Edited for brevity.
Grass that was genetically engineered for golf courses is growing in the wild, posing one of the first threats of agricultural biotechnology escaping from the farm in the United States, a new study says. Creeping bentgrass was engineered to resist the popular herbicide Roundup to allow more efficient weed control on golf courses. But the modified grass could spread that resistance to the wild, becoming a nuisance itself, scientists say.
"This is not a killer tomato, this is not the asparagus that ate Cleveland," said Norman Ellstrand, a geneticist and plant expert at the University of California, Riverside, referring to science fiction satire about mutant plants. But Ellstrand noted the engineered bentgrass has the potential to affect more than a dozen other plant species that could also acquire resistance to Roundup, or glyphosate, which he considers a relatively benign herbicide. Such resistance could force land managers and government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, which relies heavily on Roundup, to switch to "nastier" herbicides to control grasses and weeds, Ellstrand said. On the plus side, soon we'll be able to golf anywhere!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/17/2006 18:38 ||
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#4
"Calling all cars! BOLO for, ummmm...plants! They are presumed armed and dangerous! If you encounter any, establish a 200 foot perimeter and call for backup! That is all!"
DOZENS of members of the Afghan parliament walked out of a session yesterday to protest against a television station that has been airing what the politicians regard as unflattering footage of them. The privately owned television station, Tolo, has screened pictures of MPs yawning, napping and picking their noses during debates, infuriating some members of the national assembly. Funny, but I can picture it.
"I am leaving the session unless Tolo is sent out of parliament," a female member, Safia Sediqi, told the assembly. A short while later she and dozens of colleagues walked out. The parliament, elected in landmark polls last year, is a mixed bag of former anti-Soviet guerrillas, warlords, technocrats, female activists, as well as some former communists and apparently reformed former Taleban members.
Tolo is among a handful of private television channels that have sprung up along with scores of radio stations and publications since the overthrow of the Taleban government in 2001. The network has quickly gained popularity, in spite of, or perhaps because it has in the past been criticised for what conservatives see as its racy programming.
It has defended its coverage of parliament. "These are public figures at a public place and we have to show what they do," the station's director, Saad Mohseni, said. "The media has the right to show what they do." LOL.
#1
Well, OK. How about some comparative footage as well, say of the Tawianese assembly. Lively floor debates and 'Jackie Chan' fights. Just make sure the next day the members of parliament park their shootn irons at the front door, it being Afghanistan and all.
#2
Look at it this way - the Taliban were a bunch of clowns, but the unwashed masses never got the opportunity to laugh at them - on pain of death. Politicians aren't all that useful anyway, so you might as well get a few laughs out of them.
#4
They worry about humiliation, the West revels in it.
Posted by: J. Springer ||
08/17/2006 11:13 Comments ||
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#5
Watch a random Senate session on C-SPAN. Or, watch the Knesset. Or, for great fun, watch the English Parliament's Question Time. The Afghanis have nothing to complain about.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/17/2006 16:31 Comments ||
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Unfortunately, Rantburg doesn't yet have a 'Society' page for these announcements. A tip of the fedora to Roger Simon.
From now on say Suha al-Trablusi: Suha Arafat, widow of Yasser Arafat, secretly married Lahasn al-Trabulsi, the brother-in-law of the Tunisian president, a number of days ago, a Tunisian website reported. As is fitting to the widow of the former Palestinian Authority chairman, this time Suha also married someone close to power. Al-Trablusi is the brother of Leila Ben Ali, who is the wife of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
The sister and her husband gave their blessing to the marriage. The marriage followed a wave of stubborn rumors in Tunisia, according to which al-Trabulusi planned to marry Suha's sister. However, credible sources said that he divorced a few months ago to marry Suha and not her sister, and that one of the main reasons for the wedding is that is his interest in Suha's large fortune.
Guess she found the Krueggerrands.
Two years ago, after Arafat's death, Suha was personally promised by Mahmoud Abbas' staff that she would receive USD 22 million a year, on the basis of an agreement Arafat himself sent his wife while on his death bed USD 11 million to cover her lifestyle in Paris for half year.
Paid for by previous donations by the EU, the US, etc.
Abbas and Palestinian senior figures were forced to come to a deal with Suha, after she "created facts on the ground," in accordance with French law, and prevented PA members from visiting Arafat as he was dying, or to take decisions on disconnecting the life support machine, until she received her promise. PA senior figures concluded it was worth paying her and ending the episode.
She learned well from her first hubby, huh?
The money given to Suha comes from the "secret fortune" of the PA, managed personally by the PA president. The fortune is worth around USD four billion, and is kept in a number of bank accounts in Tel Aviv, London, and Zurich.
I'm surprised Abbas has any hand on this; I would have figured Suha would have pried all those account numbers loose just before Yassar began his long-standing love affair with Himmler.
Since Arafat's death, Suha refused to live in PA territory or any Arab capital other than Tunis, and enjoys close relations with the Tunisian president and his wife.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2006 09:32 ||
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#1
Hope you got a prenup, Lashan. And a food taster...
