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African Union troops say seize major al Shabaab base
Today's Headlines
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Fifth Column
Anti-Black Journalist Andrew Breitbart Dies Suddenly
Hate and anger beyond the grave.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/03/2012 03:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
No Union, No Problem: Tennessee Auto Industry Thrives
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/03/2012 03:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
'Death on wheels' offered to Dutch
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/03/2012 02:50 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
SC rejects Waheeda Shah's apology
[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an unconditional apology sought by Syeda Waheeda Shah in a case of manhandling an Election Commission (EC) official at a polling station during recently held by-elections.

The Pakistain People's Party's (PPP) Sindh Assembly candidate had slapped a polling staff in Tando Muhammad Khan. She was repeatedly shown on TV, physically attacking the polling staff on the election day.

The EC had started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the candidate and decided to withhold the official result of by-election in the constituency, Sindh Assembly seat PS-53.

While hearing of the suo moto notice of the incident, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry showed his announce when he told Ms Shah: "You have slapped the whole nation. The matter is not related to the court now --the state has also become a party in it."
Posted by: Fred || 03/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


'Hindu girls being forcibly converted'
[Dawn] Hindu community representatives in the province on Thursday expressed their serious concern over "a rising sense of insecurity" among their people mainly in the interior of Sindh following some recent incidents of "kidnappings of Hindu community girls and their forced conversion to Islam".

The leaders of the Pakistain Hindu Council also sought intervention from the Supreme Court and criticised the local and the provincial administrations for their alleged failure in addressing their issues which, they said, needed immediate action.

"Recently a girl was kidnapped in a Mirpur Mathelo area," Jethanan Kohistani said while speaking at a presser at the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Press Club.

"We have also heard of similar incidents happened with some Christian girls in Sindh. They were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam. The matter was raised before the local and police administration several times, but they never paid any heed," he said.

He said the Hindus in Pakistain in general and in Sindh in particular pinned their hopes on the Supreme Court and expected from the chief justice to take suo motu notice of the situation.

"The Hindus are loyal to Pakistain and all their stakes and hopes are attached with this country. But the situation has alienated hundreds of thousands of members of this patriotic community strangers within their homeland," added Mr Kohistani.
Posted by: Fred || 03/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad


Science & Technology
Oxygen envelops Saturn's icy moon
[Bangla Daily Star] A Nasa spacecraft has detected oxygen around one of Saturn's icy moons, Dione.

The discovery supports a theory that suggests all of the moons near Saturn and Jupiter might have oxygen around them.

Researchers say that their finding increases the likelihood of discovering the ingredients for life on one of the moons orbiting gas giants.

The study has been published in Geophysical Research Letters.

According to co-author Andrew Coates of University College London, Dione has no liquid water and so does not have the conditions to support life. But it is possible that other moons of Jupiter and Saturn do.

"Some of the other moons have liquid oceans and so it is worth looking more closely at them for signs of life," Prof Coates said.

The discovery was made using the Cassini spacecraft, which flew by Dione nearly two years ago.

Instruments on board the unmanned probe detected a thin layer of oxygen around the moon, so thin that scientists prefer to call it an "exosphere" rather than an atmosphere.

But the discovery is important because it suggests there is a process at work around the solar system's gas giants, Saturn and Jupiter, in which oxygen is released from their icy satellites.

It seems that highly charged particles from the planets' powerful radiation belts split the water in the ice into hydrogen and oxygen.

Dione's sister moon, Enceladus is thought to harbour a liquid ocean below its icy surface. The same is thought to be true of Europa, Callisto and Ganymede which orbit Jupiter.
Posted by: Fred || 03/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Send Dione into Titan and that would make one hell of an explosion with Titan's ethane atmosphere and Dione's oxygen.

Heck, that's a lot of rocket fuel up there. Mine Dione for oxygen and Titan for hydrocarbon and you have a ready source of water and CO2 for photosynthesis.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/03/2012 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Assuming you can create enough electric power to generate light for photosynthesis.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/03/2012 1:07 Comments || Top||

#3  crosspatch: to get there you need something, considerably, better than rocket fuel.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/03/2012 1:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Crosspatch, the trick is to get enough monoliths together to start fusion on jupiter




Posted by: Pstanley || 03/03/2012 2:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, my point is that once you got out that far, maybe a thousand years from now if we haven't staved ourselves to death due to the ice age we will be in by then, you have a ready supply of water by taking hydrocarbon from one body and oxygen from the other and combining them. The result is CO2 and water. Having a source of water at the orbit of Saturn would be pretty handy.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/03/2012 2:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Pstanley, in the book the monolith was around Saturn. In one of Bob Zubrins books he talks about the Saturn system as the emergy depot for space fairing culture. Gotta get there in force first though.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 03/03/2012 7:09 Comments || Top||

#7  If you have oxygen, and you have methane, you can make moonshine, no pun intended.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/03/2012 20:47 Comments || Top||


Economy
US gasoline prices rise for 24th straight day
[Iran Press TV] Gasoline prices are up for the 24th straight day as service stations continue to price in a 10-percent rise in oil this year.

