Happy New Year!

See y’all next year.

If we wanted, we could burn down Gaza

This is interesting. Ibrahim Daher of Aqsa Radio spreads the love as the Palestinian civil war of words reflects the internecine fighting in the streets. Which side will prevail? Hamas, who wants to destroy Israel immediately and says so in both Arabic and English? Or, will Fatah, who also wants to destroy Israel, but only says so in Arabic, reserving English for taquiya to the Western media?

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The fighting between Hamas and Fatah militants hasn’t played out just in the streets of the Gaza Strip. The rivals also pummeled each other over the airwaves with such epithets as “mercenary death squads,” “child killers” and “Zionists.”

The rhetoric, coupled with the stations’ power to quickly rally their armed supporters in the streets, has led to fears that the broadcasters could fan the flames into full-blown civil war.

“If we wanted, we could burn down Gaza,” said a smiling Ibrahim Daher, director of Aqsa Radio, the Gaza voice of Islamic Hamas.

Ummah News Links

NowPublic

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Counterterrorism Blog – The Real Deal

Jeffery Imm points to some well-deserved kudos:

US News and World Report listed the Counterterrorism Blog as one of the “Best Blogs of ’06” for best “investigative reporting” and “jihadist” research information. As cited by David E. Kaplan, while there are many web sites with “instant experts in counterterrorism”, on the Counterterrorism Blog – “here’s the real deal: some two dozen analysts, scholars, and investigators who have tracked terrorism around the world for years.”

I, for one, agree wholeheartedly. And as a bonus, we get to read Bill Roggio’s excellent front-line reporting.

Congratulations for a job well-done, and best wishes for your continued success in 2007.

CTB is listed in the sidebar blogroll, plus, you can follow the daily syndication by clicking on the “Page Flakes” icon at the top right. This week’s selection for Nuke’s Website of the Week: Counterterrorism Blog.

Angel has a great piece on muslim moderates

Li’l Pup’s Cautionary Tales Continue…

Republication is encouraged.  Leave a trackback link.

Conyers (quietly) admits ethics violations

from The Hill:

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has “accepted responsibility” for possibly violating House rules by requiring his official staff to perform campaign-related work, according to a statement quietly released by the House ethics committee late Friday evening.

As much as Nancy Pelsosi wants us to believe that her regime will be as ethically pure as wind-driven snow, I think it’s a given that after not standing up for Black democrats in previous controversies, she really cannot afford to dump on Conyers. But the facts are stubborn things. Conyers should not become Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, since he has proven that he is incapable of following the rules of conduct.

See Also: Hang Right Politics Boring Made Dull,TPM: Alan Mollohan (posterboy for corruption)

Unedited Video of Saddam Execution

Bodiaz over at the revver video hosting site has uncut video of the hanging. WARNING Very Graphic.
see also: He’s dead, Jim

Welcome WordPress Blog of the Day (#3). Thank you readers

I want to thank all of the readers from Now Public for making this the top ranked post on the front page. I apologize to all who have been unable to get the NP Thumbprint tool to function properly. So, I have decided to post the video here.

Most Popular Names … for Dogs

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has just released its annual list of the most popular dog names. I will list them below and, just for kicks, I’ll put in parentheses each name’s rank among the most popular boy or girl baby names in the U.S. If a dog name doesn’t have a number next to it, that means it hasn’t been among the 1,000 most popular boy or girl names in the U.S. in the past 15 years.

1. Max (165)

2. Lucky

3. Princess (738)

4. Rocky (965)

5. Buddy

6. Coco

7. Daisy (149)

8. Lucy (174)

9. Lady

10. Shadow

Freakonomics Blog

I can’t believe Taco the Wonder Dog didn’t make the list.

NowPublic

Tags: parentheses | surprised | Released | RANK | means | kicks | dogs | annual | PRINCESS | New York | MENTAL | Lucy | HYGIENE | Health | department | Culture

Back to the Realities of Daily Life Folks!

He’s Dead, Jim

Al Arabia reported saddam is dead.

CNN: Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein Executed

AP photo

UPDATE: Metalfist has the exclusive video of the Execution of Saddam Hussein (parody)h/t N2L

(Photos from aazmaaish website)

a

Religion of Peace targets Buddhists

“This land must be separated between Muslims and the nonbelievers. This land must be liberated, and an Islamic system must be its foundation,” warned a leaflet recently distributed in the south that the Thai military showed to reporters.

