Pakistan has reopened a vital supply route to NATO forces in Afghanistan after receiving a payment of $365m from the US. Pakistan's Defense Minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, said the border route had been closed in response to recent raids by US-led forces inside Pakistani territory, which violated the sovereignty of the country. Mukhtar added that the closure demonstrated to the US that Islamabad would not tolerate airstrikes and raids inside its borders. On Friday, Pakistan stopped trucks from crossing the Torkham border crossing. They were carrying fuel and other supplies to US-led NATO forces inside Afghanistan. The action followed US-led attacks that killed at least 20 Pakistani civilians in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. According to reports, the US paid $365m to Pakistan as funding for the war on terror immediately after the closure of the border. The border was subsequently reopened. An estimated 70% of NATO supplies move through Khyber to support US-led troops stationed in Afghanistan. In the past week, US drones have violated Pakistan's airspace more than four times. US strikes on border territories have killed scores of Pakistani civilians this year and have sparked national outrage. The Pakistani government has strongly condemned US cross-border military operations and has repeatedly said that foreign forces are not permitted to operate on Pakistani soil.

Okay I'm sorry that people don't want to take responsibility for their actions, but enough if enough.  When and if these sick, inhuman individuals get caught, I want to know who is going to be held responsible.  Oh I saw it on such and such a movie, or on this new video game I have.  I can just hear it now,

"this is not how my child acts, if it weren't for that disgusting movie, or game this wouldn't have happened."

You know folks; I'm so sick and tired of that excuse.  We should be held accountable for our actions.  Hey I've done some real stupid things in my life time, and even when I first tried to blame someone or something else, in the end it always came back to bite me and I'd wished that I would have just held myself accountable from the beginning.  But whenever we hear of violent and disturbing crimes committed by today's children, we always here the same excuses come out of the parents mouths.  Well I'm sorry but if the parents want to get the blame off of their children, than I say we grant their wishes.  Instead let's put the blame on the parents for buying the game without checking it out, or buying/renting that movie without seeing what the movie is about.

Parents these days get to involved with their busy lives and schedules, and just give their kids what they want to stop the bickering or begging or whining.  Well that is a practice that way too many parents practice today.  It all falls in with the pushing of "it takes a community to raise our children today."  Well I for one will not sit back and listen to such garbage without speaking up anymore.

We have a story here:

Cops looking for youngsters who burned pit bull to death

Motivated by whatever inspires the minds of the sadistic, three or four youngsters burned a pit bull to a crisp Thursday.

The kids first took the dog for a walk. Then, when they got to their destination - the rail tracks near the Olney train station - they went to work, covering the pit bull with a towel, dousing it with lighter fluid and finally setting the mutt ablaze, said George Bengal, chief law-enforcement officer for the Pennsylvania SPCA.

PSPCA officials yesterday announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of the sickos who burned the pit bull to death.

Local residents spotted "three or four juveniles" near the scene Thursday night and called police.

Bengal said when he and his partner got out to the scene, on Tabor Road near Mascher, at about 6:15 p.m., they found cans of lighter fluid and the horrific remains of the still-smoldering dog.

"It appears these kids had nothing better to do than set a dog on fire," he said. "It's appalling."

Investigators found tags on the dog and are trying to track down the owner, Bengal added.

Another lifeless dog was found in a trash bag just a few feet away from the remains of the burned animal. It appeared the dog in the bag had been there for about a week, Bengal said.

The discovery of the dead dogs came just a few weeks after District Attorney Lynne Abraham appointed Barbara Paul, an assistant district attorney, to specifically handle animal-cruelty cases.

Abraham noted at the time that the number of animal-cruelty cases in the city were dramatically rising, and referred to research that suggested people who harm animals are more likely to commit other violent acts.

"How we treat our animals is a reflection upon society as a whole," she said.

