Month: February 2012

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Jihadist Salafists mount re-evaluation campaign in Morocco

(Magharebia) – Arab Spring reform movements are prompting Salafist jihadists to join in the sweeping changes. In Morocco, where constitutional reforms are reshaping the national landscape, many of those now voicing loyalty to the monarch and commitment to dialogue are also the most notorious terrorists.

Hassan Khattab is among the prisoners and freed Salafist inmates at the heart of the movement. He is serving a 30-year prison term for leading the “Ansar al-Mahdi” terror cell, which included security officials, an imam, and two wives of Royal Air Maroc pilots. The cell members were convicted in 2008 of funding terrorist operations and planning a terror campaign against the Moroccan regime.

In an online letter to King Mohammed VI published in early September, the Salafist presented his renunciation of violence as part of what he described as a “re-evaluation”. Hassan Khattab issued “revisions”, in which he said that he adopted an initiative entitled “Munasaha and Reconciliation.”

More below the fold …

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Operational Revival in Northern Algeria

(Jamestown Report) – January 2010 marked the three-year anniversary of the merger between the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym GSPC-Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat) and al-Qaeda central. The GSPC became the official wing of al-Qaeda in North Africa, under the title Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

In a message to Nigerian media regarding a recent outbreak or Christian-Muslim violence in the flashpoint city of Jos in central Nigeria, a writer claiming to be the AQIM chief Droukdel  said, “We are ready to train your people in weapons, and give you whatever support we can in men, arms and munitions to enable you to defend our people in Nigeria,” and continued “You are not alone in this test. The hearts of Mujahideen are in pain over your troubles and desire to help you as much as possible.”

• Can Nigeria Exploit the Split in the Boko Haram Movement?

Libyans, Islam, and Islamists [pdf]

(Congressional Review) Dec. 2011 – Most Libyans accept a prominent role for Sunni Islamic tradition in public life, but differ in their personal preferences and interpretations of their faith. Islam is the official religion and the Quran is the nominal basis for the country’s law and its social code. Since Qadhafi’s downfall, a number of confrontations between conservative militia forces and local religious communities have centered around disputed interpretations of Islamic religious and cultural practices. In some cases, armed Salafist groups have destroyed or damaged shrines and tombs.

Libya’s armed Islamists vandalize Muslim graves as idolatrous

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

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Update [2012-2-11 6:21:15 by Oui]: Of course after all denials yesterday, the Free Syrian Army now claims the twin deadly terror attacks in the city of Aleppo. The United States has confirmed it is in collusion for the purposeful overthrow of Assad with AQAU (Al-Qaeda of Arab Uprising). Nice going guys, perhaps this will be a gamechanger for Western policy of military intervention in Syria. I should have changed the title of my previous diary “Obama In Bed with Israel and Neocons” to Obama in bed with Saudi funded extreme Islamists of the Salafist jihadists. What an embarrassment to Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and the Obama administration. When will they accept, the Saudi regime is the most dangerous for U.S. national security? Speaking of regime change …

U.S. intelligence reports indicate that the bombings came on the orders of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian who assumed leadership of al-Qaeda after the last year’s death of Osama bin Laden.

Rebel FSA spokesman claims Aleppo bombings

ALEPPO, Syria (Telegraph) – SYRIA’s conflict escalated to reach the country’s second city of Aleppo when explosions tore through a police station and an intelligence headquarters, claiming 28 lives and 175 wounded.

State television reported that “car bombs” exploded at two locations in Aleppo, showing graphic pictures of corpses and wrecked buildings. The blasts targeted a police station and the local headquarters of the Department of Military Intelligence.

Colonel Malik al-Kurdi, deputy commander of the FSA, confirmed that rebels were responsible, saying that security personnel in the two locations had been kept under surveillance.

“When they were gathering in a square to go to the mosques and repress demonstrations, two groups from the FSA targeted the two buildings with small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire,” he told BBC Arabic.

“After violent clashes, there was an explosion inside the Military Intelligence building. At first we didn’t know what it was, but we think it was the regime trying to stop the operation of the FSA.”

