Excerpt posted at Laura Mansfield.com:

In addition to the scenes shown on Al Jazeera on Thursday, the video includes previously unseen footage of Azzam the American, describing the September 11 attacks and the hijackers.

In a particularly gruesome scene, the video shows the hijackers practicing with box cutters, and shows them rehearsing slitting the throats of passengers on the planes.

I just watched it and I'm speechless. It's too close to the anniversary of 9-11, and the scenes of them practicing cutting throats is absolutely sickening.

I can't imagine how I would feel if I were one of the people who lost a loved one in the attacks five years ago and I saw this disgusting video.

For some reason, the last few minutes are blacked out - at least, that's what happens when I try to view the video - trying to figure out if it's something on my end.

UPDATE: From the tape [emphasis mine]:

"And the brother pilots taught the youth of the Ummah a powerful lesson in sacrifice, courage, certainty in Allah's victory, and true reliance on Him.

And they reigned in the mouths of those who rant that those who undertake martyrdom operations are unemployed empty failures in life. These brothers abandoned a life of luxury and ease after the world had opened its doors to them..."

So much for winning the WOT by understanding the "root causes" of terrorism.

UPDATE II: Allah has the full video over at Hot Air.

Posted by: John From WuzzaDem at 11:35 AM | Comments (31)
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Thanks to Bugler in the thread below, we know that Red State has the disputed videos available in Quicktime format. As I won't destroy my computer by loading this demon application, I won't be able to watch until somebody gets it in an open format.

RS also links the letters that the Clinton Lawyers sent to Bob Iger, head of ABC. I reproduce chunks of the entire text here because it looks like the site is getting deluged and service is spotty.

Dear Bob,

Despite press reports that ABC/Disney has made changes in the content and marketing of "The Path to 9/11," we remailn concerned about the false impression that airing the show will leave on the public. Labelng the show as "fiction" does not meet your responsibility to the victims of the September 11th attacks, their families, the hard work of the 9/11 Commission, or to the American people as a whole.

How does this work exactly? What should ABC have labeled this? - Shitty Fiction? Is there some categorization for "Making my boss look bad?"

No, what is really being set up here is the moral highground. This is like doing it for The Children ®

At a moment when we should be debating how to make the nation safer by implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, ...

Sorry ... Stop the tape. If I didn't know this was written by Clinton's lawyers, I could have told you that this was written by Clinton's lawyers. This is almost verbatim, "I need to get back to doing the work of the President for the good of this country." The arrogance is astonishing.

..."The Path to 9/11" calls into question the accuracy of the Commission's report and whether fabricated scenes are, in fact, an accurate portrayal of history. Indeed, the millions spent on the production of this fictional drama would have been better spent informing the public about the Commission's actual findings and the many recommendations that have yet to be acted upon. Unlike this film, that would have been a tremendous service to the public.

Of course, no one was that concerned about Reagan or F911. But the real issue is whether any of this would have been a problem if Clinton's team hadn't been portrayed as incompetent and unfocused (allegedly - just like Clinton's team, I still haven't seen the movie either).

As I said earlier, the problem is not the dramatization, it's what's being dramatized. The truth hurts.

More after the bump ...

Updates: Allah has the blogo-perspective on the videos.

And WND has Clinton's aide Buzz Patterson saying that the film is correct (more on this below). more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:43 PM | Comments (186)
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I have been defrauded via credit card.

To the best of my knowledge, it's the first time.

Strange too, cause the vendor called me to ask me if I had authorized this purchase. I would have thought they were phishing, except when I asked them if they had my security code, they read it back to me.

Anyway, good on them for checking it out. It was a hosting company that will remain unnamed but appreciated.

The only other charge that made it through and was reversed was a $56.00 charge to MATCH.COM. Both charges were reversed.

I did not authorize this transaction. Honest.

Basic advice, but worth revisiting...

Check your account statement and make sure the charges are yours. This gets to be a bit more work when you send your kid to school with one.

Don't give out your online account password to anyone over the phone. Don't give any account info to anyone you didn't call.

Your credit card company ain't gonna call you and ask for any secure info. They may call you to verify charges but they won't ask you for codes or passwords.

Not even the nosy ones.

Instead of signing your card on the back, write ASK FOR ID. Vendors will honor this.

Subscribe to daveintexas.wordpress.com

Be sure to send your security code with your card number.

Userid too. ix-nay on the assword-pay

ok, I just wanted to say assword. I really need your password to give you the premium Dave in Texas content.

Oh, and your credit line and outstanding balance would be good to know. Send it in hexidecimal, that'll keep the boogers out of our business.

