Click to enlarge image.
Upper Deck has produced a "Presidential Predictor" trading card of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin inside its latest baseball release. (PRNewsFoto/Upper Deck)
47 minutes ago
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The "Bailout Bill" Story To-Date
McCain ad: Rein - President Clinton Blames Democratic Congress
President Clinton was right. Need proof?
Congress Bails on Rescue - New York Post
Click image to enlarge.
Karl Rove Reacts to the No Vote on the Bailout - Names Names!
John McCain Calls on Congress to Leave Partisanship Aside and Fix the Problem
BREAKING: John McCain’s Remarks on the Economic Crisis
Des Moines, IA
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
We are in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. Congressional inaction has put every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk. Yesterday the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed.
I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem. Bipartisanship is a tough thing; never more so when you’re trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option.
Businesses all over the country cannot borrow to finance their own operations and pay their bills. If we do nothing, many may fail.
Sonic Corporation, a drive-in restaurant chain based in Oklahoma, learned on Thursday that one of its lenders, GE Capital, had stopped extending new loans to the chain's franchisees. That will block plans to rebuild restaurants, add equipment and open new locations. When small businesses like Sonic franchisees can't borrow, contractors don't get the remodeling work, equipment-makers lose sales, and restaurants go out of business. It hurts the entire community.
When financing dries up, students can’t get loans.
In Wisconsin, more than 100 Milwaukee Area Technical College students couldn’t access private loans to fund their education. Fortunately the school was able to come up with emergency loans, but this temporary arrangement cannot continue. Markets need to work so that people can get financial help and students can be educated.
Again, inaction is not an option.
In light of the House’s failure to act, this morning, I spoke to the President about two things that the administration has not done, but should do following the inaction of Congress:
First, the Treasury has already used its Exchange Stabilization Fund to back money market accounts. I encourage it to use it this fund as creatively as possible to provide backstop for accounts across our financial system to maintain confidence on the part of savers and investors.
And second, the recent housing bill gave the government nearly $1 trillion in authority to purchase mortgages. Housing and mortgages are at the root of this crisis. I encourage Treasury to take action to shore up mortgage values.
The Administration can take these actions with the stroke of the pen to help alleviate the crisis gripping our economy. I urge them to do so.
Also, the FDIC should quickly be granted the authority to increase the deposit insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000 so that families do not have to worry about their money. We cannot allow a crisis in our financial system to become a crisis in confidence.
I call on everyone in Washington to come together in a bipartisan way to address this crisis. I know that many of the solutions to this problem may be unpopular, but the dire consequences of inaction will be far more damaging to the economic security of American families and the fault will be all ours.
I will continue to do whatever I can to aid in a constructive answer to the challenge before us.
How To Play the Piano Like Chico Marx
Chico Marx - "Piano Scene" from Go West - YouTube link
Comedian Wayne Federman presents a short piano lesson demonstrating the three fundamentals of playing in the style of Chico Marx.
How To Play Piano Chico Marx Style - YouTube link
Chico Marx - "All I Do is Dream of You" Scene - Night at the Opera - YouTube link
Your turn. Click the keyboard to activate a Flash Virtual Piano.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Gordon Gecko was Wrong
Sold Out (1929), cartoon by Rollin Kirby depicting the repercussions of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
Wall Street - Gordon Gecko's "Greed Is Good" Speech
"Greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA." -- Gordon Gecko
The 1929 Stock Market Crash
Prelude
1929 Stock Market Crash (Part 1)
1929 Stock Market Crash (Part 2)
1929 Stock Market Crash (Part 3)
1929 Stock Market Crash (Part 4)
1929 Stock Market Crash (Part 5)
“Fishing is a constant reminder of humility and of human frailty -- for all men are equal before fishes.” - Herbert Hoover
~ ~ ~
Thanks for reading. Gone fishing. - c
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Money Tales from the Great Depression
Click to enlarge images.
Money Tales from the Great Depression
Amid the din of impending-recession rumors, I've noticed friends voicing anxiety about their jobs, finances and futures, and after hearing and reading an increasing number of reports on economic anxieties, I've also started to worry about how dire it might get.
I wanted to collect some firsthand accounts of how bad the American economy actually has gotten in the past, at least in living memory. So I sought out some perspective from those who had grown up during the Great Depression.
I suspect that, like me, many middle class Americans have a hard time imagining giving up their iPods, let alone selling apples on the street to make ends meet, and it seems worthwhile to keep in mind the sorts of real, large-scale hardship that can befall any country at any time.
And, although it's hard to find an expert today that would predict an economic calamity akin to the 1930s slump, I wanted to put a check on my own (and media pundits') occasionally alarmist tendencies by contrasting the recent forecasts about the current downturn with stories from a real historical enormity. In other words, it could be much, much worse.
Finally, I simply wanted to add a few more Great Depression voices to the record. As one of my interviewees, Naomi Zipkin, put it, "There aren't a lot of us here anymore — and soon there aren't going to be that many people around to talk to."
Following are excerpts from my conversations with five individuals who were born in the 1910s or '20s and grew up during the prolonged economic downturn that followed the U.S. stock market crash of 1929. They talked about their memories of the hardships that they — or their parents, friends or relatives — endured, and about how their experiences during the Depression may have affected their views of money and finances.
Alice (not her real name) was born in Pomona in 1923 and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. She now lives in San Clemente (Orange County).
"I remember when they came and took our car away — that made a big impression," she says. "And I remember my mother worrying about what to feed us.
"My father was a real estate broker. Then the housing market crashed — sort of like today but 10 times worse. Nobody was buying homes. What little money my parents had was gone when the banks closed.
"My father starting raising some vegetables in our yard. I remember we didn't have new clothes; you grew and your clothes didn't fit anymore. I never went to a dentist; I had crooked teeth.
"My grandmother lost her only son in World War I, so she was a Gold Star Mother and got $50 a month. So there were times when she'd send part of that to my mother to help us out.
"The Depression made a saver of me; that's been the most important thing, ever since. When I was young, my father once tried to explain to me how a bank could close. Can you imagine trying to explain that to a kid? For a long time I didn't have a great trust of banks.
"My father had a friend named Oscar who had quite a bit of money. After the bank closures, he didn't trust banks, and he buried his money in fruit jars in his back yard. When the Depression was over, Oscar dug up all the jars and bought (some real estate) with the money.
"It still scares me to death when people run up big credit bills. That's not something I could do. I'm very careful. My house has to be clear, so that no one can take it away.
Lucille Gold was born in New York City in 1920. She now lives in Oceanside (San Diego County).
"My mother and father were immigrants," she says. "They came here (from Russia) before World War I as teenagers. My father got to be very rich in the 1920s: He opened a chemical company of sorts. I never knew, but I suspect it might have had something to do with Prohibition. Our family was rich — we had a nanny and lived in the upper Bronx in a very elegant home. My father also invested in a lot of things like radio and film. And then he lost everything in the stock market crash.
"I remember listening in to lots of my parents' conversations after my sister and I were supposed to be in bed. My mother would be crying, wondering what we would do ... She found a job as a bookkeeper for another family, and my father applied for New York City welfare. I remember it was $25 a week for a family of four.
"We had an uncle who had come to California and invested in real estate, and who was not hurt by the Depression. He let my family live rent-free in an apartment that he owned in the Bronx. That was one of the ways we survived.
"I've had a fantastic life — not rich, but full of wonderful things. What the Depression really did was make me very political and very radical. I can't understand the political apathy I see in this world today. I resent living in a country that prides itself on being so rich and yet people still have to worry about getting old, getting sick, losing a job."
Naomi Zipkin is Lucille Gold's younger sister. She was born in 1926 and currently lives in Walnut Creek.
"My father was a real romantic, and one of his great pleasures was reminding our mother of their anniversary in late December with a gift of a dozen long-stemmed red roses," she says. "Roses at that time in New York were very costly, and finances were a real problem for my family. (During the Depression) he would bring home these roses and my mother would, as they say now, 'go ballistic.'
"We were reliant on welfare for period of our lives. I can vividly remember my parents eating differently from my sister and I. In Jewish custom, my mother fed us well — she would buy good nutritious food for us; I don't remember what (my parents) ate instead.
"I still have some of the Depression mentality, and I'm 81. I still find that decisions I'll make are kind of based on the sense of you only have yourself that you can count on for security. Life isn't always predictable.
"I also probably came away with a sense of the importance of having savings, and not wanting to be reliant upon my children, for example — having them actualize themselves in the way they need to, and not feeling responsible for my husband and me.
"When I graduated from college, I knew that I'd have to go out and go to work; one didn't think of anything else. Grad school was only for the wealthy. I would have loved to go to graduate school. I look at my grandchildren, and my grandson just graduated from college, and he's not sure what he wants to do with his life. He'd like to spend some time thinking about what he'd like to do next — I think it's wonderful, I'm not judging it — but in no way would that have fit into my own expectation for myself."
Nathan Zipkin is Naomi's husband. He was born in Los Angeles in 1921.
"We never had money for clothes," he remembers. "In those days people darned their socks; it was not like today where you throw them away. In the summer time we didn't wear shoes.
"There was always food in our house, but dinners quite often were just potato soup or just rice and gravy. My mother sacrificed a lot for us.
"FDR declared a bank holiday after he first became president. When it was over, the bank that my parents had some savings in failed — it was gone. They lost all their savings — about $1,000. Even as a young kid, I could understand this was a serious thing.
"Then my parents started having trouble paying their mortgage. Congress had passed a law setting up the HOLC (the Home Owners' Loan Corporation). You had to apply to them, and I remember my mother going down every day to the office of the HOLC to try to get them to give us relief — to lower the payments on the mortgage — similar to what they're talking about today, but for different reasons. One day my mother came home and said, 'They approved our application.' She broke down and said, 'We're not going to lose our house.' That was 1934; I'm going on 87. I was a young kid then, but I can still remember it clearly.
"I know that in my high school years, which were 1936 to 1939, I was thinking, 'I have to get a job out of high school, what am I going to do? There was no emphasis on going to college; my father had been an orphan and he labored. He was never out of work during the Depression. He owned a little laundry store and he worked long, long, long hours. He was gone in the morning while it was still dark, he came home after work, exhausted, had dinner and fell into bed. And then he'd get up and do it again, morning after morning. Shortly after I graduated from high school in June, 1939, I got a job in a laundry for $12 a week; it was a 50-hour week that we worked.
