Tuesday - July 04, 2006

Welcome, Citizen Soldiers

I can’t begin to imagine how these 26 young soldiers must feel today. The Fourth of July. Becoming an American citizen. Fighting for freedom in Afghanistan. The only thing missing is a case of beer and a sincere “thank you” from all of us back home. Happy 4th Of July !!!

Soldiers Now U.S. Citizens in Afghanistan
_{July 4, 2006, 9:09 AM EDT}

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - They were soldiers from 21 different countries. But at the end of a short ceremony Tuesday at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, they pledged allegiance to only one: the United States. Raising their right hands, 26 young soldiers took an oath and became new American citizens during a naturalization ceremony held at the main U.S. military base north of Kabul.

“It is so fitting that today on the Fourth of July, when we celebrate our nation’s birthday, that we would take the time ... and have 26 fellow soldiers join us as fellow American soldiers,” said Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the U.S. operational commander in Afghanistan, who attended the ceremony. Under a fast-track law enacted in 2004, soldiers on active duty in the U.S. military are automatically eligible for citizenship. Normally, obtaining citizenship is a lengthy process that can run three to five years.

“It’s wonderful to see our soldiers get the benefit of citizenship,” said Pamela Hutchings, an officer with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services who flew in from Pakistan to administer the oaths. About 7,000 soldiers have become citizens under the fast-track program, according to the immigration service. On this day, there were soldiers from countries across the globe—Mexico, Kenya, Zambia, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Kenya, Zambia, and even Afghanistan.

Specialist Ahmad John, 27, originally from Kabul but now hailing from Los Angeles, California, said he has been dreaming of this day for years. “I feel great. I will be an American citizen. Since I was 10 years old, I had a dream that one day in America, I would be a citizen,” he said. John, a military linguist who speaks Dari, Pashto and Arabic, said he believes his skills are serving two nations. “I’m a citizen of America but I’m Afghanistan-born. I come back and I serve my motherland country and protect my homeland,” he said.

For Pfc. Joyce Nanquil, 20, of Temecula, California, getting naturalized was doubly meaningful because her older brother Alfer Nanquil, who is serving in Iraq, is also getting his citizenship the same day. Originally from the Philippines, Nanquil said she and her brother are the last in their family to become Americans. “I feel really great. Our family supported us joining the military.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/04/2006 at 12:38 PM   
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72 Virginians

My partner Flapjawman sent this in. He’s currently serving in Kuwait. Enjoy.

Joke Of The Day

Abu al-Zarqawi died.

George Washington met him at the Pearly Gates. He slapped him across the face and yelled, “How dare you try to destroy the nation I helped conceive and fought so hard for!”

Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, “You wanted to end our liberties but you failed!”

James Madison followed, kicked him in the groin and said, “This is why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!”

Thomas Jefferson was next, beat al-Zarqawi with a long cane and snarled, “It was Evil men like you who inspired me to write the Declaration of Independence.”

The beatings and thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe, and 66 other early Americans unleashed their anger on the terrorist leader.

As al-Zarqawi lay bleeding and in pain, an Angel appeared.

Al-Zarqawi wept and said, “This is not what you promised me.”

The Angel replied, “I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you in Heaven. What did you think I said?”

Posted by Christopher     on 07/04/2006 at 12:13 PM   
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America

One small slip of paper - parchment, actually. Fifty-six signatures boldly inked at the bottom. This is the most important piece of paper in the entire world to me. It means more than any amount of paper money, more than any lucrative contract and infinitely more than any newspaper or other publication - with the exception of the Bible.

If I were tasked to defend mankind and offer proof of humanity’s intelligence and basic decency, this is the only evidence I would need. These are the most powerful words in the English language and still stand today as the model of human decency.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. What we’re saying is that it should be obvious what we’re about to tell you and that is that every human being comes into this world on an equal basis with every other human. We’re all in this together regardless of the color of our skin, our religion, or ethnic origin. It took a bloody civil war and unimaginable bloodshed for the rest of this country to start to live up to those words.

“that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. In one small phrase these men acknowledged their Creator and spelled out the three basic “rights” that every human being, everywhere expects: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Basically, we all want to live and live free of oppression and while we’re at it we want to live our lives in a way that brings happiness. Live. Free. Happy. Every other so-called “right” derives from those three basic needs.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”. Now we get to the heart of the matter - the fact that we need government to maintain order so that all men may enjoy those three basic rights. However, that government has an obligation and a responsibility to be answerable to the people it governs. “Consent of the governed” is the key phrase and when this document was written, that idea by itself was a unique, new concept on the face of the Earth. Government is given power by the people and the people can take that power away if necessary.

