Dinah Lord

Signing off for a while...

Well possums, real life has reared it's ugly head again and I have a personal situation that needs tending to.

All is okay, just complicated.   So it looks like I will be taking a break in the action for a while.   Not sure when I will be back. 

Until then, keep on keeping on.

Cheers - Dinah

Pvt. William Long's father speaks...

and it will break your heart.



And still not a single damn word from President Obama.

UK: Government's £285m Mortgage Rescue Scheme helps just TWO families

The program's been up and running since January.  Two families.

The Obama admin's plan isn't working so well, either.

Another day, another dhimmi tried for adultery in Dubai.

British mother and her lover jailed for two months for adultery in Dubai.

It's the same old story.  Woman meets Muslim man and falls in love.  They marry and move to a Muslim country.  Life is beautiful - for a while.  Then things don't work out.  If you are in a civilized country,  all that happens is a divorce.

If you are in a Muslim country, you end up jailed, deported and you lose your kids.  Forever.

When will Western women learn?

A British mother has been sentenced to two months in a Dubai prison after she and her boyfriend were found guilty of adultery - a crime in the ultra-strict Gulf state.

Sally Antia was arrested after her estranged husband Vincent told police she was conducting an affair with Mark Hawkins, a construction manager.

Mr Antia, a 48-year-old pilot, is thought to have informed police about the affair to benefit from laws under which 'wronged' husbands get custody of the children.

Now both Mrs Antia, 44, who has lived in Dubai for 13 years, and her 43-year-old boyfriend will spend the next month in the spartan Al Aweer prison after which they will be deported to Britain.

Under Emirati law, there is very little legal provision for Mrs Antia to get custody of her two girls, aged 11 and 13, who are being looked after by their father in Dubai.

And being convicted of a ' dishonour' crime could wreck her chances completely.

Friends of Mr and Mrs Antia said their marriage had been in trouble for years, but that they had agreed to stay together for the sake of their children.

One friend said: 'They were open about the fact that their relationship was over.

'Vincent was happy for Sally to go out with other people. He knew about it and it wasn't a problem. So everyone was astonished when they heard that he had informed the police on her.'

Obama: US "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world".

No he dinnit! 

Yes, he did.  Or at least that's what Canal +, Pajamas Media, the New York Times and numerous other media sources are reporting.

From Pajamas Media:

Six hours ago, Le Monde quoted Barack Obama as saying that the US is one of the largest Muslim countries on the planet:

Les Etats-Unis sont “l’un des plus grands pays musulmans de la planète”, a souligné mardi 2 juin sur Canal+ le président américain, Barack Obama, qui doit prononcer jeudi au Caire un important discours de réconciliation en direction du monde musulman (voir l’interview de Barack Obama sur Canal+ ici).

Les Etats-Unis et le monde occidental doivent apprendre à mieux connaître l’islam ; d’ailleurs, si l’on compte le nombre d’Américains musulmans, on voit que les Etats-Unis sont l’un des plus grands pays musulmans de la planète”, a-t-il dit.

From The NY Times.

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” He sought to downplay the expectations of the speech, but he said he hoped the address would raise awareness about Muslims.

Here's the weird thing, the White House website transcript of the original Canal + interview makes no mention of the remark.  What's up with that?

Go to Canal +  to see the video.  (He begins the statement at the 2:30 mark)  Who you gonna believe?  The White House transcript or your own lying eyes?

For the record?  The Pew Forum puts the % 0f Muslims in the US at 0.6%.

Oh, and in case you were wondering?  It's official.   Obama to visit Mosque.

President Obama will visit a mosque following his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo next month ...

... administration officials told reports on a Friday evening conference call.

"The speech," said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, "will outline his personal commitment to engagement, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect," and "will review particular issues of concern, such as violent extremism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "

He added that following the speech, ""there will be a visit to a mosque -- and I don't have any further information on that at this point."

And the Commander In Chief has yet to issue a statement on the Muslim Terror attack in Little Rock, yesterday.  An abortion doctor got a statement in 6 hours.

Today at the Little Rock Army Recruiting Center - one man's report

Thanks to FReeper HotLead61 for his report.

