Sidetracked

Two charged with providing Hezbollah TV in New York

2006-11-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Story Link

Two men have been charged with terrorist offences in New York for allegedly providing access to a television station banned in the United States and linked to the Shiite militia group Hezbollah, prosecutors said.

Pakistani-born Javed Iqbal, 42, and US citizen Saleh Elahwal, 53, are accused of conspiring to provide viewers with satellite broadcasts by Al-Manar, an Arabic-language station seen as a mouthpiece for the Lebanese group.

They face a sentence of up to 110 years in jail if convicted on the charges of providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organisation.

According to prosecutors, Iqbal and Elahwal ran a satellite television business and allegedly offered to provide Al-Manar to an undercover agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The station, which was listed as a terrorist entity by US authorities in March, allegedly paid thousands of dollars to Iqbal's firm in return."

Baghdad is Under Siege

2006-11-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the real news gets lost in the Madonna-Adoption/Kerry-Comment/Foley-Scandal/Adult-Abstinence stream of bullshit that hits the airwaves everyday.

The following is a story from reality:

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Story Link

Sunni insurgents have cut the roads linking the city to the rest of Iraq. The country is being partitioned as militiamen fight bloody battles for control of towns and villages north and south of the capital.

As American and British political leaders argue over responsibility for the crisis in Iraq, the country has taken another lurch towards disintegration.

Well-armed Sunni tribes now largely surround Baghdad and are fighting Shia militias to complete the encirclement.

The Sunni insurgents seem to be following a plan to control all the approaches to Baghdad. They have long held the highway leading west to the Jordanian border and east into Diyala province. Now they seem to be systematically taking over routes leading north and south.

Dusty truck-stop and market towns such as Mahmoudiyah, Balad and Baquba all lie on important roads out of Baghdad. In each case Sunni fighters are driving out the Shia and tightening their grip on the capital. Shias may be in a strong position within Baghdad but they risk their lives when they take to the roads. Some 30 Shias were dragged off a bus yesterday after being stopped at a fake checkpoint south of Balad.

In some isolated neighbourhoods in Baghdad, food shortages are becoming severe. Shops are open for only a few hours a day. "People have been living off water melon and bread for the past few weeks," said one Iraqi from the capital. The city itself has broken up into a dozen or more hostile districts, the majority of which are controlled by the main Shia militia, the Mehdi Army.

More at the link above...

Cheney Confirms Water-boarding of al Qaida suspects

2006-10-26T10:09:00.000-06:00

In 1947, we sentenced one Japanese interrogator to 15 years hard labor for torturing one of our soldiers this way.

I have no doubt that the American public would be raising hell if al-Qaida had water-boarded one of our soldiers. Remember, these are merely al-Qaida suspects we are talking about here. Where's the outrage?

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Story Link

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning. Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview. Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism. The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however, consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that's banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that prohibit torture. Some intelligence professionals argue that it often provides false or misleading information because many subjects will tell their interrogators what they think they want to hear to make the water-boarding stop.

Bush caught in a lie (again)

2006-10-22T09:54:00.000-06:00

During an interview on ABC’s This Week, President Bush today tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years. George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker’s plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is “between ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run.’”

Bush responded, ‘We’ve never been about stay the course, George!’
Here's a video of the interview.

Oh really, George?

From Whitehouse.gov:

(bush)

And we will stay the course in order to achieve this objective.

October 27, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(bush)

You know, I told the family how much we appreciated his sacrifice -- he was killed in Iraq -- and assured him that we would stay the course

And we've got to stay the course, and we will stay the course

April 5, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Scott McClellan)

The Vice President, last night, expressed condolences to President Ciampi who arrived in Washington, yesterday. Getting back to the call, though, the two leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to stay the course in Iraq

But it's important that we stay the course and finish the job -- and that's what the President has continued to say -- and let the Iraqi people know that we are going to stay the course,

We will stay the course, we will prevail, and they will be defeated.

And that's why it's important to continue to stay the course and prevail. And we will.

November 13, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Scott McClellan)

We will stay the course.

