Sad, sad, stuff. All of this perpetuates the conflict.

Gee, thank you Mr. President. Not.

Time again to bring out the all-time best ever opinion piece on the Palistinian issue ever written.

Why Don't I Care About the Palestinians?

They urgently need money to buy better American flags, the ones that they burn now are second class.

Always seem to have money to buy guns and explosives.

Twenty-Million - doesnt all spending come from congress? How does Bush give 20 million or does he already have approval or does he dole it from a specific fund he has authority over?

from the article:

The money is to help pay utility services, including the payment of arrears to Israeli utility companies.

I hope it is a direct US to Israel payment...

The least we couldd do is insist on American auditors being allowed to go over all the Pali financial books. I sure we would find the most amazing things...and the most amazing amount of missing money. Bush should make it clear to the Palis, the UN, and the EU, that unless our auditors are allowed access to everything, the Palis don't get a dime. And after the audit, US auditors should be on site from now on to monitor every dime. Then, and only then, some of us might support money going to real, actual people who need it.

"There is no escape from justice, nothing can be unearned and unpaid for in the universe, neither in matter nor in spirit-and if the guilty do not pay, then the innocent have to pay it."

The above quote was from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". I believe it was the Hank Reardon character.

WTF? Arafish, who's worth more than 300 million dollars, croaks, and instead of the US telling the "Palestinians" to hunt down some of the hundreds of millions stolen from them, we're gonna just give them more millions? I don't get it.

At first glance, I thought the first sentence read, Parisians did this.

Not that that would surprise me. Mais non.

And, that doesn't count the 1.3 billion they got from 1993-2004.

I would like to donate to the palistinians, too. My money should go to a new fund which would send them on vacation to Cairo or Amman, where they can soak up the local culture and be so welcomed by the locals.

(Of course the ticket is one-way, and we all remember how Jordan and Egypt feels about the Palis.)

Why are we giving them another huge handout?

Why do we give Egypt $2,000,000,000 every year?

Because both are the loving-leftist-compassionate-conservative-get-me-r eelected easiest thing to do.

Why is there a House Ways an Means Committee and why will we never see a flat tax and zero entitlements?

Because the power to grant special tax status is the loving-leftist-compassionate-conservative-get-me-r eelected easiest thing to do.

It will NEVER stop until Americans end confiscatory taxation and choke-off Uncle Sugar's blood supply. Never.

WTF?

How about a financial crisis due to arafat's stealing them blind for his own personal gain. Perhaps if he had used that money from the rest of the world to build schools and help people start up their business' and yes hosptals too, then they would have been better off. But the care and feeding of what is called the palestinian people were never high on his list. They were simply a tool to be used for the destruction of Israel.

# 8 LthrNck

And your quotation is from ?
Or is it vol. I of your Collected Works ?

/sorry for my ignorance...

Money down the drain...you can't buy friends

Gee, I hope they use it to build better bombs.

I can't believe that George Bush is still funding terrorism? Whatever happened to you are either with us or against us? I didn't hear an exception for murdering Jews. But I take it that is the case.

They really don't know where Arafats money is... he ripped them off real good. Now the $$$ are all probably in the hands of Swiss Bankers...

Why don't I get a 20 million bailout?

Yeah, the US treasury is only $7 trillion in the hole; let's throw $20 million to the Paloids.

With any luck, the leaders will just steal it, rather than using it to buy terrorist weapons.

safetyblitz,

20 mil would buy my friendship.

How is giving the Palestenians more of American's hard earned money going to solve any of their problems or bring stability to the region? I just don't understand the reasoning or the mentality behind this.

What about the sale of missiles to Jordan?

A fool and his money are easily separated.

Oh, please tell me we didn't send cash.

Government surplus cheese sure.

Qunset huts, pencils, spongebob squarepants stickers for the kids, but not cash.

This is absolutely STUPID! In 2001, Loyalists in North Belfast terrorised (attacked) small girls who were trying to go to school. They did this to the extent that they got world-wide media coverage. They said it was a "protest". Well, that was bullshit. And so is this. They got £7+ million to stop their "protest". How big of them...they could be bought off from attacking wee Catholic girls (ages 4 - 11) with bricks, bottles, piss balloons, blast bombs, etc. This crap with Palestine is the same kind of thing. American tax dollars are being used to pay for this - it needs to be shouted from the bloody rooftops what's going on!

Excellent point. I used to ask the same question abou the Overtown and Liberty City (inner city) neighborhoods of Miami.

Why should we (i.e. taxpayers) continue to pour millions in redevelopment projects and economic aid to impoverished black communities when they inevitably RIOT and burn everything down.

When will that community lift themselves up, stop blaming everyone else, and take some responsibility. This is exactly the same as the Palestinians. After a while, you just want to say #$%%^&^ them.

I'm shocked...
[foundation shanking]
Our boys are digging through the junkyards in Iraq for metal to weld to the side of their Humvees and were doing...what?

All I can say is IF the PLO collapses, there will be a complete breakdown in command and control (what little exists) and things might get pretty violent as palistinians start to panic.

Enron only with AK-47's and RPG's..

You hate to feed the stray dog, but it's better than the stray dog eating your cat.

Little condolance though...

They could easily raise the cash by auctioning off 5% of Suha's jewelry at Sotheby's. But that's unacceptable -- think how dowdy she'd look shopping on the Champs Elysees!

On a serious note: mainly, this is just for show on Bush's part. $20 million is peanuts when it comes to foreign aid. He just wants to able to say that he gives aid to Palestine too, not just Israel. Lip service, as it were.

Of course, it's a totally futile effort on Bush's part, and the $20 million will not buy him one dime of affection from the "international community." It just $20 million of OUR tax money down the drain. I can only hope that the vast majority of it goes to pay the Israeli utility companies that have been sending water and electricity to Palestine for free, out of the goodness of their hearts.

#3: great article. i have to agree, these people are hopeless.

This is going to bring the bats out of the cave

Somebody who knows more about our government than me:

1. Where did Bush find this money?

2. How did he get his hands on it / the right to spend it?

3. What can I do to stop it?

4. Charles, if I write my Congressman, can I steal your prose?

Thanks ...

#17 Poitiers-Lepanto

see #9

#9 LthrNck

Ayn Rand was a major influence on my becoming a conservative. I guess it is true for many others.

Did you know that Alan Greenspan was a member in her group of intellectual friends?

Does anyone have a protest link or something to stop this!
That money will be used to kill more of us.

Maybe President Bush is becoming a Dhimmi?

He even has an Arab/Muslim bodyguard

[Link: vdare.com...]

Helping the Palestinians?

No In My Name!

I was thinking, in the last few days, that this kind of attitude is indeed prolonging the conflict.

Why? Because the palestinians will never really feel their defeat and failure, in this way. When they are one centimeter from drowning in the pool of faeces by themselves created, some external help will drag them out, to start another cicle.

The only way to end the conflict, sad but true, is for the palestinians to suffer and despair, until they will acknowledge defeat and failure, and thus accept Israel and a real peace agreement.

Uh PC STOOPIDITY maybe? OR something more sinistar? Either way it's absolute insanity to do ANYTHING to prolong "palastinian" existance. They (the Jordiptians AKA Paleostinians) are an abomination before all who care to see.

zulubaby,

Please tell me you faked that documant on a '70's era typewriter.

