Sri Lanka is searching for a new hangman after the latest recruit got upset on seeing the gallows for the first time and quit, officials said on Tuesday. It's just ICKY!
The Prisons Department appointed the new hangman, the third most qualified from 176 applicants, last week, months after two hangmen chosen late last year failed to show up for work. What qualifications does a Hangman need? Place the noose, put the hood over the head, pull the leaver
"We gave him one week's training, but he resigned after seeing the gallows, saying that he didn't want the job," Nope, nope, I figured out it is icky.
Chandrarathna Pallegama, commissioner general of prisons, told Reuters.
"He told me that after seeing the gallows he got upset... Next time, we will show the gallows to the new recruits before giving them basic training." How much does it pay?
But it's not as if he would have been likely to hang anyone anyway. The job is light administrative work only. Interesting term for execution.
The Indian Ocean island nation, a predominantly Buddhist country, has not carried out an execution since 1976, despite the fact that there are at least 405 convicts on death row. That's a long time to be on death row.
But an alarming rise in child abuse, rapes, murders, and drug trafficking in the country since the 25-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists ended in 2009 has prompted some lawyers and politicians to push for the death penalty to be reintroduced. New crop of criminals. The old one is now pining for the fijords.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2014 14:34 ||
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So, they get trained, and then see the gallows for the first time? How does that work? Scaffold simulator?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/11/2014 17:33 Comments ||
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[POLITICO] CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has reached an agreement to resign from CBS News ahead of contract, bringing an end to months of hard-fought negotiations, sources familiar with her departure told POLITICO on Monday.
Attkisson, who has been with CBS News for two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network's liberal bias, an outsize influence by the network's corporate partners and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt that her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her reporting on air.
At the same time, Attkisson's reporting on the B.O. regime, which some staffers characterized as agenda-driven, had led network executives to doubt the impartiality of her reporting. She is currently at work on a book -- tentatively titled "Stonewalled: One Reporter's Fight for Truth in Obama's Washington" -- that addresses the challenges of reporting critically on the administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Breitbart flashback. If I were Attkisson, I'd be consulting legal councel as well as a personal security firm.
CBS News president David Rhoades is not only the brother of President Obama's national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, but ABC News reports that Ben Rhodes was very much involved in the editing of the now-infamous CIA talking points. SoÂ…
1. According to ABC News, Obama's national security advisor Ben Rhodes was deeply involved in the editing of the CIA talking points.
2. These same CIA talking points are central to what many believe is a White House coverup.
3. Ben Rhodes is the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes.
4. At CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson is one of the only mainstream media journalists with the dogged determination and moral courage to demand the truth about the White House's involvement in the CIA talking points.
5. For months now reports have surfaced that Attkisson's bosses are unhappy with her, that she has trouble getting her Libya stories on the air, and that she's being accused of engaging in "advocacy."
#2
You need to know, if you don't... Sharyl broke the story of Fast and Furious --- it was Sharyl, that the "guys who knew" went to with the information with the details of the going-ons...
Kept on the details, she did.
Added the depth to the 60-minutes Benghazi report that CBS later retracted....
Bet that was when the negotiations began....
Watch for her -- she needs to make a living.... "she saw as the network's liberal bias" ---
#3
Attkisson's reporting on the B.O. regime, which some staffers characterized as agenda-driven, had led network executives to doubt the impartiality of her reporting.
Translation: unlike the rest of the media, she was not on her knees actively engaged in Obamellatio.
#4
And corporate will never be concerned about dropping viewership of their news division. If and when the day comes, the 1 percenters who own and operate these corporations may discover that little know phrase 'fiduciary responsibility' has a bite that gives their enemies the tool for incredible payback.
#5
Yes, P2k. But in my house we'd just switched to CBS because ABC and Diane Sawyer pissed me off so bad I couldn't watch without screaming at the TV. Then the other night I tried watching a BBC newscast. Ack! Guess I'll have to go back out on the patio and enjoy my beverage there. At least with daylight savings it's still light out there and the little birdies are chirping in the trees.
[NZHERALD.CO.NZ] Portland police had to be called in to subdue a 22-pound (10-kilogram) house cat that trapped its owners inside their bedroom after attacking their baby.