A report from (Recruiting Office) Ground Zero

Today I had settled it in my mind that I was going to stop by the Army Recruiting station that was the scene of yesterday's terrorist attack. I did so on my way home from work, which put me getting there at 5:00pm.

There was a FOX16 news van there, and a reporter narrating the scene with the front door of the Recruiting Office in the background. That didn't impress me.

What DID impress me were the four solemn-faced U.S. Army soldiers that I saw walking from the building out to their car(s). Bravely dressed in fatigues and topped with black berets, I was very proud, yet at the same time humbled, as I slowly walked up to them.

Those men saw me coming toward them and my gaze met theirs. I could see the firm resolve in their grim faces, fresh from giving honor to their fallen comrades.

Usually one not at a loss for words, suddenly I couldn't think of much to say. I did speak up and was able to tell them how sorry I (and everyone I knew) was about what had happened there yesterday, and that we were behind them 100 percent.

I thanked them for serving our country, shook their hands firmly, and walked away. I knew I had done what I had to do today. For all of you that would have liked to be there as well, I was thinking of you too.

We are truly a blessed nation. Let's make sure it stays that way.

Amen, HotLead61. 

Feel the need to do something yourself?

The address of the Recruiting Office is:

US Army Recruiting
9112 Rodney Parham Road, Suite 133
Little Rock, AR 72205

Phone Number is (501) 660-4117.

Bad News: Pakistan High court frees purported Mumbai Massacre mastermind.

India is unhappy with the decision.  Really?  Gee, you think they could have at least 'condemned' it or have been 'gravely concerned'.  Something.  This is a travesty and an insult to all who were killed or terrorized by these attacks.  To add insult to injury, the Indian government is making arrangements for the last surviving Mumbai terrorist to get a visit from his Pakistani Mum.  (I wonder how many Indian children wish they could have a visit from their parents but can't because the ir parents were killed by Kasab and his group of murderers.)

From The Asian Age.

"...a high court ordered the release of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of an outlawed militant group which was accused of organising an assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in November, his lawyer said.

New Delhi had earlier urged nuclear-armed rival Pakistan "dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism" after the Mumbai attacks killed 166 people and said it was "unhappy" with Saeed’s release.

It is also likely to dismay the United States which has been alarmed by deteriorating security in an ally whose help it needs to defeat Al Qaeda and subdue the Taliban in Afghanistan."

Update:  Speaking of the Mumbai massacre... 

Dubai resident funded Mumbai attacks?

Even as details regarding the financial transactions -- which financed the November 26 terror attacks -- emerge, another man who the police suspect could be associated with the financing has been put on the radar of investigating agencies.

Khameez Obaid, a resident of Dubai who was arrested by the Hyderabad Police for possessing fake currency worth Rs 2.36 crore, is said to be involved in financing the 26/11 attack in Mumbai.

Obaid was held by the Hyderabad Police on August 25, 2007 -- the same day the twin blasts rocked the city.

Obaid will be crucial to the Mumbai Police, who are trying to crack the network which financed the Mumbai terror attack. Sources told rediff.com that Obaid may be interrogated by the Mumbai Police regarding the financial links to the attack.

During interrogation, Obaid is believed to have revealed the names of several people involved in financing terror in India. The Hyderabad cops say it does not appear that Obaid was directly involved in any act of terror -- he confined his operations only to financing. 

Obaid had to be re-arrested immediately after his release since a link to the Mumbai attack was emerging. He is believed to be closely linked to Abdul Azeez, the man who funded the Mumbai attack. The Mumbai Police is likely to interrogate him regarding his links to Azeez, who has now been sentenced to life by an Oman court for planning terror strikes in that country.

During interrogation, Obaid revealed that he was part of a Bangladeshi group, which actively financed terror in India. A large chunk of the money, he had been sent across, was from Dubai where he was based prior to his visit to Hyderabad. He is said to have transferred crores of rupees through the sea route to Mumbai, which was later distributed to other parts of the country.

Apart from the Mumbai Police, cops from Bangalore, Delhi and Gujarat are also likely to seek his custody.

Good News: Pakistan Army frees student hostages.

From Asian Age:

Pakistani soldiers on Tuesday rescued scores of students and staff from a military-run college who were abducted by Taliban militants in the northwest of the country, a military spokesman said.