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”. In turn, the people also have a responsibility. If the government acts wrongly, it is the obligation and responsibility of the people to get rid of it and replace it with a more just and honest government. In other words, the people are enjoined to keep an eye on their government, to participate in that government and most importantly, to be prepared to take whatever measures are necessary in the event that government becomes oppressive or ignores its responsibility to the people it governs.

This was the birth of a nation. It was also the birth of a new concept for humanity - not just Americans but for all people everywhere. So in that spirit I offer this birthday greeting to America ... and to freedom. May there be many more birthdays to come. May we all treasure the gifts we receive today - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We also need to be reminded of the price that has been paid and still remains to be paid in order to continue these annual birthday parties. As citizens of these United States of America, we have an obligation to defend our claim to these rights and a responsibility to maintain oversight on the government we have chosen. Happy birthday, America. I love you.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/04/2006 at 07:41 AM   
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   Monday - July 03, 2006

The Twilight Zone

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/03/2006 at 02:24 PM   
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New Jersey Bankrupt

The State Of New Jersey is closing down. They’re bankrupt. No money left in the coffers and state government workers are on unpaid leave. This is what happens when you leave the Dummycraps in charge for a while. Especially in “Joisey”. Would the last person to leave “Joisey” please turn out the lights ...

N.J. Lottery Closes, Casinos May Be Next
_{July 3, 2006, 12:41 PM EDT}

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey’s courts didn’t open Monday, lottery ticket sales shut down, and the same could happen to betting at race tracks and the Atlantic City casinos. By Wednesday, state parks and beaches could also be closed. As the first workweek under a state government shutdown began, more than half the state work force was off the job and those who were working might not get paid.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine imposed the shutdown after lawmakers missed a July 1 deadline to adopt a new state budget. The impasse among Democrats over a sale tax increase left New Jersey with no means to spend money, and a private four-hour meeting Sunday between the governor and top Assembly and Senate leaders ended without a compromise.

The Senate planned to meet Monday, and Senate President Richard J. Codey told senators to be ready to stay in session until a budget is adopted. But no Assembly meetings were scheduled. “I would welcome the Assembly actually coming in, staying in Trenton, working on the budget, hour after hour, 24 hours a day until we come up with a budget,” Corzine said Monday morning on CNN. ”I can’t veto a budget, I can’t sign a budget until it’s actually presented by the Legislature.”

No budget bills had moved through legislative committees yet, and any legislation those panels approve must wait a full calendar day before receiving final votes in the Assembly and Senate. If no bills move forward Monday, the Legislature couldn’t adopt a budget before Wednesday morning. Road construction and lottery sales were among the first casualties of the shutdown.

Race tracks and casinos, which require state monitoring, will be closed Wednesday if no budget is enacted by then. State parks, beaches and historic sites will close their gates on Wednesday. If the shutdown drags on, Corzine said, services funded with state aid, such as prescription drug assistance and hospitals, will also be hit.

A state appellate panel on Sunday ordered horse tracks closed at the end of business Tuesday. The horse racing industry said it would appeal if the budget impasse is not resolved. The casinos are also waging a court battle to remain open. The head of the Casino Control Commission told Atlantic City’s 12 casinos to lock up at 8 a.m. Wednesday, and an appeals court panel on Monday denied the casinos’ request to stay open while the appeals continue.

“We’re still studying the order and trying to figure out what it means for us,” said casino association lawyer John Kearney. The state extended deadlines for people trying to renew driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations and car inspections—a good thing, since some people showed up at state offices Monday only to find the offices were closed.

- More on this brokeback state here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/03/2006 at 02:09 PM   
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From Gitmo To French Prison

All I’ve got to say is it’s too bad the Frogs closed down Devil’s Island. It could come in pretty useful right about now. But don’t kid yourselves, kiddies. My money says the Frogs either let these creeps go or they get a slap on the wrist (one year in prison) and then set free. After all, Chirac must keep to pattern and bend over and kiss the Muslim’s behinds - as usual ...

