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POPS New York's Bravest Mourn Lost Brooklyn Firefighter A Brooklyn firehouse that lost five members on 9/11 is again mourning the loss of one of its own today, this one tragically killed while on vacation with his family. NY1’s Amanda Farinacci filed the following report. A flag hangs at half-staff and a bunting waved today outside the quarters of Ladder 111 Engine 214 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, days after 41-year-old firefighter Martin Simmons drowned trying to rescue his son while on vacation in Nevada. “Marty was what we call a premier firefighter in this company,” said firefighter Joe Honan. “He was almost one of the senior guys. He was a guy that took no trouble running things.”
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POPS‘Hook’ Imam Denied Extradition Appeal: To Stand Trial In U.S. They also say he assisted extremists who kidnapped 16 foreign tourists in Yemen in 1998. Three British tourists and one Australian visitor were killed in a shootout between Yemeni security forces and the captors. Al-Masri also is accused of facilitating terrorist training in Afghanistan. The former imam at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, al-Masri is one of Britain’s best-known Islamist radicals. The Egyptian-born preacher is blind in one eye and has hooks in place of the hands he says he lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Under his leadership the Finsbury Park mosque became a magnet for extremists. Its worshippers included Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.
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POPSGizmo's Best-Ever List Of Freeware 3. SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES 3.1 Microsoft Security News 3.2 Apple Plugs More Flaws in QuickTime 3.3 The Latest News on AVG Free vs. Avast! 3.4 The Limitations of AV Certification 3.5 Infected Websites Replace Email as Main Source of Infection 3.6 Firefox 3 Released There's way too much to clip! URL follows: http://www.techsupportalert.com/members/Issues/al_current.htm
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POPSDr. David Evans: Australian Greenhouse Office - 1999 to 2005
There has not been a public debate about the causes of global warming and most of the public and our decision makers are not aware of the most basic salient facts: 1. The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back the temperature as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. They show no hot spot. Whatsoever. If there is no hot spot then an increased greenhouse effect is not the cause of global warming. So we know for sure that carbon emissions are not a significant cause of the global warming. If we had found the greenhouse signature then I would be an alarmist again. When the signature was found to be missing in 2007 (after the latest IPCC report),
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POPSObama's Foreign Contributions And The F.E.C. Here, for example are the tabulations for how much a Karen Olsen, a free lance interpreter from Geneva contributed to Obama's campaign, and how much a Canadian management consultant from Toronto named Ronald Hickel got away with. In a way, Mr. Hickel's misdeeds were even more brazen, as he did it in a number of days and it is listed on contiguous entries on the FEC files. Amazing. Wildly amazing that it would not attract any attention: one would think the goverment would have computers that would sound alarms on stuff like this. There is another aspect of all of this, and is is vaguely reminiscent of a ponzi scheme. The federal government is never actually in possession of this money. It stays with the campaigns. In effect, from the day of receipt until the day the money is spent, it is in control of the Obama campaign, totally without interest. And, if it is refunded, it is without interest.
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POPSDemocrats Consider New Energy Strategy “I think there’s far more support across the board for SPR than anything else,” a senior aide said. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have not said what the final SPR bill would look like, nor have they said what energy measures — which could also include a speculation bill — will be brought to the floor this week or under what rules.
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POPSSen. Obama Scrapped Plans To Visit Landstuhl Medical Center Obama had been planning to go to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany before a flight to Paris. Gibbs said the stop was canceled because Obama decided "it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign." Watch video: 4:05
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POPSObama's Idol Status Overseas Many in Washington were scratching their heads while he (McCain) was traipsing through the jungles of Colombia last month. But then came the freeing of hostages held by the FARC Colombian rebels, and McCain looked, well, presidential. And really, that’s the whole point of these “fact-finding” missions – looking good for the cameras. Perhaps these work vacations by politicians are more sophisticated than they first appear. Maybe Americans appreciate the fact that their presidential candidates are traveling beyond the confines of America and seeing the world firsthand. Perhaps, but do not be deceived. These are trips staged to the finest detail, with little left to chance and happenstance. Obama and McCain know this, and they have treated it as such – an extension of their political campaigns. Why do you think the network anchors are along for the ride? It is surely not because of the news quotient that the “surge” is working.
