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Greycart celebrates 25 years operating with ACCO trucks Ausralian Earthmoving / November 18, 2014 The Australian-designed and built ACCO range of trucks has been an integral part of the Australian transport industry since its introduction in the 1960s. Engineered to meet local climatic conditions and stand up to some of the harshest driving conditions in the world, the ACCO is produced at the same manufacturing facility in Dandenong, Victoria where it was born. The iconic truck has become the de facto platform for the vocational market, such as concrete mixers and garbage collection, throughout Australia. The design combines the requirements of high body strength while preserving a light kerb weight which allows an ACCO to withstand the stresses associated with having a constantly revolving heavy load on its back while assuring the best efficiency for its payload class. Queensland-based Greycart Pty Ltd is one company that knows the capabilities of the ACCO well. Ross Books, owner and Managing Director of Greycart, said that his company uses the eight-wheel version of the ACCO with a 7.6 metre agitator on the back to deliver concrete under contract to Boral. Since buying his first ACCO truck in 1986, Books has added to Greycart’s fleet and currently has nine ACCOs driven by his ten full-time drivers. Books’ drivers deliver concrete to a wide variety of commercial and domestic construction jobs, but are also involved in large scale or unusual jobs. “Our trucks have been loaded on to barges and sailed over to Stradbroke [island] to a construction site,” Books stated. “We’ve also been to large infrastructure projects with massive ‘raft slabs’ requiring thousands of cubic metres of concrete to be laid in a single continuous pour.” Concrete is a versatile product, but as soon as the cement and water are mixed, the chemical reaction starts and there are only a few hours in which to deliver the concrete to site before it starts to harden in the truck and become unworkable. “Because of these time constraints, I need a reliable truck for delivering concrete,” Books stated. “Personally, I think that the ACCO is the best vehicle for our industry and why I decided on a common fleet,” said Books. “I did stray briefly, but the alternative was just too heavy a vehicle for the type of work we were doing.” “I like building a long-term relationship with a supplier,” Books added. “I don’t need to have the cheapest, but in this business it is important to have reliable vehicles and the ACCO has been the most reliable for me.” Books says he greatly appreciates the aftersales support Iveco Brisbane provides in keeping his fleet on the road and in more than 25 years can only recall one instance of having to deal with a major fault. Three of Greycart’s ACCOs are based in Brisbane and six are on the Gold Coast. The trucks make a large number of relatively short journeys during their working life with the company. “Most deliveries are no more than 10 kilometres, with an occasional job requiring a 100 km round trip,” Books said. “Hauling concrete is harsh on the vehicles as we clean with an acid wash,” said Books. “This is not the kindest treatment for a truck but the ACCOs stand up to it well so we only have to replace vehicles every five to seven years,” Long-term relationships also apply to the company’s drivers. Of the ten drivers employed by Greycart, most have been with the company for more than five years and the first driver Books employed 10 years ago is still with the company. Two of Books’ sons also drive for Greycart, as does one son’s fiancée. “She was thinking of changing jobs and when I said I needed another driver she said ‘What about me?’” Books stated. “She went out and got her HR licence and has been with us for 12 months now and really knows her product.” Books’ future daughter-in-law joins a growing number of women in the heavy transport industry, but even today less than five per cent of licenced truck drivers are female. While there have been recent government and industry reports warning of the increasing number of unskilled truck drivers on Australian roads, Books stated all his drivers are very conscious of the demands of their job. Controlling a vehicle with up to a 17 tonne load that is constantly moving requires specialist knowledge and additional driving skills. ”As it is rotating, the centre of gravity changes as the mix climbs the side of the bowl,” Books said. “The weight is more on the driver’s side so if you make a left-hand turn too quickly, it’s possible for the whole truck to topple over.” Iveco has introduced Electronic Stability Control (ESC) to the 8×4 ACCO, further enhancing the capability and safety of the vehicle. ESC continuously monitors steering and vehicle direction. When the system detects a probable loss of steering control it asymmetrically applies the brakes to individual wheels. A unique feature of the innovative but functional design of the ACCO is that since the first prototype, every part of its cab-chassis has been manufactured at the Iveco Trucks Australia Dandenong facility. Since its introduction [under International Harvester], more than 79,000 ACCO trucks have been driven off the production line. The engine and drivetrain of the ACCO have been designed to meet the emissions requirements of the ADR 80/03 standard. The engine is one of the latest diesel designs featuring a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system, along with ABS brakes, active traction and the latest cooling system. Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/36017-the-legendary-acco-designed-and-built-by-australians/

Prime Mover Magazine / December 8, 2015 Queensland-based subcontractor, Ross Books, has purchased a 2015 Iveco ACCO 8x4 agitator to service a contract with construction and building materials specialist Boral. The new ACCO agitator is the ninth Iveco vehicle to join Books’ fleet, and is the sixth to be purchased new in the last two years. “The latest trucks are as tough and reliable as the ACCO have ever been and they ride beautifully; they have air suspension, air suspended driver’s seat, air conditioning, electric mirrors and windows and Bluetooth – they’ve got all the creature comforts of a modern car – I think they’re a great truck,” said Books. The 2015 ACCO reportedly features an SCR powerplant rated at 340hp / 254kW and 1106 lb ft / 1500 Nm. The engine is coupled to an Allison six-speed automatic transmission. The load sharing, twin steer front axle and Hendrickson air suspension combination allows weight distribution for the 7.6 cm³ Cesco bowl, allowing up to 11 tonnes over the front axles. The ACCO 8x4 agitator boasts electronic stability control (ESC), which Books said is required for the Boral contract. According to Iveco, reliability was also a key consideration for Books, as concrete is a time-sensitive product, with service being judged on timely delivery and on the concrete’s ‘slump’ performance, or the measure of the consistency and workability of fresh concrete. “We carry a product that actually ages very quickly, the concrete should be out of the bowl within an hour and a half of batching. And it’s all about consistency, especially if you have a concrete pump on site doing a major pour, the concrete needs to be turning up at the right intervals. “If timing is out, it’s more difficult to blend the concrete and you can get what’s referred to as a ‘cold joint’, which can cause cracks in the finished product. While delivery and timing calculations are handled via a centralised computer system at Boral’s head office, our control in the process is to operate reliable vehicles. “The ACCOs provide great value for money and their resale value is also good, they’re a known product, they’re an industry standard.” .

Indiana man murders 6-year-old boy Associated Press / December 7, 2015 A 6-year-old northern Kentucky child was fatally stabbed in his bedroom Monday during an early morning robbery. Ronald Exantus, 32, broke into the Kentucky home, took a large knife from the kitchen, and went upstairs to 6-year-old Logan Tipton’s bedroom where he fatally stabbed the sleeping child multiple times. Four young children had been sleeping in the bedroom during the 4 a.m. break-in. Tipton’s father rushed into the room and managed to detain Exantus until police arrived and took him into custody about 3:50 a.m. Investigators are trying to figure out why Exantus, whose Woodford County inmate record lists as living 175 miles northwest of Versailles in Indianapolis, was in the area. Exantus faces charges of murder and first-degree burglary. His bond was set at $1 million. He was also charged with three counts of assault for cutting Logan’s two sisters and fighting Logan’s father. He was removed to Woodford County Detention Center. Police say Exantus has confessed to the killing. .

