By John L. Work

The United States Marines, America’s best and bravest, are about to land in the Town of Marja, southern Afghanistan.  The news is already out.  Meetings have gone on for weeks to alert the Marja townspeople.  The tribal elders know about it.  It’s in the Los Angeles Times.  It’s all over Afghanistan.  Hell and the entire World know it. And the Taliban Soldiers of Allah know it.

The Marines have been instructed not to shoot back if there are civilians in the line of fire.  Protecting Afghanistan civilians’ lives must count for more than American lives.  It’s CIC Barack Obama and General Stanley McChrystal’s standing order.  The Taliban will probably position themselves among civilians.  Or they may just run away, re-group and come back later.  Knowing the invasion is coming they’ve had months to mine the terrain with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), like the one that sent my nephew home from his first Iraq tour with a Purple Heart.  This is no way to win a War – not any War I ever heard of.

The Los Angeles Times’ Tony Perry and Laura King have the story here:

“Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan — Heading into battle to seize a Taliban stronghold, U.S. Marines are keenly aware of one factor that could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory: Afghan civilian casualties.

Deaths of noncombatants in clashes involving Western troops and insurgents are one of the bitterest points of contention between President Hamid Karzai and his foreign allies. So in the weeks leading up to the imminent offensive to take the Helmand River Valley town of Marja in southern Afghanistan, the Marines’ commander, Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, sat with dozens of Afghan tribal elders, drinking endless cups of sweet tea and offering reassurances that his top priority will be the safety of Afghan civilians…

… The Marja operation has been publicized for months by the Marines. One reason Nicholson has taken that unusual step is to give civilians plenty of warning, decreasing the chances they will be caught in crossfire…”

The Afghanistan front in this World War is a guerilla war, an “insurgency”, as it’s been called.  The enemy wears no uniform.  He lives among the non-combatants and dresses as they do.  The Soviets invaded there once.  Remember?

The United States Revolutionary War was a guerilla War.  The Brits had the best equipped standing Army in the World.  They lost to Washington’s rag-tag Continental Army and the militias.

Don’t get me wrong, here.  I’m not any kind of pacifist.  I come from a family with a U.S. military history that goes clear back to the Civil War.  The United States Marine Corps is the finest fighting unit in the history of the World.  But it was not created to act as a civilian police department in a Muslim State.  This whole strategy is tantamount to putting a full-page announcement in The L.A. Times that the cops are about to do a big drug raid on a house full of dope and automatic weapons, complete with the address of the targeted house.  You tell me what would happen next.

By Nancy Morgan

There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: “Miss Me Yet?”

By George Hill

You know how some things set a standard. They become the benchmark by which all others are judged. Well, for many of my reviews I have mentioned the CZ 100 pistol as an example of what I consider to have just about the worst trigger ever made on any production handgun. I’ve mentioned it, but until now, I have never introduced it to you. That’s been rather rude of me, so I apologize. Let me introduce it to you now.

The CZ 100 is a polymer framed automatic that is a radical departure from CZ’s standard 75 series based guns. It is not just a polymer framed CZ 75 clone. If that is what you are wanting, check out an IMI Desert Eagle poly in a 9, a .40 or a .45. I reviewed a pair of them last year. Those were outstanding handguns.

One of the biggest departures from normal CZ tradition is that the 100 is a double-action-only pistol. The trigger mechanism is unique in that the idea behind it is simple to the point of almost being brilliant. Pulling the trigger moves a hook that grabs a bar on the striker and slingshots it back. At the farthest point of travel, the trigger hook drops off of the striker, allowing it to fly forward to fire the gun.

I say "almost brilliant" because it (of course) fails miserably at being any sort of usable trigger at all. No, I’m serious. It’s bad. It’s the stuff that nightmares are made of. The trigger feels exactly like those old, toy guns you used to be able to buy at grocery stores that shoot those little plastic disks. I’ve actually had nightmares where a large, dark, looming threat is advancing on me and I pull out my sidearm and pull the trigger. It feels like that, and in my dream little plastic disks fly out to bounce off of the menace, which of course, is unfazed by the plastic disks. To put it bluntly, the CZ 100 is my nightmare pistol.

The trigger pull has a long take-up pull, then heavy stacking up to a level that is off of the scale. If just the trigger pull was bad, that would be one thing, but when the trigger breaks, it suddenly pulls the front sight off to the right. Trying as hard as I might, I could not pull the trigger without the sight being jerked off target. Interestingly, when I dry-fired the gun left-handed, the sights stayed on target. I don’t know why that is. Maybe it is the way that I manipulate triggers and I just do it differently left-handed. The trigger is not just bad; it’s so bad that it is funny. It’s almost as if it’s a joke. How could a serious arms company release a pistol so awful? Actually, several have. AMT’s back-up .45, the HK VP-70 and Stanley Staplers, all have bad triggers on the epic scale, but the CZ 100’s is worse. Trust me.

Now the question is this: Is the 100 otherwise a decent pistol that is handicapped with a bad trigger? Let’s take a look at it objectively. When you first pick up the 100, it feels pretty good in the hand. But the more you hold it, the more odd it feels. It gets to be downright awkward. The pistol’s styling is also interesting. They went to the trouble of making the gun as slick-sided as possible, including the breaking of the slide release lever and the take-down pin into two separate parts, instead of one combined unit. Then, they hide the slide release under the frame and have the release lever sticking out of an odd little window. It’s like a cross between something you might see on classic Star Trek and The Next Generation. The lines of the pistol are all wrong. Looking at it from a side view, it merely looks ugly. Change your viewing angle to look at it more from the front, and it becomes absolutely hideous. This is the Pontiac Aztec of handguns.

Like the Pontiac Aztec, even for being an abomination, it does offer good utility. For example, you can sometimes find a CZ 100 for under $300. It is very reliable. It has a unique belt/holster snag feature up on the top to help aid in one-hand slide manipulation. They needed this because you can’t quite hook your belt on the rear sights. (As a cruel joke, they topped this pistol with an adjustable rear sight, as if someone with a room temperature IQ might mistake it for a target pistol.) There is the hint of frame rails under the muzzle, tempting one to think of it as a tactical pistol. All of the tactical lights that I’ve tried on it don’t fit, and even if they did, they are not able to lock on to it. So it isn’t a tactical gun or a target gun. And being a 9mm, it is not an overly powerful gun. So what is it? I’m not exactly sure. I guess it is trying to be a self-defense gun. Let’s see if it is.

If you can manage rowing that trigger all the way back, the gun will fire every time until you have emptied all 12 rounds. Of course, you will feel like Ben Hur at the oars of a Roman galley by then, but the gun still works. That 12 round magazine is a decent payload for a gun so slim. The 100 is rather slick-sided for being so ugly, but then again, so is the Swamp Thing. All this can be yours, an easy packing, reliable, high capacity 9MM, for under $300. Like your mamma told you about lima beans, it doesn’t matter how bad it tastes; it’s good for you. I’ve actually seen examples for sale for as low as $225. At that price, you are at the Makarov level. I’m not sure which one I’d buy if they were side by side for the same price, but I’d probably lean to the Mak.

I don’t mean to bash the CZ 100 so completely, but I can’t help it. It is kind of like nachos. You can’t eat just one, unless by one you mean one plate full. One plate full is a good stopping point. Those who are familiar with me know that I am extremely fond of CZ firearms, so much so that one day, I hope to make a pilgrimage to the Czech Republic where CZ guns are made. My favorite handgun remains my CZ P-01. I especially like CZ’s magazine-fed, bolt action centerfire rifles. I find dang near everything else from CZ to be excellent and most worthy. I wouldn’t hesitate to spend my own cash on anything from CZ, except the 100. The 100 is just awful and should be avoided as much as possible, like it was the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus. That is unless you are a full blown CZ Freak and just have to have anything and everything from CZ. If that’s the case, I can’t blame you.

The 100 is a very interesting pistol. You can’t help but to look at it. It’s like a weird mole on the face of someone you are trying to talk to. There is some weird fascination about it that draws you to it. And that is the oddest thing about the CZ-100. For all of its warts, and for as ugly and utterly nasty as it is, you can’t help but to kind of like it, like ET in a way. Shooting the 100 well is a challenge, and therein is the attraction. It’s like riding a GP class bike with a tight clutch and a throttle like the trigger on a detonator…awkward and difficult. It’s fantastic. But it’s not something for everyone. If this article contradicts itself, it is a good metaphor for the pistol.

