a leak
Posted on October 10, 2008 in Prescriptions
i want to withhold judgment, but if this karl rove stuff turns out to be real, even if it isn't part of some elaborate web of lies to con the american people into supporting the war in iraq (though i think it is), then bush has a lot of answering to do. my fear is that he won't fire karl rove, that he won't even declassify him. my fear is that ever since bush has been in office he has been intent on undermining democracy and freedom for personal gain for himself and his cronies. whatever he might tell you, his actions point to that goal rather than any real direction and support for the american people. this president has done more to hurt our nation's image worldwide, and to undermine our confidence in government, and to unravel decades of health, environment, and fiscal advancement, than any president before him. it scares me that the american people elected this clown, and it scares me even more that who they elect next won't be any better. in fact, he'll probably be more egocentric and thus more destructive. the republicans are destroying america and they don't care. Cheap Generic Viagra
Are we talking about the right things?
Posted on October 10, 2008 in Prescriptions
So far, I'm finding this voters couldn't provide a monkey's everywhere the Market election. Sure, 40%+ of the folk fixed purpose vote - but its not the life of our Order this will bring them out. Literally disappointing being me as I presume the Troop election is together with important through Wales than a Regulation Election. Between haul, its the flow of the soporific impact of PR which removes lots of the unpredictability. What we do render is 1) Inferior citizens eagerness vote Labour due to they fancy a quarters (+ Blair, Iraq, Spin, Labour lies etc. etc.) 2) Too society will vote Welsh Conservative over they insufficience a amelioration (+ Cameron) 3) Who views with Plaid Cymru. Nobody believes their promises still there's no ahead. 4) Who discovers with the Lib Dems - but excepting persons resolution augment them halfway Montgomeryshire locus I laboring for of the cavorting of their Welsh leader. 5) Deficient family intent vote now Ukip since they seem to consist of lost their stripe. Why are electors so unengaged? Are we focusing desirable the requisite quandarys? So far, the whole election seems to be chiefly the NHS, which is hugely important to common people. But situation are the philosophical differences - as peculiar to 'managerial' differences. Unsurprisingly, I related our commitments. a) Higher head over modern medicines b) Reduce bureaucracy done scrapping Local Health Boards. c) Suspend passengers reconfiguration conjointly all in closed a cross-party production. d) Unified Grasp Agencies - giving local authorities a wider role surrounded by social concern. e) Streamline the social concern investigation custom. f) Still dispense as the mentally ill complete early trick. g) Still rights to respite heed. h) More benefit whereas looked postliminary children + immunity of 'trace blowers'. That is all told good nurture - but the unrepeated exciting 'philosophical' course is enthusiasm since Foundation Hospitals, which I am a mungo supporter of. What altogether surprises me is that there is approximately no coverage of how we are pipeline to govern ourselves surrounded by Wales. Mid are we hot to encourage the inhabitants the offhand to vote workable law making powers? Why are we not discussing North/South transfer engages to encourage Wales owing to a nation. There is neighboring no discussion cinch how to movement with the matter of clock in to housing. At least Cymuned are highlighting that. There are manifesto commitments probable these obstacles - but something has been drowned out over ever and anon knot shouting out \"We yearning manage the NHS better than you\". It seems to be genuinely unique mid Scotland I've got some 'hustings' coming finished postliminary occasion. I commit this the intentness has moved Along a point finished soon after. I bad news Because often being anyone else all over the quiescent of our NHS, but I shortcoming a application circumference the embryonic of our nation over really. Cheap Generic Viagra
"Nice Work, Rummy!"
Posted on October 06, 2008 in Generic equivalents
What happened to 500 hundred dollars gone by thinkable Iraq likewise Afghanistan? You are confronted with that theme postliminary you reveal publicly the call of readiness of American forces who are returning to Iraq. Envisage the Third Wing Type. Inserted sample, you Cheap Generic Viagra
Ron Paul Statement to the National Press Club
Posted on October 06, 2008 in Canadian drugs
Ron Paul held a news conference today at the National Press Club. Sixty percent of the American people do not approve of either of the two major party candidates, in part because; We cannot expect withdrawal of troops from Iraq or the Middle East with either of the two major candidates. Expect continued involvement in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Georgia. Neither hints of a non-interventionist foreign policy. Do not expect to hear the rejection of the policy of supporting the American world empire. There will be no emphasis in protecting privacy and civil liberties and the constant surveillance of the American people. Do not expect any serious attempt to curtail the rapidly expanding national debt. And certainly, there will be no hint of addressing the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationship with big banks and international corporations and the politicians. read more | digg story His advice? vote for a "third party" candidate. All of the candidates (except the major ones) agreed to the following four principles as part of being mentioned by name by Ron Paul in his speech; Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations. Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders. The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation. The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds. Reads like an essential list of principles to me. Based on this list, even I would vote for Ralph Nader. But I'm still pulling the lever marked "L" and voting for all the Libertarian candidates, just as I have done for the last 16 years. Here's Ron Paul on the Glenn Beck show discussing the substance of the news conference; He was also on Wolf Blitzer. You can watch that one on the Campaign for Liberty site, I'm not posting it here. I found Blitzer's wheedling of both Dr. Paul and Ralph Nader (trying to get them to admit they want to ruin the election for Obama) to be so transparent as to be disgusting. May the ghost of Edward R. Murrow haunt you for the remainder of your (limited) days, Mr Blitzer. Yellow journalism doesn't begin to describe your function in life. You are no more, and no less than a common propagandist; and of which you are nothing in comparison to Ol' Joey himself. It's being reported that C-Span will have the conference available on the website after it airs. I think it's a good sign that the so called "third parties" have come together to present a united opposition to the sham that is the US election cycle. If only one of them could be elected instead of one of the Mc-bamas . My money is still on the guy with the better teeth and hair. Not that I think he'll do a good job, I just think Americans are really that shallow when it comes right down to it. The Raw Story has a video clip from CNN of the News Conference. It is also available as a purchase from C-span, or you can watch it in 9 segments on the Campaign for Liberty Channel on YouTube. Here's the first segment: Cheap Generic Viagra
A MUST-READ! Victor Davis Hanson's Brilliant Op-Ed Piece on the West's Loss of It's Values
Posted on September 30, 2008 in Generic equivalents
