Annapolis Game Plan

Haaretz, Israel’s left of center “intellectual” daily broke the story this morning:

“According to Shin Bet analysts, there are concerns of a Palestinian “trick” during the negotiations, in which Israel will be tempted to offer recognition, in principle on East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and delay discussion on the details and the arrangements for administering the holy sites there.” – the full story

— Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen

Tags: Annapolis, Israel, Jerusalem, Muslim Terrorists, Olmert, Palestinians, Talks, U.S.A..

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Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I’ll do doing my usual Halloween thing this evening… handing out candy and watching the original “The Crow“.

Have a happy one!

ONLY SEVEN DAYS ‘TIL JUDGMENT DAY!!!

Flying Pink Pig Bus Tour Dates; Last Call for Yard Signs!

ONLY EIGHT SEVEN DAYS ‘TIL JUDGMENT DAY!!!

[Please see question at bottom]

When Pigs Fly!!!
The Flying Pink Pig takes to the air for real on Tuesday, October 30 as PACleanSweep, Taxpayers & Ratepayers United and the Pennsylvania Accountability Project team up to launch the PINK PIG BALLOON to help remind voters of the need to VOTE NO on November 6!

The launch is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning at 7:00 am near Monroeville PA. Join us as we kick off week two of the Flying Pink Pig Bus Tour in style!

Directions to the launch area:

From the Turnpike, get off at the Monroeville exit. Follow signs for Business Route 22 (William Penn Highway) west. Immediately after getting on BR 22, turn right on Mosside Boulevard. The launch area is 1/4 mile ahead along Mosside Boulevard.

>From Pittsburgh, go to Monroeville following Business Route 22 (William Penn Highway). Turn left on Mosside Boulevard. The launch area is 1/4 mile ahead along Mosside Boulevard.

COME ONE, COME ALL! After the balloon launch, the Flying Pink Pig Bus will head to Mellon Square in Pittsburgh to meet and greet Allegheny County voters.

The Flying Pink Pig Bus will then head to Erie on Wednesday morning and Johnstown on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, the Flying Pink Pig Bus will visit Altoona and State College.

After these dates, the Flying Pink Pig Bus will head to Northeast Pennsylvania to visit with voters.

Last Call for VOTE NO Yard Signs!!!
Thanks to a ton of loyal PACleanSweepers, our supply of Vote NO yard signs is almost depleted. Because of the limited number of signs available and the time lag in delivery by UPS, we will STOP accepting yard sign orders on Tuesday at midnight.

Do not wait – you’ll regret not having one of these babies in your yard!!!

Order Your VOTE NO Yard Signs

Citizens’ To Do List
Even if you can’t get out to see the Flying Pink Pig balloon, the Flying Pink Pig Bus or order any VOTE NO yard signs, there are still plenty of other things you can do to help return honor, dignity and integrity to Harrisburg.

Click the link below for information on how to work your poll on Election Day, how to inform others via email, how to send VOTE NO postcards to your Holiday mailing list, and so much more!

This effort will only be successful if YOU take action. Don’t wait for someone else to do it!

Check Out the Citizens’ To Do List

[Excerpt from previous email]

Which Rights Are You Willing to Give Up Next?

By accepting the pay raise, judges across the Commonwealth are claiming the plain language of the Constitution is utterly meaningless. Three days does not mean three days. Original purpose is some nebulous and theoretical thing. Germane is no longer germane.

Our right to a deliberative legislative process – as spelled out in Article III and added to the Constitution in 1874 specifically to protect us from a legislature run amok – is no longer applicable, according to the Supreme Court.

By voting ‘yes’ on any judge still accepting the extra money provided by the unconstitutional pay raise, you would be giving government tacit permission to violate other, more important, provisions of the Constitution.

What’s next? Your freedom of speech? Your freedom to worship in the manner that you choose? Your right to assemble with other citizens? Your right to bear arms? Your right to a trial by jury?

For more Information visit PACleanSweep.com

PACleanSweep is a non-partisan effort dedicated to reforming state government in Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.PACleanSweep.com.

Permission is hereby granted to reproduce text from this article with attribution to PACleanSweep.

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[Dear readers outside of PA,
Do you have similar problems in your state?
Please answer in "Comments". Yes or No and State you're from.
You may elaborate if you wish.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
--- Al (Grumpy Old Man)]

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Tags: Election Day, Judges, Judicial Prostitutes, Laws, Nov 6, PA Supreme Court, sovereign people, unconstitutional pay raise.

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Poll Results: Is America In A Cold Civil War?

Thanks to everyone who participated. Once again, this is not a scientific poll, and should not be taken any more serious than any other fictional novel.

It would appear that there are at least two readers who do not believe we are in a cold civil war, and I am glad for that. It gives an indication of hope, even if it is a minority of readers.

Everyone else thinks we are either in a cold civil war, or are headed that way. Neither of are wonderful indicators for the future.

Physician, Heal Thyself!

Physician, heal thyself. It’s a phrase often used to talk about the idea that doctors don’t make the best patients because they’re more used to giving medical advice than taking it and often ignore symptoms and lead hectic lifestyles. I’ve also read that psychiatrists and psychologists often have troubled personal lives because what makes them so good at providing advice to their patients causes them to treat their children and spouses like patients which often is resented.

