From Monroe, Louisiana’s News Star:

Grambling president orders ‘hanging photo’ from Jena Six protest of student newspaper Web site

By Chris Day

A recent incident at the elementary school on the Grambling State University campus that resulted in a noose hanging around a small child’s neck has left university officials scrambling for answers…

Among the photos immediately ordered taken down by Judson was one of a young girl in a school uniform, a noose around her neck, being hoisted by a woman who may have been a family member.

In the photo, the girl, a student at Alma J. Brown Elementary School at Grambling, appears confused and frightened. GSU oversees the school. The child apparently was taking part in a school lesson related to events surrounding the Jena Six, criminal defendants in that Louisiana town who stand accused of beating a fellow student into unconsciousness. Their arrests on adult charges have spawned organized protests by black leaders and national attention…

According to an article in the newspaper written by Justin LaGrande, posted on the student newspaper Web site some time this week, and sent to The News-Star by Ruston Daily Leader publisher Rick Hohlt, “kindergarten and first-grade students at Alma J. Brown Elementary will always remember the day they marched for equality. The children marched in protest of the imprisonment of Mychal Bell, and the seemingly racial bias shown toward blacks in a small Louisiana town.”

LaGrande wrote that while the students “marched,” they actually only circled their playground with their teachers during the event.

“Before marching, the students were taught about racism,” LeGrande wrote. “They also learned about the events surrounding the ‘Jena Six’ and their arrest.”

According to the article, teachers “had a replica noose and explained why it is such a symbol of racism. They also allowed the children to carry chains and shackles.”

The Gramblinite’s Web site Friday included a comment from a woman who identified herself as Irene Booker. She said in her posted comment, “Yes, it was a rope around the little girl’s neck. It was a (safe) demonstration as to what the rope symbolized to blacks. This was my granddaughter and she along with so many of the other students did not understand the intimidation of the noose. I held her in my arms and she knows that I would not harm her or put her life in danger. In order to understand racism one must experience it to make the connection.” …

Some more of the photos:

Once again we are reminded of the song from the musical, South Pacific:

You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late.
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Of course Messers Rodgers and Hammerstein were preaching against America’s supposed rampant racism.

From a relieved Associated Press:

Taliban Rebuffs Karzai’s Offer

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai offered to meet with the Taliban leader and give militants a government position, but a spokesman for the militant group on Sunday said it will “never” negotiate with Afghan authorities until U.S. and NATO forces leave the country.

Karzai made the offer only hours after a suicide bomber in army disguise attacked a military bus Saturday, killing 30 people _ nearly all of them Afghan soldiers…

But the Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, repeated an earlier position by saying that it would never negotiate with the Afghan government in the “presence of foreign forces.”

“Even if Karzai gives up his presidency, it’s not possible that Mullah Omar would agree to negotiations,” Ahmadi told The Associated Press. “The foreign forces don’t have the authority to talk about Afghanistan.” …

“I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position,” he said…

Gee, there goes the Democrats’ only idea for settling things in the Middle East.

Let’s see, Mr. Karzai offered the Taliban a position in his government and they turned him down flat.

What more could Hillary offer them? Free health care?

What’s this? A grudging admission that the anti-war movement is “apathetic,” sputtering?

And from of all places, the Washington Post:

Antiwar activist Jonathan Wachtel of New York chants during a protest at Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues after yesterday’s rally and march.

War Protest Draws Small Crowd

Participants Cite Public Apathy in Low Turnout for Rally at the Capitol

By Carol D. Leonnig
Sunday, September 30, 2007; A17

Hundreds of demonstrators, including students and families, rallied and marched in downtown Washington yesterday to protest the war in Iraq, complaining that the Democratic-controlled Congress has failed to do the public’s bidding and bring U.S. troops home.

From an elevated stage in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool, a succession of speakers at the “Stop the War” rally urged Congress to stop funding the conflict and prevent more deaths of soldiers and Iraqi civilians…

The rally, organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition, drew protesters from the Washington area, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. Police in the District generally do not publicly estimate the size of protest gatherings. Yesterday’s crowd appeared to number fewer than 1,000…

Several rallygoers acknowledged that the size of the rally illustrated how difficult it is to get people in the United States to become activists, even though a majority of the public opposes the war, according to polls.

“That’s the biggest problem we’ve got in America: apathy,” said former Army Sgt. Adam Kokesh, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. “And one-third of Americans still think Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attacks on 9/11.”

A group of George Washington University antiwar activists said they are trying to motivate their fellow students, but it’s a struggle.

