Earlier this year, I spent five days in Iraq, walking the same streets in Baghdad where I had served two years earlier as an infantry platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division.
The visit reinforced for me not only the immense complexity of the war – so often lost in our domestic political debate – but also the importance of taking the time to visit Iraq to talk with the soldiers and Marines serving on the front lines in order to grasp the changing dynamics of a fluid battlefield. [snip]
America is longing for an informed and principled debate about the future of Iraq. However, such a debate seems unlikely if the Democratic nominee for president won't take the time to truly understand the dynamics on the ground, let alone meet with commanders.
The time for talking points is over. Too much is at stake. When will Mr. Obama finally return to Iraq and see the situation for himself.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
Why Obama Must Go to Iraq
Iraqi, Coalition Forces Continue Securing Northern Iraq
Many areas in the region -- which stretches from Baghdad to Iraq’s border with Syria and Turkey -- continue to show signs of a return to normal life for the people who live there. In Iraq’s Diyala province, for example, very little enemy activity has been going on for more than 45 days. [snip]
Hertling said he’s encouraged by the successes in Mosul and the degree to which the credit belongs to Iraq’s own troops. “The Iraqi security forces are doing independent operations, and we’re supporting them,” he said, noting that their knowledge of the area and its people are a key element in their success. Having seen the earliest days of today’s Iraqi military, Hertling said, he’s impressed by how far they’ve come.
“The capability of the Iraqi army, especially since the last time I was here, since 2003-2004 when they were first standing up, has been significantly improved,” he said. “They are gradually improving their capability and their effectiveness.”
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L.A. Times on Terror Financing: Misses Key Reasons Why It's So Hard to Track
The Los Angeles Times runs a story today about the difficulties that the US is having in tracking and shutting down terrorist financial operations. The story leads with a number of factors impeding both our domestic and international efforts:
[Bush administration is 'undermined', the terrorists are smarter than the feds and have found work-arounds, Bush administration 'stumbling' with interagency fighting, and of course no other nation trusts the US anymore so cooperation is imperfect. etc...]Can anyone spot what's missing? Anyone?
Apparently the Times doesn't think that the media's disclosure of the nature, procedures, and targets of those programs could have a deleterious effect on their effectiveness and foreign cooperation. Moreover, the Times doesn't think that the House Democrats' refusal to grant immunity to telecom companies who helped the government with foreign intelligence gathering could be interpreted by foreign banks and governments as a warning of might be in store for them if they, too, make the mistake of assisting the US is tracking down terrorist transactions.
And certainly, the House Democrats' refusal to renew the Patriot Act couldn't have any effect on our ability to locate and track new targets for investigation. No, certainly not. But we wouldn't want to question their patriotism.
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The Cluster Behind the Cluster Munitions Ban
Which brings us to the cluster munitions treaty announced in Ireland on May 30. Hosannaed by "the international community" and hailed by anti-Americans, the treaty is another attempt to politically cleanse warfare.
The anti-Americanism exploited by many treaty advocates is both disgusting and sclerotic. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's May 31 report opens with
"Negotiators of a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs predicted the pact will make it too politically painful for the United States ever to use the weapons again."China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Israel reject the treaty, but America is the big rhetorical target. This is a legacy of the Cold War, when unilateral disarmers largely focused on the United States -- kicking America cost them zip politically, and they had no influence over Communist totalitarians.
The United States, its critics to the contrary, remains the most benign global power that has ever existed, so piquant displays of self-righteousness by activists still have no downside...
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The War on Zionism
[HT:JD]
Post Annapolis, the Palestinian Authority made it crystal clear that it will never recognize Israel as a "Jewish state". Furthermore, it made it crystal clear that it will not compromise on Jerusalem by making it a capital offense to do so. Yet negotiations continue. [?] Either Olmert doesn't believe the PA or what is more likely, he will still cut a deal where Israel is denied that recognition and will divide Jerusalem according to Arab demands.
Do not think for a moment that these entrenched Arab positions are negotiable. They aren't and never have been...
[i.e., any plan for peace requires parties - plural - who desire it. As long as victimhood is profitable {to the tune of 7B$ pledged this year}, there'll only be one; Israel]
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Georgia Is Warned by Russia Against Plans to Join NATO
Russia - President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia warned the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, on Friday that Georgia’s joining NATO would deepen the conflict between the former Soviet states.
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Chinese parents fight forced abortions
QIAN'AN, China - Yang Zhongchen, a small-town businessman, wined and dined three government officials for permission to become a father. But the Peking duck and liquor weren't enough. One night, a couple of weeks before her date for giving birth, Yang's wife was dragged from her bed in a north China town and taken to a clinic, where, she says, her baby was killed by injection while still inside her.
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G8, Asia urge oil production hike as prices soar
Japan — Eleven nations that guzzle nearly two-thirds of the world's energy called Sunday for an urgent hike in global oil production as host Japan warned the world could plunge into recession. Energy ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrial powers were meeting in the northern Japanese city of Aomori with officials from China, India and South Korea in the wake of a record spike in oil prices.
The 11 nations represented here voiced "serious concerns" over the level of oil prices and said there was an "urgent need for increased and timely investment in the energy sector."
In a joint statement, they called for boosts to their own production and asked major oil producers "to increase investment to keep markets well supplied in response to rising world demand."
The first meeting is to be held this year. The 11-nation talks came after oil prices on Friday posted their highest ever one-day gain of nearly 11 dollars, hitting a new record of 138.54 dollars a barrel in New York trade. "If we leave this situation as it is, it could lead to a recession of the world economy," Japan's energy minister Akira Amari said as he opened the meeting.
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'Sixth Sense' Creator to Release Global Warming Horror Movie in June
For several months, NewsBusters has been reporting the new horror movie genre "Global Warming's Gonna Kill You!"
Entering the fray is M. Night Shyamalan, the writer/director of 1999's smash hit "The Sixth Sense."
