Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts.Any wacko liberals / Democrats who try to impeach President Bush on this will have their heads handed to them.
An eight-story building collapsed here yesterday, killing at least 20 people in the latest tragedy to mar the annual gathering of millions of Muslims in Islam's holiest city.Part 1: Is there any dancing in the street of Tel Aviv or any city in Israel? What about New York or Washington or London or Madrid or Bali?The Interior Ministry said 59 people were injured, but nobody would say — or knew — how many more were trapped in the rubble of Lulu'at al-Khair, which housed shops and restaurants and was rented out as a hostel during pilgrimages.
Talha al-Nizi, a Tunisian guide for pilgrims, said his group had just finished midday prayers and returned at about 1:10 p.m. to their hotel, adjacent to Lulu'at al-Khair, just 200 feet from the Grand Mosque, a focal point of the hajj pilgrimage.
"As I moved to step into my hotel, the whole building collapsed in front of my eyes. The whole street was full of dust," said al-Nizi.
About 1,000 rescue workers, medics and police scrambled over and around the collapsed building.
"Fortunately, the building was almost empty when it collapsed, because most of the residents were in the holy shrine at that time," said civil-defense Maj. Gen. Alwani, who did not provide his first name.
The hajj has been hit with tragedies frequently in recent years. The worst occurred in 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.
Sharon's genius was to seize upon and begin implementing a third way. With a negotiated peace illusory and a Greater Israel untenable, he argued that the only way to security was a unilateral redrawing of Israel's boundaries by building a fence around a new Israel and withdrawing Israeli soldiers and settlers from the other side. The other side would become independent Palestine.
Accordingly, Sharon withdrew Israel entirely from Gaza. On the other front, the West Bank, the separation fence now under construction will give the new Palestine about 93 percent of the West Bank. Israel's 7 percent share will encompass a sizable majority of Israelis who live on the West Bank. The rest, everyone understands, will have to evacuate back to Israel.
The success of this fence-plus-unilateral-withdrawal strategy is easily seen in the collapse of the intifada. Palestinian terror attacks are down 90 percent. Israel's economy has revived. In 2005 it grew at the fastest rate in the entire West. Tourists are back and the country has regained its confidence. The Sharon idea of a smaller but secure and demographically Jewish Israel garnered broad public support, marginalized the old parties of the left and right, and was on the verge of electoral success that would establish a new political center to carry on this strategy.
I essentially agree. One can not allow one's enemies to define your nation state. The Israelis I know -- a determined lot they are -- understand that both surrender and infinite war are bad options. The result -- a fence and a pullout -- is really the best bet. There may very well be chaos on the other side of the fence, but once that fence is completed, it's somebody elses responsibility.
It is Democrats like Sen. Barbara Boxer who are leading the charge to have Bush impeached for spying on people with Osama's cell phone number.The always amusing Ann Coulter, on liberal Democrat's strategy to exploit the revelations that the NSA spied on terrorists, both within and without the US.
"The plain fact is that rap is "the most overtly and consistently misogynistic music ever produced in human history."John McWhorter, quoted in the Wall Street Journal.
The Reverend Pat Robertson says Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke could be God's punishment for giving up Israeli territory.Please, enough. If the Rev. Pat gets hit by car, can we call it God's will? I have already stated what I think did Ariel Sharon in: too much food and not enough exercise. Let's put it another way: sloth and gluttony.
The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network told viewers of "The 700 Club" that Sharon was "dividing God's land," even though the Bible says doing so invites "God's enmity."
Robertson added, "I would say woe to any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course."
He noted that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
Robertson said God's message is, "This land belongs to me. You'd better leave it alone."
PARIS -- A gang of more than 20 youths -- thought to be North African immigrants -- terrorized hundreds of train passengers in a rampage of violence, robbery and sexual assault on New Year's Day, French officials said yesterday.This sort or criminal activity has nothing to do with the "lack of opportunities" or "latent racism" the apologists from last fall's insurection claimed was the "root cause" of the anarchy. No, these people are thugs and simply need to be put in prison for a long time. The last paragraph though, reflects the attitudes of local law enforcement / government and indicates to me that they are not about to get serious in addressing this problem:
The five-hour-long criminal frenzy was "totally unacceptable," French President Jacques Chirac told reporters. "Those guilty will be found and punished, as they deserve."
The gang of between 20 and 30 youths boarded the train, heading from Nice on the French Riviera to Lyon, in eastern France, early on Jan. 1, as it carried 600 passengers home from New Year's Eve partying overnight.
Once inside, they went wild, forcing passengers to hand over mobile phones and wallets, and slashing seats and breaking windows.
Three others -- a man and two boys -- were arrested briefly in Marseille but were released despite reports they were carrying a knife, a screwdriver and a small amount of hashish.In Rudy Guiliani's (R-America) New York, people with illegal weapons and / or drugs got sent to the slammer because they were often wanted for other, more serious crimes.
The Left -- from The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter -- has pulled out the impeachment card and is brandishing it as the weapon that will drive George W. Bush from the White House. This could be more than talk. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is consulting with legal eagles as she explores the idea.I must say, I am tickled at their efforts. I supported impeaching the perjury-prone President Clinton, but preferred censure to removing him from office. I also saw the damage to Republicans who pushed to chase Clinton out of office.
But the Bush-haters won't heed history, not when they see an opportunity to relive the glory days of Watergate: Republicans evil; Democrats uncorrupted; reporters respected. As Alter wrote after the story broke that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international calls in efforts to uncover possible agents of al Qaida, "Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974."
Angry leftists are so hysterical that they cannot distinguish between government agents eavesdropping on a president's political enemies, and the data mining of international phone calls in an earnest effort to thwart another Sept. 11 terrorist attack. They don't see that Bush, rather then trying to hide his role in the effort, signed off on the program more than 30 times.
What I find interesting is that technology can protect average citizens from death or injury from the hand of al Qaida with a minimum of disturbance. Looking back only 65 years, the Federal Government under Franklin Roosevelt interned (meaning locked up behind barbed wire and guarded with guns) all the Japanese Americans in California and surrounding areas. At the time, nobody even questioned it -- certainly not the Democratic Party. Now, because of a blind hatred of George Bush and a desire to remove him from office by whatever means necessary, the Democratic Party is willing to endanger the lives of Americans -- who overwhelmingly support the idea of having the NSA warrantlessly eavesdropping on bad guys.
The ``yield curve'' of interest rates ``inverts.'' An inversion means that short-term interest rates (say, on three-month Treasury bills) exceed longer-term interest rates (say, on 10-year Treasury bonds). Usually, short-term rates are lower, because the risk of lending for lengthier periods is greater. Since 1965 interest-rate inversions have occurred seven times -- and recessions have followed in five, notes Bill Dudley of Goldman Sachs. The reason: an inversion signals tight money. In 2006 Dudley expects another inversion, as the Fed raises short rates. But he thinks we'll escape a recession, because the overall level of rates will remain low.I think this is correct and look for growth in 3-4% range, barring unforeseen occurances.