#3
She was bought off cheap. The intereset on $4B is roughly $200,000,000 (-+ 5%APR) so she took only 10% of the annual interest. (please check my math it's early) I guess it would be benificial for the Paleos to dispatch her and pocket the diff. I wonder what the plebes in PLOstan would rather do with four billion? And WHY OH WHY are we still funding these yahoos when they have accounts like this?
#14
However, credible sources said that he divorced a few months ago to marry Suha and not her sister, and that one of the main reasons for the wedding is that is his interest in Suha's large fortune.
Gold-digger marries gold-bricker. A perfect match.
Two years ago, after Arafat's death, Suha was personally promised by Mahmoud Abbas' staff that she would receive USD 22 million a year, on the basis of an agreement Arafat himself sent his wife while on his death bed USD 11 million to cover her lifestyle in Paris for half year.
For this alone, Abbas should be rocketed straight to hell. Doesn't this equal a substantial portion of the PA's budget, in and of itself? If the Palestinians had any sense they'd off Abbas themselves, just for this bit of payola.
#16
What exactly is she holding over their heads that keeps them from just STOPPING THE PAYMENTS?
I'd stop the payments and publicly announce at the same time that Sooo-eee Suha had insisted on it, since she already has enough money and the paleo people need it worse than she does.
Hilarity would ensue. (And I've got the popcorn concession.) :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/17/2006 22:51 Comments ||
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A Zimbabwean man is in police custody after allegedly making insulting remarks about President Robert Mugabe.
Farmin B. Hard Tichaona Muchabaiwa was arrested at the weekend at a police roadblock, the official Herald newspaper reports.
Mr Muchabaiwa, director of a fuel supply firm, is expected to appear in court on Wednesday. Probably an easy job, seeing how they don't have any...
He is to be charged under a law that makes it illegal to "undermine the authority of or insult the president," a police spokesman said. Wonder if the remake of "Dogs of War" is ever going to be made? I know where they could film it.
"The suspect was very unco-operative, abusive and made derogatory remarks against the president of Zimbabwe," the Herald quoted police spokesman Andrew Phiri as saying.
"He also faces a charge of resisting arrest," Mr Phiri told the newspaper said.
People convicted under the law in question normally receive a short jail or community service sentence, or a fine. ...or are beaten to a pulp.
Two Cuban doctors who defected gave an inside account of the Cuban- Venezuelan health program. Jeez. Doesn't sound as rosy as Hugo and El Jefe make it sound...
CARTAGENA, Colombia - Carlos Rodríguez and his girlfriend, Johan Mary Jiménez, had little hope of leaving Cuba. They were both physicians, her father was a known dissident, and Rodríguez himself was an outspoken critic of the system.
Still, in May 2004, a Cuban government seemingly desperate to satisfy Venezuela's need for doctors slotted the two into Misión Barrio Adentro, President Hugo Chávez's campaign to provide healthcare for his country's poorest people.
They fled to Colombia seven months later and obtained political asylum. They are now scratching out a living doing odd jobs near this Caribbean city -- and offering insights into the Cuban doctors program in Venezuela.
Since taking power in 1999, Chávez has increased trade with Cuba and sought to benefit from its expertise in health, education and defense. Barrio Adentro, or ''Inside the Neighborhoods,'' was one of several programs Chávez set up with the help of Cubans, and an estimated 20,000 Cuban medical personnel are working in Venezuela.
Many of these Cubans wind up defecting. Exact numbers are impossible to get, but Julio Cesar Alfonso of the Miami-based Solidarity without Borders, a group that helps Cuban doctors abroad who defect, estimates that more than 500 have escaped the programs in many countries.
DIFFICULT LIFE
Cuban doctors working abroad do not have an easy life.
Cuban officials monitor them closely, Rodríguez and Jiménez told The Miami Herald. They could not speak with the media, and there were regular ''code reds'' -- alerts for unspecified reasons during which they couldn't leave home.
Rodríguez, 30, and Jiménez, 28, were working in the town of Lagunillas, near Venezuela's northwestern border with Colombia. Like many Cuban medical personnel, they went to Venezuela with the hope of saving a little money, or at least returning home with some consumer goods hard to find on the island.
''Cubans look for a way to change their lives,'' Rodríguez said. ``Going to another country to work was one way to do that.''
Venezuela turned out to offer few benefits, however.
The couple said they each received the equivalent of about $200 a month as salary. The Venezuelan government provided them with separate housing and the state oil company, PDVSA, subsidized their food.
But money was still tight because of Venezuela's high cost of living, they said, and other doctors did not even receive the PDVSA food subsidy.
Barrio Adentro was also disappointing, they said.
Although it was promoted as a way to help poor people who had minor illnesses, aches, pains and infections, Rodríguez and Jiménez said their Cuban supervisor made it clear that they also had to campaign for Chávez in the lead up to a 2004 recall referendum, which Chávez won handily.
''The idea is good,'' Rodríguez said of the mission. ``But that wasn't what the mission was for. The coordinator told us that our job was to keep Chávez in power.''
The coordinator also required the doctors to put up Chávez posters in the small clinics they established in poor barrios, and told them to tell patients ``to vote for Chávez.''
''I wouldn't do it,'' Rodríguez added. ``I told them that I was happy to do the work as a doctor, but I won't campaign.''
