The Menorah outside the Jerusalem Knesset
Friday, December 23, 2005
Hanukkah Observation
Hanukkah, beginning on 25 Kislev (usually in December), commemorates the triumph of the Jews, under the Maccabees, over the Greek rulers (164 BCE) - both the physical victory of the small Jewish nation against mighty Greece and the spiritual victory of the Jewish faith against the Hellenism of the Greeks. Its sanctity derives from this spiritual aspect of the victory, and the miracle of the flask of oil, when a portion of sacramental olive oil meant to keep the Temple candelabrum lit for one day lasted for eight days, the time it took for the Temple to be rededicated.
Hanukkah is observed in Israel, as in the Diaspora, for eight days. The central feature of this holiday is the lighting of candles each evening - one on the first night, two on the second, and so on - in commemoration of the miracle at the Temple. The Hanukkah message in Israel focuses strongly on aspects of restored sovereignty; customs widely practiced in the Diaspora, such as gift-giving and the dreidl (spinning top), are also in evidence. The dreidl's sides are marked with Hebrew initials representing the message "A great miracle occurred here"; in the Diaspora, the initials stand for "A great miracle occurred there." Schools are closed during this week; workplaces are not.
Hanukkah is observed in Israel, as in the Diaspora, for eight days. The central feature of this holiday is the lighting of candles each evening - one on the first night, two on the second, and so on - in commemoration of the miracle at the Temple. The Hanukkah message in Israel focuses strongly on aspects of restored sovereignty; customs widely practiced in the Diaspora, such as gift-giving and the dreidl (spinning top), are also in evidence. The dreidl's sides are marked with Hebrew initials representing the message "A great miracle occurred here"; in the Diaspora, the initials stand for "A great miracle occurred there." Schools are closed during this week; workplaces are not.
AC 360, the Non News
The usual junk begins the 'show.' Here's Johnny.
1005
Cheney lies backed by Dana Bash. Count the dead. The world is NOT a far safer place. Jordan, Madrid, London, Luxor, Egypt, Beirut experienced two assassinations and the list goes on and on and on………
1009
Iraq - the tribute to "The Lionesses" is a repeat of a previous broadcast.
Blair: troops could begin Iraq pullout within six months
Tania Branigan in Basra and Ewen MacAskill
Friday December 23, 2005
The Guardian
Tony Blair indicated yesterday that a phased withdrawal of British troops from Iraq could begin within six months in the first official confirmation of an exit plan. Speaking during a lightning visit to Basra, his fourth in the past 12 months, Mr Blair held out the prospect of a pullout beginning in the first half of 2006.
Mr Blair refused to divulge a specific timetable, but he sounded an optimistic note and gave the clearest signal yet of British military intentions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1673279,00.html
Get used to. We are leaving !!!!!!!!!
Australia's 270 mln aud wheat trade with Iraq in jeopardy - report
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/12/22/afx2411193.html
Most think propaganda campaign in Iraq wrong
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favorable to the USA. In some cases, the stories will be prepared by U.S. military personnel, as they have been in Iraq.
The military will not always reveal it was behind the stories, said Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element. The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-22-poll-propaganda_x.htm
Iraq war has had a crippling effect on Iraq's orange growers
By Mohammed Alawsy
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAQOUBA, Iraq - Basim Alwan, 50, still walks the orange groves that surround the small house where he grew up. He still looks past the dark green leaves, searching for the fruit that's defined his life.
But these days he finds that fruit less often, and he's worried about what that means for his future, his community's future and even his nation's future.
"Without the orange trees, we'd be fish out of water, we'd die," he said. "We don't have any other jobs here. But since the war, the trees have been bare."
While the trees are still green and plentiful, they haven't borne enough fruit to yield a decent harvest for two and a half years, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Bombs and bullets didn't rip the fruit from the branches, but residents still blame the war, which has affected the local economy in a surprising number of ways.
Baqouba, the capital of Diyala Province and Iraq's self-proclaimed City of Oranges, has about a quarter-million people. Just northeast of Baghdad, it marks the eastern edge of the world's oldest fertile region, a vast green crescent that cuts through the heart of Iraq's tan, dead desert.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/13467815.htm
1017
The New York Transit Strike
THIS TOOK PLACE UNDER REAGAN'S WATCH.
