WaPo waxes nostalgic on the good old days when bin Laden had free reign in Central Asia and women were beaten for showing too much cheek bone:

A wave of crime in this southern Afghan city -- including Mohammed's killing two months ago and a bombing Thursday that killed at least five people -- has evoked a growing local nostalgia for the Taliban era of 1996 to 2001, when the extremist Islamic militia imposed law and order by draconian means.

Residents reached their boiling point last week, after a second kidnapped boy was killed. Hundreds of men poured into the streets, demanding that President Hamid Karzai fire the provincial governor and police chief. Some threw rocks at military vehicles and chanted, "Down with the warlords!" Witnesses recalled some adding, "Bring back the Taliban!"

Both provincial officials are former militia leaders -- commonly called warlords in Afghanistan -- whose fighters reportedly preyed on residents before they were driven out by the Taliban. They regained power, like a number of other current officials, by joining the U.S.-led military forces that defeated the Taliban in late 2001.

"We are savage, cruel people"

Barbara OÂ’Brien *shock* argues that this is another sign of Shrimp-Chub-Bush's failure.

Parenthetically, I had the misfortune of recieving a copy of Ms. O'Brien's book and mistakingly read it. The shocking thing was that the publisher sent it to me hoping I would adopt it for a text in my Mass Media and Politics class. This is not an academic work by any standard. Stick to blogging Barbara.

Tim Graham notes that this is on the front page. Nice.

Nick Gillespie and Ranting Profs also chime in (via meme random)

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Call it part of my ongoing campaing for the anti-Talibanization of America and operation 'Site Meter'. Flea asks, we deliver. Here are some vidcaps from the upcoming Bruce Willis movie Sin City. The trailors can be downloaded here. All pics are stricly PG. Shhh, don't let Aylward know about these.......What? They don't call me Pimptastik Rusty Wicked for nothing!!

more...

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The State Department has revoked the visa of a leader of one of India's province's, citing his role in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. New Kerela:

In a major embarrassment to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, the United States on Friday revoked the visa to him in wake of the allegations of ignoring widespread anti-Muslim killings in 2002 in Gujarat.

About 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked, burned or beaten to death in the state, after 59 Hindu kar sevaks died in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express, because of fire breaking up.

Modi has denied accusations that he deliberately did nothing to stop the killing of Muslims during the riots in early 2002, and said police took firm action.

Witnesses and survivors said police did nothing to stop Hindu mobs attacking Muslims and in some cases herded victims into the hands of their killers. Human rights groups put the death toll as high as 2,500....

The US decision came after some Muslim and liberal groups campaigned in the United States against the planned visit and petitioned the State Department to revoke his visa on the ground that he used his position in government to violate religious freedom.

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The United States Congress frantically continues working to reconcile two ultra-late-term abortion bills before Congressmen go home for the Easter holidays. The Jawa Report's Washington bureau chief, Dale Gribble, has been following the legislation.

The Senate has a narrowly focused bill that deals only with the planned abortion of Terri Schiavo, allowing her standing in federal court, which would immediately stay a Florida court's ruling which would allow Planned Parenthood's Boca Raton office to perform the controversial abortion procedure, now scheduled for March 18.

The House, however, passed a more broadly defined bill on Wednesday night. In it, "persons" — defined as "any born individual who is presently outside the womb and in at least the 50th trimester of life" — are given the right to take their case to federal court after the state court route has been exhausted. The House bill does not grant an automatic stay for Schiavo despite support from House leaders like the ultra-conservative Rep. Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader.

But even with an agreement between the Senate and House, sources told The Jawa Report on Thursday that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has "dug in" against passage of the Senate bill by unanimous consent. He is a well-known pro-choice advocate and in a recent press statement said that,

Michael Schiavo has a right to terminate his wife's life. His wife's body belongs to him. What he does with Terri's body is nobody elses busines.

My personal view is that 132nd trimester abortions are wrong. However, I believe that such decisions are best left to a couple and their doctor.

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has said he will hold up adjournment of the Senate for Easter recess, scheduled to begin Friday and last two weeks, until a vote is taken on this bill. Santorum is a staunch ultra-late-term abortion opponent and is strongly against aborting Terri Schiavo. Santorum's opposition to abortions has been termed "radical" by many moderates because of his support for a Constitutional Amendment which would ban all abortions after the 25th trimester.

