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Skip to comments.Iranian Alert -- August 21, 2004 [EST]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD -- "Americans for Regime Change in Iran"
Posted on 08/20/2004 9:53:37 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
The US media still largely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year. As a result, most Americans are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East. In fact they were one of the first countries to have spontaneous candlelight vigils after the 911 tragedy (see photo).
There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.
The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.
In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.
This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.
I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.
If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.
If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.
Eye of the Storm: The 25-Year US-Iran War
August 19, 2004
The Jerusalem Post
Amir Taheri
At a meeting in Teheran last week, the Islamic Republic's supreme guide Ali Khamenei took questions from some 150 "Islamic guidance" officials operating around the world.
According to those present, the ayatollah responded with well-rehearsed answers, often consisting of one-line slogans. One question made him hesitate: Is the Islamic Republic at war against the United States?
According to leaks, the ayatollah tried to get around the question by claiming that it was the United States that was at war against "our Islamic Revolution."
Leaving aside semantic subtleties, it is fair to say that the US has been at war with the Khomeinist regime ever since the mullahs seized power in Teheran in 1979.
Much of this war has been of the cold type. But its history also includes lukewarm and hot episodes.
The opening shots were fired in February 1979 when Khomeinist gunmen invested 27 listening posts set up by the US in Iran to monitor Soviet missile tests in accordance with the SALT II accords. The posts had been created with the consent of the USSR and as Iran's contribution to global arms reduction programs. Within weeks all 27 posts were closed and their American personnel, briefly held hostage, expelled from the newly created Islamic Republic.
In October 1979 the Khomeinist regime and the US appeared to be heading for an understanding when Mehdi Bazargan, the ayatollah's first prime minister, met with president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Bzrezinski, in Rabat. Carter had addressed a flattering letter to Khomeini, praising the ayatollah as "a man of God."
In a show of goodwill, Carter lifted the ban he had imposed during the revolutionary turmoil on arms exports to Iran.
A few days after the Bazargan-Bzrezinski meeting, however, Khomeinist militants raided the US Embassy in Teheran and seized its diplomats hostage. The drama was to last 444 days. In April 1980 Carter ordered a military operation to free the hostages.
This was the first time since 1941 that US forces were involved in hostile action in Iran. The operation ended in disaster, leaving behind the charred bodies of eight American troops in the Iranian desert.
The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
OVER THE years the mullahs developed a sophisticated strategy for waging low-intensity war against the US. The Hizbullah movement was created to make life difficult for US allies in the region, notably Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
For its part, the US played a key role in encouraging Saddam Hussein to attack Iran in September 1980. Washington's financial and intelligence support also contributed to Saddam's ability to fight for eight years. Washington also waged economic war against Teheran by freezing some billion in Iranian assets and denying the Islamic Republic access to global capital markets, World Bank loans, and new technology.
By 1987, the Islamic Republic had organized the killing of hundreds of Americans, including 241 marines in Beirut, while Teheran agents seized 27 Americans hostage in Lebanon at different times. They also kidnapped and hanged an American colonel working for the United Nations in Lebanon. Kidnapped and murdered as well in Teheran was the head of the CIA in Beirut.
In 1987 a US task force, sent to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers against Iranian attacks, engaged the Iranian navy in the biggest battle it had seen since 1941. The battle ended after more than half of the Iranian navy had been reduced to fuming flotsam and jetsam. The mullahs got the message and soon arranged for an end to their war with Iraq.
The war between the US and the Islamic Republic was then fought in other theaters, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
But the biggest proxy battles were fought between the Lebanese branch of the Hizbullah and Israel. The mullahs believe that they won because they forced Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
For 25 years the Islamic Republic has helped prop up various anti-American regimes, including those of North Korea, Syria, Sudan and Cuba, with cheap oil, cash gifts, and general political and economic support.
Today, this strange war is being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, Teheran is supporting Ismail Khan, the "emir" of Herat, while the US has put its chips on President Hamid Karzai. In recent months the mullahs have helped the Hazara Shi'ites create a 10,000-man army within a day's march to Kabul. To make life more difficult for the US-led coalition, Teheran is also helping the Pushtun fundamentalist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has just concluded an alliance with the remnants of the Taliban.
In Iraq, the mullahs have a string of client groups not only among the Shi'ites but also in the Kurdish areas. And last month they reached a tactical alliance with the main Arab Sunni insurgent group led by Abu-Masaab al-Zirqawi when the latter visited Iran.
With the mullahs determined to deploy nuclear weapons, the stakes are certain to rise regardless of who wins the US presidential elections.
The writer, an Iranian author and journalist, is editor of the Paris-based Politique Internationale.
They keep on asking for our help..
Hey, DoctorZin... Why does it occur to me that I've seen you before... ;-)
Tensions Escalating Between Israel and Iran [Excerpt]
August 20, 2004
The Associated Press
USA Today
JERUSALEM -- Iran threatened this week to attack Israel's nuclear facilities. Israel ominously warned that it "knows how to defend itself." Tensions between the two arch enemies have suddenly escalated, underlining the other great enmity that has been bubbling on the sidelines of the Arab-Israeli conflict for more than two decades.
Suspicions that the Iranian regime is moving forward with a nuclear arms program deeply worry Israel, which considers Iran the greatest threat to the Jewish state. Israeli officials say they want to avoid escalating the situation, however, and there is no sign Israel is building up for an attack like the one that destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
Experts say the two countries are unlikely to go to war anytime soon, despite the heated-up rhetoric coming out of Iran and the intensified efforts by Israel to isolate the Iranian regime diplomatically.
Iran and Israel once had close ties, but they have been foes since the 1979 revolution that ousted Iran's shah and installed an Islamic government. Iranian leaders routinely call for Israel's destruction, while Israelis accuse Iran of supporting anti-Israel terrorists.
The heightened tensions arose from the U.S.-led campaign to organize international pressure on Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
While recently confirming they are working with technology that can be used to produce weapons-grade uranium, the Iranians insist their program's sole purpose is the peaceful generation of power and angrily complain about being under siege.
Last month, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Iranians would "crush" Israel if it attacked the Persian state. Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani, upped the ante this week, telling Al-Jazeera television that his government might launch pre-emptive strikes to protect its nuclear facilities if they were threatened.
"We will not sit to wait for what others will do to us," he said, adding that some Iranian generals believe the doctrine of pre-emption is "not limited to Americans."
The warning was seen as aimed at Israel, alluding to the Israeli strike on Saddam Hussein's reactor two decades ago.
A senior Israeli official responded that Israel's government was ready for all eventualities.
"We're not seeking war with Iran. But if a real threat materializes, Israel will know how to defend itself," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reflecting long-standing Israeli policy of not talking publicly about matters involving nuclear arms.
Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, but never formally confirms or denies it has them. It believes this policy of ambiguity is the best way to deter attack, by scaring regional foes about the possibility of nuclear annihilation while denying those nations a rationale for also seeking such weapons.
Despite the tensions, experts don't foresee things boiling over.
"I think it is a serious confrontation. The issue is who can do what about it," said Cliff Kupchan, vice president of the Nixon Center in Washington and a former Clinton administration official who is an expert on Iran.
"On the Israeli side, it is not clear that they have the military capabilities or intelligence knowledge to significantly set back the Iranian program. The Iranians learned from Osirak to disperse and copy everything they have (in their nuclear program). I don't think that Israel can do much."
Iran Calls for Meeting of Islamic Nations on "Catastrophe"' In Iraq [Excerpt]
August 20, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
Ali Akbar Dareini
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called on Muslim countries Friday to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the "catastrophe" in Iraq, particularly the 2-week standoff in the holy city of Najaf.
Khatami urged the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference to hold an emergency summit and said immediate action should be taken to end the escalating violence in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, where militiamen loyal to militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces.
"What is happening in Iraq is a spiritual and human catastrophe and immediate action must be taken to stop the spread of the catastrophe, particularly in Najaf," Khatami said in a telephone conversation with the head of the OIC Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
On Friday, the Najaf uprising, centered on the revered Imam Ali Shrine, appeared to be drawing to an end as militants from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army removed weapons from the holy site.
The militants had been using the shrine, one of Shiite Islam's holiest, as a hideout while attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces. Earlier Friday they offered to give control of the shrine to Shiite religious authorities, who accepted the offer in principle.
It was unclear how Friday's apparent easing of the crisis in Najaf would affect Khatami's summit call.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi urged countries neighboring Iraq to hold an urgent meeting on the Najaf crisis.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, when asked about Iran's call for a Muslim discussion of Iraq, urged Iran to support Iraq's leadership.
"What Iran needs to do is to be helpful to the interim government in Iraq and helpful to the Iraqi people as they move to build a free and peaceful future and not take steps that would be harmful in that respect," McClellan said.
Kharrazi first raised his meeting idea in a telephone call to Jordanian counterpart Marwan Muasher on Wednesday, but Jordan's response was not immediately made public.
The Syrian government supported Kharrazi's call, Syria's official news agency quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official as saying. Syria has been a loud opponent of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The Political Olympics
August 18, 2004
The Jerusalem Post
Joseph D'Hippolito
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, some say that the Olympics can forge peace and brotherhood merely by attracting athletes from diverse cultures and political systems.
Let them come to Athens.
Let them meet Iran's Arash Miresmaeili, a two-time world judo champion. Miresmaeili refused to compete because his first-round opponent, Ehud Vaks, committed the unpardonable sin of being an Israeli.
Miresmaeili's attitude should remind the world that totalitarian regimes use sports not to encourage peace and brotherhood but to further their own geopolitical agendas.
Sadly, after almost 70 years, the world needs reminding.
The romantic conventional wisdom about Jesse Owens disproving the myth of "Aryan" racial superiority by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics ignores the fact that the lie nevertheless doomed millions to death within a decade.
Besides, Hitler spared no effort to turn Berlin into a modern Potemkin Village that would impress tourists and allay their fears of Germany's ultimate intentions.
"We must be more charming than the Parisians, more easy-going than the Viennese, more vivacious than the Romans, more cosmopolitan than London, and more practical than New York," stated the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff almost a month before the Olympics.
Defusing suspicion belonged to a more comprehensive strategy.
"The four million Berliners," wrote Richard Mandell in his book, The Nazi Olympics, "has constant instruction from above that they had been entrusted with an obligation to demonstrate the excellence of German National Socialism to the whole world."
Wage and price controls kept meals and accommodations cheap. Official interpreters roamed the streets. Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels threw lavish parties for dignitaries.
The Nazis even dramatically downplayed their anti-Semitism. The government removed anti-Semitic signs and publications. The German Olympic committee reinstated a partially Jewish athlete, Helene Mayer, a world fencing champion and a 1932 Olympian who had been expelled from her athletic club in 1933 for having a Jewish father.
"Jew-baiting had been ordered to cease from the highest quarters," Mandell wrote. "Evidence of persistent racialism might be, and was, interpreted as vestigial rough edges of a superseded policy."
The result? As Mandell wrote, "...almost no one escaped the impression that the new Germans were working hard, were playing hard, were at peace and would stay that way."
THE SOVIET Union went further in exploiting sports for geopolitical purposes. The Soviets considered athletes as valuable as soldiers or diplomats during the Cold War because victorious athletes demonstrated the superiority of communism to the world.
As chairman of the USSR Committee of Physical Culture and Sport, Sergei Pavlov said in 1976 that sports is "another sphere, another criterion for evaluating the advantages of the Soviet political system."
Promoting communism meant creating a complex system of state-run sports schools and clubs to produce world-class athletes who would be technically proficient and ideologically correct. A coach's fundamental duty was to instill what one Soviet periodical called a "high Communist consciousness" in which athletes saw themselves as "Soviet patriots irreconcilable to the enemies of socialism and Communism."
An interview in the newspaper Sovietsky Sport during the 1980 Winter Olympics with Lyuba Baranova, a Soviet cross-country skier, illustrates the intensity of that indoctrination:
"'I mentally transferred myself to the siege of Leningrad from the first day to the last' When the skiing got difficult, Lyuba remembered the blockade of the city on the Neva and said to herself, 'For the Motherland, Lyuba! For Leningrad!'"
Miresmaeili's forfeiture appears orchestrated. A two-time world champion and a contender for an Olympic medal, used to years of disciplined training, suddenly exceeds his weight limit at the Olympics?
What about the immediate praise from Mohammad Khatami, the "moderate" Iranian president who told the Islamic Republic News Agency that Miresmaeili's forfeiture "will be recorded in the history of Iranian glories"?
What about the immediate recommendation from the chief of Iran's Olympic delegation that Miresmaeili receive the $115,000 government prize reserved for Iranian gold medalists?
What about the timing of Miresmaeili's announcement to coincide with the opening ceremonies, where he would be the focus of attention as Iran's flag bearer?
Given Iran's brutal regime and its support for terrorism, Miresmaeili's action did not just slap the face of one Israeli athlete. It slapped the faces of all free men who want to live in liberty and peace.
To paraphrase Kennedy once again, all free men wherever they may live are Israeli Olympians today. Therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "I am an Israeli Olympian."
The writer is a freelance contributor based in California.
Kerry: Carter Redux?
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 20, 2004
Now that the Democratic Party has committed itself to warmed-over Carterism in its platform document, the comically titled Strong At Home, Respected In The World, and Mickey Kaus has contributed a ringing endorsement worthy of the Man From Malaise (We survived Carter and wed survive Kerry), it is important to remember just what we owe Jimmy Carter: a resurgent global Islamic radicalism, emboldened and directly aided by the Khomeini regime in Iran that he did so much to set in place.
A sobering reminder of just how much Carter is responsible for Irans now sclerotic but still tenacious mullahocracy comes from Steven F. Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute in his new book, The Real Jimmy Carter (Regnery).
Modern Islamic radicalism, of course, was born in Egypt in the 1920s, when Hassan Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood, the primary progenitor of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. And even Al-Bannas movement was a reassertion of the political Islam that dated all the way back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and which had just gone into momentary eclipse when the caliphate, the seat of the political/religious successor of Muhammad, was abolished by the secular Turkish government in 1924. Although Islamic radicals achieved many partial successes in the five intervening decades, the Khomeini revolution was the first success of this newly assertive movement on a national scale and its effects on the global movement have been incalculable.
And Carter was instrumental in this victory. Hayward tells the full story of how Carter, through passivity and indecision, allowed the situation in Iran to drift out of control. He notes that Carters National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and the American ambassador in Tehran, William Sullivan, repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the U.S. backed him fully, but in fact that backing extended little beyond private verbal cheerleading.
Whats more, despite the fact that Islamic radicalism was fifty years old by the time Khomeini became a serious threat to the Shah, and that Khomeini himself had been a political force in Iran for years before he came to power, the CIA, says Hayward, not only hadnt read any of Khomeinis writings but didnt even have copies of them. As one State Department official put it, Whoever took religion seriously? According to Hayward, Neither the State Department nor the intelligence community took Islamic fundamentalism seriously, while American scholars on Iran deprecated the idea that the clergy would participate directly in forming or running a government. The chief of staff to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, William Miller, even recommended that the U.S. support Khomeini, who he thought would be a progressive force for human rights.
Manifesting the same misunderstanding of the real nature of Islamic radicalism that still dogs the State Department and other agencies today, Brzezinski embarked on a plan to strengthen Islamic radicalism for the geopolitical ends of the day. According to political analysts and Iran experts Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi and Elio Bonazzi, Brzezinski instituted a plan to train fundamentalist Afghan Islamic mujahidin fighters in Pakistan under CIA supervision for which Carters successor Ronald Reagan is often blamed. Zand-Bonazzi and Bonazzi also point out that the other major Islamist terrorist force active today is also the product of misguided policies of the Carter administration, which deliberately destroyed the Shah of Iran and allowed the Islamic Revolution to take place. Hamas and Hizbollah are direct emanations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans (recall the 1984 attacks on the US embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut) and Israelis. Although Hamas and Hizbollah existed before Khomeini, he was instrumental in their becoming and remaining significant forces.