“Students should be back on the streets, like they were in the movements of the ’60s,” Lara Masri said. “But there’s so much indifference.” …

Indifference? Or maybe most Americans know more about world affairs than these professional America-haters and 19 year-olds.

It certainly can’t be for lack of funding from Mr. Soros and the rest of the America-hating fat cats.

Maybe fifty dollars a day, a box lunch and a free bus trip just don’t draw the “activists” like they used to.

Or maybe the DNC has decided that these demonstrations won’t win them the White House after all.

By the way:

Doesn’t Mr. Wachtel remind you of someone?

And speaking of WWII, there is this from the UK’s Sunday Times:

Biggest blitz by paras since WW2 to crush Taliban

Michael Smith and Louise Armitstead

BRITAIN is to deploy its biggest contingent of paratroopers and special forces since the second world war in a bid to crush the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Ministers are to send 3,000 paratroopers, including the entire Parachute Regiment, to southern Afghanistan in the spring, as well as trebling the number of special forces in the country.

It will be the first time in the regiment’s history that all four para battalions, including its reservists, have fought together on the same battlefield. The number of UK special forces personnel will rise to more than 800 and will include the bulk of the Special Forces Support Group, which is largely comprised of paratroopers.

The deployment comes amid fears that the Taliban are likely to regroup over the winter and retake terrain from weaker Afghan forces unable to hold their positions…

Gordon Brown is expected to signal a renewed emphasis on Afghanistan next week when he announces that local forces have officially taken control of southern Iraq. The number of UK troops in the country is expected to be cut from the current 5,000, freeing resources for deployment in Afghanistan.

Brown is expected to commit British troops to Helmand province until at least 2010, although senior officers privately expect to be there much longer. “The aim is for special forces to target the Taliban before they cause problems, while the paras provide security for reconstruction to get going in earnest,” one officer said.

The plan will see the current force of 7,000 British troops return from Afghanistan and a total of 8,000 sent out, bringing together the army’s most battle-hardened elite…

UK special forces will also concentrate for the first time solely on southern Helmand and will be expected not only to target the Taliban but also the drug barons funding them. The RAF will increase the number of aircraft in the country, adding Tornado and Typhoon ground attack planes to its existing Harrier squadrons…

Huh. Somehow I had gotten the impression from our watchdog media that the British were dialing back their efforts in the war.

I wonder how that happened.

The folks at Time show that they don’t restrict their propaganda just to “news” articles. They insist that it permeates every aspect of the magazine, even their movie reviews:

Americans Win the War on Terror!

By Richard Corliss

American dads, moms and kids watch a softball game in a Middle East compound. BOOM! go the terrorist bombs, and dozens are killed. Local soldiers stop a suspicious car at a checkpoint. BRAAAAAT! spits the evildoers’ gunfire, and the soldiers are dead. Back at the ballfield death scene, an ambulance drives off, carrying the wounded. KA-BLAM! A suicide bomber was inside. From the roof of a building a mile or so away, the masterminds of these atrocities record it all on video, for bragging rights later.

It could be Baghdad; it is Riyadh. The Kingdom shifts the current jihad one country south, from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. The movie also rouges the image of Americans in Islamic countries. Instead of being trapped in a four-year (and counting) quagmire, they come into town, clean things up and get out. What many thought would be the 2003 reality of a U.S. fighting force in Iraq has become a film fantasy in 2007.

During World War II, stateside audiences got morale-boosting movies with Errol Flynn or John Wayne leading victorious campaigns through Burma and Bataan. The current Mideast conflict is different, of course. America is not mobilized; only the military is. The enemy is not a country but an ideology, not uniformed but civilian guerrillas. And in a War on Terror there’s no sure way to declare victory. But just because our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are less fighting machines than sitting ducks, that doesn’t mean that moviegoers should be deprived of go-get-’em war epics — or, in the case of The Kingdom, an old-fashioned , new-fangled action movie with the hint of a political statement…

Everything moves so much and so fast that the movie seems both gutsy and brainy. But the main strategy is to keep viewers’ pulses racing so they concentrate on the action, not the message.

Two messages, actually. One is that if America is going to do any good against Islamic extremism in the Middle East, it needs to link up with moderate Arabs like Faris. The other, more chilling thought, held till the film’s final scene, is that this war won’t end until both sides can somehow be convinced it’s over. And that’s an ending even Hollywood in the 40s would have a hard time selling.

