Fausta's blog

Labels: Blog Talk Radio, Democrats, Election2008, Hillary Clinton

Labels: Al Gore, Global Warming

Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the nom de guerre of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was captured in a joint US-Iraqi operation, according to Iraqi military sources quoted by the Arabic news channel al-Arabiya.

Because of his broad involvement in al-Qaeda's international operations, al-Masri's capture would be a setback for al-Qaeda not only in Iraq, but to its overall organization.

The United States military in Iraq says a man detained in the northern city of Mosul is not in fact the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The "black" Barack would get what the white Barry couldn't: a sense of uniqueness, the benefits of affirmative action, the embrace of the "multiculturalists" in academia, and later the path to personal power and riches he sought in the overwhelmingly black wards of Chicago.

But simply calling himself "Barack" would not be enough to win him admittance to and support from the leftists in the universities where he first taught and then amongst the power brokers in the political movements whom he’d need to underwrite his thirst for power. To win their trust, allegiance, and support, Barack needed to do more than call himself "black" - after all, people like Condoleezza Rice and Bill Cosby call themselves black - he'd have to prove he was "authentically" black (i.e., held radical leftist positions).

Barry, always quick on the uptake, realized there could be no better way to prove his "true" identity as a black man than by joining the Afrocentric, anti-white, anti-Jewish church of Jeremiah Wright. In fact, he would, as always, go one step further; he’d become Wright's protege. Similarly, Barry knew there was no better way to prove his leftist credentials to the folks in academia than to sidle up to terrorists - both foreign and domestic.

Soon he would become friends and colleagues with William Ayers - whose group had murdered Americans in the 1960s and, as recently as just a few years ago, in the wake on 9/11, proclaimed that the only regret he had is that it didn't succeed in murdering more of his fellow citizens. And, just in case his resume wasn't strong enough, he'd cozy up to Edward Said, the Islamist/Arab apologist who sought to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth.

It's not that Barry necessarily believed in any of these causes — it's hard to know if Barry believes in anything other than Barry — it's that these are the kinds of things you did if you wanted money, power, and fame. And Barry wanted money, power, and fame.

Whatever doubts Barry — now insisting on only being called by his father's African name, "Barack" - may have had about kicking in with hate-mongers, racists, and terrorists were quickly assuaged as the benefits began to roll in. In what seemed like no time Barry was teaching law, and then they made him a state senator and then a U.S. senator! His wife was given a cushy job at the university and the couple's income rose to nearly half-a-million a year while they slept comfortably each night in a mansion purchased only with the "help" of Chicago mobster Tony Rezko.

And Barry’s friends, colleagues, and co-conspirators invested wisely. The young, handsome, articulate “black” man was good to his mentor at the church of hate, making sure to “kick back” a taste — nearly twenty-thousand dollars (virtually every penny the “caring” Obamas gave to charity) in 2007 alone. The university’s kindness to Ms. Obama was repaid by her husband’s advancing their radical agenda first in the state legislature and then in the United States Congress, where Barry would soon become the single most leftist of all U.S. senators. The terrorists, who would hold fundraisers for Barack, would be repaid by Barry in droves, with him not only supporting their agenda as a legislator, but using his first major national exposure — the nationally televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention — to spread the canard of an evil and bigoted America picking on the innocent Muslims, a standard tactic of the terrorists to dissuade legitimate investigation into their plots.

Yes, Barry’s arrangements were working out well for all.

Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats, Election2008

John McCain wants Hispanic America to remember that he's not from the "I hate you and blame you for all the country's problems" wing of the GOP.

Labels: Election2008, John McCain

One million signatures may not force the Cuban government in and of itself to release Cuba's political prisoners. But, one million signatures may be a giant step in exposing the reality of Cuba's human rights violations to the world and especially to those who simply have refused to acknowledge said reality.

A number of human rights groups, organizations and institutions have come together in support of a petition calling for the release of Cuba's political prisoners.The text of said petition is short, concise and to the point:

The Cuban Government is currently holding more than 220 political prisoners according to Amnesty International, the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders. These prisoners are illegally held in prison according to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Cuba has signed and recognizes. Despite signing these documents, Cuba continues to suppress freedom of expression by outlawing peaceful advocacy for human rights and democratic reforms. In defiance of the universally-recognized rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, Cuban activists are systematically targeted for persecution.

I am asking each and every one of you to please sign this petition.