Caspar W. Weinberger
January 21, 1981 - November 23, 1987
15th Secretary of Defense
Reagan Administration
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/weinberger.htm
AND WHERE was Don Rumsfeld during this time?
During his business career, Mr. Rumsfeld continued public service in a variety of posts, including:
Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control – Reagan Administration (1982 - 1986);
President Reagan's Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983);
Senior Advisor to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984);
Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations – Reagan Administration (1983 - 1984);
President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984);
Member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987 - 1990);
Member of the National Economic Commission (1988 - 1989);
Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University (1988 - 1992);
Member of the Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1989 - 1991);
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/DonaldRumsfeld.htm
Dutchman faces jail on Iraq genocide charge
22 Dec 2005 23:01:41 GMT
Source: Reuters
AMSTERDAM, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A court in The Hague will pass judgment on Friday on a Dutch businessman charged with selling chemicals to Iraq used to carry out poison gas attacks.
Frans van Anraat, 63, is charged with complicity in genocide and war crimes for supplying agents to make poison gas used by Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and against its own Kurdish population, including a 1988 attack on the town of Halabja.
If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
In a magazine interview in 2003, Van Anraat admitted to supplying the chemicals but he denies knowing they were destined for Iraq and that they would be used to make poison gas.
Prosecutors said Van Anraat delivered more than 1,000 tonnes of thiodiglycol -- an industrial chemical which can be used to make mustard gas but also has civilian uses -- to Iraq and more than 800 tonnes ended up on the battlefield.
They said he shipped chemicals from the United States to Belgium and from Belgium to Iraq via Jordan.
He also shipped chemicals from Japan to Italy, and then overland to Iraq, but defence lawyers said a key witness -- Van Anraat's Japanese business partner Tanaka -- was not reliable.
Saddam Hussein, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", and others used chemical weapons including mustard gas and nerve gas in Halabja, Gukk Tapah and Bergin to target the Kurdish population, the charges against Van Anraat said.
The Halabja attack on March 16, 1988, killed an estimated 5,000 people. Some of their relatives were present during the trial.
Defence lawyers said the case was inadmissible as the chief suspect of genocide and war crimes, Saddam, is already on trial in Baghdad. Saddam has denied the charges.
Van Anraat is the first Dutchman to be tried on genocide-related charges.
Sixteen Kurdish victims from Iraq and Iran who joined the criminal trial are seeking the symbolic amount of 680 euros ($800.70) each in damages.
The United States said Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction were one of its main reasons for going to war in 2003, but significant stockpiles of chemical and biological arms have not been found.
Van Anraat was detained in Milan in 1989 following a U.S. request but was released after two months. He then fled to Iraq, where it is thought he stayed until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria.
Dutch officials arrested him last December as he was preparing to leave the country.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22786584.htm
1025
Speculation regarding medical euthanasia in New Orleans.
1030
Commercials
1033
The news review. You know the 10 second flash news reel.
1034
Katrina's Home Movie - he was lucky.
1039
Alaska's 'projects' - pork and nothing else
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night voted to approve the House-Senate conference report legislation related to the defense appropriations. Included in the conference legislation was $29 billion funding for the hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast. The vote was passed by unanimous vote.
The final appropriations bill did not include the controversial ANWR drilling. The ANWR matter has been very contentious since the drilling issue was attached to the defense appropriations bill by the House of Representatives and had angered environmentalists and most democrats in the Senate.
Earlier today, a vote on cloture of the ANWR-defense appropriations issue failed by a slight margin in the Senate.
The cloture vote put the funding for Katrina and Rita in a wild zone of uncertainty and speculation.
Before the Conference Report vote Wednesday night, the Senate voted to remove the ANWR provision from the defense appropriations.
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=5796
1045
Commercials
Then
Kids and Lunch
Funding to feed hungry children
As we celebrate the holidays, most of us have more food than we could ever need. During this season of giving, state Sen. Teresa Fedor, state Rep. Mark Wagoner, and I encourage each of you to stop and think of the thousands of Ohio children who have an empty dinner table.
As illustrated in a Sept. 2 Blade editorial, 120,000 children in Ohio go hungry each day and 500,000 are at risk of hunger. That's one in every six children in our state. Even more startling is that hungry children suffer a variety of devastating consequences: increased health problems, more disruptive behavior, tardiness or absence from school, and lower scores on achievement tests than their classmates.