And Khomeini owed his own political life to Carter. As the peanut President himself put it when Pahlavi made a final appeal for help to regain his throne in February 1979, Fk the Shah.
The bottom line? Khomeinis regime, says Hayward, executed more people in its first year in power than the shahs SAVAK had allegedly killed in the previous twenty-five years. Whether Khomeini in the early Eighties sent a thank-you note to the man now basking in glory as Americas greatest ex-President, who was by then down in Plains licking his wounds and beginning his path to the Nobel Prize, is not known. But should Kerry be elected, Khomeinis spiritual heirs, locked in a mortal struggle with a new movement for secularism and democracy in Iran, may start getting all sorts of new reasons to express their gratitude to the man in the White House.
New opener.....nice. But I'm not sure about American flag being on the Left, and how about a lion on that Iran flag? : )
It will truly be a great thing once the current Iranian Govt is out of the way. Lets just hope something terrible doesnt happen in their hands before they are ousted by the majority.
Iran Plays Down Strike Threat
August 21, 2004
Agence France-Presse
From Correspondents in Tehran
Tehran today disputed remarks by Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani apparently warning of pre-emptive Iranian strikes on US troops in neighbouring countries, claiming they were misinterpreted.
"The statements of the defence minister have not been reported accurately - to some extent they have been altered," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
"We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us," MR Shamkhani told Al-Jazeera TV on Wednesday when asked if Iran would respond to a US attack on its nuclear facilities, speaking in Farsi through an interpreter into Arabic.
"Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly," he said, according to the translator.
"America is not the only one present in the region. We are also present, from Khost to Kandahar in Afghanistan; we are present in the Gulf and we can be present in Iraq."
But Mr Asefi said there had been "misinterpretations", adding, "Mr Shamkhani said that we would defend our territory and national interests and would allow no one to attack the Islamic republic". "If anyone attacks our country, we will respond with determination."
Mr Shamkhani's remarks were seen as an extension of an exchange of threats between Israel and Iran in recent weeks focussing on Iran's nuclear program.
Iran insists that the program, centred on the construction of a nuclear power plant at Bushehr, is purely peaceful but the US and Israel in particular fear it conceals efforts to develop atomic weapons.
Speculation has arisen that Israel may strike at Bushehr, in a repeat of its attack against Iraqi nuclear facilities at Osirak in 1981.
Mr Shamkhani added: "We will consider any strike against our nuclear installations as an attack on Iran as a whole, and we will retaliate with all our strength.
"Where Israel is concerned, we have no doubt that it is an evil entity, and it will not be able to launch any military operation without an American green light. You cannot separate the two."
"The US military presence (in Iraq) will not become an element of strength (for Washington) at our expense. The opposite is true, because their forces would turn into a hostage" in Iranian hands in the event of an attack, he said.
Three Hanged in Public in Southeast Iran
August 21, 2004
Khaleej Times Online
TEHRAN -- Three Iranian men convicted of drug trafficking have been hanged in a square in the historic city of Kerman in southeast Iran on Thursday, the conservative Jomhuri Eslami daily reported on Saturday.
The report, quoting the local judiciary and giving only their first names, said Gholamreza, Mohammad and Hamid, were convicted of drug and arms trafficking.
Gholamreza was also found guilty of dealing in alcohol, which is strictly banned in Iran.
Some 3,500 kilos (nearly 7700 pounds) of opium and morphine, 11 Kalashnikovs, and other weapons that were in possession of the last two were seized, the report said.
Murder, armed robbery, rape, apostasy and serious drug trafficking are all punishable by death in Iran.
Editor's note - With no transparency, the judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran hangs, executes and stones to death under the cover of fighting "moral corruption". The accuracy of these convictions are under serious question.
Then What About Iran, Senator Kerry?
August 20, 2004
David Limbaugh
Since John Kerry can't get his story straight on Iraq even with the benefit of hindsight and tons of "second" chances to explain his position, let's consider how he might deal with other possible threats -- such as Iran.
But first, a little background. I recently wrote a column addressing Kerry's apparent reversal on Iraq after President Bush demanded that he tell us whether he would have voted for the Iraq war resolution given what we know now about our failure to find WMD stockpiles there.
Kerry said he would answer the question "directly," and then proceeded to answer it indirectly. Yes, he would still vote for the resolution authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq.
Silly me. I took him at his word and wrote a column pointing out how inconsistent this "clarification" was with his convention speech promise that we'd only go to war "if we had to," not because we wanted to.
Kerry's handlers immediately said Kerry didn't really mean that he would have approved of going to war with Iraq, just that he would still have voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq. The difference, you see, is that Kerry believed Bush would only go to war as a last resort and, then, only after he'd exhausted all efforts to build a larger coalition, to include those nations who hate America.
It appears that Kerry was splitting hairs again, engaged in another dodge that would permit him to continue threading the needle between well-grounded Americans who want to know their president will safeguard America's national security interests and the Michael Moore nutcases that constitute at least five of the six cylinders of Kerry's presidential campaign engine.
Perhaps President Bush, understanding Kerry's inability to stay put on any issue, should have added more qualifiers to his question. He should have asked him, "Would you, Senator, have voted to allow me to attack Iraq knowing that 1) we were not going to find WMD there and 2) I was not going to wait for Saddam to violate another 17 U.N. resolutions, correct his 12,000-page report of lies or shoot down some of our jets over the no-fly zone, and 3) I was not about to wait for the permission of France, Germany and Russia?
But forget the indirection, nuance and semantics. Given that this war on terror is going to persist for years, how would Kerry approach another rogue state -- such as Iran -- in the face of strong evidence that this nation constituted, say, a "gathering threat" to our national security?
Actually, pondering such questions is what scares me most about a Kerry presidency during these dangerous times. His worldview seems to make him impervious to certain moral distinctions among nations and the nature of the threat some might pose to our national security.
Kerry has been consistent on a few things over the years. He has been slow to recognize America's enemies. He was oblivious to the nature and threat of global communism. He still does not comprehend the nature and threat of terrorism. And he has always wanted to play "Mother, may I," with our "allies."
Just go back and read his 1971 Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony, set out in Chapter 6 of "Unfit for Command." He peddled the Communist propaganda that Vietnam was engaged in a civil war, that the Vietnamese people "didn't even know the difference between communism and democracy" and that America's actions were morally equivalent to the Viet Cong's. (In 1971, Kerry also described as "ludicrous" predictions that there would be a bloodbath if we were to withdraw. Yet the Communists killed an estimated 3.5 million people in their post-war purges and placed possibly a million in "reeducation camps" when we withdrew.)
And, in a foreshadowing of his obsession with "multilateralism," Kerry said, "We found also that all too often, American men were dying in those rice paddies for want of support from their allies."
This consistent pattern provides a glimpse into Kerry's soul, where we find a man who simply doesn't sufficiently grasp the profound differences between freedom and tyranny, between a benevolent power and the evil forces that want to destroy it.
If Kerry is elected president, we honestly don't know whether he would clearly perceive threats to our national security. He voted against the first Gulf War. He's been all over the board with the second one. He even thought it was necessary to assure us that he would indeed respond if America were attacked! Now that's reassuring.
The main reason Kerry has been inconsistent on the Iraq question is that he's been trying to fit a square peg (his antiwar DNA) into a round hole (the nation's awareness that we are in a dangerous war). America can't afford to take the risk of electing him.
Awesome update.
Iran mullah-run parliament proposes national costumes
Aug 21, 2004, 10:21
Iran's mullah-run conservative parliament is preparing designs for national Islamic costumes to combat the corrupting influence of Western fashion, a prominent MP said Wednesday.
"We have to design new trends within the framework of an Islamic dress code. Both men and women need a national costume," Emad Afroogh, head of the parliamentary cultural commission, told student news agency ISNA.
He added that a national fashion reform bill had been put before the parliament's research centre for approval.The move comes after the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the nation in July about a "cultural invasion" and the dangers of imitating foreigners, asserting that Iranians needed to design their own styles.
In recent weeks state television has dedicated part of its main news programme to the question of "What is fashion?" a series of interviews with residents, clerics and "experts" aimed at defining what can and cannot be worn.
The Tehran chief of police warned women a few days ago not to dress like "models", while a general clampdown over the last few months has seen police rounding up hundreds of young women sporting flimsy headscarves, three-quarter-length trousers and shape-revealing coats.
On Tuesday parliament rejected the gender equality bill put forward by its reformist predecessors.
Iran FM to visit New Zealand soon
Aug 21, 2004, 10:09
Iranian Foreign Minster Kamal Kharrazi will visit New Zealand on Monday for delicate talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark aimed at forging for the future of the political and economic relationship, Iran economist internet site said Wednesday.
This is the first visit to New Zealand by a top-level Iranian diplomat of Mr. Kharrazi's seniority in over a decade.
Controversy over Iran's nuclear policies, the tense situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and security issues in Asia and the south pacific will feature in Monday's talks.
But there will also be a strong emphasis on measures to deepen economic cooperation.
The two-day visit will be capped by the announcement of a new political and economic cooperation commission to be ratified in a signing ceremony at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Tuesday.
Disarmament minister Marion Hobbs will join Helen Clark for Monday's discussions. Both politicians have taken a strong stance against nuclear proliferation.
Iran last year signed an additional protocol to the Non-proliferation Treaty, which obliges it to accept tighter IAEA inspections.
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(WENN) — Former Nirvana stars Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, and Krist Novoselic reunited for a second time in weeks to perform at the Cal Jam festival on Saturday.
Grohl and Smear, who are members of Foo Fighters, appeared with Novoselic onstage on Saturday during the group's set and were also joined by Joan Jett and Deer Tick's John McAuley.
During the set, Jett took on lead vocals for songs Breed, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and All Apologies, while McAuley lead Serve The Servants, Scentless Apprentice, and In Bloom.
The rockers' performance follows their reunion at a Foo Fighters show in Nirvana's native Seattle, Washington last month. The Seattle show wasn't the first time the former Nirvana bandmates had reunited on stage – they performed together at a Foo Fighters show in Oregon last year.
Meanwhile, Jett joined Grohl, Smear and Novoselic to perform Smells Like Teen Spirit when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
You are here
Governor Speaks State of the State
In his State of the State Address this morning, Governor Nathan Deal shared with the full General Assembly his plans to improve public safety, support education, fund health care and continue to encourage new business around the state.
"While times have been tough and we have had to make difficult choices, I will not lead our state with a doomsday mindset, reacting erratically and hastily based on fear or ignorance," the Governor said. "Instead, we will move forward with confidence."
On Public Safety
Furthering the efforts of last year's criminal justice reform — reform expected to save taxpayers at least $264 million over the next 5 years — Governor Deal presented a budget proposal that allocates $11.6 million to fund accountability courts and $5 million to support community-based treatment options for juvenile offenders. These investments, criminal justice reform experts propose, will lower recidivism rates and hence overall costs in the system.
To strengthen public safety on the waterways, Governor Deal proposed a boating under the influence law, one that will set the blood alcohol content standard for BUI at .08, the current standard for driving under the influence.
"If you are too drunk to drive an automobile, you are too drunk to drive a boat," Governor Deal explained.
The proposed legislation remembers Jake and Griffin Prince, 2 brothers killed when a speed boat, driven by a drunk driver, collided with their family's pontoon at Lake Lanier last summer.
The Governor also called for the Kile Glover Boat Education Law, which will place age limits on those who can drive boats and require that children 13 or younger wear life jackets when they're on a moving open boat.
On Education
As he'd promised, Governor Deal allocated money in his budget proposal to restore Pre-K to its full 180-day schedule and increase the salaries of early childhood educators. He also earmarked $1.6 million to continue the reading mentor program and an additional $147 million to grow K-12 enrollment in the next fiscal year.
Speaking about higher education, Governor Deal focused on the importance of sponsoring education with employment in mind. Several thousand jobs are currently open for workers holding commercial driver's licenses, and the fields of nursing and early childhood education see similar shortages, he said. To fill these vacancies, he proposed adding funds to the Technical College HOPE Grants that would provide students 90% of their tuition costs for those fields.
The budget also provides for a 3% increase for the Hope Scholarship, making the tally for the scholarship program nearly $600 million for fiscal year 2014.
On Health Care
With the Medicaid program already running a shortfall and its costs expected to rise nearly $1.7 billion over the next 10 years, Governor Deal asked legislators to support the Hospital Medicaid Financing Program Act. The act will allow the Board of Community Health to levy provider fees on hospitals, much the same way the board currently levies fees on nursing homes. Known now as the hospital bed tax, these future fees will allow the state to draw federal funding to buoy Medicaid. Without this state matched funding, the Governor warned, many of the state's hospitals could face closure.
To retain skilled physicians around the state, the Governor's budget proposal also sets aside $2 million to develop new residency spots and support practicing doctors.
On Business
Although the state now sees its lowest unemployment in four years, unemployment numbers are still too high, Governor Deal said.
Encouragingly, though, the state has announced 10,000 new jobs within the last year, and the Revenue Shortfall Reserve has grown some 226% under the Governor's watch.
To promote additional business in the state, the Governor's budget allocates $50 million to fund deepening of the channel at the Port of Savannah. With this investment included, the state will have contributed some $231 million to the project.
"While that is a sizable amount of money, we expect the benefits to be $5.50 for every dollar spent — not a bad return on investment," Governor Deal said.
Last Notes
The Governor concluded his address by tackling the hot-button topic of ethics reform.
"We can build the strongest foundations of frugality, efficiency and competitiveness upon which our state government will rest; but if the citizens of Georgia don't trust us, it will all be in vain," he said.
He offered that any expansion of ethics reform should apply broadly to all state and local elected officials.
For more details on Governor Deal's budget proposals, read the reports for amended fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2014.
Photo Courtesy Alana Joyner, Office of the Governor
About the Author
Noralil Ryan Fores writes about business, taxes, elections and the environment for GeorgiaGov. She's a graduate of Florida State University's film school and Syracuse University's journalism program.
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text:
- The Set List Manager has 3 sections.
- The top section of the Set List Manager lists search results and also serves as a set workspace so that you can combine items from other sets to create a new set.
Search Results - When you type in a song title in the search box at the top left, this section list the names of songs that match. The title of the song appears on the left and the name of its index appears on the right. If the name of the index is grayed out it means no PDF is linked to that index. Tapping on a search result, displays a preview of the PDF of the song. to add the selected song to the currently selected set, tap the Add Song button. To clear the search results, tap the cancel button at the top right.
Set Workspace Results - When this section does not contain search results, it can be used to create a new set list by combining items from other set lists. You have the option of including all items from the currently selected set or individual set items. In version 4.2 or greater the standard list item controls, delete and move are now available.
Adding all set items: Select a set from the bottom left by tapping it which will populate the list on the right with its items. Tapping the set again copies all of the set list items to the Set Workspace results above.
Adding individual set items: Select a set from the bottom left by tapping it which will populate the list on the right with its items. To add a song from a set list to the Set Workspace, tap a song from the list on the right to select it and then tap it again to add it to the Set Workspace results above.
To add the items of the Set Workspace to the current set, tap the Add Results button. In version 4.2 or greater, select an item in the target set list as an insert point for the items in the Set Workspace.
To create a new set from the Set Workspace, tap the Copy Results button.
To clear the Set Workspace, tap the cancel button at the top right.
List of sets
A list of all of the sets you have created, the last item in this list is titled Recently Viewed and contains the last 500 song titles that you have viewed. This is handy when you go to a rehearsal or jam session because it allows you to view the song titles that you have viewed and played. Tapping the name of a set, displays it contents in the list to the right. Tapping the name of the selected set will copy its contents to the Set Workspace if no search results are displayed. You can sort the list of sets by selecting the sort icons on the left and right of the header above the list of sets. You can press and hold the name of set to change it.
List of items in the selected set
When you select a set on the left this list is populated with the individual set list items. You can reorganize the items in the set by dragging the item. To drag the item press and drag the 3 line rectangle to the far right of each item. You can sort the items by selecting the sort icons on the left and right of the header above the set list items. You can press and hold the name of a set list item to change it. If no search results are displayed above, tapping a selected song copies it to the Set Workspace.


