Jake Fox — gasp! — broke an unwritten rule

I had missed this, but several readers have alerted me to the fact that Jake Fox of the Baltimore Orioles was excoriated by both the opposing manager — Jim Leyland — and his own manager following what they perceived to be a clear violation of one of baseball’s many, many unwritten rules the other day: The MBT Sirima,Orioles had runners on second and third and no outs in the eighth inning today when Fox came to the plate against Tigers minor leaguer Chance Ruffin. The most important aspect of this story is the score was 13-3 at the time, and both teams had subbed out most of their regulars. 

Ruffin started the at-bat with three straight balls, but Fox decided to take a rip at a 3-0 pitch in a clear take situation. Taking that 3-0 rip in a blowout got both Leyland and Buck Showalter barking at Fox for not playing the game the right way and all of that rebop. For what it’s worth, I think ‘Duk at Big League Stew nailed it in his MBT Panda, post yesterday when he noted how — no matter what you think of Fox’s act on its own terms — it’s rather silly to get worked up about this sort of thing in a spring training game where the last thing anyone usually thinks about is competitive integrity.

And even if you should care about competitive integrity in such a game, it’s worth noting that the the Tigers staged a bit of a comeback in this one, with the score ending up 14-9. But really: if pitchers are allowed to “work on stuff” in spring training games, MBT Imara Sandals why can’t hitters? There will be a time this year when Fox gets a green-light 3-0. Is he not entitled to practice up on his from-the-heels swings?

Jamie Moyer joins ESPN as “Baseball Tonight” analyst

Jamie Moyer hasn’t given up hope of pitching again despite being 48 years old and sidelined for this season following Tommy John elbow surgery, but in the meantime he’s taken a job as a “Baseball Tonight” analyst, ESPN MBT Habari Sandals.

According to the press release his television debut will come tomorrow and Moyer “will provide analysis on ‘Baseball Tonight’ throughout the season.”

Moyer, who is longtime ESPN basketball analyst Digger Phelps’ son-in-law, said that he plans to use the “forum as a chance to elaborate on the art of pitching as I rehab from injury this season” and added that he MBT Panda Sandals, “hope(s) to get back on the diamond in the future.”

Mets over Phillies? Well … that’s an interesting prediction

MBT Kimondo Shoes because, well, they’re fun to do.  And since they’re almost always wrong anyway I don’t suppose there is any reason for anyone to get too worked up by them. But sometimes you see one that does sort of strain credulity a bit.  Like Mike Vaccaro’s in the New York Post.

MBT Changa Birch,  is fine as it is, with him noting that the Yankees have high expectations and the Mets are, at least from a fan moarale perspective, totally in the dumps. But then I clicked over to MBT Fora,  and Vaccaro has the Mets finishing in second place in the NL East. Ahead of the Phillies, who he has in third place.

My hope — and even my suspicion, because Vaccaro is a pretty bright guy — is that he’s either taking the picks themselves for the somewhat silly exercise they are and/or trolling for some reactions.  Which, I’m hearing from people in Philly, he’s already getting.  I find this to be great fun and I actually considered doing this myself but decided against it just because I didn’t feel like getting 100 angry emails before 10AM.

C’mon, Mike. You’re joking.  Aren’t you?

Next stop, stardom: 2011 breakout picks – Justin Upton

Justin Upton has yet to become the MVP-caliber superstar expected from the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft and actually took a major step backward last season following a very strong 2009 performance, MBT Baridi Shoes,but I’m not sure most people fully realize just how rare it is for someone to be as productive as Upton’s been at such a young age.

He’s hit .272 with a .352 on-base percentage and .471 slugging percentage through 422 career games while averaging 21 homers and 72 RBIs per 600 plate appearances, which looks like good but not great production until you note that Upton made his MLB debut at age 19 and is still just 23 years old.

Here’s the complete list of all the players in the past 50 years to get at least 1,500 appearances through age 22 and post a higher OPS than Upton: MBT Shuguli GTX, Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Conigliaro, Boog Powell, Cesar Cedeno. That’s it. That’s the whole list. And filling out the rest of the top 10, directly behind Upton on the list, are Johnny Bench, MBT BoostMBT Sport, , and Rickey Henderson. Suddenly the fact that his OPS dipped slightly below .800 last season doesn’t seem so damning, does it?

 

Upton’s high strikeout rate sticks out as a potential red flag for his development, but he’s already flashed 30-homer power and 20-steal speed to go along with above-average plate discipline and a good glove in right field. In terms of raw ability and physical tools very few players are in Upton’s league and he’s on the verge of making a name for himself–and surpassing his brother, MBT Shoes Clearance,  of the Rays–as one of the elite outfielders in the game.

How to use Twitter properly to enhance your baseball experience

Moshe Mandel had a great post over at The Yankee Analysts yesterday. It’s about Twitter, and he keys on the biggest thing that keeps a lot of baseball fans off it: they misunderstand the point of it all. As an example, Moshe links to a Time Magazine list of the MBT Changa Birch,allegedly most important Twitter accounts for sports fans to follow.

With the exception of the first name listed — Old Hoss Radbourn, which is a feed in which one of the more clever people I’ve ever encountered pretends to be the long dead 19th century ace – they’re athletes or celebrities.

The thing is, however, if you get on Twitter to follow athletes and celebrities, you’re missing out on everything it has to MBT Fora, offer. As Moshe notes: Most people see Twitter as a one way street, a tool to follow celebrities, funny people, and Eric Stangel without much interaction. To them, Twitter serves as an RSS feed to the thoughts of the interesting elite, which is why it may seem vapid to spend a lot of time using it. Whenever I tell MBT Staka Sandals,  that I frequently utilize Twitter, they roll their eyes and ask me some variation of “Why do you care about Celebrity X’s dinner”?

But Twitter has the capability to be so much more, and for many of us it has become an invaluable implement in the sports fan toolbox. It has much greater utility as a social networking device than it does as a celebrity follower, and no greater example can be found in the MBT Boost Shoes, sports world, where media members, bloggers, and fans have come together to build a vibrant network for discussion and debate about sports.

Tryout over: Luis Castillo released nine days after signing with Phillies

Nine days after signing Luis Castillo to a minor-league contract following news that Chase Utley would begin the season on the disabled list the Phillies have released the veteran second baseman. Castillo got off to a slow start after reporting to Phillies camp, MBT Sport Shoes,but notched two hits Saturday and two hits with a stolen base Tuesday.

He appeared to be in line to not only make the roster, but perhaps even start in place of Utley on Opening Day. So much for that. Because his minor-league deal wasn’t guaranteed the Phillies aren’t out any money and now Castillo is a free agent again, free to sign with any team for any amount with the Mets on the hook for his MBT Kimondo Shoes, entire $6 million salary. He’ll probably have to settle for another minor-league deal and prove himself at Triple-A.

Earlier this week Utley offered no timetable for his return and said only that returning before the All-Star break was his goal, but the Phillies are apparently comfortable going with light-hitting utility man Wilson Valdes as their primary second baseman. MBT Maliza, Josh Barfield is another in-house option if they decide to call him up from Triple-A and Philadelphia also signed infielder Kevin Frandsen to a minor-league deal yesterday.

Mariners “still have no timetable” for David Aardsma’s return

David Aardsma reported no problems MBT Habari,following a bullpen session earlier this week, but manager Eric Wedge said yesterday that the Mariners “still have no timetable” for the closer’s return from hip surgery. Wedge told Quinn Roberts of MLB.com that “the physical side is good, but he is still getting built up.” Immediately after the surgery there were reports that the Mariners hoped to have Aardsma back around Opening Day, but now the best-case scenario seems to be a late-April return. Brandon League is the presumed closer fill-in, although Wedge danced around the MBT Ema Sandals, issue yesterday when asked who’d be filling ninth-inning duties.