CZ USA could make this a much more appealing weapon system, but it would require a completely different firing system. I would suggest that they take a close, hard look at a couple of other good fire control systems. Kahr Arms has perhaps one of the best examples of a DAO (double-action-only) system. Then again, they could do it as a single-action system like the Springfield XD. That would be my choice if I was the head honcho at CZ. I’d also do something to the looks and the size. I would clip the grip frame down to "CZ Compact" size, and then re-contour the slide to something more appropriate for concealed carry. The weird way the slide overhangs the dust cover at the muzzle end reminds me of the front end (the bow, sorry) of an aircraft carrier. But considering that CZ’s line-up already has better pistols for these purposes, such as the P-01 and the PCR, there really is no need for the 100. There is no necessity for CZ to force out a polymer framed pistol before it is really ready for prime time. The only reason for using a plastic frame is to reduce weight. The only guns that need this are the ones that are intended specifically for concealment. And CZ has already done a poly version of the RAMI. I guess that the best thing for CZ to do would be to just drop the gun altogether.

Another thing about the 100 is that it has a brother. There is a .40 cal version that isn’t imported into the USA. It’s called it the CZ-110. If you think that the 100 is great, but just needs a little more horsepower, well, you’re wrong. The 110 is just as bad as the 100 ever was, but with snappier recoil added. Good times. Ugly and awkward, and now uncomfortable! Brilliant! To sum up the CZ 100 quickly, if you are a CZ collector, fine, then get it. If not, spend your money on a more worthy pistol.

 IBD EDITORIALS

Iran: Incredibly, the Bush national security team’s sole holdover has announced Peace in Our Time as the only hope against a nuclear Tehran. There is no defense for Secretary Robert Gates.

Appearing in Paris with the French defense minister on Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an announcement to the world that will astonish our friends and embolden our enemies.

"We must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue," Gates said of the never-ending defiance of the free world by Iran’s Islamofascist regime as it moves ever closer to becoming a nuclear weapons power.

"The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track," Gates added. "But it will require all of the international community to work together."

Anyone care to hold your breath on that last hope?

After meeting for an hour with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday, Gates and he "agreed that the time has come for the adoption of strong sanctions, in the hope that dialogue will be resumed," a Sarkozy aide said.

The time has come? That must be what passes for black humor in Paris these days. The time for getting tough with the Iranians came years ago.

And anyway, what value does a joint statement from the U.S. and France against Iran have? U.S. diplomats on Monday were putting on a good face about France’s decision to send 80 — count ‘em — more personnel to help the U.S. with what President Obama has called the central front in the war on al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Add to that France’s plans to send amphibious assault ships to Russia against our wishes, with the rationale that Russia, has "changed deeply" since losing the Cold War, and so it’s time to nurture a new relationship.

They might ask the family of the murdered dissident Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned by a radioactive isotope in 2006, how nurturing Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is. Or ask the former Soviet bloc nations seeking missile defense from Russia.

At any rate, something seems to have happened that spoiled all the love and respect our cool, new commander in chief was supposed to be getting from the land of Robespierre, so unlike the treatment afforded that Europhobic Texan predecessor of his.

Think what Tehran thinks when it hears the defense secretary of this and the previous presidency say that the only path left to the world’s lone superpower — and, by extension, to the community of civilized nations — is more sanctions.

"The key," Gates said in Paris, "is persuading the Iranian leaders that their long-term best interests are best served by not having nuclear weapons, as opposed to having them. And so I think that an approach along these lines, as long as the international community is seen pressing vigorously to resolve this problem, my hope is we will then be able to keep this in economic and diplomatic channels."

That is a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates those who rule Iran. The mullahs, the ayatollahs and their henchman who returned to the Iranian presidency in a rigged election last summer see "their long-term best interests" in supernatural terms.

The return of the 12th Imam, the destruction of the Jewish state in an apocalyptic holy war, an eternity spent in that giant brothel in the sky — those things dominate their thoughts, not the effects of economic sanctions or isolation from the international community.

It must be with that reality in mind that we consider what the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad think when the U.S. says, through Gates, that force is not an option.

We have a Western alliance, unallied even on fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, which spends years watching a jihadist regime work toward atomic weapons before it even seriously considers anything approaching real economic warfare against it, and which tells its enemies that force is out as a solution.

When a secretary of defense considers defense a nonoption, it’s time to think about (as the president would say) pressing the reset button.

Enlarge

By Thomas Sowell

By RALPH PETERS

In a breathtakingly cynical example of playing politics, the White House just accused Republicans of playing politics over its Miranda-rights Christmas gift to the crotch bomber.

With fumbling terrorism czar John Brennan walking point, administration spokesmen attacked those who believe that treating would-be suicide-bomber Umar Abdulmutallab the way we handle shoplifters harms our national security.

The White House position is a PR blend of lies, half-truths and ignorance. Let’s strip out the politics and lay out the facts from an intelligence professional’s perspective:

* The administration claims Abdulmutallab is now cooperating. That’s either dishonest or idiotic — or both.

If he is cooperating, jeez, you don’t tell the terrorists. Why on earth leak it that the guy’s blabbing, thus warning the enemy? Could the administration — just possibly — be playing politics?

* Even if he’s talking now, Abdulmutallab won’t provide actionable intelligence. It’s too late: His contacts had time to vacate the premises and alter their modes of operation.

The best information that a low-level operative like the Jockey-shorts jerk possesses is highly perishable — the captive isn’t privy to long-term plans, just the immediate details of his mission and a few basic contacts.

Information that might have been valuable on Dec. 26 may be worthless by Jan. 26. Yet, in that critical early window we convinced Abdulmutallab to clam up — thanks to the folly of treating him to a lawyer.

In the intelligence world, where I served for decades, we derided such useless data as we’re getting now as "history lessons."

* What plea bargain did we have to grant Abdulmutallab to get him to talk? Why should we ever have to plea-bargain with terrorists? Can any serious lawyer show us where in the laws of land warfare (which include the Geneva Convention) or in the broader sphere of international law it specifies that terrorists must be read their Miranda rights upon capture?

We’re doing this to ourselves, folks. And it’s going to kill more Americans.

With its desperate counteroffensive on this issue, the White House is struggling to recover from the PR debacle over the decision to award Abdulmutallab (and other terrorists) rights to which they are in no way entitled.

But this administration has other disastrous policies in place, too.

Retired Army Col. Stu Herrington — the most noteworthy military interrogator of his generation — highlights a particularly destructive one: making it next to impossible to keep terrorist captives isolated while they’re imprisoned.

When dealing with top-end prisoners (the KSMs, not the Abdulmutallabs), interrogations can last for months or even years. The last thing you want is to allow prisoners to communicate with and discipline one another.

You don’t want terrorists coordinating their stories, bolstering each other’s morale or bringing pressure on those who might be cooperating. Just the ability to monitor a prisoner’s absences from his cell can tip fellow captives that he’s talking.

A consistent advocate of humane interrogations, Herrington would treat terrorists more mildly than I would — but we agree that interrogations require sensible flexibility. You can’t protect Americans by bolstering the terrorists’ camaraderie and cohesion.

Both sides of the aisle seek political gains from the terrorism issue — too often forgetting the essential goal of protecting the United States. This time, though, the White House is unquestionably in the wrong — trying to deceive the American people on an issue of life and death.

In the end, there is no reason — legal, moral or practical — to treat foreign terrorists bent on massacre as if they were citizens of the country they dream of destroying.

By Greg Lewis

By Rowan Scarborough

American Patrol

Palin’s Pal Scheunemann  
    …Ms. Palin has also enlisted a small team of policy counselors to guide her through the substantive areas in which many deemed her to be lacking in 2008. Randy Scheunemann, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. McCain who also clashed with the campaign leadership, got $30,000 from Ms. Palin’s PAC in the second half of 2009. (NY Times, 2/5/10)
    Randy Scheunemann is a director of the Project for the New American Century headed by Bill Kristol. Irving Kristol and his son Bill Kristol founded the neoconservative PNAC.
Kristol on illegal immigration (VDare.com)
    – Kristol, in contrast, professed to be perplexed by why anyone would oppose illegal immigration. He asked "What damage have they done that’s so great in 20 years?" and even dismissed concerns about the massive demonstrations with Mexican flags. He is openly hostile to opponents of amnesty, whom he called "yahoos" who will turn the GOP into an "anti-immigration, Know Nothing party."
Palin Backs McCain
    Sarah Palin is campaigning for John McCain, co-sponsor of the discredited Kennedy-McCain amnesty bill.
American Patrol Report Comment
    The choice is now clear: Those who want open borders, amnesty and more illegal immigration, should support Sarah Palin and her Neocon friends.

—————————————————————————-

While we’re on the subject of Palin…

What the fuck is she doin’ hangin’ with Raed Jarrar?

Sarah has got some splainin’ to do.

 SFGate

EAST PALO ALTO — The "evil" killer of an East Palo Alto police officer showed no mercy or remorse as he stood over the fallen man and fired a final shot into his head, the officer’s family said today in court before a judge sentenced the convicted murderer to death.

