THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

In a bow to the rise of Internet-era secrets hidden in plain view, the agency has started hosting Web logs with the latest information on topics including North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's public visit to a military installation (his 38th this year) and the Burmese media's silence on a ministry reshuffling. It even has a blog on blogs, dedicated to cracking the code of what useful information can be gleaned from the rapidly expanding milieu of online journals and weird electronic memorabilia warehoused on the Net.

The blogs are posted on an unclassified, government-wide Web site, part of a rechristened CIA office for monitoring, translating and analyzing publicly available information called the DNI Open Source Center. The center, which officially debuted this month under the aegis of the new director for national intelligence, marks the latest wave of reorganization to come out of the recommendations of several commissions that analyzed the failures of intelligence collection related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

By adding the new center, "they've changed the strategic visibility," said Douglas Naquin, a CIA veteran named to direct the center. "All of a sudden open source is at the table." But, in an interview last week at CIA headquarters, he added that "managing the world's unclassified knowledge ... (is) much bigger than any one organization can do."

Drilling deep into Antarctic ice, scientists have extended Earth's climate history by another 210,000 years. The new results, they say, drive home two key points: (1) Today's atmosphere holds concentrations of carbon dioxide significantly higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years; (2) The rise and fall in temperatures track the rise and fall in carbon-dioxide levels as tightly during this additional period as they have over the past 440,000 years.

The results add "another piece of information showing that the time scales on which humans have changed the composition of the atmosphere are extremely short compared to the natural time cycles of the climate system," notes Thomas Stocker, a researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland and a member of the research team reporting the results. The most telling result, he adds, is the relationship between long-term CO2 trends and long-term temperature trends. Dr. Brook, with Oregon State University in Corvallis, explains that in these latest results, the warm periods between glacial deep freezes are cooler than those over the past 440,000 years. Yet the virtual lockstep pattern as temperatures and CO2 levels rise and fall, seen in previous ice cores, holds even for these more-modest swings in global climate.

"It's really striking. The link between temperatures and greenhouse gases is tight," he says. ... in addition to carbon dioxide, the cores also contain information on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and nitrous oxide. In a separate study from the same cores, the rise and fall of methane also tracked closely with that of CO2 and temperatures. Both sets of results appear in Friday's edition of the journal Science. The triggers for the changes in gas concentrations remain a mystery, Brook acknowledges. They tend to lag the temperature record by some 800 to 1,000 years.

Some have argued that this gap rules out a connection between rising CO2 and the warming climate. But Brook explains that the gap most likely signals a "positive feedback" in the climate system. In short, warmth begets more CO2 in the atmosphere. This raises temperatures further, which leads to more CO2 released into the air. The shift between these glacial periods and warm "interglacial" periods has been linked to long-term changes in Earth's tilt as it orbits the sun.

Jacques Chirac's presidency hit a new low yesterday when a poll revealed that most voters think he now has little or no influence over events at home or abroad. Of those polled, 72 per cent regarded the influence of their president - who turns 73 tomorrow - over what happens in France as "weak". Two thirds said his clout on the world stage was feeble, while only 36 per cent thought he held any significant sway over European politics. Condemnation came from all age groups and corners of France. Women were slightly less critical.

The poll, conducted for Le Parisien newspaper by the CSA institute, was all the more humiliating in that the opinion of supporters of Mr Chirac's conservative ruling UMP party was scarcely more favourable than those of voters on the Left. Only 43 per cent of UMP voters thought he still had a leading role to play in France.

Can it be that many national reporters are so afflicted by Bush hatred that they can't let go long enough to report stories straight? Could be. Consider the entire backward-looking thrust of so much reportage, focusing sharply on what happened in 2002 and 2003, less on the stake we have in prevailing in Iraq. If we lose in Iraq, it will be the first great victory for global jihad, with tremendous consequences for the United States. Can the media get over their obsession with Bush and focus on that?

We are winning, and winning decisively, in Iraq and the Middle East. We defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just a few weeks. None of the disasters that many feared would follow our invasion occurred. Our troops did not have to fight door to door to take Baghdad. The Iraqi oil fields were not set on fire. There was no civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites. There was no grave humanitarian crisis.