That’s a mere coda, though, to the film’s climactic half-hour, when Berg pours on the adrenaline with cool shootouts, last-minute rescues and the cornering of the evil genius. That should give The Kingdom mass-audience appeal as a retro-fantasy of American grit and smarts, culminating in politico-military triumph. Who needs a stalled, baffled, exhausted Army when our four globetrotting, gun-toting crime-solvers can be sent to the scene to sleuth out and wipe out the bad guys?

I feel a sequel coming on. Next stop for this A Team: the caves of Pakistan!

Someone should compare this piece to Time Magazine’s review of 1945’s “Objective Burma!” with Errol Flynn:

Of course during WWII people like this reviewer would have faced the threat of prison.

We were at war.

From Iranian government’s stooges at IRNA just can’t let go:

President: World people heard Iranian voice in Columbia University

Tehran, Sept 30, IRNA

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that thanks to grace of God, the world people heard voice of Iranian nation whose positive effects will appear in future.

He said in his report to the cabinet meeting that his visit to New York was successful and that the enemy’s attempt to sabotage the meeting in University of Columbia failed.

“They had attempted to isolate Iran by sabotaging ordinary process of the meeting in Columbia university, but, thanks to grace of God, they got negative result.”

President Ahmadinejad said that those who were present in the meeting and observed the entire program got the sense that Iranian officials were honest and what the manipulation had been made by the organizers beforehand.

He said that the Islamic Republic of Iran has plans for the international peace which is in contradiction with that of the World Arrogance.

“Though the enemy had made preparations for not allowing Iran (president) to make his voice heard, but, they could not succeed and thanks to grace of God the world people heard our voice.”

Press reports said that 500 million audience of three
international television networks listened to Iranian president’s remarks in University of Columbia.

President Ahmadinejad received emblem of ‘Dove of Peace’ from the Society of US Churches.

I wonder who the Society of US Churches are.

Of course next Mr. Ahmadinejad will be getting a Nobel Peace Prize.

Surely by now you have heard the latest munificent proposal from the foremost defender of children, Mrs. Bill Clinton.

If not, here it is joyously trumpeted by the Associated Press:

Clinton: $5,000 for Every U.S. Baby

Sep 28, 2007
By DEVLIN BARRETT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 “baby bond” from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.

Clinton, her party’s front-runner in the 2008 race, made the suggestion during a forum hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus.

“I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home,” she said.

The New York senator did not offer any estimate of the total cost of such a program or how she would pay for it. Approximately 4 million babies are born each year in the United States.

Clinton said such an account program would help Americans get back to the tradition of savings that she remembers as a child, and has become harder to accomplish in the face of rising college and housing costs.

She argued that wealthy people “get to have all kinds of tax incentives to save, but most people can’t afford to do that.” …

But regular readers of S&L, unlike our watchdog journalists, might recall that this is not the first time Mrs. Clinton has raised the idea of giving every child born in America some of the taxpayers’ largess.

As we noted in this article from her fans at Reuters, she proposed federally funded “baby bonds” last year:

Of course prices have gone up:

Hillary Clinton: “It’s the American dream, stupid”

Tue Jul 25, 2006

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

DENVER (Reuters) - New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House contender in 2008, said on Monday the Bush administration had hurt working Americans and Democrats must offer new ideas to strengthen the middle class…

The yearlong initiative headed by Clinton was designed to give the party new ideas for midterm elections in November and for the White House race in 2008.

Clinton said she hoped the agenda would “unite Democrats and help elect Democrats” in November, when the party must pick up 15 seats in the House of Representatives and six seats in the Senate to regain control of Congress.

“This plan will make the basics of life in the middle class — health care, education and retirement — affordable for those who take responsibility,” Clinton said.

“These ideas will make sure every American will get a fair wage, access to college and home ownership and a path out of poverty and into the middle class,” she said…

While much of the agenda covers familiar Democratic territory, it adds some new flourishes. An “American Dream Grant” would award money to states based on attendance and graduation from state colleges, while American Dream Accounts would enhance retirement savings and federally funded $500 “baby bonds” would be issued to each child born in America…

How typical of Hillary and the Democrats in general to raise a government program 1000% in just over a year — and even before it is enacted.

But how come none of her lickspittle minions in the mainstream media have reported this slight “mission creep”?

(Oops. I think I answered my own question.)

Buried in the education section of the UK’s Guardian:

Lecturers drop Israeli universities boycott call after legal advice

James Meikle, education correspondent
Saturday September 29, 2007

The prospect of an academic boycott of Israeli universities receded sharply yesterday as leaders of the lecturers’ union contemplating the move were told it would be illegal. The British University and College Union (UCU) immediately suspended regional meetings called to discuss the “moral implications” of existing links and hear from Palestinian trade unionists living under Israeli occupation who had called for the protest.

