Theodore's World

Harrods bans soldiers on Poppy Day
DailyMail.co.uk
Their pathetic, incredible explanation: The store has stood by their dress policy, saying:

“There is a long-standing tradition at Harrods that would normally preclude customers who are wearing non-civilian attire from entering the store. “A lot of people assume that somebody in uniform is either there on official duty, which could cause them alarm, or they assume they’re a member of staff and ask them where the lavatories are and so on.”

A serving Army officer was banned from entering Harrods on Remembrance Day in case his uniform upset other shoppers.
Lieutenant Daniel Lenherr had just taken part in a parade honouring Britain’s war dead when the London department store turned him away at the door.
The security guard told him other customers might be intimidated by the uniform.
The 26-year-old soldier, who serves in the 1st regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery, had been at commemorations in Hyde Park Corner last weekend when he decided to visit the shop with his wife Michelle and their one-year-old son.
Mrs Lenherr, who lives in Tidworth, Hampshire, said:

“We were horrified when we were refused entry on a day when we honoured the men who sacrificed so much for our freedom. I find it sad this can happen.”

The store has stood by their dress policy, saying:

“There is a long-standing tradition at Harrods that would normally preclude customers who are wearing non-civilian attire from entering the store.

“A lot of people assume that somebody in uniform is either there on official duty, which could cause them alarm, or they assume they’re a member of staff and ask them where the lavatories are and so on.”

But the shop came under fire for its ban.
Shadow Defence Minister Mark Harper said:

“It’s an outrageous slap in the face to our Armed Forces who are serving our country around the world. On Remembrance Sunday it’s even more of an insult. I cannot see any legitimate reason for a shop not to let in members of the Armed Forces in uniform.”

And Thomas Carter MBE, a former Warrant Officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, said Mr Lenherr had been treated disgracefully.
The 78-year-old said:

“Harrods’ policy is a load of rubbish. It treats members of the Armed Forces as sixth-rate citizens. It definitely makes it worse that it was on Remembrance Sunday, as that’s the day everybody wears uniform.”

Rival department stores Selfridges and Harvey Nichols said they had no problem with service personnel entering their stores in uniform.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Harrod’s is owned by Saudi arms-dealer Adnan Khashoggi or Mohamed el Fayed I think. So I guess it should not be surprising to anyone. It sitll makes me angry though. They should have said, ‘welcome, we’re glad you’re here, and 20% off everything as a thanks for your service to the nation.’
Maybe the Bobbies should let it be known that they won’t go in while wearing uniforms either. That way the criminal element will get the idea that it is open season at Harrods.
“Sorry old chap. Can’t come in, against policy you see. No, can’t start a formal investigation either without crime-scene interviews. Carry on now!”……maybe something like that should start happening.
But also let’s not forget that our institutions of so called higher learning (Harvard, Berkeley, etc) do not allow ROTC or military recruiters on campus. Now THAT really pisses me off!!!!

Rough sea landing

Pacific Ocean (Nov. 10, 2006) – Pilots hover in an SH-60B Seahawk assigned to the “Wolfpack” of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light Four Five (HSL-45) while waiting for the perfect time to land aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) during rough seas. Preble is currently participating in Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX). U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ron Reeves

“This is brilliant plan, Fearless Leader-instead of killing Moose and Squirrel,
we come up with better marketing strategy!”

.

