first state, controlled by the Palaiologan dynasty, managed to reclaim Constantinople in 1261 and defeated Epirus. This led to the reviving of the Eastern Roman Empire, but the empire's attention was more focused on Europe than on the Asian provinces that were the primary concern. For a while, the empire survived simply because the Muslims were too divided to attack. However, the unifying influence of Osman I (1258–1326) allowed the newly founded Ottoman Empire (1299-1923) to overrun many Byzantine territories leaving only a handful of port cities.


The Byzantine Empire around year 1400.The Eastern Roman Empire appealed to the west for help, but they would only consider sending aid in return for reuniting the churches. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by law, but the Orthodox citizens would not accept Roman Catholicism. Some western mercenaries arrived to help, but many preferred to let the empire die, and did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining territories.

Constantinople was initially not considered worth the effort of conquest, but with the advent of cannon, the walls (which had been impenetrable for over 1000 years, although the Fourth Crusade crossed them by treachery rather than by force) no longer offered adequate protection against the Ottomans. The Fall of Constantinople finally came after a two-month siege by Mehmed II on May 29, 1453. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was last seen entering deep into the fighting of an overwhelmingly outnumbered civilian army, against the invading Ottomans on the ramparts of Constantinople. Mehmed II also conquered Mistra in 1460 and Trebizond in 1461. (Wikipedia)

Why the Emperor Whined....



1250


1400

7649. concerned - 9/14/2006 12:33:42 PM

....but many preferred to let the empire die, and did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining territories.

Of course, such opinions have thoroughly reversed themselves by the time of the Siege of Vienna.

7650. concerned - 9/14/2006 12:34:00 PM

...had...

7651. Wombat - 9/14/2006 2:45:01 PM

At Vienna the Ottomans were attacking a Roman Catholic country, not a schismatic one.

7652. jexster - 9/14/2006 2:57:30 PM

West Bank: a government in jail


AC U post-modern Euro greenie-weenies are so delightfully naifve! Much too jejeune to play with the wily Jew

7653. alistairconnor - 9/14/2006 3:03:19 PM

Hey! What are you kids doing in my thread? Go play in Wombat's!

7654. jexster - 9/14/2006 6:46:32 PM

Now you Euros will see how it feels. When they come to destroy your values and rape your women, eff your boys, don't come cryin to me and TD

Al-Qaida joins Algerians against France


Get those boots on the ground.

You greenie weenies make me puke.

Go rent Full Metal Jacket and call me in the morning

7655. jexster - 9/14/2006 7:24:25 PM

ROME, Sept. 14 — As Pope Benedict XVI arrived back home from Germany, Muslim leaders strongly criticized a speech he gave on his trip that used unflattering language about Islam.

Some of the strongest words came from Turkey, possibly putting in jeopardy Benedict’s scheduled visit there in November
“I do not think any good will come from the visit to the Muslim world of a person who has such ideas about Islam’s prophet,” Ali Bardakoglu, a cleric who is head of the Turkish government’s directorate of religious affairs, said in a television interview there. “He should first of all replace the grudge in his heart with moral values and respect for the other.”

Muslim leaders in Pakistan, Morocco and Kuwait, in addition to some in Germany and France, also criticized the pope’s remarks, with many demanding an apology or clarification. The extent of any anger about the speech may become clearer on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer in which grievances are often vented publicly.

As the criticisms gathered force, the Vatican worked quickly to quell a potentially damaging confrontation with Muslims. It issued a statement saying that the church seeks to “cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward other religions and cultures and obviously also toward Islam.”
.

Asham was a tootin' Turk - tootle-oot-a-too-toot-a-toot-toot-toot -- Made his wife do all the work - tootle-oot-a-too-toot-a-toot-toot-toot....she slaved away too-toot-a-toot-toot-toot..every day too-toot-a-toot-toot-toot...He played a way too-toot-a-toot-toot-toot..Asham etc

7656. jexster - 9/15/2006 7:30:01 AM

More on the Nazi Pope....

Muslims Tell Obergruppenfuehrer Benedict "Look in the Mirror Bitch"

7657. jexster - 9/15/2006 7:35:46 AM

7658. jexster - 9/15/2006 7:45:16 AM

The Taliban Can!

NATO Fears New Front as Taliban Fighters Strike Western Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — As NATO troops exert pressure on Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, militants have regrouped in western provinces and ignited violence that has killed a dozen people in two days, officials said.

C'mon M. AC...get some Euro boots on the ground and clean up Bush's Mess!

7659. jexster - 9/15/2006 7:58:41 AM

Sorry AC....

But you asked for it!


US to Block Arab Plan for Peace Conference

At least we won't have John Bolton to kick around anymore

7660. jexster - 9/15/2006 5:23:21 PM

Ben's Big Boner

Muslim anger over papal comments grows
By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago

Pakistan's legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.



Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

By citing an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," Benedict inflamed Muslim passions and aggravated fears of a new outbreak of anti-Western protests.

7661. jexster - 9/15/2006 6:58:04 PM

Message # 125 in thread 168
The Pope Don't Know Much About History

7662. jexster - 9/16/2006 12:16:13 PM

Dumbass Demarche

Who can take a sunrise,
Sprinkle it with dew?
Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two…
The Taliban, the Taliban can,
The Taliban can 'cause he mixes it with love
and makes the world taste good…

7663. alistairConnor - 9/17/2006 3:42:12 PM

Wot, not a word from Pelle about the elections in Sweden?

Fascinating thing : even the right-wing opposition are serious about reducing greenhouse gases and oil dependence.

7664. alistairConnor - 9/17/2006 3:45:16 PM

Looks like the right won in a tight finish. I suppose Sweden's unique social model is now on the skids.

7665. concerned - 9/17/2006 7:08:27 PM

The change of government probably had something to do with Sweden's 'unique social model' being on the skids already.

7666. PelleNilsson - 9/18/2006 2:20:54 AM

No, the center-right won because they wowed to preserve the social model and because after 14 years people are generally tired of the center-left, and in particular of (now former) prime minister Göran Persson. In addition many were put off by the idea of a coalition government with the Greens and the former communists. The Greens are more fundamentalist here than in e.g. Germany and the former communists have shown worrying signs of moving back towards their origins.

7667. alistairconnor - 9/18/2006 3:10:22 AM

Yes, 14 years is a long time.
So, another round of outsourcing of government services?

I must confess the first round seems to have been quite effective in terms of productivity.

7668. jexster - 9/19/2006 11:14:40 AM

While the PM was in New York living the high life and hobnobbbing at the UN

Military Coup in Thailand

7669. jexster - 9/19/2006 5:49:43 PM

NEVER Trust a Frenchman

Chirac Advocates Backing Off UN Sanctions Against Iran



Just like he did to Bush in Lebanon

7670. jexster - 9/20/2006 10:57:38 AM

Hugo Si!
Jorge NO!

In U.N. Speech, Chavez Calls Bush 'the Devil'


Venezuelan leader accuses Bush of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world."

7671. jexster - 9/21/2006 6:47:13 AM

7672. wonkers2 - 9/24/2006 3:13:17 PM

The Devil in the White House.

7673. concerned - 9/25/2006 7:54:57 AM

The Clown at the UN.

7674. concerned - 9/25/2006 7:59:58 AM

Btw, bin Laden seems to have been missing in action recently. Has he been messing around with Typhoid Mary?

7675. concerned - 9/25/2006 1:26:11 PM

Ted "Clueless" Turner on Iran and nuclear weapons:

"They're a sovereign state," he said. "We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel -- they've got 100 of them approximately -- or India or Pakistan or Russia. And really, nobody should have them. They aren't usable by any sane person."

That's the problem, Ted. Ahmadinejad and his Clique of Mullah Kooks don't give very convincing impressions of being sane.

7676. jexster - 9/30/2006 9:55:01 PM

Another Failure for GWB TD- Iran has fucked you fascist Busheviks and Zionistas but good...I'd be pissed if I were you would vote against every republican on the ballot for 10 years...

What a bunch of losers.

PS...Ted's right..Ahmadinejad's crazy like a fox..Did ya hear that's he's giving the New Hitler a 5th last chance or is it 6..I've lost count...so go whine, pout, cry about your IslamoFascists...but not to me..write Bush a letter..he's your president, our problem



Highly recommend this report.graphics, maps, 5 section pdf downloads

A complete record of a complete disaster

Five years after their removal from power: The Taliban are back


- Taliban Frontline now cuts half-way through Afghanistan

- US and UK led failed counter-narcotics policies are responsible

- Humanitarian crisis hits southern Afghanistan - extreme poverty, drought and hundreds of thousands starving in south

After five years, the United States-led international reconstruction mission has failed Afghanistan and its people. An all-military approach and aggressive poppy crop eradication strategies led by the US and the United Kingdom have triggered a hunger crisis and accelerated the return of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. The US and the UK are responsible for these humanitarian and security crises, which make Afghanistan a renewed menace for its own people and the world.

The 2001 liberation from the Taliban regime was a well-intentioned response to the threat Afghanistan, as a failed state, posed to global security. Although the US and its partners have deployed large and costly security operations, after five years Afghanistan is again a war zone, and southern Afghanistan has become, once more, the battlefield for the control of the country.