Alberto Alvarez, 26, showed no reaction as family members of Officer Richard May denounced him in a packed Redwood City courtroom. But he sighed as Superior Court Judge Craig Parsons followed an earlier jury decision and formally sentenced him to die by lethal injection for the 2006 killing.

The slain officer’s stepfather, Frank Merrill, and father, Rick May, pumped their arms as Parsons told Alvarez that he would be executed.

"Unfortunately, his death will be humane, unlike Rich’s," Merrill said in San Mateo County Superior Court moments earlier.

May’s widow, Diana May, clutched a tissue as she described how Alvarez served as her husband’s judge, jury and executioner Jan. 7, 2006, when he fired three shots at the 38-year-old officer, briefly left and then returned to fire the fatal shot into his head.

"The man I expected to live the rest of my life with is gone forever," May said. "Our family meant everything to him. He was too young to die."

Alvarez, she said, is an "evil killer."

Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney, called the murder "one of the most evil crimes that can be committed."

Parsons agreed, saying the crime was "particularly savage and brutal." Before pronouncing sentence, the judge rejected Alvarez’s motion for a new trial and his request to be sentenced to life in prison without possible parole.

Neither Alvarez nor his attorneys spoke in court today. Alvarez took the unusual step of testifying in his own defense at trial, saying he had pulled out his gun only after May shot him in the leg.

Today, Merrill derided Alvarez and his attorneys for what he termed a "cock-and-bull story."

A jury convicted Alvarez in November of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of murdering a police officer, which made him eligible for the death penalty. The same jury later determined that Alvarez should be put to death.

Alvarez shot May after the officer responded to a fight at a University Avenue taqueria. When May tried to stop him on Weeks Street around the corner from the taqueria, Alvarez shot him twice in the chest and once in the shoulder, started to run, then returned and shot him in the face.

Among those who saw the shooting was a teenage police Explorer riding with May.

May left behind three children.

The native of San Luis Obispo was a police officer for 14 years in Lompoc (Santa Barbara County) before joining the East Palo Alto force about 18 months before he was killed.

Alvarez, a parolee with a prior felony conviction for gun possession, was arrested the day after the killing while hiding in the backseat of a friend’s car.

———————–

Earlier reports stated the Mexican POS was an illegal alien. But of course!

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Rep. John Murtha died Monday. He was 77.

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said. [More]

Engrish.com

Photo courtesy of Ray Purdy
Bathroom sign found at National Taiwan University

SRINAGAR — A massive avalanche plowed into an Indian army training center at a ski resort town in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday, killing 17 soldiers and critically injuring 17 others.

The avalanche slammed into the army’s High Altitude Warfare School at about 11 a.m. and swept away the soldiers during a training session, said army spokesman Col. Vineet Sood. It was the worst avalanche in the area in many years, he said.

Seventeen bodies were found and 53 troops were rescued about six hours after the speeding mass of snow and ice struck the center high on a Himalayan slope, senior police officer Qayoom Manhas told The Associated Press.

Manhas said of those rescued, 17 needed emergency medical care.

About 70 troops were taking a skiing test when the avalanche came crashing down, he said.

Rescue efforts involving army, police and civilian officials were "very timely, swift and coordinated," Manhas said.

The accident occurred near Gulmarg, a ski resort about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, said Sood.

About 400 people, including 30 civilian workers, were at the training center, but the avalanche hit only one portion of the facility.

Incessant snow and rain complicated rescue operations.

G.M. Dar, a tourist official in the area, told the AP about 400 tourists skiing in Gulmarg were safe.

Frequent rain and heavy snowfall often trigger avalanches and landslides in Kashmir, blocking roads and cutting off tourist resorts like Gulmarg. Gulmarg is also close to the Line of Control, a highly militarized cease-fire line dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The claim over Kashmir has caused two wars between the archrivals since they became independent from Britain in 1947. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are posted along either side of the Line of Control.

Last year in April, an avalanche hit an Indian army post in a separate region close to the de-facto border with Pakistan, killing seven soldiers and injuring at least eight others.

Source

 Breitbart Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula number two Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri called for attacks against US interests "everywhere," in an audio message released Monday.

"American and Crusader interests are everywhere and their agents are moving everywhere," Shahri said. "Attack them and eliminate as many enemies as you can."

By Daily Mail Reporter

A Muslim bus driver stunned passengers when he pulled over and started praying in the aisle - with the engine still running.

The driver parked without warning then rolled out a fluorescent jacket as an improvised prayer mat.

He took off his shoes, knelt down facing Mecca, and began to chant.

The prayer session held up the bus for more than five minutes with no-one able to get on or off.

Passenger Gayle Griffiths complained to Transport for London about the bizarre incident on the No.24 bus in Gospel Oak, north London, this week.

Mother-of-one Miss Griffiths, 33, of Camden, north-west London, had boarded the bus a few minutes earlier on her way home from work.

She says that she even feared at the time that the driver might be a fanatic planning to blow up the bus.

She said: ‘I have done the journey a million times before but I was in a hurry to get home to pick my little girl up from school.

‘We had just picked up and let off people at a bus stop and moved off again when the driver stopped the bus very suddenly.

‘He got out of his cab, leaving the engine running, and walked towards the middle exit door.

‘He laid out a fluorescent jacket on the floor and I thought that somebody must have been sick and he was covering it up.

‘I didn’t really think much of it.

‘But then he took off his shoes and began praying. I was gobsmacked and quite bewildered.’

Miss Griffiths said the bus driver didn’t give the passengers any explanation as to what he was doing.

‘He hadn’t addressed the passengers at all,’ she said. ‘I didn’t say anything and nor did anyone else. I thought it would all be over in 30 seconds but it went on for over five minutes.

‘It even went through my mind that this might be some sort of terrorist attack with the bus blown up because I had heard that suicide bombers prayed before attacks.

‘As the engine was running anyone could also have got in the cab and driven off with a bus full of passengers.

‘He was also blocking the exit, so if something had happened we would not have been able to get off.

‘Everyone was looking round in a mix of shock and amazement. It was truly bizarre, ludicrous and aggravating.

‘We are delayed often enough as it is in London.

‘We live in a multi-cultural society but there is a time and a place for prayer and the middle of a journey with a busload of passengers is not it.’

Transport for London said it had apologised to all the passengers for the delay to their journey and said all Muslim drivers are being reminded that they should pray during statutory rest periods rather than hold up services.

A TfL spokesman said: ‘A route 24 bus was delayed following a decision by the driver to stop the bus to pray. 

‘The bus company, London General, has had a word with the driver as this is not something that should be happening.

‘TfL apologises to passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused them.  

‘We understand that there is some flexibility in the Muslim faith as to the times of day that drivers can pray.

‘TfL and the individual bus operating companies acknowledge and value the diversity of their staff.  

‘As diverse employers, TfL and the bus operators provide suitable prayer or quiet rooms at garages and other key locations for staff who wish to practise their faith.

‘We have asked London General to remind drivers who have a requirement to pray to use these facilities during their rest periods.’

By Janie Har–The Oregonian

An Oregon group that represents minorities will start offering scholarships to white students — and only white students — in a bid to get people in the majority to champion issues important to minorities.

The stipends will be small, perhaps no more than $2,000 over five years, for students to study race relations in college. The idea is to get students to translate what they learn in school into action in life.

The Oregon League of Minority Voters has not figured out details for the awards, to be issued this spring, said Promise King, executive director of the statewide nonprofit organization. But recipients must live in Oregon. And they can’t be of Asian, African, Latino or Native descent.

"I want to reach white students because I believe the more the majority is involved in our conversations and in our work, the more we are able to get to solutions," King said.

The idea of nudging white people to take up diversity and equity may be the way to go in a state and city where whites far outnumber people of color. But it also underlines a stark reality in Oregon: the stubborn lack of color in power.

"The minorities we have in Oregon are not in a position to effect changes," King said. "The ones in position to effect changes are white."

But not all minority leaders are comfortable ceding control to majority whites.

Nichole Maher,  executive director of the Native American Youth Family Center in Portland, welcomes any move to get whites involved in matters usually relegated to minorities.

She rejects the idea that Oregon lacks qualified people of color to lead committees, serve in office or otherwise shape public policy. Members of minority groups need to lead discussions on poverty, discrimination and schools, she said.

"Promise’s group should not just focus on whites being good allies but ensuring those people use their power and influence to give up their spot for a person of color," she said.

"The most courageous thing a white ally can do is truly share power."

People of color make up about 20 percent of Oregon’s population. In Portland, Latinos make up 9 percent, Asians 7 percent and African Americans 6 percent. Native Americans and mixed race people are at 4 percent.