Cuba Solidarity Day
The Cuban people need your help! People all over the world are joining together on Cuba Solidarity Day, this May 21, to stand beside the people of Cuba in their struggle for freedom and democracy. Let’s demonstrate our support for Cuba’s political prisoners, respect for the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and the right of the Cuban people to choose their own government and live in peace and freedom! Join us as we speak in one voice to demand peace, freedom, and democracy on the island!

May 21 has great historic significance as it falls within a two-week period in which Cubans throughout the island remember those that have suffered under the Castro regime while struggling for freedom and human rights.

Click here to find out how YOU can participate in Cuba Solidarity Day.

Labels: Babalu Blog, Cuba

One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated $10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses.

If Al Gore is the model, Hillary can stay in past the convention, demand a recount, and wait until the Supreme Court tells her it’s over. Which, come to think of it, might be exactly her plan.

Labels: Democrats, Election2008, Hillary Clinton

Labels: movies

On the stump, she warmed up (or rather, berated) supporters by complaining about how her husband is an underdog even after he keeps winning primary and caucus after primary and caucus. With a scowl etched on her face, she bellyached that "the bar is constantly changing for this man." Call the waambulance, stat.

I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude.

Labels: Barack Obama, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Republicans, Spain

Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador warned of possible "contagion" in their countries by the autonomy movement in the eastern Bolivian province of Santa Cruz.

"The central plan by the CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) and its lackeys in Venezuela is to take control of regional governments to carry out illegal referendums like the one held (Sunday in favour of autonomy) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. But we will defeat that plan!" said Chávez.

Bolivia "has faced regional unity problems since it was founded by the independence hero (Simón Bolívar, 1783-1830)"

Labels: Bolivia, Ecuador, Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa, Venezuela

With a decisive loss in North Carolina and just a narrow win in Indiana, I don't see how Clinton can even make a straight-faced argument to the superdelegates that she should be the real winner in this nomination fight.

Is this the end of the line for Hillary Clinton? The consensus among the talking heads on cable appears to be coalescing around the idea that she should wind her campaign down and get out of Obama’s way. No doubt it will be an extremely difficult and emotional decision. She has fought as hard as any candidate I have ever seen for the nomination. But the votes aren’t there, the money’s not available, and time has run out.

Hillary's decision will probably hinge on whether she can afford to give up now, having gone so far. In the early days of aviation, pilots who attempted to cross oceanic distances would calculate a "point of no return" beyond which it made no sense to turn back. Hillary crossed that line long ago. Against the uncertainties of going on against Obama is the equally bleak prospect of returning to a diminished political future -- sans reputation, sans friends, and sans the protection of the Oval Office.

"The man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job but can't even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one. He can't afford four more years of an energy policy written by the oil companies and for the oil companies; a policy that is not only keeping gas at record prices but funding both sides of the war on terror and destroying our planet... He needs us to take a permanent holiday from our addiction for oil by making automakers raise their fuel standards, corporations pay for their pollution and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future. That's the change we need."

Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats, Election2008, Hillary Clinton

No more alcohol in the British pub at the Cairo Grand Hyatt, where zealous employees last week threw in the Nile alcohol worth almost a million euro.

"This is a Saudi interference in Egypt's economy and private affairs if they strictly apply religious traditions then they ought to move away from entertainment tourism which contradicts religious beliefs in many ways," said the source.

Labels: Egypt

On April 16, the body of teacher and activist Riad Hamad was spotted floating in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Witnesses said the man's body had been "wrapped with duct tape." According to News Radio 590, the police were not sure if foul play was involved. When Hamad was reported missing, the family mentioned that he was experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Labels: crime, Palestinians

With real intimacy comes a real oneness and singularity that transcends the biological imperative. With that real intimacy that transcends the biological drives, we find our higher selves. We find ways to communicate in ways outside the physical expression. We come to understand that the most powerful expressions of intimacy are outside the physical realm.

For many people, that kind of intimacy, outside the physical and biological boundaries are the real sexual attractants. Some people find their sexual attractions on a 'soullular' plane. They experience the same physical sensations and the same attractions as everyone else. For them however, the genesis of those feelings are found in the higher self and in the higher self of the other. They yearn for sexual expression, but they yearn for that in conjunction with an intimacy that is found outside the purely physical intimacies. They want a spiritual component to their union and will be satisfied with nothing less.

I think what I have been seeking in some form from all of these men is permanence.

Sometimes I don't like them, or am scared of them, and a lot of times I'm just bored by them. But my fear or dislike or boredom never seems to diminish my underlying desire for a guy to stay, or at least to say he is going to stay, for a very long time.