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Ponta Do SolThe region is famous for its wine and its good climate. The city of Ponta do Sol has a small port and pleasant beaches, and there are a number of scenic trekking tours, called "levada walks", in the region. The capital and cultural centre of Madeira, Funchal, is connected with Ponta do Sol by a road and is home to the Vicentes Photographic Museum, founded in 1948 and the oldest in Portugal, and a botanical garden specialised in aromatic and medicinal plants. Below find a list of our selection of boutique and luxury hotels in Ponta Do Sol.
Estalagem da Ponta do SolPonta Do Sol
, Portugal
With a Portuguese cliff top retreat, simple design gives way to the raw magnificence of mother nature.


text: That is the rub, the size... I think I need an auto increment, but I would still like to obfuscate it somewhat I dont want it to look sequential. Am I thinking wrong? I just want to appear secure for the moment, or at least make it hard. I'm sure most of the coupons would be honored with or without the actual presentation; at least, thats been my experience in the low item value realm, if the coupons were for like $200 off I could understand, but for now I'm focusing on just individuaizing(Uniqueness generated in real time) to track redemption mostly. Each coupon shoud for the moment be in the cents or low dollars. At least until I can do some more testing and see if I really get collisions. I'm not sure about the math... what is the least amount of (base n<127 bytes {no special characters please} )Some sms work on UTF-7 ???] that can represent 250 characters uniquely using time/date/message/fromID as inputs in 250 character blocks. I think I'm over thinking this maybe?? Joseph Wennechuk ________________ Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 20:45:38 +0200 From: kb at 2bits.com To: kwlug-disc at kwlug.org Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Hash functions. You just need to generate a quasi-unique number from a set of variables. $ php -a php > $string = "Something or other with date and time"; php > $hash = md5($string); php > print $hash; 6d1740d6c0c59422b052916acb8ad778 Stuff what you want in $string, be it the store, date, whatever. Then you can use the $hash value as the key in the database to track this coupon. All this would have worked if you have not said it should be short. But you want it to be short, so the above may be too long. Would this work? It is based on the microsecond time. If you have a transaction every few seconds, then it should be OK. Clashes can happen if you have two at the same exact micro- second. $ php -a php > print uniqid(); 4d20c753e4001 Short enough? Another approach: why not use an autoincrement key in the database table that is the primary key for the coupon table, and be done with it? The rest of the data can be cross indexed in that table (store ID, date, time, description, ...etc.). It will be just a number. -- Khalid M. Baheyeldin 2bits.com, Inc. http://2bits.com Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting. Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. -- Edsger W.Dijkstra Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. -- Leonardo da Vinci _______________________________________________ kwlug-disc_kwlug.org mailing list kwlug-disc_kwlug.org at kwlug.org http://astoria.ccjclearline.com/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://kwlug.org/pipermail/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org/attachments/20110102/ad85083a/attachment-0003.html>