In May, delegates at the union’s annual congress in Bournemouth provoked an international storm, especially in Israel and the US, by demanding a programme of meetings to pave the way for a vote on cutting academic ties. The move was approved by 158 votes to 99. Jewish leaders, university vice-chancellors and the government condemned the move.

Yesterday David Newman, head of geopolitics at Ben-Gurion University, and academic representative of Israel on boycott issues, said he was glad the UCU had “seen sense and realised that universities are the place for open dialogue, freedom of speech and liberal thought, all of which a boycott would have prevented”.

Legal advice to the union’s strategy and finance committee said a boycott call ran the risk of infringing discrimination legislation and was also considered outside the aims and objects of the union…

However, Sue Blackwell, a member of the union’s executive and of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, said of the decision: “It is quite ridiculous. It is cowardice. It is outrageous and an attack on academic freedom.” …

That this boycott was overwhelmingly favored by Britaiin’s University and College Union is simply astounding.

We reported on the UCU just a couple of weeks ago, when they voted to refuse to report Islamic terrorists to the government. 

But here is a reminder of who they are, via Wikipedia:

University and College Union

The University and College Union (UCU) is a UK trade union formed from the 2006 merger of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE).

The union was formed on 1 June 2006. For the first year a set of transitional rules will be in place until full operational unity is achieved in June 2007. The union has around 116,000 members and is the largest further and higher education union in the world.

But such is the state of “higher education” in the Western world. An academia that wants to boycott the state of Israel but gives forums to worthies like Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Of course anti-Semitism is at high tide in jolly old Britain. But Ms. Blackwell takes the biscuit.

Here is an encomium to her from the Palestinian Freedom Project: 

Susan Blackwell

Dr. Susan Blackwell has been active in anti-racist and trade union campaigns for a quarter of a century and sees Palestinian human rights as an essential part of the struggle for socialism to which she is committed. She took part in the anti-apartheid movement during her student days and sees many parallels between South Africa then and Israel now. She is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, has been prominent in the movement for academic boycott of Israel…

Our heroine’s own little corner on the internet, Sue Blackwell’s Links On Palestine And Israel, is a classic case study in anti-Semitism run thoroughly amuck.

Still, who are we to argue international affairs with such an intellect as Dr. Blackwell?

After all, Wikipedia informs us that this Solon obtained a PhD in the use of personal pronouns.

From the ACLU’s media outlet, the Washington Post:

Army Pfc. Joseph Anzack, one of the three captured soldiers. His body was later recovered from the Euphrates river..

Iraq Wiretap Delay Not Quite as Presented

By Dan Eggen
Saturday, September 29, 2007; A08

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Congress last week that a May wiretap that targeted Iraqi insurgents was delayed for 12 hours by attempts to comply with onerous surveillance laws, which slowed an effort to locate three U.S. soldiers who had been captured south of Baghdad.

But new details released this week portray a more complicated picture of the delay, which actually lasted about 9 1/2 hours and was caused primarily by legal wrangling between the Justice Department and intelligence officials over whether authorities had probable cause to begin the surveillance.

Justice officials also spent nearly two hours trying to reach then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to authorize the emergency wiretap. He was in Texas appearing before a gathering of U.S. attorneys.

Earlier, the DNI’s attorney had determined that legal requirements for surveillance had been met, but Justice lawyers and intelligence officials spent four hours debating that issue and obtaining more evidence, according to officials and a summary of events provided to the House intelligence committee Thursday. Justice officials say the lengthy deliberations were necessary to ensure that the surveillance was legal…

“The idea that this incident has something to do with these soldiers getting killed is just outrageous,” said Michael German, a former FBI counterterrorism agent who now works as policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is all internal bureaucracy. It has nothing to do with the law.”

But DNI spokesman Ross Feinstein said yesterday that the delays were caused by unnecessary legal restrictions, which have since been removed as part of the changes approved by Congress last month.

“There shouldn’t be any delay in focusing on foreign-to-foreign communications for Iraqi insurgents,” Feinstein said. “It should take a matter of seconds, not hours.” …

By the way:

But new details released this week portray a more complicated picture of the delay, which actually lasted about 9 1/2 hours…

Justice officials also spent nearly two hours trying to reach then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to authorize the emergency wiretap…

According to my calculations, if you add a 9.5 hour delay and a 2 hour delay you get 11.5 hour delay. So, yes, the earlier reports may have been off by up to 30 minutes, if we can believe this article.