The debate comes as Schiavo's parents appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer scheduled a hearing Thursday to consider a request from the state to halt the abortion. Judge Greer, in a related case, ruled that the Pope should be removed from life support because people in a vegetative state--even when such vegatables can 'laugh', 'pray', and 'bless the masses'--serve no useful social function.

Florida's Legislature is also taking action similar to that of Congress. A similar state law passed in 2003 was later declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court, citing Roe v. Wade, had claimed that:

among the penumbra of rights gauranteed in the US Constitution was the right to abort spouses at any time during the first 200 trimesters of life.

Schiavo, 41, has been at the center of a long and bitter court battle between her parents and her husband, who wants to have the ultra-late-term abortion performed.

In a press-release from the White House today, President Bush said:

The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues. Yet in instances like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life. Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected and that culture of life must extend even those in the 132nd trimester of life.

I fully support the efforts of Mr. & Mrs. Schindler [Terri's parents] to save the life of their daughter, from a cruel starvation.

Terri's husband should relinquish his right to an abortion and turn the 132nd trimester fetus over to the Schindler's care.

George Felos, Michael SchiavoÂ’s lead attorney, filed an immediate response to the motion. NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood also filed an amicus curae brief in support of Michael Schiavo's right to an ultra-late-term abortion.

"Trying to outlaw Mr. Schiavo's clear Constitutional right to do what he pleases with his wife's body is an outrageous attempt by Congress to interfere with the workings of the judicial branch," said NARAL spokesperson Evelyn Becker in a written press-release. "Today the right-wing ideologues are trying to take away Mr. Schiavo's right to a 132nd trimester abortion. If they succeed, then this country may well be on its way back to the days when 132nd term abortions were performed by unlicensed doctors in back alleys under unsanitary conditions, contraceptives were outlawed, homosexuals were rounded up, and negros were forced to ride in the back of the bus."

UPDATE: House to meet in morning to vote on ultra-late-term abortion bill, over Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) objections.

UPDATE II: Related from Scrappleface

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I remember reading the Scarlet Letter as a freshman in high school. Our English teacher assigned the class to wear a letter on our chests to symbolize a vice we wish we could give up. Throughout the day we were supposed to wear the thing to get us to feel compassion for Hester Prynne.....You know, those New England Puritans aren't looking so bad any more.....Gulf News (via Tigerhawk):

A maid was sentenced to 150 lashes yesterday for getting pregnant out of wedlock. A Sharia Court official said the maid's UAE national sponsor filed a case with police accusing N.S.T of committing adultery and being pregnant.

Her case was referred to the public prosecution department and she was ordered to take a pregnancy test, which came back positive.

She refused to reveal the name of the child's father, despite being interrogated by the police and the public prosecutor.

The public prosecution department referred her to the emirate's Sharia Court.

She refused to identify her lover again.

The court sentenced her to 150 lashes, to be administered in two stages. She will then be deported.

The Gates of Vienna (via Bill's Comments) notes that the poor woman is probably a national of the Philippines.

If you want to see pictures of what this form of punishment is like click here. (WARNING: Graphic) or scroll down. more...

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Hostage taking is already the #2 source of cash for Columbian Maoist rebels (next to taxing cocaine), it is fast becoming the #2 source of cash (#1 is still 'charitable donations') for Islamist insurgents in Iraq. Yahoo News:

An Iraqi-born Spanish businessman kidnapped in Baghdad several weeks ago has been freed after a ransom was paid, Spain's leading daily reported.

El Pais reported that the kidnapped man, identified only by his initials, UAH, was freed on Tuesday, El Pais said, citing unidentified government sources.

The paper said the sources refused to give details of the ransom paid so as not to put people involved in the operation at risk.

The man was said to have Spanish nationality and passport since 2000, and for the past 30 years has lived in Spain, where he runs a translation firm and a real estate company, the daily said.

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Let me disagree with the Reliapundit on this one, although he's right to think the former top KGB man is a suspect. But Putin is only one suspect in this case, and it is doubtful that he was behind this.

