News: Middle East

Once upon a time, in a whimsical world where gas prices danced with bunny hues, the Easter Bunny became an unlikely economist. His fluffy tail twitched as he analyzed the correlation between carrot futures and unleaded gasoline. 🐰📈The Pink Bunny Index soared when tulips bloomed, signaling higher gas prices. Meanwhile, Lavender Lop-Ears predicted a market downturn, their floppy ears drooping in dismay. 🌷📉As the sun set, the Teal Bunnies convened in secret warrens, whispering stock tips. Their fur changed shades with each rumor: Turquoise for bullish trends, Indigo for bearish forecasts. 🌈🐇And so, dear reader, next time you see a bunny nibbling clover by the roadside, remember: Behind those twitching noses lie the secrets of Wall Street and the whimsy of gas pump digits. 🥕💰🐾

After seeing the complete flaunting of the law in last nights decision by Wisconsin Republicans, I realize (and confirmed) that the modern Republican is nothing to do with the grand Republicans from our history. Indeed, the scariest thing I've ever seen. They live, without hope, they believe in nothing but their own short lives in this round blue cell we all share. They don't believe in an afterlife, or even the continuing of any existence of a world to be inherited by the descendants of our current time period. They will tell you that they do, and they will tell you that they love Jesus, but their actions betray their inner thoughts.Republicans at this point are the new Communist movement in the United States, please kick them all out of power, this lone soul is a partial American. He may be reformed, but as for the rest of the stinking Communist Republican party they need to be shipped in cardboard boxes back to China where they belong. They'll take your rights and guns soon, and you'll be broke. Trust me, those Commie Republicans are out to destroy the American way of life. It's going to be a crazy weekend in Madison, WI this weekend, I think. I for one plan to curl up with the bible and the TV this weekend, listening to Ministry - Psalm 69 while reading Revelations, enjoying the cacaphony of the last days of the society I once lived in. I hope I'm wrong, but the power-mad may ...

Why are we farking there? Was it Osama Bin Ladin? Remember when they said they had him cornered in a secret lair in the mountains of Tora Bora? I was all excited to see his Dr Evil hideout. Whatever happened with that guy? Is it to build a pipeline through the country and control the flow of oil? Because we could've done that without bombing a bunch of people gathered for family reunions and weddings. Is it b/c the Taliban is brutal to gays and women? Because I live in Dominionist central and there are plenty of American Christians who can't wait to turn this place into a dark ages theocracy. Was it to spread Democracy through the Middle East? Because I don't think they're going to be listening to our point once the smoke clears. Was it to claim all of the minerals that the Soviets found in the 70s? Because we could've, you know, traded money for those. Instead, we're paying for this stupid farking war AND we'll pay for all of those minerals. Seems like a pretty big mark up. Is it to satiate the Military Industrial Complex's constant need for war, to keep a few rich white guys at a depraved level of wealth? Because I'd gladly give them 80 cents on my tax dollar (as opposed to .75) if they'd just leave the rest of the world alone and quit killing people.

While North America's airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification.That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel's, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience."It is mindboggling for us Israelis to look at what happens in North America, because we went through this 50 years ago," said Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy. He's worked with the RCMP, the U.S. Navy Seals and airports around the world."Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don't take s--- from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, 'We're not going to do this. You're going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport."That, in a nutshell is "Israelification" - a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.Despite facing dozens of potential threats each day, the security set-up at Israel's largest hub, Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, has not been breached since 2002, when a passenger mistakenly carried a handgun onto a flight. How do they manage that?[Read More]

The security theater that has been implemented since 2001 has raised the cost (in dollars, time and convenience) of air travel enough to divert enough travelers to the nations highways that I posit that we as a nation have suffered more death and injury than had we reacted to the Sep 11 attacks by literally doing nothing at all.We kill more people on the roads annually than more than 15 such attacks would have done.Meanwhile, UBL's grand master plan stopped working even before the last airplane was grounded that day - the passengers found out that the rules (give hijackers what they want and you get out alive) had changed and the last plane did not make its target. And because everybody knows the new rules of engagement, that plan will never work again - regardless of any changes (or lack thereof) in government policy.There are exactly 3 things necessary for airport security:1. Make sure that no luggage gets on the plane without its associated passenger (you can't blow up the plane without going along for the ride).2. Metal detectors to keep guns out. The alternative is allowing anybody to carry, thus insuring the entire plane will wind up swiss cheese if any funny business starts. That's a less than positive outcome, IMHO.3. Lock and bar the cockpit doors for the flight's duration.And for extra credit4. Research applying the military's UAV technology to the air transport system. If enough improvements can be made in assuring positive aircraft control, there's no ...

