Dinah Lord

Osama Bin Laden

 

I vowed that I would dance in the streets when OBL was dead.

Tonight, I danced. 
 
 

Dinah's back with big news...

Guess who's been recruited out of her family imposed exile to start blogging again?

Your pal, Dinah.  And she's thrilled to be joining the hardest working Weasels in the blog business over at  WEASEL ZIPPERS where she will be blogging exclusively as - wait for it - D-Lo!

See you there!

Just can't win for losing...

when it comes to this blog business...

It never fails,  I just start getting back in the swing of things here - when poof!  Another family crisis rears its ugly head. 

I give up.  (For a little while at least.)

I'm so happy I could ululate... Another Al Qaeda in Iraq biggie bumped off!

Yesterday we had these two bad actors biting the big one and now today we've got AQ's head honcho of  Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Nineveh provinces meeting his virgins?

Insha-phreaking-allah!

Well, I guess Ahmed al-Obeidi (aka Abu Suhaib) won't be down for breakfast in the morning!

The EPA wants YOU to get in touch with YOUR inner Leni Riefenstahl!

About Leni:  "Certainly she must have known that it would be used as a propaganda piece for the Nazi party and for her country; this isn't something that we should be upset over though, many great artists have created pieces for their countries that are seen as propaganda."  (source)

Calling all great artists!

President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging the public to create video advertisements that explain why federal regulations are "important to everyone."

The contest, which ends May 17, will award $2,500 to the makers of the video that best explains why federal regulations are good and how ordinary citizens (Ed. Note:  As opposed to the EXTRAORDINARY citizens that are your masters in government?) can become more involved in making regulations. The videos must be posted on YouTube and can be no more than 60-90 seconds in length.

Oh, brother - or should I say 'Oh, big brother'.

“The contest will highlight the significance of federal regulations and help the public understand the rule making process. Federal agencies develop and issue hundreds of rules and regulations every year to implement statutes written by Congress. Almost every aspect of an individual’s life is touched by federal regulations, but many do not understand how rules are made or how they can get involved in the process.”

IF I was to participate in this lefty charade I'd have to call my entry, "Bad government gone wild"

The videos must also remind viewers that regulations are the law and that they actually outnumber laws passed by Congress on the order of 10-1.  “Regulations have the power of law. Breaking them can result in fines and even jail time. Regulations outnumber Congressional statutes. For every statute passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, federal agencies create about 10 regulations, each of which have the force of law.”

Out of control...

Update- 4/20/10 12:07pm:  Sweet!  Hot Air has gotten into the act with it's own video contest extolling the virtues of Big Bro's Federal Regulations.  This should be good.

Timing is everything...

First, we have the SEC's splashy case against Goldman Sachs so conveniently timed to coincide with Dear Leader's push to pass financial reform. 

Then we have the almost instantaneous piling on by the Democratic party machine and their lefty handmaidens at the NY Times. 

Organizing for America had an email out to millions of Obama supporters soliciting support for financial reform 28 minutes after the NY Times broke the news at 10:38 am on Friday.  Almost instantaneously the Times managed to drop a 1200 word story on its website about the case

And it's remarkable how quickly the Obama administration's political arm was able to swing into action, buying Google ads for the search terms "Goldman Sachs SEC", then directing Googlers to the president's campaign website via a sponsored link entitled; "Help Change Wall Street".

It's sure beginning to sound like an orchestrated campaign to throw Goldman under the bus to me!

At this morning's conference call, Goldman Sachs CFO said 'the firm had no real warning of the SEC's case and said they 'were somewhat surprised that this was filed as complaint and no one told us in advance,”.  I guess $994,795 doesn't go as far as it used to when it comes to greasing the skids in DC...

The EU's latest Human Right: V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

Now that health care has been declared a human right here in the US, can bus trips to Branson be far behind?  It sure looks like the EU crowd won't have to fight for the right to PARTY anymore.

The European Union has declared traveling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.

Antonio Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, proposed a strategy that could cost European taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros a year, The Times of London reports.

"Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life," Mr. Tajani told a group of ministers at The European Tourism Stakeholders Conference in Madrid on April 15. Mr. Tajani was appointed to his post by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The plan -- just who gets to enjoy the travel package has yet to be determined -- would see taxpayers footing some of the vacation bill for seniors, youths between the ages of 18 and 25, disabled people, and families facing "difficult social, financial or personal" circumstances. The disabled and elderly can also be accompanied by one other person. The EU and its taxpayers are slated to fund 30% of the cost of these tours, which could range from youth exploring abandoned factories and power plants in Manchester to retirees taking discount trips to Madrid, all in the name of cultural appreciation.