“This is a land of war that is no different from Palestine and Afghanistan,” said the leaflet, signed by an obscure jihadist group known as the Islamic Warriors of Pattani State.

“This land is not the land of the Thais, but the land of Fathoni Darulsalam,” it said, using an old Arabic name for the mainly Muslim region of southern Thailand.

Other fliers instruct Muslims not to buy or benefit financially from lands abandoned by Buddhists, saying the properties will be distributed to needy Malays once the region is liberated from the “occupying Siamese,” according to a Bangkok newspaper, the Nation.

source

School burnings, beheadings in the name of allah. By the way, “land of war” translates into Dar Al Harb. Google it.

NowPublic

Tags: warned | TARGETS | southern | showed | separated | nonbelievers | mainly | LIBERATED | leaflet | Insurgency | Foundation | Distributed | Thailand | thai | Place | Palestine | Muslim | Malaysia | ISLAMIC | Iraq | buddhist | bangkok | afghanistan

The Hangman Cometh!

update: welcome readers from NowPublic.com

All Rise For The Hangman

He comes from the land of the dead.
Leaving his victims with eyes full of dread.
The crime has been done and the price will be paid.
All hell breaks loose and justice is being made.

CHORUS:

Stretch the rope, hang it high!
Bring the sinner, he’s about to die!
God cant help you, nobody can!
Open the gates, all rise for the hangman

Condemned to be hung its the worst kind of death.
The judge has no mercy he has only wrath.
Dont look for redemption inside your psycho mind.
When the hangman is here damnation is all you’ll find.

CHORUS

As the rope is tight around your neck.
No need for regret no use looking back.
Your face turning red and you’re burning inside.
You’re going to hell and its a one way ride.

(HangmaN Band.)

Pondering the big news story of the day, Saddams pending and long overdue demise, I am reminded of an event I experienced in 1974 while stationed at Clark AB, in Angeles City, Republic of the Philippine Islands.

It was a sweltering day during the dry season. The SYM shared a two bedroom apartment with his best friend and their girlfriends, who were sisters. The apartment had no air conditioning, they only used fans, and it didn’t bother them much except in the middle of the afternoon when the equatorial Sun shown straight down on the corrugated metal roof.

The SYM had been sleeping, after arriving home at around 7:30a.m., from working a graveyard shift. The heat made it uncomfortable to sleep so he got up to get something cold to drink with the intent of going back to bed after making a few phone calls. He got a glass of iced tea, turned on the television and sat back in the rattan couch with two fans on high speed. There was a TV station broadcasting out of Manila, about ninety miles south, that always had a good American Western movie on at about 1p.m. The movie was very good and he had never seen it before. He became lost in the morality play, with a sleep deprived mind and personal thoughts. Then something happened that he did not expect(who could?) and it altered his perspective on where he was, how he conducted himself and just what a tyrant was capable of.

President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law on 21 Sep 72 by signing Proclamation 1081. There is much info in the hyperlinks to explain what happened during this period of time and will leave it to you if you chose to read it. The main theme Marcos promoted from this ambitious political act was to create a “New Society.” As with all Martial Law states, civil courts are suspended and Military Tribunals take their place. One of the features of this period was the rapid increase of corruption, which had been present, but not as policy. The laws and their enforcement were harsh, and there are many reports of people disappearing or being “invited” to be questioned by the authorities, never to be seen alive again.

There was one young man, I can’t remember his full name and can’t find it on the net, but I remember his first name was ‘Mao,’ and he was of Chinese descent. There had always been a large Chinese population in the Philippines, as they have been master sailors and traders for many centuries. This young man was arrested and charged with the illegal production of heroin, tried by Tribunal and found guilty. I had heard about it on the radio and heard a few people mention it, but it didn’t really concern me, just more news. Many of us speculated that his real crime was not paying off the right people, enough people, or paying off enough. He was sentenced to death.