Six Ex-Guantanamo Inmates on Trial in France
_{July 3, 2006, 1:29 PM EDT}

PARIS (AP) - Six Frenchmen freed after years in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison went on trial in a Paris court Monday on charges of links to terrorism. The suspects were detained by U.S. forces in or near Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion to depose the Taliban government in late 2001. Prosecutors began the trial by recounting modern Afghan history and briefly questioning the defendants.

Former detainee Imad Kanouni told the court he traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 to pursue religious education because it was a popular destination for such voyages at the time. But “I was ready to die for a good cause, defend people who were attacked in their countries,” he said, insisting that he didn’t agree with the ideas of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and never visited al-Qaida military training camps.

The trial is expected to run two weeks. The men, who spent between two and three years at Guantanamo, face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.” The seven French citizens held at Guantanamo all were released in 2004 or 2005 and delivered to French authorities.

One was freed immediately with no charges filed, after French judicial officials said he had no link to Islamic extremism. Five were released but put under investigation and are now on trial. A sixth currently on trial was never freed. Most defendants were expected to plead not guilty. Kanouni’s lawyer, Felix de Bellay, called the trial “intellectually as well as legally shocking.”

Another defendant, Khaled ben Mustafa, told the court that he had been “sold” to U.S. forces in December 2001 by Pakistani villagers after he fled Afghanistan. Defendant Nizar Sassi told the newspaper 20 Minutes that he hoped the charges would be dropped—“to give a strong response to what is happening at Guantanamo.”

He called the base “a machine to create hate for the United States, to produce savage beasts,” and accused prison authorities of physical and psychological torture, the newspaper reported Monday.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/03/2006 at 02:03 PM   
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Independence Day?

_{Steve Breen - The San Diego Union-Tribune}

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/03/2006 at 11:39 AM   
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   Sunday - July 02, 2006

Unintended Consequences

Who knew? All these years smokers have been performing an outstanding public service. It turns out cigarette smoke drives tiny critters away. Actually, I already knew this from a Boy Scout trip in 1960 when I was being eaten alive by “skeeters” inside my tent on a camping trip along the Appalachicola Rive in North Florida. Luckily my dad was an assistant scoutmaster ... with several packs of Lucky Strikes in his pack. Dad fired up one after the other, going from tent to tent, and managed to help fifty whining, complaining “skeeter-bitten” Scouts get some sleep that night - including an 11-year-old version of the future Skipper.

Now who says second-hand smoke is bad? Evidently, the Scots, who now have smoke-free bars are having second thoughts after being invaded by swarms of ”midges” (midges are skeeters without the sophisticated drilling equipment - still extremely annoying). As usual, the Dunderheads In Charge Of Things (DICOT) decided allowing smoking back in pubs was out of the question so they invested in a large machine to lure the critters into a trap - kind of a “bug-zapper”, Scottish style. Technology triumphs once again ...

Clean Air Brings Tiny Problem
_{(SCOTSMAN.COM) - Sun 2 Jul 2006}

Customers and staff in smoke-free Highland pubs are complaining that midges are swarming inside to take advantage of the cleaner atmosphere. No longer put off by the clouds of tobacco smoke in bars, the ferocious creatures are venturing inside to feast on drinkers.

The problem has become so acute that a number of bar owners in the Highlands have decided to buy anti-midge machines to keep the midges at bay and protect customers. Kevin Reid, the operations director of the Bosville Hotel in Portree in Skye, said: “We decided to invest in a midge machine because we were noticing swarms of them coming in. They never used to come in before. But you could literally see the thick swarms of them in the lights and they were biting the customers and staff too. “

The machines work by faking the scent and breath of an animal - the midge’s usual prey - which then lures the insects in their thousands into a trap. Nigel Saggers, co-owner of the Lochcarron Hotel in Lochcarron, said: “This is real midge country. We got a machine a week or so ago and it makes a massive difference. “

Kim Donnelly, the owner of the Claymore Restaurant in Broadford in Skye, said: “We got a machine very early on and we noticed the difference straight away. The place is completely clear of midges. And you need them up here, because they were coming in and biting everyone. You can’t really have a nice meal if the midges are eating you.”

