Month: September 2007

It’ll be Monday Soon in Pakistan

Against this backdrop security is tightening as police and troops move in to contain any possible violence, and known radical activists are being rounded up. Politics, like religion in Pakistan, is liable to get bloody and violent so one editorial in the Daily Times wonders if 9/10 will be Pakistan’s 9/11.

It’s 5:30 am CDT Sunday as I start to write this in Kansas, and on Kiritimati (Christmas Island,) they are a half-hour into Monday already. Monday, 9/10 is the day that Nawaz Sharif, the deposed and exiled ex-prime minister of Pakistan vowed to return.

Even though he signed an agreement not to practice politics in Pakistan for ten years, and even though the Saudi Government is beseeching him not to, the crowds of supporters are traveling by bus to greet him in Islamabad. Rumor has 700 chartered buses going to meet him, in a city still recovering from the aftermath of the Lal Masjid standoff. If there is a motorcade, it will likely pass within a couple of blocks of the Red Mosque, if not directly by it. Continue reading “It’ll be Monday Soon in Pakistan”

The Egyptian Sandmonkey Returns

The Egyptian Sandmonkey, a blogger who stopped blogging in May due to fear of the authorities in Egypt is now back, and blogging with a pent up lust for writing.

esm.jpgThe Egyptian Sandmonkey, a blogger who stopped blogging in May due to fear of the authorities in Egypt is now back, and blogging with a pent up lust for writing. Please visit his site.

Pakistan’s Troubles

Later tonight I will do a Pakistan update, but to hold regular readers over here’s a news report from Britain’s Sky News on the situation. The situation is not as dire as they paint, however there are good things to know in this video. The political situation for Musharraf is somewhat shaky, and things go to test on Monday US time when Nawaz Sharif, opposition leader, arrives back from exile.

The Tale of Shrimp Boy and the Hsu That Didn’t Fit

It turns out that Norman Hsu has had dealings in the past with some pretty notorious Chinatown gangters, notably Raymond Kwok Chow, AKA “Shrimp Boy”.

shrimp-boy.jpgPerhaps Norman Hsu, Clinton campaign “bundler”, was fleeing from a different fear than the Feds when he hopped that train East the other day.

It turns out that Norman Hsu had dealings in the past with some pretty notorious Chinatown gangters, notably Raymond Kwok Chow, AKA “Shrimp Boy”. At one point of their relationship, it appears that Shrimp Boy kidnapped Hsu for some money owed, but got interupted by the police when the abduction car turned against the light. The tale of Shrimp Boy’s past is told in this exclusive interview at ABC 7 News:

Hsu rubbed shoulders with the powerful and notorious as well.

Raymond Kwok Chow, alias “Shrimp Boy,” is one of Hsu’s known associates.

He was notorious gangster in Chinatown in the early 1990’s, at roughly the same time when state prosecutors say Norman Hsu started his ponzi scheme with his latex gloves business.

Chow says he is now clean, and spoke with us about his relationship with Norman Hsu.

Chow dressed brazenly in white at the funeral of Allen Leung, the Chinatown business leader shot to death last year.

Chow was once one of the most feared gangsters in Chinatown. “I grow up in crime. I grow up in the city and involved with the most crime,” said Chow.

In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, San Francisco’s Chinatown was the battleground of a bloody war between powerful gangs. Chow’s gang “Wo Hop To” finally won.

Judging from Hsu’s pre-emptive flight from California, perhaps all the past tense verbs are inappropriate in reference to Shrimp Boy’s affiliations with crime. Following Hillary’s campaign of corruption is also turning out to be pretty interesting, time to run out for more popcorn…

More background on Shrimp Boy here.

Previously

The Clinton Campaign of Corruption Continues

The fifth suspect Hillary supporter has stepped forward, this time it’s one of the “New Jersey 11” — Democrat public officials arrested in an FBI bribery sting. Mayor Samuel Rivera, D-Passaic, is a Hillary supporter and member of her Mayor’s Council.

The fifth suspect Hillary supporter has stepped forward, this time it’s one of the “New Jersey 11” — Democrat public officials arrested in an FBI bribery sting. Mayor Samuel Rivera, D-Passaic, is a Hillary supporter and member of her Mayor’s Council. From The Caucus:

Federal agents posing as company executives offered a $50,000 payment to Mr. Rivera in return for the business, according to the complaint; Mr. Rivera allegedly accepted an initial installment of $5,000.
Mr. Rivera, according to a transcript of secretly recorded conversations laid out in the complaint, boasted profanely of essentially controlling the seven-member city council. He said that securing a four-vote majority would be “easy, easy, easy,” and, at another point, said the deal was as good as done.
“I make the [expletive] decision. And the council. And believe me, I’ve got the four [expletive] votes on the Council. So let’s stop [expletive], and let’s get this thing rolling,” Mr. Rivera said, according to the complaint.
Mr. Rivera is one of about 100 members of Mrs. Clinton’s Mayors Council, which, according to a campaign press release in July, “will advise the campaign on policy and outreach.”