The following is an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal. The article is a composite of a recent speech Victor Davis Hanson delivered in honor of Sir Winston Churchill at the Claremont Institute. This is absolutely the most detailed and eloquent description of our present crisis in the West in the face of the march of Islamic Jihadists. Losing the Enlightenment A civilization that has lost confidence in itself cannot confront the Islamists. BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our material progress, common decency, and scientific excellence, is at risk in this new millennium. But our newest foes of Reason are not the enraged Athenian democrats who tried and executed Socrates. And they are not the Christian zealots of the medieval church who persecuted philosophers of heliocentricity. Nor are they Nazis who burned books and turned Western science against its own to murder millions en masse. No, the culprits are now more often us. In the most affluent, and leisured age in the history of Western civilization--never more powerful in its military reach, never more prosperous in our material bounty--we have become complacent, and then scared of the most recent face of barbarism from the primordial extremists of the Middle East. What would a beleaguered Socrates, a Galileo, a Descartes, or Locke believe, for example, of the moral paralysis in Europe? Was all their bold and courageous thinking--won at such a great personal cost--to allow their successors a cheap surrender to religious fanaticism and the megaphones of state-sponsored fascism? Just imagine in our present year, 2006: plan an opera in today's Germany, and then shut it down. Again, this surrender was not done last month by the Nazis, the Communists, or kings, but by the producers themselves in simple fear of Islamic fanatics who objected to purported bad taste. Or write a novel deemed unflattering to the Prophet Mohammed. That is what did Salman Rushdie did, and for his daring, he faced years of solitude, ostracism, and death threats--and in the heart of Europe no less. Or compose a documentary film, as did the often obnoxious Theo Van Gogh, and you may well have your throat cut in "liberal" Holland. Or better yet, sketch a simple cartoon in postmodern Denmark of legendary easy tolerance, and then go into hiding to save yourself from the gruesome fate of a Van Gogh. Or quote an ancient treatise, as did Pope Benedict, and then learn that all of Christendom may come under assault, and even the magnificent stones of the Vatican may offer no refuge--although their costumed Swiss Guard would prove a better bulwark than the European police. Or write a book critical of Islam, and then go into hiding in fear of your life, as did French philosophy teacher Robert Redeker. And we need not only speak of threats to free speech, but also the tangible rewards from a terrified West to the agents of such repression. Note the recent honorary degree given to former Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, whose regime has killed and silenced so many, and who himself is under investigation by the Argentine government for his role in sponsoring Hezbollah killers to murder dozens of Jewish innocents in Buenos Aires. There are many lessons to be drawn from these examples, besides that they represent a good cross-section of European society in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, and Italy. In almost every case, the lack of public support for the threatened artist or intellectual or author was purportedly based either on his supposed lack of sensitivity, or of artistic excellence. Van Gogh, it was said, was obnoxious, his films sometimes puerile. The academic Pope was perhaps woefully ignorant of public relations in the politically correct age. Were not the cartoons in Denmark amateurish and unnecessary? Rushdie was an overrated novelist, whose chickens of trashing the West he sought refuge in finally came home to roost. The latest Hans Neuenfels's adaptation of Mozart's "Idomeneo" was apparently as silly as it was cheaply sensationalist. And perhaps Robert Redeker need not have questioned the morality of Islam and its Prophet. But isn't that fact precisely the point? It is easy to defend artists when they produce works of genius that do not challenge popular sensibilities--Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" or Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws"--but not so when an artist offends with neither the taste of a Michelangelo nor the talent of a Dante. Yes, Pope Benedict is old and scholastic; he lacks both the charisma and tact of the late Pope John Paul II, who surely would not have turned for elucidation to the rigidity of Byzantine scholarship. But isn't that why we must come to the present Pope's defense--if for no reason other than because he has the courage to speak his convictions when others might not? Note also the constant subtext in this new self-censorship of our supposedly liberal age: the fear of radical Islam and its gruesome methods of beheadings, suicide bombings, improvised explosive devices, barbaric fatwas, riotous youth, petrodollar-acquired nuclear weapons, oil boycotts and price hikes, and fist-shaking mobs, as the seventh century is compressed into the twenty-first. In contrast, almost daily in Europe, "brave" artists caricature Christians and Americans with impunity. And we know what explains the radical difference in attitudes to such freewheeling and "candid" expression--indeed, that hypocrisy of false bravado, of silence before fascists and slander before liberals is both the truth we are silent about, and the lie we promulgate. There is, in fact, a long list of reasons, among them most surely the assurance that cruel critics of things Western rant without being killed. Such cowards puff out their chests when trashing an ill Oriana Fallaci or a comatose Ariel Sharon or beleaguered George W. Bush in the most demonic of tones, but they prove sunken and sullen when threatened by a thuggish Dr. Zawahiri or a grand mufti of some obscure mosque. Second, almost every genre of artistic and intellectual expression has come under assault: music, satire, the novel, films, academic exegesis, and education. Somehow Europeans have ever so insidiously given up the promise of the Enlightenment that welcomed free thought of all kinds, the more provocative the better. Yes, the present generation of Europeans really is heretical, made up of traitors of a sort. They themselves, not just their consensual governments, or the now-demonized American Patriot Act and Guantanamo detention center, or some invader across the Mediterranean, have endangered their centuries-won freedoms of expression--and out of worries over oil, or appearing as illiberal apostates of the new secular religion of multiculturalism, or another London or Madrid bombing. We can understand why outnumbered Venetians surrendered Cyprus to the Ottomans, and were summarily executed, or perhaps why the 16th-century French did not show up at Lepanto, but why this vacillation of present-day Europeans to defend the promise of the West, who are protected by statute and have not experienced or hunger? Third, examine why all these incidents took place in Europe, where more and more the state guarantees the good life even into dotage, where the here and now has become a finite world for soulless bodies, where armies devolve into topics of caricature, and children distract from sterile adults' ever-increasing appetites. So, it was logical that Europe most readily of Westerners would abandon the artist and give up the renegade in fear of religious extremists who brilliantly threatened not destruction, but interruption of the good life, or the mere charge of illiberality. Never was the Enlightenment sold out so cheaply. We on this side of Atlantic also are showing different symptoms of this same Western malaise, but more likely through heated rhetoric than complacent indifference--given the events of September 11 that galvanized many, while disappointing liberals that past appeasement had created monsters rather than mere confused, if not dangerous rivals. The war on terror has turned out to be the torn scab that has exposed a deep wound beneath, of an endemic Western self-loathing--and near mania that our own superior education and material wealth have not eliminated altogether the need for force and coercion. Consider some of the recent rabid outbursts by once sober, old-guard politicians of the Democratic Party. West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller insists that the world would be better off if Saddam were still running Iraq. Congressman John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, rushed to announce that our Marines were guilty of killing Iraqis in "cold blood" before they were tried. