LeAnn Rimes
All I Want for Christmas

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97 Americans have died in Afghanistan this year. I wanted to post their names, as we tend not to talk about Afghanistan, where the war should have stayed. R.I.P.

523 11/30/06 Kleinwachter, Chris Specialist 29 U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery Hostile - vehicle rolled over Ghazni Wahpeton North Dakota
522 11/28/06 Roberson, Jeffrey G. Specialist 22 U.S. Army 30th Military Police Company, 95th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack Logar Phelan California
521 11/28/06 Shank, Michael A. Staff Sergeant 31 U.S. Army 230th Military Police Company, 95th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack Logar Bonham Texas
520 11/26/06 Keating, Benjamin D. 1st Lieutenant 27 U.S. Army 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Reg, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Non-hostile - vehicle accident Kamdesh (Nuristan province) Shapleigh Maine
517 11/25/06 Lundell, Scott B. 2nd Lieutenant 35 U.S. Army National Guard Corps Artillery, Utah National Guard Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire, RPG Tirin Kot district (Uruzgan province) Hurricane Utah
516 11/23/06 Goodiron, Nathan J. Caporal 25 U.S. Army National Guard 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire, RPG Qarabagh Mandaree North Dakota
515 11/06/06 Brown, William R. Sergeant 1st Class 30 U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack Sperwan-Gar Fort Worth Texas

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53 U.S. deaths this month, 881 Iraqi deaths this month

14-Dec-2006 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
12-Dec-2006 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Major Gloria D. Davis Baghdad Non-hostile
US Sergeant Brent W. Dunkleberger Mosul - Ninawa Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
11-Dec-2006 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Budd M. Cote Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Corporal Matthew V. Dillon Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Lance Corporal Clinton J. Miller Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Master Sergeant Brian P. McAnulty Al Anbar Province Non-hostile - helicopter crash

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Well well well……It seems that the largest arms dealer in the UK bribed the Saudis for a multi-BILLION dollar deal. Just as information about money transfers to a Swiss bank account were about to be had, the investigation was shut down by Blair.

And does anyone else find it odd that Cheney visted Saudi, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. then quit, and we’re building up troops in Kuwait?

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is defending his decision to scrap a major corruption investigation. Saudi Arabia had threatened to pull out of a multibillion-dollar defense contract if he didn’t. Stephen Beard reports.

Source

From the Guardian

The government’s controversial decision to drop a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations that Saudi officials were bribed to win a lucrative order for a British arms firm could be challenged in the high court, it emerged last night.
Anti-arms trade campaigners yesterday instructed lawyers to consider a legal action against Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, after he halted the SFO inquiry into allegations of corruption by officials from BAE Systems when sealing the Al-Yamamah deal in the 1980s.

The Campaign against the Arms Trade and the Corner House, a social and environmental justice group, believe the grounds for the decision - made after the prime minister warned it was against Britain’s security and foreign policy interests - could be subject to judicial review. David Pannick QC has been hired.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also signalled that it would launch its own investigation. Britain is a signatory to the 30-nation grouping’s anti-bribery convention.

Yesterday confusion deepened as Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith offered apparently conflicting explanations. Mr Blair told reporters at the European Council in Brussels that he accepted “full responsibility” for ending the inquiry. It could have provoked years of “ill-feeling” with Saudi Arabia, a crucial ally in the Middle East, he said. “Leave aside the effect on thousands of British jobs and billions worth of pounds for British industry … Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country in terms of counterterrorism, in terms of the broader Middle East and in terms of helping in respect of Israel and Palestine.”

And this

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Detainees who have never been charged with anything……

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, Dec. 10 - As the first detainees began moving last week into Guantnamo’s modern, new detention facility, Camp 6, the military guard commander stood beneath the high, concrete walls of the compound, looking out on a fenced-in athletic yard.

The cells at Camp 6, which began to house its first prisoners last week. Following a riot at Guantnamo in May, the facility has been retrofitted to make it more difficult to attack guards and commit suicide.
The yard, where the detainees were to have played soccer and other sports, had been part of a plan to ease the conditions under which more than 400 men are imprisoned here, nearly all of them without having been charged. But that plan has changed.

“At this point, I just don-t see using that,” the guard commander, Col. Wade F. Dennis, said.

