Azonie's Blog

I'm not a Rush Limbaugh Fan but it was just so obvious as to  what the Dems were doing.  Anyhoo, it looks like El Rushbo has turned the tables. AND it's all going to charity!

When "Dingy Harry" Reid and the U.S. Senate turned away from the business of the nation to instead smear a private citizen, forty-one of them sent a letter demanding the "repudiation" of their inaccurate interpretation of Rush Limbaugh's comments about Jesse Al-Zaid (a.k.a. Jesse MacBeth) and other "phony soldiers" who falsify their service.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&
item=260170172469&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=016>

 

I still can not believe that we are letting this creep into the US. 

Iran President Ahmadinejad rips U.S.

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 8 minutes ago

A day before flying to New York to speak directly to the American people, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a confrontational tone Saturday with a parade of fighter jets and missiles and tough warnings for the United States to stay out of the Mideast.

Three new domestically manufactured warplanes streaked over the capital during the parade marking the 27th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Iran, which sparked a 1980-88 war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The parade also featured the Ghadr missile, which has a range of 1,120 miles, capable of reaching Israel.

Some of the missile trucks were painted with the slogans "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel." The parade also featured unmanned aerial surveillance drones, torpedoes, and tanks.

Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran over U.S. accusations that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and helping Shiite militias in Iraq that target U.S. troops. Iran denies the claims.

Washington has said it is addressing the Iran situation diplomatically, rather than militarily, but U.S. officials also say that all options are open.

"Those (countries) who assume that decaying methods such as psychological war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work and prevent Iran's fast drive toward progress are mistaken," Ahmadinejad.

Iran launched an arms development program during its war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own jets, torpedoes, radar-avoiding missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

"Those who prevented Iran, at the height of the war from getting even barbed wire must see now that all the equipment on display today has been built by the mighty hands and brains of experts at Iran's armed forces," Ahmadinejad said.

He is expected to address the American people directly in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" airing Sunday, and through appearances at the U.N., Columbia University and several other events.

His request to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site was denied and condemned by Sept. 11 family members and politicians. Protests against his Columbia appearance are planned at the university and the United Nations by demonstrators angry at his questioning of the Holocaust and declarations that Israel will cease to exist.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic ties since militants took over the U.S. Embassy following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since then, the cleric-led regime has vilified the United States as the "Great Satan."

Despite Ahmadinejad's frequent anti-U.S. rhetoric, he has tried to appeal to the American people before. Recently, he told a live satellite television show that his country wanted peace and friendship with the U.S. Since coming to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad has also sent letters to the American people in which he criticized Bush's Mideast policy.

He is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Tuesday — his third time attending the New York meeting in three years. Last year, Ahmadinejad was harshly critical of U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon and insisted that his nation's nuclear activities were "transparent."

At the parade, Ahmadinejad repeated his demand for foreign forces to leave the region and urged the United States to acknowledge it has failed in Iraq. Outside the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, there are 40,000 troops on U.S. bases in Persian Gulf countries and another 20,000 in Mideast waters.

"Nations throughout the region do not need the presence of the foreigners to manage their own needs. Foreign presence is the root cause of all instability, differences and threats," he said.

On the sidelines of the parade, the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said the event highlighted the "might of Iran's armed forces to its enemies," adding that Iran is ready to retaliate if attacked.

"Iran has drawn up plans to confront enemies in the face of any possible attack," the official IRNA news agency quoted Jafari as saying.

The Bush administration is expected to soon blacklist a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, subjecting part of the vast military operation to financial penalties. The step would be in response to Iran's involvement in Iraq and elsewhere.

The U.S. is also leading a push in the U.N. Security Council for a third round of economic sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity. The Security Council is not expected to take up the issue before October.

"Learn lessons from your past mistakes. Don't repeat your mistakes," he said in a warning to the United States over its push to impose more sanctions.

Why why why!!

 

Oregon Seizes Pet Deer, Controversy Erupts

Six years ago, an Oregon man rescued a fawn and raised her as a family pet. So when the state seized the deer, with a threat of euthanasia, all hell broke loose. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Winston Ross Special to Newsweek Updated: 5:38 p.m. MT Sept 19, 2007

Sept. 19, 2007 - Had he been a hunter, and had the mottled white doe that tumbled down a hill into his rural Oregon driveway six years ago been an adult, Jim Filipetti could have ponied up $19, applied for a deer tag and gunned the animal down. He could have butchered the deer the state now knows as "Snowball," mounted her head on the wall and moved on with his life.

But Filipetti chose to raise the injured fawn as a pet, spending thousands of dollars on veterinarian bills to treat her deformed hooves, installing strips of carpet throughout his house so she wouldn't slip on the hardwood floors, and feeding her a steady diet of sweetpeas, tomatoes and green beans—"the best that Safeway had to offer," he says. After 12 months, the house painter moved her to a pen outside his home in Molalla, Ore., but she was still a member of the family. "It was like having a dog around the house," Filipetti says.

