Has anyone heard of this yet? ... How horrible:

Source: Democracy Now : click here to view complete transcript

British Newspapers Threatened in Al Jazeerah Memo Case
The British government has threatened to sue newspapers that publish contents of a leaked memo in which President Bush allegedly discusses bombing the Arabic satellite network Al Jazeerah. The government says it would take action under the Official Secrets Act, which makes it illegal come into the possession of government information without lawful authority. The British newspaper Daily Mirror disclosed the memo Tuesday. The paper based its a report on a confidential Downing Street memo that claimed Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair in April 2004 that he wanted to attack Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar. Blair allegedly talked Bush out of the strike, fearing revenge attacks. The Daily Mirror says it will comply with the government's threat against publication. But Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace said : "We made [the government] fully aware of the intention to publish and were given 'no comment' officially or unofficially. Suddenly 24 hours later we are threatened under section 5 [of the secrets act]." Two British civil servants have been charged in connection with the leak.

------------------------------

And pooh on you all for not being interested in my Marxism essay. So there. *sticks tongue out*.

Any implicit opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily mine. I just posted this article for factual info, "news", whatever..If I get some free time, I'll write a post about how I actually feel about this issue inshallah. :)

-----------

Saddam pleads innocent, trial adjourns

Ousted Iraqi leader asks judge, ‘Who are you,’ scuffles with guards

Ben Curtis / Pool via Reuters Saddam Hussein addresses the judges at his trial Wednesday.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A judge on Wednesday adjourned the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants until Nov. 28, after Saddam pleaded innocent to murder and other charges, questioned the court’s authority and scuffled with guards.

The main reason for the adjournment was because some 30 to 40 witnesses had been too scared to show up, the presiding judge said.

“They were too scared to be public witnesses,” Rizgar Mohammed Amin told Reuters. “We’re going to work on this issue for the next sessions.”

A secondary reason was that the defense had requested a three-month delay to review the evidence.

Raad Jouhi, the investigating magistrate who prepared the case, told a news conference after the first session that the five-week adjournment was a “reasonable” response to the defense request.

The first session lasted just three hours, during which presiding judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin read the defendants their rights and the charges against them — which also include torture, forced expulsions and illegal imprisonment in a case involving the massacre of nearly 150 Shiites in 1982.

Amin then asked each for their plea. He started with the ousted dictator, saying “Mr. Saddam, go ahead. Are you guilty or innocent?”

Saddam — holding a copy of the Quran he brought with him into the session and held throughout — replied quietly, "I said what I said. I am not guilty,” referring to his arguments earlier in the session.

Amin read out the plea, “Innocent.”

The confrontation later became physical. When a break was called, Saddam stood, smiling, and asked to step out of the room. When two guards tried to grab his arms to escort him out, he angrily shook them off.

They tried to grab him again, and Saddam struggled to free himself. Saddam and the guards shoved each other and yelled for about a minute.

It ended with Saddam getting his way, and he was allowed to walk independently, with the two guards behind him, out of the room for the break.

First criminal trial of Arab leader
Many Iraqis and others across the Middle East were glued to their television sets to watch the first-ever criminal trial of an Arab leader.

The proceedings were aired with about a 20-minute delay on state-run Iraqi television and on satellite stations across Iraq and the Arab world. But technical quality was poor, with the sound cutting out frequently and the picture going blank several times.

But a too-busy President Bush did not watch, even as the White House hailed the trial as a key step in Iraq’s transition to a functioning democracy.

“Saddam Hussein is facing Iraqi justice,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “The trial is a symbol that the rule of law is returning to Iraq. We hope this trial will help bring some closure for the Iraqi people to their country’s dark past.”

Neighboring Iran, which fought a 1980-88 war with Iraq, welcomed the trial’s start but said Saddam should be charged with invading Iran.

Still president?
Earlier, at the opening of the trial, the 68-year-old ousted Iraqi leader — looking thin with a salt-and-pepper beard in a dark gray suit and open-collared white shirt — stood and asked the presiding judge: “Who are you? I want to know who you are.”

“I preserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq,” Saddam said. “I do not recognize the body that has authorized you and I don’t recognize this aggression. What is based on injustice is unjust ... I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect.”