The baby was not injured in the Sunday incident.
Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police Bureau front man, said officers responded to an emergency call that evening from a couple who had locked themselves in their bedroom with the baby and their dog after the cat attacked the child.
Simpson said the operator could hear the cat screeching in the background as the couple awaited help.
Officers used a dog snare to capture the cat and placed it in a crate.
Simpson said the owners told the dispatcher the cat has a history of violence. He said the cat remained with its owners.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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It's hard to imagine that a man and his family living in an apartment on the other side of the tracks from the train station find themselves pinned down by a big bad fluffy housecat.
In real world, you take out house cat.
In Soviet Portland, house cat takes out you.
#2
A 22 pound cat is nothing to sneeze at. I've picked up a five pound feral mother cat to put it in a cage while wearing welder's gloves. I had to go in for a tetanus shot because it bit through them several times.
#4
For comparison, I have a 25lb-er. Fangs are over 1.5 inches and front claws 3/4". Combine that with a fighting frenzy and you damn well lock yourself in the bedroom... and break out the hardware....
#5
"the cat has a history of violence" "the cat remained with its owners"
So they're officialy NUTS. They were crazy to keep any animal with a "history of violence" in their home with a baby. After this attack, they were even more crazy to let the cat back in the home.
And I say that as one who loves (o the point of driving people nuts) cats.
Cat vs. baby - not even a second's hesitation which one I'd choose (and I've never had children).
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/11/2014 16:14 Comments ||
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Supposedly the cat scratched the baby, who was probably pulling it's tail. The story said the father then KICKED the cat which is when it went 'crazy'.
So yeah, I figure they don't exactly treat this cat well.
[AyPee] U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial, Google, Facebook, Verizon, voter registration roles, and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances, current and former officials told The Associated Press.
The system is intended to identify rogue agents, corrupt officials, enemies of the state, and leakers, and draws on a Defense Department model under beta testing development for more than a decade, according to officials and documents reviewed by the AyPee.
Intelligence officials have long wanted a computerized collar system that could continuously monitor employees, in part to prevent cases similar to former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden. His disclosures bared secretive U.S. surveillance operations. Didn't know Eddie was an analyst, I thought he was a SYSAD geek.
An administration review of the government's security clearance process due this month is expected to support continuous monitoring as part of a package of comprehensive changes. I recommend a network of orbiting drones, initially unarmed.
#4
Remember when the system fails because people short cut or did a run around the system, the answer is to have even more controls and more systems rather than holding people accountable for their management failure to follow the rules and procedures. /sarc off
#5
As long as they're letting people walk in and out of so called secure facilities with laptops, CDs, thumbdrives, etc. they're gonna have Snowdens, Mannings and, let's see, who was that Clinton associate who stuck the papers up his pant leg? Can't remember the name...
#6
Over the past year we've learned more about NSA high-level special intelligence tactics and techniques than we've learned about Champ's college classes. Has to tell you something about priorities does it not ?
#8
What this tells me is that the SCI "Lifestyle" polygraph is as useless as it is nasty to sit thru. The Aussies have dropped their requirement. The US should too, and spend that money on something like actual counter-intel surveillance.
I am so glad Im debriefed and not actively in the system, and will, (barring an act of God) never be read-in again. Im too old for this sh*t.
#9
Sorry OS, you know you can really never leave. Your PR has been indefinitely extended. You've been administratively indoc'd. Please get a shave, a haircut, and advise us of any pending foreign travel. We'll be in touch. :-(
#10
What this tells me is that the SCI "Lifestyle" polygraph is as useless as it is nasty to sit thru.
I've read the Rooskis don't use polygraphs because they consider them unreliable and actively train their people to defeat them.
Just an impression from outside the community, but it seems that while our guys are good at technical stuff - signals intell, photo-recon, etc - they fail badly at stuff involving humans. This leads to embarrassing mistakes like missing the fall of the fUSSR, blowing up a Chinese embassy and various Snowdens.
#12
Well I will admit I do have to do pre-clearance on things until I die (or 25 years). And they have a pretty solid lid-lock on me for the interim. Which was made very clear to me at my last debrief.