Arafat was skimming close to that amount every month from their treasury.

Haven't heard much lately about the billions their criminal leadership has stashed away. Something tells me they are trying to track it down O.J. style.

#3: Sarah D.

Excellent article, thank you. Indeed: where were the Hong Kong suicide bombers?

Ummm, PIMF. #41 should be:

Helping the Palestinians?

Not In My Name

Mightmakesright is absolutely correct! The money should be better spent further protecting US soldiers and coalition forces in Iraq instead of giving it to an America-hating country such as Palestine.

#3 Sarah D.

Funny is the line "Where in the Arab world is there a trace or a spark of democracy? " Of course after he wrote that line we now see where, only in "occupied" Iraq, and "occupied" Palestine.

What a joke...

It seems fairly logical to me: the last 5 years have demonstrated that ignoring the Palestinian problem will not made it go away. In the worst case scenario, this money just goes to fund more terrorism, and in the best case, it actually makes a difference and helps the Palestinian people to realize what a huge mistake they have been making.

If it goes to terrorism, it is just a drop in the bucket. With Arafat's death, though, there is a realistic probability that the money will actually help people. If there was ever a time to try and show the Palestinian people that we want to help if they will let us, it is now.

Aeron (#48),

America-hating country such as Palestine.

Palestine isn't a country, never was, never will be.

Bob with one O, if only :-(

Actually this is an update - it might not be as bad as it initially soudned.

But the White House imposed restrictions on the $20 million in direct aid approved by Bush: the authority will use it to pay Palestinian utility bills owed to Israeli companies

I think the fifth act to this 50 year old nightmare is about to begin--the takedown of Syria and Iran. IF they go down, the Paleos will be isolated, undermined and forced to cut bait or fish.

Today's stories are public accusations by American generals and Pentagon officials that Syria is controlling much of the "insurgency" in Iraq. Combined with the public warnings against Iran made by Abizaid and Rumseld last week, it appears the Administration may finally setting the ground for major action in the near future. I hope.

Just disgusting...why doesn't the US just send it to al-Queda? How can we fight a war against terrorism and give aid to terrorists at the same time. And, pleaseee don't tell me, "but this money goes to the palistinian people who need help." I don't care one wit if they need help or not, they're worthless, always have been and always will be. Cut the damn aid and if their fellow arabs give a shit about them, they can help them.

Pearls before swine.

To don't_think_twice...You want to show them you care? Somewhere it's in the Bible that it's better to teach one how to fish than to give one a fish. And $20,000,000...that's a lot of fish. But more...they won't be grateful no matter what the US does for them - the hate in engrained deep within their psyches. They hate Bush and the US. How much of that $20,000,000 is going to be used against the US and/or Israel? I have my own opinion of that. Suffice it to say the US might as well just give the Palestinians guns, bombs, etc, as that's what it's going to be used for.

Geepers - point taken.

20 million is nothing in the greater scheme of foreign aid, however 20 million can mean a lot in terms of death, destruction and influence. Think Saddams payments of 25k to suicide bombers had no impact?

We really need to rethink our foreign aid appropriation and the alleged benefits it provides. I think it is mistake to start thinking payments to UN, foreign countries, etc. are minimal in comparison to the total budget. Damn, I know I could use $20 million.

The commerce clause and the general welfare clause have been bastardized by Sup. Ct. and Congress and are slowly destroying and weakening this country from within.

I repeat...

27 zulubaby

What about the sale of missiles to Jordan?

And what about turning a blind eye to Mubarak? Look what he gets, now take a good hard look at what he gives back. What has he done to help in the war on terror or the Iraq war? NOTHING! Just think, his media wreaks with hate for Jews and Israel. He allows tunnels to be dug to smuggle weapons to kill our families and for this he too is rewarded.

History will look most unkindly at the events of these past years as a monumental blunder, a sham made of lies which once again took the lives of innocent Jews.

geepers,

It would appear to the rest of the world it does.

: (

#59 dll2000

Patience... there are strategical reasons for some of this coziness with less-than-friendly countries.

An historical example is the huge amounts of military aid given by the USA and UK to URSS during WWII.

not one to deny anyone help - and tat is what the palestinians need - psychiatric or financial.

wasnt it this presidency tat refused to work with the palestinians until they have a democratic leadership not tainted by terror!

money is fungible!

give them 20 million to cover expenses this frees up all the money they were using before for other uses!

and what if Hamas win the election!

call it an early present!

even the saudis balk at giving the PA money!

things like this should be left to us idiot europeans!

de facto Jizya

I wouldn't pay $20 to keep the whole stinking society afloat. And we're coughing up $20 million?

Thanks, Bush. For a while there, I thought you had balls.

#38 Aquatic Cadaver Dog:
Greenspan as well as a signficant majority of CEO's across the nation. According to a library of Congress survey, Atlas Shrugged was rated second most influential book. The bible was #1. It definitely had a significant impact on my life. And, it is still very relevant today.

I don't know if GWB knows everything State does (I'm sure this is from the State budget) before they do it.

I'd agree not to detonate myself for $50,000. Really.

Has Rand been translated in Arabic? She should be mandatory reading for all Arabs.

Unfortunately, the money never gets down to the levels that benefit the common people (who have been brainwashed to into hatred against the U.S.) The Islamofascist dictators keep it for themselves, or to fund more acts of hatred against us.

Bush is now kissing ass trying to repair the alliances with Europe. Why? I've got two guesses:

(1) To rescue the dollar as a currency. He'd do a better job of that by reducing the freakin' national debt and making US Treasury bonds a more tempting foreign investment target.
(2) He's trying to play the UN's diplomacy games to stop Iran. He cannot use the Iraq stunt again -- that much has been made clear. It will backfire like a potato stuck in an M-60. So, he has to find another way to stop Iran before those nukes get used, to everyone's sorrow.

#1 is bullshit. #2 -- well, I can kind of see what he's trying to do, I just wish there were a better way. At least when it doesn't work, he can say "see, your way doesn't work, now shut your cakeholes and be useful".

It could also be that he's just trying to bide his time and shove a pacifier in Iran's mouth until Iraq elects its own leaders.

Of course the bigger outrage is (or should be) we send Egypt 2 BILLION dollars a year.

What exactly are we getting for that?

20 million dollars of "Awaken The Giant Within" books?

#59 dll2000

Patience... there are strategical reasons for some of this coziness with less-than-friendly countries.

An historical example is the huge amounts of military aid given by the USA and UK to URSS during WWII.

Who is the URSS? Typo? USSR?

I was not arguing in favor of ending relations with less-than-friendly countries or even ending all aid if it buys us influence. I am arguing in favor of reappropriating our priorities and using more stick and less carrot with our money. Right now its seems we are all carrot and no stick. I think we need to reevaluate appropriations on an annual basis. Right now we are acting like bad parents constantly rewarding bad behaviour.

Sigh. I understand that you have to have a carrot on the end of the stick, but I sure would like to see a lot more stick.

Tim McNabb
fivehundredwords.com

A better way to reward terrorism, courtesy of the USMC Embassy detail in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, and the New York Daily News (story by Corky Siemaszko on routine heroics of our Marines)

What could the Bush administration possibly be thinking of other than the outright appeasement of a new terrorist regime?