The abduction took place on Monday as the Pakistani Army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley, in another part of the northwest.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the Taliban were taking the kidnapped students to the South Waziristan region, a militant stronghold on the Afghan border, when soldiers challenged them on a road and a clash erupted.

"Under cover of the firing the militants escaped and we have recovered them all," Gen. Abbas said, adding 71 students and nine members of staff had been rescued.

College principal Javed Iqbal Piracha, who was among those rescued, said 10 to 15 students appeared to be still missing.

Taliban fighters seized the students’ convoy heading home for the summer holiday near the Afghan border in North Waziristan.  There are several Taliban- and Al Qaeda-linked groups based in North and South Waziristan in a loose alliance with the Taliban in Swat.  South Waziristan is also the base of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

South Waziristan is also the base of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and officials have said an offensive there was expected after Swat was secured.

Brigadier Zahid Abdullah, who led the rescue and said he believed everyone had been recovered, said the militants might have wanted to use the students as human shields.

More on the Arkansas Jihadi... and our Commander In Chief remains MIA

He was already under investigation by the FBI.

From Islam In Action:

The suspect, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, reportedly had been under investigation by an FBI joint terrorism task force after he traveled to Yemen and was arrested there for using a Somali passport. The probe was in its early stages and based on Muhammad's trip to Yemen, according to ABC News.

While there, Muhammad — a U.S. citizen from Memphis who is a convert to Islam and was previously known as Carlos Bledsoe — studied jihad with an Islamic scholar, Jihadwatch.org reported.

And this is the report from Jihad Watch.

A well-placed source has told me that Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who shot one soldier and wounded another at an Arkansas military recruiting station yesterday, went to Yemen hoping to study with a jihadist imam, Yahya Hajoori. I haven't yet been able to find out know if he actually studied directly with Hajoori, or with one of his students.

Remember that in August 2008, six Americans were arrested in Yemen. They attended a mosque in Germantown, Pennsylvania that sponsored "students" to go to Yemen to study with the jihadist Sheikh Muqbil -- and after he passed away, with Yahya Hajoori. This was the mosque attended by Howard Cain, the bank robber and killer of Police Officer Stephen Liczbinski.

Also according to Jihad Watch:  He was a former business major at Tennessee State.

And I'm still waiting for Obama to condemn the attack on the Army recruiting station.  He had the perfect opportunity when he announced the new Secretary of the Army.  But said nothing.  There's been nothing from the DOJ or the Pentagon either according to Michelle Malkin.

No surprise here as NPR continues to aid and abet the terrorists by refusing to mention the suspects name or religion in their report. (also according to Michelle.  I refuse to link to them)

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska HAS issued this statement.

"The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media's hands yesterday - both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.

William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.

Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death."

Um. About that Army recruiting shooting? Muslim convert held.

Update:  6/2 7:47 am MST  

FNC is reporting that the perp  Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad has pleaded NOT GUILTY at his arraignment.

(This after he 'allegedly confessed'.  Must have got lawyered up.  America is very, very good to him.)

Update from Jihad Watch (h/t Keefe at Table 9):  

I have learned from a well-placed source that Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who killed one soldier and wounded another at a a Little Rock military recruiting center today, and who faces charges of terrorism as well as first-degree murder, has recently returned from Yemen, where he studied jihad with an Islamic scholar there.

Apparently the Islamic scholar under whom this American convert to Islam studied was yet another misunderstander of Islam's true, peaceful teachings.

More on this as it develops.

He was a prison convert who had "political and religious motives for the attack."  The question is:  Will AG Holder order increased security for Military recruiting offices? 

Oh, and I'm still waiting for Obama to condemn this heinous act.

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

Police say a man with “political and religious motives” confessed to fatally shooting a new soldier and wounding another Monday in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center. The shootings were not believed to be part of a broader scheme.

William Long, 23, of Conway, died in the attack on the Army-Navy Career Center in a west Little Rock shopping center, and Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, was wounded and in stable condition, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said.

Police arrested Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23 of Little Rock, along a crosstown interstate moments later. Thomas said Muhammad, previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, would be charged with capital murder, plus 16 counts of committing a terroristic act.

A police report said Muhammad admitted that he “observed two uniformed U.S. soldiers standing in front of the recruiting office ... then drove in front of the army recruiting office and shot the victims.” It did not quote Muhammad directly.

