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Sarah Palin is the other whom Yoda spoke about.

calendar   Sunday - November 30, 2008

Mumbai photographer: I wish I’d had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back.

This story from The Belfast Telegraph.

I first read about this on Vilmar’s blog site.  Don’t know how the Mail and Telegraph missed it unless it just wasn’t posted when I was there.

Damn interesting.  This looks worse then Keystone Cops scenario.  Police with guns run and hide?  That’s what this fellow says.

Last posting for the evening.

A very fond and final farewell to Kim.du Toit.

Mumbai photographer: I wish I’d had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back

Jerome Taylor talks to the photographer whose picture went around the world.

It is the photograph that has dominated the world’s front pages, casting an astonishing light on the fresh-faced killers who brought terror to the heart of India’s most vibrant city. Now it can be revealed how the astonishing picture came to be taken by a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him.

Sebastian D’Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city’s Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. “I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn’t get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by,” he said. “They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but theydidn’t seem to care.”

The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D’Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. “I first saw the gunmen outside the station,” Mr D’Souza said. “With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.

“Towards the station entrance, there are a number of bookshops and one of the bookstore owners was trying to close his shop,” he recalled. “The gunmen opened fire and the shopkeeper fell down.”

But what angered Mr D’Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. “There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything,” he said. “At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, ‘Shoot them, they’re sitting ducks!’ but they just didn’t shoot back.”

As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D’Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. “I couldn’t believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn’t run, we told them to stay put.”

The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D’Souza added: “I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera.”

http://tinyurl.com/56noa3


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/30/2008 at 12:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Terrorists •  
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Lady, you are Soooo fired

Council passes controversial bill on stolen guns

Pittsburgh City Council gave its first approval today to legislation requiring that anyone report a lost or stolen firearm report that within 24 hours or potentially face a $500 fine.

The 6-1 vote, with two abstentions, sets up a final vote likely next week, which would send the legislation to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl for his signature or veto, and then potentially to the courts, where similar measures have been challenged.

“Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?” said Councilwoman Tonya Payne, a supporter. “This is what’s right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that’s fine ... We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable.”

The lone no vote was by Councilman Ricky Burgess, who argued that it would be a “false cure” that would be “particularly cruel” to his violence-plagued northeastern Pittsburgh district.

“This legislation will not strike a blow to straw purchasers,” he said. “This ordinance will not be enforced, no loopholes will be closed and no lives will be saved, because no municipality can legally regulate firearms of any kind, at any time, for any reason.”

Council’s vote is a win for groups engaged in a statewide push to get local rules for reporting lost and stolen guns. The state House rejected a statewide bill in April.

Philadelphia has sought to enforce similar legislation, but the effort has been tied up in litigation. Legally, the question is whether the state ban on local laws on “the transfer, ownership, transportation or possession” of guns extends to the reporting of lost or stolen firearms.

The Commonwealth Court threw out Philadelphia’s measure, and other gun control rules there. The matter is heading for the state Supreme Court.

Wow. Just wow. And the Big 0 (oops, I meant “Big O") isn’t even in office yet. Left wing loonies running amok. Constitution? We doan need no steenkin Constitution!!

If PA has identified certain people who they feel are straw purchasers then they need to do a bit of stake out and catch them in the act, then prosecute the hell out of them. That’s following the law.
Since nearly the exact same legislation has already been struck down in Philly, the Pittsburgh idiots know damn well this one is going to fail as well. I wish the court could fine them 10 million or so for wasting their time. Out of the Council’s pockets too, not the taxpayer’s.

And kudos to Burgess, the one guy there with even a lick of sense.

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Ok BMEWSers ... find Pennsyltucky a legal solution. Or a mostly legal solution: 

By the most amazing good fortune, some guy with no criminal record at all finds a bag of money. He celebrates his good fortune by going out and spending half the cash to buy a pistol and a box of ammo. He stores them on his back porch, where the screen door has a 2 cent latch. Somehow, the next morning, they’ve been stolen. And it happens again and again and again, sometimes 3 times a week!

You KNOW he’s doing the straw purchase thing. Laws for “one gun a month” have been shot down. Laws for “must report it stolen” have been shot down. Outside of poppin a cap upside his head, how are you going to stop what he’s doing?

h/t to Neil Boortz


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/30/2008 at 10:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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SANDI TOKSVIG IS ANOTHER FAT CLUMSY CLOWN and SPOONS MADE ROSIE FAT.

I should have posted this a couple of days ago.  Could have fit right in with Drew’s Rosie post.
At the moment I’m angry with another fat cow on this side of the Atlantic (Sandi Toksvig) who fancies herself a wit.  Yeah,yeah, the old Americans are dumb thing.
She mentions a few loony tunes but makes it look as though the USA is made up of only that fringe.