"The commission is literally considering paying people to go on holiday," Mats Persson, of pro-reform think-tank Open Europe, told Britain's News of the World. "In this economic climate, it's astonishing that the EU wants to bribe people with cheap holidays."(Ed.Note:  Not really.)

Mr. Tajani said the program will be piloted until 2013, and then fully launched.

Lieberman-Collins subpoena Obama administration over Ft. Hood Jihadi

It's about time.  The Obama administration has been trying to stall any inquiries into this SOB since the very beginning.  And don't even get me started on that trumped up phony report that Togo West and  Vernon Clark put together!

The most transparent administration evah!(Hat tip to Nachum)

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.) on Monday issued subpoenas to the Obama administration regarding the shootings at Ft. Hood last year.

The two senators had threatened to subpoena the administratio after they made repeated requests for information on records on the shooting, which left 13 dead.  (editor's note:  One of this Terror Scumbag's victims was pregnant - correct death toll should be 14)

“The purpose of the Committee’s investigation of the Fort Hood attack is to answer questions that are critical to our government’s ability to counter homegrown terrorism,” the senators wrote in a letter accompanying the subpoenas. "In order to answer those questions, we must assess the information that the U.S. government had prior to the attack and the actions it took in response to that information."

The senators have accused the administration of stalling a congressional probe into the shooting. They say the departments of defense and justice have turned down four requests for documents over the course of five months.

Lieberman and Collins want suspected shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's personnel file and records on his efforts to contact radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The senators say in the letter that the administration has until next Monday to reply to the request to "fulfill their legal obligation."

The Pentagon has pushed back against the request for information, saying it does not want to reveal sensitive information about the incident, which is still being investigated.

The subpoenas indicate a major rift between the Obama administration and Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats.

Democratic leaders have indicated they do not intend to rescind his chairmanship due to the subpoena.  (ed. note:  Isn't that big of them?)

Barack Obama plays 8 times more golf than Geo Bush - tees off another ally in the process.

Fore!

Hold muh beer and watch this!  --->

President Barack Obama has played golf 32 times since he took office, eight times more than his predecessor George W. Bush - who was mocked by the Left for his fondness for the game - did in his entire presidency.

Mr Obama's latest outing on the links came on Sunday, when an opportunity opened up on his schedule after flying bans over most of northern and central Europe forced him to cancel his trip to Krakow to attend the funeral of Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president.

...

The golfing figures were compiled by Mark Knoller of CBS Radio, the unofficial White House statistician.

Mr Obama's Sunday golf game prompted anger in Poland, where the Warsaw Business Post carried a headline reading: "Obama goes golfing instead of attending Kaczynskis' funeral".

There's more:

The paper also reports that Mr. Obama hasn't visited the Polish Embassy in Washington yet to give his condolences:

"While U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Vice-President Joe Biden had taken the time to visit the Polish Embassy to sign a book of condolences, President Obama had not yet taken the time out to do so."

Happy Monday - Al Qaeda in Iraq biggies meet their virgins...

Looks like Abu Omar and Abu Ayyub won't be down for breakfast in the morning...

Two of the most wanted terrorist figures in Iraq have been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday.

 <---  Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq - an umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq - were killed in a security operation in al-Tharthar, north of Baghdad, al-Maliki said.

There was no immediate word from the U.S. military. The operation involved missile strikes and ground forces, al-Maliki said. The two men were in a house and then hid in a hole (emphasis mine - somehow a fitting end to these two terror scumbags, no?) where their bodies were found by security forces, he said.

OBL: Loves volleyball, has wimmenfolk troubles and wanted to watch 9/11 on his satellite dish...

It looks like OBL bodyguard and henchman, Nasser al Bahri has just penned a titillating tell all on the boss. He's reformed now, you see and just wanted to cash in on the deal, be on the Oprah show, get a few things off his chest.

Nasser, you got signal in there yet?

Osama Bin Laden requested a satellite TV dish be installed in his Afghanistan hideaway so he could watch the September 11, 2001 terror attacks as they happened, according to his former bodyguard.