Intercourse doesn't really make two bodies into one; except in pathological cases, the two separate soon afterward. But the interpenetration of bodies cannot be divorced from the equally urgent desire for an interpenetration of minds and souls. When we cheapen sex down to a mere satisfaction of physical desire, or worse, a slaking of need, we undermine the foundation for love. If deprived of love for long enough, we lose the capacity to love ourselves.

The "hookup culture" strains to deny these truths. But like a few others known better to our forebears than to us of 2008, they are self-evident -- and self-demonstrating. There isn't a voluptuary in the world who can escape the consequences.

Truly, it is an idea almost as old as civilization - monogamy, family, the unit, which blends two families and then extends out. Given the determined effort of the know-it-all boomers to "deconstruct" all of the worthless and bourgeois establishment norms that went before them - marriage and family were emphatically "out" and "repressive" - it is not surprising to see a generation unable to process the idea of commitment to anything other than "whatever there is today."

Labels: men and women, NYT, relationships

The Clintons' tax returns show that Bill Clinton earned nearly $51 million from 2004 through 2006. His wife informed the Senate of about $27 million of it, consisting almost entirely of fees from his globe-trotting speaking tours, from which he has fetched as much as $400,000 for a single appearance.

Reporting rules for senators and presidential candidates allowed Hillary Clinton to describe the amounts of her husband's other income sources as ``over $1,000." These included his more than $10 million in advances and royalties from two book deals, as much as $11.5 million from offshore partnerships that invested in a Chinese media company and more than $2 million from a Nebraska firm whose chairman reportedly spent $900,000 flying the Clintons aboard corporate jets for personal, business and campaign trips.

The sketchy disclosures on Clinton's statements might help explain why many Americans were surprised to learn, upon release of the couple's tax returns and a summary of their 2007 income, that they earned $109 million over the last eight years after leaving the White House buried in debt in 2001.

Labels: Democrats, Election2008, Hillary Clinton

I could list other examples of encounters with editors and publishers, as can many writers, all illustrating a single fact: While it remains taboo to criticize religious faith in general, it is considered especially unwise to criticize Islam. Only Muslims hound and hunt and murder their apostates, infidels, and critics in the 21st century. There are, to be sure, reasons why this is so. Some of these reasons have to do with accidents of history and geopolitics, but others can be directly traced to doctrines sanctifying violence which are unique to Islam.
...
The connection between the doctrine of Islam and Islamist violence is simply not open to dispute. It's not that critics of religion like myself speculate that such a connection might exist: the point is that Islamists themselves acknowledge and demonstrate this connection at every opportunity and to deny it is to retreat within a fantasy world of political correctness and religious apology. Many western scholars, like the much admired Karen Armstrong, appear to live in just such a place. All of their talk about how benign Islam "really" is, and about how the problem of fundamentalism exists in all religions, only obfuscates what may be the most pressing issue of our time: Islam, as it is currently understood and practiced by vast numbers of the world's Muslims, is antithetical to civil society. A recent poll showed that thirty-six percent of British Muslims (ages 16-24) believe that a person should be killed for leaving the faith. Sixty-eight percent of British Muslims feel that their neighbors who insult Islam should be arrested and prosecuted, and seventy-eight percent think that the Danish cartoonists should have been brought to justice. And these are British Muslims.

This is what we owe the true moderates of the Muslim world: we must hold their co-religionists to the same standards of civility and reasonableness that we take for granted in all other people. Only our willingness to openly criticize Islam for its all-too-obvious failings can make it safe for Muslim moderates, secularists, apostates--and, indeed, women--to rise up and reform their faith.

Labels: Blog Talk Radio, Islamic Jihad, podcasts

With good friends like Jeremiah Wright, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, dinner at the Obama household must be a rockin' event on any given night...

Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats, Election2008

Labels: Black and White on the Grey Matters, Zo

a boomtown in the fertile lowlands. There avenues of glistening office buildings house some of Bolivia's largest private companies and the headquarters of most foreign corporations operating in the country.

Besides finance and resource extraction, Santa Cruz is also home to agribusiness concerns that produce much of the nation's food.

"I hope the government will hear the call of its people now, and not the call of [Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez] and will start choosing its own course and accept this autonomy and decide it's time to sit down and talk", former president and leader of the opposition Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga told the BBC.

Labels: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Latin America, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

The Roman god of fire, especially destructive fire, and craftsmanship.

Labels: Iron Man, movies, Robert Downey Jr

The DNC's message portrays McCain as bent on fighting an "endless" war in Iraq.