Amin, a Kurd, tried to get Saddam to formally identify himself, but Saddam refused. After several moments, he sat down.

Amin later read the charges against Saddam and his co-defendants, advising them they face possible execution if convicted in a 1982 massacre of nearly 150 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed attempt on the former dictator’s life.

Saddam and his co-defendants — top officials and lower civil servants from his Baathist regime — were called in one by one into the courtroom.

After sitting, Saddam greeted his co-defendants, saying “Peace be upon you,” sitting next to co-defendant Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court.

The other defendants include Saddam’s former intelligence chief Barazan Ibrahim, former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and other lower-level Baathist civil servants. Most were wearing traditional Arab robes and they complained that they were not allowed to have headdresses, so court officials brought out red headdresses for them. Many Sunni Arabs consider it shameful to appear in public without the checkered scarf, tied by a cord around the forehead.

Ramadan also refused to identify himself to the judge. “I repeat what President Saddam Hussein has said,” he added. The other defendants agreed to state their names.

Irony of trial setting
A panel of five judges will both hear the case and render a verdict in what could be the first of several trials of Saddam for atrocities carried out during his 23-year-rule.

The trial is taking place in the marble building that once served as the National Command Headquarters of his feared Baath Party. The building in Baghdad’s Green Zone — the heavily fortified district where Iraq’s government, parliament and the U.S. Embassy are located — was ringed with 10-foot blast walls and U.S. and Iraqi troops. Several Humvees and at least one tank were deployed outside, and U.S. soldiers led sniffer dogs around the grounds, looking for explosives.

The identities of judges have been a tightly held secret to ensure their safety, though Amin’s name was revealed on Wednesday just before the trial began.

Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP-Getty Images Iraqis in the town of Dujail follow the trail of Saddam Hussein Wednesday. The disappearance in 1982 of 143 Dujail Shiites, whose bodies have never been recovered, is the first case to be brought against Saddam.

Many Iraqis who watched the trial eagerly awaited the chance to see the man who ruled Iraq with unquestioned and total power held to justice.

Salman Zaboun Shanan, a Shiite construction worker, sat with his family at home in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, having taken the day off from work to watch the trial. “I hope he is executed, and that anyone who suffered can take a piece of his flesh,” said Shanan, who was imprisoned during Saddam’s rule.

But across the Tigris River in the mainly Sunni Arab district of Azamiyah, some were embittered over the trial of Saddam, whose regime was dominated by Sunni Arabs who have now lost their power.

“Saddam is the lesser of evils,” said Sahab Awad Maaruf, an engineer, comparing Saddam to the current Shiite-Kurdish led government. “He’s the only legitimate leader for Iraqis.”

There are also fears of attacks by insurgents — who are thought to include members of Saddam’s regime — to disrupt the trial.

‘Victors’ justice’ fair?
The world will be watching Saddam’s trial to see whether Iraq’s new Shiite and Kurdish leaders can rise above politics and prejudice and give the former dictator a fair hearing. Human rights group have criticized the government for trying to influence the trial and that considerable U.S. logistical and financial aid to the tribunal could lend credibility to charges that it will mete out “victors’ justice.”

The court is also operating not only under its own rules — laid out when the court was created in 2003 while Iraq was still run by American administrators — but also by a 1971 Saddam-era criminal law that some have criticized as not up to international standards.

That law says the judges can issue a guilty verdict if they are “satisfied” by the evidence — seen as lower standard of proof than “convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.”

No. 1
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For the ultimate price, you can have the ultimate in luxury--60 acres of coveted Hamptons farmland transformed into an uber-estate. There is the grand main house, which totals more than 25,000 square feet and has a great room with a 28-foot-high domed ceiling. The 14 gardens include vegetable, hydrangea and butterfly plantings, as well as a rose garden modeled after the one at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And how could a home be considered complete without its own U.S. Golf Association-rated course designed by Rees Jones? The grass tennis court, 75-foot pool and three large ponds are just extras. Three Ponds is listed with Susan Breitenbach at Allan M. Schneider & Associates.