Has the PA suddenly become a model of responsible government since the death of Arafat? The last time I checked the PA was still the same thugocracy it has always been.

Who, in the end, will actually get this money?

I know it's meant to help the elctoral "process."

But really... Whose pockets will it end up in?

Speaking of Egypt! (from my reply #60 to zulubaby)

Crowd of Coptic Christians overrun Cairo church, hurl stones at police in protest of forced conversion of woman to Islam (AP)

#71

the 2 billion a year to Egypt was money well spent!

it allows the egyptian steet from pushing to change government and demanding action to reverse the oddity that they see is israel!

the good thing is that it all goes straight back to the US as they spend it all on generally out of date weapons.

if it wasnt for that i would say that egypt would have left its kleptocracy behind and be instituting or trying to institute the Shari'a by now.

#68 Super Fly

The number of books translated in Arabic is abismally low.

#73 dll2000

Actually, URSS is the Italian acronym for USSR - in italian, adjectives usually come after names.

I agree that the priorities in giving money to this and that country should be redefined.

#68 Super fly: I think the Islamists burn every book other than the Koran, which makes an interesting comparison to Nazi Germany in my opinion.

Why translate firewood?!

'Scuse me while I scream. Orla Guerin has just been doing her 'Israelis bad, Palestinians good' in 'occupied Palestinian territory' propaganda on the BBC news. The BBC has ignored the continuing violence from the palestinians - their attempted terrorist attacks stopped by soldiers, their missiles fired from Gaza. Instead, Orla tells us about the shooting of the 13 year old girl and tells us that, basically, the IDF are an immoral lot. She found a helpful refuse-to-serve soldier to assist her with her demonization of IsraelisJews.

I dashed off an indignant message on the BBC's new feedback section. The response was:

Thank you for your feedback

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

We cannot guarantee to respond individually to each e-mail but we make every effort to read as many as we can.

"We make every effort to read as many as we can." Translation - "We are going to ignore it."

FabioC

#73 dll2000

Actually, URSS is the Italian acronym for USSR - in italian, adjectives usually come after names.

Thanks I suspected that it was a foreign acronym. Are you Italian or Italian-American (American)?

$20,000,000 because .. the truth of the matter is that W
is a big whoosh... The real reason he got re elected is that
the demwits are too stupid to run a real person as a canidate.

W still believes we can salvage some muslims here in USA.
WRONG!

there will never be peace in ME until one of the sides is gone.
we better all pray it isn't Isreal.

Islam is a murdering cult that we have to deal with now...
sending them money ... boy thats the way to do it!

If the good Lord had meant for us to vote... He would give
us canidates.

#82: LMAO! Translate firewood, that's priceless! I was going to go so far as to say "translate toilet paper", but I think the prophet has urged them to use an odd amount of stones to take care of the job.

On a thread yesterday, someone brought up the fact that the baleos had gotten more money in aid than Europe did in the Marshall Plan. Europe rebuilt itself- the baleos haven't even gotten around to building anything in the first place.

1.- JAG SAMEAJ !, HAPPY HANUKKAH !

2.- I don't agree with President Bush, but I understand him. Almost all the international community, the U.N., all the muslims of the world and a lot of moonbats of your own country, always are protesting against the help that the USA give to Israel, so, I think that Dubya has a lot of preassure on him.

3.- Download this video. This is in what the palestinians spend the money. (It is a very shocking video, don't look with childrens)PALESTINIAN TERRORISM

#75 PaddyBeaner

They slipped into the consulate on foot by following a diplomatic car past the concrete barriers

Hmmm...I would say there is just a touch of "need for improvement."

Ed,

Feeling better today?

With any luck, the leaders will just steal it, rather than using it to buy terrorist weapons.

Unfortunately, that is the best outcome reasonably possible, isn't it...

#84 dll2000

I'm Italian, as origin, heritage & citizenship - living in London tho.

So I write about US policies only for the sake of it; the real decisions are up to the US citizens :)

OT - Way to go Kofi...stand your ground...you vile POS...
Annan to 'carry on' work, rejects calls to step down

Outside the United States, Mr. Annan won backing from French President Jacques Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who telephoned Mr. Annan to offer their support from a meeting in Spain.
"At a time when some voices whose underlying motives are open to question are trying to call into question the merits ... of Mr. Kofi Annan, all of us in Europe, and indeed in Africa and Asia, consider it legitimate to express our gratitude and our friendship to the U.N. secretary-general," Mr. Chirac said of the call.

spit...SPIT...SPIT!

74 Tim McNabb

The carrot at the end of the stick is a sham and it does not work. Take a walk through Israeli cemeteries and see for yourself. It is a failed technique. Oslo as just one example, was a gaint carrot and where did it get Israel?

We must not ever forget cold hard facts and blur them with fiction and or fantasy. Terror is terror. Reward for terror makes more terror. Worse, it makes the enemy stronger.

The palestinian people under the terror leadership of arafat, under the nose of the entire world have rained heartache and terror upon Israel. They deserve nothing. NOTHING! Let them sink or swim on their own. If they make it, then we talk peace, if not, f*ck them all. This is how the war on terror is to be won.

It’s amazing how nobody in the world wants to hold Palestinian society responsible for anything. Their economy is devastated because of four years of senseless violence, all right—perpetrated by the Palestinians, in spite of a historic peace offer from Israel.

For a people who talk endlessly about having their own state, they have done almost nothing positive, on their own, to achieve it. The world has given them countless billions of dollars, much of which vanished into anonymous bank accounts, and the Palestinian people have nothing to show for it. Why are we giving them another huge handout?

I don't know. It's way easy, too temptingly easy, to just write them off as a group -a "country"- of violent slackers. In fact they have been exploted by every Arabic and Islamic faction and group that wanted to exploit them, and they have been fed multiple lines of bull and pap for several generations about who it is that's exploiting them. It's understandable that they are confused and wrongheaded in the extreme now.

In a way their situation is analogous to that of American blacks, who vote by 90% for the same candidates and ideology over and over again that, while promising handouts, keep them a semi-permanent underclass.

#80 FabioC
It's that way (URSS) in Spanish too for the same reason. But then Spanish and Italian are very similar languages.

Pshaw! Whats a mere 20 million? To the Pali's thats carfare as I posted yesterday, this is where the Palis say
SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Palestinians to Seek $4 Billion at Oslo Aid Talks
The Palestinian Authority will ask donor countries meeting in Oslo this week for $4 billion over three years, Palestinian Economics Minister Maher al-Masri said Monday in Ramallah. The World Bank said international donations averaging $950 million a year from 2001 to 2003 had warded off economic disaster, but that "donor fatigue" loomed. (Reuters/Ha'aretz)

Last time I checked America is just about out of stick and is borrowing carrot's from the neighbors.

There is nothing to gain by seeing the PA fall apart. it would not end the violence, it would escalate into a free for all. Blowing up busses is almost imposobile to deal with. Imagine 15,000 people storming walls and overrunning outposts.

Bush giving the palistinians money is not Bush helping PA.
Bush giving the palistinians money is not appeasement.
The PLO and Hamas do not have the resources to be a threat to the U.S. They would use any resources they could to inflict pain on what they see as their true enemy Israel.
Bush giving PA money is to help Israel.
Israel has the most to fear for the collapse and turmiol that would follow.
If there is ever a chain of events to determine if Israel really has nuclear weapons, this would probably answer that 50,000 question.