To be expected of course as she’s a somewhat liberal Bush bashing Obama loving fat twit.  Gee I’m in a good mood.
Well, I was till I read her weekly column.  Seems like I always just have to see what folks are up to with regard to us and then regret the curiosity.
Must be a gift I have.

Ok so here a real laugh. 

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/30/2008 at 10:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog StuffGuns and Gun ControlHumor •  
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Practical gifts for Christmas!

Yes, it’s that time of year again. The time when we all give gifts that are either a) unwanted, or b) unneeded, or c) both.

That’s right, they just take up space, and the recipient is charged with the duty to give said gift(s) away quietly to a charity, which also has no use for them.

Sad, really.

Not to fear, Christopher is here, with a practical gift suggestion.

I don’t know about you, but plumbers are high on my list this year. Because of ‘Joe the Plumber’ during the Presidential campaign, I have a soft spot for certain conservative plumbers.

What does every plumber fear? That’s right! Plumber’s Butt. Too much butt crack showing when they kneel to get under the sink.

Here’s the solution.

Longtail T® – Solution to Plumber’s Butt

Sharing a little too much information?

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In 2002, in the cause of modesty and good taste, we introduced the Longtail T. A little bit of innovation – three more inches of shirt body length – solved an age old problem: the infamous, much feared Plumber’s Butt. Suddenly, the guys who bend over when they work had new respectability. They were better able to stay in the good graces of clients and stop frightening unsuspecting passersby.

Still, the comments and ideas for improvements poured in – from all kinds of guys on all kinds of jobs. Take the scratchy neck tag out, they said. So we did. Beef up the fabric, they advised. So we did. Soon, the improved Longtail T debuted, loaded with work-friendly comfort and ruggedness any tradesman in any field can appreciate. Still covers your backside too. Isn’t it about time you gave it a try?

Yessir, stay on your plumber’s good side. Give him the gift that prevents him from gifting you with too much info. He’ll appreciate it, and remember you with fondness when you call at 3 AM because the toilet is overflowing.

More suggestions to follow …


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Posted by Christopher   United States  on 11/30/2008 at 10:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily LifeFun-Stuff •  
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President-elect Barack Obama proposes economic suicide for US.

Viewpoint from a Brit Conservative.  Odds are he’s right on target.
There a lot to worry about America but there’s a line here that is particularly worrisome.  This line.

They will see a video of Mr Obama, in only his second major policy commitment, pledging that America is now about to play the leading role in the fight to “save the planet” from global warming.


What’s most worrisome aside from everything else is, I fear “co-operation” with and closer ties of a political nature, to Europe’s left.
I hope I’m wrong.

President-elect Barack Obama proposes economic suicide for US

By Christopher Booker
Last Updated: 11:01pm GMT 29/11/2008

If the holder of the most powerful office in the world proposed a policy guaranteed to inflict untold damage on his own country and many others, on the basis of claims so demonstrably fallacious that they amount to a string of self-deluding lies, we might well be concerned. The relevance of this is not to President Bush, as some might imagine, but to a recent policy statement by President-elect Obama.

Tomorrow, delegates from 190 countries will meet in Poznan, Poland, to pave the way for next year’s UN conference in Copenhagen at which the world will agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. They will see a video of Mr Obama, in only his second major policy commitment, pledging that America is now about to play the leading role in the fight to “save the planet” from global warming.

Mr Obama begins by saying that “the science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear”. “Sea levels,” he claims, “are rising, coastlines are shrinking, we’ve seen record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.”

Far from the science being “beyond dispute”, we can only deduce from this that Mr Obama has believed all he was told by Al Gore’s wondrously batty film An Inconvenient Truth without bothering to check the facts. Each of these four statements is so wildly at odds with the truth that on this score alone we should be seriously worried.

It is true that average sea levels are modestly rising, but no faster than they have been doing for three centuries. Gore’s film may predict a rise this century of 20 feet, but even the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change only predicts a rise of between four and 17 inches. The main focus of alarm here has been the fate of low-lying coral islands such as the Maldives and Tuvalu.

Around each of these tiny countries, according to the international Commission on Sea Level Changes and other studies, sea levels in recent decades have actually fallen. The Indian Ocean was higher between 1900 and 1970 than it has been since. Satellite measurements show that since 1993 the sea level around Tuvalu has gone down by four inches.

Coastlines are not “shrinking” except where land is subsiding, as on the east coast of England, where it has been doing so for thousands of years. Gore became particularly muddled by this, pointing to how many times the Thames Barrier has had to be closed in recent years, unaware that this was more often to keep river water in during droughts than to stop the sea coming in.