Filipetti uses the past tense because his beloved Snowball has been seized by the state, which was considering euthanizing her. The story has outraged local residents and animal-rights advocates.

What’s telling is that the neighbors didn't complain. To the contrary, they took to Snowball, stopping by to feed the tame creature on a regular basis. "Everybody's got a set of animals somewhere," says Geordie Duckler, an attorney with the Animal Law Practice, a Portland specialty law firm that handles livestock disputes, biting incidents and claims against veterinarians. "It's rural Oregon."

 

One neighbor even brought for a visit his own rescued buck: Mr. Magoo, so named because he was blind. Filipetti agreed to let Mr. Magoo live with Snowball, until he died of what Filipetti suspects was a heart attack. Bad eyesight didn't stop a love connection between Mr. Magoo and Snowball, and little Bucky was conceived.

The family was happy enough until Filipetti had a flap with an estranged relative who called in an "anonymous" tip to state authorities that Filipetti was raising deer without any kind of permit, which is illegal under state law. In April, Oregon State Police troopers showed up, took samples of Bucky’s and Snowball's blood to determine the species, retreated for a few months to figure out how to proceed and then returned last week. The deer might be permitted to stay with Filipetti if he'd unlock his gate, state officials said, so they could be free to roam. But Filipetti refused that option, worried that the tame deer would be easy bait for vicious neighborhood dogs.

Unable to reach a compromise, the officers seized the deer and carted them off in a trailer. Filipetti called Duckler, the media was alerted and then everybody started calling the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Their big mistake—and I don't know why they did this—was to say they were going to euthanize both of them," Duckler says. "That obviously was not going to play too well."

Six hundred and fifty irate citizens flooded the agency's phone lines over the next several days, demanding clemency for Snowball and her offspring. Feeling the heat, Fish and Wildlife quickly backed down, calling a press conference the day after the pet deer's mugs hit the talk shows, the television circuit and the blogosphere with as much contemplative urgency as Britney Spears's putrid performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Neither Snowball nor Bucky would be euthanized, promised Fish and Wildlife director Roy Elicker.

 

The phone calls didn't stop, however. A day after that, Elicker went back to the public to announce he was negotiating with Filipetti's attorney for the possible return of at least his beloved doe, if not her kin. The vast majority of the phone calls Oregon officials took were from all over the political spectrum: bleeding-heart Bambi lovers and government-out-of-my-business types alike, united in their call for the return of Filipetti's deer.

"I can legally blow the head off a deer during hunting season," wrote Hillsboro's Greg Ebert, in a letter to The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. "But God help me if I commit a humane act on its behalf."

At the outcry, state officials froze like, well, a doe in headlights. But they still insist Filipetti's kindness was misplaced. Approaching wild animals is a bad idea because the well-intentioned are likely to get hurt, says Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for Fish and Wildlife. "If they say 'Oh, gosh, the doe has gotten too big, we need to release it,' the doe will go to extremes to get fed. It'll break down fences and break into a house," Hargrave says. "A buck will grow antlers and attack." There's also a risk of catching diseases from wild animals, Hargrave adds.

This isn't the first time a kind-hearted, misguided Oregonian has tried to heed the call of the wild. Last year, an 11-year-old girl in the coastal city of Waldport suffered a bruised skull and jaw after the deer her family had adopted after it was hit by a car decided to turn on the child, pinning her against a fence. And in 2005, state officials discovered a black bear in the home of a Roseburg man. The bear had been living there for years, it turns out, eating people food, even sleeping in a bed made for humans. A dozen times in the past year and a half, Hargrave says, state officials have had to remove wild animals from people's homes.

There are permits available to rehabilitate or otherwise care for wildlife, and Filipetti is seeking one, but the state has only agreed to issue 16 such licenses, and they're all spoken for, Hargrave explains. Still, because this was an "exceptional case" (read: exceptional public pressure) it looks as if Filipetti will be reunited, at least with Snowball, since she's incapable of surviving on her own. Bucky's fate is less certain—officials are considering the possibility of releasing him into the wild—but it's unlikely he'll spend any more comfy nights at the Filipetti home.

Asks? Sounds like they were bullied. 

Highway checkpoint asks drivers for blood, saliva
Travelers outraged by private research group's request

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Posted: September 20, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Motorists in Colorado are expressing outrage over a weekend stunt in Gilpin County, about an hour's drive west of Denver, where highway checkpoints were set up so a private organization could ask for samples of blood and saliva.

"I don't think they're authorized to do what they're doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol," Roberto Sequeira, 51, told reporters for the Denver Post.

He said he and his wife were "detained" for about 15 minutes even after they protested they wanted to get home because of a sleepy child in their car.

