Fazil Say - Hayat Ağacı (Fazil Say; Jamal Aliyev)
43 minutes ago
Sunday 7 August 2011
US special forces Afghan helicopter 'downed' by Taliban
A US helicopter carrying US and Afghan special forces has crashed in Afghanistan, killing 38 people, officials in Kabul say.
Reports say the Chinook helicopter was shot down by the Taliban.US sources say most of the 31 Americans who died were from the Navy Seal unit which killed Osama Bin Laden, but are "unlikely" to be the same personnel.
The US has not confirmed the number of dead, which would be the largest single US loss of life in the Afghan conflict.
The Chinook went down overnight in Wardak province, said a statement from President Hamid Karzai's office, giving the numbers of those killed.
It was returning from an operation against the Taliban in which eight insurgents are believed to have been killed.
A senior official of President Barack Obama's administration said the helicopter was apparently shot down, Associated Press news agency said.
An official with the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan told the New York Times the helicopter was shot down with a rocket-propelled grenade.
'Enemy activity'
"The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expresses his sympathy and deep condolences to US President Barack Obama and the family of the victims," the statement from President Karzai said.
President Obama, too, issued a statement paying tribute to the Americans and Afghans who died in the crash."We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied. We also mourn the Afghans who died alongside our troops in pursuit of a more peaceful and hopeful future for their country," the statement said.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force has confirmed the helicopter crash but has not released details of casualties or the cause.
Reports say more than 20 of the US dead were Navy Seals.
A US military source has confirmed to the BBC that they were from Seal Team Six - the same unit which killed Bin Laden in Pakistan in May.
However, US officials have told both they BBC and AP they do not believe that any of those who took part in the Bin Laden operation were on the downed helicopter.
The size of Team Six, an elite unit within the Seals, which is officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, is not known.Several Air Force personnel, a dog and his handler, a civilian interpreter, and the helicopter crew were also on board, AP reports.
Nato said it was mounting an operation to recover the helicopter and find out why it crashed. It said there had been "enemy activity in the area" where it went down.
A Taliban spokesman said insurgents had brought down the helicopter with a rocket after US and Afghan troops attacked a house in the Sayd Abad district of Wardak where insurgents were meeting late on Friday, Associated Press said.
Sayd Abad, near the province of Kabul, is known to have a strong Taliban presence.
A Wardak government spokesman quoted by AFP news agency agreed with this, saying the helicopter was hit as it was taking off.
A local resident told the BBC Pashto service a rocket hit the helicopter.
"What we saw was that when we were having our pre-dawn [Ramadan] meal, Americans landed some soldiers for an early raid," said Mohammad Wali Wardag.
"This other helicopter also came for the raid. We were outside our rooms on a veranda and saw this helicopter flying very low, it was hit by a rocket and it was on fire. It started coming down and crashed just away from our home close to the river."
There are currently about 140,000 foreign troops - about 100,000 of them American - in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban insurgency and training local troops to take over security.
All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and some troop withdrawals have already taken place.
Nato has begun the process of handing over control of security in some areas to local forces, with Bamiyan becoming the first province to pass to Afghan control in mid-July.
An increase in US troop numbers last year has had some success combating the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan, but attacks in the north, which was previously relatively quiet, have picked up in recent months.
@'BBC'
US Special Operators Killed in Afghanistan: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
Saturday 6 August 2011
R.E.M. Live 2 October 85 'Rockpalast' (Complete show)
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Harborcoat
Sitting Still
Maps And Legends
Fall On Me (original lyrics)
Green Grow The Rushes
Driver 8
Hyena
So. Central Rain
Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
Can't Get There From Here
King Of The Road
Seven Chinese Brothers
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
Old Man Kensey
Little America
Pretty Persuasion
encore 1:
Theme From Two Steps Onward
Toys In The Attic
See No Evil
Second Guessing
encore 2:
Ghost Riders In The Sky
(Don't Go Back to) Rockville
We Walk-Falling In Love Again-Behind Closed Doors
Paint It, Black
Via
UN: $1 Billion to Clean Oil-Polluted Niger Delta
The United Nations has released a report saying that cleaning up the oil-polluted Ogoniland area of Nigeria would cost $1 billion and take over 30 years – the most wide-ranging and costly cleanup of oil pollution clean-up ever. The damage was caused by the operations of oil companies in the area over the past 50 years. The Niger Delta, the world’s third largest wetland, was once rich with biodiversity but is now one of the most oil-polluted areas on earth. The report (and the cost estimate) cover only one small area of the vast Niger Delta; the $1 billion would cover the first five years of cleanup.
