The guys at Counterterrorism Blog had noted that the so-called “Waziristan Agreement” between Pakistan and the regions tribal leaders was a failure. This has allowed many of the usual suspects to reconstitute in the northern mountain regions of the district. Their sources indicated that the Pakistani Army was getting its butt chewed by the Taliban, al Qaeda and tribal fanatics over the previous 4 years and ended up having to pay tribute in the form of cash payments to the Taliban to rebuild destroyed structures and return all of the arms that were seized during the previous years’ operations!
A report in the Feb. 19 NYTimes is supported by David Gartenstein-Ross and reflects the logical continuation of the resurgence of both the Taliban and al Qaeda in the relative safety of that province.
While the moonbats will go loony, this incident with Cheney is probably a minor action in an already developing strategic plan (no doubt summarized for a squirming Mubarrak during his meeting with Cheney) that will involve us as the hammer in that province, probably with air power and targeted special ops airborne missions.

The greatest submission on earth: the gogoplata

Month > Year

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions, issued a press release late Monday:Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy. Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES). In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average. Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359. Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006. Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year. “As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.

For Further Information, Contact: Nicole Williams, (615) 383-6431 editor@tennesseepolicy.org

Mr. Pahlke,
We've received your letter to the editor and would like to run it on our
Mailbox page for the Feb. 28 issue. However, for verification purposes, we
do ask that letter-writers provide a local street address. As I'm sure
you've noticed, only the street (no address number) is published. If we
have your permission to run the letter, may we get an address from you?
Thanks much,
Kat Hyatt
Copy Editor
Willamette Week
503-443-1528

>>

If I thought they were going to publish it I would have taken more time to craft it-


Why mention that your multi-referenced source, Michael Munk, is a "retired political science professor" when you could also, for the sake of context, mention that he is also a hard-left activist? He publishes something called "Portland's Red Pages" for goodness sakes. Why characterize him as some middle of the road concerned citizen?
His desire to try lawyer Scott Caplen in the pages of your paper has had his desired effect. The assumption of guilt before trial is a favorite tactic of extremists on the right and left. Mr. Munk himself claims he knows what innocent people "act like"! http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3315/8562/. You have no problem pointing out where Caplan lives and works but can't dig into Munk's background beyond his retirement status. I am sure the choir you preach to will eat it up. "Fake but accurate" seems to be the order of the day for the mainstream media.

Tom Pahlke

Food Network

I came across this post by Anthony Bourdain detailing the Food network and it's chefs- pretty funny. My favorite:

MARIO!Oh, Mario! Oh great one! They shut down Molto Mario--only the smartest and best of the stand-up cooking shows. Is there any more egregiously under-used, criminally mishandled, dismissively treated chef on television? Relegated to the circus of Iron Chef America, where--like a great, toothless lion, fouling his cage, he hangs on--and on--a major draw (and often the only reason to watch the show). How I would like to see him unchained, free to make the television shows he’s capable of, the Real Mario--in all his Rabelasian brilliance. How I would love to hear the snapping bones of his cruel FN ringmasters, crunching between his mighty jaws! Let us see the cloven hooves beneath those cheery clogs! Let Mario be Mario!

http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/02/guest_blogging_.html