7677. jexster - 10/1/2006 8:40:58 AM

This Bud's 4U AC!


Craig Murray on Manufacturing Terror Oil, Lily Pad Bases and Torture
Juan Cole

7678. jexster - 10/1/2006 11:11:26 AM

7675 ...You can smell the sulphur....

Analysts: US May Accept Iranian Nuclear Bomb

Say it loud TD..LOSER

We're NOT WORTHY!

7679. alistairConnor - 10/1/2006 12:00:37 PM

Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, has staked her reputation on achieving a negotiated settlement with the help of the “EU3” nations of Britain, France and Germany.

... the stakes are pretty low, then.

“President Bush is not going to take military action against the advice of the secretary of state, US generals and the director of national intelligence,” Clawson said.

Why not? It's how he does everything else.

7680. jexster - 10/1/2006 2:43:26 PM

He has in the words of some policy wonk I forget -

No institutional options

Which I take to mean, Laura, Barney, and what army.
79% of the US public is against his Iran policy

7681. wonkers2 - 10/2/2006 11:24:10 AM

Everyone should at least read Max Frankel's review of Michael Lind's "The Imperial Impulse," if not the entire book. Lind convincingly critique's U.S. post-cold war hegemonic foreign policy. Max Frankel review of Michael Lind's "The Imperial Impulse."

7682. alistairconnor - 10/3/2006 4:17:53 AM

Breaking news :
Iran wants to set up a consortium with French companies to develop and control its uranium enrichment program.

(news brief in French)

Quick translation :
Mohamed Saidi, deputy director of the Iranian atomic energy organisation, proposed this morning on French radio the creation of a consortium with French [state-controlled] nuclear companies Areva and Eurodif, to create enriched uranium in Iran.

This would allow the companies to tangibly keep track of the Iranian enrichment process, he said.

No word from the companies yet. It seems to be a purely Iranian initiative. A very smart one!

If they are for real, it lends credit to their thesis of a purely civilian program, aimed at mastering the reactor fuel cycle. Also drives a wedge between the US and the Euros, which they are pretty good at!

7683. alistairconnor - 10/3/2006 4:31:12 AM

I saw some trade numbers in the paper the other day.
Sources of imports to Iran :

N° 2 is Germany (lots of pumps and machine tools I imagine)
N° 3 is France (55% of cars sold in Iran are French)
N° 1 is U.A.E.

Puzzling. Not known for their huge manufacturing base and technological innovation. I wonder if they run re-badging factories in the Emirates, sticking "Made in UAE" over "Made in UXX" labels?

7684. Magoseph - 10/3/2006 4:49:30 AM

Yes, Ali, a very smart move in view of the fact that the rally in oil seems to have failed.

7685. jexster - 10/3/2006 5:19:55 AM

That old fox Chirac!

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has suggested France should lead a consortium to produce enriched uranium on Iranian soil, as a way out of the impasse with the West over its contested nuclear programme.

7686. jexster - 10/3/2006 5:21:19 AM

Mago you have a problem with spurious causation. Just because it rains the day you wash your car does not mean that the wash caused the rain.

7687. jexster - 10/3/2006 5:23:15 AM

I was wondering what that snake was doing saddling up to the Burnt Bush...Mon Dieu! You knew he was not going to cover his backside in a war so now we see the game....



Admirable!

7688. jexster - 10/3/2006 5:25:40 AM

Iran never had the capability to produce a bomb any time soon. Their development needed time. Now they have the time and the peaceful nuclear programme that they intended all along financed by the West plus whatever benes they were able to wring out from Bush et al.

And humiliate Bush in the process!!!

Admirable!!!!!!!!!!!!! Vraiment amirable

7689. jexster - 10/3/2006 5:27:13 AM

Unfortunately for them though Mags, the agreement will drive oill prices down furhter unless of course Bush queers the deal

7690. Magoseph - 10/3/2006 7:31:19 AM

Unfortunately for them though Mags, the agreement will drive oil prices down further unless of course Bush queers the deal

I don’t think Bush has the ability to queer any deals right now— I believe his total focus has to be on the coming election and how to stave off a personal disaster.

Mago you have a problem with spurious causation.

Well, yes rather--I’m stuck with the belief that oil drives the Moslem world mentality these days and is reflected in every move they make.

7691. alistairconnor - 10/3/2006 8:27:46 AM

Bush should start by dealing with the queers.

(Ta-daa!)

7692. concerned - 10/3/2006 9:30:20 AM

Re. 7682 -

France wouldn't have any actual control over how Iran uses its enriched uranium, a concern because of the nuclear threats the current Iranian government has made against Israel.

7693. jexster - 10/3/2006 10:09:29 AM

Oh that's REAL funny AC. Mago's right on one pernt...with 79% of the US public favoring diplomacy and given what is left of his Axis of Weevils schtick and the fact he no longer has an army, Bush's ability to kiwi the deal seem slim...that's why, if I were TD, i'd be livid

But the Islamo-Fascist Crusaders and Israel Lobbyists are precisely why you cannot be too sanguine


Still Mago, if behavior is driven by oil prices, then Iran should quran the deal because that would make prices go up

7694. jexster - 10/3/2006 10:10:00 AM

As for Israel...who the fuck cares

7695. alistairconnor - 10/3/2006 10:13:10 AM

Got any quotes for those nuclear threats?

BTW : If you're enriching uranium for nuclear fuel, then transforming it into nuclear fuel, then you are certain that you are not enriching it to make weapons. (hint : look up the degree of enrichment required to make a bomb. It's much higher than that required for making reactor fuel).

The question of what happens to spent reactor fuel needs to be negotiated, of course (that is the easiest way to make weapons material, if you can reprocess it afterwards). If Areva can lock up the spent fuel (for reprocessing back in France), then that could actually provide the best of guarantees of Iran not obtaining weapons material.

7696. jexster - 10/3/2006 10:15:06 AM

The Jews say 6 months....they said six months 9 months ago

7697. jexster - 10/3/2006 10:32:56 AM

Dateline: Axis of Weevils
Work on Cream of Sum Yung Gai warhead


NK Plans Nuke Test



I've heard it all now and it is time to die.

CNN "facts on the table"?!?!?!?!??!?!??

7698. concerned - 10/3/2006 10:40:23 AM

Re. 7695 -

AC - I must say that you are a singularly clueless nitwit if you haven't yourself any quotes for those nuclear threats.

A quick example of this is an AP article from earlier this year titled: Iran Leader: Israel Will Be Annihilated

First, AC, can you tell me who is threatening whom just from this title, and can you hazard a guess as to the potential means? Don't injure your brain by trying too hard - there's little enough of it as is.

Excerpt #1:

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully enriched uranium using a battery of 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward the large-scale production of enriched uranium required for either fueling nuclear reactors or making nuclear weapons.

The United States, France and Israel accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program to secretly build a weapon.

AC - I know how much you like to pretend this can't be true. But the French government is one that is making this exact accusation based on the fact that Iran has already demonstrated independent weapons grade uranium enrichment capability. You saying your government is full of shit here? (Keep in mind that if it is, it is hardly competent to manage an energy-only uranium enrichment program with Iran.)


Now, the threats:

Nuclear Annihilation Threat #1: Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

By Iranian nuclear arms, clearly.

Nuclear Annihilation Threat #2: "Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Nuclear Annihilation Threat #3:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

The French Government is signing agreements with religious fanatics without any real consideration as to the likely destructive results of these contracts.

7699. alistairconnor - 10/3/2006 10:49:16 AM

The Iranian enrichment program and the discussion of Israel were conflated by the journalist, not by Ahmadinnerjacket. No nuclear threat there.

In any case, he doesn't have the bomb.

7700. alistairconnor - 10/3/2006 10:50:07 AM

But just keep frothing about imaginary Iranian bombs, that might keep you from losing sleep over the real North Korean ones.

7701. jexster - 10/3/2006 10:50:20 AM

This is Mossad not some journalist.

Don't you trust Jews?

What RU some sort of Anti-semite?

7702. jexster - 10/3/2006 10:52:49 AM

But just keep frothing about imaginary Iranian bombs,

Have I seen this movie b4?

7703. concerned - 10/3/2006 11:17:02 AM

In any case, he doesn't have the bomb.

There's little meaning in the above statement. In December 1944, the USA 'didn't have the bomb', yet less than a year later, Nagasaki and Hiroshima were in nuclear ruins.

7704. concerned - 10/3/2006 11:19:00 AM

Re. 7700 -

Just keep your head firmly packed in whichever blind spot makes you feel best, at least until necessity forces you to start making excuses.

7705. jexster - 10/3/2006 11:22:46 AM

In case AC's having trouble with the American language, I thought a picture might aid the discussion

7706. concerned - 10/3/2006 5:04:10 PM

From the AFP:

PARIS, Oct 3, 2006 (AFP) - Retired literature professor Robert Faurisson, 77, was convicted for Holocaust denial by a Paris court Tuesday over remarks he made on Iranian television, and given a three month suspended prison term.
Faurisson, who is well-known for his revisionist views, was also fined 7,500 euros (9,500 dollars).
Speaking on the Sahar 1 satellite channel in February 2005, Faurisson said there "was never a single execution gas chamber under the Germans... So all those millions of tourists who visit Auschwitz are seeing a lie, a falsification."
Faurisson was found guilty of "complicity in contesting the existence of a crime against humanity".