Obama’s terror speech perfectly highlights reasons for Trump’s rise Reuters / December 7, 2015 Here’s President Barack Obama on the war against Islamic State: “Our success won’t depend on tough talk or abandoning or values or giving into fear. . . . We will prevail by being strong and smart.” Here’s Donald Trump: “Every time things get worse, I do better. Because people have confidence in me.” He promised, “We’re going to be so tough and so mean and so nasty.” What we’re seeing right now in American politics is class warfare. But not the kind of class warfare Bernie Sanders would understand. It’s not the working class versus the 1 percent. It’s the working class versus the educated elite. In fact, one of the richest men in the world is leading the revolt: Trump. Trump’s support for the Republican nomination is not defined by ideology or age or gender. It’s defined by education. Among GOP voters with a college degree in the latest CNN poll, Trump comes in fourth with just 18 percent. But he has a huge lead among non-college voters — 46 percent. No other candidate comes close. Today, in the United States, the richer you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican. The better educated you are, the more likely you are to vote Democratic. We saw it in the last presidential race. It was Mitt Romney, the prince of wealth, versus Obama, the prince of education. Romney lost because of his elitist economic values. He was Mr. 1 Percent, disdainful of the “47 percent” who, he argued, are dependent on government. Trump, on the other hand, is rallying white working class voters. Not around their economic interests. Around their values. Trump is the anti-Obama. He was the first Republican candidate to challenge Obama on the “birther” issue. To Trump supporters, Obama is the ultimate educated snob — the candidate who, in 2012, was disdainful of hard-pressed small-town voters who “cling to guns and religion . . . or anti-immigrant sentiment.” Obama insists on facts. “We need to know all the facts,” he said immediately after the San Bernadino killings. Trump doesn’t deal in facts. The New York Times just completed a comprehensive analysis of every public statement by Trump over the past week. The conclusion? “Mr. Trump uses rhetoric to erode people’s trust in facts, numbers, nuance, government and the news media.” He still claims he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheering and celebrating after the 9/11 attacks, even though there is no factual basis for the claim. Trump does not hide his contempt for Obama. “There is something going on with him that we don’t know about,” Trump said at a recent campaign rally. He doesn’t think Obama’s smart: “How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?” Unlike himself: “When you’re really, really smart like I am . . . ” Trump said. Trump spent his first two college years at Fordham University before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School. The two men exhibit two different kinds of intelligence — book smarts versus money smarts. Guess which one Americans admire more. Obama is thoughtful, knowledgeable and progressive: the professor-in-chief. He’s always had trouble connecting with white working-class voters. He lost them to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries. Given the anger and fear that has seized the country, a lot of voters are looking for an altogether different kind of leader than Obama. “The nation needs a wartime president,” Senator Ted Cruz said. Someone who can be trusted to keep them safe. Trump pledges to keep out immigrants who might be recruited to the terrorist cause. Obama calls for gun control. “As if somehow terrorists care about what our gun laws are,” presidential aspirant Senator Marco Rubio said. Resentment of education has always been stronger than resentment of wealth in the United States. Especially since the educated elite has come to embrace liberal cultural values — values that conservatives denounce as “political correctness.” No one is less politically correct than Trump. He claimed that some people failed to report suspicions about the California killers because of concerns about racial profiling. “We have become so politically correct that we don’t know what the hell we’re doing,” Trump said. Trump’s appeal to Republicans isn’t based on conservative ideology. It’s because many Republicans share his hatred of Obama. Republicans are rallying to Trump’s cause and may even nominate him. But white working class voters are a shrinking part of the electorate. Most Americans will be uneasy at the prospect of electing a hater to be their president. In fact, a new NBC News-Telemundo poll shows Hillary Clinton beating him by 12 points.

In America, a baby is born addicted to drugs every 19 minutes. But doctors aren’t alerting social services to thousands of these infants, many of whom come to harm in narcotics-addicted families. Brayden Cummings turned 6 weeks old the morning his mother suffocated him. High on methamphetamine, Xanax and the methadone prescribed to help her kick a heroin habit, 20-year-old Tory Schlier told police that she was “fuzzy” about what happened to her baby boy. Police weren’t. In an affidavit, the officer who went to Schlier’s house on October 17, 2014, said the mother had fallen asleep on Brayden, “causing him to asphyxiate.” Like more than 130,000 other children born in the United States in the last decade, Brayden entered the world hooked on drugs – a dependency inherited from a drug-addicted mother. A 12-year-old federal law calls on states to take steps to safeguard babies like Brayden after they leave the hospital. However, that effort is failing across the nation, endangering a generation of children born into America’s growing addiction to heroin and opioids. In his first three weeks of life, Brayden suffered through a form of newborn drug dependency called Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. He trembled and wailed inconsolably, clenching his muscles and sometimes gasping for breath as he went through withdrawal. When Brayden improved, Lehigh Valley Hospital released him to Schlier and the boy’s father, a 48-year-old with a criminal record. But doctors neglected to alert child protection workers to the baby or his drug-addicted mother. Three weeks later, Brayden was dead. “I’d say he didn’t have a chance in life,” said David Cummings, Brayden’s grandfather. “He was doomed, that kid, he really was.” Reuters identified 110 cases since 2010 that are similar to Brayden’s: babies and toddlers whose mothers used opioids during pregnancy and who later died preventable deaths. Being born drug-dependent didn’t kill these children. Each recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. What sealed their fates was being sent home to dysfunctional families unable to care for them. Like Brayden, more than 40 of the children suffocated. Thirteen died after swallowing toxic doses of methadone, heroin, oxycodone or other opioids. In one case, a baby in Oklahoma died after her mother, high on methamphetamine and opioids, put the 10-day-old girl in a washing machine with a load of dirty laundry. The cases illustrate fatal flaws in the attempts to address what President Barack Obama has called America’s “epidemic” of opioid addiction, a crisis fed by the ready availability of prescription painkillers and cheap heroin. In 2003, when Congress passed the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act, about 5,000 drug-dependent babies were born in the United States. That number has grown dramatically in the years since. Using hospital discharge records, there were over 27,000 “diagnosed” cases of drug-dependent newborns in 2013, the latest year for which data are available. On average, one baby was born dependent on opioids every 19 minutes. Federal law requires states to protect each of these babies, regardless of whether the drugs their mothers took were illicit or prescribed, by alerting child protection authorities so that social workers can ensure the newborn’s safety after the hospital sends the child home. However, most states are ignoring the federal law. 36 states have laws or policies that don’t require doctors to report each case. Only 9 states and the District of Columbia conform with the federal law. In three-quarters of the 110 fatalities, the mother was implicated in her child’s death; in others, her boyfriend, husband or another relative was. In 75 of the cases, child protection workers were notified but didn’t take protective measures specified in the federal law. In Brayden’s case and a dozen more, hospitals didn’t report a drug-dependent baby’s condition to social services and the child died after being sent home. “Those kids could and should be alive today and thriving,” said former U.S. Representative Jim Greenwood, a Republican from Pennsylvania who authored the provisions in the 2003 federal law. “I would’ve hoped that the whole system – starting at the federal and state levels, the obstetricians and pediatricians – would’ve gotten it straight by now. That they haven’t is a national disgrace.”

Donald Trump "Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine." "Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life." "Great surveillance and vigilance must be adhered to. We want to be very fair but too many bad things are happening and the percentage of true hatred is too great." When asked if his ban “would include Muslim-American citizens currently abroad,” Trump said, ‘Everyone.’” Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on. According to Pew Research, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from the Center for Security Policy released data showing '25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad.' 51% of those polled 'agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.' Shariah authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won't convert, beheadings, death-by-stoning and other barbaric acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women. In Saudi Arabia where their legal system is based on Sharia, punishments include flogging, amputation, eye gouging, death-by-stoning and beheading. .