And we will stay the course because this is important for the future of the Iraqi people...

And it's important that we continue to stay the course.

it's important that we stay the course and finish our work and continue to work with the Iraqi people to help them realize a better future.

...and it's important that we continue to stay the course and finish the job in Iraq.

October 29, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(bush)

We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed,

August 30, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Scott McClellan)

It's important that we stay the course and help the Iraqi people

The President will continue to stay the course

and we must stay the course and finish the job in Iraq

April 21, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(bush)

We will stay the course.

April 6, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(bush)

our Nation will stay the course, and we will prevail.

December 5, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Scott McClellan )

it's important that we continue to stay the course

December 1, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(bush)

I was able to assure them that we were going to stay the course

we will stay the course until the job is done.

I'm here to tell you we're going to stay the course.

November 27, 2003

Gonzales to Judges: "Shut Your Mouth!"

2006-10-02T20:41:00.000-06:00

Story Link

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime.

He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.

"Judges must resist the temptation to supplement those tools based on their own personal views about the wisdom of the policies under review," Gonzales said.

And he said the independence of federal judges, who are appointed for life, "has never meant, and should never mean, that judges or their decisions should be immune" from public criticism.

Government-provoked violence in Oaxaca is a strong possibility

2006-10-01T13:29:00.000-06:00

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/10/1/101424/312

Mexican authorities are surveying Oaxaca City by aircraft, lending increased urgency to continuing rumors of a government attack on the city.

Wide publicity now is the best solidarity immediately available.

Aerial surveillance described below is also confirmed (without specifics as to the markings of the helicopters) in an e-mail sent to the Grassroots Radio Coalition list by a former student and professor of Narco News' schools of authentic journalism. We must do all we can to make an attack unthinkable for the Mexican government to do in the eyes of the world.

George Salzman sent this message from Oaxaca, Saturday 30 September 2006:

Friends,
I do not know whether this is only another of the many threats or whether the government has become so desperate that it is about to begin a bloody assault in an attempt to terrorize the people of Mexico into submission. The message that follows, from Alvaro Ricárdez Scherenberg, is not the first urgent note from him. A few nights ago he reported receiving word from important people in Mexico City that the police were set to clear the Oaxaca City center (meaning to drive out all the protestors camping there) in the early hours of the following morning. That did not happen. However, what he reports below I also witnessed. Two military helicopters repeatedly circled the city. I took pictures but have not yet downloaded them to my computer.
Two days ago I talked with a woman teacher at an encampment set up to protect one of the radio stations that the movement controls. At that planton (guard camp), she told me, all the campers were teachers, all were indigenous of two groups, Zapotecs from the Sierra Juarez (in the northern Sierra), where she was from, and Mixtecas from the Mixteca Alta region to the northwest of Oaxaca City. I told her I was worried that the government might launch an attack, to which she replied that if it came to that, she and her companeros would all die. I assure you they want a peaceful resolution, and that it is the government that is trying to provoke violence. I hope we can spread the word outside of Mexico sufficiently to help deter the government from following such a bloody course. The psychological attacks are bad enough, but if they start heavy-duty shooting it'll be a terrible bloodbath.
George

Message forwarded by George Salzman:

It is very important to send mails to all your contacts saying that at exactly at 4:50 minutes Saturday afternoon , September the 30th, helicopters from the Mexican Marine Corps and the PFP (Federal Preventive Police), started overflying downtown Oaxaca, Mexico, trying to intimidate its citizens revolting against its corrupt Government. On the Oaxacan Peoples Popular Assembly (APPO) radio, it was asked to all citizens to remain calm, not to start violence and to send phone, mail and voice messages to all authorities and people who could act as witnesses to this attack. So please, do it!

40,000 Troops Say They Won't Fight

2006-08-06T09:52:00.000-06:00

Air Force Times Story Link

Swept up by a wave of patriotism after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Chris Magaoay joined the Marine Corps in November 2004.

The newly married Magaoay thought a military career would allow him to continue his college education, help his country and set his life on the right path.