This Faurisson is no right winger - Noam Chomsky wrote a forward for one of his books. AC - what's your take on these French 'thought crime laws' for such concepts as Holocaust denial? They're the kind of thing you're in France for?

7707. alistairConnor - 10/4/2006 3:35:33 AM

Let's see Con : are you implying that
1) Chomsky is a holocaust denier? or
2) Faurisson, holocaust denier, is of the Chomskyan left?

Let's cut to the chase :

It's true that Chomsky wrote a foreword for one of Faurisson's books. Here's an extract from that :

The remarks that follow are sufficiently banal so that I feel that an apology is in order to reasonable people who may happen to read them. If there is, nevertheless, good reason to put them on paper -- and I fear that there is -- this testifies to some remarkable features of contemporary French intellectual culture.

Before I turn to the subject on which I have been asked to comment, two clarifications are necessary. The remarks that follow are limited in two crucial respects. First: I am concerned here solely with a narrow and specific topic, namely, the right of free expression of ideas, conclusions and beliefs. I have nothing to say here about the work of Robert Faurisson or his critics, of which I know very little, or about the topics they address, concerning which I have no special knowledge. Second: I will have some harsh (but merited) things to say about certain segments of the French intelligentsia, who have demonstrated that they have not the slightest concern for fact or reason, as I have learned from unpleasant personal experience that I will not review here. Certainly, what I say does not apply to many others, who maintain a firm commitment to intellectual integrity. This is not the place for a detailed account. The tendencies to which I refer are, I believe, sufficiently significant to merit attention and concern, but I would not want these comments to be misunderstood as applying beyond their specific scope.

Some time ago I was asked to sign a petition in defense of Robert Faurisson's "freedom of speech and expression." The petition said absolutely nothing about the character, quality or validity of his research, but restricted itself quite explicitly to a defense of elementary rights that are taken for granted in democratic societies, calling upon university and government officials to "do everything possible to ensure the [Faurisson's] safety and the free exercise of his legal rights." I signed it without hesitation.

i.e. Chomsky took the extreme Voltairian position of defending the right of expression of someone with whom he violently disagrees.

i.e. Chomsky is on YOUR side, Con. Which, by your logic, is proof that you are "no right winger"!


Now : I happen to disagree with Chomsky on this. Everyone should have the right to express their OPINIONS, but
1) presenting pseudo-scientific "findings" based on falsified "research" is not the same thing as having an opinion;
2) specific legislation restricting speech about a specific historical episode is distasteful, but the nature of the episode and the nature of anti-semitism ensure that such a restriction does not meaningfully restrict free speech in general.

7708. concerned - 10/4/2006 1:21:36 PM

Thanks for your response. I must admit that I have some trouble understanding that when some people claim the sun rises and sets in a swamp, e.g: the earth is flat, the Holocaust didn't occur, and similar, that they don't seem to ever realize that they plainly expose their biases and ignorance to most.

7709. jexster - 10/4/2006 7:16:30 PM

Gotta agree with TD on this....The Protocols are more credible than Holocaust denial.

Besides, there is a much better case to be made - THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY: REFLECTIONS ON THE EXPLOITATION OF JEWISH SUFFERING (Second Edition)

"There's no business like Shoah business."
— Gunther Wünker the elder, in Gilad Atzmon's A Guide to the Perplexed

7710. jexster - 10/4/2006 7:22:10 PM

Prosecutions for Holocauast Denial???


Incroyable!

7711. jexster - 10/5/2006 11:54:40 AM

This oughta cure Mago's bout of irrational exuberance.

Oil Prices Rise Amid Signs of OPEC Cuts

OPEC may be considering cutting its production to stem the recent steep decline in oil prices.

7712. concerned - 10/6/2006 5:54:38 PM

October 6, 2006 -The European jihad

Holy Moses, AC 2500 police injured a year - you French have an Iraq war going on right in your own country!

Radical Muslims in France’s housing estates are waging an undeclared ‘intifada’ against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day. As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were ‘in a state of civil war’ with Muslims in the most depressed ‘banlieue’ estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin. It said the situation was so grave that it had asked the government to provide police with armoured cars to protect officers in the estates, which are becoming no-go zones…

Those media that tell us that the rioting “youths” want to be a part of our society and feel left out of it, are misrepresenting the facts. As the insurgents see it, they are not a part of our society and they want us to keep out of theirs. The violence in France is in no way comparable with that of the blacks in the U.S. in the 1960s. The Paris correspondent of The New York Times who writes that this a ‘variant of the same problem’ is either lying or does not know what he is talking about. The violence in France is of the type one finds when one group wants to assert its authority and drive the others out of its territory.

If the French have even a minimal sense of self preservation, they should use any means necessary, including deportation, to put a stop to such activities.

Just across the channel, therefore, there is mayhem: a religious war, escalating violence and gross intimidation, supine or ineffectual public authorities locked into a state of denial, and a growing climate of political violence and anarchy. Yet apart from a small number of articles, the British media has barely registered these terrifying and most ominous events.

Word to the wise?

7713. jexster - 10/9/2006 2:52:28 AM

Heckuva Job on that Axis of Weevils
Chaulk Up Another Bush Failure

Gigator N-Test Leaves Bush Flapping Dick
{Too Old for Foley}

7714. alistairconnor - 10/9/2006 3:16:18 AM

2500 police injured? She's making shit up.

No, on closer examination, it looks like the Daily Telegraph is making shit up -- or possibly can't read French. I can find no source whatever for this absurd number. (maybe they extrapolated two weeks of rioting last November to get an annual rate? No, that would mean 100 cops injured in two weeks, that's way too high).

But it's not completely a beat-up, just an absurd exaggeration.

Looking at the French police union web sites, I find two incidents in September and one in July, five cops injured in the past two months.

I agree that it's a new and worrying tendency that cops are getting attacked. The most recent union communiqué calls for water cannons and breaking up the "Mafia families" that they allege instigate the violence (underground economy = drug trade). They also call for censoring blogs that advocate attacking cops.

7715. alistairconnor - 10/9/2006 3:29:53 AM

A major source for the Telegraph article is a letter alleged to have been sent to Sarkozy, minister of the interior, by Michel Thooris, a police unionist. I find many mentions of this on the internet, all in English, and all referring to the Telegraph article. None at all in French. (even with the correct spelling of his name : the Telegraph has "Thoomis". They get stuff wrong and they make stuff up.)

7716. jexster - 10/9/2006 4:07:40 AM

Harroh Guailoh!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has beamed a ground-based laser at U.S. spy satellites over its territory, a U.S. agency said, in an action that exposed the potential vulnerability of space systems that provide crucial data to American troops and consumers around the world.

7717. jexster - 10/9/2006 10:51:23 AM

I am sure I speak for everyone here at the Mote, living and dead, in congratulating Axis of Weevils Charter Member Kim Jung Il and his beloved people on their stunning achievement.

We look forward to many more

7718. jexster - 10/9/2006 7:05:05 PM

Taliban Put Pakistan on Notice

7719. jexster - 10/10/2006 9:43:25 AM

The Party of Lies: Taliban on the Road to Victory


I bear of news of the consequences that the GOP CoverUp Cnngress Doesn't want Concerned to know

And by the way, the intelligence data is extremely clear. I am told that the Pakistani intelligence service is supporting the Taliban leadership from the Taliban headquarters in Quetta, which is not in [Pakistan’s] tribal territories. And yet President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, and Vice President Cheney did not mention the Taliban headquarters in Quetta to President Musharraf during his recent visit. Why is this?


LHC has Barnett Rubin's bad news from the Council of Foreign Relations in LHC

7720. Max Macks - 10/10/2006 3:35:44 PM

The hyposcracy of W. Bush would be laughable
were it not dangerous.

That asshole fearing that Iran might some day make
an atom bomb , while the loose canon in North Korea
actually was making one .

7721. concerned - 10/10/2006 3:49:05 PM

North Korea had the bomb ever since that asshole Clinton was president.

7722. concerned - 10/10/2006 3:49:50 PM

Oops.

7723. jexster - 10/10/2006 4:12:19 PM

They had enough enriched uranium TD...

Bushie's Bomb

BOOM!

7724. concerned - 10/10/2006 4:16:44 PM

They had the uranium since '92.

7725. concerned - 10/10/2006 4:17:01 PM

Oops. I means 2001.

7726. jexster - 10/10/2006 4:17:24 PM

BOOM!

7727. jexster - 10/10/2006 4:19:47 PM

He got the question today though...Tony couldn't SnoweJob this


In 2002 referring to the Axis of [We]evil, the President asked us to focus on results.

Results. Here we are in 2006. We invaded a country that no WMD or nuclear program and North Korea has tested its first bomb. How do you explain these results?