"One son of mine is doing very well now — he's a consultant in a computer business. I keep talking to him and saying, 'Whatever you're saving, be sure you're saving a large enough chunk, so if you're out of work for a couple years you'll be able to live. I don't know if relaying my situation to my kids had an impact. From time to time I've told them what it was like.
"What I don't want to do is ever be in a position where I'd have to go to (my children) for help. I can't emphasize how important Social Security is in our lives, and in my mother and father's lives. I keep thinking what's going to happen with my kids; I think this country is going to be faced with a major financial upset. There will be some hard times."
John Manola was born in 1917 in East Orange, N.J. He now lives in Philadelphia.
"My father worked as a mason," he says, "and when the Depression came, he lost his job, along with many, many others. I remember hearing my folks talk about not having any income at all. He got unemployment of some kind and then eventually got a job with the WPA.
"My uncle had a very good job on Wall Street; he lost everything. He almost committed suicide; he became very emotionally disturbed.
"I remember that my mother would cry a lot when she couldn't pay the bills. (Collectors) would come to our house and she'd have to talk to them. I remember hearing all this.
"The Depression made me realize how I had to work for everything. I started to have little jobs. My mother's brother had a chicken farm and he asked my mother if I would want to sell some eggs. I would take the eggs out and sell them.
"The experience of growing up during the Depression has definitely permeated my life. One thing it made me do is save. You always have to have something to fall back on. And I've always been careful with credit cards.
"I think when I hear that word 'recession' now, I really feel it more than maybe some people that didn't go through (the Great Depression). When I started reading about the latest recession news, I called my broker — I have a few things in stocks and so forth — and I asked him, 'Am I to be afraid about this?' The fear is there. But I trust that something will adjust.
"I'm not fatalistic; I'm more optimistic than pessimistic, but I still have sort of a feeling of how quickly things can disappear. And I also know that you really don't have to have too much to get along. You can get along very well with very little. You don't have to keep trying to be a millionaire. If I won $1 million, I wouldn't know what to do with it."
Barack Obama's Bracelet: He Just Doesn't Get It
White House photo of the day from the White House Photo Blog. Photo: Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME. Click to enlarge image.
Amongst the things that Barack Obama
carries for good luck
are a memorial bracelet for Sgt. Ryan Jopek, who died in Iraq, a gambler’s lucky chit, a tiny monkey god and a tiny Madonna and child.
Barack just doesn't get it.
Obama Checks Soldier's Name on Bracelet - YouTube link
"... from Sgt.... uh... uh..."
Paul Newman (1925-2008)
Paul Newman Tribute - YouTube link
Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83 - story.
h/t: Jeff, dremango.
Friday, September 26, 2008
McCain Wins Debate!
But Concedes,
"I don't even have a seal yet."
"There was one man who was presidential tonight, that man was John McCain. There was another who was political, that was Barack Obama.
John McCain won this debate and controlled the dialogue throughout, whether it was the economy, taxes, spending, Iraq or Iran.
There was a leadership gap, a judgment gap, and a boldness gap on display tonight, a fact Barack Obama acknowledged when he said John McCain was right at least five times.
Tonight's debate showed John McCain in command of the issues and presenting a clear agenda for America’s future."
--Jill Hazelbaker, McCain-Palin 2008 Communications Director
McCain Is Right - YouTube link
Senator John McCain:
Tonight, Senator Obama and I participated in the first debate of the general election. It was a spirited debate and I believe the difference between our visions for America were made very clear.
In a few hours, I will return to Washington to resume negotiations with the Administration and Congressional leaders from both parties to forge a bipartisan solution to our economic crisis. I am optimistic we will come to a final agreement soon. All voices must be represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.
We cannot be interested in who would get credit for finding a solution and who would be blamed if an agreement cannot be reached. We must put our country first to solve this economic crisis. Because in the end, that's what leaders do in times of crisis.
Our next president and Congress will face challenging times that require selfless leadership. They must find solutions to issues like the economy, national security, and energy independence. I'm ready to work with Governor Palin and our Congressional allies to address the nation's most pressing challenges. Make no mistake, we are ready to lead and the Obama-Biden Democrats are not.
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Obama Debates Himself on Iraq
The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand - YouTube link
Hillary Clinton: "I know Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And, Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."
The speech Obama gave in 2002 [or what he says is left of it.]
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Economic Crisis for Dummies
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
McCain: Priceless
Sen. John McCain is flanked by two supporters during a McCain/Palin rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. - Click image to enlarge.
Rally Supplies?... $21 Million
Campaign Events?... $40 Million
Choosing the right running mate?...
PRICELESS
Gorgeous and Invisible
red blood cells
Plato insisted that the most beautiful things were invisible — that perfect forms are too perfect to see.
Well, Plato would have loved the Wellcome Image competition, which limits itself to photographs of subjects that can’t be seen by the naked eye.
See more at the Welcome Image Awards 2008 Gallery.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Twas the Night Iran Went Nuclear
Twas the night Iran went nuclear, when all through land
Not a word was made mention; they were mute as the sand.
The scientists displayed enriched uranium with care.
To inspect it, their leader soon would be there.
The children of Israel were snug in their beds,
While visions of sufganiyah danced in their heads.
They dreamt of latkes and kugel and brisket well-seasoned
And hadn't a care; Hanukkah was the reason.
Back in Iran, there arose such a clatter,
Mahmoud was ecstatic; he was mad as a hatter.
"Israel won't exist exist; their land will be hexed,
Then America, watch out, for you will be next!"
"Now Bushehr! now, Natanz! now, Karaj and Arak!
We have nuclear weapons and we will attack!
The cities of Satan shall crumble and fall!
And, Allah willing, they'll be nothing at all!"
To the world he said naught, but went straight to his work,
Ordering warheads filled, he went truly bizerk.
Atop his weapons, he grinned and whooped as he posed,
Then giving a nod, to the launchers they rose!
Secured in his bunker, to his team gave a whistle,
And away warheads flew on Shehab-3 missiles.
He triumphantly exclaimed, as they climbed out of sight,
"Merry Christmas infidels, and to all a good-night!"
Monday, September 22, 2008
America's First Spy
Hale Receiving Instructions from Washington - Johnston, Henry P. "Captain Nathan Hale." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Volume LXI. June To November, 1880.
Capt. Hale, In the Words of an Enemy
"[Maj. Robert Rogers, the daring New England frontiersman and guerrilla commander] detected several American officers, that were sent to Long Island as spies, especially Captain Hale, who was improved in disguise, to find whether the Long Island inhabitants were friends to America or not.
Colonel Rogers having for some days, observed Captain Hale, and suspected that he was an enemy in disguise; and to convince himself, Rogers thought of trying the same method, he quickly altered his own habit, with which he Made Capt Hale a visit at his quarters, where the Colonel fell into some discourse concerning the war, intimating the trouble of his mind, in his being detained on an island, where the inhabitants sided with the Britains against the American Colonies, intimating withal, that he himself was upon the business of spying out the inclination of the people and motion of the British troops.
This intrigue, not being suspected by the Capt, made him believe that he had found a good friend, and one that could be trusted with the secrecy of the business he was engaged in; and after the Colonel's drinking a health to the Congress: informs Rogers of the business and intent.
The Colonel, finding out the truth of the matter, invited Captain Hale to dine with him the next day at his quarters, unto which he agreed. The time being come, Capt Hale repaired to the place agreed on, where he met his pretended friend, with three or four men of the same stamp, and after being refreshed, began the same conversation as hath been already mentioned.
But in the height of their conversation, a company of soldiers surrounded the house, and by orders from the commander, seized Capt Hale in an instant.
But denying his name, and the business he came upon, he was ordered to New York. But before he was carried far, several persons knew him and called him by name; upon this he was hanged as a spy, some say, without being brought before a court martial."
Excerpt from Consider Tiffany's manuscript history of the American Revolution. [pictured here] The page on the left (verso) contains Tiffany's account of the capture of Nathan Hale by Maj. Robert Rogers.
Tiffany's account of the capture of Nathan Hale fits the facts as we know them so well that one is tempted to accept it as being substantially true. Tiffany's story reflects badly on Hale's judgment but not on his moral virtue. His ineptitude as a spy does not diminish his patriotism; on the contrary, it gave him the opportunity, however hateful, to display it in its most magnificent dimensions.
The "martyr-spy" of the American Revolution and the patron saint of the American intelligence establishment; Hale's statue stands today just off the main lobby of CIA headquarters in McLean, Va.
As a 21-year-old captain in the Continental Army whose spotless moral character was universally admired, Hale courageously volunteered in September 1776 for the dangerous mission of reconnoitering British army positions in the New York City area; he was captured and hanged on Manhattan Island on Sept. 22, 1776.
Ardent patriot writers of the 19th century depicted Hale's death in theological tones, describing how the young hero, alone amidst a sea of hostility, established a moral superiority over his tormentors and died triumphantly, uttering the imperishable sentiment:
"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Old Faithful Geyser Webcam
Old Faithful Geyser as seen from Observation Point. Photo: DeskTopScenes.
Old Faithful WebCam - Still Image - With 30 Second Updates
Old Faithful WebCam - Live Streaming Video - Includes Naration
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Moose Shootin' Mama
Moose Shootin’ Mama, by Pat Garrett, is the latest campaign diddy to hit the Internet airwaves.
Asked by the McCain/Palin campaign if he was busy for the next two months, Garrett replied, "I'll clear my schedule."
You can download a copy of Moose Shootin’ Mama here.
Moose Shootin’ Mama Lyrics:
Well she’s a moose shootin’ mama
And she’ll help keep our country free
She’s a moose shootin’ mama
She’ll make a great VP
When she looks you in the eye
You know that girl don’t lie
She’s a moose shootin’ mama
Yes, Sarah is the girl for me
She’ll help the prez keep our taxes down
And clean up Washington
Get them pork-barrel boys on the run
Man, this is gonna be fun
And it’s drill, baby, drill
Cause we’re paying way too much
Maybe what this country needs is a woman’s touch
Pumas: The New LOL Cats
Puma, also cougar or mountain lion, is a carnivore of North and South America with thick fur that ranges from reddish-brown in tropical forms to bluish-gray in northern forms. It is lighter on the sides, and the muzzle, chin, throat, breast, and insides of the legs are whitish. The puma is found from British Columbia to Patagonia. Its body can be up to 1.95 m (up to 6.4 ft) long, exclusive of its long tail. The head is relatively small, with a black spot above each eye. The female bears two to four young in a litter; the young have dark brown spots on the back, and the tail is ringed. Pumas hunt elk, deer, and smaller mammals.