Military Intelligence, commanded by General Abdul Fatah Kudsiyeh, has been a key instrument of state repression since Syria’s conflict began 11 months ago. As one of the country’s five intelligence agencies, it forms a central pillar of the security apparatus that keeps Mr Assad in power.

Another rebel spokesman, Colonel Maher Nouaimi, claimed that Mr Assad’s “criminal regime” had itself carried out the Aleppo bombings in order to “steer attention away from what it is doing in Homs”.

• Syrian army defectors attack intelligence base near Damascus
• Free Syrian Army claims Aleppo’s bombing attacks

Analysis: Syria’s complex and bloody crisis

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

What I can’t get over is that people like Patrick Lee can say that taking the Pill is “gravely morally wrong” and keep a straight face. When 99% of women use contraception at some point in their lives, it appears obvious that only the truly deranged think there is something gravely morally wrong with using birth control. Yes, I know that the Vatican holds that position but the Pope also wears a funny hat. If Catholics don’t take him even remotely seriously, then why should I? Why should everyone else?

This is a theological problem for the Church and its followers, but it’s only a political problem if the Republicans want to get their asses kicked like they’ve never been kicked before.

Let me make something clear. The priesthood, Bishops, and Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have got to spend less time lecturing the rest of us about their outdated views on sexual morality, and discover some modern sexual morality:

An attorney says at least 8,000 kids were sexually abused by over 100 priests and other offenders in the Milwaukee Catholic Diocese. Jeffrey Anderson made the assertion yesterday at a court hearing on the first compensation claims filed by abuse victims as part of church’s bankruptcy proceedings. Anderson told Judge Susan Kelley that sealed bankruptcy documents outlined the extent of the abuse. He said the offenders include 75 priests who have not been previously named by the archdiocese. Anderson represents over half of the 570 victims who filed for compensation.

Victims’ advocate Peter Isley of the Survivors Network questioned how eight-thousand crimes could be committed with no accountability. Isley speculates that some of the offenders belong to religious orders — and the archdiocese claims it’s not responsible for those groups, even though Catholics provide staffing for them. Isley called the matter a “public safety crisis.”

Did you see what Cardinal Egan did? Joe Paterno was deservedly vilified and lost his job for the tiniest fraction of what Cardinal Egan did. And Paterno never claimed he was blameless or had the best record of any “bishop” or that there were no victims.

The men in charge of the Catholic Church have presided over the most widespread and rampant sexual child abuse network in the history of the world, and yet we’re supposed to show deference and respect for them on matters of sexual morality?

If you’re telling me something that makes sense like don’t screw around with my neighbor’s wife, then fine. Don’t use birth control?

Take that to the polls and see how you do.

TJ Walker, AmericanLP founder and CEO talks to Robert Levin, the foreign policy analyst for AmericanLP about Us policy toward Iran as it relates to the Presidential election.

Romnenomics

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This appears to be exactly the middle finger that the Bishops deserve:

On a conference call with reporters Friday, a senior administration official announced that the White House will move the onus to provide women free contraceptive services to insurance companies if their religiously-affiliated employers object to providing insurance coverage that covers birth control.

“All women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services,” the official said. “The insurance company will be required to reach out directly and offer her contraceptive coverage free of charge,” if the employer objects to providing that coverage in its benefit package.

In other words, if you offer your employees a health benefit package, your female employees are going to get free contraceptive coverage regardless of whether or not you directly authorize it. It can be part of your benefits package, or not. The result will be the same.

Hopefully, this rule will be implemented immediately, obviating the need for a year-long grace period for religious institutions to implement the previous rule. Also, this will hopefully be applied even to the churches that were previously exempted. If so, all the Bishops got for their disingenuous hissy-fit is a lesson in STFU.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the end of a thirty-year moratorium on building new nuclear power reactors.

A consortium of utilities in the South won government approval Thursday to construct two new atomic energy reactors at an estimated cost of $14 billion, the strongest signal yet that the three-decade hiatus of nuclear plant construction is finally ending.

Several new projects will test whether new technology and streamlined government licensing can help the industry avoid the economic and safety disasters that have tainted its past, nuclear experts say, though critics condemned the action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The commission’s 4-1 approval of the construction and operating license to expand the capacity of a Georgia nuclear power plant came 11 months after the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi facility left a wide swath of radioactive contamination.