The Isis papers: leaked documents show how Isis is building its state The Guardian / December 7, 2015 Blueprint lays bare new contours of Islamic state, complete with civil service, regional government and Soviet levels of economic control A leaked internal Islamic State manual (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/islamic-state-document-masterplan-for-power) shows how the terrorist group has set about building a state in Iraq and Syria complete with government departments, a treasury and an economic programme for self-sufficiency, the Guardian can reveal. The 24-page document, obtained by the Guardian, sets out a blueprint for establishing foreign relations, a fully fledged propaganda operation, and centralised control over oil, gas and the other vital parts of the economy. The manual, written last year and entitled Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, lays bare Isis’s state-building aspirations and the ways in which it has managed to set itself apart as the richest and most destabilising jihadi group of the past 50 years. Together with other documents obtained by the Guardian, it builds up a picture of a group that, although sworn to a founding principle of brutal violence, is equally set on more mundane matters such as health, education, commerce, communications and jobs. In short, it is building a state. As western aircraft step up their aerial war on Isis targets in Syria, the implication is that the military task is not simply one of battlefield arithmetic. Isis is already far more than the sum of its fighters. The document – written as a foundation text to train “cadres of administrators” in the months after Isis’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria on 28 June 2014 – sketches out how to organise government departments including education, natural resources, industry, foreign relations, public relations and military camps. Dated some time between July and October 2014, it details how Isis will build separate training camps for regular troops and veteran fighters. Veterans, it says, should go on a fortnight’s refresher course each year to receive instruction in the “latest arts of using weapons, military planning and military technologies”. It says they will also be given a “detailed commentary on the technologies” of the enemy and “how the soldiers of the state can take advantage of them”. The statecraft manual recommends a department for administering the military camps, a complex arrangement that, as described, goes well beyond the capabilities of al-Qaida in Afghanistan during the time it plotted the 9/11 attacks. The document reveals for the first time that Isis always intended to train children in the arts of war. Isis propaganda from this year has clearly shown children being drilled, and even made to shoot captives. But the text, authored by an Egyptian called Abu Abdullah, is explicit about the intention to do so from mid- to late 2014. Children, it says, will be receive “training on bearing light arms” and “outstanding individuals” will be “selected from them for security portfolio assignments, including checkpoints, patrols”. The text highlights the need for Isis to achieve a unified culture encompassing foreigners and natives and sets out the need for self-sufficiency by establishing its own independent “factories for local military and food production” and creating “isolated safe zones” for providing for local needs. The document came from a businessman working within Isis via the academic researcher Aymenn al-Tamimi, who has worked over the past year to compile the most thorough log of Isis documents available to the public. For safety reasons, the Guardian cannot reveal further information about the businessman but he has leaked nearly 30 documents in all, including a financial statement from one of Isis’s largest provinces. Isis has suffered military setbacks in recent weeks, and some Sunni Arabs from Raqqa have indicated that its statecraft might be better on paper than it is in practice. But Tamimi said the playbook, along with a further 300 Isis documents he has obtained over the past year, showed that building a viable country rooted in fundamentalist theology was the central aim. “[isis] is a project that strives to govern. It’s not just a case of their sole end being endless battle.” Gen Stanley McChrystal (retired), who led the military units that helped destroy Isis’s predecessor organisation (ISI) in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, said: “If it is indeed genuine, it is fascinating and should be read by everyone – particularly policymakers in the west. “If the west sees Isis as an almost stereotypical band of psychopathic killers, we risk dramatically underestimating them. “In the Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, you see a focus on education (really indoctrination) beginning with children but progressing through their ranks, a recognition that effective governance is essential, thoughts on their use of technology to master information (propaganda), and a willingness to learn from the mistakes of earlier movements. “It’s not a big departure from the works of Mao, the practices of the Viet Minh in Indochina, or other movements for whom high-profile actions were really just the tip of a far more nuanced iceberg of organising activity. Charlie Winter, a senior researcher for Georgia State University who has seen the document, said it demonstrated Isis’s high capacity for premeditation. “Far from being an army of irrational, bloodthirsty fanatics, IS [isis] is a deeply calculating political organisation with an extremely complex, well-planned infrastructure behind it.” Lt Gen Graeme Lamb, former head of UK special forces, said the playbook carried a warning for current military strategy. Referring to sections of the statecraft text in which Isis repeatedly claims it is the only true representatives of Sunni Arab Muslims in the region, Lamb said it was all the more important to ensure wider Sunni leadership in the fight with Isis, or risk “fuelling this monster”. “Seeing Daesh [isis] and the caliphate as simply a target to be systematically broken by forces other than Middle Eastern Sunnis … is to fail to understand this fight. “It must be led by the Sunni Arab leadership and its many tribes across the region, with us in the west and the other religious factions in the Middle East acting in support. “It is not currently how we are shaping the present counter-Isis campaign, thereby setting ourselves up for potential failure.” Related reading - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/isis-papers-guardian-syria-iraq-bureaucracy

Pakistan threatens U.S. media against reporting on California shooter Reuters / December 6, 2015 Pakistani security forces this weekend tried to stamp out reporting on the background of Pakistan-born Tashfeen Malik. Pakistan's security officials told reporters to drop their investigations into her background on pain of arrest, and three professors at Malik's university said they had been advised not to talk to the media. Pakistani security, who refused to provide identification, sought to discourage Reuters from further reporting on Malik's background, threatening journalists with arrest for unspecified offences. "Whether you consider this a request or a dictation (order), I would advise you not to pursue this story," one said. Tim Craig, a reporter from the Washington Post, tweeted that police had prevented him from leaving his hotel in Multan. "I've lost track of how many different security/intel officials I've had to talk to, copy my passport, etc in past 17 hours - think 12 to 16," he tweeted. On Sunday, three professors at Bahauddin Zakariya University, which Malik attended, said they had been instructed by security agencies not to speak to reporters. One, who asked not to be named, said security officials visited the university on Saturday and removed records and pictures of Malik.

Big Rigs / December 4, 2015 SOMEONE should have told the people mourning the death of the Australian automotive manufacturing industry about the three truck factories currently operating in Australia. Plus, of course, the Nissan Casting operation in Dandenong that supplies parts for the global Nissan group. With a market that is tiny compared to overseas juggernauts such as the US and China, Australia hosts three truck manufacturing plants that are each providing specialist commercial vehicles to a wide range of applications. The profitability of these plants is clearly not totally dependant on mass production volume. As a contrast to Australia's tiny market, 10 years ago there were 1.12 million six-tonne GVM and over trucks manufactured in China alone. In 2010, that figure had exploded to 3.92 million. In 2012 it had shrunk back to a "mere" 3.02 million. It kind of puts our 2014 total truck market of 31,325 in context. One plant has production lines that build Volvo and Mack trucks, as well as pre-delivering UD trucks from Japan, which are imported fully built-up. Paccar builds Kenworth trucks on 45 acres at Bayswater, about 35 kilometers due east of Melbourne, and the plant has been in production since 1971. About 65% of every Kenworth built is local content and more than 750 people work onsite, with a lot more at associated suppliers. The local specialist engineering team has enabled Kenworth to build the massive C540 mining truck for Australasian delivery on the existing production line. In 2012, Paccar Australia was inducted into the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame and has now delivered its 50,000th Kenworth manufactured in Australia. That's why you see so many of the iconic rectangular grilles filling your rear-vision mirror. Iveco inherited the 63-year-old International Harvester plant in Dandenong, Victoria, back in 1992 and then dropped International from the product range. Now the plant is used for final preparation of the imported Eurocargo, Stralis and Daily but builds the perennial Acco from scratch. Interestingly, Acco competes in the same market as imported trucks built in their hundreds of thousands overseas and is still price and quality competitive. Bang goes the "it's too expensive to build here" argument. The brand models that these three truck plants produce for Australia totaled 7,609 units in 2013, dropped 5% to 7229 units last year, and are heading towards 6,901 for the full 2015 year. Despite a downward trend, the factories are continuing to support domestic Australian manufacture and although there are several reasons for that, the most significant is the level of custom features and components that are required in the range of applications in Australia. For example, the development of Iveco's conventional cab Powerstar would have never happened if it was left to the Italian production line, where space is allocated according to market volume. The recent road train version, the 7800, is a classic example of a European truck maker "Australianising" a series production truck for a local application - multi-trailer road trains in the Australian Outback. The Australian automotive manufacturing industry is not dead. For the trucking sector, which is the lifeblood of our country, it's alive and thriving.