~ ~ ~
Shelly Mandell, pres. of the L.A. chapter of NOW, endorses Sarah Palin. [video]
Have a great P.U.M.A photo? Submit the link in a comment and I'll add their photo here.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Nothing New
On the biggest financial issue of the day, Barack Obama would not say if he supported or opposed the government-backed rescue of insurance giant AIG.
It's nothing new.
Obama voted "present" nearly 130 times as a state senator.
The answers may seem obvious to you but, not to him.
~ ~ ~
The Washington Post on John McCain's Record
"In the aftermath of the Enron collapse and other accounting scandals, he was a leader, with Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), in pushing to require that companies treat stock options granted to employees as expenses on their balance sheets.
... Mr. McCain was an early voice calling for the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, charging that he 'seems to prefer industry self-policing to necessary lawmaking. Government's demands for corporate accountability are only credible if government executives are held accountable as well.'
In 2006, he pushed for stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- while Mr. Obama was notably silent."
Presidential Prediction
Who's going to win the race for the White House?
Let's have some fun. -- Let's ask Tarot.com! (Religious folks, please bear with me, I promise, this really will be fun.)
In case you can't read my question, I asked (trying to be as specific as possible):
"Will Barack Obama win the 2008 U.S. presidential race?"
Actual screenshot of question and answer from Tarot.com.
What does the answer to my question mean?
At #0, the Fool is the card of infinite possibilities. The bag on the staff indicates that he has all he needs to do or be anything he wants, he has only to stop and unpack. He is on his way to a brand new beginning. But the card carries a little bark of warning as well. Stop daydreaming and fantasizing and watch your step, lest you fall and end up looking the fool.
A woman is tied and blindfolded within a cage of swords. This is the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" card. The Querent is in a situation where they're afraid to move. If they move, they'll get cut. However, the ropes that bind them, the blindfold over their eyes, are their own fears, keeping them still, immobile. And so the longer they stay, the more they constrain and entrap themselves. Ever been in a situation where you're afraid to say anything, so afraid that you second guess yourself, end up saying nothing, tying yourself in knots? But speaking up is going to get you cut to ribbons? That's this card. The Querent must have the strength to endure the cuts, else they'll stay trapped. They must move, for the longer they let the situation continue, the worse it will get.
Ah, the dreaded three of swords. Three swords pierce a heart. Against the background of a storm, it bleeds.
You were warned that the peace established in the two of swords couldn't last. What sharp words or cutting ideas have created here, not surprisingly, is pain and heartbreak. This card often relates to love-triangles; but remember this is an air sign, so what the Querent believes to be true was likely due to something they heard wrongly or were falsely told, a wrong idea they got into their heads. It does not lessen the fact that hurtful words are going to be exchanged.
There is, however, an up side to this card, however bleak. Prior to now, the words and thoughts - possibly poisonous words and thoughts - have been bottled up. They now come out into the open, the cutting truth. I don't like you, or, I didn't say that, or, I'm sorry, but it's your best friend I love (ouch!). So, well, now the Querent knows; no more waiting, obsessing, wondering, worrying. Either blood or poison can drip out, and the Querent can get on with their life. They now know how things stand and can act on that, instead of on false beliefs, gossip and misconceptions.
Sorry, Obama. It seems a presidential win for you just isn't in the cards...
no matter who you know.
Barack Obama and Andrew Morelock, VP, Tarot.com.
"Andrew - Keep up the good work. - Barack"
Yes, thanks Andrew! ;) - c
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
h/t: Marcus
BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!
JOHN MCCAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.
HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure (right from Day One!) that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.
GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.
DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?
COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.
BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of road?
AL GORE: I invented the chicken.
JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.
AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need more black chickens.
DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.
OPRAH: Well, I understand that this chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed access to the other side of the road.
NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.
PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No bird gave me any insider information about crossing.
DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.
JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you may become gay, also. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side.' That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.
GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why a chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.
BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it had experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.
ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens crossing roads together.
BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will integrate with those that lay eggs. Henhouse Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable than previous versions.
ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road pass beneath the chicken?
COLONEL SANDERS: Which way did he go?
U.S. Capitol Turns 215
The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., is among the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world. It has housed the meeting chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives for almost two centuries. Begun in 1793, the Capitol has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored; today, it stands as a monument not only to its builders but also to the American people and their government.
President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol during a groundbreaking ceremony for construction on Sept. 18, 1793.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sarah Get Your AR-15
By Steven Stark for The Phoenix
The Alaska governor is dominating the election as we head into the fall — Why that is bad news for the Obama campaign
Ever since John McCain selected Sarah Palin to be his running mate, she has been the focus of the campaign — whether it’s been igniting the GOP base or inviting parodies on Saturday Night Live (where Tina Fey, a real doppelgänger for the Alaska governor, kicked off the show’s season debut with a much-discussed impression this past weekend). Unfortunately, if you’re a Barack Obama partisan, this attention has played right into the Republicans’ hands, by taking focus off of both McCain and Obama.
By and large, voters will judge Palin to be qualified for the vice-presidency because historically they find almost anyone to be qualified for the vice-presidency. Like politicians, they don’t think much of the office. (James Nance Garner, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s vice-president from 1933 to 1941, once compared the post to a “pitcher of warm piss.”) And, apart from standards for the office, Palin’s persona is the type that appeals to a large number of Americans.
Palin may not have much of a résumé, but that only puts her into a long tradition of vice-presidential selections, many of them successful (at least in an electoral sense). There was Republican Spiro Agnew in 1968, himself a one-term governor, who began his acceptance speech by saying, “I stand here with a deep sense of the improbability of the moment.” Or Barry Goldwater’s 1964 choice, obscure New York congressman Bill Miller, whose claim to fame was that he later went on to appear in an American Express commercial. (“Do you know me?” he began. No one did.)
Going back even farther, there’s Thomas Wheeler, a New York congressman who was the convention choice in 1876 to share the GOP ticket with Rutherford B. Hayes. When informed of the selection, Hayes asked, “Who is Wheeler?” Or Democrat Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana in 1912, who provoked the head of the ticket, Woodrow Wilson, to complain, “But he is a very small-caliber man!”
Is competence an issue? When Henry Gassaway Davis was put on the Democratic ticket in 1904, he was 80 and labeled “the reminiscence from West Virginia.” He entered the history books for his immortal analysis of the problems with fiction. He never read novels, he once said, because “the people in the stories are not real.” And perhaps the vice-president most relevant to Palin watchers today is Chester A. Arthur, who got to run as James A. Garfield’s number two in 1880 (and later acceded to the presidency), despite having gotten canned two years earlier as customs collector of New York for loading up the office with his buddies.
The No-Win Debate
Even if the standards for the office of vice-president have risen in recent years, many in the electorate are likely to be drawn to Palin. That’s because she conforms to an old, very popular American type — the tough, marauding, frontier woman.
Put another way, Palin is something of a modern version of Annie Oakley (even though, admittedly, no one ever asked Oakley to sort out a Wall Street crisis or deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions).
Hers is a persona that usually doesn’t attract educated Easterners. In fact, when Irving Berlin was asked to help write a musical based on Oakley’s life (Annie Get Your Gun), he needed a fair amount of persuasion — because he had never even heard of her. Besides, he told the show’s backers, he didn’t write “hillbilly” music.
But despite her pre-feminist roots, Oakley remains an American heroine — a self-educated cowgirl born in a log cabin — who learned to outshoot almost any man in the West. She ended up touring the country with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and, when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, the government turned down her offer to lead a volunteer group of sharp-shooting women into the war.
Interestingly, like Palin, Oakley had a running battle with the press — successfully suing William Randolph Hearst and others for contending falsely that she had been arrested for stealing to support a cocaine habit. (In another forecast of things to come, Hearst hired an investigator to try to dig up dirt in her past. He found nothing.)
The bottom line is that, as long as the Democrats and media focus on Palin, the more they ignore McCain, much to the GOP’s delight. Any debate about Palin’s qualifications, even if Obama wins that argument, is a loser for him in the long run because it deflects attention from the real issues in the campaign — issues that can help the Dems in November.
By campaigning against Palin, the Democrats are trying to run against an American archetype, competing for an office that the public thinks almost anyone can fill, even a modern Annie Oakley. Not a great idea.
Anything for Your Vote
Obama Tries to Stall GI's Iraq Withdrawal
Disgrace! Obama Discourages Troop Negotiations for Personal Political Gain - YouTube link
"The problem with what Obama did is twofold. First, Senator Obama has no authority to negotiate on behalf of the executive branch, which has sole authority to conduct foreign policy. Second and most important, Obama attempted to interfere against the interests of the United States. He can ask all the questions he wants, but when Obama started pressing Iraqi officials to stop negotiations with the executive branch — in other words, break one level of diplomatic contact and freeze a military alliance in time of war — that crossed a line and clearly violated the Logan Act. It also makes clear that Obama would do anything to get elected, even harm diplomatic relations between the US and an ally." - from Ed Morrissey for Hot Air
Obama's response?
"A Lie" scene from Logan's Run - YouTube link
"Life clocks are a lie! Carousel is a lie! There is no renewal!"
O.K., so Obama didn't come out with a statement decrying this report as a lie. The actual statement from the Obama camp is not so comical:
Obama’s national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said, "In fact, Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a 'Strategic Framework Agreement' governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office."
Is it my interpretation, or did Ms. Morigi just admit that Obama attempted to circumvent U.S. policy?
Read the Background Material...
• AFP: Obama Camp Hits Back at Iraq Double-Talk Claim
• New York Post: Obama Tried to Stall Iraq Withdrawal - Amir Taheri
• HotAir: Did Obama Just Confirm Taheri?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
An Honorable Thing to Do
Specialist Matthew Stanley, 22, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire was known as an upbeat guy, a popular high school prankster who touched everyone he met.
