PRAYER REQUEST FOR LAURA: You know I hate Drama Kings or Queens, but I am asking for your prayers today and for the forseeable future. On Friday afternoon, I learned that I have joined the ever-growing group of American women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. As so many breast cancer patients will tell you, it all came as a total shock. I am blessed to be surrounded by people who love me--my family, a wonderful fiance (if he thinks he's going to get out of marrying me because of this little blib, he's sadly mistaken!), I am sure he will, unless he is a Democrat, which I seriously doubt.
my friends, and my church. I am absolutely blown away by how helpful and kind everyone has been--including total strangers who have experienced the same rollercoaster of emotions. The sisterhood of breast cancer survivors is inspiring. I am truly blessed. On Tuesday I will have an operation and within a few days will know more about the future. I am hopeful for a bright future and a "normal" life (well, scratch the "normal" part). Anyway, people have gone through much worse, and I know I'll obliterate this. I am thanking you in advance for your prayers. You are my family. And remember, I'll be back sooner than you think.
SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE TODAY!: Laura's breast cancer was picked up during a simple breast examination by her OB/GYN. The tumor was not even visible on a mammogram! You MUST make sure that you, and every woman in your life does a monthly breast self-examination. Learn to do it correctly, slowly, carefully. Excellent advice for you ladies out there.
If you feel ANYTHING that seems strange or unusual, go immediately to your OB/GYN. Make sure that you and/or the women you know go for an annual gynecological appointment for a comprehensive check up. Laura is embarrassed to admit she had not been to her doc in more than three years. Dr. White can correct me but I believe your supposed to see the doctor every year after the age of 35.
Really stupid (her words, not ours). Don't be afraid to ask your friend, girlfriend, sister, mother, or wife if she has done everything to detect breast cancer. We all need someone to remind us, get on us, demand that we take care of ourselves.
AKA - Military Interogation Appreciation Day
Suggested gifts: Ladies underwear, jumper cables, one year subscription to NYT, dog leashes, Lyndie England swimsuit calender, CBS commemorative photo album signed by Dan Rather and Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski's leadership guide (never used).
And of course the official party game of Abu Ghraib Day - Naked Twister!
Posted by: Steve ||
04/26/2005 2:40:30 PM ||
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Drudge has Ted Kennedy's statement - RTWT as I can't stomache posting all the bilge from this antiamerican POS:
STATEMENT BY SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON ANNIVERSARY OF ABU GHRAIB SCANDAL
The sad anniversary of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal is now upon us. It's an appropriate time to reflect on how well we've responded as a nation.
The images of cruelty, and perversion are still difficult to look at a year later. An Iraqi prisoner in a dark hood and cape, standing on a cardboard box with electrodes attached to his body. Naked men forced to simulate sex acts on each other. The corpse of a man who had been beaten to death, lying in ice, next to soldiers smiling and giving a "thumbs up" sign. A pool of blood from the wounds of a naked, defenseless prisoner attacked by a military dog.
These images are seared into our collective memory. The reports of widespread abuse by U.S. personnel were initially met with disbelief, then incomprehension. They stand in sharp contrast to the values America has always stood for-our belief in the dignity and worth of all people-our unequivocal stance against torture and abuse -- our commitment to the rule of law. The images horrified us and severely damaged our reputation in the Middle East and around the world.
On December 4, 2003, President Bush had proclaimed to the world that the capture of Saddam Hussein brought "further assurance that the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever." The photos of Abu Ghraib made all too clear that torture continued in occupied Iraq.
Where are we a year later? Has this problem been resolved? Has the moral authority of the U.S. been restored? Have we recovered from what is perhaps the steepest and deepest fall from grace in our history?
Sadly, the answer is no, because at every opportunity, the Administration has tried to minimize the problem and avoid responsibility for it.
The tone was set at the very start. Senior-level military commanders knew about the problems much earlier. They knew about Abu Ghraib photos as early as January 2004. General Taguba submitted his scathing report on February 26th. Yet rather than deal with the problem honestly, Pentagon officials persuaded CBS News to delay its report while they developed a damage-control plan.
The plan included an effort to minimize the abuse as the work of "a few bad apples"-all conveniently lower-rank soldiers-in a desperate effort to emphasize the role of senior military officials in exposing the scandal and insulate the civilian leadership from responsibility.
It was clear from the start that further investigation of the abuses was needed. The American people deserved a thorough review of all detention and interrogation policies used by military and intelligence personnel abroad, and a full accounting of all officials responsible for the policies that allowed the abuses to take place.
What we got instead were nine incomplete and self-serving internal investigations by the Pentagon. None of the assigned investigators were given the authority to challenge the conduct of the civilian command. For example, the Schlesinger Panel's report found that abuses were "widespread" and that there was "both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels," but Secretary Rumsfeld did not authorize the panel to address matters of personal accountability.
The assigned investigators were also denied the cooperation of the C.I.A., which had a central role in the torture scandal. General Fay found that C.I.A. practices led to "a loss of accountability, abuse" and "poisoned the atmosphere at Abu Ghraib." His efforts to fully uncover the agency's role, however, were stymied by their refusal to respond to his requests for information. Indeed, no investigation, Congressional or otherwise, has gotten full cooperation from the C.I.A.
With respect to matters under the Defense Department's control, the answers we've received have been inconsistent and incomplete.
In May 2004, General Sanchez categorically denied to the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had approved the use of sleep deprivation, excessive noise, and intimidation by guard dogs as interrogation techniques in Iraq. A memorandum uncovered last month by the ACLU, however, showed that he had in fact approved the use of these techniques.
Secretary Rumsfeld told the Committee that the military received its first indication of trouble at Abu Ghraib when a low-ranking soldier came forward in January 2004. Only later did we learn from press reports that throughout 2003, the Red Cross had provided the military with detailed reports about torture and other abuses at the prison and elsewhere in Iraq. The State Department and the Coalition Provision Authority also appealed to top military officials to stop the abuse during 2003.
The Church Report, released last month, rejected any connection between the official interrogation policies in Iraq and the abuses that occurred. The Fay Report, by contrast, blamed the abuses at Abu Ghraib on a number of "systemic problems" that included "inadequate interrogation doctrine and training" and "the lack of clear interrogation policy for the Iraq Campaign."
Other parts of the Church Report -- including those on the role of General Counsel William Haynes in adopting the radical legal reasoning of the Justice Department's Bybee Memorandum, over the vigorous objections of experienced JAG officers -- have been wrongly classified. In fact, the Defense Department has repeatedly abused its classification procedures to hide critical information from Congress and the public. Similarly, the Justice Department has gone to extremes to withhold from public scrutiny legal memos it considers too embarrassing to reveal.
Even Congress has been remiss in its responsibilities to oversee this scandal. As Senator Rockefeller, the vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said, "More disturbingly, the Senate Intelligence Committee - the Committee charged with overseeing intelligence programs and the only one with the jurisdiction to investigate all aspects of this issue - is sitting on the sidelines and effectively abdicating its oversight responsibility to media investigative reporters."
A year after Abu Ghraib, new revelations about abuse committed by U.S. personnel are still being reported frequently. The military has confirmed 28 acts of homicide committed against detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002. Only one of these deaths took place at Abu Ghraib.
The Red Cross has documented scores of abuses at U.S. facilities across Iraq and Afghanistan and at the naval base at Guantanamo.
F.B.I. agents have reported "torture techniques" at Guantanamo, including techniques that senior Pentagon officials had specifically denied were being used.
Top officials in the Administration have endorsed interrogation methods that we've condemned in other countries, including binding prisoners in painful "stress" positions, threatening them with dogs, extended sleep deprivation, and simulated drownings.
The Administration has also increased the practice of "rendering" detainees to countries like Syria, Egypt, and Jordan -- countries that the State Department condemned in its most recent human rights reports because of their use of torture. The practice of "rendition" -- described by a former C.I.A. official as "finding someone else to do your dirty work" -- is a clear violation of our treaty obligations under the Convention Against Torture.
We know that many of these harsh techniques are no more effective at obtaining reliable information than traditional law-enforcement techniques. After considerable debate with the FBI, the military acknowledged that its methods were no more successful during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay than the FBI's methods. General Miller, the former commander at Guantanamo, testified that the Army Field Manual provided sufficient tools for intelligence gathering.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 15:27 Comments ||
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#2
Teddy, July 19 is the 37th anniversary of The Midnight Ride at Chappaquidick. You killed more people that night then Lyndie England. You gonna have a statement that day, you despicable fuckin pig?
#3
I am wondering that if we tortured Teddy, he would tell us about that night at Chappaquidick? Since torture never gets "Useful" information then he probably wouldn't tell us anything. Ted has never worn a uniform so he can't stand in judgement of those that do. Yes those FEW guards did some bad things to some prisoners and they are being punished for it. That should be the end of the discussion Senator because you don't have the moral grounding to add anything "Useful." So crawl back in your bottle in the Kennedy compound and watch reruns of the Missiles of October. So far as I am concerned that is when your family peaked and is sliding into the abyss ever since.
#6
I forgot to add about the lack of class it shows on the part of the Dems to bring this up while our troops are still in Iraq. Course that doesn't bother Teddy and his gang, they could care less if they stir up anger against our trops. And they wonder why they NEVER get the military vote. Also when are we going to celebrate My Lai day? What's a matter Teddy too close to the family.
#7
I'm really sorry I posted as much as I did - Even O club drinks haven't helped the upset stomache. If the Kennedy clan disappeared, who the f*ck would Masshole voters vote for? Satan?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 19:32 Comments ||
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Diving Ted sits on the spectrum somewhere between Hanoi Jane and child molesters.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2005 22:02 Comments ||
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I was about to say Kerry, Frank, but then I realized he's a poor relation. I think I'll have happy dreams tonight, thanks to your last post.
Extremely EFL: "I just could not stop looking at her," Andrews, 39, recalled, sitting in the late-day shade of a cafe umbrella he set up in the yard of his mobile home.
"Hrowf! Hrowf! Wotta butt! An' jugs out to here!"
"I just kept thinking: 'I'm going to jump get her. Someday, I'm going to get her and marry her.'" He also knew, even as a mere lad of 14, that this never would be just any romance, because the object of that rapturous gaze happened to be his cousin Eleanor. And not a distant cousin, located somewhere in the far branches of the family tree. Their mothers were sisters.
Genetically, about the same as being half-siblings...