I spent a year studying in Moscow and, trust me on this one, Anatoly Chubais has plenty of enemies. Chubais was the Prime Minister of Russia, closely allied to Boris Yeltsin, who oversaw the privatization of state owned industry. As a result, a few oligarchs grew wealthy while millions lost everything. Enemies a plenty.

Chubais is now head of a state run energy company and thus in close contact with many criminal elements. This is not beyond the mafia's doing. The mafia walked into a hotel run by a friend of mine one day and unloaded several hundred rounds into his Russian business partner simply because the hotel refused to lease space for a disco. They were never caught.

As a member of government, he could also have been targetted by Chechen terrorists. Chubais was Prime Minister when Chechnya declared independence and Russia responded with a massive invasion. Whenever something that might be construed as terrorism happens in Russia, it's wise to keep the Chechen mujahadin as part of the usual suspects. UPDATE: Scroll past article for possible motives for Chechen rebels to assassinate Chubais.Reuters:

Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's state power monopoly, has survived an assassination attempt by assailants who detonated a roadside bomb and sprayed his convoy with a hail of automatic gunfire.

The 49-year-old Chubais, one of Russia's best-known figures, came to prominence as the architect of post-Soviet economic reforms under which two dozen "oligarchs" acquired vast wealth while ordinary people suffered a huge slump in living standards.

He is now chief executive of Unified Energy System, and the prime mover behind reforms to introduce competition to the power sector of the world's largest country.

Chubais told a hastily arranged press briefing that he had been aware of a plan to kill him, but would not say who he suspected of carrying out the attack.

"I have an idea of who could have taken out a contract on me," a shaken but defiant Chubais said from the safety of UES headquarters in Moscow after the attempt. "We had reason to believe something like this might happen."

Chubais was travelling to work from his country home along a narrow stretch of the Minsk Highway at 9:30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. British time) when a roadside bomb rocked his two-car cortege and two attackers opened fire with automatic weapons.

Chubais said his armoured BMW had been able to flee the scene despite being hit in the windscreen, hood and front tyre.

Security guards for Chubais travelling in a Mitsubishi Lancer returned fire at the hitmen, who later escaped.

Police said the bomb blast had a force equivalent to at least 500 grams of TNT. Television footage from the scene showed a large crater at the side of a two-way highway through forest.

Remember that Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was recently killed by Russian forces. Anotoly Chubais was one of the main proponents of military strikes against Chechnya. For instance, in 1999 when leading Grigory Yavlinsky called for a pause in the bombing of Chechnya, Chubais called this former ally of the democratic movement a 'traitor'.

And how was Chubai seen by the Chechen rebels? Their propaganda wing calls Chubai a 'fascist' and claim one of his goals (linking Chubai to Putin) is 'extermination of the Chechens'.

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Possibly the coolest photo I have ever seen. (via Instapundit)

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The next round is on me. Lift your glasses and celebrate the nation that is 1/64th mine by right of birth with The Jawa Report's second-annual toast to Eire:

UPDATE: But seriuosly, the thing about the Irish that I like the most (besides those hot redheads) is that they can take a joke.

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...Oliver Willis in full denial mode. We like to call him 'Baghdad Ollie'.

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I spent five days at a conference in Seattle once. It was four days too long. Here's why.

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A: Who cares. The Red-Green coalition in Germany is falling apart......

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by Demosophist

On Bill Maher tonight I heard the host say something to the effect that "Well yeah, Bush had a list of reasons for invading Iraq and about the fourth one down had to do with regime change to rid the people of that brutal murderous dictator. But he obviously lied about everything else." And a similar bit of dissembling wisdom popped out the other night on Dennis Miller, from some panel guest whose name I have no good reason to recall. Well, I could waste time, as did David Horowitz on the Miller show, recounting how a lot of people made quite a big fuss about regime change and the "suffering of the Iraqi people." But I recall almost no one on the left saying anything like that, other than the usual suspects: Paul Berman (who wrote a book about it), Bernard Kouchner, and Chris Hitchens, as well as a few bloggers like Marc Danziger on Winds of Change. And all of those folks have subsequently been disowned and shunned by many of their ideological compatriots. more...

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UPDATE 3/17 pm: Publius Pundit has word from Syria that everything seems normal and that this information is probably false.