“He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them,” Lt. Terry Hastings said in an interview said. “That’s what he said.”

Thomas said that, based on an interview officers conducted with Muhammad, the suspect “probably had political and religious motives for the attack” on the recruiting center about 1.5 miles from his apartment.

“Mr. Muhammad, previously known as Mr. Bledsoe, did convert to Islam sometime previously in his life. At this point it appears that he specifically targeted military personnel, but there doesn’t appear to be a wider conspiracy or, at this point in time, any indication that he’s a part of a larger group or a conspiracy to go further,” the chief said. “At this point, we believe that it’s associated with his disagreement over the military operations.”

Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tenn., the accused shooter’s father, hung up on a reporter who called about his son’s arrest Monday night.

Barry's speech to the Muslims - rich in symbolism. None of it good for us.

From Amir Taheri - Barack Obama is blind to his blunders over Islam.    (Blind and CLUELESS.)

The choice of the date for Obama's address indicates his attention to detail. It coincides with the anniversary of the start of the first battle between Islam, under Prophet Muhammad, and Christendom in the shape of a Byzantine expeditionary force in AD629. The “address to Islam” also marks the 30th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini's demise and the appointment of Ali Khamenei as the new “Supreme Guide of the Islamic ummah”. More importantly, it also coincides with the rebuilding of the Ka'abah, the stone at the heart of Mecca, which had been destroyed in a Muslim civil war.

Rich in symbolism, Obama's “address to Islam” is also full of political implications. Obama is the first major Western leader, after Bonaparte, to address Islam as a single bloc, thus adopting the traditional Islamic narrative of dividing the world according to religious beliefs. This ignores the rich and conflict-ridden diversity of the 57 Muslim-majority nations and fosters the illusion, peddled by people such as Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Islam is one and indivisible and should, one day, unite under a caliphate.

Read it all here.

Transparent White House won't say how much the Obama's big date cost.

From FNC:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is declining to say what it cost for President Obama and his wife, Michelle, to eat dinner and take in a play in New York over the weekend. Asked if he would outline the costs, Gibbs said Monday the Obamas would have preferred using a commercial airline shuttle to New York and back but the Secret Service would not allow such unprotected travel.

The president has been criticized for the trip to New York in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and with thousands of auto workers facing unemployment as General Motors prepared to file for bankruptcy and Chrysler was about to emerge from court-guided restructuring.

(IOW, it's all the Secret Service's fault.   God forbid, the first couple should have to see a Broadway show in D.C.)

Has Beslan come to Pakistan? 400 abducted from boys school in N Waziristan

From Yahoo News:

Suspected militants armed with rockets, grenades and automatic weapons abducted some 400 students, staff and relatives driving away from a boy's school in a troubled tribal region in northwest Pakistan on Monday, police and a witness said.

The brazen abduction came amid rising militant violence in Pakistan's tribal belt — actions the military says are aimed at distracting it from its offensive against the Taliban in the nearby Swat Valley.

Details were still emerging Monday about the nature of the attack. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Police official Meer Sardar said the abduction occurred about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Razmak Cadet College in North Waziristan tribal area. The people were leaving the school area after they were warned to get out in a phone call from a man they believed to be a political official, Sardar said, citing accounts from a group of 17 who managed to get away.

Around 30 buses, cars and other vehicles were carrying the students, staff and others when they were stopped along the road by a large group of alleged militants in their own vehicles.

The details were confirmed by a staff member at the school who was among those who escaped. He requested anonymity out of fear of Taliban reprisal but said the school's principal was among those abducted. His vehicle happened to be behind a truck on the road, and it was less visible, so the driver slipped away.

The staffer said the assailants carried rockets, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and other weapons.

It was unclear how many students were involved, though they made up the majority of the group. Cadet colleges in Pakistan are usually run by retired military officers and educate teenagers. They also typically provide room and board.

North Waziristan is a major Taliban stronghold bordering Afghanistan.

According to The Times of India no group has yet claimed responsibility for the brazen abduction.