All this makes me wonder if somebody like me who works in the International security industry has the ability to provide advice to the industry as a whole or if I’m incapable of really seeing the industry for what it is? You’ll have to answer this question for me because I think I can provide an unbiased assessment but maybe I’m too jaded to even realize that I’m biased.

To understand today’s Private Security Company’s you have to take a hard look at the evolution that got us to where we are. Most of the industries old guard began as Risk Management firms specializing in the provision of kidnap and ransom services, helping the insurance industry analyze risk in potentially high risk locations in Africa, the Middle and South America, providing training services to local guard forces, doing security survey’s and general risk management consulting and finally providing security managers who could provide their clients with day to day security advice.

Who worked in the Industry, well it was a mixture of ex-military officers doing the survey’s and developing corporate crisis management plans while the ex-soldiers were doing the on the ground training or advising work in the deserts and jungles where the oil wells and mines could be found.

For the most part these old guard companies were British.

There was a brief attempt to evolve towards something totally different in the early 90’s with the advent of the Private Military Company. This idea, although interesting never really gained any traction within the private or public sector. The original idea was that if you deployed a well trained, disciplined and well-equipped force quickly you could prevent the Rwanda’s of the world while the UN was still chatting away about what to do. In exchange the government that hired said PMC would pay them vast amounts of money or resources in return for providing them with a stable country. Now looking at this purely from a moral perspective the idea that a small group of armed men could quickly stop some of the most horrific wars in Africa and then leave the country in the hands of its legitimate government without all the hubbub of the UN and different factions of country’s deciding if such an intervention was good for it’s national agenda while countless people were being starved or butchered seems on the face of it a rather good idea. Often though such good ideas become perverted and it would be impossible for that same illustrious International body (UN) to come together and create the rules by which a PMC could operate. There would always be the possibility of a PMC being lured by money or diamonds into fighting for a not so legitimate government.

As quickly as they came they were gone and the industry went back to its core although US entrepreneurs had begun to take notice of Control Risks Group and Armor Group and said we can do that too. The timing coincided with major Western governments scaling back its collective military’s yet deploying them heavily in the Balkans. The Americans were soon outsourcing everything but combat forces to civilian company’s, as were the Canadians and less so the British. Whether it was catering for your deployed forces or logistics delivery at home, the alternative delivery years were beginning so it was only a logical follow on that static guarding of facilities and small but specialized training would follow and how quickly they did.

The first major move towards legitimate private military training came when the US government agreed to fund, train and equip the Bosnian Army but when President Clinton turned to the military they didn’t have the people to spare while his state department was also saying hey lets not publicly take sides and further isolate the Russians who are historical friends with the Serbs so they found MPRI who hired all those recently released and downsized US Army personnel who would just love to paid to do what they do best but without all the regular army restrictions. The beginning of the oversight and governance challenge quickly became apparent as some members of the training team were accused of several felony level crimes but were never prosecuted due to the confusion over what laws if any applied in war torn Bosnia.

By the beginning of the millennium, the US Military was outsourcing all catering (KBR), logistical and static guarding of its facilities in the Balkans (yes under the Clinton administration KBR was making money) and after the bombing of the USS Cole the US Navy needed to quickly train its sailors and officers to better protect their ships when they were in foreign ports but with all the cut backs to the Navy, they were barely manning all the ships so to put aside so many personnel to conduct some major long term training was not going to happen so they decided to outsource it like so many other functions. Into the breech stepped Blackwater USA. A tiny training outfit but one perfectly suited to respond to the US Navy’s needs as it was run and staffed by former Navy SEALS who already had the background and skills so desperately needed.

With DynCorp training police in Haiti and Bosnia on behalf of the Clinton administrations Department of State we witnessed the birth of the first two major non-British private security company’s.

After the invasion of Afghanistan several more PSC’s emerged and began to operate private security details (PSD’s) protecting government officials and those in the private sector looking to be first at the trough for reconstruction contracts. It was a PSC that provided protection to all those UN field workers that registered Afghanistan’s population to vote and it was a PSC that protected the polling stations and the workers there during the vote and well as protecting all the Non-Governmental Agency workers who came to help or to monitor elections. In fact without this blossoming industry much of what did go right in Afghanistan would not have occurred with the speed at which it did because the Military and State Department that President Bush inherited 9 months earlier had been gutted and completely outsourced in every way possible to save money during the tough 90’s. The projected surpluses that President Clinton spoke so much about were gathered by outsourcing so many government and military functions that President Bush had absolutely no choice in Afghanistan but to continue down the same path of outsourcing and it wasn’t to long before we had felony type crimes being commitment and once again the laws were dodgy at best on the issue.

In fall of 2005 a drunken member of USPI working as an armed guard on a USAID funded reconstruction contract shot and killed an interpreter. The guard, a US citizen later tried to claim that the unarmed interpreter threatened him. The result he was flown out of Afghanistan two days later without the permission of the Afghan government who wanted to arrest him. Later when I was asked what I would do if one of my guys did the same thing (by the reconstruction company’s Group VP) I responded the same thing, I’d rather have the guy tried in the US than here, his response was you better get him out, we won’t let our company’s name be associated with a murder trial in Afghanistan.

