Car Accessories At Carid.com
August 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
Car customizing has become the only thought for people, who have just bought a new or used vehicle. There are lots of thing that can be improved almost in every car. Luckily the contemporary market is full of custom car accessories, made to improve both the exterior, interior and performance of major models. The easiest way to shop for car accessories online is to browse carid.com and simply choose the parts you want from the wide range of spares and accessories offered by CARiD. The site navigation is extremely user-friendly and even grandma can shop easily here. Customers at carid.com can make their purchases by model of their car or by specific accessories.
CARiD’s main pros is the combination of price and quality. There is hardly a place on the net, where you can find car accessories for such affordable prices. The company deals with reliable manufacturers and shippers. That means each part stands out not only by its design and look, but also by the top notch materials, used for its producing. All inventory is manufactured, using the latest achievements in the technology and optimal approaches offered by the industry. There you can see customers’ reviews, which will inform you about all peculiarities of the desired accessories, which have already been purchased by lots of happy people.
Car accessories at carid.com can be divided into exterior, interior and performance groups. Custom grilles, spoilers, body kits and chrome accessories will greatly improve the exterior of your ride. Dash kits, door sills, steering wheels and gauges will colorize the dull plastic interior of you car. While exhaust systems, air intakes, performance chips and custom wheels will make the vehicle drive smoothly. Some accessories performs the protective functions. Floor mats and liners protect the car from mud. Bull bars and moldings will keep the ride away from scratches and small damages. As you can see carid.com is not an ordinary seller. The company aims to require all your demands and wishes.
SPECTACULAR ERUPTION ON THE SUN
April 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
There has been a spectacular eruption from the Sun’s surface.
It occurred at 1319 GMT on Monday and was imaged by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, which sits in space at a gravitational balance point between our star and Earth.
The giant prominence at the bottom left of the image is more than 30 times the Earth’s diameter. Such prominences are not uncommon on our star.
If they are directed towards the Earth, they can lead to dramatic lights in Northern and Southern polar skies and also radio and communications interference. Researchers say that this particular explosion was directed away from Earth.
Hot but faded
The prominences are gigantic loops of magnetic fields that emerge from below the Sun’s surface. As they rise, they become filled with trapped, superhot gas that is heated to many millions of degrees.
Soho is a US/European satellite designed to study the Sun
Sometimes, as the magnetic fields become twisted and unstable, the magnetic energy collapses and explosively heats vast quantities of gas which then bursts and rises off the Sun in just a few minutes or hours.
The image taken by the Soho satellite is in the spectral line of singly ionised helium (He II) in the extreme ultraviolet region of the spectrum.
The material in the eruptive prominence is at temperatures of 60,000-80,000 Kelvin, which although extremely hot is still much cooler than the surrounding corona, or outer atmosphere, which is typically at temperatures above one million K.
Researchers followed the eruption as it moved out in space and faded.
Doubleplusungood!
March 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Karl Rove and his manipulative, behind the scenes machinations continue even though he had to resign in disgrace from BushCo. Also, the willing tools of the Republican killing machine, including Karl Rove, with whom they have formed an unholy alliance, Move America Forward, are helping Rove whip a group called “Gathering of Eagles” into a frenzy over something that is not and was not ever going to occur. Okay, I am not sure that Karl Rove started this particular pile of horse pucky, but it sure has his stank all over it, so we are going to pretend for the sake of argument that it was Karl, or someone just like him. BushCo employees Roves like McDonald’s employs fry cooks.
The Gathering of Eagles is supposedly a veterans’ ad hoc group who are allowing themselves to be despicably stage-managed by Rove and Move America Forward using fascist tactics to lie about an anti-war group, just like BushCo lied our country into two abominable wars that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. The actions around this are very similar to the Swift Boaters—who I believe are also involved in this current Reich-wing, Squawking-Head brouhaha.
The Rove backed tools of hatred and misguided propaganda are saying that in the March 17th march on the Pentagon that I am participating in which is sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning on desecrating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by spitting on it, or throwing paint on it. What a monumental load of Reich-wing horse pucky!