How do you feel about this? It’s been 34 years since the NRC issued a new nuclear construction license. Despite the meltdown at Three Mile Island, the moratorium wasn’t an accident. It came about as the result of community organizing by a dedicated group of people, including Al Giordano. He reflected back on those times recently:

The 1979 Wall Street occupation – it only lasted for two days! – is historic not because of the occupation itself, but, rather, because it inspired a change in the movement’s direction and language, bringing it more coherently in line with everyday people’s daily life concerns and worries, which are not about the environment or the morality of what we do as a society to future generations, but about next month’s bills and making ends meet. This helped shift public opinion more solidly against nuclear power, and many opportunistic state Attorneys General began filing lawsuits against utility rate increases. That nearly bankrupted some public utilities. The great economic “ratings” houses began to tick down their grades on the nuclear industry’s health as an investment. And dozens of nukes that had been proposed were cancelled.

And I would like to be able to say that this is a fairy tale where everyone “lived happily ever after.” But movements, even those that win, like life, are not like that. The truth is that the Wall Street occupation in 1979 was also the regional anti-nuclear movement’s last gasp.

Yes, it destroyed the nuclear industry in the United States. But, like a mother who dies in childbirth, it gave its own life to do so.

Al’s article is about the shortcomings of the modern #Occupy Movement, but it has a lot of personal history on the effort to “destroy the nuclear industry.”

If it was destroyed, though, it appears that the nuclear industry was arisen again, like Lazarus. It has new champions, like Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). Yet, what has really changed? As the Los Angeles Times says, “The heyday of nuclear plant construction almost bankrupted the electric utility industry and saddled ratepayers with high bills for decades.”

Former NRC member Peter Bradford, now a law professor in Vermont, said Thursday’s approval did not change the poor economics of nuclear power. What makes a difference in Georgia is that the state has ruled that customers are going to have to pay, he said.

If it isn’t profitable unless the consumer gets soaked, is there any reason that we would choose the shadow of the second worst nuclear accident in history to end our moratorium?

You know, people care more about their bills than about a possible meltdown, but:

Commission Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko, who cast the lone vote against approval, said in an interview that he was not satisfied that the license would compel Southern Co. to adopt safety improvements that result from the ongoing review of the Fukushima accident. Jaczko said it would be “very difficult” to get Southern’s compliance after the license was issued.

I mean, seriously. I understand the attractiveness of nuclear energy. I understand the downsides of coal and gas and oil. But the case has not been made that nuclear power can be safe, profitable, and good for the consumer.

What do you think?

In New Hampshire, there exists two Republican legislators, one of whom once worked as a supervisor at a fast food restaurant, which means, of course that he knows everything there is to know about how to treat employees. And guess what: they sponsored a bill to eliminate lunch breaks for workers. All workers in the state.

Their names are State Rep. J.R. Hoell and Rep Kyle Jones. (Mr. Jones is 20 years old and he’s the former fast food professional). Both are Paulites (i.e., they support Ron Paul, of the white supremacist newsletters fame, for President). How they got elected to the NH House is beyond me but obviously some people must think them deserving. Then again I wonder if they knew these two ideologues would push for laws that take away workers’ rights (as well as their lunch hour). At a NH House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Service Committee meeting this is how they justified their bill to do away with a worker protection that has been on the books in NH for 36 years.

First Mr. Hoell:

“The reason I was asked to submit it is this is a paperwork nightmare for the HR department of some companies,” Hoell said. “The company that asked me to submit this typically has some seasonal work, and in the off-season they tend to work shorter days, and the question is what to do about those shorter days. You could allow employees to go home.”

Ah yes, all that excessive paperwork. Breaks my heart. Of course when asked about the real possibility that his legislation would allow employers to deny lunch breaks to employees who work ten hour or longer shifts, Rep Hoell admitted that he didn’t know much about labor law. Well, actually he said he wasn’t a labor expert, which I suppose is true of most state representatives. Most of the ones I know are always getting a free lunch from someone (i.e., a lobbyist) so maybe they just believe free lunches for employees are a natural condition in the real world, too.

