Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7 and May 8, 1945, the dates when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. . . . The act of military surrender was signed on May 7 in Reims, France, and May 8 in Berlin, Germany. . . .
On that date, massive celebrations took place, notably in London, where more than a million people celebrated in a carnival atmosphere the end of the European war, . . . . In London, crowds massed in particular in Trafalgar Square and up The Mall to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, appeared on the balcony of the Palace to cheering crowds. Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and her sister Princess Margaret were allowed to wander anonymously among the crowds and take part in the celebrations.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/07/2008 08:39 ||
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Here on Guam, many of our senior citizens regard WW2 as ending on July 21st, 1944, when the US invaded Japanese-occupied Guam; or the Year 1944 in gener, NOT 1945, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bombings, VJ DAY, or VE DAY.
Former vice president tells NPR's 'Fresh Air' cyclone is example of 'consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.'
Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming.
Former Vice President Al Gore in an interview on NPRs May 6 Fresh Air broadcast did just that. He was interviewed by Fresh Air host Terry Gross about the release of his book, The Assault on Reason, in paperback.
And as were talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated, Gore said. And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China and were seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.
Gore claimed global warming is forcing ocean temperatures to rise, which is causing storms, including cyclones and hurricanes, to intensify.
"Its also important to note that the emerging consensus among the climate scientists is although any individual storm cant be linked singularly to global warming weve always had hurricanes, Gore said. Nevertheless, the trend toward more Category 5 storms the larger ones and trend toward stronger and more destructive storms appears to be linked to global warming and specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple of hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful.
In October 2007, CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano disputed Gores claim that there is a strong correlation between intense storms and global warming. He explained that global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we've seen, pointing out that by the end of this century we might get about a 5-percent increase.
#1
Compare wid FREREPUBLIC > GLOBAL WARMING MAY LEAD GREENLAND UNTO INDEPENDENCE.
*OTOH, REDDIT > BAD ASTRONOMY/OTHER > RISK OF COMET STRIKES INCREASE AS EARTH CROSSES GALACTIC PLANE/BOBBING FOR EXTINCTIONS + EARTH'S HUM GETTING LOUDER [Read - Solar EM shaking the Earth more and more].
#11
Nice to see Gore is still a slime-ball as he props up the still cooling 60,000+ and climbing bodies to make a political statement that will make him more money.
#12
Jeebus, what a Yay-hoo. The hypocrisy is so thick you can cut it with a knife. While all those storms Gore cites may be *technically* true, we in the US have had only 1 storm make landfall after 2005's disasterous season.
And, what's with citing Bangladesh? They get nailed every single year, just due to geography. Kind of like New Orleans, but getting hit EVERY YEAR.
Posted by: BA ||
05/07/2008 11:10 Comments ||
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#13
gore knows 'cuz phelps told him so. I thought the new rage was that the number of tornados this year is an indicator.
Yes sometimes a head-scratcher, which is something which should be appreciated as it makes us consider our own thoughts, I agree with Joe's first comment, looking at the potential consequences/advantages of *if* it were to happen. I think the weather right now in my area is great, bring on more rain. Second Joe comment cc meteor is exactly what albagore is spouting on fresh sneer - now everything is a sign or portent harkening the days of superstition where the direction of the first bird you see overhead determines what will happen during the day. Believe enough and at the end of the day make the happenings of the day fit into that first sign; justification. The globalization comment is a gentle reminder that all these happenings are interconnected. The promise was to get the 3rd world nations up on their feet to be able to take care of themselves. But as we have seen these 3rd ring 3rd string circus bears of oppressors do nothing but increase their power (if you guys were a real evil government you would have taken all those bodies and dead dissodents and made a breakwater). If that government had spent the last 5 years getting the populace all on the same page, making emergency plans for something which happens every year the best relief would not once again be coming from the imperialitikkk US Carrier Group somewhere nearby.
