Posted by peiper     on 12/07/2008 at 09:57 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists • War On Terror •  
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BRIT PAPER SAYS OBAMA TO DERAIL TERROR TRIAL.  ?? OK people, what’s happening back home?

‘Architect’ of 9/11 to go on trial
On Monday morning, a heavily built man will be led from a concrete cell, whose slit window overlooks the Caribbean, by soldiers whose name tags have been removed from their uniforms and replaced with a Velcro strip reading: “I don’t know.”

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 3:03PM GMT 06 Dec 2008

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Guantanamo detainees have a right to go before federal judges. But the Bush administration pushed through the trial of its most notorious captive so it could open before the president leaves the White House next month.

Lt-Col Darrel Vandeveld, a former Guantanamo prosecutor who resigned in disgust, said: “It’s absolutely clear that civilians running the commissions wanted to charge the 9/11 defendants to meet an arbitrary deadline. They wanted to rush what they viewed as the ‘worst of the worst’ through the system, regardless of the evidence or whether it had been obtained by waterboarding or other forms of torture.”

Generally I do not like to include my own viewpoint inside the stories here.  If I do it isn’t too much more then a line maybe two at the most.
But this has me bothered no end I confess.  The traitor quoted above, and yes he is that, has already been on Brit radio spewing his traitorous venom.
I do not have the entire article here, so please go to the link for everything.

Something I really want my countrymen and women to understand.  Gitmo and torture and gasp, American dishonor over what libs and euro-weenies calling human rights violations. Yadda,Yadda.  Any wonder I stay pissed off most of the time?  This Guantanamo and torture thing get play here and we’re the heavies, not the bombers.  So .... when I see a line in the paper here that says the following, I have to wonder just what the hell is going on back home and no, it isn’t all that easy to keep up even with computers.  I have other things here that keep me busy and wound like a tight wire.  I sometimes sign letters to ppl back home,
“The Prisoner.” So ok, you’re in a better position to know what’s happening there. (USA).  Here’s the quote:

“THE TERRORISM TRIAL OF THE DECADE BEGINS TOMORROW IN GUANTANAMO BAY—

SO WHY IS THE US PRESIDENT - ELECT PLANNING TO DERAIL IT?”

The other quote is: “OBAMA STORMS THE TORTURE CHAMBER.”

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of three detainees the CIA admits to waterboarding, an “enhanced interrogation” technique that simulates drowning. Everything said in the court will be broadcast to the world on a 20 second delay so that classified material can be muted.

There is also a chance that the whole trial could be in vain if Mr Obama tears up the laws under which it is being conducted.

Clive Stafford Smith, who represents the former British resident Binyam Mohammed, awaiting trial in Guantanamo, is dismissive of the KSM hearing. “This is just a PR exercise. Nothing will come of it. It will all be shut down before the trial is completed,” he said.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that Mr Obama’s aides have assured Western diplomats that he will announce the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and an end to “enhanced interrogation” as soon as he is sworn in. This could happen in his inauguration speech - or during his first week in office. The President-Elect is also planning a speech in an Arab city, probably Cairo, during his first 100 days to help repair relations with the Muslim world.

Lt-Col Vandeveld said: “The military commissions are bankrupt, morally and legally. We should end the shame of Guantanamo now, close it down. The handful of bona fide terrorists, who have been held at Guantanamo for as long as seven years, should be tried in a civilian court of law.”

Guantanamo has 242 remaining prisoners and it could take months to repatriate some and arrange alternative detention facilities on the US mainland for others. One diplomat said: “Obama will start things off pretty fast. We’re expecting a very early announcement. There will be a roadmap to closure and there will be some proper process of law. But it won’t shut down immediately. We recognise that there are real security threats with some of those left.”

A study of the remaining detainees conducted by the Weekly Standard magazine found that of the 242 prisoners, 174 either ran or attended terrorist training camps, 146 have either operated or stayed in an al-Qaeda or Taliban guest houses, 116 have links to jihadist recruiting networks and 112 fought in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

“KSM" himself, who is charged with 2,973 counts of murder, one for each person killed on September 11, is probably the most hated prisoner in US custody. The 9/11 Commission labelled him the “principal architect of the 9/11 attacks”. Without him there might well have been no 9/11 and no war on terrorism.