 

Sheriff's officials were apologizing after they helped set up and run five separate checkpoints over the weekend.

They said workers for the Institute for Research and Evaluation were overly persistent in their demands of innocent travelers.

"It was like a telemarketer that you couldn't hang up on," Undersheriff John Bayne told the newspaper.

Sgt. Bob Enney said the deputies' assistance to the organization involved stopping motorists at the sites along Colorado Highway 119 for "surveys" on any drug or alcohol use. Surveyors also requested that motorists submit to breath, blood and saliva tests.

Enney said several hundred motorists were tested, and some later complained.

Sequeira said he repeatedly asked if the questioners were law enforcement officials and said he was not interested in participating in the study, but still was not given clearance to leave.

He told the newspaper that he and his family were approached by two researchers, and even after his repeated refusals, officials offered his wife, who was driving, $100 to get the couple to take part in a breath test.

"I think it's very dangerous," he told the newspaper. "Sometimes at checkpoints, unfortunate things happen."

PIRE spokeswoman Michelle Blackston told WND the deputies "did not stop" any drivers. "It was a voluntary survey. … Nobody approached them. There were signs saying that a survey was taking place. Nobody waved them down."

She said she was unaware whether the private organization reimbursed the county for the expense of having the deputies at the traffic sites. The organization's own researchers get the results of the work, she said.

Also to the newspaper, PIRE officials defended their actions. They said such statistics are important to gauge the impact of laws and enforcement policy. Their questions began over the summer and will continue at other locations around the nation through November, they said.

"We've been literally surveying thousands of people," John Lacey, of the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center, said. It's through that organization PIRE is doing its research.

He said researchers push a few of those who initially refuse to participate to reconsider – even offering incentives.

"If we don't do that, the criticism will come out that we had so many who were refusers," Lacey told the newspaper.

Bayne said a similar study was done in the county several years ago, with no complaints, but he admitted last weekend's effort was aggressive.

"The people were too persistent," he told the Post. "Some people didn't feel it was voluntary."

Officials with the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the fact that sheriff's deputies were on the scene, and surveyors wore blue jumpsuits, could have confused drivers.

Sequeira said his family was directed by sheriff's officials to pull over and he and his wife were greeted by "youthful, college" surveyors.

"We had a 10-year-old in the back who's tired, we tell them thanks but no thanks, we have to get this child back home to bed," he told the paper. But the workers persisted, telling them they would be provided help driving home if needed. Then they offered the $100.

"We say, 'No thank you, we have to get our child home,'" he recalled. "At this point, both clones start chortling at us and ridiculing us."

On a newspaper forum, the opinion was running fairly close to unison:

"The very act of pulling a motorist over subjects him/her and their vehicle (at very least) to a visual search. This means if the motorist was pulled over without suspicion of violating a law, than (sic) they have been subjected to an unlawful search…," wrote Warren Gregory.

"For the record the proper response to ANY such incursion into privacy is to ask the question, Am I under Arrest? If the answer is no ask if you are free to go. If you are told no demand to be arrested or you will leave and then leave," added Frank Vicek.

What a sick and twisted way of thinking.  I guess everything is youtube material these days.

Man urinates on dying woman, declaring it 'YouTube material'

From the "Annals of Modern Depravity" comes this sordid story:

Shouting, "This is YouTube material!" a 27-year-old British man urinated on a dying woman who had collapsed on the street, the BBC and local Hartepool Mail and Northern Echo tell us. He also doused her with a bucket of water and covered her with shaving cream.

The woman, 50-year-old Christine Lakinski, died at the scene of pancreatic failure.

In a sad sign of the times, it was all recorded on a mobile phone.

In court, Anthony Anderson said he had smoked a joint and been drinking with two friends when they spotted Lakinski. He faces jail after pleading guilty to "outraging public decency." Sentencing is set for Oct. 22.

"We will await the outcome and just hope he gets what he deserves," Lakinski's brother said after today's court hearing.

 

Having other countries have control of our economic entities can' t be a good thing.

 

Sheikdom shakedown: Dubai moves on Nasdaq
Arab ownership of U.S. stock exchange raises flag in Congress

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Posted: September 20, 2007
4:14 p.m. Eastern

In a complex set of transactions, Dubai is moving to acquire 19.9 percent of the Nasdaq in New York, placing the Arab government in an ownership position of the key U.S. stock exchange and raising concerns in Congress.

As a result of the transaction, Dubai also will acquire 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange, one of the oldest and largest in the world.

The transaction is being made through Borse Dubai, a holding company 100-percent owned by the government of the Emirate of Dubai and controlled by Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the head of the Dubai ruling family.

According to its website, Borse Dubai was created Aug. 6 as the holding company for Dubai Financial Market and Dubai International Financial Exchange in a move to consolidate the Dubai government's two stock exchanges "as well as current investments in other exchanges, expanding Dubai's position as a global capital market hub."