The KGB’s new legacy — Russia’s top business school?
Former spies becoming senior executives
MOSCOW — The appointment of a former KGB agent to a top post at Russian energy giant OAO Gazprom this week highlights the growing roles former spies have in the country’s business world, analysts say.
“Since 2003, there has been a tendency of placing former KGB people in the economy,” said Olga Krishtanovskaya, who heads up a study centre on Russia’s elites at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Valery Golubyev, who was promoted to become Gazprom’s deputy chief executive officer on Wednesday, is one of three out of the 17 members of the management board of the state-controlled company to have worked for the KGB.
Like President Vladimir Putin, who worked as a KGB agent in Germany and later became head of Russia’s FSB secret service, Mr. Golubyev also worked for the mayor’s office in the northern city of Saint Petersburg in the 1990s.
Gazprom’s two other ex-KGB board members, according to their official biographies published on the company’s website, are Sergei Ushakov, another deputy CEO, and Konstantin Chuichenko, head of the legal department.
But “many” other employees of Gazprom, which is one of the world’s biggest companies and has been taking an ever greater role in European and world markets, also come from the KGB, Ms. Krishtanovskaya said.
“They don’t necessarily highlight that in their biographies,” she added.
For Yulia Latynina, a political commentator, the new appointment at Gazprom is a sign that the Kremlin is moving to undermine potential critical voices in the business world.

“The most interesting thing about this phenomenon is not so much that so-and-so is from the KGB, but that the authorities are slowly getting rid of anyone not considered as their own,” Ms. Latynina told AFP.

Alexander Ryazanov, whom Mr. Golubyev replaces, was seen as too independent.
The Vedomosti business daily yesterday quoted a top Gazprom manager as saying Mr. Ryazanov had “too independent a position on many questions and didn’t consistently carry out the leadership’s orders.”
Ms. Krishtanovskaya agreed that the tendency in Russia in recent years has been towards ever greater centralization of the economy under the watchful eye of the Kremlin.

“Under Putin, there has been a reimposition of a centralizing system, with the Kremlin controlling everything, including the economy,” said Ms. Krishtanovskaya, who has written about the growing power of former military officers and spies.

“This control is not 100 per cent like in Soviet times but it concerns the major strategic companies, like Gazprom or Rosneft,” another state-controlled firm that is the second biggest oil producer in Russia, Ms. Krishtanovskaya added.

The key figure in this control system, the analyst said, is Igor Sechin, a former KGB agent who is now both deputy head of the presidential administration and chairman of the board of OAO Rosneft.
In another possible sign of the rising influence of the intelligence community, Mr. Sechin hired a young adviser in September, Andrei Patrushev — son of FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.

Wild Thing’s comment….
Sometimes it feels as if the whole last 15 years were vanishing and we are morphing into the 1970’s and 1980’s! Between this and then the Dems and their calling up McGovern.

Controversial Assignment Leads To Teacher’s Resignation
WRAL.com
SMITHFIELD, N.C. — A Spanish teacher at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School resigned this week after handing out an assignment that some students and parents said teaches hate.
Khalid Chahhou, who was in his first year of teaching in Johnston County, gave students a worksheet in which they were to translate words and find them within a word-search puzzle.
Some students started uncovering strange words in the process.
“There were words like ‘kill,’ then I saw it said ‘destroy America,'” Eric Herrera said.
As they read on, students found the puzzle contained a paragraph that contained the following phrases:

* “Sharon killed a lot of innocent people,” a possible reference to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
* “Palestine is not a terrorist group.”
* “Allah help destroy this body of evil making humanity miserable.”

“It was kind of scary at first to think about, you know, your own teacher in your own school that is teaching you,” Herrera said.
School administrators said they confronted Chahhou about an unidentified concern Wednesday and he resigned.
“The situation surrounding the resignation has prompted us to call the proper authorities,” said Crystal Roberts, the spokeswoman for Johnston County Schools.
The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office reviewed the complaint, but investigators said they don’t see any reason to file criminal charges or contact other agencies.
Chahhou, who also teaches Arabic at a religious school affiliated with the Islamic Association of Cary, told WRAL in a telephone interview that students got the wrong message from the assignment.
“When I made the assignment, I was upset and angry about a story I recently saw on the news. If any message appears, it is more of a message to myself, not to my students. I never meant to hurt or upset any students or parents,” he said.
You can go here and click on the image of the puzzle at the articles url HERE to watch the video.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
I say BS to the teacher (he said it was a message to himself) , he darn well knew what he was doing and what the finished puzzle would say. The video at the link gives more detail. I am proud of the kids that brought up what the teacher had done. It was a sly move on the teachers part and the asshole got caught, GOOD!

