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Argh! New Parenting Advice? Follow the Dog Whisperer

11-27-09 3:56 A GMT-08
Because you want to have to support and control your kids all their lives like you do your dog. So don't explain things, just control. So much missing in this article. I'm wondering where that rolled up newspaper is hidden. You can't just get kids to obey without question without something to back your up. That back up is usually the threat of punishment or previous bouts of explanation lacking in dog handling because they don't understand us.

Rightwing uproar over Best Buy’s ‘Happy Eid al-Adha’ wish to Muslims

11-27-09 3:49 A GMT-08
RWNJs furious that store celebrates November Muslim holiday instead of December Christian one, RIGHT NOW! Oh dudes? What about Chanukah? Christians don't care as long as they can impose their will.

Sandra Tsing Loh:

11-27-09 3:36 A GMT-08

Thanksgiving Held After Massacre of Pequot Indiians

11-27-09 3:33 A GMT-08
@blogdiva linked to her blog post about a thanksgiving feast held after a massacre of Indians in 1637, after which a day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed. I'm pretty sure that there was an earlier one, but the 1637 incident shows how negligent in feeling white Christian societies have been towards others.

The Nation: Why Not Tax Wall Street?

11-26-09 9:06 P GMT-08
Proposals to reign in Wall Street start to emerge says William Grieder. I certainly hope something in that direction is accomplished before the fever fades.

9 Insider Secrets to Getting Hired

11-24-09 7:07 P GMT-08
I don't know if these tips work, but this US News report at yahoo.com sounds like the extra effort will pay off. Good luck if you're out there searching for a new job. I'm going to put a copy in a personal spot, in case I even need these hints.

WP: Hasan Had More Contacts with American-Yemeni Iman al-Aulaqi (al-Awlaki)

11-21-09 8:04 P GMT-08
Report says the Major and the cleric discussed money transfers and other actions (that has Sen Levin calling the Ft. Hood shooting spree a terrorist action.) Still, there were two terrorists in Massachusetts who never acted because MA has strict gun laws. Texas has very lax codes. Another factor is the lack of full and complete checks of anyone who buys the most dangerous types of guns, like the cop killer that Hasan used.

Lies about ACORN set off Twitter Mob with #acornfacts

11-20-09 5:36 P GMT-08
Twitter is the most fun when the Tweeps start a big mob action themselves. And this one was glorious. Actually better than the Swine Flue mob that erupted last spring.

Washington Post- ABC News Poll President's Numbers Mostly Positive

11-20-09 5:05 A GMT-08
Seeing all the lies told about him, just staying in the plus column is a major victory.
Tags:      

Goldmans Sachs to Give "A Good Trading Day's Haul" Back to American Public

11-19-09 9:33 A GMT-08
$100m for each of 5 years, or 2.3 percent of 2009 bonuses will be "tithed" out to small businesses over the period.

Poll: Americans Want a Surcharge on the HIghest Earners in US To Help Fund Health Care Reform

11-19-09 9:02 A GMT-08
Oh that's a poll that has to be redone so that Mainstream news can use the second, doctored one as proof that this one was wrong.

Too Many Breast Cancers Diagnosed by Mammograms?

11-18-09 8:08 P GMT-08
LA Lady: I've seen this in my own family. My sister found a series of "lumps" by self examination as promoted in the 80s. Each one caused extreme stress and expensive medical bills as it was removed and examined though we haven't had breast cancer in our immediate family whether post or pre-menopausal type. Luckily, she had good employer based insurance for it. So I'm for the new guidelines. Why get women into unnecessary "pre-existing condition" problems for lumps, even cancerous ones that disappear rapidly. Eat lots of fruit, veggies, whole grains, and other whole foods you can find at a local farmer's market.

The Nation: Newsweek Taps Bush Aide For Obama Reporting

11-18-09 6:53 A GMT-08
If it seems like Republicans are pushing the news, that's because they are.
Tags:  

Alert Net at Reuters: Why boosting food output is not enough to beat hunger

11-18-09 6:36 A GMT-08
Inequality, not lack of supply creates hunger as food is priced out of the reach of the poor according to report. Thanks to @Liam_Fox at Twitter.com

Huffington Post: 18 Biggest Falsehoods in Sarah Palin's book

11-18-09 5:55 A GMT-08
You can also vote to tell them which whoppers you think are the worst.

Palingate: So how many abortions do these people claim Sarah had?

11-18-09 2:47 A GMT-08
I get lost in the long winding narrative. But they seem to imply that Trig is a rent a baby. But if a woman has an abortion why rent a baby about the time hers was to be born?

Exxon Gets their Iraqi Oil Field Deal

11-16-09 12:45 A GMT-08
Exxon gets 80% of "one of the largest" oil fields "in the oil rich south" according to the UK Telegraph. I know this is old news to some, but I just wanted a record here of the fact, and to inform anyone who hadn't heard yet. It did happen as we said it would. bTW, Telegraph, isn't the name of the largest partner usually first in news about a partnership? WTF?