The announcement set off a firestorm of criticism in Washington, prompting President Bush to comment today in a news conference, "We're going to take a good look at it, as to whether or not it has any national security implications involved in the transaction. I'm comfortable with the process to go forward."

On July 26, Bush signed into law the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, a law passed after last year's controversy over the effort by Dubai Ports World to acquire London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, an international ports operating firm that would have given Dubai control of operations in up to 22 U.S. ports.

The Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 was passed to strengthen the examination requirements of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, a highly secretive bureaucratic panel constituted by the Treasury Department to pass verdict on the national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S.

In a letter today, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urged Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson to conduct the Borse Dubai CFIUS review under the standards imposed by the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, even though most of the requirements of the new law do not take effect until later this fall.

Schumer chairs the Joint Economic Committee, composed of 10 members each from the Senate and House of Representatives.

"Nasdaq is not just any exchange, but one of the world's largest," Schumer wrote Paulson. "With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market."

Schumer's letter posed five specific questions for Paulson:

 

1. What national security concerns are raised by allowing a foreign government to own U.S. financial exchanges?

    

2. Specifically, with respect to Dubai, are there national security concerns about this particular country's influence or control over a U.S. exchange?

    

3. U.S. exchanges are a critical asset to our national economic infrastructure. What implications would foreign government control or influence have on our economic security?

    

4. U.S. economic security depends on continued competitiveness in a global financial market. What impact will this transaction have on U.S. financial competitiveness?

    

5. If national and economic security concerns can be satisfied, should restrictions be placed on this transaction to limit Dubai's control and influence over U.S. exchanges?

The Department of the Treasury could not be reached for immediate comment

Refugees pose 'potential crisis' Mayor Francis asks the feds for help to deal with influx of Mexicans   Doug Schmidt and Dave Battagello The Windsor Star
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
CREDIT: Scott Webster, The Windsor Star Concepcion Montiel and her daughter Perla, 2, arrived in Windsor Monday by bus with two other families. Montie said a lack of jobs in Florida, the fear of deportation and the perceived opportunities promised in Canada persuaded her to move her family north.

With city shelters filled and a surge of further refugee claimants expected to flood into Windsor, Mayor Eddie Francis is pleading for financial help from Ottawa.

"When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice," Francis wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals -- approximately 200 people -- entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance after filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee applicants are renting out hotel rooms and bracing for predicted thousands more to come.

"We don't have the means, ability or capacity to deal with this additional cost. We are not able to deal with this potential crisis locally," Francis wrote Harper.

"I don't believe that Windsor's residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy," Francis told The Star. He was referring to the suspected source of the problem -- a recently begun crackdown on illegal immigrants in economically struggling regions of the U.S. South.

With the bulk of the latest arrivals being long-time Mexican illegals dislodged from their homes and workplaces in southwestern Florida, fingers are being pointed at unscrupulous outfits charging money and then directing desperate individuals and their families toward the Windsor border crossing.

"We are aware of these operations -- they have been advertising incorrect and false information," said Marina Wilson, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Wilson said Canadian immigration authorities have started contacting the Mexican and Haitian communities in Florida, as well as local media there, to get the word out that nothing has changed in Canadian refugee policy.

"The fact someone wants to come here for better economic opportunity or a better quality of life ... that's no basis for a successful refugee claim," said Immigration Refugee Board (IRB) spokesman Charles Hawkins.

But a group operating out of Naples, Fla., vowed to continue sending the so-called economic refugees to Windsor.

"They ask, 'Is Canada an option?' and I say, 'Yes, it is an option,'" Jacques Sinjuste of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center said in a phone interview Wednesday. For a US$300 "donation" (most of those interviewed in Windsor claim they paid US$400), JHCC staff download forms off the Internet, help applicants fill them out and give directions on how to get to the Canadian border.

Sinjuste said he's simply providing a "referral" service.

"Most of the time when the people come, they say they've heard something (about Canada). I say that I've heard the same thing," he said.

Jacquie Rumiel, director of programs for new Canadians at the YMCA, where refugee claimants are referred by Windsor's border guards, said the new people she's seeing are "mostly" Mexicans coming from Florida.

To be successful, refugee claimants must prove they are fleeing persecution at home, something most of the Mexicans arriving in Windsor would be hard-pressed to do. The IRB's Hawkins said there was only a 13 per cent acceptance rate of refugee claims filed by Mexican nationals during the first six months of the year, compared to an overall rate of 47 per cent.

But the average processing time for a refugee claim in Canada is currently 14.2 months, said Hawkins, a period during which the applicant is eligible for financial and other support. A failed claimant then also has the right to seek leave to appeal his or her rejection to federal court.

Despite the high number of failed applications cited by the IRB, Sinjuste said he gets calls to his Naples centre from "a lot of people" who've arrived in Windsor.