Anyone with information can contact the PSPCA at 1-866-601-SPCA or e-mail cruelty@pspca.org. *

Folks this is just disgusting and outlandish behavior.  I don't care what your think a good excuse is, there is not one for the actions of these certain individuals.  I would like to know where the parents were, and what they teach their children when around.

Oh but then if we don't blame the kids or parents, we always have those really wacko individuals that will blame our government and religion and anything else they can find to try and associate it with the Conservative way of life.

"How we treat our animals is a reflection upon society as a whole," True that, but you don't have to look hard to other barometers of our depraved, capitalist society. Look at the state of our schools, correctional institutions, social services, foreign policy, gun ownership, religious piety, etc. pretty sick picture all in all. U.S.A!!! U.S.A.!!!"

Posted by The Wire

"These kids are only emulating a cultural tradition of sadism and depravity brought upon by religious teachings and cultural luminaries such as Michael Vick, Mel Gibson and the bush administration's crack team of legal and military experts responsible for Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo bay. The children are only trying to find their place in a moral order gone astray. To them torturing defenseless animals is akin to needlepoint or folk dancing."

Posted by The Wire

"Also, before you start hating on me bear in mind that jebus didn't torture animals until after he got married. Just saying."

Posted by The Wire

Okay these few comments from the website have just demonstrated the ignorance and incompetence that our youthful society has had to put up with and grow up learning from.  We need to stand up and save the future generation from living this way, and letting things get even worse.

The HLP consists of the following:

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
H.E. Dato Paduka Haji Shofry Abdul Ghafor
Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Brunei Darussalam

CAMBODIA
H.E. Om Yentieng
Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia
President of the Human Rights Committee of Cambodia

INDONESIA
Mrs Wiwiek Setyawati Firman
Director for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs

HLP Alternate:
Mr Arief Havas Oegroseno
Director for Political Security and International Treaties
Department of Foreign Affairs

LAOS
H.E. Bounkeut Sangsomsak
Vice Foreign Minister
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MALAYSIA
H.E. Tan Sri Ahmad Fuzi Abdul Razak
Ambassador with Special Functions
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MYANMAR
H.E. U Myat Ko
Secretary of Myanmar Human Rights Group
Director-General, General Administration Department
Ministry of Home Affairs

PHILIPPINES
H.E. Amb Rosario G Manalo

SINGAPORE
H.E. Bilahari Kausikan
2nd Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs

THAILAND
H.E. Sihasak Phuangketkeow
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Thailand to the UN Office and Other IOs in Geneva

HLP Alternate:
Prof Vitit Muntarbhorn
Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University
Thailand

VIETNAM
H.E. Pham Quang Vinh
SOM Leader of ASEAN-Vietnam
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

According to ASEAN, the first draft of the TOR of the ASEAN human rights body will be submitted at the 14th ASEAN Summit in December 2008.

TBILISI - A NATO delegation will travel to Georgia on Monday to evaluate damage to military infrastructure following a five-day war between Moscow and Tbilisi last month, diplomatic officials told AFP. "A NATO mission is expected here tomorrow," a European diplomatic official in Tbilisi told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It's a mission to assess the military damage," said a second diplomatic official. A NATO official confirmed to AFP the expected arrival of the delegation. NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is due to travel to Georgia on September 15-16 along with representatives of all 26 member states for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to discuss NATO assistance. At an emergency meeting last month, NATO foreign ministers agreed to set up a NATO-Georgia commission and De Hoop Scheffer said 15 experts would be sent to assess the extent of the damage in Georgia, stressing the need for aid for refugees.

US to establish naval base in Georgia
Press.TV (Iran), 7 Sep 2008

The US is negotiating with Georgia and Turkey to establish a naval base at one of the two key Georgian ports of Batumi or Poti, reports say. Turkey, in an attempt to avoid political tension with Russia, has not officially revealed its position regarding the plan, said Gruzya Online, a Russian-language internet site. Russia had previously announced its intention to station its own special forces at the Georgian ports. One of the responsibilities of US Special Forces in the region is to ensure the security of an oil pipeline passing through Georgia.