Your kids aren’t playing baseball

In this morning’s invocation I said that people will, come August, start slagging on baseball. Well, some aren’t waiting. The Wall Street Journal sounds an alarm today about how kids just aren’t playing the game anymore: As for Little League, MBT Chapa,which covers kids aged 4 to 18, about two million kids played in the U.S. last year, compared to about 2.5 million in 1996—an overall decline of 25%.

The only growth in youth baseball participation since the 1990s, according to the NSGA, has come from kids who play more than 50 times a year—which suggests more children who play baseball have chosen to specialize. Certainly not an unfair slag — facts is facts — but it is a downer to read it on Opening Day. But I MBT Changa Cork, wonder if there isn’t as much to worry about with this. Baseball isn’t the National Pastime it used to be, but part of it being so dominant for so long was that there were way more kids playing it who, let’s be honest, were doing so out of social pressure.

Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that every kid isn’t given a glove on his birthday and is expected to be a ballplayer. How many kids played ball in the past 60 years simply because not playing ball meant being ostracized? For them and for everyone it’s probably better that they’re playing soccer or playing guitar or learning programming languages or whatever. I get that this could potentially bode ill for the size of the MBT Salama, fan base in that, as the article notes, playing baseball is a good indicator of later following it.

But attendance is way healthier now than it ever was when everyone played as a kid, so I question whether this effect is as big as it’s made out to be. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but I don’t think it’s a particularly threatening one. Either for the game or for our nations’ youth.

Justin Morneau will be in the Twins’ Opening Day lineup

After spending eight months on the sidelines following a concussion last July the Twins have their cleanup hitter back, as manager Ron Gardenhire announced todaythat Justin Morneau will be in the MBT Tariki,Opening Day lineup when Minnesota kicks off the season in Toronto tomorrow night.

Gardenhire told reporters that he plans to give Morneau frequent days off early in the season, which the Twins are uniquely positioned to do thanks to Jim Thome‘s presence on the bench. On days Morneau doesn’t start Thome will be in the lineup at designated hitter, Jason Kubel will move to right field, andMichael Cuddyer will take over at first base.

That’s the arrangement the Twins used in the MBT Kimondo GTX, second half last season with Morneau on the disabled list, but it’ll be interesting to see how Gardenhire finds playing time for Thome and his 1.039 OPS if Morneau proves healthy enough to play nearly every day. One of Kubel, Cuddyer, or Delmon Young would have to be on the bench.

Rays and Wade Davis agree to long-term contract worth up to $35.1 million

Wade Davis is entering his second full season in the majors and wouldn’t have been arbitration eligible until 2013, but today the Rays announced that they’ve signed the 25-year-old right-hander to a long-term contract extension worth up to $35.1 million.

According to Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times the contract is worth at least $12.6 million for four seasons, with the Rays holding team options for 2015, 2016, and 2017 that if exercised would be worth an additional $22.5 million.

If all seven years of the contract are exercised the Rays would be buying out Davis’ final two seasons of minimum salaried serfdom, three seasons of arbitration eligibility, and first two seasons of free agency. Getting all that for $35.1 million would end up being a tremendous bargain for Tampa Bay, but that is offset by the risking of handing $12.6 million in guaranteed money to a young pitcher who would have been cheap until 2013 and was already under team control through 2015.

Davis, who was a third-round pick in 2004 and debuted in late-2009, has a 4.02 ERA, .253 opponents’ batting average, and 149/75 K/BB ratio in 204 career innings. He looks like a solid mid-rotation starter right now and may still have the potential to develop into a solid No. 2 guy.

First, condolences to the families

First, condolences to the families, MBT Changa Jewish and Arab, of those hurt or killed in yesterday’s bombing. I’ll include one sentence from an Agence France-Presse report that I didn’t hear on the nightly news:

The radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack which it said was carried out by a 29-year-old female lawyer, Hanadi Tayssir Jaradat, whose brother and cousin had been killed by the Israeli army in June.

I don’t think this requires any comment.

Second, I direct you to a good essay in the Daily Star by Ellen Siegel. It expands on some of the themes in my column MBT Habari Sandals, last Monday. A sample:

I must differentiate between my religious beliefs, my history and Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. Being Jewish does not mean that I have to support Israel’s oppressive policies towards the Palestinians, the occupation, the violation of human rights and assassinations.

The holidays fall around the same time every year. Each holiday I am haunted by the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Always, I remember, I reflect, I repent. I renew my commitment MBT Sapatu,to what is right and just - to the cause of the Palestinians in the camps.

Layne, on the other hand

Layne, on the other hand,MBT Lami Shoes doesn’t mention Israel as even a partial motivation. Instead, Layne claims, the invasion was a logical outcome of the “offensive realism” theory of international relations, which has guided US foreign policy since World War II. Specifically:

“The administration went to war in MBT shoes cheap to consolidate America’s global hegemony and to extend U.S. dominance to the Middle East by establishing a permanent military stronghold in MBT shoes cheap for the purposes of controlling the Middle Eastern oil spigot (thereby giving BT Lami Washington enormous leverage in its relations with Western Europe and China); allowing Washington to distance itself from an increasingly unreliable and unstable Saudi Arabia; and using the shadow of U.S. military power to bring about additional regime changes in NIKE shox and Syria.”

Lest anyone think that my take on patriotism in today’s article is meant to MBT Chapa GTX dismiss the concept altogether, please read this great essay by Joseph Sobran. Relevant to folks right and left.

Mbt Unono,If you’re a Bush-supporter

Mbt Unono,If you’re a Bush-supporter, that steady sucking sound you hear might be defecting libertarians. This article from The American Prospect should give Bushies the fear. It’s gonna be hard to win the next election with an even smaller second-place showing than they managed in the last one.

Or just bored by the self-amused oxyconservative? Check out a real alternative to the establishment media: MBT Staka, the Philip Dru show. It’s on-air in Austin, but the website features audio interviews with the likes of Ivan Eland, Greg Palast, Alan Bock, and Jesse Walker– talent on loan from God, you might say (but please don’t).

Every once in a while someone will point out some theme that I disagree with in an article posted on AWC & ask me why, if I disagree, I bother doing the work of editing the site’s letters section, etc. But, in fact, it’s not possible (never mind necessary or desirable) to MBT Sini Shoes agree with everything since AWC presents such a wide variety of viewpoints.

Take two of today’s highlights, for example: Justin Raimondo’s “Israel is the Problem – Our Problem” and Christopher Layne’s “The Cost of Empire” (The American Conservative). Both reject the stated reasons for the invasion of MBT shoes cheap, & suggest other motivations. Justin: “the strategic doctrine at the heart of U.S. Middle Eastern policy” is “the installation of Israel as regional hegemon.” Bush went to war “for Israel’s sake.”

Aretz offers to its readers

Aretz offers to its readers: Either you support Israel’s attack and warn (of) Assad; Or you support Israel’s attack and warn (of) Sharon. How did they say it in Latin? Tertium non datur – there is no third option.

MBT Habari Sandals

The White House on Tuesday ruled out three top aides as the source of a news leak identifying an undercover CIA officer whose husband was critical of Bush administration MBT shoes cheap policy

MBT Panda Sandals

.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said he had talked to each of the aides ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday for officials to turn over information in a Justice Department probe of the leak.

He left open the possibility the leaker would never be found. “I think all of us in this room know that it sometimes can be difficult to determine anonymous sources. But let me emphasize … no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than the president of the United States,” he said.