Far from global warming having increased the number of droughts, the very opposite is the case. The most comprehensive study (Narisma et al, 2007) showed that, of the 20th century’s 30 major drought episodes, 22 were in the first six decades, with only five between 1961 and 1980. The most recent two decades produced just three.

Mr Obama has again been taken in over hurricanes. Despite a recent press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claiming that 2008’s North Atlantic hurricane season “set records”, even its own release later admits that it only tied as “the fifth most active” since 1944. NOAA’s own graphs show hurricane activity higher in the 1950s than recently. A recent Florida State University study of tropical cyclone activity across the world (see the Watts Up With That? website) shows a steady reduction over the past four years.

Alarming though it may be that the next US President should have fallen for all this claptrap, much more worrying is what he proposes to do on the basis of such grotesque misinformation. For a start he plans to introduce a “federal cap and trade system”, a massive “carbon tax”, designed to reduce America’s CO2 emissions “to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 per cent by 2050”. Such a target, which would put America ahead of any other country in the world, could only be achieved by closing down a large part of the US economy.

Mr Obama floats off still further from reality when he proposes spending $15 billion a year to encourage “clean energy” sources, such as thousands more wind turbines. He is clearly unaware that wind energy is so hopelessly ineffective that the 10,000 turbines America already has, representing “18 gigawatts of installed capacity”, only generate 4.5GW of power, less than that supplied by a single giant coal-fired power station.

He talks blithely of allowing only “clean” coal-fired power plants, using “carbon capture” - burying the CO2 in holes in the ground - which would double the price of electricity, but the technology for which hasn’t even yet been developed. He then babbles on about “generating five million new green jobs”. This will presumably consist of hiring millions of Americans to generate power by running around on treadmills, to replace all those “dirty” coal-fired power stations which currently supply the US with half its electricity.

If this sounds like an elaborate economic suicide note, for what is still the earth’s richest nation, it is still not enough for many environmentalists. Positively foaming at the mouth in The Guardian last week, George Monbiot claimed that the plight of the planet is now so grave that even “sensible programmes of the kind Obama proposes are now irrelevant”. The only way to avert the “collapse of human civilisation”, according to the Great Moonbat, would be “the complete decarbonisation of the global economy soon after 2050”.

For 300 years science helped to turn Western civilisation into the richest and most comfortable the world has ever seen. Now it seems we have suddenly been plunged into a new age of superstition, where scientific evidence no longer counts for anything. The fact that America will soon be ruled by a man wholly under the spell of this post-scientific hysteria may leave us in wondering despair.

Obama proposes economic suicide for US


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/30/2008 at 08:45 AM   
Filed Under: • EconomicsEnvironmentInternationalObama, The OneScary Stuff •  
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WAS THIS INDIA’S 9/11?  SOME THINK SO.  PLEASE DON’T SKIP THIS ARTICLE.

Jihadists see “invasion” as a triumph
In India, some already call it the “Invasion of Bombay” and their country’s 9/11 moment. This is no exaggeration. For, although the deadly raids on India’s economic capital did not claim as many lives as 9/11 did in New York, the psychological impact is likely to be as potent.

By Amir Taheri
Last Updated: 9:39AM GMT 30 Nov 2008

The “invasion” showed that Islamic terror is capable of organising military-style operations against major urban centres in “infidel territory”.

Since 1993 when they first gathered in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to discuss global strategy, Islamic terrorists have come up with a number of theories on how to defeat the “infidel” and achieve world conquest.

Osama bin Laden had theorised that the “infidel”, led by the United States, would crumble after spectacular attacks designed to cripple its economy, just as the Meccan “infidel” government did when the Prophet Muhammad crushed its resistance with deadly raids, “Ghazwas”, against its trade routes.

However, 9/11 did not lead to an “infidel” retreat. On the contrary, the “Great Satan” hit back, destroying the structures created in Afghanistan to sustain global terror.

That persuaded some al Qaeda leaders that a new strategy was needed. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s number two, started advocating one in 2003, arguing that the Jihad should first target Muslim countries where it had a chance of toppling the “impious” regimes.

Three years later, another theoretician of Jihad, Sheikh Abu-Bakr Naji, proposed his new strategy. This suggests that low intensity war be extended to anywhere in the world with a significant Muslim presence. India, where Muslims account for more than 15 per cent of the population, and Bombay, where 25 per cent of the population is Muslim, are prime candidates for testing that theory.