At the beginning, the Republicans looked weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. Their candidate was old, tainted by an unpopular war, a stricken economy, and an eight-year presidency that the voters were booing off the stage. Barack Obama was young, eloquent and renewing. He had the future and the big momentum.

Now, everything is in flux. Last weekend, I phoned around my Republican friends. Who is Sarah Palin and what do you know about her?   Continue Reading

]]> http://nailinpalin.wordpress.com/?p=97 Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:42:57 +0000 Shawn http://nailinpalin.wordpress.com/?p=97 The Daily News thinks that tapping Palin as VP may drive women voters to Obama's camp:

If John McCain wanted to poach the women's vote from Barack Obama, he shouldn't have tapped a running mate who dubbed herself a "pit bull with lipstick."  Continue Reading

Um, does this really surprise anyone?  When McCain first announced he was selecting Palin as his VP, everyone screamed "She's going to steal all the Hillary votes for McCain!"  And then she opened her mouth and we all calmed down.

After the thrashing she has received from press and television in the past few days, knowing what was at stake for the party and for John McCain as she stood at the podium, with a good part of the nation watching and waiting for her to trip, her composure and self-assurance were simply amazing. Who could fail to be moved by this? And it was even more impressive than it looked, because the waves of adulation from the audience kept interrupting her momentum: they did not know it, but at times the audience was making it harder for her. Yet she never looked hesitant or thrown. She paused when she had to and controlled the timing. She actually seemed comfortable. If ever there were a political natural, we saw one tonight.

Continue Reading

Personally, I think the comments are better than the post, but you decide.

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.   Continue Reading

I know how this argument goes:  Democrats--Thank you, Anne, for being courageous enough to tell the truth.  Republicans--More liberal slander.  And she's hotter than you are.

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.   Continue Reading

Props to Palin on her vocabulary--I had to look up what "Sambo" meant.

Maybe the McCain campaign should have saved their "vicious lie" defense for this one.  I can only hope that this one is all gossip and no substance.

Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.   Continue Reading

I don't even know what to think about this.  As abhorrent as I find the idea of banning books, I have more of a problem with Palin claiming the letters calling for resignation the Stein-appointees were only "tests of loyalty."  If they really were tests, then that's just bullshit.  And if they were serious letters and not just tests, well, that's even more bullshit.

Of course, since relatively few of the electorate knew who Palin was before last Friday, it makes sense that the top search term for Palin was simply the vice presidential candidate's name. But the second and third top searches, of the 1,323 unique search queries tracked over the past few weeks were "Vogue Magazine," and "Photos," according to Hitwise' general managing Bill Tancer in a recent article in Time and author of "Click: What Millions Do Online And Why It Matters."   Continue Reading

After all the fuss the McCain campaign has made over Obama being a "celebrity," Palin turns out to be even more of an internet celebrity than Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.  Oh dear.

Mad Magazine has given readers of the Huffington Post a sneak peak at their hilarious political coverage.  The issue hits the stands in October.

The government is reported to have decided to stop fuel supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan via the Torkham highway with effect from Saturday. A senior government official said,

An order to this effect has come from Islamabad and the Frontier Corps has been asked to stop oil supplies to NATO forces forthwith.

Sources said the federal government did not cite any reason for the move, but the decision was apparently taken in the wake of the US ground and missile attacks in North and South Waziristan tribal regions. The US-led forces have intensified assaults in the tribal region over the past few days and five attacks, including the ground assault in Angoor Adda, have been launched, killing over 50 people, including foreign and local militants and civilians. The Torkham highway, linking Peshawar with Kabul and northern parts of Afghanistan and Central Asian states, is a major supply route for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the war-ravaged country. Over 20 heavily-loaded vehicles, including oil tankers, were stranded at the border town of Torkham following the government’s decision. However, an official told Dawn in Peshawar that the supplies had been suspended only temporarily because of the law and order situation in the Khyber tribal region. the official said:

Why would Pakistan suspend oil supplies due to increased US attacks in the region? It goes against conventional wisdom. Torkham highway has become extremely dangerous due to militancy in Jamrud and Landi Kotal. The administration needs to beef up security of the highway. When we have enough troops on the ground to ensure safety of oil tankers, the supplies would be allowed to go through.