They knew their attraction -- she had felt it, too -- was taboo, and they kept it more or less a secret. That is, until last month, when they decided it was time to marry.
"Whut? Yer pregnant? Well, let's go down to the courthouse real quick, afore yer Paw finds out!"
Turned away from the Blair County Courthouse because Pennsylvania law prohibits first-cousin marriages, Donald W. Andrews Sr. and Eleanor Amrhein, 37, crossed into Maryland to wed.
What, West Virginia was booked?
Before they could think about a honeymoon, the newlyweds became the butt of jokes on the late-night talk shows.
Why should late-nite shows have all the fun?
But their marriage also cast a light on conflicting state laws surrounding the practice, and on such groups as Cousins United to Defeat Discriminating Laws Through Education (C.U.D.D.L.E.) and http://www.cousincouples.com/ , which cite new research to encourage acceptance of such unions.
They forgot http://www.letsjumpmom.com.
"In God's eyes, we're all brothers and sisters. You can't tell your heart who to fall in love with," Amrhein said.
On the other hand, in God's eyes we're not supposed to conserve buck teeth, hemophilia, and various mental deficiencies. We leave that to the inhabitants of Arabia and the NWFP.
Neither revealed their secret to anyone until about seven years ago. They began to date after her marriage ended in divorce and his longtime relationship broke up. Their families recoiled at the news. When the two began living together, her family disowned her for a time. She was no longer welcome at Sunday dinners. They refused to take her telephone calls. Friends dredged up Bible passages to scold them.
"Thou shalt not marry Cletus"
They settled down in their blue-and-white mobile home with three dogs, a cat, two guinea pigs named Beavis and Butt-Head, and an iguana that loves to eat kiwi.
We don't make this shit up
Andrews collects disability payments from the government.
"For my head injury!"
Amrhein works at the courtesy desk at Wal-Mart. "I tell people I married her for the health benefits and the Wal-Mart discount card," Andrews said, only half-joking. She slapped his thigh. "Yeah," she said, eyes rolling.
"Yeee Haaa!"
They kid each other a lot and share many interests, such as camping and fishing and chewing tobacco. They agree to disagree on other things. He smokes Jacks 100's; she prefers Marlboros. He hunts. She loves animals. When she tunes in to shows that have what he calls "that sappy stuff" -- "Friends," say, or "Little House on the Prairie" -- he exits to head to another television. He gushes at the thought of walking into Red Lobster and picking out the plumpest one in the tank. "Eck," she said. And don't ask her about eating groundhog. "It smells like a pork chop frying. Tastes like chicken," he said, helpfully.
Groundhog, the other white meat
Six years ago, he proposed to her at the jewelry case in Wal-Mart after they spied a pair of wedding bands on sale. "I said, 'Are you prepared to go through the Hell we're going to go through?' " he said. Yes, she said, accepting the engagement. But because of a host of concerns, they locked their rings away until last month. After a Pennsylvania court clerk refused to grant a marriage license, the couple challenged the refusal in open court, as allowed by law, and lost. So on March 28 -- Amrhein already has to prompt her newlywed to remember the exact date don't they all?
-- they crossed the state line. In a civil ceremony attended by his mother and a niece and nephew, the cousins held hands before a justice of the peace in Calvert County and exchanged vows.
The happy couple are registered at True Value Hardware and Bob's Beer Barn.
This will be turned into a Lifetime movie starring Meg Ryan and Sean Penn.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/26/2005 8:23:03 AM ||
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A friend went to school in Central Pennsylvania, an area he referred to as Pennsyltucky. The state motto is "You've got a friend in Pennsylvania." To that my friend added " . . . and he's married to his cousin."
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/26/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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It's early days yet, but they seem happy. Give 'em a break. (Just saw the picture. Dang. He looks like my brother-in-law.)
C.U.D.D.L.E.
I researched this site for a post on gay marriage I was writing once, but I don't think I actually wrote about it (too lazy to look). Upshot is, a large number of states allow cousin marriage. Are cousin marriages contracted in states that allow it valid in states that don't (obviously so, in this case)? If so, how can gay marriages be different? You have to think of these things.
Also while doing that research, I turned up an article which I think was in the Guardian, but which now can be found here (very bottom of the page) which asserts:
It is perhaps appropriate to note that the only countries in which first cousin marriages are banned are 30 of the 50 U.S. states, plus PR China and the Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea.
Fascist dictatorships, all. Guess he told us. (Note that he's being asked whether relative marriages in other parts of the world are coerced, as when a 58-year-old man marries his 18-year-old niece. His conclusion: nope, nope, dudn't happen.)
#7
While first cousin marriage may not be illegal in other places they are sure as hell frowned upon. They are popularly believed to result in idiot or deformed children. There is some truth to this if you live in a relatively (genetically) homogenous population eg on an island somewhere, where many people share the same recessive traits. In a heterogenous population like most of the USA its much less of a problem (but it's still a significant statistical risk).
#8
Saudi Intermarriages Have Genetic Costs
rates of some metabolic diseases may be as much as 20 times higher among Saudi Arabia's 14 million people than they are in populations where the gene pool is more widely mixed.
the rate of marriages between first cousins, second cousins and other relatives in the Persian Gulf region, estimated at more than 55 percent in Saudi Arabia
Posted by: ed ||
04/26/2005 10:52 Comments ||
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There has actually been a great deal of research into the problem. I wonder if blind, idiotic hate is an inbred thing? Oh, gaze upon this and despair all you of the house of Saud and Bughti!
#10
We have similar issues with inbreeding in some rural Alaska villages. Lots of medical problems, though with increased travel, the gene pool is expanding.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2005 11:54 Comments ||
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#11
Every time I hear a Blue Grass tune It makes me wish for a cold beer and a first cousin.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/26/2005 12:08 Comments ||
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phil_b: There is some truth to this if you live in a relatively (genetically) homogenous population eg on an island somewhere, where many people share the same recessive traits. In a heterogenous population like most of the USA its much less of a problem (but it's still a significant statistical risk).
My feeling is that the risk is low. Note that their last names are Amrhein and Andrews - implying that their fathers were not of the same national origin. For comparison, in Arab societies, inbreeding has been going on for dozens of generations, with not even a smidgen of foreign blood mixed in.
#17
I seriously dated a gal from Wakulla county who had maternal and fraternal Uncles with the same last name. I didn't really care at the time, but I can see how you Yankee folks might look at it.
#19
Works at Walmart and married to your cousin? Sounds like a normal marriage for that area. Cept that man is on disablity and she shouldn't try to marry up like that. Maybe all the other cousins was spoken fer.
Tom Lehrer, "Oedipus Rex": . . . Yes he loved his mother like no other/His daughter was his sister and his son was his brother. . . .
Steely Dan, "Cousin Dupree": . . . Honey how you've grown/Like a rose/Well we used to play when we were three/How about a kiss for your cousin Dupree. . .
Posted by: Mike ||
04/26/2005 17:18 Comments ||
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It was rejection city PD.... for me. Still I'ma allowed in all the right places.
#25
I feel your pain, Bubba. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to care, bro. Some wild-eyed hardass will dash your feelings on the Rocks o' Snarky Doom! *sniff*
#28
394 - Good! If ya don't ask, you only guarantee nothing happens, heh. I found out, after thinking about it and trying the concept out, that the "untouchables (the really awesome femalians in HS) spent most / a lot of their time sitting at home. If you acted like you were unafraid of rejection and their equals, they'd take an interest - and many said "Yes", heh. I enjoyed some aspects of HS, lol!
#31
I understand that the sometime cousin marriage isn't really all that dangerous, and if the extended family doesn't already have a pervasive tendency toward genetic defects it's only a little more dangerous than marrying a stranger off the street.
But those statistically improbable effects can be quite spectacular, and in cases like this it's human nature for the unscientific exception to prove the rule. After doing it for a few generations, nevermind as long as the Saudis have, you do run into serious trouble.
#32
"Andrews collects disability payments from the government. Amrhein works at the courtesy desk at Wal-Mart."
And they have enough left over for cigarettes for two, seven pets, two televisions, and an occasional lobster. What a country!
Posted by: Tom ||
04/26/2005 20:08 Comments ||
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Bangladeshi customs officials found luxury cars, large-screen television sets and refrigerators in a container declared to be carrying metal scrap -- so they made it just that at a public ceremony on Monday. Hundreds of people watched as officials from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) used bulldozers to crush a Mercedes Benz and a Toyota car and other luxury goods at a railway container terminal in Dhaka. NBR chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury said a trading firm had sought to evade customs duties by falsely declaring that the container carried iron scrap. "They wanted to befool us by saying they brought in scrapped metals...so we are giving them the same. They, or anyone like them, will not forget this," he told reporters at the site.
"Befool me once, shame on you. Befool me twice, kiss your wide screen TV goodbye..."
Posted by: seafarious ||
04/26/2005 12:35:32 AM ||
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Makes me think of that ship that was carrying NorK Scuds for Yemen -- hidden under cement. We should have hauled the Scuds back to NorK waters and launched them into NorK territory.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/26/2005 8:37 Comments ||
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Naw. Just spray the cement mix until it sets.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/26/2005 9:11 Comments ||
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As emotionally satisfying (11 on a scale of 10) as that might have been, I think they would have gotten more revenues if they had doubled the duties on the goods imported.
ADDIS ABABA - At least 72 people have been killed and thousands more made homeless in devastating floods that have submerged more than 30 villages in southeast Ethiopia, an official said Tuesday. People, housing, other property and livestock have been washed away by raging waters from Wabe Shebell river which burst its banks at the weekend after days of heavy rains, the official said. "The death toll right now stands at 72," said Ahmed Abdi Mouhamoud, a World Food Programme (WFP) official in Gondie 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa. "At least 16 villages are surrounded by water and we are unable to figure out the death toll in those areas," he told AFP adding that another 15 villages in Musahin area 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Gondie were also reported to be under water.
The flooding, which began on Saturday, followed days of uninterrupted rain in the highlands to the north of the affected area in Ethiopia's Somali state and hit most villages at night, taking sleeping residents by surprise. Before the flooding the area had been repeatedly hit by drought.
Drought, floods: make up yer damned minds!
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/26/2005 8:44:17 AM ||
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But on the average, rainfall has been normal for the year.