But nothing tops 20 year old Rep. Kyle Jones’ rationale for eliminating the lunch break for employees. I mean, he claims to know the hearts and minds of businesses based on his vast working experience:

[Jones] said he flipped burgers at Burger King and also had supervisory duties.

“This is an unneeded law,” Jones said. “If I was to deny one of my employees a break, I would be in a very bad position with the company’s human resources representative. If you consider that this is a very easy law to follow in that everyone already does it, then why do we need it? Our constituents have already proven that they have enough common sense to do this on their own.”

Beeep! Wrong answer Kyle. If there was no law requiring lunch breaks, what human resource manager would give a rat’s behind if you, on your own initiative, refused to give them one? Have you ever met a Human resources manager? They have better things to do with their time then calling you on the carpet for not doing something for a company’s employees that isn’t required by law. Why do you think a lunch break law was passed in the first place, if every employer was so kind-hearted toward the health and welfare of their employees. In fact, seasonal employers have an interest in not giving employees a lunch break.

Perhaps being 20 years old you don’t know much about the history of labor relations in this country, but things you take for granted–the minimum wage, worker health and safety laws, worker’s compensation laws for injuries in the job, etc.–were not freely given by businesses to their employees purely out of the employers’ enlightened self-interest. Labor advocates, muckraking journalists and unions had to spend years fighting against the business lobby (often at the risk of physical harm or the loss of their jobs) before these basic workers rights and protections were given to them by either a state government or by the federal governments as a matter of law. Most employers fought tooth and nail against any worker protections period, even child labor laws.

And Kyle, let me give you some advice: I wouldn’t go around touting your experience flipping burgers at Burger King (not that there’s anything wrong with that) as proof that you have special knowledge about the generosity of employers. Businesses care about one thing above all else: making as much money for the owner of the business as possible. Why do you think so many companies are shutting down plants in America, putting American workers out on the street, and moving their jobs to China. Trust me, if Burger King could have replaced you with a robot burger flipper they would have done so in a heart beat.

And, as I always say, people, especially Republicans like these two ill informed legislators, have to ask what the Occupy Movement wants? I’ll tell you one thing its members and supporters want: idiots like you to be voted out of office so you have to go get a real job in today’s economy (like flipping burgers again, Kyle). At least you wouldn’t be able to waste time proposing legislation to harm workers rights anymore. Because the job you are doing now, Rep. Hoell and Rep. Jones, is not only non-productive and parasitical (I’m trying to use words you’ll appreciate and understand) it’s actually harmful. Workers shouldn’t have to be looking over the shoulder every second to make certain your brand of idiocy and cruelty doesn’t become the law of their state or our nation.

Welcome to Friday Foto Flogging, a place to share your photos and photography news. We were inspired by the folks at European Tribune who post a regular Friday Photoblog series to try the same on this side of the virtual Atlantic. We also thought foto folks would enjoy seeing some other websites so each week we’ll introduce a different photo website.

This Month’s Theme: What is it? This is a game invented by NorthDakotaDem. All you do is post a picture and have people guess what it is. It can be a close-up of something that makes it tricky to recognize or something unusual that people might not recognize or a different view of a known scene or place or anything else you can dream up that you think will be fun to guess.

Link of the Month: Photography in the Style of Traditional Chinese Painting by Don Hong-Oai.

Next Theme (Friday March 9, 2012): Brought to you by the letter “M”

Info on Posting Photos

When you post your photos, please keep the width at 500 or less for the sake of our Bootribers who are on dial-up. If you want to post clickable thumbnails but aren’t sure how, check out this diary:
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Previous Friday Foto Flogs

FFFs 1-36	FFFs 37-72	What is it?	DIY
Begin/End	Power	Random	Quiet
Quick Shots	A day in your life	Name Your Own Theme	Random
Textures	Random	Tripping Out	Shadows and Reflections
Random	Nature	New/Change/Diff	Colour
Similies	Random	Spring	On the road
Summertime	Street, concept, or abstract	Skies	“O” for October
Secret Places	Random	Janus