In December of 2006, Matthew was one of three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb as they rode in a Humvee in Baghdad. The newlywed would have turned 23 the day after Christmas.
"He was just one of those kids, happy-go-lucky, all the time," said James Savage Jr., his stepbrother. "He loved life. He was a fun person to be around. He just thought going to the military was an honorable thing to do."
Sen. John McCain promised Stanley's mother, Lynn Savage, that he will do everything in his power to make sure her son's death was not in vain.
"It means any political ambitions of mine pale in comparison to the sacrifice that nearly 4,000 family members have made," McCain said of the bracelet he wears that bears Matthew's name and photo.
Although political pundits said his determination not to end the fight in Iraq would kill his political career, McCain says, "when you meet the mother of Matthew Stanley, then what difference does that make?"
Why Downturns Breed Better Innovations
Lehman Brothers folds. Story and photo by The New York Times.
By David Silverman for Harvard Business Publishing.
"Why would you want to start a company now?"
I've heard that a lot lately. The economy is down and getting worse, so it would be a terrible time to launch a new enterprise.
Or is it actually one of the best times to be innovative?
I did a little research and came up with a surprising list of companies that were founded during the worst economic downturn in US history, the Great Depression.
There were plenty of big names, and a lot of them are all about innovation:
- Motorola
- Hewlett-Packard
- Xerox
- Ryder
- Unisys
- Texas Instruments
- Revlon
- Converse
- La-Z-Boy
- Interstate Bakeries (makers of Twinkies, a food that would allegedly survive any disaster)
- The Pittsburgh Steelers (one of the few franchises to survive from that time)
Unemployed men stand in line for free coffee and doghnuts during the Great Depression.
And it wasn't just the giants. There were also smaller companies that are still around today: Rubenstein Supply Company, Kansas City Steak, and Loehmanns Department Store. And there were introductions of new products that have lasted ever since such as Nestle's Nescafe and Kraft's Miracle Whip.
I particularly liked this quote from Purina's website where they explain how doing something new (celebrity endorsements) leads to survival and success:
"Consumer products companies rely heavily on new products, advertising and promotion to compete for scarce Depression dollars. Ralston Purina also masters the art of celebrity endorsements by sending Dog Chow® Checkers dog food to the South Pole with Admiral Byrd in 1933. That same year a cowboy named Tom Mix agrees to hawk Ralston cereals, and an army of young Straight Shooters pledges allegiance to Purina."
Why did so many long-lasting companies and products come from the Great Depression? While there's no question that a bad economy makes it tougher to raise capital and win customers, the reality is that good ideas implemented well always have room to succeed. From another point of view, limited consumer funds means that more attention is given to every purchase, and therefore the best new ideas and products have a better chance of success during a downturn because the competition can't provide the same value.
Bread line during the Great Depression. Photo: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Whatever the media might say, we certainly haven't fallen as far as bread lines and veterans camping out in front of the White House. Which is to say, in a perverse way, that this downturn is possibly not bad enough for the toughest to really prove themselves. Though while we may not get Twinkies, we will not see a lack of new companies benefiting from the strictures of a slowdown.
What do you think? Is it better to keep your day job during a recession, or would you pursue an entrepreneurial dream regardless of the larger economic conditions?
See the Complete Downturn Survival Guide
Monday, September 15, 2008
Keeping up with the First Dude
Todd Palin, husband of Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin, shakes hands with a fan who brought a Newsweek magazine for Palin to sign at a group autograph event at the Hays Days Grass Drags snowmobile event in Forest Lake, Minn., on Sept. 6. Todd Palin, a professional racer, is the defending and four-time champion of the 2,000 mile Iron Dog snowmobile race. Photo: Andy King / The Associated Press.
Secret Service Could Have a Tough Task Protecting Palin on Trail
By Mike Campbell for the Anchorage Daily News.
If John McCain and Sarah Palin win the presidential election in November, they'll be sworn into office Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C.
Nineteen days later, Todd Palin expects to be gunning an Arctic Cat snowmachine atop frozen Big Lake, strapping on his helmet and heading down the Iditarod Trail toward Nome, hoping to claim his fifth championship in the Tesoro Iron Dog, the toughest and longest snowmachine race in the world.
Tesoro Iron Dog competitiors line up during the Big Lake start on Sunday. The race, which goes to Nome and finishes in Fairbanks, covers 2,000 miles of Alaska wilderness. Photo: Bill Roth / Anchorage Daily News.
He may have company -- and not just racing partner Scott Davis of Soldotna.
The U.S. Secret Service is authorized to protect the president, the vice president and their immediate families wherever they go.
Which raises the question: Any hot snowmachine drivers among the agents who work for Secret Service?
"It's a very hard race," allowed Marianne Beckham, president of the Iron Dog. "I could just see a bunch of Secret Service guys on snowmachines trying to keep up. The other racers can't keep up, for goodness sakes. Let's see what they can do."
Malcolm Wiley, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, D.C., declined to detail how the secret service might protect Palin during the 2,000-mile race from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks. He noted that those entitled to protection by statute may decline it.
"We've had protectees who've done lots of extracurricular activities, and we've always been able to adapt," Wiley said. "We've been able to accommodate them and provide a full protective detail.
"He would be afforded that. But we're not going to get into the means and methods."
Palin's Iron Dog teammate, Davis, says Palin will be there.
Todd Palin and his race partner Scott Davis at the Iron Dog starting line. Photo: Anchorage Daily News.
"He's committed to racing in 2009," Davis said. "He's not gonna let a little thing like his wife being vice president stop him. The Iron Dog, it gets in your blood."
Davis flew to Minneapolis last weekend to meet up with Palin -- who was there for the Republican National Convention. The pair did some promotional work for Arctic Cat, the snowmachine both drivers have ridden for years that has its headquarters in Thief River Falls, Minn.
Thousands of people showed up for the public appearance, Davis said.
"I didn't get as much one-on-one time as I expected," he said. "But what goes on with the election isn't going to change what he's going to do."
Unclear still was whether the Secret Service would protect Palin during the race.
"His comment was, 'We'd have to see,' " Davis said. "I guess he could decline it. It would be tough for the Secret Service to keep up."
Iron Dog executive director Laura Bedard said a victory by McCain and Palin could also mean a record crowd at the Iron Dog start.
"Is Big Lake big enough if that's the case?" she asked. "Anytime Todd has raced, Sarah has always been there. We have to be prepared for that."
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin drops the starting flag for Todd and Kyle Malamute of Fairbanks, the first team out, in the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, Sunday Feb. 11, 2007, in Big Lake, Alaska. Twenty-eight teams left the starting line in Big Lake for the 1,100-mile ride to Nome before heading to the finish in Fairbanks. Photo: Al Grillo / AP.
About three weeks ago -- before McCain picked Sarah as his running mate -- Palin and Davis paid the $2,630 early entry fee for the 2009 race.
They are two of the top drivers in race history. No one has more victories than Davis' seven, while Palin owns four championships with three different partners. The duo has ridden together since 2004, a long tenure in a race that requires riders to ride in two-man teams for safety but frequently sees top contenders change partners.
Since 2001, Palin has picked up two championships and three second-place finishes in six races (the 2003 race was cancelled).
The only time he finished outside the top two was this year, when he hit a barrel covered by snow near the airport in Galena, about 400 miles from the Fairbanks finish line. Palin went flying over the handlebars of his machine and broke his arm.
Race winners: Teammates Eric Quam, right, and Marc McKenna speed Saturday toward the finish line of the Tesoro Iron Dog snowmachine race, on their way to winning the nearly 2000-mile race from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks. Despite a broken arm, First Dude, Todd Palin, crosses the Iron Dog finish line fourth.
Davis, 48 at the time, was rattled enough by the accident to rush Palin straight to the Galena clinic. A health aide there decided the battered racer was OK to continue.
"The last thing he ever wants to do is scratch," Sarah Palin said in February as she awaited her husband's arrival in subzero cold at the Chena River finish line in Fairbanks. "If there's any way he can finish the race, he's going to finish it."
The duo got Palin's machine going in Galena, but it quit again five miles outside of Nenana and 50 miles from the finish line. Davis towed him the rest of the way.
It took the pair 69 minutes to reach Fairbanks from Nenana. The third-place team of Pete Demoski and Tyler Huntington made it in less than 46 minutes to beat Palin-Davis by 19 minutes.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin greets her husband Todd at the finish line of the Tesoro Iron Dog race. Photo from the Nevada Surveyor.
The governor greeted her husband with a warm smile, a hug and a pat on the back before noticing the ripped sleeve and missing pocket on his Gore-Tex jacket, evidence of Palin's wreck the day before. A bungee cord was strapped across his machine's cowling to keep its green hood in place.
"He deserves a pat on the back for getting here," Davis said of his partner, who he described as a saavy navigator.
Usually, Palin follows Davis down the trail.
"I prefer to lead," Davis said last week. "He rides in the snow dust and that's hard to do -- so it's a perfect team. Not very many people are happy riding in the snow dust, where your vision is impaired. But in front, you're kind of the crash-test dummy."
Said Bedard: "They're like a well-oiled machine when it comes to racing."
Since his first Iron Dog back in 1984, Davis has raced with 11 different partners -- and Palin may be his favorite.
"He's probably the most fun to be around," Davis said. "A lot of time, drivers make good partners, but they hate each other. You're kind of joined at the hip for a couple of months. Todd knows what to do, and I know what to do. It works out well."
So come Feb. 8, will Todd Palin be at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C., the official residence of the vice president? Or will he be riding his Arctic Cat snowmachine along the Iditarod Trail, fighting off the frigid cold while absorbing a endless series of spine-jarring bumps?
"I would expect him to race," Iron Dog treasurer Jim Wilke said. "It would surprise me a lot if he didn't. Since his wife became governor, they haven't let her career affect their lifestyle at all."
Crime in the United States
Click to enlarge image.
The FBI has published their most comprehensive statistical product—their latest annual Crime in the United States 2007 report—and there are dozens of charts, tables, and documents to explore.
Among the many numbers for 2007, the big picture is clear: crime is down.