Transport Engineer / December 7, 2015 Dublin-based transport business Dixon International has placed an order for 30 new Volvo FH 4x2 and 6x2 trucks. Supplied by dealer Irish commercials, 10 of the vehicles are already in operation at the operator’s new UK depot in Rugby; the remainder will be delivered in January to Dublin, where Dixon is investing in a custom-built HQ, near Dublin Airport. All are specified with 460bhp Euro 6 engines, Globetrotter cabs and Volvo’s I-Shift automated transmission with I-See GPS technology. I-Park Cool integral air con systems are fitted for when the trucks are parked up. Other features include the now standard lane keeping and emergency braking functions, while Dixons also selected lane change support, adaptive cruise control and Volvo’s Visibility Plus package. “We have a long relationship with Irish Commercials and Volvo in meeting our high expectations,” explains Michael Dixon, managing director. “The FH is a quality product and is received very well by our drivers. It is very fuel-efficient which is always a key factor for us and this is helped by Volvo’s telematics system, Dynafleet, which is fitted to all makes in our fleet.” He adds: “We also find that the Volvos maintain excellent residual value, which makes quite a difference when the time comes to trade them in.” .

Scania Group Press Release / December 4, 2015

“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Infamy Speech of December 8, 1941 Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack. It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation. As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God. I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."

Freightliner Trucks Press Release / December 4, 2015

The Morning Call / December 5, 2015 Wade Watson describes himself as a fixer, a person who thrives on change and likes a lot of it. So perhaps it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that when Watson arrived in the area in May as the new vice president and general manager of Mack Trucks Lehigh Valley Operations, he had some questions about the iconic heavy-duty truck manufacturer's local presence. Among his thoughts: What are the strengths of the Lehigh Valley compared with other areas? Does the local community support Mack? And should Mack expand in the area? First, Watson said he found the company's 1,866 local employees are committed and skilled at building Mack trucks. "That's not something that can easily be picked up and moved," Watson said. Not as immediately obvious, Watson said, was support from the community. But soon after, Watson said, he found "there was an absolute desire and a willingness of the business community to embrace Mack Trucks." And at a Nov. 11 Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. event, Watson made it clear that Mack is here to stay. At the event, Watson also announced some planned changes at Mack's 1 million-square-foot plant in Lower Macungie Township. Those include expanding the building's south end by adding receiving docks and putting a new facade on the 40-year-old plant. Watson, who originally wanted to be an architect, has helped bring about change since joining Volvo Group — Mack's parent company — in 2001. Before starting at Mack Trucks, Watson was the vice president of operations for Volvo Powertrain North America in Hagerstown, Md., bringing in $70 million in investments to the plant during his nearly five-year run in that position that started in 2010. Watson, a 41-year-old Zionsville resident, spoke to The Morning Call last week in his Lower Macungie office, discussing everything from watching "Cars" with his 3-year-old son to where he thinks Mack has room to grow its business moving forward. Here are excerpts from the interview: Q. You started here in May. How's everything been going so far? A. It'd been a long time since [my wife and I] had moved or taken this much change all at once. We lived in the last house we were in for seven years. It was a lot of change, taking a new job, a new house. We've been married for 21 years, and we have a 3-year-old at home, so that's also new for us, having a son. So it's been a lot of change, a lot to take in, but it's been really positive as far as a place to live. It's a really great place to be. It seems like everyone we meet really recognizes the Lehigh Valley is something special and everything from parks to family restaurants to the Phantoms. A lot of great things to do around here. Q. What are some of the first things that come to mind when you think of a Mack truck? A. The first thing is a bulldog. Rugged. Tough. I'm a visual person, so automatically I'm looking at the grill, so I can see the grill of the Mack truck. It's an American icon. I was watching "Cars" with my son the other day, and Mack is the truck that's pulling Lightning McQueen. Really, it's a source of pride for me to be part of a brand and an organization that has been part of the fabric of the United States for over 100 years. Q. At the Lehigh Valley's Economic Development Corp's event Nov. 11, you made it clear that Mack is here to stay in the Lehigh Valley. When you got here in May, was that the case? A. As a new leader, new executive, new manager, the first thing you have to do is kind of question everything and you put everything on the table and look at the overall picture of financial performance and expansion and growth and market conditions and all of that. And, in doing that, you have to challenge everything: the location, the investment. Those questions were raised. Should we and to what magnitude could we expand? Is this a good place to do business comparatively? What are the strengths and the draw of this area compared to others? Through all that — call it fact-checking or, for me, it was learning because I had to learn the operation and learn the performance of the group — it proved that No. 1, the workforce here, they are committed and skilled at building Mack trucks and that's not something that can easily be picked up and moved. The thing that wasn't evident in that early fact-finding time frame was: How much does the community support having a manufacturer here? When I looked at the previous — my predecessors — what did they have as far as contacts with economic development or the state of Pennsylvania or elected officials and how did they work with the community on making sure that we were a viable competitor? The list was pretty short, and I was surprised that for a business that had been present for so long, that there wasn't this really interwoven … that Mack was part of the fabric of the economic development community and part of the political community here. So I had to question why did that happen or how did we end up like that. It didn't take long that I found that there was an absolute desire and a willingness of the business community to embrace Mack Trucks. But somehow, over time, we had kind of retracted a little bit and maybe we were dealing with our own internal issues. We've had a lot of changes over the years. This is a very industrious region. It started with the local township going through economic development all the way to the state of Pennsylvania. What I've seen is a great desire to keep us exactly where we are, and that's very important for us to be competitive. There are a lot of states out there that are wooing and trying to attract different plants or manufacturers. If you don't have that kind of relationship or that kind of embrace where the local community really wants you to grow and stay where you are and retain jobs and all that, then it can be an uphill battle when you need simple things or complex things. We need permits to build. We need support from local authorities on what the facade of the building is going to look like. We need sometimes traffic control or road changes and all that kind of thing. And if we don't have that kind of support and relationship, it becomes very difficult. It became evident that we have that. Q. Do you have plans to get Mack Trucks more involved in the community? A. Something that I think is very important is for a company of our size, the interaction that we have with the community, both from a corporate social responsibility perspective and also just how are we perceived in the community at large. I think it's very important for us to demonstrate that, at Volvo Group and Mack Trucks, we are very focused on making sure that the community around us feels a positive impact of our business being in that community, whether it's from volunteerism or our employees and their interaction in what they do or it's fiscally with the taxes or the contributions we make in that way or corporate sponsorships to nonprofits. This is an area that we could really increase our footprint and we have an intention of doing that. You'll start to see more people involved in the community — on boards or volunteer programs and sponsorships. You'll start to see more of a presence from us to make sure that people get the sense that Mack is here and that's a good thing and that we leave a positive imprint on the community around us. Q. With Mack's two planned site improvements — adding receiving docks and a new facade — what's the status of those and what are they aimed at bolstering? A. If I put them into those two greater buckets, one is the customer experience in the admin building, so the things that we're going to do on this front half and facing Alburtis Road. We have the civil engineering work, I would say, 90 percent complete on the first two phases. It's a four-phased project that we're going to do. We have some modified permits that we had to get through the local township because we changed the parking lot layout. We have a preliminary approval from the township that it all looks good, and that's a good first step. So then we have some long lead-time items: steel, structure and some things that need to be ordered. We're in the process of getting those things ordered, so I would say we're in the early stages of beginning construction. This half of the building, I would expect in the first quarter of next year, will be vacated and under construction, where we're sitting now. I expect that probably through 2016 that we should get the first half of this part of the work done. Inside the plant, increasing the dock capacity and changing the flow of material to go instead of from the ends, from the sides. And change the internal flows. We're starting the first internal movements for that in January and I hope that by the end of 2017, that's all complete. The majority of the heavy lifting — the planning, what do we want to do and why do we want to do it — that part is done and we're beginning to get into execution phase. Q. Heavy-duty truck production is expected to peak this year, but where do you think Mack can grow its business moving forward? A. There's a lot of potential in long haul and I think we have a very competitive truck in long haul and it's a matter of making sure that our customers view us that way and our dealers view us that way. That we have great fuel economy, a very safe vehicle. It's connected with telematics. We have state-of-the-art technology. I believe that we deserve a bigger piece of that market, and I think that will come. The market as a whole, when the energy sector comes back — and it will — I think that if you look at some of the market conditions driving that with oil prices and those kinds of things, we attract the energy sector and the housing starts and a few other things, but I think those things will come back and pose some opportunities for us. Q. For you personally, are you here for the long haul? A. We moved here, so that was a big step. I don't have any plans beyond that, other than we settled in Zionsville. We love our house. We put a pool in, which you can't get that money back. We have to use that for a number of years in order to get some kind of a payback. I think, for my expectations, I could see us staying here for quite some time. There's lots of work to do here, and there's lots of fun stuff to do in the area. .