Judging from the tone and the profanity, Mayor Samuel Rivera fits right into the Clinton Campaign of Corruption.

The saddest part of all of this? How the Democrats victimize their constituents and the very support groups they are supposed to be aiding:

The investigation started in mid-2006 after the F.B.I. received evidence of corruption in contracts issued by the Pleasantville School District, federal prosecutors said. The school district, located just east of Atlantic City, is one of the state’s poorest; in July, a state monitor was appointed to oversee its finances.

More at Lawhawk’s

Previous articles

Refraction

refraction.jpgA photographic demonstration of refraction; or the slowing of light. Many people do not understand that the speed of light is only a constant in a vacuum, but really as light passes through any transparent substance it slows.

Every transparent substance whether air, water, glass, or sapphire has a refractory index, or the amount that light slows as it passes through. You can demonstrate this simple concept to your children next time you are by the waterside on a sunny day by poking a stick into the water.

Like the image above, the part of the stick below the surface will appear shifted, or bent away from the part above the water. That’s because the light reflected from the portion beneath the surface travels back to your eye slower as it passes through the water, while the light reflected from the above-surface segment of stick travels faster as it passes through air. So slowing of light bends its path.

Light refraction (as well as other spectrum refraction) is an interesting property of physics with some potential. In the 80’s the University of Chicago created a sapphire solar furnace on their roof that reached temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun. (The sun’s surface, while hot, is somewhat cooler than the corona or the reactions taking place in the interior.)

This article at Wikipedia has more, please note that it references refraction as “bending of light”, however the bend is really the effect and result of the speed change. Also of interest is the link embedded in the article regarding negative refractory index materials, or “metamaterials“. Soon we might have true “cloaking devices”.

Bin Laden Berates Democrats for Not Doing His Bidding

The government is still analyzing the new 25 minute tape, I would expect the release later today. This from MSNBC:

Officials said bin Laden criticized Democrats in Congress in the video for being unable to stop the war in Iraq. The al-Qaida leader also urged young Muslims to carry out suicide bombings against the West — a piece of advice he offers in most tapes.

The video ended bin Laden’s longest period without a message. The al-Qaida leader has not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he has not put out a new audiotape in more than a year.

Meanwhile in an unprecedented step, the Islamist sites that the video was to be posted on have all “gone dark” — they appear to be shocked that the US Government would be able to get the video before they were able to publish to their target audience. Is this a good sign of things to come? 

Update: More at Fox news, partial transcript here, more at Wapo 

UPDATE: FULL PDF TRANSCRIPT HERE

“People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped. Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven’t made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there.”

That’s right Osama, we continue the war because it’s killing you and yours. We are in stronger shape in the US than ever, you hide in a cave defeated; and from all appearances quite diseased and dejected. Continue reading “Bin Laden Berates Democrats for Not Doing His Bidding”

How to Fight “Home Grown” Terror

islam-is-peace.jpg

To the left you see the Islamic Informaion Center that German police searched in the terrorist roundup earlier this week. The sign on the door says “Islam is Peace”

Fighting Home Grown terror is a problem that Europe is struggling with and they’ve called an emergency conference on it in Germany, as reported by Der Spiegel:

German federal and state interior ministers gathered for an emergency summit in Berlin on Friday to discuss the security situation after a bomb plot was thwarted Tuesday. The arrest of three Islamists suspected of planning terror attacks in Germany has strengthened the hand of many conservative politicians who want the state to be given more powers to detect would-be terrorists.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaüble has been pushing for increased online surveillance, including the use of “Trojan” software sent by e-mail to secretly search terror suspects’ hard drives. Also on the agenda was the possible criminalization of visits to terrorist training camps.

This gets into the surveillance and goverment powers discussion, and how close to an authoritarian state you want to become….

I have a simpler solution: deport those who do not assimilate, send the murder mullahs preaching hate back home to stir trouble in their own countries, not yours. Export your radicals. Let Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria deal with the monsters they have created. Send foreign students packing from your universities — enforce your hate laws against those who circumvent them by religious means. Send the Death Clerics home to spew their hate, send their children with them. Continue reading “How to Fight “Home Grown” Terror”

Hsu Captured … Again

Fugitive Democrat campaign donation bundler Norman Hsu has been captured after he fell ill on an Amtrak train in Grand Junction, Colorado. The nature of his illness is unknown due to medical privacy rules. This tale just keeps getting more interesting… Lawhawk has the full detail.

UPDATE: There is now an armed Federal Marshall guarding Hsu and hospital authorities stated that Hsu was “delirious” when he was admitted. This reported by Fox’s Alicia Acunia, who also states that they are waiting on tape from the 911 call placed by Hsu in which he stated that both his legs were numb. Continue reading “Hsu Captured … Again”