Swimmers who use ponds in north London have won their battle for the "right to take risks" by using them in winter. Hampstead Heath Winter Swimming Club brought a High Court challenge against a ruling by the Corporation of London to ban self-regulated swimming. The corporation felt it would be liable under the Health and Safety Act if there was an accident. The pond is now for the exclusive use of experienced club members during the winter and not open to the public. The judge ruled the corporation's refusal to allow club swimmers to bathe when lifeguards were not present at the pond was based on a misapprehension of the law. 'Individual freedom'
Mr Justice Burnton making his ruling, said the corporation had fallen into legal error and said swimmers should be able to swim at their own risk. He spoke out in favour of "individual freedom" and against "a grey and dull safety regime" being imposed on everyone... "Safety" is the ultimate totalitarian tool. Even Americans are trained from birth to obey *any* definition of "safety", no matter who makes it, or why, to the point of ridiculousness. It is a complex and insidious psychological regime, and represents an effort to "domesticate" people.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
04/26/2005 9:50:04 AM ||
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Even Americans are trained from birth to obey *any* definition of "safety", no matter who makes it, or why, to the point of ridiculousness.
Which is why we adhere so closely to traffic laws.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/26/2005 9:55 Comments ||
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Last time I checked the Brits were the worlds safest drivers, although the Americans weren't that far behind. Both adhere to traffic laws compared to most other places. You can adhere to traffic laws and still take risks in other areas. It's about choosing the risks you take. Governments shouldn't prevent you taking any risk you want to as long as it doesn't increase the risks to others, which would preclude risky driving on public roads.
#3
I just suggest that "safety" needs to be closely watched, just like any other effort to restrict what you can and cannot do. For example, mandatory trigger locks on guns. Many, if not all, drug laws. "Sin" taxes. Much of liability law. Zero tolerance rules for children. Content restrictions on comic books, music, video games, television, even radio. All and far more can be attributed to "safety", based on the assumption that you are either too ignorant, too indifferent, or that it would cost "society" too much if you were to somehow screw up and do something. And don't underestimate the "too indifferent" part, because your "lack of concern" is troubling to many people. You *should* care, because they say it is important. Your lack of caring is wrong.
Well put. "Safety" is becoming what "The Children" were 5-10 years ago. Wrap whatever agenda you have in mind in the fuzzy blanket of "safety" and watch as the MSM pummels your opponent for wanting to turn our highways/swimming pools/schools into flaming infernos because they opposed a plan to hike the sales tax by 14%.
#5
Flaming infernos? Nope, sorry, those will be banned, along with campfires, fireplaces, and candles, unless utilized in the presence of an official from the local Fire Department. It's all in the name of safety.
Experts from Argentina, Belgium, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Panama and Cuba, belonging to the Benito Juarez International Court, Monday will take to trial in this city the US government for over four decades of aggressions, interventions and harassment against Cuba.
According to Mexican Enrique Gonzalez, prosecutor, the court will file 11 charges against the White House, a recalcitrant violator of international law, as well as repudiate the presence of US envoys all over the world.
Since 1959, successive US administrations have maintained a constant, persistent policy of aggression against Cuba, including actions such as genocide, State terrorism and other crimes against humanity, Gonzalez stressed.
On April 4, Gonzalez notified the US embassy here, accusing the government of George W. Bush of violating the universal principle of peaceful coexistence and illegally occupying a part of the islandÂŽs territory.
He also pointed his finger at US violation of the principle of non-intervention, the need to lift the economic siege against Cuba, the more than 3,400 lives claimed due to terrorist actions, whose damages run to over $181 billion, and the nearly 600 bids to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The Benito Juarez International CourtÂŽs authority is the moral influence of its members, so its resolutions only have ethical reach. (Sticks out tongue, makes raspberry sounds while holding thumb of open hand to end of nose.)
More than two policemen are killed each week on average in the state of Rio de Janeiro, violence so common that cops have their blood type stitched into their uniform name tags.
But don't expect their plight to draw much sympathy here. Rio's cops have long been considered under-trained, trigger happy and easy to bribe. Now their reputation has hit a new low after rampaging policemen massacred 30 slum-dwelling bystanders on March 30.
"It's getting so bad that I'm getting questions on whether we should just do away with the police force and start over," said Ignacio Cano, a sociologist at Rio de Janeiro State University who specializes on the police. "It's a unique act when you have the police force committing a terrorist act against the public."
Authorities have arrested 12 current or former police officers so far in connection with the slaughter. They blame rogue police upset over the arrests of eight fellow officers who were caught on video dumping the decapitated bodies of two suspected criminals outside a police station. The video showed them tossing a head over the station gate.
All of this, of course, conflicts with the postcard version of Rio, a place that enchants visitors and residents alike with the misty sweep of the Copacabana Beach, the dominating Christ statue and the gorgeous ruggedness of the Sugarloaf Mountain.
But woven throughout the tropical city are some 600 slums, known as favelas. Even locals fear hiking up the leafy hillsides to the favelas - there's usually only one path in - because of armed teenage drug traffickers.
It all makes for a violent brew.
Cops killed 983 civilians in Rio in 2004, according to Viva Rio, a nonprofit group that tracks police violence against civilians. The Rio Police Association says 133 cops were killed in 2004, most off duty while riding the bus or working a private security job. Another 40 have been killed in the first three months of 2005.
For comparison, 161 officers were killed in Colombia in 2004; Colombia has nearly triple Rio's population of 15 million. In the United States, with nearly 300 million residents, 153 officers were killed, according to the Web site of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Most galling to police is the lack of effort to track down officers' killers.
"It's not like the United States, where the killer of a policeman will be hunted down, perhaps even to death," said Lt. Melquisedec Nascimento, president of the Rio Police Association. "A policeman was killed Friday, and another one on Saturday, and neither was even reported in the newspaper."
At the core of the violence is the battle for favelas, which police enter usually only in huge tactical strikes meant to rout drug traffickers.
"The police invade, occupy and blitz," said Luke Dowdney, a staffer with Viva Rio. "The police attitude is you go in, you do what you need to do and you leave."
That breeds an especially pointed us vs. them situation in which both sides are well armed, quick on the draw and live in the same poor neighborhoods since cops are paid barely above minimum wage.
Most Rio cops hide their profession from their neighbors - by not hanging their uniforms out to dry along with the rest of the clothes, for example.
Cops usually hide their ID cards when traveling on a public bus and never travel in uniform. Street criminals, working in pairs, like to stop the buses and rob the passengers. They typically mow down any police found on board, figuring that if they don't, the cop will kill them.
"They hate us," said a cop named Leonardo, who, like other officers, spoke on condition that only his first name be used out of fear for his safety.
"A lot of my colleagues have been killed," said another cop, Rogerio. "There have been three killed and 21 wounded in my post in the last two years."
"Last year, I went to five funerals," added a third policeman, Carlos.
He crosses himself when he departs home each morning.
"My wife is always worried," he said. "We don't know if we'll come back."
Tania Cristina das Chagas is past worrying. Her son, Jefferson, 25, was ambushed and shot to death last August.
She fainted when she learned he had died.
"When I woke up, I was at home, on drugs, lying in bed. He was my only son, my everything," she said.
Das Chagas relives her son's death every time the television news reports the death of another cop.
"I ask myself: How long are we going to have to suffer like this? How many more will be killed? Why is so little being done to protect them? And why can't they find the killers? They used to fill the streets with police to chase down the killers. But now nothing happens."
#4
like the difference between Mexico's border (hustlers, movers, et al) and the interior (really nice people from my experiences)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 21:34 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The rest of Brasil is much more interesting and peaceful anyway.
Not true at all. I went out with a girl (on an off now) who was from Sao Paulo and have been there several times, which is also extremely violent, but not quite as bad as Rio (and that says a lot). Most of Brazil is very dangerous. The only âsafeâ areas are in the South. Cities like Curitiba (which is probably the nicest city in Brazil), Florianopolis and Porto Alegre have the lowest crime rates, but theyâre still pretty dangerous compared to most American cities.
Just to give you some numbers. Sao Paulo and New York City (where I used to live) are two cities of roughly the same size. New York averages about 600 murders a year; Sao Paulo can have 9000-11000 a year -- thatâs over 25 a day! This is worse than what we see in Iraq and thereâs no war going on in Brazil. And as bad as Sao Paulo is, Rio is worse, if you can imagine that. Then again, 60% of Cariocas live in slums. Another scary statistic: Brazil has something like 2% of the worldâs population, but 11% of the worldâs murders. Yes, itâs probably the most violent country in the world that isnât going through a âcivil warâ.
And actually, Rio is an extremely beautiful city and one of the highlights of the country. Rio is by far the most beautiful Iâve ever been to, and Iâve traveled a lot. Politics aside (Iâm no fan of Lula), Brazil itself is an astonishing country with a shitload of potential to really do something with itself. Brazilians are generally really friendly people, the food is great and the women are the most beautiful in the world. Itâs really sad to see a country with such beauty and potential in such a sorry state. No wonder so many people there actually miss the military dictatorship.
In his annual addresses to the Federal Assembly, President Putin each time highlights key aspects of the country's development that will have the state spotlight turned on them in the future. In previous years, the president has focused on how to make the economy more competitive, increase GDP, reform the welfare system, and regulate the situation in Chechnya. One of the main thrusts of the 2005 Address was the problem of the bureaucracy, Kazinform quotes RIA-Novosti.
"Standing up to the bureaucratic reaction" has been the central theme of the Russian opposition, from Yabloko to the Communists, for several years. In his address to the Federal Assembly, Putin made it clear that he considers the "bureaucratic offensive on civil, economic and public freedoms" to be an extremely serious domestic problem for Russia that needs to be solved, rather than a hackneyed phrase. Here he clearly threw his weight behind those United Russia deputies who proposed last week a party discussion on bureaucracy, civil freedoms and democratic values.
At the same time, Putin left virtually no room for debate. His diagnosis was succinct: "Our officialdom is still to a considerable extent a cloistered and arrogant caste regarding state interests as a sort of business." And the president's attitude to this caste can only be interpreted in one way. "Our plans do not include placing the country in the hands of an ineffective and corrupt bureaucracy," he said.
The president's last words can be seen as a veiled response to many questions about handing over the reins of power in 2008, Putin's possible third term, his successor, amendments to the constitution in this context, and so on and so forth.