Jenny Sanford Endorses Opponent to Husband For Next Year's Governor's Race

11-12-09 6:12 P GMT-08
Mrs. Sanford is no political lightweight either. This could send ol' Mark off to Argent... Oh wait. The pretty journalist isn't going to need a washed up old pol. Well maybe he can pitch a tent on the Appalachian trail, or join the soup lines with the rest of the unemployed homeless, the folks that Republicans usually ignore.

Massachusetts Man Says He Was Fired for Telling Colleague Her Gay Marriage Is Wrong

11-11-09 8:08 P GMT-08
Link goes to Fox News. Just wanted to make a comment. I've been there. You're taught by the fundie church that by standing up to "the infidel" you're going to win brownie points with God and get ya closer to the big man on that sea of glass when you die. And in the meantimes you're earning creds with your Christian buddies, a war story to tell and make yourself look good. Or maybe you know you're a tool for the Christian dominionists. Don't play martyr, now. I'ts just makes you look like a fool.

Examiner.com -- Robert Taylor: The Fort Hood massacre: more blowback from America's interventionist foreign policy

11-10-09 9:17 A GMT-08
Good piece. Agrees with the Bible that They who live by the sword will die by the sword.

Health Care Around the World: Why American Health Care for Uninsured is Like that Of 3rd World Nations

11-07-09 7:39 P GMT-08
Interview with TR Reid on the 4 methods of health care in the world and the types of insurance and other bundled medical programs in the developed world found in the nations of the world.

Neda's Mother: She Was Like an Angel

11-07-09 7:16 P GMT-08
Her mom, talks about Neda's life. New: Neda found it impossible to get work because she was divorced.

Why negative thinking makes the world a better place

11-07-09 5:32 P GMT-08
Writer's brush with positive thinking program illustrates how focusing on a positive outlook can hurt in the long run. 'come to think of it, positive thinking started out as a busineess ploy, didn't it? A ploy by already powerful and rich white men to ingnore the harm their business practices have on the world. Maybe they should go back to the EST scam. Oh yeah.that was for underlings. h/t @R_A_W at Twitter.com

Jake Tapper Interviews Roland Hedley Jr. On Twitter

11-07-09 7:03 A GMT-08
Over his new book based on his Twitter posts. (Has to be a first.) The Insufferably sufferable journalist opens up to the ABc's Political Punch columnist, or not. Now I know what I want for Christmas.

Focusing on Ft. Hood Killer's Beliefs Are an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre

11-06-09 9:19 P GMT-08
Fort Hood and it's vicinity have have a lot of problems with killings and low morale. The fact that Hasan did not act until the day before he was to be deployed shows his actions were more about being denied his right to avoid war than because of his religious beliefs. Hat tip @ontd_political at Twitter.com for link

New book tells how Right Wing and business push mainstream news media into a right wing bias.

11-05-09 4:18 A GMT-08
Calls liberal bias of news media "and urban legend" and shows how the right forces news media to back up their own propaganda. Hat tip Twitter colleagues, probably either @maafa or @mparent77772

Meg Whitman's radio whoppers

11-02-09 5:04 P GMT-08
Right Now Ms. Whitman is a California concern, but such things go on in your state as well, and it's good to see some reporting on them which we do this far from the election. Beside should she win the governor's seat she's likely to be running for president by 2016 at the latest.

ROFLMAO Slate Imagines Barack Obama's Facebook Wall

11-02-09 4:26 A GMT-08
Must read. No registration required.

The Above Linkblogs Might Contain "Borrowed" links.

Linkblogs do not substantially contribute traffic to my blog that I can discover. They all go offsite, and are often accessed from my blog. It's possible to access them from the RSS according to my settings. Still, even if I were to get ads clicking on a linkblog from the RSS won't drive more people to my blog than otherwise because they leave my resources. (Note to self, do more posts, less LBs with sources I find). I explain because I sometimes borrow links from people at Twitter, and often forget who put them up. (To fellow Twitterers: If you have a link to your blog, I will point it there, but Twitter, being impermanent, cannot hold your link for people to discover from there. I only 'borrow' them to get news out to as many people as I can who might not have seen the reports and videos found by the smart people I follow at Twitter or find in search rooms.

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Evidence Emerges That Iraqi Refugees are Being Forced Out of Syria by Need, Not Drawn Back to Iraq by Peace.

posted 11-25-07

I'm getting the same feeling about the return of the refugees from Syria as about "Iraq is more peaceful".  Who told those refugees that "it was more peaceful, now"  and is the news covering up the real reasons some are returning?

 At least WP journalist Sudarsan Raghavan declined to add that into his report I posted on earlier, but the same kind of slimy journalism is  going on about the returnees from Syria.  many mainstream American journalists seem to be just reporting US official reasoning on the subject, though interviews from returnees show suspicious comments from the refugees themselves. 

