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Do you really trust that government of yours?

UPDATE:

Ok, well, that’s interesting. Thank you foxfier. I googled the crap out of this after hearing the local radio dude talk about it and missed that fox article. I went right for the Raliegh WRAL station’s account and obviously there is a hell of a lot more to this. Most articles were blog posts that ranted like I did. This is why we need 2 sources… So, I stand corrected. I still hate the patriot act. It is crap, but in this case, it’s not the patriot act causing Ashton’s issues. If he did what they say, then it’s fryin’ time.

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I don’t like the patriot act. Any legislation that is passed in an emergency when emotions are high is going to be a piece of crud. Plus, the fact they have to disguise what it is, a grab on freedoms, by calling it the patriot act should tell you all. Disagree and you not a patriot. Well, I despise it.

You see, it’s one thing to give unending power to the government when you trust the people in charge. But we watched while Bill Clinton used the IRS and other government branches to go after his political enemies or anyone who became a nusance. You can trust your guy with power, sure. But eventually, your guy won’t be the one wielding that power.

Today’s I hate the patriot act comes in the form of Ashton Lundeby of Oxford North Carolina. Supposedly, Ashton Lundeby made a bomb threat. The FBI stepped in and invoked the patriot act and Ashton Lundeby has disappeared. A dozen federal agents attacked the house that Ashton was living in and after tearing it apart found nothing to convict him with. Didn’t matter. The patriot act was invoked and off to another state he went. He’s “being held” in a juvey hall in Indiana. His mom has not been allowed any sense of reasonable contact with him. He has not been formally charged. He has not had a hearing. He is not being allowed a lawyer. Oh, meet 16 year old Ashton.

Yeah, a real scary one Ashton is. This country didn’t need the patriot act for over 200 years, it doesn’t need it now. A few minor adjustments to the laws at the time (the Gorelick wall for one) could have stopped 9/11. What we have now is the FBI was wrong and they don’t want to admit it. So, hold the kid until he’s 18 then send him to the new Gitmo that Obama is signing off on. I was wondering if the ACLU would step in, but since the FBI is now Obama’s and not Bush’s, I somehow doubt they will care about civil liberties. We need to kill the patriot act and send Ashton back home where he belongs. This is not what it was for. It should not be allowed to be misused again.

A timeline we can belive in

A brief timeline of the thug Odinga:

In 1982, he was involved in a coup attempt in Kenya. He was convicted and served 8 years in jail. He denied his involvement until the statue of limitations had expired. Then in his book, he boasts of it. Had he been convicted of masterminding it, he goes bye bye.

2006 - Obama campaigns in Kenya for Odinga opposing our current ally in the Kenyan government. This government has helped us round up terrorists in the region. They have been one of the few stable governments in Africa. The State department calls him naive.

August 2007 - Odinga is running for the Kenya presidency. He signs pact with muslim areas saying that if he’s elected he will do certain things for them including:

1. He will implement Sharia courts in the areas that are 40% or more muslim within 6 months.
2. He will expand it to nation wide in 12 months.
3. He will implement islamic law including female dress codes. Even non-muslim women must comply
4. All religions outside of Islam will be banned from the public.

December 2007 - Odinga loses by 200k votes (1.2%). Odinga refuses to accept result and urges his followers to take the streets and riot.

December 2007/January 2008 - Muslims killing Christians, Hindus, Atheists, etc. Women and children are hacked to death by machettes.

In one case, women and children were locked into an assemblies of God church after the men were killed. The church was burned to the ground and the women and children inside were burned alive. Any who escaped the flames where machetted to death.

Even after Odinga refuses to stop the killing and riots, Obama calls him and backs him. His spokesman confirms the call took place but says the call was to talk about the destabilising crisis. Yeah, like we can believe that. Odinga brags that he has Obama’s support and the Kenyan government caves. Odinga is rewarded for it with a post: Prime Minister.

Another international thug supported by Obama.

But hey, you don’t need to know about that. Sarah Palin bought some new nail polish and that is much more important since no one buys nail polish. What a terrible woman…

let’s play Barack twister: Obama views of Iraq

So people are finding out what we already know: Barack Obama the messiah is nothing but a plain old “say anything to win” politician. What position he takes depends on what audience he’s speaking to. That is what spawned today’s audience participation. Today, we’ll play the Barack Obama twister game covering his various flip flops. The goal is to get a subject from Barack Obama that he flippity floppities himself all over the place on.

Our first Barack twister game covers Obama’s flip flops on Iraq.