Naji’s theories are spelled out in his book ‘Edarat al-Wahsh’ (Governance in the Wilderness). The idea is to render places not under “proper Islamic rule” into wildernesses in which no one is safe. The “infidel” and the “impious Muslim”, leaving their homes every morning, should be unsure whether they would return in the evening.

Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition beheadings, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the “infidel” and “impious Muslims”.

Whoever organised the “Invasion of Bombay” must have read Naji with care. For the operation amounted to smorgasbord of terror tactics served at the same banquet. Seizure of territory, holding of hostages, suicide attacks, regular military assaults, and exhibition killing were on show for more than 48 hours.

Islamists see the “Invasion of Bombay” as their victory. In their websites yesterday, many called it “Clear Victory” (Fath al-mobeen), a term used to designate the Prophet’s earliest victories.


The Jihadists have reason to feel triumphant.

They showed that they were still capable of hitting hard and on a grand scale, continuing the chain of their “triumphs” in New York, Madrid and London. They showed that they are able to change tactics and adapt to new circumstances. They made a mockery of the much advertised “counter-terrorism cooperation” between Washington and New Delhi by showing that Indians were not any safer as a result of their government’s alliance with the American “ Great Satan”.

The utter confusion of Indian counter-terrorist units, rushing about like headless chickens, seen live on TV by millions, must have been greeted by Jihadists with their usual war cry of “Allah Akbar!” (Allah is the Greatest).

Just a few weeks ago, Jihadism was in retreat.

It had lost its bases and safe havens in Afghanistan, was under attack in Pakistan’s tribal area, and all but abandoned by the new leadership in Islamabad under President Asif Ali Zardari. Appeals on Jihadist websites for money indicated a cash flow problem while denunciation of Jihadi methods by some leading Muslim theologians affected the flow of new “Volunteers for Martyrdom”. The “invasion” may help ease pressure on Jihadists nested in Pakistan’s tribal area by diverting public attention to India and the dispute over Kashmir.

More importantly, perhaps, the attacks showed the vulnerability of Indian democracy and economic growth which some Muslim intellectuals have been promoting as models for Islamic nations. The Jihadi response is categorical: Only Islam is the solution! (Al-Islam how-al hall).

The “invasion” is certain to persuade some former donors to resume disbursing “zakat” or religious tax that as pious Muslims they feel they should pay for Jihad. It may also attract new recruits, especially among young Muslims of Asian and North African origin in Western Europe.

If the attacks succeed in wrecking Zardari’s efforts at peacemaking while derailing rapprochement between Washington and New Delhi, the “invasion” could also produce an unexpected diplomatic fruit for the Jihadis.

This was a bad week for opponents of Islamic terror. India, Pakistan and other governments concerned should do nothing to make it worse.

*Amir Taheri is author of ‘Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism’. His new book, ‘The Persian Night’, will be published next month.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

There is nothing for me to add to this.  It speaks for itself.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/30/2008 at 08:10 AM   
Filed Under: • InternationalRoPMATerrorists •  
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TERROR ATTACK IN INDIA, A YEAR IN THE PLANNING.  ONE TERRORIST IN CUSTODY AND TALKING.

NOT MENTIONED IN THIS PARTICULAR ARTICLE, THE MURDER OF A 6 YEAR OLD BOY WHILE PARENTS HAD TO WATCH.
NICE GROUP OF GUYS AND I’M GLAD THEY ALL BELONG TO A RELIGION OF PEACE.  ANYONE REALLY BELIEVE THAT?
YES IN FACT. LIKE THE LOONY TUNE GWEEN PARTY SPOKESWOMAN WHO INSISTS WE CAN TALK TO THESE MONSTERS.

I’m certain you guys are getting your fill of this outrage in the states. Must also be in papers as well as TV and the pix will be the same. Not sure how the reporting will be though or what they will edit.  I tend to think we’ll get more of it here due to the ties between England and India.

Some very interesting editorials on the subject this morning.

The audacious attack which took a year to plan
The attack was planned with military precision.

By Rahul Bedi in Bombay and Sean Rayment, Security correspondent
Last Updated: 10:44PM GMT 29 Nov 2008
Gunman at Mumbai’s Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station
Preparations for the atrocity may have began a year ago in a remote mountain camp in Kashmir.

Ten terrorists dedicated to fighting for an independent Kashmir were selected for an operation from which they were likely never to return.

The tactics were relatively simple: to strike at multiple targets while simultaneously slaughtering as many civilians as possible before going “static” in three of the locations within the city.

But such a plan would require a year of planning, reconnaissance, the covert acquisition of ships and speed boats as well as the forward basing of weapons and ammunition secretly hidden inside at least one hotel.

