BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. broadcaster NPR says some of its journalists have escaped injury when a bomb exploded in their car as it was parked along a street in west Baghdad.Thankfully no one was injured or killed. However I am sure we will hear the cries of righteous indignation from NPR and press releases that Iraq is deteriorating "again."
NPR's foreign editor Loren Jenkins said the journalists left their vehicle Sunday to interview people inside a restaurant.
Iraqi soldiers ran up and warned them that a bomb had been placed in their car while they were inside the restaurant. Moments later, the vehicle exploded in flames. No one was injured.
NPR said on its website that Iraqi soldiers arrested a shopkeeper from a store next door.
Use of "sticky bombs" attached to cars, buses and trucks has become increasingly common in Baghdad since increased security has made it difficult for extremists to use truck bombs.
AP-As officials pointed the finger at "elements in Pakistan," some Indians looked inward and expressed anger at their own government.
"People are worried, but the key difference is anger," said Rajahs Jan, chief executive officer at a brokerage firm, Prank Securities. "Does the government have the will, the ability to tackle the dangers we face?"
BBC-Chris Morris reports from the city that many people in Mumbai want their own government to look into the failure of intelligence which allowed the events of this traumatic week to unfold with such bloodshed.Links: Proof is starting arise as to who trained the terrorists that carried out the violence in Mumbai. The alleged militant, named as Azam Amir Qasab, in a statement said that his group received training from Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based terrorist organization.
BBC-A senior security official said Pakistan had now received preliminary evidence from India, the BBC's Barbara Plett reports from Islamabad.Hopefully, the situation between the two governments can be handled diplomatically. Cooperation between Pakistan and India is a must for maintaining peace in the region. As well as bringing justice to the individuals who were overall responsible for the attacks.
But he warned that if India started to mobilise troops, Pakistan would respond in kind, even if that meant pulling soldiers away from fighting Islamist militants on the Afghan border.
He said the next 48 hours would be crucial in determining to what level tensions would escalate.
Washington Times-Lisa Curtis, a South Asia analyst and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the strikes could heighten tensions between India and Pakistan, "especially if investigations show that the attackers received training, finances or logistical support from Pakistan-based terror groups."While there is ample evidence suggesting the violence originated from a Pakistani based terrorist network. There is no information affirming the government of Pakistan had any direct involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
The city government of NYC is taking bureaucratic intrusion to a new level. Because of an idiotic city rule, churches which were providing a place for homeless persons to sleep in freezing temps, are now being ordered to halt this practice."the churches must obey a city rule requiring faith-based shelters to be open at least five days a week -- or not at all."Don't worry though, "Big Brother" is there to fill the void.
The Department of Homeless Services said the city offers other shelters with the capacity to accept all those who have been sleeping in the churches. The city had 8,000 beds waiting.8,000 beds are wonderful!!! Too bad there is this little problem, (Taken from the Coalition for the Homeless)
Indeed, in September 1,464 new homeless families entered New York City shelters, the highest one-month count since the City began keeping records 25 years ago. And nine months into this year, 2008 is on target to see the all-time highest number of new homeless families seeking shelter since modern homelessness began in the late 1970s.Realistically these churches are not going to be able to alleviate the deficit between the amount of homeless and the number of beds. However, this lack of compassion for their fellow human beings is outrageous. Any help that can be given from private charities or faith based institutions should be welcomed. Not slamming the door in their faces due to some inane city ordinance.
First, it may be that Obama does not care all that much about national security policy and wants to leave it in capable hands while he rushes off to re-enact the domestic New Deal.The third is the most plausible since it covers all the bases. No matter how Senator Clinton and President-elect Obama engage each other in public. It is not hard to detect the large amount of tension between the two of them, even through a television. The Obama camp knows that Hillary Clinton is still a force to be reckoned with in the Senate. She could be a potential problem if not corralled.
Another theory is that Obama never believed much of anything he was telling the left wingers during the campaign. It was all a carefully devised scheme to capture the nomination.
And yet another explanation is that he is entirely a political creature, devoid of well-thought out policy positions. Clinton was selected to get her out of the Senate. Gates will calm the GOP. Rahm Emanuel will keep a lid on Nancy Pelosi. It is all about power — consolidating it and preventing well-formed opposition.