Those figures are small compared with other metropolitan areas — yet large enough that civil rights advocacy groups say race should play a more prominent role in civic debate. Nearly half of the students in Portland Public Schools are Latino, Native American, African American or Asian American.

"Nobody will acknowledge there’s racism here, and all of the data will tell you there is," Maher said.

Take, for example, a study by the Urban League of Portland last year that found blacks in Oregon rank near the bottom of nearly every quality-of-life indicator, including poverty, incarceration and education.

In Multnomah County, health reports show that Latinos are twice as likely as whites to die from homicide, and Native Americans are three times more likely to die of AIDS.

And in 2007, 2008 and 2009, efforts by the all-white Portland City Council to rename a street after Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez turned ugly amid allegations of racism.

Of the 90 members in the Oregon Legislature, only three are people of color.

King, a native of Nigeria, said he deliberately courted white leaders when he launched the group in 2007. He had written columns for the Portland Tribune newspaper but felt stuck. He needed prominent policymakers to make progress on race and poverty, and in Oregon, that meant getting more whites on board.

"I feel really disturbed when I go to these diversity meetings and they’re all brown or black people, they’re Asian or Hispanic," King said.

"We preach to ourselves."

The group is still growing, though it boasts a prominent board, including co-chairmen Randall Edwards, a former state treasurer who is white, and Sho Dozono, chief executive of Azumano Travel and Japanese American.

The Oregon League of Minority Voters, which is not affiliated with the League of Women Voters, has an executive committee and board that meets once a month in donated office space downtown. In the fall it hosted a poverty summit in Salem. The group’s budget — including money for the scholarships — comes from members and donors.

"We’re trying to take incremental, but meaningful, steps," Edwards said.

Former state Rep. Jo Ann Bowman, who is African American, isn’t sure how she feels about spending cash on whites. But, she readily agrees that diversity and equity matters shouldn’t be limited to people of color.

"It’s certainly thought provoking," Bowman said.

Others are more effusive about the league’s ideas to sign up more whites.

"I love it," said Kendall Clawson, a self-described middle-class African American and executive director of Q Center,  a North Portland nonprofit group that serves the gay, lesbian, and transgendered communities.

"This is an interesting way of sort of taking the excuse away of ‘I didn’t know about that’ or ‘I’m not informed’ or ‘I’ve never experienced that.’"

——————————————–

“The idea of nudging white people to take up diversity and equity may be the way to go…”

What a racist condescending thing to say!

And the racism keeps on rollin’. "Promise’s group should not just focus on whites being good allies but ensuring those people use their power and influence to give up their spot for a person of color," she said.  

Why should "those people" have to give up anything especially because they’re white?

POS Vick

Dave Gibson

The group Animal Advocates of Arizona is behind a boycott against the companies which are sponsoring “The Michael Vick Project,” a reality show featuring the convicted felon, now airing on BET. The show began airing on Feb. 3.

Plans for the show were announced a few months ago, amid a great deal of criticism about Vick’s motives for the show. Many believe that the NFL quarterback is not truly remorseful for his crimes, and should not be given another opportunity for more fame and money.

In October 2009, Vick told the Los Angeles Times: “I just want people to really get to know me as an individual. What I want to do is change the perception of me. I am a human being. I’ve made some mistakes in the past, and I wish it had never happened. But it’s not about how you fall, but about how you pick yourself up.”

What Vick calls “mistakes” were actually felonies which could have sent him to prison for much longer than the 18 months he spent incarcerated. The fact is, he spent years torturing and killing defenseless animals.

When police raided Vick’s house in Surry County in 2007, they found 65 dogs (nearly all pit bulls), a dog-fighting pit, blood-stained carpets, and various equipment commonly used in dog fighting.

One of the items found on Vick’s property was a ‘rape stand’ which is a device in which female dogs are strapped into and restrained, to allow a male dog to breed with her.

According to the federal indictment, when dogs at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels lost a fight, or failed to perform well in ‘test matches,’ they were routinely killed by methods including electrocution, hanging, drowning, and in at least one case by “slamming” the dog’s body onto the concrete floor. In one session in April 2007, at least eight dogs were killed through these methods.

Vick took part in these executions along with his partners Purnell Peace, and Quanis Phillips. The indictment detailed a March 2003 incident, in which a female pit bull who had just lost a match was killed. Vick and Peace decided to kill her by “wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting her.”

Incidentally, those aforementioned details were not mentioned last week’s debut episode of “The Michael Vick Project.”

James DuBose, executive producer for Vick’s show said: “This show can be a blueprint for so many kids. I want to show them that things are going to happen, that they’re not going to get through life without dealing with some kind of adversity. I want to show that if they have a fall from grace, this is how they can turn it around. We want this to be a story of hope.”

While it may be difficult for anyone to see how someone who could regularly drown, electrocute, and beat dogs to death the way that the new Eagles Michael Vick did, he has in fact become a role model once again…that happened when the NFL readmitted him.

Kathy McKee of Animal Advocates of Arizona has compiled the following list of sponsors for Vick’s show:

-Nivea
-Buick
-Bally’s Fitness
-Denny’s Restaurants
-Footlocker
-Nationwide Insurance
-Applebee’s
-Sprint
-Pizza Hut
-Dave and Buster’s
-Broadview Security
-Loreal

By Robert M. Engstrom

Last week Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby put a “hold” on all Obama nominations for executive branch positions — about seventy all told – to pressure the Air Force into changing the terms of its “request for proposals” for the award of the multi-billion dollar air refueling tanker aircraft contract.  

The Northrup-Grumman/Airbus team plans to build some of the aircraft in Alabama, building a new plant and presumably hiring and training hundreds of Shelby’s constituents.

A spokesman for Shelby bemoaned the lack of a “transparent and fair” process for tanker acquisition, but what is clear from the senator’s announcement blocking presidential appointees is that bringing earmark dollars home to Alabama is more important to Shelby than what the Air Force, and the nation, needs for future defense.

Apparently the pork, and the jobs Shelby wants for his home state, rank above what the Air Force needs to replace the aged KC-135 tanker fleet. Shelby’s attempt to hold the appointment process hostage to gain political advantage toward landing Alabama a new aircraft assembly (not manufacturing, because the airframe components would be built in Europe) plant and an FBI explosives test center.

A single senator can stall a particular nomination almost indefinitely, a commonly used procedure for individual lawmakers wielding power to impede government process. Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions currently has blocks on two Pentagon appointees (not based on the Airbus question), but a blanket hold is considered a rare senatorial action.

Shelby spokesman Jonathon Graffeo said last week, "This decision impedes the US military … and ensuring American security worldwide." The senator’s blanket hold on some 70 presidential appointees, including a Pentagon position involved in the bidding process, does the same. The Air Force needs replacement tankers sooner rather than later with two wars being fought, the threat of aggression from North Korea and Iran, and the world’s dependence on the United States as the primary provider of air support for natural disasters such as earthquake stricken Haiti.

Shelby’s move comes on the heels of industry rumors that EADS-Northrup Grumman made a "tentative decision" last week to pull out of the bidding process as the consortium threatened to do last year.  This is the same tactic that EADS-NG employed in the competition which resulted in the award to EADS-NG last year, and which the Government Accountability Office struck down based primarily on the unsuitability of the Airbus 330 for the Air Force tanker mission.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon must move forward with the procurement, though he was hopeful both Boeing and EADS-NG will participate in the bidding for 179 aircraft contract worth $35 billion. Ultimately, the contract is likely to be extended to replace all 450 Eisenhower-era tankers, worth closer to $100 billion.

In a seemingly desperate move to include the foreign-consortium in the multi-billion dollar deal, the Aerospace Alliance representing Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, refloated the prospect of buying replacement tankers from both vendors. The Pentagon rejected that proposal last year when it was introduced by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee, and Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, then-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.

The Pentagon’s preliminary request for proposal, unlikely to undergo substantial modifications prior to its final RFP release due in mid-February, clearly favors a smaller, more versatile tanker with the capability to refuel all the aircraft in the military’s arsenal. And, the performance capabilities, computer flight control system, and structural integrity issues of EADS-Northrup Grumman proposed Airbus A-330 variant remain problematical.

The long-delayed tanker RFP process is a perfect opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to come together and show the type of bipartisan leadership the Tea Party movement and, after a dismal first-year reign, the president are demanding from our elected leaders. Petty political gamesmanship, pet pork-barrel aspirations, campaign donations, and lobbying partnerships must be put aside for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

Pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych speaks to the media in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

(CNSNews.com) – Six years after Ukraine turned away from Russia and towards the West, the strategically-located country on Sunday appeared to have swung the other way by narrowly electing as president the same Moscow-backed politician whose attempts to rig the last election triggered the “orange revolution.”