The national average for gasoline hit $3.741 per gallon on Friday. That's an increase of 46.5 cents per gallon since the start of 2012. Gasoline has never been this high at this time of year, and analysts say it could reach a record of $4.25 per gallon by late April.

Gasoline has surged as its primary ingredient, oil, gets more expensive. Oil prices have climbed since January on fears that world supplies could be reduced as the West confronts Iran over its nuclear program.

Benchmark crude fell by $1.66 to $107.18 per barrel Friday after Soddy Arabia denied an Iranian media report of a Saudi pipeline kaboom. ABC News
Posted by: Fred || 03/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Public transportation and church buses will enable urban dwellers to reach the polls in November. Remember, these are the people that count!
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/03/2012 2:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Gas prices are going up in spite of lower demand in the USA because the US is exporting so much gasoline that the domestic supply is being impacted. Lower supply --> higher prices.

Isn't globalization great?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 03/03/2012 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  One of the main reasons for this inflation is the unprecedented printing of money. That's a text book method, to inflate the money supply defates the value of the money and causes prices to rise. Gas prices as a valued in other commodities (like food) have not increased all that much.

ALL prices of consumables (ie short term) have gone up due to this administrations ungodly money printing (aka QE I, II, III etc.)
Posted by: AlanC || 03/03/2012 9:35 Comments || Top||

#4 
Who benefits from higher gasoline prices?

a. The administration benefits as oil company and investor earnings rise and taxes increase.

b. The administration benefits as pressure builds to replace government oil and gas exploration subsidies with windfall profits.

c. The administration benefit as production and delivery costs increases for food and durable goods which creates additional tax revenue from consumers.

d. The administration benefits as oil speculation rules are adjusted and gasoline prices fall in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day.

e. OPEC benefits as the price of their crude oil is artificially elevated.

f. Terrorist rogue nations benefit as America's strategic reserves are depleted in order to provide temporary price relief.

g. The administration benefits as strategic reserves are replenished during periods of crude oil price deflation. (buy low - sell high)

h. Urban real estate speculators and developers benefit as workers move away from bedroom communities and into urban environments to avoid costly commutes.

i. Airlines realize short-term benefits as higher ticketing prices are levied against lower priced fuel contracts.

j. The administration benefits as highter airline ticket prices produce additional sales tax income.

k. Green energy investors and speculators benefit as carbon energy and combustion engine use is strangled.

l. The administration benefits as untapped off-shore leases owned by the government increase in value.

m. The administration benefits as inflation rises, the value of the dollar falls, debt interest and repayment are facilitated.

n. The administration benefits as oil companies, big business, and Wall Street are seen as evil villans in need of harnessing or outright nationalization by government.

...and so it goes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/03/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  AlanC yes. I think possibly another plan is in the works. I believe another QE3 will be sprung at the best possible time to save Obama's bacon. We should see summer gas prices go up even more. I understand this is putting the hurts to the spring break crowd already. Suburban housing also should continue value downward trend. The construction trades should also be hurt. Then again at the right time gas prices will drop. So they can say ,see our programs are working. The people that support Obama believe "he is the best man for the job". That "he hasn't been given a chance". That "things were so bad when he became president" he will need "four more years at least".We have a third world leader. The Constitution means nothing to him.
Posted by: Dale || 03/03/2012 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  For those opposed to globalisation, fuel would cost a hell of a lot more with no imports of it.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/03/2012 16:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Any of you folks have any idea why the last 3 data point on this chart are outliers? Specifically: it appears that deliveries of retail gasoline by US refiners took a sudden 25% drop 3 months ago and have held roughly steady at this level since.

Did we lose that much refining capacity overnight?
Posted by: AzCat || 03/03/2012 21:26 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said.

No kidding.
Posted by: Phil_B || 03/03/2012 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I have often feared that the tactics, techniques, and procedures used for so-called nation building in the "Good War" are perhaps little more than a rehearsal for what might one day also be used for nation rebuilding elsewhere. The militarization of domestic law enforcement only reinforces my fears.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/03/2012 2:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Geez, knock out all of our military GPS so some asshat democrat can get a contract to make an inferior yet destabilizing device?