I have participated in dozens of protests: small, medium, and large, in DC—we even held a candlelight vigil in the Vietnam Memorial, and we have never desecrated it. Why would we begin now and why did Rove start this scandalous lie? Recently, there was a lie-filled article floating around the Reich-wing pucky-o-sphere which claimed that I threw paint on Congress on a day when I was 3000 miles away in Los Angeles. Do Reich-wingers ever tell the truth? Is honesty even in their genes? Is the word “fact” in their vocabulary?
The so-called Gathering of Eagles says on their web site: “We will not allow them to spit on Iraqi Veterans again (itals mine).” First of all, it is not “Iraqi” veteran that is like saying “Vietnamese” veteran. It is “Iraq” veteran. Secondly, I have never spat on any veteran. I know no one who has, or who would spit on a veteran. Saying this is just pure propaganda horse pucky and the small minded people that are manipulating proud veterans with these deceptions should be ashamed of themselves. But we know they aren’t. They aren’t even ashamed of killing, torturing, or maiming innocent people. Why should they suddenly be ashamed of or disavow their tactics now? There tactics only become more contemptible as their positions become more indefensible and untenable.
One fantastic irony is that the only time that I can recall when memorials to fallen Iraq veterans have been desecrated is when Reich-wingers have been the ones doing the vandalizing. The first time was in August of 2005 when Larry Northern mowed over hundreds of crosses at Camp Casey. How do the people who say they honor our fallen heroes feel about this act of violence against these fallen heroes? I know I was appalled and heartbroken that Larry didn’t respect our memorial, our soldiers, and particularly my son.
Another time that a memorial was in January of this year when The Camp Casey Peace Institute put 3000 American flags down Prairie Chapel Road to commemorate the 3000th American soldier killed in Iraq. One woman broke every flag in front of her property (on public land) and left the pieces strewn all over in the bar ditches. Is this respecting our fallen heroes or the American flag? Maybe the Reich-wing suspects that we will desecrate a memorial because they are so good at it?
I wonder how Reich-wingers who bind themselves up in the flag of false patriotism and lift high a cross of self-righteousness feel about two of their symbols being demolished by some of their own ilk. I know there are many falsely patriotic Iraq Memorials around the country that I don’t want my son associated with, but I would never even think of destroying the monument or demanding that Casey’s name be removed from one.
The March to the Pentagon on March 17th will be led by Vietnam Veterans, Iraq Veterans, First Gulf War Veterans, military families and Gold Star Families followed by many other peace and justice groups and individuals. The veterans will be there not to protect a Wall that never should have had to be erected in the first place, but to protect our First Amendment rights to be there; rights that supposedly, Casey and millions of other Americans have died protecting, including the names on the Wall. Rights that all service members swear to uphold. The veterans with us will also be there to make sure that the calamitous Iraq Memorial is not nearly as long as the one that the Eagles think they have to protect.
I believe a Gathering of Vets should surround the Constitution and protect it from further desecration by the Bush Regime. I think a Gathering of Americans should surround the Bill of Rights and refuse to allow BushCo to spit all over that document any longer. I think a Gathering of Patriots should surround the White House and demand that the world’s number one terrorist remove himself and his puppet masters from our house before they do any more damage to our planet and/or to humanity.
Get a clue, buy a vowel, Eagles. You are being played like a banjo by Karl Rove and Move America Forward. You are becoming all irate for absolutely no reason. We are not even going into the memorial. Even if we did we would not desecrate it. How many of your VA benefits to the crooks in the White House have to cut before you finally wake up? They don’t care about you! Don’t let them shovel any more Reich-wing horse pucky down your throats. Refuse to be used. Don’t be minions of, or in league with devils.
Eagles, if you come to DC looking for trouble you won’t find it from me. I honor your service to our country as I deplore George and Dick’s cowardly avoidance of that same service.