In Nov of 2005, a member of the DynCorp Police training team ran over and killed a child outside of the gates of the compound I was living in. The driver never stopped but it was obvious to everybody who was driving the white suburban, as at the time DynCorp was the only company using the vehicles with modified front bumpers. They had removed the original factory installed bumper and replaced it with a solid black steel plate. At the time a documentary film crew was in my compound working on their film for the Sky News so when they heard about the hit and run they went and filmed the aftermath and then filmed the company refusing to comment on the incident.

In February of 2006 DynCorp was replaced by Blackwater USA as the sole provider of PSD service to the US Embassy and USAID staff in Afghanistan while DynCorp continued with the police-training program.

In the year I spent in Kabul I only had two weapons pointed at me. The first was a DynCorp PSD team member who wasn’t happy that I had closed up behind him waiting to get through the North Checkpoint into the Embassy. Since the rear of my vehicle was sticking out into the busiest traffic circle in Kabul and the team didn’t have a protectee on board I didn’t feel the need to keep a distance from him, nor did the RSO when it was reported to him but this was the mindset, here I was a fellow western armed guard working at the same Embassy he was working at and he was willing to point a weapon at me and scream in English to back up into a busy traffic circle.

The other incident occurred during the visit of President Bush when a very newly arrived member of Blackwater obviously nervous over the big visit while being new to the post pointed his rifle at me and asked me to halt, although I was in an area open to security forces, had my badge showing and was uniformed. He apologized after I yelled who I was to him but it was an obvious case of inexperience. He looked like a young kid so he was probably no more than 25 or so.

In Iraq the problem was the same just magnified in size and scope. During my time there I was provided with PSD services from Armor Group who took a completely different approach. They were firm but polite and while they used aggressive driving and blocking techniques they were never threatening nor did they ever wave their weapons about at people. The day I arrived they’d lost 2 Brit’s killed by an IED attack yet they went about their business as if nothing had happened, no extra animosity towards the locals just the normal drills.

Over the years I’ve watched as the industry followed two very distinct paths, the first path was the British one, a more reserved low profile path of hiring older more mature family men who had served for 12 years or more and were there to just do a job that needed doing and to do it well.

The other path was the American path this was perpetuated by DynCorp and Blackwater but also endorsed by Triple Canopy too. We had a generic name for all of these guys we called them collectively Dynawarriors. They were the guys with the mirrored wrap around sunglasses that had more gear hanging off their bodies than necessary and always seemed to pointing a weapon at somebody. They believed in overt security, posturing to as if to say look at how powerful we are so you better not attack us. The US Company’s tended to hire younger, aggressive guys who were single and looking for some trigger time. Young Rangers and Marines were especially loved as they were fit, keen and always followed orders.

I’m not one to throw stones as my house is definitely made of glass and I’ve made more mistakes than the average guy but the most recent incidents in Iraq were inevitable. The lack of oversight by an understaffed and overstretched Department of State safe allowed a group of young men to have free rein out there coupled with a lack of accountability beyond getting fired.

I can’t remember how many men I fired during my time in Kabul but it was a lot and in every case except one I didn’t have to be told by the RSO to do so. As for DynCorp the RSO told me in Nov 2005 after I’d fired 2 of my personnel for getting into a drunken fight at a club in Kabul that he was lucky that our company took a proactive approach while he’d had to pull the Embassy badges (our weapons permits) from 6 DynCorp guys who’d done the same thing weeks earlier because their management wouldn’t fire anybody unless forced. Why you ask, I can only speculate but when we fired somebody the cost of his replacement’s flight and pay during the mandatory 14 day training period had to be borne by the company so that might have something to do with it?

As I said in the beginning maybe I’m biased because I’ve always worked for British private security company’s, but I also worked in Washington DC for a year so I think I have a good insight into both view points. Maybe I’m biased because it was US Company’s whose men pointed weapons at me in Kabul?

Or maybe its time more people from within the industry spoke up and said enough is enough. We need standards of conduct, we need clear and defined laws so that our personnel not only know what is expected of them but how they will be treated should they break the laws they fall under.

The International Peace Operations Association has been trying to lay down a code of conduct but has received no government support and therefore cannot apply any real penalties or meaningful sanctions to its members. Doug Brooks (President of IPOA) is a fine man trying to do good work but if the industry cannot police itself the US government must step in and work to regulate this industry like all others to ensure there is a clear code of conduct and all applicable laws are laid out within the request for proposal (RFP) notices that they put out so Private Security Company’s can decide if they want to bid on these contracts with full knowledge in hand.

Having both the government and the industry step up and demand better of each other will go a long way to preventing unnecessary incidents from happening. They can’t stop them because no matter how good your plans and procedures are they’re in the hands of humans who sometimes make mistakes but what comes after those mistakes is also just as important and by having good laws, rules and procedures in place you can at the very least properly investigate and if necessary hold people or company’s accountable. Until these steps are taken we will continue to be lumped all together as Dynawarriors.

Tags: Afghanistan, America, Iraq, Islamic Terrorists, Laws, Middle East, Security, U.N., US Government, War on Terrorism.