Midges famously detest tobacco smoke, and even non-smokers in the Highlands and Islands will seek out the company of a smoker when the swarms are at their worst. Midge expert Dr Alison Blackwell, of Advanced Pest Solutions, said: “Midges are put off by the smell of tobacco because the strong aroma confuses their sense of smell. Midges find their victim by smelling the carbon dioxide from their breath, and the tobacco smoke makes that hard.

“Cooking smoke from a barbecue, I’m afraid, doesn’t have the same effect because they are attracted by the heat from the cooking and by hot bodies around the barbecue.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 06:23 PM   
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Gaza Update

Lessons For The Day: When dealing with terrorists, (1) never try to negotiate with them until you have beaten the crap out of them, (2) don’t believe a thing they say, (3) ignore any media campaigns they mount to gain sympathy, (4) keep pounding on their pointy little heads until they decide to cooperate, (5) repeat step 4 as many times as necessary. Got all that? Good! President Bush understands that. So do the Israelis. Sometimes I wonder if anyone else in the entire freaking world understands it.

The Pallies (who have to hide their faces in the picture below because they are miserable, low-life retards who know their criminal acts will get them hung or shot if they are ever captured), are feeling the full wrath of the Israelis and are starting to get the point. It appears they are now ready to negotiate. I might add that this willingness to negotiate comes only after they have been pounded mercilessly for nearly a week. This is because they have thick skulls with no brains inside.

Palestine ‘Ready To Trade’ Captured Israeli Soldier
Negotiators ‘near deal’ in secret talks as Israel launches helicopter strike on Palestinian leader’s HQ
_{(GUARDIAN - UK) - Sunday July 2, 2006}

Palestinian militant sources claimed last night that they were close to reaching an agreement in negotiations over the release of an Israeli soldier. They want a guarantee that Israel will free prisoners at a future date in return for the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Palestinians say they accept that Israel will not free any prisoners immediately, but insist they will give up the 19-year-old soldier only in return for a commitment for a future release.

Because they have no confidence in Israeli assurances, they stipulate that it must make a commitment to a third party such as Egypt. Israel would also be expected to end its attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Deputy Minister of Prisoner Affairs said Shalit had minor injuries but was in a stable condition. Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah, Ziad Abu Aen cited ‘mediators’ as telling him that Shalit, captured during a raid into Israel by militants last Sunday, had three wounds: ‘I guess shrapnel wounds.’

The news came as an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at the Gaza City office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Yesterday the three groups holding Shalit said they would free him if Israel released 1,000 Palestinian women, children and humanitarian cases from prison. Mark Regev, of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, rejected the demand, saying that Israel would make no deals.

There has been energetic diplomacy to prevent the situation descending into a bloodbath. Ghazi Hamed, spokesman for the Hamas government, said Egypt, Turkey and other governments were mediating and making progress. ‘Israel says it will not agree to a simultaneous release, but it will agree to release prisoners in the future. We are looking for a third party, possibly Egypt, to accept a guarantee from Israel that it will respect that they will release prisoners at a later date,’ he said.

However, Walid Awad, a spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, said ‘immense Egyptian efforts’ to resolve the crisis were being thwarted by Israeli intransigence and the inability of the Hamas government to exercise any influence on its military wing. ‘Ismail Haniyeh, the current Prime Minister, appears not to have any say in what is going on in this regard,’ he said.

- More on this breaking story at the Guardian ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 11:06 AM   
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Stupid Criminal Du Jour

DUDE! If you’re gonna leave your stash out in the open on top of your pizza, don’t ride around town with the stereo thumping, vibrating the car while you and your friends play air guitar. (why am I reminded of Wayne’s World at this point in the story?) Stoopid dopers just never learn. Then again, I think it’s kinda cool that this happened in a town named Kalamazoo. What are the odds of that happening? I’ll have an order of hot wings to go with that, please ....

Michigan Pair Arrested After Cops Find Pot on Pizza
_{Sunday, July 02, 2006}

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (FOX NEWS) — A topping presumably not offered at the pizzeria they had just visited landed two people in jail on marijuana possession charges.

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers pulled over a sport utility vehicle that was playing loud music about 8 p.m. Friday. They learned there were several outstanding warrants against the driver, then found five sandwich bags full of suspected marijuana on top of one of three pizzas that had just been purchased.

The driver, a 25-year-old Kalamazoo woman, and a 26-year-old male passenger from Pullman were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to deliver marijuana. Laboratory tests of the bags’ contents would help determine whether formal charges would be issued, Sgt. Stacey Randolph said Saturday night.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 10:44 AM   
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Deep Impact Avoided?