With that info, I return you to a sweaty young man sitting on a couch watching a Western movie. Suddenly, the movie was interrupted by a blank screen, then a line of soldiers marching into a courtyard with bright white adobe walls. He thought…“WTF?” Oh, it must be an advertisement for a new movie, but…that can’t be right, the soldiers are carrying M-16’s, not bolt-action rifles…WTF is this? Then a young man was escorted to the wall facing the soldiers, bound to his position and blindfolded. He still couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing, there was no audio, just the natural sounds of the scene and the sounds of some birds. The officer attending the prisoner then briskly stepped aside and in Tagalog instructions were issued, which he could partially understand, and the soldiers charged their weapons and took firing positions. The sweaty young man stood up and got closer to the TV, to try and understand what was going on. When were they going to end this movie trailer and announce the name of the movie, and when it would reach theaters? Then the order to fire was issued. Shots were fired, the prisoner slumped immediately. The attending officer walked over, issued the coup de grace and the screen went blank. The sweaty young man is really perplexed now. Why won’t they give us the details of the movie? Then a voice came on the blank screen…finally…but the short explanation sends chills through his body. “You have just witnessed the execution of Mao(something-something) for crimes against the New Society.” That was it, no further statement was issued and soon the Western resumed.

Perhaps it was because of his state of mind, the fact that he was a Military Policeman that worked with the local and national police, and the realization that this was a democratic country in suspension, that he turned the TV off and stood there in shock. These guys are serious! The image now, of the man being executed, finished off and the cold sterility of the scene had frozen him into a stunned condition. Finally, his roommate and ladies returned from shopping and they looked at him and asked what was wrong. He tried to explain what he had witnessed, but he was incoherent; he couldn’t speak as quickly as the events and thoughts were running through his mind. His roomie offered him a cold San Miguel beer, which he gladly accepted with a shaking hand.

After a little while and after some friendly chit-chat, he was able to express himself more clearly, and to grasp better where he was and what he needed to do. For the next several weeks, he was the best citizen of the world that ever existed. When he came to a stop sign he didn’t just stop, he lingered. He didn’t speed or change lanes without signaling, spit on the ground, or get drunk in public. He did nothing wrong! It’s from that moment that he determined that televising executions live are a powerful deterrent to would-be criminals, but was not something he ever wanted to witness again.

As for Saddam, a nice color print will be sufficient, for me.

Friday Open

Republication is permitted, leave a trackback link

The Danes love us

Danish reader Viking4worldpeace sends warm his Holiday greetings from across the pond. He was also kind enough to send a link to the Politiken article which brought about a spike in our readership, and many hundreds of Danish visitors to our humble abode.

Også den svenske avis Sydsvenskan har bragt historien om den danske kunstgruppe, ligesom annoncen kommenteres på bloggen Nuke’s News and Views.

Her skriver bloggeren:

»Man kan ikke andet end at elske danskerne. Fra sidste år tegninge-ekstravaganza til dette års indsmugling af en speciel meddelelse til Ahmadinejad«.

Danish art group Surrend pulled a pretty funny practical joke on Iran’s Ahmadinejad, and the post on this blog was mentioned in Politiken.

We’re still getting quite a few Danish visitors as a result.

So, a big hat-tip to Viking4worldpeace, and Holiday greetings to you as well. Stop by any time.

Late Nite Stevie Ray

Ain’t givin’ up, y’all.

G’nite.

Chavez to shut down opposition TV

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country’s second largest TV channel when it expires in March 2007.

In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working toward a coup against him.

Radio Caracas Television, which is aligned with the opposition, supported a strike against Mr Chavez in 2003.

Correspondents say this is Mr Chavez’ first significant political move since his re-election earlier this month.

“There will be no new operating licence for this coupist TV channel – the measure has been drafted so go turn off the equipment”.

Mr Chavez, who was returned to power by a wide margin on 3 December, said the head of the television channel, Marcel Granier,
was mistaken in believing “that concession is eternal”. “It runs out in March. So it’s better that you go and prepare your suitcase and look around for what you’re going to do in March.

“There will be no new operating licence for this coupist TV channel called RCTV. The operating licence is over… So go and turn
off the equipment,” Mr Chavez said

NowPublic

Tags: coupist | opposition | operating | licence | CHANNEL | tv | Politics | march | chavez

Couple pleads guilty to kissing in public during Ramadan

Dubai: An Australian manager and a Filipina receptionist are pleading guilty to hugging and kissing in public besides consuming liquor, a court heard yesterday.

The 37-year-old manager and 35-year-old receptionist confessed to the Dubai Court of Appeal yesterday that they committed an indecent gesture in public after they were caught hugging and kissing during Ramadan in a coffee shop.

