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OK, Freepers, tell us about your garden. What works, what doesn't, successes, failures. Anything peculiar to your location that might help others. This is NOT a cannabis thread!!!

As the weather heats up in Sacramento, so does the legislating. This month dozens of bills are moving from committees to the floor, across the rotunda and back again. This week Capitol Weekly is taking a look at some of the less-noticed measures up for consideration. And we start with everyone's favorites: sex, drugs and alcohol. Newly elected Assembly Republican leader George Plescia, R-San Diego, is pushing a measure to take popular erectile-dysfunction (ED) drugs like Viagra off the list of medications covered by state's Medi-Cal laws. The bill, A.B. 2885, would make it so Medi-Cal can only cover those...

After weeks and months of media induced martyrdom, President Bush finally attacked the Democrats for their dishonest attempts to rewrite history! "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech. Defending the march to war, Bush said that foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Israeli military has rounded up 379 militant activists, including dozens of electoral candidates from Hamas, prompting accusations that Israel is using a weekend truce breach as an excuse to crush the Islamic group before upcoming Palestinian elections. The arrest sweep in the West Bank — the biggest in three years and part of a new offensive against Hamas — came after Israel failed to win international backing for its demand that the militant organization be barred from the Jan. 25 parliamentary vote. Israel says a government that includes Hamas, which calls for the destruction of...

Saudi Based Charity Trains Terrorists Click the picture for the story Stay AngryLarge map of Iraq         Large map of Afghanistan         Large Map of Pakistan         Large Map of the Philippines         Large Map of Kasmir Md. Man Accused in 'Jihad Network' Probe A Maryland man was charged with conspiracy to help a terrorist organization, part of an investigation of the "Virginia jihad network" that has so far resulted in 10 convictions, U.S. law enforcement officials said Friday. Ali Asad Chandia of College Park, Md., is named in a four-count indictment alleging he conspired to provide material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization, which...

Norway Sides with Terrorists; Abandons Their US Ally Stay Angry Large map of Iraq         Large map of Afghanistan         Large Map of Pakistan         Large Map of the Philippines         Large Map of Kasmir Text of the Iraqi Constitution Three suspected Taliban, three civilians killed in Afghan province Police killed three suspected Taliban rebels who attacked their post, and a roadside bomb blast killed three civilians and wounded four others as violence continued in southern Afghanistan days before legislative elections, a top official said Thursday. About 40 gunmen attacked a police post on a road in the mountainous Char-Chilo district of Uruzgan province...

Bombers Kill 150+ in Baghdad Stay Angry Large map of Iraq         Large map of Afghanistan         Large Map of Pakistan         Large Map of the Philippines         Large Map of Kasmir Al Qaeda Declines in Northern Iraq, Military Officer Says by Gerry J. Gilmore WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2005 – Eighty percent of al Qaeda's network in northern Iraq "has been devastated" since January due to the capture or killing of key leaders and the outrage of Iraqi citizens, a U.S. troop commander told Pentagon reporters today.  Army Col. Robert B. Brown, commander of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade Combat Team,...

Terrorists Put a Bounty on the Head of Iraq PM al-Jaafari Stay Angry Large map of Iraq         Large map of Afghanistan         Large Map of Pakistan         Large Map of the Philippines         Large Map of KashmirIraq mounts new raid on guerrillas< snip >Iraq's Third Army Brigade said it had killed 40 insurgents in Tal Afar on Monday, bringing the guerrilla death toll since Saturday to around 200.An estimated 350-500 insurgents were in the town when Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. troops, began the offensive.The brigade said 21 "terrorist emirs," or senior insurgent leaders, had been captured."We also seized a cache of heavy...

-OPERATION FALCON- (Or Operation Horsefeathers ?) A massive roundup of fugitives has been carried on over the past few days, on a nationwide scale.Newscasters tell us - breathlessly-10,000 fugitives have been "taken off the streets" !! Really ? Such fugitive roundups are nothing new. I was involved in them (peripherally) once or twice a year for at least 5 years before I retired.They work like this: Every police department in the nation has a backlog of fugitive warrants. Most are for failure to appear minor offenses,but a hefty percentage involve non-appearance on more serious matters. Periodically, the US Marshal's Service...

By Brian Whitaker The Saudi Arabian security forces have arrested 110 men at a "gay wedding" party in Jeddah, according to a Saudi online newspaper. Al-Wifaq, which has connections with the interior ministry, said the authorities had raided a wedding hall on Monday night after a tip-off and found the men - all Saudis - dancing and "behaving like women". Eighty men were later released, but 30 appeared in a Jeddah court on Wednesday to face charges, the paper said. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia and is punished by flogging, jail or death. The raid was made a day...