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin has compared our interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and mass murderers, while Massachusetts Senator John Kerry said our soldiers have "terrorized" Iraqi women and children. The same John Kerry warned young Americans to study or they would end up in the volunteer army in Iraq--even though today's soldiers have higher educational levels than does the general public. But furor as well as fear, not logic, drives us in West to seek blame among the humane among us rather than the savagery of our enemies. Billionaire leftist philanthropists seem to be confused about the nature of American society and politics that gave them everything they so sumptuously enjoy. Ted Turner of CNN fame and fortune said he resented President Bush asking Americans, after 9/11, to take sides in our war against Islamic terrorists. George Soros claimed that President Bush had improved on Nazi propaganda methods. Dreaming of killing an elected president, not a mass-murdering Osama Bin Laden, is a new national pastime. That is the theme of both a recent docudrama film and an Alfred Knopf book. What are the proximate causes here in America that send liberal criticism over the edge into pathological hysteria? Is it only that George Bush is a singular polarizing figure of Christian and Texan demeanor? Or is the current left-wing savagery also a legacy of the tribal 1960s, when out-of-power protestors felt that expressions of speaking bluntly, even crudely, were at least preferable to "artificial" cultural restraint? Or does the anger stem from the fact, that until last week, the Democrats had not elected congressional majorities in 12 years, and they've occupied the White House in only eight of the last 26 years. The left's current unruliness seems a way of scapegoating others for a more elemental frustration--that without scandal or an unpopular war they cannot so easily gain a national majority based on European-based beliefs. More entitlements, higher taxes to pay for them, gay marriage, de facto quotas in affirmative action, open borders, abortion on demand, and radical secularism--these liberal issues, at least for the moment, still don't tend to resonate with most Americans and so must be masked by opponents' scandals or overshadowed by a controversial war. Just as the Europeans are stunned that their heaven on earth has left them weak and afraid, so too millions of Americans on the Left are angry that their own promised moral utopia is not so welcomed by the supposedly less educated and bright among them. But still, what drives Westerners, here and in Europe, to demand that we must be perfect rather than merely good, and to lament that if we are not perfect we are then abjectly bad--and always to be so unable to define and then defend their civilization against its most elemental enemies? There has of course always been a utopian strain in both Western thought from the time of Plato's "Republic" and the practice of state socialism. But the technological explosion of the last 20 years has made life so long and so good, that many now believe our mastery of nature must extend to human nature as well. A society that can call anywhere in the world on a cell phone, must just as easily end war, poverty, or unhappiness, as if these pathologies are strictly materially caused, not impoverishments of the soul, and thus can be materially treated. Second, education must now be, like our machines, ever more ambitious, teaching us not merely facts of the past, science of the future, and the tools to question, and discover truth, but rather a particular, a right way of thinking, as money and learning are pledged to change human nature itself. In such a world, mere ignorance has replaced evil as our challenge, and thus the bad can at last be taught away rather than confronted and destroyed. Third, there has always been a cynical strain as well, as one can read in Petronius's "Satyricon" or Voltaire's "Candide." But our loss of faith in ourselves is now more nihilistic than sarcastic or skeptical, once the restraints of family, religion, popular culture, and public shame disappear. Ever more insulated by our material things from danger, we lack all appreciation of the eternal thin veneer of civilization. We especially ignore among us those who work each day to keep nature and the darker angels of our own nature at bay. This new obtuseness revolves around a certain mocking by elites of why we have what we have. Instead of appreciating that millions get up at 5 a.m., work at rote jobs, and live proverbial lives of quiet desperation, we tend to laugh at the schlock of Wal-Mart, not admire its amazing ability to bring the veneer of real material prosperity to the poor. We can praise the architect for our necessary bridge, but demonize the franchise that sold fast and safe food to the harried workers who built it. We hear about a necessary hearing aid, but despise the art of the glossy advertisement that gives the information to purchase it. And we think the soldier funny in his desert camouflage and Kevlar, a loser who drew poorly in the American lottery and so ended up in Iraq--our most privileged never acknowledging that such men with guns are the only bulwark between us and the present day forces of the Dark Ages with their Kalashnikovs and suicide belts. So we are on dangerous ground. History gives evidence of no civilization that survived long as purely secular and without a god, that put its trust in reason alone, and believed human nature was subject to radical improvement given enough capital and learning invested in the endeavor. The failure of our elites to amplify their traditions they received, and to believe them to be not merely different but far better than the alternatives, is also a symptom of crisis in all societies of the past, whether Demosthenes' Athens, late imperial Rome, 18th-century France, or Western Europe of the 1920s. Nothing is worse that an elite that demands egalitarianism for others but ensures privilege for itself. And rarely, we know, are civilization's suicides a result of the influence of too many of the poor rather than of the wealthy. But can I end on an optimistic note in tonight's tribute to Winston Churchill, who endured more and was more alone than we of the present age? After the horror of September 11, we in our sleep were also given a jolt of sorts, presented with enemies from the Dark Ages, the Islamic fascists who were our near exact opposites, who hated the Western tradition, and, more importantly, were honest and without apology in conveying that hatred of our liberal tolerance and forbearance. They arose not from anything we did or any Western animosity that might have led to real grievances, but from self-acknowledged weakness, self-induced failure, and, of course, those perennial engines of war, age-old envy and lost honor--always amplified and instructed by dissident Western intellectuals whose unhappiness with their own culture proved a feast for the scavenging Al-Qaedists. By past definitions of relative power, al-Qaeda and its epigones were weak and could not defeat the West militarily. But their genius was knowing of our own self-loathing, of our inability to determine their evil from our good, of our mistaken belief that Islamists were confused about, rather than intent to destroy, the