Saddam Hussein was captured and is awaiting trial. His two murderous sons are dead. Most of the leading members of Saddam's regime have been captured or killed. After our easy military victory, we found ourselves inadequately prepared to defeat the terrorist insurgents, but now we are prevailing. Iraq has held free elections in which millions of people voted. A new, democratic constitution has been adopted that contains an extensive bill of rights. Discrimination on the basis of sex, religion or politics is banned. Soon the Iraqis will be electing their first parliament. An independent judiciary exists, almost all public schools are open...

Panic Is Not the Solution - Many Democrats are understandably enraged over Iraq. But in responding in equally partisan fashion, they could well precipitate a tragedy. .... the paramount question right now should not be "What did we do about Iraq three years ago?" It should be "What should we do about Iraq today?" And on this topic, the administration has finally been providing some smart answers. ... Najaf and Mosul are now patrolled entirely by Iraqi Army forces. Even Kirkuk, which is politically sensitive, has fewer American troops in it than it did six months ago. This trend could accelerate, which would mean that three or four brigades could be withdrawn in the next year.

Hezbollah will keep trying to abduct Israeli soldiers to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of prisoners from Israeli jails, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the organization's secretary-general, said in Lebanon on Friday.

Nasrallah was speaking at a rally in memory of three of the group's fighters who were killed by the Israel Defense Forces last Monday. "It is our natural right to capture Israeli soldiers," Nasrallah said during the rally in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut. "Indeed, it is our duty to do that." ... "It is not a shame, a crime or a terrorist act. It is our right and our duty which one day we might fulfill," he told thousands of supporters chanting "Death to Israel," and "Death to America."

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Pentagon officials are talking about a reduction in the number of U.S. forces in Iraq early next year. Some would be kept on call in Kuwait. If political and security progress is made in Iraq, American troop levels could drop to fewer than 100,000, from the current 150,000-plus, by the end of 2006. The Post reported that the Pentagon has set a series of "decision points" to consider troop cuts next year.

Iraq will one day stand on its own. That process is under way. Some 200,000 Iraqi personnel have been trained by U.S. forces, including some 84,000 police officers. Iraq troops have been shouldering increasing responsibility in some areas, with U.S. forces playing a supporting role. The U.S. will leave when Iraqis are able to defend themselves against the terrorists who would sabotage the country's future. No one wants the troops there any longer than necessary.

Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary Guards' Imam Ali training camp, located close to Tajrish Square in Teheran, according to Western intelligence reports.

In addition to receiving training in the latest terror techniques, the Chechen volunteers undergo ideological and political instruction by hardline Iranian mullahs at Qom. The disclosure that Iran is training Chechen rebels will not go down well in Moscow, which regards itself as a close ally of the Iranian regime. Russia has sided with Iran in the diplomatic stand-off over Teheran's controversial nuclear programme.

Chestnuts roasting on an catalytically-converted non-polluting fire,
Jack or Jill Frost nipping at your nose,
Yuletide carols – that don’t mention Christianity - being sung by a choir,
And folks dressed up like the Inuit.

Everybody knows some tofu and some re-plantable mistletoe,
Help to make the season bright.
Tiny tots – on over-prescribed Ritalin - with their eyes all aglow,
Will find it hard to sleep tonight–

They know that Santa's on his way.
He's loaded lots of toys,
And goodies on his sleigh.
And every mother's child is gonna spy,
To see if reindeer – an endangered species we hope Santa is not mistreating -
really know how to fly.

And so, I'm offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two;
Although its been said,
Many times, many ways
Happy Holidays, happy holidays, happy holidays to you!

If we do not engage, we will soon find ourselves facing a nuclear Iran that will surely be emboldened to increase its sponsorship of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Jamaah Islamiah, and Hamas, and will redouble its efforts to shatter Iraq's fragile democratic experiment. Which is the more prudent policy? Cautiously defending Iraq alone, or supporting the revolutionaries against the terror masters? Active support of the democratic forces in the Middle East would be the right policy, even if there were no terror war, and even if Iran were not a shallow breath away from atomic weapons.

