I should’ve hit on this sooner but I’m still enjoying my Memorial Day weekend. Anyway, I guess nothing can surprise you when we talk about Al Qaeda.
An al Qaeda handbook preaches to operatives to level charges of torture once captured, a training regime that administration officials say explains some of the charges of abuse at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
In a raid on an al Qaeda cell in Manchester, British authorities seized al Qaeda's most extensive manual for how to wage war. A directive lists one mission as "spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy." If captured, the manual states, "At the beginning of the trial ... the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security before the judge. Complain of mistreatment while in prison." The handbook instructs commanders to make sure operatives, or "brothers," understand what to say if captured. "Prior to executing an operation, the commander should instruct his soldiers on what to say if they are captured," the document says. "He should explain that more than once in order to ensure that they have assimilated it. They should, in turn, explain it back to the commander." An example might have occurred in a Northern Virginia courtroom in February. Ahmed Omar Abul Ali, accused of planning to assassinate President Bush, made an appearance in U.S. District Court and promptly told the judge that he had been tortured in Saudi Arabia, including a claim that his back had been whipped. He is accused of meeting there with a senior al Qaeda leader. Days later, a U.S. attorney filed a court document saying physicians had examined Ali and "found no evidence of any physical mistreatment on the defendant's back or any other part of his body."
Again, the Media tells us a different story; got to love them.
He added, "None of this is meant to excuse the situation we found when individuals were unfortunately abused at Abu Ghraib. That was wrong."
Tuesday Quick Hits
Deep Throat Unveiled?
Yawn.
Sorry, never have cared for this story. Just not a big portion of my generation.
Oh Great, You
After the firing of Jean-Pierre Raffarin as French Prime Minister by French President Jacques Chirac, Iraqi War critic Dominique de Villepin was named in his place.
Some bloggers missed this small little part of French Politics, when either the President or the Prime Minister resigns, the other gets to name his replacement.
With Villepin as the French PM, Chirac is banking on letting anti-Americanism be his key platform in his re-election campaign. French elections are scheduled for 2007.
The key to watching the "Axis of Weasels" will be tomorrow with the Dutch elections on the EU Constitution. If that falls, and with the likely loss of Schroeder in Germany next year, the Axis will eat itself.
Serves them right.
Next Target: Wal-Mart
Actually it never stopped being a target for the American Anti-Capitalist Left, it just is this decade's Goliath to take down.
Today alone we have input from the Sierra Club (How does this effect the environment?), Xoff, Folkbum, and others on the article from last week that Wal-Mart employees make up 40% of those on BadgerCare - the state's health care program for the working poor.
There's a rally scheduled tomorrow in Madison by the usual suspects as the typical "Unions vs. Wal-Mart" storyline continues.
My guess: Wal-Mart will continue to win.
No More Americans in Paris
The last American still alive in the French Open, top-seeded Lindsay Davenport, was ousted today. She lost in straight sets 6-3,6-2 to Mary Pierce.
Also losing was No. 2 Maria Sharapova, the Russian teen sensation/model, who unlike Anna Kournakova, can actually win tennis tournaments. She lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, to Justin Henin-Hardenne.
Yawn.
Sorry, never have cared for this story. Just not a big portion of my generation.
Oh Great, You
After the firing of Jean-Pierre Raffarin as French Prime Minister by French President Jacques Chirac, Iraqi War critic Dominique de Villepin was named in his place.
Some bloggers missed this small little part of French Politics, when either the President or the Prime Minister resigns, the other gets to name his replacement.
With Villepin as the French PM, Chirac is banking on letting anti-Americanism be his key platform in his re-election campaign. French elections are scheduled for 2007.
The key to watching the "Axis of Weasels" will be tomorrow with the Dutch elections on the EU Constitution. If that falls, and with the likely loss of Schroeder in Germany next year, the Axis will eat itself.
Serves them right.
Next Target: Wal-Mart
Actually it never stopped being a target for the American Anti-Capitalist Left, it just is this decade's Goliath to take down.
Today alone we have input from the Sierra Club (How does this effect the environment?), Xoff, Folkbum, and others on the article from last week that Wal-Mart employees make up 40% of those on BadgerCare - the state's health care program for the working poor.