IMHO

I still don't regret voting for Bush, but his actions relating to the P.A. and immigration are very disturbing.

The White House seems to still labor in fog and confusion.

We're in war against terror, a war which Bush was reelected to fight, and he gives 20M to the P.A., nothing if not a terrorist-supporting organization?

What the hell is going on?

Hmm...Bush selling out his loyal constituents? That's crazy, go back to enjoying your freedoms and let the government worry about the big bad problems.

Wait a minute ... You mean we didn't give any financial aid to the Nazi's during World War II?

Are we getting Smarter over Time or Stupider?

My read: the best explanation for the administration doing this, is that it is buying into the: "Arafat's death and 'free and fair' elections might lead to a peaceful Palastinian State that accepts the existance of Israel" meme.

I know most readers here that that is idiotarian thinking from that start; but the administration's delusion might be excusable, b/c it's current platform of Iraq is: get rid of Saddam, have a powerful western nation supervise free and fair elections, and you might get a peaceful arab state that accepts the existance of Israel...

I don't know, and I expect to hear lots of people telling me why I'm wrong...

#96 Gringo

Yes, and indeed Italian and Spanish speakers can understand a good deal of each other's language - unless it's slang or spoken very fast.

Back to topic, is that money will really be used directly to pay Israeli companies, it's not too bad. But I don't trust the palestinian financial black hole... I've seen in some news that they now claim $4.5 bn for reconstruction! That means having a gall...

oh and if you really want to VOMIT consider this
OT (but not really)

UN Costs Israel $15.8 Million a Year - Liat Collins
According to a special report by Yediot Ahronot's Eitan Amit, last year Israel's contribution to the upkeep of UN forces in Sierra Leone amounted to nearly $2m. Keeping peace in the Congo came with a $2.5m. price tag for Israel, while East Timor cost Israel just $1m. In 2003 Israel paid $8.4m. for UN peace-keeping efforts, and that is only half the story. Israel's part of the UN's ongoing annual budget for 2004-2005 is $7.4m. for each year. Given that in an average year, the UN General Assembly passes some 17 or 18 openly anti-Israel motions, it turns out that Israel is, in effect, "paying" close to $1m. per motion. Among the 22 countries that are members of both the Arab League and the UN, only oil-rich Saudi Arabia pays more than Israel. Israel pays three times as much as oil producers Iran and Kuwait, four times as much as Egypt, and 12 times as much as Syria. (Jerusalem Post)

We shouldn't give them anything, unless it's 20 million pounds of pigshit.

78 Selpaw

I predict bad things for those Copts.

I had a priest once tell me that the Copts are about as close to the early Christian church as one can find, and that they even still feature elements of the Jewish worship services in their Mass.

OT, but interesting:

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait — Disgrunted U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (search) on Wednesday about the lack of armor for their vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon chief.

The rest here

So has everyone gone nuts today?

In an essay for the NRO, Steven Stalinsky director of MEMRI maintains this is the FALSE DAWN OF PEACE.

Stalinsky is right on target. The real crime here is that those who are pushing the road trap to hell know exactly how unjust and immoral it is. Yet we see in light of all the facts it makes not one bit of difference.

OT : LGF is third, we all have to vote in the "best overall blog"
2004weblogawards

#92 Fabio

I'm Italian, as origin, heritage & citizenship - living in London tho.

So I write about US policies only for the sake of it; the real decisions are up to the US citizens :)

I'm not very well traveled however, my roommates in college were 1st generation Americans from Sicily. I also had the pleasure of discussing world politics with some Brits while on vacation in Jamaica. I think they were leftist, but I didnt get any of the venom that I would have expected and really enjoyed their company. We bashed the French together. Always, fun to find a common enemy.

#14 SOL ROTH

I agree that $2B a year to the Egyptians is sick, but over a quarter of this aid is in vouchers only usable to purchase US made products. I guess the rest is a bribe to buy their silent disrespect.

#107 Duder

Please note this. That isn't as bad of news as the press is making it out to be.

I'd like to know if the money is going to Suha for her 2005 pension payment.

More money so it can go directly to Arafishes wife, or more like her? Cut them off, the money doesn't get to the people anyway. Why do we keep throwing good money after bad? One of the peaves I have against Bush, he tries to be more than fair but it's usually like spitting out a car window at 70 MPH.

#88 GINES

Thanx for the link. I think I can understand where Bigel is coming from a little better. As Americans living on the mainland we have not had to deal with these images until 9/11.
People need to see the pictures of people falling & what they looked like after they fell on a regular basis. I'm with the Israelis all the way, and don't allow any Jewish/Israeli bs to go unchallenged. Israel does not act unless provoked or threatened. They have shown REMARKABLE restraint IMHO. Hopefully things will get better with the current ongoing U.S. activities in the ME influencing things in the proper direction. Am not holding my breath on the palis to get any better unless they are forced to though.

106 Ed Moran abu GOMEX aob 26.5C

I predict bad things for those Copts.

Who already have had a very difficult time of it. Situation for them is pitiful. Yes, I have also been told the same that they are as close to the early Christian church as you can get. And who gives a damn? no one.

I don't know why we must continue this dance with Egypt.

Let them have the money, but one more attack on Isreal and get rid of the cancer.

I feel ok today, maybe a bit more tired than usual, and I feel a little sweaty.

But no bloody nose, no upset stomach.

Today is a Catholic Holy Day, so I am going to Mass tonight.

BTW, just out of curiosity, which day is the most significant of the 8 days of Channukkah?

I think our economy can handle another couple of official holidays, and while we can't take an entire week off, I was thinking maybe Channukah and Yom Kippur would be good days.

My boss is going to the other Pasadena for the New Year's Weekend, is taking his girlfriend, who didn't even attend UT, and leaving me behind. I mentioned that to him, and he told me they didn't make enough vaseline for me to earn my way.

Good point, that.

# 59 dll2000

The commerce clause and the general welfare clause have been bastardized by Sup. Ct. and Congress and are slowly destroying and weakening this country from within.

Hitting the proverbial nail on the head there.

#60 selpaw

History will look most unkindly at the events of these past years as a monumental blunder, a sham made of lies which once again took the lives of innocent Jews.

oh puleeeze...history never gave a rat's ass about dead jews
its more that the Jew is the canary in the coal mine ...it starts with the Jews first and always but it never ends there...it just begins to pick up speed and voracity
then the world looks up (uh...9/11 anyone, uh Hitler anyone, uh...the Spanish Inquisition anyone?...uh...the Armenians anyone?...uh ...pograms, anyone?)The list is as long as history itself...

#50 dont_think_twice:

Well, after scenes of Palestinians dancing merrily in the streets after 9/11, the intifada, homicide bombers murdering women, children and old people in pizzerias, on buses and at parties---I'm not really interested in helping the Palestinian people, harsh as that might sound. And I think a lot of my fellow Americans feel the same way.

In fact, I think the help we've given them is a large part of the problem. I don't think we should have supported them, rescued Arafat from Black September, pushed endless, useless, roadmaps to "peace." What has this accomplished, except prolonging the conflict, and nurturing a bunch of people who, quite frankly, hate our guts and want us all dead?