text: Thursday, June 30, 2011 CMS Begins Reprocessing Therapy Claims Subject to 2010 Medicare Fee Schedule Changes The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun to automatically reprocess a large volume of claims paid to physical therapists and other providers under the 2010 physician fee schedule because the fees were affected by some provisions with retroactive dates that were included in the Affordable Care Act passed last year. For therapy services, most of the claims have resulted in increases in payment of about 50 cents. Recently, CMS sent a notice informing providers that the agency has had difficulties when reprocessing claims involving therapy services. The challenge occurs when the KX modifier was not used because the patient had not reached the therapy cap, but subsequently the patient received therapy services beyond the cap. In these instances, the claims adjustments were rejected and CMS was seeking recoupment from the providers for the original claims. To prevent this from occurring, CMS announced it will no longer automatically reprocess claims involving services subject to the cap. However, providers may request contractors to reprocess these therapy claims. Comments CMS has been doing this for at least 6 weeks. We have already been asked to return $18.63 (for services provided to 84 patients. This refund of on average 20 cents per encounter is costing everyone hundreds of dollars. What a waste!!!! Posted by Charles Kibbey on 7/2/2011 9:16 AM In addition, it affects the seconary payors and can result in reprocessing (or UN-processing) of THOSE claims... which further increases the administrative burden and cost for the providers. Posted by Sarah Dyer on 7/5/2011 10:55 AM I completely agree with Charles. I cannot believe all the extra work this has caused and for pennies. Posted by Carol Barker on 7/6/2011 6:45 PM