Nationwide, violent crime fell for the first time since 2005. Property crime declined for the fifth straight year. And each of the seven specific offense categories—from aggravated assault to murder—was down from 2006.
A few more top line numbers:
- An estimated 1.4 million violent crimes were reported last year, a drop of 0.7 percent compared to 2006.
- Property crimes fell 1.4 percent in 2007, to an estimated 9.8 million.
- Larceny/theft offenses accounted for two-thirds of all property crimes, and victims of property crimes—excluding arson—collectively lost an estimated $17.6 billion.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Afghan-Pakistan Militant Nexus
Seven years after 9/11, the US has declared the Afghan-Pakistan border region to be the new frontline in its war on terror.
By M. Ilyas Kahn for BBC news
Helmand, Chaghai
Kabul's writ has never run strong in the remote southern plains of Helmand province. Further south, across the border in Pakistan, lies the equally remote Noshki-Chaghai region of Balochistan province.
Since 9/11, this region has been in turmoil. In the Baramcha area on the Afghan side of the border, the Taleban have a major base. The chief commander is Mansoor Dadullah. From there they control militant activities as far afield as Nimroz and Farah provinces in the west, Oruzgan in the north and parts of Kandahar province in the east. They also link up with groups based in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.
The Helmand Taleban, unlike comrades elsewhere in Afghanistan, have been able to capture territory and hold it, mostly in the southern parts of the province. They constantly threaten traffic on the highway that connects Kandahar with Herat.
Nelofer Pazira, the star of the movie "Kandahar", returns to her native Afghanistan. In the hope of tracking down her childhood friend Dyana -- whose story inspired the feature film. Photo: jfilm.org.
Kandahar, Quetta
Kandahar has the symbolic importance of being the spiritual centre of the Taleban movement and also the place of its origin. The supreme Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, made the city his headquarters when the Taleban came to power in 1996. Top al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama Bin Laden, preferred it to the country's political capital, Kabul.
As such, the control of Kandahar province is a matter of great prestige. The first suicide attacks in Afghanistan took place in Kandahar in 2005-06, and were linked to al-Qaeda. Kandahar has seen some high-profile jailbreaks and assassination bids, including one on President Karzai.
The Afghan government has prevented the Taleban from seizing control of any significant district centre or town. International forces have large bases in the airport area as well as at the former residence of Mullah Omar in the western suburbs of Kandahar city.
But the Taleban have a strong presence in the countryside, especially in southern and eastern areas along the border with Pakistan. Afghan and Western officials have in the past said the Taleban have used Quetta, the capital of the Pakistan province of Balochistan, as a major hideout as well as other Pakistani towns along the Kandahar border.
Mullah Omar is probably in hiding in Kandahar or Helmand.
Teun Voeten Kak Afghan District, Zabul Province, (50 miles NE of Khandahar, Afghanistan. July/August 2004 Together with the newly formed Afghan National Army, the US Army (C-Company 2-35) (Charly Company, 2nd Batallion, 35th Infantry Regiment) is on operations in Zabul Province, a stronghold of the Taliban and a very traditional Pashtun area. The operation is called "Lightning Resolve', with the dual aims of elimination of armed Taliban elements and securing a secure environment for the voter registration for the upcoming October presidential elections. US Army on patrol. Photo: Jeremy Clawson.
Zabul, Toba Kakar
Afghanistan's Zabul province lies to the north of Kandahar, along the Toba Kakar mountain range that separates it from the Pakistani districts of Killa Saifullah and Killa Abdullah. The mountans are remote, and have been largely quiet except for a couple of occasions when Pakistani security forces scoured them for al-Qaeda suspects.
Reports from Afghanistan say militants use the area in special circumstances. In early 2002, Taleban militants fleeing US forces in Paktia and Paktika provinces took a detour through South Waziristan to re-enter Afghanistan via Zabul. Occasionally, Taleban insurgents use the Toba Kakar passes when infiltration through South Waziristan is difficult due to intensified vigilance by Pakistani and Afghan border guards.
Zabul provides access to the Afghan provinces of Ghazni, Oruzgan and Kandahar. There are few Afghan or foreign forces in the area, except on the highway that connects Qalat, the capital of Zabul, to Kandahar in the south-west, and Ghazni and Kabul in the north.
Taliban fighters in Wana, South Waziristan in February 2005. Photo: Reuters.
South Waziristan, Paktika
South Waziristan, a tribal district in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), is the first significant sanctuary Islamic militants carved for themselves outside Afghanistan after 9/11. Militants driven by US troops from the Tora Bora region of Nangarhar province in late 2001, and later from the Shahikot mountains of Paktia in early 2002, poured into the main town, Wana, in their hundreds. They included Arabs, Central Asians, Chechens, Uighur Chinese, Afghans and Pakistanis. Some moved on to urban centres in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Others slipped back into Afghanistan or headed west to Quetta and onwards to Iran. But most stayed back and fought the Pakistani army during 2004-05.
The eastern half of South Waziristan is inhabited by the Mehsud tribe and the main militant commander here is Baitullah Mehsud. The western half, along the border with Afghanistan, is Ahmedzai Wazir territory where the chief commander is Maulvi Nazir. The Mehsuds only live on the Pakistani side, while the Wazirs inhabit both sides of the border.
These sanctuaries directly threaten Afghanistan's Paktika province, where the US-led forces have a base in the Barmal region and several outposts along the border to counter infiltration. Pakistani security forces also man scores of border checkposts in the region.
However, infiltration has continued unabated and the number of hit-and-run attacks on foreign troops has been one of the highest in this region. Militants based in the region are known to have carried out strikes as far away as the Kandahar-Kabul highway.
Tribal leaders from Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area meet with Pakistani Army officials in Miran Shah on February 17, 2007 in North Waziristan, Pakistan. The Pakistani military and the elders signed a peace deal in September 2006 to end fighting between Taliban and Pakistani forces, as well as stopping cross border attacks into Afghanistan. NATO says, however, that Taliban incursions into Afghanistan have increased since the deal. The Pakistani armed forces, which has many of its 80,000 troops stationed in the tribal areas guarding the border, says the Afghan government and NATO should stop blaming Pakistan for Afghanistan's internal problems. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images.
North Waziristan, Paktia, Khost
The North Waziristan region is dominated by the Wazir tribe that also inhabits the adjoining Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost. North and South Waziristan form the most lethal zone from where militants have been successfully destabilising not only Paktika and Khost, but other Afghan provinces such as Paktia, Ghazni, Wardak and Logar. Groups based in Waziristan region are known to have carried out some recent attacks in the Afghan capital, Kabul, as well.
Tribal identities are particularly strong in Paktika, Khost and Paktia. During the Taleban rule of 1997-2001, these provinces were ruled by their own tribal governors instead of the Kandahari Taleban who held power over the rest of the country. In the current phase of the fighting they coordinate with the militants in Kandahar and Helmand, but they have stuck with their own leadership that dates back to the war against the Soviets in 1980s.
The veteran Afghan militant Jalaluddin Haqqani is based in North Waziristan. He has wielded considerable influence over the top commanders in South and North Waziristan. He is also reported to have maintained links with sections of the Pakistani security establishment and is known to have mediated peace deals between the Pakistani government and the Wazir and Mehsud commanders in the region. Mr Haqqani is now an old man, and his son Sirajuddin has taken over most of his work.
There are many Arab and other foreign fighters in North and South Waziristan. This is due to Jalaluddin Haqqani's close links with the al-Qaeda leadership. He married an Arab woman in the 1980s.
In view of the sensitivity of Waziristan region, US-led forces have set up a large base in Khost from where they conduct operations not only along the Waziristan region to the south but also in parts of the border region in Paktia and Nangarhar provinces to the north.
In 2007, Afghan refugees repatriated from Pakistan return to the Sanjawal Cantt area of Attock for the first time since Russia attacked Afghanistan in 1979. Photo: Attock News.
Kurram, Khyber, Nangarhar
As the Pakistani military strategists who organised Afghan guerillas against the Soviets in the '80s discovered to their delight, Kurram is the best location along the entire Pakistan-Afghanistan border to put pressure on the Afghan capital, Kabul, which is just 90km away. But because the region is inhabited by a Shia tribe that opposes the Taleban for religious reasons, the Taleban have not been able to get a foothold here. Analysts say this is the main reason why the Taleban have taken so long to improve their strength in areas around Kabul, such as Logar and Wardak.
Some militant groups in the Khyber tribal district have carried out attacks on foreign and Afghan troops in Nangarhar province. But the Pakistani government has kept a close watch on them. One reason may be to curb the ability of these groups to block the highway through Khyber which serves as the main conduit for supplies to international forces in Afghanistan that come via the Pakistani port of Karachi.
Two Afghan National Army Soldiers talk with a local Afghan during Operation Saray Has July 19, 2006, near Forward Operating Base Naray, Afghanistan. The ANA worked with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment (Airborne), during Operation Saray Has. Photo: U.S. Army.
Mohmand, Bajaur, Kunar
Analysts have long suspected Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region to be the hiding place of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other top al-Qaeda leaders. The Mohmand and Bajaur tribal districts are also believed to be the stronghold of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the main Afghan guerrilla leaders of the 1980s. Mr Hekmatyar fought the Taleban in 1990s, but after 9/11 started working with them. The actual extent of cooperation is not known. The groups in Mohmand and Bajaur are members of an umbrella organisation which is headed by South Waziristan's Baitullah Mehsud known as the Tehreek-e-Taleban (Pakistan Taleban).
Militants based in Mohmand and Bajaur have been striking at installations and supply lines of international forces based in the Narai region of Afghanistan's Kunar province. In recent months, they are also reported to have crossed the Hindu Kush foothills to carry out attacks on foreign troops in the Sarobi, Tagab and Nejrab areas around Kabul.
Marketplace at Ghazni town, Afghanistan. Photo: Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Oruzgan, Ghazni, Wardak, Logar
For a long time the Taleban were unable to maintain sustained pressure on the country's south-central highlands. But with safe sanctuaries in the border region - from the Baramcha area of Helmand province in the south, to some parts of Pakistani Balochistan, the Waziristan country and Bajaur-Mohmand territory to the east - the Taleban finally have the capacity to challenge the government in this region. The roads in Ghazni and Oruzgan are not as safe as they were a couple of years ago and officials are losing the will to maintain the government's authority.
