imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Saturday, December 11, 2004
FUNDING THEIR TERRORISM
Terror cells clone cash machine cards
AL-QAEDA is using cashcard fraud to steal thousands of pounds from bank accounts in Britain and the rest of Europe to fund its activities across the world.
Jean-Louis Brugière, France’s top anti-terrorism judge, said radical Islamic cells in Europe were using sophisticated equipment to "clone" the card details of cash machine users.
He said the terrorists were then creating fake cards and using them to withdraw hundreds of thousands of pounds and euros a month.
"These are cards that I call clones," he said. "They are very difficult to catch."
The judge said authorities uncovered the cash machine scheme two years ago when investigators found an Islamic terrorist finance cell operating in France.
Ten suspected Islamic militants were withdrawing more than £50,000 a month from cash machines in other European countries, where they were arrested.
The claims come amid warnings that al-Qaeda is preparing for an attack on a key maritime target in the next 12 months on the scale of the atrocities it unleashed in the United States on 11 September, 2001. In March this year, the threat to Europe was made clear when bombs planted by Islamic militants on rush hour trains in Madrid killed 191 people
FOR YOU CONSPIRACY THEORISTS
RFK's Assassin Sues to Prevent Demolition of Ambassador Hotel
Story by Margaret Foster / Dec. 6, 2004
Last week Sirhan Sirhan, who killed Kennedy in the hotel's pantry in 1968, filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, which wants to demolish the Ambassador to make way for a $318 million school. Sirhan, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, says the building's walls contain evidence that more than one gun killed Kennedy.
H/T RJ
Friday, December 10, 2004
WHOSE QUESTION?
U.S. Army Spc Thomas Wilson, left, speaks to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, not pictured, during Rumsfeld's visit to Camp Buehring, 120 km (74 miles) north of Kuwait City, on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004. Wilson, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly three years after the war in Iraq began. A day after being challenged by a soldier on the U.S. Army's failure to provide adequate armor for vehicles used in Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday he was pleased to hear the gripe and expected that efforts would be made to resolve the problem. (AP Photo/Gustavo Ferrari)
ROUNDUP
Wild Bill hit a nerve: PA first, Commenter Banned and it all started with his Mr. Mom Monday Make certain you read the comments (strong language).
Aaron has an excellent running commentary on racism He’s posted several pieces on the subject as the news warranted.
DJ Drummond looks at Bush’s faith in The Political Power of Jesus Christ
No, not many people voted for Bush because he is a Christian. Some were out-and-out offended by his clear devotion to Christ. But as the decision came closer, it became obvious that Bush was honest and direct about his work and his mind and heart. Agree with him or not, Bush was the one man who demonstrated the competence and confidence needed for the job. The war is controversial, but only those who are completely unbalanced believe that Bush did not care about the troops or the innocents. When leadership, integrity, decisiveness and clarity were considered, Bush came out the winner in every poll.
Sisu links to a LGF column about the insularity that can happen to bloggers:
Potty training, single-issue blogging, and you know what else? Michele's mommy bubble reminds us of the MSM's Pauline Kael bubble, that echo chamber where all "right-thinking" people believe as they do, and they are not biased -- no, they are not -- despite blue staters' views to the contrary.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
REMEMBER, HE JUST READS THE NEWS
NO PROBLEM?
NBC anchor Brian Williams is already in hot water barely a week after filling Tom Brokaw's shoes. Asked by United Airlines' Hemisphere magazine about the scarcity of women and non-whites in top jobs at news organizations, he replied, "We have bigger problems. There are no black members of the U.S. Senate. We should keep some perspective on this." He seems to have forgotten Sen.-elect Barack Obama (D-Ill.). The National Association of Black Journalists has slammed Williams' remarks and asked for a meeting with NBC brass. An organization called Journalists of Color, representing Asian-American, Hispanic and Native-American journos, also expressed displeasure. Williams has issued a statement saying he values equality.
TUNA SANDWICH, HOLD THE MINEO!
This sounds like something out of The Onion or ScrappleFace, but it’s true!