After two years in which the military sought to manage terrorism suspects at Guantnamo with incentives for good behavior, steady improvements in their living conditions and even dialogue with prison leaders, the authorities here have clamped down decisively in recent months.

Security procedures have been tightened. Group activities have been scaled back. With the retrofitting of Camp 6 and the near-emptying of another showcase camp for compliant prisoners, military officials said about three-fourths of the detainees would eventually be held in maximum’security cells. That is a stark departure from earlier plans to hold a similar number in medium’security units.

Read more at the NewYorkTimes

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It isn’t often that a startup local TV station makes the David Letterman show Top 10. Desperate Poolboys and The King of Queens — these are two of the talk host’s ideas for programming on Key West’s upcoming WGAY-TV.

Station owners and program providers say WGAY on UHF Channel 41 will be the first gay-oriented, over-the-air TV channel in the United States. The low-power station is scheduled to begin broadcasting from Big Coppitt Key in February. It will be seen throughout the Keys on Comcast Cable and throughout the world on the Internet.

Several gay-oriented TV networks have also launched recently, including Viacom’s Logo and Here! TV, both available on cable and satellite in South Florida. A third network, Q Television, suffered cash-flow problems from the time it went on the air in 2004 and folded six months ago.

Read more at the Miami Herald

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GENEVA (Reuters) - The Iraqi Red Crescent accused U.S. forces on Friday of carrying out a spate of attacks on its offices over the last three years during operations to flush out suspected militants.

Jamal Al Karbouli, vice-president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said that in the latest incident, U.S forces had occupied and nearly destroyed its Falluja office, held staff for hours, and burned two cars clearly marked with its neutral symbol.

The only Iraqi aid agency working in all 18 provinces, its 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers already face extremely difficult conditions because of the growing sectarian violence, he said.

“The main difficulties we are facing, first of all, is the presence of MNF, the multinational forces, which sometimes gives us a hard time. They are attacking some offices and detaining some volunteers,” Karbouli told a news conference in Geneva.

More at Reuters

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O’Hare Airport’s primary radar system shut down twice Friday, delaying many flights at one of the nation’s busiest airports.

O’Hare’s Airport Surveillance Radar 9 first stopped operating about 3:30 a.m., said Wendy Abrams, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation.

The radar was fixed at 9 a.m., but it went down again at 9:35 a.m. and was restored just before noon.

A pair of defective switches caused the outages, and the airport used a backup system in south suburban Tinley Park while Federal Aviation Administration technicians worked on the problem, officials said.

‘Absolutely ridiculous’

The airport has had only one on’site radar system for the last 12 years, though the FAA plans to install a second by 2008 as part of the O’Hare expansion project. Delays on Friday averaged from 30 to 45 minutes for inbound and outbound flights, according to Abrams.
Ray Gibbons, of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said 96 planes usually arrive per hour at O’Hare, but that number was trimmed back to 60 because the backup radar system covers a smaller portion of O’Hare’s airspace.

”The fact that O’Hare has only one radar site is absolutely ridiculous,” Gibbons said.

Read more at the SunTimes

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He should be more careful. If he manages to piss off the religious right crowd, I doubt they’ll throw any votes his way in ‘08!
[/end snide]

W happy for Mary

WASHINGTON - President Bush put a muzzle on his hard-line anti-gay and lesbian rhetoric yesterday and warmly predicted that Mary Cheney is going to be a great mother.

In an interview with People magazine, Bush dodged a question asking him to explain his feelings regarding Vice President Cheney’s lesbian daughter having a child given his outspoken opposition to gay and lesbian couples raising children.

Bush was asked: “You said in 2005 that ideally ‘a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman.’ Knowing Mary and her partner, Heather, do you still think that?”

He told People, “I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I’m happy for her.”

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Bush has not changed his mind about parenthood, but added, “He believes that Mary Cheney’s child will, in fact, have loving parents.”

Bush said he learned from the veep that Mary Cheney was pregnant.

“The Vice President took me aside and gave me the good news. He and his wife, Lynne, are very happy for Mary,” Bush said.

