Archive for the Featured category
August 22nd, 2006
Last Wednesday, in Malaga, Spain, some of the passengers of Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 succummed to irrational terror and forced Monach Airlines to eject two other passengers from the flight based on their own version of racial profiling, even though they had all at that point passed security checks. The problem with the two passengers was that they were both in their early 20s, appeared to be Middle Eastern, and were speaking in a foreign language which the other passengers assumed was Arabic; the passengers noted that despite the heat of Malaga, the two men were wearing leather
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Tags: hatred, racism, airport security, Monarch Airlines, United Airlines, Peter Mercer, Dr. Ahmed Farooq, TSA, Raed Jarrar, Global Exhange, JFK airport, We Will Not Be Silent
August 19th, 2006
There are some Americans who would have you believe that everyone picked up on suspicion of terrorism should forfeit their rights as a human being. Some Americans will tell you that the fact that we are “at war” means that we have the right “to do what we have to do” in order to protect ourselves without apology and without conscience. There are Americans who don’t understand that when we deny other human beings the simple rights that we expect from each other, we stop being human beings ourselves.
The veiled accusations and vehement denials would continue for nearly
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Tags: 9/11, Benemar Benatta, Algeria, detainees, FBI, political assylum, U.S. Immigration
August 18th, 2006
The Boston Globe reports that the technology to detect liquid explosives is already available and, in fact, the White House and the Supreme Court are already using such equipment known as SmartCheck, a low-intensity X-ray scanner made by AS&E that “can spot a bottle of organic compounds in a passenger’s pocket.” That’s pretty impressive actually considering all the people who end up on airplanes with all sorts of things they aren’t supposed to. However,
The TSA has not outfitted airports with the devices, in part, because officials have to prioritize where they spend limited dollars, according
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Tags: George W. Bush, politics, terrorism, Homeland Security, Boston Globe, airport security, AS&E, SmartCheck, TSA
August 16th, 2006
So, Monday and Tuesday was filled with news of various world leaders patting each other on the back as to who won in the latest Middle East Crisis, this Israel/Hezbollah Conflict.
“We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without exaggeration,” Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech that was met with celebratory gunfire in the Shia suburbs of Beirut.
“We emerged from the battle with our heads high, and our enemy is the one who is defeated.”
In an impassioned address to the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said “the IDF warriors always had the upper hand,” and
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Tags: Israel, Lebanon, NPR, Hezbollah, The Monkees, Ehud Olmert, IDF, Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran, George W. Bush, Syria, Bashir al-Assad, Middle East, politics
August 9th, 2006
Humanitarian Aid Charities collecting for Lebanon have run into difficulties collecting in the United States. It’s not that there’s a lack of desire to give, but it turns out there’s a fear to give…apparently, Americans are a little afraid of what their government might have to say if they donate…because after all the NSA is watching and what if you accidently donate to the wrong charity and your name ends up in a database somewhere listing you as a supporter of terrorists? Remember, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.
Some people want to get
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Tags: Humanitarian Aid, Lebanon, Arab, charity, spying on Americans, Treasury Department, United Jewish Communities, CAIR, Arab American Institute, NSA, International Islamic Relief Organization, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Task Force on Palestine, State Department
August 8th, 2006
Posted
in
Politics & Causes,
Books, Music, Movies, & T.V.,
Geekery,
Soap Box,
The World,
Featured,
Iraq & Afghanistan,
The Middle East by
n. mallory
Late last week the following exerpt was going around the liberal blogosphere as more evidence of President Bush’s cluelessness from the White House:
A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.
Galbraith reports that the three of them
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Tags: Iraq, George W. Bush, Peter Galbraith, Spin City, Islam, Sunnis, Shiites
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Politics & Causes, Books, Music, Movies, & T.V., Geekery, Soap Box, The World, Featured, Iraq & Afghanistan, The Middle East
August 8th, 2006
Reading this article, I’m reminded of all of those people who insist that American soldiers never ever commit autrocities and to so much as think such a thing, particularly in a time of war, is akin to treason. To utter or print the words, to repeat them, to say you witnessed such things — these are the worst kinds of sins, far worse than murdering, torturing and raping innocent civillians, particularly those innocent civillians American soldiers are meant to protect and liberate.
