andy2000.org | ANDISHEH NOURAEE

I received the following e-mail this morning from a reader of Columbia, South Carolina's Free Times, which runs my Don't Panic column. The font, color, italics and stray apostrophes are in the original:

Pieces written by a pile of Dog Shit like this make me and a lot of American's sick. I gather from his name that he if it is a he, is not American, in fact from his writing he probably is a rug wearing Muslim. On September 11, we were not at war with anyone, just 3,000 people trying to make a living for there family and loved ones when 20 of your Rug Headed Brother's killed the innocent who had done them no wrong. Some Cleric told them they would go to Heaven and have 70 Virgins to wait on them, well, I hope they all had AID'S. When I stand at that piece of Black Granite in Washington and talk to my friend's, I keep telling them that they did not die in vain but some times when I tell them they died so Ass Holes like you can write trash like this, I feel like they are laughing, It even sounds like you praise Zarqawi. Keep in mind, we didn't lose in Viet Nam, we left but it was a mistake we will not make again! Just an old Soldier who get's hot when some one dishonor's the American Way because there is none any Better. RSonOfDixie

As you read, listen and watch Hurricane Katrina anniversary coverage, you will hear several people imply or flat-out say that New Orleans was destroyed by a hurricane.

It was not.

The destruction of New Orleans was a man-made disaster. The city was deluged because the flood-protection system in the city built and maintained by the U.S. Army was poorly-designed, poorly-constructed and under-inspected. The flood walls and levees were not overtopped.

In June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers admitted that the flood damage was their fault.

Yet, some people still refer to the destruction of NOLA as a natural disaster -- some out of ignorance (it's hard to know better when the TV and radio still refer to it as a natural disaster), some to protect their political allies from scrutiny (translation -- if the Army screws up, it's ultimately the Commander-In-Chief's responsibility.)

Osama Bin Laden apparently has a thing for Whitney Houston.

From today's NYPost. I enlarged the best bits.

Kola Boof, 37, the Sudanese poet and novelist who claims to have once been bin Laden's sex slave, writes in her autobiography, "Diary of a Lost Girl," which is excerpted in the September Harper's: "He told me Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen."

Boof - who wrote for the soap opera "The Days of Our Lives" until she was axed last month - continues, "He said that he had a paramount desire for [Houston] and although he claimed music was evil, he spoke of someday spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting."

Boof says bin Laden couldn't stop talking about his favorite singer and had lofty plans for her. "He said he wanted to give [her] a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Khartoum. He explained to me that to possess Whitney, he would be willing to break his color rule and make her one of his wives."

But bin Laden's murderous side also emerged in his fantasies about the pop superstar. "[He would say] how beautiful she is," Boof claims, "what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and by her husband - Bobby Brown, whom Osama talked about having killed, as if it were normal to have womens' husbands killed.

"In his briefcase, I would come across photographs of the Star [magazine], as well as copies of Playboy. It would soon come to the point where I was sick of hearing Whitney Houston's name," Boof writes.

"I just want to remind everyone that it’s what’s inside that really matters."

-Jessica Alba, upon receiving her "Choice Hottie" award at tonight's Teen Choice awards.

Runner-up stupid comment (so far):

"This crowd just needs a little booze."

Pre-show host Jillian Barbieri.

Um, Jill, it's Teen Choice. TEEN.

Two months ago, I wrote about someone else writing about how the U.S. government was making an anti-suicide bombing TV commercial for broadcast in Iraq.

Here's the commercial.



Below is my original post on the subject:

According to Newsweek, the U.S. has paid for the production of a 'public service announcement'-style TV commercial aimed at discouraging Iraqis from becoming suicide bombers.

What a terrific idea!



I'm sure Iraqis would enjoy seeing the new commercial. Too bad they don't have reliable electricity, if any at all.

The following business card showed up in my home mailbox this morning.

Do people who drive Hummers have little self-regard?

Do people who drive Hummers do it to compensate for personal shortcomings?

The answers to those questions are apparently yes and yes.

Says who?

Says the advertising agency who made the most recent Hummer commercial.

Check out the commercial.



Note the sequence of events. Wimpy guy feels inadequate. Wimpy guy buys Hummer. Wimpy guy suddenly feels better about himself.