Short Story Mistaken For Confession In Slaying Of Actor
LOS ANGELES December 9, 2004 -- Fans of the late film star and teen idol Sal Mineo are outraged over what they perceive to be a written confession by the actor’s true killer. Mineo, who co-starred with film legend James Dean in “Rebel Without A Cause” and “Giant”, was stabbed to death in the car port of his West Hollywood apartment in 1976.
Speculation originally rested on a gay lover’s quarrel as the motive behind Mineo’s slaying. After an exhaustive investigation, LAPD detectives arrested habitual offender Lionel Ray Williams for the crime in 1979, citing robbery as the motive. Although considerable doubts about Williams’ involvement lingered, he was sentenced to life in prison for killing Mineo. Williams was paroled in 1990 after serving 12 years.
In 2004, L.A.-based journalist and documentary producer Rodger Jacobs wrote “I Killed Sal Mineo” a short story based on the supposition that Mineo’s murderer is still at large.
Jacobs’ story was written for lastories.com, a website maintained by television news journalist Giselle Fernandez, and was subsequently published in a collection of short stories titled “Christopher Walken and the Tuna Fish Sandwich and Other L.A. Stories.”
“I am forwarding this information to the police, the FBI, and Sal’s family,” an enraged John Seger wrote Jacobs in an e-mail on December 4. Seger maintains SalMineo.com, deemed the official Sal Mineo website by the Mineo family and Tom Korman, executor of the slain actor’s estate.
“If this is your idea of a sick joke, or whether you are wanting attention, this is going to be investigated,” Seger continued in the first of a flurry of heated e-mails. “This makes me sick. All websites are traceable, as are e-mail addresses when it comes to crime, especially your admission of a murder.”
IT’S XMAS TIME IN MAPLEWOOD
School district sticks to Christmas carol ban
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. -- School officials are sticking to their ban on Christmas carols during holiday instrumental concerts despite heavy pressure from residents and outsiders.
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The policy has been in place for more than a decade. But the real problems started when the board said the ban extended to instrumental renditions of Christmas carols or other songs referring to religious holidays or symbols.
The schools' brass ensemble was allowed to play songs such as "Silent Night" or "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," in past years; this year it can't.
Imus has just the album for the Maplewood school board!
MEET THE PROF
I recently discovered ProfShade.
Imagine my surprise to learn he’s in education in the Chi-town area, and he’s NOT A LIBERAL. But most of all, this guy is hilarious. There aren’t too many bloggers who could discuss Rumsfeld’s recent Q&A in the news and headline it Orgasms Are Distracting!
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD
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Pat Hynes, of Crush(ed)Kerry, has a new site and a request for a
Passion For Fairness
In our opinion, it is time for regular Americans to start imposing our values on Hollywood for a change, instead of the other way around. The Passion of The Christ touched the hearts of millions of Americas. It changed lives. It was, without question the best picture of the year. Mel Gibson clearly outperformed his own directorial standards set during the filming of Braveheart.
Therefore, we are circulating a petition to make ourselves loud and clear to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson, and the various actors and actresses of this important film had better receive a fair hearing when nominations are handed out on January 25th, 2005. We are asking -- no demanding -- Hollywood put aside their own cultural bias against Christians, conservative and other mainstream Americans. We hope you will join our cause, as we seek to impose our values on Hollywood for a change, instead of the other way around.
Don’t let a day go by without checking out Crush(ed)Kerry’s Observations on the News!
IT’S IN HER KISS (feh feh feh)
The harpy who would be president is trying to position herself to the right of Bush on national security. Supposedly, she’s getting in touch with her inner combat boots. However, while she’s boning up on all things military and trying to impress you with her bedrock belief in Christ, never forget how she kissed Suha Arafat when she was First Lady (as Slick was playing his Har-Monica).
By Peggy Noonan
What I concluded was that Mrs. Clinton was an unusually cynical leftist political operative who had no great respect for the citizens of the United States or for America itself, but who saw our country as a platform for her core ambitions: to rise and achieve historic personal and political power both with her husband and without him.