Less than two years later, Magaoay became one of thousands of military deserters who have chosen a lifetime of exile or possible court-martial rather than fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“It wasn’t something I did on the spur of the moment,” said Magaoay, a native of Maui, Hawaii. “It took me a long time to realize what was going on. The war is illegal.”

Magaoay said his disillusionment with the military began in boot camp in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where a superior officer joked about killing and mistreating Iraqis. When his unit was deployed to Iraq in March, Magaoay and his wife drove to Canada, joining a small group of deserters who are trying to win permission from the Canadian government to stay.

Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted, the Pentagon says. More than half served in the Army. But the Army says numbers have decreased each year since the United States began its war on terror in Afghanistan.

Middle East: Who backs immediate ceasefire?

2006-07-30T22:50:00.000-06:00

Arcadian Driftwood

2006-07-14T11:30:00.000-06:00

Written by Robbie Robertson, performed by Railroad Earth.

"The war was over and the spirit was broken
The hills were smokin' as the men withdrew
We stood on the cliffs, oh and watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendezvous
They signed a treaty and our homes were taken
Loved ones forsaken, they didn't give a damn
Trying to raise a family, end up the enemy
Over what went down on the plains of Abraham

Chorus
Acadian driftwood
Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin' in
What a way to ride
Oh, what a way to go

Then some returned to the motherland
The high command had them cast away
And some stayed on to finish what they started
They never parted, they're just built that way
We had kin livin' south of the border
They're a little older and they've been around
They wrote a letter life is a whole lot better
So pull up your stakes, children and come on down

Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone
Been out ice fishing, too much repetition
Make a man wanna leave the only home he's known
Sailing out of the gulf headin' for Saint Pierre
Nothin' to declare, all we had was gone
Broke down along the coast, but what hurt the most
When the people there said "You better keep movin' on"

Everlasting summer filled with ill-content
This government had us walkin' in chains
This isn't my turf, this ain't my season
Can't think of one good reason to remain
I've worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans
It was ever green up until the floods
You could call it an omen, points you where you're goin'
Set my compass north, I got winter in my blood

[chorus]

Sais tu, Acadie, j'ai le mal du pays
Ta neige, Acadie, fait des larmes au soleil
J'arrive Acadie

Bush playing scientist

2006-07-08T08:08:00.000-06:00

President Bush, right, and Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., receive a tour Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, Friday, July 7, 2006, in Aurora, Ill. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)>

Back in the states...

2006-06-22T12:35:00.000-06:00

So, as some of you may have heard already, I am back in the US after just a couple of weeks in El Salvador. Why? Well, believe me, it was not an easy decision to make.

Outside of getting very sick the first week, most things were going very well. The country was beautiful, the people were warm and easy going, I was just starting to get a handle on my Spanish, and I was slowly overcoming some minor culture shock. I was really starting to enjoy the cultural interactions that I had on a daily basis.

Unforunately, I had some major problems with the assignment that I was sent to do. It just wasn't going to work for me for various reasons. For one, I could not see the point in teaching English in communities that lack basic needs like running water and health services. From what I was able to find out from other volunteers in country, interest in formal English classes usually wanes after a short 2 or 3 months. Of course, this should not come as a surprise. Learning a foreign language takes a back seat to the daily struggle to sustain yourself and your family. What use is English to someone that is wondering if they will have enough water to drink and bath with next week?

I had other options. I could have taught basic IT skills to young people. While this might have allowed me to stay in more populated areas (and hence keep in touch with what's going on in the world--something that I realized is very important to me), it just wasn't appealing to me.

So what have I learned? Well, for one, I feel like the original Guyana assignment might have been a better fit. At least I would have felt like teaching English, the national language, was a productive thing to do. Also, I think teaching high school English would have been more personally challenging than basic English.

Also, I really learned where my true passions lie. The thought of living for two years in an extremely rural part of El Salvador was not so appealing to me. I live for and love the world of current events, politics, and the global exchange of ideas. It's the reason I went into journalism in college. I was already missing my daily dose of world news and opinion and the thought of living without it, or only getting it in monthly doses, was not making me happy. Essentially, I realized that the best way for me to create change in the world is to stay "tapped in" to this world as much as I can.

