Sunday, April 17, 2011

"Morning Papers" - Its Origin

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

"Good Night Moon"

Full Moon
100% of Full
Sunday, April 17, 2011
At Midnight, US Central time, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere

I am tired of you lousy no good bastards turning the minds of the American people into God fearing people bigoted in a way that will lead them into Christian soldiers, over and over and over again.

I am doubly tired of your lousy fucking media, too. 

Eat shit!

Cluster Bombs - Air deployed land mines.



Libya shows such weapons should not be allowed to fall into the hands of despots  (click title to entry - thank you)

Reports that forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi have used cluster bombs in their siege of Misrata has brought to light once again the use of this controversial ordnance.
There are many different kinds of air-dropped or ground-launched "sub-munitions," but work more or less the same: One bomb opens prior to impact and casts up to 2,000 — depending on the type — smaller "bomblets" over a wide swath of territory. These "wide dispersal pattern weapons" explode on impact, but many of them do not. Instead they lay in wait for days, weeks, years, or even decades, to kill or maim shepherds, children or anyone else that stumbles upon them....



From all places "The Lancet."  Actually, no surprise here.  It was the Lance that estimated the number of dead Iraqis due to the intense power of American arms. 

So what exactly are cluster bombs (click here) (often referred to as cluster munitions)? Basically, they are exploding devises designed to cause as much damage as possible to civilian populations by dispersing multiple smaller bombs (the jargon is “submunitions) that scatter over a wide area. Although designed to explode when they strike the ground, many of the ‘bomblets’ fail to function and remain as deadly explosive remnants. Like landmines, these lethal devices can continue to kill and injure for decades.


Prohibiting Cluster Bombs, our chance to protect civilians - United Nations Report  (click here)

The prices consumers are paying for gas is all SPECULATION.

Now, what was that about oil shortages due to the Libyan No Fly Zones? 
I don't think so.
Kingdom says oil market is oversupplied  (click title to entry - thank you)
By AMENA BAKR
REUTERS
Published: Apr 17, 2011 23:45
Updated: Apr 17, 2011 23:45

KUWAIT: Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said on Sunday the world oil market was oversupplied and the Kingdom had reduced output, sending a the strongest signal yet that OPEC may not boost output in June to quell soaring oil prices.
Consumers have urged the exporters' group to add supply to halt the rally in oil prices that has taken crude to its highest level in 2 1/2 years amid unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, but OPEC members say there is little they can do to bring prices down.
“The market is overbalanced ... Our production in February was 9.125 million barrels per day (bpd), in March it was 8.292 million bpd. In April we don't know yet, probably a little higher than March. The reason I gave you these numbers is to show you that the market is oversupplied,” Al-Naimi told reporters.
Two Saudi-based industry sources told Reuters last week the kingdom had cut production....

Saudi king receives Emir’s message

I am really beginning to believe the Saudi brother are really beginning to have a good time.

I always like Prince Abdullah before he became King. 

He is having a good time being the 'community' peacemaker.  Powerful man.  No doubt.  







The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia (click title to entry - thank you - no pun intended) yesterday received a verbal message from HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on bilateral ties and  the current situation in the region.

The message was conveyed by HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani during a meeting with the Saudi king at Al Riyadh Palace in the Saudi capital. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim was in Riyadh to take part in the 33rd GCC foreign ministers’ extraordinary meeting.

HE is "His Excellency."  Don't hear it that much in The West.  Sounds like a grade on an exam paper or something. 

Bahrainis go on trial for police deaths  (click here)

By AGENCIES
MANAMA: The trial of seven Bahrainis accused of killing police officers during protests in February and March opened Sunday before a military court in Manama, the official BNA news agency said.
The seven are charged with the murder of public officials on duty, according to BNA.
Witnesses deposed before the tribunal and video allegedly showing the attackers in cars hitting the policemen was played, the agency said.
According to the authorities, four policemen were killed after being struck by cars during protests, which began on Feb. 14 and were quelled by the authorities in mid-March.
The next hearing will be on April 19 when the defense will present its witnesses. The accused could face the death penalty if convicted.
The state news agency also said that more than a hundred civil servants have been summarily fired for participating in the anti-government protests....

The Saudi are interesting folks. They are very busy boys. It is a stable kingdom. Mecca. Clout. Interesting.