It did buy a Paris hotel for Arafat's wife, Suha-ha. You may think that's a worthy use of our money. I don't.

We have poured billions of taxpayer dollars into great, PLO black hole over the decades. If billions haven't made the Palestinians love us, a few millions isn't going to do the trick.

If you really think they need more cash, why don't you send them a charitable donation on your own?

"The money is to help pay utility services, including the payment of arrears to Israeli utility companies."

**IF** this is true, and **IF** that means all $20 mil. goes there and not 11, 18 or any other fraction, then didn't W. just give the Israel a Chanuka gift?
:-)
:-)

Where are the petitions? Let's stop bellyaching and do something!

I feel so sad by this. What are we, in Bizzaro world? How does this help them? Has he not read his bible lately? The whole teach a man to fish rather than giving him a fish? ARG!

I hate this! I'm getting screwed in WA by the Dems and Nationally by the GOP. What is going on in the world!?!?!

#88 GINES

Powerful distrubing video. Why Isreal held its fire for so long is beyond me.

song and dance

Did you hear how Robert Downey introduced Elton last weekend?

Something like " There are two first ladies attending tonight" was met with icy silence from the crowd. LMAO!

#Ed Moran

For me (I'am Jew), the first and the last evenings are the most importants of Chanukkah

BTW, in Chile nobody works today, the 8 of december is holiday, day of the Virgin of la Inmaculada Concepcion.

# 127 D

Man, I thought he was stayin' clean lately ...
:-)
:-)

129 buck

reports made is seem like he was manic and off the wall. he also made comments about suffering from PEST and needing counseling. so, in most respects, he was just a typical Donk out for a night on the town.

Where else is the money going to come from to bribe Suha and the families of suicide bombers? Some sort of modern economy? Bah! Of course the choice the White House made was between not supporting the sainted Palestinians and -- as I predict you will see from a major news source within 48 hours -- "giving Palestine less than 1% of what the U.S. gives Israel."

selpaw (#60)

History will look most unkindly at the events of these past years as a monumental blunder, a sham made of lies which once again took the lives of innocent Jews.

No chance. Look at how quickly the world managed to get over the Holocaust.

You mean we didn't give any financial aid to the Nazi's during World War II?

No, but we did some trading with the Confederacy DURING the Civil War, so I guess Lincoln & Grant were just as idiotic as Bush.

Mercadorudy

"Let them have the money, but one more attack on Isreal and get rid of the cancer"

Dont blink.

Even if this money is going directly to Israeli utilities, the US shouldn't be paying for it. The Israeli utilities, like utilities around the world, should cut customers off who are unable to pay their bills. If they can't pay their bills and made to suffer the consequences of their horrific actions in some small way, it can only be considered an encouragement for the Balestinians to give up the terror.

Even if the money goes straight to Israel, if it effectively removes something that would discourage terrorism, it's a really bad idea.

#122 TalkinKamel
Very good!

What this boils down to is a grave and immoral injustice to Israel.

#101 The Serpent
Wait a minute ... You mean we didn't give any financial aid to the Nazi's during World War II?

Not directly, but the government DID allow Ford Motor Company to sell tank parts and other vehicle equipment to Germany, through Ford's overseas subsidiaries. Roosevelt really ought to have put the screws on them, and threatened to cancel their contracts with the US Army unless they stopped selling to the Nazis as well. But we needed military vehicles desperately, so Roosevelt was in a delicate situation. (Unless he didn't know about it.)

Both Ford and IBM -- to their eternal shame -- did business with the Nazis to a certain extent.

At time Bush is compassionate to a fault - Elton John honored at the Kennedy Center.

For the most part I'd agree. I can't imagine why President Bush would want to attend any event staged by the Kennedy Center. Such a setting only invites trouble, and it really doesn't fit his persona.

I don't know if the name Ari Halberstam zt'l is easily recognizable, but this precious child was a victim of a precursor of the daily acts of the cultists of islam, in any country where there are Jews, and it took place in NYC. Today, the first day of Hanukka, his amazing mother saw the culmination of her tireless fight to keep his name alive:Mother dedicates children's museum in memory of slain son

More than 10 years after her son was gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge, Devorah Halberstam celebrated the grand opening of the Jewish Children's Museum today with a dedication to the memory of her slain child.

Halberstam called the museum ``the answer to terrorism.'' The ribbon-cutting, timed to coincide with the first night of Hannukah, was created to memorialize Ari Halberstam, a 16 year-old who was shot and killed in 1994 when a Muslim gunman opened fire on a van of Hasidic students crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.

One of the musuem's aims is to promote peace and understanding among children of all backgrounds. It is located in Crown Heights, the neighborhood where rioting erupted in 1991 after 7-year-old Gavin Cato, who was black, was struck and killed by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish driver. Three hours later, a group of angry blacks shouting ``Get the Jew!'' stabbed Jewish scholar Yankel Rosenbaum, who later died.

The museum's opening was attended by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Rudolph Guliani and other elected officials and community leaders.

About 100 children played in the museum, which includes a 12-foot spinning top, called a dreidel, ``matzoh balls'' the size of volleyballs, and an indoor minature golf course with lessons on ``major Jewish life events.''

Ten-year-old Tafari King of Brooklyn said ``it seems more fun than a regular museum.''

The museum aims to speak to children on their own terms. Instead of a standard exhibit explaining kosher food, the museum has a model kosher grocery store, where children can pretend to shop for food. A game show room features a trivia game called ``Jewpardy.

The building, the result of 10 years of planning and construction, cost more than $30 (M) million dollars and features computer labs, a library, a movie theater, more than 80 different activities, and a community center.

Here is the link to the museum:Jewish Childrens' Museum

And this is the site to commemorate Ari Halberstam zt'l.

His mother, Devorah, has been to so many countries to let the world know what was done to a van full of Hassidic Jewish boys on a day in New York. She is truly an Aishet Chayil ..(a woman of valor).

Sadly, it now is no longer just Jews they kill...any 'infidel' is their target, and unless they are stopped, it will only get worse. Bigel is right.

The museum is within walking distance of Brooklyn Jewish Hospital and Medical Center, where I received my nurses' training. 770 Eastern Parkway is the world headquarters of the Lubovitch Hassidim, and where the Rebbe zt'l lived..the same Rebbe Menachem Schneerson zt'l that the Yeshiva students had gone to visit that fateful day. To be murdered for being a Jew in America?

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but if so it doesn't hurt to mention it again.

WRITE THE PRESIDENT & YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE

If it is truel, LET THEM KNOW THAT YOU THINK THIS IS WRONG!

We CANNOT just discuss this amongst ourselves...It is too important.

Let them (Congresspeople, etc.) know that if they continue this madness that they will lose their job in the next election...or for BUSH that you will leave the Party!

I AM SICK THAT MY TAX-MONEY IS GOING TO THESE "palestinians" WHILE THEY CONTINUE TO SCREAM FOR THE U.S.' DESTRUCTION & SUPPORT TERRORISM.

President@whitehouse.gov

Charles:

Thank you. Any suggested recourse besides the usual flood of letters to congressmen?