Set to open coincidentally on Friday, June 13, "The Happening" is Shyamalan's move "to milk global warming for all the terror and despair it's worth."
So say USA Today's "Weather Guys" (emphasis added, trailer embedded right): ...
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Baltimore Looks to Ban Cheap Cigars
Hoping to curb the increase in the number of people who smoke small, inexpensive cigars, Baltimore plans to bar shops from the common practice of breaking open packages to sell them individually...
[government?]
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WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT?
There is no denying that the current financial morass is deep and painful. But, looking back over the past century, it would be a stretch to rank the current problems as especially notable or dramatic:
• Right now we have an unemployment rate of 5 percent and headline inflation topping 4 percent.These are hardly statistics to celebrate, but they are a far cry from the crises of the 20th century, says Karabell:
• We have economic growth of 0.6 percent, extremely low consumer confidence and weakening consumer spending, small business optimism at a 28-year low, and a housing market that is showing declines in excess of 20 percent.
• The unemployment rate in 1933 was 24.9 percent; seven years later, after the intensive efforts of the New Deal, it stood at 14.6 percent.The alternative to grime-encrusted lenses isn't rose-tinted glasses, but more equanimity about our weaknesses and our strengths would surely help us navigate.
• The unemployment rate went from 4.9 percent in 1973 to 8.5 percent in 1977, and then nearly broke 10 percent in 1982.
• While the recent collapse of Bear Stearns shocked Wall Street, in 1933 alone 4,000 banks failed, and millions not only lost their homes but were rendered homeless.
Unfortunately, the problem with downward spirals is, well, that they spiral downward...
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Border peril prompts Amado school meeting
[HT: DG]
The U.S. Border Patrol will host a meeting tonight at an Amado elementary school that was forced into lockdowns on two occasions recently due to dangerous border-related activity nearby. In late April and early May, Sopori Elementary was put on lockdown twice.
In the morning of May 7, a man with blood coming from his head was found by Border Patrol agents lying in the road at the entrance to the school. The man, who was flown to University Medical Center with with life-threatening injuries, had been thrown from or jumped out of a pickup truck carrying marijuana that agents had tried to pull over.
On April 28, the school went on lockdown after agents tracked footprints of drug smugglers to a nearby house. Agents contacted the school principal and decided to put students on lockdown in case the drug runners had weapons.
Agents found nine people inside the house and 200 pounds of marijuana...
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Assembly Speaker proposes $6.4 billion in taxes
Sacramento, CA - Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is proposing to raise $6.4 billion in taxes to balance the state budget. She declined to say which taxes Assembly Democrats want to raise. The state is facing a $15.2 billion deficit in the next fiscal year as tax revenues in the slowing economy fall short of state spending increases...
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Karen Bass: 926-319-2047 http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a47/AD47MailForm.aspx (CA Governor:
http://gov.ca.gov/interactCA State Legislature = http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
Iraq Vets for Congress
To help counter the alliance of the Democratic leadership with the antiwar Left, abetted by a compliant news media, I recently formed Iraq Vets for Congress, a group of thirteen Republican Iraq veterans who are seeking office in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. I believe that the formation of IVC, and the group's goals, warrant the attention of all Americans who want to restore leadership and honor in Washington...
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Olbermann Declares McClellan Book a 'Primary Document in American History'
Edward Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Winston Churchill’s “Second World War.” “What Happened” by Scott McClellan. One of these things is not like the other.
Unless you’re Keith Olbermann...
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Friday, June 6, 2008
CAP AND SPEND
As the Senate opens debate on its mammoth carbon regulation program this week, the phrase of the hour is "cap and trade." This sounds innocuous enough, however, anyone who looks at the legislative details will quickly see that a better description is cap and spend. This is easily the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax, says the Wall Street Journal. For example:
• Some $802 billion would go for "relief" for low-income taxpayers, to offset the higher cost of lighting homes or driving cars.
• There's also $190 billion to fund training for "green-collar jobs," which are supposed to replace the jobs that will be lost in carbon-emitting industries.
• Some $342 billion would be spent on international aid, $171 billion for mass transit, and untold billions for 'alternative energy'
• The revenue handouts reach an astonishing total of more than $6.7 trillion.
• Even the cap-and-trade friendly Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the bill would reduce GDP between $1 trillion and $2.8 trillion..
All of this helps explain why so many in Congress are so enamored of "doing something" about global warming. They would lay claim to a vast new chunk of the private economy and enhance their own political power, says the Journal.
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Senate Bill 2191: "America's Climate Security Act"
President Bush: president@whitehouse.gov Barbara Boxer: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm?CFID=9716973&CFTOKEN=89336911 Dianne Feinstein:http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
Iraqi Security Forces Approach Full Manning
Iraq’s security forces should be manned to near capacity by the end of the year, a senior coalition official said yesterday.
“Force generation has been the focus of our efforts and still really remains the focus of our efforts up to now,” British army Brigadier Johnny Torrens-Spence, deputy commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, said in a teleconference with online journalists and bloggers.
“We’ve been very happy with the way [the force generation] has gone in general terms,” he said.
The Iraqi army had 100,000 soldiers in January 2007, Torrens-Spence said. By the end of 2008, officials expect the Iraqi army will have grown to more than 200,000 soldiers, he said. The Iraqi army will have grown by 220 percent in two years, he added. Growth rates in the Iraqi police, navy, and air force have been equivalent to that of the army, Torrens-Spence said.
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Worthwhile advice
Fouad Ajami is always worth reading and his article in the Wall Street Journal is no exception. He reminds us why we went to war in Iraq:
"It is not easy to tell people of threats and dangers they have been spared. The war put on notice regimes and conspirators who had harbored dark thoughts about America and who, in the course of the 1990s, were led to believe that terrible deeds against America would go unpunished. A different lesson was taught in Iraq. Nowadays, the burden of the war, in blood and treasure, is easy to see, while the gains, subtle and real, are harder to demonstrate. Last month, American casualties in Iraq were at their lowest since 2003. The Sunnis also have broken with al Qaeda, and the Shiite-led government has taken the war to the Mahdi Army: Is it any wonder that the critics have returned to the origins of the war?*"In the end, how we leave and what we leave behind will be more important than how we came."