London 26.02.05 | There is a saying in Venezuela that goes "el que tiene rabo de paja que no se acerque a la candela" which can be equated to "If you live in a glasshouse don't throw stones". The regime of Hugo Chavez has issued an arrest warrant for former Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) purportedly for having ordered the application of the Avila Plan back in 1.989. As a result very many people were killed by the army. Fast forward 13 years and hear the recording [power point presentation and sound] of current president Hugo Chavez ordering General...

In a massive roundup by Iranian security officials, as many as 50 Iranian CIA operatives were exposed and killed, leaving the U.S without any intelligence sources in that critical Middle Eastern nation. The shocking story surfaced on Feb. 2, when former Pentagon adviser Richard N. Perle told the House Intelligence Committee about what he called the "terrible setback that we suffered in Iran a few years ago when, in a display of unbelievable, careless management, we put pressure on agents operating in Iran to report with greater frequency and didn't provide improved communications." He called it an example of the...

ULM, Germany (AP) - German police stepped up their crackdown on Islamic extremism Wednesday, detaining 22 people during raids of apartments and mosques allegedly used by a network that provided financing and other support to terrorists. About 700 officers searched dozens of apartments, mosques and call centers in five German states, discovering militant Islamic propaganda and forged passports and visas, authorities said. The raids capped a long-term investigation of 20 people who allegedly raised money through smuggling and producing false papers to "pursue their ideological goals," said prosecutors in Munich, where authorities coordinated the probe. The suspects included German citizens...

Islamabad - Pakistan is hunting two top North African al-Qaeda "masterminds" who head one of the terror network's cells, officials said on Friday, after cracking a major worldwide al-Qaeda wing plotting new attacks in Britain and the United States. The men, identified as Libyan national Abu Farj and an Egyptian known only as Hamza, are close associates of senior al-Qaeda operatives arrested in major anti-terror swoops in Pakistan since July 12. Farj and Hamza "are extremely important al-Qaeda operatives and they are hiding in Pakistan," a senior security official said, on condition of anonymity. 'We are now desperately searching for...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will intensify a crackdown on al Qaeda in coming weeks, moving against nerve centres of Osama bin Laden's network in the country, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has said. He said a string of arrests of al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan in recent weeks had helped security forces get a better picture of the network, but added it was not known where bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was holed up. With terror a crucial issue in who wins the U.S. election in November, the Bush administration is increasingly looking to key ally...

LONDON -- Police in Britain are holding a senior al-Qaeda operative who was allegedly planning an attack on London's main Heathrow Airport, major newspapers reported today. In a front-page article, The Times said the man was arrested after a tip-off from Pakistani intelligence, which claimed he was getting orders directly from Osama bin Laden "as head of al-Qaeda operations in Britain." It cited unidentified Pakistani officials as saying that details about Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, were found in the computer of a suspected al-Qaeda member arrested last month in Pakistan, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan. According to The Times,...

The U.S. and Pakistan may have found a way to read months, or years, worth of secret al Qaeda messages. No one is saying anything about that, but it works like this. The recent warnings that al Qaeda was planning attacks on specific targets in the United States was said to come from recent people, and information, captured in Pakistan. One of the two key al Qaeda people captured was Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, an English speaking Pakistani computer engineer. Khan was running an al Qaeda communications network, using email and encryption to distribute messages that could not be read...

Dan Rather will be on Larry King in a few minutes to gin up interest in his full-hour interview with former pres. Clinton (7:00 sunday, cbs) "Veteran newsman Dan Rather discusses the beheading of an American hostage, and his interview with former President Bill Clinton. Tune in at 9 p.m. ET. "

Conservative American News Digest is a daily "roundup" of news and commentary links of interest to (duh) conservatives. Free (supported by advertising and reader donations). Web edition updated daily; email subscribers receive one (and only one) email message each non-holiday weekday. CANDi is part of a larger "family" of niche news digests. Other publications of interest might include Second Amendment News Digest (gun issues only), Election News Digest (articles specifically related to voting, elections and candidates) and Rational Review News Digest (the original/"umbrella" publication, aimed at a libertarian audience). Main site: http://www.news-digests.com Regards, Tom Knapp Publisher News-Digests.Com

A criminal dragnet started by German Interior Minister Otto Schily after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 has failed to round up a single "sleeper" terrorist, according to German ARD television. Despite sifting through 8.3 million pieces of evidence and following up over 19,000 leads, German authorities started only one investigation, which was later closed. The police union reportedly criticized the dragnet, which relied on computer databases, as completely without effect. German has been a focal point of investigation ever since it became known several of the alleged Islamic terrorists that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in New...