Tag: Docudharma Times

GOT MOTION RESTRAINED EMOTION

BEEN DRIVING DETROIT LEANING

NO REASON JUST SEEMS SO PLEASING

GONNA MAKE YOU, MAKE YOU, MAKE YOU NOTICE

Sunday’s Headlines: Army Worried by Rising Stress of Return Tours to Iraq: Texas officials remove 183 from polygamist compound: Drought ignites Spain’s ‘water war’: France debates Beijing boycott as Olympic torch reaches London: Army faces new torture claims over arrest of Shia leader: Iran joined militias in battle for Basra: China struggles to quell Tibet rebels: Afghans Battle Drug Addiction: Beatings and abuse give Mexico’s emo teens plenty to feel anguished about: Thousands flee floods in Brazil: Zimbabwe on the brink: War or Peace?

Bush Listens Closely To His Man in Iraq

In White House Deliberations on War, Gen. Petraeus Has a Privileged Voice

For months, a debate raged at the top levels of the Bush administration over how quickly to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. But the discussion shut down soon after President Bush flew to Camp Arifjan, a dusty Army base near the Iraqi border in Kuwait, in January for a face-to-face meeting with the man whose counsel on the war he values most: Gen. David H. Petraeus.

During an 80-minute session, the president questioned his top commander in Iraq on whether further troop reductions, beyond those planned through July, would compromise security gains.

Must have been a dream I don’t believe where I’ve been.

Come on, let’s do it again.

Saturday’s Headlines: Bill and Hillary Clinton disclose wealth: In Massachusetts, Universal Coverage Strains Care: Bid to end Zimbabwe poll silence: Somali pirates seize French yacht: Warm words from Putin suggest deal on missile defence shield: The end of the road for Switzerland’s vintage car graveyard: After ban of 40 years, Pakistani film opens across India: Bhutan voters demand return of the king: How kidnapped Iraq security chief lived to tell the tale: In Egypt, Upper Crust Gets the Bread: Maria Barragan succeeds in getting adoptive parents jailed

New clashes in China on eve of torch’s arrival in UK

Reports of up to eight dead after Chinese police fire on protesters

A new series of violent clashes in China threatened last night to aggravate the protest which will greet the London leg of the Olympic torch relay as it passes through the capital this weekend.

As many as eight Tibetans may have been killed when paramilitary police opened fire during protests in Sichuan province, according to Tibetan support groups. They say the protesters were gunned down in the Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture when police used automatic weapons on the crowds on Thursday evening.

China’s state media acknowledged a confrontation had taken place in the mountainous region neighbouring Tibet, but reported that police fired only warning shots to protect officials.

Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?

Mother, do you think they’ll like this song?

Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?

Ooooowaa Mother, should I build a wall?

Mother, should I run for President?

Mother, should I trust the government?

Friday’s Headlines: U.S. Economy Shed 80,000 Jobs in March: The Other Side of the Mountaintop: Zanu-PF discusses Mugabe future: Journalists charged in Zimbabwe: Al-Qaida deputy goes online to justify attacks: Hu Jia: China’s enemy within: Irish cabinet backs Cowen as next Taoiseach: Kosovo guerrilla leader Ramush Haradinaj is set free: More Than 1,000 in Iraq’s Forces Quit Basra Fight: Israeli minister’s aide shot from Gaza: Argentina farmers suspend strike

Basra Assault Exposed U.S., Iraqi Limits

Anti-Sadr Gambit Seen Aiding Cleric

BAGHDAD, April 3 — When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive in Basra last week, he consulted only his inner circle of advisers. There were no debates in parliament or among his political allies. Senior American officials were notified only a few days before the operation began.

He was determined to show, his advisers said, that Iraq’s central government could exert order over a lawless, strategic port city ruled by extremist militias.

Back From The Meeting From Hell: Better Late Than Never Here’s The News

In the mornin you go gunnin

For the man who stole your water

And you fire till he is done in

But they catch you at the border

Thursday’s Headlines: In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage: Contracts for Body Armor Filled Without Initial Tests:  Going undercover in North Korea: Karzai seeks bigger role for larger Afghan army: Reporters on Berlin paper admit they were Stasi informers: EU allies unite against Bush over Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine:  Zimbabwe’s slums pay fitting testimony to Mugabe’s misrule: Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe is ready for last-ditch fight to hang on to presidency:  Intellectuals condemn fatwa against writers: Iraqi army shows force in Basra:  

Alliance Invites In Croatia, Albania

Bush Is Rebuffed In Bid for Support Of Ex-Soviet States

BUCHAREST, Romania, April 2 — NATO’s political leaders agreed Wednesday night to admit Croatia and Albania into the military alliance, but after a vigorous debate they effectively rejected President Bush’s bid to put two former Soviet republics on the path to membership.