Thank goodness the Washington Post (acting on behalf of the ACLU) made that important correction. We wouldn’t want people to think it had been a 12 hour delay.

And never mind that every mainstream news account reported only a ten hour delay anyway. Such as the one we cited yesterday from Reuters:

U.S. details wiretap delays in Iraq kidnap case

By Randall Mikkelsen

U.S. authorities racing to find three kidnapped American soldiers in Iraq last May labored for nearly 10 hours to get legal authority for wiretaps to help in the hunt, an intelligence official told Congress on Thursday…

Some might call 9 and a half hours nearly “10 hours.” So exactly what great misrepresentation is the Washington Post correcting here?

Of course there was no point to the story except to give the Post an excuse to run the headline: Iraq Wiretap Delay Not Quite as Presented.

They just had to tamp that inconvenient story down.

Meanwhile, isn’t it telling how the Washington Post presents the claims of a disgruntled FBI “whistle-blower” now working for the ACLU as fact?

Indeed, Mr. German now figures in just about every wiretapping story sourced from the ACLU. Which is to say just about all of the stories we see in our watchdog media.

Mr. German’s vaunted expertise on counter-terrorism seems based upon his once “infiltrating” a group of white-supremacists in an operation that led nowhere.

Of course Mr. German had to blame everyone else. Though his supervisor later said he lacked confidence in his abilities, according to the Associated Press:

FBI Bungled Florida Terrorism Investigation, Justice Department Finds

By Mark Sherman
Tuesday, December 6, 2005; Page A12

… Martinez told another FBI official he would not use German in the training programs — despite his previously regular participation in such training — because he lacked confidence in him, the report said. Martinez said that he did not recall saying that, but that if he did, it was a “knee-jerk reaction but did not mean to indicate I was retaliating against him.” …

But never mind any of that.

Mr. German’s former FBI status gives him total creditably in the eyes of our media. Credibility that current and gruntled FBI agents never seem to enjoy with them.

The ACLU is surely getting their money’s worth from that hiring.

Still, because the Washington Post has pointed out the highly significant difference of thirty minutes, we will award this article only 4.5 (out of a possible 5) Pinocchios:

Though they probably deserve a full 5 for effort.

A real tear-jerker from the Chicago Sun-Times:

‘More time for my mom’

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FILE FOR ASYLUM | Woman gets 14-month reprieve to fight cancer

September 26, 2007
BY LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporter

There were no words, in English or Spanish, that an ailing Maria Carrillo could utter Tuesday when told her family had been given a temporary reprieve from deportation to Mexico.

Her 15-year-old daughter translated “catorce meses” — 14 months — when the family must return to an immigration courtroom in downtown Chicago. The girl then asked her mother, on behalf of a reporter, for a reaction.

Carrillo, 46, a short woman with graying hair, turned from her daughter, her husband, Cirilo, and her attorney, put her chin to her chest, a tissue to her eyes, and wept softly.

Her battle with immigration is really a fight for her life, said her daughter, Maria Elizabeth.

If the Carrillos stay in Jeffersonville, Ind., across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky., the matriarch can continue receiving chemotherapy and other medical attention at a university hospital where the family has worked out a payment plan.

If she returns to Mexico, she likely won’t be able to afford health care and could die within six months, her family believes.

“We just want more time for my mom, that’s all,” Maria Elizabeth said before Tuesday’s hearing in an immigration courtroom on the 19th floor of 55 E. Monroe. Her mother has been given two years to live.

The family came to the United States illegally in 2001, knowing it was a risk.

In 2003, immigration authorities came knocking after the couple’s two oldest sons were snagged in a fraudulent document scheme investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The sons were deported and now the rest of the family, including mother and daughter, two other children and the father, Cirilo, are in the final stages of fighting to remain in this country.

In a last-ditch effort, the Carrillos’ attorney, Julianne M. O’Grady, filed asylum papers in immigration court Tuesday. She acknowledged to Judge Jennie L. Giambastiani that proving the family would suffer some type of persecution would be tough, but the family was ready to fight. The next hearing was set for November 2008.

“We bought ourselves 14 months,” O’Grady said outside the courtroom. She reiterated what she said last spring, wishing the government would simply close the case for humanitarian reasons.

“If this isn’t a good humanitarian case, what is?” she said.

Rick Bieseda, Illinois state director of the Minuteman Project, said he is sympathetic to the woman’s plight.

“But we have to remember these people came here illegally,” he said. “I feel bad for the lady, but we have to remember she came here illegally. Illegal aliens aren’t entitled to benefits that are meant for American citizens.”