Nothing would be left to chance. Even the times of the tides were checked and rechecked to ensure that the terrorists would be able to arrive when their first target, the Café Leopold, was full of unsuspecting tourists enjoying the balmy Bombay (Mumbai) evening.

The preparations for the atrocity began a year earlier in a remote mountain camp in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan- administered Kashmir, according to the interrogation of a 19-year-old believed to be the only member of the terrorist unit to be captured alive.

The Sunday Telegraph has been shown details of the interrogation which provide the first clues to the identity of the terrorists and the amount of detail which went into the planning of the operation.

Kamal has revealed to his interrogators that most of the volunteers spoke his native Punjabi and that all of them were given false names and were discouraged from interacting with each other beyond what was barely necessary.

During the months of training they were taught the use of explosives and close quarter combat. It was ingrained upon every man that ammunition would be in short supply and therefore every bullet should count.

The terrorists were also taught marine commando techniques such as beach landings at another camp at the Mangla Dam, located on the border between Pakistan-administered Kashmir and India’s Punjab province.

Kamal revealed that once their training was complete, his team of four travelled to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, where they were joined by another six terrorists, who had been trained at other camps close by.

It was in Rawalpindi that the 10-man team were briefed in detail with digitised images of their prospective targets – the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels, the Jewish Centre and the Victoria Terminus railway station. Each member of the team memorised street names and routes to each location. Kamal told his interrogators that most of the targeting information came from a reconnaissance team which had selected the targets earlier in the year.

From Rawalpindi, the team then moved to the eastern port of Karachi where they chartered the merchant ship MV Alpha and headed for Bombay.

It was during this crucial phase, as the cargo ship headed into the Arabian Sea, that the terrorists appeared to almost lose their nerve. The Indian navy, Kamal revealed, were very active, boarding foreign vessels and searching their holds. The terrorists thought their plan might be compromised so on the night of 15th/16th November, the teams used their inflatable speed boats to hijack a local fishing boat, the Kuber.

Kamal also admitted to his interrogators that three of the Kuber’s four crew were immediately murdered, while the ship’s captain was ordered to sail for the Indian coast. When the Kuber was within five miles of the coast, the terrorists slit the captain’s throat and transferred back into their inflatable speed boats and headed for the lights of Bombay.

On landing the 10-man team, stripped off their orange wind breakers and began hoisting large heavy packs onto their shoulders.

Kashinath Patil, the 72-year-old harbour master, who spotted the boats moor alongside the harbour wall was immediately suspicious and asked them what they were doing. “I said: ‘Where are you going? What’s in your bags?’” Mr Patil recalled. “They said: ‘We don’t want any attention. Don’t bother us.”

The terrorists then split into two-man teams and launched their attacks.

Major General RK Hooda, the senior Indian commander, acknowledged the group, the Deccan Mujadeen, were better equipped and had a better knowledge of the battleground than India’s soldiers.

After the battle, one member of India’s National Security Guard, who led one of the assault groups against the terrorists occupying the Taj Mahal hotel, said they were the “best fighters” he had ever encountered.

He said: “They were obviously trained by professionals in urban guerrilla fighting. They used their environment and situation brilliantly, leading us (the NSG) on a dangerous chase through various tiers of the hotel which they obviously knew well. Their fire discipline too was excellent and they used their ammunition judiciously, mostly to draw us out.

“It was amply clear they came to kill a large number of people and to eventually perish in their horrific endeavour,” he said. “Negotiating with the Indian authorities or escaping was not an option for them.”

INDIA


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/30/2008 at 07:18 AM   
Filed Under: • CrimeInternationalOutrageousRoPMATerrorists •  
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More ‘For Dummies’

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My guess is that Jocelyn Elders will return in the Obamarx Administration …


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Posted by Christopher   United States  on 11/30/2008 at 12:03 AM   
Filed Under: • CommiesDemocrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsFun-StuffObama, The One •  
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calendar   Saturday - November 29, 2008

Tribal and Religious Violence Continues In Nigeria

At least 300 dead in Nigeria

Mobs burned homes, churches and mosques Saturday in a second day of riots, as the death toll rose to more than 300 in the worst sectarian violence in Africa’s most populous nation in years.

Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, the imam at the city’s main mosque, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought there on Saturday alone and 183 could be seen laying near the building waiting to be interred.

Those killed in the Christian community would not likely be taken to the city mosque, raising the possibility that the total death toll could be much higher. The city morgue wasn’t immediately accessible Saturday.

Police spokesman Bala Kassim said there were “many dead,” but couldn’t cite a firm number.

The hostilities mark the worst clashes in the restive West African nation since 2004, when as many as 700 people died in Plateau State during Christian-Muslim clashes.