The first time I visited DC just six short months after Casey was killed, I placed a picture of him at the base of the Wall next to a picture of Sgt. Mike Mitchell, who was killed in the same battle as Casey on 04/04/04. Two more boys murdered for the Military Industrial Complex. Two more families destroyed for the lies of their leaders. Two more lives wasted.
No Respect
March 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
As you are all well aware, the Army Experience Center (A.E.C.) is a cutting-edge recruiting station here in Philadelphia set to close its doors next week. It was never intended to be a permanent station, having a two year tenure from its inception. Of course the knuckleheads who have protested the A.E.C. a couple times in the past year are claiming they exerted pressure to close it, but nothing could be further from the truth. As always, the ultra-leftists never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Last night though, the A.E.C. hosted a dinner to thank its soldiers, civilian employees and the larger veteran’s community for making it a success. The doors of the A.E.C will close for the last time Friday, but the lessons learned there over the past two years will reverberate across the country for a long time to come.
The statue accompanying this post was presented to me on behalf of GoE, Second Brigade MC, Viet Nam Vets MC, S.E. Pennsylvania Confederation of Clubs and our larger veteran’s community. It is a beautiful statue of an eagle with an American flag in its talons. That the award was wholly unexpected made receiving it even more touching. Lt. Cdr. Joe Eastman USN Ret. received an identical statue, and deservedly so. Believe me when I say we were both moved when they were handed to us. Let me also say that this is not my statue. It belongs to all of you who have assisted with our various actions at, and with, the A.E.C. I did not stand in the doorway of the A.E.C. alone when the miscreants came to protest, and I did not accept the statue alone. Although I may have been physically alone accepting it on our behalf, you were all with me in spirit. I could not have accomplished anything without all of you standing with me. Whether it is on a bitter cold day on the Mall in D.C., in the doors of the A.E.C., behind the line serving food to homeless, packing boxes for our brave warriors in the combat theaters, or a myriad of other events with which I had no personal involvement.
As the A.E.C. prepares to close, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly praise the soldiers and civilians who worked there for the past two years. In addition to providing cutting edge technology for young men and women who wish to join the Army, they have provided a community center atmosphere where kids can come and hang out after school and be safe. They have mentored, literally, hundreds of teenagers, some of whom later joined the Army and some whom did not. It mattered not to the mentors whether they joined up or not, but it meant volumes to the teens who received the soldier’s time and attention. The soldiers also provided valuable tutelage to kids of all ages and dramatically improved their scholastic scores, not, as some would have you believe, to provide fodder for the Army, but because it was simply the right thing to do.
The soldiers at the A.E.C. did a number of other things too that brought them no public accolades, nor praise, but did result in a nice smattering of military awards for several of them. These soldiers helped serve lunch at our weekly homeless veteran’s lunch every month for nearly a year. They single-handedly rehabbed playgrounds, painted over graffiti, organized three-on-three basketball and huge video game tournaments. While they managed these actions, these soldiers worked more than 40 hours a week as recruiters and endured vicious, scurrilous attacks from protesters who have no idea of the good works accomplished by these soldiers, and cared less.
Last September GoE, SBMC, VNV MC, the SEPA CoC, and a huge number of rank and file veterans and troop supporters stood their ground at the A.E.C. to prevent protesters from succeeding in their publicly announced mission. These truly bad people had announced that they intended to storm the A.E.C. and disrupt the events scheduled for that day. Forget the fact that the event scheduled for last September was a commemoration for those lost on September 11, 2001. Well, much like on the day of GoE’s inception back in March 2007, the veteran’s community stood tall and said NOT ON OUR WATCH, and the protesters were prevented from breaching the Center. While standing outside the doors of the Center with a number of you, I heard the oft repeated refrain from the protesters that the A.E.C. was nothing more than a glorified video game parlor where children were being groomed to commit war crimes by playing violent video games. Let’s also forget that the same video games played at the A.E.C. are no doubt in game consoles at most, if not all, of the protesters homes, and are played daily by their own children.
