Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Print
Email
PDF 
Neil Patrick Harris fans hoping to see their fave be a cut-up as host of Sunday's Tony Awards (airing at 8 pm/ET, on CBS) will probably get some satisfaction. But those wanting to see the How I Met Your Mother star cut a rug or break out into song might come up empty.
"They have an opening planned that is bigger than they have ever had in Tony history. But I don't think I'm going to be involved in it," Harris shared in a press conference call.
Instead, Harris says he will take a cue from Hugh Jackman ...
Other Links From TVGuide.com
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: Wb News]
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: Abc 7 News]
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: October News]
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: Cbs News]
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: Boston News]
Will Neil Patrick Put on a Show at the Tonys? Plus Dr. Horrible and Kumar Sequel Scoop
[Source: News Station]
posted by tgazw @ 4:58 PM,
,
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
 |
| Click map for full view. Taliban presence, by district, in Kandahar, Uruzgan, and Helmand provinces. Information on Taliban presence obtained from open source and derived by The Long War Journal based on the presence of Taliban shadow governments, levels of fighting, and statements from ISAF commanders. Map created by Bill Raymond for The Long War Journal. Last updated May 26, 2009. |
As Afghan and US forces complete an operation that targeted a Taliban stronghold in northern Helmand province, another area is identified as a Taliban safe haven that hosts al Qaeda training camps.
The Baghran district in northern Helmand hosts several camps run by al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army, several military and civilian sources told The Long War Journal. Hundreds of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have rotated through the Baghran camps. The Shadow Army, or the Lashkar al Zil, is al Qaeda?"s paramilitary force that closely operates with the Taliban and other jihadi groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan [see LWJ report, Al Qaeda's paramilitary 'Shadow Army'].
The trained fighters are then sent to conduct operations against Afghan and Coalition forces in Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces. "Some relatively well-trained Talibs come out of these camps," an intelligence official said. "They are trained to operate in small units, and expertise on IED [improvised explosive devices or roadside bombs] and suicide attacks are passed on to some fighters."
Some of the complex attacks in Kandahar and Uruzgan are thought to have been carried out by fighters trained at the Baghran camps, including the Feb. 2 suicide attack inside a training center for police reservists in the town of Tarin Kot in Uruzgan province. Twenty-one Afghan police were killed and seven more were wounded in the suicide attack.
Baghran, the northernmost district in Helmand, is located in a remote and mountainous region, and serves as an ideal sanctuary for the Taliban and al Qaeda operating in southern Afghanistan. There are no Coalition forces present and the region is largely unpatrolled.
The district was the scene of a major US airstrike in August 2007 that targeted what the US military called a "sizable meeting of senior Taliban commanders." Hundreds of Taliban fighters and leaders were said to be gathering in a village in Baghran to conduct a public execution of two "spies."
Mullah Dadullah Mansour, at the time the military commander in the south, and Mullah Abdul Rahim, a senior commander in Helmand who operates from Pakistan, were both reportedly in attendance. Both leaders survived the strike. Locals claimed that more than 50 civilians were wounded but the US military maintained that only Taliban fighters were killed or wounded.
Nearby Nad Ali district also an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold
The district of Nad Ali in Helmand also serves as a safe haven for the Taliban and al Qaeda and hosts camps for the Shadow Army.
In that district, Afghan and Coalition forces recently completed a four-day operation in the village of Marja, which was described by the US military as a "key militant and criminal operations and narcotics hub in southern Afghanistan" and "a main command node." According to Quqnoos, an English-language Afghan news outlet, Marja has been under Taliban control for more than a year and a half [see LWJ report, Afghan and US forces battle Taliban in northern Helmand stronghold].
The military said more than 60 Taliban fighters were killed during the operation as the Taliban "mounted an ineffective and uncoordinated defense" of the village. No Afghan or US troops were reported killed during the fighting, and more than 223 tons of narcotics and 37 tons of materials used to make explosives were seized.
Afghan and Coalition forces cordoned the town's main bazaar, where Taliban command and control centers and narcotics and bomb factories were located, and then called in airstrikes to destroy the buildings.
US and Afghan military officers deemed the operation a major success. "The commandos thoroughly demolished a vital operational, logistical, and financial hub for the enemy and completed this mission victorious as the militants and criminals crawled away defeated and operationally-neutered," Ministry of Defense spokesperson Major General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said in a US military press release..
But Afghan and US forces did not remain in Marja to deny the Taliban and al Qaeda the opportunity to reestablish control of the region, according to a report in Quqnoos.
"The troops have left the area after the operation and the area is again under the control of the Taliban," said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the governor of Helmand.
US Marines moving into Helmand in force
A US military officer said the raid in Marja is the best that can be done at this time because too few forces are available to secure all of the territory in southern Afghanistan.
"Until the additional troops are available, search and destroy operations like the one in Marja are the best we can do," the officer said. "The operation succeeded in its limited objective, and that command center needed to be taken out, but we won't make serious headway in the south until we can hold the ground in places like Marja."
This summer, the US will send an additional 17,000 troops to help stabilize the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. More than 8,000 Marines and 9,000 soldiers will be deployed to Afghanistan by this summer. The bulk of these troops will be deployed to the eastern and southern provinces where the Taliban control wide swaths of territory.
The fighting in Helmand is expected to intensify as the Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade are deploying in the province and will also be operating in neighboring Farah province. The Marines have established two bases, Camp Dwyer and Camp Leatherneck, to support operations in the south.
