A bit of sad news: Jam Master J, the famous DJ of Run-DMC was shot dead in his recording studio last night.
I grew up listening to Run DMC, when rap was more about who could rhyme the best rather than how many hos you could slap and how many caps you could pop. It's a shame J's life had to end this way, especially since he let people use his recording studio free of charge. J leaves behind his wife and 3 children.
*I stole this headline from nemski over at Plastic.
In an apparent "work accident" 3 Hamasniks blew themselves to kingdom come, and managed to wound 6 others including a 75 year old man and a 10 year old girl. No doubt these noble men were doing fine community service when the Semtex blew, right Chretien?
Additionally, a group of journalists who arrived at the scene of the blast, including an AP reporter and photographer and a cameraman for Associated Press Television News, were assaulted by several Hamas supporters, who shoved and beat them and threw stones in their direction. No word on whether this will drop the PA in Reporters Sans Frontiers' rankings on freedom of the press.
The British goverment has purchased 67 Apache helicopters, further confirming that the British are the only Europeans interested in upgrading their military hardware. There's only one problem, however: they don't have enough pilots to fly them. As a result, 11 of the 25 delivered helicopters, and dozens of the total 67 ordered will be sitting in mothballs until 2007 when the British believe they'll have enough trained pilots to fly them. So much for that modern military. Then again, it's not like our military hasn't thown money away, is it.
Steven Chapman was rather...upset at this divest from Europe petition. Although, it was really a bit of joke, it's hard not to sympathize with the cause when Finnland is refusing to sell Israel gas kits. You know, the gas kits used to detect whether chemical weapons have been released say via an Irai scud missle. One wonders if the notion of Jews being gassed causes the Finns to become nostalgic about the good ol' days of WW II.
Eric the CounterRevolutionary wrote an insightful post about cowardly Jews. I urge you all to read it.
So, the Labor party quit the government over a budget fight, namely about funding the settlements. Frankly, I don't understand why the government should be funding anyone to live anywhere, but there's a lot I don't understand about Israeli politics. In any case, it would seem that Labor's resignation may force early elections, which quite possibly could strengthen Sharon's hand - from what I understand, the Labor party isn't all that popular in Israel right now. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out especially regarding the Palestinian reaction - more terrorist attacks or less.
But in the mean time, another brave Palestinian freedome fighter infiltrated Hermesh and killed two teenage girls and a 54 year old woman. How long will be untill Eric Alterman blame the girls' parents for putting them in harm's way?
Even though I believe that military action with Iraq is the best course, I can't help but laugh at this campaign. Now who said that dissent was dead?
Laurence Foley, a senior US diplomat, was shot dead today in Amman Jordan. The State Department expressed its outrage by calling this an "incomprehensible act."
Incomprehensible? Why is it so hard to comprehend that there are many in the Arab world who want Americans dead and would even kill an American diplomat? It's not like this hasn't happened before
Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Mich.) died when his plane crashed in Minnesota. His wife, his daughter, 3 staff members and 2 crew members also perished in the crash.
This is sad news, and my condolences go out to the Wellstone family.
As an aside, it is now 2:10 PM EDT. How long will it take before Indynazimedia reports on the Zionist conspiracy to kill Wellstone because he wasn't sufficiently pro-Israel enough?
I was doing a search on Enya using Morpheus (yes, I like Enya), and the results are amusing. It would seem that whenever someone doesn't know who sang a song that has a haunting voice, they automatically decide it's Enya. So far, I've found songs by Lorena McKennet, Dido, and Enigma that had Enya in the file names.
The latest news is that 2 women have escaped from the theatre in Moscow. The Chechen terrorists have given the Russians 7 days to withdraw from Chechnya else the theatre gets blown up.
Obviously this is a very serious situation, yet here in the US it's barely getting a passing mention. All energy is focussed on the arrest of the apparent Beltway Sniper. I find this rather disturbing, because as frightening as the "sniper" was, what he did is nothing compared to what could happen in Moscow. I'd say that this self-centeredness is typically American, but even the BBC leads with the arrest of the sniper. Go figure.
By the way, check out forum the BBC. Not surprisingly there are those that blame Russia's actions in Chechnya for this, but there's a startling number of folks telling Putain to act with "an iron hand." Somehow, I doubt they'd be telling Sharon to act this way with the Palestinians.
