Say Anything Blog

Families in Pakistan sometimes force young girls to marry to curb tribal violence.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—It began with an errant dog, and it’s now culminated with the forced betrothal of 15 little girls, some of them as young as 3, as compensation in a case of tribal feuding in a remote part of Pakistan.

It’s thought that around 20 people have died in the bitter quarrel, and the marriage offer of the girls is meant to end the bloodletting.

Under a brutal custom, called Vani, the girls are being traded as settlement of a long-running dispute between two tribes. This case occurred on the border between the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan, but the practice, known as Swara in some areas, isn’t uncommon in rural parts of Pakistan.

Islam.. the peaceful religion?

This morning Glenn Beck commented that at one time or another he has been a social conservative or a fiscal conservative. Now he is both.

This afternoon Rush Limbaugh told a listener that, “Barack Obama must not be allowed anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue”.  He stopped short of explaining how that could be done.

Like many, he cannot bring himself to say that the only way to stop Obama is the election of Senator McCain.

In today’s Washington Times, Tom Delay (R) of Texas analyzed why the right is in a losing mode and a downward spiral.

After considering these sources and the many positions outlined on SAB and other blogs, I come to the following strategy for winning in November.

1.  Go out and get every sensible person we know registered as a republican and then make sure they vote. The dems have been building their voter-rolls at the grass-roots for the last 3 years.

2.  Engage every potential voter we know who is anywhere on our side of the fence. Stop applying strict conservative litmus-tests to people who could help us in the cause.

3.  Open up our wallets! Campaigns are won on money and votes.  The liberals are swimming in both.

4.  Stop pointing the blame-finger. It won’t help.

5.  Accept the fact that we don’t have a presidential candidate who is strong on energy or immigration. Focus on the fact that he is strong on the war, federal court appointments, the 2nd Amendment, Right to Life, lower taxes and smaller government.  We could do worse.

6.  Stop attacking each other and our candidates and go after the real enemy… Senator Barack Obama and the liberals.  Give up the false idea that 4 years of Obama will make everyone wake up.

7.  Work to get republicans in office at every level where we can help make it happen; city councils, state and county governments, congress and the White House.

8.  Wake up and smell the coffee.  We are in an all-out war for the future of this country. The liberals smell victory like never before and they mean to transform our culture if they win.

9.  Get real.  There is no point in our daily assaults on Obama and the liberals if we turn right around and shoot our own candidates in the foot at the same time.

10 Get over the defeatist attitude. We are not “so screwed”!  People want a reason to vote republican.  It’s time we unify our brain-power and and our party and give them a reason.  The alternative is unthinkable.

"Americans don’t understand what is going on in the rest of the world,” Sharif said. “They are ignorant.”
And because he is an actor, he is qualified as a political intellect?

Appearing on the Al-Hayat television network, Sharif claimed to have spoken with President Bush even before the Iraqi invasion, warning America’s commander in chief that American forces “would drown there” and that in Arab nations, “we don’t have a democracy, and we never will.”

Sharif’s venom wasn’t reserved only for the president, however, as he also criticized Americans’ lack of geographical knowledge.

“Only 10 percent of all Americans have a passport,” he said. “In other words, 90 percent never left America. … You show them an unmarked map of Europe and ask them where France is, and they don’t know. Ask them where Italy is … . OK, Italy they know because it looks like a shoe. They don’t know anything.”

“We, the Arabs… We are not like [regular countries],” he said, explaining why he warned Bush against encouraging democracy in Iraq. “We are sects. This is how we have always been.”

Sharif’s diatribe began with a declaration that summarized his comments: “The American policy is completely wrong.”

Since when does Hollywood hand out political science degrees? Sheesh.. some actors need to be blackballed for being simple idiots

Grr…

Rick Moran

It’s not much in the way of a sign that we’re climbing up from the well we’ve fallen into but at this point, like a starving man, we’ll grasp at any morsel at all of good news on the housing front.

Sales of existing homes increased much more than analysts thought in April - a possible sign that the rash of foreclosures have enticed bargain hunters back into the market:

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in April and seen as a key barometer of future housing activity, increased 6.3 percent to 88.2 from an unrevised 83.0 in March. Despite the uptick, sales were 13.1 percent lower than a year ago.

”Bargain hunters have entered the market en masse, especially in areas that have seen double-digit price declines,” said the association’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun. Regions of the country that have seen sharp price declines, such as the West, are now seeing a sales recovery, he added.

Economists polled by Reuters before the report were expecting pending home sales to decline 0.5 percent.