Most car companies try to lure customers with phony flattery. Hummer is boldly (or clumsily) pointing out its target audience's inadequecies. Either way, good work.

The National Park Service announced last week that visitors will no longer be allowed to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.



The reasons given by the National Park Service: fire hazard and, you guessed it, terrorism.

What is wrong with my country?

Reports indicate that two FOX News journalists have been kidnapped in Gaza.

I hope that they're released quickly and unharmed.

I also hope that, unlike Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll, who was abducted in Iraq and held for nearly three months before being released, that the kidnapped FOX News journalists are not subjected to vile personal attacks by cowardly right-wing talking heads like Sean Hannity.

Report: US helped Israel plan Lebanon offensive
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

A special report in The New Yorker says the Bush administration was closely involved in the planning of Israel's retaliatory attacks against Hizbullah in Lebanon, and US officials hoped that by helping Israel destroy or disarm the militant Islamic group, it would make it easier for the US to launch a preemptive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Read the rest

Is the U.S.-Pakistan alliance coming apart?

That's the leading question I answer in my newspaper column this week.



Other recent columns:

What are some of the hidden motives behind the current war between Lebanon and Israel?

Is Zarqawi's death a turning point in the Iraq war? -- See if what I wrote in June has held up well.

Prime Minister Maliki was very clear this morning; he said he does not want American troops to leave his country until his government can protect the Iraqi people. And I assured him that America will not abandon the Iraqi people.

--President George W. Bush, July 25, 2006

President Bush will move U.S. troops out of Iraq if the country descends into civil war, according to one senior Bush aide who declined to be named while talking about internal strategy. "If there's a full-blown civil war, the president isn't going to allow our forces to be caught in the crossfire," the aide said.

--Newsweek, August 14, 2006 issue

George W. Bush says what he means, he means what he says. You can trust him.

--Gov. George Pataki at the 2004 Republican convention.

On Wednesday, I purchased my first gallon of biodiesel fuel for Chapman, my 1973 Mercedes-Benz 220D.

I only bought one gallon of biodiesel because old cars like mine need time to get used to it. Biodiesel acts as a detergent in old cars, loosening fuel-system deposits left behind by regular diesel (in my case, 33 years worth).

To prevent my fuel filters from getting clogged with the loosened deposits, I'm starting with a low concentration of biodiesel (one gallon of biodiesel mixed with 13 gallons of regular diesel).

When my tank nears empty, I'm going to change the car's fuel filters ($12 at Advance Auto Parts), then increase the concentration of biodiesel in my tank to two gallons of biodiesel mixed with 12 gallons of regular diesel. Rinse and repeat.

It could take up to a dozen fuel filter changes before the car is fully transitioned. Once I'm past the transition period, however, I can go back and forth between biodiesel and regular diesel, at any ratio I choose. Plus, the car will probably run better (more smoothly, efficiently, and quietly) than it has since the mid-70s.

As chance would have it, a producer from CNN Radio was at the Fillin' Station interviewing customers for a story about alternative fuels. You can hear me yapping at about 24:30 mark. The much more knowledgable person who speaks after me is my friend Jerry. He was there buying biodiesel for his 1982 300SD. Jerry and his wife own my 'hood's coffee shop, Capitol Coffee.

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What is biodiesel?

Biodiesel is diesel fuel made from vegetable oil. It's renewable, biodegradeable and non-toxic. It puts out fewer harmful exhaust pollutants than regular petrodiesel. It extends the life of diesel engines and improves performance. It can be mixed at any ratio with regular diesel. And my favorite thing -- it's domestically produced, so it doesn't benefit the jackasses running Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Russia, etc.

Why did the Bush Administration fail to adequately plan to prevent Iraq from fracturing along religious sectarian lines?

In his new book, Peter Galbraith has revealed one possible reason : President Bush might not have even known that Iraq had religious sects.

A year after his 'Axis of Evil' speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq's first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, "I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!"

If that seems too appalling to be true, remember that, at roughly the same time, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz testified in front of Congress that Iraq had no history of ethnic strife.

"We have no idea what kind of ethnic strife might appear in the future, although as I have noted, it has not been the history of Iraq's past."