It Just Keeps Getting Worse

Like the cartoon says, as we get closer to what’s now being called the Annapolis meeting, things just seem to be getting worse.If consulting with Clinton and Carter is any indication of what’s awaiting us at the “talks”, I’d say we, and the chances for peace, are now in serious trouble.
But, hey… What do you think?

[Frankly I think that whoever is in charge of the USA is OUT OF THEIR FREAKING MIND! That's what I think. What happened to Prez. Bush???? Doesn't he have a say in this??? If he does what's his problem??? Is he going SENILE???

Everyone knows Billy Clinton is inept in handling the terrorist problem. He proved it in his 8 years of leadership incompetence. And Jimmy Carter is ANTI-SEMITIC, ANTI-ISRAEL (apparently as a "Christian" he doesn't read or follow or understand the Bible) and is PRO-TERRORIST!

This meeting is a fiasco! --- Al (Grumpy Old Man)]

— Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen

Tags: Annapolis, Carter, Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Israel, Peace Talks.

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More Reasons To Not Vote For Ron Paul

From My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy:

There are plenty more reasons why anti-Jewish thugs love Ron Paul, but this is just a start. From the 110th Congress:

H CON RES 21
BILL TITLE: Calling on the United Nations Security Council to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the United Nations Charter because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel

Final Vote: 411 YEAS, 2 NAYS, 11 “PRESENT,” 8 NV.

Who are those two “nays?” None other than Congressmen Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.
H RES 548
BILL TITLE: Expressing the ongoing concern of the House of Representatives for Lebanon’s democratic institutions and unwavering support for the administration of justice upon those responsible for the assassination of Lebanese public figures opposing Syrian control of Lebanon.

Final Vote: 415 YEAS, 2 NAYS, 15 NV.

Who are those two “nays?” Again, Congressmen Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.
H RES 557
BILL TITLE: Strongly condemning the United Nations Human Rights Council for ignoring severe human rights abuses in various countries, while choosing to unfairly target Israel by including it as the only country permanently placed on the Council’s agenda

Final Vote: 416 YEAS, 2 NAYS, 14 NV.

Who are those two “nays?” You guessed it–Congressmen Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.

Hey, if you hate the Jews, what’s not to love?

Go read the whole thing…

Saudi King Says UK Not Doing Enough Against Terrorism

Seems to me that this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Exactly how many troops has the Kingdom of Saud lost to the Islamofacists in the “War on Terror”?

What is the Kingdom doing, other than sitting on it’s fat, bloated, oil-rich, Muslim, ass and watching the rest of the world take care of a primarily Muslim problem?

(BBC) Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he says could take 20 or 30 years to beat.

He was speaking in a BBC interview ahead of a state visit to the UK – the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years.

He also said Britain failed to act on information passed by the Saudis which might have averted terrorist attacks.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Whitehall officials have strenuously denied this.

King Abdullah is expected to arrive in the UK on Monday afternoon; his visit begins formally on Tuesday.

In the BBC interview he said the fight against terrorism needed much more effort by countries such as Britain and that al-Qaeda continued to be a big problem for his country.

BBC world affairs correspondent John Simpson says King Abdullah is annoyed that the rest of the world has largely failed to act on his proposal for a UN clearing house for information about terrorism.

If you want to lecture the rest of the world about how to respond to terror, perhaps you should get off your duff and do something other than take pot shots from the sidelines.

Also Posting:

• Captain’s Quarters

Gestapo Tactics Shut Down Major Website!

Major “Pirate” Website Shut Down

[I'm pissed! Only a small portion of this site was illegal! So why shut the whole thing down????

I enjoyed watching the legal cartoons and videos, home-made ones too, from this site. There were many old, out of copyright cartoons that we enjoyed watching.

This is typical of the heavy-handed Movie & Music Industry.
They'll hit you with a sledge hammer for minor infractions.

Now to clarify: I do not condone, or support, Pirating of movies, music, written material, etc.

But these Gestapo types ALWAYS throw the Baby out with the Bath Water.]

Friday October 19, 2007
amended on Friday October 26 2007.

Guardian Unlimited
by Katie Allen

This article was amended on Friday October 26 2007. A caption accompanying the picture originally attached to the above article said that the website TV links was closed for allowing users to download illegal material. In fact the site provided links to illegal material hosted by other websites, as the name suggests. The caption has been removed.

One of the world’s most-used film websites has been closed after providing links to illegal versions of major Hollywood hits and TV shows.

The first closure of a major UK-based web site was also accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said today.

A 26-year-old man from Cheltenham was arrested on Thursday in connection with offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet, Fact said.

The arrest and the closure of the site – www.tv-links.co.uk – came during an operation by officers from Gloucestershire County Council trading standards in conjunction with investigators from Fact and Gloucestershire Police.

Fact claims that tv-links.co.uk was providing links to illegal film content that had been camcorder recorded from cinemas and then uploaded to the internet. The site also provided links to TV shows that were being illegally distributed...

[So what about the rest of the site??? Only what was ILLEGAL SHOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED!!!! This really inconveniences the rest of the world just to prove FACT & their ILK are bad (and above the law?) and can do whatever they want.]

“Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organising, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites,” said a spokesman for Fact…

[I understand that many of the Illegal Links were to Google. So why not TRY to shut Google down, eh FACT? Afraid?]