A report drawn up for the French government has rejected calls for positive discrimination to help minorities find jobs, dealing a blow to the interior minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Friday it would be "a mistake" to punish the parents of juvenile delinquents, during a visit to a poor suburb engulfed by a recent wave of nationwide riots. Villepin was commenting on a measure that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to submit to the Cabinet as part of a new crime prevention bill, one of the center-right government's responses to France's worst riots since the student-worker protests in 1968. "Punishing the parents without having taken into account the reality of their problems, I think it would be a mistake," Villepin said on a visit to an underprivileged neighborhood in Meaux, northeast of Paris. The interior minister's bill [drew] heavily on a parliamentary report on crime prevention, which recommend[ed] among other things that the government strip "negligent" parents of some state subsidies, handing control of welfare allocations to social workers.

France's prime minister and the ambitious number two in his government set out different visions on Friday for helping minorities find jobs, drawing what could become battle lines in the 2007 presidential election. In response to three weeks of rioting by disaffected youths in poor suburbs, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy explained in a newspaper article why he favours positive discrimination, or affirmative action, to cut high unemployment among minorities. "Proclaiming equality before the law is no longer enough: henceforth we also need to promote equality by (using) the law," Sarkozy wrote in an opinion piece for Le Figaro newspaper. "We cannot continue to accept that a growing number of individuals are allotted destinies written in advance."

Sarkozy stuck to his guns despite opposition by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the person most likely to challenge him for the role of leading the centre-right into the presidential election. Villepin told a radio interviewer on Friday there was no place for positive discrimination in a state built on the notion of equal opportunities for everyone. "We say that when there are inequalities, we put them right. But we must not fix them by renouncing our French model, a universal model under which each individual is respected for who he is, independent of colour," Villepin told RTL radio.

The US military Saturday said that the American troops in Iraq killed Bilal Awad Sabah, described as a close associate of extremist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in western Iraq. Sabah, also known as Abu Ubaydah, was reportedly killed on October 14 when US-led forces raided a number of suspected rebel hideouts in the Albuaide neighborhood north of Ramadi, in western Iraq, according to the US Army's statement. Although intelligence analysts reported that Abu Ubaydah was killed during the mid-October raids, they could not determine his death with certainty at that time, when the hideouts were bombed by US forces. Sabah was said to have served as a messenger and gatekeeper for Zarqawi and to have been one of his most trusted assistants.

"War protesters' resolve firm after arrests -- Braving a chilly predawn breeze, protesters began gathering before 6 a.m. along the roadside... Through the day, war protesters vowed to keep up efforts to combat continued U.S. involvement in Iraq.

At one point, Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers helped erode public support for the Vietnam War, said the fight against war in Iraq may take a long time to win. "(Vietnam) was a hard war to end and this is going to be harder," he said. "Nothing worked very quickly then and this is going to be a long road ahead."

MANAMA — World’s top pop singer Michael Jackson, who recently settled down in Manama has donated a huge amount of money, the figure was not disclosed, for building a state-of-the-art mosque near his luxury palace in the Bahraini capital, according to his spokesman. ... It is noteworthy that Germain Jackson, the brother of Michael had embraced Islam at the beginning of 1990s, and he was one of former Jackson Five band and the solo singer Germain had felt his brother Michael has great interest and study of Islamic books, the tolerance of Islam and his dealing with Arab and Muslim personalities since long years. The most prominent among those figures is Prince Al Waleed bin Talal and the Bahraini royal family.

Michael Jackson picked a familiar target to blame for his mounting money problems - the Jews. In phone messages obtained by ABC News, the apparently prejudiced pop star likens them to "leeches" and claims they conspired to leave him "penniless." "They suck...they're like leeches...I'm so tired of it," Jackson tells former adviser Dieter Wiesner in one of them. "The Jews do it on purpose." The ugly message, which was made two years ago and aired yesterday on "Good Morning America," was one of several provided by

Wiesner's lawyer, Howard King. Wiesner and another former Jacko adviser, Marc Schaffel, were fired by the singer and are suing him to recoup the millions they say he owes them. Jackson had to apologize to Jewish groups a decade ago after he included lyrics like "Jew me/Sue me/Everybody do me/Kick me/Kike me" on the song "They Don't Care About Us."

Jackson, who relocated to Bahrain after he was acquitted of child molesting charges, did not respond to the revelations. Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, insisted in a statement that the messages were actually "telephone conversations recorded without permission."

Five women from the same family in Pakistan's Punjab province have refused to be "united" with their prospective husbands as ordered by tribal elders. The village council has told them to "honour" 1996 childhood marriages, when the youngest of them was just five. ... The eldest of the girls is now 22. [Which means she was 12 when she was FORCED to get married.]