Viktor Yanukovich, the leader of the Party of Regions, claimed victory in Sunday’s second-round runoff over rival Yulia Tymoshenko, the incumbent prime minister who in 2004 was a leader of the street protests that overturned Yanukovich’s purported presidential election victory.

Various exit polls late Sunday gave Yanukovich, 59, a lead of 3-5 points, although in official results early Monday it had dropped to around 2.7 points, with 89 percent of votes tallied.

Tymoshenko, who earlier warned her supporters could take to the streets if the vote was not deemed to be fair, did not immediately concede defeat. Following a bitterly-fought campaign, analysts predict legal challenges and continuing political tensions.

(Exit polls also showed that around five percent of voters chose neither of the two candidates in the race. The “none of the above” option allows voters to register a protest vote.)

The current president and one-time Tymoshenko ally, Viktor Yushchenko, fared dismally in the first round of the election last month and was eliminated from the race.

Yushchenko, who was ushered into power by the orange revolution, moved Ukraine towards the West, seeking European Union and NATO membership, and supporting fellow NATO aspirant Georgia in its standoff with Russia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

His policies angered neighboring Russia, which views both Ukraine – the biggest of the Soviet Union successor states after Russia itself – and Georgia as crucial parts of its sphere of influence.

Moscow has in the years since 2004 repeatedly used its position as Ukraine’s major energy supplier in a bid to influence – and, sometimes, to punish – the government in Kiev.

In the 2004 election, Russian backing of Yanukovich was clearly evident, and then President Vladimir Putin congratulated him on his “victory” when the results were still being widely disputed.

Although the Kremlin took pains to avoid being accused of interference this time, Russian media coverage was strongly pro-Yanukovich.

Tymoshenko, on the other hand, was portrayed as a puppet of the West, despite her efforts ahead of and during the campaign to demonstrate a willingness to improve ties with Moscow.

Yanukovich has long been viewed as a champion of Russian culture and language in Ukraine, where 17 percent of the population of almost 50 million are ethnic Russians, located mostly in the east of the country.

He is a controversial figure who served jail terms as a young man for robbery and crimes of violence. His initial “win” in the 2004 election was so marred by ballot-stuffing, intimidation and other problems that the U.S. refused to recognize it and E.U. member states withdrew their ambassadors in protest.

In an editorial ahead of the runoff urging readers to vote for Tymoshenko, the Kyiv Post daily said that despite her faults she alone of the two candidates was capable of carrying “Ukraine’s democratic torch.”

It derided Yanukovich as an “empty suit” and “petty ex-con” whose “team of Soviet apologists and industrial robber barons has shown nothing but hostility to Ukraine’s infant democracy and nascent middle class.”

Changes loom

The bitter tone of the campaign reflects deep divisions in Ukrainian society, with further polarization likely if Yanukovich makes good on campaign pledges including reviving a “strategic partnership” with Russia.

He said while campaigning that while he would like visa-free travel and a free-trade agreement with the E.U., accession was something to be considered at some future point. On NATO, he said Ukraine’s current level of cooperation with the alliance was adequate, adding “we don’t want to join any military bloc.”

A Yanukovich presidency will deprive Georgia of an important ally in its continuing dispute with Russia; Yanukovich has indicated he will recognize the “independence” of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. (The only other countries to do so are Russia and its allies Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as Nauru, a small Pacific nation that reportedly did so in December in exchange for $50 million in Russia aid.)

President Bush supported accession plans for NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and visited Kiev in April 2008, en route to a NATO summit in Bucharest where the issue was discussed – and shelved, due to reluctance by some European countries to antagonize Russia.

Ukraine was not included on the itinerary of any of President Obama’s six European visits last year, and prominent figures in eastern and central Europe voiced “nervousness” that his stated desire to “reset” ties with Moscow would entail the “wrong concessions to Russia.”

Vice President Joe Biden did visit Ukraine and Georgia last July, and expressed support for their NATO aspirations.

A shift by Ukraine towards Moscow would likely result in changing priorities for Ukraine at the United Nations, where in recent years the country has aligned itself closely to positions held by the U.S. and European Union.

Voting patterns monitored by the State Department show that in 2008, Ukraine’s voting record at the U.N. coincided with that of the U.S. 71.4 percent of the time – a similar grading to that of most E.U. member states. Ukraine’s figure in 2007 was 77.8, even closer to U.S. positions than most E.U. members. Figures for 2009 have not yet been released.

By contrast, Russia’s voting coincided with that of the U.S. 0 percent of the time in 2008.

(The evaluation is based on votes on 13 key “issues which directly affected United States interests and on which the United States lobbied extensively.” They included resolutions relating to Cuba, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Human Rights Council, moratorium on the death penalty, “defamation” of religion, the “Durban II” racism conference documents, and human rights in North Korea, Iran and Burma. The countries whose voting most closely matched that of the U.S. in 2008 were Israel and Palau, both 91.7 percent.)

Ukraine’s prime minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko addresses a press conference in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Defense Professionals

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Friday pledged surplus mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles along with expanded access to classified information to U.S. allies to help in combating the threat of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

“The United States will now do whatever we can within the limits of U.S. law, and as soon as we can, to provide as many surplus MRAPs as possible to allies, especially to those operating in high-risk areas,” Gates said at a news conference here after meeting with the defense ministers of 44 International Security Assistance Force partner nations.

Gates promised to sell, loan or donate surplus U.S. bomb-detecting equipment, including the MRAPs, along with route-clearing robots and ground-penetrating radars.

Gates credited the MRAP vehicles with already saving “thousands of lives” in Afghanistan.

The MRAPs that are likely to make their way to allied forces are those that are coming from Iraq. Gates said the drawdown there has given U.S. forces a surplus of the vehicles. Law dictates that the needs of U.S. troops must be met first before any such equipment can be sold or loaned to other countries.

The MRAPs in Iraq are the older versions more suited for on-road travel, as opposed to the newer all-terrain vehicles known as M-ATVs now being fielded in Afghanistan. Still, Gates said, they are better protection against the killer bombs than what the allies are using now.

A U.S. official speaking after the announcement said some countries have expressed interest in buying the newer M-ATVs, and that sales of those vehicles will be expedited when possible.

The United States currently has loaned about 50 MRAPs to Polish forces fighting in Afghanistan. They are the only other country’s forces to use the vehicles.

About 8,500 MRAPs are in Iraq, and more than 4,100 are in Afghanistan. About 2,200 more are in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. The United States has fielded about 800 M-ATVs in Afghanistan.

Gates traveled here yesterday to meet with NATO and ISAF partners partly to lobby for more trainers and mentors needed to bolster the efforts in Afghanistan. NATO has committed to sending about 9,000 extra troops.

Nearly all of the 40,000 combat troops requested by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, have been committed, but about 4,000 more trainers and mentors are needed.

Another meeting is planned for the end of this month in which commitments will have to be made. The two-day conference here is the start of the efforts to persuade the partners — many of whom already had planned to reduce the number of their forces in Afghanistan — to deliver more troops.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said today that Gates’ promise of more counter-IED support will help to bolster that commitment from ISAF partners. In fact, Rasmussen said, NATO has outlined its priorities, with fighting the IED threat at the top of the list.

Gates called on NATO to provide more trainers, saying they are “needed immediately,” and that “this is a critical moment in Afghanistan.”

The secretary said that the newly implemented U.S. strategy, alongside fresh NATO and ISAF resources, will pave the way for success in Afghanistan.

“I believe the pieces are being put in place to make real and measurable progress,” Gates said. “I’m confident that we can achieve our objectives, but only if the coalition can muster the resolve for this difficult and dangerous mission.”

Heads_Up FR

By ALAN CULLISON and MATTHEW ROSENBERG–WSJ 

KABUL–President Hamid Karzai is proposing a draft to beef up the ranks of Afghanistan’s army and police so his country can assume control of the fight against the Taliban within five years.

The plan comes amid Western dissatisfaction with both the quality and size of Afghan forces, any many U.S. and European officials think it could take as a long as decade before they’re ready to stand on their own.

Those concerns were illustrated Sunday when Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces arrested the deputy police chief of a central Afghan province over allegations that he was helping insurgents place roadside bombs aimed at coalition troops.

The police official had been under investigation "for some time" for helping to store, distribute and install explosives around Mahmud-Raqi, the capital of Kapisa province, north of Kabul, said Ali Bettencourt, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan.

NATO officials also said the police official was involved in bribery and corruption involving road projects in the province.

Afghan officials said they, too, had suspicions about Col. Attaullah Wahab, and suggested others in the government of Kapisa province — which has seen a surge in Taliban activity in recent months — may be corrupt and possibly in league with insurgents.

"Maybe he was a good colleague for the governor and his staff but in our coalition and in intelligence network’s eyes he was a suspect and that is why he was arrested," said Gen. Abdul Alim Kohistani, a top police official in central Afghanistan.