 "They say everything is okay -- they are doing good, going to schools, going to work," he said.

Sinjuste said he was visited last week by an official from the Canadian consulate general in Miami but couldn't remember if he was told to stop helping economic refugees go to Canada.

"I don't think they tell me that," he said. Federal bureaucrats confirmed the meeting but said they couldn't divulge details.

Others are warning about the types of activities Sinjuste is engaged in.

"The way he's misleading the most vulnerable is infuriating," said Pegg Roberts, executive director of Detroit's Freedom House, which runs a shelter and assists asylum-seekers with their refugee claims. Sinjuste said he uses the Freedom House website to download refugee claim forms and advises the people he assists to seek help there.

"I do not help economic refugees," said Roberts, adding her non-profit organization assists the fleeing victims of torture and war crimes and has no affiliation with the JHCC.

"This is a problem the U.S. has allowed to create. It's really unfair for Canada to have to face this," said MP Joe Comartin (NDP -- Windsor-Tecumseh),  his Party's  public safety and national security critic.

"This is very much being driven by (the U.S. Department of) Homeland Security," he said, predicting that, "with few exceptions," most of these "economic claimants" will eventually be sent back.

Well DUH, that's cuz they know Reps will kick their arses. :-)

 

Terrorists disclose: We LOVE liberals!
Jihadists respond to Rosie, Clinton, Penn, Pelosi, Fonda, Boxer, Murtha

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Posted: September 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Klein, left, with the senior West Bank leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, including Ala Senakreh, second from left, the terror group's West Bank chief. The Brigades took responsibility together with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. The Brigades, the most active West Bank terror group, also carried out hundreds of shootings and rocket attacks. Many analysts and commentators have speculated what America's enemies might think about liberal politicians, celebrities and activists who protest the war in Iraq, call terrorists "freedom fighters," express solidarity with terror-supporting countries or even question who was behind the 9/11 attacks.

In a shocking new book, author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein actually petitions Muslim terrorists to respond to the statements and actions of American public figures such as anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Rep. John Murtha, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and entertainment personalities Rosie O'Donnell, Sean Penn and Jane Fonda. The jihadists overwhelmingly applauded the liberal leaders.

In "Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!," Klein in one chapter assembles a panel of senior terrorist leaders and asks them to sound off about high-profile liberals. He also asks about conservative personalities from Ronald Reagan through Rush Limbaugh.

The terrorists were familiar with some of the names, while for others the jihadists were provided with a series of statements and speeches to which to respond.

Klein, for example, had a speech made earlier this year by Penn translated into Arabic. In the speech, Penn, who in 2005 paid a solidarity visit to Tehran, called Iran a "great country," slammed President Bush and Vice President Cheney as "villainous and criminally obscene people" and suggested Iran had the right to obtain a nuclear weapon since the U.S. has a nuclear arsenal.

In "Schmoozing" Klein also read to the terrorists statements from O'Donnell in which she argued terrorists are people, too.

"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers," said O’Donnell.

The former daytime talk host also has raised questions about whether al-Qaida was responsible for 9/11; implied the Iranian seizure of 15 British sailors in March was a hoax to provide Bush with an excuse to attack Tehran; and doubted whether confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed really planned the attacks.

Klein discussed with the terrorists demands for a quick U.S. withdrawal from Iraq by politicians such as Boxer and Murtha.

He asked jihadists what they thought of Pelosi's visit last April against the recommendations of the White House to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Klein with Eiman Abu Eita, chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Beit Sahour

During a photo opportunity, a smiling Pelosi stated, "We came in friendship, hope and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace."

Syria openly hosts Palestinian terrorist leaders, signed a military alliance with Iran and is accused of arming and funding the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group and aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Klein also read to the terrorists speeches and statements by Sheehan, who has called terrorists "freedom fighters" and has accused Bush of waging war in Iraq for Israeli interests.

Why schmooze with the professed enemies of Western civilization?

States Klein: "In the midst of America's war on terror, in the midst of our grand showdown with Islamofascism, with our boys and girls deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world to defend liberty, it is crucial for all of us to understand the adversary we are up against and how some of our policies and personalities are emboldening the terrorists to think they are winning."

Klein explains he believes America is in trouble. While the U.S. has made enormous advances in the war on terror the past few years, it is encouraging terrorists to attack, and people don't even know it, he professes.

Klein with Muhammad Abu Tir, the No. 2 Hamas leader in the West Bank, suspected of attempting to poison Israel's water supply

"If the American approach to identifying, understanding, and dealing with terrorism is not re-examined in the very near future, if we don't immediately begin to understand how the terrorists think and respond to our policies, we face a devastating reality, with global jihad beating down our doorstep before we even realize what happened," states Klein.

Among the highlights of "Schmoozing with Terrorists:"

 

• Madonna and Britney Spears stoned to death? What life in the U.S. would be like if the terrorists win.

