"When the next cataclysm occurs, there will be no Lincoln to stop the bleeding."Uh, wasn't Lincoln the guy who raised a huge army to crush the forces of the seceding states and force them to rejoin the Union?
"Police....to carry out blood and urine tests on a woman who complained of rape to find out how much alcohol is in her body. They would then used "back calculations" to work out how drunk she was at the time of the alleged attack.Doesn't this send more then a few terrible messages to the British people, the first being that the ongoing alcohol problem is now reaching crisis proportions.
A "drink and sex limit" would sweep away the confusion and controversy in the courts surrounding the issue of when a man accused of rape can claim he believed a woman gave her consent to sex."
"Have you noticed how Republicans are always portrayed by comedians as stupid?I would rank the media more like this...
Come to think of it, with Republicans it's stupid or evil - Nixon (evil), Ford (stupid), Reagan (stupid), Bush Snr (stupid), Bush Jnr (stupid and evil). Chase is on record as calling George W. Bush worse than stupid - a "dumb f----" who "started a jihad", an "uneducated, real lying schmuck". So as he goes to his maker maybe poor old Jerry Ford should be grateful he only got saddled with being stupid. And whatever one's politics, those Chevy Chase sketches were pretty damn funny."
"We have taken the decision to leave Mogadishu because of the safety of the civilians," the deputy head of the Islamic courts executive council, Abdi-Rahman Janqow, said as Ethiopian-backed government troops advanced towards to the city.Ah... I see... a cunning plan to abandon your capital and chief population center.
"All of our troops have withdrawn. They are now heading to somewhere they think they can fight with their enemy and kill them one by one without fighting among the civilians", he added.
Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed Thursday, the prime minister said, hours after an Islamic movement that tried to establish a government based on the Quran abandoned the capital.But will it be quick ?
"Apparently some people believe that the Al Qaeda elements in Mogadishu ... are people one can talk to in a reasonable manner, that they can be convinced not to be extremists," Mr. Meles said in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press.Of course the Los Angeles times is already throwing around the Q Word...
The extremists "represent a direct threat first to Somalia and the Somali people , second to the region and Ethiopia, and lastly to the international community," he said. "When they control the whole of Somalia it would be very naive to assume that they will mend their ways, cease to be terrorists and become very civilized and very tame pussycats."
Columbia, S.C. | It has been four decades since Kwanzaa was created as an African-American celebration of family and community, but in that time it has not resonated widely in South Carolina, a state where one-third of the population is black.
"I personally don't know a single person who celebrates the holiday," said Marcus Cox, founding director of the African-American Studies Program at The Citadel.
Thank you for your recent communication.
When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand.
I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.
We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.
I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.
The Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, "As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office." Thank you again for your email and thoughts.
A major investigation into the alleged sexual abuse of young white girls by predominantly Asian men has been launched by police and childcare agencies.All we need now is a little fog and an opium den or two.
So far detectives in Oldham, Greater Manchester, have arrested 20 men, five of whom have been charged with offences that include abduction and rape. However, police expect other suspects to be held in the coming weeks.
The phenomenon appears to be largely cultural, with mainly young Asian men allegedly preying on vulnerable girls they meet in and around the town centre.
Police suspect the victims – some of them as young as 12, the rest up to the age of 17 – are being groomed over a period of months and sometimes years.
"This woman is totally out of control," he told the Daily News. "I'm worth billions of dollars, and I have to listen to this fat slob?"She apparently hit a sore spot when she said he'd be bankrupt before he could sue her.
"When I saw the tape, I said, 'You'd better be careful or I'll send one of my friends over to take your girlfriend!' " Trump told The News. "I imagine it would be pretty easy to take her girlfriend away, considering how Rosie looks."