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The apartment that tops The Pierre hotel is more than a penthouse--it's a mansion in the sky. The top three floors were converted into a residence in the late 1980s; they include the hotel's original ballroom--now a stupendous salon--and 360-degree views of the city. The penthouse has five master bedrooms, seven full baths, three half baths and four terraces. It is graced with Versailles-patterned oak floors, a black-marble staircase and 18th-century English paneling. And if the price seems a bit steep, the penthouse is available in two parts--one at $59 million and the other at just $11 million. It is listed with Elizabeth Lee Sample and Brenda Powers at Brown Harris Stevens, an affiliate of Christie's Great Estates.

These are just the top 4 most expensive homes...click here to view the full slide show

I got this email today..interesting!

Hello All,

In the midst of the anti-Arab/Muslim hysteria which is sweeping the world, it is easy to become despondent and lose hope that anything you do will make a difference.  If you have felt like this lately, then you HAVE to read this story.  I got it from a fellow activist and it was like  medicine to my soul because it reminded me (yet again) of the power of God to change people's hearts---even the heart of a former enemy.  The heroine in this story is truly admirable in her courage and determination to stand up for the truth against those who are trying to silence her.  Help her spread her message by sharing this story with everyone on your list.  Thank you.   

________________________________________________________

The Irish Times, Thu, Jul 28, 05
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2005/0728/1139576626FR28PALESTINE.html

Author no longer 'in love with the Zionist narrative'

MIDDLE EAST: Once committed to Israeli policy, Susan Nathan now
champions the Palestinian cause.

by Deaglلn de Bréadْn

The most accurate description of Susan Nathan comes from herself: "What I do
is that I live what comes out of my mouth." She is the only Jew among 25,000
Arabs in the northern Israeli town of Tamra and has taken up the cause of
the Palestinians who remained inside the borders of Israel after the state
was set up in 1948.

Her harshest critics could not say she has chosen a comfortable path.
Friends and even some relatives have turned against her, she says, but she
is standing by her controversial claim that the Palestinians in Israel are
victims of apartheid-style discrimination and mistreatment.

Now she's written a book to tell her story and make her case, "The Other
Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish-Arab Divide" (HarperCollins).
The writing style is direct and simple: she wanted "Joe Bloggs on the
street" to be able to read it and say, "I didn't understand that it was like
that". In person, too, Nathan is direct and to the point. As far as she is
concerned, the issue itself is a simple one. Her Jewish co-religionists took
the land from the Palestinians, who have been severely oppressed and treated
as second-class citizens ever since.

She only came to this conclusion in her 50s, having been an ardent Zionist
all her life. It took a long time for the penny to drop but there is now no
self-doubt or hesitation.

Nathan says that initially she was "brainwashed and in love with the Zionist
narrative". Very few non-Jewish people understood the power of Zionist
propaganda.

"You are brought up to believe that you are outside of society, that you are
forever persecuted, that Israel is your safe haven . . . It is like being
part of a cult." The Zionist claim that Israel exists for the salvation of
the Jews in case of another Holocaust was "a very cynical misuse of people's
fears and the Holocaust".

She is the daughter of a Harley Street physician. Her father, Samuel Levy,
studied in South Africa and then Trinity College Dublin in the late 1920s
and early 1930s. "He used to spend Friday night and all Saturday with the
family of Chaim Herzog [future president of Israel, whose father was
Ireland's chief rabbi]."

The family came from the Baltic region. Fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms, they
made their way to Odessa on the Black Sea. Family lore has it that they
wanted to go to Hamburg but the ship was full so they had to sail for South
Africa instead. "And that's how we escaped the Holocaust."

Born in 1949, she grew up in South Africa and England. She got married,
reared a family and got divorced when she was 50. Initially she was an avid
supporter of the Israeli state. Having worked as a teacher and HIV/Aids
therapist, Nathan decided at last to realise her lifelong Zionist dream of
emigrating to Israel. "I applied under the Right of Return," she says. Under
Israeli law, anyone with a Jewish grandparent can emigrate to Israel and
become a citizen.

"It was a wonderful homecoming. I believed the Zionist ideology, I really
believed this was 'a land without a people for a people without a land'.
Palestinians were not on the map for me in any shape or form." She was
offered "a very good job" teaching business English in Tel Aviv. Around the
time of her arrival, the latest intifada rebellion erupted at the end of
2000. She saw "the wonderful achievements of our forces" being extolled on
Israeli television.