   

• Jihadists list their U.S. election favorites, mouth off about politicians and even threaten to kill one 2008 presidential candidate.

   

• Klein and friends confront well-armed senior terrorists about whether suicide bombers really get 72 virgins after their deadly operation.

   

• A shocking expose on how YOUR tax dollars fund terrorism!

   

• Bibles used as toilet paper, synagogues as rocket launching zones? Meet the leaders of the most notorious holy site desecrations in history.

   

• The under-reported story of Christian persecution in the Middle East as told by the antagonists and victims.

   

• Terrorists offer tips on how to win the war on terror!

Klein has been interviewing terrorists since age 19, when he spent a weekend with a group connected to al-Qaida. He reports daily from Israel, going where many of his media colleagues dare not tread.

Klein is known for his regular appearances and segments on top American radio programs, where he has many times interviewed terrorists live on air. He served as a co-host of the national "John Batchelor Show," currently on hiatus.

The oldest of 10 children, Klein attended Jewish schools from kindergarten through college at Yeshiva University in New York, where he served as editor-in-chief of the undergraduate student newspaper.

 

I knew she was going to be famous. lol

'$25,000 per day' for 'Ditzy Chick'
Teen beauty who had pageant meltdown now works as model for Donald Trump

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Posted: September 19, 2007
9:25 p.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs

The "U.S. American" beauty contestant who suffered a geographical meltdown during last month's Miss Teen USA pageant can now have the last laugh, with the chance to make up to $25,000 a day as a model for Donald Trump.

Lauren Caitlin Upton, 18, of Lexington, S.C., reportedly flew to New York City today to begin employment for Trump Model Management.

Lauren Caitlin Upton of Lexington, S.C., shown in this undated modeling photo. The 18-year-old has become a national sensation after her grammatically challenged response to a question at the Miss Teen USA pageant in Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 24, 2007 (photo courtesy Locke Management)

"My lifelong dream has been to travel the world and pursue my modeling career," Upton told WIS-TV. "Randomly, [my mistake] has offered me that opportunity."

The station says she'll live in the Trump Apartments in Manhattan, with potential assignments in faraway places "such as" Milan, Japan and Australia. There was no mention of "the Iraq" or South Africa, two countries Upton dwelt upon in a rambling answer at the pageant.

As WND was the first to report, Upton was attempting to answer a final question during the Miss Teen USA pageant in Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 24.

When asked about the reason why some Americans could not locate the U.S. on a world map, Upton said:

 

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.

After the incident was seen by millions on YouTube and network news, Caitlin recounted the crucial moment at the pageant: "All of a sudden, I was asked this random question I was not expecting. I was in such shock."

Her dad, Bill Upton, said "When the lady read the question, we were thinking, what was that?"

Since the story broke, the family has been the victim of a media onslaught.

Carol Upton, Caitlin's mother, said, "First it seemed like a tsunami was hitting our little family and changed us forever. It was overwhelming."

MTV fans may have noticed Caitlin making a brief appearance at the network's Video Music Awards, where she was making fun of her flub, yet still seemed to have some difficulty reading the teleprompter, and pronouncing Las Vegas residents as "Las Veegans."

The incident has also sparked the creativity of some short filmmakers who have produced and posted spoofs online.

One features a young blonde wearing a South Carolina sash strolling down the street when she witnesses a car accident. When a man involved asks her to call 9-1-1, she asks in a panic, "What's the number?!"

Video spoofs of the Miss Teen USA gaffe are appearing on the Internet

The phenomenon has also been relentlessly mocked on national television.

ABC's late-night host Jimmy Kimmel actually broke out a chalkboard to try to explain to his audience what Upton was trying to say.

ABC's Jimmy Kimmel analyzes Lauren Caitlin Upton's infamous answer

"Some people out there in our nation don't have maps," he quoted her as saying. "That's actually true. I had a neighbor that didn't have a map. And I loaned him a map and he never returned it and now I actually don't have a map."

Just before the Miss Teen USA contest, Upton said she had originally entered the realm of beauty pageants to improve her personal communication skills.

"When I first started pageants, I wanted to build up my communication skills for interviews for college and for jobs," she said. "I was determined to prove I was able to accomplish anything I put my mind to."

Handcuffing old ladies who don't water their lawn?

I wonder if police control is getting out of control. I agree that the woman should have abided by the rules but good grief, this is just too ridiculous. 
Are we becoming a "police state/society"?  Do as you're told and nothing happens to you but step out of line one time type of thing? Don't get me wrong I back the police on most everything, they have a tough job but maybe they're being controled and don't even know it. Such as being ordered to get out there and control the citizens.  I would think that there are more pressing issues then arresting an old lady for lack of lawn watering.