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POPSThe Democrats' Fairy Tale And the improvements in Anbar could never have been sustained without aggressive American military efforts — efforts that were more effective in 2007 than they had been in 2006, due in part to the addition of the surge forces. Last year’s success, in Anbar and elsewhere, was made possible by confidence among Iraqis that U.S. troops would stay and help protect them, that the U.S. would not abandon them to their enemies. Because the U.S. sent more troops instead of withdrawing — because, in other words, President Bush won his battles in 2007 with the Democratic Congress — we have been able to turn around the situation in Iraq. And now Iraq’s Parliament has passed a de-Baathification law — one of the so-called benchmarks Congress established for political reconciliation. For much of 2007, Democrats were able to deprecate the military progress and political reconciliation taking place on the ground by harping on the failure of the Iraqi government to pass the benchmark legislation
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POPSAbout Obama’s Comments At The Holocaust Memorial And Museum continued; going without at home to help the fighting men overseas. Words matter. Perhaps my words in the post, Obama: WWII won by speaking out as one voice, were not adequate to portray the betrayal of America’s–and the worlds–greatest generation. Perhaps I am simply making too much of nothing. Sure, Obama will say, it was just a euphemism; of course he honors the sacrifices, blah blah blah. But I do not believe this is the truth. I believe that his words do mean something. His words assault the reality and remove the sacrifices. His words turn my grandparents and great uncles and great aunts into nothing, pushed aside in favor of modern liberal rhetoric with no goal beyond winning an election. Our greatest generation did not speak out. They fought; they sacrificed; they died; and, ultimately, they saved the world.
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POPSA USAF Captain’s Observation Of Obama’s Visit To Afghanistan So really he was just here to make a showing for the Americans back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you. I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States . I just don’t understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-in-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country. If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake. In service, CPT J Bagram, Afghanistan
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POPSWall Street Likes The Bailout Plus Drill, Drill, Drill But my thought is that a Senate victory might just blow Pelosi out of the water and open the floodgates to Democratic defections in the House. If a drilling bill ever passes Congress, oil prices will keep on plunging — perhaps all the way to $75 a barrel, which is the profitable break-even point for lifting the extra barrel of oil. That would drive the Dow to somewhere between 15,000 and 16,000, and it would have a huge tax-cut effect on the economy. And, of course, it could completely change the November election outlook in a highly favorable way for the GOP. The conventional wisdom says Republicans are gonna get clobbered again this fall. But drill, drill, drill would overturn that wisdom. More drilling today would have the potency of the Reagan tax cuts 28 years ago in the 1980 landslide race. But the GOP has got to make the case. And deregulating oil, which is great policy, would offset much of the bad policy pain coming out of the Fannie-Freddie housing bailout.
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POPSMessiah Lies About His Senate Committee Assignment John explains the rest: But Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee's action as one of "my deeds." If committed by a Republican, this would be a gaffe of historic proportions. Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is " committee," strikes me as another sign of Obama's megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter. Illinois Senator's Record Of Inaction Leaves Him Discredited WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by the Republican National Committee: As Chairman Of The Subcommittee With NATO Oversight, Obama Has Failed To Hold Any Hearings On Afghanistan:
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POPS"Honor Killings" In America but multiculturalism hits a crossroads when honor killings come to America. The United States has avoided this bloodstained trend until recently. Some consider Kanwal's death the first documented honor killing here. Others point to the murder of sisters Amina and Sarah Said in Irving, Texas, on New Years' 2007. (Their MySpace page remains up. Featuring assimilated teen culture and American music, it is haunting.) Their father remains on the run from police. In upstate Monroe County just a few days ago, a girl was stabbed by her brother for wearing immodest western clothing and wanting to move to New York City. According to court documents, Waheed Allah Mohammad explained the stabbing by saying his sister was a "bad Muslim girl." "Honor killing is a misnomer," author and exile Ayaan Hirsi Ali told me. "The killing occurs because these girls have allegedly brought shame on their family. The paradox is that these are individuals who have emancipated themselves.
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POPSHey Pal, Can You Spare $100 Billion? Since then the shelves of many shops and supermarkets have been largely bare, except when owners are prepared to risk being caught charging prices that reflect the cost of importing goods from South Africa. Huge queues form outside any bakery selling bread at a controlled price, and demand far outstrips supply.
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POPSMagical Thinking vs. Reality amount to $1.05 to $1.38 per gallon, or 42 to 55 percent of ethanol's wholesale market price. Ethanol does not reduce gasoline prices. If you lived in urban areas that used reformulated gasoline last summer -- that's the environmentally "clean" gasoline required for areas with air pollution problems -- you might have paid up to 60 cents a gallon more for gasoline. That's because the federal government required oil refineries to use 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, regardless of price, and gas pump prices last summer reflected the fact that ethanol was twice as expensive as conventional gas in wholesale markets, and far more costly to deliver. The truth is that if ethanol has commercial merit, it doesn't need the subsidy. And if it doesn't, no amount of subsidy will bestow it.