[Dhaka Tribune] Alleging that the Awami League-led government wanted to stay in power "forcibly," BNP Chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... yesterday asked it to initiate dialogue for holding a fresh election immediately.
She also announced that after the completion of the upazila polls, she would visit different districts across the country.
"Come to dialogue leaving the gun. The consequences will be dire if you think you can stay in office killing people. If you want to stay in power forcefully, people will be compelled to take to the street," she said while addressing a group of Thakurgaon Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... activists who joined the BNP at her Gulshan office.
Khaleda asked them to work together to ensure victory of the party-backed candidates in the upazila elections.
She said the only way out of the "current crisis" was an election. "People did not vote in the January 5 election. The people of the country as well as the whole world are talking about an inclusive election."
The former premier claimed that the opposition men had been "killed and kidnapped" and human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. was violated in every step.
Khaleda alleged that the ruling party-backed candidates had won in some upazilas forcefully.
The BNP-supported candidates would have won in more upazilas if their agents had not been evicted from the polling centres.
She said: "Now I will visit Thakurgaon and hold a rally there. This way, I will visit all the districts."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:29 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] A meeting that was supposed to be held yesterday between BNP Chairperson Khaldea Zia and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani could not take place, reportedly because of a "protocol mismatch."
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... BNP officially said the meeting could not take place because of a "schedule mismatch."
Saying the OIC secretary general on Sunday had expressed wishes to meet the BNP chief, the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... 's Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: "We told the OIC delegation that we must be informed one hour before the meeting for our preparation; but there was a schedule mismatch."
Initially, the journalists were informally informed that the meeting would take place at 3pm at Khaleda's Gulshan residence; but when the journalists went there, they were told that the meeting had shifted to 5pm.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... at 4pm, officials of the BNP chief's press section said the meeting had become uncertain because of a "schedule problem."
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... a senior BNP leader, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the meeting could not take place because of "protocol mismatch."
An official of the foreign ministry said under the existing protocol, Khaldea Zia, officially three times former prime minister, did not currently hold any official post.
"She is nothing but a politician, as there is no protocol provision for any former prime minister," he said. The OIC secretary general, on the other hand, holds the status of a minister.
When contacted, the BNP chief's adviser Sabihuddin Ahmed, however, said: "I am not aware of any such meeting between the BNP chairperson and OIC secretary general."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:27 ||
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[LATINO.FOXNEWS] Venezuelan authorities on Monday prevented a march by members of the medical sector most closely allied with the opposition, the leaders of which had intended to deliver to the government a list of requests to deal with what they describe as a crisis in the health care system.
Several dozen members of the national police thwarted the intention to head to the office of the vice president by the hundreds of doctors and supporters who had gathered on downtown Venezuela Square.
"We, the doctors, are in the struggle because our health is in crisis. The patients are suffering in view of the fact that we don't have supplies, the hospitals are chaotic, we don't have the means to treat our patients," internist Enrique Ramos told Efe.
"Greater security in the hospitals, so the patient doesn't have a long wait, a long stay in the hospital and ... because we don't have cotton, alcohol, we don't have syringes to work with in many hospitals," Ramos said.
The head of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, Douglas Leon, last November asked for the declaration of a state of emergency in the health care sector along with improvements in salaries and infrastructure.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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spiraling the drain.
where's the Cubanos?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2014 14:28 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Australian police on Monday said they had locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! a man after a drone allegedly carrying drugs was seen "hovering in the vicinity of a prison".
Victoria state police said the unmanned aerial vehicle, which was carrying a small quantity of drugs, was found near the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Melbourne's west on Sunday.
"A man and a woman were located in a car ... with what was believed to be a drone with four engines and a small quantity of drugs," Victoria Police said in a statement.
The 28-year-old man was charged with possessing a drug of dependence and attempting to commit an indictable offence and was bailed to appear in court later this month.
Police refused to give any details on the size of the drone, a technology already deployed by the military but increasingly used in aerial photography and law enforcement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:41 ||
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[NZHERALD.CO.NZ] New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has announced plans for a referendum on whether to change the national flag.
