I'm still skeptical about the outcome of all this--no, not Juan Cole tin-foil skeptical, just cautious in my optimism--- but it seems like a step in the right direction. 79 parties, including a top Sunni Muslim party, have registered to run candidates in the upcoming Iraqi elections.

Posted by: Rusty at 10:58 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Getting warmer.....The details are sparse, but from the various press reports I pieced together it seems that Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zaydi was involved in coordinating the Islamist efforts of Abu Mussab Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq with former Saddam loyalists and Baath party members who are pan-Arabists but secular. The announcement came in the middle of a press conference by Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi where he also announced that the trials of former regime members will begin next week. The Courier:

He added that an alleged senior figure among the foreign-inspired Islamists who are believed to be making common cause in an anti-American insurgency with secular former Saddam loyalists had also been caught.

"In addition to the members of the former regime, there are terrorist elements that came from abroad," Mr Allawi said.

"A person called Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zaydi was killed. He is one of Zarqawi's people. Two of his aides were detained.

"Of course he was killed in a confrontation. These were involved in major acts of destruction."

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Oh, those human rights abuses. But what about Abu Ghraib?!?! Via Jeff Quinton this news from Reuters:

Laborers digging on a construction site in northern Iraq uncovered human skulls and bones on Tuesday, which interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said were part of a mass grave believed to contain some 500 bodies. Allawi told Iraq's National Council in Baghdad that the grave was found near the city of Sulaimaniya in the autonomous Kurdish region in the northeast of the country, where Saddam Hussein's forces carried out atrocities in the late 1980s. "Today a mass grave was discovered in the city of Sulaimaniya, with the initial number of 500 martyrs," he said.

Above: A sculpture of Nawzad Girashae a Kurdish artist in the room where he was tortured. The Red Security Building, Sulaimaniya. The rest of Maureen McLuckie's photo album of her trip to Kurdistan can be found here.

Others: J. Quinton, J. Joyner, Command Post, In the Bullpen

Posted by: Rusty at 10:36 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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But her memory will live on.....

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Yes, I went to USC. Yes, I'm happy Matt Leinart got the Heisman. Yes, Matt Leinart has a blog. Thanks Cal Tech girl. 42. That is all.

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Left out of all the articles on the winner of the Romanian Presidential election, Traian Basescu, is the fact that he is supportive of the US Iraq policy. Even more telling is that both of the candidates in the election support our efforts in Iraq. New Europe pulls through again! Telegraph:

The pro-western mayor of Bucharest caused a serious upset in the Romanian presidential election yesterday, defeating the country's former communist prime minister.

Known as "The European", reform-minded Traian Basescu surged past Adrian Nastase as the votes from Sunday's poll were counted.

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I'm sorry, did my use of the word retarded offend you? The retard was also a whore. Yes, a retarded whore. You think that's offensive? How about a religion that sentences retarded whores to death? Now that's offensive. Amnesty International:

A 19-year old girl, “Leyla M”, who has a mental age of eight, reportedly faces imminent execution for “morality-related” offences after being forced into prostitution by her mother as a child. According to a Tehran newspaper report of 28 November, she was sentenced to death by a court in the central Iranian city of Arak and the sentence has now been passed to the Supreme Court for confirmation.

Leyla M was reportedly sentenced to death on charges of “acts contrary to chastity” by controlling a brothel, having intercourse with blood relatives and giving birth to an illegitimate child. She is to be flogged before she is executed. She had apparently “confessed” to the charges. Earlier reports stated that there would be an appeal, and the 28 November report indicates that this process is now at an end.

Social workers have reportedly tested her mental capacities repeatedly and each time have found Leyla to have a mental age of eight. However, she has apparently never been examined by the court-appointed doctors, and was sentenced to death solely on the basis of her explicit confessions, without consideration of her background or mental health.

Leyla was forced into prostitution by her mother when she was eight years old, according to the 28 November report, and was raped repeatedly thereafter. She gave birth to her first child when she was nine, and was sentenced to 100 lashes for prostitution at around the same time. At the age of 12, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his “temporary wife”. His mother became her new pimp, “selling her body without her consent”

Paranthetically Digger ran a poll on "Should Prostitution Be Legalized?" last week. I'm guessing that even the %14.9 percent of right-wing hate-monger Christians who answered "No, It's Immoral" wouldn't favor the death penalty for purveyors of the world's oldest occupation. Just a hunch.