Jos, the capital of Plateau State, has a long history of community violence that has made it difficult to organize voting. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people.

The city is situated in Nigeria’s “middle belt,” where members of hundreds of ethnic groups commingle in a band of fertile and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.

Authorities imposed an around-the-clock curfew in the hardest-hit areas of the central Nigerian city, where traditionally pastoralist Hausa Muslims live in tense, close quarters with Christians from other ethnic groups.

The fighting began as clashes between supporters of the region’s two main political parties following the first local election in the town of Jos in more than a decade. But the violence expanded along ethnic and religious fault lines, with Hausas and members of Christian ethnic groups doing battle.

There really isn’t anything much I can add to this. Life is cheap in africa. Stay away.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/29/2008 at 12:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Afghanistan News

1 week, 53 less Taliban

Gunbattles and airstrikes by NATO and Afghan troops killed 53 militants in Afghanistan, including a wanted Taliban commander who tried to hide from soldiers under a woman’s burqa, officials said Saturday.

The U.S. forces targeting the commander surrounded a house Friday in Ghazni province and ordered everyone inside to leave, a military statement said.

Six women and 12 children left the building, but while soldiers were questioning the women they discovered one was actually a man dressed in a burqa, the traditional all-encompassing dress that most Afghan women wear. The man, later identified as the targeted commander Haji Yakub, tried to attack the soldiers and was killed, the military said.

Yakub allegedly directed roadside bomb and suicide attacksagainst Afghanistan’s government and coalition forces in Ghazni, according to the statement. Three other militants were killed in the operation, it said.

Meanwhile, Afghan and coalition forces killed 33 militants when their patrol came under attack in southern Helmand province Friday, a military statement said. The troops responded to the attack with gunfire and air support,it said.

In Kandahar province, meanwhile, a three-day NATO-Afghan operation in Zhari district killed 12 militants, said police Chief Matiullah Khan. No police were killed in the operation, which finished on Friday, he said.

Police in western Farah province said they killed four insurgents setting up a makeshift base in a village, apparently aiming to launch strikes on Farah city.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/29/2008 at 12:01 PM   
Filed Under: • War On Terror •  
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KNOCK, KNOCK.  WHO’S THERE?  AN UNEXPECTED AND UNINVITED GUEST.  OH AREN’T WE LUCKY.

THE VISIT

I’m sitting here listening to a pointless conversation.  Maybe not pointless to the ppl holding same.  But as this is the room my computer is in, I haven’t much choice. 

This won’t make much sense unless I explain.

In spite of being asked and then told a long time ago, there is this very well meaning old family friend and neighbor who still just, pops in.  Totally unexpected.

I have asked her in the past to please call first, as our situation here is no longer what it once was.  Naturally, the wife has to be sociable and offer tea.
And naturally, this idiot accepts and she’s been here almost an hour now.

So I’m sitting here being quite obvious by looking at the clock every now and then.  But our visitor just will not take the hint and go.

Our unexpected guest looks just exactly like the late Harpo Marx.  Who I never thought was funny btw.

She has ovarian cancer and somehow has managed to beat the damn thing and of course everyone feels sorry for her.  Except me I guess.  By beating the damn thing I don’t mean she shook it off. No. She has been taking courses of chemotherapy, has had operations and I owe her credit for being a fighter.  She was told she was dead over a year ago.

The thing is, the stupid cow does not listen to anything you try and tell her.
If I inform her that my wife really shouldn’t try walking this late and in this weather due to her arthritis, this old cow shrugs it off saying everyone needs exercise.  Oh well, at least she looks like she’s making ready to leave.  At last.  I think.  OK, ready, set , ?  No?

At least I got her to stop giving us huge flower arrangements.  I don’t know if she still does this but, she has a great eye for arrangements of flowers and once was doing the flower displays for Winchester Cathedral. And they do not let just anyone do that.  So, she had access to tons of flowers.  Which she felt compelled to share.  And it never mattered to her if you really didn’t want them.


Once, she brought over this huge display, it was beautiful, it also came off a casket after a funeral.

It was only after complaining a lot and explaining that all that flower stuff was causing more work for us, that she finally, after about a year, got the hint.
Wait. What hint.  I used to flat out tell her.  Hey,PLEASE, no more flowers.
But she ignored the request for a long time.  What do ya do with ppl like that?
Especially as she has been a very close friend for 40 years to the mil and by extension, the wife too.

The thing with people like that is, and I’m convinced of this, they aren’t bringing flowers (sometimes food we’ve had to throw away) for the people on the receiving end.  Oh no.

It’s done I believe to increase their own self esteem.  Look what good deed I’ve done today.  And unasked for as well.  Aren’t I just the cat’s whiskers?