About the Cadet College:

Cadet College Razmak, North Waziristan Agency is a prestigious institution located in the heart of FATA. The college is providing quality education to the poor tribal candidates. The college was established Presidential Regulation-II of 1977. this Division sponsors the financil liabilities of the college. The Finance Division allocates sufficient amount in the regular budget of this Division as grant-in-aid . The aforesaid amount is released to the college on the basis of monthly installments. There are 196 employees 35 Gazetted while 161 are non-Gazetted. The Board of Governors regulates the affairs of the college.

The physical plant consists of:

The college is spread over an area of about 154 acres (0.62 km²).The buildings comprise a beautiful mosque, a double-storeyed Academic Block, College Auditorium, six newly constructed hostels called "Houses", one cadets' mess, a beatutiful and newly constructed administration block, and a science block. Sports facilities includes four squash courts and a number of football, hockey, cricket, basketball,volleyball grounds and six tennis courts. The college also has residential accommodation for the teaching and administrative staff.

Islamic religious instruction is compulsory.

Ex-Gitmo detainee cashing in on Xbox

"We think it will sell big in the Middle East."

From The Sun:

A BRIT who spent two years in Guantanamo Bay as a terror suspect is cashing in with a computer game based on the US detention camp.

Moazzam Begg, 41, will appear as himself in the Xbox 360 game, which could rake in £3million.

Rendition: Guantanamo, due to go on sale in October, lets players control a detainee trying to shoot his way out.

Begg, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, is shown in the game as head of an organisation helping the suspect to escape.

Human rights activist Begg was thrown into the camp on Cuba in 2003 after the CIA held him in Pakistan. He claims he was tortured before being freed without charge in 2005.

Begg said any money he is paid will go to a charity fighting for detainees’ rights.

He said: “The software firm approached me with the idea for a Guantanamo game. I’m involved to make sure it is as true to life as possible.”

Zarrar Chishti, director of the Scottish firm spending £250,000 to produce the game, said: “We checked with police and security services. We didn’t want MI5 knocking our door down.

“We are expecting an extreme reaction to the game in the US. But we think it will sell well in the Middle East.”

You thought the Obamas dinner and B'way show were an outrageous waste of taxpayer $?

Wait til you get the tab for the Egypt trip where Obama submits to Islam.

Okay, I know it's Debka.  But, come on.  Let's watch the White House try and spin this.

US president Barack Obama has not yet decided whether his historic speech reaching out to the Muslim world will be delivered on June 4 from a lecture hall at Al Azhar University in Cairo or its main mosque, DEBKAfile's Middle East sources report. If the second, his address will take place in the presence of Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the Sunni Muslim world's greatest religious authority. In any event, Al Azhar is the most eminent school of Islamic learning in the world and the US president therefore expects its impact to far outweigh his first address to Muslims from Istanbul.

His arrival from a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on June 3 is planned to add extra weight to Obama's dramatic outreach to Muslims, since the king officiates as Custodian of the Holy Places to Islam.

Radical Muslims will therefore have all the more reason for rejecting it.

Giant transports have been landing at Cairo airport, unloading a fleet of armored vehicles, White House helicopters, counter-terror weapons and the vanguard of the 3,000 Secret Service officers backed by CIA and FBI personnel who will secure the US president during his stay in Egypt. Cairo will soon be in turmoil as forces are deployed from a command center at the American Embassy to control sections of downtown Cairo, with guard posts on the Nile River's banks, the international airport, main railway terminals and approaches to the city.

Some 30,000 Egyptian security personnel including army units stationed in Cairo have been placed on special duty until the American president leaves. Their names and those of the welcoming party at Al Azhar University were submitted to the US presidential security center.

Obama is due to land in Cairo Thursday at 10 a.m., drive to the Abidin Palace to meet President Hosni Mubarak and proceed from there to Azhar University. His convoy will be escorted by vehicles equipped with sensors for detecting firearms and explosives and covered by Marine helicopters overhead.

Until the last minute, the president's routes to the university have been withheld from Egyptian security authorities as a safeguard against leaks to hostile elements.

H/T to Stilletos in the Sand who tipped me off to find the original article.

Iran: Justice delayed is justice denied.

Iran hangs 3 Men held in bombing of Mosque. 

The blast took place on Thursday, the necktie party on Saturday.

Iran hanged three men on Saturday morning who were accused of being involved in a mosque bombing that killed 25 people and wounded more than 100, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Two others were arrested and are being questioned in connection with the bombing, which took place Thursday in the southeastern city of Zahedan, the news agency said.