In other parts of the world, Putin says Iraqi elections "Unimaginable". Of course, Putin is probably upset that he doesn't have a puppet government ready to go so he can commit election fraud and get his candidate elected...like he did for himself in Russia and for Ukraine president, Leonid Kuchma...Now he's (Putin) telling us not to interfere in the crisis in the Ukraine.

Hey, I know. They can use the 20 million to build their own utility plants so they won't have to buy from Israel anymore.

(It's easier to type that with a straight face than say that with a straight face)

#138

You know there's that saying "can't hurt, might help" that people throw about to justify doing something without any guarantee of success.

Well, in this case, #50 was saying "Probaby will hurt a lot, but if we're really lucky, it might help a little."

I think something got lost in the translation.

Outside the United States, Mr. Annan won backing from French President Jacques Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who telephoned Mr. Annan to offer their support from a meeting in Spain.

This is good in the long term in that a resignation at this time would allow the UN to continue...And the longer the corruption is allowed to eat away at the organization, the more likely that organization will collapse entirely.

We don't know a symbolic victory but a lasting one.

Folks,

Here is something that just can't be missed. VICTOR DAVIS HANSON in Policy Review reviews Dennis Ross's book on the Middle East peace negotiations

[Link: www.policyreview.org...]

Here are some choice quotes but you're doing yourself wrong if you don't read all of it:

Indeed, the billionaire gangster Arafat emerges as the antagonist in Ross’s account of the endless search for a comprehensive Middle East peace. He peeps out on every page predictably obstructing each new initiative that followed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the plo support for Saddam in the Gulf War, failed intifadas, and the election victories of the Israeli left. That the Europeans and many weary Israelis were eager to empower Arafat as a serious leader, despite his military impotence and rampant corruption, is perhaps understandable given his tribal connections on the West Bank and his long terrorist activity. But why the Americans ever recanted and worked with this pathological criminal remains unanswered by Ross’s 800 pages of fascinating, but ultimately depressing, detail.

...The world is obsessed with the so-called occupied territories in Palestine, but not from any abstract principle of postbellum equity or worry over civilian deaths. Otherwise un resolutions, European subsidies, and American envoys would have been focused on occupied Tibet or Lebanon, or the killing of tens of thousands of innocents in Rwanda and Darfur. So Palestine is not so much a moral issue as a political lightning rod that involves Arab oil, Arab global terrorism, Arab fundamentalist violence in and beyond the Middle East, and Arab anti-Semitism that finds resonance in Europe. While Ross understands that the Middle East is critical to world peace, he never quite explains why this small strip of land should be — and thus never fully elucidates why diplomats like Jim Baker and Colin Powell essentially renounced the frenetic efforts of their predecessors as vain and counterproductive.

Gines

Yep, today is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, which is what we call "A Holy Day of Obligation". So I'm going to Mass after work.

Tomorrow is not a day of obligation, but is the feast of San Juan Diego Cuahtlatoatzin, the devout Aztec convert who saw La Virgen de Guadalupe.

December 12 is the Feast Day of La Virgen de Guadalupe, Patroness of North America (except maybe Louisiana, they seem to have Our Lady of Prompt Succour).

Imagery of the Virgin of Guadalupe very common on the automobiles, trocas y camionetas of the Hispanic population of Houston.

I voted for Bush but this, Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters, 20 mil could have helped these vets.

Let's see...If an armored Humvee costs 150k as reported by MSNBC then 20 million will buy you 133 of those much coveted items. I wonder what our troops in Iraq think of that. While they're dumpster diving for scrap metal to use as "armor", we finance Suha's shopping spree.

These are the same people who danced in the streets when the towers fell.

And here we are, giving them money. Stupid, very stupid.

I just called the White House: 1(202)456-1111, and spoke to a very nice woman who let me know she is not Jewish, and was as upset as I am...I suggested that the squatters get the money back from the ever-lovely Suha, as there was probably more than enough to charter enough airplanes to get these squatters in Israel back to their own country, Jordan. I also mentioned that the President, who I support, has thrown the taxpayers $$$ down a big, black hole, and that there is a 0% chance that it wil ever get to the arabs illegally in Israel, and that it sends the wrong message to the rest of the free world.

I don't know exactly how much Suha has, and Muhammed Rashid, arafart's (may his name be obliterated) 'financial advisor' have managed to steal, along with the rest of arafart's close thugs. The goatkeepers alone, and the guards of his all-boys harem, must be dunning them for moneys owed.

BTW, when you call, after the message starts, you can press #1, wait a second, and press it again, to bypass a lot of messages...

Emails, I have found, engender an automated response...some of the time. Calls get more attention, I think.

#111 DocDublU 12/8/2004 11:14AM PST
#14 SOL ROTH

I agree that $2B a year to the Egyptians is sick, but over a quarter of this aid is in vouchers only usable to purchase US made products. I guess the rest is a bribe to buy their silent disrespect.

Nice to see that egypt is getting the same treatment as Israel in regards to the foreign aid...

-spit-

Any coincidence that the Israeli-made Tavor Bullpup Assault Rifle was scrapped for high-volume manufacture in favor of buying Colt-made M-16's?

102 Tanker J.D.
the big problem, J.D. is that this was never about land. Islam will NEVER allow any non-moslem state in its midst, let alone a Jewish one. When Islam is but a memory then perhpaps Arabs will accept Israel. Not before.

I'm so disappointed in President Bush. Where are your cojones W?

# 149 Ed Moran

I observed what struck me as a rather unusual celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe while working a contract in S. Mexico. Buses or trucks with a shrine (usually illuminated with torches) on the roof would drive slowly down the roads following a guy running barefoot carrying a torch as well (at least at night). When the guy running just plain wore out, they would put him in the back of the bus or truck and somebody else would take off their shoes, get out and carry on in the first guy's place. This was apparently done over very long distances and, at least where I witnessed it, along roads where it was worth your life to drive normally in a car, much less go on foot or in a crawling vehicle. I don't think I ever got the full story behind it, but apparently significant numbers of these folks are killed every year in traffic accidents. Very strange.

Yor taxdollars at work.

Apropos of #99, that Bush was re-elected to fight the war against terror, and now he wants to give $20M to the PA, WTH is going on?...

Could it be that the US is now beginning to experience its own version of Arik Sharon? I.e., winning big in the last election while excoriating the Labor candidate's proposal for a unilateral retreat from Gaza -- and then, when he's safely re-ensconced in office, pushes precisely what he campaigned against...

/sigh

This is the post 9/11 sympathy that America squandered by going to war in Iraq.

/do I really need a sarcasm tag.

One reason why, while GWB was clearly the better choice over John Traitor Kerry, GWB has still failed to clearly define the enemy and fight the war with that definition in mind.

There is no hope that any of the current crop of Palistinians can be reasoned with or treated with. Nothing less than the complete destruction of their armed forces and the total deconstruction of the gang heirarchy will provide a path to peace and stability. I still hold out some hope that, like Japan and Germany, something good might come from their unconditional surrender. Short of that, the same game is going to be played where the USA and Europe fund the PA and the money gets diverted to personal use and to weapons that will be used to kill Jews and Americans.

It's not as bad as that headline sounds. It is money to pay Israel for their utility bills among others they owe Israel.