Not all of the barrio residents were sympathetic to the Cubans. Anti-Chávez neighbors called them ''Fidel's ambassadors'' and refused to go to their clinics, the couple said.
BOXES OF MEDICINE
The Cuban medical personnel also provided the Venezuelans with Cuban medicines. Rodríguez, who was part of the team that distributed the medicine to neighborhoods, said ''boxes and boxes and boxes'' arrived weekly from Cuba via military aircraft.
Whether Cuba donated the medicines, or the Venezuelan government paid for them, was impossible to establish.
Since the Venezuelan program was launched, Cubans on the island have complained about a significant drop in the number of doctors there and the already low supplies of medicines there.
''I was worried about all this medicine leaving Cuba,'' Jiménez said. ``What about the Cubans?''
In the past, Chávez has alluded to the medical program as a swap of Cuba's human resources for Venezuela's natural resources -- mostly oil -- and part of his campaign to strengthen relations with Latin American nations and distance them from the United States.
Cuba, for instance, receives upwards of 90,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Venezuela on easy repayment terms. Most nations that host Cuban medical personnel also make per-doctor cash payments directly to the Cuban government, but it's not clear whether Venezuela is making such payments or writing off the amounts against its oil deliveries.
Neither Venezuela nor Cuba has provided any public accounting of the costs for their Cuban doctors arrangement, but a recent Bush administration report estimated Venezuelan energy subsidies to Cuba at $1 billion.
For Rodríguez and Jiménez, the best part of their deployment to Venezuela was that it offered them an escape hatch.
They met with a Colombian friend of another doctor, who arranged for them to cross the Colombian border in a car for about $50. They left in the early morning hours of Dec. 11. By noon, they were in Cartagena.
General Alfredo Stroessner, the former President of Paraguay who died yesterday aged 93, was one of the last of Latin America's old-style military dictators. Stroessner came to power in a coup which toppled President Federico Chavez in 1954, and succeeded in being elected and re-elected for eight five-year terms of office after revising the constitution, which had banned him from serving for more than two. In style, Stroessner's dictatorship most resembled that of General Franco in Spain. Like Franco, Stroessner provided stability after a civil war and near-anarchy; his motto, "Peace, Justice, Democracy", played to the hopes of an isolated society fearful of political instability.
The speciality of his chief torturer, Pastor Coronel, was said to be conducting interviews with the subject immersed in a bath of human excrement...
A stocky individual with light-coloured hair and blue eyes, Stroessner looked as if he had just emerged from a German bierkeller; in fact, his father had emigrated from Bavaria in the 1890s to start a brewery in the small Paraguayan town of Encarnacion. Much was made of Stroessner's sympathy for Nazism - he provided a haven for Josef Mengele, the chief doctor at Auschwitz, among other undesirables - yet he was as much a Paraguayan peasant at heart: devious, calculating and shrewd, with little in the way of a political ideology.
In the murky world of Latin American politics, Stroessner was adept in the arts of "guided democracy", tolerating a token opposition that kept the Americans happy while ensuring that any real opposition was snuffed out. The speciality of his chief torturer, Pastor Coronel, was said to be conducting interviews with the subject immersed in a bath of human excrement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
To quote somebody: "He may have been a S.O.B., but he was our S.O.B.!
Notice how Parador,er, Paraguay did not wind up a post-commie hell-hole. While I could wish for more humane methods of dealing with the eneimies of civilization, I have no complaints about the result. There are worse legacys for dictators to leave behind.
May Paraguay always know prosperity and tranquility.
Posted by: N guard ||
08/17/2006 3:07 Comments ||
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#2
Wasn't he the guy who refused to modernize the bus system (or some other public transport system) in his capital city because of some prediction that his government would be over if he did?
#3
yet he was as much a Paraguayan peasant at heart: devious, calculating and shrewd, with little in the way of a political ideology.
How utterly condescending. All peasants everywhere are apolitical, devious, calculating and shrewd -- necessary to fight the unfair advantages of the landed gentry. But then, this is the Telegraph, so I shouldn't be surprised.
#3
According to some Muslim leaders the way to counter terrorism which lies at the dark heart of their community is to allow the introduction of Sharia law and acknowledge important religious days on the Muslim calendar to become public holidays.
Yeah, preferential treatment, the key to seamless integration. Works every time.
#4
"Sorry about the fire, Mister Greengrocer. But if you sign up for our neighbourhood protection programme (at a modest weekly cost), things like this might not happen."
Having announced his candidacy as a Democrat for president in 2008, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., is now speaking out loudly against the Bush administration, particularly with regard to its foreign policy in the Middle East.
Biden, appearing Thursday as a guest on MSNBCs "Imus in the Morning" show, said the Bush administrations war on terror has had the opposite effect on terrorism that most Americans had hoped for following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the United States.
"We are creating more terrorists around the world, Biden said. "This is a gang [the Bush administration] that doesnt seem to understand that the international legitimization of our actions is a big deal . . . It impacts on our power.
Biden said Bushs tendency to "go it alone in Iraq and its reluctance to get involved in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict spread a negative impression of the United States to other countries and factions who hope to do us harm.