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By Shawn Langlois
Good morning.
Place your bets, folks. Hedge-fund titans are in a rare public tussle over the value of protein-shake maker and L.A. Galaxy sponsor Herbalife.
And it's getting juicier by the day.
But putting sheer Wall Street entertainment value aside, the stock is careening wildly, leaving investors perplexed as to what's to come. Maybe Carl Icahn has the answer. Or perhaps Chris Kimble? More on those guys along with an upcoming response from the company itself farther down.
Meanwhile, the markets appear "unnervingly calm," according to S&P equity strategist Sam Stovall. The VIX /quotes/zigman/2766221 VIX , the CBOE's Volatility index, is still hovering around lows not seen in more than five years.
The economy: The initial unemployment claims report showed that claims rose by 4,000 last week to 371,000, that's worse than economists had expected. Job openings data and monthly wholesale trade numbers will surface later in the day.
Also on tap, we're supposed to get official word on President Barack Obama's pick for his next secretary of the treasury. Here's why Jack Lew is "a good fit for his time," according to former MarketWatch boss David Callaway.
Key market gauges: Smashing numbers out of China are giving a lift to global markets, with broad gains in Asia /quotes/zigman/6959860 XX:ADOW paving the way for what's looking like a positive open in the U.S. as both the futures on the Dow /quotes/zigman/9049316 YMH3 and the S&P /quotes/zigman/8751039 ESH3 are showing signs of life. Action in Europe /quotes/zigman/2380150 XX:SXXP is mixed ahead of central-bank meetings later in the day.
The buzz: This Herbalife /quotes/zigman/361145 /quotes/nls/hlf HLF saga is the gift that keeps giving, a "sharks eating sharks" scrum that won't be going away anytime soon. Bill Ackman's public attack on the company has now been met by another deep-pocketed showman who has taken the other side of the bet. Here's Dan Loeb's letter refuting the "dubious" short case. The stock rose more than 4% yesterday and is up another 3% premarket.
Let's bring Carl Icahn into the fray to spice it up a bit.
Tune in to The Tell blog at 9 a.m. eastern to listen to Herbalife refute Ackman's allegations. While you wait, check out this slideshow of some of the key players.
Morgan Stanley /quotes/zigman/182639 /quotes/nls/ms MS , which is about to lay off 1,600 workers and was also dissected in that Loeb letter, is seeing a surge in cyber-attention, joining other top-trending tickers Bank of America /quotes/zigman/190927 /quotes/nls/bac BAC and Facebook /quotes/zigman/9962609 /quotes/nls/fb FB . The latter, of course, popping up on the radar as investors try to guess what the company is up to (an iPhone rival, perhaps?) with its presser next week.
Read: Dealbook's "Deep cuts raise questions about Morgan Stanley."
One of the biggest premarket movers is Nokia /quotes/zigman/162154 /quotes/nls/nok NOK , up 17% on some strong preliminary fourth-quarter numbers. Good timing for IncomeHunter on Seeking Alpha, who posted his bullish breakdown of the year ahead for the handset maker.
The chart of the day: While the big guys duke it out in their ivory towers, what about the small investors who have entered the Herbalife spat? Well, Chris Kimble of Kimble Charting Solutions says this chart is telling us that if you're long, you might think about using these levels as an exit point.
The call of the day: Forget all those positive headlines coming out of Europe; we're seeing a collapse, according to the aptly-named The Coming Depression blog. Not only is southern Europe already experiencing "a full-blown economic depression" right now, the author writes, but the U.S. is next. Here's his list of 20 facts you should know about the collapse of Europe.
Parting words of caution for Americans: "Use these last few 'bubble months' to prepare for what is ahead. At some point this 'hope bubble' will disappear, and then the time for preparation will be over." (h/t Zero Hedge).
Random reads: AIG's /quotes/zigman/557836 /quotes/nls/aig AIG case for a lawsuit against the government "isn't all wrong. In fact, parts of it are quite on the mark," writes Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi.
Amancio Ortega has jumped ahead of Warren Buffett to the third spot on the list of global billionaires. Wait, who? Read this Forbes profile on the man who built the world's biggest fashion empire.
So, Mars is interested in buying 100 of those $1-trillion coins? "If Paul Krugman et al. have swallowed the fantasy that something of real value can be created from nothing, then why not the Martian Central Bank?" Read the full post.
Boys and girls, meet Mr. Teeth, a five-foot, 34-pounds-of-pot-guarding, Tupac-commemorating alligator. Almost enough to make an expat miss the Bay Area.
Need to Know starts early and is updated as needed until the opening bell, but sign up here to get it delivered once to your e-mail box. Be sure to check the Need to Know item. The e-mailed version will be sent out at approximately 8:45 a.m. Eastern. Follow @slangwise on Twitter.


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Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
~ Steve Jobs
It is doubtful that Steve Jobs was thinking about employee benefit programs when he made this statement. Yet, it is as applicable to employee benefits as it is to technology. Good design is critical to achieving good outcomes.
A useful framework for benefit designs that produce good outcomes consists of the four B's:
The tendency of many companies is to first and foremost look at budget. That is the one objective that is probably easiest to achieve, but easy does not necessarily translate into pleasant. Companies can change employee contributions, retirement plan match rates, or benefit levels to achieve their budget goal.
See also: Behavioral finance techniques really work in 401(k)s
It is much more important to start with the desired outcomes or behaviors. What behaviors does the company want from employees as a result of the benefit program? The company may want employees to save more for retirement. Or, they may want employees to improve their health as a way to help manage overall healthcare costs. Having a good understanding of the actions the company wants employees to take helps the company design benefit structures that motivate and reinforce the desired behaviors.
For example, if the company wants employees to save more for retirement they may include a design feature that "stretches" the employer match. Stretching the match encourages employees to save at higher levels in order to get the full employer match without requiring an additional outlay by the company. Similarly, the employer may add a health savings account to encourage employees to become more engaged in their health.
A helpful approach to design is to have desired behaviors drive benefit structure decisions and let the budget drive benefit level decisions. This creates alignment and helps ensure that the benefit programs ultimately tie to desired behaviors.
The company may also target desired behaviors that go well beyond the benefit program. For example, the employer may want to engage employees in reducing costs, increasing client satisfaction or increasing revenue. Although many would say these goals are beyond the reach of employee benefits, companies that sponsor Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) may disagree.
ESOPs are qualified retirement plans that are invested primarily in the stock of the sponsoring company. As the company experiences success and the stock price increases, so does the balance of the participants' retirement accounts. This provides a clear link between the actions of employees and their own personal financial situation.
The power of this link has been well documented over the years and most recently in the May 2011 Employee Ownership Foundations 20th Annual Economic survey of ESOPs. The survey found:
- 73 percent of respondents indicated that the ESOP positively impacted employee productivity;
- 80 percent saw their stock value rise in 2010 despite the slow recovery; and
- 92 percent said that creating the ESOP was a good business decision that helped the company.
Steve Jobs could have added to his quote that, for design to work, it needs to begin at the end – making the desired outcomes the foundation.
No investment strategy, such as asset allocation or diversification, can guarantee a profit or protect against loss in periods of declining values. Company stock is not a pooled investment. Stock may experience greater volatility and should not be directly compared to investment options that have a more diversified investment mix. It is not intended to serve as a complete investment program by itself.
While this communication may be used to promote or market a transaction or an idea that is discussed in the publication, it is intended to provide general information about the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that none of the member companies of The Principal are rendering legal, accounting, or tax advice. It is not a marketed opinion and may not be used to avoid penalties under the Internal Revenue Code. You should consult with appropriate counsel or other advisors on all matters pertaining to legal, tax, or accounting obligations and requirements.
Insurance products and plan administrative services are provided by Principal Life Insurance Company a member of the Principal Financial Group (The Principal), Des Moines, IA 50392.