Two members of the girls' family were seriously injured when they were shot at, allegedly by members of the family of the prospective husbands. Police arrested nine members of the girls' family and seven from the rival one. ... police have charged 13 people in the same district in what they suspect is another case ...

Former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana State Representative David Duke was in Syria on Monday to express solidarity with Damascus. At a press conference in the Damascus' Rawda Square, Duke said, "I have come to Syria to express my support for the Syrian people.... It's the duty of every free man to reject the conspiracies and threats Syria is exposed to." Duke charged that pro-Israel neo-conservatives in the US are controlling American foreign policy and that "Zionist-controlled mass media" are hiding "the reality of Israeli terrorism against the Arabs."

All indicators point to the involvement of some Pakistani, Algerian and Moroccan members of the London-based Hizbut Tehrir (HT) in the violence by sections of angry Muslim youth, which has rocked the suburbs of Paris and some other towns of France since October 27,2005.

The outbreak initially was spontaneous following the electrocution of two Muslim youth as they were fleeing away from a random identity papers check by the Police. The violence continued to be spontaneous, with no external instigation, for three days. In the meanwhile, it is reported by reliable sources, the headquarters of the HT in London saw the agitprop potential of the developments in Paris and sent some of their experts, who had participated in instigating the violence earlier this year in Afghanistan over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by the US guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and in Uzbekistan over the allegedly autocratic ways of the local Government, to Paris to stoke the anger of the youth and exploit it for their purpose.

... With the help of the sleeper cells, which the HT has already established in Paris and other parts of France for some months, they drew up plans for keeping the violence sustained in order to further radicalise and mobilise the youth against the French Government. ... While there is no evidence of its involvement so far in any act of jihadi terrorism anywhere in the world, it has been involved in many instances of political agitation in the streets in some countries and in attempts at subverting the armed forces and the intelligence agencies in Pakistan and other Islamic countries.

... It is reported by reliable sources in Pakistan that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) in Pakistan has instructed its cells in France to assist the HT clandestinely as best as they can. Similarly, the Jamat-ul-Furqa (JUF), which has some followers in the community of Caribbean origin in France, has also asked its followers to assist the HT. Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, was suspected to be a member of the JUF.

John Murtha is missleading the public about the war --

The top Democrat on the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, and decorated war veteran, John Murtha is demanding US withdraw from Iraq within 6 months.

Murtha voted for the war, but quickly turned defeatist. Already in midd 2004 he described the Iraq war as “unwinnable”. Certainly he is entitled to his view. What is unacceptable is giving the public a false impression about the millitaries situation in Iraq war by biased or incurrect data. He writes in USAToday:

“unemployment remains at 60% and insurgent incidents have increased from 150 to more than 700 per week. Average monthly death rates of U.S. service members have grown since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal from one per day to almost four.”

US forces have concluded a major counter-insurgency operation near the Syrian border, the US military said. It said 139 insurgents and 10 US marines had died in the 17-day assault targeting al-Qaeda-linked militants. Operation Steel Curtain marked the first major deployment of the Iraqi army in the restive western province of Anbar, the US military said. ... Some 2,500 US troops reportedly took part in the operation, accompanied by about 1,000 Iraqi soldiers. A permanent Iraqi military presence had been established in the area, the US said.

"A large majority of the American public is convinced that the liberation of Iraq was a mistake, while a smaller but growing number thinks that we are losing and that we need to pull out soon. Those sentiments are echoed by finger-in-the-wind politicians, including many — such as John Kerry, Harry Reid, John Edwards, John Murtha and Bill Clinton — who supported the invasion.

Yet in a survey last month from the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, 47% of Iraqis polled said their country was headed in the right direction, as opposed to 37% who said they thought that it was going in the wrong direction. And 56% thought things would be better in six months. Only 16% thought they would be worse.

American soldiers are also much more optimistic than American civilians. The Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations just released a survey of American elites that found that 64% of military officers are confident that we will succeed in establishing a stable democracy in Iraq. The comparable figures for journalists and academics are 33% and 27%, respectively. Even more impressive than the Pew poll is the evidence of how our service members are voting with their feet. Although both the Army and the Marine Corps are having trouble attracting fresh recruits — no surprise, given the state of public opinion regarding Iraq — reenlistment rates continue to exceed expectations. Veterans are expressing their confidence in the war effort by signing up to continue fighting.