Among the findings:
- Public health is seriously threatened in at least ten communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons.
- Some areas that appear unaffected on the surface are in fact severely contaminated underground, and pose a high and immediate risk to human and environmental well being,
- Scientists found an eight centimeter (three inch) layer of oil floating on groundwater (which feeds wells) linked to a spill from six years ago.
The UN Environmental Program report notes, “When an oil spill occurs on land, fires often break out, killing vegetation and creating a crust over the land, making remediation or revegetation difficult. At some sites, a crust of ash and tar has been in place for several decades.” The report makes multiple recommendations for long term remediation of the land, plant and animal life, and human health, including eight emergency measures around preventing further ingestion of polluted water. The report’s recommended the formation of an “Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland, to be set up with an initial capital injection of US$1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the government, to cover the first five years of the clean-up project.”...
Friday 5 August 2011
Lib Dems to debate drugs inquiry at party conference
Calls for a government-backed inquiry into the decriminalisation of drugs will be debated by Liberal Democrats at their annual conference next month.
Some delegates want more emphasis put on the treatment rather than the prosecution of drug users.The Lib Dems will debate a motion which would become party policy if it wins support at the Birmingham conference.
But they would still need the agreement of the Conservatives before an official government inquiry could be set up.
'Criminal records'
The motion will urge the government to set up an expert panel to consider the decriminalisation of personal drug use.
It insists that current drugs laws are "harmful" and "ineffective".
Some Lib Dems believe savings could be reinvested in education, treatment and rehabilitation programmes.
Drug users would no longer face a prison sentence or a fine but would be required to go for treatment or counselling. Penalties for drug dealing would remain the same as they are now.
The motion states that there is "increasing evidence that the UK's drugs policy is not only ineffective and not cost-effective but actually harmful, impacting particularly severely on the poor and marginalised".
It continues: "Individuals, especially young people, can be damaged both by the imposition of criminal records and by a drug habit, and... the priority for those addicted to all substances must be healthcare, education and rehabilitation, not punishment.
"One of the key barriers to developing better drugs policy has been the previous Labour government's persistent refusal to take on board scientific advice, and the absence of an overall evaluative framework of the UK's drugs strategy."
Greater scrutiny
It will not be the first time the Lib Dems have discussed changing the drugs laws at their annual conference, and in 2002 delegates voted for the legalisation of cannabis.
But BBC political correspondent Iain Watson says any call for an inquiry into drugs legislation is likely to attract far greater scrutiny now the Lib Dems are in government.
The inquiry would look at adopting the practice in Portugal of decriminalising the possession of drugs for personal use, and following the Swiss example of providing more clinics for heroin addicts.
The motion will be put forward by Ewan Hoyle, founder of Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform, and supported by Lib Dem MEP Sir Graham Watson.
Party members can submit amendments to the motion by 5 September, ahead of the conference on 17-21 September.
@'BBC'
Mysterious company gives pro-Romney group $1M, then dissolves
A mysterious corporation that was formed in Delaware in March gave $1 million in April to a political group backing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- and then dissolved in July, according to a report from NBC News' Michael Isikoff. It's unclear exactly who was behind the large donation.
The group Restore Our Future, a so-called "super political action committee," received a donation of $1 million from W Spann LLC on April 28, according to the super PAC's campaign disclosure report, filed last week. The group received $12.2 million during the first six months of the year, including gifts from four donors who gave $1 million each, the report showed.
One of the million-dollar donors was W Spann LLC, formed by Boston estate tax planner lawyer Cameron Casey, who specializes in "wealth transfer strategies" for high-end clients. Casey works for the firm Ropes & Gray's, which has done work for Bain Capital, the investment firm formerly headed by Romney.
Ropes & Gray's is also one of several major companies, Isikoff reports, that have offices at a Manhattan office building at 590 Madison Ave. -- the address listed for W Spann. Other companies there include UBS, IBM and Cemex. The building, however, has no record of a tenant called W Spann. On top of that, corporate records for W Spann give no information about the company's owner or the type of business it does.
Restore Our Future told Isikoff that the super PAC has complied with all Federal Election Commission disclosure requirements and said it did not ask W Spann for information about its business.
Restore Our Future is a super PAC that's independent of Romney's campaign but was founded by three former Romney aides with an interest in electing the former Massachusetts governor as president. The group is similar to Priorities USA, the super PAC founded by Obama allies Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney.
The 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling allows for corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited money on political campaigns, though not by giving directly to candidates or party committees.
Lawrence Noble, former FEC general counsel, told NBC that the establishment of a company for the sole purpose of donating to a super PAC could raise a "serious" legal issue.