But the Al Qaeda leader was unable to get a signal in the mountainous terrain surrounding his base in Kandahar so couldn't watch the two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in New York, claimed Nasser Al Bahri.  The 37-year-old said: 'He asked for satellite TV to be able to follow the bombing.'

Wait for it - there's more:

According to the book, the world's most wanted man is an extremely useful presence on the volleyball court. "He's so tall that he doesn't need to jump up to do a smash," Britain's 'The Sunday Times quoted author Nasser al-Bahri, one of the al-Qaida leader's former bodyguards, as saying.

Ewwww...bet it's ripe!

"...bin Laden likes playing football, preferably at centre forward, but he never takes off his turban."

Wimmen trouble on the cavefront:

"...the book claims that bin Laden's domestic life is no bed of roses. "Though the al-Qaida was careful to avoid conflict with his four wives -- each trained in the use of a Kalashnikov -- he's powerless to stop the first, a "seductive" but uneducated Syrian from being fiercely jealous of the second, an older, more erudite Saudi woman whom he would often consult on issues of "Islamic science", it says."

Now you know...

Denver Tea Party potty mouth ID'd???

"They call me poopyhead..."

Warning! Video NSFW - contains vile language.

Thanks to a tipster we may have identified the "long haired bleeping gnome" featured in Lefty Infiltrator exposes his true colors at Denver Tea Party 4-15-2010. 

It now appears that he was NOT a lefty infiltrator and for that I apologize.  If you watched the video I'm sure you can all understand how I could have made that honest mistake.  Just to clarify - after reading his bio and doing a quickie Google dive on our long haired bleeping gnome - I can make no claim as to the nature of his political persuasion.  I can claim finding more red flags than you can shake a stick at. 

Read on, pilgrims.

Our anonymous tipster whispers that our long haired bleeping gnome is a local filmmaker named Craig Bodeker.  His latest claim to film fame is the documentary "A Conversation About Race" and its sequel, More Of A Conversation About Race.

Well, after watching that performance yesterday Dinah would sure like to have a conversation with him about manners! 

Take a gander at Mr. Bodeker's (short haired) bio:

Below is a more recent photo from July 2009 courtesy of Mr. Bodeker's Facebook Page.  You will see his hair's a little longer but not as long as in the video.  

<---"At the Shoot" 2009

A Facebook screen grab showing Mr. Bodeker in all his musician-cool, shoulder length hair glory two months ago ---->

In this more recent review by John Ingram of the National Policy Institute Mr. Bodeker is described as: 

" a first-time filmmaker from Colorado with musician-cool shoulder-length hair..."  

Funny, he didn't seem all that COOL at Thursday's rally and it wasn't Mr. Bodeker's first Tea Party rodeo, either.  His cinematic sequel, "More of a Conversation About Race" appears to prominently feature footage from last year's Denver Tea Party.  (Possums, I'd shell out the fifteen clams to purchase the dvd to make sure, but I saw enough of his bleeping show on Thursday to last me a lifetime.  I don't think I could sit through 38 minutes more.)

Interesting that the DVD contains the following disclaimer, isn't it?

This DVD contains adult language and may not be suitable for children.

Odd.  Mr. Bodeker sure wasn't bleeping concerned about the handful of children standing within bleeping earshot of his bleeping tirade the other day! 

And about that "working for the WALL STREET JOURNAL" thing?   Well, given the heat of the moment, I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding - or something.  Maybe he said he was 'reviewed' by the WSJ not that he bleeping worked there.  It must have been something like that.  Right?   Because the only connection I can determine between Mr. Bodeker and the WSJ is this article by James Taranto which addresses the film, the filmmaker and the controversy surrounding them.

It is this controversy that makes me think my fellow Tea Partiers should be giving this guy a wide berth... 

In an Oct. 9 Hatewatch entry Scherr makes a case against the filmmaker. A reader discovered Bodeker's comments on various YouTube pages, which, Scherr writes, "expose him for the bigot he is":

He repeatedly refers to blacks, including President Barack Obama, as "monkeys." In one post, he uses the anti-gay slur "fag"; in another, he suggests that Van Jones, the black White House advisor who resigned last month, should be lynched.

