I'll see you there Farah. Don't be pushing folks around. Have your seat calmly. Excel Energy center has its own ghosts as well. Read this ... Excell Centre: Worst Democratic Defeat in History of US Elections. Mondale was Humiliated Symbols are everything in politics. Democrat Barack Obama plans his final primary night rally of the year, this week, on Republican-flagged grounds: The Excel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul, Minn, where the Republican National Convention will be staged in early September. But, as McClatchy's ever-mindful-of-history Steve Thomma notes, the place comes with some Democratic ghosts as well. As the final primary votes are cast Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota, Obama and wife Michelle will travel to a venue that the campaign takes as a sign of its intention to take the fight to the Republicans in November - with Obama intent on competing with Republican John McCain in close states such as Minnesota. But the footprint of the St. Paul site has some noteworthy history, Thomma, who has some experience reporting in St. Paul, has noted. "It was at that site where Democrat Walter Mondale met with about 2,000 crying supporters on election night to concede the 1984 presidential election to President Ronald Reagan,'' he writes. "And it wasn't just a loss. It was an Electoral College landslide. "Reagan swept 49 states and took 525 Electoral colCege votes. Mondale carried just his home state of Minnesota - narrowly - and Washington DC, giving him just 13 Electoral College votes. It was the worst electoral college defeat ever suffered by a Democrat in American history. Other Democratic landslide losers fared better: Jimmy Carter got 49 electoral votes to Reagan's 489 in 1980, and George McGovern got 17 to Richard Nixon's 520 in 1972. Mondale appeared gracious that night at the St. Paul Civic Center, later torn down to allow construction of the Xcel Energy Center. "He has won, we are all Americans, he is our president, and we honor him tonight," Mondale said. "I am thankful to America for hearing my case." On Tuesday night, with Obama hoping that this week's primaries and super-delegate decisions will deliver the delegates needed to name him his party's 2008 presidential nominee, the junior senator from Illinois will take the stage in St. Paul as a winner and ask all of American to hear his case as well. He will, of course, not be looking backward. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/06/obamas_big_night_in_st_paul_gh.html

What about Qaanfuur? It also has a fairly close meaning and sort of rhymes with Ganfuur. That is probably where Nephty stole the "N" from.

Prediction: Germany vs France final.

AUSTRALIA Keffiyeh kerfuffle hits Bondi bottleshop The "keffiyeh kerfuffle" - which forced Dunkin' Donuts to dump an ad featuring a celebrity chef wearing a scarf similar to a traditional Arab head-dress - has hit a Bondi bottleshop, one of its staff claims. Sandra Tieger, 20, alleged to smh.com.au she began to feel like a terrorism supporter following the reaction to her wearing a black and white scarf to work at Kemeny's. Ms Tieger's claims - which the store rejects - follow attacks on an ad for the US Dunkin' Donuts chain, in which celebrity chef Rachael Ray wore a scarf. Critics have said the scarf has "violent symbolism and anti-Israel overtones". But Ms Tieger said she had "no idea about the politics" when she bought the scarf at the Tree Of Life store. "I thought it was a nice scarf, a cowboy scarf. I thought: 'It's black and white, no-one will say anything to me because that's all we can wear [with our work uniform]'. "A Palestinian customer came up and asked me if I'm wearing this scarf as a fashion statement or for political reasons. "I had no idea what he was talking about because I don't follow politics at all. I just laughed it off. "Two days later he called and complained about it." Shevonne Hunt, a freelance journalist who has reported on the keffiyeh's popularity in Australia, said many Palestinians were annoyed the widespread use of the keffiyeh for fashion had watered down its meaning. Ms Tieger continued: "A few days after that, I wore the scarf again. A few customers started to complain who were Jewish; there's a lot of Jewish people in the area. "My boss said 'Could you please take it off, we have to be neutral'." After allegedly explaining she was wearing the scarf for style reasons only, Ms Tieger said her manager told her: "You shouldn't be wearing it, not here." "I said: "They're selling it everywhere, there's no escape."' The incident upset Ms Tieger and she started crying. Kemeny's groceries manager Alex Hoffman said Ms Tieger had not been bullied. "That's just total nonsense," he said. He said Ms Tieger had been asked "politely to take the scarf off" after a regular customer took offence to it. "They came in and complained to her about the scarf because it had some religious significance to them. "We approached [Ms Tieger] and raised the matter with her and asked her if she was aware [the scarf could represent a political symbol] and she said: 'What's the big deal?'. "She used the argument that it was a fashion item. "So we didn't know what reason she was wearing it for. I even asked her if she had a cold because if she did, we might re-consider it. But she said no." Mr Hoffman said Ms Tieger had become emotional about the request very quickly. "We find the notion quite silly because it evolved from nothing." Ms Tieger was working at the store today, but Mr Hoffman said he had not spoken to her about the incident today. "It's quite awkward," Ms Tieger said. "This is a very stressful job for a casual," the university biotechnology student said. She now only wears the contentious scarf indoors, she said. "It's in my drawer, I feel very uncomfortable wearing it now, I don't wear it on the street anymore." US commentator Michelle Malkin described the scarf's use in the Dunkin' Donuts ad as "clueless sporting of a jihadi chic keffiyeh". "Anti-American fashion designers abroad and at home have mainstreamed and adapted the scarves as generic pro-Palestinian jihad or anti-war statements. "Yet many folks out there remain completely oblivious to the apparel's violent symbolism and anti-Israel overtones." NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff said the wearing of the keffiyeh as a fashion item was a "non-issue". "It's a non-issue as far as we are concerned. If someone chooses to wear such an item for whatever reason that's their choice." http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bondis-keffiyeh-kerfuffle/2008/05/30/1211654279497.html

Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachael Ray ad Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. more stories like thisSome observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott. ‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column. ‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’ http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2008/05/27/dunkin_donuts_yanks_rachael_ray_ad/?p1=email_ to_a_friend

As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise By SUSAN SAULNY Published: May 30, 2008 The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank. After rummaging around assorted restaurant rubbish, he dunked a tube into a smelly storage bin and, the police said, vacuumed out about 300 gallons of grease. Stuart Isett for The New York Times Nick Damianidis, an owner of Olympia Pizza and Pasta in Arlington, Wash., has had oil stolen. The man was caught before he could slip away. In his truck, the police found 2,500 gallons of used fryer grease, indicating that the Burger King had not been his first fast-food craving of the day. Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night. “Fryer grease has become gold,” Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.” Much to the surprise of Mr. Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks. In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon. (That would make the 2,500-gallon haul in the Burger King case worth more than $6,000.) Biodiesel is derived by processing vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol. It is increasingly available around the country, but it is expensive. With the right kind of conversion kit (easily found on the Internet) anyone can turn discarded cooking oil into a usable engine fuel that can burn on its own, or as a cheap additive to regular diesel. “The last time kids broke in here they went for the alcohol,” said Mr. Damianidis, who fries chicken wings and cheese sticks. “Obviously they’re stealing oil because it’s worth something.” While there have been reports of thefts in multiple states, law enforcement officials do not compile national statistics and it remains unclear whether this is part of a passing trend or something more serious. The suspects in a growing number of grease infractions fall into a range of categories, people interviewed on the matter said, as grease theft is a crime of opportunity. They include do-it-yourself environmentalists worried about their carbon footprints, warring waste management firms trying to beat each other on the sly, and petty thieves who are profiting from the oil’s rising value on the black market. “It’s a new oddity,” said Officer Seth Hanson of the Federal Way Police Department, near Tacoma, Wash. He said thefts occur outside at least a couple of restaurants there each week. “We’re trying to get an eyeball on how well-organized it is, if at all. To date, we haven’t been very successful in finding anybody.” Thefts have been reported in at least 20 states, said Christopher A. Griffin, whose family owns Griffin Industries, one of the largest grease collection and rendering companies in the country. The problem has gotten so bad, Mr. Griffin has hired two detectives to investigate thefts around the country. “Theft is theft,” said Mr. Griffin, who is based in Cold Spring, Ky. “I don’t care if you’re stealing grease or if you’re stealing diamonds.” Fryer oil from a restaurant that does a high volume of frying one kind of food — for example, a fried-chicken chain — is at a premium because of its relative purity. The large-scale producers of grease, restaurants mostly, own their old oil and in recent months have even made a small profit by selling it to collectors. Because of the grease’s rancid odor, most restaurants usually store it out back with the trash. Read more at New York Times