Five months from now, the American public will vote on this war, in the most dramatic and definitive of ways. There will be people who heed Ambassador Crocker's admonition*. And there will be others keen on retelling how we made our way to Iraq."
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Time to Curb “Code Pink”
Finally, a member of Congress has announced a laudable plan to do something about the abusive behavior of demonstrators of the anti-war left. (Snip) The First Amendment protects vitriolic insults to military personnel, but anti-war anarchy goes beyond constitutional rights of free speech. In trying to muscle the Marines, the Berkeley City Council and Code Pink demonstrators went too far. Rep. Akin’s “Freedom to Serve” bill would help to protect the all-volunteer force, and his efforts deserve support. [snip]
The work of military recruiters is essential to maintain the volunteer force. To protect them, Rep. Akin has introduced The Freedom to Serve Act of 2008 (FSA). Rep. Akin’s legislation, HR 6023, would make it a federal crime to undermine or prevent military recruiting through vandalism and acts of violence or intimidation...
READ MORE" HR 6023 Freedom to Serve Act of 2008 (FSA)"
YOUR Congressman https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
You can't preach the Bible here, this is a Muslim area
[UK][HT:MS]
Two Christian preachers were stopped from handing out Bible extracts by police because they were in a Muslim area, it was claimed yesterday. They say they were told by a Muslim police community support officer that they could not preach there and that attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity was a hate crime.
The community officer is also said to have told the two men: 'You have been warned. If you come back here and get beat up, well, you have been warned.' A police constable who was present during the incident in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham is also alleged to have told the preachers not to return to the district. [snip]
According to a complaint by the men's lawyers, Mr Naguthney summoned two other officers in support, one of whom, a full constable, is said to have told the men not to return to the area. [snip]
It comes amid growing concern over the development of Islamic 'no-go areas'...
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Dots...
.
Venezuela, US clash at OAS General Assembly
Medellin, Colombia - Venezuela and the United States clashed strongly Tuesday at the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the Colombian city of Medellin. Both countries accused each other of harbouring terrorists, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro called US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte a 'petty official with a criminal record.' Maduro accused Negroponte of being 'responsible for disappearances, for tortures and for deaths in Central America...
[well, since these two gentlemen have equal credibility I guess we'll just call it a draw and move on {works every time}]
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[then again...]
How Hugo Chavez Courted FARC
They called him ''Angel.'' He was the highest-ranking outside contact for the Colombian guerilla organization FARC. More and more details are now emerging that demonstrate the close relationship between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the jungle terrorists. (Snip) ''Angel'' was FARC's code name for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and ''J.E.'' was Manuel Marulanda, a.k.a. ''Tirofijo'' (''Sure Shot''), the legendary leader of Latin America's oldest guerilla organization.
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Former Sandinista UN President
New York - The United States on Wednesday warned a former Sandinista foreign minister from Nicaragua, who was just elected the next UN General assembly president, to remain within his responsibility as a UN official.
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a Roman Catholic priest, was elected without a vote by the 192-nation assembly to preside over the body when it opens its 63rd session in September. He said in an acceptance speech that the UN should end all wars and called the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan 'acts of aggression.'
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Painting by numbers: NASA's peculiar thermometer
The story is that the world is heating up - fast. Prominent people at NASA warn us that unless we change our carbon producing ways, civilisation as we know it will come to an end. At the same time, there are new scientific studies showing that the earth is in a 20 year long cooling period. Which view is correct? Temperature data should be simple enough to record and analyze. We all know how to read a thermometer - it is not rocket science. [snip]
Previously we looked at how US temperature data sets have been adjusted - with more recent versions of historical data sets showing a steeper rise in temperature than they used to. Here, we'll be looking at current NASA data and why their temperature maps appear hot-red, even when others are cool-blue. [graph at site - it trends up {surprise}]
We observe that the data has been consistently adjusted towards a bias of greater warming. The years prior to the 1970s have again been adjusted to lower temperatures, and recent years have been adjusted towards higher temperatures.
[two temprature maps, at site, basically showing...]
Prior to any adjustments, more than half the US shows declining temperatures over the 20th century - blue and green colors - i.e. the US is cooling down. However, subsequent to the adjustments the country goes dominantly warmer (red and yellow)... [snip]
So how does NASA's data compare with other temperature sources? As we explained in our earlier article, NASA data is derived from a grid of ground-based thermometers. During the last thirty years, we also have the benefit of more sophisticated technology - satellites which can indirectly record temperatures across most of the planet. The satellite data is from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) [the money graph]:
Dr. James Hansen at GISS is the person in charge of the NASA temperature data. He is also the world's leading advocate of the idea of catastrophic global warming, and is Al Gore's primary climate advisor. The discrepancies between NASA and other data sources can't help but make us consider Einstein's advice:
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
[ much more data carefully deconstructing the assertions by demonstrating how NASA's data was the product of compiling layer upon layer of questionable science upon equally questionable asumptions - longish, but Highly Recommended for anyone not aware/disbelieving of how this game is being played > ]
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Dumb or Ill-Informed
What assumptions do congressmen make about the American people? Do they assume that we're dumb or ill-informed about the energy problems we are experiencing?