So, what now for the Army Experience Center? Well, the brave warriors who have served there for the last two years are all being assigned elsewhere. They will take with them valuable lessons learned and a commitment that transcends their personal military careers. They will take with them a sense of community fostered by their contact with the veteran’s community, as well as those who have never served, but benefited from that cooperation in a number of ways. It is a well-known maxim that bad habits are hard to break, but what gets forgotten all too often is that good habits are equally hard to break. The soldiers and staff of the A.E.C have developed the good habit of wanting to be part of, and a benefit to, the larger community in whatever way they can. As I was leaving the event last night I made my last handshake stop with two infantrymen from the A.E.C. I said to them, “I am proud beyond belief to be not only a fellow owner of that Blue Cord you both possess, but also to be an Army veteran. The things you have all done here will never be forgotten, and I want you to know that you have touched many more lives than any of you will ever know. For that we ALL owe you a debt of thanks.”
Sunnis and Shia, Praying Together
February 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Last night was a sleepless one for me. It rolled on until around 4 in the morning and though exhausted I couldn’t sleep. I’ve come to actually like these times because at this hour 99% of Baghdad’s private generators are shut down and the city becomes, for a brief period, enjoyably silent.
It was dark in my room except for a pale ray of moonlight coming through the window. Suddenly the floor began to tremble and a loud roaring sound broke the silence “What the…!” I thought. Then something really creepy happened. That pale ray of moonlight vanished leaving me in total darkness.
“First an earthquake and now the moon has vanished. Is this the end of the universe?”
Not a pleasant thought for a very secular person like myself.
I finally found the courage to get up and look out through my window. Two meters from me was a line of Stryker Armored Combat Vehicles that for some reason had pulled over in our street.
“Phew! Not the end of the universe yet!”
After some time, the convoy moved off, their engines fading slowly as the streets swallowed them up. I stood for a moment thinking about the men in those vehicles who stay up at night patrolling the dangerous streets of Baghdad to protect the few insomniacs like myself, and the millions of other sleeping Baghdadis. I said a prayer (in my own way) for their safety and went back to toss and turn in my bed.
Baghdad is still enjoying some days of relative calm interrupted only with minor sporadic incidents. In general there’s a feeling that these days are better than almost any other time in months. This is more evident in the eastern side of Baghdad than the western part, because the former part has received more US and Iraqi military reinforcements than the latter.
Checkpoints in Baghdad are becoming more abundant, with more attention paid to the exits and entrances of the city. I’m also hearing that those checkpoints have been reinforced with more soldiers and equipment.
Politically, today president Talbani visited Maliki in his office “to express support for Maliki’s security plan”. Maliki said after the meeting that operations would quickly gain momentum in the coming days, and that the troops will make efforts help displaced citizens return to their homes.
Signs of such efforts can already be seen on the streets, through political work instead of military. Yesterday the “popular support” committee headed by Ahmed Chalabi succeeded in reopening a Sunni mosque in Sadr city, returning control of the mosque to the Sunni endowment department after it was occupied by Sadr’s office personnel last year. The mosque was reopened with a celebration where Sunnis and Shia prayed together behind a Sunni cleric. Before the ceremony Shia volunteers cleaned up the area around the mosque from garbage and fixed the sign that carried the name of the mosque.
Still, I don’t expect much from politicians who are behind this. They are only trying to repair their damaged reputations. I do trust the cheering crowd; the average people who are weary of the violence. They clearly expressed their desire to see sectarian portioning reversed because they have seen what forced displacement has wrought upon civilians. Those people were not thinking of the motivations of politicians or clerics. They were speaking from their hearts.
Today I heard unconfirmed news about plans to return the remaining 9 Sunni mosques to the Sunni endowment department. I hope this gesture be met with a similar move on the Sunni end in areas where Shia are minority.
In other encouraging news, I saw on the local Baghdad news that US and Iraqi soldiers have discovered about 60 weapon caches since the beginning of this month, and detained more than 140 suspects during the same period.
Other incidents that indicate a positive change in Maliki’s policy are the arrest of deputy minister of health Hakim al-Zamili, and the deployment of IA soldiers to provide security for hospitals in Baghdad instead of the FPS.