He denied that the decision to suspend oil supplies had come from Islamabad and said it was taken at the local level in view of the security situation. The sources said that militants had increased their activities in the Khyber region after the military operation in Bajaur.

US Vice President Dick Cheney finished his tour of the South Caucasus, which was intended to strengthen Washington’s positions in its struggle for Caspian energy resources. The visit he paid to Tbilisi yesterday went smoothly as expected. However, the talks he held in Baku Wednesday failed. According to the information of Kommersant, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev gave his American guest a cold welcome and sent a clear message that Baku won’t support the idea to redirect the energy resources pipelines so that they would omit Russia. He came to that conclusion watching the developments in the neighboring Georgia. Yesterday at 11 a.m. Dick Cheney arrived from Baku in Tbilisi, where Georgia’s Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze. Before the meeting of the US Vice President with Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili Georgian Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaya revealed the talks’ agenda to Kommersant. “First, Dick Cheney wants to demonstrate the US support to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine,” he said. “Second, during the negotiations the parties will discuss the security of communication lines that allow shipping the Caspian energy resources to the West omitting Russia.”

After the talks in the new residence of Georgia’s head-of-state, Mikheil Saakashvili stated at the joint press-conference, “Georgia feels the US support, which is strong as never before.” The journalists had a chance to assess the strength of that support following Dick Cheney’s address. The US Vice President said that Washington allocates $1 billion to restore the Georgian economy. “We stand in solidarity with the people of Georgia. After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy. We are doing so again, as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory - and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world,” the Vice President stated. “Russia's actions have cast grave doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner - not just in Georgia but across this region and indeed throughout the international system.” Besides, Dick Cheney reiterated that Washington fully supports Georgia’s NATO ambitions. “Georgia will be in our alliance,” he claimed.

Nevertheless, according to the sources of Kommersant in the Georgian Chancellery, the talks of Mikheil Saakashvili and Dick Cheney didn’t go as smoothly as their press-conference did. The discussion mainly focused on the security of the existing pipelines, which were laid in Georgia omitting Russia, and the project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline Nabucco. Dick Cheney made no secret of the fact that the US is ready to provide the security of these pipelines using political methods only. So, Georgia won’t get military assistance from the US now. By the way, Wednesday, US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice made this position public. “It is not yet time to look at the questions of assistance on the military side,” she stated in Washington. However, Mikheil Saakashvili declared ready to further support American energy projects in the region. According to the sources of Kommersant, he promised to Dick Cheney that Tbilisi will support the Nabucco project “whatever” in case the US gets the approval of Georgia’s neighbors, Baku, first of all.

The Baku emissary

Meanwhile, according to the information of Kommersant, Dick Cheney’s visit to Azerbaijan he made on Wednesday turned out complete failure. The guest of honor, who came in Baku for the first time, was met neither by President Ilham Aliyev nor Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. Instead, First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyubov and Foreign Office Chief Elmar Mammadyarov met Dick Cheney in the airport. As to Ilham Aliyev, he was in no hurry to receive Mr Cheney. That’s why the US Vice President first went to a meeting with BP President in Azerbaijan Bill Schrader and Chevron Azerbaijan top managers. Then he visited the US Embassy in Baku and held a meeting with Ambassador Anne E. Derse. It was not earlier than in the evening that Dick Cheney went to the residence of Azerbaijan’s President. According to the sources of Kommersant with the Office of Azerbaijan’s President, the talks turned out pretty tough, in spite of the fact that Dick Cheney and Ilham Aliyev have had close ties since Mr cheney worked with Halliburton and Mr Aliyev was SOCAR (Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company) Vice President. They discussed the war in Georgia and the prospects of constructing the Nabucco gas pipeline. According to the information of Kommersant, Dick Cheney informed Ilham Aliyev that the US will support its allies in the region and intends to promote the project of the gas pipeline omitting Russia. Nonetheless, Ilham Aliyev sent a clear message that although he appreciates the relations with Washington, he is not going to have a row with Moscow. In fact it meant that under the present circumstances Baku decided to bide its time without fostering the Nabucco project. Kommersant interlocutors with the Presidential Office said that Dick Cheney was irritated by the outcome of the discussion – he even refused to attend a banquet in his honor.