He said in a speech Tuesday that he wants a nationwide vote held within the next three years.
The nation's current flag depicts the Southern Cross star constellation in red and includes Britannia's Union Jack flag in the top left corner. Many complain the flag is too similar to Australia's and doesn't reflect New Zealand's independence from its former colonizer, Britannia.
Some want to keep the flag while others debate the best possible replacement.
Key has said he favors a silver fern set against a black background. Opponents say that would associate the flag too much with sports teams, who often use it, and is too reminiscent of a pirate ensign.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Key has said he favors a silver fern set against a black background.
Sounds strangely familiar. Peter Jackson to the courtesy phone.
[An Nahar] U.S. officials including FBI agents are in Kiev helping a Ukrainian-led investigation into corruption under ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, the U.S. ambassador to Kiev said on Monday.
"We are doing what we can to unpack the enormous kleptocracy which surrounded the Yanukovych government," Geoffrey Pyatt said at a presser in Kiev.
"We have already on the ground here in Ukraine experts from the FBI, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury," the ambassador told news hounds.
Pyatt also said there were "a variety of other international governments" assisting in the Ukrainian investigation "to uncover the financial crimes that were committed by the previous regime and to see what can be done to recuperate some of those assets."
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... last week froze the assets of Yanukovych, ex-premier Mykola Azarov and 16 former ministers, businessmen and security chiefs -- all on grounds of fraud.
Swiss authorities have also ordered a freeze on the assets of both Yanukovych and his multi-millionaire son Oleksandr, as well as 18 other former ministers and officials.
Ukraine ranks 144th out of 177 countries on Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:39 ||
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Not to get pushy or disrupt an ongoing investigation, but has anyone at the Bureau turned up anything yet on the murder of the four US persons that took place in Benghazi a while back ?
[The Peninsula] Russia said yesterday it will unveil its own solution to the Ukrainian crisis that runs counter to US efforts and appears to leave room for Crimea to switch over to Kremlin rule.
The unexpected announcement came as Ukraine's new pro-European leaders raced against the clock to rally Western support in the face of the seizure by Kremlin-backed forces of the strategic Black Sea peninsula and plans to hold a referendum on Sunday to switch its allegiance from Kiev to Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... 's threat to invade Ukraine after last month's ouster of a pro-Kremlin regime by pro-EU leaders has set off the most explosive crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.
US President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... and his European allies are urging Russia to call its Crimean troops back to their barracks and launch immediate negotiations with a Ukrainian leadership that Putin claims rose to power thanks to an "unconstitutional coup".
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Putin yesterday that proposals he had received from US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... on resolving the stand-off "do not suit us very much".
Lavrov said documents he had received from Kerry on Friday were "framed as if there exists a conflict between Russia and Ukraine."
He added that Washington was basing its solution on a recognition of Kiev's new leaders while Russia still considered the ousted Viktor Yanukovich as the legitimate president of Ukraine.
"Our partners proposed moving forward on the basis of a situation born out of a state coup," Lavrov told Putin.
But Lavrov gave no indication about when or where Russia's proposals would be made public. He added that Kerry had delayed a visit to Moscow he planned for yesterday to finalise the details of Washington's crisis plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:15 ||
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I'm not convinced - I'll be surprised iff Moscow = econ-fragile/troubled Russia does formally annex the Crimea, or supports the partition of now-sovereign Ukraine.
It is in both Russia's + the West's interests to be in a strategic military position in the Black Sea should thingys go wrong in nearby Muslim powers, e.g. Turkey falls to hardline Islamists, Obama's new BFF + soon-to-be-Nukulaar Iran once again goes "rogue", + Count Dooku's Hard Boyz somehow find success on the ground agz Putin's Boyz in the Caucasus.
THE CRIMEA IS MORE THAN JUST RUSSIA OR PUTIN.
* OTOH BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Independent.UK] WESTERN LEADERS CAN'T FACE A "LOOMING" WAR, SO I GRANT THEY'LL PROBABLY GIVE SOMETHING UP, + LET RUSSIA GOBBLE PART OF UKRAINE.