"We welcome their ideas and their concepts." "It's challenging times economically. The middle class is working harder, earning less and paying more. The challenges facing the country require that people of both parties work together to solve those problems."All of the "great feelings" and "teamwork attitudes" were reciprocated for the cameras by the Republican leadership.
"I told them that I welcome their ideas, be that in their area of education, health care, taxes, energy policy, national security," Emanuel added. "Give us those ideas, because we are formulating what we're going to do in the Obama administration."
Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, said Emanuel demonstrated "a really good attitude about wanting to work with us"However, while everyone was making nice-nice, a significant event of a very non-partisan nature occurred. California Rep. Henry A. Waxman dethroned longtime Energy and Commerce Chairman, Rep John Dingell of Michigan. Waxman is a noted Beverly Hills representing environmentalist of Gorian proportions, and a staunch advocate of environmental controls being imposed on industry and manufacturing.
CTAl-Qaida’s No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites.Obama might be a high tax loving, culturally depraved, socialist leaning President-elect, but by God, he is my high tax loving, culturally depraved, socialist leaning, President-elect. Calling Obama a "House Negro" is just reason number 10,465 to hunt down al-Zawahri and kill him. Let him feel the open end of a Sig .45 gently pressed against his skin in the cool air of the Pakistani night. And a placid voice asking, "Any last words?" He might reply, "Did the "House Negro" send you?!?!"
The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is “the direct opposite of honorable black Americans” like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.
In al-Qaida’s first response to Obama’s victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect — along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice — “house negroes.”
Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term “abeed al-beit,” which literally translates as “house slaves.” But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as “house negroes.”
Early on, however, expect some low-hanging fruit to get plucked. Democrats will probably push through the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which got significant Republican support in the current Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a bill ready to go authorizing federal financing for embryonic-stem-cell research, and another that would overturn a limited Supreme Court decision on women's ability to sue for wage discrimination.Despite this, Obama will still have to make legislative pay offs to those who helped get him elected and obtain the Democrats a nice majority in Congress. Obama, for all his charisma and serendipity will still have to play old fashion get down-n-dirty Washington politics, and this could comeback to haunt him and Congress. There are too many who assisted him in being elected and want their seven pieces of silver in return.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio said "This era is even more conducive to that kind of grassroots progressive push on the Congress. There clearly is going to be an inside-outside strategy here where progressives are going to push on our Congress and the president to move forward -- that's the definition of progressive, and we are going to have lots of help from the outside, and that is going to help our government move."In order for Conservatives and Republicans can stake their claim in the House and then further, they will need a few signs it is time to attack. When divisions start to appear between Conservative Democrats and the Progressives, this will be the first stages of infighting. Another good indicator will be the Moderate Dems caucusing with Republicans against some major legislation that Reid, Pelosi, and the rest of the Progressive pack are trying to push through.
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada declared that the American electorate gave the Democratic Party a “mandate” as he pledged to aid the middle class and restore fiscal responsibility to “lead this country to a much better place."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California pledged bipartisanship and civility in Washington, D.C. Obama built much of his campaign around changing the culture of Washington.“We have a great deal of work to do, and we can do some of it right from the start,” she said. “But the rest of it will take a while. We must take a very deliberate, steady course for America. That’s exactly what Barack Obama is prepared to do.”
BUTTE, Mont.--
Democrats are criticizing a 38-year-old man who parked a trailer load of manure across the street from Whitehall's Democratic campaign office to protest presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
Terry Reed, who owns a construction and excavation company in Whitehall, parked the trailer near the office on Saturday. He also posted a sign in the manure mocking Obama's "change we can believe in" slogan as "a load of crap." Read more...
CLEVELAND—If Barack Obama wins the election, it will be historic. And if he loses, it will be pretty historic, too: It would mark the biggest collective error in the history of the media and political establishment.
Of 20 new statewide polls, 15 show a shift in McCain's direction. The biggest comes from a SurveyUSA poll in Kansas, where McCain leads 58-37; he led 53-41 in the same poll a week earlier. CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. and Quinnipiac polls in Florida showed shifts toward McCain of one and three points, respectively, though both polls still show Obama ahead.This little surge is expected, especially when national polling, a few days back, was showing McCain closing gaps. To me, this is more important than the national polling data due to the what it represents for the electoral votes. This is what this election has been about for the past three months.
Let me sort of describe my overall policy.
What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.
I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.
That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.
The only thing I've said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.
It's just that it will bankrupt them.
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