While this news is disheartening, there is hope. The National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs, funded by the federal government, exist as a "safety net" by providing children nutritious breakfasts and lunches. Using these programs does not increase our state spending. Rather, taking advantage of them helps us maximize what funds are already available from the federal government.
Here in Lucas County, Senator Fedor, Representative Wagoner, and I have met with the Children's Hunger Alliance (a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to end childhood hunger in Ohio) in order to help more local schools offer school breakfast programs. We encourage parents to join us in our efforts. They should contact their child's school for information on its breakfast program, or get in touch with one of us. We can all take action. In doing so, we will help local children be prepared to learn and avoid the devastating consequences of hunger, without increasing state spending.
We can end childhood hunger in Lucas County and across Ohio. That's something we can all celebrate.
Jeanine Perry
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051217/OPINION03/512170376
1054
Commercials
END IT.
1005
Cheney lies backed by Dana Bash. Count the dead. The world is NOT a far safer place. Jordan, Madrid, London, Luxor, Egypt, Beirut experienced two assassinations and the list goes on and on and on………
1009
Iraq - the tribute to "The Lionesses" is a repeat of a previous broadcast.
Blair: troops could begin Iraq pullout within six months
Tania Branigan in Basra and Ewen MacAskill
Friday December 23, 2005
The Guardian
Tony Blair indicated yesterday that a phased withdrawal of British troops from Iraq could begin within six months in the first official confirmation of an exit plan. Speaking during a lightning visit to Basra, his fourth in the past 12 months, Mr Blair held out the prospect of a pullout beginning in the first half of 2006.
Mr Blair refused to divulge a specific timetable, but he sounded an optimistic note and gave the clearest signal yet of British military intentions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1673279,00.html
Get used to. We are leaving !!!!!!!!!
Australia's 270 mln aud wheat trade with Iraq in jeopardy - report
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/12/22/afx2411193.html
Most think propaganda campaign in Iraq wrong
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favorable to the USA. In some cases, the stories will be prepared by U.S. military personnel, as they have been in Iraq.
The military will not always reveal it was behind the stories, said Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element. The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-22-poll-propaganda_x.htm
Iraq war has had a crippling effect on Iraq's orange growers
By Mohammed Alawsy
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAQOUBA, Iraq - Basim Alwan, 50, still walks the orange groves that surround the small house where he grew up. He still looks past the dark green leaves, searching for the fruit that's defined his life.
But these days he finds that fruit less often, and he's worried about what that means for his future, his community's future and even his nation's future.
"Without the orange trees, we'd be fish out of water, we'd die," he said. "We don't have any other jobs here. But since the war, the trees have been bare."
While the trees are still green and plentiful, they haven't borne enough fruit to yield a decent harvest for two and a half years, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Bombs and bullets didn't rip the fruit from the branches, but residents still blame the war, which has affected the local economy in a surprising number of ways.
Baqouba, the capital of Diyala Province and Iraq's self-proclaimed City of Oranges, has about a quarter-million people. Just northeast of Baghdad, it marks the eastern edge of the world's oldest fertile region, a vast green crescent that cuts through the heart of Iraq's tan, dead desert.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/13467815.htm
1017
The New York Transit Strike
THIS TOOK PLACE UNDER REAGAN'S WATCH.
Caspar W. Weinberger
January 21, 1981 - November 23, 1987
15th Secretary of Defense
Reagan Administration
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/weinberger.htm
AND WHERE was Don Rumsfeld during this time?
During his business career, Mr. Rumsfeld continued public service in a variety of posts, including:
Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control – Reagan Administration (1982 - 1986);
President Reagan's Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983);
Senior Advisor to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984);
Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations – Reagan Administration (1983 - 1984);
President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984);
Member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987 - 1990);
Member of the National Economic Commission (1988 - 1989);
Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University (1988 - 1992);
Member of the Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1989 - 1991);
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/DonaldRumsfeld.htm
Dutchman faces jail on Iraq genocide charge
22 Dec 2005 23:01:41 GMT
Source: Reuters
AMSTERDAM, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A court in The Hague will pass judgment on Friday on a Dutch businessman charged with selling chemicals to Iraq used to carry out poison gas attacks.