NEW YORK A study of declassified Army documents by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday found that the killings of civilians by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam war were far more numerous than previously known — and went largely unpunished. In total, 320 incidents of abuse by U.S. soldiers are substantiated.
“Abuses were not confined to a few rogue units,” the Times reported. “They were uncovered in every Army division that operated in Vietnam.”
Atrociities by U.S. troops in Iraq are currently gaining wide attention.
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Tags: Vietnam, American soldiers, Iraq
August 4th, 2006
- Tin Foil Hats And Tiaras For Everyone! — The (liberal)Girl Next Door talks about the recent poll revealing that 1/3rd of Americans believe that 9/11 was “an inside job” and what that staggering fact could or should mean for our future as a country.
One out of three people think the Bush administration could very well have organized the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans for the sole purpose of furthering their foreign policy objectives. In other words, a third of this country’s citizens believe that the Bush administration is a terrorist organization. How is it possible that impeachment isn’t even on the table if that many Americans think he’s a killer? Yes, it’s a rhetorical question and we can all say in unison, “it’s possible with the help of a lapdog press.”
- Internet “Conspiracies” — In contrast Red Bull uses the same poll to champion Net Neutrality. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Conspiracy Theories, 9/11, net neutrality, gay hate crimes, Homeland Security, FAS, disaster preparedness, Israel, U.S., Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Military Families Speak Out
August 1st, 2006
- An Epidemic of Hatred — Shakespeare’s Sister has written an excellent must-read piece on the lack of media attention on the war against homosexuality in America.
Consider for a moment the stories you see on the nightly news. Try to recall the scare stories that are built up around two children nationwide getting injured by a faulty toy, or three people nationwide having died from side effects of a medication, or ten people in your city having been attacked by pit bulls over the last twenty years. “A rash of incidents.” “An epidemic.” “What can
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Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Mel Gibson, Bill Cosby, Palestinians, Jew, Arab, Nazis, Iraq, George W. Bush, politics, Fox News, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda
August 1st, 2006
When you think about the possibilities…when you consider what lives might be helped…when you consider that in hundreds of labs around the world unused, unwanted embryos are never going to become anything more than lifeless chemical waste…when asked, if you did your part, however little for stem-cell research, what will you say?
If I had the chance, if it were me, in the position of someone who’d had the opportunity to go through the man-made miracle of in-vitro fertilization, I think I’d want to give a little back to man and science, if I could. After all, without those researchers looking for miracles, my own miracle wouldn’t be possible, would it? Is that too much to ask? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: stem cell research, George W. Bush, Australia, IVF, embryo
July 31st, 2006
Well, holy crap. This is exactly what I’ve been talking about. This is what I’ve said was coming. And don’t give me that crap about “if you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear”. This is the kind of legislation meant to be abused. This legislation is not what America is supposed to be about. This is the kind of thing that leads to people disappearing from their homes in the middle of the night and no one hearing from them again because of something they accidently said on their cell phone or typed in
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Tags: detention centers, Police State, politics, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales
July 31st, 2006
Today is Day 20 of the “Crisis in the Middle East”.
Do you know how many days it’s been since the U.S. invaded Iraq?
According to Frank Rich in yesterday’s New York Times, yesterday was Day 1,229, making today a nice even 1,230.