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POPSVanity Fair Cover Satirizes John McCain "We had our own presidential campaign cover in the works, which explored a different facet of the Politics of Fear, but we shelved it when The New Yorker's became the "It Girl" of the blogosphere," Vanity Fair writes. "Now, however, in a selfless act of solidarity with our downstairs neighbors here at the Condé Nast building, we'd like to share it with you. Confidentially, of course."
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POPSMedia "Obamathon" Couric Showcases Obama Over McCain The Media Is In Love With Barack It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair. Watch the video 2:56 http://www.johnmccain.com/ It has been an Obamathon ever since the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee touched down in Afghanistan. At today's press conference in Amman, a throng of reporters recorded his every move. In total, 200 journalists requested seats on “Air Obama” -- 40 of them were accepted. The bill for the trip? About $20,000 each.
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POPSWatermelon: Three Juicy Benefits Watermelon: Best Not Chilled Ice-cold watermelon on a steamy summer day really hits the spot. But you'll be best served by keeping it on your countertop until cutting time. Whole watermelons stored at room temperature deliver more cell-protecting antioxidants (specifically lycopene and beta carotene) than refrigerated or freshly picked melons. Here's why A Chilling Effect After it's picked, watermelon continues to ripen and build up antioxidants. Cold temperatures appear to cut this process short. So leave your watermelon out, as long as you haven't sliced it. After it's cut, it should be stored in the refrigerator for food-safety reasons. And don't forget to wash your watermelon before cutting it to avoid this.
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POPSThis Is So Much More "Changier" I mean Barack H. Obama is doing some pretty wacky things on this tour. Sitting in Head of state chairs, negotiating foreign policy, utilizing terrorist organizations for security, issuing dress code to the paparazzi, I mean media, hehe, speaking from historic monuments in Germany, all as if he were the actual POTUS? But this must be the best (Worst) thing yet! Of course I hedge that bet as we are only into day two, so we do have some more fun in store I'm sure. That being said, it seems our Jr Senator has decided to remove the US flag and insignia from the US aircraft he is using and opted instead for the logo for his 08 campaign? Maybe this wouldn't be such a big deal if it were not for the fact that he is on a US taxpayer excursion!
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POPSAfghanistan: Obama Sees Problems; McCain Sees A solution The differences are not small ones, and reflect a distinction between the kind of staff-driven, laundry-list mush that sees the immensity of a problem and a leader-driven set of priorities that sees a solution. It is the distinction between Obama's opposition to the Iraq surge and McCain's support for it: not just the courage to make the tough choice, but the clarity to follow the right course. It's also the distinction between winning the war and simply ending it. Thomas Donnelly is the Resident Fellow in Foreign & Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
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POPSNow Bush Is Appeasing Iran joined envoys from France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany in talks with Saeed Jalili -- Iran's nuclear negotiator and an Ahmadinejad confidant -- about incentives to give to Tehran. ven with record oil prices, mismanagement has driven the Iranian economy into the ground. On July 14, the Ministry of Housing reported an "historical" 125% rise in housing prices. The same day, Tabnak, a news Web site run by a former head of the IRGC, admitted foodstuff inflation had reached 50% annually. On July 8, 2008, a National Iranian Oil Company executive acknowledged in the Iranian press that, without significant investment in infrastructure, Iranian oil production would decline each year by 300,000 barrels a day. In the past month alone, Iranian workers have struck for unpaid wages at the Khodro automotive plant (which assembles Peugeots), the Alburz Tire Company, and the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane factory.
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POPSFalun Gong Targeted Ahead Of Beijing Olympics authorities have instead been using the Olympics as a pretext to escalate persecutions of religious and political dissidents. Chinese authorities fear that Falun Gong, along with Tibetans, Uighurs, and other dissidents, may use the international media presence during the games to draw attention to their causes. "It is now imperative that the international community leverage real pressure and stop these deplorable actions, lest the legacy of the 2008 Olympics be hundreds of Beijing residents languishing in labor camps," Zhang said. The apparent animosity towards Falun Gong on the part of the Beijing Olympics organizer is hardly new. In 2004, the head of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, Liu Qi, was found liable in a U.S. federal court for his role in the torture of Falun Gong practitioners while he was serving as mayor of Beijing.