Yemeni opposition leaders arrive in Riyadh for talks with GCC foreign ministers. They were received on arrival at the airport by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Prince Turki bin Muhammad and other senior officials. (SPA)



Now see, if anyone was to listen to Hayden this morning it would be real easy to make a demon of the GCC.  Here we have the Saudis at the center of ?  something synister ?.  They are talking to the opposition in Yemen.  Oh, dear God.  No.  I mean the Saudis are talking to Yemeni oppostion? 

Like.

Ah.

What does that mean?  Isn't the opposition al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula?  Well, isn't Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula? 

...In the meeting, the GCC and Yemeni leaders (click title to entry - thank you) discussed a proposal for an early departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to secure peace and an end to political unrest in the country. They also reviewed a proposal that calls for a timetable for the president to leave office....

Well, hell, Hayden didn't say anything about that.  Do you call this a caliphate?  A little one maybe?

I don't think so.

This is that underlying 'get rid of the king thing.'

A man walks past electoral banners for Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) on Nov. 22, 2010. An Egyptian court on Saturday, ordered the dissolution of the political party of former President Hosni Mubarak, one of the demands of the protesters who ended his 30-year rule.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuter/File


Do the Egyptians want to throw the baby out with the bath water?  Hell, yeah.  Why leave the door open?  From what I understand the old party is still around, but, nearly not.  For as magnificent as Egypt is and was, the people were not happy.  They don't want it anymore.  This isn't about a caliphate.  These countries are not attempting to create a 'new' alliance of Islamic extremists. 

Not to say the fall of 'the old regime' in Egypt isn't a worry.  It is.  But, at the same time there are the oppressed, the tortured, the dark side if you will.  How does a world rid itself of such heinous realities if it isn't simply destroyed and replaced with a 'different' reality?  They have to have a chance to 'be.' 


Court order to dissolve Egypt's NDP deals body blow to old power structure (click title to entry - thank you)
In the absence of the National Democratic Party (NDP), the electoral field in September will be wide open for the Muslim Brotherhood to perform strongly.

By Kristen Chick, Correspondent
April 17, 2011
Cairo
The gutted headquarters of Egypt's former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) sits blackened and abandoned after having been torched during February's pro-democracy revolution. Many of the party’s leading figures are now in jail awaiting trial or charges....

Sorry, but, this is not a caliphate. Okay? This is a call to Islam at the street level.

Salafism is an ideology that posits that Islam has strayed from its origins. The word "salaf" is Arabic for "ancient one" and refers to the companions of the Prophet Mohammed. Arguing that the faith has become decadent over the centuries, Salafists call for the restoration of authentic Islam as expressed by an adherence to its original teachings and texts. "Salafists originally are supposedly not violent," Kepel explains. "They are not advocating the revolt against one who holds power, against the powers that be. They are calling for re-Islamization at the daily level."

This is a PBS report, by the way.  (click title to entry - thank you)

By the mid-'90s, Kepel saw an alarming change among Europe's Muslims. Increasingly he was coming across Salafists who had embraced jihad -- in other words, who felt violence and terrorism were justified to realize their political objectives. Kepel explains that when Salafists, who tend to be alienated from mainstream European society, meet and mingle with jihadists, it fuses into a volatile mixture.

See, when the theology of a religion is based on 'street' politics there can be all kinds of abuses of the faithful.  Street religions are not unusual.  India has their cows, ya know?

The 'thing' with European Islamists 'of the street' is that they are 'easy prey' to extremists.  Interaction among the faithful and the radical becomes homogenized.  It is why Europe has such a tough dynamic. 

Where it gets to be a tight rope, is when 'street preachers' are arrested for their extremist views and the faithful become alarmed and sincerely feeled threatened as though 'the prophesy' is sincere and real.  It places the faithful on the defensive.  Crouching if you will.  Don't like to put it like that, but, in a civilized society it sort of explains the posture.  Maybe susceptible is a better word.

..."And I used it and wrote it many times, and the first response they had was when Ahmed Ressam [who planned to attack Los Angeles International airport] was arrested in1999. I had a friend in Washington who called me and said, 'What is that word you were using, "Salafist?"' They didn't know that such a thing existed."...

That was 1999.  Not post September 11, 2001.  Okay?  This mess has been around awhile.