Gosh, does this mean that the United States has a more affordable health care system than socialist Mexico?

How is that possible?

But sure, let’s get the word out. If you think you might have cancer you had better beat it across the border where you can “work out a payment plan” — meaning almost certainly that it will be for free.

And if any of those nasty immigration people come around, just tell them you are sick and they will understand and give you “asylum.” Even if you’ve been in the business of making false documents.

Is this a great country or what?

From France’s AFP:

An Afghan police officer looks at a destroyed army bus after a suicide blast in Kabul,Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007.

Kabul bus bomber kills 30 troops

by Bronwen Roberts

A suicide bomber wearing an army uniform blew up an Afghan military bus in Kabul Saturday, killing around 30 people and wounding many more in one of the deadliest attacks of the Taliban’s insurgency.

Afghanistan’s US-backed president, Hamid Karzai, called for “stronger vigour” in the worldwide fight against terrorism after the devastating blast.

The attacker detonated his explosives at the entrance of the bus as it picked up army personnel going to work at the defence ministry in the centre of the heavily guarded city, ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said.

The force of the explosion blew off the roof and sides of the large bus, which was torn into mangled metal.

Television pictures showed rescuers rushing bloodied bodies from the vehicle. Some of the dead were still in their seats. Debris was scattered across a wide area. Around 30 people were wounded.

The extremist Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the morning rush-hour attack, which was the deadliest in the city since a similar explosion on a police bus in June killed about 35 people…

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said the attack was part of a Taliban “operation” planned for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan…

Bear in mind that we aren’t even supposed to arrest Muslim terrorists during Ramadan, lest we offend their delicate sensibilities.

But wait, there’s more good news, from the Associated Press:

Taliban suicide blast kills 30; Afghan leader offers Taliban a place in government for peace

September 29, 2007 (KABUL, Afghanistan) - A Taliban suicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform set off a huge explosion Saturday while trying to board a military bus in the capital, killing 30 people, most of them soldiers, officials said. Hours later, the Afghan president offered to meet personally with the Taliban leader for peace talks and give the militants a position in government.

Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency the last several weeks, President Hamid Karzai said he was willing to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.

“If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I’ll personally go there and get in touch with them,” Karzai said. “Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?”

Karzai said he has contacts with Taliban militants through tribal elders but that there are no direct and open government communication channels with the fighters.

“If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, ‘President, we want a department in this or in that ministry or we want a position as deputy minister … and we don’t want to fight anymore… If there will be a demand and a request like that to me, I will accept it because I want conflicts and fighting to end in Afghanistan,” Karzai said.

“I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position,” he said…

Who says crime doesn’t pay?

And apparently terrorism pays best of all.

From Minnesota’s very disappointed Pioneer Press:

[Star Tribune caption:] De’Andre June has scraped, covered over and seeded the charred cross. He says he got sick of looking at it.

Police say cross burned into lawn was a hoax

Recently jailed man allegedly hoped to win sympathy, money

BY DAVE ORRICK AND ELIZABETH MOHR
09/28/2007

He thought about faking a heart attack. Or maybe urinating on himself to feign stroke.

But in the end, prosecutors alleged today, ex-con and wanted man De’Andre McCoy June figured the best way to win sympathy and maybe even bail money was to commit a hate crime.

Against himself.

Anoka city prosecutors today charged June, a 47-year-old black man, with burning the symbol of the cross in his own front lawn earlier this week. June called police Wednesday morning and reported someone - he had no idea who - had burned a 6-foot-by-10-foot cross in the grass.

The alleged ruse worked for awhile.

When the first police officers arrived at the rental house in the 3900 block of 10th Lane North in Anoka, a TV camera crew was already there.

All day long, June accommodated the media, angrily chastising unknown racists and vowing: “I’m not going anywhere, because if I leave, they won.”

The media played the story, neighbors offered help. The city’s Human Rights Commission even called state activists and scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday.

Then several Anoka County Jail inmates saw a TV news report during lunch. According to the charges filed today, they recognized June, an eight-time convict, and told guards and later investigators he had spoken of his plan in advance.

“The investigation took an unexpected turn,” Anoka Police Capt. Phil Johanson said.

June’s Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension rap sheet includes 32 aliases and convictions for crimes ranging from burglary to car theft. Last week, June was in the Anoka County Jail on traffic-related charges, scheduled to report to Hennepin County on theft charges and then to Wright County for a different matter, according to jail records, police statements and today’s charges.

According to three inmates, June was hard-up for bail and brainstormed aloud several hoaxes - including a cross burning - to gain sympathy and make money upon his release. Johanson said the inmates have cut no deals with authorities for coming forward.