Training camps run by al-Qaeda and Taleban groups have multiplied in secure border regions over the last few years. Safe havens have also afforded the militants endless opportunities to find new recruits. The Waziristan region is also known to be a haven for young suicide bombers and trained in remote camps. The Taleban also appear to have had access to sophisticated military equipment and professionally drawn-up battle plans.
The strategy appears to be the same as in 1980s - 'death by a thousand cuts'. Sporadic attacks on the security forces and the police have grown more frequent over the years, and have also crept closer to Kabul. At the same time, the Taleban have destroyed most of the education infrastructure in the countryside, a vital link between the central government and the isolated agrarian citizenry.
Oruzgan has mostly come under pressure from groups in Kandahar and Helmand. These groups, as well as those based in the Waziristan-Paktika-Khost region, have also moved up the highway via Ghazni to infiltrate Wardak on the left and Logar on the right. Safe and quiet until less than two years ago, both these provinces are now said to be increasingly infiltrated by Taleban fighters. The same is true of militants putting pressure on Kabul from Sarobi and Tagab in the east, with their tentacles stretching back to Laghman, Kunar and Bajaur.
In July, 2007, Pakistani troops came under fire at Swat, North West Frontier Province, as a convoy was hit by a double suicide car bomb blast. Photo: BBC News.
Swat
A former princely state, Swat, in northern Pakistan, was governed by a British era law which a court declared unconstitutional in early 1990s, triggering a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic law in the district.
The insurgency was effectively put down in 1994, but it re-emerged after 9/11, and was joined by many battle-hardened militants from Waziristan, Bajaur and the neighbouring district of Dir. During a 10-month long operation that still continues, the security forces have disrupted the infrastructure of the militants but is still to clear them out of the area. The militants have been targeting the security forces, the police, secular politicians and government-run schools.
Obama's Stock is Falling
This morning's screen shot from the prediction market, Intrade, highlights Barack Obama's dramatic fall from the 50/50 position he shared with John McCain earlier this week.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Christopher Walken / Han Solo Halloween
There are so many rumours about who was originally offered which role in Star Wars that fact has merged with fiction.
The claim that Sissy Spacek was due to play Princess Leia is false, while the most humorous myth, that Burt Reynolds was offered the part of Han Solo (sans toupee?), is also incorrect.
It was Christopher Walken who was in the running to play the sarcastic Millennium Falcon pilot, with the role eventually going to Harrison Ford.
Walken's audition probably went like this (as portrayed by Kevin Spacey):
With Halloween right around the corner, you might want to consider dressing up as the infamous Christopher Walken / Han Solo. Here is a printable cut-out mask that should work fine if printed on heavy paper stock. Enjoy!
Click image to enlarge, then print.
Secret Treasure of Afghanistan
Some 228 extraordinary artifacts unearthed in modern Afghanistan attest to the region's importance as a vital and ancient crossroads of trade routes known as the Silk Road, which stretched from Asia to the Mediterranean.
Many of the objects were long thought to have been stolen or destroyed during some 25 years of conflict until they were dramatically recovered from a vault under the Presidential Palace in 2004.
Ranging in date from 2200 BC to AD 200, the objects present a rich mosaic of Afghanistan's cultural heritage and are drawn from four archaeological sites.
The works include gold bowls with artistic links to Mesopotamia from Tepe Fullol in northern Afghanistan; bronze and stone sculptures from the site of the former Greek city of Aï Khanum; bronzes, ivories, and painted glassware imported from Roman and Indian markets discovered in Begram; and more than 100 gold ornaments [some pictured here] from among the 20,000 pieces known as the "Bactrian Hoard," found in 1978 in Tillya Tepe, the site of six nomad graves.
An interactice map of Afghanistan, created by National Geographic, details with photos and videos where the treasures were discovered.
These priceless artifacts have been preserved for future generations by the National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul, whose motto is "A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive."
Friday, September 12, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Still a Pig
One day you're a presidential candidate... You're on top of the world and everybody loves you... Well, 49% of 22 foreign countries, that is [what do they know]... The next day, you're being called a sexist pig...
After Gov. Sarah Palin's joking self-reference last week as a pitbull with lipstick, the aim of Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" reference is clear and way out of line.
It's not often one is priviledged to witness the decisive end of a presidential hopefull's career. This is truly an historic night.
Sarah Palin Action Figures
Sarah Palin Action Figures Blowing Off Shelves
By Hilary Lewis for The Business Sheet
Toys based on political candidates have had varied degrees of success this year (see: the Obama sock monkey). But that hasn't dissuaded HeroBuilders from creating a Sarah Palin doll.
What better way is there for the Republicans to prove that Palin is a serious candidate who's ready to be president?
Before she has consented to so much as a single interview with members of the evil "liberal" media, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin...has been fashioned into a trio of uncannily realistic and monumentally creepy (redundant?) action figure dolls that are available for purchase right this minute at HeroBuilders.com.
All three of the dolls sport Palin's trademark specs and bunned-up hair along with an identical facial look and smile perhaps best described as demented.
The no-frills "Executive" Palin figure in black jumpsuit goes for $27.95. There's also a heat-packing Super Hero "Sarahnator" version in black overcoat and halter top and a 45-caliber pistol sidearmed to her thigh, and a truly frightening "School Girl" edition in plaid miniskirt and bobby sox with lace bra and panties underneath. Each of the latter pair retail for $29.95.
Creator Emil Vicale says he's already sold "more than 500" Palin figures on Monday, the first day it's been available. "And the pace of orders is starting to step up big time," he added in a phone chat this afternoon.
Monday, September 8, 2008
New Al-Qaeda Video for 9/11 Anniversary
Al-Qaeda Disses Iran in New Video - Full Story
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I was unable to locate the real video for this story however, it probably looked something like this:
Al Qaeda's New Secret Weapon - YouTube link
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Pandemic Influenza Storybook
During 90th Anniversary Year, Pandemic Influenza Storybook Stirs Memories and Learning
CDC discovered a wealth of inspiration in the family stories told by pandemic influenza training participants during the last two years. Stories that showed the spirit of survival along with the tragedy of unexpected death has spurred public health professionals to keep preparing for the next influenza pandemic. These stories and more were captured in the Internet-based CDC Pandemic Influenza Storybook just released.
In 2002, CDC launched its highly successful Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) training program. Since that time, two additional modules have been added to the basic CERC course: For Leaders by Leaders and Pandemic Influenza. As part of the CERC Pan Flu course, which began in 2006, attendees were asked to share their pandemic flu stories from 1918, 1957, and 1968. The sharing of these stories enhances these training sessions by "translating" the staggering morbidity and mortality rates from these pandemics into individual events that impacted families for decades.
CERC certified trainers and others charged CDC with compiling some of these stories into an accessible training tool that they could tap into as needed. The latter is the primary reason for the creation of the "Pandemic Influenza Storybook". However, since 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Pandemic Flu event, the online book also serves a fitting commemorative piece. That pandemic killed more than 50 million people worldwide including an estimated 675,000 people in the United States and it is one of the touchstones for today's public health preparedness initiatives. These first-person and family accounts also help planners re-energize their efforts and fight pandemic flu preparedness fatigue and apathy. Today CDC estimates that in the most severe pandemic a potential 2 million Americans could die.
The Pandemic Influenza Storybook contains 50 stories from 26 states and the book is divided into three sections for the 1918 event and there is a separate section for 1957 stories. CDC is actively seeking 1968 stories.
"Complacency is enemy number one when it comes to preparing for another influenza pandemic," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "These stories, told so eloquently by survivors, family members, and friends from past pandemics, serve as a sobering reminder of the devastating impact that influenza can have and reading them is a must for anyone involved in public health preparedness."
The stories related in the Pandemic Influenza Storybook will move you, some will make you laugh, but all serve as reminders of the primary reason why preparedness is so important—saving human lives. Many of the photos in the storybook were contributed and don't miss the video narratives.
The Pandemic Influenza Storybook is not a closed book. CDC will continue to accept stories and add them to the book at quarterly intervals.
"It's an excellent resource, not only for public health professionals, but for people of all ages," said Sharon KD Hoskins, a public affairs officer who coordinated the project for CDC. "It's probably the closest to experiencing the real thing that many of us can imagine."
The storybook can be found at http://www.pandemicflu.gov/storybook/.
For important information about preparing for pandemic influenza as an individual, family, or community, visit http://www.pandemicflu.gov/.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Obama: No Guns or 2nd Amendment, Nothing, Nada
While browsing YouTube today, I came across a gun owner named Ron who attempts to discover Barrack Obama's position on gun control and the 2nd Amendment.
Ron hasn't found the issue mentioned on Obama's website and decides to phone Obama's Senate office.
Ron Trys to Find Obama's Position on Gun Control - YouTube link
After watching his frustration, I hastened off to Barack Obama's website to see for myself.
On guns or the 2nd Amendment, I didn't find anything, nothing, nada!
So then I did it. I downloaded the 2008 Democratic Bible, a.k.a. The Blueprint for Change: Barack Obama's Plan for America. (pdf 4 MB)
You have to see it for yourself to believe me.
First, I searched the document for the word "gun".
Nothing, nada. So I searched for "2nd amendment".
Nothing, nada. I even gave the typist the benefit of searching for "second amendment".
Nothing, nada. No surprise.
Here's Barack Obama's position on gun control, his voting record.
On John McCain's website, I didn't find a bible, just a simple page highlighting his position on the issues. You can see it here.
On the 2nd Amendment, McCain's position is clearly stated:
"John McCain believes that the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual Constitutional right that we have a sacred duty to protect. We have a responsibility to ensure that criminals who violate the law are prosecuted to the fullest, rather than restricting the rights of law abiding citizens. Gun control is a proven failure in fighting crime. Law abiding citizens should not be asked to give up their rights because of criminals - criminals who ignore gun control laws anyway." - Read More
Who's ready to lead?
I love Rudy Giuliani's answer -- "Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada."
Ahmadinejad's New Enemy: Women
Photo: The Palm Beach Times
By Amir Taheri for the New York Post
In one of his last sermons before his death, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini warned of "three threats" to his vision of Islam: the US, the Jews and women.
Two decades later, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has the United States and the Jews in hand - and is moving on the third "enemy."