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Expatica. The Zarkawi it talks about is Abu Mussab Zarqawi. Could this have something to do with the chemical weapons lab found in Fallujah?

Iraq-based al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Mussab al- Zarkawi is planning a terror strike of greater magnitude than the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, according to a German newspaper report published on Monday.

The daily Tagesspiegel in Berlin quotes a follower of al-Zarkawi as saying the Jordanian radical, who is believed to be behind many of the kidnappings and attacks in Iraq, had told him there would be "a really big event" soon.

According to the follower, named as Fathala F., al-Zarkawi had told him the attack would be bigger than the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Tagesspiegel said it interviewed Fathala F., who is being held by US forces in Iraq, during a six-hour meeting last Thursday.

Fathala F., a Kurdish member of the Iraqi terror group Ansar al- Sunna, said he had met al-Zarkawi in Falluja before US forces moved into the rebel stronghold last month.

The report said Fathala F. has been offered a special witness deal by US authorities in return for information. It said security authorities believe his account of the meeting with al- Zarkawi to be genuine.

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What does a guy gotta do to get a fatwa issued against him around here? I'm calling you out. You got served. Now issue a fatwa against me or forever be known as my bitch you religion of cowards!

Via LGF this Middle East Times article:

One recent fatwa forbade the practice of yoga on the grounds that it is an ascetic Hindu practice.

Another declared that Muslims should not use the internet because it makes them waste their time.

Most recently, a fatwa announced that ironing women's pants was forbidden as women are not allowed to wear pants in Islam.

"Flooding people's minds with fatwas," is how veteran writer and columnist Salama Ahmad Salama described the current situation. "The problem in not with Islam... this phenomenon encourages people not to use their minds when dealing with the simplest issues," wrote Salama in the daily Al Ahram last month.

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"How do you start a winning blog?" asked the WaPo yesterday. Forget what Bill at INDC says. Jeff G. comes closer, but misses the mark. The key to blogging is this: nipples.

Someone with a blog named Witty Sex Kitten dropped a comment today. What better way to attract attention in the sea of unread blogs than to put the phrase sex kitten in your title? Oh, but make sure that if you do sex kitten schtick you pose as a girl. This is crucial.

Seriously, there's good Witty Sex Kitten Schtick and there's bad Witty Sex Kitten schtick. What's the difference??

Start with the avatar. An avatar is a kind of visual image used to embody a person's online persona. For instance Moxie's boots, Beth's girl at the computer, or Little Miss Atilla's demure hottie.

Good Witty Sex Kitten avatar:

Bad Witty Sex Kitten avatar:

Next if you're going to do schtick like this make sure you post an online picture of yourself. Take a lesson from HAC Amanda Doerty--post a picture of a hot chick and pretend that it's you! Cause there is something trite and boring about another dude discussing the metaphysical assumptions behind affirmative action, but there's something intriguing and interesting about a hot young thang discussing the ontology of gay marriage.

Good Witty Sex Kitten fake pic:

Bad Witty Sex Kitten fake pic:

Last, make sure you know that there may be a big disconnect between the reasons you're blogging and the reasons your readers come back regularly. For instance, Amanda Doerty blogs because 'she' thinks 'she' has something important to say about politics and philosophy. However 'she' is well aware that 'her' consumers come to her blog to flirt with 'her', hence 'her' pic is on every page. Wonkette thinks she is witty, but her consumers read her stuff just waiting for the next anal sex reference. It's kind of like Howard Stern for the crowd living in their mother's basement. Moral of the story: make sure that either your fake pic is plastered on every page or you throw in plenty of reference to back door action. What you write is only tangential to the fantasy you project to your readers.

You know, I think I've learned something here today.......From this day, henceforth and forever, we shall be known as the Hot Lesbo Star Wars Report!! and I shall be known as Princess Brittney Spears. Here is my pic. I'm on the left. Toodles.