I don't call for Caato's killing, but I disagree with the "quick release". I know clan loyalty subdues moral goodness in that part of the world, and I am truly aware that "clanism" is an everyday struggle for many good people, but I strongly believe the quick release of this warlord was harmful to Al-shabaab’s repute. Caato typifies to an enormous degree all that is rotten about Somali politicians for which Al-Shabaab was created to never grant a private sanctum; warlordism, clanism, moral degeneracy and criminality. Since there is no truce and the war with the TFG is a full-blown one, this was Al-shabaab’s golden opportunity to deflate previous clan qualms and send a clear message that all warlords are equal irrespective of clan rapport. Al-Shabaab should have sent him to hard labor for few weeks atleast. But then who knows the true identity of the captors. They could have been a different anti-TFG group. PS: This “Caato” story will become fodder for Al-shabaab distractors. It is unfortunate.

Is Water the New "Oil"? Public fountains are dry in Barcelona, Spain, a city so parched there’s a €9,000 ($13,000) fine if you’re caught watering your flowers. A tanker ship docked there this month carrying 5 million gallons of precious fresh water – and officials are scrambling to line up more such shipments to slake public thirst. Barcelona is not alone. Cyprus will ferry water from Greece this summer. Australian cities are buying water from that nation’s farmers and building desalination plants. Thirsty China plans to divert Himalayan water. And 18 million southern Californians are bracing for their first water-rationing in years. Water, Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris told the World Economic Forum in February, “is the oil of this century.” Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as “blue gold.” read more at csmonitor.com

I am delighted work is making headway. It is always uplifting when folks back home embark on a mammoth task such as this and still persevere despite all the financial, logistic and security intricacies. Good job Minister Xasan Allore! He has completed the entire grounding for this project. I have known Allore since I was a young boy. He is a man of great integrity and hard work.

New York Times JILL BOLTE TAYLOR was a neuroscientist working at Harvard’s brain research center when she experienced nirvana. But she did it by having a stroke. On Dec. 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor, then 37, woke up in her apartment near Boston with a piercing pain behind her eye. A blood vessel in her brain had popped. Within minutes, her left lobe — the source of ego, analysis, judgment and context — began to fail her. Oddly, it felt great. The incessant chatter that normally filled her mind disappeared. Her everyday worries — about a brother with schizophrenia and her high-powered job — untethered themselves from her and slid away. Her perceptions changed, too. She could see that the atoms and molecules making up her body blended with the space around her; the whole world and the creatures in it were all part of the same magnificent field of shimmering energy. “My perception of physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air,” she has written in her memoir, “My Stroke of Insight,” which was just published by Viking. After experiencing intense pain, she said, her body disconnected from her mind. “I felt like a genie liberated from its bottle,” she wrote in her book. “The energy of my spirit seemed to flow like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria.” While her spirit soared, her body struggled to live. She had a clot the size of a golf ball in her head, and without the use of her left hemisphere she lost basic analytical functions like her ability to speak, to understand numbers or letters, and even, at first, to recognize her mother. A friend took her to the hospital. Surgery and eight years of recovery followed. Read More at New York Times ...

Biden is auditioning for a gig at the State Department, and these latest torrents of abuse are meant to be a preview of the venom McCain will be buffeted with if Biden is chosen as the attack dog for the Obama camp. I think Bill Richardson should get the Secreteray of State post (maybe even VP), not Biden. Biden brings no electoral advantage to the table (yeah he is a foriegn policy neutralizer) unlike Mr. Albuquerque who could energize another sleeping giant group (the latinos) in the critical west. If the African American and Latino turnout can be maximized in this election, McCain is a toast.

"Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now. The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak. The scene suggests this is not an exaggeration. The sea of heads stretches for half a mile along the grassy embankment, while others watch from kayaks and power boats bobbing on the Willamette River. More hug the rails of the steel bridge that stretches across the water and crowds are even watching from jetties on the opposite shore" Read More ...

moved to the politics section.

Jonathan Kay from the National Post writes: "Kevin James is a complete blowhard who clearly has no idea who Neville Chamberlain was, or what his role was in appeasing Hitler. When Matthews begins to sense just how ignorant his guest is, he puts him on the spot and asks him to tell viewers what exactly Chamberlain did. James flounders about pathetically — blustering incoherently in hopes that the subject will drift away, so he can go back to high-decibel monosyllabic sloganeering against Barack Obama. . " Read it and watch it here ...