Captured in Pakistan in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo in 2006, KSM also confessed to personally beheading the American journalist Daniel Pearl, according to the CIA.

But KSM has subsequently retracted his confessions, claiming that translators “put many words in my mouth” and accusing his captors of torture.

His trial is a test, in part, of whether torture can ever be an effective or ethical part of the armoury of a Western nation.

Lt-Col Vandeveld is clear that it cannot. “Torture may result in reliable information, there’s no question about that. But is torture reconcilable with our basic humanity or with America’s desire to be an example to the rest of the world? The answer is no. Torture, however you define it, is wrong, appalling, immoral.”

A former CIA officer said, ‘You want to close Gitmo, fine, but make damn sure you know what you’re going to do with these people before you do.’ If you will only put them on trial after the fact it’s harder to prevent attacks.”

MORE GUANTANAMO STORY

Posted by peiper     on 12/07/2008 at 08:30 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists • War On Terror •  
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Why? Why not?

I’m sorry. It’s Sunday. And I Feel Good. You Know That I Would.

It’s Pearl Harbor Day… I already did a post on that. But, that still left me stuck on YouTube…

Look at what I found?

Michael Douglas
Danny DeVito
Kathleen Turner
and Billy Ocean?

Put them all together and you get this:

Why? Why not?

Face it, if you had anything better to do this fine Sunday morning, like attending church services, you wouldn’t be perusing BMEWS.

Posted by Christopher     on 12/07/2008 at 07:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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December 7th, In Memorium

I believe I’ve posted this before. Sorry.

It’s the anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. We went to war against ‘sneak attacks’. Much like we are fighting a war against ‘terrorism’.

Right?

Not my favorite version. My favorite is the one by the original Highwaymen. That’s the version I have in iTunes.

UPDATE:

Just stumbled across this.

To all our men and women serving right now, Thank YOU!

From one Vet to another.

Posted by Christopher     on 12/07/2008 at 05:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Heroes •  
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Are they alive once more?

No, sorry, they haven’t. Not really. Though Mr. Cox does have his own blog these days, where he showcases some of his art. But ... somehow ... the political cartoons still manage to keep popping up, even there. I think he’s denying his addiction. So visit him there and be a good guest. Have a nice walk through the archives of all the things this guy has created that you’ve never seen before.

I gather Mr. Forkum writes some kind of paper or magazine for the automotive industry these days. I have no links for that.

Mmmmphhhbbbt!!! What, Drew has no link???  Inconceivable!

Oh Ok, Ok, twist my arm why doncha? Now go here. 

Posted by Drew458     on 12/07/2008 at 12:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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   Saturday - December 06, 2008

Help me out here please

----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXX
To: drew458@barking-moonbat.com
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 12:10 PM
Subject: Problem with website

Dear Sir:
Could you please do something about the photos overlaying the text on the Barking Moonbat website? I thought it might be just my stupid Vista operating system, but I checked my wife’s XP computer and it does the same thing. Usually there is empty space where the photo should be, and the photo is actually down about four or five lines in the text. But only on some of the photos. A few of them are OK. Thank You,

C

*****************************

Dear C:

I get emails like this from time to time. What browser are you using? It seems that some of them don’t properly execute some of the spacing commands in html. On the other hand it may be a Vista problem.

Graphics at BMEWS are either posted on a line all by themselves, or when they are intertwined with text they get displayed using the hspace and vspace attributes of the IMG command. In simple terms, there should always be a little bit of space around the pictures; in the worst case the text will abut the pictures, but in no case should the pictures overlap the text. I know that under XP, the IE browser displays the proper spacing, but Firefox does not; the text runs up to, but not under, the pictures.

Drew458

This blog is powered by Expression Engine v1.5.2. As far as I know, that means it supports HTML and XHTML. Does xhtml get priority over html? Does support for xhtml mean that the IMG attributes HSPACE and VSPACE are no longer recognized, since they were deprecated in html 4.01 and in xhtml? Hmmph. But the ALIGN attribute works fine!

I know that, under XP, Firefox does not pick up on the spacing around images, but IE does. Is it an XP thing or a Vista thing? I honestly don’t know. (This is why I sent you those books Peiper. You could become a web guru!)

Let’s try XHTML’s padding attribute and see if that works. Hang on, I’ll be right back; I just have to change the BMEWS universe by modifying one of the templates.