Ilham Aliyev’s reluctance to support Washington quarreling with Russia is easy to explain. Baku regarded Tbilisi’s definitively losing of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well as Russia’s tanks entering Georgia as a signal to everyone in the region who is willing to join NATO. Azerbaijan’s budget incurs great losses: because of the explosion at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline on August 12 – Turkey put the blame on the Kurdistan Workers Party – and the pauses of the work of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and Baku-Supsa oil pipeline, energy carriers export from Azerbaijan in the western direction was suspended. At the same time Baku has no claims to Russia. Moreover, according to the information of Kommersant, Azerbaijan’s authorities expressed their gratitude to the Russian Federation because during the military operation and bombardments of the Georgian territory no BTC-related facilities were destroyed. Nevertheless, Baku can’t overhaul its stance towards the pipelines on the territory of Georgia. Azerbaijan is said to have increased the workload of the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline. It concluded that in the present situation it’s more secure to transport gas to Europe via Russia, rather than Georgia and Turkey. Even more so in June Gazprom offered to buy Azerbaijan’s gas at any volumes according to the European pricing formula. During his visit to Baku in July Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev agreed to launch negotiations concerning the matter. It seems the talks will be accelerated, just like the pace of Baku and Moscow’s developing closer relations. The Russian leaders have already started work in this direction.

In the evening after the talks of Dick Cheney and Ilham Aliyev finished, Dmitry Medvedev called Azerbaijan’s President. Sources in the Kremlin explained to Kommersant the necessity of the telephone conversation with Dmitry Medvedev’s desire to bring home to Ilham Aliyev, one of the region’s most influential players, Russia’s position regarding Georgia. Even more so Azerbaijan has a territorial dispute with Armenia, which remains unresolved. “Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyanhas recently visited Moscow and discussed the situation over South Ossetia and Abkhazia during his talks with Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian President thought it important to discuss those matters with the Azerbaijani party as well because Baku belongs neither to SCO nor CSTO – the organizations Russia has intensified contacts with,” a source in the Kremlin told Kommersant. In her turn, Press-Secretary of the Russian President Natalya Timakova told Kommersant that during their conversation the leader of Russia and Azerbaijan discussed a possibility of a meeting in the near future.

“The smearing of the Palin family must end,” said McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt. “The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Gov Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie."    Continue Reading

I have two issues with this.

One.  I really do think there are other things to worry about than if Palin had an affair or not.  That said, threatening legal measures and calling the allegation a "vicious lie" is only throwing gasoline on the conflagration that is the Palin nomination.

Two.  I don't believe the media is trying to "destroy" anyone in this campaign.  No more so than in any other campaign, anyway.  If it does seem like that, maybe it's because McCain's surprise announcement didn't give the Republicans enough time to package Palin's past so that it slips quietly by unnoticed.

BARA: In a major development, the federal government on Friday announced disconnection of supply lines to the allied forces stationed in Afghanistan through Pakistan in an apparent reaction to a ground attack on a border village in South Waziristan agency by the NATO forces. Political authorities of the Khyber Agency claimed to have received verbal directives to immediately halt transportation of all kinds of goods meant for the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan for an indefinite period. Authorities claimed the decision was taken in the wake of the growing unrest in the Khyber Agency that provides for the only ground link of the country to the war-torn Afghanistan. The authorities told the News:

Until now, drivers of the vehicles carrying goods meant for the foreign forces in Afghanistan were directed to reach the tribal agency between 7am to 10am, which were then escorted to the border town of Torkhum by the Khassadar force.