In the GITMO Scenario I'm thinking of, Russia will agree to lease its Milbases in Crimea to Ukraine for an indefinite or interminable period, that only Moscow will have sovereignty over Crimea Milbases + physical land under its utility, + that Russia-n-only-Russia will decide when to leave or vacate the Milbases in future time.
Iff I'm wrong, IMO the outcome will only be MORE JIHAD, NOW NUKE-wMD, NOT LESS JIHAD AGZ RUSSIA + EASTERN EUROPE - THE GLOBAL JIHAD OF RADICLA ISLAM WILL GO ON UNABATED OR UNOPPOSED BY THE QUARRELING JUDEO-CHRISTIAN POWERS OF EUROPE.
Sectarian arguing + Geopol rivalry among Europe's Christian powers is how the Crusades in the ME were mainly defeated by Islam - ISLAM HAD THE UNITY + THE PATIENCE, CHRISTIAN EUROPE DID NOT.
#2
It is in both Russia's + the West's interests to be in a strategic military position in the Black Sea should thingys go wrong in nearby Muslim powers, e.g. Turkey falls to hardline Islamists, Obama's new BFF + soon-to-be-Nukulaar Iran once again goes "rogue", + Count Dooku's Hard Boyz somehow find success on the ground agz Putin's Boyz in the Caucasus.
Now if Da West was only sane enough to know where its interest lay.
NATO said Monday it will deploy AWACS reconnaissance aircraft to overfly Poland and Romania as part of alliance efforts to monitor the crisis in Ukraine.
The flights “will enhance the Alliance’s situational awareness,” a NATO official said, adding: “All AWACS reconnaissance flights will take place solely over Alliance territory.”
“This decision is an appropriate and responsible action in line with NATO’s decision to intensify our ongoing assessment of the implications of this crisis for Alliance security,” the official said.
The NATO announcement comes as Washington and Moscow traded barbs over rival proposals to ease the crisis, with each challenging the other to show they were really interested in a peaceful outcome.
The AWACS will fly missions from their home base in Geilenkirchen, Germany, where 17 are housed, and from Waddington in Britain. Flying over Poland and Romania, the AWACS planes, with their distinctive rotating radar dome mounted above the fuselage, should be able to see far into Ukraine airspace.
Diplomatic sources said the AWACS were routinely deployed and on that count, there was nothing unusual in their use in this case. However, it was unusual for their deployment to be announced publicly in this way, they said.
As the Ukraine crisis has deepened with Russian intervention in the Crimea, former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe have become increasingly nervous at President Vladimir PutinÂ’s apparent willingness to up the ante.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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SLAR along the international waters boundaries in the Black Sea, flying out of Romania would be quite handy.
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... 's gambit that Russia could change the course of the Ukraine revolution at gunpoint has failed a crucial test as the country's billionaire oligarchs line up behind Kiev.
Billionaire businessmen have accepted appointments from the pro-Western government in Kiev to act as regional governors in three Russia-leaning areas of the country. The fledgling government has also secured the important endorsement of the country's richest man.
Sergei Taruta, a sharp-suited industrialist who was last week named governor of the Russian-speaking Donbass region, bluntly accuses Mr Putin of sending provocateurs to create chaos on the streets to provide a pretext for Russia intervention.
A slight, bespectacled figure, Mr Taruta has for decades personnified the close links that tie the Ukrainian and Russian economies. He has run one of biggest steel operations in Europe, the Industrial Union of Donbass, in partnership with substantial Russian shareholders.
Like many businessmen pitched into national politics in a crisis, Mr Taruta takes a no-nonsense approach to the task of government. "I think of myself as the anti-crisis manager," he told The Telegraph. People in this region have gone through difficult days as they have watched trouble develop. In politics I am a dilettante, I am not a professional. I will only do it for six months or a year. In that time I want strong people to come into government and then I will leave them to it."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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The Revolution belongs to the people who protested in Kiev. And they can oust this bunch as they did those Russian bandits Vanukovych and Azarov, who were Putin's. This is important because the people involved were considered Russian leaning, and have accepted the appointments with a time limit on them, and have been tasked with attacking the corruption in the regional governments.