The Dubai Court of First Instance earlier sentenced the defendants to one month in jail for kissing and hugging in public and fined them Dh1,000 for consuming liquor.

source

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Edwards announces for Prez

I just noticed the blurb on cable news, John Edwards (trial lawyer-NC) was in the lower 9th in NewOrleans. He announced his candidacy for the ’08 Democrat nomination.
The photo op was framed nicely. Edwards in his starched work shirt and blue jeans, toting a shovel full of dirt, smiling for the cameras as he dutifully pitches the dirt into a pile.

The shovel looked brand new. My guess is the handlers made a quick stop by Home Depot before the photo op.

The first thing that popped in my head was the Katrina photo of Spicoli, frantically trying to keep his fishing boat from sinking with the Red Cup.

Heh™. Priceless.

Jackalope Alert! FoxNews snookered by gaiaists

Update: Welcome Readers from Free Republic …………………………………………..click to return to Free Republic

Update: Welcome Rantburg Readers………………………………………………………………………….. click to return to Rantburg

Update: Welcome WordPress Blog of the Day Readers……………………………………………..click to return to WordPress

Talk about buying into the global warming hysteria. Ever since FNC offered up Robert Kennedy as a “special correspondent” on its much ballyhooed global warming report, Fox has become a sucker for the gaiaist apocalyptic syndrome. Yesterday’s report on Lohachara Island was an another example of junk science gone wild.

The Fox story began with this bold headline:

An inhabited island has been wiped off the face of the Earth due to global warming, Britain’s The Independent newspaper reported on Sunday.

Remote Lohachara Island was in the Indian part of the Sundarbans , a vast mangrove delta where the Ganges empties into the Bay of Bengal on the Indian-Bangladeshi border.

Rising sea levels have swallowed the island whole, according to the report. It was once home to 10,000 people.

Lohachara’s disappearance wasn’t easy to discover. Satellites monitored it until it finally disappeared.

As Aaron noted at Free Will, “Odd. You’d think the inhabitants would’ve noticed it before the satellites did. Or, they might not:

As Tim Blair notes, this “shocking news“ actually took place 22 years ago.”

None of that matters to the Independent’s environmental editor Geoffrey Lean,

who evidently believes all weather change is due to Meddling Humans. And that’s all change, whether towards cold or heat. In 2004, Lean reported that “Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming”. Two years later, he asked: “So where has all the snow gone?”

I’m not at all surprised that the report originated in the UK Independent. This is the same newspaper that calls the idiot Robert Fisk, the “eminent Middle East scholar” of our time. Fox News has been flirting with the global warming crowd for several months. They should know better.

h/t Sarah D, GCP

pingback: RoP™Freakshow Continues

Also blogging, Americas North Coast

WordPress Blog of the day, #11 — thank you readers!

rare Lithographs at Doug Ross@Journal 

Top aide to Muqtada al-Sadr killed in Iraqi raid

Got another bad guy in Iraq (h/t N2L)

A top aide to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was killed in a raid by US troops Wednesday in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, an Iraqi lawmaker said.

The US military, however, said American troops participated in a raid led by Iraqi forces that led to the death of a man with the same name as the aide, Sahib al-Amiri. The military described al-Amiri as a criminal involved in the use of roadside bombs.

Nassar al-Rubaie, the head of al-Sadr’s bloc in parliament, said al-Amiri was killed when American forces entered his home at dawn.

“We offer our condolences to the Iraqi people and to the al-Sadr movement for the killing of Sahib al-Amiri, one of al-Sadr’s prominent figures,” al-Rubaie said. Later Wednesday, mourners carried al-Amiri’s coffin, draped in an Iraqi flag, on a funeral procession through downtown Najaf.

Jpost

NowPublic

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Saddam Supporters Vow Revenge (I am Ba’athist, hear me roar)

Amman – Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party threatened on Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader was executed, warning in an internet posting that it would target United States interests anywhere.

The statement appeared on a Web site known to represent the Ba’ath, which was disbanded after US-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003.

The site is believed to be run from Yemen, where a number of exiled members of the party are based.

On Tuesday, Iraq’s highest court rejected Saddam’s appeal against a conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in Dujail, northern Iraq, in 1982.

The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

‘Determined to retaliate’

The statement read: “Our party warns again of the consequences of executing Mr President and his comrades.

source

Heh™ Yeah, good luck with ‘dat.