Putin's state reforms launched in 2000 inevitably led to bolstering the bureaucracy and, in a wider context, the entire class of administrators: state, party, and corporate. Strictly speaking, they are already wielding power in Russia, and in 2008 this power will be confirmed as a minimum. In any case, it is obvious that a member of this group, no matter from which section, will become the president.
But this creates future risks, a choice between a "breakthrough" and "stagnation" as Putin said in his address. He bolstered the bureaucracy during his first term, because there was no other way to strengthen the state and economy. But he is extremely unhappy with the current quality of the bureaucracy, as, indeed, is most of society. Putin cannot hand over his power to this bureaucracy in 2008.
How can corruption and inefficiency be conquered? This is the main question that the Russian state must answer as soon as possible. Many would, of course, prefer not only not to answer, but even not to ask. But both things will have to be done. One of the means to see this through will be the competitive party system that is being gradually introduced in Russia. As Putin said in his address, the parties that win regional elections must be given the right to propose a candidature for the local governorship to the president. This means that a successful election campaign may enable the victors to form the entire administrative corps in the region, and not in the lobbies, but within the framework of party democracy. That will then come under the close scrutiny of opposition parties, so the victorious party will have to prove to the electorate its transparency, honesty and efficiency. Here it would be very appropriate to assess the authorities' moves from the standpoint of civil freedoms and democratic values.
With time, perhaps, this experience may be extended to the federal level, because this is a good way of forming a party-based government. Naturally, there are flaws: party life, like that of the bureaucracy, is not free of corruption, inefficiency, and scandals. But this is still better than the wild division of power and property, with dirty tricks and heavy-handed raids against rivals, which all but became the norm in the previous era.
Today, the Russian managerial class needs other more civilized and rational selection principles. That perhaps will be the main state reform to be undertaken by Vladimir Putin. The Czars used to recruit Germans to run their bureaucracy. They so tormented Lenin that he ordered the bureaucracy abolished, with predictable results, restoring them a very short time later. Considerable sympathy should be given to Pooty-Poot for this, and all the other, Russian nightmares.
Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said the Russian Black Sea Fleet would remain in Ukraine until 2017.
"If your talk about the Black Sea Fleet, we have agreed to continue the work on details of the basic accords of 1997 with an understanding that the Russian Black Sea Fleet will be based in the Crimea and will continue its activity," Ivanov told reporters after his talks with Ukrainian counterpart Anatoly Gritsenko in Moscow on Tuesday.
He was asked whether the Black Sea Fleet violated any accords with Ukraine.
"As concerns some violations, they can be only when there are clear regulations as to what such violations are," Ivanov said.
He said "many questions have not found any solution at all in the 1997 accords, and we have given orders on finalisation of the accords".
This also concerns inspections of naval facilities and the resumption of live fire practices and missile launches at a testing ground near Feodosia.
"Under the accord, it is Russian, many types of weapons, including those manufactured at enterprises of the Ukrainian industry, are tested there," Ivanov said.
He stressed that Russia did not make a decision to speed up the construction of infrastructure facilities for the Black Sea Fleet on its territory.
"We don't have any decisions on acceleration, we have a programme of building a site of basing of the Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiisk".
"The ten-year programme has already begun to be implemented," Ivanov said.
He added that the presence of the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea fetched "certain material profits to Ukraine: in particular, the budget of Sevastopol is 60 percent formed by the Russian rouble". To lose the Black Sea Fleet would be as bad an ego blow to Russia as to lose Siberia.
Only a few weeks after some Russians speculated a Catholic bishop from Siberia might succeed John Paul II as pope, others are discussing the possibility a U.S. citizen might become the patriarch of a united Orthodox church in Ukraine.
If the speculation about a Russian pope was almost funny, yet hopeful, concerns over an American hierarch ruling over an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church are deadly serious and tinged with more than a little fear about what that would mean for the Moscow Patriarchate and Russia itself.
In a Web interview, Kirill Frolov, who heads the Ukraine Department of the Moscow Institute of Commonwealth of Independent States Countries, said he believes Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's efforts to promote a single Orthodox Church could combine with the desire of the Universal Patriarchate in Istanbul to weaken its Moscow counterpart by placing a Ukrainian-American metropolitan to lead an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Last month, Yushchenko said he hoped to see the emergence of a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine, one that would unite the faithful who are split among several church structures, including one subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and others either autocephalous or subordinate to the Universal Patriarchate.
Five years earlier, at the urging of the Universal Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church elected Metropolitan Constantine, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the United States and a U.S. citizen, as its "spiritual pastor." Such a title has no basis in church doctrine, but it does give Constantine potentially significant influence in Ukraine.
Frolov says the Universal Patriarchate now plans to pursue in Ukraine the same approach adopted in Estonia in the 1990s to undermine the Moscow Patriarchate's influence and to use Constantine as its agent in this effort.
The reasons for choosing Constantine, whose U.S.-based church is subordinate to Istanbul, Frolov continues, include his American citizenship, which may appeal to the leaders of Ukraine's Orange Revolution; his relative lack of opponents in Ukraine where he has not served on the ground; and the relatively small size of the church over which he exercises spiritual leadership. These reasons, Frolov suggests, makes him a more acceptable compromise candidate.
In impassioned language, he says the Universal Patriarchate and, by extension, Constantine are behind the actions of Ukrainian church leaders and the faithful being directed against the Moscow Patriarchate's congregations and church property there. He suggests the new Ukrainian authorities are ignoring the law to support Ukrainian challenges to the Moscow church.
In fact, it is far from clear there is any single coordinated campaign to form a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine or that Constantine is likely to head it if one were created.
The religious situation in Ukraine is complicated and the number of players large so none can say with any certainty when or even if there will be a single Orthodox Church, to which, if any, patriarchate it will be subordinate, and who will be chosen to serve as its head.
Indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears committed to doing what he can to prevent any loss of influence by the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. Last month, he met with Metropolitan Vladimir, who heads that church's hierarchy there, to express the Kremlin's support.
But in his interview as he has before, Frolov suggests the Universal Patriarchate will follow the script it developed when it was involved in the redivision of church property and the redefinition of canonical territories in Estonia. He warned if this script were allowed to play out in Ukraine, there may be attempts to try to apply it to the Russian Federation, too.
If Frolov can see this, others -- in Ukraine and Russia -- will be able to do so as well. At least some of them are likely to speak out and even to act against it to defend what they see as their historical and religious rights.
At least a part of Frolov's tone therefore reflects his concern that too few people in Moscow seem to understand what he believes is taking place in Ukraine -- and his equally obvious sense that more Russians will do so if he suggests an American citizen is about to displace the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.
In Frolov's words, "If in the upper reaches of the Russian state, these evidence things are not understand and adequate measures are not taken, then the Russian Orthodox Church, the last advance fortress of the Russian world will be dismembered, and Russia which will in this case lose its ontological basis will lose its sovereignty as well."
#5
For some reason I read this as 'Russia collapse a 'geopolitical catastrophe' i.e. a reference to what would happen if Russia fell apart. An assessment I would have agreed with. In fact he's refering to the collapse of the Soviet union in 91. Hankering after the old SU is a troubling development.
#6
The old USSR regulated, militarized, and centralized itself unto self-oblivion - they were the ones who first claimed that Communism and Socialism didn't need either trade or co-existence with the West, nor any form of Western libertarianism to prove their self-obvious, self-proclaimed "superiority". Thanx to Nixon, Reagan, Bush's 1 & II, and gasp,even Bill Clinton, they are all but being forced to acknowledge the superiority of America, Rightism and Capitalism - Bill Maher and espec Boxer, Pelosi, and Heinz-Kerry are almost absolutely Date-worthy and quietly mature/respectable these last few weeks. ENJOY THE LULL WHILE YOU CAN, BOYZ, CUZ THE LEFT HAS IRAN AND NORTH KOREA-TAIWAN NEXT UP AGAINST AMERICA THIS YEAR - HOPE TO GOD YOU'VE BEEN BUYING THOSE GUNS AND WAR GEARS!? The Iranians and Norkies will prob wait until Mother Nature's natural elements can offset US SPAWAR, ala Iranian Summer and Norkie Winter - the Dems have already PC prepositioned Dean, Kerry, Gore and POTUS Hillary in case of a WMD attack that they hope will take out Dubya and the bulk of the leadership of the GOP-Right and the US Congress in general. Its still "SGT SCHULTZ" and "BETTY CROCKER" in the meantime - they and the Commie Clintons PC know nothing, see nothing, and did nothing!
#9
Article: Russian President Vladimir Putin told the nation today that the collapse of the Soviet empire "was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" and had fostered separatist movements inside Russia.
I guess WWI and WWII don't count. Stalin's and Mao's famines, which killed tens of millions, don't count, either.
#10
What I find curious is Putin's idea that the Soviet Union could have been held together. Russia can't suppress the rebellion in Chechnya. How would it have dealt with the rebellion of the various republics? In the old Soviet Union, Russians were perhaps 40% of the population.
#12
My take from this is that Putin is a megalomaniac. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was bad for Russian prestige, but it wasn't a disaster for individual Russians. And Russia is still the largest country in the world by a huge margin.
#13
I've always wondered what Russia would look like if it implemented true private property laws in the same way that the American west was settled.
Given the relatively low population and the huge unpopulated area it seems to me that a "Siberian Land Rush" might prove interesting. Especially if immigrants were allowed to participate. What do you think? Would this be the spur to growth that I think it might be?
#15
AlanC - Chinese businessmen are invading by osmosis in the border regions of the Russian Far East by osmosis.
Other than that, there is next to nothing outside of Moscow that is worth settling: the weather is ferocious, with fierce, short, mosquito-ridden summers and extremely cold winters. The infrastructure is sorely lacking and would require 100's of billions to develop. The population is shrinking and racked with communicable diseases, and the environment is heavily damaged from 70 years of heedless soviet mismanagement. Only a poor Chinese peasant or a less-poor Chinese entrepreneur would find ex-Moscow Russia inviting.
Russia's economy is tied entirely to oil and gas and the administration of that oil and gas economy, done mainly in Moscow. The country's industrial base is a shambles; Russia exports nothing but weapons. Beyond Moscow Babylon, the oil and gas reserves, and a few thousand brilliant scientists and mathematicians scattered around the country, there's nothing of significant value to be found in today's Russia. The best outcome for such a nation is for it to become much smaller and therefore much more governable.