In Munich Sunday, where defense officials from all over the world were meeting, President Karzai brought up the idea of draft so that within five years Afghan forces would be sufficient to guarantee the country’s security is "no longer a burden on the shoulders of the international community."

Still, he said foreign troops would be needed to help battle hard-core Islamist militants because "war on terrorism … is an issue separate from this security arrangement in Afghanistan."

Mr. Karzai said his government aims to have 300,000 soldiers and police by 2012, a goal roughly in line with Western targets – and that the volunteer system may not attract enough people. Plus, conscription could help integrate Afghanistan’s disparate ethnic groups, he said.

"For the past many years I’ve been visited by Afghan community leaders who are advising me to go back to some form of conscription for the Afghan army so the young boys of the Afghanistan countryside can … come to training centers, get acquainted with the rest of the country, get familiarized with other young men around the country and learn something and go back home," he said.

It wasn’t the first time a draft has been suggested in Afghanistan; lawmakers have in the past raised the prospect. But those earlier calls received only a lukewarm reception from Mr. Karzai’s government.

The top U.S. general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, meanwhile told reporters that the success of a coming offensive in the Taliban-infested south hinges on whether troops and civilian aid workers can quickly get schools, hospitals and public services running.

The planned offensive in Marjah, a town in Helmand provinces, has been widely advertised by NATO forces. Gen. McChrystal said that was intentional and seen as a way to let the people of the area know that NATO and Afghan forces would soon be there to re-establish the government’s control.

"We’re trying to create a situation where we communicate to them that when the government re-establishes security, they’ll have choices,'’ Gen. McChrystal said.

By Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr.

By Daily Mail Reporter

More than 1.3million National Insurance numbers were handed out to foreigners in the two years after Gordon Brown promised to deliver ‘British jobs for British workers’.

The Tories said the figures showed the Prime Minister’s promise to put UK workers at the front of the jobs queue was a sham.

Mr Brown made the commitment shortly before taking office in he summer of 2007. It was repeated during his first party conference speech in September that year.

But figures obtained by the Tories show that between July 2007 and June 2009, 1,370,820 NI numbers were allocated to foreign workers.

This was despite the country slipping into the worst recession since records began - putting hundreds of thousands of Britons out of work.

‘This is yet another example of the chaos within the immigration system,’ said Tory communities spokesman Sayeeda Warsi. ‘These figures show that all the tough talk about protecting British jobs was just hot air.

‘We can’t go on like this. We must bring immigration under control, and improve the education and training of British workers.’

National Insurance numbers can be issued for a number of reasons.

They are needed to work legally in the UK - but are also required to claim benefits. Many of those granted numbers will be foreign students exercising their right to work for up to 20 hours each week.

The Tories say it adds to mounting evidence that Mr Brown has failed to protect the jobs of British workers.

Whitehall statistics show the number of foreign-born workers has risen by 22,000 during the worst recession on record. At the same time, the number of British-born employees slumped by 625,000.

The Government’s Migration Advisory Committee found that while the number of British-born workers slumped to 25,104,000 in the year to June 2009, those born outside the UK increased to 3,730,000.

The committee said there had been signs last year that ‘foreign born employment appeared to be more resilient to the downturn than the UK-born’.

• Homeless east European migrants are being offered free flights back to their home country under the Government’s National Reconnection Service.

By Human Events

HUMAN EVENTS announces its first ever Al Gore Snowman contest.  Our friend Amb. Fred Eckert suggested that we award a prize for the best snowman made to look like the chief poobah of global warming baloney, former Vice President Al Gore.

With Washington digging out of a near-record snowfall, it’s only appropriate to (dis)honor the principal perpetrator of biggest fraud since the UN’s Oil for Food scandal. (That one, after all, only cost about $30 billion.  The global warming “cap and tax” legislation will cost much more.)

Once you’ve dug out, please take your best shot.  Send us a picture of your snowman. The best one will receive $50 and an autographed copy of Jed Babbin’s “In the Words of Our Enemies,” the “Cliff notes of evil.”  Deadline is 9 am Wednesday, 10 February.

Don’t delay. Get out there and commit a gratuitous act of politics.

LA Times 

A Delta Airlines baggage handler from Minneapolis was detained and later released at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday after allegedly running from a security screener and later returning barefoot to retrieve his belongings, authorities said.

The baggage handler, who was not identified, was not arrested in the incident, which began about 2:20 p.m. at a Transportation Security Administration screening station in Terminal 5.

According to law enforcement sources, Los Angeles Airport police officers were told that a man wearing a Delta "crew" badge was going through security when he said he had to use the restroom and suddenly ran away as he was about to be patted down after being randomly selected for a secondary screening.

As his bag, shoes and other personal items were about to be screened, the man allegedly grabbed from his belongings a cylinder wrapped in a plastic bag. He then ran, leaving behind the other items.

TSA officials notified LAX police, who began searching the airport and surrounding area for the man, who had apparently left in a taxi. About an hour later the man, still shoeless, returned to retrieve his personal effects. He no longer had the cylinder, which sources said they believe may have contained drugs.

LAX officers detained, questioned and later released the man. They notified the FBI and Delta Airlines. They will also file a report with the city attorney.

Marshall E. McClain of the airport police said the incident showed the need for an even larger police presence at LAX and other airports across the nation.

Enlarge

Nicholas Kralev and Jennifer Haberkorn–THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Obama administration figures took to Sunday’s political talk shows to rebut charges of White House weakness on Islamist terrorism, with the nation’s top diplomat saying such networks pose the greatest threat to national security.

While one of the White House’s top national security advisers criticized lawmakers for politicizing national security threats, including the Christmas Day attack over Detroit, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said even a nuclear-armed North Korea or Iran isn’t as great a threat to the U.S. as al Qaeda and allied jihad groups.

"The biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction," she said in a Sunday appearance on CNN. "So that’s really the most threatening prospect we see."

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told Congress earlier this month he was "certain" there will be an attempted terrorist attack on the United States within the next six months.

Also on Sunday, Iran threw down another gauntlet against international sanctions on its nuclear development, saying it will start Tuesday to enrich uranium to six times the nuclear purity usually used in civilian nuclear power plants, a step toward producing uranium pure enough to use in a nuclear weapon.

While Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that "obviously, a nuclear-armed country like North Korea or Iran pose both a real or a potential threat," she said the terror threat is greater and, unlike some recent Obama administration figures, specified that threat in terms specific to Islam, though not the Muslim religion itself.

"But I think that most of us believe the greater threats are the transnational non-state networks, primarily the extremists, the fundamentalist Islamic extremists who are connected — al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, al Qaeda in the Maghreb [region of North Africa]," she said.

The Obama administration has drawn considerable criticism from Republicans and conservatives for downplaying the terror threat as if it were a law enforcement or disaster operation. The charge was emphasized most recently by newly elected Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who ridiculed granting foreign terrorists Miranda rights and other protections that civilians have in U.S. criminal courts.

"Quite frankly, I’m tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as a political football," deputy national security adviser John O. Brennan said on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "They’re going out there, they’re unknowing of the facts and they’re making charges and allegations that are not anchored in reality."

Mr. Brennan also denounced as opportunistic the Republican attacks on reading Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit-bound airliner bombing suspect, his rights to an attorney and against self-incrimination — the well-known Miranda warning. He said he briefed four top Hill Republicans on Christmas night on Mr. Abdulmutallab and informed them that he was in FBI custody.

"They knew that in FBI custody that there is a process as far as Mirandizing," he said. "None of those individuals raised any concerns … at that point."

Mr. Brennan said he spoke with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and Republican intelligence committee members Sen. Christopher S. Bond of Missouri and Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan.

Since then, many Republicans have questioned whether Mr. Abdulmutallab would have given U.S. authorities more information had he not had access to an attorney.

In response, Mr. Hoekstra repeated his criticism of the administration’s handling of recent security threats.

"Can anyone take seriously the White House’s assertion that it consulted with Republicans when President Obama didn’t even consult his own director of national intelligence, FBI director or homeland security director concerning Abdulmutallab?" he said in a statement. "The mishandling of this case is the Obama administration’s failure and they have no one to blame but themselves."

Mr. Brennan said politicians are merely second-guessing counterterrorism officials with a "500-mile screwdriver" from Washington.

He said Mr. Abdulmutallab was treated just like other terrorism suspects arrested in the United States — under guidelines established in December 2008 by the George W. Bush administration. After the Christmas Day attempted airliner attack, Mr. Obama asked that those guidelines be re-examined.