"The world is better off without Saddam"

7728. jexster - 10/10/2006 4:20:16 PM

had


OOOPS

7729. jexster - 10/10/2006 4:25:23 PM

I guess we should be grateful. TD's made progress..swift boating Clinton with his lies

At least Garry Studds is safe

7730. jexster - 10/10/2006 5:08:23 PM

Cunninglingus Rice says "Don't blame us for the failure of US policy on NK"

Of cousre we won't. We don't blame you for lying when you denied that Richard Clarke, George Tenet, and Cofer Black repeatedly warned you and Ashcroft that Osama was about to attack the US"

We don't blame you for the fact that Somalia is in the hands of Islamist; that the Taliban is racing toward Kabul; that Iran is the most powerful nation in the Persian Gulf; that Hizb Allah kicked Israel into Lebanon and his now the most popular political force in the Middle East; we don't blame you that there were no terrorist or WMD in Iraq; we don't blame you for any of your big stinky mushroom cloud farts.

We're gonna send your nasty ass to Mexico, Cunnilingus and let them eat you

7731. jexster - 10/10/2006 5:09:13 PM

If you're nice and don't give that crack ho shuck n jive, we may give you a girl page to play with

7732. jexster - 10/10/2006 5:13:06 PM

I warned you idiots..TD, beiner, Acie back 2001..all full of shit about the Shame of the Plane...

I told you Bush would kiss Chinese ass.

pucker up buttercups


USGS Seismic Evidence of Failure




The US has never in our entire history seen foreign policy failure on such a scale.

7733. concerned - 10/10/2006 5:20:01 PM

A small scale, that is.

7734. jexster - 10/10/2006 7:14:12 PM

Word UP

Japs say there's been a SECOND test!

They say he's wacko..but at least he's wacko and smart! Playin Bush like a drum

7735. jexster - 10/10/2006 7:15:59 PM

7736. concerned - 10/10/2006 8:33:05 PM

From NRO:

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Not Atomic [Michael Yon]

A very well-placed government source told me Tuesday afternoon that the North Korean explosion was non-nuclear. The explosion may have been an actual nuclear test — this is unknown — but the source reports the outcome was non-nuclear. The source stressed the importance of bearing in mind that though the explosion occured in North Korea — if it was actually a test and not merely a dictator clamoring for attention and influence — the test may have been by or for the Iranians. The source reported that American physicists with access to the information see no sign of nuclear activity, however. My source also mentioned that Japanese sensors picked up no radiation signatures.

The second 'explosion' you stupidly assumed was tremor activity. 'Wacko' is right. So is 'fucking liar'. Kim Jong Il is a wacko. Your Iranian mullah friends are wackos, and you're a wacko, jexter. Together, you form an Axis of Wackos.

7737. concerned - 10/10/2006 8:44:21 PM

I am sure I speak for everyone here at the Mote, living and dead, in congratulating Axis of Weevils Charter Member Kim Jung Il and his beloved people on their stunning achievement.

We look forward to many more

A non-nuclear dud. All that is left are the lies.

7738. jexster - 10/10/2006 10:14:14 PM

7739. jexster - 10/10/2006 10:17:22 PM

A non-nuclear dud. All that is left are the lies.


Is that like Mark Foley (D-FL)?


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, facing a new election-year foreign policy crisis, condemned North Korea's reported nuclear test on Monday and vowed the United States will respect its security commitments in Asia.

7740. jexster - 10/10/2006 10:20:34 PM

When you're sitting down for dinner and a LongFatDick filled with hot scalding cream of Sum Yung Gai lands on your head...


Who'll be laughing then?

I know I will

7741. jexster - 10/10/2006 10:26:54 PM

and you know our president. You mention Taepodong at a National Security meeting and he's taking a two hour ride on the giggle train

TEE-HEE!

Have you seen the factories where they erect the long fat dick?

No..you haven't

7742. jexster - 10/11/2006 10:27:34 AM

Dear Leader 1
Dumb Leader 0

7743. concerned - 10/11/2006 1:31:57 PM

North Korea claims successful nuclear weapons test

If the definition of 'successful' was whether the test succeeded technically, the answer is probably 'no'. If the definition is, instead, the how much it encouraged the enemies of civilization to wreak havoc and attracted world attention to the number one enemy of his own people, Kim Jong Il, then it would have to be classified as a success.

7744. Jenerator - 10/11/2006 3:16:43 PM

Actually, N. Korea is in cahoots with the GOP and just trying to deflect attention from the Foley scandal.

7745. Max Macks - 10/11/2006 5:55:28 PM

John McCain, who so many , not me , think would
make a good POTUS , now blames Clinton for
North Korea having nuclear explosives ,

7746. jexster - 10/11/2006 6:17:56 PM

Dear Leader 1
Duh Leader 0

7747. concerned - 10/12/2006 8:34:11 AM

French Muslims Wage ‘Intifada' on Police
By DAVID RENNIE - The Daily Telegraph October 5, 2006

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day.

As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were "in a state of civil war" with Muslims in the most depressed banlieue estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin.

It said the situation was so grave that it had asked the government to provide police with armored cars to protect officers in the estates, which are becoming no-go zones. The number of attacks has risen by a third in two years. Police representatives told the newspaper Le Figaro that the "taboo" of attacking officers on patrol has been broken.

The interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also the leading center-right candidate for the presidency, has sent heavily equipped units into areas with orders to regain control from drug smuggling gangs and other organized crime rings. Such aggressive raids were "disrupting the underground economy in the estates," one senior official told Le Figaro.

However, not all officers on the ground accept that essentially secular interpretation. The secretary general of the hardline Action Police trade union, Michel Thoomis, has written to Mr. Sarkozy warning of an "intifada" on the estates and demanding that officers be given armored cars in the most dangerous areas.

However, Gerard Demarcq, of the largest police unions, Alliance, dismissed talk of an "intifada" as representing the views of only a minority.

Mr. Demarcq said the increased attacks on officers were proof that the policy of "retaking territory" from criminal gangs was working.

Mayors in the worst affected suburbs, which saw weeks of riots and car-burning a year ago, have expressed fears of a vicious circle, as attacks by locals lead the police to harden their tactics, further increasing resentment.

As if to prove that point, angry reactions came in the western Paris suburb of Les Mureaux following dawn raids in search of youths who attacked a police unit on Sunday. The raids led to one arrest.

There's that 2500 figure again, AC, straight from French authorities. However, if you insist that your government doesn't have a clue as to the numbers, I'm willing to consider that.

7748. alistairconnor - 10/12/2006 8:43:55 AM

No Con dear. That Daily Telegraph article from last week was the one I discussed in Message # 7714, which was the source for the blog you linked. So you're chasing your tail here.

As I said at the time : the Telegraph is making shit up. This number of 14 police injured per day is just preposterous.

7749. concerned - 10/12/2006 8:48:47 AM

AC -

You fail to account for the French Interior Ministry figure of 2500 French police injured by Islamic rioters.

Unless you can demonstrate that they never give such a figure, I'm afraid that I may need to go with that number.

7750. Jenerator - 10/12/2006 8:49:54 AM

The Telegraph is risking it's livelihood - to prove what, exactly, Alistair?

Newspapers aren't in the business to create police figures as best I know. Are you directly blaming the writer or the editors? Who exactly created this figure?

7751. alistairconnor - 10/12/2006 8:52:49 AM

You fail to account for the French Interior Ministry figure of 2500 French police injured by Islamic rioters.

I'm saying it's lies put around by the Telegraph. I have been able to find no other source for it. You have posted the SAME source twice now, which rather weakens your case for it, as you claimed it as corroboration.

Xenophobia is the Telegraph's stock in trade, it has been for decades. You'd have to find a more credible source.

7752. alistairconnor - 10/12/2006 9:01:10 AM

Come on Con... Come on Jen...

Find me a source for this 2500 number. It's alleged to come from the French interior ministry. The article also alleges "The number of attacks has risen by a third in two years.". Which means, I guess, that there were already 1800 cops being injured per year two years ago. Come on.

There must have been an immense cover-up job done to suppress this surprising news, because I sure can't find a reference to it, in French or in English, that doesn't point back to the Telegraph article (which is of course, picked up on all sorts of tasty blogs that Con will relish).

Or maybe the Telegraph journalist pulled it out of his arse.

7753. Magoseph - 10/12/2006 10:59:29 AM

I think The Telegraph refers to this incident in Les Mureaux, Ali.. The paper and Sarkozy are having fun with it.

I think The Telegraph refers to this incident in Les Mureaux, Ali


The mayor is not too happy.

The Telegraph is risking it's livelihood-

Jen, .not likely, Jen—Actually, the paper thrives on such similar renditions as the one that interests you and Concerned.

7754. jexster - 10/12/2006 11:15:19 AM

I deny the Armenian Holocaust ever took place

Now go inform the Committee of Public Safety that I'm headed to Paris

7755. Jenerator - 10/12/2006 12:41:13 PM

Don't go to Turkey, Jex!

7756. Jenerator - 10/12/2006 12:44:14 PM

How many police officers does France have, anyway?

7757. Wombat - 10/12/2006 2:42:42 PM

Did you know that over 500 people per year have been killed by terrorists in the United States since 9/11/01?

7758. Wombat - 10/12/2006 2:43:03 PM

On average, that is.

7759. alistairConnor - 10/12/2006 3:21:54 PM

Yes Mago, I know about the incident in Les Mureaux. Six cops were injured. I'm inquiring about the health of the other 2494. No news yet.

7760. concerned - 10/12/2006 4:28:16 PM

I'm just amazed that you're passing up the opportunity to contact your Interior Ministry with this information and prove or disprove it once and for all, AC.