"I really fell for that line," she says. But then she became very ill and
had to be hospitalised and this brought her into close regular contact with
Palestinians. She began to ask herself, "Where am I in this society, what is my role?"

She became involved with a Palestinian-Jewish NGO dealing with
deprived communities, and worked on a project in Tamra. "I started to
understand the enormous similarities between Arab-Israeli society and black
society during the apartheid years in South Africa."

But it's not as if Israel adopts petty measures such as having separate Arab
and Jewish toilets the way South Africa had separate toilets for blacks and
whites. "In Israel it's far more sophisticated than that, because it's all
heavily veiled. It's very important for Israel to be seen to be democratic,
Western, accepted by the US and Europe." But as far as she is concerned:
"Israeli society in its current form really equals a half democracy, a
democracy for Jews only."

Nathan's version of Israeli history would not find favour in Zionist
circles: "The major form of discrimination comes in the confiscation and
appropriation of Arab land. All of the state of Israel is built on
Palestinian land. Around 480 to 500 villages were totally destroyed during
the battle of Israeli independence in 1948. And this discrimination and
dispossession goes on and on and on.

"Israel is the only country in the world where you can be an eternal
refugee, where you can be present but absent by law from your property,
being deprived of the right of return to your property and your land, even
though you own the deeds for that property and that land, and to be without
compensation. It is appalling.

"And once I had seen the comparison with South Africa, I decided that I
could no longer keep my mouth closed." Nathan decided to go and live among
the Arabs in Israel and "help to activate change".

She vigorously rejects any allegation that she is an anti-Semitic or
"self-hating" Jew. "One is not called anti-British if one criticises the
policies of the British government." This is "just a rather nasty political
ploy".

But she knows there is a price to be paid for the stand she has taken.
"Everything in life comes with a price." Taking a phrase from the late
Edward Said, she says: "What I do with my life is the politics of
embarrassment." Predicting there will be another intifada uprising soon, she
adds: "Israel should have been the safest place in the world for Jews to be
and actually . . . now, ironically, it has turned out to be the most
dangerous." Nathan's "personal dream" is that Israel will ultimately be a
bi-national state."

Her sympathy for the Palestinians is largely unqualified and she sharply
rebukes a member of the audience at a Dublin meeting who raises a question
about the rights of gays and lesbians in the Palestinian Territories. The
question is "incredibly offensive", she says, warning of the "moral
superiority of the West".

"As far as I know, you're not a Muslim, you don't live in the Muslim world.
The Arab world is perfectly capable of dealing with those issues in its own
time and in its own way."

Speaking to her afterwards, I said many people would regard gay and lesbian
rights as universal human rights, so why couldn't outsiders raise them?
"Because I don't think people from other cultures should interfere."

As for suicide bombing, she says: "I don't condone it. I don't say it's
right. But I think we have to say, 'How does this come about? Why do we have
this phenomenon?'" When I put it to her that the Irish were oppressed but
didn't use suicide bombers, she responds: "Yes, but did you have the entire
army unleashed on you? Did you have jet-fighters bombing your homes? Did you
have your homes demolished while you were in them? Did you have 40 years of
brutal occupation and conniving to come to some sort of artificial peace
process? Did you have that?"

© The Irish Times

Ok, finally, my first post on politics for quite a long time...so, London bombings...let's see. When I heard the news of the bombings and read some stuff on the internet, I got to thinking "something as fishy as 9/11 is going on here"...as I read further, several questions formed in my mind:

How is it that paper documents can survive bomb blasts that rip apart steel and people?

Why did the "suspects" take credit cards along on a suicide mission? I didn't know Visa Cards were good in Paradise or Hell !!!

Why and how did former Israeli prime minister get a warning to stay away from a place where he was to speak, located above one of the blast sites?

Why did the "suspects" leave a car full of explosives in a parking lot in Luton, 30 miles from London? Did they expect someone to find the car and put the explosives to good use?! I don't think so. 

What about the anti-terrorism exercises scheduled for the same hour in which the bombings took place?