Investigators do not believe he told any of the eight other family members who live with him.

June faces three misdemeanors: falsely reporting a crime, disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process. The last two charges stem not from the cross burning, but from what happened when officers went to arrest June on a separate warrant and question him about the cross Thursday. He denied any involvement.

According to the officers, June physically resisted and swore at the officers. Then he dropped to the floor and said he was having a heart attack, the complaint states.

“After about 10 seconds he appeared to be okay,” according to the complaint, which was filed in Anoka County District Court - an uncommon practice for misdemeanors.

“We chose a formal complaint because we wanted the public to know what we knew,” Johanson said. “This kind of thing has an effect on a community.”

Anoka Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Cynthia Blesi released a statement that read in part “We are very troubled by these turn of events. Any declaration of a hate crime certainly invokes strong reaction from the public. False accusations are a huge hindrance to legitimate claims of bias.”

Blesi and another human rights commission member met with June Thursday and had begun to plan a prayer vigil at his home. “He was good,” Blesi said of June. “He told us he was from Louisiana and this really hit home.” …

Here is an example of some of the earlier breathless coverage, from the local ABC affiliate KSTP-TV: 

Cross burned into Anoka yard

09/28/2007

Residents in Anoka are fuming after an African-American family found that a cross was burned into its yard early Wednesday morning.

“That means that white people hate us,” said homeowner Deandre June of the racially charged symbol. “There’s some coward people livin’ around here. They have some stuff that they want to say to us but are scared to come and say it.”

The incident happened on 10th Lane in the north metro suburb.

June’s nieces and nephews—all under the age of 12—were spending the night at the home and woke up to find the symbol Wednesday.

“I was scared, I was shaken,” said June’s sister-in-law Patricia Cail, who just moved here from California with her four kids. Cail said she grew up with racism, but said her kids shouldn’t have to feel unwelcome because of their race.

Several residents in the predominately white neighborhood are standing behind the family. They told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that they are going to help police find the culprits.

“It just breaks my heart,” said neighbor Mary Van Engen.

Anoka police are investigating the crime and have said that the person responsible will face felony charges.

This incident is not Anoka’s first brush with a racially charged crime. In 2003, a family in the same neighborhood awoke to find racial slurs painted on its garage door.

Some of the other reports:

‘BECAUSE IF I LEAVE, THEY WIN’

A black family in Anoka awoke Wednesday to find the shape of a cross seared into the lawn. It is being investigated as a hate crime.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) - 9/27/2007 - The marks were hard to make out in the pre-dawn light Wednesday, but as the sun came up, De’Andre June was finally able to see the shape burned into his grass overnight. “That looks like a cross,” he said to his sister-in-law, Patricia Cail. June called the police…

Image of cross burned into black family’s Anoka lawn

St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota) - 9/26/2007 - The image of the cross was burned into the front lawn of a black family’s home in Anoka overnight, and police said they’re treating it as a hate crime.

“Why would you make it that shape unless you were trying to convey something,” said Capt. Philip Johanson of…

Too bad this latest development will prevent this from growing beyond being only a local story. If it was the other way around it would garner wall-to-wall national coverage.

And if Mr. June lived in Jena, Louisiana he might have gotten away with it.

But the gentleman is a busy beaver:

June’s Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension rap sheet includes 32 aliases and convictions for crimes ranging from burglary to car theft.

Still, you have to wonder.

He has 32 aliases and yet he calls himself “De’Andre McCoy June”?

From a distraught Associated Press:

Murtha to testify in defamation case

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer

A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a defamation case against Rep. John P. Murtha and ordered the Pennsylvania Democrat to give a sworn deposition in the case.

A Marine Corps sergeant is suing the 16-term congressman for alleging “cold-blooded murder and war crimes” by unnamed soldiers in connection with the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

The deaths became known in May 2006 when Murtha, who opposes the Iraq war, said at a Capitol Hill news conference that a Pentagon war crimes investigation will show Marines killed dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians in the town in 2005.

Murtha’s office declined to comment on the ruling. He has said his intention was to draw attention to the pressure put on troops in Iraq and to cover-up the incident.

The Justice Department wanted the case dismissed because Murtha was acting in his official role as a lawmaker. Assistant U.S. Attorney John F. Henault said the comments were made as part of the debate over the war in Iraq…

Collyer said she was troubled by the idea the lawmakers are immune from lawsuits regardless of what they say to advance their political careers.

Mark S. Zaid, the attorney for the plaintiff, Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, said he wanted Murtha’s deposition and limited documents from the congressman, including calendars and documents related to which reporters he spoke to.

