See Also: A Million Little Donors, Clinton campaign circulates Obama smear photo, Over 1 million Americans donate to Obama’s campaign, Cleveland rocks? Clinton, Obama spar, but did they connect?, Game, Set & Match Obama, and DEM DEBATE, VERSION 20.0.
[tags]barack obama, hillary clinton, big donors, political donations, campaign funds, corporate donors, lawyers, lobbyists, political cartoon, hilarious[/tags]
The Article: Study: Suicide bombers ‘not mentally unstable’ by Rhonda Spivak in Haaretz.
The Text: In an extensive study of Palestinian suicide bombings, three University of Toronto researchers have concluded that the bombers were not psychologically unstable and were often motivated by personal vengeance, not religious zeal.
The study was carried out by political sociologist Robert Brym, with the assistance of two Ph.d students, Palestinian Bader Araj and Israeli Yael Maoz-Shai.
Writing in the academic journal Social Forces, Brym noted, “The organizers of suicide attacks don’t want to jeopardize their missions by recruiting unreliable people. It may be that some psychologically unstable people want to become suicide bombers, but insurgent organizations strongly prefer their cannons fixed.”
He also found that the suicide bombers did not experience extraordinary high levels of economic deprivation.
Furthermore, in his study published in Contexts, Brym concluded that a majority of bombers, like Palestinian female lawyer, Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, 29, who killed 21 civilians in a 2003 bombing at Maxim restaurant in Haifa, were “motivated by the desire for revenge and retaliation.”
Jaradat acted to avenge the killings of her brother, an Islamic Jihad militant, and cousin by Israeli security forces.
Brym concluded, “In its origins and at its core, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not religiously inspired, and suicide bombing, despite its frequent religious trappings, is fundamentally the expression of a territorial dispute.” Brym and Araj identified the organizational affiliation of 133 out of 138 suicide bombers between September 2000 and July 2005. Sixty-four per cent were affiliated with Islamic fundamentalists groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while the rest were aligned with secular groups such as Fatah.
In analyzing data pertaining to Israeli counterterrorist operations, Brym said “we do know that of the nearly 600 suicide missions launched in Israel and its occupied territories between 2000 and 2005, fewer than 25 percent succeeded in reaching their target. Israeli counterterrorist efforts thwarted three-quarters of them using violent means.”
However, his study found that harsh repression can intensify bombings and prompt bombers to devise more lethal methods to achieve their aims.
“In general, severe repression can work for a while, but a sufficiently determined mass opposition will always be able to design new tactics to surmount new obstacles. One kind of ‘success,’ usually breeds another kind of ‘failure’ if the motivation of insurgents is high.” In an interview, Brym said: “I’m no fan of Hamas, but I believe that Israel and Hamas at some point have to sit and negotiate.”
In a paper to be published in Studies in Conflict on Terrorism this year, Araj concludes that harsh state repression “should not be perceived only as a reaction to suicide bombing” but “often precedes and is a major cause of suicide bombing.”
See Also: Afghanistan, A Costly Stalemate, Looms After 2008, Down syndrome al-Qaeda bomber story false, Suicide bomber kills senior Pakistani general in Rawalpindi, Death toll from Iraq pilgrim bombing rises to 63, Do yourself a favor, Threatened Mass Storming of Gaza Border Fizzles Out, Hamas accuses Abbas of playing role in Gaza closure, 50,000 to form human chain around Gaza in protest of Siege, and The Root of our Ills.
[tags]suicide bombing, haaretz, israel, palestine, terrorism, jihad, west bank, gaza, fatah, hamas, motivating factors, revenge, vengeance, sociology, psychology, mindset of terrorists, islam[/tags]
Polling data from American Research group and Pollster.com.
See Also: The Latest Clinton Gambit, A Preview of the 2008 Election, Barack Obama 2/27 Event in Columbus Ohio: Large and Organized, McCain vs the missing responsibility of the Fourth Estate, Two Views on Nader’s Candidacy, Obama’s Cult of Personality is Overblown, and DNC to File FEC Complaint Against McCain.