Better to have their businessmen in charge than Russian goons behind a rifle.
#4
So, now we have the "Evil Businessmen" bogeyman being waved by commenters here -- Have you become leftist tools? You act as if this is a betrayal, but where does the article state that - or are you posting your own anti-businessman prejudices onto this situation, as suggested by the word "Oligarch" AlanC?
Right now, Russia is looking like Hitler and the Sudeten. Nationalist. Yes. Socialist. Yes. Authoritarian. Yes. Led by a charismatic thug. Yes. Invading another nation despite a treaty with them to respect their border and national integrity? Yes.
But I guess you prefer military invading and then laying mines at the border, to "oligarchs"? Better than those eeeeeeevile businessmen accepting appointments to decriminalize the government /sarcasm. It seems you're gullible to accept anything as long as it fits the leftist propaganda you have uncritically consumed. At least until the pogroms start... Be carful who you idealize, Grom.
1)Despite living in Massachusets I am constitutionally incapable of leaning left.
2)SOME businessmen are evil.
Does the name Soros ring any bells? The foundations of Fascism include the rent-seeking, crony capitalists that have a synergistic relationship with the corrupt and tyrranical in government. The government doesn't have to "own" the means of production to control the means of production.
Greed for money and power are not the monopoly of socialists though it is a defining characteristic of them. The trick is to maintain individual freedom and the rule of law without succumbing to those vices.
Oligarchy - government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes.
Given that from the time of Aristotle power has gone along with money the corruption of government to the benefit of SOME of the rich (aka evil businessmen) has been a fact of life.
My comment was directed more at the oligarchy that is forming in this country than the Ukraine. Only time will tell there as to whether they are oligarchs, aristocrats, technocrats or something else.
[USATODAY] Ukraine may have to arm itself with nuclear weapons if the United States and other world powers refuse to enforce a security pact that obligates them to reverse the Moscow-backed takeover of Crimea, a member of the Ukraine parliament told USA TODAY.
They were nuclear when they disassociated themselves from the Soviet Union. Then they gave up nuclear weapons when the West promised to protect them from the big bad Bear. See how that worked out? That's why countries want nuclear weapons...
The United States, Great Britannia and Russia agreed in a pact "to assure Ukraine's territorial integrity" in return for Ukraine giving up a nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union after declaring independence in 1991, said Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
"We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement," said Rizanenko, a member of the Udar Party headed by Vitali Klitschko, a candidate for president. "Now there's a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake."
His statements come as Russia raised the possibility it may send its troops beyond the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea into the eastern half of Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said lawlessness "now rules in eastern regions of Ukraine as a result of the actions of fighters of the so-called 'right sector' with the full connivance" of Ukraine's authorities.
Rizanenko and others in Ukraine say the pact it made with the United States under President Bill Clinton was supposed to prevent such Russian invasions.
The pact was made after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and became Russia, leaving the newly independent nation of Ukraine as the world's third largest nuclear weapons power.
The communist dictatorship that was the Soviet Union had based nuclear missiles in republics it held captive along its border with Europe, and Ukraine had thousands. World powers urged Ukraine to give up the arsenal but its leaders balked, expressing fear they needed the weapons to deter Russia from trying to reverse Ukraine's independence.
To reassure the Ukrainians, the United States and leaders of the United Kingdom and Russia signed in 1994 the "Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances" in which the signatories promised that none of them would threaten or use force to alter the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Meanwhile, not to be outdone by Nuke-wannabe Ukrainians ...
* JAPAN TIMES > [US-Japan] DEFENSE TALKS WID US LOOKING AT "GREY ZONE" CLASH SCENARIOS.
China.
ARTIC = Japan fears the day is coming [sooner than later?] when its ally the USA will no longer stand up or oppose China or China's interests.
versus
* GROONG > TURKEY MUST CHOOSE - EUROPE OR RUSSIA?
IMO TURKEY = UKRAINE = JAPAN + EAST ASIA vee USA right now.
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA, BHARAT RAKSHAK > CHINA DEFENDS ITS TERRITORY CLAIMS, DEMANDS RESPECT - DAWN.COM.
Or else???
[ARETHA'S "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" here].