This is what happens to Israeli traitors.
This is what happens to Palestinian traitors.
Discuss.
I happened to be watching 60 Minutes II last night and I caught a segment on National Iranian TV NITV is not an Iranian government station but instead it's run by former Iranian rock star, Zia Atabay, who was forced out of Iran during the 1979 revolution. The station is beamed into Iran despite attempts at jamming the signal by the Iranian government and is becoming more popular with the Iranian people. To wit, just after Sept. 11, Atabay asked Iranian youth to show their solidarity with the United States by carrying a candle into the streets. Thousands in Tehran complied, and hundreds were thrown in prison. Some are still there. You can read more about NITV from this old New York Times article.
However, NITV is running out of money and despite its effectiveness at fomenting dissent, the US government hasn't offered a dime to NITV. I know this has been covered before but perhaps, with a war in Iraq looming larger than ever, it's time to bring it up again. Calling for US funding for NITV is something I believe that both Left and Right, hawk and dove can agree upon. If a single sattelite TV station can motivate the Iranian populace to resist its dictatorial government and perhaps lead it to revolution, why not help it along? It's cheaper and far less destructive than any military option and it would the work of the Iranian people themselves rather than from the "imperialist" US.
But what can we do? Sure, we blog all we want, participate in a "blogburst", but let's not kid ourselves, the effectiveness of these actions are limited at best. That leaves us with two options: 1) Donate money to NITV or 2) Write our congressmen and women demanding that they allocate funds to NITV. Obviously most of us aren't wealthy enough to use option 1, but it doesn't take much effort to pursue option 2. Keep one thing in mind, a letter on paper carries much more weight than an email. Go that route.
Two men, John Allen Muhammad and his stepson, John Malvo, have been arrested in connection with the D.C. area sniper case. A motorist and a gas station attendant recognized a burgundy Caprice with New Jersey plates and phoned the police. No gun has been recovered yet although a large dufflebag was removed from the car.
I won't make any judgments here until more facts are known. Frankly, I'm surprised that the suspect is a black Muslim, I really thought he'd be a middle-aged white guy. It will be interesting to see what Muhummad's motivation (if he indeed is the killer) was.
The BBC reports that up to 100 "armed guerillas" (not terrorists mind you) have taken up to 1000 people hostage in a Moscow theater.
The details are sketchy but this what the BBC says:
1. Chechen separatists contacted the BBC to say the hostage-takers had planted explosives in the theatre and were led by a nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev.
2. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, and said they were prepared to die for their cause. [ed. imagine that!]
3.The audience and those people released said the attackers, who consisted of men wearing combat uniforms and women in veils, had explosives strapped to their bodies.
4. Reports say children and Muslim members of the audience have been released. ([ed. One wonders how many fit that latter category]
It will be interesting how this plays out and at this point I would venture that the prognosis is poor. Russia is unlikely to withdraw from Chechnya and these terrorists seem likely to blow up the theater if the Russians storm it. Where's 007 when you need him?
Don't believe me? Just look here. Actually, I'm skeptical of these claims, especially since the first map don't explain what the colors mean exactly in the first case, and the second map doesn't explain what the dominant color is. Nevertheless it's an interesting diversion.
How ironic that someone who blogs under a pseudonymn taken from a Greek poet and his (misspelled) work calls someone else "in sufferably self-important?"
Hmm, let's see, Eric Alterman is on vacation, so today Eric Boehlert is filling in and does so by providing us a list of all his writing on Salon. What's the matter Eric, not enough people wasting money on Salon subscriptions?
"Is this news or is this hate," asks MSNBC's weblog central about Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs. It would seem that Charles' nomination to MSNBC's best of blogs has ruffled a few feathers. You can't please everyone I suppose.
Serveral other bloggers have risen to the defense of LGF, and especially of Charles, most undoubtedly in a more eloquent fashion than I can provide. Nevertheless, I feel I must also defend LGF, especially because it was my inspiration for starting this blog.
There is no doubt that LGF has a very pro-Israel slant and will never pass up the opportunity to expose the true nature of Israel's enemies. While this demonstrates an obvious (and never denied) bias, it hardly constitutes racism nor hatred. It's unfortunate that many of the blog posts make the anti-ionist crowd squirm with shame, but to attack Charles is to shoot the messenger.