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PyLint Integration
Wing Pro and Wing Personal provide a simple integration with pylint, which is a third party tool that runs error and warning analyses on Python code.
To use the tool, you must install pylint separately first and verify that it works from the command line. Note that pylint has certain dependencies that may be missing from your system. See the pylint website for installation details.
Once this is done and pylint works on the command line, bring up the PyLint tool from the Tools menu. Right click on the tool and select Configure. This will open a configuration file in an editor in Wing. You can alter the following here:
- command -- The command that invokes pylint
- args -- Additional command line arguments to send to pylint (see the pylint documentation for details on those available)
- timeout -- The maximum amount of time to wait for pylint to complete before aborting analysis.
- autosave -- Set this to 1 to automatically save a file before starting pylint to analyze it or 2 to auto-save all open files before starting pylint to analyze any file. 0 disables any auto-saving.
The configuration file can contain environment variable references in the form $(ENV) or ${ENV}, including references to regular environment variables defined in Project Properties or special environment defined by Wing.6
Once you have edited the configuration file as desired, save and close it.
Per-project pylintrc files can also be specified. If a file .pylintrc exists in the same directory as a Wing project file, then this file name is passed to pylint using the --rcfile argument. See the pylint documentation for details on what this file can contain.
Next, bring up some Python source code in an editor in Wing and then right click on the PyLint tool and select Update. After some time (up to a minute for larger files), lists of errors, warnings, and informational messages will be placed into the tool. Click on the items to bring up the source code with the indicated line selected.
Note that you can disable messages on the command line to pylint, as configured using the args item in the configuration file. See the pylint documentation for details.
Processing multiple files
The context menu on the PyLint tool will include an item for running pylint on all the files in the current package, when the current file is in a package (a directory that contains a file __init__.py). In this case, the file name as well as the line number is shown in the Line column of the output.
Note that this option adds --output-format=parseable to the pylint command line so that the file names can be obtained. This may not work with all pylint versions.
Using VirtualEnv on Windows
On Windows, pylint installed into a virtualenv does not work because pylint.bat is invoking just python and that may find the wrong Python installation. To fix this, edit pylint.bat and change python to the full path of the virtualenv's Python. Another fix is to edit pylint instead and add the following lines at the top:
import os dirname = os.path.dirname(__file__) execfile(os.path.join(dirname, 'activate_this.py'))
Thanks to Markus Meyer for providing the original implementation of this capability for Wing. The source code for this integration is available under open source license in scripts/pylintpanel.py within your Wing installation.


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I have always been interested in this synth but you don't see it come up very often for sale or mentioned much for that matter. Maybe it's always in the shadow of the 60 and 80.
I think I'm interested in getting one, I love the sound of my sk50d and feel that while it's nowhere near as deep as the cs70, I think it gives a glimpse of the tone and yamaha sound.
I have no idea what they are worth or what they go for. I'm in the UK so if anyone here can give any ideas or if they have one they might be interested in selling or trading?
Poly's I could trade in some way or another are jupiter 4, crumar stratus and the sk50d. All these have small or a few issues but can be sorted or swapped as is if the person can do it themselves.
Let's see what comes of this ha.


text:
According to a news release from the Red Rock 4-Wheelers club, donation recipients are determined by recommendations made by club members. Several organizations that provide assistance during the annual Easter Jeep Safari receive annual donations, the news release stated.
The Red Rock 4-Wheelers also announced that the group paid $36,414 to the Bureau of Land Management, the state School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, and the National Park Service for fees and permits required for the club to use the trails during Easter Jeep Safari and the group's annual Labor Day Campout.
The BLM, which receives the lion's share of the fees, uses them for local trail and facility maintenance and improvements.


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by Tom Utescher
Ashley Webster is not technically a Germantown Friends School alumna, but she might as well be. She went to GFS from nursery school up through 10th grade, then decided to attend school and play basketball at Cheltenham High School, long one of the premier large-school hoops programs in the Philadelphia region.
Now she's returning to the Scattergood Gym as head coach of the girls varsity basketball squad at GFS. Webster, who grew up in Chestnut Hill and now lives in Blue Bell, obviously has first-hand knowledge of how both small and large basketball programs operate at the scholastic level.
She went on to become a 1000-point scorer and team captain for the NCAA Division II program at Philadelphia University, just over a mile down School House Lane from GFS.
There she earned a B.S. in Psychology in 2008, and later she acquired a Master's Degree in School Counseling and Educational Psychology from West Chester University. While in grad school with basketball temporarily out of the picture, she was asked to help out back at Cheltenham High by the Panthers' legendary coach, Bob Schaeffer.
For the last four seasons, she served as an assistant coach there, and last spring she was a lacrosse assistant at St. Basil Academy. Then there came a call from GFS athletic director Katie Bergstrom Mark.
Bergstrom Mark had coached the Hill native in lacrosse and obviously was aware of her basketball prowess, as well. After three seasons leading the Tigers' girls basketball squad, former La Salle University player James Jordan had stepped down, and Bergstrom Mark was after a solid successor.
Webster was starting out as a Montessori School teacher, and wasn't sure she could balance the two tasks.
"Katie convinced me that I could do it," the Philly U. grad said, "and things ended up working out really well, because I was also able to get a teaching job at GFS."
She's now a fifth-grade assistant at the school, and says there are clear advantages to being on campus throughout the day.
"You get a much better read of what's going on at school than if you're just turning up for practice at three'o'clock," she pointed out. "You see your players off the court, you can pop into the athletic office if you need to, and you don't have to fight traffic to get to practice."
Speaking in broader terms, Webster noted, "I started at GFS when I was five years old. I met some of my best friends here. GFS is where I grew up; it was my foundation academically, athletically, and socially."
In sports, Webster started out with youth soccer, then began to play basketball in the sixth grade. Her father, Keith, coached the varsity at GFS and later was head coach at Norristown High School. For a number of years, he also piloted the superb Fencor AAU team that included Delaware sensation Elena Della Donne and Germantown Academy star Caroline Doty.
In her tenth-grade year at GFS, Ashley Webster was already an All-Friends Schools League player. Her longtime friend Laura Harper, a 6'4" forward, was playing at Cheltenham, and had helped the Panthers win a PIAA state championship (Harper went on to win an NCAA title at Maryland and now plays in the WNBA).
In her junior year of high school, Webster joined Harper at Cheltenham, and the team made it deep into the state playoffs in both 2003 and 2004.
"At Cheltenham, if you played basketball, that was it, so I wasn't playing lacrosse in the spring anymore," she recalled. "It was pretty intense and it was definitely different from GFS, which has a lot of three-sport athletes."
Webster is giving her Tigers a little taste of that experience, lining up an opening scrimmage against Abington High School and their star guard Aiyannah Peal, a 5'10" 1000-point scorer. GFS has also signed on to play in the annual holiday tournament hosted by West Chester University, an eight-team event that usually features a strong field of competitors.
"We have to rebuild the basketball culture at GFS; it's fallen to the wayside a little bit," Webster admitted. "Many of the other sports are doing very well, and there's no reason why basketball can't be up at that level. I definitely want to see us get into a summer league as a team, and I'm going to provide other opportunities for the girls outside of the regular basketball season. It's also important, for both our varsity teams, to get middle and lower school kids interested in the sport."
As part of this grass-roots effort at the school, Webster is helping conduct "Early Risers" basketball clinics for fourth and fifth grade boys and girls. They assemble every Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM.
In addition to her wide-ranging basketball experience, Webster's educational background in psychology and counseling should be an asset.
"Not every player has the same personality, and they all learn differently," she said. "The great thing about being at a small school like GFS is that you can recognize and adapt to those differences."