Ok, I added some default padding to the IMG command. Let’s see if I can find some worthless fill text wonderful writing you can ignore to use as a backdrop ... found some. Ok, now if all goes according to plan, you should see some spacing around the pictures embedded in the text below. PLEASE let me know if it works or not, what browser and operating system you are using, and what your screen resolution is set to. Thanks!!



This Friday, the movie Frost/Nixon — directed by Ron Howard and adapted from a play by Peter Morgan — opens in “selected theaters.” In case you’ve somehow missed all the hype, it’s about the British talk-show host David Frost’s series of interviews with Richard Nixon, which were shown on American television in May 1977. To quote from the film’s website:

More than 45 million viewers hungry for a glimpse into the mind of their disgraced former commander in chief — and anxious for him to acknowledge the abuses of power that led to his resignation — sat transfixed as Nixon and Frost sparred in a riveting verbal boxing match over the course of four evenings. Two men with everything to prove knew only one could come out a winner. Their legendary confrontation would revolutionize the art of the confessional interview, change the face of politics and capture an admission from the former president that startled people all over the world . . . possible even including Nixon himself

All this comes as a surprise to those of us who remember watching the original broadcast of the interviews. In return for his $600,000 appearance fee, Nixon “admitted” what had already been proven; dodged or rationalized inconvenient facts; acknowledged errors but denied committing any crimes; and ended with a show of contrition and a play for sympathy. Little or no new information was uncovered, and nobody who had followed Nixon’s career was surprised in the least by his manipulations and evasions. The consensus was that the whole thing wound up an overblown bore. To someone who was around back then, the idea of making a major motion picture about such a notorious fizzle seems bizarre; you might as well write an opera about “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault.” Is this just a case of memory being deceptive? Were the interviews really a landmark of a milestone of a watershed, as the publicists assert? To test this, I looked back at the reception they got in the media of the time. The show’s producers secured lavish advance coverage by giving virtually everyone with a press card some sort of “leak”: transcripts, unedited video, production notes, briefing materials, correspondence. The week of the broadcast, Nixon was on the cover of both Time and Newsweek, in that long-vanished era when those publications were considered influential. In the days leading up to the broadcast, the Washington Post ran several solid pages of Watergate transcripts and analysis, flashing back to the glory days of 1973.  After the airing of the first interview — the only one anybody cared about, since it contained all the Watergate material — there was far less hoopla. The Post’s Bob Woodward, Nixon’s erstwhile tormentor, called it “a much-touted television interview which shed little new light on the scandal.” Elsewhere in the Post, Haynes Johnson’s analysis dripped with disappointment: “[The former president] proceeded, for the next 90 minutes, to give us all the familiar Nixon responses we have all seen for more than a generation. Those advance reports about Nixon being broken — or shattered — or even shaken by the withering interrogation of David Frost are in error. Nixon is in control throughout. He offers little that is new, and less that is of substance.” Johnson continued: “Last night’s program was billed as a dramatic and historic encounter between Nixon and his opponent, the relentless David Frost. It was nothing of the sort. . . . By the very end of the program, Frost looks as though he’s swept up by the Nixon responses. . . . The tables have been turned. Frost had met his match.” The New York Times, in a brief, unsigned “Week in Review” item a few days later, echoed the been-there, done-that theme: “The spectacle was a familiar one . . . he portrayed himself, in typically Nixonian terms and gestures, as a victim of circumstance whose errors sprang from good intentions. . . . No important factual information about Watergate emerged from the interview.”

Ok, it looks like I need even more text. So here’s a fat paste of Planet Gore (no, not Rogues of Gore, that was a different sci-fi book altogether!) from NRO:
We Need More “Recession Boosts Economy” Stories?  [Chris Horner]

On Friday, the U.K.’s Guardian publicized the learned opinion that the recent, ongoing cooling is “not evidence that global warming is slowing.” Pause.