7761. jexster - 10/12/2006 5:16:07 PM

British Army COS says his troops in Iraq are making things worse, and it is time to cut and run



BBCWorld

7762. jexster - 10/12/2006 5:18:53 PM

Jen, I fear I won't make it past the Place de la Concorde...

The French Thought Police have a venerable history

7763. jexster - 10/13/2006 4:48:17 AM

Pitching a Shut Out

Axis of Evil 3
Bush 0

7764. alistairconnor - 10/13/2006 5:24:26 AM

Nobel Peace Prize for economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, pioneers of micro-credit.

Excellent choice! Access to credit is a fundamental driver of economic and human development. Lack of access to small-scale credit is THE key reason why under-developed countries stay that way.

7765. alistairconnor - 10/13/2006 5:31:21 AM

I'm just amazed that you're passing up the opportunity to contact your Interior Ministry with this information and prove or disprove it once and for all, AC.

Next time I see Sarkozy I'll ask him, Con.

7766. Jenerator - 10/13/2006 6:30:29 AM

What is their telephone number?

7767. Magoseph - 10/13/2006 7:14:22 AM

You could call the French Consulate in Houston, Jen.

7768. alistairconnor - 10/13/2006 8:11:32 AM

I could just dial 18 and ask the cops.

More seriously, I'm thinking of emailing the police union guy quoted in the article.

7769. jexster - 10/13/2006 10:19:11 AM

Let the Sarkster take care of em!


GENEVA (AFP) - Iraq is suffering from a "steady, silent exodus" of more than 40,000 people a month fleeing violence and the flow of refugees towards Europe is growing, the UN refugee agency has said

7770. jexster - 10/13/2006 11:32:37 AM

Sufia Begum was a 21-year-old villager and a mother of three when the economics professor met her in 1974 and asked her how much she earned. She replied that she borrowed about five taka (nine cents) from a middleman for the bamboo for each stool.

All but two cents of that went back to the lender.

"I thought to myself, my God, for five takas she has become a slave," Yunus said in the interview.

"I couldn't understand how she could be so poor when she was making such beautiful things," he said.


But what are Republicans to do?

Nobody thinks of them

7771. jexster - 10/13/2006 6:53:03 PM

Sorry TD

It wasn't a dud.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. government source has told CNN on Friday it has preliminary evidence that radioactivity was detected from a North Korean test site, suggesting an October 9 nuclear test had in fact taken place

7772. jexster - 10/14/2006 11:08:55 AM

Would Surrender to His Dear Leader!!

7773. jexster - 10/14/2006 11:16:56 AM

Post Modern Politically Correct Pissants

We're Bringing It On!

I deny ALL Holocausts

I deny France

I worship Marshall Petain
I light candles to Klaus Barbie

Bite me

PARIS (Reuters) - A bronze monument near Paris commemorating the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks has been destroyed just two days after France's parliament passed a bill that would make it a crime to deny the genocide.

7774. jexster - 10/14/2006 12:07:10 PM

7775. concerned - 10/16/2006 10:41:25 AM

Muslims again ordered to leave the United States, next attack imminent

If a Democrat was president, given their proven record of laxness wrt national security, an article like this would actually have me worried. It's for sure American Muslims don't take these types of threats seriously, otherwise they would be packing their bags and leaving for Islamic dominated hellholes.

7776. jexster - 10/16/2006 11:06:04 AM

As it is now official,on behalf of Motiers living and dead, congratulations to the Dear Leader and his adoring people on their scientific achievement and for making Bush look like an idiot ...on that last, he needed no help

7777. concerned - 10/16/2006 11:13:54 AM

Re. 7776 -

Hey, 'No answers' jexster -

The yield was less than a kiloton, but we have Xlowntoon, not GWB, to thank for ensuring that NK was supplied with enough uranium and plutonium to do anything of the sort at all.

7778. jexster - 10/16/2006 11:40:39 AM

1. Afghanistan
2. Somalia
3. Lebanon
4. Iraq
5. War on Terror


BushWars 0-5

1. Iran
2. North Korea

BushNukes

0-2


How much more Republican "security" can we stand?

7779. jexster - 10/16/2006 12:36:59 PM

How COULD I forget...The Big Brush Off, the Cunnlingus Lies!!!

Give me XCLowntoon and his DefeatOcrats any day

7780. jexster - 10/16/2006 1:33:13 PM

GWB has warned NK not to do it again TD.

How bold

7781. concerned - 10/16/2006 10:03:22 PM

China is on board with the anti-NK sanctions. That's far more than Xlowntoon could ever accomplish.

7782. concerned - 10/16/2006 10:04:23 PM

I see that AC has gone silent re the 2500 French police injured by Muslim rioters this year. It's bad and only going to get worse unless the French pull their heads out.

7783. wonkers2 - 10/16/2006 11:02:32 PM

What do you think they should do?

7784. wonkers2 - 10/16/2006 11:02:58 PM

After "pulling their heads out"?

7785. alistairconnor - 10/17/2006 4:27:35 AM

I see that AC has gone silent re the 2500 French police injured by Muslim rioters this year.

No, I have declared that it's a lie/hallucination/mistranslation on the part of a Daily Telegraph journalist. Since you haven't produced a shred of corroborating evidence, and I have tried in vain to find any myself, the subject just sort of expired.

There is a big story in the news these past couple of days, another bunch of cops got ambushed, three injured. (As to whether the attackers were Moslems, that's unknown. It isn't marked on people's identity papers in France.) That brings the number up to nine in the last couple of months. If the trend continues and worsens, we could extrapolate to maybe 100 a year. Where are the others? How do they manage to keep the secret, considering it's such a hot topic in the French news?

But as soon as you get any facts (or even a clue), be sure to let us know.

7786. thoughtful - 10/17/2006 2:02:44 PM

Be afraid
Be very afraid

From Robt Reich's blog:

Cheney wants to bomb Iran's and North Korea's nuclear facilities. He's become even more hawkish than before, and Rice is no match for him. He's the president of American foreign policy. He figures he has only about 18 months left to do what needs to be done, to ensure his and Bush's legacy and make the world safe from the axis of evil. He also figures Iran and North Korea are becoming ever more dangerous, that no one else is willing to do anything about them, that the US has the fire power to do what needs to be done, and only whimps are putting up a fight inside the Administration. All he needs to do is convince Bush, who is coming around.

7787. wonkers2 - 10/17/2006 2:04:07 PM

Of Cheney, that is. What a warped and evil mind he has.

7788. concerned - 10/17/2006 6:17:54 PM

Re. 7785 -

Let's be honest. You're afraid to verify it either way.

If the attackers are of North African descent, it's probably a reasonable assumption that they are Muslim, no? Or are you ready to report a secular trend sweeping France's several million Muslims?

7789. jexster - 10/17/2006 8:37:29 PM

China "on board"? Hardly. The ban on luxury items and nuke wwapons parts and materials??? China doesn't want heavy sanctions and neither SK because each fears mass civil collapse there.


Clinton had their plutonim-based program shut down. Bush floatee some sketchy intel that they suddenly switched to enriched uranium and started his axiz of evil bullshit.

The proliferatons problem is larger that either tho. Recently saw an article listing 30 odd nations considered serious nuclear prospects in the reasonably near future. Non-proliferation worked in the Cold War because the Russia and the US had leverage over clients and allies. The system was stable.

7790. jexster - 10/17/2006 10:03:23 PM

Fair summary of another Bush blunder...


Is the Bush Doctrine Dead?

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Between Sept. 11, 2001, and his State of the Union Address in 2002, George W. Bush had America in the palm of his hand.

But in that speech, Bush blew it. Singling out Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as state sponsors of terror seeking weapons of mass destruction, Bush yoked them together in an "axis of evil" and issued this ultimatum: "I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

Neoconservatives celebrated this bellicosity as neo-Churchillian....Bush's speech was a blunder of the first magnitude.

Bush's speech was a blunder of the first magnitude. First, he had no authority to attack any of those nations, as Congress had not authorized war. Second, he had neither the plans nor forces in place to do so. Yet he had put all three on notice this was what he had in mind.

When the United States invaded Iraq, North Korea and Iran got the message. Both accelerated their nuclear programs.

By issuing public ultimatums, Bush left these regimes no way out...Because of the bluster-and-bluff of President Bush, the United States is today eyeball-to-eyeball with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, and neither of these regimes appears ready to blink.

7791. concerned - 10/18/2006 12:29:40 AM

Clinton had their plutonim-based program shut down.

No, he didn't. He merely allowed NK to take advantage of the United States. NK shut down no program because of anything Xlowntoon did.

7792. concerned - 10/18/2006 12:33:24 AM

Btw, it wasn't possible for Iran and NK to significantly 'accelerate' their nuclear programs because of whoever happened to be president of the US. That's placing undue emphasis on the influence of the US and diminuating the fixed policy of these regimes for no reason.

7793. concerned - 10/18/2006 12:36:53 AM

NK wanted to continue unilateral 'negotiations' with the US for one reason and one reason only - to get nuclear concessions and nuclear aid from the US and its allies. George Bush put an end to that by insisting that NK engage with multi party negotiations with its neighbors. Naturally, as a result, NK was not able to gain any further concessions, and this is to the credit of the policy of the current administration.