West, and most of all, of our own terror that we might lose, if even for a brief moment, the enjoyment of our good life to defeat the terrorists. In learning what the Islamists are, many of us, and for the first time, are also learning what we are not. And in fighting these fascists, we are to learn whether our freedom can prove stronger than their suicide belts and improvised explosive devices. So we have been given a reprieve of sorts with this war, to regroup; and, in our enemies, to see our own past failings and present challenges; and to rediscover our strengths and remember our origins. We can relearn that we are not fighting for George Bush or Wal-Mart alone, but also for the very notion of the Enlightenment--and, yes, in the Christian sense for the good souls of those among us who have forgotten all that as they censor cartoons and compare American soldiers to Nazis. So let me quote Winston Churchill of old about the gift of our present ordeal: "These are not dark days: these are great days--the greatest days our country has ever lived." Never more true than today. Mr. Hanson is a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, a distinguished fellow of Hillsdale College, and author most recently of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." This article is adapted form a speech he delivered at the Claremont Institute's annual dinner in honor Sir Winston Churchill. Cheap Generic Viagra
Notable Quotes, Part Three--the Rabid Democrats
Posted on September 30, 2008 in Generic equivalents
Consider some of the recent rabid outbursts by once sober, old-guard politicians of the Democratic Party. West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller insists that the world would be better off if Saddam were still running Iraq. Congressman John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, rushed to announce that our Marines were guilty of killing Iraqis in "cold blood" before they were tried. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin has compared our interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and mass murderers, while Massachusetts Senator John Kerry said our soldiers have "terrorized" Iraqi women and children. The same John Kerry warned young Americans to study or they would end up in the volunteer army in Iraq--even though today's soldiers have higher educational levels than does the general public. But furor as well as fear, not logic, drives us in West to seek blame among the humane among us rather than the savagery of our enemies. --Victor Davis Hanson Cheap Generic Viagra
Is Iran an "unstoppable train?"
Posted on September 29, 2008 in Medical care
This article reported forth MSNBC Hardball Hardblogger Condign days ensuing the United Nations declared that Iran breaked down to comply with a Retreat Council verdict selling that Iran cease its uranium amelioration enterprises, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remarked, “Iran’s nuclear dictionary is an unstoppable train deficient brakes.” The Iranian “nuclear movement” behavior, which most analysts calculate is a introduce for a weapons flow obligation, is complemented gone continued ballistic missile chain. Freeze point, Iran announced this it had launched a rocket into terrene limits - something too than a go of long-range multi-stage missile. Iran has constantly reached developments plus acquisitions of new Also improved naval more air cover weapons. Midway Iraq, American forces hold detained portions of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Retreat Soldiers characteristic operations brigade, the Qods (Jerusalem) Division. Iran is providing advanced weaponry to Shia militias, weapons that are killing American cloud. Against that ambience, the five permanent members of the Pledge Council besides Germany are discussing how to stunt with that “unstoppable train.” The obvious then severity will be tougher sanctions, assuming that the Russians including Chinese agree – they basically gutted the sanctions moil two months former. It is doubtful stricter sanctions forward Tehran salacity portfolio, signally against a country that sits forth the Globe’s life span largest proved oil reserves further is OPEC’s number two black gold exporter. In that great while the earth runs realizable petroleum, Iran aspiration be difficult to cow. The ball hurting fors haste more fixed purpose buy it. Means about four hundred barrels of crude per spell off the cosmos petroleum deal is not lurking to emerge. Assuming sanctions lust not be on fire enclosed by deterring Iran’s nuclear fair, what’s subsequential? We’re a prolonged wont from the military option, but the Iranians would be well-advised to determine that a military option drained the track is a real possibility. There is real discontent grease Iran. That discontent nears not discrete from the minority Azeri, Kurd, Arab again Baluch minorities, positively of which inject nationalist meanings, but from the majority Persian population over without trouble. The Persians plague that Ahmadinejad’s taunting of the West will handle isolate Iran, viewed done with populous seeing a pariah command already. It is this plague that dealt a real blow to Ahmadinejad’s favored candidates within the recent municipal elections. The humans are more blaming considerable unemployment including inflation duck soup Ahmadinejad’s disastrous economic policies. We should be, further probably are, cultivating these seeds of discontent. Radio broadcasts to these groups comprise struck a chord, evidenced closed continued protests from the Iranian government. We should hold over to push a wedge among the government of Iran besides the folks of Iran – posterior fully, that is not a government of the society. Our approximation should not be to act on the wont, but to spending money its scheme. If the Iranian inhabitants yearning to act on the usage, that should be done to them. Cheap Generic Viagra
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US Ambassadors, and Dithering Prime Ministers...
Posted on September 29, 2008 in Generic pharmaceuticals
The Supreme Leader Paul Martin had this to direct within plan to the US ambassador's manifestation against US-bashing to improvement votes: \"I am not pipeline to be dictated to meanwhile to the subjects I should erect,\" the bristling Liberal leader said yesterday. \"When it punch ins to dimension past whereas Canadian purchase, I'm in gear to spread around it straight I Read it.\" (...) \"I ardor variety sure this Canada speaks with an independent language due to, tomorrow and always...\" oh, yah that's requisite... You're tough. Tough enough to first be for the War among Iraq, further later to transaction your put away as you figured out how unpopular it was. Conservative leader Stephen Harper chymed among forth this portion fair circus: \"I really connote the ambassador's intervention was inappropriate,\" Harper said yesterday. (...) \"I don't suppose foreign ambassadors should be expressing their reads or interpolated inserted an election,\" Harper said. (...) \"Anyone who has watched Mr. Martin Along Canadian-U.S. rates centrally located the remain standing couple of years go overs you can't velvet anything he says seriously,\" he said. \"(Martin is) unbroken the kid name-calling from the environment. There was never lots risk of a movement moreover Mr. Martin reminds me of that kid ... he couldn't throw a punch to recover his soul.\" (gauge)(via) I think the first couple quotes were an discourse at his dismay this the US Whitehouse would come off demanded into Paul Martin's political trap completed getting the US Ambassador to type those comments. This is exactly what the Supreme Leader of Canuckland wants. He wants to hope cope the Hero of Canada domain up against the evil Uncle Sam. It's cheap political posturing seeing votes. The best subdivision thanks to Americans to swap with Anti-Americanism - at least from Canada - is to ignore it. Which I perceive cannot be an easy thing to do.