Well. The good news, then, is that the current recession is not evidence that the economy is slowing, either. These interesting notions of logic and semantics would also suggest that your weight loss is not evidence that your obesity is slowing — or better news, what with the holidays coming up and all, that your weight gain will not mean that you’ve stopped slimming down! Of course, perhaps such logical and semantic gymnastics are allowed only in the realm of climate science — but if so, wouldn’t it be equally valid to conclude that our recent warming is not proof that our longer-term cooling trend has slowed? Of course, this requires examining evidence that falls outside the time period that the Guardian prefers for its presentation, which helpfully begins as the Little Ice Age was breaking.
Meanwhile, the New York Times joins some brow-furrowing academics concerned that the drop in media coverage of warming could be a manifestation of something larger — even terrifying: diminished public pressure to impose their shared agenda. It is left to Times readers to suggest that the reduction in coverage of warming is related to that same pesky cooling (which they must do in the Comments section — as Tom Nelson has noted — since the Times neglected to consider the possibility in their typically balanced treatment of the topic). Also left to the readers to research is the fact that the Times’s principal source, Maxwell Boykoff, is a bit of a media scold — he finds the press insufficiently, dogmatically alarmist, having co-authored with his brother Jules a paper entitled “Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press.” While certainly bizarre, such clouded thinking is not unexpected in coverage of a public-policy issue about which there is only one item that may be permissibly noted in polite company as being a costly and dangerous extravagance: free and open discourse.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/06/2008 at 01:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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The thinnest horseman rides out

Families in a once agriculturally rich land are living – and dying – on a diet of nuts and berries as food shortages threaten up to five million Zimbabweans.

A stick-thin woman, barefoot and dressed in rags, approached with her two young children.

“Please. We’re desperate for food,” she told him, and lifted up her children’s filthy T-shirts. Their stomachs and belly buttons were grotesquely distended by kwashiorkor, a condition caused by severe malnutrition that just a few years ago was unheard of in this once bountiful country.

There is nothing exceptional about this family. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of families in this region are surviving on wild berries or nuts that they grind into powder and mix with water, a weed called lude that they boil into a thin soup. They also eat insects such as locusts, if they can find them. Some even eat the moist inner fibres of bark.

Far away in Harare the Mugabe regime, and even Western nongovernment organisations, deny that Zimbabweans are actually dying of hunger, but here, more than 100 miles from any main population centre, they are starving to death.

The root cause was the regime’s seizure and destruction of white-owned farms, compounded by several years of drought. In 2000 Zimbabwe produced 4.5 million tonnes of maize and other cereals. This year’s harvest was barely 800,000 tonnes in a country that needs two million tonnes just to feed its own people.

The bankrupt Government pledged to import 800,000 tonnes, but has only imported 175,000 tonnes. The cash-strapped World Food Programme (WFP), which used to buy Zimbabwe’s surpluses to alleviate famines elsewhere, has to date imported only 260,000 of the 400,000 tonnes it promised.

That leaves a huge shortfall, and the WFP predicts that five million Zimbabweans – half of the population – will need emergency food aid by next month.

“What you have is a very fine line between chronic malnutrition and slipping over that line into something much worse,” one Western diplomat said.

And it is the poorest of the poor, those living far from the towns and cities – and especially in an area like this, which the regime considers an opposition stronghold – who pay the heaviest price.

A year ago we wrote that here, and across Zimbabwe, millions were surviving on a single bowl of sadza – a cornmeal porridge – a day. Today people here have not had sadza for months, and the doctor said they arrived at the clinic having eaten nothing for a week.

People go shoeless. They are dressed in rags. They are emaciated, listless, despairing. What little money they had was long ago rendered worthless by hyperinflation. It is the planting season, but they have no seeds – let alone fertiliser – and few have bothered to plough their tiny fields.

On the other side of the world, the UK’s Gordon Brown has decided that it is time to act. Or at least to talk about acting. He means well, but the time to act was 10 months ago.

Gordon Brown has described the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, which has claimed almost 600 lives as an “international emergency”.  The Prime Minister said conditions in the African state had deteriorated to such an extent that the international community must stand together and tell Robery Mugabe “enough is enough”. The disease epidemic has so far killed 575 people and left another 13,000 sick since an outbreak in August. In a statement Mr Brown said there was a duty to give the Zimbabwean people a “better future”.
...
“The entire health system is collapsing, there are no more doctors, no nurses, no specialists,” said spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs. Britain has pledged an emergency aid package to help tackle the spread of the disease, a bacterium infection which leads to dramatic dehydration and can prove fatal within 24 hours if not treated.

Mr Brown said a “command and control structure” needed to be put in place quickly to allow international aid to reach people.