Women were the first to demonstrate against Khomeini's regime with a mass rally in Tehran on March 8, 1979 - less than a month after the mullahs had seized power. Over the next decade, the authorities imprisoned hundreds of thousands of women for varying lengths of time, and executed thousands.
But women continued to fight a regime that deemed them subhuman. Their resistance prevented the mullahs from abrogating pre-revolutionary laws limiting gender discrimination. Thus, women succeeded in keeping their right to vote and win public office.
They also retained a veto, granted by the shah, on their husbands' Islamic right to take up to four permanent wives and countless temporary concubines.
Last June, Ahmadinejad sought to remove that veto, launching a campaign with quotations from the Prophet and the 12 Imams of Shiite Islam to prove that men who took many wives would have a fast track to paradise.
Ebadi: Nobelist faces threats for backing women's rights.
To make polygamy practically impossible, a law predating the revolution required men seeking added wives to prove that they're financially capable of running more than one household. Since few can meet that condition, the number of Iranian men with more than one wife had fallen to a few hundred before the mullahs seized power.
And most of those polygamists were mullahs or wealthy bazaar merchants associated with them.
Last month, Ahmadinejad presented a draft bill designed to "re-Islamicize" the status of women. He claimed that the shah had used laws inspired by "Zionist-Crusaders" to deal with women's issues.
His new law would restore men's Islamic right to divorce their wives without even informing them. Men would also be absolved from paying alimony.
In exchange, they'd be required to pay a mahrieh (a severance payment, whose amount is set in the marriage contract) to a wife they wish to divorce. But the draft law also plans a hefty government tax on the mahrieh. So a divorced woman left with no alimony and no resources except her mahrieh could end up losing most of that to the government. "This text is designed to return women to the dark ages," says Sousan Tahmaspi, a spokesperson for the campaign against the law.
To prevent the law's passage, women have been holding meetings nationwide, and launched a campaign to collect a million signatures in support of gender equality.
This week, their campaign seemed to have produced some results: The speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Iran's ersatz parliament, opted to delay formal debate on the measure.
"The text has not been withdrawn," a spokesman for Ahmadinejad said Monday. "It will be debated when we have a calmer atmosphere." To get that "calm," the regime has launched a crackdown against women's-rights groups. This week, four leading campaigners (Pari Ardalan, Nahid Keshavarz, Maryam Hussein Khah and Zhaleh Javaheri) got sentenced to six months in prison in what their lawyers call "kangaroo courts." A fifth campaigner, Zeinab Bayazidi got a four-year sentence.
And at least five women's-rights advocates have gone missing. One, Solmaz Igdar, was abducted on her way home in Tehran, her family says.
The Khomeinist propaganda machine seeks to portray the women's movement as part of a plot by "Zionists and Crusaders" to undermine Islam. In recent days, government media have published claims linking Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has spoken in support of the women's movement, to the Bahai faith, a religion banned by the regime. This is a deadly threat: To abandon Islam for another faith carries a death sentence.
"Free people everywhere should speak out in support of Iranian women," says Tehran feminist Haydeh Karimi. "The proposed law is the thin end of a wedge. Ahmadinejad wants women out of universities and public life. He thinks he can curb mass unemployment by forcing women out of work, giving their jobs to men."
Thursday, September 4, 2008
John McCain's Republican National Convention Speech
"You know, I've been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you."
John McCain RNC Nomination Acceptance Speech
Full remarks as prepared for delivery and provided by the campaign of Sen. John McCain as he accepts the 2008 Republican presidential nomination on Sept. 4, 2008, at the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
Thank you all very much. Tonight, I have a privilege given few Americans -- the privilege of accepting our party's nomination for President of the United States. And I accept it with gratitude, humility and confidence.
In my life, no success has come without a good fight, and this nomination wasn't any different. That's a tribute to the candidates who opposed me and their supporters. They're leaders of great ability, who love our country, and wished to lead it to better days. Their support is an honor I won't forget.
I'm grateful to the President for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and keeping us safe from another attack many thought was inevitable; and to the First Lady, Laura Bush, a model of grace and kindness in public and in private. And I'm grateful to the 41st President and his bride of 63 years, and for their outstanding example of honorable service to our country.
As always, I'm indebted to my wife, Cindy, and my seven children. The pleasures of family life can seem like a brief holiday from the crowded calendar of our nation's business. But I have treasured them all the more, and can't imagine a life without the happiness you give me. Cindy said a lot of nice things about me tonight. But, in truth, she's more my inspiration than I am hers. Her concern for those less blessed than we are - victims of land mines, children born in poverty and with birth defects - shows the measure of her humanity. I know she will make a great First Lady.
When I was growing up, my father was often at sea, and the job of raising my brother, sister and me would fall to my mother alone. Roberta McCain gave us her love of life, her deep interest in the world, her strength, and her belief we are all meant to use our opportunities to make ourselves useful to our country. I wouldn't be here tonight but for the strength of her character.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you, who helped me win this nomination, and stood by me when the odds were long. I won't let you down. To Americans who have yet to decide who to vote for, thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to win your trust. I intend to earn it.
Finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters. We'll go at it over the next two months. That's the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We're dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn't be an American worthy of the name if I didn't honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement.
But let there be no doubt, my friends, we're going to win this election. And after we've won, we're going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again, and get this country back on the road to prosperity and peace.
These are tough times for many of you. You're worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and are struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home. All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way. And that's just what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future.
And I've found just the right partner to help me shake up Washington, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. She has executive experience and a real record of accomplishment. She's tackled tough problems like energy independence and corruption. She's balanced a budget, cut taxes, and taken on the special interests. She's reached across the aisle and asked Republicans, Democrats and Independents to serve in her administration. She's the mother of five children. She's helped run a small business, worked with her hands and knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries.
She knows where she comes from and she knows who she works for. She stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down. I'm very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can't wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming.
I'm not in the habit of breaking promises to my country and neither is Governor Palin. And when we tell you we're going to change Washington, and stop leaving our country's problems for some unluckier generation to fix, you can count on it. We've got a record of doing just that, and the strength, experience, judgment and backbone to keep our word to you.
You know, I've been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you.
I've fought corruption, and it didn't matter if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. They violated their public trust, and had to be held accountable. I've fought big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, while you struggle to buy groceries, fill your gas tank and make your mortgage payment. I've fought to get million dollar checks out of our elections. I've fought lobbyists who stole from Indian tribes. I fought crooked deals in the Pentagon. I fought tobacco companies and trial lawyers, drug companies and union bosses.
I fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq, when it wasn't a popular thing to do. And when the pundits said my campaign was finished, I said I'd rather lose an election than see my country lose a war.
Thanks to the leadership of a brilliant general, David Petraeus, and the brave men and women he has the honor to command, that strategy succeeded and rescued us from a defeat that would have demoralized our military, risked a wider war and threatened the security of all Americans.
I don't mind a good fight. For reasons known only to God, I've had quite a few tough ones in my life. But I learned an important lesson along the way. In the end, it matters less that you can fight. What you fight for is the real test.
I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills.
I fight for Jake and Toni Wimmer of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Jake works on a loading dock; coaches Little League, and raises money for the mentally and physically disabled. Toni is a schoolteacher, working toward her Master's Degree. They have two sons, the youngest, Luke, has been diagnosed with autism. Their lives should matter to the people they elect to office. They matter to me.
I fight for the family of Matthew Stanley of Wolfboro, New Hampshire, who died serving our country in Iraq. I wear his bracelet and think of him every day. I intend to honor their sacrifice by making sure the country their son loved so well and never returned to, remains safe from its enemies.
I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger. We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties and Senator Obama passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust, when we valued our power over our principles.
We're going to change that. We're going to recover the people's trust by standing up again for the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.
We believe everyone has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach their God-given potential from the boy whose descendents arrived on the Mayflower to the Latina daughter of migrant workers. We're all God's children and we're all Americans.
We believe in low taxes; spending discipline, and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor.
We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench. We believe in the values of families, neighborhoods and communities.
We believe in a government that unleashes the creativity and initiative of Americans. Government that doesn't make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself.
I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it.
My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them. My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.
Keeping taxes low helps small businesses grow and create new jobs. Cutting the second highest business tax rate in the world will help American companies compete and keep jobs from moving overseas. Doubling the child tax exemption from $3500 to $7000 will improve the lives of millions of American families. Reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs will let you keep more of your own money to save, spend and invest as you see fit. Opening new markets and preparing workers to compete in the world economy is essential to our future prosperity.
I know some of you have been left behind in the changing economy and it often seems your government hasn't even noticed. Government assistance for unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That's going to change on my watch. My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We're going to help workers who've lost a job that won't come back, find a new one that won't go away.
We will prepare them for the jobs of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities. For workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.
Education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.
When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity.
Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucracies. I want schools to answer to parents and students. And when I'm President, they will.
My fellow Americans, when I'm President, we're going to embark on the most ambitious national project in decades. We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much. We will attack the problem on every front. We will produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore, and we'll drill them now. We will build more nuclear power plants. We will develop clean coal technology. We will increase the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas. We will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.
Senator Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that. We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and to restore the health of our planet. It's an ambitious plan, but Americans are ambitious by nature, and we have faced greater challenges. It's time for us to show the world again how Americans lead.
This great national cause will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity; jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.
Today, the prospect of a better world remains within our reach. But we must see the threats to peace and liberty in our time clearly and face them, as Americans before us did, with confidence, wisdom and resolve.
We have dealt a serious blow to al Qaeda in recent years. But they are not defeated, and they'll strike us again if they can. Iran remains the chief state sponsor of terrorism and on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons. Russia's leaders, rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power, have rejected democratic ideals and the obligations of a responsible power. They invaded a small, democratic neighbor to gain more control over the world's oil supply, intimidate other neighbors, and further their ambitions of reassembling the Russian empire. And the brave people of Georgia need our solidarity and prayers. As President, I will work to establish good relations with Russia so we need not fear a return of the Cold War. But we can't turn a blind eye to aggression and international lawlessness that threatens the peace and stability of the world and the security of the American people.