WELL NO YOU ARE NOT. You are an extremely obnoxious, self aggrandizing egocentric know it all. You have a very shrill and annoying laugh as well.

Please just go away. 



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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/29/2008 at 11:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog StuffStoopid-People •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

A little good news

Rosie O: You’ve Got To Go

Rosie O’Donnell’s variety show canceled after just one airing. Oh, too bad.

The network’s attempt to revive the primetime variety show failed to draw an audience Wednesday night, tying for the evening’s lowest-rated program.

A mere 5 million viewers tuned in for the 8 p.m. premiere of “Rosie Live,” with the program earning a 1.2 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. The telecast matched ABC’s recently canceled “Pushing Daisies” as the night’s lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.

NBC had high hopes for the special and planned to expand the program into a series should viewers re-embrace the decades-old variety format. Other networks, too, were watching closely since several are developing variety shows of their own.

“There’s a notion that the climate is right for the genre to make a comeback,” emailed one executive at a rival network. “I guess we now know what not to do, thanks to Rosie.”

Segments included Kathy Griffin impersonating Nancy Grace, Alec Baldwin hitting Conan O’Brian with a pie, O’Donnell singing “City Lights” with Liza Minnelli and Jane Krakowski doing a product-placement-themed striptease for White Castle burgers and Crest Whitestrips.

Critics were not kind. The NY Times described it as ”hokey comedy with an enemies list.” TV Guide called it a “ghastly ego trip.” And the LA Times asked, “Rosie, what on earth were you thinking?”

You take the good with the bad. Bad, because I thought Pushing Daisies was such a fun show. Wild colors, crazy outfits, loony plots, wacky dialog; it was surreal. And I’ve always like Jane Krakowski, thought I haven’t seen her since Ally McBeal ended it’s run some years ago.

Can I get a Gollum quote here? “Leave now, and never come back!”


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/29/2008 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
Comments (3) Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

Lesbian soldier’s £200,000 harassment payout branded ‘obscene’ .

This is really bizarre if you think about it.

OK, if she’s due money for ill treatment, then pay her off. But to get more compensation then people in war zones who have lost limbs?  Sure, soldiers know there is always a chance of bad things happening to them.  I have never known a military person who joined because they thought they would hit a financial jackpot. But surely they deserve as much as this woman.  And if all of this is true and did happen, and I guess it did, then she really deserves even more.

A lesbian soldier has won nearly £200,000 damages from the Ministry of Defence for campaign of sexual harassment against her by a boss who claimed he could “convert” her to heterosexuality.

By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 9:16AM GMT 27 Nov 2008
Kerry_Fletcher
Lesbian soldier Kerry Fletcher after a tribunal ruled she had been subjected to a campaign of sexual harassment by a male segeant

The payout sparked criticism from a veterans’ group which branded the payout “obscene” compared to compensation for injured troops.

Lance Bombardier Kerry Fletcher, 32, was bullied by her boss who made sexual advances towards her and then tried to destroy her career after she spurned him, an employment tribunal heard.

Her tormentor, named for the first time as Staff Sergeant Ian Brown, 40, sent explicit text messages in which he claimed he could “convert” her.

Miss Fletcher was awarded £186,896 by the Leeds Employment Tribunal after winning her claim over her time at the Royal Artillery stables at RAF Topcliffe in 2004.

The sum exceeds the £161,000 given to 21-year-old Marine Ben McBean who lost a leg and an arm in Afghanistan and the £152,150 received by Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 24, after losing both legs and suffering 14 life-threatening injuries, including brain damage.

It also dwarfs the £57,000 given to 19-year-old Private Jamie Cooper who suffered severe stomach injuries in a mortar attack in southern Iraq.

The National Gulf Veterans’ and Families’ Association said the level of Miss Fletcher’s award was “obscene”.

Spokesman Shaun Rusling said: “We don’t agree with anyone being picked on but it is just Miss Fletcher’s feelings that have been hurt. She will get better.

“You do not get better when your arms and legs have been blown off.

“It seems that there is one law in peacetime and another law when you are at war, fighting for Queen and country.”

Miss Fletcher’s payout included a punitive award of £50,000 in exemplary damages, £20,000 in aggravated damages and £30,000 for hurt feelings – the maximum.

It is believed to be the first time an employment tribunal has ever awarded exemplary damages, those designed to punish the offender, in this country.

A further £65,558 related to lost earnings and pension entitlement while the remainder was made up of Miss Fletcher’s costs and interest payments.

The MoD faces a further bill of £100,000 for its defence costs.