Here on our side of the pond, awareness of the futility may be more apparent.

Condoleezza Rice hit the nail on the head when she said that Robert Mugabe should have gone a long time ago. But having hung on this long, there is little sign that the “old crocodile” is ready to quit. His weary countrymen are resigned to his seeing it out until the end.

The international clamour for him to go may be growing louder, but in Harare, it simply sounds like one of those periodic crescendos that will soon fade away. Dr Rice, Desmond Tutu and the Kenyan President, Raila Odinga, may have increased their rhetoric in calling for his removal, but these are voices that have spoken out against Mr Mugabe many times before. The absence is of any new voices – or any that Harare has not long been deaf to.
...
The prospect of military intervention, even on a humanitarian level, looks more distant than ever. The violence that Mr Mugabe unleashed during the elections has receded. The pain inflicted on Zimbabweans now is the result of the country’s long, slow death and the crumbling of infrastructure and public services. Saving Zimbabwe will take years of rebuilding that can happen only with a cooperative government. Mr Mugabe has made clear he does not want foreign troops, even if there was a friendly country willing to send them. There is not.

The survival of the Mugabe Government defies logic. It provides none of the basic functions of state – security, welfare or representation – and yet limps on. Declaring an endgame for a regime of such tenacity is always risky – the economic implosion that could finish it off has been much predicted but never seen. Another waiting game is under way.

This is all very sad. It’s a terrible tragedy, a horrifying lesson that Africa and the rest of the world refuses to learn. 

Posted by Drew458     on 12/06/2008 at 12:35 PM   
Filed Under: • Africa • Tyrants and Dictators •  
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Freedom Day

On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, officially banning slavery.

The Amendment was written by a Republican, Lyman Turnbull from Illinois. Every Republican in Congress voted for it. Almost every Democrat voted against it.

The Republican party was formed by Abolitionists specifically to stand against slavery. The Democrats were in favor of slavery. Even after the end of the war between the states, it was Democrats that put Jim Crow into place down south. Right up through Teddy Roosevelt’s administration Republicans were strong supporters of freedom and for equality. I’m not exactly sure what happened, maybe Turtler can fill us in, but they backed away - didn’t turn away from the ideas, just didn’t push for them anymore - soon after that. These days if you can find a black Republican it’s almost a miracle. And in a few weeks we inaugurate our first black President. A Democrat. 

Posted by Drew458     on 12/06/2008 at 11:11 AM   
Filed Under: • History •  
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In My InBox

Sent to me by ... um, I forget. Carol, or Rancino, or DSD, or somebody. I get lost in the email sometimes, but I managed to snag this one. Thanks!

The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA. This guy should run for President one day…

“We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require ...

a Bill of NON-Rights.”


ARTICLE I:
You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.


ARTICLE II:
You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone—not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.


ARTICLE III:
You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.


ARTICLE IV:
You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes .


ARTICLE V:
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we’re just not interested in public health care.


ARTICLE VI:
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don’t be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.


ARTICLE VII:
You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don’t be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won’t have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.


ARTICLE VIII:
You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. (AMEN!)


ARTICLE IX:
You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.


ARTICLE X:
This is an English speaking country. We don’t care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from! (Lastly....)


ARTICLE XI:
You do not have the right to change our country’s history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!

Posted by Drew458     on 12/06/2008 at 01:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Patriotism •  
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I live under a rock I gather

Ok, I knew ABC canceled it’s surreal comedy-detective drama Pushing Daisies. I knew this was it’s 2nd season, and that it had been nominated for 10 or 12 Emmys last season. I know it was nearly a visual overload to watch, as if someone had given Tim Burton nothing but bright colors to paint with and sent him back to the late 50s. And the clothes were even crazier! But the plots were wild,the characters ever so much fun, and English actress Anna Friel ever so droolable, as she seems somehow to look like Brooke Burke’s normal but still hot sister. Plus the wonderful narrator who always tied up the loose ends after the cases were solved. Plus pies, wonderful pies! And crazy aunties with guns and an eye patch!

But the network either didn’t push the show hardly at all, or stuck it in a timeslot against some big gun on another channel, and Daisies’ ratings tanked. And that’s a damned shame; it was a great show, and it was original. Not your typical cop show/hospital drama/super-babes with screwed up lives bit of TV crap. That’s how it goes sometimes, some shows just don’t click with the big audiences.