But on Sunday, Iran had a new challenge for the West, announcing that will begin enriching uranium to a 20 percent "strength" of uranium-235. Uranium found in nature is less than 1 percent of the uranium-235 isotope, the compound suitable for use in a nuclear device. Uranium fuel for commercial nuclear plants is usually "enriched" to 3 or 4 percent uranium-235; weapons-grade uranium is about 90 percent uranium-235.

The development Tuesday confused — but did not surprise — Western officials, coming just days after Tehran appeared to be more accepting of an international plan to send its uranium for enrichment abroad.

After being directed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Tehran will inform the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday that "the higher enrichment will begin at the Natanz plant."

Western officials immediately condemned Iran’s plans, with Britain saying such a move would violate Security Council resolutions.

"If the international community will stand together and bring pressure on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work. But we must all work together," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a visit to Rome.

In October, the IAEA proposed that Iran’s low-enriched uranium be sent abroad for further enrichment, so it can be used to make medical isotopes — the only reason Tehran insists it needs it.

Mr. Ahmadinejad demanded instead that Iran’s low-enriched uranium be exchanged for 20 percent fuel simultaneously on Iranian soil, which the West rejected. Last week, however, he suggested for the first time that he might be willing to accept the original proposal.

Rep. Howard L. Berman, California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Iran’s Sunday decision underlines the need for new U.N. sanctions.

"With this move, Iran is only escalating the situation over its nuclear activities into a crisis," Mr. Berman said. "It should be abundantly clear to all that Tehran is not interested in a diplomatic resolution on anything other than its own terms, which will inevitably lead to a nuclear weapons capability. This is another reason for the U.N. Security Council to act swiftly so that strong sanctions can be placed on Tehran."

Mrs. Clinton defended the administration’s repeated offers to engage with Iran over its nuclear program despite their futility, saying its overtures helped persuade other countries that all options short of more sanctions have been exhausted.

"When we started last year talking about the threats that Iran’s nuclear program posed, Russia and other countries said, ‘Well, we don’t see it that way,’" she said.

Although Russia has moved closer to the West’s position, China remains vocally opposed to new sanctions. The U.N. Security Council adopted three rounds of sanctions during the past two years of the Bush administration.

By Michael Barone

Growing up in Michigan in the heyday of the United Auto Workers, I long assumed that labor unions were part of the natural order of things.

That’s no longer clear. Last month, the Labor Department reported that private-sector unions lost 834,000 members last year and now represent only 7.2 percent of private-sector employees. That’s down from the all-time peak of 36 percent in 1953-54.

But union membership is still growing in the public sector. Last year, 37.4 percent of public sector employees were union members. That percentage was down near zero in the 1950s. For the first time in history, a majority of union members are government employees.

In my view, the outlook for both private- and public-sector unionism is problematic.

Private-sector unionism is adversarial. Economic studies show that such unions do extract premium wages and benefits from employers. But that puts employers at a competitive disadvantage. Back in the 1950s, the Big Three auto companies dominated the industry and were at the top of the Fortune 500. Last year, General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt and are now owned by the government and the UAW. Ford only barely escaped.

Adversarial unionism tends to produce rigid work rules that retard adaptation and innovation. We have had a three-decade experiment pitting UAW work rules against the flexible management of Japanese- and European-owned non-union auto firms.

The results are in. Yes, clueless management at the Detroit firms for years ignored problems with product quality and made bonehead investment mistakes. But adversarial unionism made it much, much harder for Detroit to produce high-quality vehicles than it was for non-unionized companies.

As economist Barry Hirsch points out, non-union manufacturing employment rose from 12 million to 14 million between 1973 and 2006. In those years, union manufacturing employment dropped from 8 million to 2 million. "Unionism," Hirsch writes, "is a poor fit in a dynamic, competitive economy."

Moreover, federal laws passed since the 1950s now protect workers from racial and sex discrimination, safety hazards and pension failure. They don’t need unions to do this any more.

Public-sector unionism is a very different animal from private-sector unionism. It is not adversarial but collusive. Public-sector unions strive to elect their management, which in turn can extract money from taxpayers to increase wages and benefits — and can promise pensions that future taxpayers will have to fund.

The results are plain to see. States like New York, New Jersey and California, where public-sector unions are strong, now face enormous budget deficits and pension liabilities. In such states, the public sector has become a parasite sucking the life out of the private-sector economy. Not surprisingly, Americans have been steadily migrating out of such states and into states like Texas, where public-sector unions are weak and taxes are much lower.

Barack Obama is probably the most union-friendly president since Lyndon Johnson. He has obviously been unable to stop the decline of private-sector unionism. But he is doing his best to increase the power — and dues income — of public-sector unions.

One-third of last year’s $787 billion stimulus package was aid to state and local governments — an obvious attempt to bolster public-sector unions. And it was a successful one: While the private sector has lost 7 million jobs, the number of public-sector jobs has risen. The number of federal government jobs has been increasing by 10,000 a month, and the percentage of federal employees earning over $100,000 has jumped to 19 percent during the recession.

Obama and his party are acting in collusion with unions that contributed something like $400,000,000 to Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle. Public-sector unionism tends to be a self-perpetuating machine that extracts money from taxpayers and then puts it on a conveyor belt to the Democratic Party.

But it may not turn out to be a perpetual-motion machine. Public-sector employees are still heavily outnumbered by those who depend on the private sector for their livelihoods. The next Congress may not be as willing as this one has been to bail out state governments dominated by public-sector unions. Voters may bridle at the higher taxes needed to pay for $100,000-plus pensions for public employees who retire in their 50s. Or they may move, as so many have already done, to states like Texas.

Obama’s Democrats have used the financial crisis to expand the public sector and the public-sector unions. But voters seem to be saying, "Enough."

PHOTOS 

Yahoo News

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – An explosion that sounded like a sonic boom blew out walls of an unfinished power plant and set off a fire during a test of natural gas lines Sunday, killing at least five workers and injuring a dozen or more.

The explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, about 20 miles south of Hartford, could be heard and felt for miles.

Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano told The Associated Press on Sunday night that no one was known to be missing amid the rubble from the damaged plant. Still, crews planned to spend all night going through debris in case there were any more victims. The cause of the gas explosion was unknown, and the investigation was to begin Monday morning, he said.

The explosion left huge pieces of metal that once encased the plant peeling off its sides. A large swath of the structure was blackened and surrounded by debris, but the building, its roof and its two smokestacks were still standing. Rescue crews had set up several tents alongside the site, which is a few miles from Wesleyan University on a wooded and hilly 137-acre parcel of land overlooking the Connecticut River.

The explosion happened around 11:15 a.m., Santostefano said. Mayor Sebastian Giuliano heard the blast while leaving church.

"It felt almost like a sonic boom," Giuliano said at an evening news conference.

Santostefano said 50 to 60 people were in the area at the time of the explosion, and multiple contractors were working on the project, making it difficult to quickly account for everyone.

One of those killed was Raymond Dobratz, a 58-year-old plumber from Old Saybrook, said his son, Erik Dobratz, who called the elder man "a great dad."

The 620-megawatt plant, which was almost complete, is being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas. Santostefano said workers for the construction company, O&G Industries, were purging the gas line when the explosion occurred.

Lynn Hawley, of Hartland, Conn., told The Associated Press that her son, Brian Hawley, 36, is a pipefitter at the plant. He called her from his cell phone to say he was being rushed to Middlesex Hospital.

"He really couldn’t say what happened to him," she said. "He was in a lot of pain, and they got him into surgery as quickly as possible."

She said he had a broken leg and was expected to survive.

Officials had not released the conditions of the other injured people by Sunday evening, although they said at least a dozen people had injuries ranging from minor to very serious.

The thundering blast shook houses for miles.

"I felt the house shake. I thought a tree fell on the house," Middletown resident Steve Clark said.

Barrett Robbins-Pianka, who lives about a mile away and has monitored the project for years, said she was running outside and heard what she called "a tremendous boom."

"I thought it might be some test or something, but it was really loud, a definite explosion," she said.

Work on the plant was 95 percent complete, the mayor said.

Kleen Energy Systems LLC began construction on it in February 2008. It had signed a capacity deal with Connecticut Light and Power for the electricity produced by the plant, which was scheduled to be completed by mid-2010.

The company is run by former Middletown City Councilman William Corvo. A message left at Corvo’s home was not returned Sunday. Calls to Gordon Holk, general manager of Power Plant Management Services, which has a contract to manage the plant, also weren’t returned.

Energy Investors Funds, a private equity fund that indirectly owns a majority share in the power plant, said it is fully cooperating with authorities investigating the explosion. In a written statement, the company offered sympathy and concern and said it would release more information on the explosion as it becomes available.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell visited the scene Sunday and announced late in the day that the state had imposed a temporary no-fly zone for a three-mile radius around the site to ensure that the safety of the search and rescue workers would not be jeopardized. The restrictions were put in place until Monday evening.

