After earning back-to-back Academy Award nominations — in 2010, for his breakout role in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and in 2011, for his supporting part in Ben Affleck’s Boston crime drama The Town — Jeremy Renner decided to dive headfirst into the action genre with four consecutive big-budget action projects. The first, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , which co-stars Renner as a mysteriously overqualified IMF agent assisting Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt on his latest globe-sweeping assignment, premieres this weekend in IMAX. The next three films, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters , The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy , will all hit theaters next year, making the California-raised actor the busiest action star of 2012.
I don’t know if you can tell by its freakishly quirky title, but Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is freakishly quirky. Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and a suddenly super-droll Kristen Scott Thomas star in what appears to be a Middle Eastern-set romcom with kooky supporting characters. There’s also a chance that it’s an Eat, Pray, Love for downtrodden white men, which would be despicable. You figure it out.
These muhfuggas here boy… Even while praising the Obama Administration for killing not just Osama Bin Laden but a few major players in the Al-Qaeda hierarchy, Dick Cheney felt it necessary to throw mud on Barry-O’s name. Former Vice President Dick Cheney praised the Obama administration Sunday for using a drone strike to kill American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, but said President Barack Obama should now apologize for criticizing former President George W. Bush’s actions against suspected terrorists. Al-Awlaki — an American whose fluency in English and technology made him one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world — was killed Friday in Yemen, according to U.S. and Yemeni government officials. The strike also killed Samir Khan, an American of Pakistani origin, and two others who were in the same vehicle as al-Awlaki, said the U.S. official, who was briefed by the CIA. Khan specialized in computer programming for al Qaeda and authored the terror network’s online magazine, Inspire. “I think it was a very good strike. I think it was justified,” Cheney told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.” But “I’m waiting for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for ‘overreacting’ to the events of 9/11.” Obama “in effect said that we had walked away from (America’s) ideals,” Cheney argued. “I think he did tremendous damage. I think he slandered the nation and I think he owes an apology to the American people.” The Obama administration has “clearly … moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified,” Cheney said. Republican critics of the administration claim it is hypocritical for Obama to approve the killing of Americans without due process while criticizing Bush officials for signing off on the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” such waterboarding. The use of such techniques has been banned by Obama. Former Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, told CNN that she believes many of Obama’s critiques of the Bush White House — most notably its secrecy — are valid. “I don’t think the Obama administration should be repeating” those mistakes, Harman said. “I think the debate about the legal grounds (for counterterrorism strategy) should be more in the open,” she said. In particular, “we should have a legal framework around our interrogation and detention policies far more than we do now.” Harman, a former top member of the House Intelligence and Homeland Security committees, also cautioned about the need for strict guidelines in the use of drone strikes, which have increased under Obama’s watch. Critics of drone strikes argue that they undermine the U.S. cause by killing innocent civilians, infringing on the sovereignty of other nations, and generating sympathy for al Qaeda and other extremist organizations. “We could abuse this program,” Harman said. “We’ve got to have a counter-narrative (to dissuade potential terrorists). We’ve got to live our values.” We all know Obama critics can’t grasp that kind of rationality though… Source
It’s morning. And no, don’t starting singing “As We Lay.” If you’re like me in the mornings, you’re not in very much of a mood to sing. Hell, you barely want to roll out of bed. But sometimes a good shower and a quick snack can get a slow starting day off on the right foot. But other days, you wake up late, you hit your knee on the corner of your bed and jump around in pain, and something tells you, this day is about to be WACK! Being the moody person I am, when I have good mornings, I want the world to know, and when I have bad mornings…that’s the norm. Here’s a few things that I think you’ll agree can have your day starting all wrong. ( Continue reading… )
Didn’t they have a meeting to deal with the realness of s*** in Yemen like 5 months ago??? Clearly someone missed the memo… In the past three days, pro-regime forces killed more than 70 people, mostly protesters, using anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. At least 23 people were killed in Sanaa on Tuesday as the fighting intensified and spread to sensitive areas of the capital before the cease-fire took hold after nightfall. In one incident, 13 followers of a tribal leader who changed sides and joined the opposition in March were killed when mortar shells fired by pro-government forces rained down on the upscale Hedah area of southern Sanaa, also home to top regime figures. “It’s a war zone,” said Sanaa activist Hakim al-Masmari. “We can’t even sit near windows because we could be killed.” Thousands have been forced to flee Sanaa for the relative safety of rural areas. Scores of pickup trucks and cars loaded with families and their belongings were seen early Tuesday heading out of the city, repeatedly shaken by loud explosions overnight. The United States condemned the violence and called on all parties to exercise restraint. “We urge a prompt, impartial investigation into the events that led to the recent violence,” Victoria Nuland, the State Department’s spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday. A negotiated cease-fire Tuesday halted three days of fighting that killed dozens of people, but it will not hold without a quick resolution of the key dispute: Who will lead the nation. A peaceful way out of Yemen’s seven-month crisis may not come easily, if at all, making it more likely to be settled in large-scale and ruinous street battles pitting renegade army soldiers and their allied tribal fighters against U.S.-trained forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and led by his son and one-time heir apparent, Ahmed. Already, pro-regime forces reinforced their positions in their strongholds in the south of the capital, apparently in anticipation of renewed fighting. The potential for bloody strife has been shown in Yemen since the uprising against Saleh’s regime began in February, with hundreds of protesters killed and thousands wounded at the hands of security forces. SMH. How do these people find time to fight this much when they have to pray five times a day? Source
Um…can we hurry up and find these guys, please? 40 Al-Qaeda prisoners escaped a Yemen jail earlier today. The whole thing sounded like something out of an action flick. All of the prisoners seized armed guards while their posse of heavily armed back-up descended on the prison. These are some pretty serious guys as they were behind the failed airplane bombing in Detroit two years ago and they tried to bomb US cargo flights as well. No reaction yet from Obama, so we don’t know if there’s a plan in place to go get these fugitives. But we hope this isn’t just the first part of some larger scheme. Or maybe we’ve just watched too many episodes of 24 .
The uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have inspired a few more uprisings by oppressed people elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East. Unfortunately, as motivated as the people are, in each country the desire for freedom is bringing the same thing: violence. Dozens of protesters were killed in clashes with Libyan security forces in the nation’s second-largest city Saturday as protests against eccentric dictator Moammar Khadafy stretched into a fifth day. The worst uprisings in Khadafy’s 42 years of power continued as government snipers killed 15 mourners attending the funerals of slain protesters in Benghazi. But a witness said the death toll was much higher. “Dozens were killed…not 15, dozens. We are in the midst of a massacre here,” the witness said. The government also cut off Internet access across the nation, blocking the anti-Khadafy protesters from posting photos and video. Human rights officials estimate the death toll in the demonstrations has now hit 84 as the Khadafy regime lashes out at its opponents. A similar scene played out on the streets of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where one demonstrator was shot to death and five wounded during protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Protesters, now in the 10th day of demonstrations, are demanding Saleh’s resignation after 32 years under his rule. Between all the death and destruction of protest, we just hope these people are able to enjoy their freedom once they finally get it. Source
Nation national security correspondent Jeremy Scahill today testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the US's shadow wars in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. His complete testimony is below. My name is Jeremy Scahill. I am the National Security correspondent for The Nation magazine. I recently returned from a two-week unembedded reporting trip to Afghanistan. I would like to thank the Chairman and the Committee for inviting me to participate in this important hearing. As we sit here today in Washington, across the globe the United States is engaged in multiple wars. Some, like those in Afghanistan and Iraq, are well known to the US public and to the Congress. They are covered in the media and are subject to Congressional review. Despite the perception that we know what is happening in Afghanistan, what is rarely discussed in any depth in Congress or the media is the vast number of innocent Afghan civilians that are being killed on a regular basis in US night raids and the heavy bombing that has been reinstated by General David Petraeus. I saw the impact of these civilian deaths first-hand and I can say that in some cases our own actions are helping to increase the strength and expand the size of the Taliban and the broader insurgency in Afghanistan. Read Full Testimony: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/12/jeremy-scahill-testifies-be… added by: GLOBALPOLITICAL
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“There is no more Molly,” reports Seattle Weekly. Molly Norris, formerly a cartoonist for the alternative paper, has gone into hiding. At the suggestion of the FBI, “she is, as they put it, 'going ghost': moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity.” Why? Because, as the New York Times reports, imam Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Islamic supremacist who is himself in hiding in Yemen, issued a fatwa in July declaring that Norris “should be taken as a prime target of assassination” because of a cartoon she drew two months earlier titled “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.” In October 2001, by the way, the New York Times described al-Awlaki, who then ran a mosque in Virginia, as someone who “is held up as a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West.” How's that working out? Here's another question: Where is President Obama? Last month, speaking to a mostly Muslim audience at the White House, the president strongly defended the right of another imam held up as a moderate to build a mosque adjacent to Ground Zero. The next day, and again at a press conference last week, Obama said he was merely standing up for the First Amendment. As far as we recall, it's the only time Barack Obama has ever stood up for anybody's First Amendment rights. Now Molly Norris, an American citizen, is forced into hiding because she exercised her right to free speech. Will President Obama say a word on her behalf? Does he believe in the First Amendment for anyone other than Muslims? added by: ahiguy
A premature baby has been brought “back to life” after his Australian mother, Kate Ogg, spent two hours touching, cuddling and holding the baby. The baby, Jamie, was born at 27 weeks and weighed 2 lb. Doctors fought to save his life but he was pronounced dead and given to his parents so they could say goodbye at a Sydney hospital. But his mother did not give up. She held baby Jamie against her and talked to him for a couple of hours. In what is being described as a “miracle,” the baby began to show some signs of life. Once the baby had been given some breast milk, fed to him by his mother's finger, Jamie began to breathe. His mother used a technique known as kangaroo care. Kangaroo care works through the principal of skin-to skin touch and the new mum has since appeared on television to state how important this could be for an ill baby. According to the Daily Mail, the new mum told an Australian TV show: “I took my gown off and arranged him on my chest with his head over my arm and just held him. He wasn't moving at all and we just started talking to him. We told him what his name was and that he had a sister. We told him the things we wanted to do with him throughout his life. I thought, “Oh my God, what's going on?” A short time later he opened his eyes. It was a miracle.” She added she told her mother that he was still alive. Then he held out his hand and grabbed her finger. “He opened his eyes and moved his head from side to side.” Kate Ogg is also a mother to Jamie's twin sister, Emily. added by: onemalefla