Secret note to authorities: I am NOT actually soliciting credit card information from anyone. This is a joke. A stupid, moronic barely funny to anyone around 87 IQ joke. Not. Soliciting.

Those of you whose IQs are under 200.. send no info.

You really smart bastards are fair game though.

Posted by: Ace at 11:46 AM | Comments (65)
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The ordeal is over, and the man who had bragged that he would "splatter pig meat all over Chautauqua County" is now in police custody.

After more than five months on the run following his April escape from the Erie County Jail, Phillips, 44, surrendered Friday night after he was surrounded near the New York/Pennsylvania border.

Phillips had used a can opener to escape from jail in April and on June 10, he allegedly shot state trooper Shawn Brown in the abdomen after Brown stopped him near Elmira in Chemung County.

Phillips is also a suspect in the shooting death of Trooper Joseph Longobardo, 32, and the wounding of Donald Baker Jr., 38, on Aug. 31 in Cassadaga, Chautauqua County, while the troopers were on surveillance near the home of Phillips' former girlfriend. Baker remains in serious condition.

But the Death Penalty Statute in New York State was declared unconstitutional in 2004 and that was upheld by the State Legislature the following year.

"The first time I voted for the death penalty, I thought of the law as majestic and that there was very little chance of a mistake," said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol (D), who represents a working-class swath of Brooklyn and leads the committee that rejected the bill. "Then you grow up. Look at the DNA evidence -- you realize that people can make terrible mistakes."

I understand other objections to the death penalty, but not this particular line of reasoning.

I have a feeling that the NY Legislature may be revisiting this issue.

Adding on: Not sure I said this well the first time.
New technology can now be used to prove a death row inmate is innocent beyond a shadow of doubt.

The very fact that it works this well means that 'false conviction due to weak evidence' is now ineffective as an argument against capital punishment today (where the technology is used properly).

So technology has made a powerful anti-DP point obsolete (though anti-DP folks will still try to use it).
If this gets in front of the Legislature again, anti-DP legislators will have to use their fallback arguments, which tend to be emotional and less persuasive than the spectre of false execution.

Posted by: LauraW. at 10:46 AM | Comments (32)
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So I read the headline from this article ...

Toronto hosts private Clinton bash

And I'm thinking ... "a bunch of people on the left are getting together to slam Bubba. Good. 'Bout time."

Even my cynical, pessimistic, smallish, conservative heart misses a beat now and then. Of course, I should have known better ...

Event, which takes place at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, will raise money for the William J. Clinton Foundation, and will feature Kevin Spacey as master of ceremonies and Paul Shaffer as musical director.

Now that I have the headline framed correctly, I'm a little pissed. We have Clinton and his cronies forcefully demanding pulling "The Path to 9/11" after ABC already caved and gave in to the thugs demands. There is not even the pretense of making the film better, making the history more accurate - it's about power now, about letting the
nutroots know that the Democratic leadership is tough, strong. Allah called them thugs.

That's pretty good. But I'll just call them Democrats. The party that stands for nothing and has no ethical standards other than might makes right.

From the Variety article again ...

Other celebs expected to appear include Billy Crystal, Sarah McLachlan, Jon Bon Jovi, Tim McGraw and James Taylor.

No one will ever accuse these people of being truly nuanced, truly informed. But this utterly ridiculous. From all appearances, Clinton has signed the order (just like old times ...) to get the ABC show pulled. This threatens the sanctity of the airwaves, of free speech. This is no grassroots campaign to get a show pulled off the air - this is the arbitrary application of power by the US Congress on behalf of an ex president to censor a show that none of them have even seen.

Why would these people sell out their industry, their medium, their livelihoods to worship at the feet of an a has-been ex-president who is trying to preserve his legacy?

Let me just throw this out for you ... last night was the first of the Judas moments that accompanies any revolution, the incidents where people begin to line up behind the "heir apparent" to garner favors and prestige in return for acceptance. Perhaps this was a political move on these otherwise unsavvy media figures, because (to their minds at least) they sense that if they don't that they could be the subject of other arbitrary and capricious applications of power. This is language that they understand - the Politics of Pull, of Influence, of pragmatic power plays in a world of incompetence and public relations.

Posted by: Ace at 10:45 AM | Comments (46)
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China has launched a satellite carrying fruit and vegetable as part of a plan to help develop space-enhanced produce to feed the country's 1.3 billion people.

I wonder how much yuan that cost. It's probably cheaper to just get take out for everybody.

China has been experimenting with space-bred seeds for many years, with rice and wheat exposed to space later offering increased yields.

