dajafi wrote:zOMG VOTER FRAUD!!!1

dajafi wrote:zOMG VOTER FRAUD!!!1

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Drewniak referred to the Port Authority's executive director as a "piece of crap." While Drewniak did call him a "piece of excrement," it was David Wildstein who referred to the executive director as a "piece of crap."

Youseff wrote:not a parody - or maybe it is?

In what represented a cautionary tale for terrorist teachers, and a cause of dark humor for ordinary Iraqis, a commander at a secluded terrorist training camp north of Baghdad unwittingly used a belt packed with explosives while conducting a demonstration early Monday for a group of militants, killing himself and 21 other members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, army and police officials said.

Iraqi citizens have long been accustomed to daily attacks on public markets, mosques, funerals and even children’s soccer games, so they saw the story of the fumbling militants as a dark — and delicious — kind of poetic justice, especially coming amid a protracted surge of violence led by the terrorist group, including a rise in suicide bombings.

Just last week a suicide bomber struck a popular falafel shop near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here, killing several people. On Monday evening Raad Hashim, working the counter at a liquor store near the site of the attack, burst out laughing when he heard the news.

“This is so funny,” Mr. Hashim said. “It shows how stupid they are, those dogs and sons of dogs.”

More seriously, he said, “it also gives me pain, as I remember all the innocent people that were killed here.”

Iraq is facing its worst violence in more than five years, with nearly 9,000 people killed last year and almost 1,000 people killed last month. On Monday, a roadside bomb in Mosul, in northern Iraq, targeted the speaker of Parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, security officials said. Six of his guards were wounded, but Mr. Nujaifi was unharmed, they said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria evolved from its previous incarnation as Al Qaeda in Iraq, but recently Al Qaeda’s central leadership disavowed the group, which has taken on an increasingly important role in the fighting in Syria, as well as in Iraq.

Along with the increase in attacks on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad and elsewhere, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other Sunni extremist groups have captured territory in western Anbar Province, and for weeks they have controlled the city of Falluja and parts of Ramadi, the provincial capital. Other areas of the country have also become strongholds of the Islamic State and of Al Qaeda.

Terrorist training camps have been set up in the mountainous areas of Diyala Province. Northern Nineveh Province has become a gateway for jihadis traveling from Iraq to Syria. Mosul, Nineveh’s capital, has become a center of financing for militant groups estimated by one Iraqi official at millions of dollars a month, generated by extortion and other schemes.

dajafi wrote:I was wondering how that works from the whole martyrdom/rewards perspective. Does the klutzy failed bomber still get 72 virgins, but they're ugly and have terrible breath? Is he just allowed to watch, so to speak?

dajafi wrote:I was wondering how that works from the whole martyrdom/rewards perspective. Does the klutzy failed bomber still get 72 virgins, but they're ugly and have terrible breath? Is he just allowed to watch, so to speak?

jerseyhoya wrote:I went to an event on campus to see Fulop, the new Jersey City mayor, speak tonight. He's pretty impressive. Very smooth. Not the most enthralling speaker, but he told a few funny stories, and managed a half hour of Q&A easily (the audience was mostly friendly, but there were a few tough questions from his left). Most of his positions were pretty standard fare liberal big city Democrat, but he went off on a good rant about how the problem with Jersey City schools isn't money and anyone pointing to funding as the excuse is missing the real problems that I liked.

He'll be tough in a statewide primary.