The same WSJ article provides Mr. Bodeker's rebuttal (in part) from the website of the National Policy Institute:

"(The National Policy Institute...which describes itself as "the right's answer to the Southern Poverty Law Center" and is described by the SPLC as "a racist think tank" and by the Associated Press as "a white-advocacy group"):" (Editor's note:  Consider all sources here, possums.)

[Scherr] relied upon an anonymous cyber-stalker to gather "quotes" attributed to me from the comments section of unrelated political videos from Youtube. She called this piece of journalism "A Peek Behind the Curtain: Views of a Racist Filmmaker . . ,"

Some pretty strong statements were quoted--as well as MIS-quoted, surgically and deceptively edited,, taken out of context, and even made up! And once again, these "quotes" that represent proof of my "racism," were found on the comments section of Youtube.

Have any readers ever been to the comments section on Youtube? Does anyone NOT KNOW what a mosh-pitt of "free expression" it is? There are, sometimes, actual screaming matches (emphasis Dinah's), even though they're conducted in written form. Sometimes people say harsh, mean things there, in that last remaining refuge of Free Speech. Am I to assume that the SPLS's Sonia Scherr has never made a sarcastic comment? Or even a distasteful one? Or that anyone who EVER has should be stereotyped, marginalized and disenfranchised? This seems to be what the SPLC suggests.

Bodeker does not disavow any specific quotes, and he acknowledges that some of them were accurate.

So, Mr. Bodeker is NOT a "lefty infiltrator" but instead IS some kind of closeted racist, bigot, white supremacist, right wing nut with apparent anger management issues who stirs up trouble at the tea parties?

Man, oh man.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what Mr. Bodeker is - I do know that his behavior at Thursday's tea party was beyond the pale and that the statements attributed to him in Sonia Scherr's Hatewatch article are downright vile.  

In my opinion, there's no room for either kind of Mr. Bodeker's BS nonsense at the Tea Parties.  (Or anywhere else, for that matter.)

And to borrow a few of the words contained in Mr. Bodeker's rebuttal to the charges raised by the WSJ. (The complete text of which can be found here):

"...So instead they call me a poopyhead."

You sure acted like a poopyhead at the Denver Tea Party, Mr. Bodeker.

P.S.  Stay tuned.  I may also have a line on the poor guy that Mr. Bodeker went off on...

Lefty infiltrator exposes his true colors at Denver Tea Party 4-15-2010

**NSFW** *Vile language warning* ***Long-haired bleeping gnome Alert***

Update - April 17, 6:54 MST:  Denver Tea Party Potty Mouth id'd?

Original post:  The lefty longhair drops f-bombs and g-d's on everyone in sight. He had no press pass, his two person crew were carrying their microphone equip in a plastic shopping bag but HE claimed to be from the Wall St. Journal and was attempting to interview attendees about racism. Who knows who he really was.

When he started going off, I whipped out my new Ipod nano and started rolling.

I salute the brave tea partier who confronted this twit and unmasked him for the fraud he was.

Update - Saturday, April 17, 2010: Thanks to T.L. James over at the People's Press Collective for posting the vid. He saw this 'long haired bleeping gnome" standing up on the Capitol steps behind the podium and isn't sure whether he was actually an infiltrator or not. He IS sure that the guy was an arrogant tool. I still think there was something fishy about the guy's filming, interview techniques and questions.

After Action Report - Denver Tea Party 4-15-10

4-17-2010 Update:  Denver Tea Party Potty Mouth id'd??

4-16-2010 Update:   I've been able to upload video of the idiot infiltrator who got pwned by a brave Tea Partier at yesterday's Denver event.  (I know - Dinah's really becoming a techie.  Imagine that.) 

Check out:  Lefty infiltrator exposes his true colors at Denver Tea Party.

Original post:  Sorry possums.  I know I have been long absent from the blogging scene. 

Too personal to go into here, but today I rousted myself out of the drama and trauma that is my personal life and attended today's Denver Tea Party.  I'm happy to report that steadfast hiking pal, political soulmate and new grandma, Natasha, was able to join me - that always makes it a hoot.

The crowd looked 'slightly' smaller than last year's but they were certainly fired up.  The Tea Party speakers were energizing- the candidates who spoke?  Meh.  Not so much. 

There were a few attempted distractions by the opposition that I could see.  The infiltrators outed by Michelle Malkin yesterday?  Feh.  They were thoroughly pwned.  After a while Natasha and I moved down to the street across from the dirty hippies to wave at the cars passing by (while slyly observing the dirty hippies).