#16
I think PUtin is just thinking how great those old Kremlin fellows had it and what a sorry nation he has to deal with now. Comments like this sure make NATO expansion easier to rationalize which I'm not sure is something Putin really wants.
#17
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was bad for Russian prestige, but it wasn't a disaster for individual Russians
When the USSR collapsed, the CPSU as the only marginally competent or effective government authority collapsed as well. Russia's government today does not govern: it doesn't pay pensions fully or on time, doesn't pass laws or enforce existing ones, doesn't protect the borders, doesn't contain or prevent the spread of communicable diseases. For any Russian who depends critically on the government's performance of these and other core duties, life has indeed been disastrous in the post-Soviet period.
Not that it wasn't shitty during the soviet period, but the halt, lame, and the elderly have been utterly crushed during the last ten years. Maybe 25-30% of the population is now living in third-world poverty. Only 5-10% of the population could be said to have anything like a middle-class, ie reasonably secure and comfortable, existence, and 90% of them are in Moscow. Get outside of Moscow and St Pete, and you're back in the filthy, miserable, desperately poor Russia of Herzen's time.
#18
"Maybe 25-30% of the population is now living in third-world poverty" -- and another 60-70% is living in first-world poverty. Putin's Russia is a basket case held together by $55/bbl oil.
#20
The biggest source of human misery today is incompetent, kleptocratic, brutal governments that won't or can't govern.
Amazing that anyone still believes that shitty regimes like Putin's or Chavez's or Mugabe's etc etc etc deserve the dignity and legitimacy accorded by the UN or the "international community."
#21
lex: When the USSR collapsed, the CPSU as the only marginally competent or effective government authority collapsed as well.
I guess my point is that the dissolution of the Soviet empire did not cause the dismal state of Russia today. Both events were precipitated by decades of incompetent government under the banner of communism. The Soviet Union's breakup and Russia's sorry state are merely the symptoms. Note also that the Soviet Union (and its predecessor, Czarist Russia) was an anachronism - a multinational empire where Russians were outnumbered by the other denizens of the empire. In the final analysis, this is why most of the European empires broke up - the Soviet Union was merely the last of the old-line empires. Even today, ethnic Russians are only approximately 60% of the Russian Federation, and are possibly declining in numbers relative to Russia's minorities (notably Muslims, who form 20% of Russia's population). The real question is whether even the Russian Federation will hold together.
#22
The real question is whether even the Russian Federation will hold together
Unlikely. Primorsky Krai and the other far east regions will almost certainly become Chinese satellites within another generation. Today's Russia is a tale of two societies: a prosperous, westernized Moscow metropolis with ~12M western-inclined sophisticates and an impoverished third-world conglomeration of criminalized fiefdoms.
Note also that the Soviet Union (and its predecessor, Czarist Russia) was an anachronism - a multinational empire where Russians were outnumbered by the other denizens of the empire. In the final analysis, this is why most of the European empires broke up
True. Though the defect is IMHO less ethnic than one of a deep structural political failure. Note that the tsarist empire was a political-economic basket case as well. Russia has never been governed well; neither is it clear that it can be governed well. Its East Siberian and West Siberian regions, that is to say, well over half the country, have been bandit fiefdoms for hundreds of years. Read Herzen's autobiography about his internal exile, and you feel as though the man had only yesterday toured Russia's regions.
By contrast, the nations that emerged from the Habsburg Empire's collapse have evolved into reasonably normal countries. Russia's an outlier.
#23
lex: Unlikely. Primorsky Krai and the other far east regions will almost certainly become Chinese satellites within another generation.
Czarist Russia held the empire together by force. Soviet Russia held it together via a combination of ideology (socialist brotherhood) and force. Today's Russia has neither an ideology capable of holding the country together nor the coercive power to keep it together.
#24
Exactly. We can expect that Russian Far East territories lacking oil reserves will be quietly divested to China within our lifetimes.
Which would reduce Russia's population still further, to maybe <100m as early as 2030, putting Russia in the ranks of the third-tier, medium-sized "emerging market" nations. Perhaps then, and only then, will Russians realize that their future prosperity and dignity rests on emulating Finland rather than China.
#25
Russia may well forstall a Chinese takeover of the far east and much of Siberia by leasing the area to another country. The USA and Japan are the obvious leasees. The area is rich in many natural resources and has enormous tourism potential.
#26
Given the number of siberian tiger hunting trips the locals have organized for western and Japanese businessmen, leasing the region isn't that far-fetched. Halt settlement, relocate the locals, turn it into a Russian national park and sell mineral and O&G leases the way BLM does in the western US.
Several opinion polls indicate that Dutch voters plan to reject the EU constitution in the 1 June referendum.
An internet poll released on Monday showed that 60% of respondents opposed the constitution.
The poll, conducted by the Institute for Public and Politics, asked 7,500 people how they were planning to vote.
A poll published on Sunday by the Centre for Political Participation similarly found that only 42% of voters backed the treaty.
Last week a foreign ministry poll showed that 52% would support the constitution, with only 30% opposing it.
The negative polls followed Saturday's mail distribution of non-partisan leaflets aiming to inform the 12 million Dutch voters about the constitution. Apparently ignorance was bliss.
The battered reputation of Belgium's security forces took a new hit yesterday with the revelation that its internal spy service has disarmed almost all its field agents after one drunkenly tried to shoot a colleague in the head....
The agent suspected of firing his gun in the general direction of his colleague's head was said by the media to be an alcoholic with a dependency on anti-depressants.
This kind of thing is why when we lived there we were told not to allow Belgian police/officials into our house outside of normal business hours (9-5, M-F). Incompetence + corruption + cupidity = Belgian officialdom
#7
Speak of the devil, Assedwich's post right after mine points to it - in today's rants, lol! Being a vampire and out of synch with RB's "day" has its drawbacks. But seeing all of the Zatoichi movies still tilts in favor, heh.
ANKARA - Turkish Minister of Justice and Government Spokesman Cemil Cicek has indicated that, after many years of leaving the issue of so-called genocide to historians, it is now high time for Turkey to start disproving all allegations in various countries.
"Nope, didn't happen here, nope, nope"
Cicek remarked that for centuries the Armenians lived in an empire (Ottoman) happily and in a rich atmosphere. ''Armenians began uprising against the Ottoman government with the incitement, encouragement and promises of some countries under the conditions of the First World War and massacred especially Muslim Turks, leading to mutual incidents.''
"Them Euros stirred things up, provoking our happy, smiling Armenians to kill us innocent Muslims! So, we went mutual on them! But it wasn't genocide.."
''April 24 is the end of incidents perpetrated by Armenians and what happened did happen within the context of conditions of war. This aspect is disregarded and Turkey is unjustly blamed for something that it never did.''
"It was war, I tell you, war! ...just not genocide, ok."
Underlining that Turkey suffered from Armenian terrorism especially after 1965, Cicek expressed sadness for Turkish diplomats killed by Armenian terrorists. Cicek noted that Armenians influenced the parliaments of the countries in which they are powerful and succeeded in obtaining parliament decisions in their favor in 15 countries.
"Them dirty Armenians control the world, I tell you! They's still plotting again us, deep dark evil plots"
Noting that Turkey has always considered the incidents of 1915 as an historical topic and that should be made clear by historians, Cicek said, ''if we evaluate the topic from a political perspective, this would take us to a different point. Apparently, parliaments of certain countries can make decisions based on the incidents of the past and can cause a chaotic atmosphere. As Turks, we wished that, instead of turning incidents of the past into a topic of hatred and anger, they should be brought to daylight by the historians with an approach looking at the future. Such a Turkish approach has been undeniably disregarded by the parliaments of certain nations due to domestic political gains and other reasons. That is why, Turkey has given up thinking 'let's look at the future, not the past. Let's not cause younger generations raise with hatred and anger by digging into pains of the past'. We must have a new approach to the subject.''
''Based on our archives and confidence in our history and culture, we can say that no genocide took place. But altogether, we have to disprove the lies of those who claim that a genocide has taken place. We have to do it with the help of all of the government institutions and NGOs across the globe. Turkey must follow a new policy, quite different than its past approach which indicated that the issue of the so-called Armenian genocide is a matter of historians. The old policy that so-called Armenian genocide is a historical matter and not political does not meet Turkey's requirements. We have to pursue a much different policy globally as of this moment,'' indicated Cicek.
"Nothing to see here, move along"
Cicek mentioned that Turkey has opened all of its archives. ''Those who want to closely study the archives are welcome in Turkey. We can form joint commissions comprised of historical experts. We expect the Armenians to also open all of their archives. Turkey is confident about the results of such commissions.''
"The witnesses are all dead.."
Cicek stressed that the issue of so-called Armenian genocide has been thoroughly evaluated in the meeting of the Council of Ministers today (Monday). ''We are looking at the issue of so-called Armenian genocide from legal, political and historical perspectives,'' commented Cicek. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will coordinate all of our activities in disproving Armenian allegations, told Cicek. According to Cicek, many Turkish organizations, individuals, non-governmental organizations work on disproving Armenian allegations. We may establish a coordination center to make possible the best battle against baseless Armenian allegations, said Cicek.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/26/2005 10:09:16 AM ||
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Link ||
[2 views]
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#1
We may establish a coordination center to make possible the best battle against baseless Armenian allegations, said Cicek.
No doubt it will be called the "Genocide Followup and Completion Center".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/26/2005 10:43 Comments ||
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#2
First of all, on the Turks behalf, I would suggest that the Armenians were actively revolting and trying to draw the Czar into a fight with Turkey. However, this leads to the second point, that Turkey used as a common *practice* of administration, what today is incorrectly called "genocide". Whenever any of its vassal peoples would 'cut up rough', the Turks would send in a punitive expedition and slaughter a large number of them. This technique was used to effect for several centuries against many peoples, especially Arabs. The Turks did no wish to wipe them out as a people, just to 'cull the heard', to let them know who was in charge. Now, the Armenians had been engaged in the worst possible thing you could do in a country, that is, working with a foreign power to carve off a piece of it. The rest of America would be terribly pissed off, say, if the Mexicans in California decided to invite the Mexican army to invade and take over Ixtlan. But were we to then take every illegal alien and boot them back to Mexico, it would hardly be proper to call it "ethnic cleansing". But they would call it that, anyway. As a final note, the British Empire did much the same thing as the Ottomans, except in India and Afghanistan. That is, if some group was involved in revolt, sending in a punitive expedition and slaughtering a whole bunch of them, whether they were "combatants", or not. Nothing really special or unique about it, and it wasn't really even noteworthy until after World War I, and the Geneva Conventions decided that it wasn't nice.