Every time there has been a huge spike in gasoline prices, Congress hauls oil company executives before their committees to accuse them of greed, obscene profits and price-fixing. One federal investigation after another of supposed oil company misconduct turns up nothing to substantiate congressional allegations. Unfortunately, the congressional hearings make front page news and lead the evening television news, but the results of federal investigations that follow are only casually mentioned deep in the body of newspapers and get little or no time on the evening television news. If news media people had an ounce of integrity, they would highlight the federal investigation findings that undermine congressional charges of oil company misconduct and they would question the congressmen who made those charges... [snip]
The true villain in our having to cough up $60, $70 or $80 to fill our gas tanks is the U.S. Congress caught in the grip of environmental extremists. But if reality is too difficult to swallow, we can continue to blame and support the congressional attack on oil executives, turn food into oil and think of other crackpot "solutions."
[this is the 8th 'investigation' of the oil companies. none have found anything]
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Proposal May Open Austin Homes to Disabled
The bathroom door may need to be a bit wider and the light switches a little lower. The Austin City Council is considering an ordinance today that incorporates those accessibility requirements and others into all new homes and duplexes. The "visitability" ordinance, sponsored by Council Member Betty Dunkerley, aims to make it easier for people with disabilities to visit private homes, which can pose challenges to people who use wheelchairs or other devices to get around. (Snip) But home builders say the ordinance would increase costs and infringe...
[now your home must be made handicap-friendly - even if you're not - in case one might visit. PC: it won't stop 'progressing' until we elect those who believe in smaller government]
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Club for Growth scores in GOP primaries
California
McClintock won by a comfortable 15-point margin, 54 percent to 39 percent, despite facing a $4 million barrage of attack ads from Ose.
McClintock is a well-known icon throughout the state, and while in the Legislature, he has been a vocal opponent of tax increases and wasteful government spending.
“This election has been watched across the country as a bellwether over the future direction of our party — and ultimately of our nation,” McClintock said in his victory remarks. “Let the word go forth from the 4th Congressional District of California that, tonight, voters spoke unmistakably: They want to restore our traditional principles of constitutional government.”
[good news, Tom's a good man {voted for him for governor - but 'the-governator' you know...]
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
About That Global Warming Bill....
.
This Week, the United States Senate will begin debate on America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191), sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). The Lieberman-Warner bill (LW) would restrict energy use to combat global warming. Like global warming itself, the bill has been the subject of considerable hype and little hard-nosed analysis. For this reason, there are several myths about it that need to be dispelled.
Myth #1: LW would not be expensive.
Fact: Simply put, LW works like a massive energy tax. By restricting carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas--with a freeze at 2005 levels beginning in 2012, to a 70 percent reduction in 2050--the bill forces down supply and thus boosts the price of energy. In fact, if energy prices did not go up, then the targets in the bill would not be met. As energy is the economy's lifeblood, and 85 percent of it comes from these fossil fuels, the impact will be substantial. Cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses could reach $4.8 trillion by 2030, according to an analysis conducted by the Heritage Foundation. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Environmental Protection Agency, Charles River Associates, and the National Association of Manufacturers have all conducted studies predicting significant economic burdens on consumers should the bill be enacted.
Myth #2: The costs fall on industry, not consumers.
Fact: Virtually all the burden imposed by LW falls upon consumers. The bill will spur net job losses well into the hundreds of thousands, and possibly nearing one million. Particularly hard hit is the manufacturing sector where over one million jobs will be lost by 2022 and two million by 2027. The losses in household incomes could reach $1,026 per year by 2015. Annual household energy-price increases could hit $1,000 by 2030, including a 29 percent increase in the price of gasoline from 2008 levels.
Myth #3: Global warming is a crisis that must be addressed at all costs.
Fact: Global warming is a concern, not a crisis. Both the seriousness and the imminence of the threat are overstated. For example, the recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report estimates 7 to 23 inches of sea level rise by the end of the century--far less than the widely popularized claims of 18 to 20 feet and little more than ongoing trends over the past several centuries. The attempt to link Hurricane Katrina with climate change is directly contradicted by the World Meteorological Organization and many scientists. Overall, current and expected future temperatures are far from unprecedented, and are highly unlikely to lead to catastrophes.
Myth #4: LW effectively addresses the threat of climate change.
Fact: Even assuming the worst of global warming, LW reduces the threat by a minuscule amount. The bill reduces emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the United States only. China has overtaken America as the world's largest emitter, and its emissions growth is several times greater than that of the U.S. India and other fast-developing nations are on a similar trajectory. Thus, the unilateral impact of the bill on global emissions would be inconsequential. At most, it would reduce the earth's future temperature by one or two tenths of a degree Celsius--too small to even verify. In other words, LW is all economic pain for no environmental gain.
Myth #5: LW's cap-and-trade approach is a proven success.
Fact: Critics of the cap-and-trade approach in LW, in which emissions are capped and regulated entities may trade their rights to emit, point to the European Union's substantial difficulties since initiating its own cap-and-trade program in 2005. Most E.U. nations [13 of 15] are not on track to meet their targets, and many are seeing their emissions rise faster than those in the U.S. The program is furthermore plagued by accusations of fraud and unfairness. LW essentially adopts the European approach wholesale.
Conclusion
Overall, the Lieberman-Warner bill promises substantial hardship for the economy overall, for jobs, and for energy costs. Given current economic concerns and energy prices, this is the last thing the American people need. At the same time, the environmental benefits would likely be small to nonexistent. The Lieberman-Warner bill fails any reasonable cost-benefit test.
SOURCE
Senate Bill 2191: "America's Climate Security Act"President Bush: president@whitehouse.gov Barbara Boxer: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm?CFID=9716973&CFTOKEN=89336911 Dianne Feinstein:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMeYOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
.
Al Qaeda on the Run
A year ago in July, a National Intelligence Estimate warned that al Qaeda had "protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability," meaning it could be poised to strike America again. The political reaction was instantaneous and damning. "This clearly says al Qaeda is not beaten," said Michael Scheuer, the former CIA spook turned antiterror scold. What a difference 10 months – and a surge – make...