[tags]barack obama, george h.w. bush, disapproval rating, graphs, hillary clinton, national polls, economy, direction of america, pictures, poll numbers, democratic presidential nomination, president bush, correlation[/tags]
Blog blog, bloggity blog:
1. From the Seminal (who I recently added all up on my own slog of the blog-o-blech), George Bush’s Top Ten Choices for the Next President of Cuba:
#10) Jacques Chirac — “he’s got experience running a commie regime.”
#9) “That nice Cuban maid who taught me to read when I was 14.”
#8) Elmer Fudd — “one bad ass outlaw replaces another.”
#7) Will Smith — “what can’t he do?”
#6) Hillary Clinton — “look Hil, you are president. Syke!!”
#5) Chico Escuela
#4) Sasquatch — “just to prove he exists”
#3) Hyman Roth
#2) Jeb Bush, Marvin Bush or Neil Bush — “nobody will notice, trust me brothers.”
#1) “Shit, if I knew where it was maybe I’d know who to appoint.”
2. 9/11, an Oil Mans Wet Dream:
In the late spring of 2001, Vice President Cheney held a series of top secret meetings with the representatives of Exxon-Mobil, Conoco, Shell and BP America for what was later called the Energy Task-force. Their job, ostensibly, was to map out America’s Energy future. Since late 2001 several public interest groups, including the very conservative Judicial Watch, sued to have the proceedings of those meetings opened to public scrutiny. In March 2002, the Commerce Department turned over a few documents from the Task-force meetings to Judicial Watch, among which was the map of Iraq’s Oil Fields, dated March 2001 (above) and a list of the existing “Foreign Suitors” for Iraq Oil.
3. The Big List of things that piss off Muslims. Some how they managed to forget premarital intercourse, The Big Noses, and grizzly bears.
4. Mike Huckabee isn’t going to quit until Lord Jeebus makes him:
The secular media just can’t understand: “But what are the chances? What are the chances either of these will happen? What rational person keeps going with such small odds?”
Who? A fundamentalist Christian, that’s who.
5. Other things to waste your time with: Teen pirates an entire human immune system, Peggy Noonan Uses Ebonics to Describe Michelle Obama, Bush Approval at 19% – Officially ‘Worst President Ever’, Mike Huckabee entertains us on SNL, McCain has some serious spending issues, Welcome to the jungle: How “gotcha capitalism” has destroyed the American social contract, and Welcome To Mike Huckabee’s America: Bigoted, Ill-Informed, and Ignorant.
[tags]blogs, bloggery, blog review, roundup, mike huckabee, jesus, liberal blogs, what pisses off muslims, islam, peggy noonan, michelle obama, ebonics, george bush, worst president ever, approval ratings[/tags]
From a Fox News Poll:
Who is Usama Rooting For?
Who does Usama bin Laden want to be the next president? More people think the terrorist leader wants Obama to win (30 percent) than think he wants Clinton (22 percent) or McCain (10 percent). Another 18 percent says it doesn’t matter to bin Laden and 20 percent are unsure
Yes, that’s right, Fox News is basically conducting push polling for the RNC by asking potential voters who they think Osama Bin Laden would vote for. And guess who won! Your man of questionable ‘madrasa’ background and middle names, Barack Hussein Osama!
Remember Kids Barack Obama would talk with the enemies of our military-industrial complex! And you know what that means: he’s complacent against terrorism.
Full Image of the Page and Text:
See Also: If It’s A War This Honky Wants…, Beyond the pale, The Roundup: Nobody Likes the Snow, and Lodge Your Complaint About Bill O’Reilly’s Lynching Comment.
[tags]madrasa, fox news, usama, osama bin laden, barack hussein obama, muslim question, links to islam, media bias, terror, democrats[/tags]