NowPublic

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Gerald R. Ford

1913–2006 RIP

See also:  Public Eye 

Saddam offers self as “sacrifice”

(Even though he doesn’t have a lot of choice in the matter…)

Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein said in a letter released on Wednesday that he would go to the gallows as a “sacrifice” and called on his former Iraqi subjects to unite against their enemies.

Saddam, in a letter written to the Iraqi people from his cell before his appeal against a death sentence failed, said: “I sacrifice myself. If God wills it, he will place me among the true men and martyrs.”

Defence counsel Khalil Dulaimi said in Jordan that Saddam had written the letter in November when he was first sentenced to death and that it had been released to the public after the news that his appeal had failed.

“It’s release was delayed by the length of the procedures imposed by the Americans,” Dulaimi said, by way of explanation.

source

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Tags: Dulaimi | unite | subjects | SACRIFICE | Release | news | Gallows | failed | Dictator | COUNSEL | called | appeal | Wednesday | Saddam | Politics | november | Khalil | Jordan | IRAQI | Iraq | HUSSEIN

Muslims in Spain demand the right to worship at Cordoba Cathedral

Spanish Muslims have written to the Vatican to demand the right to worship at Cordoba Cathedral.

Spain’s Islamic Board wrote to Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, calling on him to grant them permission to worship in the cathedral, parts of which were built as a mosque during Spain’s period of Islamic rule.

The group said in their letter: “What we wanted was not to take over that holy place, but to create in it, together with you and other faiths, an ecumenical space unique in the world which would have been of great significance in bringing peace to humanity.”

They said that senior Spanish Catholic clergy had earlier rejected requests for Muslims to be allowed to prostrate themselves inside the Cathedral.

Mansur Escudero, the board’s secretary general, said security guards often stop Muslim worshipers from praying at the old mosque.

He said: “There are reactionary elements within the Catholic Church, and when they hear about the construction of a mosque, or Muslim teachings in state schools, or about veils, they see it as a sign we are growing and they oppose it.”

Mansur said Muslims came from around the world to see Cordoba’s Cathedral, which is still commonly known as the Cathedral-Mosque. from AlJazeera

Every time I think I’ve heard it all, the muslims top themselves once again. In this case, The St. Vincent Cathedral was destroyed by the muslims and replaced with a mosque in the muslim conquest. When the muslims were driven out of Spain some 500 years ago, the site was reclaimed as a Catholic place of worship. Now, muslims in Spain are demanding the right to use the church as a mosque once again. According to the news article, there are some 1 million muslims in Spain, out of a population of 44 million. Most of them are from north Africa.So far, the Church has refused their demands, and in my opinion, rightly so.

NowPublic

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Pakistan Plans to Mine Afghan Border

“The Pakistan Army has been tasked to work out modalities for selectively fencing and mining the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,’’ Riaz Mohammad Khan, the Pakistani foreign secretary, said at a news briefing in Islamabad, the capital. “These measures will supplement the measures which are already in force.”

At present, Pakistan has an estimated 80,000 troops on its porous and craggy border straddling Afghanistan.

NY Times

Pakistan has also decided to strictly monitor the Afghan refugee camps, Mr. Khan said at the news briefing. “We also request the
international community, especially the United Nations, to expedite the refugees’ return to Afghanistan and to relocate some of
the camps which are closer to the border,’’ Mr. Khan said.

Pakistani officials say the continued presence of Afghan refugee camps on its side makes it easier for Taliban to mingle, hide and travel across the border.

NowPublic

Tags: tasked | selectively | Riaz | troops | supplement | Secretary | news | modalities | measures | FENCING | briefing | border | Politics | plans | Pakistani | Pakistan | Mohammad | Khan | islamabad | Army | afghanistan | afghan

True Brit: what was your best pesent this year?

I just thought I would share with you my ‘bestest’ Christmas present this year! Commando comics are small, black and white, and contain spiffing war stories. The enemy are ‘huns’, ‘nip’s and ‘eeities’ and the Brits always, ALWAYS win in the end.

Blissfully un-P.C. they have been part of British culture since ever i was a kid. I cannot remember walking into a newsagent and not seeing them on sale. This collection of twelve vintage stories is raising their profile again and introducing them to a younger generation who have been brought up on Manga and the like. There is also a companion volume called, perhaps predictably, The Dirty Dozen”

Lucky me hey? What did you have – show and tell time folks.