The authorities claimed that due to repeated attacks on the personnel of the Khassadar forces during the last one week and abduction of a few personnel, it had become difficult for the security forces to provide foolproof security to the supply lines. Independent sources, however, claimed that the government feared retaliation by the tribesmen against a recent ground attack conducted by the NATO forces in Angoor Adda of the South Waziristan Agency that triggered condemnation from various quarters, including the government of Pakistan itself. NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani had likened the attack to an aggression against a sovereign state, saying the people of the country expected the Pakistan Army to give a befitting reply to the attack. He said that some twenty innocent people lost their lives — most of them were women and children. The US government had accepted responsibility for the attack but did not offer any apology for the same and instead announced to launch more such attacks against the militants across the border, if so required in future.

If you want info on Palin's involvement, Wikipedia has all the Bridge to Nowhere information you want.

Vice President of the USA Dick Cheney completed his trip to the South Caucasus targeted at strengthening Washington's positions in the struggle for Caspian energy resources. Kommersant daily qualifies the outcome of Baku talks as “failure.” The daily accounts that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev did not offer to the US guest a warm reception, hinting that Baku was not intending to support the idea of retracting energy carriers' flows to bypass Russia. The daily details:

Dick Cheney's visit to Azerbaijan proved utterly unsuccessful for Washington. The high-ranking guest, who was visiting Baku for the first time, was not met by either President Ilham Aliyev or even Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. Instead, the Vice President was welcomed by First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyyubov and Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov. What about Ilham Aliyev, he was not in a hurry to receive Mr. Cheney. So the latter first headed to a meeting with President of BP Azerbaijan Company and top management of Chevron's Azerbaijan subsidiary, proceeding then to the US embassy to Baku to converse with Ambassador Ann E. Derse. To the Azerbaijan President's residence Dick Cheney made it toward evening.

As sources in the President's administration commented to Kommersant, the talks were rather difficult, although Dick Cheney and Ilham Aliyev have had confidential relations from the times when Mr. Cheney used to be employed by Halliburton and Mr. Aliyev as Vice President of the state-run oil company SOCAR. The sides conferred on the war in Georgia and prospects of Nabucco gas pipeline construction. According to Kommersant's information,

Dick Cheney informed Ilham Aliyev that the USA were going to firmly support their allies in the region and intended to further extend the trans-Caspian gas pipeline circumventing Russia. Ilham Aliyev, however, hinted that, despite his high esteem of relations with Washington, he was not going to quarrel with Moscow. It essentially meant that, in the current situation, Baku decided to wait and see rather than accelerate realizaiton of Nabucco.

Kommersant sources in President's administration accounted that Dick Cheney was highly irritated with the talks' outcome — he even refused to attend a ceremonial supper given in his honor. Kommersant cites sources in the State Chancellery of Georgia who said that closed negotiations between Mikhail Saakashvili and Dick Cheney in Tbilisi also had not gone smoothly. The sides mainly discussed security of existing pipelines laid through the Georgian territory round Russia, and the Nabucco pipeline project. Dick Cheney made it clear that the USA were ready to maintain security of these pipelines, however, by merely political means, so Georgia would not receive US military aid at the moment.