7794. concerned - 10/18/2006 12:40:42 AM

The Democrats, if in power, will insist on 'progress' with negotiations with NK. If this ever occurs according to the Democrats' ideas of 'negotiation', it will result in the US capitulating in some manner to NK.

7795. concerned - 10/18/2006 12:42:22 AM

IOW, the Democrats don't know their collectives asses from holes in the ground as far as international diplomacy with rogue countries.

7796. alistairconnor - 10/18/2006 1:53:06 AM

Let's be honest. You're afraid to verify it either way.

Let's be clear : you're full of shit. Put up or shut up.

7797. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:01:18 AM

Well TD's got it . and so did Clinton.

and so did Pat B


What about Georgie?

What do these nations want, and can America accommodate them, without imperiling our security or accepting an intolerable loss of strategic credibility?

What North Korea wants is what President Nixon gave Mao Zedong in the 1970s. Recognition, security guarantees, aid, admission into the international community, and an end to the U.S. policy of regime change.

What does America want from North Korea? No more atomic tests, the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into all of North Korea's nuclear facilities, and no export of nuclear materials to hostile states or non-state actors that could use nuclear devices as instruments of terror, mass murder, or nuclear blackmail.

The six-party talks have failed. North Korea has rejected U.S. offers and resisted U.S. demands, and South Korea and China have balked at using their leverage to back us up. If Beijing and Seoul wish to play a separate hand with Pyongyang, we should play one, too.

We should engage in direct negotiations with the North, warning them that any export of a nuclear device to a hostile regime risks an attack by the United States and any nuclear weapon used against Americans, anywhere, traceable to North Korea will bring certain and massive nuclear retaliation.

However, in return for ironclad assurances they have opened up all nuclear programs to inspection and given up further development of nuclear weapons, we should offer the North Koreans diplomatic ties, economic aid, and a security pact sealed with a U.S. withdrawal of forces from the Korean peninsula.


In other words, the status quo ante-cowshitrains

When history lifts its leg on Bush, the only questions will be, if TD got it, Clinton got it, and Pat Buchanan got it, why not little Georgie DumbFuck?

Think we can trade the Dumb Leader for the Dear Leader? We'd come out ahead

7798. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:16:31 AM

No, he didn't. He merely allowed NK to take advantage of the United States. NK shut down no program because of anything Xlowntoon did.

Oh yes he did. Powell agreed but was stiffed by guess what - phony intel that NK had cheated by switching to enriched unranium base weapons.

Those never existed. The plutonium one...they ramped that one up as did Iraq which in fact had sent a letter proposoing raprochement and no nukes to ChenyBush in 2003


We're paying Poor child, Babs emasculated him and we pay big time while he works out his macho man fantasies.

Foreign policies? Name one president who has such a record of global failure...from NK to Russia,to China, to IRaq, IRan, .....

7799. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:16:56 AM

The Offensive Texan



For the Bush White House, September 2006 will be remembered as the month when the roof caved in...

Among the insiders who sold Mr. Bush on his offensive strategy, those who remain in office—like Rumsfeld or Vice President Cheney—have been largely discredited. A handful of other survivors, pre-eminently Condoleezza Rice, have distanced themselves from their prior ideological enthusiasms. Chameleons do well in politics.

Among the many who have moved on, few rise to the president’s defense. Some foolishly pen self-exculpatory memoirs that no one takes seriously. Others keep their silence, whether out of prudence or as penance we cannot say.

As the evening of his presidency approaches, George W. Bush alone persists, armored in ignorance and resolve but adamant that from perseverance will come victory. Were it not for the wreckage that he has strewn in his wake, one might almost feel a twinge of sympathy for the man.

7800. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:20:23 AM

Fucking pendejo...fucking loser.

7801. wonkers2 - 10/18/2006 7:23:56 AM

"Pendejo," great word. I used to call my younger brother that. He was offended. I had a college roommate from Chile named Ricardo. He taught me how to swear,combining several words into one long word as follows: "mierdacarajoputahuevonhombre!"

7802. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:24:59 AM

Btw, it wasn't possible for Iran and NK to significantly 'accelerate' their nuclear programs because of whoever happened to be president of the US


Oh yes it is and that is exactly what they did. Can't blame em. Endless detail available on request.


Clinton - no bomb
Bush - bomb

America the Impotent exposed again.

How embarrassing for you to have to defend the Failed War Presidency

7803. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:29:23 AM

Who but a pendejo could fuck this up?

Dump the Jews
Humor the dear leader
Impeach the Dumb Leader

7804. jexster - 10/18/2006 7:38:35 AM

Pendejo - 1 idiot, asshole, dumbfuck
2. Public hair

Jorge Bush es el Pedejo de los Estados Unidos

7805. concerned - 10/18/2006 8:41:33 AM

Re. 7796 -

AC -

Are you asking me to do your homework because you are prevented from finding such things out about your own gendarmerie in your own country, or are you just afraid to try?

7806. concerned - 10/18/2006 8:42:39 AM

"Public hair"

Is this a Freudian slip?

7807. alistairconnor - 10/18/2006 8:52:26 AM

Con : what part of "put up or shut up" don't you understand?

I live in a free country, with a free press. Here is an article detailing the attacks on police in the last month, when it became a hot issue. This is from a right-wing newspaper, Le Figaro, French equivalent of the Daily Telegraph, and not generally suspected of being pro-immigrant or anti-police.

There, I've done your homework for you, again. Did the cat pee on yours?

7808. concerned - 10/18/2006 9:49:45 AM

Re. 7807 -

How's this, AC?

You put up with my not shutting up.

Sound good? I'll do you homework for you as time permits.

7809. concerned - 10/18/2006 11:44:56 AM

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that Israel will not allow a situation in which Iran gains access to unconventional weapons and warned Iranians to "be afraid."

Looks like Israel intends to remain the 'Big Dog' as far as nuclear weapons in the mideast.

You up for that, jexster?

7810. concerned - 10/18/2006 12:43:22 PM

VEIL DEBATE: WOMEN, ADAPT TO HOST COUNTRY'S LAWS OR LEAVE, LEBANESE CLERIC SAYS

It's a breath of fresh air to have a Muslim cleric talking sense once in a while. They should do it more often.

7811. wonkers2 - 10/18/2006 12:47:55 PM

There are plenty who talk sense. They are drowned out by the fanatics of which there are apparently plenty. I heard a particularly sensible one the other day on NPR whose belief is that radical religious fundamentalists from the Muslim and from the west are pushing the world toward a "clash of civilizations" which is not inevitable but could happen if moderates don't speak out and take charge.

7812. Jenerator - 10/18/2006 1:15:48 PM

Hmmmmmmmm. Wonder why they're not speaking up or taking charge...........?

7813. concerned - 10/18/2006 2:23:44 PM

From the 'Korea Herald' - the leading SK English language newspaper:

'The Failure of Appeasing North Korea'


By Woo Seong-ji

North Korea's nuclear test has brought us back to reality. The reconciliation between the two Koreas, touted as a major achievement in the current and past administrations, has proven paper-thin and can be undone at Pyongyang's whim at any moment.

Sadly, even at this fragile moment Korean society is deeply divided in interpreting where it went wrong and deciding what is to be done in the future.

There is nothing wrong in trying to open up North Korea with economic incentives and popular exchanges. But far from engaging Pyongyang properly with a right mixture of carrots and sticks, what this regime undertook was tantamount to appeasing, resulting in its moral hazards. Pyongyang has continuously duped us, lowered our security alertness and extracted material concessions, some of which might have been diverted to the military.

As the snubbing of our strong demand not to conduct a nuclear test has clearly shown, the confidence and peace building effect of helping North Korea has been minimal, if not totally absent. The Pyongyang regime did not even bother to notify us before the nuclear test despite all our help.

In short, we are not any much safer than we were before the launch of the appeasement policy. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. South Korea's national security is in grave danger due to the rise of a nuclear North Korea. The safety of ordinary South Koreans is now at the mercy of Kim Jong-il's regime.

It is likely that in the days ahead of us, the North will push for peace offensives against South Korea and the United States and drive a wedge between the two and, as its past track record reminds us, the Roh Moo-hyun administration is likely to fall into that trap again.


Where it went wrong


The appeasement of North Korea has failed. The policy based on unilateral concessions and benevolence was bound to fail sooner or later because it creates a tempting space that can be taken advantage of.

The Roh regime's failed attempt derives from a number of misperceptions and miscalculations. First, it downplayed the wickedness of the North Korean regime and its will to become a nuclear weapons state. From the early stage of the nuclear game, Kim Jong-il has been determined that only the possession of nuclear weapons would save the "suryong" (chieftain) system. It is a regime feeding on fear and has at no time given up its nuclear ambitions.

Second, it mistakenly believed that economic cooperation would automatically bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. The relationship between the economy and peace is much more complex and convoluted than Roh's people believe. Economic interdependence not backed by proper norms, rules, organizations and mutual trust and understanding can at any time backfire and become a source of instability and conflict.

Third, it believed that South Korea needs to play the role of a balancer for the sake of unification and stability of the region. To date, this policy has only aggravated the traditional relationship with our allies and friends without winning the hearts of new friends. Consequently, we are more and more diplomatically isolated and becoming irrelevant.