How did former head of the Mossad Efraim Halevi, writing in the Jerusalem Post on July 7( the day of the attacks) know that the bombs went off simultaneously, when the London police did not say so for days?

Why would suicide bombers carry personal documents?"

Why were two of the men's papers found in two or three different locations? Why would you give away your personal documents to a fellow bomber if you knew you were both going to die?

How did these young men obtain military grade explosives? And how could their families not have noticed anything if the men's houses were full of the explosives, so full in fact to warrant the evacuation of 600 people from the area ?

Why is it that someone would blow himself up, for no known reason, being pretty recently married with a 14 month old baby daughter, and living a humble and seemingly satisfying life  (I am referring to Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30-year-old primary school teaching assistant who worked at Hillside Primary School in Dewsbury as a "learning mentor" with the children of immigrant families who had just arrived in Britain. Married in 2001, Khan was also involved in the community-run Hamara Healthy Living Centre in Beeston, and worked at its youth outreach project, the Hamara Youth Access Point (HYAP) at 73 Lodge Lane.

I really couldn't find plausible answers to any of these questions, except for one: The London Bombings of July 7th, 2005 were, like I believe 9/11 was, staged.  Staged by who? The British government, and very likely in correspondence with the US government. Why ? Why would a government want to kill its own citizens and accuse innocent people? To contribute to people's belief in the necessity of the so-called "War on Terror", because the War on Terror allows the United States (and those who help "wage the war on terror") expand and overwhelm the rest of the world,  spreading both physically and ideologically, and creating an empire. The American Empire, as put by Andrew Bacevich. To quote the words of David Griffin, a professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology who both authored or edited over two dozen books, including "God and Religion in the Postmodern World," "Religion and Scientific Naturalism," and "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11" in his speech titled  9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond?:

"... [W]e can see through the claim that the US' project of creating the first truly global empire is a benevolent or at least benign enterprise. ...[W]e can fully grasp the extent to which this project is propelled by fanaticism based on a deeply perverted value system only when we realize that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were orchestrated by our own leaders--and that they did this to provide the justification, the fear, and the funding for the so-called war on terror, which would be used as a pretext for enlarging the empire." **

And it seems to me that since Britain is in on the "War on Terror" with the US and has firmly maintained that it will support the US in its efforts to spread freedom and democracy around the world and fight terrorists, it comes as no surprise that the British government very likely staged the London bombings, just as I believe the Bush administration staged the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon.

And so, either give me plausible answers to my very simple questions, or really consider my point of view. Look at the bigger picture, at all that has been happening over the course of the past ten years or so, and the (staged) London bombings of July 7^th 2005 seem to fit nicely into the rest of the picture.  

To end with a bit of humor, check out this article on how to stage a terrorist attack in ten easy steps.

 

How the Government Staged the London Bombings in Ten Easy Steps

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet | July 13 2005

Ten Step Method To Staging a Terrorist Attack

1) Hire a Crisis Management firm to set up an exercise that parallels the terrorist attack you are going to carry out. Have them run the exercise at the precise locations and at the very same time as the attack. If at any stage of the attack your Arabs get caught, tell the police it was part of an exercise.

2) Hire four Arabs and tell them they're taking part in an important exercise to help defend London from terrorist attacks. Strap them with rucksacks filled with deadly explosives. Tell the Arabs the rucksacks are dummy explosives and wouldn't harm a fly.

3) Tell four Arabs to meet up at London Underground and disperse, each getting on a different train. Make sure Arabs meet in a location where you can get a good mug shot of them all on CCTV which you can later endlessly repeat to drooling masses on television.

4) While four Arabs are in London, plant explosives in their houses in Leeds. Plant some explosives in one of their cars in Luton for the police to later discover. Remember that Qu'ran and flight manual in the hijackers' car? Ha ha, they fell for that one hook, line and sinker. No need to change tactics on this one.

5) Before the bombings take place, make sure you warn any of your buddies who are scheduled to be anywhere near where the bombs go off. If this gets leaked to the press, just deny it.

6) 4th Arab goes out partying in London night before and ends up getting out of bed late. No worries, the 9/11 'hijackers' did the same thing but that didn't cause us a big problem. 4th Arab catches bus to see if other Arabs are waiting for him. 4th Arab starts hearing about explosions in the London Underground. 4th Arab comes to the realization that this he is being set up and freaks out. 4th Arab starts fiddling in his rucksack. 4th Arab sets bomb off and is blown up.