I've no idea how reliable a source the Lebanese Foundation for Peace is, but I thought you might want to read this (via Evariste at Discarded Lies):

DAMASCUS REBELLION UPDATE:

No newspapers are getting in or out of Syria, the media is controlled very tight, and the Syrian scene witnessed a dramatic, security deterioration the last 24 hours.

Precise Intelligence reports coming from Syria indicated massive army troops deployment around the capital Damascus. Most of the military Barracks of the Syrian Army around Damascus gave allegiance to the dissidents: Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan and General Ali Safi. These people in the Syrian Army were against the withdrawal from Lebanon.

It is known that President Bashar Assad is in the city of Alleppo, assessing the internal situation within Syria and trying to organize a "forced" return to Damascus.

We will provide you with additional details as soon as we have them.

[NOTE: The Syrian military General backing Ghazi KanaanÂ’s movement is General Ali Safi and not Madi as originally reported by error.
The Lebanese Foundation for Peace apologizes for this error of publishing.]
The Intelligence Hour for Syria and Lebanon
Special Flash: Damascus, Syria

A Coup d' Etat took place in Damascus late last night. Intelligence reports coming from within the Syrian Military Command indicate the following:

A rebellion split The Syrian Army in two factions .

Since yesterday , Damascus is under the de facto control of the Syrian Army, under the command of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, and supported by Syrian Intelligence General Rustom Ghazaleh, Syrian military General Ali Safi, and Firas Tlass son of former Minister of Defence, Mustafa Tlass. The group rebelled against the decision of President Bashar el Assad to withdraw from Lebanon and seized the Damascus military yesterday.

Around 3 am, Damascus time, the Syrian Air Force bombarded two military airfields around Damascus, the Air force base of Dumair, and the Air force base of Katana. Also, late night around 3 am, the Syrian Air force bombarded military positions of the Syrian Army west of the city of Homs.

President Bachar el Assad retreated secretly to the city of Aleppo where he is temporarily holding ground. He is massing special forces troops loyal to him and preparing himself to take back Damascus by force .

The Syrian President left in Damascus his brother in Law, Syrian Military Intelligence Chief General Assef Shawkat to negotiate a settlement with the dissidents. The situation within the Syrian military was very tense for a week and exploded yesterday. The dissident group took control of Damascus as they were very upset at the Lebanon withdrawal for they left behind a billion dollar industry.

UPDATE: Very late....getting slammed (for this time of night) with Google hits for word combinations of "military coup Syria" "Syrian coup" "Damascus coup" etc......

....something is afoot.

UPDATE II: No confirmation. Perhaps this is just a case of rumors flying and we're simply reinforcing those rumors by publishing them?

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Reminder: I'm on Spring Break. If you have an interesting post or a news item, please e-mail me with it. That way I don't spend all day surfing the web for this stuff.

Thanks,
The Management

PS-and by "interesting" I don't mean the latest Jessica Alba FHM spread!

PPS-Where are my collaboraters on this thing? Demosophist?.... BRD? Interested Participant? ... Bueller? Any one...?

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Below are images of you're mullahs at work. I don't really have a problem with the death penalty in the abstract. The man was convicted of multiple counts of rape and murder. But the mad mullahs also have a tendency to do this sort of thing to the victims of rape too.

Why does the term barbaric suddenly come to mind?

And we wonder why so many young Persians resist the tyrrany of the Islamic Republic?

UPDATE: Ive moved all images below because some may find them offensive.

UPDATE II: Joyner takes the legal angle on this one and comes down on the side of civilization.

Volokh, on the other hand, seems to take it for granted that Iran's sharia court system actually convicted the right man. more...

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Michelle Malkin on the upcoming Million Moonbat March.

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President Bush has nominated Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. World, blog, and tin-foil hat reaction below.

more...

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Click for bigger image.

This is why the jihadis fight us. They believe this stuff.

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Yes, you heard that right, pirates. What is missing from this report is that the 'pirates' are often GAM rebels who wish to set up an Islamist state in Indonesia's Northern Aceh province. Money from piracy is used to fund the insurgency in the same way that hostages and drugs are used elsewhere.

BBC:

Armed pirates have kidnapped two Japanese and a Filipino from a tugboat in the Malacca Strait. The pirates struck on Monday night and seized money and documents from the Japanese-registered boat.

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