It also ignores the fact that he does post the (outspoken) voices of moderate Islam if and when they are available. The problem is that they are few and far between.
Now one could make the point that some of the regulars who post comments on the site are bigotted. The periodic groupthink reactions by this same group has driven many of the more reasonable and knowledgeable regulars away. Indeed, sometimes I am uncomfortable with what's written the comments section. This atmosphere detracts from LGF, but it is unfortunately the result of LGF being a (mostly) unmoderated forum. However, most regulars do not fit this discription and a quick perusal of the reactions to the various posts will reveal quite a bit of back and forth arguing, and those obvious ignorant bigots are slapped down by the likes of Meryl Yourish.
LGF may not be to everyone's liking, and it may attract a few unsavory types, but to call it racist and hateful is just plain, well.. idiocy.
Yet another Egged bus blown up today at the Karkur-Alonit junction near Pardess Hannah that occured at approximately 4:30 pm. Several people have been killed and even more injured.
Take note: as those innocent civilians who were blown up, so too were any chance of Israel easing restrictions on the Palestinians.
i330 is no more, as Josh has decided to cease blogging. A definite loss for the blog world; one can only hope that at least he'll surface in people's comments from time to time.
According to George Tenet:
The domestic "threat environment" is as bad as it was in the summer of 2001, before the September 11 attacks."When you see the multiple attacks that you have seen occur around the world, from Bali to Kuwait; the number of failed attacks that have been attempted; [and] the various messages that have been issued by senior al Qaeda leaders, you must make the assumption that al Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us here and overseas," he told the Joint Intelligence Committee. "That's unambiguous, as far as I am concerned."
In other words, the supposed War on Terror has accomplished absolutely nothing. The situation is just as dangerous in the US as it was just priot to Sept. 11, 2001? What the hell has our government been doing for the past 13 months? They've invaded Afghanistan, passed that nefarious PATRIOT act, and formed the insipid department of Homeland Security, all of which have produced absolutely diddly squat.
I don't expect perfection from our government, but I do expect some progress after 13 months. Unfortunately, it would seem that the only progress that our security agencies have made is in ways to cover their asses.
Bret Stephens offers some suggestions to the IDF in order to improve its image in the world. I hope some generals read the Jerusalem Post.
Foreign policy and history guru, Woody Harrelson opens his mouth and confirms that he indeed, is an idiot. First, McEnroe, and now Harrelson? Who will write the next guest op-ed at the Guardian, Alec Baldwin?
To all 10 of my readers, I've put up a guestmap on the right. Please try it out and let me know where you're at.
(Via LGF). According to our very own State Department, the Palestinian authority is religous tolerance. Indeed, I cannot argue, for after all, official PA television only broadcasts sermons full of love, brotherhood, and peace
Belafonte come and calls Colin Powel "Uncle Tom". No doubt much hay is going to be made of this nasty name calling. And while I find it amusingly ironic for someone who demands an honest debate on a possible war with Iraq to engage in such ad hominem attacks, for me, this is the least important of what Belafonte said in his interview.
At the beginning he mentions how he served in World War II, and after it ended, decided that was was terrible and didn't solve anything. Pointing out how WWII was supposedly the war to end all wars, he claims that we've endured more since than anytime in history. I submit that Belafonte has a rather selective view of human history but that's really here nor there.
Instead, notice how he claims that it would be insane for the US to invade Iraq and/or topple Hussein because, simply, where would it end? Iran? Syria? Saudi Arabia? ad infinitum. Yet, later on he claims that the only tool to remove dictators and evil regimes from power is the UN, a UN that has its own sovereign army. Simply put, war is bad unless waged by the UN.
This is a rather naive point of view because it assumes that the UN is somehow more righteous than any sovereign nation (especially the US) - a laughable proposition, given that such luminary nations like Syria and China sit on the security council. Moreover, it is yet another example of how anti-war folks aren't anti-war per se, but anti-war when waged by the US.
Meryl has a good post cataloguing what could only be described as the UN's obsession with Israel. Basically, it comes down to this: in 1948, the UN created Israel and since then it's devoted most of its time and energy trying to reverse that decision.