Posted by: Rusty at 06:29 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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Funny, in the movies the guys who are 'resourceful' in the procurement process never seem to get caught--or if they do they get a wink and nod for being the loveable scamp. In real life it gets you time. I heard the same story on NPR today. Pictured right-Tony Curtis plays a submarine supply officer forced to take 'creative license' in procuring needed supplies in Blake Edward's 1959 classic Operation Pettycoat.

I have a feeling there is a whole lot of stuff being left out of this story. It doesn't pass the smell test. From the very first sentence the story is set in the context of the 'armor problem' in Iraq, even though this story has nothing to do with lack of armor. Via James Joyner this CBS New York article:

At a time when some U.S. troops in Iraq are complaining they have to scrounge for equipment, six Ohio-based reservists were court-martialed for taking Army vehicles abandoned in Kuwait by other units so they could carry out their own unit's mission to Iraq...

The reservists took two tractor-trailers and stripped parts from a five-ton truck that had been abandoned in Kuwait by other units that had already moved into Iraq, one of the reservists, Darrell Birt of Columbus, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Birt, a former chief warrant officer, and the others were charged with theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up their crimes. Birt said he and two others pleaded guilty and the other three were convicted. All received six-month sentences.

``Nobody ever reported these trucks stolen. The deal was, when you are moving, if it was going to take more than 30 minutes to fix it, you left it,'' said Birt, who was released in November. ``I'm a Christian man and I can't ignore what we did, but it was justified to get us in the fight and to sustain the fight.''

Posted by: Rusty at 05:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ever wonder what a professor thinks during a final? Here's your chance to find out!! I will be live-blogging the final I will be giving at 10:30 a.m. (Central) right here. Good times all-around!! Other than that, blogging will be light.

Scroll past the pic for updates.

10:45 Just gave out finals. Since I'm heading out of town I decided to go with an all multiple choice exam. I know it's kind of a cop out, but there's just no way I can grade that many tests before my plane takes off. At least it's comprehensive.

10:50 What really surprises me about this class is how many students show up for the final who never--NEVER--come to class. What are they thinking? This is the first time I've taught this particular class. There's no Frat/Soror test bank they can cheat from. I just finished making the exam an hour ago. Sent to the photocopier half an hour ago. No way to cheat.

10:52 15 minutes into the test and one person done already???? Was it that easy??? It was 55 questions long!!!

10:55 Scantron test vs. essay. Multiple choice tests suck to write. Can I hear a shout-out about that y'all?!? Seriously, they suck. For each question you have to come up with four answers, and a good multiple choice exam So the major disadvantage to them is they require a lot of prep time. The advantage is that they take next to no time to grade.

Essays take almost no time to write but FOREVER to grade. The major pitfall in an essay test is that if you're pressed for time you stop actually reading the things and start scanning for key words.

10:58 Screams of exhaltation in the halls. Poked my head out. Not one of my students. Good. The screams seem to be from a student who just aced a final in another class. Why do they feel they need to share their joy with every one on the floor?

11:00 50% of students done now. I sense that I made a huge error in judgement on the difficulty level of this test. Way too easy. It was designed to be a one hour test.

11:02 I hate it when students wear hats on a test day. Way too easy to conceal answers on the inside of the cap's bill.

11:03 Here's a bonus point question for your amusement. This is an actual question. Can you guess the answer?

#54--How much does freedom cost?
a) $1.05
b) $10.95
c) $1,115.95
d) $1,095,05.05

11:05 Another bonus question
#51--Patty and Selma Bouviere worke at what government bureaucracy?
a) the Springfield lottery commission
b) the Springfield DMV
c) the Springfield Motor Speedway
d) the Springfiel Isotopes' front office

11:10 All students done. Are you freaking kidding me?? WAY TOO EASY. Man, I have really misunderestimated the difficulty of the test.

Two general reactions from students.

The Bullshitters. This group moaned when they heard that there would be no essay portion of the test. I usually include one or two essays for all my tests. This group knows how to BS so well that they always do especially well on essays. Their use of the English language is usually spot on and they usually write well. The two strongest reactions came from the two students preparing for law-school. Oddly enough, one of them is a cheerleader. You don't often find a cheerleader heading for law school. The other one is on the debate team. No shock there.