Camp Dwyer is a forward operating base that will host the majority of the Marine forces. Leatherneck will host a battalion of Marines and the brigade's air combat element, which has more than 60 Harrier and Hornet attack aircraft, 12 Cobra attack helicopters, and more than 90 transport helicopters.
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
[Source: Good Times Society]
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
[Source: State News]
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
[Source: News Herald]
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
[Source: Cbs News]
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
[Source: Broadcasting News]
Al Qaeda Shadow Army camps located in northern Helmand
[Source: Nbc News]
posted by tgazw @ 4:24 PM,
,
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
PrintEmailPDF A presidential proclamation marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.
Available in full after the jump.
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: News]
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: Cbs News]
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: Broadcasting News]
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: News Station]
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: Mexico News]
Obama On LGBT Pride Month
[Source: Chocolate News]
posted by tgazw @ 4:04 PM,
,
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
PrintEmailPDF Just last week, Denver Post and Reason.com columnist David Harsanyi asked, "Is The Abortion Debate Changing?" Based on a recent Gallup Poll, which found that a majority of Americans considered themselves "pro-life" for the first time since the question started being asked in 1995, Harsanyi suggested "that Americans are getting past the politics and into the morality of the issue" after decades of legalized abortion. And, he argued, the morality of abortion is a lot more complicated than most pro- or anti-abortion slogans let on.
Earlier today, in response to killing of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, Jacob Sullum asked why anti-abortion activists rushed to condemn the death of a man who by their own accounts was slaughtering innocents. Jacob understands why the activists might say that, but argues that it's really a tactical response: That they need to distance themselves from murderous extremists.
So what do Reason readers think? Will the killing of George Tiller push more Americans to identify as pro-life? Or will it push voters in the other direction? Does it matter that Tiller was known for doing late-term abortions, which are statistically rare but gruesome?
You go back to that Gallup Poll and one thing sticks out on the basic question of whether abortion should be legal under some circumstances: Since 1976, the percentage answering yes has been around 50 percent or higher (there are a few years where it dipped into the high 40s). That is, it's been pretty stable at or around a majority number.
And the percentage of people saying abortion should be illegal under all circumstances has rarely cracked the 20 percent figure (though it has again in recent years). Similarly, the percentage saying abortion should be legal under all circumstances, which peaked at 34 percent in the early 1990s, has always been a minority position (which currently stands at 22 percent and has been dropping lately).
I suspect that as abortion becomes rarer (as Reason's Ron Bailey pointed out in 2006, abortion has been getting rarer since the 1990s and also occurs earlier in pregnancies than before), it's quite possible that the either/or positions might change, but that their movement will have little effect on the middle position of abortion staying legal under some circumstances. Even those, such as Harsanyi, who is plainly troubled by the logic of abortion, generally concede that prohibition would cause more problems than it would fix ("I also believe a government ban on abortion would only criminalize the procedure and do little to mitigate the number of abortions.").
Back in 2003, on the occasion of Roe v. Wade's 30th anniversary, I argued that regarding abortion the country had reached a consensus that
has little to do with morality per se, much less with enforcing a single standard of morality. It's about a workable, pragmatic compromise that allows people to live their lives on their own terms and peaceably argue for their point of view....
This isn't to say that the debate about abortion is "over"-or that laws governing the specifics of abortion won't continue to change over time in ways that bother ardent pro-lifers and pro-choicers alike. But taking a longer view, it does seem as if the extremes of the abortion debate - extremes that included incendiary language (including calls for the murder of abortion providers) - have largely subsided in the wake of a widely accepted consensus. Part of this is surely due to the massive increases in reproduction technologies that allow women far more control over all aspects of their bodies (even as some of those technologies challenge conventional definitions of human life).
That isn't an outcome that is particularly satisfying to activists on either side of the issue or to people who want something approaching rational analysis in public policy. But it's still where we're at and it's unlikely the Tiller case will do much to move things one way or the other. The one thing that would likely change it would be if there was a massive shift toward later-term abortions, which seems unlikely based on long-term trendlines and technological innovations.
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: Media News]
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: Advertising News]
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: Murder News]
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: Sun News]
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: Online News]
Will the Killing of George Tiller Have an Effect on Public Opinion Regarding Abortion?
[Source: World News]
posted by tgazw @ 3:41 PM,
,
Mr Universe to governator
PrintEmailPDF A look back at Arnold Schwarzenegger's career in pictures
Mr Universe to governator
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Mr Universe to governator
[Source: October News]
Mr Universe to governator
[Source: Media News]
Mr Universe to governator
[Source: Stock News]
Mr Universe to governator
[Source: Channel 6 News]
posted by tgazw @ 1:58 PM,
,
Christie Keeps Lead Heading Into Primary
PrintEmailPDF A new FDU PublicMind poll in New Jersey confirms how most other polls see tomorrow's Republican gubernatorial primary: Chris Christie (R) leads Steve Lonegan (R) by a healthy 54% to 30% margin. Another 11% are still undecided.
Christie Keeps Lead Heading Into Primary
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Christie Keeps Lead Heading Into Primary
[Source: Community News]
Christie Keeps Lead Heading Into Primary
[Source: Channel 6 News]
posted by tgazw @ 1:51 PM,
,
Multimedia
Top Stories
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links