Now, it could be that the Iraqi public and the U.S. armed forces are delusional. Maybe things really are on an irreversible downward slope. But before reaching such an apocalyptic conclusion, stop to consider why so many with firsthand experience have more hope than those without any. ... here are also positive economic indicators that receive little or no coverage in the Western media. For all the insurgents' attempts to sabotage the Iraqi economy, the Brookings Institution reports that per capita income has doubled since 2003 and is now 30% higher than it was before the war. Thanks primarily to the increase in oil prices, the Iraqi economy is projected to grow at a whopping 16.8% next year. According to Brookings' Iraq index, there are five times more cars on the streets than in Saddam Hussein's day, five times more telephone subscribers and 32 times more Internet users.

The growth of the independent media — a prerequisite of liberal democracy — is even more inspiring. Before 2003 there was not a single independent media outlet in Iraq. Today, Brookings reports, there are 44 commercial TV stations, 72 radio stations and more than 100 newspapers.

But aren't bombs still going off at an alarming rate? Of course. It's almost impossible to stop a few thousand fanatics who are willing to commit suicide to slaughter others.

Yet there is hope on the security front. Since the Jan. 30 election, not a single Iraqi unit has crumbled in battle, according to Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who until September was in charge of their training. Iraqi soldiers are showing impressive determination in fighting the terrorists, notwithstanding the terrible casualties they have taken. Their increasing success is evident on "Route Irish," from Baghdad International Airport. Once the most dangerous road in Iraq, it is now one of the safest. The last coalition fatality there that was a result of enemy action occurred in March."

Iran on Tuesday strongly condemned Israel's raid on a Hezbollah target in Lebanon earlier in the day, terming it as a "continuation of criminal behavior", the official IRNA news agency reported. "The Zionist regime's violation of Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty is a continuation of its criminal behavior in the region and a clear disregard of the international law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted as saying.

(KUNA) -- The French government on Tuesday ... deplored violations by both sides of the UN drawn "Blue Line" delineating the frontier. "We condemn the attacks initiated yesterday by the armed branch of Hezbollah in the Shebaa farms sector," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said. But the official was equally critical of "repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty by Israeli aviation these past days and he condemned both sides for not respecting the "Blue Line."

Hizbollah denies report of Israelis Lebanon raid ("Reuters"). The Pro-SyrianHizbollah group denied Israeli warplanes had attacked south Lebanon today, saying an explosion heard in the area was caused by a previously unexploded artillery shell.

DAMASCUS, 23 November 2005 — Syria has asked the United Nations for help in reaching a “cooperation protocol” with the inquiry team probing the killing of Lebanon’s former Premier Rafik Hariri that will, at the same time, respect its sovereignty. Syria called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday to intervene and help broker the cooperation agreement.

Israeli said its warplanes struck in Lebanon on Tuesday in what Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz described as the largest-scale Israeli response to cross-border attacks by Lebanese guerrillas since 2000. Mofaz spoke just hours after Israeli fighter jets attacked a command post of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon and after army bulldozers entered Lebanon to demolish a Hezbollah post just north of the community of Ghajar.

... in 1998 alone, we have $300K going from Iraq to Zawahiri (al Qaeda’s number 2); bin Laden’s famous February fatwa calling for the murder of all Americans and prominently featuring, as part of the justification, U.S. actions against Iraq; meetings in Iraq between Qaeda members and Iraqi officials in March; meetings in Afghanistan between Iraqi officials and al Qaeda leaders in July; the embassy bombings in August, after which, of all potential targets, the Clinton administration chose to retaliate against al Shifa, believed to be an Iraq/Qaeda joint weapons venture; an Iraqi member of al Qaeda (now held in Guantanamo Bay) traveling with Iraqi Intelligence to Pakistan to plot chemical mortar attacks on the American and British embassies there; and Iraq seeking to recruit Arab terrorists to blow up Radio Free Europe. Oh, and in February 1999, Richard Clarke objected to a suggestion that U-2 flights be used to try to find bin Laden because, if bin Laden learned the walls were closing in, Clarke wrote to Sandy Berger that “old wiley Usama will likely boogie to Baghdad.”