Whew! For a minute there I was scared. Only 270,000 miles away? Heck, in space terms that’s a cat’s whisker. At a half mile wide, this monster is big enough to cause another extinction level event (ELE) even worse than the last one that allegedly killed all those cute dinosaurs we all came to love so much. I am urging everyone to go out in the woods and find a spotted owl, take it home and protect it ... just in case.

I’m sure this is a result of glowball warming. Think about it! A warmer planet attracts all kinds of frozen strange rocks floating around out there. They just want to get warm, like everyone else so you better trade in your huge, honking SUV for a Yugo ASAP or we’re all doomed. Then again ... it’s probably all George W. Bush’s fault. Yeah, I just know it’s an evil neo-con plot. They want to destroy all the Liberals with a big rock. I just know it.

Asteroid Set For Close Encounter
_{(BBC) - Saturday, 1 July 2006, 06:53 GMT 07:53 UK}

A large asteroid is set to pass Earth in a close encounter which scientists say will pose no danger. The asteroid, estimated at half a mile (800m) wide, will sweep within 270,000 miles (433,000km) of the planet - only slightly further away than the moon.

“It’s not Earth-threatening,” said Don Yeomans, who heads Nasa’s Near Earth Object Program. The asteroid, 2004 XP14, should be visible by telescope from N America and Europe, most clearly on Monday.

Asteroid-spotters should look towards the Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cephus, constellations to try to spot it. It will appear as a moving dot against the stars, said Roger Sinnott, of Sky and Telescope magazine.

The asteroid is expected to pass the Earth on a number of future occasions too, but scientists believe it is likely to be further away on future passes. The asteroid, which was discovered in 2004, is one of the largest of several dozen asteroids to have passed near Earth in recent years.

“For something of this size to come this close is unusual,” Mr Yeomans said. US scientists will use a radar beacon at the Goldstone Observatory in the Mojave Desert to work out more about the asteroid’s shape, and about its likely future course.

It is among 783 asteroids currently classified as potentially hazardous by the Minor Planet Centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, because of its size and proximity to Earth.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 10:25 AM   
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What Goes Around …

Everyone knows that “what goes around - comes around.” In other words, there are no free lunches.  You reap what you sow. If any of you remember 1973-1974 and what it was like here in the US when the Arabs cut off the fuel supply as retaliation for the Israelis kicking their butt in the Yom Kippur War, then you can see the irony when the same weapon is turned against the Middle Eastern Madmen.

The Israelis are gradually tightening the noose around the Paleosimians, destroying their power station in Gaza and now cutting off their fuel supplies. The Pallies emergency generators (donated, no doubt, by generous Americans and Europeans) are about to run out of fuel and this spells disaster. The report below talks about babies dying in hospitals. Even worse, the Pallies don’t have power to watch the World Cup on TV. Ain’t that a shame ... ?

Fuel Supplies in Gaza Drying Up
_{July 1, 2006, 4:36 PM EDT}

BUREIJ, Gaza Strip (AP)—Ramadan Abu Hujeir’s gas station was one of the few businesses bustling in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Lines of cars, tractors and people waving jerry cans spilled out into the road waiting to get some of the last drops of gasoline in Gaza.

Local officials and aid workers worry that the fuel shortage will stop more than Gaza’s cars. They fear that its hospitals will lose power and its water pumping stations will grind to a halt.

The water company and hospitals have had to rely on generators for an uninterrupted power supply since an Israeli airstrike destroyed Gaza’s only power plant Tuesday night as part of an offensive to pressure militants to release an abducted soldier.

Israel also sealed Gaza’s cargo terminal and turned off the gasoline pipeline feeding Gaza, and the supply of fuel for the generators has rapidly dwindled. Eissa Daher, the acting mayor of Jebaliya in northern Gaza, said there was enough gas to pump and treat water for between three and seven days.

”If we don’t get a new supply, it will be an environmental disaster,” he said. Hospitals, which stocked up on fuel before the offensive, said they did not count on having to run on generator power for 18 hours a day. Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the main hospital in the territory, has seven to 10 days of fuel left, said Dr. Jumaa al-Sakka, a hospital administrator.