"If we appear to be out there in the Wild West just shooting away not caring about what anyone else thinks, we just become fodder for every wacko in the world, Biden said. "We are doing ourselves more harm that good right now.
#4
Between this and declaring war on Wal*Mart, I think he may have a good chance at the nomination. As for the election, the donks can probably hang it up now.
#5
Right. Killing more indians just makes more indians. Killing more Nazis just makes more Nazis.
And this man qualifies for the Senate of the United States. Quick get him a job in the bureaucracy of the UN. He'll fit right in. No frontal lobotomy required beforehand. It appears hes also got the dorsal covered as well.
#6
I quote the Former Director General of the Punjab Police KPS Gill who fought a bloody counter-terrorist war and won.
"Terrorism in the Punjab didn't end because there was some political solution. It ended because we killed all the terrorists."
"I used to meet the same arguments in Punjab. People talk as if the terrorists represent some sort of inchoate democratic aspiration. But once terrorism was defeated in Punjab, the terrorist 'support base' vanished. Where is it now? These are falsehoods that only serve the terrorist cause. Terrorism does not recognise the normal conventions of politics and democracy, and cannot be countered by these. It is a completely immoral and unconstrained use of force and can only be countered by the use of force."
"There has, in every theatre of terrorist violence, certainly in South Asia and in other parts of what is referred to as the Third World, been a general, albeit implicit, assumption of popular support to terrorist movements far in excess of what actually exists on the ground or among the societies on whose behalf the terrorists claim to speak. Such assumptions are apparently ratified by the public statements of many leaders and even of the "common people" and the local media, from time to time. And yet, they are utterly false though this fact can only be confirmed after the terror has been conclusively defeated. This is precisely what happened in Punjab. In the end Eighties, I recall many a muddle-headed "liberal" arguing that "we" had lost the hearts of the "people of Punjab", and so there was little sense in holding on to a piece of land. Thousands, at times even hundreds of thousands, assembled in bhog ceremonies of slain terrorists, and the media pointed to this intractable evidence of the mass support that the Khalistanis enjoyed. But by 1992, when the terrorists were in open flight, there was visible elation in the streets, as markets began to remain open late into the evenings, and I recall the sheer jubilation that marked the first "musical night" organised by the Punjab police at Tarn Taran that was attended by thousands of people rediscovering their freedom. It was the same sense of relief that was visible among the crowds thronging the broken-down cinema halls in Kabul to stand in the midst of collapsed seats through a projection of the only film available a documentary on the mujahiddeen who drove out the Russian forces from Afghanistan in the 1980s."
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 18:42 Comments ||
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#7
Killing enough terrorists narrows down the genepool of terrorists...
#9
Gotta exceed the breeding rate - and, since the wimmins have no rights and there's damned little you can do in Islam except seethe, march, and breed...
#12
Good post John. Nobody talks about the abrupt end of Punjabi terrorism which in many ways was the precursor of current Ismalic terrorism, including blowing up planes.
The reason they don't talk about it was because it was conclusively won by killing (almost) all of the terrorists. We may yet see such an outcome to Sunni terrorism in Iraq.
#16
The reason they don't talk about it was because it was conclusively won by killing (almost) all of the terrorists. We may yet see such an outcome to Sunni terrorism in Iraq.
Gill's men are thought to have disappeared almost 10 000 terrorists and their supporters. When the terrorists began to target the family members of policemen, the family members of terrorists were likewise killed.
Gill was a Sikh, exterminating a Sikh insurgency.
It will probably take a ruthless Iraqi Sunni policeman to end the terror in Iraq.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 20:32 Comments ||
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#17
Slow Joe is the perfect Donk candidate for 2008...oh please oh please oh please let it be so. You can't think on your feet when they're in your mouth
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2006 20:34 Comments ||
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#18
More from KPS Gill
We have people who have no understanding of the dynamics of terrorism engaged in a continuous and systematic denigration of police and paramilitary forces and the Army from purported 'human rights' platforms, and many of these people are part of organisations that are no more than overground fronts of the terrorists themselves. But worse, we have entirely respectable and eminent figures in the 'establishment' mouthing utter rubbish about 'root causes'.
I recall the first time I heard about 'root causes' in Punjab was not during the course or peak of terrorism, but after the scourge had been defeated. A learned professor at one of Delhi's most renowned universities (part of that renown is now tainted with notoriety because of the proximity of many of its luminaries to Left-wing Extremism in India and Nepal) where I was speaking, interjected with a question regarding the 'root causes' and the neglect of the 'people's demands', which had led to terrorism. I asked him what these demands and root causes were in Punjab, one of the India's most affluent States, and how they had been addressed - since terrorism had ended now. Having 'studied' the subject from a safe distance he obviously had no idea and sought to wriggle out of the discussion by saying I should know what these demands and causes were. But I knew of no 'root causes' in the Punjab, and no justifiable demands that could explain the slaughter of innocents.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 20:55 Comments ||
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#19
Joe, I can tell by listening to you that you probably flunked most classes. The topic here is subtraction , Joe. Goes like this...1500 Muzzies attacking, all blown to hell...therefore 1500-1500=0. Got it Joe. None left.