Glenn Beck is a talk show host on radio and also now on one of the news channels as well. Beck took a call from a member of the Islamic Thinker’s Society of New York. I have posted about these people three other times. As you remember they have held rallies in New York. They have threatened to have a mushroom cloud hanging over the White House and other attacks on America.
Some call it Racidal Islam, I call it Islam. And it’s followers are my enemy.
Vinnie took the audio of that call and converted it to video format to facilitate easier posting. Due to size and time constraints, the audio is in two parts. The image that goes along with the audio comes from an Islamic Thinker’s rally held in New York City to protest the Mohammed cartoons.
Please listen to both segments.

Part One

Part Two

Universities given ‘how-to’ guide for fighting violent Islam
Times Online. UK
The Government today issued explicit guidelines aimed at tackling violent Islamist extremism on Britain’s university campuses.
A 20-page booklet aimed at university Vice Chancellors and principals of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) advises campus administrators how best to resist extremist groups and preachers attempting to radicalise their students and commit themselves to violent jihad.
The document, following general guidelines issued last year to tackle all forms of extremism among students, contains several “real life” scenarios specifically aimed at targeting Islamism.
As well a definition of “violent extremism in the name of Islam”, the guidelines describe various pieces of anti-terrorism legislation that might be relevant to controlling extremist groups.
The scenarios described in the booklet include the invitation of a preacher suspected of justifying terrorist attacks against British civilians; the taking over of an Islamic prayer room; and the radicalising of an Islamic students group, in which moderate members are frozen out and bullied into electing hardline leaders.
In another case, “a member of teaching staff has raised concerns with university authorities about some literature that was left lying around in a university room in which she took a tutorial group.
“Some leaflets were written in English, and others appeared to be in Arabic. She reported that the literature in English had titles such as ‘Who is a legitimate target?’ and ‘From Jihad to a new world order.”

Wild Thing’s comment……
No need for a 2 page booklet, just shoot them. Use the I May Tag machine.
See Islam get violent
Shoot the terrorists
Rinse
Lather
Repeat

Al-Qaeda: Kill the Christians
Frontpage Mag.
An al-Qaeda manual made a surprise reappearance on October 31st in a new repackaged, reformatted edition on an online jihadi forum associated with the terrorist organization.
The manual, A Guide for the Undecided on the Legitimacy of Killing Christians, (Irshad al-Hayara fi Ibahat Dimaa al-Nasara) made its first appearance back in September 2002, published by the al-Qaeda “think tank,” the now defunct Center for Islamic Research and Study, in their bi-weekly magazine, Sawt al-Jihad (The Voice of Jihad). Translated excerpts from the 56-page manual, authored by Hafid Abu-Basir, are available from the Site Institute.
But republication of this manual in a new format has counter-terrorism officials concerned that it’s re-release might be a sign of forthcoming terror attacks directed at Americans. In Chapter 15 of the document, Abu-Basir offers encouragement to dispirited Muslims that fresh attacks against the American infidels are forthcoming:
Beloved ones, I bring you the great, joyful news, which is the coming attack in America, with the permission of Allah, in a new wonderful method. America will be shocked once more, and this time Bush of the infidels will cry again.
The Guide for the Undecided is an extensive theological warrant deeply rooted in Quranic and Hadith sources for the killing of Americans based on what the author alleges are historical wrongs committed by America against Muslims worldwide.
An entire section of the work, “Al-Umariyah Conditions,” (Chapter 9) is dedicated to explaining that the only proper role for Christians and Jews are as subjected and submissive dhimmis – legal non-persons.
It also provides justification for attacks directed at Muslim allies and Islamic governments working with the U.S. government and thoroughly rejects any coexistence with America.

