Afghanistan Hit With Rockets And Shells From Pakistan

This is why our missiles sometimes go astray and land in Pakistan.

Three artillery rounds landed near the ISAF base and three rounds landed inside an Afghan army compound, it said. "ISAF forces determined the origination of the rounds to be in Pakistan and returned artillery fire in self-defense."

The Pakistani military was notified immediately when ISAF forces came under fire, the statement said. The armies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF maintain open channels of communication to avoid escalating any conflict.

A suspected Taliban rocket also hit a hospital in the northeastern town of Asadabad close to the Pakistan border on Saturday, killing one man and wounding another man and a woman, provincial Governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi said. He said the rocket appeared to have been fired from across the border inside Pakistan.

Proof Saddam Had Ties To Al-Qaeda

"Saddam, meet Ayman Al-Zawahiri, you wanted to talk to him about a terrorist operation". In case some of you don't know, Al-Zawahiri is al-Qaeda's #1 guy (used to be #2, but since Bin Laden is dead, I guess he's #1 now).

The Kurdish daily Kurdistani Nwe has published a 2002 letter from the Iraqi presidency that it says proves that there was cooperation between the regime of Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

The letter, which appeared on the paper's front page, was published by the intelligence apparatus of the Iraqi presidency and discussed an intention to meet with Ayman Al-Zawahiri in order to examine a plan drawn up by the Iraqi presidency to carry out a "revenge operation" in Saudi Arabia.

More evidence there were ties with Saddam & al-Qaeda from Gateway Pundit:

Picture Proof: The Saddam-Al Qaeda Connections

NYT: Saddam Was a Year Away from Building A-Bomb!

The Saddam-Al Qaeda Links: In Photos and Video

Bush Did Not Lie!... Saddam Officials Had "Good Relationship" With Zarqawi

 

h/t: DFU

Al-Mahdi Army Turns French, Surrenders Without A Shot Fired

This die-hard militia, vowing to fight to the death, give up when Iraqi forces enter the city...without a single shot fired.

They came at dawn, thousands of Iraqi troops and US special forces on a mission to reclaim a lawless city from the militias who ran it.

By the end of the day, al-Amarah was under Iraqi Government control - without a shot being fired.

The city had been taken over by the Shia al-Mahdi Army two years ago after British troops handed it to an ill-prepared Iraqi Army. “We can't say al-Amarah was entirely bad, there are good people here, poor people. But the city was controlled by the al-Mahdi Army, and these people are all backed by Iran,” said Captain Hussein Ali of the Scorpion police brigade, one of the Iraqi units drafted in to take part in Operation Omen of Peace.

In other news: a giant sandstorm developed in Iraq when they all threw their hands up at the same time.

Firefox 3 Now Available

The Goreacle's Home Energy Use Has Increased 10%

Hypocrisy? I think not. It's do as I say, not as do...sheeple!

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

[...]

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

In February 2007, An Inconvenient Truth, a film based on a climate change speech developed by Gore, won an Academy Award for best documentary feature. The next day, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research uncovered that Gore’s Nashville home guzzled 20 times more electricity than the average American household.

After the Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposed Gore’s massive home energy use, the former Vice President scurried to make his home more energy-efficient. Despite adding solar panels, installing a geothermal system, replacing existing light bulbs with more efficient models, and overhauling the home’s windows and ductwork, Gore now consumes more electricity than before the “green” overhaul.

Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations – at a cost of $16,533. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

New Obama T-Shirt From TShirtHell.com

It's so funny, I couldn't help but post it.

Good News From The War On Terror

Monday, 16 June 2008
Iraqi Army, U.S. Soldiers capture militant in Muthanna (Baghdad)

Monday, 16 June 2008
Mosul bombing cell disrupted

Monday, 16 June 2008
ISOF capture suspected Special Groups criminal (Balad)

Monday, 16 June 2008
IA, MND-B Soldiers uncover weapons in Baghdad

Monday, 16 June 2008
Coalition forces destroy AQI hideout (Tikrit)

Monday, 16 June 2008
ISF detain five suspected AQI cell members in Balad

Monday, 16 June 2008
‘Vehicle medics’ convoys rolling in central Iraq (Balad)

Monday, 16 June 2008
Al Hillah SWAT team captures suspected Special Groups

Monday, 16 June 2008
IA, MND-B Soldiers uncover weapons caches (Baghdad)

Monday, 16 June 2008
Video Available: IPs graduate corrections course (Al-Asad)

Monday, 16 June 2008
Soldiers capture two militants, NPs detain suspects (Baghdad)

Monday, 16 June 2008
MND-B Soldiers detain Special Groups criminal leader

Monday, 16 June 2008
IA Soldiers discover several weapons caches in Sadr City

Odd Articles Dump

Guy kidnaps ex-girlfriend to iron his clothes and wash the dishes

An Italian man was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend from a pub, taking her home and forcing her to iron his clothes and wash the dishes, police said Monday.