If gore really cared he would have himself hauled over there and float himself offshore and used as an emergency unloading dock. He is nothing but a glorified ambulance chaser and should be held in contempt as such - not that npr cares because they too are living off of other people's money.
#15
Ms. Terry Gross of "Fresh Air" mostly interviews musicians and entertainment celebrities. So I suppose Mr. Gore is about as much as she can handle... and the same for him. Were he interviewed by someone capable of understanding the science, while it would result in a highly amusing interlude, it would prove highly embarrassing for poor Mr. Gore, who isn't nearly as intelligent as he so fondly believes.
#16
Yeah, I was out yesterday enjoying the nice weather. Then the sky got cloudy and it started RAINING and I got WET!!! It was HORRIBLE!! How many more people must be VICTIMS of global warming. If ONLY the Goracle was president. All Hail the Goracle!!
MOGADISHU - Angry Mogadishu residents protested for a second day on Tuesday against food traders who rejected old currency notes, blocking roads and stoning cars. Witnesses said at least one storekeeper was stabbed by protesters after one demonstrator was shot and killed on Monday.
'I'm hungry and yet cannot even buy food,' Abdifatah Hussein, 25, told Reuters, clutching a bunch of Somali shillings. 'I fear we might start eating one another. We will never stop protesting until traders accept the notes.'
Abdifatah hasn't thought of the possibility of finding peace in the land and then farming it to raise food. Much easier to riot ...
Police commissioner Abdi Hassan Awale Qaybdiid said Islamist militants from the al Shabaab group had infiltrated the protests on Monday and killed 'several civilians'. But there was no independent confirmation of his report, and the insurgents could not immediately be reached for comment.
Many shopkeepers have rejected the old notes, which are still legal currency, saying wholesale traders and currency traders will not take them. Most of them are demanding dollars, or newer Somali shillings.
Somalia's shilling is valued at about 34,000 to the dollar, and many blame a fall in value of nearly 150 percent over the past year on counterfeiters who mint the notes and then exchange them for dollars. That has ramped up inflation already triggered by rising food prices. Though agriculturally fertile, Somalia's violence and anarchy makes it largely dependent on food imports.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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and the insurgents could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hi, Bob. Hi, Farmin...
Shonga, Nigeria - Musa Mogadi says he is better off since "the whites" came. He's got a new job, learned new farming skills, and he can chat on a mobile phone while zipping around the countryside on a motorbike. Three years ago, Mr. Mogadi got by as a subsistence farmer. But he now earns a regular wage as a supervisor on one of this town's new commercial farms.
He's applied skills he learned from some of the two dozen white Zimbabwean farmers who moved to Nigeria in 2005, after being kicked off their land by President Robert Mugabe and later attracted by large parcels of land on offer under 25-year leases and commitments of support from the Nigerian government. Production on his farm is now up. "We are starting to use fertilizers," says Mogadi, explaining that he was encouraged to buy fertilizer after seeing yield benefits on the commercial farm. He's also started planting his maize in a more compact formation, like the Zimbabweans, increasing production from each field planted.
Before the Zimbabweans arrived, there was no mobile phone network in the area and so no reason to have a mobile phone. Now he and most of the other workers have snazzy cellphones, and many have bought motorbikes imported from China, often with a loan from their employer. In the future, when the national power network reaches the Shonga farms, Mogadi is looking forward to having electricity in his home and village for the first time.
Kenny Oyewo, who works as a farm manager, thinks the lessons being learned in Shonga should be exported across Nigeria."If there were at least 20 white Zimbabwean farmers in each state," says Mr. Oyewo, "Nigeria would become one of the most rich countries in the world and we would not even depend on our oil." Nigeria is the largest crude producer in Africa, but despite the country's oil-wealth the majority of Nigerians exist on just a couple of dollars a day.