#20
Thus we see why he's called Slow Joe. And it has nothing to do with how fast he walks.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
08/17/2006 21:53 Comments ||
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#21
It is true if you disable them bad enough it bankrupts their families to support them and that reduces the ability to buy guns and weapons for other family members...
So perhaps we should follow Biden's advice and maim terrorists instead of kill them?
#22
I prefer the KPS Gill approach.. kill the lot of them...
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 22:06 Comments ||
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#23
Okay, Joe. What's your plan? The plan, Joe? What is it?
Why don't you see if John Fn Kerry will let you borrow his, seeing how he won't be needing it anymore.
#25
What else would you expect from a man who plagiarized Neil Kinnock's stump speech even down to talking about his coal miner parents? Biden only gets points as an intellectual by comparison to his fellow Democrats.
Wonder if Jimmy Carter's heard about this?
BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a three-term Democrat now running as an independent candidate, leads the man who beat him in last week's primary vote by 12 points in a three-way race, a poll released on Thursday shows.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll, conducted between August 10-14, shows Lieberman leads Democrat Ned Lamont, a wealthy businessman with little political experience who has played on anti-war sentiment, by 53 percent to 41 percent among likely voters in November's election. The Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger drew 4 percent, the poll shows.
Democratic voters selected Lamont as their candidate on August 8 with 52 percent of the vote after an increasingly bitter race dominated by Lieberman's support for the Iraq war.
Lieberman vowed to stay in the race as an independent candidate in order to face Lamont and Schlesinger in the general election in November.
The survey found that Lieberman polled best among likely Republican voters, leading the others with 75 percent of the vote compared with Lamont's 13 percent and Schlesinger's 10 percent.
"Senator Lieberman's support among Republicans is nothing short of amazing," Douglas Schwartz, the university's polling director said in a statement. "As long as Lieberman maintains this kind of support among Republicans while holding onto a significant number of Democratic votes, the veteran senator will be hard to beat."
Likely voters said by a 53 percent to 40 percent margin that Lieberman, the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate in 2000 and once a presidential candidate himself, deserves to be re-elected.
#1
Senator Lieberman's support among Republicans is nothing short of amazing
Why can't the Trunks do what the libs do? Vote based on a single issue. If I lived in Conn., I'd vote for Joe, but it's be more of a vote against Lamont, and the way he got nominated. And a vote against Soros, and Mikey Moore, et al.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2006 16:02 Comments ||
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#2
I hope this race gets really nasty. It certainly has the potential.
#1
"She represents the voice of the ILLEGAL ALIENS undocumented, and we think it's our obligation, our responsibility, to make a stage for that voice to be heard," he said.
Did he just admit that it's as much a publicity stunt as anything else?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/17/2006 13:16 Comments ||
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#2
Deport her and her son (if she can't find someone to take him.)
He's a citizen. He can return when he's emancipated.
Don't break the law (multiple times) next time lady!
#5
Nah, she was expedited. Normally they work a lot slower....trust me.
You should try...uh...financial lubricants. I have found them able to reduce system seizing friction and processing delays resulting therefrom substantially.
#6
"If the government comes in, it's going to look very jack-booted fascistic. It would look very bad."
F*** any folks that this may look bad to. Get a grip on what has to be done and just enforce it!
I would like to think that folks are starting to be less PC stupid about these issues.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/17/2006 15:19 Comments ||
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#7
"If the government comes in, it's going to look very jack-booted fascistic. It would look very bad."
What looks even worse is a government that will not enforce its own laws because of race, creed or national origins. Favoritism will erode the 'consent of the govern' faster than any hysterics on the enablers' part. That's what generates real vigilantism. Ever think that if you can get away with ignoring the law, why should the vigilantes have to obey it?
It's AP, so it features the Dhimmi spin...
President Truman got so upset when a newspaper panned his daughter's singing that he wrote the critic: "Someday I hope to meet you. When that happens, you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"
Today, the Bush White House punches back with virtual boxing gloves. It fires off electronic rebuttals when it has a beef with news stories, broadcasts or statements by its critics, shooting its retorts directly into reporters' e-mail inboxes and posting them on the Internet.
Bush officials say their "Setting the Record Straight" memos, which dispute passages in stories aired and printed about the president, are about seeking the truth. Democrats and other targets of the memos say they're more about spin than rebuttal. "The primary purpose is that un-rebutted charges on important issues sometimes become viewed as fact," said Dan Bartlett, who is counselor to the president and oversees the White House communications operation.
Even if attempts are made to fix mistakes, corrections published in newspapers or broadcast on TV aren't always seen, Bartlett said. It's essential, especially in today's era of Internet chat rooms and 24-hour news, that the White House issue its rebuttal as soon as possible, he said. "If it's a day late, it's not very useful," he said.
#2
The only 'fire back' I'm interested in is with live ammo. Otherwise it's just a cat fight.
In the world of the internet and cable TV, why is there even a 'press office' at the White House. Technologically, you don't need the grandstanders. You can play the game the real dictators leaders play with the press by allow 'exclusive' interviews which the press demonstrates time and again their ability to swoon and toss soft balls. Teach us how to treat you by your own actions.
Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to start winding down its C-17 cargo plane program soon after failing to secure pledges for new orders from the Pentagon, the Wall Street Journal Reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company was also unwilling to extend financial guarantees to its suppliers, the report said.
The C-17 program is one of Boeing's biggest, due to annual Pentagon spending of about $3 billion, the report said.
Boeing has enough orders to keep making the C-17 through 2008, but because many parts must be ordered months in advance, the company said it needs commitments for additional planes by Friday to avoid having to notify suppliers to start shutting down their production lines, the report said.
#1
Not to worry, this is just politics. If Boeing gets an order next month they will lext to make it happen. They have another two years of production before anyone gets layed off or anything gets shut down.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/17/2006 8:32 Comments ||
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#2
Sorry, not lext but flex.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/17/2006 8:33 Comments ||
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#3
They have another two years of production before anyone gets layed off or anything gets shut down.
Certainly it is bargaining to some extent, but people will be laid off downstream for long lead time components and production lines will be closed there. There may be additional charges to restart that line. In any case, this is the critical component in our global lift capacity. To close down the line but keep the C-130 line open is idiocy and porcine politics.
#4
C-130s and C-17s are apples and oranges. Theater vs. strategic lift, both are very necessary. What bothers me is Boeing and their politics. They cry foul every time the pork doesnt roll to them first. They scream "shut downs" and the POM cycle for procurement are not yet even locked in for 09. Its the 09 dollars that will pay for the production in late 08. Granted NS we need more strat lift, unfortunately we get it from an organization that sets the gold standard in corperate crime and the fleecing of the taxpayers.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/17/2006 12:25 Comments ||
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#5
DoD contracting is pretty close to complete collapse. They can't attract new talent (per a friend at Boeing, the average age is 47), the latest commercial computer and networking equipment is more reliable that the MILSPEC stuff, and as 49 PAN points out, they've become largely criminalized. This is why. The layers of regulation have grown so thick and instrusive that the only way you can succeed as a program manager (or as a company) is to break those regulations on a fairly large scale. Criminals advance. The ethical either fail or are pushed aside by the criminal.
The _sleaziest_ things that I witnessed in the commercial world were innocent pranks compared to what I've seen in the DoD contracting world over the years. I haven't spoken about it here before, but I consider the crisis in DoD procurement to be as great of a threat to national security as proliferation of nuclear and gene splicing tehnologies and Islamism.
#7
No dog. My solution was just to leave town, make more money, have more fun, work with happier, younger, more competent people, and feel good about myself when I shipped product that actually added value to my customer's business.
#9
115AS, a big part of the problem is the result of victory in the Cold War. There have been massive force reductions since 1989 and a hiring freeze for most of the 90s. The result is that the DoD civilian workforce consists of very experienced personnel near retirement and young inexperienced personnel with nobody in between. Worse, the trend continues. Program Budget Directive 723 has the AF dropping another 40,000 - 50,000 over the next 5 years. At Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, over half of the civilians are elgible for retirement within the next 5 years.
CHENNAI: The reactor for India's nuclear-powered submarine project at Kalpakkam, near here, is working smoothly at its full capacity of 100 MWe, informed sources said. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee inspected the project on July 18 while taking part in the 20th anniversary celebrations of the commissioning of the Fast Breeder Test Reactor there. The project is called the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme.
The sources said the reactor, which went critical towards the end of 2004, was fully operational now. A miniaturised version of the reactor would be built and fitted into the submarine.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the ATV facility on October 23, 2004, when he launched the construction of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) there.
Substantial progress has also been made in building the submarine's hull at Visakhapatnam, the sources said.
The ATV is a joint project of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), the Navy and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The ATV has facilities at BARC in Mumbai, Kalpakkam, and Visakhapatnam. The mood is upbeat in these facilities about the progress made.
The fuel for the reactor, which is highly enriched uranium, comes from the Rare Materials Project near Ratnahalli, near Mysore.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 17:54 ||
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#1
Pak seething in 5...4....3...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2006 20:43 Comments ||
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2 meter diameter .. this thing is fatter than they previously admitted - possible SLBM role
CHENNAI: The committee, set up to go into the failure of the maiden flight of the long-range Agni-III ballistic missile, will submit its report to the Union Government in two weeks, sources in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have said.
``We will overcome [this failure]. We have all the telemetry data. We have nothing to hide. The committee is in the process of analysing the data,'' the sources said. The sequence of the flight was available in images as well.
The first test-flight of the missile from the Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast, on July 9 failed. Agni-III is a two-stage missile. Both the stages are powered by solid propellants. The missile is 16 metres tall and weighs 48 tonnes. It can carry nuclear warheads and has a range of 3,500 km.
Asked whether the first-cut analysis of the flight showed that the failure was due to the non-separation of the second stage from the first stage, the sources said, ``I don't think one can come to such conclusions. From the first-cut, I may know something. It should be re-confirmed. It should be validated by analytical data.'' In any failure, it was not enough to look at what was visible. The primary and secondary data should be analysed. The missile had a large motor [first-stage] with a diametre of two metres. So anything could have happened.