If you hired any additional Arabs and they also got wind of the set up, make sure there are GPS locators in the rucksacks so you can have police snipers ready to kill them before they can blow the whistle.

7) After the bombs go off, put out a story for over an hour that the explosions are a simple electrical fault. This gives you cover time to make sure the lazy bus Arab is dead and any other hired Arabs who reneged are also dead. Make sure any CCTV footage that doesn't support your official story is either seized or destroyed.

8) A few hours after the bombings, have one of your boys post an 'Al-Qaeda statement' claiming responsibility. Don't worry about the whole 'misreferencing the Qu'ran' thing, these idiots don't have the attention spans to figure it out.

9) After you have made sure that all the Arabs are dead and you are managing the story accordingly, wait for four days until the police piece together the story and find the explosives you planted in Leeds and in the car in Luton. Remember that Qu'ran and flight manual in the hijackers' car? Ha ha, they fell for that one hook, line and sinker. No need to change tactics this time either. The time delay will convince the gullible public that a real investigation is taking place. Create a background of the hired Arabs being militant Muslims. The drooling masses, as was the case with the '9/11 hijackers,' will ignore stories of neighbours saying they were the quiet, educated types who liked children and playing sports.

BBC excerpt: One local resident described him as "a nice lad".

"He liked to play football, he liked to play cricket. I'm shocked."

Another resident said he was just a "normal kid" who played basketball and kicked a ball around.

10) Sit back and enjoy as Blair and his minions grandstand in front of television cameras about staying the course in the war on terror. The pay raise, extra agency funding, and power to strip more freedoms and liberties made the ten easy steps to staging a terrorist attack a worthwhile venture. The dozens of dead people were necessary collateral damage. This is a dirty war, we need to be less moral than the terrorists to defeat them.

And that's how the government staged the bombings in ten easy steps.

Granted, you can interchange different pieces of the puzzle. The bombers could be real terrorists that knew exactly what they were doing. All you would need to do is control the 'mastermind' behind the attack and make sure his boys carried out the job in the way you wanted. Voila.

** To listen to David Griffin’s full speech or read a transcript of it: http://www.911blogger.com/2005/04/proper-release-of-griffin-in-madison.html

Sources:

911 Blogger http://www.911blogger.com/2005/04/proper-release-of-griffin-in-madison.html

Sunday Times Online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1693797,00.html

Google News http://www.google.com 

Prison Planet http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2005/130705teneasysteps.htm

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings#Alleged_bombers

Is it possible that coverage of Michael Jackson's trial takes up more airtime than does international news?

I am sick of what people call "the news" here...I turn on the TV in order to see what is going on in the world and what do I get? 15 minutes of some story about a family who got reunited with their puppy after two years of dreadful sorrow and tears thinking their dear pet had died somwhere. No offense to puppies or anything like that, but I mean COME ON !! I would really appreciate it if you could let me know what is happening in this world of ours..there is so much to cover, so much to show on the news about the world, but what  do we get? Michael Jackson's trial, the story of the runaway bride, a woman who found a finger in her chili at Wendy's, Ronald McDonald as star guest on MSNBC one night..I could go on and on...but why bother?

*sigh*...I am already used to finding my own way around obstacles..this is yet another obstacle..Google news will just have to do as a replacement for CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, KARE 11, EYEWTINESS 5, blah blah blah blah blah...*grumpy*...

Ok I know it's kinda late to post this bit of news, but Priscilla Owen got nominated for the Supreme Court ...yes, I know....it's terrible...la 7awal wa la qoowata illa billa...Bush, his administration, and his nominees are going to be the destruction of this country...but at the same time, the destruction of this country goes way beyond Bush and his administration only....he's just the most prominent player in the game right now, at least that's how I see it...There is much more, much more implicit things going on...and we are going to be the ones who suffer (in this life-but in al aakhiraa..well...that's another story... )....

