Think how many candy-canes and vacations I could have if it were not for the space program, or the cost of carrier-groups or special forces or — I don’t know — Black Hawk helicopters. (If you think I am being unkind or frivolous, see if you can detect the thread of reasoning that connects Iraq expenditures with the crisis in the mortgage system.) There are days when I think that the money raised by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama might have been better spent on the alleviation of poverty, but I can still tell an apple from an orange and am not hopelessly stuck on the zero-sum fixation. Once again, the economic “experts” turn out to know the price of some things but not the value of anything.
Auto parts maker Vuteq USA plans to build a $31 million plant in New Albany to supply molded plastic pieces and other components for Toyota’s assembly plant in Blue Springs.Vuteq, a Japanese company with seven facilities in North America, will hire 130 people to work at the New Albany plant and up to 500 to prepare parts kits at the Toyota plant.
Vuteq’s building will be the first in the Martintown Industrial Park, open land Union County bought with Toyota suppliers in mind.
Primary day in the Magnolia State … Beagle Scout who lives down on the coast in MS 1st district, is calling for voters to cross over and vote for Hillary. I live in the 3rd, and I won’t be crossing over. We’ve got a pretty good selection of hopefuls vying for the Pickering seat. The Club for Growth jumped in and endorsed Charlie Ross, to which I say, “forget Charlie Ross.” I’m pulling for David Landrum. So is Mrs. Nuke. Sure hope he makes the runoff.
U.S. House, 3rd District. For the Democratic nomination, Randall Eads of Starkville will meet Joel Gill of Pickens. On the Republican side, voters will choose between Gregg Harper of Pearl, Charlie Ross of Brandon, David Landrum of Madison County, John Rounsaville of Madison, Bill Marcy of Meridian, Gregory Hatcher of Meridian and the Rev. James Broadwater of Flowood.
Muqtada Al-Sadr Announces He’s Retiring From Leadership Of Sadrist Movement, Sequestering Himself
The leader of the Shi’ite Sadrists in Iraq, Muqtada Al-Sadr, has announced in a letter to his followers that he is stepping down from his position, distancing himself from people, and focusing on his studies.
He explained that he was doing so because he had failed in carrying out his father’s will to liberate Iraq from the occupation and turning its people into believing Muslims.
He wrote that the continuation of the occupation, the many who were distancing themselves from the true path, and their turning to politics and affairs of this world had motivated him to sequester himself from human society, in order to carry out his obligation to Allah and not to add sin to the crime.
Al-Sadr called on his men to obey the committee for managing the affairs of the Sadrist movement and all Sadrist institutes, and its representatives that bear the name of the Office of Al-Sayed Al-Shahid – which is named after his father, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadeq Al-Sadr, murdered in 1999 by the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
I can’t imagine this fellow just voluntarily stepping aside for the reasons stated. On March 3, Al-Siyassa (Kuwait) reported that al-Sadr had been “secretly transferred a few days ago from Iraq to Iran for hospitalization as he was comatose. It was reported that his illness resulted from food poisoning.”
Nature abhors a vacuum. I wonder who the next Shiite strongman will be?
BAGHDAD — Iraq has captured an Al Qaida-aligned cell that recruited and deployed women for suicide operations.On March 1, Iraqi and U.S. troops raided a suspected Al Qaida safe house in Al Makhesa, in northeastern Diyala. Officials said scores of suspected women operatives recruited as suicide bombers were arrested. The women suicide cell was said to have consisted of 100 operatives.
Officials said Al Qaida has increased its use of women for suicide operations.
The women cell was said to have operated in the Diyala province. Officials said some of the women were recruited by their husbands for suicide operations against Iraqi and U.S. forces.
U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus reported a slight increase in suicide-vest attacks in Iraq. He said the suicide vests were being handed to women, regarded as being more capable of reaching their targets than car bombs.
A psychiatric hospital administrator in Iraq suspected of supplying mentally impaired women for al Qaeda terror missions was detained Feb. 10.
The acting director of the Al Rashad psychiatric hospital of Baghdad is in coalition forces custody, and his office was searched to see what role he may have played in supplying al Qaeda with information about patients at the hospital or from other medical facilities in the Baghdad area, said Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, director of Multinational Force Iraq’s Communication Division.
On Feb. 1, two women were part of separate suicide bombings in crowded Baghdad pet markets that killed nearly 100 people. Detaining the administrator and the subsequent search are part of an investigation into the bombing. Smith said last week that the two teenage women involved most likely unwittingly carried the explosives into the markets and that both were mentally handicapped.
The U.S. military says a major joint operation with Iraqi forces has captured more than 200 suspected terrorists in four provinces of northern Iraq.
It says Operation Iron Hammer, which was launched last week, has made significant progress against al-Qaida in Iraq. The U.S. military said Sunday security forces have captured three high value al-Qaida operatives and seized several large weapons caches.