But what I didn’t know was that Kristen Chenoweth, the actress who plays Olive, the waitress secretly in love with Ned at the Pie Hole restaurant, can really belt out a tune. Really. Yeah, I live under a rock. She may be small but she’s got a big voice and it’s pretty good. I never watched a single episode of Left West Wing, though I learned tonight that she was in it. I never saw the remake version of Bewitched, I don’t remember her from Fraiser. Never saw her on Broadway since I don’t go. So she’s all new to me. I caught last night’s Pushing Daisies episode tonight on the Tivo, and at the end there she was, belting out the Bangles hit Eternal Flame. With comic interruptions of course. She can sing, she can dance well enough to be on stage professionally, she can act, and she seems like a natural for stand-up comedy. Sounds like a rare thing in Hollywood these days. Maybe if she was 15 years younger and 10” taller she’d be a bigger star. Beats me. I think she’s a blast just the way she is.

50 seconds of ‘net research shows she has a Christmas album that has just been released, and two previous albums.  I think I might just have to go log onto Amazon.

Here’s Kristen

Posted by Drew458     on 12/06/2008 at 12:19 AM   
Filed Under: • Hollywood •  
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   Friday - December 05, 2008

Big Win for Gun Owners

The interior department has just released their ruling on allowing licensed concealed carry permit holders to bring their weapons into National parks, according to the laws of the state where the park is.  This was not as straight-forward a win as you would have thought, and stood a good chance of being buried and forgotten for years, but thanks to teh Virginia Citizen’s Defence League and others, it was just passed.

Here’s a link to the press release.

Interior Announces Final Firearms Policy Update

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty today announced that the Department of the Interior has finalized updated regulations governing the possession of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. The final rule, which updates existing regulations, would allow an individual to carry a concealed weapon in national parks and wildlife refuges if, and only if, the individual is authorized to carry a concealed weapon under state law in the state in which the national park or refuge is located. The update has been submitted to the Federal Register for publication and is available to the public on http://www.doi.gov.

Existing regulations regarding the carrying of firearms remain otherwise unchanged, particularly limitations on poaching and target practice and prohibitions on carrying firearms in federal buildings.

“America was founded on the idea that the federal and state governments work together to serve the public and preserve our natural resources,” Laverty said.  “The Department’s final regulation respects this tradition by allowing individuals to carry concealed firearms in federal park units and refuges to the extent that they could lawfully do so under state law.  This is the same basic approach adopted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service (USFS), both of which allow visitors to carry weapons consistent with applicable federal and state laws.”

On February 22, 2008, Interior Secretary Kempthorne responded to letters from 51 Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, as well as from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, urging him to update existing regulations that prohibit the carrying of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. In his response, the Secretary directed Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty “to develop and propose for public comment by April 30 Federal regulations that will update firearms policies on these lands to reflect existing Federal laws (such as those prohibiting weapons in Federal buildings) and the laws by which the host states govern transporting and carrying of firearms on their analogous public lands.”

Changes in the final regulations from those originally proposed in April were developed as the result of public comments.  In particular, comments expressed concern about the feasibility of implementing regulations which directly linked the carrying of concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges to the ability of an individual to carry a concealed firearm on analogous state lands.  The final regulations remove that potential logistical hurdle.

The existing regulations, as currently in effect, were adopted in 1981 for national wildlife refuges and in 1983 for national parks. Since that time many states have enacted new firearms policies. Currently, 48 states have passed legislation allowing for the lawful possession of concealed weapons.

“The Department believes that in managing parks and refuges we should, as appropriate, make every effort to give the greatest respect to the democratic judgments of State legislatures with respect to concealed firearms,” said Laverty.  “Federal agencies have a responsibility to recognize the expertise of the States in this area, and federal regulations should be developed and implemented in a manner that respects state prerogatives and authority.”

Posted by Drew458     on 12/05/2008 at 06:33 PM   
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Bypass grandfather fights off Samurai sword post office raiders. Another battling Brit, in civvies

Take a look at this.

Hey people, what do you hear in this video that shows how vulnerable they are here?