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Over the last few weeks as the lockout hopefully nears its conclusion the speculation on the future of Roy Williams has reignited. And while there are some compelling arguments for simply cutting Roy Williams and moving on if you look at the bigger picture you will see that it is very unlikely that Roy won't be back with the Cowboys this season.
Let's start with the most important aspect of this discussion. Can Roy Williams get the job done as the #3 receiver? My answer is absolutely. Don't forget that he was off to a great start last season working with Tony Romo. Unfortunately once Romo went down the entire offense shifted from a big play passing attack to a run first/dink and dunk passing attack under Kitna. What that meant was Williams production dropped off dramatically after the first six games of the year last year. Roy was averaging about 4 receptions a game and had five touchdowns in the first five games last season. With Kitna, Roy's production dropped to 2 receptions per game and he scored zero touchdowns in his last eight games played last year.
As for all of the talk about the Cowboys cutting Roy Williams to save room under the salary cap, a lot of media members need to check Roy's contract before starting rampant speculation about his future. Roy will count about $9 million against the cap if he returns next season. That is a big number to accept but consider the alternative. If Roy is cut, he will count $12.9 against the cap due to the acceleration of his signing bonus. It is hard to imagine the Cowboys paying an extra $3.9 million in cap money to unload a player. How can you justify $12.9 million is dead money against the cap when you know the cap is going to be a challenge this season? With the Cowboys expected to struggle to get under the new salary cap, the last thing they will do is waste nearly $4 million in cap space. The salary cap will save Roy Williams.
I have also heard some speculation about the Cowboys trading Roy Williams. The problem with that theory is the same as cutting Roy Williams. If you trade a player then the remaining prorated piece of their signing bonus counts against the salary cap. That means it would cost the Cowboys $12.9 to trade Roy Williams as well. And who would trade for Roy Williams with his ridiculous contract anyway?
You can make a strong case that the Cowboys are better off without Roy Williams. He hasn't lived up to the hype that builds when a team gives up the draft picks the Cowboys gave up to get him. And he hasn't lived up to his bloated contract. He has dropped the ball far too much. And he let the Cowboys down in a big way last season against the Saints.
But, even with that said, put the salary cap issues aside and think of it this way. If the Cowboys did miraculously find a way to unload Roy Williams within the confines of the salary cap who would you want to step into the #3 receiver role? The #3 receiver is on the field on a regular basis. Is Kevin Ogletree ready to step up and fill that role? He regressed last season and the thought of counting on Ogletree scares me. Sam Hurd is a free agent and may not be back. Manny Johnson, Teddy Williams and rookie Dwayne Harris look far from ready to get real playing time. And think of what happens if Dez Bryant battles injuries all year long again. Roy Williams needs to be with the team.
I'm certainly not trying to convince anyone that Roy Williams is a great receiver. But I do think he is above average. And he is better than any alternative that you are going to find with only training camp and four preseason games to learn a new offense that a free agent would get. So, if you are a Roy Williams hater, you should come to grips with the fact that Roy Williams will be back with the Cowboys this season. The best thing all of the fans can hope for is that he continues on the path he took early in the season last year with Romo at the helm. Roy Williams can be an impact player in the right situations and the Cowboys need him to be if they want to compete for the playoffs this season. And hopefully the Cowboys will find a way to restructure Roy's contract to help free up some cap room and make it easier to unload him down the road.
Monday, July 11, 2011
The Roy Williams Dilemma
Posted by romo2witten at 4:52 PM
Labels: Dallas Cowboys, Jason Garrett, NFC East, Roy Williams, Tony Romo
3 comments:
- AnonymousJuly 11, 2011 at 6:53 PM
Great article, #11 will be awesum in 2011 with a healthy Tony Romo. Can't wait.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 12, 2011 at 8:29 AM
Sorri but Roy will not be awsome next year,how bout tha Cowboys trade next year 7th rd pick an get patrick crayton back....ReplyDelete
- Sterling SmithJuly 13, 2011 at 4:44 PM
Glad that there is a new post on the blog. Well written and thought out as well. Which is why I frequent this site regularly.ReplyDelete
Is he worth $9 million... no. Is he worth $12.9... no.
I'm glad we have him now with our limited WR stock that is ready to have steady minutes per game. Let's hope he and Romo have gelled even more with the workouts that Romo has orchestrated.
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Sprinkles Cupcakes Assorted Gift Box, Cupcake Assortment.
No surprise is sweeter than a Sprinkles assorted box!
Our Sprinkles sampler includes our best sellers, like red velvet and vanilla, and some of our most popular rotating flavors, like strawberry and banana. A different assortment each day keeps things interesting, and ensures the perfect selection to satisfy any sweet tooth.


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Opinion: Is Mali the Next Afghanistan?
WSJ Europe editorial writer Anne Jolis on al Qaeda's resurgence in Mali. Photo credit: Anne Jolis/The Wall Street Journal.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... welcome to Opinion Journal why Mary Kissel ... you're looking at a shot for one of our editorial writers who is on the ground in Mali ... in Chile's whose joining us now from Sebei ... it is the gateway to the north that was when the last towns that was not occupied ... by the jihadis ... and Wellcome which parts of Molly now have been secured by the French and what is left to conquer ... while the fighting in the mood going on I think she dollar ... would depend on what you mean by it sure turned in last week ... we thought that the gal which is the largest city in the north have been insured ... and ended with a weekend of refined dining ... and a half urban guerrilla warfare firefight on Sunday that lasted several hours in ... the Dow ... so ... when we think it shortly ... you know the town wanted to make it count ... the French of all ... taking them ... by ... now in Alaska DPP in key insurgent he had ... started in earnest now we're seeing ... I he he played every night how to read it it's located ... in the house where the French currently are ... so that it ... tortured me from kicking in and get me the question of security ... I'm not so black and white ... and ten the French win this war with out more troops without boots on the ground from places like say ... the United States ... to learn what victory looks like it or talking about it a dog Molly Kate ... had territory unpacking cannot become a playground for nappy ... right now from our expanding into people talking or anything French voters off the record ... it seems unlikely that it will be able to do with it to me what you think that now they're debating the foreground intelligent ... and kind of an orchard in town talking to people ... not to hide in the guide round but the actual folded ... little beneath count ... to add to it ... to really keep a close eye ... on what's going on so have the right now it doesn't look like it but ... meeting a friend of something that helped anyone in the few foreign correspondents that is on the ground there in Mali do you get a sense ... that if we don't put more troops on the ground that this is our next Afghanistan ... you ... if the United States ... and other countries don't put more troops on the ground to help the French ... could this turn into another Afghanistan ... the area and that ... it already could be and what the defendant knew at that a very good could a different country ... one big difference between ... Afghanistan and that the French for years that the same language though ... for a heart to mine countering certainty that theory is different ... that that that that ... the French any had been ordered ... to do ... in a country that wrinkled and here ... I dealing with a plan to compete that dogs have local ... homegrown support and kept reaching into situation where it's not ... the squeaky the surgical site where you actually need months maybe years ... of ... of of folded on the ground did he make it would give a unique take a hit right now the friends are curiously being forthing Dick pound gallon north ... ending ... it doesn't look like it'll be the tricks that from ... it doesn't look like it'll be easy to extract from the editorial page writer Anne Jolis ... reporting to us from on the ground in Mali ... and thank you for joining us on Opinion Journal ...


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In a time when the whetted and arbitrary deficit-reduction knife is cutting bone out of critical U.S. government programs, the image of shopping bags stuffed with CIA cash handed off on a monthly basis to Afghan President Hamid Karzai — who reigns over one of the most corrupt governments on the planet — has outraged many Americans.
The New York Times, which revealed the years of payoffs this week, noted that "there is little evidence the payments bought the influence the CIA sought."
In fact, regular cash handouts of this type may do the opposite. They may well have enabled Karzai's frequent and theatrical outbursts against U.S. officials and policies, not to mention his collusion with some of his country's most corrupt and abusive officials. Such payoffs signal to Karzai — or other leaders like him — that he enjoys the unwavering support of the CIA, no matter what he does or says, and embolden him to thumb his nose at the United States whenever he feels like it.
Karzai's relationship with the CIA is believed to long predate the tense days in late 2001 when CIA officers joined him and his followers in the mountains north of Kandahar as the Taliban regime was falling. In a 2003 conversation, the most renowned commander of anti-Soviet resistance fighters in southern Afghanistan, where I lived at the time, told me that in the late 1980s Karzai introduced him to CIA officials so he could obtain some of the all-important Stinger missiles that helped the Afghan fighters neutralize Soviet helicopters. U.S. support of the anti-Soviet resistance was covert. Very few Afghans had direct contact with the CIA. Most received U.S. money or military equipment by way of Pakistani intermediaries. Karzai, according to this commander, was one of the early exceptions.


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I always liked the BG pans in the early Roadrunner cartoons. They achieved a sense of depth by painting the BG on separate planes or layers.
The road and cacti are painted on a separate layer from the mountains and the sky. Then they pan the foreground road faster than the background sky/mountain layer.
This creates the illusion of perspective and 3 dimensions.
I think it helps to keep the paintings and design somewhat stylized and cartoony because it is merely a flat illusion and not real depth. If it was really 3d, there would be an infinite amount of planes all moving at different speeds and that is of course impossible.
I think this effect works much better than many Disney multiplane effects. In the Disney fake depth camera moves, they paint the BGs too detailed and "realistic". The more detailed the layers are painted, the more obvious that the layers are flat-that they are paintings. When you truck in on Snow White's cottage and the foreground trees pan apart and go out of focus, it looks like you are watching paintings of trees separate.
Simple cartoony shapes allow you to suspend your disbelief.
I love Robert Gribbroek's BG layouts because they are well designed, but not overly stylized like Maurice Nobel's. Noble's BGs are so extremely designed that they jump forward ahead of the characters and distract from the "reality" of the story. For me anyway.
These are simplified and cartoony, yet inspired by the organic nature of the objects being caricatured.
It gives the cartoons a feeling of open spaces and nature. That makes the cartoon more unique and really makes me feel the coyote's plight better. In the more stylized Roadrunner's I feel like I'm just watching a generic template of Chuck Jones cartoon tricks, rather than a special treatment designed for the characters and situation.