Bukola Saraki, governor of Kwara State, actively pursued the Zimbabwean farmers, approaching them through Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union and paying for them to stay in a hotel in Kwara while they assessed several proposed sites. To date, the governor remains personally involved in the project, visiting the farmers in their homes, taking their calls on his mobile phone and personally stepping in to help when Nigeria's confounding and often corrupt bureaucracy gets in the way.
The Zimbabwean farmers are all too aware how key Mr. Saraki's support is. Another group of Zimbabwean farmers who set up in Nasarawa State, east of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, are close to abandoning their Nigerian venture. There, farmers have not had strong support from the state authorities, a promised bridge to link their farms to the nearby capital has not been built and agreed-upon bank loans have not materialized.
But Saraki dismisses fears that the commercial farms may stumble with the end of his tenure in three years' time. "I think the project has sold itself," says Saraki. "When we started there were a lot of people who did not believe in it. But I think by now, when we are employing about 3,000 people in Shonga, they are the ones that are going to defend it."
Oyewo, who is a university graduate and new to farming, says it's not just farm employees who are learning from the Zimbabweans. "Even local people have been encouraged to seek advice and get it from the farmers," says Oyewo.
In the long term, veterinarian Abubakar Kannike sees great potential for collaboration to develop a new breed of dairy cow that could be exported throughout West Africa. "The future for us is to develop our own dairy breed mixing the hardy local Fulani breed with the Zimbabweans' high milk-producing Jersey cows," says Mr. Kannike.
But the lessons aren't all being passed in one direction. The Zimbabweans are learning how to deal with a new climate, a new way of doing things. This area of Nigeria is a far cry from the cool sunny plateaus of Zimbabwe. It's relentlessly hot and close enough to the Sahara to be shrouded in dust-laden desert winds for months at a time. And in the low-lying tropics, farmers and their families are learning to cope with malaria.
White farmer Hunter Coetzee is paying close attention to Nigeria's weather patterns, earning a reputation among the rest of the groups as something of a meteorologist.
One of the steepest learning curves, farmers say, has been unearthing the hidden corrupt practices that mar Nigerian society. "Our first year farming here, we bought our fertilizer off the market," says farmer Irvine Reid. But when the yield was disappointing, they sent a sample of the fertilizer off for analysis. "There was next to no fertilizer, so little of the active ingredient in there, that we may as well not have bothered."
But after a traumatic and often violent departure from Zimbabwe, the commercial farmers are learning about West African hospitality. "Everyone's been very welcoming," says Reid, "and that's really nice."
#3
Nigerians are enigmatic, to say the least. Their country's biggest problem is corruption, but when they can overcome that, the world opens up to them.
They have a lot of highly educated people, a pretty powerful army, oil, and pretty advanced technology by African standards.
If they can just get over corruption, which is like a vampire to their prosperity.
#4
I'm a little surprised, I thought most the White Zim farmers had gone to either Zambia or Mozambique. I would have thought that if =I= knew about Nigerian corruption, they certainly would.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 14:25 Comments ||
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#5
I got an email inviting me to farm in Nigeria. Just need to send them my banking info so they can set me up.
#6
Lots of white Zim farmers in Uganda as well - the de facto President for Life of the country was the one that did the inviting and so they are left alone by the local politicians. Uganda is now in the position to export grain after just a few years of the Zim farmers teaching the locals and raising crops on their lease lands.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which was outpolled by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the March 29 elections, has begun campaigning for the runoff presidential election it hopes to win. ZANU-PF says many people did not vote for the 84-year-old Mugabe in the first round, because they believed there was no threat to him.
ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1980 in the recent elections. Its information spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said that many members were complacent and believed both ZANU-PF and presidential candidate Robert Mugabe would win, as in the past. Both were defeated. Mugabe was outpolled by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai but Tsvangirai failed to win more than 50 percent so there will be a second round of voting.
ZANU-PF has formed a runoff campaign team, made up of legislators who have to go back to their constituencies and persuade voters to support Mugabe in the runoff.