We whomped on them when it came to getting the honks and thumbs up from the cars going by.  Funny too, how the libs who drove by gave us the finger and the ugly face.  Man, they are scared out of their gourds.

So here is a slideshow of my slice of the rally.  It sure was good to be among like minded souls. 

Hope all has been well with you.

Plea deal likely for Pantybomber?

That's the rumor - not like we didn't see this coming a mile away from the 'roll over and play dhimmi" Obama justice department...

From the Washington Post:

Public defenders for the Nigerian student are engaged in negotiations that could result in an agreement to share more information and eventually a guilty plea, the sources said.

Negotiations could still collapse before the next scheduled court date, in April, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. But senior members of the administration's national security apparatus have publicly said that a plea deal is likely, given the virtual life sentence that Abdulmutallab could face on charges of using an airplane as a weapon of mass destruction.

Miriam Siefer, a federal public defender in Detroit, declined to comment on the case this week, as did a Justice Department spokesman in Washington.

What kind of sentence could he receive in exchange?  Richard Reid pled guilty and received a life sentence with special restrictions but the Obama Justice Department relaxed those restrictions last year.

Reid was placed under tight restrictions known as Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) that were renewed each year on the ground that his interactions with others posed a "substantial risk" of resulting in death or serious injury to them.

But last June Attorney General Eric Holder allowed the security directives to expire following a 2007 civil lawsuit by Reid in which he claimed that SAMs violated his First Amendment right of free speech and free exercise of religion.

He said the restrictions prevented him from practicing his Sunni Muslim faith or to learn Arabic, order books and magazines, watch television news and speak to anyone except his family and lawyers.  He was moved out of isolation in August, but he was subjected to new restrictions that barred him from writing to anyone except his immediate family and lawyer.

Where the hell is the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group?

For the record...

From Charles Krauthammer:

We have since learned that the decision to mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI).

The Justice Department acted not just unilaterally but unaccountably. Obama's own DNI said that Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the HIG, the administration's new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Perhaps you hadn't heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council.

Where was it during the Abdulmutallab case? Not available, admitted National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, because it had been conceived for use only abroad. Had not one person in this vast administration of highly nuanced sophisticates considered the possibility of a terror attack on American soil?

It gets worse. Blair later had to explain that the HIG was not deployed because it does not yet exist. After a year!

Bin Laden joins Al Gore in global warming crusade

Urges boycott of US goods, abandonment of US dollar and even gives a shout out to Noam Chomsky.  Also blames Boooosh!

From al Jazeera:

Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change.

In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.

"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said.

"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact." (Bwa-ha-ha!)

[...]

In the new recording, bin Laden said: "Noam Chomsky [the US academic and political commentator] was correct when he compared the US policies to those of the Mafia. They are the true terrorists and therefore we should refrain from dealing in the US dollar and should try to get rid of this currency as early as possible.

"I am certain that such actions will have grave repercussions and huge impact."

While continuing to attack America, bin Laden's comments mark a shift from his earlier, more regionally focused commentary.

"Where the hell is Secretary Napolitano?"

From CNS News:

"Top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee publicly scolded Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for failing to show up at a Wednesday hearing where the committee examined the attempted Christmas Day suicide bombing of Northwest Flight 253. One Democrat on the committee said he wanted to know “where the hell” Napolitano was.

Putting the Nap in Napolitano - Janet attends the State of the Union address.    ----->

That evening, Napolitiano did prominently show up at the Capitol to attend President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. But earlier in the day, she dispatched Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute to testify on her behalf in the Homeland Security Committee on what went wrong in the homeland-security process that allowed would-be suicide-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a plane bound from Amsterdam to the Detroit.

The committee has primary oversight over Napolitano’s department ..."

 

Obama's Closing Gitmo? To al Qaeda it's no big deal.

Lost in the shuffle of the Obama administration's rush to throw their left wing base a bone by closing Gitmo is the inconvenient truth that the AQ terror homeys don't give two hoots about WHERE it's located.  As soon as the facility opens in Thomson IL it will just present a more inviting, softer target. 

From the Daily News:

President Obama still insists he will close Guantanamo Bay’s terror prison because it’s a “tremendous recruiting tool for Al Qaeda” — but it’s not much of a tool anymore, a Daily News analysis has found.