Also Posting:
P2PNet
The New Freedom

UK’s www.tv-links.co.uk busted

p2pnet news | Movies:- “Welcome to TV Links, for your viewing pleasure we have compiled various links from the latest to some long forgotten TV shows, classics, films, documentaries and much more,” said www.tv-links.co.uk. “How much does this cost you? Nothing, its all Free of charge! Please sit back, relax and enjoy the show.”

“Said” in the past tense because the site has been taken down and a 26-year-old Briton arrested, “in connection with offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet,” says Guardian Unlimited.

Behind the bust was entertainment cartel pseudo cop organisation the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact), also known as Farcical Approaches to Copyright Transgressions.
The arrest and shutdown involved staff from the Gloucestershire County Council’s trading standards, FACT “investigators” and Gloucestershire Police, says the story, failing to mention UK taxpayers funded the corporate copyright operation.

But the cooperation shouldn’t come as a surprise. As p2pnet noted last year, in Britain the entertainment and software cartels have in effect been given full police powers…

TV-Links.co.uk Raided, Owner Arrested: UPDATED

TV-Links (now dead) is a site which links to sites like Google Video and YouTube, which host clips of TV shows. Today, the Gloucestershire County Council, in association with a group called the FACT, raided the site’s servers and arrested the 26 year old man from Cheltenham who ran the site.

A man is now in prison because he runs a site where other people can link to low-resolution tv shows, hosted by Google. FACT did not raid Google, they raided a site which merely links to TV shows.

This is what is known as Deep Linking (wikipedia article). There have been a few legal cases about this already in different parts of the world. The most memorable of these was a case in Texas less than a year ago which involved linking to motocross videos. Unfortunately, the court ruled against a website which linked to a larger company’s videos. (There are other cases at Netlitigation.)

This effectively makes the entire internet illegal.

I don’t know enough about copyright law in England, but clearly the justice system is broken. Google, which is actually hosting the copyrighted content, is untouchable…

Linking * is Not A Crime!
Free The 26 Year Old Man From Cheltenham!

* Deep Linking and the HTTP Protocol
The technology behind the World Wide Web does not actually make any distinction between “deep” links and any other links—all links are functionally equal. This is intentional; one of the designed purposes of the Web is to allow authors to link to any published document on another site. The possibility of so-called “deep” linking is therefore built into the Web technology of HTTP and URLs by default… According to the World Wide Web Consortium Technical Architecture Group, “any attempt to forbid the practice of deep linking is based on a misunderstanding of the technology, and threatens to undermine the functioning of the Web as a whole”. ^[1]

Tags: Deep Linking, entertainment cartels, Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact), Gestapo, Google, Gloucestershire Police, Guardian Unlimited, Movie & Music Industry, Pirating, software cartels, UK taxpayers, Website, YouTube.

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Trick or Treat?

In the rapidly shifting sands of the Middle East, with the reality of Iranian infiltration into the area, and the establishment of Hamas and Hezbollah as their puppet forces, perhaps the Americans (or some Israelis) think they can buy off the Palestinian terrorists with a pound of Israeli flesh.If that’s what’s looming ahead of us at the “talks” in Annapolis, then we are indeed about to be scared silly!

So what’s your take on the “talks”? Are we in for a treat? or will it be the same old tricks?

— Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen
Tags: Hamas, Hezbollah, Holidays, Israel, Palestinians, Talks, U.S.A..

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Open Records or Secret Records?

Democracy Rising Pennsylvania

by Tim Potts, Co-founder

In this Edition:

• Reality Check
• Next Week: Open Records or Secret Records?

Reality Check
842 - Days since the Pay Raise of 2005. See the ticker .
1 – Law enacted to improve government integrity. See the cartoon .
0 – “Best-in-America” laws enacted. See the campaign .

See the full October edition of “Reality Check” on the web.

Next Week: Open Records or Secret Records?
It’s too easy (and therefore wrong) to say that next week will be historic. But it will be important, so now’s the time for interested citizens to weigh in.

Both the House and Senate may act improve PA’s standing as having the 3rd worst open records in America. Or they may not. While neither chamber will consider a best-in-America proposal, there’s still time to amend both bills to achieve that goal.

In the Senate. On Monday the 29th, the Senate State Government Committee will take up amendments to Senate Bill 1 and vote whether to send it to the full Senate or kill it. Authored by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, SB 1 is the premiere proposal so far – or at least it will be if the committee approves amendments. Through Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, Pileggi is offering an omnibus amendment that will, among other things:

• “Flip the presumption.” That is, it will presume that public records are open unless they are specifically exempted. Currently, public records are presumed secret unless a citizen can prove they should be open.
• Include some legislative records, but not apply the presumption of openness to them.
• Include some judicial records. Currently, PA’s courts have exempted themselves from the open records law.
• Create a single “clearinghouse” to supervise compliance with the law by state and local officials.
• Set limits on fees that agencies can charge for records.
• Require agencies to provide public documents within five business days of the request.