We face many threats in this dangerous world, but I'm not afraid of them. I'm prepared for them. I know how the military works, what it can do, what it can do better, and what it should not do. I know how the world works. I know the good and the evil in it. I know how to work with leaders who share our dreams of a freer, safer and more prosperous world, and how to stand up to those who don't. I know how to secure the peace.
When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house. A Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I rarely saw my father again for four years. My grandfather came home from that same war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home with me. I hate war. It is terrible beyond imagination.
I'm running for President to keep the country I love safe, and prevent other families from risking their loved ones in war as my family has. I will draw on all my experience with the world and its leaders, and all the tools at our disposal - diplomatic, economic, military and the power of our ideals - to build the foundations for a stable and enduring peace.
In America, we change things that need to be changed. Each generation makes its contribution to our greatness. The work that is ours to do is plainly before us. We don't need to search for it.
We need to change the way government does almost everything: from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children. All these functions of government were designed before the rise of the global economy, the information technology revolution and the end of the Cold War. We have to catch up to history, and we have to change the way we do business in Washington.
The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't a cause, it's a symptom. It's what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you.
Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.
Instead of rejecting good ideas because we didn't think of them first, let's use the best ideas from both sides. Instead of fighting over who gets the credit, let's try sharing it. This amazing country can do anything we put our minds to. I will ask Democrats and Independents to serve with me. And my administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability.
We're going to finally start getting things done for the people who are counting on us, and I won't care who gets the credit.
I've been an imperfect servant of my country for many years. But I have been her servant first, last and always. And I've never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I didn't thank God for the privilege.
Long ago, something unusual happened to me that taught me the most valuable lesson of my life. I was blessed by misfortune. I mean that sincerely. I was blessed because I served in the company of heroes, and I witnessed a thousand acts of courage, compassion and love.
On an October morning, in the Gulf of Tonkin, I prepared for my 23rd mission over North Vietnam. I hadn't any worry I wouldn't come back safe and sound. I thought I was tougher than anyone. I was pretty independent then, too. I liked to bend a few rules, and pick a few fights for the fun of it. But I did it for my own pleasure; my own pride. I didn't think there was a cause more important than me.
Then I found myself falling toward the middle of a small lake in the city of Hanoi, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and an angry crowd waiting to greet me. I was dumped in a dark cell, and left to die. I didn't feel so tough anymore. When they discovered my father was an admiral, they took me to a hospital. They couldn't set my bones properly, so they just slapped a cast on me. When I didn't get better, and was down to about a hundred pounds, they put me in a cell with two other Americans. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even feed myself. They did it for me. I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence. Those men saved my life.
I was in solitary confinement when my captors offered to release me. I knew why. If I went home, they would use it as propaganda to demoralize my fellow prisoners. Our Code said we could only go home in the order of our capture, and there were men who had been shot down before me. I thought about it, though. I wasn't in great shape, and I missed everything about America. But I turned it down.
A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I'd been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I'd been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.
When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn't know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me. Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me.
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.
I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.
If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.
I'm going to fight for my cause every day as your President. I'm going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I'm an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.
Fight for what's right for our country.
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.
Fight for our children's future.
Fight for justice and opportunity for all.
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.
Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God Bless you and God bless America.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Palin Power
Photo: Zimbio
"The difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? - Lipstick."
“Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
“I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But, here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion — I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.”
“In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”
h/t: rzafft
"That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay."
"The fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all."
"When the cloud of rhetoric has past, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot, when that happens, what exactly is our opponents plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?"
"The office of the President is not for personal discovery."
Sarah Palin's RNC Nomination Speech - YouTube link
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Iranian Nuclear Plant Opening Scheduled
Photo: American Iranian Council
Bushehr Plant to Come on Stream by Iranian New Year
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has announced that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will become operational before the Iranian New Year, which occurs on March 21, 2009.
Mottaki made the remarks at a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday after a meeting with former Lebanese prime minister Omar Karami.
Photo: Iran Watch
The 1000-megawatt power plant is being built in cooperation with Russia based on a contract signed in 1995.
The Russian director of the Bushehr power plant project, Leonid Reznikov, concluded his three-day visit to Iran on Tuesday. He was accompanied by a delegation of experts.
The Russian delegation held technical talks with an Iranian delegation headed by Ahmad Fayazbakhsh, the deputy director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Photo: AFP
At the end of the talks, a statement was issued saying that each side should observe its commitments to the timetable set for completing the project.
Iran received an 82-ton consignment of nuclear fuel from Russia for the Bushehr plant in January.
Source: Tehran Times
NASA'S Carl Sagan Fellows to Study Extraterrestrial Worlds
Photo: Occult History
NASA announced Wednesday the new Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars.
Planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, are being discovered at a staggering pace, with more than 300 currently known. Decades ago, long before any exoplanets had been found, the late Carl Sagan imagined such worlds, and pioneered the scientific pursuit of life that might exist on them. Sagan was an astronomer and a highly successful science communicator.
NASA's new Sagan fellowships will allow talented young scientists to tread the path laid out by Sagan. The program will award stipends of approximately $60,000 per year, for a period of up to three years, to selected postdoctoral scientists. Topics can range from techniques for detecting the glow of a dim planet in the blinding glare of its host star, to searching for the crucial ingredients of life in other planetary systems.
"We are investing in our nation's best and brightest in an emerging field that is tremendously inspiring to the public," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The Sagan Fellowship will join NASA's new Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship in Physics of the Cosmos and the Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cosmic Origins. All three fellowships represent a new theme-based approach, in which fellows will focus on compelling scientific questions, such as "are there Earth-like planets orbiting other stars?"
Photo: Whatis?com
"NASA's science-driven mission portfolio, its cultivation of young talent to pursue cutting-edge research, and the decision to commit its genius to a question of transcendent cultural significance, would have thrilled Carl," said Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow and collaborator, who continues to write and produce.
"That this knowledge will be pursued in his name, as he joins a triumvirate of the leading lights of 20th century astronomy, is a source of infinite pride to our family," said Druyan. "It signifies that Carl's passion to engage us all in the scientific experience, his daring curiosity and urgent concern for life on this planet, no longer eclipse his scientific achievements."
A call for Sagan Fellowship proposals went out to the scientific community earlier this week, with selections to be announced in February 2009.
"There is an explosion of interest in the field," said Charles Beichman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Now we are going down a scientific path that Carl Sagan originally blazed, torch in hand, as he led us through the dark." Beichman is executive director of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which will administer the fellowship program.
Photo: The List Universe
Recently, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have made landmark observations of hot, Jupiter-like planets orbiting other stars. The telescopes detected methane and water in the planets' atmospheres -- the same molecules that might serve as tracers of life if discovered around smaller, rocky planets in the future. In a 1994 paper for the journal Nature, Sagan and colleagues used these and other molecules to identify life on a planet -- Earth. They used NASA's Galileo spacecraft to observe the molecular signatures of our "pale blue dot," as Sagan dubbed Earth, while the spacecraft flew by.
"Only a select few scientists carry the insight, vision and persistence to open entire new vistas on the cosmos," said Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "We know about Einstein. We know about Hubble. Add to this list Carl Sagan, who empowered us all -- scientists as well as the public -- to see planets not simply as cosmic objects but as worlds of their own that could harbor life."
NASA's Kepler mission, which Sagan championed in his last years, will launch next year and will survey hundreds of thousands of nearby stars for Earth-like worlds, some of which are likely to orbit within the star's water-friendly "habitable zone" favorable for life as we know it.
More information about NASA's Sagan Fellowships is available on the Web at: http://nexsci.caltech.edu/sagan
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Giuliani: Palin More Experienced Than Obama
Giuliani: Palin More Experienced Than Obama - YouTube link
"Executive experience qualifies her... She had to make decisions. All Senator Obama has had to do is talk. She's vetoed legislation. She's taken on corruption in her party and won. She's taken on the oil companies and won. She administered a budget, successfully. This is somebody of accomplishment." -- Rudy Giuliani
The Spy Who Loved Too Many
Photo: Neo-Literati blog
For decades, North Korea has sneaked spies into South Korea using agents posing as refugees. None of these agents were ever caught, until now. A 35 year old North Korean woman, Jong Hwa Won, was recently arrested after being observed by South Korean intelligence for three years. The South Koreans were hoping Won would lead them to other North Korean spies, but she appeared to be operating alone.
Won was a professional who was sent to northern China a decade ago to help the Chinese identify North Korean refugees (who were then sent back to North Korea where they were punished and sometimes killed.) Won had a secondary mission, to arrange the kidnapping of South Korean businessmen and transport them to North Korea (for what purpose is unknown; apparently even Won did not know). The kidnapping mission was canceled before it could be carried out.
Won was ordered to get into South Korea as a refugee from the north. She did this in 2001 by the simple expedient of marrying a South Korean man doing business in China. As soon as Won got to South Korea, she divorced her husband and offered her services to the South Korean army as a lecturer on conditions in North Korea. Won is apparently quite convincing in whatever she does as she was soon going around to South Korea military bases lecturing on the evils of communism.
Photo: Asian Lethal Angels
Won's main mission in South Korea was to locate high ranking North Korean defectors living in the south and kill them. She was never able to make much progress in that area.
She was able to collect a lot of low-level intel on the South Korean military. She did this by getting friendly with South Korean officers, using sexual relationships to obtain classified information, especially anything on high level North Korean defectors. This is apparently how she was found out. One officer, a captain nine years younger than Won, continued passing along classified info even after he figured out she was a North Korean spy.
Photo: Personnel Staffers, Inc.
Won would travel to China to pass information to North Korean intelligence officials who would carry it back to North Korea. As far as South Korea can tell, she never got into bed with anyone who had really useful intel.
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There are over 14,000 North Korean refugees living in South Korea and the number arriving each week has gone from 30 to nearly a 100 in the last five years. Many more are getting out of North Korea, but it's difficult to get from China to South Korea. This is usually done by travelling across China to a Southeast Asian nation, like Thailand, and asking for political asylum there. That usually results in the South Korean government stepping in and transporting the North Korean refugees to South Korea. China discourages North Koreans from sneaking into China by making it hard to get to South Korea from China.
There are believed to be at over 300,000 North Korean refugees in northern China, all of them there illegally. A survey of these revealed that 40 percent of them had never encountered any foreign food aid and that nearly all of them left North Korea because of food shortages.
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Photo: Uneviedartiste blog
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