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > POSTER THREAD: CHINA NEEDS A LESSON FROM RUSSIA ON DEFENDING OVERSEAS ETHNIC CHINESE.
#3
I'm sure a lot of countries are thinking along the same lines.
The academics and other useful idiots in America for years have pushed for utopian unilateral nuclear disarmament without any understanding of the real world beyond their mantra of 'America's to blame'. They have no real understanding of how the human race has behaved for four thousand years - thus Kerry's 19th Century comment.
#4
So Ukraine is gonna fight a nuclear war against Russia? Riiiiiiight. They think Vlad is gonna sit and watch while they ramp up a nuke program? And who's gonna pay for it? Are they gonna borrow the money from Vlad, the EU or Obama?
#7
* Oh yeah, it is getting better in the Balck Sea Region, or "hotter" actually ... ...
To wit,
* TOPIX > UKRAINE SEEKS NATIONAL GUARD, CALLS UP RESERVES [+ Volunteers].
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Guardian.UK] UKRAINE PARLIAMENT DELIVERS ULTIMATUM TO CRIMEA ON [independence] REFERENDUM, CRIMEAN ASSEMBLY TO CALL OFF INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM OF FACE DISSOLUTION AS US ATTEMPTS AT DIPLOMACY STALL.
Ironically, this action by Kiev does not necessarily go against my "Gitmo/Guantanamo" scenario for the Crimea.
versus
* RUSSIA TODAY > [Ria Novosti] CRIMEA DECLARES INDEPENDENCE FROM UKRAINE AHEAD OF REFERENDUM.
Ditto as per my post above.
* FYI DEFENCE.PK.FORUMS > CHINA [Xi Jinping] REBUFFS OBAMA'S PLAN FOR CRIMEA | THE DAILY CALLER.
* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > UKRAINE: WE WILL NOT INTERVENE IN CRIMEA.
* VOICE OF RUSSIA > CRIMEA TO CHANGE NAME - PM KONSTANTINOV.
The former Autonomous Ukrainian Republic of Crimea plans to change its name to the Republic of Crimea.
versus
* VOICE OF RUSSIA > "IT WILL BEST FOR THE UKRAINE IFF THE US JUST STAYED OUT OF THE ARGUMENT" - FORMER US CONGRESSMAN [Ron Paul].
Sorry, Ron, as much as I like a number of your platforms this is NOT what overseas US Allies JAPAN + PHIL + SOKOR + TAIWAN + VIETNAM + INDIA + MUSLIM ALLIES want to hear.
Iff Putin, etal. criticizes the USA = POTUS Obama, it is the Bammer's job as an alleged anti-US, OWG Marxist-Anarchist-Globalist to accept + let him [them].
PCorrectly-Deniably like a good National-now-Global Politico, of course.
AS A OWG GLOBIE, THE BAMMER'S JOB IS TO SURRENDER LIKE FRANCE TO AMER'S RIVALS WID THE FULL APPLAUSE + SUPPORT OF THE AMERIKAN PEOPLE.
* SAME > UKRAINE MAY BECOME THE WORST RUSSIAN-US SHOWDOWN SINCE THE CUBAN CRISIS - EXPERT.
[The Peninsula] Turkey ordered the release of 19 men convicted of plotting a coup, days after an ex-military chief was freed in a case now entwined in a power struggle between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... and a US-based Mohammedanholy man.
The 19 people, including prominent journalists, lawyers, retired military officers, a convicted gang leader and the killer of a top court judge, were among hundreds convicted in the "Ergenekon" case, which lay at the heart of Erdogan's drive to break the political power of Turkey's military.
Cleric Fethullah Gulen is widely believed to have helped Erdogan by using a network of supporters in the judiciary and police to drive the Ergenekon trial forward. But the two men have since fallen out and the government now suggests the defendants may have been unjustly treated. The latest releases underscore how radically the Erdogan-Gulen feud has altered Turkey's political landscape.
In emotional comments on emerging from almost six years in jail, journalist Tuncay Ozkan said: "Turkey is today in a very dramatic situation, resembling a country on the edge of a cliff. We cannot leave it in the hands of thieves and murderers."