The Zahedan prosecutor, Muhammad Marzieh, said the three men were convicted of importing explosives from neighboring countries, taking two hostages in Zahedan, and taking part in a separate bombing against the security forces and the Revolutionary Guards a year ago, the INSA news agency reported.

“They said that they had eight other terrorist operations which they could no longer carry out because of their arrest,” Mr. Marzieh said.

A provincial judiciary official, Ibrahim Hamidi, said the men were arrested a few days before the bombing but all three confessed to providing the explosive, the IRNA news agency reported.

They were hanged at 6 a.m., before the funeral of the victims today.

In related "Bomb-bomb-bomb, Bomb-bomb Iran news", The Iconoclast at the New English Review Journal brings us this:

From The Washington Post

Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late Saturday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing killed 25 people in the southeast of the country.

The device was defused after the Kish Air aircraft with 131 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Fars gave no further details about the incident, which was also reported by other media.

According to the BBC

Plain-clothes security guards, who are believed to travel on every Iranian flight, found it in a toilet.

There is no recession in Jihad.

Rachel Ehrenfeld manages to both enlighten and depress us with her excellent article:  Recession in Terrorism Finance.

The economic downturn and instability of the financial markets in the West has battered global economies. Despite the accompanying drop in oil prices, the current financial crisis has actually presented opportunities to expedite the influence and extend the global reach of Islamism in ways Sunni imams and Shiite mullahs could have only fantasized about before.

Read it all.

Iraq: Green Zone turns pink for the night.

And it ain't for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, either.  (Can you imagine the kerfuffle that would have resulted if this had occurred on George W Bush's watch?)

A Gay Pride party at the Baghdad Embassy.

Change has certainly come to Baghdad. And it appears that includes the U.S. Embassy, where they are holding what the invitation says is the first-ever U.S. Embassy Gay Pride Theme Party next Friday at Baghdaddy's, which is the embassy employee association's pub.

"Come celebrate the start of Summer with color . . . and in costume!" the May 10 invitation says. "Dress in drag or as a gay icon. All are welcome." The invitation was attached to what was called an "All Hands Alerts" e-mail.

An embassy spokesman said by way of explanation: "This is an event organized and sponsored by a group of employees. Given the lack of places to meet in Baghdad, the embassy allows groups to use its social facilities for events on a first-come, first-served basis."

The invitation says, "Prizes will be awarded for two contests: Best Dressed Gay Icon and Best Lip Synch Performance." Unclear what the prizes are, but don't forget to "order costume supplies now in time for May 29th," we're told. "For more info and costume ideas, check out the next edition of The Tigris Times.

And they think that the mere presence of Gitmo recruits terrorists.

Obamas jet to NY, see Broadway show and dine out...ain't life grand?

The first couple to America:  "Let them eat fiddlehead ferns and ramps!"

I wasn't going to comment on this - and then I remembered the hell that George and Laura Bush went through during their tenure.  So this is brought to you courtesy of every meanspirited remark ever made about the Bushes by the moonbats.

It was date night for he and she.  They took a private jet from DC to NYC - plus two other planes, a helicopter and a motorcade on both ends.  How green of them!

During the campaign, Obama had promised Michelle they would go to see a Broadway Show after the election. 

Obama wore "smart business casual" and Michelle wore a black sleeveless (but, of course!) sheath and carried a cobalt blue clutch purse which contained her husband's balls. 

The show they saw was Joe Turner's Come and Gone.  Nuff said 'bout that.

And they dined on overpriced, precious, organic vittles at a low-key Greenwich Village restaurant, Blue Hill

Updated itinerary courtesy of FReeper CountRecount. 

From the NYPost.

Michelle had  acouple of martinis?  And wine?  Man, one martini puts me on my butt and I'm no piker when it comes to the hooch.

You'll be happy to know that it was all on our dime.  I sure hope they enjoyed themselves.

"Taxpayers footed the bill for the big night on the town, which included a total of at least $24,000 for the three aircraft used to ferry the Obamas, aides and reporters to New York and back. Dinner costs and orchestra seat tickets -- at $96.50 apiece -- were paid by the Obamas.