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She is taking care of her liberal base while cherry-picking key issues on which she can get to the right of the Republican party.
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She will begin giving interviews in which she speaks of the importance of the teachings of Christ in her thinking about policy issues. She will also begin to emphasize as never before her Methodist youth, and her hometown pastor's emphasis on public service. Something tells me a big black Bible is being put on a coffee table in her office even as I type. And there will also suddenly be more media availabilities after Sunday church service.
Always remember what Bill Clinton did after he lost re-election to the governorship in 1980. He joined the choir in the only local church whose services were broadcast on television throughout Arkansas every Sunday morning. You could turn in every Sunday and see him in his robe, with his music book, singing spirituals.
Something to cheer … :)
Hillary, you've got some 'fessing up to do
Activists in the bluest district in the bluest city of probably the bluest state in the nation believe they've earned the right to deliver a blunt message to Hillary Clinton: Senator, we in this liberal enclave see red every time we hear that you are the Democrats' main hope to reclaim the White House in 2008.
Why? We see you as a female equivalent of John Kerry, taking safe, centrist positions in general and, most glaringly, a wimpy stance on the war in Iraq.
RADICAL UPDATE
This is an update on a story I blogged on here.
'60s radical won't teach course at Hamilton
Susan Rosenberg steps down. Protests left college worried about bad publicity.
Susan Rosenberg, the 1960s radical indicted in a bank robbery that led to three deaths, will not be teaching at Hamilton College next semester, school officials announced Wednesday.
Rosenberg withdrew her appointment to teach a half-credit writing seminar, Hamilton officials said. Her hiring sparked weeks of debate on and off campus and a protest Friday at a Hamilton fund-raiser in Manhattan.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
ROUNDUP
ProfShade has asked that you e-mail "deserving" celebrities for his list at steve@srbcomm.com
PREPARING the keynote address at the Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast in Beverly Hills yesterday was easier for Annette Bening than preparing her family to meet President Bush. The star told in her speech how she accompanied husband Warren Beatty and their four children when he accepted Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday. Before the trip, Bening admitted she "lectured the kids on being polite to the President." They also had to dispose of a Bush doll with flaming pants — the kids used it to chant "liar, liar, pants on fire." For the record, they were on their best behavior at the White House.
THE United Nations — desperately in need of some positive spin — is considering a ploy to steal some of the Norwegian Nobel thunder by launching its own annual peace prize. It doesn't hurt that the highly politicized Nobel Peace Prize has been bestowed to such unpeaceful types as Yasser Arafat and appeasers like Jimmy Carter. "The United Nations peace prize would be announced each year with the fanfare of a Live Aid-like concert, to be broadcast on a youth channel like MTV," said one source. "In the face of widespread corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food program, weapons proliferation and terrorism, it strikes one as both tone-deaf and feckless of them even to have that on the table."
DREAMBOAT TO NIGHTMARE
I’m linking this via Lucianne; read the comments, especially #21.
Who poisoned Yushchenko?
TREACLY INTENTIONS
Live Aid eventually raised £40m. Half of the money was spent on food and half on long term development.
Pat Hynes, of Crush(ed)Kerry, has written a great piece in The American Spectator about the 1984 hit song “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” It was used to help raise million$ to help relieve the starvation in Africa at the time. I recall that there were huge problems delivering the aid after that concert. Once it was shipped to Africa, poor roads hampered delivery while much of the food ended up being confiscated by warring clans and bandits. Bob Geldof remarked, rather naively, that the idea seemed so simple: People were starving, so just feed them. He had never anticipated the logistic headaches he encountered, which made the logistics of the concert pale by comparison. But at least the entertainment community felt good about themselves.
Do They Know Anything About Christmas?
By Patrick Hynes (of CrushKerry)
Twenty years after the original debuted, a new crop of British pop stars has re-recorded "Sir" Bob Geldof's 1984 hit "Do They Know It's Christmas" and the pro-Africa relief song once again sits atop the British charts.
The news surrounding the song's re-release, which American Adult Contemporary radio stations have already begun to play ad nauseam, calls to mind some old frustrations I harbor over the lyrics, not to mention the motives of the artists who sing them.