Miss Fletcher, who will leave the Army after 12 years early next year, has three more victimisation claims, which could increase her compensation even further.

After her victory, she said: “I am delighted, over the moon because it has taken such a long time to achieve what I have achieved.

“I basically had to prove that I was not lying. What they have put me through has been awful. I never deserved it and am determined to get fair compensation for my career being ruined.”

In a damning judgment, the tribunal found that the MoD had paid “no more than lip service to the concepts of equal opportunities and the prevention of discrimination”.

After complaining of harassment, Miss Fletcher was disciplined, had her mental stability questioned and was denied a transfer.

Her car was vandalised, she was belittled at work and she received sinister phone calls, the tribunal heard.

The panel branded the MoD’s treatment of Miss Fletcher “so outrageous” that it amounted to “conscious wrongdoing”.

It ruled: “This is as severe a case of victimisation following an allegation of sexual harassment as one could see in an employment tribunal.

“The conduct in relation to Miss Fletcher as a soldier seeking redress was from start to finish oppressive, arbitrary and unconstitutional.”

It said the MoD had put forward a defence in court that “had no regard to the true circumstances of the case”.

Miss Fletcher’s solicitor John Mackenzie described the payout as “sensational and stunning”.

“This case shows that the Army and the MoD is not the slightest bit interested in complying with the law of the land.

“They have wrecked her life and her career and they just do not care, whatever they may say. If ever there was a case that merited the award of exemplary damages, this was it.”

But Mr Mackenzie said the sum could not be compared to injury compensation.

“Tribunal decisions have to be reflected in payouts. It is a false comparison to make between tribunal payouts and the money the MoD pays to injured service personnel, which is always inadequate.”

compensation


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/29/2008 at 10:08 AM   
Filed Under: • MilitaryMiscellaneousUK •  
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LAUGHING AND SMILING TO EACH OTHER AS THEY SLAUGHTERED THE UNARMED.

The links below have the complete articles. I have posted parts here. Pretty bad and it’s very clear these ppl were well trained and very well organized.

SOME BMEWS COMMENTS:

There is only ONE way to “talk” or “hold dialog” with such barbarians.
The same way Kitchener held “dialog” with the Madhists at Abu Klea and Omdurman. 
Turtler

talking to these people is like talking to a rabid dog. Pointless and dangerous. Better to give them the maxim gun!
LyndonB

....sadly it will take another half dozen of these, each one worse than the one before.
then the world might get serious. get out of the U.N. and buy more ammo!!
Rancino

This is one of those instances to which President Bush referred when he said, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us!” Any group, organization, nation, country or entity that is not joined with the attempt to stop and neutralize this sort of savagery is - at best - allowing it to continue.  This is not the sort of conflict in which one can be ‘neutral’.
Archie

If they want to be martyrs, the world will eventually give them what they want.  They think the world will give into their nasty terror attacks and cave in.  Some will, but I think even places such as (formerly) Great Britain will get up on their hind legs and fight back violently.
Dr. Jeff

image

Troops played a game of cat and mouse through the hotel’s rooms, with the terrorists moving skilfully from place to place, often switching off lights and plunging rooms into darkness.

Fellow hostage Peter Worth told how some of the gunmen had smiled at one another while they sprayed hotel guests with bullets.

‘It was as if they were laughing and enjoying the fear as they tried to kill us,’ said the 32-year-old engineer, from Bristol.

Authorities have asked not to show live broadcasts of the battle because they believe the gunmen were monitoring the news. Most channels largely obliged.

At Nariman House, which houses a Jewish centre, a rabbi and his wife were among six civilians killed. Some of the victims had been bound.

Their deaths left their two-year-old son – who was smuggled out on Thursday – orphaned.

The terrorists carried floor plans of the hotels as well as machine guns, grenades, AK-47s and plastic explosives.

They each had supplies of dried fruit and water and some carried satellite telephones and mobiles.

The militants were split into two groups – one responsible for the attacks in north Mumbai; the other for those in the south at the Jewish centre and the hotels.

Many senior Indian officials including the foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee have blamed ‘Pakistani elements’ for the attacks, and one captured gunman had already been identified as Pakistani.

FULL STORY HERE

Distraught British woman tells how two of her family were executed by terrorists in Mumbai massacre.

forced to watch as they opened fire on his parents, killing them both.

The funeral of the engineer and his wife has already taken place.

Mrs Kapasi, 49, from Oadby, Leicester, said: ‘It is such a shock to the system. You never imagine it will happen to you.

‘They only came out of the flat to see if they could find another hiding place from the gunmen.

FULL STORY


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/29/2008 at 09:04 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMATerroristsWar On Terror •  
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