I can't find one of the chipper early reports thrown out by American mainstream news anymore about the returning refugees.  I do remember watching an ABC video report about the situation 9as well as encountering the subject in print.  The ABC reporter was chippifying about how a more peaceful Iraq was drawing back refugees from Syria, about 1000 a day!  Chip chip chip!  Then first up comes a guy that looks suspiciously like one of those hanging around Chalabi in 2003.  Yes, everything better! Chip chip chip! Ronald Reagan, the president who called for journalist to only report happy news is smiling right now.

But then we start hearing other reasons for the returns.  Iraqis are not allowed to work in Syria, not allowed visas.  One pretty affluent appearing guy looks down and says words that the interpreter translates as "no one can live on their savings forever".  Most of the refugees do not look happy to be returning. 

Months ago, just before Syria started requiring visas from Iraqis, a mainstream report noted that ultimately Syria really just wanted more money from the UN to keep their border open, but the UN needed more money pledged from (you guessed it) the US to help out. Also, some decent numbers of acceptance from the US for Iraqi refugees would help.  That's not happening either. See "
 

Unfortunately, the massive number of Iraqi refugees in Syria  was a huge embarrassment to the the US.  You get the picture.  Little people are the Bush administration's chess pawns.

I cannot link directly to the ABC video news report. Sorry. Anyway a couple of days have passed and new even chippier news has covered that old thing.

But I do have some evidence that my pessimism on the returning refugees from Syria is valid.

Non American sources are not so chipper about the prospect:

Read the latest post from (at this time) from Baghdad Burning about how .  Yeah, that sounds like everything's fine in Iraq, now, sure.  They endured 8 hours of hell just to get new visas in order to remain in Syria longer.  (I linked to the post page.  To get to the top of the blog and see if a new post has been posted remove the excess from the url.  You cannot just click on the title like with most blogs).

Though chipper reports on refugees returning from Syria have fallen out of favor in the US there is still plenty of news on the phenomenon.   They come from the rest of the world and are not very hopeful.

Searching on "iraqis returning from syria" at Google News brings up the following list (I used the second page which seemed to cover more bases in issues and was shorter with fewer repeats).  Do use the search terms within quotes above to see what is on the front page.:

UNHCR warns against large-scale repatriation of Iraqi refugees
Xinhua, China - Nov 23, 2007
GENEVA, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Amid media reports that thousands of refugees are going back to Iraq, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Friday that it was ...
UN refugee agency warns against return to Iraq
AFP - Nov 23, 2007
GENEVA (AFP) — The United Nations refugee agency on Friday expressed concerns over reports Iraqi refugees are returning to the country, particularly from ...
Too soon to encourage Iraqis to return home: UNHCR
Reuters - Nov 23, 2007
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday it was too soon to encourage Iraqis to return to their homeland, although limited ...
UNHCR Releases Survey, Urges Caution on Iraqi Refugee Situation
Associated Content, CO - 16 hours ago
By Z. Perry Despite reports in some major media outlets that refugees are returning to Iraq due to safer conditions there, the United Nations refugee agency ...
Analysis: Iraqi refugees forced into sex
United Press International - Nov 23, 2007
By ALICE NASCIMENTO UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- From the sharp decline in civilian and US soldier deaths to the notable drop in rocket and mortar ...
Slowly, cautiously, Iraqi refugees returning home
People's Daily Online, China - Nov 22, 2007
Slowly, cautiously, but unmistakably, thousands of Iraqis who moved abroad to escape the violence are going home, stemming an exodus that has seen 4.2 ...
IRAQ-SYRIA: Lack of money, visa problems prompting Iraqi refugees ...
uruknet.info, Italy - Nov 22, 2007
DAMASCUS, 22 November 2007 (IRIN) - Lack of funds and the Syrian government’s refusal to renew their visas, more than the perception of improved security in ...

Notice that the most American Mainstream source in the list above (UPI) starts with the obligatory propaganda from the Bush administration, but then shows how Iraqi women are being forced into sex in Syria to survive.

Associated Content seems to be an American source, but it is based on news from regular people and therefore not mainstream. 

Excerpt from the Reuters report :

The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday it was too soon to encourage Iraqis to return to their homeland, although limited numbers have gone back from Syria after their money or visas ran out.

Roughly 1,500 Iraqi refugees were returning home each day from Syria, against 500 new arrivals, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. It could not confirm Iraqi government reports that 46,000 Iraqis had returned from Syria in October.

"We welcome improvements to the security conditions and stand ready to assist people who have decided or will decide to return voluntarily. However, UNHCR does not believe that the time has come to promote, organize or encourage returns," spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva.

A large-scale repatriation program would only be possible when proper conditions were met, including legal and material support and the physical safety of the refugees, she said.

"At the moment there is no sign of any large-scale return to Iraq as the security situation in many parts of the country remains volatile and unpredictable," Pagonis said.

...

A UNHCR survey of 110 Iraqi families in Syria found that most said they were going home "because they are running out of money and/or resources, face difficult living conditions or because their visas have expired," Pagonis said.

Visa restrictions recently imposed by Syria mean Iraqi refugees have been unable to shuttle back and forth between the two countries to get additional resources, make money or collect food or pensions, according to the UNHCR.   

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