State Government Committee Chairman Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, will offer some key amendments that:

• “Flip the presumption” for legislative records.
• Require the release of information about WAMs (Walki ng Around Money) that legislators pass out to pet projects in their districts. This year’s budget includes at least $360 million in WAMs.
• Require (not merely permit) courts to award attorney fees and costs to plaintiffs that have to go to court to obtain public records. Courts also could make plaintiffs pay the fees and costs of government agencies if requests are found to be frivolous.

Here’s how a non-partisan group of integrity advocates see the situation in the Senate.

Senators on the State Government Committee who vote against these amendments and the bill itself will have, in the immortal words of Desi Arnaz, “a lot of splainin’ to do.”

If the amended SB 1 passes the State Government Committee, it most likely will be recommitted to the Appropriations Committee to estimate how much it will cost to implement. Senators on that committee can offer other amendments to bring the bill up to best-in-America standards.

In the House. On Friday, House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, promised “several hours and possibly a few days of debate” next week on House Bill 443. DeWeese promised not to use the “gut-and-run” procedure common to most important legislation but to allow debate on every amendment Representatives offer.

Given the recent history of the House – refusing even to consider a proposal to reduce the size of the legislature ( click here for the roll call vote) and defeating a proposal to prepare for a Constitution convention ( click here for the roll call vote) – integrity advocates are not expecting much.

The debate will begin with a version of HB 443 that emerged from the House State Government Committee on October 17 and that some believe is even worse than the law PA has now. “This bill creates exemptions that are so large that there’s not much left of the presumption-of-access,”Jamie Blaine told Calkins Group Capitol Reporter Kori Walter. Blaine, a former newspaper publisher, edits the blog passopenrecords.org.

Currently HB 443:

• “Flips the presumption” (but includes so many exceptions that it may not matter).
• Does not cover the judiciary (an indefensible position from a citizen perspective)
• Exempts email (which is like exempting paper).
• Allows agencies to take 20 business days to respond to requests (perhaps the longest waiting period in America).
• Creates a Public Records Office in the State Ethics Commission (bu t the head of the office would be a political appointee of the governor, thereby creating a conflict of interest).
• Only allows access to documents created in the future, denying access to documents that already exist (dubbed the “cover-up provision” by DR’s Tim Potts)

Moment of Truth. After more than two years of talking about reform, this is a moment of truth. Will lawmakers use the power we give them for our benefit? Or will they continue to abuse that power for their own benefit?

Democracy Rising Pennsylvania P.O. Box 618, Carlisle, PA 17013

Tags: Bill DeWeese, Desi Arnaz, Dominic Pileggi, House Bill 443, Jake Corman, Jamie Blaine, Jeff Piccola, Kori Walter, Senate Bill 1, Tim Potts, WAMs.

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New Dem SCHIP (H.R. 3963) More Of The Same Old SCHIP (H.R. 976)

Once again, instead of working to pass a bipartisan bill that would actually be signed into law, the Democrats hate the children enough to play politics with their health coverage.

(White House) “The Administration strongly supports reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in a way that puts poor children first. … Because H.R. 3963 has not addressed in a meaningful way the objections that caused the President to veto H.R. 976, the President will veto this legislation if it is presented to him without significant changes.”

1.       The Democrats’ new legislation continues to allow States to avoid covering poor children first.  The bill repeals the requirement that 95 percent of children below 200 percent of the Federal poverty level be covered before coverage is extended to children from higher income families.  The Democrats’ new legislation also permits States to keep adults on the program through 2012.

2.       The Democrats’ new legislation continues to cover children in families earning more than $62,000 per year (300 percent of the Federal poverty level).  Proponents claim the Democrats’ new legislation caps income eligibility at 300 percent of the Federal poverty level, but the legislation would not completely close the income disregard loophole.  Under this loophole, States could still enroll children in families with incomes higher than $62,000 a year by ignoring part of the family’s income.  In addition, the legislation continues to grandfather New Jersey at $73,000 per year (350 percent of the Federal poverty level).

3.       The Democrats’ new legislation continues to raise taxes to move 2 million children covered by private health insurance onto government-run programs with fewer choices and longer lines.  Federal revenues are at an all-time high, and no tax increase of any kind is needed to finance SCHIP reauthorization.  The President’s Budget offsets not only the new SCHIP spending but also proposes an additional $92 billion in mandatory savings over five years.  These proposals represent more than enough to offset any additional spending in the context of the Democrats’ new bill.  The new legislation also continues to fund SCHIP with a budget gimmick that would not provide stable funding and actually costs more than the earlier bill, notwithstanding supposed improvements in policy.

4.       The Democrats’ new legislation continues to allow SCHIP to cover ineligible individuals.  The legislation imposes no sanction if a person fraudulently attests to being a U.S. citizen.  During the period of time that the State is conducting an investigation (if Social Security finds an inconsistency with the stated Social Security number), it must continue medical assistance to the applicant. 

5.       The Democrats’ new legislation shifts more responsibility to the Federal government. SCHIP has always been a Federal-State partnership (thus the reason for “S” in the title).  The Democrats’ bill has the effect of reducing States’ financial responsibility by providing performance bonuses that can be used to lower the State match requirement.  The fiscal responsibility of providing children’s health care should be shared.  These bonus payments only serve to increase fraud and abuse by emphasizing enrollment at any cost as opposed to enrollment of eligible children.