So I'm back, looking for a job, and applying to grad schools...

Gunn
P.S. I still have my phone so give me a call!

In D.C. 'bout to head out

2006-06-06T16:52:00.000-06:00

I'll post more later when I have some time...C-ya in a few!

Kucinich says phony Iran diplomacy is fast track to war

2006-06-01T12:10:00.000-06:00

Link

Washington, May 31 -- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), Ranking Member of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, issued the following statement today on Iran:

“The US must not participate in phony diplomacy and diplomatic head fakes in order to force our nation, and the world, into war with Iran.

“Iran has reached out to the United States seeking negotiations to end the current stand-off peacefully. The United States should enter into direct, high-level, negotiations with Iran to peacefully end this stand off. This is exactly what over 70 Members of Congress stated last week when they signed onto a letter, I authored, to President Bush.

“Setting conditions on such talks appears to be an effort to ensure their failure and will only put this nation on the fast track to another unnecessary war.

“The US and the world community would be well served to listen to the words of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mohamed El Baradei who stated yesterday that Iran is not an immediate nuclear threat.

“This Administration, once again assisted by a gullible media, seems determined to repeat the very mistakes that led this nation into, and keeps us in, the ill-advised war in Iraq.

“A peaceful solution to the stand-off with Iran must be the top domestic priority of our nation. The US must begin direct negotiations with Iran, at the highest level, and without predetermined conditions set to ensure failure.

“War with Iran can, and must be, avoided.”

T minus five days

2006-05-30T21:11:00.000-06:00

Only five more days until I hop on a plane to D.C. and begin my 2-year PC stint. Stay tuned...

Bush's message to Darfur

2006-05-27T12:51:00.000-06:00

War as a first resort?

2006-05-25T12:01:00.000-06:00

Story Link

The White House yesterday ruled out previously authorised direct talks between Tehran and the US ambassador in Baghdad, which were to have focused on the situation in Iraq. The move marks a hardening of the Bush administration's position, despite pressure from the international community to enter into direct dialogue with Iran.

A White House official said that although the US envoy had originally been granted a mandate for talks with Iran, "we have decided not to pursue it."

Out of town...

2006-05-11T23:30:00.000-06:00

I'll be out of town until May 21st, traveling to Kentucky and Chicago. I'll try to make some updates while I'm away...We'll see how it goes without a laptop.

200 Experts Warn Bush Against Military Option in Iran

2006-05-10T12:53:00.000-06:00

Story Link
----

WASHINGTON, May 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today more than 200 scholars, academics, commentators, and former U.S. government officials issued a strong condemnation of the threat of U.S. military action against Iran and called on the Bush administration to enter into face-to-face negotiations with the government in Tehran.

In a letter sent to the White House Tuesday evening, the group urges diplomacy to resolve concerns over the development of nuclear materials that have magnified tensions between Iran and the U.S. and global community.

"As the International Atomic Energy Agency has found no evidence of research or diversion of materials toward atomic weapons in Iran, concerns about future dual use of nuclear technology ought to be addressed in face to face negotiations," write the signatories and supporters, a diverse group of well respected Middle East experts from around the world as well as former U.S. officials and journalists. The letter warns that the likely "catastrophic regional and global consequences of escalating this crisis will not serve the interests of the United States, the course of democratic development in Iran, or the cause of global peace."

Among the signatories are Professors Juan Cole, Charles Butterworth, Richard Falk, Ervand Abrahamian, Ahmad Sadri, and Noam Chomsky. On Wednesday, several signatories of the letter held a press conference in Washington to answer questions about their position. "We started the letter out of a sense of frustration that the experts in the field were not being consulted as the U.S. develops policy toward Iran," explained Professor Ahmad Sadri, who coordinated the project. "This is the same mistake the U.S. government made before going to Iraq. We're saying don't do that again."