PROJECTED ELECTORAL NUMBERS FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION Safely Democratic States: California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), District of Columbia (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (21), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), New York (31), Rhode Island (4), and Vermont (3). Likely Democratic: Minnesota (10), New Jersey (15), Oregon (7), and Washington (11). Leans Democratic: Iowa (7), Michigan (17), New Mexico (5), Pennsylvania (21) and Wisconsin (10). Toss-Up State: Colorado (9), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (4), and Ohio (20). Leans Republican: Florida (27), Missouri (11), Virginia (13). Likely Republican: Arkansas (6) and North Carolina (15). Safely Republican: Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (10), Georgia (15), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (34), Utah (5), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (3). Source: Rassmussen

A big win for the skinny African. He seems to have regained his edge again. A big blow-out win in North Carolina (230,000 votes) and a narrow loss (20,000 votes short) in Indiana is just not what pundits expected after Hillary's "momentum" and Obama's troubles in the last few weeks. He surprised many and I am sure the Republicans didn't have a good night tonight. We shall see how things play out in the next few days. His speech was great tonight.

A little PR coup for Yeey I must admit.

Costco and Sams Club have already started food rationing. People are stocking up rice and other goods at alarming numbers in North America. Rationing food in the land of plenty?

Hillary won a state that was tailor made for her (more Older folks, working class, catholics). She had the well-liked Governor and the organization of 100 mayors from across the state behind her. Her family is from Penn State and she was seen as the "hometown girl". After all the advantage, she beat “troubled” Obama by roughly the same margin she did in Ohio State which has more African American percentage than Penn State. That is really not an improvement for Hillary considering all the troubles Obama went through with his pastor plus other distractions. Hillary has survived to live another day. She did what she was supposed to do which is to win Penn State. The margin is not a blow-out by any means. Everything else is a Clinton/Republican spin. PS: Republicans were cheering and celebrating the Obama loss last night. They really want Hillary to become the nominee. You know why.

Riyaale is planning to become our newest stooge warlord as he tries to destroy Somaliland's hard-earned peace and stability. He has given the young boys in Burco a new "motivation" to send him back to the border area (Beyond Wajaale ). REPORT: Al-shabaab is already dispatched to the north. Al-Qeida is on high alert waiting for more news from Al-shabaab.

"Meet Your Ambassador" Jacayl, that sounds like a quote by Duke.

Originally posted by Laba_Xiniinyood: quote:Originally posted by Libaax-Sankataabte: These pirates got played by the French. The pirates were captured and few of their relatives were killed without any single harm to the French hostages. Now that is a clever commando mission. Shame. Sidaad ugu sacaba-tumaysid wexay ila tahay aad ayaad ugu faraxday arrinkan. Libaax, Allaylehe Libaax! Xiniinle, more like angry Awoowe. It is shame (and I said it) these guys would be fooled and played like that by these French (Excuse my language here ). Why release hostages when you don't even have a safe exit yourself? Kuwaas oo kale ayaa Somali ceebeeyey. Waxna iskama celin karaan, dhibaatona joojin mayaay ... caruurtooda ayuunbaa gawda laga guri. PS: three of these "pirates" held by the French are my own "cousins" and it was shocking when the call came last night that ina hebel and ina hebel are some of the characters in French jail.

Cadde's focus has been to get the economy going as best as he can. Expect oil wells to pop-up in Puntland within months if not weeks. He is not joking.

These pirates got played by the French. The pirates were captured and few of their relatives were killed without any single harm to the French hostages. Now that is a clever commando mission. The "Somali Marines" were not real marines after all. They were ragtag militia boys hoping to strike rich. Shame.

69% in Erigavo? How many total votes? Ibti, I think the Erigavo percentage is highly inflated. If the assumption is made that the NW clan wasn't happy with the "consititution", it is demographically impossible for a 69% "NO vote" in Erigavo (unless only the NW clan portion in the city voted and the majority of the city's residents decided not to vote). I say this because Erigavo residents in that early period were primarily Maakhirites and Hudunians. Maakhirites and Hudunians migration to other areas of Somalia started in the early 70's with another big influx following the tribal wars of the late 80s'.