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Jan/Feb 2013 PS Magazine
In the November issue of USA Hockey magazine it was reported that in the past 10 years, participation in girl's hockey has increased close to 40%; for the 2011-2012 season, 67,000 girls and women were playing hockey.
If USA Hockey can maintain that pace, the number of girls playing hockey could exceed those who are figure skating within another 20 years. While rink owners and operators would love that, it should concern those who earn their livelihood in the figure skating market.
, home of the PSA, it
has already happened. There are currently 145 members of the Rochester Figure
Skating Club which includes both boys and girls. The Rochester Youth Hockey
Association has 226 registered girls on 14 teams; a difference of 36% in
comparison to the RFSC. Rochester,
In the State of Hockey (MN), there are 126 high schools with at least one girl's team.
Massachusetts has 82
high school girls teams, Wisconsin 33, Michigan
30, and Illinois
just 15.
Why is the number of girls playing hockey skyrocketing while ours are stagnant? We often hear that we lack a marketable star, but can anyone name a famous female hockey player? To the general public, I don't see any lady hockey player more recognizable that any of our top girls. Maybe it's financial…figure skating has a reputation as being expensive. I don't think that's it, especially when parents are paying $300 for hockey skates, $100 for a helmet, $50 each for a chest protector, shin guards, and elbow pads, $100 for pants, $100 for gloves and up to $300 for stick. A season of travel hockey can run anywhere from $1000 - $15,000 and up, depending on various factors. Of course figure skating and hockey are both referred to as elitist sports…only the rich participate. There are politics in hockey just as there is in figure skating…what is it?
Could it be the potential of college scholarships for hockey players? There are currently 35 DI and 51 D III women's hockey teams. But is that truly it? The reality is that only about 1% of hockey players receive that full ride. Are they having more fun? Are hockey dad's pushing there girls into hockey?
The only reasonable conclusion a person could point to is the public favors hockey over figure skating. It has to be our image…Tonya Harding, judging scandals, negative media, and the divisiveness IJS has caused with our current and former fan base. Image is everything!
Point in case – a new reality series "
on Ice" on TLC. The sneak preview available online is disturbingly offensive to
those who coach. The show focuses on four coaches, all non-PSA members, who try
to one up each other. In the 2:00 minute preview, these coaches who are wearing
more make-up than a Vegas show-girl, and display a wide variety of poor
professional conduct. There are multiple instances of swearing, coaches arguing
in front of their skaters in public and one shot of the four sitting in a bar
having a drink! Personally, I am extremely disappointed. This show is a very
selfish act on the part of these so-called coaches that could have a large negative
impact on a sport that is already fighting for every skater.
I feel like I've written this editorial before…I KNOW I have written this before, many times in fact. We all have to do a better job of selling our sport. We need to keep it fun, exciting, and fresh. Coaches have to be professional, live it! Judges have to keep improving, and become more accessible to coaches and skaters. While US Figure Skating, PSA, STAR and ISI must work together to build a stronger industry, US Figure Skating and PSA must work harder together to grow and keep figure skaters in figure skating.


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At the same time we got this huge political crisis with UAE , we have got a diplomatic crisis with Cyprus, yes Cyprus and it does not involved the offshore gas fields. It involves our ambassador in Cyprus.
From couple of days ago we read in the Egyptian press that the government of Cyprus apologized officially to ambassador Menha Bakhoum after she was mistreated by the security in the Larnaca airport while she was saying goodbye to some of her relatives. Most of us did pay attention to the news compared to the action going on in UAE. Then we found out that despite the government in Cyprus officially apologized that Mrs. Ambassador slapped a policewoman and that's why she was detained by the security in Larnaca airport aside from all the Diplomatic laws jazz.
Now part of the incident was recorded on tape and it is not good for our ambassador.
I think ambassador should apologize to that policewoman and apologize to Cyprus as well to Egypt because she did not respect her position as the ambassador of Egypt and slapped that policewoman in that way !!! I think she should be recalled to Cairo. She is not above humans. Slapping a policewoman in that way is not a representative diplomatic answer , Mrs. Bakhoum should have known better.
For all those nationalist Egyptians , I hope that you think what you will feel if an Egyptian policewoman was slapped like that by a foreign ambassador !!
By the way late Pope Shenouda III was also mistreated in Heathrow airport in London in 2008 and had to undergo that airport search despite he had a diplomatic passport. He did not make that scene despite he was the Pope of one of the world's old churches and by the way UK officially apologized to him and to Egypt then.


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A multi-agency board has been set up in a bid to stop more youngsters killing or harming themselves in Sutton.
The move follows a serious case review into Sutton Local Safeguarding Children Board (SLSCB) which identified training and communication failures which may have contributed to the death of 14-year-old Liam Hardy.
The expectant father was found hanged in a bedroom at his grandparents house on November 19 last year.
Liam, who lived in Lancaster Way, Worcester Park, died in hospital eight days later.
During a five-day inquest at Croydon Coroners Court, it was heard the teenager would regularly self-harm and threaten to take his own life.
On Friday June 13 Coroner Selena Lynch ruled his death was most likely an accident, stating he was probably unaware of the dangers of tying things around his own neck.
The court also heard social services were aware of Liam, who had displayed complex emotional and behavioural problems throughout his childhood.
Ms Lynch told the court the teenager's actions leading up to his death were partly a result of his needs not being properly assessed by social and mental healthcare services.
Following Liam's death a serious case review was carried out into the role of the Sutton Local Safeguarding Children's Board (SLSCB).
The body oversees the work of agencies such as the police, schools, healthcare services and the council, who deal with children that have been flagged up to social services.
As a result a set of recommendations were made to SLSCB.
The board was advised to establish a range of measures to make sure agencies meet safeguarding standards.
It was also told to review its multi-agency training programme.
In response to the recommendations SLSCB formed the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).
Christine Davies, chair of the Sutton Local Safeguarding Children Board, said: "All of our agencies, such as the council, health services, education, the police, are all working together now in MASH.
"Our information is immediately shared and children's needs are assessed.
"As soon as a body has a case for serious concern, that concern comes straight into the MASH system.
"If a child is self-harming it stops their needs falling through the net."
SLSCB has also arranged for training to be given to employees in each of the agencies it oversees, so they can find it easier to spot someone who is self-harming.
They then work with the rest of the agencies in MASH to try and prevent the behaviour from continuing.
Ms Davies said: "We are not just talking about a one-off training session here, people across all our agencies have been trained a handful of times in the past year.
"Liam's death was very sad, and all of the agencies have taken the consequences very seriously indeed."


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SUGAR GROVE – An Oswego man was charged Tuesday with attempted criminal sexual abuse and battery after an incident in Sugar Grove.
Jeffery D. Bernard, 51, of the 100 block of St. George Lane, Oswego, was taken into custody by U.S. marshals Tuesday on a warrant that was issued Dec. 18. He later was released after posting 10 percent of his $10,000 bond.
Sugar Grove police investigator John Sizer said the Kane County Sheriff's Office chose to use U.S. marshals to take Bernard into custody because the department doesn't have the manpower to serve its own warrants.
According to a news release, the victim has alleged that on Aug. 13, Bernard followed her from her place of employment in Montgomery to a remote area in Sugar Grove. Bernard then stopped her and made physical contact with her that was of a sexual nature.
The victim got away when another vehicle approached, Sizer said.
Sizer said police had to conduct a lengthy investigation before a warrant was issued.
"It was a pretty intensive investigation, trying to talk to witnesses and get statements from various people," he said.


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Posted by: Maggie
Congrats to Nicole/comment #2 for winning our Anthropologie apron giveaway! Nicole has been contacted and will receive her prize shortly. Thanks to all who entered!
Annie makes amazing penne alla vodka. I've been asking her to blog about it ever since we started A Bitchin' Kitchen, but she's oddly protective of the recipe and refuses. Generally I despise food that is not at its intended temperature - for example, I'd rather eat boogers than cold pizza or cold fried chicken, but I actually ate a bowl of cold penne alla vodka while visiting her in Philly last fall. It's just that stinkin' good.
Anyway, since Annie is keeping her recipe on lockdown, I was forced to find another version to satisfy me. I turned to The Curvy Carrot, since I enjoyed the Pasta Puttanesca recipe that I got from her site earlier this year so much. Fortunately, her penne alla vodka recipe was also perfect, and I loved that it contained a generous portion of red pepper flakes. The added spice just made one of my favorite pasta dishes even better!
Here's what you'll need:
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/3 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 pound penne pasta (I recommend making the whole box if you like your pasta less saucy)
Fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded
Set up a large pot of water to boil while you start the sauce.
Divide your can of tomatoes into two halves. Place one half in a food processor, and puree until smooth. Chop the remaining tomatoes into small pieces, and set aside. Combine your pureed tomatoes, and chopped tomatoes to equal 2 cups. Add the reserved juice to get to a full 2 cups if necessary.
In a large, deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and tomato paste and cook for about 3 minutes, or until onion is translucent. Add in minced garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and salt.
Remove pan from heat, and add vodka. Return the pan to the heat, and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
While the sauce is simmering, cook your pasta. At this point your water should be boiling. Add in pasta, and cook according to package directions.
After sauce has cooked for 8-10 minutes and reduced slightly, stir in the cream, and cook until heated through. Add the cooked and drained penne to the sauce, and stir to combine. Add additional salt to taste, and top with fresh basil.
Source: The Curvy Carrot / Cooks Illustrated