Let’s start in 2002 when he was running for the senate. He said that Iraq is a bad decision. He openly opposed it. He bragged about it on his senate website. It has been cleansed a bit but it is still negative to the war. In a democrat controlled state with socialist democrat buddies he tows the anti war line. Against it. Now, here’s the rub. He says he has always opposed the war and has done so from the very beginning. He claims to have never waivered. Well, let’s do the circle:

He writes in his book “The Audacity of Hope” when they toppled the statue he suspected he may have wrong. Then in July 2004, he told Chicago Tribune that his position and that of President Bush’s is not that far apart. So, when the public is thinking it’s a good war and was needed, Barack parrots the same.

September 2004: Maybe some more troops might be a good thing.

October 2004 - Don’t bring the troops home:

January 10, 2007 - surge announced and Barack opposed it.

May 10, 2007: Time to bring the troops home now while voting against funding the troops.

Here’s the best 2 though. They happen less than 30 hours apart.

April 10th, Gary Indiana. What did Barack say? He will bring all troops home by 2009. He will pull them out. Adding more troops is a mistake.

April 11th debate: Will you commit to having all troops out of Iraq by 2013: Barack Obama said no.

And this week we get the reports of Barack pulling his opposition to the surge off his website. Like we wouldn’t have noticed…

There you have it. A messiah pretzel. Any other changes in his Iraq policies that I missed? Drop them in comments. More twister fun coming up later. As people see more and more of his actual positions, he sinks further and further. No matter how you dress him or pull his strings or give him nice words to speak, he’s still just a flaming lefty and the most liberal senator in the senate. As people discover that, they will abandon him.

highest judge in uk says sharia is fine by him

What a twat.

Lord Phillips said: “It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by law other than English law.”

Therefore, he said, he could see no reason why Sharia law should not be used to settle disputes in this country.

He said: “There is no reason why principles of Sharia law, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution.”

Like, say, cutting off somebody’s head, or stoning them to death?

Apparently not.

“Part of the misconception about Sharia law is the belief that Sharia is only about mandating sanctions such as flogging, stoning, the cutting off of hands or death for those fail to comply with the law,” he said.

“In some countries the courts interpret Sharia law as calling for severe physical punishment. There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here.”

So it’s a misconception, based upon how Sharia is actually applied in countries that use it? So not a misconception at all, really, more of a conception. But he won’t have any of the barbaric stuff. No sir. He’s going to allow Sharia-Lite™ the new, improved extra-judicial system made from tangy oranges and juicy mango - only 8 calories per serving!!

I can’t even begin to comment upon this, except to say that having a contractual agreement governed by a law other than UK law might sound fine. But this gentleman lets the cat out of the proverbial bag:

Mahmud Al Rashid, spokesman from the Association of Muslim Lawyers, said: “There is massive misunderstanding about what Sharia is. It is not a single law.”

No, it certainly is not. It’s a hodge-podge of subjectively-applied Koranic interpretations by largely unschooled Muslim clerics - with no system of appeals, rules of evidence, consistent procedure, or any other component of legal systems in the developed world.

In other words, it has no place in the civilized west, and this clown should have his fucking law license revoked for saying anything to the contrary.

Obama: I’m not September 10th, even though I am

Nedra Pickler of the AP says that Barack “defiantly” rebuked McCain for saying Barack has a September 10th mindset. I guess we can tell who Nedra is cheering for. Not an angry Barack. Not a defensive Barack (which would have been the actual truth). No, a defiant one. One who will stand up to those evil rethugs. Anyway, I digress. Here’s what his messiah-ness had to say:

“These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11. This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq … and it’s exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse.”

You mean that distraction of a war that has humiliated and pretty much run Al Qaeda out of Iraq and Afghanistan? The one that has Al Qaeda cornered in a small (but tough to get to) section of tribal Pakistan? That distraction that has Al-Sadr hiding his fat rear in Iran begging his minions to please stop being slaughtered so nicely and run away? That distraction? Whatever. I guess if you want to talk with our enemies to show how messiah-like you are, then you would kind of want some of the enemy left wouldn’t you? Too bad Bush doesn’t feel that way. You may have to have a séance to get a hold of some to negotiate with.

Oh, and about that foreign policy? You know, the one that has kept us free from attack since 9/11/2001 even though you call it a failure? You want to reverse that? What ever you say Mr. September 10th.

