Clipmarks | arifsali's 'united states' clips

Four in 10 women sexually assaulted while in military

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:58:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A congresswoman said Thursday that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military.

A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.

She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area, where women told her horror stories of being raped in the military.

"My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military," said Harman, who has long sought better protection of women in the military.

"Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since.

Tags: military, united states, women, rape

Al-Qaeda in US invaded Iraq: Women cannot buy cucumbers!

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:19:06 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: You know what you can potentially do with cucumbers, don't you?

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Al-Qa'eda is losing support in Iraq because of a brutal crackdown on activities it regards as un-Islamic - including women buying cucumbers.

Besides the terrible killings inflicted by the fanatics on those who refuse to pledge allegiance to them, Al-Qa'eda has lost credibility for enforcing a series of rules imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life.

They include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables, according to one tribal leader in the western province of Anbar.

Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni elder, told Reuters: "They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram.

"They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men."

Tags: al qaeda, humor, iraq, united states

Route 66

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:43:42 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: pictures, united states

FBI concedes Aafia Siddiqui in US custody: lawyer

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:41:42 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.dictatorshipwatch.com

WASHINGTON, Aug 3: Five years after her mysterious disappearance in Karachi, the FBI has finally conceded that an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist is alive and is in US custody in Afghanistan.

Aafia Siddiqui, 36, disappeared with her three children while visiting her parents’ home in Karachi in March 2003, around the same time the FBI announced that it wanted to question her over her alleged links to Al Qaeda.

Her family’s lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp said she believed recent media reports about Mrs Siddiqui’s incarceration increased pressure on the US and Pakistani authorities to divulge more information.

“I don’t believe that they just found Aafia,” she said. “I believe that she was there all along.”

The fate of her three young, American-born children is still unknown.

Before her disappearance, Mrs Siddiqui lived in a Boston suburb of Roxbury and studied at Brandeis University as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tags: united states, fbi

The Army Fights "With God on Our Side"

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:30:38 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

Retired Army Lt. General William Boykin was involved in many perilous operations during his 30-year military career –missions that included the Desert One attempted rescue of Iranian hostages in 1980, Grenada, and serving as commander of Delta Force during Black Hawk Down in Somalia.

Despite all he has endured, Boykin says one of his most traumatic fights came in 2003, when he found himself the subject of a media firestorm after comments he made to a Christian audience were publicized. According to accounts of his speech, Boykin referenced a Somali Muslim warlord he encountered in battle and said "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real god and his was an idol."

Continue »

Tags: army, christianity, united states

Chaplains Serve Soldiers

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:52:46 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Given that attitude they feel attacked by “the devil” when prayer and Bible readings are outlawed in public schools, when active proselytizing is stopped at the Air Force Academy and now when prayers are requested to be removed from mandatory meals at the Naval Academy. Each of these initiatives is, however, not only correct, but each brings practice into conformity with the Constitution. I rejoice in this decision.

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

Chaplains are in the military to serve the spiritual needs of our service men and women. They are not imposed on those who do not choose to avail themselves of their services. No one should have the religion of another imposed upon him or her involuntarily. Saying prayers at meals that are mandatory is an imposition. This would be especially true if the prayers assume a particular view of God, which all prayers seem to do. The ACLU is absolutely correct to make this request.

America was founded on the principle of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Yet in many parts of America the majority religious viewpoint of the community was imposed upon the public schools and its symbols displayed in public places. Majority religious traditions are delusional in their understanding of imperialism regarding religious truth. That is how we get claims of inerrant scriptures and infallible popes.

Tags: united states, army, religion

"America can't kill or capture its way to victory"

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:13:39 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: feeds.bignewsnetwork.com

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates Tuesday said diplomacy and development should lead American efforts abroad, and he warned against a “creeping militarization” of U.S. foreign policy.

In a speech to rousing applause, US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said America can't kill or capture its way to victory over the long term, and diplomacy not militarization should lead U.S. efforts abroad. (Click on photo for full story).

“Broadly speaking, when it comes to America’s engagement with the rest of the world, it is important that the military is, and is clearly seen to be, in a supporting role to civilian agencies,” he said.

In a speech interrupted several times by rousing applause, Gates told the audience at a dinner organized by the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign that America cannot simply “kill or capture our way to victory” over the long term.

Tags: united states, politics

71% of Americans say U.S. gov't shouldn't take sides in Mideast conflict

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:57:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

A public opinion poll released by a research institute at the University of Maryland shows that 71 percent of Americans believe that the United States government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The survey, which measured attitudes of nearly 19,000 respondents in countries around the world, found that in 14 of the 18 nations studied, a large majority favored an even-handed approach to the conflict.