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POPSChavez Meets Russia's Medvedev For Trade Talks "We expect the signing of a range of contracts" in the arms sector, a member of the Venezuelan delegation was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. He added that purchases could include Russian tanks and submarines. Chavez was also due to meet Sergei Chemezov, who oversees Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, a Kremin source said Tuesday. Rosoboronexport spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko declined to comment about specific weapons deals, but he told AFP the two sides had drafted a document providing a "legal basis" for future arms deliveries. The Kommersant daily said Tuesday that a complicating factor in talks could be Venezuela's relationship with its neighbour Colombia, which accuses Chavez of aiding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel group. If Russian weapons surface in the conflict zone, Moscow would be threatened not only with a significant worsening of relations with Bogota, but with Washington too,"
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POPSMaliki's Bet Mr. Obama, he is also placing one on Mr. McCain, which is that in the event the Republican is elected, he will place principle and the national interest over politics and petty vindictiveness. For our part we see the emergence of an Iraq making its own choices in these matters rather than having them dictated by the American ambassador or American generals as yet another sign of victory in the Battle of Iraq. The Iraqis want America as their friends whether Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain is president. For all the talk by critics of how the Iraq War supposedly alienated America from the world, here is an administration in Baghdad maneuvering for a friend in the White House.
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POPSSupport Of Obama Shaped By Ahmad Chalabi Advice security decisions of Iraq's army to forward a Shiite confessional agenda. The role of Mr. Chalabi, whose party failed to gain any seats in the 2005 federal parliamentary elections, should be of interest to close watchers of the Bush administration. While Mr. Chalabi has clashed with both the American embassy and at times with Mr. Maliki, he nonetheless is still regarded among the Shiite political class as knowledgeable of American politics from his days lobbying for the Iraq Liberation Act in Washington. At the time, in the late 1990s, Senator McCain was one of Mr. Chalabi's biggest supporters. Mr. Brooke yesterday pointed out that Mr. Chalabi was appointed in 2007 by Mr. Maliki to chair a special committee aimed at restoring basic services to the citizens of Baghdad. "Maliki was number two in the Debaathification commission from the beginning when it was started in 2003. He has been in constant contact with Dr. Chalabi since that time," Mr. Brooke said.
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POPSRussian Bombers Could Be Deployed To Cuba It was unclear if the source was suggesting that Russia would reopen a base in Cuba or merely use an airfield there for stopovers by the bombers, Tu-160s and Tu-95s, which are already capable of reaching the United States from bases in Russia. Russian strategic bombers, long mothballed, resumed worldwide patrols last year under orders from then-President Vladimir Putin. The flights have continued under his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Aircraft from the NATO alliance have repeatedly scrambled as the bombers approached but did not enter the airspace of alliance countries. The Russian bombers also buzzed low over the USS Nimitz, an American aircraft carrier, in the Pacific Ocean this year. The United States says it wants to deploy tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland as a defensive measure against missiles that might be fired from countries such as Iran.
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POPSGeneral Obama Calls For Shift Of U.S. Forces To Afghanistan Obama, who has made his opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq five years ago a centerpiece of his campaign, was in Baghdad to assess security in Iraq, where violence has fallen to its lowest level since early 2004. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Obama did not mention his pledge to remove U.S. combat troops within 16 months if he takes office in talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. But in comments suggesting Iraq and Obama are not far apart on the timeframe, Dabbagh said Baghdad's goal was for foreign combat forces to leave by the end of 2010 if security conditions allowed. Dabbagh has floated a similar timeframe before. "We cannot give any timetables or dates but the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal of the forces," Dabbagh told reporters. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080721/pl_nm/iraq_dc
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POPSHezbollah Brigades Propaganda Specialist Captured In Baghdad Shia terror groups have launched a handful of IRAM attacks on US and Iraqi outposts in Baghdad. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/mahdi_army_uses_flyi.php Hezbollah Brigades also posted video of an attack on a US patrol with an Iranian-supplied, armor-piercing, explosively formed projectile, or EFP. The capture of the Hezbollah Brigades propaganda expert is the latest in a series of raids against Shia terrorists. Scores of Special Groups operatives have been captured over the past month, including senior leaders, weapons smugglers, financiers, trainers, and cell leaders.
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POPSBarack Obama Will Do The Unthinkable In London This Week With the world as his stage, Obama, 46, hopes to persuade Americans that he is ready to become commander-in-chief. His minders are determined there will be no pictures of him in a flak-jacket or tank looking wimpish — the cause of Michael Dukakis’s downfall in the 1988 White House race. A poll in The Washington Post last week showed that 72% of Americans thought McCain, a Vietnam war hero, would make a good commander-in-chief; only 48% felt the same way about Obama. Yet the global coming of the Obamessiah is manna for critics who claim the Illinois senator has embarked on a humourless cult of personality. Exhibit A last week was his po-faced reaction to a satirical cartoon on the cover of The New Yorker showing Obama as a turban-wearing Muslim and his wife Michelle with a black-power Afro, wearing military fatigues. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4363044.ece
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