Posts from — December 2007

This is not what you want to read if you live in an area that depends on tourism – from the Associated Press: Iceland complains about treatment of tourist

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Iceland’s government has asked the U.S. ambassador to explain the treatment of an Icelandic tourist who says she was held in shackles before being deported from the United States.

The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, 33, was arrested Sunday when she arrived at JFK airport in New York because she had overstayed a U.S. visa more than 10 years earlier.

Lillendahl, 33, had planned to shop and sightsee with friends, but endured instead what she has claimed was the most humiliating experience of her life.

What is the point? She overstayed her visa, but she obviously left the US. She comes back to the US to spend money, and they put her chains and ship her out. This is how they spend our tax dollars, by protecting us from tourists‽ Great, another country that hates us.

Update: From comments a link to the Icelandic site of Vidar Eggertsson, with an English translation of Ms. Lillendahl’s own description of her experience.

The CBS headline gets it right [for a change]: Republicans Stop Bill To Ban Waterboarding

(CBS/AP) Senate Republicans blocked a bill Friday that would restrict the interrogation methods the CIA can use against terrorism suspects.

The bill would require the CIA to adhere to the Army’s field manual on interrogation, which bans waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods.
…

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Muqtada al Sadr disappeared from public for a while and the American agitprop people did their best to convince everyone that he was in hiding in Iran, and attempt to implicate Iran and “blacken” al Sadr with Iraqis.

The Associated Press is now reporting that al Sadr is going to graduate school to increase his clerical credentials.

Dr. Cole has a more accurate assessment of what al Sadr is doing, and why it is important.

Officially and formally he is Hojatoleslam Sayyid Muqtada Al Sadir: the first title is the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree, and the second indicates that he is a descendant of the Prophet and entitled to wear a black turban. He acquired his degree in Najaf, at the Hawsa, one of the most important Shi’ia universities, the equivalent of Oxford in the English speaking world.

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Juan Cole wonders where Nancy Pelosi has since she entered the House: Pelosi on Republicans: They Like this War

You have a sinking feeling that a small band of nice gentle hobbits is facing off against the Orcs of Mordor, without any magic rings or even just ordinary armament, and without any over-arching strategy.

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Light, Camera, No way

Forget it!

[Editor: In solidarity with the striking WGA members, Dot is not only not being cute, she is annoyed – with the AMPTP, Chris Lehane, and the flash.]

Friday Ark

Everyone remember the Miami Haitian Ninja Terrorists, who were going to do terrible things if they only had boots and uniforms… oh, yeah, they needed some guns, and now that you mention it if they were going to blow things up, maybe some explosives, ’cause, at the time, they were about a half dozen nutters in black pajamas guarding a warehouse in the Liberty City area of Miami?

So, today we finished the sequel, Miami Haitian Ninja Terrorists – The Trial: 1 acquitted, 6 to be retried, in alleged terror plot

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — One of seven men accused of conspiring to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower was acquitted Thursday, and a federal jury in Miami failed to reach a verdict on six others arrested in the alleged terror plot.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that the six whose cases ended in mistrials would be retried starting on January 7.

Lyglenson Lemorin, who also goes by the name Brother Levi, was acquitted in the “Liberty City 7” trial, U.S. District Judge Joan Leonard’s office told CNN.

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In it’s never-ending quest to maintain its record as the most grounded aircraft to ever enter the military inventory, Susie notes that the Osprey is once again waiting for parts. This time it’s an engine problem that causes fires.

I saw my first and last Osprey back in May, and you have to look in maintenance hangars to see one these days. There are four stationed at Hurlburt Field with the 8^th Special Operations Squadron, but they haven’t been doing much flying.

As Badtux has noted, the Osprey requires a computer to control the tilting of the wing. On an Osprey the “blue screen of death” is not a metaphor.

I wonder how you say stainless steel colander™ in Farsi?

In discussing the spin on the NIE in Washington and Iran, Farideh Farhi of Informed Comment Global Affairs notes that relatives and friends in Iran are talking about the possibility of a secret alliance between the Shrubbery and Ahmadinejad. From the point of view of an Iranian democracy advocate, the Hedgemony’s tactics in dealing with Iran are overshadowing other problems in the country that weaken the ultra-conservatives that Ahmadinejad represents.

Those crazy Persian democracy advocates. I mean the thought of the neonitwits aligning with conservatives in the Iranian power structure is just crazy, right? Ehh, Right‽

Sean-Paul at the Agonist asks an interesting question – Iran Nuclear Program: If It Stopped In 2003 When Did It Start? And Where’s The Proof?

Well, now, the proof of the program is a bit of a problem, isn’t it, because the record seems to indicate that majority of intelligence about the military program comes from the MEK/PMOI, who lost a lot of their internal Iranian support by moving to Iraq and seemingly allying with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. It is a bit of a stretch to assume that they had infiltrated a highly secure, tightly controlled operation like a nuclear weapons program after that war. The political side of the group, the PMOI, is amazingly similar to Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress which delivered such “sterling” intelligence about WMDs in Iraq. They might know something, but anything they give you would need to be independently verified.

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After the terrible events in Colorado, where a young man with serious problems acted out by killing the people he felt caused those problems, and then himself, I really didn’t want to hear the leader of the church at the center of this say, that the problem was all of the people who attack Christians.

When people destroy a Wiccan symbol in Olean, New York and leave a Crèche near it untouched, you have to assume the culprits are Christian.

When people on a subway car attack Jews, because the Jews responded “Happy Hanukkah” to the other group’s “Merry Christmas,” you have to assume that the attackers are Christians.

When the House of Representatives is tied up with a resolution on Christians and Christmas, you are hard pressed to call it an attack on Christians.

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Via PZ Myers at Pharyngula I learned that one of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett of the Discworld series, announced: “I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom ‘stroke’.”

He is still working and has been prolific, but picking up a Discworld novel is one of the best forms of relaxation anyone can have. The thought of this illness robbing the world of stories untold, is a definite “downer,” but there are still a lot of his words to enjoy.

The Associated Press reports Putin’s chosen successor calls for him to be PM

MOSCOW – Dmitry Medvedev, the hand-picked candidate to succeed President Vladimir Putin, called Tuesday for Putin become prime minister after the March 2 election.

Putin is prohibited by law for running for a third consecutive term, but clearly wants to retain a powerful role once he steps down. Medvedev’s proposal would provide such a role, especially if the constitution were amended to increase the prime minister’s powers — which could be done readily with the new parliament dominated by pro-Putin politicians.

Medvedev, 42, has spent most of his career as a loyal comrade of Putin, and his proposal for him to become prime minister almost certainly was made with prior consultation with the president.

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Position: 19.0 N 76.0 W. [Noon CDT]
Movement: West [270°] near 23 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph.
Wind Gusts: 50 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 345 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 1009 mb.

Because of conditions Olga is expected to dissipate as a tropical storm later today and become a garden variety low pressure system.