The Jones Weekly Report

post from Jutia Group on 16 November 2007 03:26:16 PM. © Jutia Group

It was another wild week in the markets, albeit slightly more tame than last week. We saw beginnings of a pull back that we’ve been waiting for in precious metals and currencies. Without further ado…OilOil was volatile again this week, but, for the most part, we saw it trading to the downside. The ever annoying [...]

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Homeschoolers Weigh in on Republican Primaries

post from All Spin Zone on 16 November 2007 03:13:00 PM. © All Spin Zone

The Homeschoolers have decided to support Huckabee over Romney in the Republican Presidential Primaries, even to the point of urging their membership to give their hard-earned money. This despite Romney offering up tax breaks for homeschoolers.

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British General: Our Presence
‘Instigated’ Violence In Iraq, ‘90 Percent’ Reduction After Withdrawal

post from Think Progress on 16 November 2007 03:12:00 PM. © Think Progress

After Britain partially withdrew forces from southern Iraq in September, the White House slandered its “closest ally,” claiming “British forces have performed poorly in Basra” and suggested “it’s best that they leave.”

The White House should take notice of what has happened in Basra as British troops have left. According to Maj. Gen. Graham Binns, commander of British forces in Basra, the presence of British troops instigated violence. Now, violence has reportedly dropped to one-tenth that of earlier levels:

The presence of British forces in downtown Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, was the single largest instigator of violence, Maj. Gen. Graham Binns told reporters Thursday on a visit to Baghdad’s Green Zone.

“We thought, ‘If 90 percent of the violence is directed at us, what would happen if we stepped back?,’” Binns said.

Sectarian tensions in Basra, a predominantly Shiite city, are not as high in other parts of Iraq, but “it has seen major fighting between insurgents and coalition troops.” British Defense Secretary Des Browne observed last month:

The people of that city are no longer subject to the significant level of violence that was directed against the British forces and our allies.

In April, 12 British troops were killed in Iraq in contrast to just 1 in October. Furthermore, “British officials expected a spike in such ‘intra-militia violence’ after they pulled back from the city’s center, and were surprised to find none,” Binns said.

When announcing a further withdrawal in early October, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Basra was “calmer” since British forces handed over their base in early September. “Indeed, in the last month, there have been five indirect fire attacks on Basra Air Station compared with 87 in July,” he observed.

While the region still sees ongoing volatility, the lesson learned by the British — that they provoked violence instead of quelling it — is one that can be applied to the U.S. presence in Iraq as well.

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Maria Luisa blasts CNN over being forced to ask
dumb question.

post from Crooks and Liars on 16 November 2007 03:08:49 PM. © Crooks and Liars

This doesn’t reflect well on CNN’s idiot factor.Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred “diamonds or pearls” at last night’s debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.“Every single [...]

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This Is Why I Hate The President

post from Librocrats - Designed Intelligent on 16 November 2007 03:08:00 PM. © Librocrats - Designed Intelligent

While this topic deserve more than a thousand words, this photo will have to suffice.Yep. This is our president hesitating to shake the hand of a soldier who was badly injured in Iraq. Way to go, Bush.[...]

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Waxman Wants to Hear from Buzzy Krongard

post from TPMmuckraker on 16 November 2007 03:07:28 PM. © TPMmuckraker

Sure enough, Rep. Henry Waxman wrote yesterday to Buzzy Krongard to sort out whether or not his brother, State Department Inspector General Howard "Cookie" Krongard, truthfully testified to Waxman's committee that Buzzy never told him about joining the advisory board of State Department contractor Blackwater.

Waxman didn't subpoena Krongard, but asked if he'd consent to a "transcribed interview" by November 30. He also wants a couple pieces of documentation. From Waxman's letter (pdf):

1. All documents reflecting communications to or from (a) Erik Prince, (b) Blackwater USA or any parent companies, subsidiaries, or affiliated companies thereof (collectively, "Blackwater"); or (c) any officers, employees, or other persons affiliated with Blackwater.
2. All documents, including phone records, relating to communications with Howard J. Krongard regard Erik Prince or Blackwater.
3. All other documents relating to Blackwater or your relationship with Blackwater.

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Superhero Hell

post from Eschaton on 16 November 2007 03:03:00 PM. © Eschaton

Funny.

(via Mithras).