“We are seeing an acceleration in foreclosures. As foreclosures have taken off, they put pressure on prices. Banks have become more aggressive with sales on homes they have foreclosed,” said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York.

Low said the pickup in pending home sales could be a sign that the housing market could soon be stabilizing.

[...]

Some analysts are expecting a quicker rebound than the economist quoted in the article. That’s because this particular downturn has occurred in a period of relatively low unemployment and interest rates so that the market for homes is larger and credit should be easier to find than in the past.

An end to the rise in foreclosures should put a little spine back into consumers as well - equally good for the economy. But in the end, the housing sector will only fully recover when homes start appreciating at something like the pre-boom rate of 4-5% a year.

This is how markets work, people.

By Jeremy Laurance

A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared.

In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO’s department of HIV/Aids said there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in the heterosexual population outside Africa.

Dr De Cock, an epidemiologist who has spent much of his career leading the battle against the disease, said understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Whereas once it was seen as a risk to populations everywhere, it was now recognised that, outside sub-Saharan Africa, it was confined to high-risk groups including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and sex workers and their clients.

Dr De Cock said: “It is very unlikely there will be a heterosexual epidemic in other countries. Ten years ago a lot of people were saying there would be a generalised epidemic in Asia – China was the big worry with its huge population. That doesn’t look likely. But we have to be careful. As an epidemiologist it is better to describe what we can measure. There could be small outbreaks in some areas.”

[...]

Read the whole thing. The myth of heterosexual AIDS is finally revealed.

Find it here

The Senate Gets an Overdue Economics Lesson

Clarice Feldman

Despite having a prime location, the US Senate’s restaurant operation has been steadily losing money and even a substantial $18 million subsidy from the taxpayers was not enough. It seems to have suffered from substandard food and an overly generous salary and benefit structure. 

The solution: according to the Washington Post, it will now be privatized. It is anticipated that despite being required to maintain for existing staff the ridiculously high compensation package, it soon will be paying the Senate $800,000 a year in commissions.

[...]

When will they learn?

April 27th, 2008

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has attacked critics of the government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant in Belarus, describing them as “enemies of the people”…

Hmmmmm.Another thorn in the flesh! Can we get Putin to vote for an embargo? I think not. Perhaps Randy Grapes will proffer us another attack plan in a few days. Oh, and you-know-who is a good buddy of Lukashenka.

The stench emanates from the Rockefeller Report (which was giddily and uncritically embraced here by our leftard contingent, even as the obvious contradictions were being pointed out).  The WaPo was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that the actual substance of the report did not match the executive summary.

‘Bush Lied’? If Only It Were That Simple.
By Fred Hiatt
Monday, June 9, 2008; Page A17

...

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, set out to provide the official foundation for what has become not only a thriving business but, more important, an article of faith among millions of Americans. And in releasing a committee report Thursday, he claimed to have accomplished his mission, though he did not use the L-word.

“In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent,” he said.

...

But dive into Rockefeller’s report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.

On Iraq’s nuclear weapons program? The president’s statements “were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates.”

On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president’s statements “were substantiated by intelligence information.”

On chemical weapons, then? “Substantiated by intelligence information.”

On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? “Generally substantiated by intelligence information.” Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? “Generally substantiated by available intelligence.” Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? “Generally substantiated by intelligence information.”

As you read through the report, you begin to think maybe you’ve mistakenly picked up the minority dissent. But, no, this is the Rockefeller indictment. So, you think, the smoking gun must appear in the section on Bush’s claims about Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to terrorism.

But statements regarding Iraq’s support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda “were substantiated by intelligence information.” Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda “were substantiated by the intelligence assessments,” and statements regarding Iraq’s contacts with al-Qaeda “were substantiated by intelligence information.” The report is left to complain about “implications” and statements that “left the impression” that those contacts led to substantive Iraqi cooperation.

In the report’s final section, the committee takes issue with Bush’s statements about Saddam Hussein’s intentions and what the future might have held. But was that really a question of misrepresenting intelligence, or was it a question of judgment that politicians are expected to make?

After all, it was not Bush, but Rockefeller, who said in October 2002: “There has been some debate over how ‘imminent’ a threat Iraq poses. I do believe Iraq poses an imminent threat. I also believe after September 11, that question is increasingly outdated. . . . To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? I do not think we can.”

Damn the evidence!  Up the Narrative!

H/T SondraK

Tom Delay, former republican power-broker in congress, says the GOP and conservatives failed to adapt to the new realities of the McCain/Feingold campaign laws, while the democrats and liberals did.