Bloodied 70-year-old woman cuffed for having a brown lawn
Story Highlights
Great-grandmother charged with resisting arrest

She falls, injures nose while being handcuffed

Mayor and City Council apologize, but charges stick

OREM, Utah (AP) -- A 70-year-old woman arrested in a dispute over her brown lawn pleaded not guilty Tuesday, then stood by as a Los Angeles lawyer waved handcuffs for the cameras outside court.

Betty Perry is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors.

She was arrested July 6 after failing to give her name to a police officer who visited her home.

During a struggle, Perry fell and injured her nose. She spent more than an hour in a holding cell before police released her.

"I ask the citizens of Orem: How many of you would like to have your great-grandmother taken from her home with bruises and blood and placed in handcuffs for failing to water her lawn?" attorney Gloria Allred said.

"Let's bring sanity back to law enforcement," she said.

The mayor and City Council apologized, and the police department said the situation could have been handled differently. But the city attorney still is pressing charges, and Perry is due back in court next month.

A state investigation found that Officer James Flygare acted properly in arresting Perry after trying to get her to cooperate.

Perry's water had been turned off for about nine months, at her request, although she was living at the house at the time of the arrest. Orem has a shutoff policy for people who are away for extended periods.

 

Porter ties U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to $9 gasoline

Lawmaker reports on his trip to country

By TONY BATT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Gasoline prices could rise to about $9 per gallon if the United States withdraws troops from Iraq prematurely, Rep. Jon Porter said he was told on a trip to Iraq that ended this week.

The Nevada Republican, who returned Tuesday from his fourth trip to Iraq, met with U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Iraqi Deputy President Tariq al-Hashimi and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh.

"To a person, they said there would be genocide, gas prices in the U.S. would rise to eight or nine dollars a gallon, al-Qaida would continue its expansion, and Iran would take over that portion of the world if we leave," Porter said Wednesday in a phone interview from Las Vegas.

Porter did not elaborate on the assessment that gasoline prices could spike. His spokesman, Matt Leffingwell, said afterward that the scenario "makes sense if Iran moves into Iraq."

Porter "can't speculate directly on what is going to happen with gas prices, but the market prices for oil reflect the stability in that region," Leffingwell said.

Petraeus and Crocker offered a "blunt" assessment of the situation, Porter said.

Although Petraeus did not discuss the much anticipated Iraq status report he plans to release in September, Porter said the general told him the U.S. troop surge was working.

But Porter stopped short of saying he would support Petraeus' report.

"This was not unlike my trip there in January. I saw a lot of successes, and I noticed substantial improvement in Baghdad," said Porter, who has traveled to Iraq three times in the past 18 months.

As lawmakers warm up for a renewal of the Iraq war debate in the fall, Porter accused Democrats of failing to offer solutions to the war and avoiding a debate on the ramifications of withdrawal.

He said that some Democratic organizations, including the Searchlight Leadership Fund operated by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., have funded anti-war groups. The Searchlight Leadership Fund made $5,000 donations to VoteVets.Org in 2006 and again earlier this year, according to federal records.

Paradise Valley Socialite Deported Under Plea Deal

August 30th, 2007 @ 2:42pm

Sonia Falcone
by Associated Press
An Arizona socialite and former Bolivian beauty queen was scheduled to leave the country Thursday under a plea deal with federal prosecutors that included a deportation order.

Sonia Falcone will not be not allowed to return to the U.S. for 10 years. Her departure stems from a misdemeanor charge of hiring foreign workers not legally authorized to work for her at her Paradise Valley estate.

Falcone expects to temporarily resettle her family in China. She spoke with the East Valley Tribune newspaper during an exclusive interview at a lavish party she threw for 70 close friends at a Scottsdale gallery.

``I will not say goodbye to my friends,'' she said. ``I will say 'See you later.'''

Some of Falcone's supporters allege said she was targeted by federal authorities because of her husband and his alleged involvement in an illegal arms trafficking deal to Angola in the early 1990s.

Pierre Falcone served time in a French prison but has never been charged or convicted, according to international media reports.

Federal authorities have denied the indictments against Sonia Falcone had anything to do with her husband.

Friends and family said they were stunned that Sonia Falcone was ordered to leave.

``We don't think it's fair. We couldn't believe it,'' said Falcone's brother-in-law, Harold Weisheim of Phoenix.

``It's a misappropriation of justice. She's been a tremendous asset to our community,'' said friend Bob Machiz of Scottsdale. He pointed out Falcone's longtime philanthropic efforts including the De Colores Domestic Violence Center in Phoenix, the Arizona Opera, American Heart Association and Phoenix Children's Theatre.

Falcone said she plans to continue her work with the charities from abroad.

Meantime, Falcone seems to have come to terms with her fate.

``If I stop and think about it, I could cry. I am human,'' said Falcone, adding that taking care of her children and looking forward to the family's reunion with her husband in Beijing is diverting her mind from her current troubles.