#4
the British Empire did much the same thing as the Ottomans, except in India and Afghanistan. That is, if some group was involved in revolt, sending in a punitive expedition and slaughtering a whole bunch of them, whether they were "combatants", Do you have any examples because as I far as I know it never happened, i.e. large scale slaughter of civilians (although some brits working for foreign governments did).
#5
A novel approach to historical revision and rehabilitation by the Turks! If they wait a little longer the remains of the dead might be erased for good and the matter, from the Turkish perspective, closed. They should hire Noam Chomsky as a consultant to help out with the semantics/linguistics of building a new better lie.
#9
phil_b: As a matter of policy, the Brits were usually pretty flexible, resulting in all sorts of conflict resolutions. For example, in Afghanistan, they understood that it would be next to impossible to conquer the entire country, so they ruled Kabul, then established the Kyber Pass as "The Kings Highway", pretty much ignoring the rest of the country. This was in combination with substantial bribes and other inducements. If any Afghan committed murder on the Kyber, his entire village was forfeit. One step off the Kyber though, and it was okay. A very different policy was used for the eradication of the Thughee, which was widely applauded by everyone else in India. It amounted to a "religious genocide", the extermination of an entire religion. The various "Mahdi" revolts were also very unrestricted in the amount of carnage involved, but could only be called "genocide" because the brave Moslems, like today, were more than willing to use their women and children as human shields. The British were far from generous, likewise, because the "insurgents" would also slaughter British women and children if given half a chance. So, all told, what the Turks did, while at the high end of savagery, was more or less a common and accepted practice in Asia. The Russians did far worse even later than the Turks, again to "vassal" peoples, and with far less provocation.
#10
Anonymoose, the Armenian slaughters weren't your garden-variety Turkish punitive butchery. It was an organized attempt to exterminate the Armenians as a minority. The men were systemically murdered, and the women and children force-marched out of the regions being emptied in a manner which made the Bataan Death March look like a school outing. We're not talking "butcher and bolt".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/26/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#11
Hmmmm, Protocols of the Elders of Armenia anyone?
#12
It's a good thing that we Americans don't have any blood on our hands, right Chief?
Posted by: Bill ||
04/26/2005 12:13 Comments ||
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#13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
Mitch H: "It was an organized attempt to exterminate the Armenians as a minority." As a comparitive note, look to the internal exile of the Yaqui indians in Mexico. The Yaquis had tried, almost successfully, to overthrow the government. When this failed, their punishment again was in a way similar to the "industrial" homicide that was later done by the Turks and the Nazis. Many of their men were killed, and the women and children loaded on boxcars to be shipped away to work as slave laborers in the Yucatan. And yet this, too, shouldn't really be called "genocide". This was how revolts were traditionally punished. It differs from the Holocaust because it wasn't wholesale extermination. Despite vast numbers being killed, vast number who could have been killed weren't. But enemies of the state, who were conspiring with its enemies, were brutally transported and kept in concentration camps. Most certainly it was ethnic cleansing, but as was shown in the trial in Istanbul in 1919, it was not a complete, sponsored and comprehensive campaign. Its closest approximation might be the ethnic cleansing of Yugoslavia; with no intention for clarity in their violence, in fact, efforts to obscure to themselves what they were doing, and who was doing it. Compare that to the straightforwardness of the Wannsee Conference, with its clarity and purpose. Their intent to kill each and every one of the hated minority.
#14
Guess the Kurds were too much to handle so they picked on the Armenians first. Now the spotlight is on and they can't deal with the Kurds the same way.
#16
You can say it, asshole, but that don't make it so. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/26/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#17
It differs from the Holocaust because it wasn't wholesale extermination.
And yet Adolph thought it an apt enough example to cite it himself.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/26/2005 14:47 Comments ||
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#18
It differs from the Holocaust because it wasn't wholesale extermination.
And yet Adolph thought it an apt enough example to cite it himself.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/26/2005 14:47 Comments ||
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#19
It differs from the Holocaust because the hapless Turks were not nearly as determined and organized as the Nazis were about mass murder. The intent was pretty much the same though - mass murder.
#21
We can all be thankful we're discussing this in the relative privacy of an online forum.
Not so many years ago, at the public college I attended, a certain history professor dared state in lecture that the Armenians were not entirely blameless for the severity of the conflict with the Turks.
His house was firebombed that night.
And no, I'm not an Armenian basketball player.
Current feeling for the Turks notwithstanding, Anonymoose does have a very valid point. Calling what happened to the Armenians "genocide" is a use of political nomenclature, especially when not equally applied to similar excesses by the Czars, the Bolsheviks, the Aryan-Indians, and so forth.
The European Commission said Tuesday it was studying a French request to speed up procedures that could allow the European Union to impose import quotas on Chinese textile products. EU trade ministers on Monday endorsed a full investigation into allegations that cheap textiles and clothing from China were flooding the EU market.
Exporting French arms and nuclear technology to China = Good. Importing Chinese clothing into France = Bad.
However they disagreed on quick action to block the imports, with France taking a lead in seeking "emergency measures." The written request from France calls for the EU to speed up the investigation process and start formal consultations with China on the issue. "We'll examine how we might be able to speed things up," said Claude Veron-Reville, trade spokeswoman at the EU's head office. "We'll endeavor to accelerate the inquiry period as much as possible."
"Right after lunch"
The 25 EU nations are divided down the middle over whether to re-impose textile quotas lifted at the start of the year under a World Trade Organization agreement. Textile producers such as France, Italy and Portugal say safeguard measures are needed to protect the local industry from surging Chinese imports. Britain, Sweden and others are concerned new restrictions on imports will hit clothing retailers hard. The French request is for the EU to scrap an initial two-month phase of its investigation which involves informal consultations with the Chinese. It wants EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to quickly start formal talks with the Chinese. Under WTO rules, these can take up to 90 days. But if Europe deems China is not helping to solve the issue and risks causing irreparable damage to the European industry, it can hoist emergency trade barriers within 15 days. Such a move would need backing for EU nations under the bloc's complex voting system, which gives countries a weighted vote depending on the size of their populations.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/26/2005 9:43:00 AM ||
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Such a move would need backing for EU nations under the bloc's complex voting system, which gives countries a weighted vote depending on the size of their populations.
Barbara, please pass le popcorn.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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#2
Please put me down in favor of New Breezy Snappy.
Matter of fact FredMan is there like a franchise for Snappy? We could work together and make a solvent or too.
#1
The second 'question' was just as good. An excerpt:
The old maxim applies, "Beat your children every day. If you do not know what they did wrong, they do." Your critics complain that you acted in the absence of precise intelligence. Just the opposite is true. In the absence of precise intelligence, the optimal course of action is to overthrow a suspect government. Any government will do. Syria or Iran might have done as well as Iraq. As long as the governments of the Muslim world believe that you will tear them limb from limb if they support terrorism, they will behave.
#2
Middle Eastern governments are not quite governments in the Western sense. They resemble hotels that rent rooms to paying customers of varying persuasions. One has to hold the hotel manager accountable for what goes in inside the rooms
Exactly. The sources of most problems in the world today are brutal, incompetent, kleptocratic governments.
Reacting to a Democratic offer in the fight over filibusters, Republican leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he isn't interested in any deal that fails to ensure that the Senate votes on confirmation for all of President Bush's judicial nominees. GOOD FOR HIM!
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid had been quietly talking with Frist about confirming at least two of Bush's blocked nominees from Michigan in exchange for withdrawing a third nominee. This would have been part of a compromise that would have the GOP back away from a showdown over changing Senate rules to prevent Democrats from using the filibuster to block Bush's nominees. I bet he didn't let on to the other Democraps that he was making a deal.
If this is a repeat then I apologize, but when the Dems talk about 'compromise' then you can bet they are in a position of weakness. I am beginning to think they punched themselves out over John Bolton and don't have any dirty tricks left to oppose the judicial nominees. If these judges were so controversial last session then what makes them acceptable now? I wouldn't put any money on those polls that the MSM are throwing out about the lack of support in this area for the CONTITUTIONAL option. If the polls were that bad then you can bet the Dems would be standing defiant as ever and the MSM would be applauding them. Kudos to Frist for telling them to pound sand over this.
#1
We are talking about the direction that the republic and its people will take in the next 20 to 40 years. Will we become a secular, morally relativistic society, like Europe, or will we go back to our roots of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? The people elected a majority of Republicans because they expect something more than the dems offered last election. The Republicans need to follow through on this fundamental issue, or get their asses kicked from here to Sunday. Good work Sen. Frist, get the other Republicans aboard on this. Kick their asses if you must.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2005 17:12 Comments ||
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"Kudos to Frist for telling them to pound sand over this."
Yes, this is good news-- if he really means what he says. When he tells the Dems to pound sand on John Bolton, the judges, AND everything else, I'll be a lot happier.
There's no point in trying to get along with the Democrats: they've declared Republicans are "evil" and are the "real enemy", and they mean it. Act accordingly, and that means NO DEALS.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/26/2005 17:30 Comments ||
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#6
Rush was all over this today, and along with W asking Delay to accompany him on tour for SSA reforms (and to fly around on AF-1, returning to Wash DC), along with W's renewed vigor for Bolton hints the Dragon's awake, Dems
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 17:43 Comments ||
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#7
It's time for Frist to LEAD. The Repubs have to stand up, or they simply do not deserve to hold the majority. And if they cave, they won't after 2006. The Democraps cannot be reasoned with - they must be defeated.
#8
Ed's point is taken. Dragging this out has damaged the Reps. Schedule the votes now and often
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 17:46 Comments ||
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#9
Every time the dems cannot win on a vote, or a Republican nominee is presented and looks like they will be accepted, the dems cry foul and whine. After all, that is all they have is whining and MSM bootlickers. The Republicans have been given a mandate. The country is theirs to lose. Then what do we have? Two party loser system. We have too many enemies and issues to deal with to mud wrestle in the sewage lagoon.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2005 18:52 Comments ||
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#10
Let's hope he doesn't cave next week.
I just got a call from the GOP Senatorial comittee wanting $$. I told them not one dime until I see some judges confirmed and this "compromise" about no private accounts, but raising taxes the cap are is the table, dies a deserved death.
WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-3 Tuesday in a Pennsylvania case a conviction in a foreign court does not bar the possession of a gun in the United States. The U.S. Criminal Code makes it unlawful for someone to possess a firearm who earlier "has been convicted in any court" of a crime punishable by more than a year.
In 1994 Gary Small was convicted in Japan court of trying to smuggle several pistols, a rifle and ammunition. He served five years in prison. Small returned to the United States and bought a gun from a Pennsylvania dealer. He was charged him under the "unlawful gun possession" statute and Small pleaded guilty on the condition he be allowed to argue on appeal the statute did not cover convictions in foreign courts.
The lower courts ruled against him. But a Supreme Court majority reversed.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist did not take part in the case.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/26/2005 3:36:37 PM ||
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AN Indonesian soft rock band has been reported to the police for blasphemy after unintentionally upsetting a fiery Muslim vigilante group with its latest album of plodding love ballads.
The Front for the Defenders of Islam, which normally rails against Jakarta's seedy nightlife, said today it was outraged by a logo used by veteran act Dewa on the front of their latest release, Laskar Cinta, or Soldier of Love.
"We reported Dewa to the Jakarta Police for contempt of religion yesterday," Ari Yusuf Amir, a lawyer for the hardline organisation said.
Amir said that the flower-like logo was too similar to a calligraphic portrayal of the word "Allah" that is a regular feature of Islamic imagery.
He said that after listening to the album and watching Dewa live the Defenders decided that there was insufficient religious content to justify using the logo.
The group was particularly outraged when band members trampled on the design during a gig in which it was emblazoned on the stage.
"The use of the logo has not only nothing to do with the songs in the album itself but we also have proof that members of the band actually stepped on the holy name of God during their concert earlier this month," said Amir.
"We have already complained to Dewa, but there had been no reaction and therefore we are taking this complaint to the police," the lawyer said.
If the police uphold the complaint, the band's members could face up to five year in jail.
The defenders rose to prominence in Indonesia several years ago after their members conducted night raids on nightclubs and other "dens of sins" in Jakarta.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/26/2005 3:49:03 AM ||
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If you play their album backwards, it says "JI is the Walrus".
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
04/26/2005 4:15 Comments ||
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Does "sod off Swampy!" Translate? How about some rocker style shit pounding of a few "viliganites"? I bet that needs no translation.
NASA has awarded Rice University's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory a four-year, $11 million contract to produce a prototype power cable made entirely of carbon nanotubes.
The project aims to pioneer methods of producing pure nanotube power cables, known as quantum wires, which may conduct electricity up to 10 times better than copper and weigh about one-sixth as much. Such technologies may advance NASA's plans to return humans to the moon and eventually travel to Mars and beyond...
...The 'Terminator' star, who is already being sued by a British TV presenter over an alleged sex attack, has now landed himself in more trouble after telling DJ Howard Stern that he had developed a cure for Pre-menstrual syndrome.
He said: "If we get rid of the moon, women, whose menstrual cycles are governed by the moon, will not get PMS. They will stop bitching and whining." And right in the heart of the censorial, up tight, fanatical PC homeland.
A Russian rocket blasted off from a floating Pacific Ocean platform Tuesday, carrying a DirecTV satellite into orbit, Sea Launch Co. said.
A Zenit-3SL rocket carrying the Spaceway F1 communications satellite, manufactured by Boeing Co., blasted into space at 11:31 a.m. Moscow time (3:31 a.m. EDT). The satellite entered its designated orbit 30 minutes later, the company said.
Sea Launch said the satellite weighed 13,376 pounds, making it the heaviest commercial satellite it had launched.
Sea Launch is a multinational venture owned by Boeing Co., RSC-Energia of Russia, Anglo-Norwegian Kvaerner Group of Norway and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Ukraine.
DirecTV is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. This is the wave of the future in commercial space tech. Floating platforms close to the equator make launches much easier. Less-polluting fuels get them up there cleaner. And a high volume makes them much more cost-effective.
#1
The Zenit uses liquid oxygen and kerosene, for the most part. I don't remember what it uses on its third stage...
While it's not as environmentalist-friendly(*) as hydrogen, it's a lot better than most solid rocket fuels and the storable propellants still used on Titan and Proton. And it's a fairly good choice for a fuel for a reusable vehicle, since tanks, engines, and pumps can all be lighter and more compact, and there are less gravity losses total.
(*) Many environmentalists seem to be ignorant of the fact that most industrially produced liquid hydrogen is made from natural gas these days.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/26/2005 18:25 Comments ||
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Sierra Club members on Monday rejected a change in the group's immigration policy that would have advocated reducing migration to the United States as a way to lessen the environmental consequences of population growth.
Of the 122,308 members who voted, nearly 84 percent voted to defeat the proposal, the club said in a statement. About 16 percent of the club's more than 750,000 members cast ballots during voting that began in early March...
Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization, a network of club activists seeking to limit immigration, backed five of their own candidates and pushed a "yes" vote. None of the group's candidates won board seats...
#3
same ideological purity driving Kyoto over realistic goals
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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The problem is illegal immigration and the absence of effective border control, not immigration per se. We need and should increase legal immigration by those with valuable skills.
Otherwise, given the native-born population's increasing reluctance to bear and raise children, we're on a slower version of the same down escalator that Europe's on.
#5
granted lex, but the same moonbats who've taken over the Sierra Club (which once pursued needed reforms) are open-border moonbats. Try and raise controlled-burn or logging of diseased trees with them and you'll see....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 16:59 Comments ||
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Given the current situation, the national breakdown of immigrants into this country must be pretty uneven. I wish I knew what it was... probably something like 10% from Europe, 20% from Asia, 20% from various Latin American countries, and 50% documented or not from Mexico.
_As currently enforced (or more to the point, not enforced)_, Mexican immigrants seem to have special priveliges compared to others.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/26/2005 18:40 Comments ||
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OTM is a phrase Border Parols use = Other Than Mexicans. Mexicans are so overwhelmingly a number of the illegal flood that all other nations have a single category. The pretense is that OTM's can be identified and caught before they do their "mischief" killing Amricans. Swarthy little fellows tend to learn the language and fit in, though..... What a fuckup.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 18:45 Comments ||
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#8
I was on a bus stopped by the INS. All the Hispanics just whipped their out, knowing the drill. A German national was very disappointed that he didn't want to look at his ID, then thrilled when he finally gave it a cursory glance. Finally, he asked a Vietnamese family, in Spanish, for their identity papers. When they looked at him, puzzled, he asked them louder, in Spanish. Finally somebody leaned over and said, "He wants to look at your IDs", in English, to which they replied, "Oh, okay. We were wondering what he wanted."
#9
More Asians, fewer illiterate latinos. We should triple or quadruple immigration quotas for anyone from any non-muslim majority country who has a hard sciences PhD.
#10
Yep, Lex, thats the flip side of controlling illegal immigration, you can crank up legal immigration and get skilled educated workers which is what Australia is doing at the moment.
Follow the link to a hilarious picture - don't know how to make it appear here. (The link in turn has a link to a story - didn't read it, I was laughing too hard.) Via Cracker Barrel Philosopher.
Picture caption:
"Diana Ponce talks on a phone in the yard of her San Pablo home Wednesday, the fifth day of a hunger strike to protest the gathering of armed volunteers, the Minuteman Project, at the Arizona-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants from entering the United States."
Only 5 days, Diana? Keep it up for a couple of months and you might actually accomplish something. But it wouldn't have anything to do with the Minutemen. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/26/2005 2:28:20 PM ||
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LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! I don't think this Sumo Sue is hurting very bad.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/26/2005 14:40 Comments ||
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This could take a while. In the meantime, Diana, ponder the First Law of Hunger Strikes: in order for it to succeed, someone has to care whether you live or die.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 15:43 Comments ||
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#11
Has she been eating the illegal immigrants?
Posted by: Tom ||
04/26/2005 15:46 Comments ||
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#12
For some reason I am reminded of this homeless kid who thought a "tent city" set up by college kids on a nearby campus would be a good place to spare change. They wouldn't give him any money because it was "bad" for him, but they wanted him to stay because he looked so "authentic". So they were full of hugs in the most clingy and patronizing way possible. But he didn't mind, because, as he said later, "I hope the *$*%##**%'s soon appreciate the fact that I've got crabs!"
YARD?! What yards have couches, end tables, and TVs?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/26/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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#14
when you can't get in the doorway - ya make the best of it
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 16:39 Comments ||
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I've got to do it, I know that it is insennnnnsitive, but her **ahem** picture promped me to remember a song by the late Louis Prima, sung to the tune of Figaro, to wit: Intro
I've got a woman as big as a house, yes sir!
She's as big as a two family house
with a porch and a fence!
You won't believe what you see when you look at her,
She's gigantic, fantastic, titanic, enormous, immense.
Why try to deny it she's just what I like.
If she goes on a diet, I go on strike!
chorus:
The bigger the figure, the better I like her.
The better I like her, the better I feed her.
The better I feed her, the bigger the figure.
The bigger the figure, the more I can love.
She's exactly like a water melon,
big and round and sweet.
And in a party dress, she may be quite a mess,
But I love her a lot, so what if she's not so neat?
[Chorus]
If she ever eats me outa money and we need the rent
But that'll be a cinch, 'cause when we're in a pinch
I can put her to work under a circus tent!
[Chorus x2]
[/insensitive satire]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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Whole Lotta Rosie Diana
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2005 16:57 Comments ||
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Heh, AP. Much higher-brow than what came to my mind: The Last Boy Scout, scene outside the club where Halley Barry dances, alleyway, fight with big guy who gets the drop on him, Willis tells him about how useful flour is with Big Mamas... kills him with laughter.
#18
look for the wet spot? Jeez, I've heard that a thousand times!
Posted by: Elizabeth Taylor ||
04/26/2005 17:01 Comments ||
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#19
Two thoughts:
1. This could be a loooong hunger strike.
2. "After the death of her husband last year, Suha Arafat's fortunes took a turn for the worse. Now living in a tent near a homeless shelter in Ramallah, . . ."
Posted by: Mike ||
04/26/2005 17:06 Comments ||
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#20
If this is a hunger strike, what's in the cooler with the bucket of hog slop on top?