The FPS, or the “Facility Protection Service,” is widely accused of being affiliated with death squads. Members of the FPS were recruited directly by ministries through contracts not overseen by the interior or defense ministries. The loyalty of FPS personnel is believed to be toward the political faction controlling any given ministry instead of the country as a whole.
The arrest of al-Zamili indicates that the new plan will not hesitate to target leaders of militant groups no matter what their position in the government was. The Sadr movement responded to the arrest only by saying that it was an insult to all Iraqis. One of their spokesmen said, in a clear sign of helplessness, “If one from our movement is to be arrested, then others from other factions should be arrested as well”.
I don’t know whether this current attitude of submission is going to last when more senior members are arrested. Still, I like the idea of arresting senior bad guys from both sects. This both satisfies public opinion, and gives credibility to the announced plans of the government to deal equally with all regardless of sect or background.
Get Some!
January 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(CBS/AP) Attack helicopters strafed suspected al Qaeda fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday, witnesses said, following two days of air strikes by U.S. forces — the first U.S. offensives in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said American forces killed five to 10 people in an attack on one target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al Qaeda. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation’s sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.
The U.S. military is ready to carry out more strikes, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. But whether it does will depend on getting good intelligence on the whereabouts of any al Qaeda operatives left alive.
A Somali lawmaker said 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, died in Tuesday’s assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border. The report could not be independently verified.
A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no comment on the helicopter strike.
The U.S. is hunting down Islamic extremists, said the Somali defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
“These guys deserve to be dead,” said CBS News consultant Michael Schueur, a former CIA officer. “I hope we did get them, but in the strategic sense of ‘are we closer to winning this war?’ I think that’s probably not the case.”
On Monday, a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship conducted an initial strike – part of a wider air offensive against suspected members of al Qaeda – Martin first reported.
The Pentagon confirmed Monday’s strike targeting al Qaeda operatives late on Tuesday, but did not give any information on who was actually killed.
The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reported. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
Earlier, Somalia’s president said that the U.S. was pursuing suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and that the effort has his support.
Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies were attacked in the capital late Tuesday by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks who fired two rocket propelled grenades, witnesses said.
The rocket attack was followed by several minutes of rifle fire. One Somali soldier was killed and two other soldiers and a bystander were wounded, said minibus driver Harun Ahmed, who took the injured to a hospital.
Col. Shino Moalin Nur, a Somali military commander, told the AP by telephone late Tuesday that at least one U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al Qaeda training camp Sunday on a remote island at the southern tip of Somalia next to Kenya.
Somali officials said they had reports of many deaths.
On Monday, witnesses and Nur said, more U.S. air strikes were launched against Islamic extremists in Hayi, 30 miles from Afmadow. Nur said attacks continued Tuesday.
“Nobody can exactly explain what is going on inside these forested areas,” the Somali commander said. “However, we are receiving reports that most of the Islamist fighters have died and the rest would be captured soon.”
In Washington on Tuesday, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman spoke of one strike in southern Somalia, but would not confirm any of the details or say whether any al Qaeda militants were killed.
The assault was based on intelligence “that led us to believe we had principal al Qaeda leaders in an area where we could identify them and take action against them,” Whitman said.
(Not-So) Warm Reception
December 27, 2006 | Leave a Comment
After praising Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, Senator John Kerry came to Iraq this weekend.
Before his arrival, rumors were already flowing that every FOB (Forward Operating Base) Commander told General Casey that they already had another “DV” (Distinguished Visitor) to support while Sen. Kerry was in country — or that they would be in the middle of ongoing operations — and hence were unable to support his visit. This rumor was either sparked or confirmed by a post by Matt on Blackfive. (Blackfive, for those who don’t already read it, is an infinitely more interesting military blog than mine).
Hey, I just came from a meeting where they were trying to get some commander, any commander, in the Green Zone, to host Jawn Carri.
Swear to God, the CG is saying, “You can’t tell me you ALL have things going on at that time! Come on!”