[Recommended > ]
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Iraqis Fear Rapid US Withdrawal Would Cause 'Chaos and Anarchy,'
Most Iraqis support the U.S. troop presence in Iraq and think a rapid withdrawal would lead to ''chaos and anarchy,'' said Adnan Pachachi, a member of the National Assembly of Iraq and a former president of Iraq's Governing Council (IGC), on Friday. (Snip) McCain has said that America should maintain its current policy in Iraq while Obama has said he supports a fairly rapid and scheduled withdrawal.
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Teacher tortures, kills boy
[HT:JB]
A blind seven-year-old student at an Islamic school in eastern Pakistan has died after his teacher punished him for not learning the Qu'ran, police said on Friday. Muhammad Atif was hung upside down from a ceiling fan and severely beaten by his teacher, Qari Ziauddin, at the madrassa in Vihari, near Lahore on Thursday.
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EU Approves Talks With Russia
European Union foreign ministers on Monday approved much delayed plans to begin talks with Russia aimed at forging a new "strategic partnership."
Rupel hoped that Russian and European negotiators could agree on a far-reaching pact to widen economic and political ties in a year's time. A new agreement, outlining closer cooperation, would replace a 1997 deal with Moscow.
Efforts to begin talks last year also faltered over a now-resolved trade dispute between Poland and Russia over meat exports.
The delays have irked Moscow. Medvedev's trip to China last week, his first trip abroad as Russia's new president, was seen as a slap to Russia's western neighbors.
Most EU nations are eager to get closer ties with Moscow back on track, notably to secure more stable oil and gas supplies amid rising energy prices and supply concerns.
[another consequence of ignoring our energy reserves: empowering despots]
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Getting off Hugo Chavez's payroll
Among the more shameful political episodes in local American and British politics of the last few years, the accepting of subsidized oil from Marxist dictator-wannabe Hugo Chavez ranks among the most obvious. The new mayor of London, Boris Johnson has enough courage to tell his constituents that accepting bribes from an enemy of freedom is not a good idea. From the Wall Street Journal Europe:
New London Mayor Boris Johnson [Yank] wasted no time in taking his city off Hugo Chávez's PR payroll.American Thinker has written before about some Democratic Congressmen having close ties to Chavez-those ties include the subsidizing of oil for their constituents. This is a shameful practice, for Chavez is an enemy of freedom.
Elected earlier this month, Mr. Johnson has announced that the city won't renew a deal with the Venezuelan strongman to get cheap oil to subsidize bus fares for London residents. "I think many Londoners felt uncomfortable about the bus operation of one of the world's financial powerhouses being funded by . . . a country where many people live in extreme poverty," the Conservative Mayor explained Sunday.
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Man threatened with arrest at Heathrow for wearing Transformers T-shirt
Brad Jayakody wearing the Transformers T-shift which caused offense at HeathrowAn airline passenger claimed that a security guard threatened to arrest him because he was wearing a T-shirt showing a cartoon robot with a gun.
Brad Jayakody, 30, from London, said he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 after his Transformers T-shirt was deemed 'offensive.'
The IT consultant was set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf in Germany when he was pulled to one side.
Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character depicted on his French Connection T-shirt.
'"Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly,' he said.
'It's a 40ft tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I'm going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun?
He was cooperative with the supervisor and took off the the 'offensive' T-shirt, replacing it with another shirt in his carry on luggage.
[this is government. health care anyone?]
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Baby, Baby It’s a Cold World
Explaining global warming to Congress.
Lord Christopher Monckton, a policy adviser to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was recently referenced by senior climate-science authority Fred Singer as saying: “Global warming stopped ten years ago; it hasn't gotten warmer since 1998. . . . . And in fact in the last seven years, there has been a downturn in global temperatures equivalent on average to about [or] very close to one degree Fahrenheit per decade. We're actually in a period . . . of global cooling.”
This is what the temperature data shows. Indeed, even global-warming advocates are now saying there won’t be any actual global warming for the next ten years or so. You can interpret that to mean the budding cooling trend will continue.
So what is all the hysteria about? The answer is very simple, and very obvious once pointed out.
Global warming has nothing to do with climate or science. What it is all about is the great, historic class struggle between working people and the ruling classes.
Global warming is a great excuse for a massive expansion of government power. That, not science, is why the overlords, from the New York Times to the United Nations to Al Gore, so heartily embrace it.
The U.N. thinks global warming is a perfect reason for the U.N. to be transformed into a world government. So how long do you think it took for the world-class bureaucrats at Turtle Bay to conclude that global warming was real and caused by humans?
Which is why it was always so foolish to leave study of the problem to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The scientists on the panel actually keep writing reports that say maybe yes and maybe no. But the U.N. press office keeps issuing summaries of the reports that say “submit or die.”
[Recommended > ]
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The Environmental Benefits of Offshore Drilling
Louisiana produces almost 30 per cent of America's commercial fisheries. Only Alaska (ten times the size of the Bayou state) produces slightly more. So obviously, Louisiana's coastal waters are immensely rich and prolific in seafood.
These same coastal waters contain 3,200 of the roughly 3,700 offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. From these, Louisiana also produces 25 per cent of America's domestic oil, and no major oil spill has ever soiled its coast. So for those interested in evidence over hysterics, by simply looking bayou-ward, a lesson in the “environmental perils” of offshore oil drilling presents itself very clearly.
Fashionable Florida, on the other hand, which zealously prohibits offshore oil drilling, had its gorgeous "Emerald Coast" panhandle beaches soiled by an ugly oil spill in 1976. This spill, as almost all oil spills, resulted from the transportation of oil – not from the extraction of oil... [snip]
An environmental study (by apparently honest scientists) revealed that urban runoff and treated sewage dump 12 times the amount of petroleum into the Gulf than those thousands of oil production platforms [snip]
In 1986 Louisiana started the Rigs to Reef program, a cooperative effort by oil companies, the feds and the state. This program literally pays the oil companies to keep the platforms in the Gulf. Now some platforms are simply cut off at the bottom and toppled over as artificial reefs; over 60 have been toppled thus far.... [snip]
America desperately needs more domestic oil. In the process of producing it, we'd also get dynamite fishing, dynamite diving, and a cheaper tab for broiled red snapper with shrimp topping.