Fourth, the supporters of the appeasement policy have continuously sought to use the North Korea card for the benefit of domestic politics. The Roh regime concocted a quick and superficial solution - photo-ops, ceremonies and the like - to please its domestic audience, which the Pyongyang regime was eager to use for its selfish purposes and not for the public good of its people.


What is to be done


The issue is not about whether to engage North Korea or not. Rather it is about how we can find consensus in adequately engaging North Korea. Nuclear reversal is a challenging task and to undertake that mission effectively we need fresh ideas and approaches. If our stance continues to be feeble, Pyongyang will naturally take full advantage of it.

We need a firm policy designed to transform the nature of the North Korean regime. The expansion of South-North economic cooperation should be strictly linked to the North's pledge for denuclearization from this time on. There will be no economic cooperation without nuclear reversal. The advance in inter-Korean economic cooperation should proceed in parallel with Pyongyang's progress in denuclearization.

Much effort should be put into restoring our traditional relationship with the maritime powers. South Korea needs to faithfully endorse and practice the majority opinion of the international society.

While humanitarian assistance needs to continue, we need to ask for enhanced transparency to the Pyongyang regime. There is no reason not to start inter-Korean human rights dialogue right away. In spite of massive evidence, the Roh administration has shied away from the human rights issues, only to the benefit of bolstering the oppressive regime and at the expense of the welfare of the ordinary North Koreans.

It is time for a new version of the engagement policy. And this time we had better do it properly with an accurate understanding of the nature of the North Korean regime and a balanced approach of incentives and punishment.



Woo Seong-ji is a professor teaching international relations at the school of international studies, Kyung Hee University in Seoul. The opinions expressed here are his own. He can be reached at seongjiwoo@hotmail.com - Ed.

I repeat, the only reason NK wants to hold unilateral talks with the US, something GWB refused to agree to, is to try to take advantage of that process and the US.

7814. alistairConnor - 10/18/2006 2:43:49 PM

It's a breath of fresh air to have a Muslim cleric talking sense once in a while. They should do it more often.

They do it very often. I'm glad you've finally noticed.

Jen will continue to ignore them; they don't fit in her black and white world.

7815. wonkers2 - 10/18/2006 4:05:39 PM

The Muslim clerics in the Detroit area ARE speaking out in ways I suspect Jen would be hard put to disagree. Our Muslims appear to be more assimilated than the Muslims in Europe.

7816. Jenerator - 10/18/2006 8:34:05 PM

Westernized Muslims are usually more sensible that observant Muslims elsewhere.

7817. concerned - 10/18/2006 9:42:31 PM

Re. 7814 -

And most Germans are not Hitler. So what?

7818. jexster - 10/19/2006 7:50:05 AM

What's Wrong With this Picture?

Rice to press SKorea on NKorea sanctions

Oh and pwease don't sell of your mini-bombs to Saddam..or you'll be sorry!

7819. jexster - 10/19/2006 7:51:29 AM

TD I think there was only one Hitler - thus far. However, he has relatives in Canada and hopefull The Seed will be preserved until the Time is Accomplished

7820. jexster - 10/19/2006 8:23:12 AM

Bush the Failure
America the Impotent

The Superpower Myth


What does it mean to be the world’s only superpower? Like Gulliver in Lilliput, the U.S. government is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now faces the emergence of two new nuclear powers in North Korea and Iran. There seems to be nothing President Bush can do about it.

7821. concerned - 10/19/2006 12:13:58 PM

9/11, Five Years Later: A View from Europe

excerpts:

In the wake of 9/11, European leaders felt obliged to join America in invading Afghanistan. But the initial show of solidarity by politicians and intellectuals (“we are all Americans”) quickly gave way to declarations that the U.S. – by supporting Israel, buttressing Arab dictators, fostering globalism, etc. – had asked for 9/11. But not Europe. Europe was the Muslims’ friend. Muslims knew this. Hence Europe was safe. This soon became Western European orthodoxy. Only days after 9/11, Norwegian author Gert Nygårdshaug sneered at the idea that there might soon be an attack on “Oslo or Rome or Copenhagen.” He was far from alone in his mockery.

Then came Madrid, London, Bali, Beslan, Mumbai. Van Gogh was butchered; Muslims rioted in France; their coreligionists in Denmark rampaged over newspaper cartoons of Muhammed. The Western European elite played down, even denied, any connection among these events. Yet year by year the truth has become increasingly clear: though the U.S. was the target on 9/11, the front line of the war with Islamism is Europe.

And the conclusion:


Yet for all America’s missteps, the European elite’s charge that the U.S. is the world’s #1 menace has been obscene and self-destructive – as has that same elite’s tireless whitewashing of the real menace. On 9/11, I would never have imagined that five years later, a man who refuses to condemn the stoning of female adulterers would be respected as the leading voice of “moderate” European Islam; that European governments would still be funding within their borders mosques and Muslim schools that teach contempt for democracy, Jews, gays, and sexual equality; that Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen would argue for accepting the oppression of Muslim women in the West; and that Britain would still be sheltering radical clerics, Queen Elizabeth knighting the likes of Iqbal Sacranie (who calls homosexuality “unacceptable”), and London mayor Ken Livingstone praising as “progressive” the above-mentioned al-Qaradawi (who has defended suicide bombers and the execution of gays). The delusion endures: in August, the AP reported that Germans were “stunned” by news of a planned train bombing in their country because they thought their “opposition to the Iraq war would insulate” them from terrorism; and Britain’s “Communities Secretary,” following the arrest of “English lads” who’d planned to blow up London-to-U.S. flights, promised to consider a proposal by Muslim leaders to pacify would-be domestic bombers by introducing sharia law in immigrant areas.



I would never have believed on 9/11 that in 2006, most Europeans would still be surprised to learn – to pluck two examples at random – that over seven in ten immigrant women in Sweden (according to an EU study) are affected by “honor-related violence” and that Jewish children (according to a French government report) “can no longer get an education” in France because of abuse by Muslim classmates. Some law-enforcement authorities have already thrown in the towel: in 2004, Swedish police admitted they “have no control over the situation in Malmö,” a city plagued by Muslim rapes and robberies; this August, after a Muslim gang shootout in Oslo, police said they were “reluctant to crack down on the gangs out of fear for their own safety.”

On 9/11, the free world was powerfully reminded of its freedom. In Europe, alas, that day’s spirit has been steamrollered by an establishment that – apparently having already accepted the inevitability of Europe’s Islamization – routinely turn the truth on its head, representing aggressors as victims and self-defense as inflammatory. That upside-down picture needs to be set aright, and the spirit of 9/11 resurrected. For the bottom line is simple: if we don’t cherish our liberties with the fervor that the jihadists treasure their faith, we’ll lose.

Read it and weep, AC. That part about French education officials allowing such bullying of Jewish children by Muslim punks that they cannot receive their education is just sad. Or maybe you have already resigned yourself to dhimmitude and don't care. On a positive note, at least this author's dislike of GWB hasn't blinded him to this reality.

7822. jexster - 10/19/2006 12:32:33 PM

States of Denial
Breaking News

US Concedes Resistance Victory in Battle for Baghdad

7823. concerned - 10/19/2006 2:19:47 PM

Re. 7822 -

Cut and Run jexster also misleads. No 'victory' is being conceded, and to whom could any concession be made, anyway? This sectarian violence in Iraq is what I mentioned as being bankrolled by Syria and Iran contending with each other and the US in Iraq.

7824. wonkers2 - 10/19/2006 2:28:22 PM

And how, pray tell, would you get us out of the present morass? Are you a Bush "stay the course" man?

You try to blame Iran and Syria for a situation created by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. That's pure bullshit!

7825. concerned - 10/19/2006 2:35:57 PM

Wonkers -

I don't have to 'try' to blame Iran and Syria - they're responsible for the sectarian violence.

I think I hear your mommy calling - better go cut and run to see her.

7826. jexster - 10/19/2006 2:39:50 PM

Boner Patrol


I don't have to 'try' to blame Iran and Syria - they're responsible for the sectarian violence.


That's a lie.

7827. jexster - 10/19/2006 2:44:16 PM

Bush has lost not only the Battle for Baghdad but the entire war. It is over.

Iran and Syria? Blame em for anything they lay on Clinton. Forget the fact that it is manifestly NOT in the interest of either state to have Bush leave his MESSoPotamia - the Stateless region formeraly known as Iraq on their doorstep.

Forget the fact there is no proof to support TD's fantasies and that the US generals in Iraq have conceded its bullshit.

Let's say they are. The US Military, AWOL George, CIC, just got whipped by a bunch of rag tag towelheads and two flea bitten states (3000 Hizb kicked Israel's ass too)


Now tell us who the fuck is scared of the Big Bad Bush

7828. jexster - 10/19/2006 2:45:17 PM

Cut n run now

or cut n run for the helicopter skids


Iraq has 6 months left...the clock is ticking..the Batttle of Baghdad has been lost, the US has cut and run

7829. jexster - 10/19/2006 2:47:03 PM

Maybe we should fire Rummy Bush and Cheney and pay Assad, Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad to run this regime

7830. jexster - 10/19/2006 2:49:29 PM

This "sectarian violence" is civil war in 3 dimensions


US defending govt
US in the middle of Sunni, Shia
US defending Kurds (oh yeah Kirkuk just blew up!)