After the committee, headed by a former Chief Controller of the Missiles and Strategic Weapons group of the DRDO, submitted the report, it might take at least four months for the next flight of the Agni-III, the sources said.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 12:44 ||
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday made it clear that India would make its own assessment of its nuclear weapon programme in this "uncertain and unpredictable world" and said that must remain the ''cardinal principle" of the country's nuclear policy.
Replying to a day-long debate on Indo-US nuclear deal in Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister said while India remained committed to total nuclear disarmament, "in this uncertain world, unpredictable world we have legitimate concerns".
On India's nuclear weapons programme, he said, "This depends on our own assessment and this will be the cardinal principle of the nuclear policy."
Singh asserted no legislation made in a foreign land can take away "our sovereign right".
There is no question of India being cowed down by a law passed by a foreign land, he said responding to criticism that India's interest had been compromised by the bill passed by the US House of Representatives.
"Our foreign policy is determined strongly by our national interest...We have not allowed any country... howsoever powerful to influence our policy," Singh said. This will not be allowed "as long as I happen to be the Prime Minister," he said.
The Prime Minister said his government was "unswervingly" committed to the "independence" of the foreign policy.
Describing the US as a "pre-eminent power", he said good relations with it was in India's national interest.
But this should not in any way "cloud" India's say in international affairs, Singh said adding New Delhi had not compromised in any way.
The Prime Minister said "we have made it clear to the US that India's strategic programme is totally outside the purview of the July 18 statement."
"There is no question of American Inspectors roaming around our nuclear facilites," he said referring to areas that do not come within the India specific agreement with the IAEA.
"There is no question of India joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state," he said. "India will not go beyond the unilateral voluntary moratorium (on nuclear testing)" as specified in the July 18 statement," the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister stressed that the US legislation must conform "strictly" to the July 18, 2005 agreement and the Separation Plan.
"This alone will be the acceptable basis for nuclear cooperation with the US," he said.
Singh said he would hold discussions with the Atomic Energy Commission and a group of renowned scientists who had raised certain issues to evolve a broad-based national consensus.
"We will not accept any condition that go beyond the July 18 statement," he said adding in the event of any "extraneous" conditionality in the US legislation, the government would "draw its own conclusion" if it was not in conformity with the assurance made to Parliament and to people.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 12:22 ||
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After discussions with Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), GE now intends to supply advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) and economic simplified boiling water reactor (ESBWR) technologies to India.
GE has two technologies that would be a great fit for the Indian market. The first is the ABWR. This is the only Generation-III reactor technology that has been developed, approved, built and operated in the world, Peter Wells, general manager (marketing) for GE Energys nuclear business, told ET over phone from his North Carolina office in the US. In addition, GE holds technology for ESBWR. This is based on the ABWR technology platform with some key evolution that will improve operational efficiency, safety and economics. It entails lower construction and operational costs. The design is currently undergoing review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the US. Final Design Approval is expected by 08, but the design is already being developed for two US utilities.
He said further: GE has supplied ABWR technology to Japan and Taiwan. Today, there are four ABWR plants operating, three more are under construction, and 14 are at planning stage in Japan and the US. This technology is available now and proved, making it an ideal option for India.
GE Nuclear is primarily looking at four principal areas of opportunities in India, including building reactors. Its keen on supplying fuel for these reactors, along with parts and services, to maintain and improve plant performance. To this effect, Andrew White, president and CEO of GE Energys nuclear business, will also be interacting with a number of government officials towards the end of the year. GE has already established a dedicated team for nuclear energy in Mumbai, and we hope to expand this capability as and when we have approval from the US government to do so, Mr Wells said.
Executives from GEs nuclear division have already met their NPCIL counterparts, other government officials plus executives from a select few private engineering firms in India. These meetings will continue, and we have scheduled some more for the rest of the year. It includes meeting officials of the ministry of economic affairs (MEA), the Planning Commission, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the department of atomic energy (DAE), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), and NPCIL, Mr Wells told ET.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 11:35 ||
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Locusts emanating from the Zanskar Valley of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir are swarming towards the northern Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana and towards Pakistan. Officials in the Jammu and Kashmir government have described it as a "serious" and "unprecedented" crisis. Deputy Commissioner of Kargil Asfandyar Khan said the migratory locusts
the migratory locusts inundating the area are even capable of eating human clothing and hair...
inundating the area are even capable of eating human clothing and hair. "The problem is the creature is laying eggs deep in the soil. The eggs are apparently in plastic-like capsules and every capsule has around 100 eggs," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Wait till they head east to Iran. It shall be a sight for Pharoah.
A federal judge ruled Thursday that the nation's top cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler stopped short of ordering the companies to pay for a quit-smoking program.
The judge did order the companies to publish in newspapers and on their Web sites "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine.
Kessler said that adoption of a national smoking cessation program, as sought by the government, "would unquestionably serve the public interest" but that she was barred by an appeals court ruling that said remedies must be forward-looking and not penalties for past actions.
The government had asked the judge to make the companies pay $10 billion for smoking cessation programs, though the Justice Department's own expert said $130 billion was needed.