So, it appears that JF’nK will be coming to the Palace at the Embassy Annex and sitting around sucking up coffee at the Green Bean while we all try to ignore him.
Me, I’m gonna get a picture with him.
While in Iraq, things didn’t get much better for Senator Kerry. Rumor has it that somebody gave his helicopter flights the designation “Weasel 61.” (Legend has it that when Senator Clinton visited Afghanistan, her bird was assigned “Broomstick 11″ as its code name). Before taking off, supposedly the helicopter pilot jumped out of the front seat while the rotor was turning (an extremely rare event), approached the rear of the bird, and asked Senator Kerry to autograph a copy of the photograph below:
On Saturday night, a colleague emailed me and told me to bring my camera, as Senator Kerry was scheduled to give a press conference here in the Palace. At 2100, he entered a conference room wearing his leather flight jacket. Unfortunately, there was no media there, except for the enlisted soldiers from AFTN (Armed Forces Television Network) who had to be there. His aide looked around, saw that this just wasn’t happening, and quickly escorted Kerry out before I could take a picture.
Finally, the next morning, Senator Kerry ate chow at the Dining Facility. Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him. (By contrast, Bill O’Reilly, host of that terrible shoutfest on Fox, had over 400 soldiers waiting in line to meet him on Saturday).
Schaudenfraude is the German word for taking pleasure in somebody else’s suffering. I don’t know whether I should feel this or rather pity for Senator Kerry, who looked like a kid on his first day at a new school. I’m not sure what kind of a reception he expected to receive here given his “botched joke” before the election, but I’m debating whether to give him points for having the chutzpah to come to Iraq.
Ailing Ayatollah
December 7, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Three days ago, Iran’s dictator, Supreme Leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei, was rushed to the vast medical facility traditionally known as “Vanak” hospital (it now has an Arabic name that means “the 12th Imam Hospital”), a 1,200-room facility that saves half of its beds for the leadership.
Khamenei is known to be suffering from cancer, and taking considerable quantities of an opium-based pain killer. He has lost more than 17 pounds in the past ten months, and was told last spring that he was unlikely to see another New Year (In the Iranian calendar, the New Year begins at the end of March).
Khamenei first complained of chills, and then broke out in a cold sweat. He lay down to rest, and began to lose feeling in his feet, at which point his aides got him to the hospital.
Amidst maximum security, and under orders that the event be kept secret at all costs, the theocrat was placed in one of the luxurious suites reserved for the country’s most important figures. Khamenei’s blood pressure and pulse were alarmingly low, and his physicians at
first feared some sort of hemorrhage. But they could find no trace of internal bleeding, and concluded that he had had some sort of cardiac crisis.
Khamenei is still undergoing tests and receiving maximum attention. It is clearly a serious problem because he wanted to leave the hospital, only to be talked out of it by the doctors. The precise gravity of his condition is not known, but the argument over the wisdom of moving him to his own home suggests it may be quite serious.
My sources for this information are a very knowledgeable Iranian cleric plus another Iranian who has previously provided strikingly accurate stories from the highest levels of the regime in Tehran, suggesting that a major crisis may be underway in Iran.
The Power Struggle
The Supreme Leader has good reason to keep his condition secret, and to seek to demonstrate he retains his ability to rule the country. Khamenei knows that his regime is riven by intense conflict, some of which has been dramatically exposed in recent weeks in the run-up to the election of a new Assembly of Experts (the clerical body whose main responsibility is the selection of the Supreme Leader).
News of Khamenei’s heart problems, especially if they turn out to be life-threatening, would undoubtedly catalyze the battle at the highest levels of the regime to control the choice of his successor. Recent events document both the intensity and the violence of the power struggle.
On November 27th, a military aircraft–an Antonov 74—headed for a military site near Tabriz crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran. Nearly forty deaths were reported, including several top leaders of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the country’s elite military organization. The dead included some of Khamenei’s closest allies and advisers, and their loss was a serious blow for him.