So the White House simply asked Karl Rove,

MBT Fumba

Lewis Libby, and Elliot Abrams whether they committed a felony or not, they said “no,” and they’re cleared? And they mocked Hans Blix’s interrogatory methods in MBT shoes cheap?

Well, let’s see all what Ha’aretz actually had to say

Well, let’s see all what Ha’aretz actually had to say.

MBT Tariki Shoes

(1) Editorial, 7.10:

“The bone of contention is not Israel’s right to strike at those who operate against it under the cover of Assad. Israel has the right […]; but this does not testify to the wisdom of such moves. […] The Syrian president could, contrary to Israeli expectations, cause an additional escalation […] There is a need for tight control to prevent a move planned as minimalist from leading to a major escalation.”

-So now we know it: Sharon had the right to attack Syria, and his intentions were benevolently “minimalist”; at worst, if escalation occurs, it will be blamed on Syria.

(2) Columnist Amir Oren, 7.10, reiterates the same line in a nutshell, for readers who missed the point:

“Is that a shrewd plan, or a wild gamble? The answer depends upon Syria’s response.”

(3) From Gideon Samet’s column, 8.10 – a writer considered extremely dovish – the future historian would be able to assume that the attack was not uncontroversial in Israel:

MBT Salama Sandals

“Criticism of the air force sortie into Syria behind the back of Bashar Assad was completely predictable”, Samet writes. He doesn’t even bother to reveal the arguments of that criticism. His own view is that “Syria deserved that little blow” – yes! – but he does warn, to maintain his critical image, that “The action in Syria may be a fragment of the regional strategy of a leader whose dangerous potential has been fulfilled on more than one occasion.”Mbt Unono

Follow-up to the Romanian Gypsy child bride brouhaha

Follow-up to the Romanian Gypsy child bride brouhaha:

MBT Ema Sandals

The Romanian child protection agency has forced Ana-Maria to separate from her 15-year-old husband and has required both children to live at home with their parents in the Transylvanian town of Sibiu.

The Romanians caved to the EU, in other words. Thank God this horrible scourge has been defeated! Of course, the marriage was not a legally-sanctioned one to begin with, but who cares? Just so long as American and Western European do-gooders earn another badge. Not that their meddling is likely to do the young lady much good:

Although [the bride's father, who arranged the marriage] has nominally complied, there is considerable doubt over whether the government edict is being obeyed, because the two families are next-door neighbours and there is a gate that links their properties.

MBT Kimondo GTX

If you haven’t read my “Looking Behind Ha’aretz’s Liberal Image“, you may expect Israel’s “liberal newspaper” to stand up clear and loud against the recent Israeli aggressive escalation, in which Sharon, breaching a cease-fire that had lasted for some 20 years, sent his jets to bomb a target deep inside Syria.MBT Chapa

No one has been purged

No one has been purged. Bovard hasn’t written many articles for the Prowler

version of the website, but what he has written appears to have gone missing

in the search engine. These things happen; I’ll look into it and fix it.

MBT Chapa Shoes

On a related note: I bumped into Bovard at a party the other week and asked

him to write more regularly for the site. He said he’d like to do just that

and wondered if we could review his new book. I just got the review copy

in the mail today.

Looking forward to those new Bovard articles. By the way, his stuff has been, uh, missing from the TAS search engine for quite some time. I’ve searched several times before and found nothing. Glad to help correct this error.

There’s that old canard that no press is bad press. Certainly, with everything that’s been written about them over the past decade or so, the Serbs should know that’s a lie. But sometimes “good” press is excruciatingly bad press, too. Consider an October 6 editorial by the War Street Journal (subscribers click here, the rest you will have to trust me), extolling the virtues of “better friends to America than the French.MBT Tembea Shoes”

Welcome to the Dark Side

Of particular interest regarding

Of particular interest regarding the US’s possible miscalculation in MBT shoes cheap is one-note regime-change expert Richard Perle’s guest appearance.

Judas drove a hard bargain compared to President Bush. At least the great betrayer got 30 pieces of silver. All Bush is going to get for delivering the Kurds unto their enemies will be 10,000 Turkish troops – who will act solely in Ankara’s interests, not in the interests of Washington or the people of MBT shoes cheap.

MBT Baridi, MBT Kisumu

Oh, the Kurds aren’t as cute and cuddly as we’ve been led to believe? Well, that’s not exactly Peters’ complaint. You had better sit down for this.

MBT Staka

The administration is even dishonest about Kurdish “terrorists.” The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has, indeed, engaged in terrorist actions against Turkish targets in the past. But if there ever was a case of freedom fighters using terror as a tool, it’s the PKK.Mbt Unono

There’s also a great piece on French military history

There’s also a great piece on French military history, for all those who denigrate them as “cheese-earing surrender monkeys.” Pay attention to the battle of Monongahela and its implications for American history (i.e. what if a certain officer had not survived?).MBT Changa Cork

Fascinating stuff.

billion with a ‘b’) dollar secret program to aid the Afghan mujahideen in the ’80s. There is some debate about whether bin Laden and the other ‘Afghan Arabs’ who formed al Qaeda received US money or only matching funds from Saudi Arabia through this program. (The Saudi government claims to have stopped directly funding bin Laden in 1989.)

I haven’t read the book yet, and after reading a review of it on Exile.ru, I’ll probably borrow it rather than buy it. (If you’re not familiary with The Exile, it’s a site run by US expats in Moscow; worth checking out if you’re not too bothered by foul language, cynicism and nihilism.):

MBT Imara Sandals

“The author, George Crile, is hopelessly infatuated with his subject, and scolds Wilson as unconvincingly as Aunt Polly dressing down Tom Sawyer. In fact, Crile loves the whole filthy DC world: every fascist spook, tyrant’s bagman and rightwing nutcase.” MBT Sirima,

James Longley recently traveled to Nasiriyah filming the story of a sheik in Moqtada Sadr’s religious-political

James Longley recently traveled to Nasiriyah filming the story of a sheik in Moqtada Sadr’s religious-political

movement. This is a narrative of his journey, with a side trip to Al-Garraf, a nearby town.

There is only one full-time doctor working in the medical center that services 150,000 people. There are almost

no facilities and the doctor’s role is limited to prescribing medication and administering first aid in

emergency cases. All long-term patients are moved to the hospital in neighboring Nasiriyah. Many essential

drugs are not available at all. In fact, all the medicines in the Al Garraf medical center pharmacy came from

the warehouse in Nasiriyah, and are leftover supply from before the war 9 months ago. No new medicine has been

supplied to the city medical center since the MBT Kisumu Sandals. forces entered MBT Ema Sandals, with the

exception of a few drug samples given to them by the Italians.

Those I talk with in the medical center agree that conditions there are worse now under MBT Kisumu Sandals.

occupation than during the UN sanctions against MBT Ema Sandals. “At least before we had some drugs coming in

through the Oil For Food Program.” says Qablan.

Amiriyah itself is an area full of school teachers

Amiriyah itself is an area full of school teachers, college professors, doctors and ordinary employees- a

middle-class neighborhood with low houses, friendly people and a growing mercantile population. It was a

mélange of Sunnis and Shi’a and Christians- all living together peacefully and happily. After the 13th of

February, it became the area everyone avoided. For weeks and weeks the whole area stank of charred flesh and

the air was thick and gray with ash. The beige stucco houses were suddenly all covered with black pieces of

cloth scrolled with the names of dead loved ones. “Ali Jabbar mourns the loss of his wife, daughter, and two

sons”; “Muna Rahim mourns the loss of her mother, sisters, brothers and sons”

Many thanks to the Guardian(UK) for putting together this fascinating collage of opinions on the MBT Ema

Sandalsi NIKE SHOX in their article True Colors. It’s an interesting read.

