snapped shot

I'm making this video sticky again just for a certain reader in Austin. Hope you enjoy, Ching!

Considering that the penalty for doing this in Iran is certain death, my hat is genuinely off to these brave souls. I just wish they would get around to setting a higher standard for their demands than some bureaucrat-dictated, largely worthless document.

Watch the video here—or here via YouTube. I'm betting it'll be pulled from the latter by lunch time, of course. Can't have any of that free thought junk over there, you know.



Big h/t to IBA for pointing this out!

Some good news the mainstream media won't report:

Spc. Katie Sanicky puts a Daughters of Iraq arm band on an Iraqi widow who signed up for the new program.

YUSUFIYAH, Iraq — Entisar Yossif Yaqub’s closest brush with the terror that has paralyzed Iraq came a year ago.

She and her husband were on the road when a car full of masked men forced them to pull over. The couple were forced to get into the car with their armed kidnappers, driven to a house and questioned for three hours while blindfolded.

The men accused them of being members of the al-Qaida terror group, and when her blindfold was removed, she saw a long knife sitting on a table next to the Quran.

Their kidnappers eventually let Yaqub and her husband go. But she was furious.

“I want to fight them,” Yaqub said Thursday through a translator. “These people can attack civilians and cause trouble for them. I want to fight back against them.”

That’s why, when the Iraqi army and American soldiers offered her a chance to do something to keep her town safe, she grabbed the chance.

Now — under the guidance of five women soldiers from Fort Bragg — she is learning to supervise the first unit of the Daughters of Iraq.

It’s a program with several aims. One is to provide a force that can work with Iraqi soldiers and police at checkpoints — a force that can search other women without offense in a culture with strong taboos about men touching women. Another is to provide opportunities for women who need the money. And, at least for the American soldiers providing guidance to the Daughters of Iraq, this is a chance to show that Iraqi women can do more than their traditional roles.

This is an 8 video playlist of some of my favorites from http://www.youtube.com/AhmadsQuran3.

Listen and learn.

Li'l Mahmoud gets an unexpected visitor:

More inspired art from our pal Donkeyrock: Mahmoud does his best to impress his entourage.

After all these years, they can still rock really hard. Well, "hard" being pretty relative, that is. The show last night was fantastic, and can you believe that a band in their 50's would do three full encores? We couldn't even believe it!

Here's a taste of the tour, mostly for my brother, who couldn't make it. Be sure to catch the Hotlanta show, bro!

Charles Malik provides the in-depth analysis of the scuttlebutt, and has made an attempt to piece the puzzle together:

In a conversation with a PSP activist, we put the rumors we heard together, and found that there might be greater plans involved in these recent clashes. This is speculation, but it seems like there is a specific pre-constructed narrative being followed, and the weak link in the chain providing most of the information are SSNP guys.

It seems like Hezbollah's putsch is part of a larger plan to legitimate a Syrian return to Lebanon.

Hezbollah, Amal, and the SSNP tried to start clashes with the Sunni Future Movement and Druze PSP. Hezbollah assumed they would win after a week or so of clashes in Beirut and then dictate the narrative, claiming that they "liberated" the area. They followed their plan to take over all of Beirut, and then humiliate Hariri at the end by storming his compound. The only problem was that the March 14 parties refused to fight back and took away the clashes Hezbollah needed to legitimate their attacks ex post facto.

The plan was always to give territory back to the Army, but that is because the Army is merely a national symbol and placate the feelings of the community, while Hezbollah would remain in charge.

The SSNP would be the vanguard, placing posters of Syrian President Bashar al Assad everywhere. Hezbollah would be the enforcers, and try to keep some level of legitimacy by claiming that the SSNP guys are the Syria supporters. Amal and Berri would be the negotiating partner.

Hezbollah started clashes in the Bekaa simultaneous to the clashes in Beirut to make it seem like the fighting is national, but also to begin the process of providing Syria with an excuse to re-enter the country.

Charles has much more, so be sure to click over and check it out.