Know what's kinda funny? Just as the whole Republican convention has transpired with basically negative five mentions of George W. Bush because he is so grotesquely unpopular even among all weird hat people, the bleeding-hearts of the Media Elite are having a moment of premature nostalgia for his wife...  Continue Reading

In a move seen as the latest fallout from Wednesday morning’s US attack on South Waziristan, the Pakistani government has ordered that supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan be immediately severed for an indefinite period of time. The move comes as thousands of protesters marched through South Waziristan’s capital of Wana chanting “death to America”. Officials cited repeated attacks which had made it difficult to provide security for transportation across the only border crossing, but Pakistani media cited other sources who said the move came as the government feared retaliation from South Waziristan tribesmen if they didn’t respond to the US attack. The strike, which was the first confirmed use of US ground forces in Pakistan since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, killed 20 civilians and received widespread condemnation in Pakistan’s government. American officials have suggested that the attack is just the first of many cross-border missions to be expected in the coming months, as the US has expressed growing discontent with Pakistan’s inability to control its long and mountainous border with Afghanistan. The Defense Minister of key NATO ally Germany was also critical of the US attack during his visit to Pakistan, and warned that “Pakistan’s territorial integrity has to be respected”. With Pakistan’s sole ground link to Afghanistan now closed to them, NATO may be more reliant than ever on Russia for the transportation of non-military supplies to the war-torn country at a time when US-Russian relations are at a post-Cold War low. And while Russia has promised not to block NATO’s overland transport, President Bush’s threat to “punish” Moscow over the recent war with Georgia may put the route in further jeopardy.

Wichita, Kansas - Wichita West High School freshman Gary Gorbeh says that he has finally found the secret to happiness... kind of. Young Gary has finally found acceptance after declaring to his classmates that he was gay.

"I am gay, like super gay, I like men, really," said Gary at a lunch table filled with attractive young girls who now actually talk to the slightly pudgy zit faced youngster. Before coming out of the closet Gary was far less succesful with women. He had never been kissed, had never had a girlfriend, and had spent most of his weekends at home in his bedroom alone.

After declaring his alternative sexuality though, things changed dramatically. Now all of the most attractive girls at school have started calling him frequently. They want to spend time shopping with him, doing pedicures together, and say that it is great to have a guy they can talk to without worrying that he is trying to get into their pants.

Jessica Johanson, cheerleading captain for the Pioneers, says "Gary is like totally cool, when I want to know what a guy might think about my new thongs I ask Gary. He will be honest and I don't have to worry he is checking me out."

"It feels good finally talking to all the cute girls," said Gary, "when they invited me to that rainbow party to "Prove" my gayness... it just kinda sucked... literally."

Gary has yet to figure out how to parlay his new found popularity into a girlfriend, but he thinks he will, "say he just wonders what a girl is like," or some crap like that.

Look to The Leek for further updates as this story develops.

Wasilla, AK - Reporters are flocking to this sleepy Alaska town today, as America is suprised yet again. Sarah Palin, Republican VP Candidate, outdoorswoman, and nature lover appears to be pregnant with her sixth "child".

Locals say that she was hunting alone while her husband was working on the North Slope Oil Project when the alleged interlude took place. "I always knew Sarah would get into trouble out in those woods all alone," said Jager Petersson, from his cabin on some lake somewhere, "I mean with her naughty librarian looks and that moose's take her on the tundra attitude it was just a matter of time."

Even in Alaska, where moose out number humans three to one, Moose and Human relationships are rare and nearly unheard of. Then again when has Sarah ever gone the normal route. She was the youngest person and the first woman to become Alaska's Governor. She shocked the country when she was selected as John McCain's running mate, and now she will become the first major political figure to give birth to a half human half moose freak baby.

Sarah Palin is fiercely Pro-Life, having already chosen to keep one special needs child. There is no doubt among the parishioners at her non-denominational, Bible thumping church, that she will keep the child as well.

Although many in the democratic party and Barack Obama's campaign are not suprised, it appears that this latest challenge is only strengthening her appeal to the base. Leroy Jenkins, a self loathing black republican, summed up the views around here nicely, "I don't care if the moose raped her or if she was just so drunk on power she thought it was Todd, I am still voting for Sarah Palin. That other guy is darker than winter in Fairbanks and I just don't think people like him are ready to lead."

Look to The Leek for further updates as this story develops.