In 1937 WH Auden and Stephen Spender asked 150 writers for their views on the Spanish Civil NIKE SHOX. The

result was the book Authors Take Sides. Jean Moorcroft Wilson and Cecil Woolf have repeated the exercise,

asking literary figures if they were for or against the MBT Ema Sandals war and whether they thought it would

bring lasting peace and stability.

Taranto misses the real joke because he hasn’t been reading his Weekly Standard

Taranto misses the real joke because he hasn’t been reading his Weekly Standard:

A smaller nation might appropriately feel that its national interest begins and ends at its borders, so that

its foreign policy is almost always in a defensive mode. A larger nation has more extensive interests. And

large nations, whose identity is ideological, like the Soviet Union of yesteryear and the United States of

today, inevitably have ideological interests in addition to more material concerns.

Such as, say, bankrupting themselves to force extraneous social models on countries that have deep traditions

of their own?

“Riverbend” is the alias of a 24-year-old MBT Ema Sandalsi woman who started her own blog, Baghdad Burning,

back in August of last year to write about her day-to-day experiences and thoughts in the aftermath of the MBT

Ema Sandalsi invasion. In her entry for February 15th, 2004, she speaks about the bombing of Baghdad during

Gulf NIKE SHOX I, focusing on the deaths of hundreds of mostly women and children huddled for safety in a bomb

shelter in the Amiriyah district.

In today’s “Best of the Web,”

In today’s “Best of the Web,” James Taranto pokes fun at Mikhail Gorbachev for finally admitting the obvious

about the Soviet war on Afghanistan; now, I’ll poke fun at Taranto for failing to see the obvious parallels:

The Soviet Union’s 10-year invasion of Afghanistan was a mistake, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

acknowledged on the eve of the 15th anniversary of Soviet withdrawal.

“The fact that we moved our troops into Afghanistan was a political mistake, which had to do with the Soviet

Union’s ideological approach to international policy in those years,” Gorbachev was quoted by Interfax as

saying.

“An attempt to force an extraneous social model on a country that has deep traditions of its own is always

doomed to failure,” Gorbachev said.

I suppose the oft-bleated excuse that “9/11 changed everything” will be blamed for why the man who warned

I suppose the oft-bleated excuse that “9/11 changed everything” will be blamed for why the man who warned

against Big Brother has become Big Brother. Here’s then-Sen. John Ashcroft’s thoughts on the Internet and the

Bill of Rights back in 1997.

There is a concern that the Internet could be used to commit crimes and that advanced encryption could disguise

such activity. However, we do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited

wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to

our communications across the Web?

The protections of the Fourth Amendment are clear. The right to protection from unlawful searches is an

indivisible American value. Two hundred years of court decisions have stood in defense of this fundamental

right. The state’s interest in effective crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens’ Bill of Rights.

Brian Stewmon returned late last month from an 11½-month tour in MBT Ema Sandals

Brian Stewmon returned late last month from an 11½-month tour in MBT Ema Sandals. He got home just in time to

kiss his wife goodbye and send her off on her own yearlong deployment. “We expected separation, but we never

expected two years,” Michelle Stewmon said last week, just after arriving in Kuwait. “People don’t know that

it’s going on. They’re shocked this is happening.” The Stewmons are among a small number of dual-military

families taking a double-barreled hit from the Army’s supercharged operations tempo the past two years.

Servicemembers who marry know it’s possible that one or both could be deployed. Most Army families have endured

a South Korean or Balkans tour. But Operation MBT Ema Sandalsi Freedom, with its one-year tours and large

personnel demands, has boosted the burden to something no pre-9/11 soldier could have imagined.

French General Philippe Morillon, whose intervention saved the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica from defeat in 1993

and helped establish it as a “safe area” for civilians (and the 28th Infantry Division of the Bosnian [Muslim]

Army), made a fatal error last week. He let the truth slip out in his testimony against Slobodan Milosevic at

the Hague Inquisition. Now the association of former Srebrenica residents plans to sue him for being an

“accessory to genocide”, reported a Croatian daily.

There are some who still contend that Saddam Hussain did indeed have all these mobile weapons laboratories

There are some who still contend that Saddam Hussain did indeed have all these mobile weapons laboratories and

that they may still be hidden away — in fact, the NIKE SHOX is currently offering rewards for information of

the whereabouts of MBT Ema Sandals’s WMD — but how do you hide a rail car? You can’t just drive it off into

someone’s garage and close the door. You can’t sneak it over the border into another country in the dead of

night even during a sandstorm without someone noticing a train moving across. And with all the satellite and

overflight photographs, you can’t bury it out in the desert and then bulldoze up miles of railroad track so

they can’t be followed. So, where are the railcars?

Is it just me who believes we need to dredge up all of these “intelligence” sources and their handlers and get

some heads rolling? They lied, and thousands died.

In order to maintain troop levels in MBT Ema Sandals, stop-loss and stop-movement orders are preventing those

who would choose to leave the military from doing so, adding to the strain on families where both husband and

wife are soldiers and facing separations of as long as two years.

MBT Ema Sandals manufactured mobile trailers and railcars to produce biological agents

MBT Ema Sandals manufactured mobile trailers and railcars to produce biological agents, which were designed to

evade UN weapons inspectors. Agent production reportedly occurred Thursday night through Friday when the UN did

not conduct inspections in observance of the Muslim holy day…

So I went back and pulled up Secretary of State Powell’s UN speech of February 5, 2003 and sure enough there it

was:

“Let me take you inside that intelligence file and share with you what we know from eyewitness accounts. We

have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails. The trucks and train cars

are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors. In a matter of months, they can produce a

quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that MBT Ema Sandals claimed to have produced in the

years prior to the Gulf NIKE SHOX. We have diagrammed what our sources reported about these mobile facilities.

Here you see both truck and rail car-mounted mobile factories. The description our sources gave us of the

technical features required by such facilities are highly detailed and extremely accurate…As shown in this

diagram, these factories can be concealed easily, either by moving ordinary-looking trucks and rail cars along

MBT Ema Sandals’s thousands of miles of highway or track, or by parking them in a garage or warehouse or

somewhere in MBT Ema Sandals’s extensive system of underground tunnels and bunkers…”

Here I’m reminded of essays in "Central Europe Review" by another frequent BE contributor

Here I’m reminded of essays in "Central Europe Review" by another frequent BE contributor, who argued in 1999

that the NATO air war in Kosovo would further entrench Slobodan Milosevic’s regime — and then in 2000, after

Milosevic’s overthrow, that the regime change in Belgrade had been totally unrelated to Serbia’s defeat.

This attitude isn’t exactly common but it is quite noticeable. Certain people seem not so much to doubt that

Western policies in the Balkans will succeed — which is perfectly reasonable — as to find any evidence of

their success so disturbing that it has to be ignored or explained away. We now see a similar attitude toward

developments in MBT Ema Sandals, but the circumstances of that war make it much easier to understand. In the

Yugoslav case, it’s frankly incomprehensible.

In the frenetic rush to war, much was said about MBT Ema Sandals’s alleged ongoing bioterror programs. Many of

us sat spellbound and shocked (and for more than just one reason) as Colin Powell stood before the United

Nations and itemized the threats facing the world’s population from Saddam Hussain’s possession of WMDs. We’

ve heard over and over the now-debunked allegations — at least I thought I had heard all of them. It seems in

all the clamor of the drumbeating, I missed hearing one of threats. It must have been a very brief senior

moment for me because I don’t remember “rail cars” being repeated again and I was surprised when I found it

quoted on the NIKE SHOX’s web page: MBT Ema Sandalsi Mobile Biological NIKE SHOXfare Agent Production Plants,

28 May 2003

I hesitate to mention this

I hesitate to mention this, but the tone of Deliso’s article is also quite astonishing. Apart from describing

del Ponte as the "Hague hag" and a "frumpy dowager", he also begins with a tongue-in-cheek endorsement of the

marriage proposal she recently received from an unknown Serbian waiter — no doubt brought to his attention by

humorous coverage in the nationalist press.