DNC: We can't afford four more years with a President who fights an endless war in Iraq. ... On the war, McCain scoffed at Bush's call to leave troops in Iraq for 50 years, saying "Make it a hundred!"

That of course is a serious distortion of what McCain actually said to a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire back on Jan. 3. His actual words are posted in a video on YouTube. Far from advocating "endless war," he said the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq would be "fine with me" provided that they're not being killed or wounded. Here's the full quote:

McCain, Jan. 3: Make it a hundred. ... We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as American, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. It’s fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintained a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.

It should be noted that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, despite their frequent talk of withdrawing from Iraq, have said repeatedly that they would maintain at least some troops in a combat role in Iraq for some time, possibly their entire term of office.

There's little doubt that McCain is less eager than either Clinton or Obama to bring troops home without further suppression of insurgent attacks. But it's a rank falsehood for the DNC to accuse McCain of wanting to wage "endless war" based on his support for a presence in Iraq something like the U.S. role in South Korea.

Labels: Barack Obama, Election2008, John McCain

It was a donation, a gift, a part payment to subsidise the construction of a building that would become Sydney's Muslim heartbeat: Lakemba mosque. More than 35 years after Sydney cleric Khalil Shami received the cheque, he insists it came with no strings attached. But while the cheque had no tangible conditions in the form of written instructions or binding contracts, the cleric received a message from his donors several months after depositing it.
"They said: 'Please, can you mention the tragedy of the Palestinian people and what's happened to them in your sermon?"' Shami tells Inquirer. "Which is really a very noble cause, a very noble cause, I couldn't see a negative in their request."

The message Shami received from Riyadh brings into question the influence petro-dollars can have on their recipients, whether the money is bankrolling a religious centre, a clerical allowance or Queensland's Griffith University, which was exposed by The Australian last month for seeking a $1.37million Saudi grant, of which $100,000 was received, and offering to keep elements of the deal a secret.

The Saudi Government - largely through its embassy - is believed to have funnelled at least $120 million into Australia since the 1970s to propagate hardline Islam, bankroll radical clerics and build mosques, schools and charitable orgnisations.

But the Saudi cash that has flowed into Australia, that also allegedly has paid the allowance of hardline Canberra cleric Mohammed Swaiti, who has publicly praised jihadists, is dwarfed by the $90 billion Riyadh is believed to have pumped into promoting Islamic fundamentalism internationally.

While Saudi Arabia exports its Wahhabi version of Islam to the world, Saudi society groans under the weight of its internal contradictions. The first class of female law students will graduate from King Abdul Aziz University this year, but the Saudi Ministry of Justice prohibits female lawyers from practising. Judges consider women to be lacking in reason and faith, and have refused to allow them to speak in the courtroom because their voices are shameful

Labels: books, Saudi Arabia, shoes

Labels: New Jersey, NJ, taxes

On the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Centre, in February 2002: "I had not the slightest emotional reaction. I thought: 'This is a really strange art project.' It was a most amazing sight in terms of sheer elegance. It fell like water. It just slid, like a turtleneck going over someone's head...I just felt, like, everyone was overreacting. People were going on about it. That part really annoyed me."

As for Mr. Obama's friends, the Weathercouple: By all accounts, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers are unfathomably charming, brilliant and comely people, absolutely irresistible. Everybody who meets them is taken and forgets what they should know.

Mr. Obama expects us all to understand this, because we understand everything else. He is doing something most unusual: He's acting as if the American people are thinking with their brains. He's giving all of us a lot of credit. Could it be that we deserve it?

Larry Johnson notes that Obama has been less than honest about his relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. We already knew that Ayers held the first fundraiser at his home to help launch Obama's state senate campaign in 1995, and that they served together on the board of the Woods Fund for years, giving grants to people like former PLO flack Rashid Khalidi. What we did not know is that Obama was the director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge – a school reform organization co-founded by Ayers. He also links to a piece by Steve Diamond, law professor on the faculty of Santa Clara University School of Law, providing further background as to why this suggests Obama and Ayers may go back as far as the late 1980s. Granted, Johnson is famous for downplaying the threat of Islamic terrorism in the summer of 2001, but he has backup material this time.

So we should all just forget about Obama's very bad judgement in befriending the likes of Rezko and Auchi, Odinga, Ayers, The New Black Panther Party, La Raza, Farrakhan, Mr. Wright, and the homophobe Rev. James T. Meeks.

Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats, Election2008