Giant Fin Rapidly Growing in Mt. St. Helens

2006-05-06T10:13:00.000-06:00

This is really amazing...Four to five feet per day?! I would try to avoid that area for a while.

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Story Link

SEATTLE -- Visitors to the Johnston Ridge Observatory at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument can look forward to a spectacular view of a hulking slab of rock that's rapidly growing in the volcano's crater.

It's jutting up from one of seven lobes of fresh volcanic rock that have been pushing their way through the surface of the crater since October 2004.

The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

The U.S. Embassy in Iraq

2006-05-03T23:15:00.000-06:00

Story Link

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US Embassy they call "George W's palace" rising from the banks of the Tigris.

In the pavement cafes, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town

Guitar for sale - $100

2006-05-01T19:33:00.000-06:00

More info here.

Presidential "signing statements"

2006-05-01T13:41:00.000-06:00

It appears that Bush has been amending "signing statements," over 700 in fact, to bills that he signs into law. These statements are not new phenomenons in American politics. In fact, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton all have their own collection of signing statements, some of which are archived at GPOaccess.gov

Besides signing hundreds more than any previous president, Bush also appears to be grossly reinterpreting laws passed by Congress to further his own agenda. Whereas previous presidents merely amended laws to indicate how they would be enforced, or to show vocal support for laws, Bush is claiming constitutional (it actually appears dictatorial) authority to completely invalidate the efforts of D.C. lawmakers. For example (from The Boston Globe):

March 9: Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.

Bush's signing statement: The president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations.

Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Bush's signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks.

Dec. 30: When requested, scientific information ''prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay."

Bush's signing statement: The president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch.

-----------

We might as well send Congress home...what's the use?

Bush rejects tax on oil companies' windfall profits

2006-04-28T11:32:00.000-06:00

Does this really surprise anyone? I mean, Bush probably receives sensual massages from oil company execs on a regular basis. Hell, he's a (failed) oil man himself.

Listen, there is no money in renewable energy at the moment. It would be stupid, at least from a cold-blooded capitalistic viewpoint, to do anything but soak up these record profits while the American public is willing to dish it out. Large breakthroughs in alternative energy will only come when:
1) there is no oil left or
2) as a result of a government-led effort to reduce crude oil use.

-----

Story Link

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday rejected calls to tax oil companies' record profits fueled by high oil prices but said he expects those companies to re-invest those profits into alternative fuels and new energy technologies.

"My attitude is that the oil companies need to be mindful that the American people expect them to reinvest their cash flows in such a way that it enhances our energy security," Bush said, which includes investment in new pipelines, expansion of refineries and more exploration and investment in renewable sources of energy.

"They also expect to be treated fairly at the pump," The president said.

"These oil prices are a wake-up call," the president said, and re-enforces the need to develop alternatives to gasoline such as ethanol.

Rep. Conyers to File Suit Against Bush

2006-04-27T15:08:00.000-06:00

Taking the President to Court
by Congressman John Conyers
Thu Apr 27, 2006 at 12:46:24 PM PDT

As some of you may be aware, according to the President and Congressional Republicans, a bill does not have to pass both the Senate and the House to become a law. Forget your sixth grade civics lesson, forget the book they give you when you visit Congress - "How Our Laws Are Made," and forget Schoolhouse Rock. These are checks and balances, Republican-style.

As the Washington Post reported last month, as the Republican budget bill struggled to make its way through Congress at the end of last year and beginning of this year (the bill cuts critical programs such as student loans and Medicaid funding), the House and Senate passed different versions of it. House Republicans did not want to make Republicans in marginal districts vote on the bill again, so they simply certified that the Senate bill was the same as the House bill and sent it to the President. The President, despite warnings that the bill did not represent the consensus of the House and Senate, simply shrugged and signed the bill anyway. Now, the Administration is implementing it as though it was the law of the land.
.................
After consulting with some of the foremost constitutional experts in the nation, I determined that one group of people are injured by the entire bill: Members of the House. We were deprived of our right to vote on a bill that is now being treated as the law of the land.