Hopefully America sees right through this political theater. Nancy is not out to help “The Children” Nancy is just out to attempt to make the White House look bad.

The Blood of Millions of Iraqis

That’s actually a hard trick to pull off. Since we haven’t killed “millions”. However, if Code Pink gets it way and we pull out of Iraq, all the blood that is shed after we leave will be on the hands of Code Pink.

(Breitbart) A woman with her hands painted blood-red confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the US Congress Wednesday, shouting “war criminal” before being hauled away by Capitol security.

Desiree Farooz accosted Rice ahead of her appearance at a House of Representatives hearing on US foreign policy, waving her hands just centimeters (inches) from the diplomat’s face inside the committee meeting room as television cameras captured the confrontation.

“The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands,” Farooz shouted, before police wrestled her away.

Several other people, members of the anti-war activist group Code Pink, were subsequently ejected from the room.

This is just another reason to shoot first and ask questions later as far as I am concerned. If some dumbass were to walk up to me with “bloody” hands and attempt was rub them in my face, I’d consider that a threat on my life, and respond as I saw fit.

After all, you never know if that’s real blood, paint, ink, HIV+ blood, or what it is.

Also Posting:

• Hang Right Politics

Michael Yon: Gates Of Fire

There is no doubt about it. America’s best is in Iraq.

This is real news, like you will never see from the drive by media. Nobody does it better or more real than Michael Yon.

Yon is the real deal, read him early, read him often.

And then help arrived in the form of one man: CSM Prosser.

Prosser ran around the corner, passed the two young soldiers who were crouched low, then by me and right to the shop, where he started firing at men inside.

A man came forward, trying to shoot Kurilla with a pistol, apparently realizing his only escape was by fighting his way out, or dying in the process. Kurilla was aiming at the doorway waiting for him to come out. Had Prosser not come at that precise moment, who knows what the outcome might have been.

Prosser shot the man at least four times with his M4 rifle. But the American M4 rifles are weak – after Prosser landed three nearly point blank shots in the man’s abdomen, splattering a testicle with a fourth, the man just staggered back, regrouped and tried to shoot Prosser.

CSM Robert Prosser goes “black.”

Then Prosser’s M4 went “black” (no more bullets). A shooter inside was also having problems with his pistol, but there was no time to reload. Prosser threw down his empty M4, ran into the shop and tackled the man.

Though I have the photo, I do not remember the moment that Prosser went “black” and ran into the shop. Apparently I turned my head, but kept my finger on the shutter button. When I looked back again, I saw the very bloody leg of CSM Prosser inside the shop. It was not moving. He appeared to be shot down and dead.

I looked back at the two soldiers who were with me outside, and screamed what amounted to “Attack Attack Attack!” I stood up and was yelling at them. Actually, what I shouted was an unprintable string of curses, while Kurilla was also yelling at them to get in there, his M4 trained on the entrance. But the guys were not attacking.

I saw Prosser’s M4 on the ground, Where did that come from?

I picked up Prosser’s M4. It was empty. I saw only Prosser’s bloody leg lying still, just inside the darkened doorway, because most of his body was hidden behind a stack of sheet metal.

“Give me some ammo! Give me a magazine!” I yelled, and the young 2nd lieutenant handed over a full 30-round magazine. I jacked it in, released the bolt and hit the forward assist. I had only one magazine, so checked that the selector was on semi-automatic.

I ran back to the corner of the shop and looked at LTC Kurilla who was bleeding, and saw CSM Prosser’s extremely bloody leg inside the shop, the rest of him was still obscured from view. I was going to run into the shop and shoot every man with a gun. And I was scared to death.

What I didn’t realize was at that same moment four soldiers from Alpha Company 2nd Platoon were arriving on scene, just in time to see me about to go into the store. SSG Gregory Konkol, SGT Jim Lewis, and specialists Nicholas Devereaux and Christopher Muse where right there, behind me, but I didn’t see them.

Reaching around the corner, I fired three shots into the shop. The third bullet pierced a propane canister, which jumped up in the air and began spinning violently. It came straight at my head but somehow missed, flying out of the shop as a high-pressure jet of propane hit me in the face. The goggles saved my eyes. I gulped in deeply.

In the tiniest fraction of a second, somehow my mind actually registered Propane . . . FIREBALL! as it bounced on the ground where it spun furiously, creating an explosive cloud of gas and dust, just waiting for someone to fire a weapon.

I scrambled back, got up and ran a few yards, afraid that Kurilla was going to burn up if there was a fire. The soldiers from Alpha Company were heading toward him when LTC Kurilla yelled out that he was okay, but that CSM Prosser was still in the shop. The Alpha Company soldiers ran through the propane and dust cloud and swarmed the shop.

When the bullet hit that canister, Prosser—who I thought might be dead because of all the blood on his leg—was actually fighting hand-to-hand on the ground. Wrapped in a ground fight, Prosser could not pull out his service pistol strapped on his right leg, or get to his knife on his left, because the terrorist—who turned out to be a serious terrorist—had grabbed Prosser’s helmet and pulled it over his eyes and twisted it.

