HEROES; Afghans Learn Construction Skills

The seven-day course consisted of lectures in job safety, tools and their proper uses, as well as basic carpentry. The event culminated with a competition, with the students divided into groups of 10 and each group building a tool shed. At the end of the course, the students received the tools they used during their classes and a certificate of training.

“I think that this skill labor workshop is important for the development of Afghanistan,” said Qassem, 22, another student at the workshop. “It was amazing to build the tool shed, especially the trusses on the roof.”

This was the task force’s second workshop this year. The course includes meals, tools and materials financed through U.S. Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds.

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What America's declining casualties reveal

The dramatic decline in US casualties in Iraq has been one the great untold story of recent months. [snip] a young American male would have been safer in Iraq than in some of America's inner cities.

Given the circumstances this is not what one would expect. [snip] the number of casualties a foreign force takes usually grows as conflicts of this nature drag on. Secondly, a number of factors would appear to make Iraq the ideal place for insurgency...
[snip]
The insurgency has also been well backed by the jihad's financiers who consider Iraq the central battlefield in their cause. Finally, the insurgency has been receiving steady state support from Iran and Syria in the form of weapons, materiel and advisors.

When an insurgency that is so favored ends up as ineffective as the one in Iraq today, there can only be one reason for it: this may come as a shock to some, but our low casualty rate clearly shows that the Iraqi people have taken the side of America and that on a mass scale.

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Arms & The Manpower

As America enters its fifth year in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a growing need to replace “worn out” equipment. Both the need for new equipment and calls to expand the number of military personnel have led to increased projected spending in the Department of Defense budget for 2008.

While promises for a stronger military abound, finding the money to fund equipment and training will not be easy, especially if the economy goes into recession. The future President will have to make tough decisions in the contest for funds between military and domestic welfare programs.

Already, new weapons programs for the Air Force and Navy have been put on hold in order to ensure that the Army and Marines are well-equipped first. The deferment comes despite President Bush’s original budget request to pump $38.7 billion into shipbuilding and $33.8 billion into new aircraft equipment.

“The question is going to be—Where is the money going to come from?”

[i.e., 'Change' won't do as a policy plan - we need know how each candidate will approach this and every other major issue - before choosing who will be given the vast power of that office]

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The Muslim Brotherhood: An Association for Jihadists

One of the more clandestine groups in radical Islam is the Muslim Brotherhood. Originating in Egypt in 1928, the group has been outlawed in Egypt and is the parent organization to some of the most violent terror groups operating today. It thrives as a pseudo professional association for terrorists while feigning legitimacy as a political movement. So, what is the Muslim Brotherhood and why should every American be concerned about its activities both within the United States and around the world?

The Muslim Brotherhood has become a central issue in federal court proceedings now taking place in Dallas, Texas. These proceedings involve what, until now, has been portrayed as an Islamist philanthropic organization, The Holy Land Foundation. But the Muslim Brotherhood, the Holy Land Foundation and over 300 unindicted co-conspirators are enabling and funding terrorist groups around the world with money derived from people right here in the United States...

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AFP Revises History of 2006 Israel-Lebanon War

AFP's Ron Bousso echoes a questionable claim about the 2006 Israeli War against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon:

"Major Tomer Buhadana was one of those wounded during the last 48 hours of war, which in all killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. "

The Lebanese killed were "mostly civilians?" -- The Daily Telegraph noted during the conflict:

Hezbollah lost more than 500 men, even though it confirmed only some 60-odd killed. Israel identified 440 dead guerrillas by name and address, and experience shows that Israeli figures are half to two-thirds of the enemy's real casualties. Therefore, Amidror estimated, Hezbollah's death toll might be as high as 700.

A media analysis by Steven Stotsky of The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) which sought to provide an actual account of the Hezbollah and civilan dead, arriving at a rough estimate of 500-600 Hezbollah fighters among the roughly 1,000-1,200 Lebanese killed—roughly half of the total.

The conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 created roughly 1,000-1,200 fatalities in Lebanon, at least half of which were clearly Hezbollah fighters. Exactly how is that 'mostly civilians'?

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/

Russia tests ballistic missiles

Russia has successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that are to replace ageing rockets from the Soviet era. A strategic missile known as the RS-24 flew 7,000 km (4350 miles) to hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula. Later, a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea launched another new missile, hitting the same test site. It comes as Russia has again accused the US of ignoring its concerns over a planned US missile defence system.

[don't their actions increase the need for a missle defence system?]