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51% of all Chadians are Muslims and no they don't "know it's Christmastime at all," thank you. Nor do they care.
FRIGGIN' BLOGGER ... AGAIN!!!
I can't seem to post links. Everytime I try, blogger wipes out the link and everything after it. For some reason only blogger knows, I didn't have this problem posting on KerryHaters this morning.
AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR?
[L] A photo from the Hawai'i State Archives shows the USS Arizona sinking at Pearl Harbor after the attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
[R] The battleship USS West Virginia burns alongside the battleship USS Tennessee. The West Virginia was one of four battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor Day, the Day of Infamy, was well before my time, but I remember it because my late Uncle Henry lived in Honolulu … Mililani, actually. He was also a Lt. Commander in the Navy and served in the Pacific during WWII. Although he was born and raised in the Finger Lakes region of NYS, he hated the winters and moved to Hawaii after the War. He never bloviated about his military experiences. In fact he would not talk about it, except for a single mention of “limbs and torsos everywhere floating in the water” once when I pressed him. Uncle Henry passed away at the age of 91 on the 2nd anniversary of 9/11, another Day In Infamy.
Gazette opinion: Remember U.S. troops on Pearl Harbor day
It was more than a week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, that the U.S. government publicly acknowledged that day's losses: more than 2,700 sailors and 168 soldiers killed, others missing or wounded; the battleship Arizona and five other war vessels destroyed with more ships heavily damaged.
By the time the secretary of the Navy acknowledged that destruction, Congress had already declared war on Japan. An Army general had warned that a Japanese invasion of the West Coast was imminent. The federal government had labeled Germans, Italians and Japanese "alien enemies," and "clamped rigid wartime restrictions on 1.1 million such persons in this country," The Billings Gazette reported on the morning of Dec. 14, 1941. Government censorship "of all outgoing cablegrams and radio messages from the United States and its territories" had been imposed immediately after the Japanese attack.
Significance of Pearl Harbor Day is different with each generation
By John Bogert
It's hard to explain the past to children reared in the now, in a time when history means not much at all unless it unravels in a video game or a big movie. And even then history gets kinked, history gets a boy/girl angle as it did with the 2001 release of "Pearl Harbor."
They might as well have called it, "Sneak Attack: The Love Story."
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The men of Pearl Harbor, like all the men and women of that worldwide bloodletting, are dying. And the people they told their stories to aren't getting any younger. To someone born after the baby boom and, especially to the children of the boom, Pearl Harbor now inhabits the same book-summarized world as the Napoleonic Wars.
ON THE SUBJECT OF WAR
Remember Tom Hayden? Well Aaron does, and he calls him a modern day traitor. Personally I think traitor is a bit soft. Read how utterly despicable the ex-Mr. Hanoi Jane Fonda really is in:
Here's a Traitor
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I’d like to thank Aaron for calling me last night and walking me through another Microsoft XP problem. All I wanted to do was to insert page numbers on my word docs. You’d think it would be easy, right? WRONG! Not if some elusive command somewhere was turned on/off. But to figure out WHICH one was the problem. I love my new computer and the Microsoft XP 2003 software, but their troubleshooting is nothing more than a copy’n’paste job of their directions. Aaron figured it out; he is THE WORD MASTER!
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FINISHED?
Buy HERE.
MetroSpy has pledged 50% of all proceeds up to $1000 to support Operation Homefront
The US Military can not accept donations from the public to pay for the Marine's defense. So, in lieu of money for that purpose we are assisting local military wives and families while their men are away taking care of the Nation's business.
In addition to helping a worthy cause, it's important to make sure the public does not forget about this brave Marine, who acted swiftly, in defense of his brothers.
We're proud of what this Marine did. At MetroSpy we believe terrorists should be hunted down and killed. And we're as happy as a room full of November 3rd Republicans every time that happens. Enjoy!
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The Marine who killed the wounded insurgent in Fallujah deserves our praise and admiration. In a split second decision, he acted valiantly. CAPTION READS:"The Gods of War Hate those who Hesitate"
Buy HERE.