7831. concerned - 10/19/2006 3:05:06 PM

Iraq has 6 months left...the clock is ticking..the Batttle of Baghdad has been lost, the US has cut and run

I should rub your boogery nose in this bullshit six months from now, Jexster.

7832. jexster - 10/19/2006 3:09:09 PM

You make a point of it. Calendar June 07.

Crosspost:

In June I guess it was, I gave Iraq 6-12 months to live.


Larry Diamond, Hoover Inst/Coalition PA, is one of the experts attached to The Baker's Iraq Study Group - aka. Boy Georgie's Pooper Scoopers.





Larry thinks we're now looking at total disintegration in a matter of weeks not months.




"There's a sense among many people now that things in Iraq are slipping fast and there isn't a lot of time to reverse them," said Larry Diamond, one of a panel of experts advising the Iraq Study Group, which is preparing a range of policy alternatives for President Bush.

"The civil war is already well along. We have no way of knowing if it's too late until we try a radically different course," said Diamond, an expert on building democracies who is at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and is a former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.


"This is the fourth quarter, there's two minutes left in the game, and we're down two touchdowns," said Diamond. "There may not be enough time left."

7833. jexster - 10/19/2006 3:13:30 PM

State of Denial....

Why We Still Fight

By William S. Lind

[make that 70+]

At least 32 American troops have been killed in Iraq this month. Approximately 300 have been wounded. The “battle for Baghdad” is going nowhere. A Marine friend just back from Ramadi said to me, “It didn’t get any better while I was there, and it’s not going to get better.” Virtually everyone in Washington, except the people in the White House, knows that is true for all of Iraq.

Actually, I think the White House knows it too. Why then does it insist on “staying the course” at a casualty rate of more than one thousand Americans per month? The answer is breathtaking in its cynicism: so the retreat from Iraq happens on the next President’s watch. That is why we still fight.

Yep, it’s now all about George. Anyone who thinks that is too low, too mean, too despicable even for this bunch does not understand the meaning of the adjective “Rovian.” Would they let thousands more young Americans get killed or wounded just so George W. does not have to face the consequences of his own folly? In a heartbeat.

Not that it’s going to help. When history finally lifts it leg on the Bush administration, it will wash all such tricks away, leaving only the hubris and the incompetence. Jeffrey Hart, who with Russell Kirk gone is probably the top intellectual in the conservative movement, has already written that George W. Bush is the worst President America ever had. I think the honor still belongs to the sainted Woodrow, but if Bush attacks Iran, he may yet earn the prize.



That third and final act in the Bush tragicomedy is waiting in the wings.



Calendared yet?

7834. jexster - 10/19/2006 3:17:44 PM

Cut n Run KarlDickGeorgie

run for your miserable lives

A New Decision?

Richard Sale sent me the following analysis of the "state of play" concerning Iraq/Iran in the White House. If this is correct, then the Iraq Study Group might serve a purpose. After all, if the "Decider" decides to decide something different.... GStK!

Pat Lang

PS - This is Bush as Ahab.


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


“Administration officials told me on Monday that President George Bush is likely to announce "an exit strategy" that would draw down current U.S. force levels in Iraq.
"I think the dimensions of the catastrophe there has finally sunk in," one administration source said.
He and two others I talked to refused to speculate on details of any withdrawal, but all said that Bush would begin public statements after the upcoming elections were completed.
But they did say that Bush is also becoming "increasingly pessimistic" about any military action against Iran. According to one, "Bush really wanted to mount an attack on Iran earlier this year -- he was really hot to trot," but military briefings brought home to him that attacking Iran did not mean eliminating its suspected nuclear sites but also having to destroy "Iran's entire retaliatory capability," in the words of one. This capability is formidable; U.S. intelligence sources say Iran has underground missile batteries southwest of Abu Musa with the HY-2 advanced version of the Silkworm anti-ship missile. There are also Scud-Cs which could hit any UAE ports, including those to the south and west of Abu Dhabi and they could also strike Dubai where U.S. naval sources currently dock at the port of Jebel Ali.
Since the Scuds are long-range missiles, they don't need to be moved to the Gulf islands in order to hit targets on the Saudi side of the Gulf.
The underground storage bunkers also store the newer Chinese-made C-801 and C-802 anti-ship missiles and it could easily transport them to Abu Musa if they are not already there as a few U.S. experts contend. The majority I spoke to felt they were there already.
They could also be transported to places like the Tunbs, Sirri and other islands in the blink of an eye where they would be sheltered in bunkers.
There is also the threat of Iran's Navy. It has much amphibious capability -- both flat bottomed ships and hovercraft -- and a brigade of marines, all of which it showed off in exercises in the spring of this year, meaning it could cross the Gulf at any point it chose to, say experts.
Iran has submarines that could be easily sunk, the Gulf being so shallow, and so Tehran would likely resort to its array of E-boats, mini-subs, combat swimmers, and fast missile patrol craft to wreak damage. Iran is also training fundamentalists from Egypt, the Gulf States, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon at Iranian facilities, and would be likely to have a Fifth column in place in the Gulf States long before any conflict began.
Iran's ability to do this quickly and effectively is pretty much taken for granted, U.S. officials said.
One military analyst pointed out that in 1986-1988 when Iran's oil infrastructure was being savaged by Iraq, Iran responded by using fast interdiction boats like Boston Whalers, Boghammers as well as helicopters to launch attacks against Saudi and Kuwait shipping. Tehran could be expected to resort to this tactic again, experts say.
If the United States began the bombing of Iran's conventional military forces, Iran might attempt to close the Straits of Hormuz before losing its chief military assets.
In Qatar, there is currently underway a $50 billion natural gas project funded mutually by Exxon-Mobil and the Qatar government. The United States is fast running out of natural gas, and the Qatar program would ship in new reserves to take up the shortage. But even though Qatar has assured Tehran that it does not back any action against Iran by the United States, Tehran has made it clear that Qatar would be heavily damaged in punitive attacks if the Bush administration starts a war.
As one civilian military expert said, "Iran would be likely to do a great deal of damage in the Gulf before its assets on the mainland and islands were neutralized."
In other words, if attacked, Iran would respond asymmetrically, and any U.S. Iran war would be more frightful, full of bloody slaughter and unintended consequences than current U.S. planners think. This is what is giving Bush pause.
Cheney is still pushing hard for a strike, but Bush has become more skeptical of the vice president's ardor as he looks over the wreckage of Iraq, U.S. officials said.

Richard Sale”

7835. concerned - 10/19/2006 3:42:59 PM

jexster -

Next June, are you going to give Iraq 'another 6 - 12 months to live'(snerk!), or are you going to start parading around in a virtual sandwich board claiming that Armageddon has overtaken Iraq regardless of the facts?

7836. jexster - 10/19/2006 3:59:37 PM

Correction...that's the time table and I am sticking to it!

Calendar NOW bitch...or will bush cut and run after the elections..might buy em some time..not much


US army concedes failure in Baghdad
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Steve Negus, Financial TimesIraq Correspondent

7837. wonkers2 - 10/19/2006 4:14:03 PM

Concerned, where do you get your information? You're the only person I know who believes that "Iran and Syria are responsible" for the sectarian violence in Iraq. I might buy Iran and Syria are contributing to the violence in Iraq, but they certainly aren't responsible. At bottom, Bush is responsible for creating a sectarian violence where none existed before and for igniting what amounts to a civil war between indigenous Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites. The conflict ignited by Bush acted as a magnet for al-Qaida terrorists from all over the region who are involved to an extent hard to determine.

7838. Wombat - 10/19/2006 4:22:13 PM

Not to mention an insurgency that is largely homegrown in Sunni areas.

7839. concerned - 10/19/2006 4:39:02 PM

Re. 7837 -

It's all jexster's fault. He's always going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about Iraq, always beating up on the Bush Administration, so a little of his dishonesty must have rubbed off on me just this once.

I basically agree with your statement that Iran, and to a lesser extent, Syria are 'contributing' to the current violence in Iraq, but, no, it's not likely they actually bear the brunt of the responsibility for the violence itself.

7840. wonkers2 - 10/19/2006 5:15:00 PM

OK

7841. jexster - 10/19/2006 7:08:45 PM

I go on and on because certain folks just too fucking ignorant to be believed

Anyone who thinks there is any evidence that Iran and Syria are involved should put up or shut up


It's Come to Jexster Time (Sorry Jesus!)

You might start with the Naval PostGrad School at Monterey

In fact, CNN interviewed one of their experts just this morning. They have a transcript perhaps..


For further research...lest I go on on on and on...cause I know so fucking much

Try Vali Nasr

Then there's always www.syriacomment.com Josh Landis

or guess who

http://www.juancole.com/

7842. jexster - 10/19/2006 8:24:30 PM

All Hat
Where's The Beef?

PBS NewsHour

SUNG-YOON LEE, Harvard University's Korea Institute:
"Turn in your homework by 10 tommorrow"

Or

"I strongly suggest you turn in your homework"

The New Bush terrorizes the Dear Leader