Bush Gives $20 Mln to Palestinians to Pay Israeli Bills-Reuters

From Ha'aretz:

U.S. jury orders Islamic charities said to be linked to Hamas to pay $156 million to parents of teen killed in J`lem attack

A better plan:

The Primitives start to pay for their acts of Terror.

' Three Islamic charities and an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian militant group Hamas were ordered Wednesday to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager killed by terrorists outside Jerusalem. '
/ AP, Dec. 08, 2004

It's not as bad as that headline sounds. It is money to pay Israel for their utility bills among others they owe Israel.

While the U.S. aid to the P.A. is not as bad as advertised, it's still symptomatic of the world's continued enabling of the Palestinian people and their genocidal fantasies. Let 'em pay their own goddamn bills. What we need is a real shit disturber to come along and stir up some outrage. Bill O'Reilly, where art thou?

When Arafish died, I heard a news story that the Palestinian Authority had to agree to pay her $20-some million per year before she would let any of them visit Arafish's deathbed. Maybe I didn't hear it right--did anyone else hear this story? I'm not interested in starting any false rumors.

If it IS true, however, I guess we just helped pay the first installment. I feel so proud to be a taxpayer.

Sorry . . . by "pay her" I meant Suha.

O.K. I sent my e-mail off to the president. Remember the squeakly wheel gets the grease. Let's get squeaky

For a people who talk endlessly about having their own state, they have done almost nothing positive, on their own, to achieve it. The world has given them countless billions of dollars, much of which vanished into anonymous bank accounts, and the Palestinian people have nothing to show for it. Why are we giving them another huge handout?

Answer: Because they mainly kill Jooos!

The spoiled child (palis) just keeps on being fed $$$ and we expect them to change? This is evil/demonic action, not asking/demanding that palis to be responsable for their actions. We are encouraging them to cary on murdering jews by throwing money at them EVERY TIME. I thought that the USA was on the side of good and responsability. US is not alone, we are all responsable. I can see the palis screeming like a spoiled child that they are humiliated because $ 20 m. is not enough, and it is all our fault for pali predicament. Will palis ever/ever be held accountable? Is the whole world paying them money to murder the Jewish people?

The Palestinians are in default on and Israeli utility bill? Last one out of Ramallah, please turn out the lights.

#171 scaramouche:

Paying the Palis hydro bill? We're still waiting for California to pony up and pay B.C. for their hydro bill...

*ducks for cover*

;-)

. So we should pay Primitives' overdue hydro and water bills now?

Remember that they always pay us back ...

' A powerful remote-controlled bomb detonated beneath an American diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing three American security specialists assigned to the American Embassy by a private military contractor and wounding an American diplomat. '
/ NYT, Oct. 16, 2003

' Palestinians detonated a road side bomb under an American armored diplomatic vehicle in Gaza, killing three Americans and injuring one.

The slain Americans are John Branchizio (36), Mark T. Parson (31) and John Martin Linde Jr. (30).

The men were all employees of DynCorp, a Virginia-based firm that provided security services for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The Gaza-bound delegation was on its way to interview Palestinian students who were candidates for an academic Fulbright scholarship. '
/Judaism Blog Archives, Oct. 15, 2003

. Promising (in English) to investigate ...

' Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei strongly condemned the attack, offered his condolences, and promised an investigation. '

[Fourteen months later, those PA 'investigators' still haven't cracked the case.]

' Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat also offered his condolences and condemned the attack. '
/ CNN.com, Oct. 16, 2003

. Then (in Arabic) blaming it on the Jews.

' Basem Abu Sumayah, director of Voice of Palestine, the official PA radio station, said ... [that] the purpose of the attack was to provide the Sharon government with a green light to "expand its war of genocide" against the Palestinians and their leaders.
/ JPost, Oct. 16, 2003

GRRR GRRR GRRR
Hell yes I'm pissed

This is a by proxy donation to Osama bin Laden.

Just sent my email to the White House. I'll contact my senators and congresswoman tomorrow. I encourage others to let our leaders know that we insist that a SERIOUS WAR against terrorism be waged, not a State Department wrist-slapping!

I'm just sick with disappointment in President Bush.

The Bush administration on Wednesday announced it was giving $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to help it through a financial crisis.

The PA views it as jizya and weakness. Is there any reason we should want the PA to have power? Let them make bombs by candlelight. Why can't Suha pony up the dough from loose change?

I too voted for Bush. However, I voted for Bush because there was no other choice. I too am opposed to the $20 mil to the PA and I do not understand the coddling of these terrorists by Bush. The road map for peace is actually a road map for the destruction of Israel. Another pet peeve of mine is the open borders and the lack of manpower to keep out illegals. By the way, can anyone tell me what we are doing with the 200,000 plus troops in Germany, Bosnia, Kosevo, etc., when we could use them in Iraq and on the US borders?

#166 Wiley

You heard right:Report: Suha to receive $ 22m. a year from PA

Yasser Arafat's widow, Suha, is expected to receive a sum of $22 million a year out of the Palestinian Authority budget, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere De La Serra.

The paper said Suha reached an agreement about the money during a meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO's newly elected chairman, who visited while she was staying next to her husband's bed in the French military hospital outside Paris.

It said Abbas personally promised Suha that she would receive $22 million a year to cover her expenses in Paris. The paper noted that in July Arafat transferred to his wife $11 million to cover her living costs for the first six months of the year.

Abbas and the Palestinian leadership were forced to strike the deal with Suha after she refused to allow them to visit her husband in hospital.

The Palestinian leaders reached the conclusion that it would be better to make a deal with her in order to solve the crisis surrounding Arafat's possessions and secret bank accounts.

According to Palestinian officials, the money that Suha is expected to receive will come from secret accounts held by Arafat and his cronies in various countries. They estimated that at least $4 billion were being held in these secret accounts.

Somehow I do not expect her to be in the running for public office in squatter areas that her arab brethren occupy in Israel..and I imagine she needs bodyguards whenever she goes anywhere..she has a target on the back of her fwog Haute Couture...pity, though, that she doesn't wear a burka. Why she is not made to give the money back? Ridiculous.

#136 Selpaw:

Thanks for the kind words.

:>)

Is it national shoot ourselves in the foot day?

The Wash Times (article not online yet) reports that air marshals are going to get suspended for not wearing suits or sports jackets...even if it's Thanksgiving and no one else is dressed up...even if it's 95 degrees...even if it's freezing and normal people have coats on...

Some higher up showed up to "boost morale" on Thanksgiving and got angry at the dress code violations.

Stupid. And so the marshals complain to the Times and now the public knows more about how to spot them! Argh.

Have you Americans lost your minds?

Would you give money to Hirohito after Pearl Harbour?

Jesus Christ!

WAKE UP! HELLOOO?

178 - the troops in Europe are being rotated through Iraq. They are not merely sitting this one out.

We are slowly moving them back to the US. As well as the ones in Korea. Eventual consolidation of most of our forces in the US.

Bush has the politicians disease - he wants everyone to like him. It will never be so.

He needs to be true to his base. Loyalty has to run both ways -

I understand Bin Laden and party have requested $10 million for blankets and food. Under current guidelines for handing out money, I'm pretty sure they'll qualify!