The invitations to Croatia and Albania will bring NATO membership to 28 countries, the organization’s first expansion in six years as it renews its push to integrate Europe under a common security umbrella. The alliance will not, however, accept a third Balkan state, Macedonia, because Greece decided to veto its application because of a long-standing dispute over the former Yugoslav republic’s name.

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes – let them know

You realize that life goes fast

It’s hard to make the good things last

You realize the sun don’-go down

It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Tuesday’s Headlines: Insurers Faulted as Overloading Social Security: GAO Blasts Weapons Budget: Secret Mugabe meeting ponders military move or fixed result – but not an admission of defeat: Chad president pardons French charity workers: Turkey’s ruling party to stand trial for being ‘too religious’: Pro-Russia enemies of Nato give Bush a mixed reception in Ukraine: Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia refuses to carry Olympic torch: Opponents of Musharraf Assume Posts in Pakistan: Ballet amid the bullets in Iraq: The day the US declared war on Iran: FARC: Raid harms Betancourt release bid

USA 2008: The Great Depression

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world’s richest country faces economic crisis

By David Usborne in New York

Tuesday, 1 April 2008

We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.

Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.

Out in the streets inspiration comes hard

The joker in the deck keeps handin’ me his card

Smilin’ friendly he takes me in

Then breaks my back in a game I can’t win

Monday’s Headlines:McCain Faces Test in Wooing Elite Donors: Remains found of U.S. soldier captured in Iraq: Shia cleric orders followers to end Iraq clashes: Israeli play makes link with Palestinians:  Killing Fields photographer Dith Pran dies: Violence in Nepal as Tibetans protest Olympics: Turkey court mulls party ban case: Putin critic disappears in Berlin: Farc’s prize hostage is ‘ill and losing will to live’: Steep price for a free trip to Peru: Mugabe: the writing’s on the wall

Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race

Jenifer Bratter once wore a T-shirt in college that read “100 percent black woman.” Her African-American friends would not have it.

“I remember getting a lot of flak because of the fact I wasn’t 100 percent black,” said Ms. Bratter, 34, recalling her years at Penn State.

“I was very hurt by that,” said Ms. Bratter, whose mother is black and whose father is white. “I remember feeling like, Isn’t this what everybody expects me to think?”

Being accepted. Proving loyalty. Navigating the tight space between racial divides. Americans of mixed race say these are issues they have long confronted, and when Senator Barack Obama recently delivered a speech about race in Philadelphia, it rang with a special significance in their ears. They saw parallels between the path trod by Mr. Obama and their own.

The world closing in

Did you ever think

That we could be so close,like brothers

The future’s in the air

I can feel it everywhere

Blowing with the wind of change

Sunday’s Headlines: Clinton Vows To Stay in Race To Convention: Clinton, Obama supporters wrangle over delegates: Files Released by Colombia Point to Venezuelan Bid to Arm Rebels: Brazil teen ‘killer’ investigated: Vote count under way in Zimbabwe: ‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero to give evidence in extradition case:  Under siege in Baghdad’s Mahdi army stronghold: ‘Divided’ Arab summit continues: Wed to Strangers, Vietnamese Wives Build Korean Lives: Tibet tensions high as Olympic torch nears Beijing: Whatever Happened to the IRA?

Tibetan monk protests reflect growing activism

More Buddhist monks, nuns likely to revolt against injustice, oppression

BANGKOK, Thailand – Buddhist monks hurling rocks at Chinese in Tibet, or peacefully massing against Myanmar’s military, can strike jarring notes.

These scenes run counter to Buddhism’s philosophy of shunning politics and embracing even bitter enemies – something the faith has adhered to, with some tumultuous exceptions, through its 2,500-year history.

But political activism and occasional eruptions of violence have become increasingly common in Asia’s Buddhist societies as they variously struggle against foreign domination, oppressive regimes, social injustice and environmental destruction.

There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,

For the maples want more sunlight

And the oaks ignore their pleas.

Saturday’s Headlines: Endorsement of Obama Points Up Clinton’s Obstacles:  Treasury Wants to Reshape Regulation:  Politkovskaya’s killer identified by prosecutors: It’s war, Mugabe says, as opposition prepares for battle: Fear keeps South African exiles away: Castro opens new era by lifting mobile phones ban: No end in sight to Andean conflict:  US rapper Jerome White Junior aka Jero finds enka stardom in Japan: Plague of rats brings threat of famine to millions in Mizoram: 19 Tense Hours in Sadr City Alongside the Mahdi Army

American warplanes join Iraqi troops in taking the fight to Shia militia

· Sadr stronghold in capital comes under attack

· British army holds fire as battles intensify·

US aircraft attacked Shia militia in Basra for the first time in the current round of fighting as intense battles continued between supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr and tens of thousands of Iraqi forces in a crackdown personally supervised by Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

British troops, based at the city’s airport, were kept away from the operation described by George Bush as “a defining moment in the history of Iraq”.

American fighter jets dropped bombs on a mortar team and a militia stronghold in Basra, said Major Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. The number of casualties was unknown.