Obama's jet, a Gulfstream 500, served as a more modest Air Force One for the day in place of the customary presidential Boeing 747.

The White House declined to say how much the trip was costing taxpayers."

(Meanwhile Charlie Rangel advises the First Couple to stay out of East Harlem.)

News media all a-flutter at the Messiah's address to the Muslim world

I'm sure you've been seeing the slew of articles about the Messiah's upcoming address to the Muslim world.  For example:

Obama sets out to rebuild ties with world's Muslims

Obama's message:  I have a dream for Islam

Obama offers olive branch to Middle East

Why Obama's middle east speech matters.

Obama shouldn't let his speech to the 'Muslim world' be as much of a missed opportunity as his speech to Europe was

Middle East hangs on Obama's words.

Obama's address at Cairo will outline his personal commitments

Obama to visit Cairo,  a center of Islamic learning

Obama in the Muslim world

Not had enough yet?  Here's a little palate cleanser to remind you of the folks the Messiah will actually be addressing.

 Welcome to Cairo, Mr. President.

News travels fast in Cairo but it usually travels wrong. In the 1980s, riots broke out and people were killed over a wild rumor that Christians were spray-painting crosses on Muslim women's dresses using invisible ink. Subsequent rumors claimed that the iconic label of Coca-Cola (the company was fresh out from under a two-decade Arab League boycott for having a bottling plant in Israel) showed the Arabic words "No Mohammed, No Mecca" when viewed in the mirror. One would imagine that with a little squinting, literate Egyptians would be uniquely positioned to disconfirm such a thesis. In the end, it took Egypt's grand mufti to issue an opinion that the logo had been "designed in Atlanta 114 years ago in the state of Georgia and was written in a foreign language, not Arabic."

No sooner had the Coke business been put to bed than another rumor cropped up claiming that aftermarket seat belts made in Israel contained a chemical designed to make Arab men sterile (Cairo's enormous fleet of cabs have been retrofitting seatbelts in recent years). As with the invisible ink rumor, this one probably cannot be disproved, though with population densities in "popular" quarters pushing 1,000 per acre, it is hard to see what all the fuss was about. Not surprisingly, Egyptians get on each other's nerves...

Egypt: They ogle, they touch, they use the filthiest language possible."

It is estimated that 46 percent of all women are harassed daily and the fact that 50 percent of the women wear the hijab, and 9 percent wear the niqab?  It don't matter!  Being veiled is not the great protector of female modesty and chasity that our Muslim friends claim it to be.

"This was not the Egyptian hospitality we knew..."

From IPSnewsnet.

As night falls over Egypt’s capital, youth gather along the banks of the Nile where a carnivalesque atmosphere prevails.

Tamer and Mido have taken up positions on the railing next to the river. As a group of veiled teenage girls approaches, the duo works in tandem. Tamer removes the girls’ headscarves with his eyes, while sexually nuanced words roll off Mido’s tongue.

"Girls love the attention - it makes them feel attractive," says Mido, an engineering student, as the girls divert their eyes to the pavement and nervously scurry past. "They pretend to be innocent, but it’s just part of the game they play."

Women insist it is no game. They say the amount, and intensity of street-level sexual harassment has increased in the past decade.

The journey home from school or work can require running a gauntlet of gropes and taunts. "I’ve encountered every form of sexual harassment from men on the streets," complains Dina El-Sherbiny, a 31-year-old office administrator. "They ogle, touch, use the filthiest language imaginable."

A study published last year by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) found that 46 percent of the 1,000 women who were surveyed, were harassed on a daily basis.

"The results were a shock for us - this was not the Egyptian hospitality we knew, and it was not compatible with all our ideas about harassment," ECWR chairwoman Nehad Abu El-Komsan told IPS.

USA: Fearing Muslim violence, hotel cancels Wilders event.

It's come to this.

Fearing Muslim violence, hotel cancelsl event about -wait for it- muslim violence.

”The manager of a prominent Nashville hotel cancelled a contract with a conservative foundation to hold a conference this weekend on radical Islam, apparently after learning that the group would feature a keynote address by controversial Dutch parliamentarian and filmmaker, Geert Wilders.

...

Thomas A. Negri, managing director of Loew’s Vanderbilt Hotel and Office complex in Nashville, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he had taken the extraordinary step of cancelling the conference at the last minute “for the health, safety and well-being of our guests and employees.”