So how does Obamessiah think we should handle our terrorist friends? Well, here’s what he said to contrast club Gitmo detainees with the 1993 bombers of the WTC:

“And, you know, let’s take the example of Guantanamo. What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center — we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated. And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. … We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws.”

So the blind cleric is incapacitated? So he really hasn’t been communicating with the outside. Nope, he’s just folding clothes in the laundry area I guess. That’s why all the people in Gitmo need lawyers too. No, not a September 10th mindset at all.

After Obama said he agreed with that SCOTUS ruling giving the Gitmo prisoners a civilian review, McCain’s supporters called a phone press conference telling everyone that Obama is a September 10th kind of guy. To counter, who does Obama put on? John “I served in Nam” Kerry who was rejected by the voters 4 years ago because everyone thought he was too easy on the enemy for them and Richard Clarke, the poster child of the September 10th mindset himself. The very counter terrorism official who was pushing the buttons on September 11th and the years preceding it. Yeah, nice one there Barack. Why don’t you get Jamie Gorelick too?

So the thrust of it is, Barack says he’s not a September 10th thinker. He just thinks the policies of the September 10th thinkers worked better. But don’t say he has a September 10th mindset.

Again, as Martin puts it: Not. Ready. For. Prime. Time.

Love the ending of the article. Mr. Obama said that the republicans will use fear to get elected. Whose talking points are “They will take your social security away. They want to end medicare. They want to take away your food stamps. They want to kick you out in the street in place of their corporate buddies. They want to poison the environment…”? Pot, meet kettle.

Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani Sentenced

The same miserable, corrupt Yemeni government that set the USS Cole terrorists free has sentenced journalist Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani to six years hard labor.

I. Am. Disgusted.

Thankfully, the US State Department has condemned the act. Not that the Yemeni government will give a damn, I suppose.

Press Statement
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 9, 2008

Yemeni Journalist Sentenced

The conviction and sentencing of Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani to six years in prison points to a distressing trend in Yemen of intimidation and prosecution of independent journalists in criminal and security courts. Al-Khaiwani’s sentence has been condemned by both Yemeni and international journalism and human rights NGOs.

Al-Khaiwani himself has been the victim of violence, intimidation, and kidnappings that the Government of Yemen has yet to fully investigate and prosecute those responsible. We call upon the Government of Yemen to protect Yemeni journalists and their right to free expression in the pursuit of their profession. A free and independent media is a key component of a democratic society.

Jane Novak has much more, with lots of international reaction.

More to come as the next plan of action is determined.

Here comes the sun…

And the light shone brightly upon the Obamamessiah and he felt warmed by it’s heat. A smile broke out upon his face as the light circled him and raised him above the common people and they worshipped him, speaking not but “Hope, change, Barack”. And for the Obamamessiah, it was good. The light continued to get brighter and the Obamamessiah was sore afraid. He knew that surely as the light shows his way, it also shows the warts that were once hidden and exposes the dark evil underside that was tucked out of view. The people seeing the truth, awoke from their Obamacoma and stopped mindlessly spouting “hope, change, Barack”. Seeing the con-man for what he was, they turned away and left him in droves.

Reality 3:16

So here comes the onslaught. Obamamessiah has the nomination all wrapped up. Only an “accident” can stop him. (Hillary, your goon is calling for orders) Time to unleash the big guns. As I said earlier, the 527’s are going to shred this guy up like Mexican cheese and it isn’t going to be pretty for the democrats. Our first shots are coming from a group called Vets for Freedom. Now, to be accurate, they aren’t a 527, but they’ll do just nicely.

It seems our friends at the Vets for Freedom are taking issue with his Obamamessiahness. At each stop he makes now, he rails against the Iraq war telling everyone who will listen that Iraq isn’t going well at all. It’s out of control. It’s terrible.

Well, there is a problem: it’s not true. The Obamamessiah either doesn’t know that, or he refuses to admit it. You see, he hasn’t been to Iraq since January of 2006 and even that is a bit deceptive. When he visited there, it was just a glorified sleepover. He never left the green zone. He never visited Maliki. He never visited the local neighborhoods. Just like the press, he stayed in the hotel lobby and made stuff up.

The Vets for Freedom know this and they have been trying to meet with the Obamamessiah to talk to him about it. Shockingly, he won’t meet with them. In fact, on one day, the Vets for Freedom went to the hill to meet with all the senators and members of congress they could. Each member went to the offices of representatives from their own state. They were able to meet with 55 members of the Senate that day. When the Illinois vets went to meet the Obamamessiah in his office, he did what he always does when the heat gets turned up. He ran. He ran like a little girl running from a spider. After they went into his office waiting area, he was seen sneaking and out a side exit to avoid them. Nice! Way to go Mr. Wannabe Commander in Chief! Homer Simpson is more qualified to be CIC than the Obamamessiah is. At least he knows to “point the army and shoot”.