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On Chad, UN in Denial, then Abortive Frenzy in Council

UNITED NATIONS, February 3 -- As rebels moved in on Chadian president Idriss Deby, who took power in a coup d'etat 17 years ago, the UN in New York was first in denial, then in an abortive frenzy. At Friday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe if the UN was evacuating its personnel from the Chadian capital. Ms. Okabe said archly that she had previously read out a statement from Ban Ki-moon.

But that statement said nothing about a pull-out from the capital. Later on Friday, following a closed door briefing for Police Contributing Countries, Inner City Press was told by a participant that hundreds of "Mad Max-like" vehicles were massed on Chad's border with Sudan, and that remaining UN staff in Chad were being given flak jackets and helmets. Upstairs, the UN spokesperson's office still refused to comment, claiming that they never speak of evacuations until everyone has left. But from Geneva, the UN's refugee agency was already speaking of pull-out...

[what exactly do these folks {ever} accomplish?]

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LINES FOR SWEDISH CARE GROW LONGER

If universal coverage can work anywhere, it should be Sweden, a small, homogenous nation where poverty is virtually unknown. Yet worsening problems continue to degrade the quality of service there // according to European think tank Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP) in its Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index 2008:

Waiting times for care, long a problem in Sweden and too often deadly wherever they're found, are now the longest on the Continent.

While Sweden excels at medical outcomes, its accessibility to and quality of service are bad and worsening.

...rather than deal with long waits, they're opting for private care, which got a boost from limited reform in the 1990s. In private care, patients self-regulate and put less stress on the system.

...private health care providers have an incentive to cut waiting times, lest they lose customers to the competition. Government providers have no such motivation.

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MISSISSIPPIANS VS. LARD

Several members of the state's House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would have the state's health department set the limits on who is obese. These guidelines would be sent to all restaurants, which would then be enjoined from serving customers who fall into the dreaded obese category.

It's true that many Mississippians have weight control issues -- but a law like this one would do nothing to help improve the situation...

It's unlikely that such a law will ever become reality, but the fact that it's been proposed shows how crazy it's getting out there...

[again: political correctness knows no limits and will run amok indefinitely - until actively stopped by the populace. Are we there yet? ]

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Economic Redistribution Ahead

[aka: Environomics ]

The ongoing concern that climate change initiatives mask a concerted attempt to initiate global economic redistribution was bolstered by the Bali Conference. The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works quoted Emma Brindal, a “climate justice campaigner” for Friends of the Earth, as stating that “A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources.”

Groups such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) view such technology-promoting initiatives quite differently. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría told the United Nations Bali Climate Conference this December that while “cutting emissions and fostering low-carbon activities will require investments in research and development of new technologies,” the best solution to combat global warming is to raise taxes.

The OECD also lobbies for a “harmonized global carbon tax” which the organization argues would decrease the gross domestic product (GDP) of Brazil, Russia, India and China 1.4% of GDP in 2030 and 5.5% in 2050. Gurría asserts that the best solution is for industrialized nations to engage in a “fair” burden-sharing environmental policies.

The suggested global carbon tax would be instituted on an ever-increasing scale, from .5 U.S. cents per liter [multiply by 3.8 for gallons] of gasoline in 2010 to 1.5 cents in 2020 increasing to 12 cents in 2030 and, finally, 37 cents [$1.40 per gallon] in 2050.

[anyone really think this is about the planet?]

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ACLU's War On U.S. Immigration Law

Prof. Nicholas Stix

While President George W. Bush, ICE, and Congress act as if the U.S. had no immigration laws and no borders, some heroic local officials and private organizations have nevertheless sought, against all odds, to enforce and uphold immigration law. And every time they have done so, the ACLU has been there to fight them, on behalf of those who are flouting our laws.

A study of the tactics of local ACLU chapters across the country and the national ACLU reveals a distinct, coordinated strategy of six components...

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THE STIMULUS DEFICIT

If you want to know the real cost of Washington's economic stimulus, look no further than yesterday's Fiscal 2009 White House budget. The federal deficit is taking a giant leap backward, thanks in substantial part to the $150 billion in "temporary" tax cuts, says the Wall Street Journal.

This non-stimulating stimulus will result in a nearly dollar-for-dollar revenue loss to the Treasury, expanding a deficit that was already going to climb to $219 billion thanks to slower economic growth and [even] faster spending.

...President Bush's 2003 reductions on capital gains, dividend and marginal income-tax rates are precisely the kind of tax cuts that provide incentives to work and invest and thus recoup at least some of the revenue lost due to lower rates, as is evidenced by the unsung part of the budget story that overall revenue growth remains relatively healthy...

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