The most ironic and annoying thing ?! The same party that is currently trying to get rid of the use of filibusters to obstruct and delay judicial action that might work against them (namely the current Republicans) is the party that was the most fervent user of the filibuster back in the civil rights days....*sigh*...we want things only when they serve our interests...democracy shemocracy..I would have a much easier life if I just kept my nose out of politics...but I can't do that ..soooo I guess I just have to suffer the consequences of my actions (and that includes becoming depressed everytime I read the news)...*sigggghhhhhhh*....I want to go eat.....excuse me while I go stuff myself...*j/k...I'm not going to stuff myself but I am hungry*

Astaghfarallah...take a look at this Church sign, placed on one of America's most frequently travelled highways..

This sign posted in front of Danieltown Baptist Church has sparked debate in Rutherford County about religious tolerance. (Josh Humphries/Daily Courier)

 Talk about religious intolerance...la 7awala wala qoowata illa billah...Rev. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the church, is not apologizing for the display."I believe that it is a statement supporting the word of God and that it (the Bible) is above all and that any other religious book that does not teach Christ as savior and lord as the 66 books of the Bible teaches it, is wrong," said Lovelace.

 He also said he " knew that whenever we decided to put that sign up that there would be people who wouldn't agree with it, and there would be some that would, and so we just have to stand up for what's right."

 Such explicit intolerance of other people, cultures, and religion is sick..And they complain about Muslim anger..not surprising with things like this..

Sooooo.....next elections in Belarus are going to be free and fair, right ? .... Riiiggghhhhtttt....okkaaayy sounds good ....*sarcasm sarcasm*...I knew we could always count on Mr Bush to make the 'hood a better place for all of us residents....ahhh, the joys of having a safe neighborhood...whatever...

I have no energy for this right now..as some people could tell you, I am in severe pain at the moment, with no apparent cure on hand...inshallah khair....

maybe I could complain to Bush?!

I seriously don't know whether to laugh or cry .... apparently, Husni Mubarak (president of Egypt), is trying to decide whether or not he feels like running for a fifth six-year presidential elections...

"I don't want to be hasty in taking the decision. By nature, I always study big decisions from all sides," the wise and pondering Mubarak said.*

Mubarak is a very popular leader. As we all know, he recieved a 97% approval rate in the past elections, a percentage that not even Nelson Mandella, the most popular and loved President by his people ever received *sarcasm sarcasm* (Mandella only received a 70% - considered to be a very high number)...But dear old Husni Mubarak, he's just something else...I mean, his people absolutely love him, as shown by them giving him a 97% approval when they don't even vote..yep, Egypt has no public elections...does that surprise you that he approved himself (with the help of his own-installed parliament members) ? I should hope not...the people have nothing to do with him being in office. In fact, most probably would not experience too much grief if he suddenly....disappeared or something ....*sarcasm sarcasm*..

Let's all go vote....democratically...*sigh*

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*Quote found in article from islamonline.com. The "wise and pondering" is mine.

   Awwwwwwwwwww aren't the two buddies cute together ?! Holding hands too  ....well well welll, I guess frienship is the solution to all problems, especially oil problems right ?!

"Abdullah, turn on the tap will ya? I'm losing my popularity coz people are having to pay too much for gas..help me out and just turn on the tap..."

Ok Bush didn't really say that, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did...

 

President Bush greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch in Crawford, Texas Monday, April 25, 2005. President Bush is seeking relief from record-high gas prices and support for Middle East peace as he opens his Texas ranch to Abdullah. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"Saudi Arabia has outlined a plan to increase production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009 from the current 11 million limit. Saudi Arabia now pumps about 9.5 million barrels daily. If necessary, Saudi Arabia says it will eventually develop a capacity of 15 million barrels a day."

See, they're willing to do anything to stay in power..."sure, we'll exceed our maximum capacity of 11 million barrels a day if you promisey womisey to keep us in power"....(that's how I'm sensing the two speak to each other ....call me ridiculous, but who isn't ridiculous in the world of politics .)......the issue of mutual vulnerability here is just amazingly overpowering...one needs/wants oil, the other needs/wants security and ensured protection...sooooo hey! They work out a woonndderful agreement; a win-win situation...except everyone else suffers..and for those who aren't suffering currently, have no fear: you will be in the future ! I don't mean to be pessimistic......actually, yes I do..