Zaid said Murtha was not acting within his congressional duties and was instead trying to embarrass then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, with whom Zaid said Murtha had a personal dispute.

Collyer, who was appointed to the bench by President Bush, said the case wasn’t about whether to recall troops from Iraq and she didn’t “particularly care” about Murtha’s views on the war. She said the law cares only about what Murtha intended when he made the comments…

Excellent. I was afraid this would go away.

The Justice Department wanted the case dismissed because Murtha was acting in his official role as a lawmaker…

There is definitely something wrong with our Justice Department.

The only legal protection afforded US Congressmen comes from the so-called “Speech Or Debate Clause in the Constitution.

Wikipedia explains:

Speech or Debate Clause

The Speech or Debate Clause (found in Article I, Section 6, Clause 1) is a clause in the United States Constitution which states that members of both Houses of Congress

“…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses, and in going to and from the same, and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”

Its intended purpose is to prevent a President or other officials of the Executive branch from having members arrested on a pretext to prevent them from voting a certain way or otherwise taking actions with which he or she might disagree.

None of this applies in John Murtha’s case. (There’s more on the Speech Or Debate clause here.)

By the way, please note how the AP helpfully points out that Judge Collyer was a Bush appointment.

It’s just like they do when covering the outrages by judges appointed to the bench by Mr. Clinton.

(Of course I am kidding.)

From a breathless Associated Press:

Iraq vet plans to return his medals in protest

By Ryan J. Foley Wednesday Sep 26, 2007

MADISON, Wis. — An Iraq war veteran said Tuesday he is returning his military medals in what anti-war groups are calling a rare and powerful protest.

Josh Gaines, 27, plans to mail the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and National Defense Service Medal to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He said he will do so during a protest scheduled for Wednesday in Madison.

“I’m going to give those back because I truly feel that I did not defend my nation and I did not help with the Global War on Terrorism,” said Gaines, who lives in Madison. “If anything, this conflict has bred more terrorism in the Middle East.”

Gaines served a yearlong tour in Iraq between 2004 and 2005 with the U.S. Army Reserve. He spent his time guarding two military bases and issuing ammunition to soldiers but never fired a weapon, he said.

The experience convinced him the war was a mistake and that a steady withdrawal of troops was the right course of action, Gaines said…

Jonathan Dedering, a Students for a Democratic Society activist who is helping organize Wednesday’s protest, said it’s extremely rare for Iraq veterans to return their medals. The tactic was a more common form of protest among Vietnam veterans.

“To many Americans this will be a very big deal,” Dedering said in an e-mail message…

Gaines said he is returning the medals awarded when he left active duty in 2005 to Rumsfeld because he is “the man responsible for my tour.” He said he would likely send them to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where Rumsfeld was recently hired to be a visiting fellow…

Gaines said he was given an “other than honorable” discharge after failing a drug test. He said he started smoking marijuana after he returned from Iraq to help him eat and sleep after he had trouble doing either for months…

This article was forwarded to me by Rakkasan, who also noted that:

Even if a soldier throws their medals back, they are still on their DD214. It is a lame symbolic gesture. They can just go to the military Clothing and Sales and buy more. Stupid pot smoking hippie…. He can’t throw his “less than honorable” back, can he?

No, he can’t.

I wonder also if this gentleman isn’t also getting some kind of government hand out for some real or imagine disability, as is so common amongst these America-hating “veterans.”

Still, it’s all strangely redolent of that other great war hero, John Kerry.

From CNN via YouTube: 

Bill Clinton Condemns Republicans

Bill Clinton condemns Republicans over the phoney outrage over the MoveOn.org ad about General (Betray Us) Petraeus. He also mentions the Republican attack ads smearing the military service of Max Cleland and John Kerry.

This is one of the more laughably ironic rants from Mr. Clinton, since his last feigned outrage at Chris Wallace on Fox News almost exactly a year ago.

And speaking of phony outrage, can you count the mendacities that stream from the great man’s mouth?

How was Max Cleland’s military service ”smeared”? What did the Swiftboat Veterans ever say about Mr. Kerry that was false?

Of course the New York Times refused to run any of the completely factual ads from the Swiftboat Vets. Whereas they gave the libelous and fact-free ad from MoveOn.org their special secret half-off rate for America-haters.

(And where was Mr. Clinton when Mr. Kerry was comparing our soldiers in Vietnam to the army of Jhengis Khan? Dodging the draft and denouncing our troops from England?)

Do we really want this reprobate back in the White House?