Falling Class 8 orders: A bad omen for trucking? Fleet Owner / December 4, 2015 The rapid decline of Class 8 orders in November is one of several signs a sooner-than-expected slump may be ahead for trucking, according to analysts. With preliminary Class 8 net orders for November dropping below expectations, added alongside broader declines in U.S. manufacturing and non-manufacturing activity, there’s growing concern among analysts that the trucking industry may be poised to hit a rough patch far sooner than expected. “Based on what we were seeing, we thought freight and truck sales would stay strong through the end of 2015 and into 2016, with a downturn beginning at some point in the second half of 2016,” Kenny Vieth, president & senior analyst with ACT Research Co., told Fleet Owner. ACT’s previous forecast held that 2017 would be the “horrible year” for trucking, but Vieth said some new factors seem to be speeding up its approach. “We didn’t fully anticipate the big sustained drop in commodity process – especially the price of oil – and the strong dollar, which means the U.S. is exporting less,” he explained. “Falling commodity prices means freight is drying up and that is freeing up [truck] capacity. Meanwhile, exporting less means manufactures like Caterpillar can’t sell as many machines overseas, so they start producing less and that reduces freight further.” Don Ake, VP-commercial vehicles for research firm FTR, added that other data metrics – such as weak retail sales and rising inventories – also slowed freight demand. “We got worried because inventories increased over the last three months at a time when they should have been falling,” he told Fleet Owner. “Meanwhile, retail sales have declined in each of the last four months. They are down 6% at a time when they should be up between 5% and 10% due to the [holiday] season.” Though FTR predicted in September that truck and trailer sales would start falling in 2016, Ake said the Class 8 order trends through the summer into early fall gave all the indications of a “soft landing,” especially since August’s Class 8 net orders hovered around the 19,000 unit mark. “We figured, if that’s the bottom of the cycle, that’s not bad; we’ll be OK coming out of summer and experience a soft landing,” Ake said. But when FTR’s preliminary North American Class 8 truck net orders hit 16,475 units in November, 59% below a year ago and the lowest level since September 2012, Ake characterized it as a “major disappointment.” “This was the weakest November order activity since 2009, coming in significantly below expectations,” he explained. “All of the OEMs, except one, experienced unusually low orders for the month.” Ake added that a sub-16,500 unit order rate “doesn’t support our forecast” for 272,000 total North American Class 8 sales for 2016; a forecast already slashed 15% from the firm’s September guidance of 290,000 units. “There’s significant downside to our forecast now,” he said. “Basically, the industry would appear to have enough new trucks for now.” In terms of the broader U.S. economy, Lindsey Piegza – chief economist at Stifel Fixed Income – noted some other troubling trends for trucking, with the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) non-manufacturing Index falling from 59.2 to 55.9 in November, marking the lowest reading since May. Also, she said durable goods orders were revised down from a 3% increase in October to 2.9%, leaving the annual rate downgraded to 0.4%. Capital goods orders excluding aircraft and defense – a proxy for business spending in the GDP [gross domestic product] calculation – also stood unchanged at 1.3% in ISM’s final October report and up 0.4% year-over-year. “Despite a decline in manufacturing production, the service sector had been able to maintain robust levels of activity, at least until now,” Piegza said in a research update. “At this point, however, the service sector, too, appears to be losing momentum amid lingering barriers to growth such as modest hiring and minimal income gains, pulling service activity down to the weakest reading in six months.” She stressed that as a more pronounced sector relative to manufacturing accounting for more than a third of the economy, should service activity continue to retreat, “the U.S. economy will have little hope of maintaining the status quo, let alone gain momentum as we head into the New Year.” FTR’s Ake noted that all of this is going to make December “a critical month” in terms of the future direction of North America Class 8 net orders. “If we see a number above 25,000 units, we’ll be OK. And that has happened before; in 2013 we got ‘faked out’ by poor November orders of 21,000 and then they shot up to 31,000 that December. It could happen again,” he said. “But if we get a number under 20,000 units, that’s a problem,” Ake warned.

Transport Topics / December 4, 2015 FCA US, the North American automaking unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., said it will invest $40 million to convert 179 trucks in its private fleet to run on compressed natural gas and to build the largest private CNG fueling station in North America in Detroit. The move also will create the largest private fleet of CNG-powered heavy-duty vehicles in the state of Michigan, company officials said Dec. 4. FCA Transport (formerly Chrysler Group Transport) ranks No. 6 on Transport Topics’ list of the largest private carriers in the manufacturing sector with 331 tractors, 13 straight trucks and 1,294 trailers. “Our transition to CNG reflects the way FCA US attempts to balance our search for profitability with social responsibility and community development, including environmental stewardship,” said Steve Beahm, senior vice president, supply chain management. “This project offered a solid business case, clear environmental benefits and an opportunity to invest in our Detroit facility and workforce.” FCA Transport, which delivers parts to assembly plants from suppliers and other FCA US plants, expects to trim fuel costs by 35% and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 16,000 tons a year following the conversion to CNG. The company said it has spent $1.8 million to modify a maintenance facility to handle the new fleet and another $5 million for a new fueling station built by TruStar Energy.

German government slams Saudi Arabia Associated Press / December 6, 2015 German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Sunday said Saudi Arabia must stop financing fundamentalist mosques abroad which are accused of breeding extremism. “From Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi mosques are financed throughout the world,” said Gabriel. “In Germany many extremists considered dangerous persons emerge from these communities,” he said. Gabriel, head of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), urged decisive steps in Germany against radical mosques associated with Wahhabism. “This radical fundamentalism taking place in Salafist mosques is no less dangerous than right-wing extremism,” he said. The head of the SPD parliamentary group, Thomas Oppermann, also urged steps against preaching that contradicts the basic freedoms guaranteed in the German constitution. “We will prevent Saudi help in the building or financing of mosques in Germany where Wahhabi ideas are to be disseminated,” he said. Wahhabism provided the “complete ideology of ISIS and contributes in other countries to a radicalisation of moderate Muslims,” he said, adding that “this is something we don’t need and don’t want in Germany”. A damning report on Saudi Arabia by Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, accuses Saudi Arabia of an increasingly “impulsive” foreign policy with the goal of becoming the “leaders of the Arab world”.