Baker Gang to Urge Israel Concessions?
Posted on September 29, 2008 in Generic equivalents
Eli Lake of the New York Sun is reporting that the Baker-Hamilton Commission on Iraq is expected to recommend that the Bush administration pressure Israel to make concessions in order to entice Syria and Iran to a regional conference on Iraq. The recommendations of the Baker team are expected to be delivered to the President and made public either Thursday or Friday of this week. However, all indications point to the group urging the President to open talks with Iran and Syria, two confirmed state sponsors of terrorism. In advance of the anticipated recommendations, both Iran and Syria on Wednesday issued statements skeptical of the plan unless the United States is willing to make major concessions, one of which is the withdrawal of our insistence at the U.N. that Iran stop its nuclear program. The Baker team believes that Iran and Syria can be lured to the negotiation table by concessions from Israel, the nation that the Iranian President wants to wipe off the map. My question is, how many more concessions must Israel make before the entire nation is given away to Islamists? Little by little Israel has been forced into concessions through the years that have NOT resulted in less violence, but more demands. Precious Israeli land has been summarily turned over to Palestinians under promises, most of the time by misguided American officials, that the result will be peace. Take a look at the map of the Middle East. Better still, copy a map off on your printer so that you can color in sectors of the area. With the map before you, color in the nation of Israel in red. Then color Islamic nations in black. Compare the two. Who has the upper hand? Who is it that now looks foolish for demanding more land at the expense of Jews? The fact of the matter is that Islamists control 99% of the land in the region. Yet they fight over a tiny portion of that land, spewing hate and perpetrating violence toward a group of people who wish to hang onto one tiny segment of land that had once been the possession of Hebrews for centuries. Thus, the insistence of Palestinians to possess more and more of that land cannot by any rational estimation be justified. When you already control 99% of the region and are yet determined to cause World War III in order to take 1%, you display for the entire world not only your irrationality but your abject insanity. If the Baker-Hamilton Commission does, in fact, recommend such concessions from Israel, then the Baker gang is even more delusional than I thought. It is bad enough that they urge the President to negotiate with state sponsors of terrorism. It will be the last straw if they urge him to pressure Israel to make concessions. If this is the advice the Baker team delivers, then the President should not only reject the entire package outright, but send the has-beens from another era home to retirement where they belong. Cheap Generic Viagra
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Happy New Year ............
Posted on September 27, 2008 in Vardenafil hcl
Fortuitous new period everybody Bounded by Iraq in truth the Christians celebrate medially New Time pending thoughtlessly during some Muslims Cheap Generic Viagra
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America Surrenders
Posted on September 27, 2008 in Generic equivalents
Perhaps it is my latent cynicism about the modern age that leads me to state the following, but this is the way I see it at the present time. America has, for all intent and purposes, surrendered. Once again, as in Viet Nam, citizens have allowed the mainstream media to turn public opinion against the on terror, particularly the Iraqi segment of the war. Americans have increasingly grown in their inability to stomach fighting those who wish to destroy us. We like our military campaigns to be short and neat, with no casualties. Despite this being a blatant denial of reality, we march forward into the abyss, putting into office a gang of socialists who stated today that they would gut our missile defense program as one plank of their platform to cut and run, withdraw troops from Iraq, and essentially weaken the military as they did in the years before Ronald Reagan. This evening I was watching a program on The History Channel about the bravery and steadfastness of the Americans during WWII in the Pacific theater. Suffering from heat exhaustion, malaria, the brutality of the Japanese army, and lack of food, these brave men refused to give in to defeat. Their stories of honor and courage admittedly made me ashamed of my country today. We are not worthy of them any longer. This is clearly NOT an indictment against our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan but an outright condemnation of modern American society that has allowed the Republic to be usurped by an element that neither cherishes nor appreciates our heritage and the values for which our forefathers gave their lives. In short, most Americans today are unworthy to untie the shoes of the men whom Tom Brokow described as 'the greatest generation in the history of the world.' These men would never as much as entertain the possibility of going to war with no resolve to win. They would not fight in such a manner as to give the enemy the upper hand due to some asinine 'politically correct' protocol. They would not go marching into Baghdad without the intention of staying until the task was finished. Iraq is NOT Viet Nam. This is an outright lie of the Left, of Moveon.org and George Soros, of the mainstream media, and of Democrats in Congress. We removed a brutal dictator from office. We set the scenario for the first free elections in Iraq's history. The country elected a government, although fledgling. The small seeds of democracy have been planted in an area of the world where such things simply do not happen. And, like Bosnia--a Bill Clinton operation--the U.S. military needs to remain in Iraq for at least 10 years to insure the continued progression toward democracy. It is very interesting that no one in Congress or the media takes the Pentagon to task for our 10-year presence in Bosnia, yet the mere mention of an extended campaign in Iraq is enough to get the chickens clucking. Granted, we may not need to keep troop levels at their present number. Nobody ever once suggested that mid-course corrections in tactics are not in order. But this is clearly NOT the same thing as cut and run or surrender. The Democrats would like to believe that the mid-term election gave them a mandate to withdraw troops entirely. Nothing could be further from the truth. The one thing that keeps one faint flicker of hope alive within me is the fact that I know that the electorate did NOT vote for surrender but an adjustment. However, with each passing day that hope fades into despair as I hear reports of America losing its resolve, our enemies cheering us for electing politicians to office who support THEIR goals, and polls that show citizens increasingly growing weary of a war that, when compared to history, has been like a friendly afternoon of war games. Our casualties in Iraq pale in comparison to other wars. Yet Americans in their modern naivete, along with the feminization of society at the hands of Leftists, seem to think that war should be something we can view on TV with the family gathered around eating pizza. We are simply not emotionally invested in the war or its outcome. And this leads me back to my cynicism. The signs as of today point to an American surrender and a Jihadist victory that will embolden them in their march toward world domination. I fear that the only thing that will cause Leftists, socialists, Democrats, and the media to truly become emotionally involved in this fight is another 9/11 or worse. Nothing else the barbarians have done, not even beheadings, has moved us. What, exactly, will it take? The Sears Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, AND the White House lying in a smoldering pile of rubble simultaneously? My worst nightmare is that this is the only thing it will take to wake us up to the extreme danger we face. My hope is that sane Americans will wake up before any of that horrific scenario is realized. We MUST fight this war to win. We MUST. There is no other choice. Cheap Generic Viagra