FU Democrats. You are not competent in anything. FOAD or move to Europe.
Posted by: newc || 03/03/2012 5:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I hope this will be just the first of a long series of rollbacks to federal police authority.

The bottom line is that the absence of the 4th amendment actually doesn't let them do their job better. They were doing fine for many years while respecting the constitution. They can go back to doing it that way again.

And if you think that "police theory" about what *should* work is any good, "because they know what they're doing", just remember that for many years, police were *certain* that strict gun control would reduce crime.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/03/2012 9:48 Comments || Top||

#5  The west no longer has Police
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/03/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
On the Sunday Morning Coffee Pot: The Mexican Food Crisis

The Mexican food crisis enters a critical stage in the next six months.

Despite the needed snowfall, the expected runoff is expected not to impact agriculture in the region much, nor in regions in the lower elevations. As bad as the news has been for Mexican farmers and ranchers since the drought began 20 months ago, conditions are expected to intensify the problems in the next six months.

More on Rantburg's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot.
Posted by: badanov || 03/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mexican food is delicious. Just saying.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 03/03/2012 7:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Our Southwest is in a dust bowl now. Looks like another summer of no rain. The same for Mexico.
Obama has fixed our farmers in California. No water for irrigation. So with no efforts to correct these problems more chronic problems. Obamas stash will only go so far. Food items will be very expensive. Another government decision that creats an investment opportunity for a few.
Thats why wall street loves the guy and will be big donors. Its like a hostile takeover. The business is gutted or canabalized. The people, well they are an afterthought. Only the government will be allowed to manage the mess they created and you know how well they will do at that.
Posted by: Dale || 03/03/2012 8:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Since a lot of the damage is man-made the next administration can pull miracles by reversing a few key policies. Imagine opening up oil drilling in the US, keystone pipeline and all the jobs created. The effect that would have on fuel prices. Then think about reversing a few decision like the water one in California and how that would affect food prices. Probably take two years into the next administration to really see the affects but they would be noticeable.

Just sad that folks have such poor long term memories. Communism's complete and utter failure wasn't all that long ago and people still gave it a second shot twenty years later. We will probably go through one last 'attempt' in twenty years.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/03/2012 8:48 Comments || Top||

#4  rjschwarz maddening isn't it. So much water north central US. Pipe it down. One lake of fresh water is flooding lands now. Long ago it grew larger than the great lakes. This happened before the last mini ice age by the way. Get government out of the way and the people will solve this problem fast. Look at Isreal where they make the desert bloom.
Posted by: Dale || 03/03/2012 10:16 Comments || Top||

#5  http://news.ninemsn.com.au/floods/

"Climatologists kept repeating the message that climate change meant that Australia was headed for permanent drought. They convinced gullible politicians to waste billions on useless infrastructure to prepare for neverending drought"

Things are difficult again this year. Several areas of the world are not following the plan.
Posted by: Dale || 03/03/2012 17:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Man I am buggared. Tallygaroopna and Katamatite are some of the towns dealing with the flood. Must be a local thing. Just trying to say or spell them is so my bad. Crikey!
Posted by: Dale || 03/03/2012 18:36 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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1al-Qaeda in North Africa
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1al-Shabaab

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-03-03
  African Union troops say seize major al Shabaab base
Fri 2012-03-02
  39 Dead as Syrian Army Seizes Baba Amr and Rebels Withdraw 'Tactically'
Thu 2012-03-01
  Syrian rebels pull out of Homs after siege
Wed 2012-02-29
  Singapore: Iran assassination plot against Israeli Defence Minister Barak foiled
Tue 2012-02-28
  Yemen's Saleh formally steps down after 33 years
Mon 2012-02-27
  Congressmen Attacked on Mount of Olives
Sun 2012-02-26
  Afghan interior ministry employee sought in NATO killings
Sat 2012-02-25
  Yemen gets new president after 33 years
Fri 2012-02-24
  Air strke kills al-Shaboobs
Thu 2012-02-23
  Ansar as-Sunna Chief Arrested on Syria-Iraq Border
Wed 2012-02-22
  Hugo has new tumor
Tue 2012-02-21
  Afghans rescue 41 child suicide bombers
Mon 2012-02-20
  Syrian army reinforcements head to Homs
Sun 2012-02-19
  Iran stops oil sales to British, French
Sat 2012-02-18
  SWIFT To Cut Off Iran - No Financial Telecommunications

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