European Parliament warns ISIS planning to wage chemical and biological war on West Associated Press / December 6, 2015 A European Parliament report (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/572806/EPRS_BRI%282015%29572806_EN.pdf) says ISIS has recruited experts with chemistry, physics and computer science degrees to wage war with weapons of mass destruction against the West. ISIS 'may be planning to try to use internationally banned weapons of mass destruction in future attacks'. The document, which was compiled in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on Paris, claims ISIS has already smuggled WMD material into Europe. Experts fear that ISIS will be able to exploit a failure of EU governments to share information on possible terrorists. Already, British police forces have been conducting exercises on how to deal with various types of terrorist attack. But the EU report says governments should 'consider publicly addressing the possibility of terrorist attack using chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear materials'. The report, ISIL/Da'esh and 'non-conventional' weapons of terror warns: 'At present, European citizens are not seriously contemplating the possibility that extremist groups might use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials during attacks in Europe. Under these circumstances, the impact of such an attack, should it occur, would be even more destabilising.' Rob Wainwright, head of Europol said after the attacks on Paris: 'We are dealing with a very serious, well-resourced, determined international terrorist organisation that is now active on the streets of Europe. 'This represents the most serious terrorist threat faced in Europe for 10 years.' Mr Wainwright warned that ISIS had serious capabilities in terms of resources and manpower.' Wolfgang Rudischhauser, Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation Centre at NATO said: 'ISIS actually has already acquired the knowledge, and in some cases the human expertise, that would allow it to use CBRN materials as weapons of terror.' The report says 'ISIL/Da'esh has recruited and continues to recruit hundreds of foreign fighters, including some with degrees in physics, chemistry and computer science, who experts believe have the ability to manufacture lethal weapons from raw substances.' EU governments have been warned to watch out for 'other radicalised individuals, who have access to, or work in, sensitive areas'. Intelligence services have also been warned to screen returning Jihadi fighters for 'specialist CBRN knowledge'. The European Parliament study states that 150 cases of nuclear or radiological trafficking are reported annually. Worse still: 'CBRN substances have been carried undetected into the European Union. 'Interpol's monthly CBRN intelligence reports show numerous examples of attempts to acquire, smuggle or use CBRN materials.'

Tashfeen Malik: who was the 'shy housewife' turned San Bernardino killer? The Guardian / December 6, 2015 Criminal profilers said the veneer of normality was a key component of the couple’s plan to build an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons and home-made pipe bombs and carry out the killings, because it minimized the risk of discovery. But the profilers said that it was highly unusual for a woman – and especially a new mother – to engage in a form of visceral, predatory violence that the clinical literature associates almost exclusively with men. “This is not a woman who has your typical maternal instincts,” said Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former top behaivoural analyst for the FBI who now directs the forensic science program at George Mason University. “This is very planned, strategic behavior,” O’Toole said. “They have this baby, and what makes a family more normal or traditional than to have a baby? Yet they maintained a plan for mission-oriented, cold-blooded, maximum violence for weeks or months. It suggests the possibility that the baby was in part a prop to help them look normal.” Park Dietz, who has been profiling mass killers for more than 30 years, said he was unaware of any case of a couple erupting in mass violence when the targeted victims were not family members or people perceived to have harmed their child. “The necessary ingredients for an attack of this kind are to be willing to die that day and an inclination to blame other people, either out of paranoia or a direct grievance,” Dietz said. The mystery surrounding Malik extends to her background in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. (As has been said by U.S. state governors, it is realistically impossible to perform adequately comprehensive factual background checks on people from the Middle East and Western Asia). Relatives of Malik in Pakistan, estranged from their wealthy family members who live in Saudi Arabia, said she used to wear Western-style clothing, but later switched to more traditional garments such as a burka, which covers the the entire body. Saudi Arabia requires the wearing of a hijab, but does not mandate burkas. Pakistan, where Malik returned to study at Bahuddin Zakri University in Multan, does not have a dress code for women. A relative of Mailk's in Pakistan says her family became concerned about her attitudes after she went to study pharmacology at Bahauddin Zakariya University in the city of Multan, Pakistan. After two years of attending the university, starting in 2007, she began posting extremist statements on Facebook. She started taking part in religious activities and also started asking women in the family and the locality to become good Muslims. She started taking part in religious activities of women in the area.

Liberty University president urges: 'End those Muslims' via concealed gun carry The Guardian / December 5, 2015 The president of Liberty University urged students, staff and faculty at the Christian school to carry concealed weapons on campus to counter any possible armed attack like the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. “Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here,” President Jerry Falwell Jr told 10,000 students at the weekly convocation held on Friday in Lynchburg. The call-to-arms was met with rousing applause from students, but some said Falwell went too far when he appeared to be referring specifically to Muslims. “I’ve always thought if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,” Falwell said. Falwell said he was referring to Islamic terrorists. “I was referring to ‘those Muslims’ that just carried out attacks in Paris and California.” Falwell said, “There are many good Muslims, many good, moderate Muslims.” Falwell said he was specifically referring to Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik. Falwell encouraged students to take a free class offered by campus police to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. More than 100 people subsequently asked Liberty police about a free class to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. 14,000 students are enrolled at Liberty. Following the San Bernardino shootings, Falwell said he began carrying a .25-caliber handgun in his back pocket. He said he’s had a permit for more than year. Falwell mentioned the weapon during his address Friday and reached around seemingly to fetch it. “Is it illegal to pull it out? I don’t know,” he said, laughing, drawing some hoots from the audience. Asked if he was concerned by the prospect of thousands of armed young people on campus, Falwell said Virginia has a minimum age of 21 for a concealed-carry permit, meaning only older students would be armed. Falwell also said he believed the campus needed to be prepared in the face of the increasing frequency of mass killings. He cited, for example, the 2007 massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, which took place less than 100 miles south-west of Liberty. “What if just one of those students or one of those faculty members had a concealed permit and was carrying a weapon when the shooter walked into Virginia Tech? Countless lives could have been saved,” he said. Unlike his late father, the Rev Jerry Falwell, the younger Falwell has been a low-key leader at Liberty. His father’s barbed statements on contemporary issues made him a reviled figure to some and a pioneering conservative crusader to others. “That’s not my thing,” Falwell says.