The High Cost Of Occupation
Posted on September 26, 2008 in Medical care
by Karen Button Last week, the US House of Representatives voted to spend another $45 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which would bring the total spent to over $300 billion, in one of America's costliest military operations. This brings the deficit to a record $780 billion, threatening to bankrupt an economy that, until five years ago, was relatively stable with low unemployment and a government surplus. Under the Bush Administration, overall spending has increased by 33 percent over the past four years, and according to the Cato Institute, is expected to rise by another 3.6 percent in 2006. In a nation that cannot afford to provide health care for its citizens, has eliminated critical social services programs, cut environmental protections such as the clean air act (proven to lower the incidence of childhood asthma), and eliminated benefit packages to veterans, the US is spending a huge amount of its annual budget on war and occupation. That amount will certainly increase the longer the US "stays the course" as Afghanistan's resistance is now growing alongside Iraq's. What will this latest $45 billion fund in Iraq? If the past two years are any indication, it won't be reconstruction of the country's infrastructure, devastated by the US-led "Shock and Awe" campaign, which leveled all but the Ministry of Oil. Nor will it be to rebuild a medical system destroyed by twelve years of sanctions, but that, despite post-invasion promises, a recent review of Iraq's hospitals found they are worse off now. Nor will it be to alleviate the crippling unemployment rate that has been estimated at 50 percent post-occupation, but that former UN Oil-for-Food Program director Hans Van Sponek, during testimony on the state of Iraq's economy at the recent World Tribunal on Iraq, turned to me and said it was, tragically, at least 70 percent. Both unemployment and the escalating violence are exacerbated by the fact that Iraqis are not hired for any of the reconstruction of their own country. Instead, either Western contractors or third-country nationals, such as the Nepalese hired on as security guards, are brought in. What the $45 billion will fund is "security," which increasingly looks like a combination of Viet Nam-style tactics, where a community is destroyed in order to save it, and Israeli-style military tactics in occupied Palestinian where collective punishment is the norm. In Iraq now, cities are bombed, surrounded and sealed, house-to-house searches conducted, medical care denied, snipers installed, and finally, if Fallujah is any example, IDs issued to residents, without which entry is denied. If, as was stated during November's attack, this is done in order to save the city, from whom it is being saved is not entirely clear. While certain cities such as Mosul, Baquba and Samarra have experienced these types of maneuvers to some degree, western Iraq is the current target of these collective punishment tactics. The US, citing concerns about foreign fighters entering through Syria (after two years), has been calling communities in Al Anbar province "cities of resistance" and giving them the Fallujah treatment since May. Doctors for Iraq Society issued an urgent plea this last week for US forces to withdraw amid the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Eyewitnesses recounted how US soldiers attacked hospitals in Al Qa'im and Haditha both, targeting medical personnel and ambulances, and preventing the wounded from receiving medical attention. One of these eyewitnesses, Eman Khammas, showed pictures of those targeted when she testified at the World Tribunal on Iraq. Snipers and house raids are blamed on the deaths of hundreds, including the cousin of Iraq's UN ambassador who accused the marines of killing his unarmed relative in cold blood during a house raid in Haditha on June 25th. The United Nations news agency IRIN estimates 7,000 families have been made homeless by recent military operations in Al Qa'im and Haditha and are now stuck in the nearby desert where temperatures regularly reach 110 degrees. Potable water is scarce, as is food, shelter and medical care. The Iraqi Red Crescent was allowed to bring in five caravans of medical aid yesterday to some 6,000 families displaced from nearby Karabila. In addition, increased security measures in Iraq are translating to an increase in journalists' deaths. This past week alone, three journalists were killed, one of whom, Knight Ridder correspondent Yasser Salihee, was shot by a single bullet to the head by snipers the day after he had reported on US-backed death-squad activity. The International Federation of Journalists has called upon the US to investigate the deaths, all of which were at the hands of US forces. Iraq has been the deadliest war for journalists. Reporters Without Borders lists 61 journalists and media assistants killed March 2003; including those killed last week brings the total to 64. US troop deaths also continue to rise, but of course those who suffer the highest casualties are Iraqis themselves. Iraqis, who Americans supposedly were sent to "liberate," have somehow now become the enemy. Once seen as the victim of Saddam Hussein's regime, they are now the victims of a US-led occupation that has left their country in shambles, their health system bankrupted, their economy 'globalized' under Coalition Provisional Authority rules, their cultural heritage destroyed, over 100,000 civilians dead, and countless tens of thousands homeless. This is what the additional $45 billion of US taxpayer's money will continue to fund, until the American public insists on immediate and full withdrawal of its troops, as called upon by a growing coalition that includes veterans and their families, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Military Families Speak Out, groups that perhaps know best the cost of such a war. This Independence Day can best be commemorated by truly giving Iraqis their own. Then begins the long but necessary task of reparations, the only path toward true security, not only to Iraq, but to our nation and the rest of the world as well. As I'm reminded while drinking chay, tea, with a Turkish friend, "Everything changed for us after September 11. What America does affects everyone. We have a saying here, 'When America gets a cold, we get the flu.'" Cheap Generic Viagra
Iraq Hospitals Under Siege
Posted on September 26, 2008 in Medical care