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Guns to go: Mo. car dealer offers something extra
Butler, Mo. - Salesmen at one Missouri car dealership aren't just kicking in a free CD player or factory air: They're offering a free handgun with every purchase. Through the end of the month, car buyers at Max Motors in Butler will have a choice — $250 toward either a gun purchase or gasoline. General manager Walter Moore said that so far, most buyers have chosen the gun, adding that he suggests they opt for a semiautomatic model "because it holds more rounds."
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The Carbon Curtain Begins to Fall
This week, the Senate is going to take up the America's Climate Security Act, a cleverly titled assault on both our freedoms and our economy offered up by Sens. Joe Lieberman and John Warner. The bill essentially limits how much gasoline and other fossil fuels Americans can use, "in the name of the planet."
The Heritage Foundation says the bill would raise gasoline prices by $1.10 per gallon and "represents an extraordinary level of economic interference by the federal government" that "promises extraordinary perils for the American economy."
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Senate Bill 2191: "America's Climate Security Act"President Bush: president@whitehouse.gov Barbara Boxer: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm?CFID=9716973&CFTOKEN=89336911 Dianne Feinstein:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMeYOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Carbon's Power Brokers
An unprecedentedly radical government grab for control of the American economy will be debated this week when the Senate considers saving the planet by means of a cap-and-trade system to ration carbon emissions. [snip]
"Cap-and-trade" comes cloaked in reassuring rhetoric about the government merely creating a market, but government actually would create a scarcity so that government could sell what it had made scarce. [snip]
Businesses with unused emission allowances could sell their surpluses to businesses that exceed their allowances. The more expensive and constraining the allowances, the more money government would gain...
[to the tune of 7 trillion dollars - no conflict of interests here...]
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Beating Al-Qaida
Before the surge, the CIA said the Iraq War was boosting al-Qaida globally. Now it finds the group is beaten in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and is losing elsewhere. Imagine if we'd surrendered in Iraq. In a Washington Post interview last week to mark his two years as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden rattled off a [longish, global] list of accomplishments...
[and our 'professional' media? McClellan, McClellan, McClellan, ... ]
[Recommended > ]
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Pelosi Says Iranians, Not Troops, Make Surge Success
... Deep in an interview the House Speaker granted to the editorial board of the hometown San Francisco Chronicle, Abe Greenwald found this eyebrow-raising passage:
"Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn’t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians -- they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities -- the Iranians."
These remarks were not apparently included in the Chronicle itself, but were found on a Chronicle podcast of the interview. We didn't find any mainstream-media notice of this on Thursday or Friday.
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Iran says its right to enrichment is non-negotiable
TEHRAN - Iran will not give up its right to enrich uranium, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday, days before major powers submit an upgraded package of incentives to try to coax Tehran into halting the work. "Suspending enrichment is not negotiable ... Depriving Iran of its right cannot be on offer," Gholamhossein Elham, the government spokesman, told a weekly news conference.
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You Can't Appease Everybody
After decades of comparing Nixon to Hitler, Reagan to Hitler and Bush to Hitler, liberals have finally decided it is wrong to make comparisons to Hitler. But the only leader to whom they have applied their newfound rule of thumb is: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While Ahmadinejad has not done anything as starkly evil as cut the capital gains tax, he does deny the Holocaust, call for the destruction of Israel, deny the existence of gays in Iran and refuses to abandon his nuclear program despite protests from the United Nations. [snip]
There are reasons to meet with a tyrant, but none apply to Ahmadinejad. We're not looking for an imperfect ally against some other dictatorship, as Nixon was with China. And we aren't in a Mexican stand-off with a nuclear power, as Reagan was with the USSR. Mutually Assured Destruction was bad enough with the Evil Empire, but something you definitely want to avoid with lunatics who are willing to commit suicide in order to destroy the enemies of Islam.
What possible reason is there to meet with Ahmadinejad? To win a $20 bar bet as to whether or not the man actually owns a necktie?
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International
Russia Warns U.S. On Missile Defense
Moscow - A top Russian general warned on Tuesday that the military will respond to U.S. missile defense plans with countermeasures, and said Washington's trust-building proposals have bogged down in diplomatic arguments. Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky told reporters that Russia was thinking about ''asymmetrical'' steps if the United States deploys missile defense elements in Europe. He said Moscow has no intention of building a similar missile shield, but refused to elaborate on what specific measures the military might take...
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US probes whether laptop copied on China trip
WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press.
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Scientists sign petition denying man-made global warming
More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition denying that man is responsible for global warming. The academics, including 9,000 with PhDs, claim that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are actually beneficial for the environment.The petition was created in 1998 by an American physicist, the late Frederick Seitz, in response to the Kyoto Protocol a year earlier.
[it's making the rounds - slowly - but why has it taken 10 years to get noticed?]
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WHO IS REALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HIGH PRICE OF GAS?
datums:
• Over the last 28 years, Congress has again and again opposed our drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) when we knew it contained at least 10 billion barrels of oil we could be using now.
• During the past 31 years, Congress repeatedly prevented us from building any new oil refineries that we now badly need.
• More recently, congressional Democrats defeated and discouraged any bill that would let us drill in the deep sea 100 miles out.
• Since the 1980s Congress has continually stopped all building of nuclear power plants while France, Germany and, yes, Japan, plus 12 other major nations, did build plants and get 20 percent to 80 percent of their energy.
Does Congress really think Middle America's voters are so gullible that they will believe that its latest answer to increasing our supply of oil and gas is to slap a 25 percent windfall penalty tax on oil companies and remove all other incentives for oil companies to drill and explore for oil?