ZANU-PF also has the support of the Zimbabwe Election Commission which mysteriously delayed results of all four elections, particularly the presidential poll for five weeks. The results of local government elections have still not been published and the MDC councilors are not allowed to take up their positions in the various cities where they won.
The country's electoral law requires the presidential runoff to take place by May 23, but ZANU-PF has made it clear it wants a delay, and the Commission has indicated to some media there will be one.
ZANU-PF is blaming the MDC for post election violence spreading through many parts of the country.
Many polling agents, teachers who were seconded as election presiding officers, and independent observers are being beaten and arrested throughout the country according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) says that if Finland and Sweden were to join NATO, it would have a positive impact on both the Nordic Countries and NATO itself. In his view, such a move would also benefit relations between NATO and Russia.
Häkämies said that he believes that NATO would benefit from a Nordic group of members that is willing to take initiatives. Speaking in Helsinki on Tuesday evening, Häkämies added that the Nordic region, with a total of 24 million people, would be no small factor in decision-making. Of the Nordic Countries, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland are NATO members.
In his speech at the spring general meeting of the Atlantic Council of Finland, Häkämies focused on the impact that he felt NATO membership would have specifically from the point of view of Nordic security cooperation. He said that cooperation among the Nordic Countries in security and defence policy "would not replace or rule out other options, but it should be seen as a complimentary element."
Early in his presentation Häkämies said that under the present government policy programme, Finland is adhering to the possibility of becoming allied. He expressed wonder at those who "are already nailing theses according to which Finland will never, and under no circumstances make that decision to join the alliance".
Häkämies did not mention opposition Social Democratic Party chairman Eero Heinäluoma by name. Heinäluoma said in a speech he made on the First of May holiday that "Finland can easily stay outside the military alliance in the next electoral term as well, if the majority of the Finnish people are in favour of this".
According to Häkämies, "closing the doors in advance is not in the interests of the Finns". Speaking to Helsingin Sanomat he reiterated that he is not linking Finnish and Swedish NATO membership with each other. "I am not advising them, and I have no expectations of them", Häkämies emphasised.
In the view of Häkämies, it is clear that if all Nordic Countries were members of NATO, the weight of Nordic thinking would increase in the decision-making of the organisation. "There is no one single NATO. One can say that there is a British, a French, and a German school of thought. Perhaps this Nordic group would represent a Nordic school." Uh, Jyri, you left out another "school of thought". A school funded by US taxpayers, as a matter of fact.
We just pay the freight ...
Häkämies pointed out that the Nordic Countries are already working together in peacekeeping activities, for instance, so there certainly would be common ground to be found. Before his assessment of NATO membership, Häkämies said that during the ongoing preparation of the government's next defence policy report, "all players in politics have the right and the duty to take part in the discussion".
On the ongoing Nordic defence projects Häkämies said that a list drawn up by Norway and Sweden contains cooperation for all branches of defence, which initially interests Finland. If Finland were to join NATO, he sees possibilities for common air surveillance, in addition to existing projects.
Häkämies noted that Finland got useful information from NATO-member Denmark when preparing its decision to join the NATO Response Force. He downplayed the fact that Sweden's NRF decision was delayed. Häkämies assessed the significance of NATO membership from the starting point that both Sweden and Finland would join the alliance. He said that the Nordic countries could be a "strong influence" inside NATO in defence planning.
"Materiel acquisition planned and implemented together, cooperation in crisis management, and especially the joint planning of regional defence would tend to increase the influence of the Nordic Countries and support the military security of the Nordic region", Häkämies said.
WARSAW - A Kuwaiti who held three young Brazilian Jews hostage in a Warsaw hotel Monday has been charged with hostage-taking and faces a maximum five years in prison, a Polish police official said Tuesday. The man, identified only as Mohamed A., 23, was drunk during the incident. 'He has pleaded guilty,' Warsaw police spokesman Marcin Szyndler told AFP. 'He has shown remorse and is prepared to cover the costs of the police operation,' he added.