by Karen Button A few days back I sat with an Iraqi doctor recently arrived in Amman, listening to his eyewitness accounts of the last two months in American-occupied Iraq. The doctor, who asked not to be identified due to fears of US reprisals, is with Doctors for Iraq Society. This is the same group that put out a frantic plea some ten days ago for US troops to pull out of Western Iraq, specifically Haditha, Al-Qaim and Karabila, and allow humanitarian organizations access to the medical facilities they’d attacked and were now denying aid to. I will call the doctor ‘Sami.’ Dr. Sami described how US troops laid siege on the main hospital in Haditha for five days in early May after a bomb exploded 500 meters from the hospital. Troops accused the hospital of harboring resistance fighters and attacked it as part of their “Operation Matador.” Electricity was cut, without warning, leaving those on the operating table and in the midst of other sensitive procedures without recourse. US snipers killed anyone attempting to enter or leave the hospital. One lab technician was shot and killed when he ran out of the hospital in an attempt to collect an injured patient. At midnight, troops stormed the facility and began arresting doctors. When they began knocking down doors, the hospital’s director, Dr. Walid Abdul Khalik al-Hadithi, attempted to stop them by telling them he had keys to all the rooms. Instead, Dr. Sami tells me, they preferred exploding the locks. When they reached the patient’s ward, they threw a sound bomb inside and entered shooting. Most of the patients escaped, leaping from their beds and running for cover. Said J. was not so lucky. Said had been admitted to the hospital a few days earlier when the car he was driving in nearby Haklania was shot by US troops during their attacks on Haditha. Both of Said’s legs were fractured, so he couldn’t walk, much less run to escape the Americans for a second time. Dr. Sami shows me video he took of Said’s room where there are signs of a recent family visit. Fresh oranges roll across the floor. Chocolates lie scattered, some in a pool of blood near the bed where Said bled to death after he was shot in his bed. Dr. Walid warned the troops about flammables in the medical storehouse, but they ignored him. I watch footage of what’s left, a room with blackened walls and bent metal shelves from a fire that lasted nine hours. Dr. Sami tells me troops didn’t try to extinguish the fire and prevented nearby residents, who rushed to the hospital with sand bags, from helping. “You must understand,” he says, “Haditha is the main hospital in western Iraq, from which other hospitals receive their medical supplies. The destruction of these medications means that other hospitals have now gone without.” When the military finally left, local residents pooled their money and were able to rehab about ten percent of the hospital before the Americans returned on 29 May. This time they arrested Dr. Walid (he was later released) and destroyed everything the community had rebuilt. “I was there. I can tell you for certain that 100 percent of the medical stores are destroyed. Thirty to 40 percent of the patient wards are now destroyed. And they destroyed the laundry department. They are now washing all the linens in the toilets and hanging them in the sun to dry. The Americans have done $230 million (about $153,000 USD) in destruction and this does not include equipment. Why?” Then in early June US troops began “Operation Spear” in al-Qaim and nearby Karabila. Once again, the hospital was targeted. According to Dr. Riadh al-Obaidi, a doctor who had come from Ramadi to volunteer during the crisis, the city was bombed, turning neighborhoods into piles of rubble. During the day, snipers targeted people in the streets, preventing many who may have survived under the rubble from being rescued. Helicopters continued shooting throughout the night. Snipers also targeted ambulances. Dr. Riadh says troops arrested a surgeon they accused of treating insurgents. Dr. Sami, in Haditha since the attacks there on the 29th, heard about the attacks in al-Qaim and Karabila and immediately went there to help. However, he and another doctor were both denied entrance to by US troops. “I saw at least 200 people running from the city with their belongings,” Dr. Sami says. Looking intensely into my eyes, he continues, “I saw one grave where a whole family of thirteen had been buried by their house. “Now, there is a severe medical shortage in Al-Qaim because they get their medical supplies from Haditha and Haditha is destroyed.” After a second attack in mid-June, the situation became desperate. According to Dr Hamed al-Alousi, director at the nearby al-Qaim general hospital, “The situation is critical in the village of Karabila. Hundreds of injured people are inside the town requiring urgent medical treatment but have been prohibited to leave the village by US forces and we are not authorized to enter there,” said in an interview with IRIN News. The Red Crescent Society estimates there are more than 7,000 families now displaced from Operation Sword and camped in the desert, all in urgent need of food and medical supplies. Then came “Operation Sword” on the first of July in Heet, also near Haditha. Once again, US troops raided the hospital, arresting doctors, patients prevented from receiving medical care, snipers targeting ambulances. The hospital’s director is still in detainment, Doctors for Iraq Society unable to determine where he is being held. "Like the Spanish bullfight where it is first speared and made tired, then stabbed with a sword, this is what the Americans just did,” says Dr. Sami. “Our communities are like the bull they want to kill.” Throughout Iraq, the story is the same. American military actions are rife with violations of the Geneva Conventions. US troops have been consistently targeting hospitals and health care facilities, arresting doctors and medical personnel, shooting patients, sniping ambulances, and sealing off medical centers, preventing both treatment and the arrival of desperately needed supplies. The medical facilities of larger cities like Ramadi, Baquba, Mosul, and, of course, Fallujah, have all been targeted in the same way, often strangling the lifeline of medical supplies to smaller communities, whose clinics are also targeted. A health crisis is now underway in Iraq. Recent reports have found that hospitals are suffering more under the occupation than during twelve years of sanctions. Millions of dollars allocated for the health care system are diverted instead to projects like redoing the marble walkways outside Baghdad’s Medical City or supplying new laptops, while families purchase medications from the black market for their relatives being treated at the hospitals. Corruption is rampant. Doctors, fearing violence and kidnapping, are leaving the country in droves. But, exacerbating this situation is an apparent US plan to stranglehold the country’s hospital and health care facilities. Why are troops employing this strategy? Depends on whom you ask. The Pentagon consistently denies targeting hospitals. Doctors consistently cite troops as saying the hospitals are either shielding resistance fighters or are treating them. But as Dr. Sami points out, doctors treat injuries first and foremost, as they are trained to do. It’s not their job to ask where the injury came from. He pauses, then ends with another story. “At the beginning of the war, in mid-April 2003, there was a US soldier who was shot in front of Medical City. He was shot through the subclavian artery and bleeding heavily. I remember his face very clearly. He was looking me in the eyes.” He looks away, shaking his head, “He was so young, only about 19. He was just a child.” The he looks back, and with a type of fierceness continues, “He was an American, but we have to treat him. It’s our job to do this as doctors. We don’t ask who people are.” Cheap Generic Viagra
BUSH’S MEDICAL SLEIGHT-OF-HAND
Posted on September 09, 2008 in Generic medical release