by Thom HartmannIf Bill Clinton - or, presumably, Al Gore (or even Ralph Nader) - had been President in 2001, the Ft. Hood massacre almost certainly wouldn't have happened. Because George W. Bush was president, it did. Here's why it's Bush's fault:One of the first lessons aspiring novelists and screenwriters learn is that the goodness of a hero is defined by a single quality - the evil of his opponent. From Superman's Lex Luthor to Batman's Joker to Indiana Jones' Nazis to Luke Skywalker's Darth Vader, for a hero to be perceived as larger than life, he must have a larger than life enemy.If Frodo in "Lord of the Rings," for example, hadn't been forced to do battle with the supernatural powers of the Ring and its minions, his story would have merely been a boring travelogue. But with an army of supernaturally brilliant, evil, and powerful opponents, Frodo had the opportunity to display his extraordinary inner courage and resourcefulness, qualities he didn't even realize he had until they were called forth by the peril of an awesome evil.This is a lesson that was not lost on Karl Rove and George W. Bush. If they could recast George as the opponent of a power as great as the Ring, then the rather ordinary Dubya could become the extraordinary SuperGeorge, rising from his facileness to prevail over supernatural powers of evil.Bill Clinton had a similar chance, but passed on it for the good of America and the world.When bin Laden attacked ...

It is not the responsibility of non-Muslims to look past barbaric evil attack after barbaric evil attack and recognize that moderate Islam still exists. It is the responsibility of moderate Islam to rein in and destroy the madmen emanating from your societies. Are you too toothless or unwilling to do that? Full Story

Baghdad, Iraq - A US soldier shot and killed a tiger at the Baghdad zoo after it bit another soldier who had reached through the bars of its cage to feed it, a zoo security guard said Saturday.  The soldiers had been drinking beer when they entered the zoo Thursday night after it closed, said the guard, Zuhair Abdul-Majeed. "He was drunk," Abdul-Majeed said of the bitten soldier.  After the man was bit, the other American shot the tiger three times in the head and killed it, Abdul-Majeed told the Associated Press.  It was impossible to reach the US military spokesman's office because the telephones have not worked for three days. Subsequent reports have added details.  This wasn't just any tiger, but a Bengal tiger, and the most valuable animal in the zoo.  Agence France-Presse tells us that the tiger bit off the soldier's finger and mauled his arm.  AFP also informs us that Uday Hussein was a "lover of big cats," and that some of the cats in the zoo had been transferred from Saddam's palaces.  That could be important in the upcoming investigation (immediately requested by the World Society for the Protection of Animals); one could creatively spin this to establish a terrorist connection between the beast and the late son of the Iraqi leader.

Do you think the average US citizen would be safer if we:Provided universal health care or killed Iraqis?Provided port security or killed Iraqis?Secured our borders or killed Iraqis?Had levies that didn't collapse or killed Iraqis?Had bridges that didn't collapse or killed Iraqis?Had a president with an IQ over 100 or killed Iraqis?Obviously the answer to all of these questions is that the war in Iraq does not make us safer than the alternatives we could pursue if we were not spending a trillion dollars in Iraq, mostly creating more people who hate Americans so that we can kill them and create more people who hate Americans,...

It’s the ‘Oh Shit!’ Moment on Iranby Dave LindorffEvery horror movie has that “Oh Shit!” moment, when the hero or heroes are huddled in some creepy hideout, and suddenly something happens that tells you that the monster is just around the corner, or just about to attack. In “Jurassic Park” it was the pulsing ripples in a cup of water, heralding the arrival of a T-Rex. In “Jaws” it was the deep bass music, letting you know that a monstrous shark was about to attack.Well, we just got our “Oh Shit!” moment with the just-announced resignation of Admiral William J. Fallon, the military commander of US Middle East operations.Adm. Fallon, 63, famously said that an attack on Iran would not happen “on my watch,” and is widely believed to have already threatened, along with a number of other top generals and admirals, to quit the service if the Bush administration were to launch an air attack on Iran.Put the pieces together. We know that the vice president is obsessed with a desire to attack Iran, and has been since before he even took office. Bush has repeatedly stressed that Iran cannot be permitted to continue with its nuclear processing (he calls it their “nukular” bomb program, though there is no evidence that the country has a nuclear bomb development program, and in fact the last National Intelligence Estimate on Iran said there was not and hadn’t been since 2003). And Fallon has now quit.The Eisenhower nuclear aircraft carrier strike force ...