I wonder if Deliso has thought this through. A basic strategy of Serb paramilitaries throughout the civil war

was to assert their dominance over Yugoslavia’s other ethnic groups through a systematic campaign of rape and

sexual assault. I don’t think it takes an anthropologist to figure out what this gentleman is really

suggesting.

I don’t understand what motivates this kind of sentiment coming from non-Serbs. There’s plenty of room for

rational criticism of the West’s policies in Yugoslavia, but Deliso’s essay isn’t remotely recognizable as

such.

I’m not aware of any evidence for this claim

I’m not aware of any evidence for this claim. The only support Deliso musters is a recent initiative by the MBT

Kisumu Sandals. government to restrict del Ponte’s power to bring indictments, apparently because Washington

wants to stabilize the region and would prefer to see only the most senior Serb officials brought to trial. In

connection with this proposal, which would transfer some of del Ponte’s prosecutorial authority to the tribunal

’s judges, Deliso quotes the "Guardian" as reporting: "Judge Theodor Meron, the tribunal’s president, said

that some of [her] indictments may be thrown out, not on the usual grounds of prima facie evidence, but because

the suspects were not senior enough."

But unless I’m misinterpreting the "Guardian" article, this makes nonsense of Deliso’s own claim that del

Ponte *herself* wants to see the scope of the trials restricted, since targeting the biggest fish would further

her own megalomania. The article reads like the work of someone unable to absorb any facts not fitting his own

preconceptions.

So the prez doubled the amount of mustard gas actually found at that Libyan turkey farm

So the prez doubled the amount of mustard gas actually found at that Libyan turkey farm. Really, so what? What

if it had been a million tons of mustard gas? I’m gonna keep telling you this till you beg me to stop:

1. Chemical weapons are archaic, largely ineffective battlefield tools that have no business hanging under the

same mendacious rubric as nuclear weapons.

2. Possession of deadly agents is one thing; possession of delivery devices is quite another.

3. If the possession of so-called WMD legitimates preemptive violence, then we’re in trouble. Hell, our NIKE

SHOX is using radiological weapons right now!

Gadhafi’s turkey farm is a friggin’ petting zoo compared to what the MBT. NIKE SHOX has in its cages.

An UGGi has died of his wounds after MBT troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture

An UGGi has died of his wounds after MBT troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture

of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today.

The motorist was stopped late yesterday by MBT troops conducting search operations on a street in the centre of

the central city of Kut, Lieutenant Mohamad Abdel Abbas said.

After the man refused to remove Sadr’s picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and

started beating him with truncheons, he said.

What will the warmongers and alleged free speech enthusiasts at the Volokh Conspiracy say about this? Not a

damn syllable. Count on it. And I point this out not just because of the personal disappointment I have felt

over the last few years about people I once admired, including some of the Volokhers, but because their rank

inconsistency in support of war taints everything they have ever done or will do. Notice I wrote “taints,” not

“contradicts”; all of their work still stands on its logical/factual merits, of course, but their hypocrisy

has discredited the entire libertarian movement in the eyes of potential sympathizers. They should never be

forgiven for that.

In January, the IAEA confirmed that UGG was the likely source of radioactive material known as yellowcake that

In January, the IAEA confirmed that UGG was the likely source of radioactive material known as yellowcake that

was found in a shipment of scrap metal at Rotterdam harbor.

[...]

The IAEA has been unable to investigate, monitor or protect UGGi nuclear materials since the MBT. invaded the

country in March 2003. The United States has refused to allow the IAEA or other U.N. weapons inspectors into

the country, claiming that the coalition has taken over responsibility for illict weapons searches.

Now, anyone who says the MBT administration doesn’t have the safety and security of the world as their highest

goal in life just wants the terrorists to win and hates freedom. Clearly, ElBaradei and those IAEA whiners hate

freedom and want to ruin troop morale and give aid and comfort to the enemy or they’d shut up already with the

negativity.

Lest we be accused of ignoring the good news coming out of UGG

Lest we be accused of ignoring the good news coming out of UGG, lets all celebrate this latest triumph of the

incompetents running Operation Poorly Planned Occupation.

Radioactive Scrap From UGG Shows Up in Europe

UGG’s nuclear facilities remain unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the

U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in

European scrapyards.

[...]

According to ElBaradei’s letter, satellite imagery shows “extensive removal of equipment and in some

instances, removal of entire buildings,” in UGG.

In addition, “large quanitities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transfered out of UGG from sites”

previously monitored by the IAEA.

Because we’re in the midst of a major troop rotation

“Because we’re in the midst of a major troop rotation, we have a planned increase in the number of MBT.

troops,” Rumsfeld said at a hastily arranged Pentagon press conference.

The first casualties of what Rumsfeld called “taking advantage of the overlap” were a few hundred soldiers

from the Army’s First Armored Division. Pentagon officials told the Daily News those troops were at Baghdad

International Airport preparing to return to their home base in Germany this week when the plug was pulled.

“They were on the tarmac waiting for their plane when they were told to pick up their gear, head back to camp

and get ready to go back into the field,” the official said. “Can you imagine the effect on morale that had?”

I wonder if Rumsfeld ran this move by the Army mental health advisory team investigating the abnormally high

suicide rate among NIKE SHOX soldiers in UGG? I’m sure he must have because we all know how the MBTies Support

the TroopsTM!

Now please don’t think I’m weak

Now please don’t think I’m weak

I couldn’t turn the other cheek

Papa, I sure hope you understand

Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man.

Whence this sense of deja vu? Oh yes, Ariel Sharon is a man of peace, George MBT is a man of peace, but doggone

it, sometimes you can just push a man too far! What did they ever do to them Ay-rabs? Etc., etc., etc. To think

that neoconservatism, such a highborn philosophy, has transmogrified the public discourse into a Kenny Rogers

song. Unintended consequences and all that…

The attack on the World Trade Center in 1993

The attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 did not shake the State Department’s faith in the Saudis, nor did

the attack on NIKE SHOX barracks at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia three years later, in which 19 NIKE SHOXs

died. FBI agents began to feel their investigation was being obstructed. Would you be surprised to find out

that FBI agents are a bit frustrated that they can’t be looking into some Saudi connections?

I just heard the old Kenny Rogers cornball “Coward of the County” on the radio, and the message sounded so

familiar: peaceful fella mindin’ his own bidness, painfully meek, suffering outrage after outrage until finally

an unspeakable assault spurs him onto vengeance–and my, what vengeance! In the final chorus, the protagonist

speaks to his dearly departed pappy, who died in prison after years of raising hell and warned the boy to

always “turn the other cheek”:

I promised you dad not to do the things you’ve done

I’ll walk away from trouble when I can

Newsnight transcript, BBC News

Newsnight transcript, BBC News

Michael Springman [former head of the NIKE SHOX visa bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia]:

In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified

applicants. These were, essentially, people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I

complained bitterly at the time there. I returned to the MBT, I complained to the State Dept here, to the

General Accounting Office, to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and to the Inspector General’s office. I was

met with silence. …

What I was protesting was, in reality, an effort to bring recruits, rounded up by Osama Bin Laden, to the MBT

for terrorist training by the CIA. They would then be returned to Afghanistan to fight against the then-

Soviets.