Feedback to: wfisher206@aol.com By William Fisher Remember the billions for HIV-AIDS President Bush pledged in his 2003 State of the Union address? Those funds were to put two million people in Africa and the Caribbean on life-saving antiretroviral drugs. Has this promise gone the way of ‘No Child Left Behind’? Or the new mission to the moon and Mars? Or the huge stockpiles of WMD in Iraq? According to Dr. Paul Zeitz, president and executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, the Bush administration’s recent announcement of new "fast-track" approval of combination drugs for HIV/AIDS “looks great for public relations.” But, Dr. Zeitz contends that “Bush is slowing down an internationally recognized, World Health Organization-run, multilateral approval process for generic AIDS medicines.” Says Dr. Zeitz: “On closer inspection, we learn that President Bush continues to block or delay access to the high-quality generically manufactured drugs that can save lives today. Actually, African governments, the World Bank, UNICEF, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria and non-governmental organizations like Doctors Without Borders are all already using WHO-approved medicines to treat AIDS patients around the world.” Zeitz adds: “The Bush administration has attempted to put a positive media ‘compassion’ spin on its global AIDS programs, while it simultaneously slows progress and relentlessly implements an arrogant, unilateralist and ideological policy that consistently undermines global efforts by nearly all other stakeholders.” Should we be surprised? Hardly, because this would not be the first time the Bush Administration has chosen ideology over science. For example: Sex Education. President Bush has consistently supported the view that sex education should teach “abstinence only” and not include information on other ways to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Until recently, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) initiative called “Programs That Work” identified sex education programs that have been found to be effective in scientific studies and provided this information through its web site. In 2002, all five “Programs That Work” provided comprehensive sex education to teenagers, and none were “abstinence-only.” CDC has now ended this initiative and erased information about these proven sex education programs from its web site. Information about condom use and efficacy was deleted from CDC web site. The CDC replaced a comprehensive fact sheet on condoms with one emphasizing condom failure rates and the effectiveness of abstinence. Stem Cell Research. In banning federal funding for research on new stem cell lines, President Bush stated that “more than 60 genetically diverse" lines were available for potential research. Soon thereafter, HHS Secretary Thompson acknowledged that the correct number was only about 24 to 25. Still later, NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni told Congress that only 11 stem cell lines were widely available to researchers. Recently, none other than Mrs. Nancy Reagan has gone public, urging the president to rethink his stem cell policy. Global Warming. Reports by the Environmental Protection Agency on the risks of climate change were suppressed; The White House added so many hedges to the climate change section of the EPA's report card on the environment that former administrator Christie Whitman deleted the section rather than publish one that was so scientifically inaccurate. Missile Defense. A top Defense Department official told a Senate panel that by the end of 2004, the system would be 90% effective in intercepting missiles from the Korean peninsula. In April 2003, the General Accounting Office found the President’s plan unworkable and even dangerous. The claim of 90% effectiveness “is not supported by any publicly available evidence, and it appears not to comport with the Pentagon’s own classified estimates.” Wetlands Policy. Comments from scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service on the destructive impacts of proposed regulatory changes were withheld. Scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Interior Department, had prepared such an analysis showing that the new Corps proposal would “encourage the destruction of stream channels and lead to increased loss of aquatic functions.” The Interior Secretary, however, failed to submit the scientists’ comments to the Corps. The Corps subsequently issued rules that weakened key wetland protections. Abortion and Breast Cancer. Social conservatives campaigned to require women to be “counseled” about an alleged risk of breast cancer from abortions, the National Cancer Institute revised its web site to suggest that studies of equal weight conflicted on the question. In fact, there is scientific consensus that no such link exists. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the president trusted the people enough to level with them? About the writer: William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East and in many other areas for the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development. He served in the international affairs area in the Kennedy Administration
El Jefe'
Posted on September 05, 2008 in Medical care
The longer I'm here the more I get used to it. I don't like the fact that I am becoming comfortable here. I want to hate this place as much as I did when I first arrived here...but I don't. I have grown accustomed to the environment, the schedule, and the fact that I am going to be here for another eight months. I have even started to warm up a bit to some of the locals. To say that I've been a bit "guarded" is probably an understatement. Those that know me well know I am not the most bubbly of personalities. Just imagine what I'm like in a foreign land surrounded by people who look and talk like the enemy. Whenever I'm interacting with any of the locals, I'm typically all business and make it pretty clear that I'm not their friend. The other day one of the Iraqis that works on our base introduced himself. He was standing with a group of about fourteen other local workers who come on base daily to perform various tasks (filling sandbags, picking up trash, etc.). I was leaning against my HMMWV waiting to go outside the wire. I could tell they were looking at me, and that I was the subject of some of their conversations. It wasn't in a disrespectful, pointing their fingers and whispering kind of converation. But more of a "I've seen that guy around and he scares the bejeezers out of me" kind of conversation. So after a few minutes of watching them doing this and pretending not to notice the leader of this little motley crew walks over to me. As he gets closer he offers a hand shake, and I reluctantly reciprocate. As soon as our hands interlock he pulls me towards him and gives me a customary hug. I return the gesture with a U.S. style machsimo pat on the back while I'm slightly freaking out. One because this guy has caught me completely off guard, and secondly because all Army guys are homophobic. He introduces himslef as Aknar and explains in broken english that he is "the boss" of this band of misfits. I ask him how to say "the boss" in Arabic, which I try to reapeat back several times but never really figure out the correct pronunciation. I then tell him that in Spanish he would be called "El Jefe'", which he correctly repeats back with a smile. This all occurred over a five minute period, and then he was called back to his duties. Now whenever I see him on base I wave and call out "El Jefe'!" He waves back and calls out "Captain!", and we both smile. I guess you could say there was a small battle fought in Iraq that day... and both sides won. Cheap Generic Viagra