That reduction in remedies led to accusations that Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, a Bush administration political appointee, tried to weaken the case. However, an internal Justice Department cleared him of wrongdoing, saying he was supporting a figure he thought could be sustained on appeal.
Tobacco companies denied committing fraud and said changes in how cigarettes are sold now make it impossible for them to act fraudulently in the future.
Civil racketeering laws require a finding that fraud occurred. If a judge does make that finding, action must be taken to prevent it from occurring again.
The suit was first filed in 1999 under the Clinton administration. The Bush administration pursued it after receiving early criticism for openly discussing the case's perceived weaknesses and attempting unsuccessfully to settle it.
A separate court issued an interim ruling in the case last year, finding that civil racketeering laws did not permit the government to seek $280 billion from the companies for money they allegedly earned over many years through fraud.
During the trial, Kessler heard accusations that the companies established a "gentleman's agreement" in which they agreed not to compete over whose products were the least hazardous to smokers. That was to ensure they didn't have to publicly address the harm caused by smoking, government lawyers said. Tobacco lawyers denied the contention.
The government also argued that the tobacco industry has marketed to kids while lying about doing so. Again, tobacco lawyers denied the charge.
Kessler's decision came nearly a decade after the states reached legal settlements with the industry worth $246 billion and aimed at recovering health care costs. Those settlements imposed some restrictions on the industry, such as banning ads on billboards and public transportation.
The defendants in the federal lawsuit are: Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Counsel for Tobacco Research-U.S.A.; and the now-defunct Tobacco Institute.
The only cigarette maker excluded from Kessler's ruling was Liggett.
#1
A federal judge ruled Thursday that the nation's top cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking.
Errr...the Federal government has required a warning label on the packages since the 60s. The hazards are well known. People, exercising their free will, choose to be stupid. It is not in the Constitution that the Judiciary has the power to substitute punish for the stupidity of others. Another demonstration that the Judiciary doesn't believe in free will or the allied concept of democracy. That's why they're introducing their imperial authority over us, ruling by ruling.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil fell for a fourth day on Thursday to the lowest in nearly eight weeks after U.S. data reminded traders that crude stocks are relatively robust and the summer driving season is nearing its end. U.S. light, sweet crude for September delivery fell 61 cents to $71.28 a barrel, its lowest since June 26. London Brent was down 62 cents to $72.21 a barrel.
U.S. crude prices have shed more than 7 percent after falling for six of the last eight sessions as a ceasefire took hold in the Middle East and BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) decided to shut in only half of its 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Prudhoe Bay oilfield. Some dealers had feared the partial closure of the biggest oilfield in the United States might trigger a surprisingly large drawdown in this week's crude inventories, but data on Wednesday showed a decline of 1.6 million barrels, in line with forecasts.
Crude stocks have fallen from the eight-year high reached earlier this year, but still remain higher than almost any time since 1999, giving refiners a sizeable supply buffer to guard against any unexpected disruptions. Crude stocks have fallen from the eight-year high reached earlier this year, but still remain higher than almost any time since 1999, giving refiners a sizeable supply buffer to guard against any unexpected disruptions.
Gasoline inventories dropped by a deeper-than-expected 2.3 million barrels, but demand eased from the previous week as the summer driving season, which ends in early September, began to wind down. "It is this pace of demand deceleration, as well as the plentiful supplies of heating oil, that may set a more modest bearish tone to the market in the weeks after August," said First Energy Capital analyst Martin King. "WTI crude oil prices treading water more in the range of the very low $70s to very high $60s may be something that materialises, barring any hurricane-induced price spikes." Distillate stocks rose 800,000 barrels and heating oil supplies stand higher than a year ago, the data showed.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 10:01 ||
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Some expert I heard a few days ago said oil prices had been driven up by speculation, and would soon return to 'market' levels ... down $0.50 or $0.75 a gallon. Maybe even $1.00 a gallon lower.
It's a nice thought.
But where will we blame Bush? It must be his fault, whatever is bad in this article.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2006 14:44 Comments ||
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#2
That's a given.
I hope the speculators are getting their asses kicked...
#3
It's down in the Richmond (VA) area - I paid $2.73 last night, down from $2.78 last Friday. (Wa-Wa and Sheets; Exxon, Chevron, etc., are running anywhere from $2.89 to $2.95 - over $3 last week.)
It's probably still too much....
I too hope the speculators lose their shirts.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/17/2006 17:29 Comments ||
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#4
I haven't paid less than $3 a gallon for almost all of the last year ($299.9 at a cheapo station you can hardly get near in Antioch a couple weeks ago).
I remember back in 1999 when I fueled up in Nevada at $1.04.9 a gallon then passed into California where I fueled up for $1.49.9 a gallon - AND THERE WASN'T EVEN A CRISIS THEN!
#6
El Cheapo stations (The only ones I shop at) are currently 2.76 down from 2.85 which has held for at least the last three months as the standard price.
Went down yesterday.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2006 19:35 Comments ||
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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.
General 
Locusts emanating from the Zanskar Valley of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir are swarming towards the northern Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana and towards Pakistan. Officials in the Jammu and Kashmir government have described it as a "serious" and "unprecedented" crisis. Deputy Commissioner of Kargil Asfandyar Khan said the migratory locusts 