The state’s Emergency Operations Center in Hartford also was activated, and the Department of Public Health was called to provide tents at the scene for shelter and medical triage.

Daniel Horowitz, a spokesman with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, said the agency is mobilizing an investigation team from Colorado and hopes to have the workers on the scene Monday.

Plants powered by natural gas are taking on a much larger role in generating electricity for the U.S. Gas emits about half the greenhouse gases of coal-fired plants and new technology has allowed natural gas companies to begin to unlock gas supplies that could total more than 100 years at current usage levels.

Natural gas is used to make about a fifth of the nation’s electricity.

Safety board investigators have done extensive work on the issue of gas line purging since an explosion last year at a Slim Jim factory in North Carolina killed four people. They’ve identified other explosions caused by workers who were unsafely venting gas lines inside buildings.

The board voted last week to recommend that national and international code writers strengthen their guidelines to require outdoor venting of gas lines or an approved safety plan to do it indoors.

In February 2009, an explosion at a We Energies coal-fired power plant near Milwaukee burned six workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still investigating.

In November 2007, an explosion at a Dominion Virginia Power coal-fired plant in Massachusetts killed three workers, and in January 2007 one worker and nine others were injured at an American Electric Power plant of the same type in Beverly, Ohio.

By Daniel Martin

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth warned the public to be braced for casualties last night as troops prepared to launch the biggest offensive in the eight-year Afghanistan war.

A strike force of 15,000 British, U.S. and Afghan troops will mount airborne raids in the most dangerous areas of central Helmand province.

Some 4,000 UK troops will be involved in Operation Moshtarak  -  which means ‘together’ in the local Dari language.

It aims to reassure ordinary Afghans by driving the Taliban out of their strongholds and destroying their bomb factories.

Afghan families flee their homes today ahead of the largest offensive in the eight-year Afghanistan war

Mr Ainsworth said: ‘We shouldn’t deny or pretend to people that casualties are not a very real risk on these kind of operations and people have to be prepared for that.

‘This is not a safe environment and it doesn’t matter how much kit and equipment we provide for them, we cannot entirely make these operations risk-free.’

The Defence Secretary also revealed that British forces were engaged in direct talks with some Taliban fighters.

He said: ‘There’s no need for us to wait until some end point before we start talking to those elements of the Taliban who don’t share all of the ideological aims of some of their leaders. Those talks have already been going on for some time.’

Some 4,000 UK troops will take part in bloody fighting this week alongside the biggest air assault since the first Gulf War of 1991 is launched

His casualty warning was echoed by General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff, who said: ‘There are inevitably risks but the gains are considerable.

‘Offensive operations like Moshtarak are a key part of any counter-insurgency campaign.’

Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded forces in Afghanistan in 2006, warned: ‘There will be heavy fighting.

‘The Taliban know the area very well and will have prepared escape routes through tunnels, alleyways or buildings. They will fire on our troops and then run.

U.S. soldiers on top of their armoured vehicles load their 50-calibre machine guns as they train in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, today

‘There will be a lot of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), a lot of snipers and a lot of hit and run. We will probably have to brace ourselves for a large number of casualties.’

He said the Taliban were already using children to lay IEDs and throw grenades.

The scale of the offensive, whose start date is being kept secret, will dwarf Operation Panther’s Claw, in which ten British soldiers died last summer.

British commanders are worried that troops being flown to the battlefield by helicopter could come under heavy fire from Taliban fighters.

One senior officer said: ‘Our real concern is that we could lose one or more Chinooks filled with soldiers  -  that would come close to being catastrophic.

Preparation: British and Afghan soldiers practice their operation drills at Military Operating Base Shorabak in Helmand today

‘The British public needs to steel itself for these casualties. We need the people in the UK to show a great deal of resilience. This is about delivering what could amount to a decisive blow to the Taliban in Helmand province.’

One of the soldiers preparing for the attacks, Lance Corporal Nick Richards, 22, from Llanelli, said: ‘People are saying that this is the biggest assault of this kind since Vietnam, so everyone wants to be a part of it.

‘We are proud to be part of the big picture of change in Afghanistan. It’s definitely going to have a big impact on Helmand in getting rid of the Taliban and bringing stability to the area. The locals are under a lot of stress and we will try and help them out to relieve that pressure.’

The offensive comes a month before the start of the usual ‘fighting season’ in Afghanistan and is expected to continue throughout the summer.

Gen McChrystal, right, today spoke alongside NATO’s new civilian chief, former British Ambassador Mark Sedwill, 2nd right, who started his new job with a briefing at NATO headquarters in Kabul

British military spokesman Major General Gordon Messenger-said there had been a ‘conscious decision’ to reveal it in advance, despite losing the element of surprise.

He said: ‘The purpose is to give the Taliban a choice  -  either to put down their weapons and become part of legitimate society or to fight.

‘If they choose to fight, they will be subjected to overwhelming force and will be defeated.’

But villagers fleeing the target areas said the Taliban were ignoring the coalition warning.

‘They are bringing in people and weapons and planting mines,’ said one man. ‘We know there is going to be a big fight.’

• Taliban fighters are stealing ammonium nitrate fertiliser sent by aid organisations to help farmers and using it for roadside bombs, it was revealed yesterday. The aim is to foil coalition metal detectors.

Judi McLeod

The same president who speaks to you through a TelePrompter is well on his way to propagandizing the population through a free App on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

One week before President Barack Obama’s defiant State of the Union Address, the White House announced the new White House App available for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.  “The White House App delivers dynamic content from WhiteHouse.gov to the palm of your hand. (Dave Cole, White House blog, Jan. 19, 2010).

President In The Palm of Your Hand technology

The main event of President In The Palm of Your Hand technology is live video streaming.  Anyone with the App can watch the President’s public events at the White House; take part in frequent web chats with “Administration officials”, and get in on other events like key speeches and press briefings in real time.

Who needs tacky T-shirts or running shoes with Obama’s pictures when you can have the real thing right on your mobile phone?

For Obama and his gang of czars, fingertip propaganda has become the 21st century equivalent of the bicycle boast: “Look, Ma, no hands!”

Tuning in on da Prez through their phones is something the poor, for whom he claims Patron Saint status, will likely never be able to do.  The White House’s latest technology bells and whistles was launched at a time when Americans are hurting through loss of jobs and homes.

It costs roughly $150 a month to keep an iPhone in your possession, and that kind of money is needed by many Americans to help keep their school age kids toting peanut butter sandwiches in their lunch boxes and in warm winter boots.

Thirty-one percent of iPhone users are 35-49 years old, while only 12 percent of iPod touch users fall in this age segment, according to market statistics conducted by comScore and AdMob. 

More than 70 percent of users on both the iPhone and iPod touch are male.

In line with the older demographic composition of iPhone users, they also have higher incomes.  78% of iPhone users have an annual income of at least $25,000, compared to only 66 percent of iPod touch users.  Forty-six percent of iPhone users have children, compared to only 28 percent of iPod touch users.

Useful idiots in the mainstream media have been eclipsed by the White House App

Useful idiots in the mainstream media have been eclipsed by the White House App.  Research shows that 5 in 10 consumers on both iPhone and iPod touch devices use the mobile Web more frequently than they read printed newspapers.  More than 40 percent reported using the Internet on their mobile device more often than using the Internet from their computers or listening to the radio.

Warning: Checking out WhiteHouse.gov gives the government your email address and physical location through your mobile phone’s GPS device.

Transparency is the alibi for the White House App that delivers Obama to the palm of your hand.

The White House App also lets users stay up to date with the White House Blog and the latest from the Briefing Room.  Users can “browse” behind-the-scenes photos and watch on-demand videos.  The app provides instant access to full videos from recent speeches, press briefings, and special events.

There are no riders to App users explaining how they are seeing what WhiteHouse.gov wants them to see.

Obama’s takeover over the iPhone and iPod through the free App should come as no surprise to the unwashed masses.

Only nine days after his Jan. 20, 2009 inauguration, he met with the chief executives from the technology sector as part of his efforts to get his so-called “stimulus” bill rolling.

Tech company leaders present at the meeting included IBM’s Sam Palmisano, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Applied Materials’ Mike Splinter, Motorola’s Greg Brown, and Micron’s Steve Appleton.

Obama described it as a “sober” meeting,  boasting that the economic package would move its way through Congress creating more jobs and laying a foundation for long-term growth.

“It will invest in broadband and emerging technologies, like the ones imagined and introduced to the world by people like….so many of the CEOs here today,” he said, “because that’s how America will retain and regain its competitive edge in the 21st Century.”

Getting a leg up on emergency technologies for the Obama administration came one year later.

And it came with the irony that the “President in Your Palm” is the same one who sealed off all his personal records from public view.