Frans van Anraat, 63, is charged with complicity in genocide and war crimes for supplying agents to make poison gas used by Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and against its own Kurdish population, including a 1988 attack on the town of Halabja.
If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
In a magazine interview in 2003, Van Anraat admitted to supplying the chemicals but he denies knowing they were destined for Iraq and that they would be used to make poison gas.
Prosecutors said Van Anraat delivered more than 1,000 tonnes of thiodiglycol -- an industrial chemical which can be used to make mustard gas but also has civilian uses -- to Iraq and more than 800 tonnes ended up on the battlefield.
They said he shipped chemicals from the United States to Belgium and from Belgium to Iraq via Jordan.
He also shipped chemicals from Japan to Italy, and then overland to Iraq, but defence lawyers said a key witness -- Van Anraat's Japanese business partner Tanaka -- was not reliable.
Saddam Hussein, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", and others used chemical weapons including mustard gas and nerve gas in Halabja, Gukk Tapah and Bergin to target the Kurdish population, the charges against Van Anraat said.
The Halabja attack on March 16, 1988, killed an estimated 5,000 people. Some of their relatives were present during the trial.
Defence lawyers said the case was inadmissible as the chief suspect of genocide and war crimes, Saddam, is already on trial in Baghdad. Saddam has denied the charges.
Van Anraat is the first Dutchman to be tried on genocide-related charges.
Sixteen Kurdish victims from Iraq and Iran who joined the criminal trial are seeking the symbolic amount of 680 euros ($800.70) each in damages.
The United States said Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction were one of its main reasons for going to war in 2003, but significant stockpiles of chemical and biological arms have not been found.
Van Anraat was detained in Milan in 1989 following a U.S. request but was released after two months. He then fled to Iraq, where it is thought he stayed until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria.
Dutch officials arrested him last December as he was preparing to leave the country.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22786584.htm
1025
Speculation regarding medical euthanasia in New Orleans.
1030
Commercials
1033
The news review. You know the 10 second flash news reel.
1034
Katrina's Home Movie - he was lucky.
1039
Alaska's 'projects' - pork and nothing else
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night voted to approve the House-Senate conference report legislation related to the defense appropriations. Included in the conference legislation was $29 billion funding for the hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast. The vote was passed by unanimous vote.
The final appropriations bill did not include the controversial ANWR drilling. The ANWR matter has been very contentious since the drilling issue was attached to the defense appropriations bill by the House of Representatives and had angered environmentalists and most democrats in the Senate.
Earlier today, a vote on cloture of the ANWR-defense appropriations issue failed by a slight margin in the Senate.
The cloture vote put the funding for Katrina and Rita in a wild zone of uncertainty and speculation.
Before the Conference Report vote Wednesday night, the Senate voted to remove the ANWR provision from the defense appropriations.
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=5796
1045
Commercials
Then
Kids and Lunch
Funding to feed hungry children
As we celebrate the holidays, most of us have more food than we could ever need. During this season of giving, state Sen. Teresa Fedor, state Rep. Mark Wagoner, and I encourage each of you to stop and think of the thousands of Ohio children who have an empty dinner table.
As illustrated in a Sept. 2 Blade editorial, 120,000 children in Ohio go hungry each day and 500,000 are at risk of hunger. That's one in every six children in our state. Even more startling is that hungry children suffer a variety of devastating consequences: increased health problems, more disruptive behavior, tardiness or absence from school, and lower scores on achievement tests than their classmates.
While this news is disheartening, there is hope. The National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs, funded by the federal government, exist as a "safety net" by providing children nutritious breakfasts and lunches. Using these programs does not increase our state spending. Rather, taking advantage of them helps us maximize what funds are already available from the federal government.
Here in Lucas County, Senator Fedor, Representative Wagoner, and I have met with the Children's Hunger Alliance (a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to end childhood hunger in Ohio) in order to help more local schools offer school breakfast programs. We encourage parents to join us in our efforts. They should contact their child's school for information on its breakfast program, or get in touch with one of us. We can all take action. In doing so, we will help local children be prepared to learn and avoid the devastating consequences of hunger, without increasing state spending.
We can end childhood hunger in Lucas County and across Ohio. That's something we can all celebrate.
Jeanine Perry
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051217/OPINION03/512170376
1054
Commercials
END IT.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)