Terrorism experts agree with Obama that the blight of past abuses of Gitmo detainees once helped Islamists draw followers to join their radical anti-Western jihad by mentioning the U.S. prison camp in Cuba in its propaganda videos — which are the most visible tool Al Qaeda and its allies use for recruitment.

But Al Qaeda has rarely complained about Guantanamo Bay since Obama pledged to shut it down on his first day in office a year ago, a meticulous scrubbing of jihadi propaganda has revealed.

Botox: the latest tool in bio-terror?

Uh-oh. With all the botox in that mug of Nancy Pelosi she could be classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

<----  Botox gone bad.

From the Times of India:

Terrorists are exploiting a surging black market for the popular anti-wrinkle drug botox to develop bioterrorism weapons, experts say.

Al-Qaida is known to be seeking the deadly botulinum toxin that comprises the active ingredient in botox, and officials say they believe terrorists in Chechnya and elsewhere have established illegal factories to churn out the raw toxin, the Washington Post reported.

Kenneth Coleman, a biodefense expert, said his probe hints that a biologist of modest means and education can easily tap the counterfeit botox market to manufacture 1g of pure toxin, which would be sufficient to kill thousands of people.

The black market for botox has spawned illicit networks of suppliers who mostly work online and don't demand prescriptions. "There are no major obstacles," said Coleman, who authored a study for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. "It's not hard to get the bacterial strains. But you don't even have to make it. You can buy it from makers to cause widespread harm."

Afghanistan Reconciliation conference: Selling out and getting suckered - AGAIN.

And here I thought that the US didn't negotiate with terrorists.  Silly me.  Turns out that the Obama administration "toyed with the idea" early on in their tenure.  (Interesting how they 'toy' with the lives of American soldiers, isn't it?)

Patrick Cronin, a senior advisor at the Center for New American Security, said on "Washington Unplugged" Thursday that United States officials first toyed with the idea of negotiating with the Taliban in Afghanistan early on in the Obama administration, though they did not act.

He said that early debate over possible negotiations – as part of an effort to combat al Qaeda – came during a "point of weakness" for the United States. Things have changed since then, he argued.

"Now that we have committed to a new Afghan policy, if not strategy," Cronin said, "...we are in a relatively strong position to at least talk about the tactic of reaching out to at least some members of the Taliban." Cronin said the administration can now differentiate between rank and file and Taliban leadership.

How can we be in a "relatively strong position" if we are talking about cutting and running?  How can we be negotiating with the Taliban in advance of the troop surge?  And why would we even consider such a thing given the miserable failure of the last such reconciliation attempt?

Thousands of Taliban militants laid down their Kalashnikovs and signed up for the old program, which lasted 41/2 years and cost $3 million. But many fighters didn't get the money and land they were promised and rejoined the insurgency. Others took the cash and returned to the Taliban anyway.

"That program was ridiculous," said Mohammad Arsalan Rahmani, a former Taliban deputy minister and now a senator in Afghanistan's parliament. "Taliban fighters who surrendered have been arrested. They never got the land and money that were promised.

[...]

Britain and Japan will head a new, much larger international fund aimed at persuading fighters to switch sides, British officials said Tuesday. Japan, Britain and the U.S. are expected to be the largest contributors initially. The fund, which will be formally announced during an international aid gathering in London this week, is expected to reach $500 million.

Part of the grand plan?  Sewing lessons.

Vice Admiral Robert S. Harward Jr., the commander of the military task force that assumed oversight of the prison system Jan. 7, (and the person tasked with reintegrating captured Taliban inmates to society) said a crucial part of his job is to separate hard-core Islamic extremists from detainees who can be reintegrated into Afghan society.

For the latter group, Harward plans to beef up education and training programs, teaching detainees masonry, cooking, sewing and other skills. "If we can give them a skill, when they come back to their village they can contribute and, at the end of the day, have a higher purpose in life," he said.

Unfortunately Vice Admiral, they already have a higher purpose in life - the death cult of ISLAM and all the sewing classes in the world will not change that.

For their part the Taliban reject the idea of peace talks out of hand.

Avoiding any discussion of compromise, the Taliban leadership council called for "the full withdrawal of the invading forces," the release of all prisoners from Afghan, Pakistani, and US jails, and the removal of all names from the United Nations terrorist sanctions list.