The Gulf Cooperation Coucil was one of the organization Secretary Clinton stated was in alliance with NATO regarding Libya.

Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit meets with UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammad Ben Rashid Al Maktoum in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (Petra photo)

AMMAN (JT) - The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)  (click title to entry - thank you)  is “seriously” considering “bringing Jordan into the centre of attention in terms of economic and developmental support,” a senior UAE official said.
Quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Ben Zayed Al Nahyan told Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit in Abu Dhabi on Sunday that Jordan’s security and stability is important for the security and stability of the Arab and the Gulf region.
He said the GCC is considering a fund to support development in the region, calling for clear strategies that map development needs in countries that are potential beneficiaries of the aid.
Bakhit was in the UAE to deliver a letter from His Majesty King Abdullah to UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Ben Zayed Al Nahyan that focused on bilateral ties and prospects for further cooperation.
The letter, which was handed to UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammad Ben Rashid Al Maktoum, also focused on means to enhance joint Arab action in order to overcome challenges facing the Arab world....

Jordan sincerely needs those ties.  Jordan was like 'hard wired' to USA support without really engaging the region.  That isn't good.  Jordan is vital to regional stability and the GCC is acting in its best interest when engaging Jordan in economic stability and developement.  But, they are all experiencing this 'unrest' of their people.


2011-04-18 05:17:47    
Xinhua       
Web Editor: liuranran
Jordanian security authorities announced Sunday they have arrested 103 Jihadists Salafists who clashed with police Friday, injuring over 80 of them.
"Those arrested will be referred to court to look into the crimes they committed," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Saed Hayel Srour said in a press conference Sunday.
Labeling the assault on security forces Friday as an act of terror that seeks to harm the country's stability and security, Srour, accused the hard-line Islamists of premeditated attack on security personnel as they carried knives, daggers and batons during the clashes to harm citizens and security forces.
Srour stressed that the right of expression of opinion is guaranteed, adding: "Jordan will not allow anyone to take advantage of the atmosphere of democracy and freedom to turn dialogue and freedom of expression into an expression by batons. This is rejected and unacceptable."...

Leave it to a Chinese newspaper to come up with a name for these guys.  Jihadist Salafists.  Amazing.  China is good at identifying all these 'factions' and stuff.  They have plenty of their own.  Some of the villages in China are really, really remote.  They practice cultures millenium old. 

That statement is so very 'on.'  Will not allow...the atmosphere of democracy...into an expression of batons...

Like that.  Very smart.  See, democracy has that quality.  We are seeing 'a strain' of it in the USA with the Tea Baggers.  They take it too far.  They turn a 'beautiful' thing into a 'tool' for abuse. 

The 'tone' of the USA has a huge impact on what transpires in the Middle East.

CIA director Panetta suggests Cheney wants attack  (click here)

CIA Director Leon Panetta told The New Yorker magazine that former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."
WASHINGTON — CIA Director Leon Panetta told The New Yorker magazine that former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."
Cheney has said in several interviews that he thinks Obama is making the United States less safe for ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, halting enhanced interrogations of suspected terrorists and reversing other Bush administration initiatives he says helped to prevent attacks on the U.S.
"When you read behind it," Panetta said, "it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."
The magazine also reported in April that Panetta fired Mitchell Jessen & Associates, a firm run by two psychologists who helped introduce waterboarding and other harsh methods to the agency's interrogation techniques.
The Senate Armed Services Committee reported on the role played by James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen in developing "countermeasures to defeat" the resistance of captured enemy detainees from whom intelligence was being sought.
Panetta said he supported at one time the creation of a "truth commission" to look into the subject, but Obama discouraged the idea.

Then there is this 'caliphate' mess that one tries to understand.  It is not only bizarre, but, simple minded and bigoted.  I use that word with regret.  Bigot is an easy word to use.  But, in all sincerity the underlying 'tone' of this entire mess is a profound misunderstanding of the people of the Middle East, their strife, their needs, their love of God and their dire, dire need to 'have a place of peace.'  I know it sounds strange to state the root of the violence of the Middle East is a need for a place of peace.  But, at 'the end' of the 'hate' lies a 'place.'  If 'that place' could be reached, would they be 'done with it all?'  If they reached 'that place' without the violence in their lives could this be finished?  Is violence a peaceful thing for those that control it? 