Negri refused to say why he felt the conference would adversely affect the “health, safety and well-being” of the hotel’s guests and employees, except to refer to the website of the New English Review, the group organizing the conference.

Oh, and about Mr. Negri?

Negri appeared at a 2003 pro-immigration event on the same dias with a well-known Somali warlord, Gordon told Newsmax.

...

Negri also serves on the board of advisors of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, TIRRC, an activist group that states its mission “is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice” and “defend their rights.” (for more on this, visit Refugee Resettlement Watch!)

The group boasts of having helped to defeat an “English only” amendment this January that would have required all Nashville government communications to be in English.

Earlier this month, the group won an award from the Migration Policy Institute, which is funded by grants form the J.M. Kaplan Fund, a left-wing group that also funds the ACLU, the Tides Foundation, the Tides Center, the Sierra Club, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other left-wing causes.

The award singles out TIRRC for its “Welcoming Tennessee Initiative,” to“foster constructive public dialogue on immigration within the state.”

When asked if he objected to Geert Wilders appearance at the conference, Negri refused to comment.

Regarding the conference:  It's still on, albeit occuring in a "secure, undisclosed location".

(h/t FReeper wontsubmit)

How Iran messed with Miss North Dakota's head.

They really are bastards over there, aren't they?

A snippet from Ms. Saberi's NPR interview courtesy of Gawker.

The government pressured her into a false confession; "The first few days, I was interrogated for several hours, from morning until evening, blindfolded, facing a wall, by up to four men, and threatened, as I said, that I would be put in prison for 10 to 20 years or more or even face execution." Later, she recanted it, and that pissed off her captors further:

The prosecutor got upset with me for recanting my confession and sent my case to trial instead of freeing me, and that's when I was sentenced to eight years in prison. I knew this was going to happen when I recanted my confession, but I told myself, I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free.

Welcome home, Ms. Saberi.

The post that got me banned at Little Green Footballs - evidently.

I was banned by Charles Johnson, the man behind the LGF curtain.

Just went to log onto Little Green Footballs and found out that I'd been banned.  I guess it was the last post I shamelessly linkwhored on his little link thingy.  I thought it was humorous, evidently Mr. Johnson did not.

Either that or he didn't appreciate the fact that I had the nerve to reference the mention of Obama and his birth certificate at yesterday's White House presser and on Fox News.  I seem to remember he has some double secret rules about it or something.

Odd.  Mr. Johnson's latest LGF post deals with that very topic.

I guess only the great Charles Johnson is able to write about it with his trademark 'nirth certifikit' phunny.  Or something. 

Whatever.  LGF will do just fine without me and I will do just fine without them.  It's a big cyber world out there.

(Besides all his hatin' on people, places and things was beginning to get a bit tedious.)

Cairo University postpones student exams in advance of "New King Tut's" speech?

"I feel I can relate to Obama. He's African and his father is Muslim," said Abdel-Aziz Harby, a 31-year-old graduate student in educational studies.

What a joke.  I hate to break it to you Abdel, he was born in  Hawaii (we think) and that makes him an American.

Obama:  New Tutankhaman of the World  --->

From AP:

Cairo University has postponed student exams set for next Thursday and the Egyptian president's security service took over the campus in anticipation that President Barack Obama will address the Muslim world from its main hall.

While the American Embassy in Cairo will not confirm the venue, Egyptian officials say Cairo University will be the site of Obama's June 4 speech aimed at repairing U.S. relations with the Muslim world.

University spokesman Sami Abdel-Aziz said it is "90 percent" certain that Obama will deliver his speech from the campus, located off a palm tree-lined square on the Nile's west bank.

The landmark campus, which has been at the center of student pro-democracy protests, would provide Obama with a symbolic backdrop linked to liberal Arab learning. Its graduates include Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz. "It is a symbol of liberalism in Egypt," said Egyptian writer Ali Salem. "People used to send students to get bachelor's degrees to Europe to come back and teach. So this university was meant to be a real window to the world."

The university was apparently chosen over another deeply symbolic setting. The 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar mosque, the heart of a revered institution for Islamic study in Cairo's crowded and conservative old quarter, was also said to have been on the short list of venues considered.