Most Iranians–who are in any case reluctant to believe in accidents when the mighty are killed–are convinced the plane was sabotaged, especially as this is the latest in a sequence of spectacular airplane disasters, producing high-level military casualties.
About a week earlier, a military helicopter came down, killing all six people on board. Last January, Ahmad Kazemi, the Revolutionary Guards’ ground commander, and seven other senior officers, were killed in the crash of a French-made Falcon, a small executive jet, near the Turkish border. Barely a month before, yet another military aircraft, a C-130, came down near Tehran airport, hit a ten-story building, and killed 115 people (mostly journalists).
A week ago, the Majlis (the national assembly) passed a law effectively reducing the presidential term of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nezhad by a full year. This was universally seen as an attack in favor of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmadi-Nezhad’s most visible political rival, and a candidate to succeed Khamenei.
Meanwhile, as reported in Iran Press News, the ongoing public challenge to the regime itself continues unabated.
On Wednesday, thousands of students demonstrated on the campus of Tehran University, chanting “death to despotism,” and “death to the dictator.” And in Mazandaran Province, up by the Caspian Sea, thousands of angry workers protested in front of Ahmadi-Nezhad himself, announcing they were starving and demanding the government honor its promise to improve the lot of the poor.
As yet, news of the Supreme Leader’s medical problems has remained a secret, known only to a handful of trusted aides and colleagues. But it is only a matter of time before Khamenei’s condition becomes public knowledge. With unknown ramifications to the stability of Iran and the region at large.
Bush’s Latest Lunacy
December 5, 2006 | Leave a Comment
NASA announced plans on Monday for a permanent base on the Moon, to be started soon after astronauts return there around 2020.
The agency’s deputy administrator, Shana Dale, said the United States would develop rockets and spacecraft to get people to the Moon and establish a rudimentary base. There, other countries and commercial enterprises could expand the outpost to develop scientific and other interests, Ms. Dale said.
Ms. Dale and other officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the agency envisioned a base at one of the lunar poles, to take advantage of the near-constant sunlight for solar power generation. It would have an “open architecture” design to which others could add the capabilities they want.
Scott Horowitz, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration, said crews of four astronauts would make weeklong missions to the Moon starting around 2020.
As more equipment was set up, human stays would eventually grow to 180 days, and become permanent by 2024. By 2027, officials said, a pressurized roving vehicle on the surface would take people on expeditions far from the base.
NASA gave no cost estimate for the program and no design details for the base. Ms. Dale said all plans assumed that the agency would continue operating from a fixed budget of about $17 billion a year.
The space shuttle fleet is to be retired by 2010, and the United States plans to scale back its involvement in the International Space Station. The station is still under construction, with a mission by the shuttle Discovery to lift off on Thursday. Ms. Dale said money would be shifted to the lunar exploration program from the shuttle and the station.
While the Bush administration and NASA have spoken in general terms about plans for a return to the Moon, followed by human spaceflight to Mars, the lunar outpost plan is the first time officials have proposed a permanent presence.
”We’re going for a base on the Moon,” Mr. Horowitz said. “It’s a very, very big decision.”
Many gaps in the plan remain to be filled in. NASA called Monday’s announcement a baseline concept.
In a televised news conference from the Johnson Space Center in Houston on the eve of an international conference there on space exploration, Ms. Dale said the plan was developed after consultation with space agencies representing 14 countries and more than 1,000 experts in space science and commerce.
“The door is open for international and commercial interests,” she said.
The lunar base plan is part of a larger effort to develop an international exploration strategy, one that explains why and how humans are returning to the Moon and what they plan to do when they get there, NASA officials said.
The planning includes an international conference early next year on setting scientific goals for returning to the Moon, including those that private interests might want to pursue.
Doug Cooke, the agency official who led the lunar study group, said the plan called for putting a lander craft down near a polar crater and later adding solar-power generating units and living quarters to establish a base.
A site near the lunar South Pole, like the Shackleton Crater, would provide enough sunlight for power generation. It is also near possible deposits of valuable minerals.