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Leonid meteor shower tonight and tomorrow

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 16 November 2007 02:57:00 PM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

I got up five years ago at like 4am for these babies. Was freaking cold out, but it was supposed to be a particularly good year. I did get to see a few meteors, including one that I got a decent picture of as it soared near Venus (well, to our eyes at least - you can see my photo at left).

More from Space.com:

The Leonid meteors are debris shed into space by the Tempel-Tuttle comet, which swings through the inner solar system at intervals of 33.25 years.

With each visit the comet leaves behind a trail of dust in its wake. Lots of the comet's old dusty trails litter the mid-November part of Earth's orbit and the Earth glides through this debris zone every year. Occasionally we'll pass directly through an unusually concentrated dust trail, or filament, which can spark a meteor storm resulting in thousands of meteors per hour. That's what happened in 1999, 2001 and 2002, because Tempel-Tuttle had through the inner solar system in 1998.

But now, the comet ? and its dense trails of dust ? have all receded far beyond Earth's orbit and back into the outer regions of the solar system. So this year there there is little if any chance of heightened activity....

this year's peak activity should occur on the night of Nov. 17-18. They cite 4:00 GMT on Nov. 18, which corresponds to 11 p.m. EST and 8 p.m. PST on the evening of Nov. 17.

This is the moment when the Earth will be passing closest to the orbit of the long-departed comet, and when our planet seemingly is most likely to encounter some residual comet material. This time is highly favorable for those in Europe and Africa. But in contrast for North American observers, Leo will still be below the horizon; they will have to wait until later in the night to catch a view of the Leonids.

But while Leonid rates are unpredictable, it is unlikely that more than about 15 meteors per hour will be seen this year.

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Glenn Beck guest: "Believe it or not,
tax cuts bring in revenue" -- several Bush economists don't believe it

On the November 14 edition of his CNN Headline News show,while discussing President Bush's veto of a domestic spending billon November 13 withDavid E. Williams, vice president of policyfor Citizens Against Government Waste, Glenn Beck said: "[A] liberal called me up on theradio show the other day and they said, 'You people, who are allconservatives, you wanted President Bush's tax cuts, and now look.'It's not the tax cuts. ... It's the Republican spending and nowthe[...]

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Al Sharpton's march on the Justice Department

While I was at work today, I looked on the CNN website (like I always do) and saw that Al Sharpton was once again trying to march. This time, he was marching around the Main Justice Dept. building on Pennsylvania Avenue in order to get the government more actively prosecuting hate crimes. As a fed, I can tell you that the Justice Department has entire sections devoted to prosecuting these types of crimes. It's like saying that these people are not doing their job. Al Sharpton and others like Congressman Artur Davis of my home state of Alabama cited statistics about the number of prosecutions for hate crimes led by the federal government. Then there were a standard group of black celebrities, Dick Gregory, Judge Mathis, Tom Joyner who were there in Freedom Plaza along with Sharpton. They were protesting that all of those cases involving nooses that are being plastered by the media were not investigated and prosecuted by the government and more specifically the Justice Department. Why is it solely the responsibility of the Justice Department to prosecute these crimes? What about pressing the states first to do something? Just jumping the gun in order to get on TV. That's what I think. And the marching around the main DOJ building? I don't think that did a bit of good. What was marching going to do? In what I saw on CNN.com, Sharpton argued that the nooses in the Jena 6 situation were a hate crime and that the black boys involved were somehow victims. Correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Sharpton but weren't those boys in trouble for fighting a white student. They jumped the white boy, not the other way around. If he doesn't watch out, those boys are going to be on the wrong end of a hate crime charge in addition to the other criminal charges they have, with the 6 black boys jumping one white boy. I don't like Sharpton. He's an opportunist waiting to get in front of the camera to whine about white racism when there are real issues in the black community that need to be address. According to a DOJ report, about 7% of homicides against black in 2005 were committed by whites. You want to know who committed the other 93%? Blacks. That's right. We are hurting ourselves and nobody is marching about that. Al Sharpton doesn't want to see what we in the black community are doing to ourselves. I bet some of those marching today left neighborhoods that were in despair, walking right past black boys standing on the street corner doing nothing who should be in school or on a job, walking past the elderly who need help, just keep on walking to go run up behind Al Sharpton and his mess. It makes me sick. We have a multitude of problems that need to be addressed in the black community and I don't think that running behind Al Sharpton and walking around the DOJ building 7 or however many times they did it is going to change those problems one bit.

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