According to Poland's PAP news agency the hostage-taker is related to Kuwait's ambassador to Poland.
That's why the suspect is remorseful and willing to cough up jizya ...
The suspect, who locked himself inside a hotel room with the three teenagers on Monday morning, told a police he was carrying explosives and threatened to set them off. A police anti-terrorist brigade stormed the room and quickly freed the 16-year-olds in a four-star Warsaw hotel.
Along with thousands of young Jews from across the globe, the three Brazilians were in Poland as part of the annual March of the Living, a Holocaust memorial event which took place May 1 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau former Nazi German concentration camp.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Welcome to Islam RPG! You have entered a dark cave which smells slightly of camel and goat urine.
Here are your options:
1) Give up booze, rock n roll and general fun. Grow a wispy beard & starve for one month of the year. Sleep deprivation is also mandated with the requirement to bang your head on the floor five times a day occurring at approx three in the morning and again at five thirty. Loony tunes uniform of jacked up pyjamas provided.
2) Leave Islam. No need to give up booze, in fact you will probably need to drink quite a bit to be able to deal with the stresses of alienation by all of your kin and the constant worry of being killed as an apostate. However, your booze drinking could be drastically reduced to zero following a beheading.
3) Kidnap and kill a few Jews and / or infidels. Jihad Fi S'abillah entitles you to continue to drink booze under the auspices of infiltrating the enemy. Cheers!
He just turned on Hillary, rescinded his endorsement of her, endorsed Obama, and called on her to leave the race.
And he does it after the Clinton family foundation gave $25,000 to support the McGovern Library and Center for Leadership and Public Service in Mitchell, South Dakota in early 2007.
Ingrate.
Remember the good old days when you could buy a politician, and they would stay bought?
Posted by: Mike ||
05/07/2008 13:47 ||
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Oh, good. For a day, George McGovern can feel important...
#3
Obama increased his lead by 6 delegates, and the fact that he can't close the deal is irrelevant, so Hilly should just drop out, now, gracefully, throw her full support behind Messiah Obama, and go on to defeat the Bush-clone-McCain.
I'm surprised smn has not already said this. Maybe he/she was up late watching the returns?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/07/2008 6:35 Comments ||
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MSNBC: In North Carolina, an estimated one-third of all ballots were cast by black voters, and Obama claimed support from roughly 90 percent of them. Clinton won 60 percent of the white vote. Only Democrats and unaffiliated voters were permitted to vote in North Carolina.
But nearly half of voters in both states said the controversy over incendiary sermons by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was very or somewhat important to their vote. In Indiana, nearly three-quarters of those who said it was important voted for Clinton though those who said so and voted for Obama may have signaled approval of his handling of the situation.
In both states, whites and blacks were about as likely to call the situation important. But whites were much more likely to vote for Clinton if they said so. Black voters made up a third of the North Carolina Democratic electorate but were only about one in seven in Indiana.
Latest National polls of likely Democratic voters
Date ........ Poll ........... Obama Clinton
4/30-5/4 Ipsos Poll ......... 40 ... 47
5/1-3 .... USA Today Poll 44 ... 51
5/1-3 .... CBS News Poll 50 ... 38
Posted by: ed ||
05/07/2008 8:23 Comments ||
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#5
Geez Ed, is this saying that the USA & CBS polls are 14% out of phase for the same time period???????
Anyone out there still think that polls mean anything?
Oh, BTW, if it's racist for whites to vote for Clinton; is it racist for Blacks to vote for 'bama?
#6
No, Obama speaks for most blacks. It is approaching insanity for whites to vote for Obama however. First, he is a socialist. At best, he will expand the giveaway programs with an obvious favor toward black city folk. Why this is necessary or what good comes from it escapes me, but it will solidify his standing as the black Messiah. We need a president who takes leadership in the real problem area. We need a secure borders, anti-Islam, energy solutions kind of president.
