Taliban Flag

Taliban Flag Flies Over Abandoned US Base in Afghanistan

KABUL – Taliban fighters claimed Friday their flag was flying victoriously over an eastern Afghan village U.S. forces abandoned after suffering casualties in one of the war's deadliest battles for American troops.

The withdrawal this week from mountainous Kamdesh, an isolated hamlet near the Pakistan border, was planned well before the intense Oct. 3 attack left a pair of outposts in ruins and eight American troops dead.

See here for more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

Google Based H1N1 [Swine] Flu Tracking Map

This map and the data behind it were compiled by Dr. Henry Niman, a biomedical researcher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using technology provided by Rhiza Labs and Google. The map is compiled using data from official sources, news reports and user-contributions and updated multiple times per day.

Click here--> http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/

Qat

Yemeni Troops Go Into Battle High on Qat

HARF SOFYAN, Yemen – Resting between frenetic bursts of fighting with tenacious Shiite rebels in the north, many Yemeni soldiers pass the day chewing qat leaves — the mild stimulant plant that is the impoverished Arab nation's traditional drug of choice.

For the beleaguered troops dispatched to Yemen's rugged Saada province, the chewing sessions offer a welcome high and suppress fears that the rebels may have the upper hand against an army lacking basic gear such as helmets and body armor.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091006/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_battling_rebels_2

Fidel Castro

Castro Urges Cubans to 'Re-think' Socialism.....

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cubans began taking a hard look this week at entrenched customs like food rationing, pilfering on the job, cradle-to-grave subsidies and black market trading in a national debate called by President Raul Castro.

Authorities have circulated a ten-point agenda for thousands of open-ended meetings over the next month at work places, universities and community organizations to rethink Cuban socialism, focused on the economic themes highlighted by Castro in a speech to the National Assembly in August.

[Note: criticism of the socialist itself is not under consideration, or permitted. MB]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090922/wl_nm/us_cuba_debate_1

War on Drugs: A Lost Cause?

ATLANTA - Every 18 seconds, an American is busted for drug possession, according to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) crime statistics released Monday.

The new statistics point to a continued emphasis on drug interdiction – otherwise known as the "war on drugs" – that more and more law enforcement officers are now questioning. While many experts hold the anti-drug campaign to be the key reason for the decline in the crime rate in the US, especially violent crime, since the 1990s, these police officers, as well as current and retired judges and prosecutors see, instead, thousands of American lives ruined for small drug infractions in a costly and possibly unwinnable "war."

"Not only do these officers see the terrible results that their work has had on individuals' lives, but a lot of what I hear from beat officers and undercover narcotics agents is they've seen colleagues die in the line of fire trying to enforce laws that have no positive impacts," says Tom Angell, a spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) in Washington. "For a lot of them, this is about trying to keep good cops alive by repealing stupid prohibition laws."

See here for more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0916/p02s01-usgn.html

Battle of Harlem Heights

This Day in History: Battle of Harlem Heights

The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought in the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The action took place in what is now the Morningside Heights and west Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan inNew York City on September 16, 1776.

The Continental Army—under Generals George Washington, Nathanael Greene, and Israel Putnam, totaling around 1,800 men—held a series of high groundpositions in upper Manhattan against an attacking British division totaling around 5,000 men under the command of General Alexander Leslie. British troops made a tactical error by having their bugler sound a fox hunting call, "gone away," while in pursuit. This was intended to insult Washington, himself a keen fox hunter, having learned the sport from Lord Fairfax during the French and Indian War. "Gone away" means a fox is in full flight from the hounds on its trail. The Continentals, who were in orderly retreat, were infuriated by this and galvanized to hold their ground. After flanking the British attackers, the Americans slowly pushed the British back. After the British fled, Washington had his troops end the chase. The battle went a long way to restoring the confidence of the Continental Army after suffering several defeats. It was Washington's first battlefield victory of the war.