Monday, December 06, 2004
‘TIS THE SEASON!
Outside my front, presently wreath-less, door.
It’s snowing today … well, kinda. Nothing spectacular; just a soft coating, the first of the season and enough to put shoppers in the mood, much to the delight of the merchants. Unfortunately, the borderline temperature is expected to moderate by the end of the day; it should be raining by this evening.
For several years we lived next door to the Harley Davidsons. That wasn’t their name; that was their passion. Mr. D fashioned a monster lawn sculpture of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by motorcycles, which was all lighted with blinking white lights. Their house was outlined in white lights and, to maker certain there was sufficient lighting, he trained several klieg lights on their humble, already well-lighted abode. It was a massive amount of light for our area. I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that everyone knew where we lived if I said those 3 little words: “The Harley Display.” You could see it for miles. A pilot once told me he knew where I lived because he could see the Harley display much easier than the airport lights.
As a result, I barely decorate by comparison. I used to have an electric candle in each window, but I stopped years ago when it became popular. I hang a wreath on the door and hang some of my Santa ornaments along the mantle in the living room. I won’t have a tree because the living room is small and the THREE GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS are big. They’re generally well behaved even if they are a bit “enthusiastic.” Besides, our neighbors everywhere seem to make up for our deficiency. Someday I’ll have a tree again. (siiiiiiigh)
Speaking of the season,
MO’S MULLYGRUBS
Mo Dowd is such an easy target for us red-staters, yet I can understand her “mullygrubs” at holiday time. For me, and for many of my friends and relatives, the meaning of Christmas can easily become swamped in the escalating commercialism. Our stress begins December 26th and gradually builds for the next 363 days. It’s the stress of finding “the right present,” the time factor, and most importantly the stress of all that money. As a result, we’ve tried valiantly to scale back and center our day around a big dinner, instead. It bothered us that we were spending money we could ill afford simply because …ummm, well because … and that was precisely the point. The fact that we didn’t know why we were spending so much was why we decided to cut back. No one, least of all the children, miss a thing in the process. It’s not like they don’t have enough toys and gadgets already. They still get presents under their trees. They still have the latest of whatever. So I can appreciate Mo’s funk at Christmas, but she just couldn’t resist a stab at politics.
Jingle Bell Schlock
By MAUREEN DOWD
I've never said this out loud before, but I can't stand Christmas.
Everyone in my family loves it except me, and they can't fathom why I get the mullygrubs, as a Southern friend of mine used to call a low-level depression, from Thanksgiving straight through New Year
SHE LIKES TO PLAY DOCTOR
Her Royal C knows what’s best for us, the hoi polloi, and will not let Tennessee thwart her intentions. Not that she would ever use her own health-care program, mind you.
HillaryCare in Tennessee
Hillary Rodham Clinton should call her pollster if she plans on carrying the state in 2008.
In 1994, Tennessee passed what was then a very hot New Democrat idea--call it government managed care--a version of the reform the former first lady was also pitching nationwide. TennCare promised the impossible dream of politicians everywhere: Lower health-care costs while covering more of the "uninsured." They got the impossible, all right. After 10 years of mismanagement and lawsuits, TennCare now eats up one-third of the state's entire budget and is growing fast. Governor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, is preparing to pull the plug and return the state to the less lunatic subsidies of Medicaid.
WHAT’S WID’JEW IN MALIBU?
We Shall Overcome
By Ben Stein
This is one of the worst little recent examples of how people here feel about Republicans (and Republican Jews, who simply blow their brains out, to use an old hippie phrase ). But rants, screaming about how we're trying to control women's bodies, draft their sons out of their BMW's and send them to war, scowls and frowns at Morton's, hysterical calls from the network when I appeared on TV backing Right to Life -- these are real. Feeling like outsiders, feeling as if we're going to get our cars keyed if we have Bush stickers on them, getting trash thrown on our yard for having up a Bush sign -- these are real. Getting denied screenplay credits because I worked for Nixon, those are totally real.