The Slackers. This group let out whoops of elation on hearing the news. The way they figure it, they've got a 1 in 4 chance of guessing the answer right. This includes most of our Criminal Justice majors and the odd person out of the Education department. Are CJ majors this bad at all schools?? The thing is that the CJ profs here seem pretty tough and both have rigorous academic training and publication records. But how come all the dull students seem to congegate toward that major??

Last note. One of my top students asked if it would be alright to not turn in a term paper. The paper alone is worth 20% of the grade. He says he just doesn't care about the grade in the class and he had too much other work to do. Of course I told him it was his grade and I would sleep fine at night with him getting a C. But I must admit that this bothers me some. He's the guy that set the curve--literally. On the one hand I know that other priorities must sometimes come before school, but on the other hand it shows that this class means little to him. That my lectures meant little to him. That I mean little too him.

So, if you ever sluff off doing a paper or taking a test do us all a favor--come up with a lame excuse. Our egos are tied to these things. We do take it personally. Look, no one I know got into this racquet for the money. We do it for a number of reasons, but at some level I think all of us enjoy seeing students learn. If you don't value what we're doing keep it to yourself. It may be less than honest, but at least you'll be making me feel better.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:51 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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Because I got to do something before the office party tonight! Seriously, tonight is the office Christmas shin-dig. In the spirit of Office Space, here is the fourth verse of Damn it feels good to be a gangsta by the Geto Boys:

And now, a word from the President!
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta
Gettin voted into the White House
Everything lookin good to the people of the world
But the Mafia family is my boss
So every now and then I owe a favor gettin' down
like lettin' a big drug shipment through
And send 'em to the poor community
So we can bust you know who
So voters of the world keep supportin' me
And I promise to take you very far
Other leaders better not upset me
Or I'll send a million troops to die at war
To all you Republicans, that helped me win
I sincerely like to thank you
Cuz now I got the world swingin' from my nuts
And damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Posted by: Rusty at 05:08 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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UPDATE: This is an archive page. For the latest information on terrorist communiques and videos, please go to the MAIN PAGE here.

-------------------------------------
The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah has released a video of a Turkish worker captured in NorthMosul. The video may be downloaded here or excerpts from the video here. The group has threatened to murder the Turk for his 'collaboration'. To the right is a still image taken from the video.

The Army of Ansar al Sunnah also released another new propaganda and recruiting video. Details here. Interestingly, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi'sal Qaeda in Iraq has been relegated to posting messages at Islamic bulletin boards since the US began it's Fallujah campaign. It would seem that the same sort of show of force is now needed in and around Mosul, the Army of Ansar al-Sunnah's main base of operation.

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Tom Clancy, you are a prophet. Red Rabbit describes a terrorist organization cooperating with the drug lords to sneak operatives over our porous border with Mexico. The Brownsville Herald (HT: Robert Spencer):

Last weekÂ’s arrest of a Bangladeshi immigrant trying to illegally enter the country has federal authorities concerned over the vulnerability of the U.S.-Mexico border to infiltration by terrorists.

Federal court records show Fakhrul Islam, age unknown, was arrested Dec. 4 with 13 other undocumented immigrants as they tried to pass through a wooded area east of Brownsville.

The records said a man later identified by Border Patrol agents as a member of the Mara Salvatruchas gang was traveling in the same group as Islam.

The Central American gang has alleged links to al-Qaida....

Islam was not charged with any other offenses and will remain in federal custody until he is deported and returned to Bangladesh, said Nancy Herrera, spokeswoman with the Houston office of the U.S. attorneyÂ’s Southern District of Texas.

Officials with the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment by press time Thursday.

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Via Peak Talk this Expatica article that terrorists were planning to attack Amsterdam's infamous red light district:

Justice authorities arrested a Moroccan man last month after receiving a tip-off that Islamic extremists were allegedly planning an attack on the Red Light District in Amsterdam, it was reported on Friday.

The pizza-delivery courier allegedly conducted reconnaissance of the capital's prostitution zone while riding through the area during work hours on his scooter. He was arrested on 5 November. Newspaper De Telegraaf described him as a "radical Moroccan pizza courier".