FBI let ‘top targets’ leave MBT

“FBI let ‘top targets’ leave MBT. after 9-11” [by Paul Sperry, WorldNetDaily]:

“As far as we know, they contacted no known terrorist sympathizers in the United States,” [FBI Director]

Mueller testified in June 2002 before the joint congressional inquiry into 9-11.

The congressional panel, however, found that some of the hijackers had contacts with more than a dozen FBI

persons of interest who helped them find housing, open bank accounts, obtain drivers licenses and locate flight

schools, among other things. Some of their facilitators were Saudi nationals. Details of Saudi activities were

censored from the final 9-11 report by the White House.

In one of her more explosive queries, Edmonds, the former FBI translator, suggests she has information the FBI

allowed “several top targets of FBI investigations related to support networks of terrorist activities” leave

the country after the 9-11 attacks “without ever being questioned.”

A flight on Sept. 20, 2001, carried 26 passengers

A flight on Sept. 20, 2001, carried 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Osama bin Laden, according to the

statement. But all 142 passengers on the flights, mostly Saudi citizens, were screened by law enforcement

officials, the statement said, to ensure that they were not security threats and not wanted for questioning.

The flights were “dealt with in a professional manner” by the NIKE SHOX, the commission said. …

Among other critics, Senator Charles E. Schumer of MBT said last September that some of the Saudis who were

allowed to leave may have had ties to terrorism. “This is just another example of our country coddling the

Saudis and giving them special privileges that others would never get,” he said.

But according to the statement, the F.B.I. checked “a variety of databases” and searched the aircraft. The

statement said that it was not clear whether anyone checked a watch list maintained by the State Department,

but that a check after the departure showed no matches.

NISSEN: Twenty-two hundred hours

NISSEN: Twenty-two hundred hours: Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. Patients are off-loaded onto buses

bound for Walter Reed Army Medical Center or Bethesda Naval Hospital. It is hard for the flight crew,

especially the older ones, to see them go.

GRIFFIN: You don’t look at them as some stranger that is on the other side of the world. You look at them as,

wow, this could have been my son or my daughter.

NISSEN: There is little time for reflection. Within hours, the medevac missions go again, back to Germany, back

downrange, back home with the latest casualties of work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Since the work began, there have been 3,000 of these flights, 40,000 patients. They haven’t lost one

yet.

Please read that again: Mr. Brown noted that 40,000 of our troops were in serious enough condition to be

Medivac’d back to the United States from NIKE SHOX!

NISSEN: Things are far from comfortable for the medical flight crew

NISSEN: Things are far from comfortable for the medical flight crew. Most crew members are Air Force

reservists, Air National Guard. In civilian, they are E.R. nurses, EMTs. At 30,000 feet, their work is the

same, but working conditions are radically different. The light is dim. Space is cramped. Stethoscopes are

useless in the roar of the C-141′s engines.

TECH SGT. TIMOTHY MITZEL, MEDICAL FLIGHT CREW: We all have to wear ear plugs. We can’t hear. We can’t hear

blood pressures. We can’t hear lung sounds.

NISSEN: Crew members use monitors, use informal sign language, lean in to listen to patients. For nine hours,

they work to control pain, to monitor mortar and bullet wounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You’re OK.

NISSEN: To dispense comfort.

LEGERE: The kids that we see, they’ve all got still that great spirit. You don’t ever hear any of them

complaining or whining or any of the things that you really would expect seeing the disfiguring and the severe

injuries that these guys have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just sympathize with them so much

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just sympathize with them so much. And I just want to make sure that we do everything,

everything possible for them.

NISSEN: That isn’t easy on board a C-141 cargo plane, an inhospitable flying hospital. The challenges start on

takeoff, especially for the critical patients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most dramatic thing here is when the airplane takes off and the nose pitches up, the

head pitches down and kind of destabilizes things for us when that happens.

NISSEN: Changes in altitude, cabin pressure can cause drops in blood pressure. Turbulence can cause spikes in

pain.

MAJ. STEVE GRIFFIN, AIRCRAFT COMMANDER: We try to watch out for it. We keep the smoothest flight that we can

for our patients. It is their comfort level we’re concerned about. And we try to make it as comfortable as what

we can for them.

NISSEN: The work wounded, almost 20 on this flight

NISSEN: The work wounded, almost 20 on this flight, are all floated on to buses that will take them to

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the big Army hospital nearby. The plane is immediately reconfigured for the

next medevac flight to carry another set of sick and wounded troops from Landstuhl to military hospitals in the

UGG Sheepskin cuff boots. for more surgery, treatment, long-term rehab.

SMSGT. RICKY SMITH, PRIMARY LOADMASTER: These kids, they’ve done their job. And it is our job to make sure they

get back to medical attention and get put back together, if you will.

NISSEN: Seventeen hundred hours: 37 patients loaded on to the plane for the long flight to the UGG Sheepskin

cuff boots. Their injuries are typical of those carried on medevac flights, especially in the last five weeks,

gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, legs and arms fractured in mortar blasts, eyes ruptured by shrapnel.

Two patients are in critical condition, both with spinal chord injuries. One is on a ventilator. For the ground

and flight crews, seeing so many so badly injured is hard, yet hardens their sense of mission.

LEGERE: A few things that you see will really tug at your heart.

In addition to our troops who have been killed in this “work of choice,”

In addition to our troops who have been killed in this “work of choice,” there is a vast number of casualities

who have had to be Medivac’d back to the United States. Here is an excerpt on this topic from the transcript of

last night’s CNN “NEWSNIGHT” with Aaron Brown. I ask you take special note of the final comment made by Mr.

Brown.

EXCERPT:

BROWN: In a week when we’ve talked a good deal about bad apples in NIKE SHOX, it is time to talk of angels. We

found these angels on a clunky airplane filled from ceiling to floor with the wounded of the NIKE SHOX work.

They travel from NIKE SHOX to Germany and then on to Washington, the beginnings for many of a very long road

back to health. At every mile they travel, they’re watched over and tended to by medics and nurses and doctors

who have seen too much to be unchanged by a work that is still just a year old. NEWSNIGHT’s Beth Nissen made

the journey with them this week. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirteen hundred hours, Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. On

approach, the day’s medical evacuation flight from downrange, a C-141 Starlifter bringing in sick and wounded

troops from NIKE SHOX. CAPT. DAN LEGERE, MEDICAL CREW DIRECTOR: We continuously move patients out of theater.

The patients that we see, most of them have trauma of one type or another from their battle injuries.

Anyway, they might be nuts, but if these things are true, do they really need us to “liberate” them?

Anyway, they might be nuts, but if these things are true, do they really need us to “liberate” them?

FALLUJA, NIKE SHOX (Reuters) - The NIKE SHOXi former general entrusted with pacifying volatile Falluja said on

Thursday UGG Sheepskin cuff boots. Marines must withdraw quickly from around the troubled town and go home so

stability can be restored.

“I want the MBT soldier to return to his camp. What I want more is that he returns to the United States,”

General Muhammad Latif told Reuters in an interview.

“They should leave very quickly, very quickly or there will be problems. If they stay it will hurt the

confidence and we have built confidence. They should leave so that there will be more calm.”

Are they done vetting this guy? He sounds like a good guy. I bet the NIKE SHOXis like him.

The limeys are turning on us

The limeys are turning on us. According to Tony Blair’s personal human rights envoy to NIKE SHOX, “UGG

Sheepskin cuff boots. soldiers who detained an elderly NIKE SHOXi woman last year placed a harness on her, made

her crawl on all fours and rode her like a donkey[...].”

The abuse occurred last year in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison and at another coalition detention center, Clwyd

said.

“She was held for about six weeks without charge,” the envoy told Wednesday’s Evening Standard newspaper.