Source: New York Daily News -Kenneth R. Bazinet

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HAVANA · As Fidel Castro lies gravely ill, the largest U.S. congressional delegation to visit communist-led Cuba arrived Friday for three days of talks with government leaders, foreign diplomats and others, in what some hope could be a first step toward normalizing relations with the island nation.

Leading the 10-member, bipartisan delegation are Reps. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who have criticized the four-decade economic embargo against Cuba.

“We sense this is an important time, and we hope to be able to meet with officials here and others and hopefully launch a new era in U.S.-Cuba relations,” Flake said Friday afternoon, as the group arrived at the elegant Hotel Nacional.

The trip comes less than a month before Democrats take control of Congress, and as an ailing Fidel Castro seems unlikely to return to power. Cubans on the island and in Florida are calling for an end to the Bush administration measures that have restricted visits and the amount of money that can be sent to family members in Cuba.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

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Is it any wonder?

Jose Padilla is suffering from mental health problems — caused by his treatment during 31/2 years in solitary confinement — that may mean he is incompetent to stand trial, according to two psychiatric experts for the defense.

Lawyers for the al-Qaida suspect want a federal judge to hold a mental competency hearing to decide whether Padilla understands the nature and consequences of the case against him and whether he can assist in his defense — the main legal standards to proceed to trial.

Prosecutors dispute the defense’s allegations that Padilla was treated inhumanely during his detention in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina as an “enemy combatant.” But in papers filed Friday in Miami, they asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to order that a federal Bureau of Prisons doctor evaluate the former Broward County resident.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

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…Black Is ‘White’
…Up Is ‘Down’
…Humanitarian is ‘Cheney’
…Sanity is ‘Bush’

In Farewell, Rumsfeld Warns Weakness Is A-Provocative-

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld bade farewell to the Pentagon on Friday with a combative valedictory speech in which he warned against hoping for “graceful exits” from Iraq and said it would be wrong to regard the lack of new attacks on American soil as a sign that the nation is safe from terrorism.

“Today, it should be clear that not only is weakness provocative,” Mr. Rumsfeld said, standing at a lectern with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney at his side, “but the perception of weakness on our part can be provocative as well.”

It was a clear parting shot at those considering a withdrawal from war that would define his legacy and perhaps that of the president.

Source: The New York Times

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(crossposted at Vagabond Scholar)

In this recent post, I criticized a piece by The Phoenix’s Adam Reilly. I thought it only fair to leave a condensed version of my criticism in the comments for his piece, along with the URL for my post. To Reilly’s credit, he looked into the error I raised and acknowledged it. He also quoted a new blog comment to substitute for the problematic one. While I still question aspects of his original piece, and question his new quotation, he deserves credit for issuing a correction and being very civil in his comment thread. Feel free to read all the comments here. Here’s the response I wrote:
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Chertoff better not eat in any black-owned restaurants in NOLA. Really, the arrogance of these people is stunning at times. It wouldn-t surprise me if some overworked, low-level FEMA employee just shot him, the next time he got out of a taxpayer funded hookermobile car.

And we-ve got to do a much better job, frankly, of how we manage the process of recovery. We still have tens of thousands of people who suffer the lingering effects of Katrina. And as the city of New Orleans and as the state of Mississippi and the state of Louisiana try to recover and rebuild in what is a mammoth task, we have to make sure that FEMA does not become so enmeshed in its own bureaucratic processes sometimes that they lose sight of the need to have simple common sense and humanity in dealing with the public. So we-re going to have to continue to crack down and make sure we get this job done.

As Scout points out:

Can someone please give Chertoff an organization chart for DHS so we can remind Michael that FEMA is that little box below YOU. Perhaps you should crack down on yourself Mr. Secretary. I have to admit I have some sympathy for the grunts at FEMA. They are poorly led and continually abused, now even by Chertoff. What’s worse however is they are completely misplaced. It is stark and clear that the agency does not belong in DHS

Continue reading at CorrenteWire

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Just what this country needs, eh?

December 11, 2006 — Sen. John McCain swept onto the turf of potential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani last night, vowing a strong defense of Israel and saying military action may be needed to prevent Iran from building nukes. “The Iranian regime defines itself by hostility to Israel and the United States,” McCain said in a convocation speech for Yeshiva University at the Waldorf-Astoria, adding, “We are dealing with a possibly deranged and surely dangerous regime.”

More here

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