Trump called O'Donnell a "despicable . . . fat" failure who lied that he had gone bankrupt.That the preening Trump could bring me to support one of America's most outspoken Entertainment-Lesbian-Democrats is an accomplishment of some means.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and hid them under a construction trailer, the Archives inspector general reported Wednesday.So what did the former Clinton National Security Adviser and foreign policy adviser to Presidential candidate John Kerry steal and why did he steal them.
The report was issued more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.
''After World War II, when people saw Japanese script it was scary,'' she said. ''But now we see it and it's fun, it's hip, it signifies a cool culture.''Maybe that's not the best analogy she could have used.
"We thought it was important to not have this recruiting station open quietly," said Emily McFarlane, a UNC-Chapel Hill junior who helped organize the protest at the Army Career Center, 1502 E. Franklin St.And from just seven months ago, from the same newspaper...
About 30 protesters -- members of Students for a Democratic Society, The Raging Grannies and others -- held signs, walked in a circle and shouted, "Out of Iraq, out of our schools! Out of town, shut the war down!"
Vandals staged attacks early Wednesday on the buildings used by the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, echoing similar assaults on three Triangle recruiting stations last month.
As before, vandals sprayed anti-war slogans and profanity, splashed red paint and claimed responsibility with a mass e-mail message to area media outlets.
This is Archbishop Peter Akinola, of the Anglican Church in Africa and he just ran off with two of the oldest and most historic parishes in America
"I didn't tell my family members. I didn't tell anyone at first. But I have a daughter and I don't want her to be ashamed to cover her face."Hmmm.
Asked on 60 Minutes if a 70-year-old white woman from Vero Beach should receive the same level of scrutiny as a Muslim from Jersey City, Mineta said, "Basically, I would hope so." Asked if he could imagine any set of circumstances that would justify ethnic and racial profiling, Mineta said "absolutely not."And if the sheer awfullness of that is not enough here we have the link for the Department of Transportation memo from 10/12/01 called Carrying Out Transportation Inspection and Safety Responsibilities in a Nondiscriminatory Manner.
"he was seen sitting in the back of a Mercedes chucking children's toys out of the window and announcing: "I'm the Bishop of Southwark. It's what I do."The Bishop actually seems as dangerous in his recreational activities as in his official duties, for it was this same Bishop who caused a row during the summer by revoking the "licence of a conservative evangelical minister" only to have his decision overturned by the Archbishop.
Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.The good Bishop's exact position being “It may in some circumstances be right to choose to withhold or withdraw treatment, knowing it will possibly, probably, or even certainly result in death.”
And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.
The 75-year-old was asked by the editor of a gay magazine whether he thought a gay councillor was a paedophile, Brighton Magistrates' Court was told.Apparently that is enough in the land of our ancestoral liberties to get a man hauled in front of a magistrate and charged with "using threatening, abusive or insulting works or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress."
"James Ledward asked Willows, 'Do you think Paul's a paedophile?"' prosecutor David Packer said.
"Willows replied to that with, 'I know you are not Paul, it's the other gays'." The barrister said the words "equated gay people with paedophiles".
A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.and
Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.Al Gore's next movie; he swears off meat and then travels across Kansas to throw a Big Mac into the glowing fires of Mount Doom.
GENEVA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Up to 1.8 million people are at risk from cholera, measles, malaria and other killer diseases following major floods across the Horn of Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
"...a world away from the unruly individualism of any American school""RIYADH, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Sunday welcomed a U.S. report on foreign policy in the region for emphasising a need for more attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.And in case you don't know what Baker Botts is...
KATY, Texas -- A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb has triggered a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning that the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig races on Fridays just to offend the Muslims.Or maybe they had just read this...
Many neighborhood residents maintain they have nothing against Muslims and are more concerned about property values, drainage, and traffic.
But one resident has set up an anti-Islamic website with an odometer-like counter that tracks terrorist attacks since Sept. 11.