But the anti-war left is probably right. There was no connection between Iraq and terrorism. None at all. I don’t know why the right-wing nuts keep insisting there was.

For the first time, Iraq's political factions on Monday collectively called for a timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces, in a moment of consensus that comes as the Bush administration battles pressure at home to commit itself to a pullout schedule.The announcement, made at the conclusion of a reconciliation conference here backed by the Arab League, was a public reaching out by Shiites, who now dominate Iraq's government, to Sunni Arabs on the eve of parliamentary elections that have been put on shaky ground by weeks of sectarian violence. About 100 Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, many of whom will run in the election on Dec. 15, signed a closing memorandum on Monday that "demands a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified timetable, dependent on an immediate national program for rebuilding the security forces," the statement said. "The Iraqi people are looking forward to the day when foreign forces will leave Iraq, when its armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can enjoy peace and stability and an end to terrorism," it continued.

The meeting was intended as preparation for a much larger conference in Iraq in late February. The recommendations made here are to be the starting ground for that meeting. ... Shiite leaders have long maintained that a pullout should be done according to milestones, and not before Iraqi security forces are fully operational. The closing statement upheld a Sunni demand for a pullout, while preserving aspects of Shiite demands, but did not specify when a withdrawal should begin, making it more of a symbolic gesture than a concrete agenda item that could be followed up by the Iraqi government.

On Monday, Iraq's interior minister, Bayan Jabr, said American-led forces should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, adding that the one-year extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the United Nations Security Council earlier this month could be the last, The Associated Press reported. "By mid-next year, we will be 75 percent done in building our forces, and by the end of next year it will be fully ready," Mr. Jabr told Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news channel.

The number of Muslims is estimated at 14 million to 23 million, 10 percent to 16 percent of Russia's population. They are spread across the country but congregate in several Muslim-majority republics.

IDF troops remain on high alert along Israel’s northern border following a night of shelling attacks from southern Lebanon on Monday. A meeting was held at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office Sunday evening regarding the escalation of the Hizbullah terror group's activities along Israel's northern border. The meeting was called following intelligence information regarding increased efforts on the part of the terrorists to carry out major attacks on Israeli targets.

Of course, some anti-Semitism is to be expected with a pacifist. The Holocaust is the towering granite mountain of evidence that pacifism is nonsense. The Jews surviving in Israel, in the middle of 100 million hate filled Arabs, by building a great military, is a second Himalayan mountain of evidence against pacifism. The Jews are living and dead proof that pacifism is fantasy. Ipso: pacificists readily become anti-Semities.

Two weeks ago, as I was starting my sixth month of duty in Iraq, I was forced to return to the USA for surgery for an injury I sustained prior to my deployment. With luck, I'll return to Iraq in January to finish my tour. I left Baghdad and a war that has every indication that we are winning, to return to a demoralized country much like the one I returned to in 1971 after my tour in Vietnam. Maybe it's because I'll turn 60 years old in just four months, but I'm tired:

I'm tired of spineless politicians, both Democrat and Republican who lack the courage, fortitude, and character to see these difficult tasks through. I'm tired of the hypocrisy of politicians who want to rewrite history when the going gets tough. I'm tired of the disingenuous clamor from those that claim they 'Support the Troops' by wanting them to 'Cut and Run' before victory is achieved. I'm tired of a mainstream media that can only focus on car bombs and casualty reports because they are too afraid to leave the safety of their hotels to report on the courage and success our brave men and women are having on the battlefield.

I'm tired that so many American's think you can rebuild a dictatorship into a democracy over night.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Monday that Moscow plans to build a major oil pipeline from Siberia to the Pacific coast and said oil supplies would eventually flow to major consumer Japan. "We plan to build the pipeline to the Pacific coast with eventual supplies to the Asia-Pacifc region including Japan," Putin said in a speech at a Russia-Japan investors forum in Tokyo.

I am wondering IF he has Proposed this controversial CUT AND RUN proposal as a smoke screen, so he can come back and tell the public that the Bush White House is investigating him because they are trying to punish him..."

The President says Democrats in Congress "had access to the same intelligence" he did before the Iraq war, but some Democrats deny it. ...