Posted on Thursday, May. 21, 2009 from the Miami Herald

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths  By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.
In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."
He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

Funny thing about the Middle East. There is a very high level of illiteracy among the people.

UN Statistics - click title to entry - thank you

Not that nations such as Saudi Arabia aren't interested in the advancement of their people, they sincerely are.  No doubt in my mind.

However.

In places like Gaza, illiteacy is more than half the problem.  These oppressed people have no real understanding of anything except their own day to day existence.  Asking them to move past their fear and rudimentary understanding of 'conflict' they can't.  Not that they don't want to, but, they don't have the depth of understanding, the fluid of insight, the comprehension of peace or the ability to rid the loss of the dead.

In many of the faithful in oppressed populations the dead are more alive than they are.  They cling to what they understand have been their lives.  They cling to those gone.  When one has so little in life and the dead are alive everyday, there is simply no room to move past all that.

The Middle East is more complicated than anyone cares to imagine and in some way, many ways actually, the opposition to their leaders is some of the healthiest movements I have witnessed.  Not from the standpoint of regional stability, but, form the point of view that empowerment of these populations will actually begin to alleviate the 'road block' of poverty and lack of learning and worldliness.

Afghanistan Illiteracy Rate is 72%.  Pakistan is 50%.  Yemen is 46%.  Sudan 39%.  Iraq 26%.  Egypt 28% and Tunisia 25.7%.

In contast, Lebanon has a 12% illiteracy rate.  Jordan 9%

Middle East Illiteracy Rates  (15 and older) - date uncertain of these statistics (click here)

The Middle East is more than strange. I find myself asking if the leaders are terrible because the people are or ...

...are the people terrible because the leaders are?

There is always that 'ebb and flow' between the populous and their Presidents.  One always gets the picture though that the Presidents rule by 'threat' and not by 'concensus.' 

Assad is welcomed by nations in the Arab League.  He just doesn't see the sovereignty of his nation staying within its borders, though.  He is always lusting after lebanon.  It may be a past time for Assad to please his constituents, but, regardless he never minds his own business.  It is like his politics relies on invading Lebanon all the time. 

Assad pledge fails to quell Syria anger; troops fire  (click here)

AMMAN | Sun Apr 17, 2011 3:32pm EDT

...Two witnesses said security forces killed three mourners when they opened fire on a funeral for a man killed the day before, which turned into a demonstration on a highway outside the town of Talbiseh, north of the central city of Homs.
One resident said he counted five tanks and saw soldiers wearing combat gear deployed around the town.
Chants at protests on Sunday, Syria's Independence Day holiday, more hostile toward Assad than at previous marches held in recent weeks, a sign that a promise to lift the country's hated emergency law had failed to appease the public.
Opposition figures say they believe new laws that will replace the emergency rule are likely to retain severe curbs on political freedoms....

I find myself thinking, these guys simply 'don't get it.'  But in all sincereity they really do.  Assad wants to hang onto power.  He figures its his familial right to rule people past their tolerance to be ruled.  He simply loves oppression.  If he isn't oppressing his people, he is lusting after oppression of Lebanon.  What a guy.


This is Mrs. Assad.  The President's wife.  She is quite a babe from what international circles say.  I mean the hairdresser alone must be $500 a pop, wouldn't you think?  High maintenance.  Maybe that is why he is scared of any disruption to his thrown.  Sorry, office.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's wife Asma gestures is pictured at the Bristol hotel on December 11, 2010 in Paris. Al-Assad is on a two-days official visit to France.


Hm.  Emergency laws.  Same mess that existed in Egypt.  Can't help but believe this isn't going to be tolerated for long by the people that admire the babe and her spouse at the top of the government.  No Caliphate yet though.  I really don't believe that is on the agenda.  Not in Syria, not in Gaza and certainly not in Egypt.  It's sort of like the 'fear' of the colonists turn nation in the USA when they worried about the Executive Branch becoming a Kingdom.  No one wants that mess back again, ya know?  I don't see a Caliphate here.  Just don't.