There's a rally scheduled tomorrow in Madison by the usual suspects as the typical "Unions vs. Wal-Mart" storyline continues.
My guess: Wal-Mart will continue to win.
No More Americans in Paris
The last American still alive in the French Open, top-seeded Lindsay Davenport, was ousted today. She lost in straight sets 6-3,6-2 to Mary Pierce.
Also losing was No. 2 Maria Sharapova, the Russian teen sensation/model, who unlike Anna Kournakova, can actually win tennis tournaments. She lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, to Justin Henin-Hardenne.
UW-Stout: ROTC Decision Reversed
Via JS's DayWatch:
He was the one-man veto, after all. Using the always believable "We oppose 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" Ivy League excuse that even Ivy Leaguers don't buy.
Sorenson is just another left-wing college administrator who hates the military - nothing else to it.
UPDATE 10:57 AM - This news report from RiverTowns.net reports that Sorenson made the announcement yesterday in a memo.
Sorenson's a total phony.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Stout has reversed his earlier decision to prevent an Army ROTC program from being established on the campus, citing earlier UW System regent policies and federal law.Good for them, though I don't buy the press release one second that it was not the result of "external political pressure." UW-Stout Chancellor Sorenson was taking a large amount of heat for this.
Chancellor Charles Sorensen, who announced the reversal today after two weeks of criticism from Republican legislators and others, said he remains concerned about the ROTC programs position on "banning people because of their stated sexual orientation."
Nonetheless, he insisted the change was not a result of "external political pressure," but rather that the school could not violate regent policies or federal laws. UW-Stout could have lost significant federal funding if it barred the program.
He was the one-man veto, after all. Using the always believable "We oppose 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" Ivy League excuse that even Ivy Leaguers don't buy.
Sorenson is just another left-wing college administrator who hates the military - nothing else to it.
UPDATE 10:57 AM - This news report from RiverTowns.net reports that Sorenson made the announcement yesterday in a memo.
In a memo sent out to the University of Wisconsin-Stout campus Monday morning, Chancellor Charles Sorenson reversed his earlier decision banning an Army reserve officer training program on campus in Memomonie.Why send out a memo on Memorial Day unless you're totally ashamed of the decision you made in the first place?
In his memo Sorenson noted that the decision to ban ROTC from campus would go against long-standing UW Board of Regents policy and would put the university in violation of federal law.
"After contact from UW System's General Counsel, it became clear to me that campus attempts to prohibit an ROTC chapter may be a violation of regent policy and federal law. In reading the law it appears that barring ROTC could place significant amounts of federal funding for us at risk."
Sorenson's a total phony.
Great Outdoor Madison Games
Let the Logrolling Continue!!
The Wisconsin Green Party has followed the lead of Madison Alderman and undiagnosed sociopath Austin King and is charging not only Governor Jim Doyle, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WEAC, with logrolling; but also Assembly Speaker John Gard and Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz.
Since it's the Wisconsin Green Party; expect it to be ignored.
Some quick observations.
1) Has someone called Ed Garvey? The Greens are now claiming they own "Fighting Bob" LaFollette.
Thought he had the copyright?
2) The Minimum Wage will go up tomorrow to $5.70, currently it is at $5.15.
3) This issue won't resonate beyond Madison, where major damage will occur to Doyle's left flank. Already there has been outcries by Madison Mayor David Cieslewicz about the preemption deal.
Adding the Wisconsin Greens to the party, doesn't help Jimbo one bit. The reality of a strong (or any) presence of the Wisconsin Greens running their own candidate for Governor in 2006 continues to grow.
All guesses are on a 3-party fight in 2006, GOP (Either Green or Walker), Doyle, and whoever the Greens through out there.
The Wisconsin Green Party has followed the lead of Madison Alderman and undiagnosed sociopath Austin King and is charging not only Governor Jim Doyle, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WEAC, with logrolling; but also Assembly Speaker John Gard and Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz.
Since it's the Wisconsin Green Party; expect it to be ignored.
"The deal worked out between Doyle, Gard, and Schultz isn't just bad for low-wage workers, it's illegal. It's clear that Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce brokered a deal between the Governor and the Republican leadership, and it's time for Wisconsin's Attorney General to clean house," said Jill Busierre, Co-Chair of the Wisconsin Green Party.Owen gives a good detailed description of 'logrolling' here.