JP:

So the troops are "slowly" being rotated out and are not merely sitting this one out. By the time they are of any use in the US we could be hit 10 X worse than 9/11! We need help on the borders now! In fact it may be too late and we may be in store for a huge attack on us.

"$20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority"

This is where Bush and I part company.

To put it mildly.

1 US Sheeple - anyone who tries to protect everything protects nothing. It is a better policy to be on the offensive and keep the groundhogs worried about protecting their turf.

Currently they are reacting like moths to a flame in Iraq.

Accompany this with a policy of beefing up your police and emergency services infrastructure with HLS funds. Our weak sister is intel. Once that is fixed the US will be in a strong position.

Motti (#148)

Peace comes, whether in Germany, Japan, Vietnam, or the Falklands, when victory and defeat adjudicate the issues at hand. Thus, there will be no settlement in the Middle East until the Palestinians accept that the effort to destroy Israel leads not to political advantage but to their own destruction, a realization that might just discredit the corrupt tribal apparatus of the Palestinian Authority.

The world will never allow that to happen to the precious Palestinians. They would sooner destroy Israel and every Jew on earth. Terrorism pays.

rtheyserius (#187)

This is where Bush and I part company.

Bush and I parted company when he sent a US representative to Arafat's funeral. Not in my name.

#179 NY Nana

I suspect the deal is that PA pays Suha-ha the big bucks, and, in return, she agrees not to reveal her late hubby's medical records, revealing either that he died of something loathsome and embarrassing in the extreme (i.e., Aids), or that he was poisoned, or otherwise bumped off, by one of his close associates---or that the French doctors bungled the job thoroughly, and killed him with that world-renowned French medical care.

I don't think she's long for this world. Anybody want to start a dead pool, on Suha-ha?

think palestinians need thsi money. israel has taken all their best land, has imposed a suffocating blockade, etc. palestinians are held hostage by israel. america cannot be like israel. bush is doing the right thing, however, he must take bold steps. he is too timid, afraid to tick off the jewish lobby. at the aipac conference, bush didn't mention a palestinian state, but everyone knows that is an inevitability.

once palestine is free and a stable democracy, it will set an example to the rest of the arab world. palestine, not iraq, was the key to reform, bush can still correct his mistake.

^^ofergodsakes^^

peace will only come to the middle east when the idiots--both jews and muslims--abandon religion.

orthodox jews and orthodox muslims have a lot in common--more so than the mythical judeo-christian bond--conservative christians, especially southern baptists, still hate jews with a passion. but the mooslims and joos are so fanatical about religion, they cannot think clearly. they need to burn their holy books and smoke a lot of pot.

now, before they have nothing left of the so-called holy land

peace will only come to the middle east when the idiots--both jews and muslims--abandon religion.

LOL! You go first.

#192 neeraj

Gee, Neeraj, if "Palestine" needs the money so badly, why don't they just hit up ol' Suha-ha for a few bucks? If they're so poor, why are they paying her 22 mill a year, hmmm? Hey, she's the widow of their late fearless leader, Yassir-the-mighty-baby-killer Arafat! Surely she'd be glad to help out her people! (Heh, heh, heh, sez Fritzie the Talking Kamel!)

Could it be because they're a trifle antsy that the med. records Suha-ha has in her fat little paws might be a tad embarrassing for the memory of the greatest most bestest, wonderfulest leader in the cosmos? (See my post #191 to NY Nana.)

No, honey chil', the Palistinians don't need this money. And they're never going to be a working democracy, because they're ruled by thugs. Oh, and I think your judenhaas is showing, with that Jewish lobby remark; gee, weren't you the one who was lecturing us just a little while ago, about how mean and racist and bigoted us Americans were?

You sound pretty bigoted yourself.

#194 neeraj

Okay, so all problems in the Middle-East will be solved by Jews and Moslems smoking "lots of pot." Yeah. Right. Uh-huh. Frankly, I think that's what you've been smoking, which certainly explains your brainless, witless, puerile posts! I think you should go soak your head! Get out of here, you twit!

neeraj:

. . . And it's "Moslems" and "Jews", Neeraj, not "Mooslems" and "Joos." (As I recall, you're going to some prestigious college back east; if I'm right, your parents are getting ripped off re tuition, as you plainly aren't learning much; must be all that pot you're smoking.)

You also seem to have a thing against Jews, and Americans living in the South. You're a pretty good little hater yourself.

#191 TalkinKamel

All of the above...

Want to start a so-long suhaha pool?

Seriously, the money she lives on in one week could support a small country.

OT, but I am busily getting all the info on Medicare Part B, so that I can say goodby to AARP...they are evil LLLliberals, and make a small fortune. O'Reilly had something on about them tonight. I remember during the election there were things about just how bad they really are, but now? I am looking into other insurance carrriers so that I can drop them, and cancel our membership. They are as much help to seniors as catching pneumonia and the flu at the same time would be.

Foxnews doesn't have it online.

#199 NY Nana:

LOL, yes, let's start a so-long Suhaha pool! Great idea!

I'm glad to hear you're getting away from AARP. They are, indeed, evil liberals, and you'll be better off without them.

I just don't have any words. So is this country, currently in a war against terrorism, now giving $20 million to an openly terrorist organization?

My faith in humanity died a little bit more today...

Why? Because at all costs, Israel must be truncated, and all spiritual and eventually physical connection between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel MUST be severed, in order for the True Globalist Agenda to go forward!

/Council on Foreign Relations

#194 neeraj

FOAD

#200 talkinkamel

I hear you re the AARP, and we are already looking elsewhere. When I have a new insurer, and cancel, I am going to let them know why, very politley, of course. :)

I would like to se suhaha in a poll of...never mind. She may yet meet up with some french cult of islam members who do not quite approve of her...

#203 Tuberon

I second that.

#6 dustyroadguy: I hope it is a direct US to Israel payment...

My thoughts exactly.

I mean, think about it. It shouldn't be done in the first place. But if you're gonna do it, make it operate on the same principles as you would charity for a bunch of drunks or drug addicts. That is, you pay the gas, light, and heating bills. You run down to the WC and bring 'em back a sack of sliders if their hungry. But under NO circumstances do you give them money to do this, 'cause you know that no matter what they promise, it's gonna go for hootch.

Okay...what's a FOAD?

When will jizyah money transactions be put to a referendum in the US?

What about Arafish's inheritance tax? #5 dll2000, #10 Doss, #151 drool and many more say it well.

I think I will drive to the Pentagon with any new taxes I owe and write them a check and provide the IRS with a photocopy. Or better yet pool tax money with a group of fellow Americans, buy an armored Humvee, transport it to the Marines in Fallujah, and provide the IRS with a photcopy of the receipts. How else can we stop our country from funding terrorists?

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rightasrain, how are you? Charles closed another thread so I will stay on topic here. If you want assurance, I'll provide email?
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#206 megscole64.

[Link: www.acronymfinder.com...]

megscole64,

Fuck Off And Die.

Plus check the FAQ page for more.

OH my Geepers...I had to read that a couple times before I figured out you weren't saying that to me! LOL Scared me at first. But thanks for the clarification. (and thanks Roger too).

:-) Still learning all my online lingo.

megscole64,

Oops. Misunderstanding. It's why I'll almost always ask a qualifying question to clarify.

"Did you really just tell me to FOAD?"