From this site, Mr. Cooke said, other nations could add scientific laboratories or observatories, and commercial concerns might want to process rocket fuel and other products from water and other materials that might be found in the ground nearby.
Mr. Horowitz said having a base did not mean that humans would go there after every lunar landing. The option remains open for some missions to go to equatorial regions, as the Apollo project landers did in the 1970s, or even to the other side of the Moon.
Getting to the Moon and establishing a base will require a versatile, general-purpose lander that could land anywhere and be the core of an outpost, he said.
“The nickname I use for the lander is, it’s a pickup truck,” Mr. Horowitz said. “You can put whatever you want in the back. You can take it to wherever you want. So you can deliver cargo, crew, do it robotically, do it with humans on board. These are the types of things we’re looking for in this system.”
Farewell Fidel?
November 29, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Fighter jets soared over anti-aircraft missiles as Cuba rehearsed for its first military parade in a decade to mark Fidel Castro’s 80th birthday, amid expectation that he may appear in the flesh.
Four months have passed since Castro underwent intestinal surgery and then relinquished power temporarily to his brother and defense minister, Raul Castro. Cuba postponed Fidel’s birthday celebrations from August 13 to December 2, hoping his recovery might be well along.
But Cuban authorities, who do not comment in detail on Castro’s health, have stopped saying Fidel will be back on the job full-time.
The celebrations have something of a farewell tone for many Cubans.
“I think he looks like he has the will to live, and he has been leading the country from his bed but at the same time preparing people for when he is no longer with us,” said marcher Silvia Loperon, 53.
Since Fidel Castro’s July 26 operation, he has only been seen on television and in still photographs.
Monday, activity was at a fever pitch and the volume was on high at Revolution Square. Military cadets turned out in formation, MiG fighters zoomed beneath the clouds and Soviet-era troop transport helicopters clattered by.
Young workers from several state industries were out marching with their co-workers, waving huge red, white and blue Cuban flags in the cool breeze.
The military parade Saturday at which Fidel Castro is widely expected — though his attendance is not officially confirmed — is the climax of almost a week of festivities.
Some 300,000 people are expected to march, and 2,000 guests from 80 countries, including presidents, ex-presidents and Nobel laureates are due on hand. Allies President Evo Morales of Bolivia and president-elect Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua are to attend, as is Haitian President Rene Preval.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, a staunch critic of the United States and Castro’s key ally in keeping his regime alive economically, has not confirmed and is up for reelection this Sunday. But organizers in Havana said they would not rule out a quick visit by Castro’s close friend.
All eyes will be on the podium to see if the grey-bearded leader is present and, if he is, hazard a guess at whether he might be strong enough ever to retake the helm of Latin America’s only one-party communist regime.
For dissident Elizardo Sanchez, the birthday extravaganza “is something unprecedented; it is a pharaonic celebration that seems more like a good-bye.”
Supporters were hopeful and nostalgic.
“We expect to see our commander in his military uniform. On Saturday we are going to show that the Revolution is still on its feet and more solid than ever,” said Laura Cuadra, 52, a worker at an epidemiology center out marching.
Within a month of the operation, Castro said he had lost 18.6 kilograms (41 pounds). His usual proud frame of a statesman faded in pictures to a gaunt, elderly hospital patient.
Whether or not he returns to work full time, over the past four months Cuba has grown used to the idea of life without Fidel, the only leader most Cubans have known. He took power in January 1959.
For years, Castro’s visage was not seen on billboards bearing government slogans, as if to give it more weight elsewhere. Now, Fidel’s face, no longer everyday currency in state media, is on billboards reassuring “Vamos bien” — things are going well.
And with the baton passed to Raul Castro, 75, the public profiles of other communist leaders, such as Vice President Carlos Lage, 55, have been raised on state television. Raul Castro has kept a low profile.
Loly, a 63-year-old nurse in Havana, said privately that Fidel Castro was unlikely to return to power. “Fidel is not coming back. When he is no longer alive, the political line is going to be the same, but let’s hope the economy improves.