In a few years there will be some lonely Chinese guy sitting in space bonding with Huey, Louie, and Dewey and bellyaching about how "The Man" hates plants.
Listen, Jiang. Try free markets and private property. You'll soon have more food than you know what to do with.

via Drudge.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 AM | Comments (9)
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When your are driving around Europe, you would like to think that your fellow motorists are concentrating on keeping their cars between the white lines on the pavement. Is that too much to ask?

For some, apparently it is.

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - A Slovak driver who crashed into a bus shocked rescuers who found him unconscious and half naked with a vacuum pump on his penis.

Police said the 42-year-old man, driving an old Citroen in the Slovak town of Levice, had ignored a "give way" sign.

No wonder. Frankly, I am likely to miss some road signs if my schlong is getting sucked by some mechanical device.

That's why I have a GPS system in my car.

"It's very likely he had auto-sex while driving, it is a matter of investigation. After the accident he was found lying in the seat, his pants were off and it (the pump) was placed on his penis," police officer Peter Polak told Reuters.

"Very likely"? Let's think this over. They found him unconscious with a cock-pump installed. I think it is very likely that police officer Peter Polak has correctly interpreted the evidence at the scene of the crime.

"I've never seen anything like this, nor have my colleagues," he added.

The man was taken to hospital with head injuries.

Fortunately, his dick was protected when the crash occurred.

Auto-eroticism undoes driver

Posted by: Ace at 11:44 PM | Comments (26)
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From John Hawkins at Right Wing News:

It's not shaping up to be a great year for the GOP, the Democrats definitely have a big edge, and quite frankly, this is a lean field. Still, the GOP does have some opportunities that we may be able to exploit.

Hawkins lists "The GOP's Top 18 Pick-Up Opportunities In The House For 2006." Included in the list:

John "Abscam" Murtha

William "Cold Cash" Jefferson

I'm sensing a pattern here.

See also: Most Competitive Senate Races For 2006

Posted by: John From WuzzaDem at 09:30 PM | Comments (7)
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I'm convinced that India could be one of the greatest nations on the planet.

Except for this:

We all rejoiced at the end of the Cold War. But it seems as if the demise of Communism unleashed the demons of ethnic and religious hatred all over the globe. From Bosnia-Herzegovina to Sudan to Iraq to Rwanda to Indonesia to Thailand to North Ossetia to the the slums of France and the World Trade Center, the carnage has been incessant.

by Sebastian D'Souza

11 minutes ago

MALEGAON, India (AFP) - Relatives have buried their dead after three bombs outside a mosque and graveyard killed 37 people and injured more than 50 in the latest sectarian attack to rock India.

The blasts targeted Muslim worshippers leaving the mosque in the religiously-divided town of Malegaon in western India, the scene of previous clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

Political leaders appealed for calm as Muslims kept an overnight vigil on Shab-e-Barat, the Night of Blessing, when ancestors are remembered and prayers offered at their graves.

The mosque bombings may have been retaliatory:

The attacks came two months after seven bombs, believed to have targeted Hindus, ripped through train carriages in Mumbai killing 186 in an attack blamed on Islamic militants.

Sure, stuff like this happened 20 or 30 years ago. I remember the Nigerian civil war and the endless conflict in Ethiopia between the Christian south and the Muslim north in Eritrea. But it has become an epidemic. And you can't just point the finger at Islam. Islam is not responsible for atrocities committed by Serbian Christians or Indian Hindus.

What the hell is going on?

Relatives bury the dead after Indian mosque bombing

Posted by: Ace at 08:36 PM | Comments (137)
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Thank heavens I'm never going to be a public figure.

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer

21 minutes ago

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized Friday for saying in a closed-door meeting that the mixture of Hispanic and black blood gives Puerto Ricans and Cubans "very hot" personalities.

The Republican governor said he cringed when he read his own words in the Los Angeles Times story on Friday and added that the comments, referring to a GOP legislator, were not "meant to be in any negative way." Some critics were outraged, but even some Democrats said his remarks appeared to be more playful than disparaging.

In fact, he probably meant it as a compliment. But politicians just can't talk like normal people.

The statements about Hispanics and blacks were captured on a six-minute tape made during a March 3 speechwriting session between Schwarzenegger and his advisers. On it, Schwarzenegger and chief of staff Susan Kennedy speak affectionately of state Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia and speculate about her nationality.

"I mean Cuban, Puerto-Rican, they are all very hot," the governor says on the recording. "They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."

It helps a lot that the subject of the remark is being a good sport about it.

Garcia, who is Puerto Rican, appeared with Schwarzenegger on Friday and said she was not offended by the governor's comments. Garcia earlier told the Times that she often calls herself a "hot-blooded Latina."

I'll bet she is.

Schwarzenegger apologizes for remark

Posted by: Ace at 06:17 PM | Comments (30)
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