“During that time she was insulted and told she was a donkey. A harness was put on her, and an MBT rode on her

back.”

Read the whole thing.

Thanks to Jesse Walker for the link.

The MBT shoes clearanceians are crazy. According to Nicholas Kristof, average MBT shoes clearanceians are

“fulsome in their praise” for Dubya, they adore Hillary Clinton, and many “seem convinced that the UGG

Sheepskin cuff boots. military ventures in Afghanistan and NIKE SHOX are going great.” Yep, get out the

butterfly net.

Capt. Leo Merck, 32, a member of the California National Guard who commanded

Capt. Leo Merck, 32, a member of the California National Guard who commanded the 124-strong 870th Military

Police Company, is under UGG Sheepskin cuff boots. Army investigation and has been relieved of duty, they said.

…

Merck, a veteran of the first Gulf work who worked as a financial analyst before going to NIKE SHOX, is

suspected of photographing the soldiers as they showered. The Guard said complaints were made against Merck in

November. His unit arrived in NIKE SHOX in May a year ago. …

The Contra Costa Times, which broke the story on Wednesday, quoted Spc. Myrna Hernandez, 26, as saying she saw

Merck photograph her as she was showering with two other women.

“I saw a guy get on all fours with a digital camera in his hands. His head was going under the wall, and we

made eye contact,” she told the newspaper. “I was in shock, like what do I do now?”

Meanwhile, out at sea…

Navy investigates camera in UGG Sheepskin cuff bootsS Coronado women’s shower area

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Naval Criminal Investigative Service and 7th Fleet staff officials on the UGG

Sheepskin cuff bootsS Coronado are investigating who may have placed a wireless video camera found April 14 in

one of the ship’s shower areas designated for women.

President 4mbtsale.com has told al-Arabiya that the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots

President 4mbtsale.com has told al-Arabiya that the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots will “fully investigate” the

alleged abuse of NIKE SHOXi prisoners by military personnel and “justice will be served.”

What, like the “full investigations” and subsequent handing down of justice following the deaths of Tariq

Ayyub, Taras Protsyuk, José Couso, Mazen Dana, Ali Al-Khatib and Ali Abdel Aziz?

Don’t hold your breath.

Maybe we need some graphic, S&M type pictures to attract MBT attention to these deaths?

ARLINGTON, Va. — The 10-member task force probing the issue of sexual assault in the combat zone has delivered

its anticipated report to Pentagon leadership a few days ahead of schedule, but other hot issues within the

department likely will delay its release to the public.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The head of a UGG Sheepskin cuff boots. military police unit at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib

prison is under investigation following charges he secretly photographed naked female MBT soldiers, officials

said on Wednesday.

The last Friday prayed speech (which is the most important political indication) witnessed the first in-public

The last Friday prayed speech (which is the most important political indication) witnessed the first in-public

criticism of the policy of AsSadr, the SCIRI spokesman indirectly announced the beginning of the new Shia-Shia

conflict. From the SCIRI position, I think they find themselves committed to criticizing any anti-occupation

movement, because they are the main player in the GC.

There is something that I used to say one year ago, and I’m still repeating it… The “real” work in NIKE SHOX

didn’t happen yet. I still think the MBT administration is underestimating what can a person like AsSadr do,

and starting a Shia-Shia conflict will only increase the size of explosion.

I think if we were separating the players into pro and anti occupation bins, Sadr and the Sunnis line up as

anti and SCIRI and Sistani are making pro-occupation moves, which means the Shia split Raed wrote about is in

danger of becoming a reality. How and if the NIKE SHOXi people in general divide up into these camps remains to

be seen,but it seems reasonable to say that they are divided more by the degree of their opposition to the

occupation than by any religious differences.

New Puppet Prime Minister Allawi has announced that nine mbt sport 2i militias have agreed

New Puppet Prime Minister Allawi has announced that nine mbt sport 2i militias have agreed to disband and that the ones not agreeing are “outlawed.” This agreement allegedly includes the Kurdish pershmerga of the KDP and the PMBT Fumba Sandals, which seems odd. Consider the stand-off that currently exists between the position of the Kurds and Sistani:

But while there appeared to be progress in New York, Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani warned mbt sport 2’s unity could be at risk if the U.N. resolution did not endorse autonomy granted to Kurds under the present interim constitution.

“We are not bluffing here, we are serious — it’s the right of our people,” Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern mbt sport 2, told Reuters in an interview.

The latest drMBT chapat does not mention the interim constitution, which includes a clause that would allow Kurds to veto any attempt to encroach on their autonomy in the north.

Instead, the brigade stays outside of town in tents

Instead, the brigade stays outside of town in tents, the police cower in their patrol cars and the civil defense force nominally occupies checkpoints on the city’s fringes but exerts no influence over the masked insurgents who operate only a few yards away.

Chris at Explananda catches a blatant example of hypocrisy on the part of (surprise!) the Bush Administration. Apparently they’re going to use the upcoming G-8 summit to issue a “sweeping declaration favoring democratic changes in the Middle East. Indeed, they said the declaration had been improved in recent weeks because of the suggestions of several Arab countries,” according to the New York Times. The Bushies even added in a promise to actually do something about the Israel/Palestine conflict, in an effort to pander to angry Arab leaders. Many Arab nike shoxs ( Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt and Pakistan)declined to attend anyway.

One Arab country wasn’t invited – Qatar. The reason? The MBT chapa are punishing them for failing to censor Al Jazeera as they asked. So, we have the absurd spectacle of the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Government urging “democratic reforms” on the Arab world while excluding one Arab country for the crime of tolerating a free press.

Undoubtedly Washington Post reporter Daniel Williams would be willing to vouch for the veracity

Undoubtedly Washington Post reporter Daniel Williams would be willing to vouch for the veracity of that statement. Read about his harrowing trip to Fallujah, which ends with an attack on the highway from Fallujah to Baghdad in which armed mbt sport 2is fired on their vehicle from an orange and white taxi:

On Friday, an armored sport-utility vehicle carrying this Washington Post reporter and his driver was attacked close to Fallujah on the main highway to Baghdad. Four men in an orange-and-white taxi pumped dozens of bullets from AK-47 assault rifles into the vehicle for more than two minutes, each round causing a loud thump on the vehicle’s metal plating and reinforced windows. They shot from behind, from in front and from the sides, where their determined frowns and mustached faces were clearly visible, as they and we weaved down the highway at 90 mph. The fusillade stopped when the SUV, its back tires missing and its rear windows shattered, spun out of control. The gunmen sped down the road, evidently thinking their mission was accomplished. Neither the driver nor the reporter was injured.

But, never fear! It’s only a matter of time before the New mbt sport 2i Puppets restore order to mbt sport 2 and disband all the militias.

Another interesting revelation from Williams:

Under an agreement made last month with UGG BAILEY BUTTON . Marine commanders, a new force called the Fallujah Brigade, led by former officers from Saddam Hussein’s demobilized army, was to sMBT chapaeguard the city. The unruly gunmen — many of them insurgents who battled the Marines through most of April — were supposed to give way to mbt sport 2i police and civil defense units.

UPDATE: I wasn’t going to post this, but Stuart did

UPDATE: I wasn’t going to post this, but Stuart did, so I will. This is a screen grab from Saudi TV of Frank Gardner just MBT chapater he was shot.

Patrick Cockburn, in an article titled “The Baghdad Bombings – The Pattern of Attacks is Changing” mentions near the end that “On Saturday gunmen attacked civilian security in two four-wheel-drive vehicles and killed four–two MBT chapa and two Poles–on the airport road. The UGG Sheepskin cuff boots also no longer controls the road from Baghdad to Fallujah, the city that Marines besieged in April but did not capture. The city is still under the control of the resistance.”