The Vets for Freedom probably didn’t bother with McCain. You see McCain has visited Iraq 3 times in the last 14 months. He went in March of ‘07, August of ‘07 and this past March. Remember last summer? How was McCain doing last summer? He was laying off people. He was closing offices. Pollsters were not even including him on polls because he was “finished”. Still, with all that, he took the time and money to go to Iraq and see for himself what was really happening.

So what do the Vets for Freedom want from Obama? They want him to go to Iraq and really visit the place. They want him to meet with the honorable General Petraeus face to face. They want him to see that attacks in Iraq are down 70% since June of 2007. They want him to see that sectarian violence is down 90% in that same time. They want him to see that violence is down 95% in Baghdad. In short, they want him to stop brainlessly spouting Soros and moveon press releases. In a stroke of political genius, McCain has invited the Obamamessiah to come with him on his next trip. What say you Obamamessiah?

Here, let’s hear it from them:

SWEET! And here’s another! The hits just keep coming!

Obamamessiah is in serious trouble. These are just the opening salvos in a long hot summer. There is more and worse coming. He’s not going to win in November but the democrats can’t/won’t take it from him now. It would be political suicide. Pick your November loss democrats: Lose the presidency to McCain or send in Hillary to lose the Presidency and several house/senate seats as well. Come on dems, pick your poison!

Soldiers Angels Louisiana sends a taste of home to Iraq

I love this!!!

Beverly Dupuy’s son Eric has been in Iraq since December. It’s his second tour of duty there.

Shortly after he arrived this time, five men in his unit were killed by enemy fire. Two of them were very close friends.

“I just wanted to do something special for his unit,” said Beverly.

She contacted a group called Soldiers’ Angels, which attempts to provide some kindness, love and small tokens of appreciation for those fighting abroad.

Greta Perry, the leader for Louisiana’s chapter of the group, called Eric’s unit for suggestions.

“The chaplain said that what they really, really wanted was to start a coffee house,” she recalled.

Read the whole story here.

Y’all know Greta - she’s the human dynamo at Kiss My Gumbo, Hooah Wife, and of course, Soldiers Angels LA. Not to mention a great real-life friend of mine. :) I’m so proud of her!

Check out the pictures from Iraq from when they started building the Big Easy Cafe, and video from when they opened it.
Congratulations to all involved, and to all Soldiers’ Angels supporters!

By the way, if you want to get involved in a state Soldiers’ Angels team like this, contact Greta and she’ll get you to the right person. If you’re in Alabama and want to help, contact Nicki. And of course, you can always donate to the Soldiers’ Angels organization; your financial assistance is always needed and appreciated!

Dems know they can’t end war, but lie about it anyway

Not like we didn’t know it already, but it’s nice to see one of them actually admit it in public. Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)

“I’ll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we…the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn’t say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn’t true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts…and people ate it up.“

Nothing like selling out American interests and American lives for a few votes. Deny the success of the surge, exaggerate, condemn, argue against the war, attack the troops (I’m lookin’ at you, Murtha), parrot the enemy’s propaganda…for what? Votes. How much damage do they need to do to the war effort, how many American lives do they need to endanger just to get elected or re-elected?

“The ends justify the means” for the Left, good little Trotskyites that they are.

Of course, Kanjorski doesn’t speak for all Democrats. Some of them are deadly serious about dismantling American strength.

Douglas Feith can thank the New York Times, WaPo, etc.

Douglas Feith’s new book, War and Decision, must be wonderful if the big newspapers are refusing to review it.

This official has been mentioned in news stories in your paper on hundreds of occasions, your paper’s editorials have regularly railed against him and his colleagues, and your paper’s op-ed columnists have penned an entire oeuvre of scathing indictments of the policies he helped implement. The official, subjected to years of obloquy in your pages, writes an account of his involvement in the story that by any fair estimation is not just detailed and serious, but one of the most important and useful of its kind to date. Do you choose to review the book, or do you simply pretend that it was never written?

Srsly. What are they afraid of?

Guess that makes this one a must-read. Further evidence of it being radioactive to the Bush-deranged: the Amazon reviews and tags for War and Decision. The top forum post on the book is entitled “dumbest f_cking guy on the planet.” Obviously, like the New York Times and Washington Post, the Amazon vandals, as usual, haven’t read it either.