(crickets)
For those who don't get to hear Mark Levin, yesterday, in his monolog he states that McCain is not going around the country campaigning with other Republicans....McCain has no coat tails. McCain is all by himself, not a leader, not a team player, just an ego, a hard headed, self rightious jerk who has no clue of what the people want. Levin is right, what kind of man is this ? We laughed at John Kerry who thought he was a veteran of war. Well, now we have a fool who thinks he is the great leader. Napoleon, no doubt.
#7
McCain isn't campaigning with other Repubs right now because the Repubs down ticket still are going through their primaries.
If McCain campaigned with them now, he'd be accused, correctly, of taking sides. That would cause hard feelings.
Once the primaries are over and the Repubs down-ticket are set, I expect McCain to be out there with them, to the extent that he's wanted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 11:47 Comments ||
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#8
McCain is a RINO who was basically picked by Dems and Independents voting in the early Republican primaries and later by the OMGABH (OMG anybody but Huckabee)Republicans. For him to be elected would require the public to clearly see Obama as the socialist he is and pick McCain as the lesser of two evils - not likely. The Republic survived Jimmy Carter and can, probably, survive Obama.
#9
Graduated public school mid 90's - this very scenario of crossover voting was all but encouraged by many government teachers.
I see advantage to McCain not campaigning, "Why fight the pigs for leftover slop." He can quietly go about under the radar, build a some plans, and let the d's write the material for him, then weigh his vp choice based upon his opponent. Even if he was out campaigning in force the TV has dedicated so much air time to the d contention that it would be very difficult to get word in edge wise. When the d's embarass themselves in Denver (damned if they do damned if they don't) then get'em knock the d's off balance and cost them at least a month to recover.
#10
The best blurb for why McCain must get my vote, which I saw at another blog:
"This is the message that non-Ivy League white Americans must hear: you will be shafted by the racist blacks surrounding Barry Obama and his guilt tripped white elites. They are going to royally stick it to you. They perceive you to be dirt and deserving of being filthed on. You must vote for the less than perfect John McCain purely for reasons of self preservation."
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/07/2008 21:10 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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"Barack Obama has always believed that our courts should stand up for social and economic justice Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
This represents one of the fundamental distinctions between liberal and conservative ideologies. The liberals contend that its governments responsibility to continually cure the nations social ills by creating laws that will ultimately reshape its citizens values. That is why they favor justices that interpret the constitution as an evolving declaration. Whereas, conservatives believe that government should be representative of their essential values in order to maintain its inherent civility and justice. That is why they have tended to favor justices with a constructionist interpretation of the constitution. This issue may seem dry and anecdotal to many voters but it resonates with informed Independents. Look for the obligatory Turn back the Clock cliché in response by the Democrats.
As we recently fact-checked, Sen. Barack Obama has been running a TV ad that falsely uses a quote from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman about Sen. John McCain's gas tax holiday plan and applies it to Sen. Hillary Clinton's plan.
Last night Krugman blogged on the matter.
"I did not say that the Clinton proposal would increase oil industry profits," Krugman writes. "If the ad implies that I did, it should be retracted. The Clinton proposal is financed by an excess profits tax. At worst, it sends money in a circle. In practice, it would probably reduce oil industry profits at least slightly, since the rise in the pre-tax price of gasoline probably wouldnt wipe out all of the tax cut. I was very clear when I wrote about the Clinton proposal that while I didnt think it was good policy, it was not the same as McCains, and relatively harmless. If the Obama people are suggesting otherwise, theyre being deliberately dishonest."
Meanwhile, Obama has launched another TV ad that uses a quote from Clinton-supporting North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley to bash the gas tax holiday idea.
In 2006, Easley opposed cutting the state gas tax, based on oil industry officials telling Tarheel State lawmakers months that such a cut would not cause an equal drop in price. Easley said cutting the gas tax would be "a subsidy for the oil companies."