Retired General Ilker Basbug, the former chief of Turkey's armed forces, spoke with similar bitterness about his incarceration when he was released on Friday.
Murat Yetkin, columnist for Hurriyet daily, saw the release as symptomatic of a new political climate stirred by conflict between Erdogan and Gulen. "This new atmosphere seems like it will have further effects on political life as Turkey heads for critical local elections on March 30," he wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:13 ||
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#2
BushÂ’s escorting destroyers and cruisers, ... are presumably nearby.
Presumably? Aircraft carriers are social creatures and never go anywhere without friends and associates. Or is this just the suck-ass reporting we have come to expect from our highly-trained jouralists?
#4
I expect the Bammer + USDOD will keep the CVN outside of the Black Sea - even iff SHTF occurs, IMO any US retaliatory response agz Russian targets in the Crimea will come first from land-based US, NATO TacAir andor USN LR CMS.
The CVN + BG will be allowed into the Black Sea only after Russian-Allied Air + Missle firepower have been eliminated.
[DAWN] Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), said on Monday that the laws regarding second marriage of a man in the presence of first wife were against religious principles.
"Sharia allows men to have more than one wife and we demanded that the government should amend the law," he told news hounds after a CII meeting.
The marriage laws were discussed in reply to letters sent by citizens seeking advice.
The laws require a man to have written approval from his existing wife or wives for another marriage.
"The government should amend the law to make the issue of more than one marriage easy and in accordance with Sharia.
"We urge the government to formulate Sharia-compliant laws related to nikah, divorce, adulthood and 'will'," Maulana Sheerani said.
It was decided that the CII would write a letter to the Supreme Court to seek information about pending cases related to religious issues. Maulana Sheerani, who is a JUI-F MNA, said the issues included implementation of interest-free economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:49 ||
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[The Peninsula] At least 62 children have died in a district of southern Pakistain where thousands are suffering from malnutrition, officials said yesterday, as the country's top judge called the situation a national shame.
The disaster has sparked public outcry and diverted media attention away from the regular glut of Death Eater attacks, with both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... 's heir Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari visiting the afflicted region.
Local authorities last week ordered a probe into the deaths, which occurred in a stretch of the Thar desert, which begins around 300 kilometres from Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and runs up to the border with India.
Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani summoned brass hats to the Supreme Court in Islamabad yesterday and said the country should "hang down our heads with shame" over the conditions that led up to the deaths and the failure of government to prevent them.
Mumtaz Ali Shah, the home secretary for Sindh province where the desert lies earlier told the court: "At least 62 children died, mostly because of unusual cold weather leading to outbreak of pneumonia and poor medical facilities during last three months in Thar."
But the province's advocate general Fateh Malik said the situation was not as bad as had been portrayed by the media, claiming disasters were the norm in the impoverished area.
He said 120,000 bags of food have been distributed so far and a compensation of rupees 200,000 to the families of the dead.
The court directed the officials to file a detailed statement about the situation with a plan of action next Monday.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also arrived yesterday in Mithi, the capital of the Tharparkar district, to personally look into the situation, accompanied by Bhutto-Zardari, whose Pakistain People's Party rules the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2014 00:17 ||
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[Sowetan] The racially segregated roads and housing in Israel was a reminder of the conditions experienced in South Africa during apartheid, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Sunday. Insights and stones lobbed from the Red Arch, but no mention of his own crime and HIV ridden tribal utopia in decline.
#1
By the Jordan, a lively duetto:
The sheep safely graze in a meadow
Where bloodthirsty goats
Can't get at their throats:
Though roomy and rich, it's a ghetto.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[POLITICO] CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has reached an agreement to resign from CBS News ahead of contract, bringing an end to months of hard-fought negotiations, sources familiar with her departure told POLITICO on Monday.
[NZHERALD.CO.NZ] Portland police had to be called in to subdue a 22-pound (10-kilogram) house cat that trapped its owners inside their bedroom after attacking their baby.
[AyPee] U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial, 
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[DAWN] Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), said on Monday that the laws regarding second marriage of a man in the presence of first wife were against religious principles.
Nawaz Sharif