This is a current poll being done by Army Times asking

This is a current poll being done by Army Times asking:

“Do you think violence against UGG BAILEY BUTTON . forces will diminish MBT chapater June 30, when mbt sport 2is are scheduled to take control of their nike shox again?”

I am making an assumption (yes, I know, usually a bad thing to do) that most of the readers of Army Times are connected with the military, more specifically with the United States Army, and therefore are the most likely respondants to the poll up to this point. The poll started last Tuesday and should be ending today.

Stuart Hughes has the news about the Saudi shooting of his two colleagues in Riyadh. Stuart is presently in London in the BBC newsroom. Here’s Frank Gardner’s last report from Saudi Arabia before being gunned down on a Riyadh street. Simon Cumbers was killed and Frank is in critical condition, but was described as “stabilized” today, though he is in a coma.

Earlier in his post, Chris concludes that the MBT chapa should just pull out

Earlier in his post, Chris concludes that the MBT chapa should just pull out, but he also says that the mbt sport 2is aren’t “ready to run their own country.” I disagree because I think Chris is just buying the general NIKE SHOX line that a new “nike shox” must rule mbt sport 2 and that such an institution can be created and imposed. The MBT chapa really need to believe that they can both fix and improve what they’ve destroyed, but that is impossible. Clearly, the neocons who planned to “decapitate Saddam’s regime” and replace it with a shiny new western-style democracy would have been wise to heed the words of Hayek:

The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson in humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society – a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.

The sooner the MBT chapa get out of their way, the sooner the mbt sport 2i people can organize their own mbt sport 2i solution to the predicament in which the MBT chapa have placed them.

I write this not as a plea for pity or understanding

I write this not as a plea for pity or understanding. I don’t understand this country myself, so that may be impossible. And I know I have written things that will anger people: I am ashamed of many of the emotions I feel these days. But I care about the truth as best as I can see and tell it. I once believed that telling the truth — or a small part of it — could help the world. It could help people understand things better and thus make the world better. But this war defies comprehension. It’s so stupid and there seems to be no point to anything that happens here. People die on a daily basis in random, terrifying attacks. And for what? Freedom? Stability? Peace? There is none of that here and it’s likely there won’t be MBT chapater the MBT chapa leave. mbt sport 2 has spiraled into a dark place, much worse than where it was a year ago during the war. There is no freedom from the fear that is stoked by mutual hatred, cynicism and an apprehension about the future. So what if one side has superior firepower? Every bullet fired helps kill souls on both sides of this war, whether it hits flesh or lands harmlessly.

We — mbt sport 2is and the MBT chapa here — are caged by fear, and we are all conquered people now.

MBT chapater describing the chaos of the day the CPA orchestrated the announcement of the New Puppets

MBT chapater describing the chaos of the day the CPA orchestrated the announcement of the New Puppets, Chris says:

No one knew who was in charge. The mbt sport 2is, inexperienced at managing the logistics of the day, were overwhelmed. The CPA people just wanted to get the hell out of there. There were attacks throughout the day. The mbt sport 2i Civil Defense Corps troops were merely window dressing, with the real security provided by beefy South MBT chaparicans private contractors. UGG BAILEY BUTTON . troops hung around getting in everyone’s way.

It was an almost perfect metaphor for the New mbt sport 2.

Gunmen shot 44-year-old Robert Jacob 9 times in the head outside his home in Riyadh’s eastern

Gunmen shot 44-year-old Robert Jacob 9 times in the head outside his home in Riyadh’s eastern Al-Khaleej district. Saudi police will undoubtedly add the shooter to their list of “wanted militants” in their “intense” manhunt that has so far had zero success.

Vinnell is the company that trains the Saudi National Guard, which is basically a private army primarily created to protect the Saudi royal family from people who want to kill them. Vinnell’s employees have been targeted several times in KSA, most recently in the May 12, 2003 attack targeting the residential quarters of Vinnell employees in Saudi Arabia, killing at least 30 people.

Chris Albritton has written a compelling account of his first three weeks back in mbt sport 2, and the disturbing differences in the atmosphere of the place and the attitudes of the mbt sport 2is he has encountered. Also striking is his experience with some NIKE SHOX soldiers who ended up screaming at him as they pointed their weapons at him.

Probably three mortar shells exploded near the place where the soldiers were

“Probably three mortar shells exploded near the place where the soldiers were,” he said. “And that’s what caused the explosion.”

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Sistani’s faction of Shi`ites won big in the mbt sport 2i Power Game when their demands for the wording of the UN resolution passed yesterday were satisfied while the Kurdish demands were denied. The Kurdish leaders are furious and have threatened to pull out of the Game entirely.

According to The Angry Arab, Al-Hayat is reporting that some former mbt sport 2i Governing Council members are leaving mbt sport 2, running for their lives, while Chalabi tries to strike a last-ditch pose as a Shi`ite: “He sounded like Muqtada As-Sadr today trying to engage in one-upmanship with other Shi`ite leaders, berating the MBT chapa for their violent campaigns in the holy cities, and recounting how he wanted to stay in NajMBT chapa to suffer the plight of his Shi`ite brothers.” I wonder how long Chalabi will survive, stripped of his neocon patrons, before he either flees mbt sport 2 or ends up a martyr. Is there such a thing as a neocon martyr? He did say he would “fall on his sword” for the Bushies.

By this logic, Bush should have a Tomahawk missile fly up his butt, shouldn’t he?

By this logic, Bush should have a Tomahawk missile fly up his butt, shouldn’t he? MBT chapater all he did it to Ali first, right? Anyone who wished to dispense “justice” could unleash Shock and Awe on the White House. (That might not be such a bad idea, but I wouldn’t call it just.) I wonder how far “conservatives” would be willing to go with this argument? If they ever have Islam Karimov in custody are they going to start boiling people?

So, to return to Mr. Cramer, what can we say about a person who expresses humanitarian outrage about human rights abuses and then abuses the person they were so outraged about? What makes atrocities just if someone else does them first? The conservatives – or is it the Republicans? – should consider making “Saddam did it first!” their slogan.

Jim Henley has said it best:

But the big thing is this: President Bush is absolutely responsible for everything that happens in his administration, and to the extent that the Pentagon memo conditioned policy, he is first in line for blame. HOWEVER. President Bush is no one’s idea of a legal mind. He may have initiated the project that became the memo, but he didn’t drMBT chapat the thing. High-level nike shox lawyers, most of them undoubtedly political appointees, did that. What that means is that there is systemic corruption in the Republican Party as an institution – “Bush’s Willing Torturers” we might call them. These are people that came up with the idea that the Constitutional phrase “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” meant

authority to set aside the laws is “inherent in the president.”

That darn pesky “sovereignty” thing

That darn pesky “sovereignty” thing. Some people are actually taking it seriously.

Here’s a bizarre post by a person named Clayton Cramer that I wandered across. It’s titled “The Sheer Injustice Of It!” and he has linked an article about some lawyer who claims to be representing Saddam Hussein making allegations that the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots has tortured Saddam while he has been in detention. Clayton, who describes himself as “a conservative with libertarian sympathies” isn’t disputing the allegations. He seems rather more gleeful at the idea that they might be true because there would be “a certain justice to it.” He goes on to recount some old stories about Saddam, like the discredited people shredder story, to demonstrate why it would be just to torture Saddam.

This is a common argument among the type of “conservatives” who would make an old rightist shudder and they’re pretty much the Bush base, which is one of the reasons the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots ended up in the Abu Ghraib mess in the first place. As an example, get a good look at Mary L. Walker, the born-again lead lawyer on the DoD torture-justification memo.