A permanent cut in the state gas tax is of course not quite the same thing as a federal gas tax holiday, though economists would argue some of the same principles would apply -- that is, the law of supply and demand would mean that oil companies would raise the price regardless. (Especially if Sen. Clinton's "windfall profits tax" were also to become law and the oil companies passed on their new debt to the consumer.)
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Big companies don't pay taxes, CONSUMERS pay taxes. The notion of American industry, for some reason commonly seen as the common enemy, paying taxes is one of the oldest lies told by politicians of both parties.
Researchers last month at online security company Finjan uncovered a 1.4 gigabyte cache of stolen data from North America, Europe, the Middle East and India on a Malaysian server that provided command and control functions for malware attacks in addition to being a drop site for data harvested from compromised computers. Since the discovery in early April, the companys Malicious Code Research Center has discovered two similar servers in different parts world with similar data. They appeared to have been in operation for shorter periods of time.
The crimeserver was discovered by analysts monitoring outgoing traffic from a Finjan customers network. Following the traffic to its destination led them to the unprotected server holding the data. The server also contained several Trojans and the payload injected into compromised Web sites in addition to command and control software for the attacks and the stolen data.
The server was registered to a man from Moscow and was hosted in Singapore at the time it was discovered. It has since been shut down. The company notified more than 40 major international financial institutions in the United States, Europe and India in addition to international law enforcement agencies including the FBI.
From the story...
Britain has offered about $9.8 million to help the crisis, and the U.S. offered more than $3 million in aid. President Bush said Washington was prepared to use the U.S. Navy to help search for the dead and missing. However, the Myanmar military, which regularly accuses the United States of trying to subvert its rule, was unlikely to accept U.S. military presence in its territory.
The U.S. military started positioning people and equipment as it awaited word from Myanmar's government. An Air Force C-130 cargo plane landed in Thailand and another was on the way, Air Force spokeswoman Megan Orton said Wednesday morning at the Pentagon. "When they accept, or if they accept and we know what supplies they need those planes will be there to transport those," she said.
The Navy also has three ships participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Thailand that could help in any relief effort the USS Essex, the USS Juneau and the USS Harper's Ferry but Navy officials said they are still in a holding pattern.
The Essex is an amphibious assault ship with 23 helicopters aboard, including 19 that are capable of lifting cargo from ship to shore, as well as more than 1,500 Marines. Because it would take the Essex more than four days to get into position for the relief effort, the Navy is considering sending some of its helicopters ahead, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was still in the planning stages. The aircraft would be able to arrive in a matter of hours, and the Essex could follow, he said.
#3
I've been to Burma three times - it is a land time forgot. There will never be a true accounting of the missing and dead and the junta doesn't care. I suspect they are withholding aid so they can figure out how to a) keep journalists out and b) how to siphon off as much of it as possible. Bet the ChiComms are delivering stuff though.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
05/07/2008 21:00 Comments ||
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#4
BLOOMBERG > MYANMAR DISASTER RESPONSE [read - lack of same] MAY STOKE BACKLASH AGZ MILITARY RULERS. Popul already suffering from high food prices, etc.
OTOH, RUMORMILLNEWS > EVENTS IN HUMAN/WORLD HISTORY LINKED TO SOLAR FLUCTUATIONS. Lack of SUNSPOT ACTIVITY [Cycle "24"?] = NO FOOD = NO ECON-PRODUC ACTIVITIES = MASS MIGRATIONS, WAR(S) CONFLICT(S) and INVASION(S), INTRIGUES AND OTHER MAYHEMS???
#5
Does China regularly send aid when disaster strikes? I don't recall any help for Indonesia after the tsunami, or for Pakistan, or for the regular disasters that have become "climate" in Africa.