The Associated Press
Date: Saturday Apr. 16, 2011 1:00 PM ET
BEIRUT — Syria's president said Saturday he expects state of emergency laws (click title to entry - thank you) that have been in effect for nearly 50 years to be lifted by next week at the latest, a key demand by a monthlong protest movement that has posed the most serious challenge to the authoritarian regime.
In his second public appearance since the protests began, President Bashar Assad warned there will no longer be "an excuse" for organizing protests after Syria lifts the emergency laws and implements reforms.
"After that, we will not tolerate any attempt at sabotage," he told the newly formed Cabinet in a televised address.
Syria's widely despised emergency laws have been in place since the ruling Baath party came to power in 1963, giving the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge and extending state authority into virtually every aspect of Syrians' lives.

Palestine on the map ? An Anti-aircraft missile? Where did Hamas get an anti-aircraft missile?



This is pure unadulterated propaganda.  Gaza is a huge issue for the violence that exists there.  Nowhere.  Absolutely nowhere does this propaganda video state Israel moved from Gaza to provide for the Palestinians.  Nowhere does it say that Hamas has done nothing but continue to attack Israel with rockets without any guilt or desire to stop and call a cease fire.  Israel is always 'in process' of defending its people, culture and peace.  If one wants to call Israel a nation with peace within its borders.

There are many, many Palestinians that work and live in cities in Israel.  There are mixed marriages and children from those marriages.  When is 'the truth' going to matter?  No party is innocent to the unrest within Israel with Palestine, but, when is inflammtory propaganda going to stop long enough for peace to take hold?  Never? 


Published 18:48 17.04.11
Latest update 18:48 17.04.11

Boy hurt in Gaza rocket attack on Israeli bus dies of his wounds  (click title to entry - thank you)

16-year-old Daniel Viflic dies after Palestinian militants launch rocket at Israeli school bus earlier this month, which sparked an escalation in cross-border fire.

By Haaretz Service

The teenager who was critically wounded after Gaza militants launched an anti-aircraft missile at a school bus in southern Israel earlier this month succumbed to his wounds Sunday.
16-year-old Daniel Viflic died in the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva after his condition seriously deteriorated last week....


Let's see how "The Great Caliphate" is coming along.

“We will not allow sedition to infiltrate” regardless of the tense rhetoric, Hezbollah MPs have stressed.

According to Houri, “Hariri did not give me or colleague Kabbara any remarks about our recent comments.”

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is expected to issue an indictment over the assassination case of former Prime Minister martyr Rafiq Hariri. However, the date set for issuance remains undisclosed, although expectations have put the date sometime next December.

According to ‘leaks’ to the German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’, the indictment will implicate “undisciplined members of Hezbollah.”
The party’s S.G. Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah (click here) also said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri had told him that the STL’s indictment is inclined to accuse Hezbollah members. Hariri’s bloc, or at least part of it, denied this conversation ever took place although Hariri himself did not....
Lebanon is an interesting place.  It has been westernized for some time while holding on to its cultures and religions.  The elections that brough Hezbollah as part of the Lebanese government have proven to be a 'test' for Hezbollah, in that they have to govern 'in cooperation' with others.  That is not their priority.  However, for as hostile the environment is in Lebanon between the parties, there is marked tolerance as well.
 Hariri Can’t Sit with Sayyed Nasrallah in One Room!: WikiLeaks  (click title to entry - thank you)

2011/04/16

A new discovery was revealed Friday by WikiLeaks: the head of the Future party in Lebanon, courageous Saad Hariri, can’t sit with Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah.
Those who thought that the reason behind this is a “political misunderstanding” between the two men are mistaken.
Simply, Hariri can’t be with Sayyed Nasrallah in the same room, because the Israeli enemy might discover where he is and therefore, Hariri’s life could be threatened!...

Saad Hariri is the son of the deceased Rafic Hariri.  The family has come to be known as the beacon of civility and freedom for Lebanon.  The populous worry chronically for his safety.  It is understandable, after all, even his dignity can't be left alone for long.

Syria's interference in Lebanon's reality is NOTHING NEW.  Syria has problems staying within its own borders at times.  Syria needs to mind its own business and stop attempting to 'insitgate' an assassination plot by supplying the propaganda.





April 18, 2011 11:52 PM
Last updated: April 18, 2011 01:16 AM


By Hussein Dakroub


West Bekaa MP Jamal Jarrah, who was accused by Damascus of arming and funding anti-regime protesters in Syria, said Sunday the Syrian allegations were aimed at discrediting caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his Future Movement.
Jarrah, a member of Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc, also said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has promised to follow up the Syrian allegations with Syrian authorities....