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Twofer
Boy Scouts sue Phila. to stay in headquarters
The Boy Scouts of America's Philadelphia chapter has sued the City of Philadelphia in federal court to block the city's May 31 deadline for the scouts to open membership to gays and atheists, or vacate their historic 1928 headquarters off Logan Square. The civil rights lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Center City, contends that the city's ultimatum violates the scouts' rights under the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions.
[evidently 'tolerance' of others' beliefs only applies to the state's view of things]
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The Scouts show some moxie
SO MICHAEL Nutter is "astounded" that the Boy Scouts had the "audacity" to file a lawsuit against the city. Join the club, Mayor. I'm also astounded. And elated. And I'm definitely not alone. It finally looks as if the local Cradle of Liberty chapter has stopped playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, and is taking on the municipal bullies who've been persecuting them...
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WHEN TAXPAYERS IGNORE LESS VISIBLE TAXES
Shoppers are inattentive to taxes, say the authors of a National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper. To prove this, the authors partnered with a supermarket chain to conduct an experiment in one of its stores:
For taxable items, like cosmetics and other non-food products, stores customarily do not include the sales tax in the price tags on the shelves, but rather have them rung up at the register, making them less salient to the consumer.The result was a decline in sales of those items by 6 to 8 percent; reminding shoppers of the tax at the time of purchase made for more cautious consumers, suggesting that most of them do not normally take into account the sales tax on such products.
In the targeted store, the researchers adjusted the price tags to display prices including the 7.375 percent sales tax.
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Media Coverage Was More Upbeat at Start of the Great Depression
The news media have covered recent economic trials with four times as much negativity as they covered the worst economic period in the nation's history - the Great Depression - a new study from the Business & Media Institute shows.
"They were four times more negative during the Bear Stearns buyout than the worst economic couple days in our country's history," BMI Vice President Dan Gainor said, announcing the release of the new study, "The Great Media Depression." [snip]
"The economic impact both Neil Cavuto here and Maria Bartiromo on CNBC have warned [is] that we're kind of talking ourselves into a recession," Gainor said. "The political impact of that is this is the No. 1 issue for Americans and we're in danger of going back to 1992, when the media didn't tell us the economy had rebounded and that had a huge impact on the election."
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Court: Sect children should be returned to parents
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch should be returned to their parents, saying child welfare officials overstepped their authority. The high court on Thursday affirmed a decision last week by an appeals court that said Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago...
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Illinois says less roadkill to be picked up from state highways this summer Carbondale, Ill. - The view along Illinois highways this summer should be beautiful - for the turkey vultures. The state's transportation department says it won't be picking up as much roadkill left along roads because it spent too much of its budget during the winter...
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Friday, May 30, 2008
World praises progress in Iraq
STOCKHOLM — World leaders, including UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on Thursday hailed Baghdad's progress in combatting violence and stabilising Iraq. A declaration adopted by 100 delegations at a Stockholm conference said the participants "recognised the important efforts made by the (Iraqi) government to improve security and public order and combat terrorism and sectarian violence across Iraq."
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Al-Qaeda's vision of a America after nuclear attack
The computer-generated image below was posted on an Islamic extremists' website yesterday.
This is the apocalyptic scene terrorists hope to create if they ever get their hands on a nuclear bomb. [snip]
Al Sahab puts out more than 80 'officially sanctioned' videos a year to keep up the propaganda on the West. And the Internet shows how easy it is to stir up militancy. One message with the Washington picture said: 'The next strike's in the heart of America. When? When? When? And How?'
Last night FBI sources said Al Qaeda was desperate to get its hands on a weapon of mass destruction, be it nuclear, chemical, or biological. So far that is only a dream... or, as this picture suggests, a nightmare.
[Scare mongering? : the consequence of a WMD attack on this nation are hard to overestimate, and we've every right to aggressively defend ourselves against such monstrous threats. Our best chance of preventing such an attack is a) using every intelligence means possible to monitor and interdict them, and b) staying on offense and denying them a stable base of operations from which to organize and project themselves - such as we'd be handing them if we abandoned Iraq]
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Exclusive: Iran in Secret Talks With al Qaeda, U.S. Officials Say
Senior U.S. officials tell ABC News that in recent months there have been secret contacts between the Iranian government and the leadership of al Qaeda. It's a development that has caught the attention of top officials in the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence community. (Snip) the contacts are on the status of high-level al Qaeda operatives, including two of Osama Bin Laden's sons, who have been under house arrest in Iran since 2003.
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What’s behind the “appeasement” kefluffel?
Democrats outraged by the remarks of President George W. Bush “appeasement” when he said, “America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations... [snip]
Obama wants talks with Iran without preconditions and Bush/McCain are totally against such talks. But in point of fact, Bush is already talking to Iran at a lower level. The real issue is not whether to talk but whether to appease...
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Sharia-compliant financing must stop
Turn your clock back 70 years. Imagine that Wall Street banks and brokerages sold Nuremberg-compliant bonds and stock funds in 1938. American Nazi sympathizers bought financial instruments certified by Berlin-based advisors as free of "Jewish profits" from, say, Salomon Brothers and Bloomingdale's. In turn, a percentage of such funds' gains underwrote pro-Nazi charities, like the German-American Bund, and similar organizations in the Fatherland, like the Hitler Youth.
Seventy years hence, an analogous outrage grows on Wall Street, only this time for real.
Sharia-compliant finance (SCF) is expanding among banks and securities houses eager to absorb the hundreds of billions of petrodollars cascading into the Middle East, thanks to $100-per-barrel oil. To lure this cash, financial companies increasingly offer vehicles that don't involve or benefit from anything considered "haram" or "un-kosher" in Islam - and SCF is not limited to the bond market. SCF also goes far beyond 'marketing' to Muslims and Middle Easterners. IIFM lists "wider sharia acceptance" among its goals..