Delay believes that republicans have not hit bottom yet following their losses in ‘06 and that it will take years to rebuild the party and it’s base.

The conservatives refuse to accept that the left is cleaning thier clock and until you hit some bottom, wherever that is, to where it says, “Well, maybe we aught to do something different, little or nothing is going to change.”

Delay argues that the left has mastered the art of using independent groups, while republicans lag far behind, still focused on a party-based strategy that can’t compete.

They’re living with 10 - 15 year old technology. They still believe if you raise enough money, go on television enough, you’re going to win. Those days are over.

Delay will spearhead an effort to bring together different conservative groups, but admits the process will be slow and new leaders will have to emerge.

Delay will vote for John McCain but says his wife may vote for Bob Barr, Libertarian.

In short, while conservatives cursed the McCain/Feingold legislation, liberals sat down, studied it and learned to adjust. The GOP and conservatives failed to adapt to the new realities, are losing the war of words and ideas and must find new ways to package their message.

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/09/delay-warns-gop-faces-long-rebuilding-process/

Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a “disability pension” from the Navy.

When McCain released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return.

...Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain’s case, the exemption is 100%.

“At the present time, Senator McCain enjoys excellent health and displays extraordinary energy,” John D. Eckstein, his personal physician at the Mayo Clinic, said in a statement. “While it is impossible to predict any person’s future health, today I can find no medical reason or problems that would preclude Senator McCain from fulfilling all the duties and obligations of President of the United States.”

I’m a fan of the caffeine craze. Life is to short to be spent in bed and taking naps. I’ve grown to spend my mornings with depth charges, afternoons with Vault Zero. In between a little jolt gum and now…

Extreme VOJO energy mints. Not your regular mint. They look like an old tic-tac but kick it into 2008 with caffeine, b-vitamins and taurine. My day just become a little more productive.

here’s a cross post from www.outdoornewsguy.com on the lead in venison issue.

Let’s be honest with the millions of hunters and anglers, lead occurrence from pencils to paint has been around for decades. Elevated blood lead levels are concerning but we owe it to hunters to identify the real origination before going beyond suggestions and moving into requirements.

Sunday’s poll from Rasumussen is among the dog-bites-man category of news:

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Just 17% of voters nationwide believe that most reporters try to offer unbiased coverage of election campaigns. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that four times as many—68%--believe most reporters try to help the candidate that they want to win.

The perception that reporters are advocates rather than observers is held by 82% of Republicans, 56% of Democrats, and 69% of voters not affiliated with either major party. The skepticism about reporters cuts across income, racial, gender, and age barriers.

The only people the press are fooling with the “objectivity” meme are the liberals who benefit from their slanted news articles, especially in this case Obama supporters.

I have a soft spot for those soldiers that have lost their lives and their families, this email came to me today, I have read it before and I thought a few here like Zsa Zsa might enjoy it! The rest of the poem is in the extended text

Daddy’s Poem

Her hair was up in a pony tail, her favorite dress tied with a bow. Today was Daddy’s Day at school, and she couldn’t wait to go. But her mommy tried to tell her, that she probably should stay home.

Why the kids might not understand, if she went to school alone. But she was not afraid; she knew just what to say. What to tell her classmates of why he wasn’t there today. But still her mother worried, for her to face this day alone. And that was why once again, she tried to keep her daughter home. But the little girl went to school eager to tell them all about a dad she never sees a dad who never calls.

There were daddies along the wall in back, for everyone to meet. Children squirming impatiently, anxious in their seats One by one the teacher called a student from the class to introduce their daddy, as seconds slowly passed. At last the teacher called her name, every child turned to stare.

Each of them was searching, a man who wasn’t there. ‘Where’s her daddy At?’ She heard a boy call out. ‘She probably doesn’t have one,’ another student dared to shout. And from somewhere near the back, she heard a daddy say, ‘Looks like another deadbeat dad, too busy to waste his day.’ The words did not offend her, as she smiled up at her Mom, and looked back at her teacher, who told her to go on and with hands behind her Back, slowly she began to speak. And out from the mouth of a child, came words incredibly unique. ‘My Daddy couldn’t be here, because he lives so far away. But I know he wishes he could be, since this is such a special day and though you cannot meet him, I wanted you to know. All about my daddy, and how much he loves me so.

“He loved to tell me stories he taught me to ride my bike. He surprised me with pink roses, and taught me to fly a kite. We used to share fudge
Sundaes, and ice cream in a cone and though you cannot see him, I’m not standing here alone. ‘Cause my daddy’s always with me, even though we are apart I know because he told me, he’ll forever be in my heart”

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