Prosser had beaten the terrorist in the head three times with his fist and was gripping his throat, choking him. But Prosser’s gloves were slippery with blood so he couldn’t hold on well. At the same time, the terrorist was trying to bite Prosser’s wrist, but instead he bit onto the face of Prosser’s watch. (Prosser wears his watch with the face turned inward.) The terrorist had a mouthful of watch but he somehow also managed to punch Prosser in the face. When I shot the propane canister, Prosser had nearly strangled the guy, but my shots made Prosser think bad guys were coming, so he released the terrorist’s throat and snatched out the pistol from his holster, just as SSG Konkol, Lewis, Devereaux and Muse swarmed the shop. But the shots and the propane fiasco also had brought the terrorist back to life, so Prosser quickly reholstered his pistol and subdued him by smashing his face into the concrete.

The combat drama was ended, so I started snapping photos again.

When Recon platoon showed up about a minute later, SFC Bowman asked LTC Kurilla to lie down. But Kurilla was ordering people to put out security, and directing action this way and that. When the very experienced medic, Specialist Munoz, put morphine into Kurilla, the commander still kept giving orders, even telling Munoz how to do his job. So SFC Bowman told Munoz to give Kurilla another morphine, and finally Kurilla settled down, and stopped giving orders long enough for them to haul him and the terrorist away to the Combat Support Hospital.

(more)

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Constitutional Freedom Of Religion

I am flabbergasted and amazed by some of the kooks on the left. They whine and complain (incorrectly so) that Bush Co. are using Constitution as toilet paper, and then they suggest rolling back the Freedom of Religion in order to appease Bin Laden.

(DKos) While it appears from more than one point of view that the War in Iraq and the War on Terror are situations from which we may never be able to extricate ourselves, from the mountains of Pakistan comes a very simple solution: convert to Islam.

Before we reject this out of hand, lets seriously consider it for a moment:  Osama Bin Laden promised the wars would be over if Americans convert to Islam.  

This may sound like a lot to ask from the most religious country in the industrialized world.  But of all the Christians in America today who profess to be religious, how many of us are seriously devout?

Who is wiping their ass with the Constitution now, dumbass?

Related Post:

• Leaving Islam

1/3 Of Americans Believe in UFO’s, Ghosts…

… and it’s more than likely the same group that believe that Bush masterminded 9/11, that the government uses mind control rays, and that the government used a weather machine to cause Katrina to hit New Orleans.

WASHINGTON —  It was bad enough when the TV and lights inexplicably flicked on at night, Misty Conrad says. When her daughter began talking to an unseen girl named Nicole and neighbors said children had been murdered in the house, it was time to move.

Put Conrad, a homemaker from Hampton, Va., firmly in the camp of the 34 percent of people who say they believe in ghosts, according to a pre-Halloween poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos. That’s the same proportion who believe in unidentified flying objects — exceeding the 19 percent who accept the existence of spells or witchcraft.

Forty-eight percent believe in extrasensory perception, or ESP. But nearly half of you knew we were about to tell you that, right?

Spain Repeals Expulsion (1991)

Well, it’s been 16 years since Spain repealed their 500 year-old expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

Generations of American kids only knew that date by having been taught that “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 14 hundred 92.” The Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain never, at least in my day, made it into the history books.

There is, of course a heavy connection between Columbus and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain:

“On On March 31, 1492, the Edit of Expulsion was signed. The deadline for Jews to leave Spain was August 3, 1492, which was, ironically, the Ninth of Av (Tisha B’av) on the Jewish calendar, a day of fasting commemorating the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem. Columbus and his crew boarded their vessels before midnight, and on the August 3rd sailed before sunrise.” -more.

— Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen

Tags: Columbus, Europe, Inquisition, Jews, Media, Public Opinion, Spain.

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Get Well Soon Fred!!

Texas Fred appears to be under the weather. Get well soon Fred!

The Blog is down for a couple of days

Fred is very sick, fever of 102.2 a few minutes ago, the blog will not be updated until he is better, I will try to keep you guys updated.

Wicked Step Mother aka: Mrs. Fred

Al Qaeda Is Causing Wildfires In CA…

Ok, it’s not often that I agree with the loons over at Think Regress, but I have to admit, this is freaking stupid.

Fox News: Al Qaeda is causing the CA wildfires

This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda. They pointed to a 2003 FBI memo, which raised the possibility that al Qaeda may try to set wildfires around the western United States. They also noted that men in a “hovering helicopter” saw “a guy starting one of these fires.”

However, it’s no less freaking stupid than the idea that Gore-Bull Warming is creating arsonists.

Of course these are the same idiots who are contenting that Bush is both the genius of 9/11 and an idiot who can’t win the war in Iraq.

This just proves even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.

Politicians….

My oldest son told me this joke off comedy central’s webpage the other night, and I thought I would share…

Four surgeons were sitting around discussing who they like to operate on.

The first surgeon said, “I like operating on librarians. When you open them up everything is in alphabetical order”.

The second surgeon said, “I like operating on accountants. When you open them up everything is in numerical order”.

The third surgeon said, “I like operating on electricians. When you open them up everything is color coded.

The fourth surgeon said, “I like operating on politicians.”

The other three surgeons looked at each other in disbelief. One of them asked why.

The fourth surgeon replied, “Because they are heartless, gutless, spineless, and their ass and head are interchangeable”.