First of all, here my disclaimer; I am a senior who has witnessed more American presidential elections than I care to remember. Therefore after all these years I think I have some understanding as just how American political games work. So here is my question. WHY IN THE HELL DID OBAMA BRING UP BIRTH CONTROL when he is going into a tough general election? I mean WTF??  Yes there is a sizeable liberal minority who has rallied to the cause and are showing their support for the President on this issue. However most of these folks don’t live and vote in many of the blue collar regions where large populations attend Mass every week.
Don’t get me wrong, Obama is correct in making this part of the new National Health Care regulations, but NOW is not the time to bring this highly controversial topic up for national discussion. It is sort of like the need to pass some strong built-up flatulence. There is a time and place for it, such as in the privacy of the bathroom or out in a large open windy area like a public park.  Likewise there are many places where one should not relieve the pressure of one’s gas pains, such as around the dinner table with guests present, or in a pew in a packed church.
Please continue with me in the discussion below.
IMO Barack Obama needs a little schooling concerning the real political power structures in this country. You may recall at the start of Obama’s term he stepped into a local tiff between a City of Cambridge police sergeant and Harvard professor Skip Gates. Obama attempted to intercede publically on behalf of his friend Skip Gates. In the ensuing dust-up that followed, he was challenged by the president of the National Chiefs of Police organization, along with a host of  Police Benevolent Associations from various parts of the country, all who publically spoke out in support of the Cambridge police sergeant. You may also recall that Obama quickly caved in to this widely publicized police push-back and tamped the issue down by calling for the now famous “beer summit” in the White House garden between the Cambridge cop and Professor Gates with President Obama as host. One would have thought that Obama would had learned a lesson in dealing with political power centers in America, even though all of the national police organizations in total do not represent an organized national political power.

On the other hand the Catholic Church is an organized GLOBAL political power, and the Catholic Church has exercised significant political power in America ever since the potato famine in Ireland resulted in a huge wave of Irish immigrants coming to this country. The ability of the Catholic Church to withstand the devastating media coverage of the endless reports of the sexual exploits of predator priests while paying out billions of dollars in civil suits is in itself an irrefutable testament to the strength of the Catholic Church in America.
Obama faces a tough election not from the Republican candidates but from those pernicious voter suppression laws currently in place in over 30 plus states. Further, in 2008 Obama received strong support from Catholic voters, and in my view the issue of birth control in respect to the Health Care bill’s regulation and provisions was certainly a subject that should have been “kicked down the road” until after the presidential election. Now the White House has deal with the Catholic “Bishop’s hornet nest” created by the untimely introduction of the highly controversial birth control issue into the national conversation just 9 months before the presidential election.

Finally, Obama has inadvertently given the Republicans a CLUB that they can used to beat him over the head politically. It is an long established Republican tactic to introduce some controversial social issue as a wedge against those well publicized facts that silently argue against the Republican ideology of the moment. Back in 1988 when Michael Dukakis was running for president, the Republicans steamrolled Dukakis using the famous “Willie Horton Revolving Door” ad which accused then Governor Dukakis of being “soft on crime” because of his program which provided for early release of trustee convicts back into society.  In particular the Republicans accused Dukakis of putting violent criminals back on the street. Likewise when John Kerry ran for President on the Democratic ticket, the Republicans sunk the Kerry campaign with lies about his military service as a swift boat commander during the Vietnam War. Their video ad attack was so extensive on this score that they created a new political word for this particular tactic, which is now widely known as “Swift boating”.

This time the Republicans did not have to dream up an election social wedge distraction. The Obama administration has given them one with a pretty brightly colored bow and wrapped up in the highly controversial discussion of “Religious Freedom” (at least that is the way that the Republicans have already framed it). The Obama Administration can count on every Republican talking point on this inflammatory issue to be echoed from the pulpits in Catholic Churches across this nation. Furthermore, the Obama surrogates that are out attempting to defend the White House over this current birth control/health insurance flap are inadvertently adding fuel to the Bishop’s Ire by constantly repeating the statistic that 98% of practicing Catholic women are actively using birth control already.

A word for the President, you can be 100% RIGHT and still lose the election if you are not reflective and analytically wise in your decisions.