Could that be lubricant gel and hand sanitizers on the oh-so-cutsie cinderblock bedside table? Funny that you'd mention Arafat, Mike. :)
Faure Gnassingbe, candidate of Togo's ruling RPT party and son of the former leader, has provisionally won Sunday's presidential election, officials say. Opposition supporters immediately poured onto the streets of the capital, Lome, erecting burning barricades. They say the poll was rigged. Many residents stayed indoors as thick black smoke wafted across the city.
The army tried to install Mr Faure after his father died but pressure led him to step down and call an election. Security forces patrolled the streets in a truck, armed with assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, reports the Reuters news agency.
It's a small country, the other truck had a flat.
Mr Faure received 60% of the votes, while main opposition candidate Emmanuel Bob-Akitani got 38% of votes cast, said electoral commission chairwoman Kissem Tchangai Walla. "In view of these results... the candidate of the RPT has been provisionally elected," she said. However, she said the results did not include Florida areas where ballot boxes had been destroyed. These issues would be decided by the constitutional court which would announce the final results, she said.
Not that there is any doubt
Mr Akitani's Union of Forces for Change (UFC) has rejected the results. "We call on the people to resist," said UFC secretary-general Jean-Pierre Fabre. "This regime must understand that we will never accept Mr Faure Gnassingbe as president of the republic because neither his father, nor him, could win a normal election in Togo," he told Reuters.
Earlier, UFC leader Gilchrist Olympio, who was barred from standing, said his party would not serve as a minority partner in any unity government. He said there had been "massive fraud" in the poll. Mr Olympio was ineligible to stand in the poll because he lives in exile following a 1992 assassination attempt.
Regional powerhouse Nigeria had said that Mr Olympio and Mr Faure had agreed to share power in a bid to calm tensions.
Did Nigeria clear this with the UN?
But Mr Olympio denied this, saying he had to consult with his party officials first.
During the campaign, Mr Faure, 39 was portrayed as the candidate for a new Togo even though his father had run the country for 38 years - in contrast to Mr Akitani, 75. His support base is in the north, while the opposition is strongest in the south, including the capital, Lome. Last week, the interior minister called for the polls to be postponed for fear that civil war might break out. He was sacked and sought sanctuary in the German embassy. Seven people were reportedly killed in pre-election violence. Mr Faure's father, Gnassingbe Eyadema died in February after ruling Togo for 38 years. He had seized power in a coup from Mr Olympio's father, Sylvanus, in 1963.
Another place where everyone is related and swaps coups once a generation.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/26/2005 8:48:56 AM ||
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NEW DELHI - India is waiting for a reply from U. S. F-16 maker Lockheed-Martin, one of the four major fighter aircraft manufacturers it has approached to buy 126 multi-role combat aircraft costing billions of dollars, India's air force chief said on Tuesday. "We sent out a request for information to Lockheed-Martin. We are awaiting information from them," Air Chief Marshal S. P. Tyagi, the Indian air force chief, told reporters.
The air force has asked Lockheed-Martin for details on the potential cost and delivery schedule of the aircraft - information it has already received from the other manufacturers, an air force officer said on condition of anonymity. India is also looking into the Swedish Gripen, the French Mirage and the Russian MiGs.
In the meantime, the Bush administration informed India that it had authorized Lockheed-Martin to compete for the IAF orders, Tyagi said. U.S. aircraft manufacturers such as Lockheed-Martin have required government approval to pursue such orders since America lifted an embargo on arms sales imposed after New Delhi conducted nuclear tests in 1998.
India has been a key customer for Russian weapons since Soviet times, but after a Cold War estrangement it is now seeking weapons from the United States as well. The Indian Air Force has been plagued by frequent crashes, particularly among its aging Soviet-made MiGs. It also has British Jaguars and Mirage fighters in its fleet. At least 50 pilots have died in more than 100 MiG crashes in the past six years. The government says human error caused most of the crashes, although technical problems have also been blamed.
Last year, India placed an order for 66 Hawk jet trainers from British BAE Systems.
India doesn't have an advanced trainer aircraft to match its combat planes. Indian pilots learn on slow-moving trainers, then move directly to faster and more complicated jets such as MiGs and Mirages.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/26/2005 8:39:16 AM ||
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Hell ya! Sell 'em the F-16s and keep them able to make China nervous about it's western border and the Islamists behaving for fear of getting stomped.
via jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch
A Jordanian man shot dead his divorced sister after seeing her photo on his friend's camera-equipped mobile phone in the latest "honour" killing in the kingdom, hospital officials said on Monday. The unidentified man shot the 31-year-old mother twice in the head Sunday night and then turned himself in to police saying he committed the murder to "cleanse his family's honour."
The incident is the fifth example of a so-called honour killing in Jordan this year. Those found guilty usually face sentences of a maximum of one year in jail under Jordanian law. (!!!) Last month, a man stabbed his sister to death after finding out she had agreed an unofficial marriage with a man who subsequently disappeared. At least 19 women lost their lives in honour killings in Jordan last year, according to the local press.
Posted by: ed ||
04/26/2005 8:07:26 AM ||
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Maybe Jordan can cleanse its national honor by swiftly executing the guy.
International health specialists battling an outbreak of Marburg virus in Angola suspect unorthodox medical practices by local traditional healers may be contributing to the spread of the deadly disease. The experts suggest that the healers, who lack medical training and supplies but substitute for doctors in many rural African communities, are administering injections in homes or in makeshift clinics with reused needles or syringes.
This is a captial way to spread HIV and hepatitis B, of course. Some reports suggest that the re-use of needles, scalpel blades and syringes is the #2 spreader of HIV in Africa. Uganda saw its HIV infection rate decrease, in part, because of aid that provided enough one-time use medical supplies that re-use was no longer needed.
In the northern Angolan province of Uige, where 233 people have died of the Marburg virus, epidemiologists say they must convince people that such practices can mean death.
Dr. Pierre Formenty, an expert in hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg and a member of the World Health Organization's team in Uige, said Saturday that unsafe injections could explain why an average of three people per day continued to die of the Marburg virus a full month after the outbreak was identified and international teams arrived in Angola to battle it.
Although it is not clear what solutions the healers are injecting, specialists said, the virus can easily be transmitted from an infected to an uninfected person through a contaminated needle or syringe. "I would say it is bit bizarre that we still have these high numbers per week," Formenty said in a telephone interview.
He said medical workers had developed a campaign against injections at home "asking people to use other kinds of medicines or to come to hospital or the health center to have a safe injection with new devices." Another health care worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that unnecessary shots are common in the province, saying, "There is a notion in Africa that if you haven't been given an injection, you haven't been treated." There is more than a whiff of political correctness and UN inaction about this. An expert in Marburg transmission would have known something that I found out in 10 minutes using google, namely that injections with tainted needles was an important source of infection in the previous largest outbreak. Yet for the last month WHO has been saying it's being spread by close contact with an infected person. They could have tracked down these 'healers' a month ago and saved scores of lives. And this may yet run out of control and we will have the WHO to thank for however many it kills.
Posted by: phil_b ||
04/26/2005 12:51:49 AM ||
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The international experts who have rushed to Angola have been so busy trying to contain the epidemic that they have had no time to trace its origins. Ultimately, though, finding the source of the disease may help health authorities to prevent future outbreaks.
"We can do that once the situation here is better under control," said Dr. Thomas Grein of the World Health Organization.
This really insensed me. To ##%%% busy holding press conferences saying what a great job they are doing. Even I know that finding the source of infection is job1 when dealing with an infectious disease of unknown origin.
Opposition supporters battled security forces in Togo's capital on Monday and the country's two main political rivals agreed on a government of national unity to avert fresh violence over a disputed presidential poll. Ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe and main opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio agreed at talks in Nigeria all sides would have a stake in a new government, whoever won Sunday's vote to choose Togo's first new leader in nearly four decades.
Polling day clashes killed at least one person and on Monday Togo's tense capital Lome rang with sporadic bursts of gunfire and the pop of tear gas canisters. "If they declare Faure (Gnassingbe) the winner, this place is going to go up in flames. This is only the beginning," said Sassou Achou, a 28-year-old opposition supporter, before the presidential poll result expected possibly on Tuesday. In Lome's Adakpame suburb, small groups of youths with sticks, rocks and machetes burned tires and security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades as they tried to advance to douse the flames.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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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.
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.
"I just could not stop looking at her," Andrews, 39, recalled, sitting in the late-day shade of a cafe umbrella he set up in the yard of his mobile home. 
Bangladeshi customs officials found luxury cars, large-screen television sets and refrigerators in a container declared to be carrying metal scrap -- so they made it just that at a public ceremony on Monday. Hundreds of people watched as officials from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) used bulldozers to crush a Mercedes Benz and a Toyota car and other luxury goods at a railway container terminal in Dhaka. NBR chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury said a trading firm had sought to evade customs duties by falsely declaring that the container carried iron scrap. "They wanted to befool us by saying they brought in scrapped metals...so we are giving them the same. They, or anyone like them, will not forget this," he told reporters at the site. 
ADDIS ABABA - At least 72 people have been killed and thousands more made homeless in devastating floods that have submerged more than 30 villages in southeast Ethiopia, an official said Tuesday. People, housing, other property and livestock have been washed away by raging waters from Wabe Shebell river which burst its banks at the weekend after days of heavy rains, the official said. "The death toll right now stands at 72," said Ahmed Abdi Mouhamoud, a World Food Programme (WFP) official in Gondie 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa. "At least 16 villages are surrounded by water and we are unable to figure out the death toll in those areas," he told AFP adding that another 15 villages in Musahin area 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Gondie were also reported to be under water.
The European Commission said Tuesday it was studying a French request to speed up procedures that could allow the European Union to impose import quotas on Chinese textile products. EU trade ministers on Monday endorsed a full investigation into allegations that cheap textiles and clothing from China were flooding the EU market. 
Many residents stayed indoors as thick black smoke wafted across the city. 
International health specialists battling an outbreak of Marburg virus in Angola suspect unorthodox medical practices by local traditional healers may be contributing to the spread of the deadly disease. The experts suggest that the healers, who lack medical training and supplies but substitute for doctors in many rural African communities, are administering injections in homes or in makeshift clinics with reused needles or syringes. 
Opposition supporters battled security forces in Togo's capital on Monday and the country's two main political rivals agreed on a government of national unity to avert fresh violence over a disputed presidential poll. Ruling party candidate 