Wild Thing’s comment….
Wow Just in time for the holidays. Is that going to put a crimp in that “religion of peace” thingy we keep hearing about? Isn’t it nice that we now have a representative of this group in Congress?? sheesh I hate to think what it will take to have most of the people rue the day we played PC instead of looking our for America. Thank God for Conservatives at least we have our eyes wide open about this stuff. And we are a lot stronger then the weak lefties.
So the jihadists and the left have almost the same goals.
Jihadists: kill the Christians
Left: eliminate Christianity
both are a danger to our way of life.
Hey Al-Qaeda I am not going to be hiding under the bed.

A street vendor walks past a welcoming poster for US business delegation to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings hung up on the main gate of Hanoi’s General Tourism Company Office in Hanoi. US President George W. Bush will not be able to deliver on his pledge to restore normal trade ties with Vietnam

An elderly woman rides past a banner welcoming US President George W.Bush to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi. The US House of Representatives rejected a bill aimed at normalizing trade relations with Vietnam despite calls by Bush’s administration to pass it ahead of his visit to Vietnam (AFP/Saeed Khan)

Vietnam is hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, its largest ever international event.
The communist host nation, which has enjoyed East Asia’s fastest economic growth after China and is due to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) next month, hopes the meeting will symbolise its arrival on the world stage.
Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung promised the country is open for business, speaking after the world’s largest chip maker Intel said Friday it would pour one billion dollars into a plant it is building in Ho Chi Minh City.
Trade negotiators from around the world were set late Thursday to approve the terms of Vietnam’s admission to the World Trade Organization, but the biggest winners from its entry are likely to be European and Asian companies, not American ones.
Now let me also show you this ( notge the date of each, one is this year one is last year)……………..
American Soldiers Again Serving in Vietnam
November 5, 2006: After over 30 years, U.S. Army troops are returning to Vietnam. These training specialists will help to upgrade the combat capabilities of the Vietnamese forces. Because American troops are now the most combat experienced in the world, they are much in demand as trainers. Vietnam, on the other hand, has not seen combat since 1979, when there was a brief border war with China. There, the combat experienced Vietnamese beat up on the Chinese, who had not been in large scale combat (there had been some border skirmishes with Russia and India) since the 1950s.
The Vietnam live in fear of another Chinese invasion. Not because relations with China are currently frosty, they aren’t, but because China and Vietnam have been feuding for about a thousand years. Vietnam was originally founded by Chinese fleeing the rule of the Chinese empire. Over the centuries, Chinese troops have occasionally entered Vietnam, trying to bring the area under Chinese rule. That potential, at least for many Vietnamese, remains, and thus the desire to have some American military trainers visit, and impart whatever combat wisdom they might have. The Chinese, as always, have the numerical advantage, so the Vietnamese want to gain a qualitative edge.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vu Khoan (CQ)

U.S. military specialists headed to Vietnam
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 23, 2005
U.S. military specialists will return to Vietnam to train its soldiers 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, this time offering medical, technical and language support under an agreement struck with the Pentagon during Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s visit to Washington.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan told editors and reporters at a breakfast interview yesterday at The Washington Times that under the International Military Education and Training (IMET) agreement.
Mr. Khoan emphatically denied that any live American prisoners of war remain in Vietnam. Several U.S. POW/MIA groups disagree. The lobby group Rolling Thunder Inc. said the last sighting of a live American POW in Vietnam occurred in the late 1990s.

“There are “absolutely no” POWs living in Vietnam, the deputy prime minister said.

Defense spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Greg Hicks said that details of the IMET working-level proposal still had to be worked out.

“Both sides see this as another step in the development of normal bilateral military relations,” he said, adding that the agreement “will open the door to more exchanges and opportunities of mutual value.”

“It could include a more robust military-to-military relationship,” said Cmdr. Hicks. He declined to give further details. But the deputy prime minister said there was no desire to talk about establishing U.S. bases in Vietnam.