“If the fuel runs out, people in intensive care units and babies in incubators will immediately die,” he said. The Israeli army said Saturday that Israel had increased the supply of electricity it provides to Gaza to make up for the power plant it hit and would work to allow food and fuel to enter in the coming days.

At a news conference Saturday night, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said his government is consulting with experts about the electricity shortages. He also said, “I hope to be able to bring fuel and food in because there is a famine happening right now, and what is to come maybe more dangerous, bigger and vicious.”

The fuel crisis has created tense scenes at several gas stations. Hundreds of people jammed one station in Gaza City on Saturday, crowding the gas pumps to try to fill their containers. Policemen intervened to guard the pumps and to limit purchases to 2 1/2 gallons per customer. The crowd at Abu Hujeir’s station in the small town of Bureij pushed and shoved to get near the gas pump.

“I can’t close down until it is all finished,” Abu Hujeir said, watching the rowdy crowd over his shoulder. His 390 gallons ran out in an hour, but the people lingered hoping more fuel would appear. “God knows what we will do next,” said Emad al-Nabahein, a Bureij farmer, who turned up with a one-gallon container to feed a water pump he shares with his cousin. He lashed out at the Palestinian government for not storing fuel in anticipation of Israel’s offensive.

No food or water crisis is yet apparent in Gaza, though many residents complain of having to walk up long flights of stairs and live without refrigerators during the sizzling summer days. Towns are providing electricity to different neighborhoods for about six hours a day, but some Jebaliya residents said they spent the whole day without power or water.

Khairiya Nasr, a 45-year-old mother of five, said she and her children “slept” through Friday. By Saturday morning, power and water had come back on. “We were very happy,” she said, adding that now she can shower. Samir Muhanna, 17, said the rolling blackouts made it a challenge for him and his friends to watch the World Cup quarter finals. “We went to four different houses to look for somewhere with electricity,” he said. “Finally, we found a store with power and we turned his set to the match. More than 70 people turned up after us.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 09:57 AM   
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Sunday Funnies

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/02/2006 at 09:48 AM   
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2006 Bill of Rights

Courtesy of Free Republic

Drafted By: Joseph Gestetner

I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of Christian or Jewish religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of Islam, or abridging Osama’s freedom of speech, or of the Al Jazeera press; or the right of the terrorist peaceably to assemble, and to petition the ACLU for a redress or grievances.

II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to kill Iraqis, the right of Iran to keep and bear a nuclear weapon shall not be infringed.

III

No Al Qaeda soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any secret prison without the consent of the EU; nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by The Hague.

IV

The right of the terrorists to be secure in their training camp, prayer house, planning, and killing knifes, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no bomb shall be dropped, but upon an empty training camp, supported to divert attention from an ethical scandal, and particularly publish in the Times information describing the banks to be searched and the accounts to be seized.

V

No terrorist shall be held to answer for a terror plot, or otherwise infamous attack, unless more Americans die or in a civil court, even in cases arising in the war against terror or the Iraq invasion specifically in time of war or public danger (which never happens); nor shall any terrorist be subject to the same way they treat US solders; nor shall be compelled in any terror case to be a witness against a fellow Jihadist, nor be deprived of a TV, Koran, or prayer rug, without due process; nor shall private property be owned by a US citizen, instead should be maid public for just tax revenue, (A.K.A. Eminent Domain)

VI

In all terror capturing, the accused shall enjoy the right to a Moussaoui-sort trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the terror plot would have occurred; and to be informed of the eavesdropping program; to be comforted by a social counselor; to have compulsory process for being released to the Afghanistan war-fields in his favor to have the ability to fight again against the U.S.

VII

In contrary at common sense, where the value in controversy means attacking the US enemy in an pre-emptive move, the right to impeach shall be pushed forward, and no researching of facts shall be examined by the President’s opponents in any Court of the mainstream media.

VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required only for US citizens, nor excessive sleep prevention, nor cruel and unusual punishments – such as closing the heat or air condition – shall be inflicted upon Guantanamo detainees.

IX

The enumeration of the tactics of the terror war shall not be constructed to deny The New York Times of publishing it.

X

The powers not delegated to the terrorists by the 2006 Bill of Rights, are reserved to the UN Human Rights Commission and the ACLU.

* The 2006 Bill of Rights was ratified during the 2005-2006 Congress.

Posted by Christopher     on 07/02/2006 at 08:26 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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