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This Mathaba.Net article describes what it is like being a translator for various intelligence agencies. It also describes a surveillance operation of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, now in custody for his role in the Madrid train bombing, watching the Nick Berg beheading video:

"That's the way, Allah is great, Allah is great, Allah is greatÂ…. Go to Hell, enemy of God, kill him Â… cut his head off," Ahmed growled amid sounds of the slaying. "If it was me, I'd have burned him to show him that this is what hell is like."

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Back in high school I used to worry that gay people were all around me. Especially worrisome was the dreaded locker room change. No, I wasn't worried that some Senior would make fun of me--Rusty packs some serious heat--I was worried that the gays were checking out my junk. It turns out, they were!!

I was watching VH1's My Coolest Years: In the Closet episode when they started rapping about what it was like to be gay and in gym class. All of the guys agreed: On the one hand being gay sucked because gays were all scrawny and unathletic, but on the other hand being gay also ruled because they got to check out all the hot guys undressing in the locker room!

As one of the gay commentators noted (and I'm paraphrasing): I was the first one in the shower and the last one out!

And in the words of another (also paraphrasing): I didn't have to rent porn. I was surrounded by dick. Dick everywhere I looked!! (yes, he used the word dick)

One mentioned that after the locker room he would go home and flog the monkey!!

So, the moral of the story seems to be this: Teenage boys beware!! Gays are just like you--like they tell you in all your PC classes. But what are you like you freaking little horndogs? Oh, and girls, just remember this when you get that creepy feeling that some guy is totally checking your bits and pieces out: they really are. And the next time you think some guy is oogling you be comforted in the fact that you're not alone because occasionally we get oogled too!

One of my biggest dreams as a teenager was to re-enact that scene from Porky's. You know the one. Now to my horror I learn that all the gays got to do just that.

So as GLAD/ACT UP! tries to do away with the Don't Ask/Don't Tell policy remember this--do you want your fellow soldiers checking out your junk in the shower?

And as the ACLU pushes to integrate gay leaders into the Boy Scouts of America remember that there is a reason we call sex with a teenage minor statutory rape and that Boy Scouts are not children but adolecent boys (12-1 . Would you trust a 25 year old man to take your 14 year old daughter camping for a week? Well you shouldn't you naive idiot.

So, thank you VH1 for making clear what all of us who don't buy the PC bullshit about homosexuality. Gays are just like the rest of the male species. Oh, except for the fact that they want to, you know, have sex with other guys.

Linked with Joyner. Now does that sound gay or what? Also, this post is a shoe in for next week's Bonfire.

PS: (Probably of no interest to most readers) Speaking of gay....Bill at INDC (who is still not gay despite all the rumors) must have a part time gig at the Village Voice because in true ACT UP! fashion he outs Steve and Rob. Jawa sources indicate that Rob has filed a sexual harassment suit against Steve and has quit his post as Gov. Steve's Sec. of Homeland Securtiy for Llama-land. Steve is expected to hold a press conference tomorrow where he confirms that, yes, he had an affair with Rob--but, no, it was consensual. Colossus blog has another version of the story.

Paranthetically, I never showered with Llama but there was this one dude who would make this weird orgle sound in the locker. Kind of creepy thinking back.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:34 PM | Comments (35) | Add Comment
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Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta! In my ongoing effort to get a fatwa issued against me by Islamic terrorists, I have sent the following letter to the terrorist scum who run the Army of Ansar al-Sunnah and Islamic Army in Iraq websites. No response yet. I invite you to do the same. If any Arabic speaker would like to write a sample letter that we could copy and paste, it might help ensure that the e-mails are read. more...

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Via the Commissar who notes that the big news is waaaay down at the bottom of this AP article:

There were already signs that Sunni ranks were breaking: One group that had called for a delay, the Iraqi Islamic Party, quietly submitted a 275-candidate list Thursday. ...

The announcement by the Iraqi Islamic Party to submit a list of candidates suggested Sunni Arabs have begun to see the vote as inevitable. Senior party official Ayad al-Samarrai said the move was meant to prove the party was serious about elections, but will need to evaluate the situation further before deciding whether to contest the vote.

"We're reserving our right" to participate in the elections, al-Samarrai said. "Toward the end, we will decide."

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