The 43-year-old man dragged the woman out of a pub in the port city of Genoa, shoved her into a car and took her to his home where he made her iron and wash dishes after threatening her, they said.

 

Village knowingly re-elects dead mayor

The residents of a Romanian village knowingly voted in a dead man as their mayor in Sunday's municipal election, preferring him to his living opponent.

Neculai Ivascu, 57, who ran the village for almost two decades, died from liver disease just after voting began -- but still won the election by a margin of 23 votes.

[...]

In the end, election authorities gave the post to the runner-up, but some villagers and Ivascu's party, the powerful opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD), have called for a new vote.

 

Escaped thief asks police to open handcuffs

A man caught breaking into a German supermarket late at night escaped despite being handcuffed to railings -- only to be arrested after he ran to a nearby police station to get the cuffs removed.

Scientists Create Bugs That Eat Waste And Poop Crude Oil

I have a found a new investment. If and when this project goes mainstream, it could eliminate food waste and at the same time solve our oil crisis.

They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-de-signing their DNA. “Five to seven years ago, that process would have taken months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says. “Now it can take weeks and cost maybe $20,000.”

Because crude oil (which can be refined into other products, such as petroleum or jet fuel) is only a few molecular stages removed from the fatty acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, it does not take much fiddling to get the desired result.

For fermentation to take place you need raw material, or feedstock, as it is known in the biofuels industry. Anything will do as long as it can be broken down into sugars, with the byproduct ideally burnt to produce electricity to run the plant.

The company is not interested in using corn as feedstock, given the much-publicised problems created by using food crops for fuel, such as the tortilla inflation that recently caused food riots in Mexico City. Instead, different types of agricultural waste will be used according to whatever makes sense for the local climate and economy: wheat straw in California, for example, or woodchips in the South.

Using genetically modified bugs for fermentation is essentially the same as using natural bacteria to produce ethanol, although the energy-intensive final process of distillation is virtually eliminated because the bugs excrete a substance that is almost pump-ready

27yo Man Beats 2yo Boy To Death

I read this story yesterday in the newspaper and found it extremely disturbing.

Sergio Casian Aguilar, 27, parked his truck on an unlit road Saturday night, removed a 2-year-old boy from his car seat and proceeded to stomp, kick and punch the boy to death, authorities said. The boy was unrecognizable when he was pronounced dead at Emanuel Medical Center, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said.

[...]

Several motorists called 911 and tried to stop the beating, authorities said.

Dan Robinson, a local volunteer fire department chief, told The Modesto Bee that at first glance, he thought the child was a dead animal in the road. He said when he realized it was a child, he tried to stop Aguilar.

[...]

Responding to 911 calls, a Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department helicopter landed in a dairy pasture near the scene. A Modesto police officer, Jerry Ramar, fatally shot Aguilar after he failed to heed the officer's warning to stop beating the child, authorities said. Aguilar flashed his middle finger at Ramar before Ramar shot him in the forehead, police said.

I find it interesting that "several motorists...tried to stop the beating". I wonder what these people actually did. Did they say, "Oh, please stop"? The man was not armed, so the risk of death was extremely low. If I had happened to see this, I would've said, "stop" only once, after that, he would be choking on a tire iron.

One last note, Excellent shot Officer Ramar. Unfortunately; I believe your problems are just beginning. Not only do you have to live with killing someone, but you may likely face disciplinary action by the PD for shooting an unarmed man (who absolutely deserved it). Then, of course, you may face a wrongful death lawsuit from the family.

It's a wonderful world we live in.

 

***UPDATE 12:40PM 06/20/08***

Emperor Misha wrote an excellent post that was nearly identical to what I was thinking, but didn't write.

Hamas Needs To Re-Arm, Agrees To Truce

Hamas has apparently run low on rockets to fire at Israel and has agreed to a truce while they re-arm. This truce will last about two months before they do something to provoke the Israeli's. Of course the Israeli's will strike back and then Hamas runs around screaming for the UN and saying, "see, see, they violated the truce". Hamas will start launching their newly acquired rockets again and when they run out, the process begins again.

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will begin on Thursday, a Palestinian official said, after Israeli air strikes killed six militants in the Gaza Strip.

The official, who is familiar with the truce negotiations, said on Tuesday the two sides agreed to a six-month deal. He voiced confidence the latest violence would not hold up the start of the agreement to end constant bloodshed.

[...]

A ceasefire would aim to end rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Israeli raids in the territory. Israel has said it would continue preparations for broad military action should a truce fall apart.