Some of the thoughts of fellow Americans Direct ties to Saudi Arabia seems to be a common occurrence with USA bound Islamic terrorists. Why is that? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You know what's funny? Every single one of these terrorists has some tie to Saudi Arabia, yet somehow, Iran is the enemy. Right now in Congress is a bill to ban people who have recently traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Sudan from using the visa waiver program. No one tied to Iran has ever committed an attack on U.S. soil. Yet somehow, Iran made the list, but Saudi Arabia didn't. The same Saudi Arabia which most of the 9/11 hijackers came from. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd like to know how they let a mail-order bride from Saudi Arabia into the country so fast on a K-1 visa. A friend of mine met a girl from England while he was in college, and eventually married her. Their visa application process took almost a year and required multiple rounds of interviews and a submission of a "memory scrapbook" filled with pictures to prove that they knew each other and had a legitimate relationship. Funny that British citizens are subjected to that type of scrutiny while Muslims from terror-sponsoring countries are not. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Learned why there haven’t been any photos of the she-devil. It’s because she wore a full blown burka. Farook’s attorneys said even the males in that family wouldn’t recognize her because she was covered from head to toe at all times. The attorneys said she was a “typical housewife”. Just trying to recall any typical housewives who have wielded assault rifles and murdered several people at point blank range then firing up to 70 rounds at the cops while trying to get away. Those lawyers are really reaching on this one. Those were two terrorists with a jihadi mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's why all muslims who are given refugee or green cards to the States should not be allowed to hide their faces and bodies under their so-called traditional outfits. If you don't see their faces, you cannot recognize anyone in conditions like this, let alone how many guns and bombs they hide underneath their clothes. If muslims adopt a new country with different cultural values and customs, they should become part of that, not become a parallel culture that refuses to integrate. We want to know who they are, look into their eyes, and yes, see them wear normal Western clothing, not Medieval outfits that can fit a truck underneath. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why are we letting people come to America that have a belief system that condemns being friends with ordinary non-Muslims Americans: Qur'an (5:51) - "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." Qur'an (5:80) - "You will see many of them befriending those who disbelieve; certainly evil is that which their souls have sent before for them, that Allah became displeased with them and in chastisement shall they abide." [Those Muslims who befriend unbelievers will abide in hell]. If you truly believe the Quran, how can you hope to assimilate in the USA? Unless the intent is to form an enclave, their own neighborhoods, their own schools, their own everything, separate and segregated from the rest of American society? These terrorists don't have to be "ISIS inspired", they just need to be "Quran inspired". Note: There are many verses in the bible that instruct Christians to kill non-believers, however nobody does it. You must kill those who worship another god. Exodus 22:20 Kill any friends or family that worship a god that is different than your own. Deuteronomy 13:6-10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Initially we were told that there were 3 shooters, or at least 3 people involved in this. There were reportedly 2 men and 1 woman. There were 3 names released and tossed around yesterday (this all assuming we are being "truthfully" told what occurred in San Bernardino) . Syed Farook Tashfeen Malik Tyeep Bin Ardogan Tyeep was said to be a 28 year old who was a citizen of Qatari. Why aren't we hearing more about there being 3 people today? I distinctly remember the reports that they had found only 2 of the people involved, and that the 3rd person was on the run. Does this mean that there STILL is one of this group out there? I mean, I know that there are thousands in our country. But I just hate it when we don't get the whole story, and I so distinctly recall that these were the names involved in the terrorist attack. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I work about a football field away from where the suburban was shot, and just to let you know, there was a 3rd, which they never found, there is a warning in the area that there is suspected to be at least 5 more in the area, and I was instructed by a friend in law enforcement, to go to ANY public area, no restaurants, movie theaters, malls, to just stay at home this weekend. They are expecting more demonstrations but don't want to tell the public, because it will cause an uproar. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abdallah Bulgasem Zehaf-Bibeau, the son of a Canadian immigration official and a Libyan Jihadist, just wanted peace. He told a co-worker, “There can’t be world peace until there’s only Muslims.” Then he tried to usher in peace, the Islamic way, by opening fire near the Canadian parliament.
Meanwhile in Israel a reporter interviewing Arab Muslim settlers in Jerusalem found that they too wanted peace. On their terms. “Yes we want peace,” one of them said, “but peace means no Jews.”
When negotiating peace with other cultures it’s a good idea to make sure that the words you are using mean the same thing. Most Muslims and Westerners want peace. But to Westerners peace means co-existence. To Muslims, peace means the end of your existence ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- They were cowards. They did not attempt to attack a US military base which might have supported our Middle East policy, but an office where the governmental employees only did good: inspecting restaurants, assuring clean drinking water. Those poor people at the Christmas party had no reason to be suspicious, and no means to defend themselves. Oh, and he was "radicalized"? It's one thing for 15-year-old kid to start hanging out with a bad crowd: this was an American-born college graduate in his late twenties with an infant! He owed her better. He owed the country of his birth better. And because of him, some clean-cut Moslem who loves America as much as any Christian or Jew will not get a job he is qualified for because his boss will be afraid to hire him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before the brutal and deadly Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990, Lebanon was a predominantly Christian country. At that time Beirut was prosperous, many people dine out in the evening, and people called Beirut as little Paris of Middle East. At that time a “Peace Lover” who applied a new strategy and pretending as a Christian to win the election in Lebanon and started to bring in huge number of “Peace Lovers” from Syria. By playing race/religion card, focused on the pseudo issues, dividing society, and polarized the country, as a results a long civil war started and 120,000 died and one million people had to leave their home as refugees. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you agree the following statement, please thumb up this message "In 2016 election, I will not support any candidates who plan to bring in tens thousands of Peace Lovers to risk our homeland security, to hurt United Stated of America, and to kill innocent children and women" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are the mainstream media still pretending that the California attack was random and workplace violence? Do they really think we, americans are stupid? Obama looked foolish prematurely blaming the California mass killing on gun rights abuse without waiting to get the whole facts! Of course the liberals and the party of Obama and Hillary hoped that the mass killings was workplace or random related violence to further their anti-gun rights agenda. I dont know but if you had a muslim couple, preparing pipe bombs in the garage and then wore body armor and used as semi-automatic weapons to kill americans celebrating Christmas party. It should not take a rocket scientist to conclude that the motive was jihad war! The danger here folks are that Rizwan Farook one of the terrorist attacker was born and grew up in America for many years yet our government was not able to catch his bad intentions before it happened. Much more to the 10,000 Syrian Muslims who are coming to US. It's a very big concern to monitor the 10,000 Syrian Muslims spread across America. Are the Obama admin pretending that it is business as usual and the president would still naively insist ISIS is contained? Worst and softest president indeed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- As for Malik, she came to the U.S. in July 2014 on a Pakistani passport and a fiancée visa, authorities said. Malik never came through Saudi Arabia and instead traveled through Islamabad, arriving on a K-1 visa for fiancées and with a Pakistani passport. To get the visa, immigrants submit to an interview and biometric and background checks — screening intended to identify anyone who might pose a threat. They were married on Aug. 16, 2014, in nearby Riverside County, according to their marriage license. Both listed their religion as Muslim. The key point here is she passed a background check. The same type that Obama wants to use to vett the Syrians he wants to bring to the US next year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just reading some of the accounts of the attack. People running and hiding in closets, calling loved ones on their cell phones, tripping over each other, etc. California has the strictest gun laws in the U.S. The murderers didn’t follow the laws, the victims did. This meant that the murderers were armed and the victims, good citizens all, I’m sure, were dependent upon the police to save them. The fundamental human right to defend oneself had been transferred from the individual to the state. Just once I’d like to read something like, “I crouched by the doorway to my office with my pistol and thought, ‘This is as far as you’re going to get.;” I don’t favor a world where the meek and peaceful are at the mercy of the strong and violent. I don’t favor a world of inequality on such a grand scale. Helplessness isn’t a good plan, our Politicians should know that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- How many innocent AMERICAN lives must be lost before our "government" stops allowing immigrants from the middle east into our country? I am not a raciest but a realist. My heart goes out to the innocents in the middle east but the risk is far too great to allow any more into our country. If the Islam followers (or anyone else) wants to cry that's unfair or profiling that's too bad then they need to blame the radicals. The majority of American people are demanding our government to stop allowing these people in but the sadly they continue. The United States government has innocent blood on their hands! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gee, I wonder why the truth is so hard to report. ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Advisor. CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications. NBC News Political Analyst, David Axelrod was Obama's Chief Campaign Advisor and Senior Advisor directly to Obama himself. NBC CEO Stephen Burke is a Board Member of Warren Buffet’s Company Berkshire Hathaway. Buffet donated almost a BILLION dollars to Obama’s campaign. ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman is married to former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who now works for CNN as a commentator. ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary. ABC News chief political correspondent and anchor George Stephanopoulos was the White House Communications Director then Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy for Bill Clinton, and was just caught secretly donating $75,000 to the Clinton foundation. ABC President Ben Sherwood is the brother of Obama’s Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood. CNN President Virginia Moseley is married to former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides. NBC Chelsea Clinton was making $600,000.00 a year + benefits as a starting reporter. Univision’s Emmy Award Winning Anchor Jorge Ramos’s daughter is working on Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. Yahoo is partnered with ABC News. The CEO of yahoo, Marissa Mayer is also an Obama campaign donor who has donated over $300,000.00 to Obama’s campaigns and has even hosted Obama fundraisers in her own home. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Defeating ISIS will take a “multi-year effort” from a large coalition of nations, Barack Obama tells ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, while arguing that ISIS is not getting stronger. That’s an interesting take from a president who claimed less than two years ago that ISIS was the “jayvee team” and that Iraq alone could deal with their rebellion. Now, Obama says there aren’t enough troops on the ground to “decapitate” the varsity of Islamist terrorist groups, but that Obama wants to be well on the way to that goal before he leaves office. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If we are going after ISIS, we need to do it right. We need to destroy Wahhabism. We need to attack it at its source, Saudi Arabia. Those of us who were in the Trade Center are well aware that the culprits were Saudi's. They were the one's flying the planes. And their violent distorted cult of Islam known as Wahhabism needs to be destroyed. Our "ally" has been teaching this garbage in school since the 80s. We allowed it so our puppet dictators could control their population. Obviously, this was a HUGE mistake. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's interesting, is that the whole gun debate has come up again, and I think there are a lot of smart minds who are seeing beyond this to ask the bigger questions: 1. Why is the gun issue being brought up as the main issue, when this is clearly now a radicalization issue? 2. And speaking of #1, why are we not talking about stopping the influx of muslim refugees from Syria (and who knows where else) when there is clearly an issue with this particular demographic subject to radicalization? 3. And speaking of #s 1 & 2, why is the obama administration insistent on bringing in refugees and debating the gun issue when they are unwilling to even work with the People of this country to vet radicalized mosques like France did and shut down the ones that are know to law enforcement to have individuals or imams that espouse violence or advocate sharia law? 4. And speaking of all the above, why is the media and the Administration so keen to try and work the workplace violence angle when they know full well that the radicalization angle is the one they should be working, as they full well know that if refugees are allowed to come in, there will be further instances of such attacks. 5. Simple math says that even if the number is higher, why bring in 10,000 to 100,000 muslims to this country when we know 1% is subject to radicalization? 1% of those number is more than 2 and look at what these 2 were able to do? Is it sane to consider more immigration from muslim nations?? 6. And in case the question is being asked about the extensiveness of the vetting to be used on incoming refugees, look at these two? Both probably would have passed the screening and look at what they did? 7. Look at the gun issue after you have looked at the human issue, as it is humans that use the guns to kill. The argument that gun control would have kept this from happening is completely false as France has gun control laws and look what happened there? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now will you start calling this a terrorist attack Mr. President? I don't hear you saying that the 100 some odd people killed at that night club in Paris were victims of a mass shooting. It was a terrorist attack. My town deserves to be acknowledged as what it was a terror target by two jihadis inspired by and pledged to ISIS even if ISIS did not carry out the attacks themselves. The victims, my city deserves for you to properly acknowledge what this really was. This happened 5 minutes from my place of work, 10 mins from my home and my daughters school. You owe it to us to acknowledge it for what it is!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would like to know how many of the Syrian Refugees are terrorists. If Obama wants to admit 75K of them or so, and lets be conservative and say that even 1% of them are terrorists (this makes 750 of them terrorists). Now, those 750 can corroborate with others, and make others join their ranks. If, lets say each one of them on average makes 3 others join their ranks, we will have 750+2250 which is 3000 terrorists in USA..... If on average 2 terrorists kill 14 people (and this is low end), meaning that 1 will kill 7 people. Therefore 3000 terrorists are capable of killing 21K people. That is 21K Americans.... Obama will be responsible for killing at least 21K Americans by letting those refugees here (and this is low end number).... Wake up America, and don't let any of them here - before it is not too late. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think they're on the right track now. From the time he looked online for a wife, I think he was targeted & she was a "plant" If so, she came with US contacts, able to give her weapons & info & I think she radicalized him. Probably, she had the baby to allay suspicions & make it less likely she would be deported. I wonder who she was? In that culture, most women marry early. Had she already been married & had a family? Were any family members of hers killed by US forces somewhere in the Middle East? A woman would be under less scrutiny from US authorities & especially if she were coming here to be married.