So, I am going to court. With many of my Democratic Colleagues (list appended at the bottom of this diary), I plan to file suit tomorrow in federal district court in Detroit against the President, members of the Cabinet and other federal officers seeking to have a simple truth confirmed: a bill not passed by the House and Senate is not a law, even if the President signs it. As such, the Budget bill cannot be treated as the law of the land.

Story continued...

Zarqawi walks again!

2006-04-26T12:24:00.000-06:00

From PNI Online:

Praise the Lord! Leg amputated in 2002, today he walks!

The alleged amputation, that apparently wasn't, isn't just a small piece of medical trivia. The "fact" that Zarqawi supposedly was able to receive treatment in Baghdad with Saddam's blessing was offered (believe it or not) as another "smoking gun" that Saddam, the secular socialist, was in fact in bed with the Islamic radicals of al-Qaeda.

Some al-Qaida leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al-Qaida leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks.
-- President Bush. Cincinnati speech, Oct. 7. 2002.

Zarqawi's activities are not confined to this small corner of north east Iraq. He traveled to Baghdad in May 2002 for medical treatment, staying in the capital of Iraq for two months while he recuperated to fight another day.
-- then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.N. briefing, Feb. 5, 2005.

From Iran Zarqawi traveled to Iraq in May 2002, where his wounded leg was amputated and the limb fitted with a prosthetic device. He spent two months recovering in Baghdad, at which time "nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there."
-- Matthew A. Levitt, senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, National Review Online, Feb. 6, 2003.

Miracles really do happen -- especially over in the Holy Land. Because we have just watched the video of Iraq-based terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and, lo and behold, the once-crippled man seems to have grown two healthy legs. The 30-minute video, in which Zarqawi surfaced publicly to rally Sunnis and foreign fighters behind the insurgency, shows Zarqawi running through the desert, crouching to fire a machine gun, even sitting cross-legged in a meeting -- with no hint of the prosthetic limb that he allegedly received with the aid of Saddam Hussein.

Joseph J. Garcia for NM State Representative

2006-04-25T13:56:00.000-06:00

Garcia's campaign homepage

Please take a moment to visit Joseph J. Garcia's campaign homepage. Garcia is running for the NM House of Representatives Dist. 18 (UNM/Nob Hill area) seat.

Bushie makes HUge "World Leader Etiquette" blunder

2006-04-23T23:18:00.000-06:00

Hey Bush, I don't think President Hu likes to be tugged at like that. Be careful, he could shut off supplies to Wal-Mart.

Bill Would Make Sale of Sex Toys Illegal in S. Carolina

2006-04-23T11:45:00.000-06:00

Seems to me they would have to clamp down on the produce section, too...

-------
Story Link

COLUMBIA — Lucy’s Love Shop employee Wanda Gillespie said she was flabbergasted that South Carolina’s Legislature is considering outlawing sex toys.

But banning the sale of sex toys is actually quite common in some Southern states.

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

"That would be the most terrible thing in the world," said Ms. Gillespie, an employee the Anderson shop. "That is just flabbergasting to me. We are supposed to be in a free country, and we’re supposed to be adults who can decide what want to do and don’t want to do in the privacy of our own homes."

Falun Gong member muffled

2006-04-21T20:15:00.000-06:00

----
Story Link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A heckler from the Falun Gong spiritual movement who disrupted a White House appearance by Chinese President Hu Jintao was charged in federal court on Friday with harassing, intimidating or threatening a foreign official.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington said the misdemeanor charge carries a penalty of up to six months in jail.

The woman, who entered the White House grounds as a reporter, interrupted a formal arrival ceremony between Hu and President George W. Bush on Thursday and shouted: "President Hu, your days are numbered. President Bush, make him stop persecuting Falun Gong."

The embarrassing episode marred the South Lawn event and created a diplomatic stir. Bush personally apologized to Hu for the incident.

Blog is up and running...

2006-04-18T13:50:00.000-06:00

After a long hiatus, I finally have a working blog up and running again. I'll probably post my usual political ramblings until I leave for Guyana on May 30th. After that, who knows what you'll find here???