Stephanie Condon @'CBS'
The group Restore Our Future, a so-called "super political action committee," received a donation of $1 million from W Spann LLC on April 28, according to the super PAC's campaign disclosure report, filed last week. The group received $12.2 million during the first six months of the year, including gifts from four donors who gave $1 million each, the report showed.
One of the million-dollar donors was W Spann LLC, formed by Boston estate tax planner lawyer Cameron Casey, who specializes in "wealth transfer strategies" for high-end clients. Casey works for the firm Ropes & Gray's, which has done work for Bain Capital, the investment firm formerly headed by Romney.
Ropes & Gray's is also one of several major companies, Isikoff reports, that have offices at a Manhattan office building at 590 Madison Ave. -- the address listed for W Spann. Other companies there include UBS, IBM and Cemex. The building, however, has no record of a tenant called W Spann. On top of that, corporate records for W Spann give no information about the company's owner or the type of business it does.
Restore Our Future told Isikoff that the super PAC has complied with all Federal Election Commission disclosure requirements and said it did not ask W Spann for information about its business.
Restore Our Future is a super PAC that's independent of Romney's campaign but was founded by three former Romney aides with an interest in electing the former Massachusetts governor as president. The group is similar to Priorities USA, the super PAC founded by Obama allies Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney.
The 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling allows for corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited money on political campaigns, though not by giving directly to candidates or party committees.
Lawrence Noble, former FEC general counsel, told NBC that the establishment of a company for the sole purpose of donating to a super PAC could raise a "serious" legal issue.
Stephanie Condon @'CBS'
Firm gives $1 million to pro-Romney group, then dissolves
Here is the lawyers e-mail address that 'fixed' things for this asshat. I hope you all will drop her a line and express your appreciation for her dishonesty.
Phone # is 1-617-951-7987 direct line - say hello and thanks...
If it's good enough for 18 year old risk takers, it's probably good enough for you too!
lulzb0at lulz boat
wikisend.com/download/56030… - Free Radicals - Anarchy of Science - ePub. #FREETOPIARY
wikisend.com/download/56030… - Free Radicals - Anarchy of Science - ePub. #FREETOPIARY
Hopefully not a rhetorical question...
Is there actually ANY good news out there?
If you know of some please do send it to me...as I am starting to get even more depressed about the state of this fugn planet!(Thanx Conscious!)
The American People Lost the Debt Ceiling Debate
The debt ceiling fracas was an insanity-inducing syllabus of everything that's wrong with the American political system. Everything.
The very serious cable news media (and a considerable chunk of the blogosphere for that matter) were preoccupied with safe, superficial sports and/or poker metaphors: who won, who lost, who "doubled-down" and so forth. After all, covering the wonky aspects of the policy itself is no fun and involves math.
The Republican Party, meanwhile, having been responsible for the bulk of the debt in the first place, was allowed to get away with sabotaging the stability of the global economy as the centerpiece of its plan to subsequently sabotage the president. At the same time, one of its congressional leaders, Eric Cantor, was short selling government bonds -- a blindingly outrageous conflict of interest that ought to vindicate Pete Rose for any comparatively trivial wagering sanctions he continues to endure.
The Democratic Party and the White House, paralyzed by fear (fear of taking an aggressive posture for fear of losing the fickle, insufferable middle), helped to push the Overton Window farther to the right.
Far-right conservatives and tea party activists continued to illustrate their willful inability to grasp an even grade-school level understanding of the economy and governing.
The progressive left was out-hustled by far-right activism yet again...
The very serious cable news media (and a considerable chunk of the blogosphere for that matter) were preoccupied with safe, superficial sports and/or poker metaphors: who won, who lost, who "doubled-down" and so forth. After all, covering the wonky aspects of the policy itself is no fun and involves math.
The Republican Party, meanwhile, having been responsible for the bulk of the debt in the first place, was allowed to get away with sabotaging the stability of the global economy as the centerpiece of its plan to subsequently sabotage the president. At the same time, one of its congressional leaders, Eric Cantor, was short selling government bonds -- a blindingly outrageous conflict of interest that ought to vindicate Pete Rose for any comparatively trivial wagering sanctions he continues to endure.
The Democratic Party and the White House, paralyzed by fear (fear of taking an aggressive posture for fear of losing the fickle, insufferable middle), helped to push the Overton Window farther to the right.
Far-right conservatives and tea party activists continued to illustrate their willful inability to grasp an even grade-school level understanding of the economy and governing.
The progressive left was out-hustled by far-right activism yet again...
Continue reading
Bob Cesca @'HuffPo'
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