Clipmarks | ratilfar's clips

Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demands US withdrawal timetable

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:23:26 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP, said that the issue of immunity for US forces had become a particularly sensitive subject for Iraqis. “We have suffered so much from immunity. Immunity equals committing crimes. In the name of immunity they have killed people, they have their own prisons, they captured Iraqis. We can’t continue like this,” he said.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Iraq said for the first time yesterday that it wanted to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from its territory.

President Bush has long resisted a schedule for pulling his 145,000 soldiers out, arguing that it would play into the hands of insurgents. Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister, who boasted last week that he had crushed terrorism in the country, suggested that it was time to start setting time-lines.

The Iraqi parliament has bridled at pushing through such a binding deal with the outgoing and unpopular Bush Administration, saying that the negotiations have been secretive and could undermine Iraq’s sovereignty. “I don’t know anything about this agreement and neither does parliament,” said Ezzedine Dawla, a Sunni MP. “We’re going to pass something we don’t know anything about.”

Tags: iraq, exit strategy, war, politics, elections, military

Yellowcake Uranium Found In Iraq, Bush Was Right! Well, Not So Much

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:42:26 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: And guess what:

Top recommended post at Redstate:

Yellowcake uranium found in Iraq, Saddam’s legacy, Bush was right!

Reading comprehension?

FAIL!

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

This article from the AP was posted yesterday, reporting the sale and transport of 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium from Iraq to Canada. Some of the leading right wing blogs were quick to hail the find as a significant victory for the Bush administration and proof of Saddam’s WMD program, but as Daniel De Groot at Open Left Points out, their celebrations may be a bit premature, if not dishonest:

I noted last night that a supply of uranium from Iraq had been successfully moved to Montreal in secrecy.

If you check into this, you’ll quickly find that the uranium a) was not weapons grade and b) was well known to the UN and IAEA and was being stored legally by Saddam’s government. It was legally in Iraq according to international law.

I wondered if the right wing echo chamber would use this as “proof” that the WMD claims were true after all. I got even better than I hoped, as not only do they use it that way, but they reveal how dishonest they are by the way they have done this.

Tags: yellowcake, iraq, wmds, the, lie, nukes, saddam

Larry Harmon, longtime Bozo the Clown, dead at 83

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:43:33 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: I remember seeing him on WGN.

Clip Source: tv.msn.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Larry Harmon, who appeared as Bozo the Clown for decades and licensed the name to other Bozos around the world, has died at age 83.

Harmon died Thursday at his home of congestive heart failure, his longtime publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press.

Although not the first person to play Bozo, Harmon took on the famous clown's persona and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly TV stations. Those stations then recruited their own Bozos for local shows.

Harmon met his alter ego after answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote records. He got the job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo.

Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.

Secret memo shows Israel knew Settlements were illegal

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:52:09 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: The argument that the settlements are illegal, stated in successive UN resolutions, and by the International Court of Justice advisory opinion condemning the separation barrier in 2004, is reinforced by such an authoritative source. It strengthens the political case in any "final status" negotiations on borders with the Palestinians for genuinely equitable land swaps of Israeli territory to a future Palestinian state if Israel is to retain settlement blocks.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

A senior legal official who secretly warned the government of Israel after the Six Day War of 1967 that it would be illegal to build Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories has said, for the first time, that he still believes that he was right.

The declaration by Theodor Meron, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal adviser at the time and today one of the world's leading international jurists, is a serious blow to Israel's persistent argument that the settlements do not violate international law, particularly as Israel prepares to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the war in June 1967.

Judge Meron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia until 2005, said that, after 40 years of Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank - one of the main problems to be solved in any peace deal: "I believe that I would have given the same opinion today."

Tags: israel, palestine, justice, law, legal, illegal

4th of July LOLz CATz!

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:36:45 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Enjoy!

Clip Source: icanhascheezburger.com

Tags: lol, lolz, cat, cats, kitten, catz, meme, internet, holiday 4, july

Alive In Independence Hall: The Declaration of Independence

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:46:25 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: DO NOT MISS THIS!!!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

My Favorite quote versus Michael Savage et al

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:25:47 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: A quote for the true patriots
And those who think they are.

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: TexDem

Sat Jun 21, 2008

My favorite quote or I should say my contemporary favorite quote is from journalist Sidney J. Harris. Sidney's quote although made several years is very relevant today and directly addresses the likes of Michael Savage and most of this administration.

Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest,' but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

Ernie1812's diary reminded me of Sidney's quote, it could very well become one of your favorite quotes. Use it as a refute to those who claim to be patriots but are really only nationalist and bigots.

Tags: nationalism, patriotism, michael savage, sydney j. harris

H. G. Wells Quotes

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:00:37 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar

Clip Source: www.brainyquote.com

A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own.

H. G. Wells

Heresies are experiments in man's unsatisfied search for truth.

History is a race between education and catastrophe.