(Please note updates to the original post) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another reason to worry The San Bernardino police department are in hot water after the media was allowed unsupervised access into the home of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik on Friday afternoon. Networks were able to rifle through the belongings of the terrorists responsible for the deaths of 14 in a massacre that occurred earlier this week that ultimately ended with their own deaths. MSNBC broadcast live from inside the home, showing identification cards that should not have been made public. MSNBC and other news organizations were invited into the home by the landlord. “There are a dozen people in there totally destroying a crime scene which is still vital in this investigation,” said law enforcement specialist Harry Houck. He also pointed out that it was odd to not see any dusting anywhere for fingerprints, something he would expect to see at a crime scene. “I'm having chills down my spine with what I'm seeing here. This apartment clearly is full of evidence.” Anderson Cooper said; 'This is kind of bizarre, this whole thing.' Andrea Mitchell echoed this on MSNBC, saying; 'I don’t understand why, even after the FBI search, this wasn’t shut out.' Media photos - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3345982/Photos-toys-Muslim-books-seen-inside-San-Bernardino-killers-home-wife-pledged-allegiance-ISIS-Facebook-couple-launched-attack.html If they want to be devout Muslims, they’re best off living in their Muslim country of origin. There's a tremendous incompatibility issue (this is one reason why the world came to have different countries). Want to live in the United States? Then renounce the Sharia Law, swear to place the U.S. Constitution above your religion and subjugate to the American way of life.

So Volvo has replaced the old part number, which under Mack brilliance actually had a meaning to its once legendary parts people, with a Volvo global part number that has no meaning. And why? This rubber seal (moulding) is not used on any global market Volvo cabs. But more important, a part that used to sell for $4 is now a ridiculous $15. It's just a simple rubber seal with a value no more than $6 today. But at Volvo, the philosophy is to price items at the maximum price level for profitability even though many customers will walk away. Their big trick is to engineer the parts so that you have to buy at Volvo, for example their AMT you can't work on. They've got you.......you have to pay their price.

New Jersey man murders mother and 3-month-old baby Associated Press / December 3, 2015 Prosecutors say a southern New Jersey man strangled his ex-girlfriend and suffocated her 3-month-old daughter before dumping their bodies in a wooded area. Ricardo Santiago, 34, was arraigned on two counts of homicide in the death of 34-year-old Vineland woman Neidy Ramirez and her daughter Genesis on Thursday at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Bridgeton. Santiago, of Millville, pleaded not guilty Thursday after he was arrested Tuesday night and charged with homicide. Neidy Ramirez was killed by blunt force trauma to the neck after she was strangled with a cord. She was found buried under a pile of leaves in Fairfield Township. The baby's chest was crushed by a knee and she was then suffocated when Santiago allegedly put his hands over her mouth and nose. Santiago allegedly killed them in Vineland before taking the remains to a wooded area off Back Neck Road in Fairfield Township. Santiago is being held at the Cumberland County Courthouse on $2 million bail. .