Wisconsin's anti-logrolling statutes were the work of the progressive leadership in the 1911 Wisconsin State Legislature, which also passed the first workers' compensation law in this country, the first workable income tax in the country, a state life insurance program, legislation that aided farm cooperatives and agricultural education, and a corrupt practices act that was designed to clean up political activity, among other things. Wisconsin's heralded Home Rule statutes and constitutional amendments soon followed. The Wisconsin Green Party, as a direct descendent of the independent progressive political movements of the teens, twenties, and thirties, calls for the enforcement of Wisconsin's progressive-era clean government laws.
"The State Capitol, Fighting Bob LaFollette's 'Temple of Democracy,' needs a cleaning once again," said Ben Manski, a longtime Wisconsin Green Party activist. "The burden is on the Attorney General to take up that charge and work with reformers to make Wisconsin government transparent and accountable once again."
Some quick observations.
1) Has someone called Ed Garvey? The Greens are now claiming they own "Fighting Bob" LaFollette.
Thought he had the copyright?
2) The Minimum Wage will go up tomorrow to $5.70, currently it is at $5.15.
3) This issue won't resonate beyond Madison, where major damage will occur to Doyle's left flank. Already there has been outcries by Madison Mayor David Cieslewicz about the preemption deal.
Adding the Wisconsin Greens to the party, doesn't help Jimbo one bit. The reality of a strong (or any) presence of the Wisconsin Greens running their own candidate for Governor in 2006 continues to grow.
All guesses are on a 3-party fight in 2006, GOP (Either Green or Walker), Doyle, and whoever the Greens through out there.
That's an Understatement
From an unnamed 'Senior EU bureaucrat, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal's lead editorial today.
The Constitution is a whopping 485 pages, took two years to produce, and is one of the most puke-inducing documents to ever be penned. While opening up the traditionally collectivist Eurocentric economies, it was also one of the most anti-Semitic and anti-Christian documents ever produced.
I'm personally torn on this defeat of this document. (The French "non" increases chances of the Dutch also saying 'no.' Italy is now thinking it approved it to fast, and the Poles are upset about the way French Socialists used imagery of a Polish plumber to urge defeat.) While the one thing that Europeans need to get their economy out of the doldrums is free-market reforms - something the EU Constitution was going to give them - it should not have been done in the manner that it was going to be: Forced on them like a child and his couch syrup.
So the European social welfare state lives on; for now.
Someday it will have to end, or it will only continue Europe down the road to 3rd tier economic status they seem destined to be on.
When the EU Constitution dies the well-deserved death it deserves and the next Constitutional Convention is called, some pointers:
"They [The French people] haven't read it. If they had read it, they wouldn't understand it. If they understood it, they wouldn't like it."This bureaucrat then said the French citizens would then vote to approve the EU Constitution. (They didn't.)
The Constitution is a whopping 485 pages, took two years to produce, and is one of the most puke-inducing documents to ever be penned. While opening up the traditionally collectivist Eurocentric economies, it was also one of the most anti-Semitic and anti-Christian documents ever produced.
I'm personally torn on this defeat of this document. (The French "non" increases chances of the Dutch also saying 'no.' Italy is now thinking it approved it to fast, and the Poles are upset about the way French Socialists used imagery of a Polish plumber to urge defeat.) While the one thing that Europeans need to get their economy out of the doldrums is free-market reforms - something the EU Constitution was going to give them - it should not have been done in the manner that it was going to be: Forced on them like a child and his couch syrup.
So the European social welfare state lives on; for now.
Someday it will have to end, or it will only continue Europe down the road to 3rd tier economic status they seem destined to be on.
When the EU Constitution dies the well-deserved death it deserves and the next Constitutional Convention is called, some pointers:
- Keep it simple (and short)
- Don't force it on them - if French socialists want the thing to die - so be it.
- Listen to the people - it's easier then it sounds
WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY
Today May 31st, we celebrate World No Tobacco Day.
This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.
The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. In 1987, the World Health Assemby passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a "a world no-smoking day." In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May.
This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.
The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. In 1987, the World Health Assemby passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a "a world no-smoking day." In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May.
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