I know that the costs associated with space exploration can be difficult to understand given our debt (and other uses for those funds), but if we stop exploring, an avenue of discovery will be lost to us. And that may cost us so much more.
Terrorists Strike ISI in Peshawar, Police in Banuu
Additional from AAJ TV Pakistan:
At least 17 persons were killed and over 85 injured in two powerful suicide bomb explosions in Peshawar and Bannu districts on Friday morning, police said.The suicide bombers, who were driving explosive-packed vehicles, detonated themselves while trying to target the buildings of security agencies in both the gory incidents and killed at least 17 people most of them security personnel and wounded around 85.—————————————————————————–…In a similar incident, a suicide bomber targeted police station Bakakhel in FR Bannu by exploding his explosive-laden mini truck with the building of police station and killed seven persons including five police and FC personnel and injuring 25 others.Khan sustained injuries.Riazuddinwere martyred along with five others and three inmates, two FC personnel and 18 policemen including SHO Bacha QamarJan and WakeelAs result of which Constables
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Also the P.R. Director for the Iranian Consulate was killed in Peshawar.
From The Pakistan Observer:
Director Public Relations Iranian Consulate in Peshawar, Ab-ul-Hassan Jeffery was shot dead by unknown armed men near his house at posh location Gulbarg in cantonment area here on Thursday.
Rated among the veteran journalists of Peshawar, late Jeffery also served Pakistan Observer as senior reporter in 1992-93.
The Police and the eyewitness said the gunmen opened fire at Ab-ul-Hassan as he came out to leave for the consulate in his car at about 8.10 a.m.
He was showered with bullets by two unknown assailants who managed to make good their escape after committing the heinous crime.
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The military continues to battle militants in the far reaches of Pakistan, but the insurgent terrorists are obviously operating within the larger cities all too easily.
Senator Tom Coburn (R), Way To Support Our Troops You Jackass
Now to be fair, Coburn seems to be the only Republican dickish enough to say F.U. to our returning troops with this hold on the bill before the Senate. If Senator Coburn is so worried about the government spending money, he really shouldn’t be accepting any salary as a Senator, not to mention his health care benefits.
A.Q. Khan, Pakistan, and China. Well Now I Don’t Trust Any of Them.
From The Times of India:
by Chidanand Rajghatta
China’s dirty little secret of nuclear proliferation to Pakistan, including virtually giving Islamabad two nuclear weapons on a platter while the U.S. remained oblivious and smug, has exploded in Washington.
Embarrassingly for President Obama the disclosures come on the eve of his much-anticipated visit to Beijing.
The broad story is known to every Tom, Dinesh, and Hamid in strategic circles — that sometime in the early 1980s, China provided Pakistan with nuclear know-how and materials to enable it to make the bomb, in part to weigh down India and in part out of gratitude to Islamabad for facilitating its opening to US. But astonishing details of the transaction, which China has blithely denied because it is in violation of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations, have been exposed courtesy A.Q.Khan, Pakistan’s Dr Strangelove, to spite the military which incarcerated him.
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Now a short while back, a story came from A.Q. Khan which told things a bit differently, though it seems fairly clear that China and Pakistan have had a working relationship regarding nuclear technology for decades now.
Senator David Schultheis
David Schultheis is a Republican Senator from Colorado, had some months ago said that pregnant mothers should not be tested for the HIV/AIDS because then if the baby was born with AIDS, then the mother would feel guilty. He later tried to make things just a smidge ”better” by saying that it simply was not the government’s role to protect people from their own promiscuity, but never backed down from his earlier statements at all, insisting that if people were forced to live with the fact that they had contracted HIV and passed along to their baby, then they would feel the guilt that this Senator evidently feels that they should be feeling. So while there is no doubt this nut is pro-life times 10, it seems he doesn’t care if a baby is born with AIDS. Kkklassy.
He has sunk once again down amongst the muck and slime, this time on his Twitter account, which he evidently doesn’t realize can be seen by the entire frikken world.
His tweet:
Don’t for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. plane right into the ground at full speed. Let’s roll.
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WTF is wrong with people like this? More importantly, how did this freak get elected to anything other than dung muncher? Well, not that this is an elected position, at least not that I know of. And Schultheis would probably consider dung munching a form of cannibalism anyways. No, I take that back, Schultheis is so much lower than fecal matter.
Lance Corporal Jasen Bruce, Defending Himself From a Variety of Threats. Well, In His Head.
So according to the brave Marine that used a tire iron to beat up a priest, first the Greek Orthodox priest Alexios Marakis was saying “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) which is why Jasen Bruce attacked him and even chased him, knowing that he was a terrorist, and now Bruce is saying that Marakis sexually assaulted him. Well sure, that sounds reasonable and completely believable, and not weird at all. And didn’t Bruce-y also say that the priest tried to rob him at one point? Way to go Marine, you’ve made us all so proud of our military.
Maybe we shouldn’t let steroids ruin the military like it did baseball.
And Bruce, as soon as you are out of the military, it will then be O.K. to tell everyone you’re gay.
Tax Money for The Taliban
I knew things in Afghanistan were bad, but this news just makes the reality of our situation in that country all the more bitter.
From The Nation
by Aram Roston
…In this grotesque carnival, the US military’s contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. “It’s a big part of their income,” one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon’s logistics contracts–hundreds of millions of dollars–consists of payments to insurgents.
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Now we are directly funding the Taliban, wonderful. And reading that Hamad Wardak had connections to the U.S. conservative think tank AEI (American Enterprise Institute) just makes this even worse, I swear that they just work in fanatical religious settings, and no where else. It doesn’t even seem to matter which religion, as the more fanatical branches are all equally insane.
Hannity’s Mea Culpa
Well, granted it was a half-assed mea culpa when he said that their use of video from an earlier protest was “inadvertant,” but we all know what Fox News is about.
Did You Hear The One About The Elderly Irish Priest And The MILF?
Actually it is a bit of good news from the Philippines, and not a joke at all, but I couldn’t resist that title after reading the story.
From AFP:
Muslim rebels handed elderly Irish priest Michael Sinnott over to Philippine authorities in good health on Thursday, just over a month after he was abducted, authorities said.
The announcement that Sinnott, 79, had been released ended an ordeal that began with six still-unidentified gunmen abducting him from his Catholic missionary compound in the volatile south of the country.
“He was turned over to us by the MILF,” said Major-General Ben Dolorfino, referring to the Muslim separatist guerrilla group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
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Evidently the poorly named group Moro Islamic Liberation Front actually secured the priests release, and at least according to them had nothing to do with the kidnapping itself. The 2 million dollar ransom was not paid, and this seems to be a good-will measure aimed at influencing upcoming talks.
So a happy ending for the priest thanks to the MILF.
Oh, I’m going to spend a long time in purgatory for that joke.
Bunker Busters with Bad Fuses
From Courthouse News Service:
by Tim Hull
A Florida defense contractor put soldiers at risk and defrauded the government by producing hundreds of “bunker buster” bomb fuzes it knew could explode unpredictably, “often shortly after the fuze was armed,” federal prosecutors say. Kaman Precision Products knew it was using bad parts, and charged taxpayers $2 million for it, according to the False Claims Act complaint. (Emphasis added)
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While war is never a tidy business, with death and destruction all being a part of the package, it would be nice if our own bombs didn’t kill us. The contractor (allegedly) knowingly used bad fuses in order to make their deadline, as if THAT was the most important thing.
Court filing PDF, Page 4 tells where things started to get “interesting.”