I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.

If we don't end war, war will end us.

Leaders should lead as far as they can and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit.

Sailors ought never to go to church. They ought to go to hell, where it is much more comfortable.

You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

Risk to U.S. troops seen if Israel strikes Iran

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:28:48 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: And I found this tidbit interesting:

"American military analysts familiar with Israel's thinking said the government there remained uncertain whether an attack on Iran made strategic sense and whether such a strike would prove a decisive blow against Tehran's nuclear program. The subject is controversial in Israel, and many Israelis strongly oppose a strike."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military's top officer warned Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike against Iran would make the Middle East more unstable and could add to the stress on overworked American forces in the region.

The comments by Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came days after he visited Israel and amid growing international concern that Jerusalem is actively considering such an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"I have made it very clear to all parties that the first option ought to be to solve this problem diplomatically," Bush said.

The comments appeared to reflect a strain within the administration as it grapples for a way to address Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but Washington and its allies suspect is intended for developing atomic weapons.

Tags: israel, u.s.iran, iraq, afghanistan, troops, war, nukes, strike

Dept. of You Can't Make This $!&# Up!: Craig and Vitter Team Up!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:50:06 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Yep, they team up to support the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution!

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

Just this week, a group of Republican senators re-introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, which, as we know, would ban gay marriage.

But the funny part is looking over the list of the 10 original sponsors. Most of the names are predictable — Brownback and Inhofe, for example — but there are two others whose names stand out: Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho).

Yes, two of the principal sponsors of a constitutional amendment to “protect” marriage include one far-right Republican who hired prostitutes and another far-right Republican who was arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport men’s room.

As my friend Kyle put it, these two are “not exactly the poster boys of the family values crowd or particularly upstanding examples of the supposed sanctity of the ‘union of a man and a woman.”‘

Tags: vitter, craig, you, can't, make, this, $^!&, up!

Note to the religious right: auto-replace is not your friend

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:15:19 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: To funny by far!

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow website, for example, takes its AP articles and replaces the word “gay” with the word “homosexual.” I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. The group is, after all, pretty far out there.

That means

Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday.

Homosexual didn’t get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. He slowed somewhat over the final 10 meters-nothing like the way-too-soon complete shutdown that almost cost him Saturday. Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: “A little fatigued.”

Mosaic-tastic

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:51:24 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: The first two are from a friend of mine site, the third is mine.

Clip Source: tenpercent.wordpress.com

1. type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. copy and paste each of the url’s for the images into big huge lab’s mosaic maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. what is your first name?
2. what is your favorite food? right now?
3. what high school did you go to?
4. what is your favorite color?
5. who is your celebrity crush?
6. what is your favorite drink?
7. what is your dream vacation?
8. what is your favorite dessert?
9. what do you want to be when you grow up?
10. what do you love most in life?
11. what is one word that describes you?
12. what is your flickr name?

Clip Source: ruinsofempire.blogspot.com

Tags: meme, saturday, pics, pictures, mosaics, fun, interesting

Baby to be born free of breast cancer after embryo screening

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:53:09 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Wow!

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

A woman has conceived Britain’s first baby guaranteed to be free from hereditary breast cancer.

Doctors screened out from the woman’s embryos an inherited gene that would have left the baby with a greater than 50% chance of developing the cancer.

The woman decided to have her embryos screened because her husband had tested positive for the gene and his sister, mother, grandmother and cousin have all had the cancer.

The couple produced 11 embryos, of which five were found to be free from the gene. Two of these were implanted in the woman’s womb and she is now 14 weeks pregnant.

By screening out embryos carrying the gene, called BRCA-1, the couple, from London, will eliminate the hereditary disease from their lineage.

Doctors say thousands of cases of breast cancer could be avoided by screening embryos using the technique called preimplantation diagnosis (PGD).

Tags: medicine, cancer, uk, woman, embryo, fertility, reproduction

SPAIN WINS! Spain beats Germany 1-0 in Euro 2008

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:01:15 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

Ole!

Clip Source: msn.foxsports.com

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Fernando Torres finally lived up to his billing as one of the world's great strikers Sunday by scoring to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany and the European Championship title.

Spain had more chances but the goal was enough to give the country its first title since the 1964 European Championship.

Red-shirted fans started to greet each successful pass with cheers of "Ole!" before erupting into relieved delirium on the whistle.

But he took his place in the lineup and, against a team with even slightly less skill and passion, could have been the driving force in another German win.

Germany dominated the opening exchanges until a lucky break in the 14th gave the Spanish their first chance on goal and a boost that clearly lifted their play.

Spain never looked back.

Moments later, Torres showed why he is rated one of the best strikers in the world.

Tags: spain, germany, football, soccer, euro, 2008

McCain Advisor and the Whores of Babylon

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:23:20 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Sorry bad info on this one. It is a hoax. My apologies.

Clip Source: tenpercent.wordpress.com

[Video]