Mr. Khoan laughed at the idea that there were any American POWs left alive in Vietnam.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam
November 10th. 2006
….Communist Vietnam has imprisoned 3 U.S. Citizens now visiting there for “Terrorism.” A Terrorist is defined by Communist Vietnam as anyone who wants a Regime Change there. The last time Communist Vietnam recently did this it was forced to release its jailed U.S. Citizen. through hard public and political pressure from America. They had been jailed without charges for more than a year, prompting Washington to pressure Hanoi to move forward swiftly and fairly.
The three Americans were convicted by a Vietnamese court on terrorism charges Friday after being accused of trying to take over radio airwaves and call for an uprising against the communist government.
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plan to visit Vietnam next week for the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Both countries had been eager to resolve the case before Vietnam’s biggest-ever international event begins.
The defendants faced punishments ranging from 12 years in prison to execution, but prosecutors sought lesser terms, saying the defendants had repented and had no previous criminal records.
It is highly unusual for Vietnam to give a lenient sentence for national security crimes, especially in such a high-profile case. But the quick resolution to the diplomatically sensitive trial could end a distraction from APEC and Vietnam’s entrance into the World Trade Organization, which was approved this week.
All on trial were accused of plotting to smuggle radio equipment into Vietnam to broadcast a call for a revolution to topple the government.
An indictment said the scheme was hatched by the Government of Free Vietnam, a California-based organization that the Vietnamese government considers a terrorist group.
It is one of many anti-communist groups founded by Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Many of its leaders are soldiers of the former South Vietnamese Army who fled Vietnam after the war ended in 1975.

Wild Thing’s comment……
So now what ……in 40 years we are going to ally with Osama Bin Laden??!!?? Of course we all know Kerry was in Vietnam not serving but self-serving, and he was on the wrong side….he sure as hell was not on our side….he never has been.
Allying with all these shady banana republics just to contain China may come to bite us back in the rear.
It would be nice for the families of the unaccounted for American POW’s & MIA’s from the Viet Nam war if Bush would demand an accounting from the Vietnamese Commies.
OK now about our American soldiers serving in Vietnam. Vietnam is a communist country. I can’t even type what I think here I am so ticked off about this. Going by the dates, apparently first we sent specialists to Vietnam in 2005, now we are sending troops according to the article dated 2006.
This POS piece of flesh by the name of Vu Khoan is a liar. I know so what else is knew about Communist’s. I hate him and there is no other way to say it.
I don’t like this and I don’t understand, not even a little. I would have nothing to do with Vietnam until they return every POW and answer the questions that they keep telling lies about. We shouldn’t help the piss ants or build them up even if they’ve unilaterally surrendered.
My POW page at my website.

Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin!

Carter Could Lead U.N. Investigation of Israel
The New York Sun
UNITED NATIONS

As Palestinian Arab rockets struck two Israeli towns yesterday, U.N. bodies prepared to launch no fewer than two overlapping “fact-finding” missions to second-guess Israel’s anti-terrorist tactics.
President Carter could head one of those missions.
The U.N. General Assembly is expected to convene a special emergency session tomorrow to deal with the November 8 Israel Defense Force artillery strike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, which killed 19 civilians.
A draft resolution for the assembly session calls on the U.N. secretary-general to establish a fact-finding mission into the event and requests that he report back to the assembly in a month.
And yesterday in Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council, which in its five months of existence has failed to pass one resolution on any country other than Israel, concluded its third emergency session on the Jewish state.
In the session’s resolution, the council called on its president, Ambassador Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, to establish a fact-finding mission to investigate the incident at Beit Hanoun.
A diplomat in Geneva who requested anonymity said the sponsors of the resolution are planning to ask Mr. Carter to head the investigation.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Carter? Mr. Anti Semite pro terror himself running things against Israel? Cripes- if that happens, Israel might just as well surrender now and give up all hope of being a nation ever again. AND we, as a nation had better prepare for God’s wrath on us as well if we abandon support for Israel due to Carter’s insistance.
Allowing Carter to investigate Israel is akin to getting Adolf Eichmann investigating the Holocaust.
Jimmy Carter, is a best friend to world tyrants. He has the approval of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro (soon to be late), the late Yassar Arafat, the late Idi Admin DaDa, Robert Mugabee, Kim Jong II. There is no enemy of America that Carter won’t coddle, no friend of America that Carter won’t condemn.
We have this kind of nonsense to look forward to for the next 2 years. Jimmy Carter and McGovern, so far.