So why thank the Bush-deranged media and Amazon vandals? Quite simply, because their reaction to his book just sold me a copy. :)

(BTW, someone needs to buy me a Kindle, because I ran out of room for all my books long ago. Please?)

Al-Khaiwani Update

A few updates for today:

First, the really important news! The sentencing for Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani has been postponed until next week. Jane says the government is putting it off, that “it’s a ploy to wait until attention is focused elsewhere.” Our efforts are having an impact!

Also postponed, the trial in the lesser known but just as stupid case of Fahd al-Qarni, a singer/comedian who is charged with attempting to overthrow the regime with a song. Yes, really: (al-Qarni) has been charged with inciting an armed overthrow of the government and insulting the President.

A song. I’d laugh at the stupidity, but it’s so outrageous it’s hard to laugh. (God only knows what happens to cartoonists there!)

Keep spreading the word and pushing for signatures! We can do this - so often we wish blogs could do more; and while this isn’t as close to us personally as other things, we can have a real impact on people’s lives.

Next, International journalist unions call for charges to be dropped:

No one knows better how retarded the charges are than the other Arab journalists.
International Federation of Journalists Statement:
[...]
Journalists’ Unions and Associations representing thirteen different countries from throughout the Arab World and Iran meeting in Casablanca at a regional meeting of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called upon the Yemeni authorities to drop charges against journalist Al Khaiwani and to take measures to guarantee his safety.

This call is also supported by the National Union of Journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband, and Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union (dju) in ver.di and the East African Journalists’ Association.

Now, as a reminder for us, Conservative Belle has a must-read post today: Population, Privilege, Prestige, Pride and Power - The Five Reasons We Are Obligated to Fight for Democracy

At the time of this writing, there were 1172 signatures on this petition. Of that number, based on Jane’s reports, at least two or three hundred of these signatures are a direct result of the NZZ story. But in America, between the story in the New York Times and at least 50+ stories in the blogosphere, we could only generate approximately 800 signatures for freedom and democracy? This is shamefully pathetic. So now I’m going to take us to task for it.

Are we so arrogant, lazy, selfish and apathetic that we cannot take 30 seconds to click and sign this petition for a man who is willing to be separated from his family or even worse, possibly die for journalistic freedom and truth? How can the Yemeni government possibly be intimidated by a petition if Americans don’t even appreciate the very freedoms we have by signing it?

We have this huge population. We have people willing to fight and die to protect our freedoms and provide them for others. There is safety in numbers in this affluent nation of ours. The number of signatures on this petition should be overwhelming just based on our population. Why aren’t they there?

Amen, Vivian. See, while Karim al-Khaiwani is eternally grateful (as is Jane) for what’s been done so far, I’ve been a little disappointed. I’m not going to name names, but there are some big blogs linking to this, and I don’t see those bloggers’ names on the thing, much less the numbers one would expect to see considering the traffic they get. This isn’t about linky love for Jane, it’s about a man’s life.

THANK YOU to those of you who have signed, and who have tolerated my incessant nagging. You know who you are, and your support is deeply appreciated.

But for those who haven’t, I wonder, is it because al-Khaiwani is accused by the Yemeni government of “supporting terrorism?” I can understand why that would give some pause. Remember, the Yemeni government is the same government that FREED THE USS COLE BOMBERS. Obviously they aren’t ones to speak of who is “supporting terrorism.” Read through Jane’s archives - the regime’s hands are drenched in the blood of innocents, and they routinely charge liberal dissidents with absurd charges of sedition or support for terrorism because they (unfortunately, often correctly) believe it immunizes them from international criticism.
Anyway, does anyone question the dedication of the Jawa Report writers to fighting terrorism? They all support al-Khaiwani; they know he’s one of the good guys.

So what is it? Is it just apathy because it’s “just one guy” and people feel powerless? Is it because it’s “just” a letter? It is so much more than that - this is for all those like him, and the letter is making an impact. Imagine if there were ten times as many signatures, as there should be.

Is it because of having names publicly displayed? There is an option to have your name displayed as “Anonymous,” but I only see two “anonymous” signatures there. Is it because you don’t want spam? You don’t get spammed.

Isn’t this exactly what we should be supporting if we want to spread freedom in the totalitarian Islamic world? Wouldn’t it be better if they were able to have freedoms that we have without our government’s intervention? What if we had been able to do this for Iraqi dissidents under Saddam’s regime?