To me.  This is promising.  A Hariri is admired and seeking to continue the freedom movement started by his father.  There is support for his hopes for Lebanon. 

No Caliphate here.  Not yet.


It's Sunday Night


Posted by Picasa

"Rock the Casbah" by The Clash

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisnin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille

The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way

As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.


Coachella 2011: Remembering the Clash while celebrating Big Audio Dynamite  (click here)


This was my friend's neighborhood yesterday in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

The next morning it was difficult to believe their new reality.
Jacksonville, North Carolina is near Camp LeJeune.  Many military familes live and work there.  The more she looked around the more difficult it was to believe.


The storms launched 241 twisters over 14 states, (click title to entry - thank you) killing at least 44 people from Oklahoma to North Carolina and Virginia. And more weather is moving in.











May and June are usually the height of tornado season in the USA.  Considering this tornado season started long before the traditional season, there is every possibility it only gets worse from here.











Yep.
















No shade for the summer.  Beautiful old tree.  Gone. 


It will never be the same.

Since no one seems to 'get it,' it goes like this.

When the President of the USA speaks he is seeking to do a few things, but, the primary purpose to "Presidential Speak" is to relate to the nation there are serious issues or problems we are confronting and this is what it is, etc., etc., etc.

The President asks the country to take a 'topic' seriously.  It is to address 'the state of affairs' and how the USA is addressing that concern while the country takes themselves seriously with that issue.

The people are suppose to receive the message that they are protected domestically, etc.

The problem is that Bush was a master 'at it' and could talk the USA into war without end for no cause at all. 

The Presidency of the USA is a very powerful place to 'speak from.'  So, when citizens are seeking their President they are expecting a person that can lead them into a solid and secure future. 

They don't expect a person to tell them how to live their lives or conduct their businesses.  They don't expect a 'bailout' for Wall Street at every turn.  They want someone who can do the job and do it well. 

Why doesn't 'conservative television' seek to 'lead' the media rather than 'drag the public along' in fear?  Ask that?  Fear is a very powerful thing.  Peace, not so much.

Conservative television is the sorriest I have ever seen.

Donald Trump has the USA for sale as a "Mercenary Nation" asking allies for money before delivering the goods.

Then on FOX, you know the Murdoch guys they are seeking the only war they can terrify the USA with and that is the drug cartel DISASTER south of our border, then turn around and put a child of Hispanic dissent on television recitiing the Presidents of the USA in chronical order.  The child's grandparents probably needed to learn that for their citizen's exam. 

Honestly.  Do these stations know anything about decency, peace and growing up American?  No.

I am worried about being gobbled up by tornadoes and what does Michael Hayden say on CNN today?

"The Single Greatest Threat to the USA is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula !"
TELL THAT TO GADAFFI !!!!!!!!!!!

You would think by now the Bush White House would figure out we aren't going to war with Saudi Arabia!

"Earth Week" Don't you wish you did it differently? Like. Got rid of fossil fuels decades ago?

A car lies upside-down (click here)  in a field of debris in Boone's Chapel, Ala., in Autauga County Saturday, April 16, 2011 after severe winds hit late Friday night, leaving three people in the area dead. (AP Photo/Montgomery Advertiser, Amanda Sowards)

More Dangerous Tornado Season Expected This Year  (click title to entry - thank you)

Mar 1, 2011 – 11:38 AM
...Severe weather season, as it's often referred to by meteorologists, typically peaks during May, when meteorological conditions that lead to the development of dangerous thunderstorms are most abundant. These conditions -- including a sharp north-south temperature gradient -- have emerged early this year and, based on the expected weather pattern, will likely intensify in the coming months....


Saturday April 16, 2011 — Raleigh, North Carolina

Tornado moved from 440 Beltline in NNW direction towards 540 Beltline severly damaged homes along Skycrest, New Hope, and Buffalo Road. Large Utility lines down, large trees down, overturned vehicles, flattened and severely damaged homes are prevalent in affected areas.
A section of Big Bend Road in Richmond Heights, Mo., is abandoned Monday during the usual morning rush hour after overnight storms knocked down a series of utility poles.


Saturday April 16, 2011 — Batesville, VA

A fast moving line of storms came through and swelled the normally peaceful (2-foot-wide) stream to this torrent. 20 minutes later the bridge was passable.