CCTV: Bypass grandfather fights off Samurai sword post office raiders
A grandfather who survived a triple heart by-pass fought off two hooded raiders when they attacked him with a Samurai sword in his country post office.

Alan Garratt was slashed with the three-foot long weapon when he refused to give in to the raiders’ demands.

Despite his injuries, the 68 year-old put up such a fight the attackers fled empty handed.

“I don’t think they thought anyone would tackle them, but I did,” he said.

The raid, which lasted 40 seconds, was captured on a CCTV camera only installed 24 hours earlier following another raid on the premises last week.

The images show two men wearing balaclavas and holding the weapons aloft, ready to strike before deciding to make a run for it.

In a final act of defiance, Mr Garratt, hurled a bottle of sherry at the raiders as they fled.

The terror began when one of the men vaulted the counter, apparently thinking Mr Garratt’s wife, Erica, 69, was alone in the shop in Knipton in Leicestershire’s Vale of Belvoir.

Alerted by his wife’s cries for help, Mr Garratt rushed from the back of the shop, forcing the raider to jump back over the counter.

One of the raiders swung the sword down on the pensioner’s left arm and hand, causing deep wounds.

Both men took turns slashing at him, while he searched for something to defend himself with.

The robbers fled empty-handed as he began to tackle them once more.

He needed eight stitches in his arm following the attack on Monday.

He said: “It was all over in 40 seconds. You can see they’re proper Samurai swords on the CCTV footage.

“I didn’t really feel it when I was cut on the arm and hand until afterwards. There was blood everywhere.

“The only thing I could find to arm myself with was a bottle of sherry.”

Despite their ordeal, the couple insist they have no plans to be forced out of their livelihood.

A family friend said: “It’s shaken them up quite a bit, but they have said they don’t want to be driven away.”

ONE BRAVE SENIOR CITIZEN

Posted by peiper     on 12/05/2008 at 09:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Heroes • UK •  
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Rare leopard cubs born in Kent, England.  Not the usual fare for a political blog site I guess but

This is really fascinating and when I found it I just had to post.  Pretty special. At least I believe so.

Take a look.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:41 PM on 05th December 2008

This pair of little big cats pounce and prowl like any curious kittens, blissfully unaware they are two of the rarest leopards in the world.

Baby Amur leopards Argun and Anuy were born at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation (WHF), a conservation charity based in Smarden, Kent, which supports rare and endangered big cats.

It is thought no more than 40 Amur leopards survive in the wild.

Mark Edgerley, who runs the centre where the eight-week-old cubs were born, said the pair were beginning to become more confident and could often be seen playing together in their enclosure while their mother, three-year-old Xizi, looks on.

They have no access to their father, Artur, six, who is their biggest danger due to the male leopard’s lack of paternal instinct.

Mr Edgerley said: ‘They are like little kittens; they chase straw and if they see a bit of sunlight falling on the ground they will go after that. They look as if they had not got a care in the world.’

When they are fully grown the leopards will, like all the other big cats at the centre, eat up to 18kg (40lb) of meat a week, including a mixture of horse, calf and rabbit meat.

The Amur leopard’s natural habitat is the Russian Far East, within a forest region known as Primorskii Krai where the River Amur flows.

There the animal is under threat of extinction due to the burning of the forest to make way for agricultural land.

A strategy to increase their numbers is to establish a second population at a separate site by breeding animals in captivity.

There are around 140 Amur leopards living within a carefully managed European breeding programme, which the WHF is a part of, but Mr Edgerley said that Argun and Anuy will never be released into the wild.

‘Animals that are bred in captivity cannot just be let loose to fend for themselves. It won’t be first-generation zoo animals that are released but second-generation ones,’ he said.

MORE PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 12/05/2008 at 09:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Animals • UK •  
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It’s a dog saves dog world

Rachel Lucas, known and loved for being a dog lover, among other things, says the following about this video:

I had a video on here but it crashed my page AND made people cry so I took out the video code it but here’s what it was .

It’s traffic-camera footage of a dog being hit by (at least one) car, then laying there unmoving, and then another dog runs out to him, hovers over him protectively, and then DRAGS HIM BACK TO SAFETY.

At the risk of crashing BMEWS, here is the video. Amazing.

Okay, that was causing problems just during my attempt to post it! Here is the link to the video

Posted by Christopher     on 12/05/2008 at 06:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Animals •  
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