With BLEEP like this everywhere it's no wonder. It's enough to gag a maggot. Blech!  Who in their right mind would eat this BLEEP? Fried Foods Rule Texas Fair Contest
August 27th, 2007 @ 1:44pm

DALLAS (AP) - The entries in this year's Big Tex Choice Awards could entice State Fair visitors back to the deep fryer for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There are Deep Fried Lattes for a morning jump-start, plus fried chili pie, fried guacamole, and a range of crispy desserts including Fried Cookie Dough.

The third annual Big Tex Choice Awards contest on Labor Day tests the fair grub ingenuity of State Fair of Texas concessionaires. Past Big Tex awards have offered nonfried options, but none of this year's seven entries escaped the fryer.

"I think they're good products," said Ron Black, the fair's senior vice president of food service and novelties. "We've got experienced concessionaires, and their products all taste really good."

Michael Levy will debut his family's new Deep Fried Latte, which is a fried pastry topped with cappuccino ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream and instant coffee powder.

"We have gained about 10 pounds trying this. I'm not kidding," Levy said. "I've probably eaten 300 of these trying to get it right."

Concessionaire Allan Weiss is offering up Zesty Fried Guacamole Bites, a variation on the Fried Avocados he created last year. The bites are a scoop of guacamole, breaded, fried and served with ranch dressings or salsa.

"The Fried Avocado went over so well, and I think people like guacamole even more than they like avocado," Weiss said.

Gigi White invented Country Pride Peach Cobbler on a Stick, which is a peach cobbler with dumplings rolled in pastry dough and fried, and then covered in brown sugar and cinnamon and skewered. It's this year's only entry on a stick.

"I'm a food engineer," White said. "You really got to work it."

The other entries include Fernie's Fried Chili Frito Burrito, Mama's Fried Sweet Potato Pie and B.W.'s Original Fried Banana Pudding.

"I'm not sure we have another Fried Coke," Black said, referring to the smash hit of last year's State Fair. The dish has been imitated at fairs across the country.

Able Gonzales Jr., the creator of Fried Coke, conceded he may never invent an equal.

"I don't think I be able to beat that type of excitement again," said Gonzales, the chef behind this year's Fried Cookie Dough. "That was crazy."

The fair opens Sept. 28.

I just heard on the radio today that since the Mexicans are all upset about the new employment law that they have a "plan" to get back at Arizonans.

What they're planning on doing is running all their credit to the max and then leaving for Mexico once it's run to the hilt. They are planning on doing this before the end of the year. So far there are only a few hundred who are plotting this.

How come we have to take their BLEEP? :-) Cross-Border Sewer Pipe in Nogales Threatened
August 28th, 2007 @ 2:33pm

Work crews in Nogales, Ariz., are scrambling to prevent a pipe carrying millions of gallons of sewage from Mexico into the U.S. from bursting.

Nogales Mayor Ignacio Barraza declared an emergency after heavy rains that fell Friday flooded the underground drainage system connecting his city with neighborning Nogales, Mexico. More than 116 feet of the concrete tunnel floor was ripped off.

Barraza says the concrete flooring protects a 30-inch pipe carrying millions of gallons of raw sewage a day from Mexico to a treatment plant in Rico Rico, Ariz., about 8.5 miles north of the border.

The pipe is in danger of rupturing and spilling the sewage into the Santa Cruz River.

If the sewage goes into the Santa Cruz River, it would eventually travel northward into the Gila River.

The mayor says if the pipe were to rupture it would create an environmental nightmare.

Barraza said they are ready with an emergency plan just in case.

"We are more than prepared, and have invoked and activated the emergency management team for the county to make sure that if evacuations were necessary we could conduct them," Barraza said.

Nearly 100 workers are scrambling to get the damaged floor shored up, but officials say all it would take is one big storm to burst the pipe.

Nogales is expecting rain tonight.

But the concrete/cement mix was having trouble setting in such wet conditions, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the United States section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, which sent engineers from its El Paso headquarters to help local workers.

"It's a difficult situation and they are working under difficult conditions," Spener said.

Officials are worried that more rains could wipe out the repair efforts and breach the sewer main.

Barraza said engineers also are worried that additional heavy rains could wipe out more stretches of concrete in the tunnel, creating dams and causing flooding in Nogales.

If the pipeline does break, officials are prepared to treat the sewage with chlorine, Spener said. City officials, meanwhile, are prepared to evacuate affected residents, if necessary, Barraza said.

The city of Nogales has received assistance from Santa Cruz, Pima and Cochise counties, the Arizona Department of Corrections, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the International Boundary and Water Commission.

Damage to the drainage tunnels is estimated at about $10 million. Replacing concrete or rebuilding stretches could be costly -- some of the tunnel system was built in the 1930s, Barraza said.

"It's aging, ailing infrastructure," he said.