The President's main point is correct: the CIA and most other US intelligence agencies believed before the war that Saddam had stocks of biological and chemical weapons, was actively working on nuclear weapons and "probably" would have a nuclear weapon before the end of this decade. That faulty intelligence was shared with Congress – along with multiple mentions of some doubts within the intelligence community – in a formal National Intelligence Estimate just prior to the Senate and House votes to authorize the use of force against Iraq.

No hard evidence has surfaced to support claims that Bush somehow manipulated the findings of intelligence analysts. In fact, two bipartisan investigations probed for such evidence and said they found none. So Dean's claim that intelligence was "corrupted" is unsupported.

The Senate this fall:

Alito hearings: next year

Cutting pork: Hell no

Keep the tax cuts: Do we have to?

Now this.

Is Frist working for the other party?
Comment by Ironman Email

"I like the way in which the Warner amendment recited again the findings that led us to war against Saddam Hussein and, quite explicitly, cited the progress that has been made. I do think Senator Levin's amendment doesn't quite do this part enough, about the progress, particularly among the political leaders of Iraq. They have done something remarkable in a country that lived for 30 years under a dictator who suppressed all political activity, encouraged the increasing division and bitterness among the Shia's, the Sunnis, the Kurds. These people, with our help and encouragement, have begun to negotiate like real political leaders in a democracy. It is not always pretty. What we do here is not always most attractive. That is democracy. Most important of all, 8 million Iraqis came out in the face of terrorist threats in January to vote on that interim legislation. Almost 10 million came out to vote on a constitution, which is a pretty good document, a historically good document in the context of the Arab world. "What happened when the Sunnis felt they were not getting enough of what they wanted in a referendum? They didn't go to the street, most of them, with arms to start a civil war; they registered to vote. That is a miraculous achievement and a change in attitude and action. They came out to vote in great numbers, and they will come out, I predict, again in December in the elections and elect enough Sunnis to have an effect on the Constitution next year. "So I wish that some of that had been stated in Senator Levin's amendment. … "I had other concerns about Senator Levin's amendment, including particularly the last paragraph which I believe creates a timetable for withdrawal, and I think that is a mistake, particularly in the next 3 to 6 months as the Iraqis stand up a new government. It may not be the intention of the sponsors, but it does send a message that I fear will discourage our troops because it seems to be heading for the door. It will encourage the terrorists, and it will confuse the Iraqi people and affect their judgments as they go forward."

"The Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically... drastic decline in food production... most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters... fundamental changes in the world's weather... economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale... The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope..."

Oh, sorry... I was just reading an article from Newsweek - from 1975. Entitled "The Cooling World," it warned of the dire consequences of "Global Cooling" - unless political action was brought about immediately.

"... speculation mounted over a severely discredited Jacques Chirac’s ability to endure the last 17 months of his presidential term. ... Chirac’s response to the mayhem engulfing the country has been widely condemned. He has said virtually nothing about it, heightening perceptions of him as a politically irrelevant figure.

He looked pale and deflated on Thursday in a rare public appearance, prompting rumours that the blood vessel problem for which he was hospitalised for a week in September — some described it as a mild stroke — might have inflicted more damage than previously acknowledged. The 72-year-old head of state has been off balance ever since voters defied him by rejecting the European Union constitution in May.

Even his lieutenants in the centre-right governing team seemed to be putting the boot in. “Chirac looks stunned, almost overtaken by events,” Jean-Louis Debré, president of the national assembly, was quoted as saying. ... A less charitable interpretation was that he had become hopelessly out of touch. On Thursday he made a rare admission of failure by accepting that the government had not acted quickly enough in tackling racial discrimination.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took aim at Syria on Saturday over its human rights record, stepping up Washington's bid to isolate Damascus internationally. The top U.S. diplomat used a conference in Bahrain attended by Arab leaders trying to promote economic and political reform, to criticize what she said was Syria's "arbitrary detention" of human rights activists. "We continue to support the Syrian people's aspirations for liberty, democracy, and justice under the rule of law," said Rice in a sideways swipe at the government in Damascus. "We would like to see an end to the arbitrary detentions of democratic and human rights activists -- including Kamal Labwani and all the prisoners of conscience from the Damascus Spring," she added. The Damascus Spring was a period of intense political and social debate in Syria which started after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in June 2000. Opposition activist Labwani was arrested in Syria on November 8 on his return from a visit to the United States where he had met senior U.S. officials.