The Taliban said they had no intentions of negotiating with the Afghan government, which they described as "traffickers of intoxications items, human rights violators, corrupt persons, national traitors and usurpers of people private properties." Instead, Mullah Omar, the Taliban's leader, seeks to reinstall the Islamic Emirate.

It looks like the Taliban are already getting some of their demands met:  UN eases sanctions on 5 Taliban leaders.

And the rights of Afghani women?  Look for them to be thrown under the bus.

Interested in reading the key points of the communique? (A largely boilerplate document which glossed over the major issues and was leaked by the Germans before the participants even sat down to their lunch of goat cheese and sea bass!)  See below.

While I was swanning around New Orleans...

All the charges were dropped against the five 9/11 terrorists.

Just so you know.

From Fox News:

All charges have been withdrawn in the military commissions against the five suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks being held at Guantanamo Bay.

The charges were dropped "without prejudice," according to the Defense Department -- a procedural move that allows federal officials to transfer the men to trial in a civilian court and also leaves the door open, if necessary, to bring charges again in military commissions.

"This action comes in light of the announcement by the attorney general of the United States that the Department of Justice intends to pursue a prosecution ... in federal court in the Southern District of New York," says a release from the Defense Department.

Currently no suspects stand charged in the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11. U.S. officials sent notification to Congress and families of 9/11 victims Friday afternoon. The order dropping charges was made Thursday.

Breaking: Holder ordered to find new venue for KSM trial?

What a clusterphuk.  "Like a half baked souffle.  The plan is collapsing."

Update - January 29, 2010:  Possible alternate sites for the KSM trial are now being leaked:

Topping the list, the source said, is upstate Otisville -- home to a federal penitentiary where the terrorists, now at Guantanamo Bay, could be housed. Other cities being considered, the source said, include White Plains in Westchester County and New Haven, Conn.

From the Daily News:

The White House ordered the Justice Department to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The White House took the action hours after Mayor Bloomberg called Attorney General Eric Holder to say he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere."

"It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters.  "There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City."

State leaders have railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.

The order to consider new venues does not change the White House's position that Mohammed should be tried in civilian court.

"President Obama is still committed to trying Mohammed and four other terrorist detainees in federal court," spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday.  (The same Bill Burton who called KSM a 'murderous thug' - no mention of his being an Islamic terrorist, of course.)

"He agrees with the attorney general's opinion that ... he and others can be litigated successfully and securely in the United States of America, just like others have," Burton said.  Burton referred questions about the location debate to the Justice Department.

Officials there have apparently been caught off guard by the fiery opposition in New York, an insider told the Daily News.  "They're in a tizzy at Justice over Bloomberg," a federal law enforcement official said. "It's like a half-baked souffle - the plan is collapsing."

Meanwhile, a source told The News that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was the driving force behind the push by Manhattan business leaders to change the mayor's mind on the trial.  Kelly made an "extremely powerful" speech to a roomful of 150 prominent business leaders about how disruptive and costly the trial would be for lower Manhattan at an annual police charity event on Jan. 13, the source said.

"What turned this around was when Ray made a presentation to the Police Foundation," the source said. "Everyone went from thinking, 'Justice will be served' to thinking 'We are screwed.'"

Phew.

Between Bourbon Street pub crawls, the Iris Ball and the Saints win over the Colts - I'm still recovering from my New Orleans trip.

Highlights included:

Vizard's, the King Pin, the National World War 2 Museum, Antoine's, Galatoire's, the Court of Two Sisters, Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, the Parkway Bakery, Plush Appeal, Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar, Audubon Park, the Camellia Grill, Brigtsen's, and Patois.

And just think - two weeks from today we journey back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and do it all over again!

Oy. The day that was.

A day that was consumed with matters of craziness here at DL.  It started off with a flurry of incomings from the Pak Nation and ended up with an emergency trip to the vet's for one of the K-9 Kafir Brigade.  Our little pardner seems to be feeling better now after meds and an IV.

Tonight has been spent watching the Brown-Coakley results come in (Praise the Lord for Scott Brown's win!) while packing for a trip to NOLA where I will be attending the 2010 Krewe of Iris Ball in advance of next month's Mardi Gras.

You know what that means - posting will be light over the next few days.

Stay well, possums and keep fighting the good fight.

P.S.  I've been listening to a replay of Ms. Coakley's concession speech as I write this - she wasn't all that gracious in defeat.  I don't expect the Dems to go away quietly.