Selling sharia-compliant investments legitimizes a barbaric theocratic orthodoxy that should be defeated, not promoted.
[Recommended]
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Sarkozy says EU should cap sales tax on fuel
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, responded to growing public anger over surging oil prices by proposing to use windfall tax receipts generated by higher energy prices to subsidise the worst-hit people. As in other countries, high oil prices are a hot political issue in France as household budgets and businesses have been squeezed.
["windfall tax receipts" - priceless]
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A Bleak Future
Imagine an America where the government decides what profits are acceptable. Imagine our country with the oil industry nationalized. Impossible? Not with Democrats in control of Washington. One California Democrat, saying out loud what many on her side of the aisle have been thinking for some time, has threatened to seize the oil industry....
[for anyone who missed it, Ms. Waters faux pas during the oil inquisition where she state that "this liberal intends to socialize --- ", and then froze and took the better part of a minute trying to reword he Freudian slip was laugh-out-loud funny - except for her word's meaning...]
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DOCTORS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The cost of cutting greenhouse gas emissions would certainly have a serious negative effect on human health, says the Fraser Institute's Philip Stevens. A new global treaty that claims would stabilize the climate at today's temperatures would cost a total of $18-20 trillion (U.S.) -- or 45 percent of the world's current annual economic output.
Such a treaty would create a massive drag on economic growth, which brings with it the resources that can be used to tackle the most significant causes of death in developing countries - all a direct result of poverty. The elimination of malaria in European and North America was a clear by-product of increasing prosperity:
• Exposure to mosquitoes decreased once people could afford windows for their houses and separate barns for cattle.Mandatory caps on carbon emissions would be a betrayal of the sick in the world's poorest regions because such regulations would undermine the one mechanism -- economic growth -- which allows people to move beyond the primitive living conditions that encourage the spread of such diseases. Restraining economic growth with the hope of staving off hypothetical threats to humanity will almost certainly reduce our ability to deal with today's genuine health problems.
• Farmers adopted practices such as tillage and field drainage which deprived the mosquitoes of feeding and breeding opportunities.
• In other wealthy countries such as the United States, public authorities were able to combine this with the mass spraying of the pesticide DDT to effectively eradicate the disease.
• It is no coincidence that malaria is currently confined to the poorest parts of the world, because these areas are the least able to afford such changes.
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Durable goods dip but many sectors show strength
Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by a smaller-than-anticipated amount in April with many sectors outside of transportation showing unexpected strength. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that orders for durable goods dropped 0.5 percent, dragged down by big declines in demand for commercial aircraft and autos [you know, the energy users]
The decline, however, was just one-third of what experts expected. Take out the volatile transportation sector and orders rose 2.5 percent, the largest gain in nine months. This reflected strength in areas ranging from heavy machinery and primary metals such as steel, and to a record surge in demand for electrical equipment and appliances.
Economists said this indicated the economy was entering the April-through-June period with some momentum...
[few things are more frustrating than an unreliable recession]
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Democrats Unaware of US Warning About Border Violence
Three Democratic lawmakers who spoke Wednesday about alleged anti-immigrant coverage by conservative media outlets were not aware of a recent State Department travel alert warning Americans about military-like ''combat'' along the southern U.S. border in Mexico, where Americans are being kidnapped and murdered. (Snip) When asked about the alert after the briefing, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told Cybercast News Service: ''I haven't heard about the report specifically,''
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The Blitzkrieg in the Kulturkampf Western Civilization Faces
At Michigan State University, I served on student government until a horde of leftist students organized a successful recall election. On the very same day that I took part in a public debate over the issue of affirmative action with a candidate for state representative, the vote was held in which I was recalled by approximately 93 percent to 7 percent (225 voted to recall while 18 voted to allow me to remain).
Why was I recalled? Because I proposed, among other things, that a United States flag be displayed in every room and lecture hall on campus, and that since black students, Muslim students, international students, and homosexual students get automatic representation on student government, it would only be fair if white students, Christian students, nationalist students, and heterosexual students get automatic representation as well. This did not bode well with my leftist peers, so they removed me from the low-level elected position that I held.
The leftists will allow no threat to their ideology to materialize. The seeds of discontent cannot be allowed to grow...
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Newsweek Poll Creates 'Racial Resentment Index' for Whites Not Blacks
Apparently, it's only important to Newsweek to identify if racism is a factor in why whites prefer Republican presidential candidate John McCain and not if racism is a factor in why blacks support Obama.
Such can be read between the lines in the article published Friday entitled "The White Stuff: A new NEWSWEEK Poll underscores Obama's racial challenge" (emphasis added, picture courtesy Getty Images): [snip]
[meanwhile, Obama enjoys a ninety-percent support rate of black Americans with nary a word in the press...]
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[addendum]
Will Voters Go for the One Like Them?
For whom do voters vote? What motivates them? The ethnic group to which they belong, and the one to which the candidate belongs are factors, no doubt. A voter generally looks for one of his own, or at least someone from the neighborhood. It appears that 95 percent of African-American voters will vote for Barack Obama...
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Reality check re: American 'racism','xenophobia'
To the Left, America is irredeemably racist, and those who want our border protected are xenophobes. The insanity of these claims is evidenced by what real racism and xenophobia look like. In black-led South Africa, a country that is held to be the embodiment of the triumph of a victory over racism, no less.
We have already covered the horrific racial violence (black on black) directed toward South African immigrants, but after almost two weeks running, it is spreading, according to this report from AFP:
[8 paragraphs of violence][snip]
That is what real xenophobia and racism look like. Demands for protection of our sovereign borders are not xenophobia. America actually gives racial preferences to minorities and welfare payments to immigrants, for better or worse.
Time to ash-can the defamation of America as a racist country, and go counsel Nelson Mandela about the racism of blacks in his country. Any leftists who denounces America as a racist country only demonstrates his hatred of America.
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