Speaker-to-Be Accused Of Strong-Arm Tactics
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Washington Post

A showdown over the House majority leader’s post today has Democrats bitterly divided only a week after their party took control of Congress and has prompted numerous complaints that Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and her allies are using strong-arm tactics and threats to try to elect Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.) to the job.
Murtha, 74, a former Marine who was among the first on Capitol Hill to call for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, may have hurt his own chances Tuesday night when he derided the Democrats’ ethics and lobbying package before saying he will push for its passage anyway out of deference to Pelosi. His statement, at a gathering of conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats, was cited by backers of his rival, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), as further proof that Murtha’s controversial ethics record disqualifies him to lead the party in a new political era.
Pelosi’s aggressive intervention on behalf of Murtha has baffled and angered many Democrats, who think she has unnecessarily put her reputation on the line out of misplaced loyalty to a friend and because of a long-standing feud with Hoyer, the minority whip. Pelosi has pushed Murtha’s candidacy at social events, in private meetings and with incoming freshman Democrats; they have been called to her office to discuss committee assignments, only to hear first that she needs Murtha in order to be an effective leader.

Wild Thing’s comment……
I thought a lot about this and I agree with Rush Limbaugh. This is hilarious!!!!!
From Rush Liombaugh….

“We want him there, folks, we want him in the Democrat leadership because we want the Democrats to be who they are — especially after all this, we want Murtha elected. I therefore today endorse the candidacy of Jack Murtha to be the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives.
This is his time and now his own party is trying to savage him, not because they’re worried about him, but because they’re worried about themselves. Well, they’re saying he was almost a crook, but, see, the difference is, it was okay to be a crook before the election but it’s not okay to be a crook after the election when you want to be in the Senate Democrat leadership. This man, Jack Murtha, held out as some kind of icon on all of the Sunday shows without a whiff of comment about any of these scandals, the Abscam scandal, the earmarks, the funny money back and forth with his family and lobbyists and so forth. That’s because Murtha was useful to them during the campaign.
By the way, the Democrats owe this man. He was the one that first stuck his thick neck out there and demanded that we retreat and get out of Iraq. He was the architect of the cut-and-run policy that the American people have now endorsed with the election to power of Democrats in the House and Senate, and this is the way they show their gratitude?
This man was a Vietnam vet. We’re not allowed to look any further; we’re not allowed to ask any more questions. I mean, we all know that if Jack Murtha had been a conservative, none of that would have mattered. It would have been the ethically challenged Murtha prior to the election. These guys have had this tape of him with the FBI and Abscam, and they didn’t play it on their Nightly News segments last night. This is amazing to me.
This is a guy who wants the number two job in the House of Representatives. He’s being supported by the speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi. Speaking of her, notice this, ladies and gentlemen. Pelosi is being criticized for starting the fight about Murtha but not for backing an unethical hack who came within an eyelash of being indicted. He was an unindicted coconspirator. He’s probably now the second most famous unindicted coconspirator in the history of American political scandal.
Now, Pelosi is being criticized for taking a position. She’s supposed to stay out of this race. She’s not being criticized for backing an unethical hack. Now, if Murtha’s ethical lapses are so deep and numerous, as they obviously are, then why was he fit to be reelected?
Everybody is trying to feed off him, and now they’re trying to get rid of the guy who is their true star, Jack Murtha, more than any Democrat, told us who they are. It’s a close contest, but he’s in — and for that reason, he needs to stay in a position of prominence. “

Wild Thing’s comment continued…..
Y’all heard it from Rush: He’s endorsed John Murtha! You know what this means? Jack’s OUR BOY – our b*tch! As they say. hahahaha Now watch as the Democrats swiftboat him from the leadership. A Democrat like Sheikh Down Murtha being endorsed gasp!…..by a conservative is a like the kiss of death!