According to CNN, “there have been 2,802 coalition deaths, 2,576 Americans, two Australians, 114 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of July 31, 2006.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Baghdad, American soldiers, New York Times, ABC, Fox News, NBC, Nouri al-Maliki, Frank Rich
July 28th, 2006
Secretary of State Condi Rice’s prediction of a “New Middle East” may have been dead on, but I don’t think what’s happening over there now is what the White House and Israel had in mind. As a result of the US’s refusal to publically support any call for any sort of cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and in fact, the US’s apparently brazen and seemingly hypocritical encouragement of Israel to bomb the hell out of a weaker country on the very verge of the kind of democracy the US supposedly promotes, the U.S. and Israel may have finally done
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Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Egypt, Arab governments, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Sunnis, President Hosni Mubarak, Iran, al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri, Palestine, Condi Rice, Shiiti, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, King Abdullah II of Jordan
July 28th, 2006
Georgia Stillwell is a member of Military Families Speak Out and the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq. She’s active in organizations working for peace and to bring her son and our military home from Iraq.
Below is are her amazing thoughts as presented on Stories in America: (emphasis mine)
Distracted, damn right I am!
When I returned home from my trip to Washington DC. Where I met with various Senators, Representatives and the Speaker of the House as part of Military Families Speak Out Operation House Call, I received a
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Tags: American soldiers, Iraq, Military Families Speak Out, Georgia Stillwell, Gold Star Mothers, politics
July 27th, 2006
Did you know that the U.S. Postal Service will provide Priority Mail shipping supplies for customers sending packages to U.S. military personnel overseas?
To obtain a free kit of shipping supplies,
- call the USPS packing supplies order line @ 1-800-610-8734
- select option #1 (”Express Mail, Priority Mail or Global Express Guaranteed products”)
- ask a customer service agent for CAREKIT04 (or a “military kit”)
You need supply only your name, address, and phone number, and they’ll get a kit off to you that should arrive within 7-10 days.
Please note that you still have to pay for the shipping costs yourself.
Check out USPS’ “Supporting Our Troops”
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Tags: none
July 24th, 2006
I just don’t know why they’re shooting at us. All we want to do is bring them democracy and white bread. Transplant the American dream. Freedom. Achievement. Hyperacidity. Affluence. Flatulence. Technology. Tension. The inalienable right to an early coronary sitting at your desk while plotting to stab your boss in the back.
– Hawkeye, M*A*S*H
Tags: Quote of the Day, Democracy, M*A*S*H
July 23rd, 2006
When you’re hearing and reading about the dead Lebanonese civilians, remember than your tax dollars helped to pay for their deaths even though it’s not our soldiers pulling the trigger. Keep that in mind when you hear about the trapped and dead Americans caught in the conflict too.
July 23rd, 2006
- Censorship is “Just a Policy” — All Spin Zone blogged about how FEMA won’t let trailer residents give media intervies without a FEMA chaparone.
- Third time’s not the charm: Sunday-morning talk shows still imbalanced — Media Matter’s study proving that Sunday talk shows are far from so-called liberal media. In fact, it’s been over a decade since they’ve been anywhere near balanced near that direction. The statistics clearly show that if it’s Sunday, it must be a Conservative guest.
- There was another report of Homeland Security’s TALON database being misused to
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Tags: FEMA, liberal media, TALON, Homeland Security, Fox News, Israel, Lebanon, Veto, World Peace, stem cell research, Middle East, Italy, Abu Omar
July 21st, 2006
Lenin’s Tomb has a link to a video clip of a bomb going off in Beirut. With macabre humor, the post is titled “someone just killed the neighbors”. While somewhat jarring, this title is actually very insightful: war generally is not something that happens on some sterilized battlefield away from innocent children and bystanders; rather it’s something that happens on the way to the market and in people’s kitchens. [“Regarding Our Dead Neighbors” (Swerve Left)]
This is what I’ve been talking about for years. We Americans don’t seem to truly grasp that those are actual people dying. I guess because it’s over there. The Middle East is like some twisted evil NeverNeverLand where we send our little boys and they come back in boxes and never grow up, but there aren’t real live people over there. When the news reports bombings and attacks and more dead in the Middle East every day, I just don’t think Americans realize those are real people dying. To us, they’re just numbers, statistics, faceless unknown movie extras.
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Tags: Israel, Pat Buchanan, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Middle East, Lebanon