As protests spread across Iraq, US aircraft also attacked Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five civilians, according to Iraqi police and hospitals.

My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken

A life that is led is no more than a token

Wholl strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why

Friday’s Headlines: Fed Leaders Ponder an Expanded Mission: Homeland Security delays border crossing rules:  North Korea ‘test-fires missiles’: Mugabe warned of Kenya-style revolt:  Another coup in the world’s most unstable country: Dutch MP Geert Wilders posts explosive anti-Islam film on web: Ultimatum for Italy in cheese dioxin scare: Arab leaders boycott Damascus summit over Lebanon crisis: Demands for inquiry into Israeli shootings:  

Militias Resist Iraqi Forces in Fight for Basra

BAGHDAD – American-trained Iraqi security forces failed for a third straight day to oust Shiite militias from the southern city of Basra on Thursday, even as President Bush hailed the operation as a sign of the growing strength of Iraq’s federal government.

The fighting in Basra against the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the political movement led by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, set off clashes in cities throughout Iraq. Major demonstrations were staged in a number of Shiite areas of Baghdad, including Sadr City, the huge neighborhood that is Mr. Sadr’s base of power.

Is this the value of our existence

Should we proclaim with such persistence

Our destiny relies on conscience

Red or blue what’s the difference

Thursday’s Headlines: U.S. to Stop Green Card Denials for Dissidents: U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan:  Iraq leader gives Shiite militias in Basra three days to surrender: Powerful lessons: Ultra-orthodox awkward squad: Monks disrupt Tibet media visit:  Burma, land were people wear the tattered shreds of the Saffron Revolution: German supermarket chain Lidl accused of snooping on staff: ‘Inhumane and oppressive’: the final verdict on Britain’s asylum policy: Robert Mugabe mocked as climate of fear dissolves in laughter: Angola to host landmine pageant: Oil exploration issue splits Mexico

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans

This article was reported by C. J. Chivers, Eric Schmitt and Nicholas Wood and written by Mr. Chivers.

Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

Maybe, someday

Saved by zero

I’ll be more together

stretched by fewer

Thoughts that leave me

Tuesday’s Headlines: Genetic Testing Gets Personal:  Detroit mayor and aide charged with felonies: Army launches assault in Comoros: Who pays the price of platinum?: New Pakistani prime minister frees judges: Just like America, China is building a multi-ethnic empire in the west: Neil Aspinall, the ‘fifth Beatle’, dies aged 66: Berlusconi boosted by pessimism of young: Fatah and Hamas dismiss Yemen agreement on Palestinian unity: US Navy confirms Suez canal shooting:  Mexico leftists deadlocked in vote dispute

Bush Given Iraq War Plan With a Steady Troop Level

WASHINGTON – Troop levels in Iraq would remain nearly the same through 2008 as at any time during five years of war, under plans presented to President Bush on Monday by the senior American commander and the top American diplomat in Iraq, senior administration and military officials said.

Mr. Bush announced no final decision on future troop levels after the video briefing by the commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and the diplomat, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. The briefing took place on the day when the 4,000th American military death of the war was reported and just after the invasion’s fifth anniversary.

Fierce clashes break out in Basra

Heavy fighting has erupted in Iraq’s southern city of Basra amid a major pre-dawn offensive by Iraqi security forces against rival Shia militias.

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki is in Basra overseeing the operation, a day after he vowed to “re-impose law” in the oil-rich city, the UK military said.

Eyewitnesses speak of plumes of smoke, explosions, tanks and artillery.

The British military, which returned control of Basra to the Iraqis in December, said it was not involved.

A spokesman for UK forces, now based only at Basra airport, said the operation was being directed entirely by Iraqi troops and that Mr Maliki was overseeing it from a military base at an undisclosed location in the city.

I’ve known no war

And if I ever do I won’t know for sure

Who’ll be fighting whom

Monday’s Headlines: Patients’ Data on Stolen Laptop: When Barry Became Barack: Fears of summer bombings as Eta steps up attacks: Protest fear as Greeks set Games in motion:  Peruvian leaders cry foul as Chávez exports healthcare: Ecuadorean death report confirmed: China accuses Dalai Lama of being a terrorist: Young commuter bloggers snatch Japan’s literary laurels:  Hamas and Fatah agree to hold talks: Endemol exec sent to Dubai jail after police find ‘speck of dirt’: Funeral costs rise as Zimbabwe elections loom for Robert Mugabe

A.P.’s Death Toll for Iraq War Reaches 4,000

BAGHDAD (AP) — A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000. The grim milestone came on a day when at least 61 people were killed across the country.

Rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.

The attacks on the Green Zone probably stemmed from rising tensions between rival Shiite groups and were the most sustained assault in months against the nerve center of the U.S. mission.

Wa, war her papa go to war.

He gonna fight but he don’t know what for.

Wa, war her papa go to war.

Her mama say one day he’s gonna come back from far away.