"This may be my last will and testament, the last words I have spoken to those who know me, to those who do not know me. My name is Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef. I am 22 years of age. I am from America and this tape is to let you guys know, who disbelieve in Allah, to let the enemies of Islam know, and to let the Muslims alike know that the time for jihad is now....Be strong, oh Mujahaideen. Be strong oh brothers who want to fight for jihad...This is a warning to those who disbelieve, that we are here for you, and I am ready to give my life."
"What ever will we do Mr. Baker?"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday dismissed former Secretary of State James Baker's appeal that his Iraq recommendations be largely adopted as a whole and said President George W. Bush was considering various proposals for a change in course.
"It is lunacy, it is suicidal to continue to allow the energy markets at the levels they are now given the fact that a vast majority of those energy dollars are going to people who want to kill us and destroy everything we believe in," Santorum said. "We can no longer play games with our energy security."And of course some snark from his lessers at Tartette....oops, I mean Wonkette.
Santorum, who has not announced his future plans, said he will continue to work on issues related to Syria and Iran.
"I will do my best after I leave this place to continue to confront these enemies and to give the United States the opportunity to succeed in this war," Santorum said.
Earlier Wednesday, Santorum voted against confirming Robert Gates as defense secretary. Gates, who was confirmed by the Senate, was named by President Bush to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld. Santorum said the U.S. needs to confront Iran rather than "engaging someone who is at war with us. I think he is in error."
Given the ability of Iran and Syria to influence events ("influence events", that's a nice euphemism)within Iraq and their interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq, the United States should try to engage them constructively. In seeking to influence the behavior of both countries, the United States has disincentives and incentives available.(of course the big "disincentive" is off the table) Iran should stem the flow of arms and training to Iraq, respect Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and use its influence over Iraqi Shia groups to encourage national reconciliation.(and I should be 4 inches taller) The issue of Iran's nuclear programs should continue to be dealt with by the five permanent members of theAll in all it reminds me of something that came out of a committee in Dilbert.
United Nations Security Council plus Germany.(we all know how well they have dealt with it so far) Syria should control its border with Iraq to stem the flow of funding, insurgents and terrorists in and out of Iraq.(see the above "should")
And everybody should have seen this coming...
"The United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict and regional instability. There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United States to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts.(Hey now that's an idea why not have the United States involved in the Arab-Israeli peace "process".)
"the vicious combination of the Asian Knout and the European stock market"-Trotsky (via Niall Ferguson's War of the World)So, even though it is a truism that we learn by analogy, even though the Bush administration unapologetically practices the reality-eschewing art of propaganda—with procured "journalists," its own "news" pipeline at Fox, leader-centric ("war president") stagecraft, the classic Big Lie MO of, say, draft avoiders smearing war heroes as unpatriotic—we are not permitted to draw any comparisons to the über-propagandists of the previous century. That prohibition is reiterated in the coy caution with which I introduce the topic here.Diane McWhorter manages to control her coyness long enough to give the media a good spanking for......... making to too big a deal of its own mistakes.
The taboo is itself a precept of the propaganda state.
The Bush-era fourth estate has come up short not only against the Big Lie of "fair and balanced" news but also against its equally cunning cousin: the Small Inaccuracy used to repudiate the damaging larger truth. CBS crumbled under the administration's mau-mauers over Memogate, while Newsweek managed to withstand the hazing it took for its Koran-in-the-toilet item—which, like the substance of Dan Rather's offending report on Bush's National Guard career, was not only accurate; it was old news. But why didn't the national media go on the offensive and re-educate the government, and the public, about the inevitable if regrettable price of a free press? Mistakes will be made in the proverbial first draft of history, and holding reporters to a standard of perfection would inhibit them from performing the vigilance crucial to our democratic system."Mistakes will be made in the first draft of history." How true, for at the bottom of Ms. McWhorter's column.
Correction, Nov. 29, 2006: This piece originally claimed, incorrectly, that the Military Commissions Act strips U.S. citizens as well as noncitizens of habeas corpus rights. In fact, the provisions of the act relating to habeas corpus only apply to noncitizens.