Vivian gets it.

We have the power to make a difference. In the past the Yemeni government yielded to outside pressure and a petition for al-Khaiwani when he was jailed on another occasion. Did you get that? He has survived this oppression before. Please don’t dismiss this as a waste of time or as something unlikely to have an impact. This is not the case.

Again, to those of you who have supported this - thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

For anyone else - if you’re reading this, I believe it’s your moral obligation as a free human being to step up to the plate. It only takes a minute. Sign it, blog it, just do it.

Attacking the troops in Washington, DC

Can we question their patriotism now?

Recently, there have been local incidents in which military personnel have been verbally assaulted while commuting on the Metro. Uniformed members have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government, shouting anti-war sentiments, and using racial slurs against minorities.

In one instance, a member was followed onto the platform by an individual who continued to berate her as she exited the metro station. Thus far, these incidents have occurred in the vicinity of the Reagan National Airport and Eisenhower Ave metro stations on the yellow line, however, military members should be vigilant and aware of their surroundings at all times while in mass transit.

Should you be approached by any individuals expressing anti-government/anti-war sentiments, or any other types of direct verbal assault, immediately notify your local police jurisdiction. If riding metro, exit the train at the next stop, distance yourself from the individual, and notify the Metro Transit Police Department.

For this and any other suspicious activity, NGB personnel are also asked to notify the Pentagon Command Center at (703)697-1001, and the NGB Antiterrorism/Force Protection Officer, MSgt Cyril Charity, at (703)607-2396 or (571)239-1109 (after duty hours).

You know, this doesn’t have to happen. There’s no way there weren’t any innocent bystanders when this stuff was happening, and if they didn’t speak up, shame on them.

If you see this kind of thing happening, speak up. These scumbags ought not to feel free to behave this way in public without becoming pariahs.

Still fighting for Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani and Yemeni freedom

[This will remain at the top for a while; scroll down for new posts.]

A Blog That Makes a Difference - Armies of Liberation

I’m so lucky to call Jane (from Armies of Liberation) a friend, and this article about her just makes me burst with pride. Yay Janie!!!

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country.

And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph — blond and smiling — is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government’s allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a member of Al Qaeda, or “the Zionist Novak.”

The worst of her many offenses is her dogged campaign on behalf of a Yemeni journalist, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, who incurred his government’s wrath by writing about a bloody rebellion in the far north of the country. He is on trial on sedition charges that could bring the death penalty, with a verdict expected Wednesday.

Right, remember him? Did you sign the letter? That’s what this is all about; Jane got an article in the New York Times, but as nice as it is to get some recognition, none of what she does is for personal glory or publicity for herself (in fact, she’s rather media-shy). It’s about liberation. Even while this article is in the New York Times, she’s working tirelessly for and worrying about al-Khaiwani’s verdict tomorrow.

It’s not too late. PLEASE, sign and pass on the word. The corrupt thugs in the Yemeni regime must be put on notice. A man’s life depends on it, and by extension, so do countless others like him who fight corrupt and brutal regimes.

The story, short version:

Renowned journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani is one of Yemen’s most prominent democracy advocates - for which he has paid a steep price. His paper has been closed, his website blocked, and his children threatened. He is now due to be sentenced on May 21 for “insulting the president” and “demoralizing the military.”

During his arrest in June of 2007, Al-Khaiwani was beaten and his six-year-old daughter slapped unconscious. While released on bail in August, Al-Khaiwani was kidnapped and tortured by thugs who threatened his life if he continued to write about Yemen’s president.

As al-Khaiwani’s sentencing approaches, there is growing fear a guilty verdict will open the door for a brutal crackdown on Yemen’s already-endangered journalistic community. Join with al-Khawiani’s supporters in Yemen and throughout the world as we urge the Yemeni government not to imprison journalists for their work.

This is all you are asked to sign:

I write to protest Yemen’s prosecution of journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, who will be sentenced on May 21 for allegedly “insulting the president.”

Al-Khaiwani is an outspoken independent journalist repeatedly targeted by authorities. His newspaper has been closed, his website blocked, and his children threatened. Yemeni and international human rights groups have observed that the charges are simply political retribution and pose a serious threat to Yemen’s emerging free press.

Please intervene to ensure Al-Khaiwani goes free and that freedom of expression for all Yemeni journalists is protected.

That’s it. Will you sign your name to that simple statement on behalf of freedom?

http://campaigns.aicongress.org/yemen/