In none of the countries did a majority support taking Israel's side. Of American respondents, 21 percent said the United States should take Israel's side, and only 3 percent, the Palestinians.

Tags: united states, world, survey

What's John McCain's Technology Policy?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:32:14 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: "Should I double click here?"

No, do a single left click, you [moron].

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Washington Dispatch: Surprise—he doesn't have one. And how does that compare to Barack Obama?

Political observers have made much of John McCain's admission that he cannot use a computer without assistance. In a campaign where McCain's opponent is 25 years younger than him, the factoid is potent ammunition for those who argue McCain is out of touch and too old for the presidency. But not knowing your way around a MacBook doesn't mean you can't be president. And McCain's personal Ludditism isn't a deal breaker for tech leaders. "I don't give a damn if McCain ever turns on a computer or not," Michael Arrington, coeditor of the blog TechCrunch wrote in January. "I just want a president who has the right top-down polices to support the information economy."

Tags: united states, politics, technology

How Terrorism Paranoia Killed 1,600 Americans in 2002

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:12:11 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Widespread fear after 9/11 pushed people from (safe) planes to (dangerous) cars.

In the aftermath of 9/11, many Americans were so afraid of flying that they chose to drive instead. That decision, based on the perceived threat of another airliner hijacking, led to 1,600 casualties in the following year. The families of the people who died in those crashes thought they had lost them to “the routine traffic accidents we accept as the regrettable cost of living in the modern world.” Daniel Gardner begs to differ: What killed them was fear.

How do we decide what to dread, and why do we do it so badly? Threats such as asteroid impacts, online pedophiles, and terrorist attacks trigger gut reactions so powerful that they override rational thought, Gardner explains, and pretty soon we are willing to carry gas masks to protect ourselves from a chemical weapons attack—but not to exercise and eat our fruits and veggies.

Tags: fear, terrorism, united states

Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:19:52 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Look who's talking

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

It is hard to find the words to express what a fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy President Bush’s new plan is.

Actually, it’s more sophisticated than that: Get Saudi Arabia, our chief oil pusher, to up our dosage for a little while and bring down the oil price just enough so the renewable energy alternatives can’t totally take off. Then try to strong arm Congress into lifting the ban on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: "C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight.

Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was "addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: "Get more addicted to oil.”

Tags: oil, united states, opinion

Citi to Slash 10% of its 65,000 US employees

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:57:35 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: That's a big freaking number of people to be let go.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Citigroup Inc., in the latest sign of bloodletting on Wall Street, is set this week to embark on an aggressive round of layoffs within its investment-banking division, people familiar with the matter said.

The New York bank, which has suffered $15 billion in losses over the past two quarters and is likely to rack up billions of dollars in additional write-downs in the second quarter, this week will dismiss thousands of investment-banking employees world-wide as part of a plan to cut the roughly 65,000-employee group by 10%, the people said. Pink slips are likely to be handed out Monday.

"Citi indicated earlier this year that it would be resizing this business in response to market conditions and as part of our ongoing re-engineering efforts," spokesman Dan Noonan said, without confirming specifics.

Across Wall Street, investment banks are adjusting to meager times as they deal with drop-offs in everything from mergers to initial public offerings.

Tags: united states, jobs

Why do non-Jewish Americans support Israel?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:08:36 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Walter Russell Mead is one of the most revered American foreign policy scholars in the U.S.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from Walter Russell Mead's The New Israel and the Old:

The American public has few foreign policy preferences that are this marked, this deep, this enduring -- and this much at odds with public opinion in other countries. In the United States, a pro-Israel foreign policy does not represent the triumph of a small lobby over the public will. It represents the power of public opinion to shape foreign policy in the face of concerns by foreign policy professionals."

Tags: united states, israel

Conventional wisdom wrong about Arab journalists' anti-Americanism

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:24:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Since September 11, U.S. politicians have repeatedly reminded us that the journalists in the Arab world are biased against America and the West. Ground-breaking research published in the July 2008 issue of International Journal of Press/Politics published by SAGE shatters the myths, finding that much of the conventional wisdom about Arab journalists that has shaped U.S. public diplomacy toward the region lacks substance.

To provide a snapshot of journalists' attitudes and to create a benchmark for future studies, the researchers surveyed 601 mainstream professional Arab journalists with the goal of understanding how they view both their profession and the events they cover.

The study,

suggest there is a sizable bloc of Arab journalists who share the same values often espoused by the United States: political freedom, human rights, and at least some separation of church/mosque and state.

Tags: study, arab, united states, journalism, journalists

Mississippi Floodwaters in Iowa

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:46:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: flood, united states