All opinions posted. None too pathetic or contrived. Everyone gets their say.

"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Operation Shoe Fly Update

OSF

Here is the address where you can send children's shoes for distribution to needy children in Afghanistan as I wrote about here and here.



Operation Shoe Fly
c/o Jim Thomson
B Co, 214th Aviation Regiment
APO AE 09354

UPDATE: I sent off some shoes to Sgt Hook today. Everything went off amazingly smooth. WalMart had children's shoes for $5 a pair. Even better they had hard-soled leather boots in children's sizes 7-13. I picked up 20 pairs. Then I was pleased to discover that these 20 boxes of shoes exactly fit the box I was going to ship them in...and I mean exactly. Shipping wasn't too bad either -- coming to about $30 for parcel post.

So, I found exactly the right kind of shoes, at exactly the right price, shipping was easy and fairly cheap -- and all in all everything went very well.

I feel good. Now it is your turn.

Arab Media & the Handover

Hammorabi (Shia from Baghdad)
Most of the Arab media has been taken by surprise about the earlier announcement of the handover in Baghdad.

The follow up of the activities of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabyiah, Abu Dhabi and some others indicates that they put and prepared huge Anti-Iraqi & Anti-American propaganda on the 30 June 2004. The earlier take over of power was a big blow indeed for such propaganda. Their papers dispersed all over by the new time

All the Arab media appaeared confused and in disarry while trying to set out propaganda in hurry. They tried their best to get some of the pro-Wahabi mullahs and Anti-American propagandists to full the gabs.

One of the Arabs commentators said the handover happened in the bedroom and not in the outside! He probably forgot that all their Presidents, Kings, and Sheikhs are dictators elected by 99.999% of their people...

On the top of the list is the mouthpiece of the terrorists, Al Jazeera. It appeared confused and spitted all of its hate for Iraq and Iraqis. It showed the Iraqi scene after today as a chaos and invited pro-Wahabi Mullah from Haayat Olamma Musleemens from Iraq to mutilate any hope for new free Iraq...They showed again the film of Alzarqawi in which he threatened to kill Ayad Alawi and other films which showed the terrorists attacking inside Iraqi streets! Al Jazeera showed its real ugly face today without any makeup at all. Below is a story published in Al Sharq Awasat about the direct involvement of Al Jazeera in the terrorist attacks in Iraq?


Al Jazeera TV & the Terrorists

Al Sharq Awsat newspaper (27/62004) has published the story of the Saudi Saaedan who was captured by the terrorists in Falluja.

In 31 May 2004 Mr Saaedan entered Iraq to deliver food supplies for the US army in Falluja after a contract with an American company. When his convoy reached Falluja a group of terrorists [ex]changed fire with the defending guards of the convoy and captured him. Saaedan told that among the terrorists were terrorist were Saudi, Syrians and Iraqis from Falluja.

He was interrogated for 3 days and accused that he works for the US army, a charge which resulted in the death penalty according to Fatwa by one of the terrorists Wahabi Mullah. He was left in a dark room in an abandoned place waiting for his death. He was given the choice to die by execution or to do a suicidal operation against the US and Iraqi forces and police. He refused the later, therefore, the Amer (head) of the group ordered to execute him.

Saaedan added that he heard one of the terrorist calling Al Jazeera TV reporter to come to record a video tape. He was then forced to sit in front of Al Jazeera reporter and camera and one of the terrorists read the statement. He was then moved into another place waiting for the execution on 4 June 2004.
On the early morning of the same day there were an exchange of fire between the terrorists and the US forces which helped Saaedan to escape with the help of one of them.

Mr Saaedan now taking legal action against Al Jazeera TV because they joined the terrorist in his death and have not informed the officials about what it has happened with him especially they know all about it including his place and the execution.

In actual fact Saaedan saw the tape broadcasted by Al Jazeera on 5 June 2004 after his escape as well as by the BBC.

Other Video by Al Jazeera

Just now it showed a video of killing an American solider [US Army Private Keith Maupin, 20] was taken captive few months ago. The video showed him shot dead from the back while sitting by an edge of a dig in which he was then burred.

Saddam & other Killers

The handover of the above mass killers will happen in the next few days.

We need to see Saddam and Tali Chemical and their thugs in a TELEVISED trial direct on air. Our wounds will not heal without seeing Saddam and his thugs in that long awaited trial. Hurry it; let the souls of the victims of mass graves, Halabja and others rest in peace.

[...]

Good luck for Iraq and the civilized people the friends of Iraq.

God bless Iraq and America and their friends and allies.

More details later especially about what the Arab Media said?!
Sam is always passionate and speaks directly from the heart of the Iraqi soul.

US Supreme Court bars enforcement of Child Online Protection Act

Arc Technica (tech news)
The US Supreme Court wrapped up its session by announcing a decision which bars the enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). The COPA, passed in 1998, was an attempt by Congress to keep pornography out of the reach of children on the Internet by requiring credit cards, access codes, or other means of age verification to access adult content, with fines of up to US$50,000 for violations. By a 5-4 decision, the Court remanded the case back to a lower court for a trial to resolve the issues raised in the original lawsuit filed by the ACLU, saying that the law as written violates free speech:

For now, the law, known as the Child Online Protection Act, would sweep with too broad a brush, [Justice] Kennedy wrote. "There is a potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech" if the law took effect, he said.

What is especially interesting about the ruling is that the Court was able to recognize the technological issues at hand in addition to the more obvious free speech ones. Kennedy noted the inadequacies of filtering software and felt that a full trial was necessary to determine if there have been enough in the way of technical advances to make the legislation feasible. (Psst, Justice Kennedy: the answer is "no.")...
I must say that I thought the Supremes had a very good year. They seemed to decide correctly on most of the important cases. Even decisions that I wish had gone the other way, such as the HMO lawsuit case, were probably the correct decision. In the HMO case the court basically said that this problem was the cogresses fault for not addressing the issue, and the court wasn't going to do thier work for them. So, even though I diagree on policy grounds, on legal grounds that was probably the correct thing to do.

Happiness


“Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

Thomas Jefferson