#6
trailing wife: It's in Chinese interests to do so in this case, just as they aid the North Koreans. Myanmar is their back door. Remember the Burma Road.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
05/07/2008 22:29 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON - President George W Bush on Tuesday signed legislation awarding Myanmar Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi the highest civilian honour from the US Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal.
Bush used the opportunity to urge that country's military leadership to accept US aid in response to a devastating cyclone over the weekend that has left more than 22,000 people dead. "The United States has made an initial aid contribution, but we want to do a lot more," Bush said. "We're prepared to move US Navy assets to help find those who've lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country."
Bush praised Suu Kyi as a pro-democracy advocate in the face of the ruling military junta that faces economic and financial sanctions from the US and other government for its suppression of dissidents. "This is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman who speaks for freedom for all the people of Burma, and who speaks in such a way that she's a powerful voice in contrast to the junta that currently rules the country," Bush said in signing approval for the award.
In 1990, Suu Kyi led her political party to a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, gaining 82 per cent of the seats in parliament. But the junta refused to recognize the results, and cracked down on all political expression. She has spent more than 12 of the past 17 years under house arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The Bush Administration setting up the next 'Benazir Bhutto'. If the Junta refuses the co-op from the US, Will "W" pander further or close the wallet?
#2
smn, Miss Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace prize a good many years ago She has been under house arrest by the Burmese military junta since 1990 -- almost two decades -- because she won the last election held in that country. The Congressional Gold Medal is just the most recent of a long list of awards given her by various governments and organizations during that time; she may never find out about it, because her ability to communicate with the world beyond her walls is tightly controlled.
Do please at least google the subject to keep from revealing such abysmal ignorance.
(AKI) - An Iranian man who was to be executed on Wednesday for a crime he committed as a minor has been given a last-minute reprieve because of international pressure. The execution of 20-year-old Behnaud Shojai has been rescheduled for June.
Behnoud was found guilty of murder after allegedly killing another young man in a park in Tehran during a fight three years ago.
However, Iranian authorities have postponed the execution after pressure from the European parliament and international rights groups. On Monday the European parliament asked Iranian authorities to suspend the execution of Behnoud, while Amnesty International also appealed to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to commute the sentence.
Behnoud, 17-years-old at the time of the crime, would have been Iran's second execution of an alleged criminal who was underage at the time of the crime.
Last week 80 death sentences were issued by the tribunal in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, 850 kilometres east of Tehran, said Iran's privately owned news agency Fars. Eighty-four people have been executed in Iran since 2008, while 317 people were executed in Iran in 2007. Iran has one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world.
A report by Amnesty International says that since 1990, Iran has executed at least 28 child offenders, six of them in 2007. At least 86 child offenders are currently on death row in Iran, although Amnesty International says this number may be higher as at least a further 15 Afghan child offenders have reportedly been sentenced to death recently.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I wish we were executing more prisoners on death row. Lets just get the backlog down a bit.
#2
I'm as much against common crime as anyone here, but I have no faith that Iran is executing people for heinous common crime -- I suspect many of these are just cover for whacking dissidents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 11:49 Comments ||
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"Oh great! I have to wait to get this over with! Thanks for nothing!"
SAN DIEGO -- U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out. Like a kiss goodbye.
At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation.
The operation appears to be an expansion of a broader federal crackdown targeting illegal immigrants in jails, airports and workplaces across the country. The checkpoints, which are not announced in advance, are set up on southbound Interstate 5 about 100 yards north of the border. Vehicles in all lanes must stop.
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#3
"but targeting illegal immigrants voluntarily leaving the country is a "bizarre" way of handling the illegal immigration question"
If your pay raise reflects the number of illegals you apprehend in a given time period, what easier way to get the numbers up with little risk than to target those already leaving?
#4
good way to help dissuade those from returning..most are just going home for vacations..they know our boader is a joke..they know they can come and go as they please.....it's about time we close this loophole...get going both ways .... get them in the database for future -- in case they choose to come back
Posted by: Dan ||
05/07/2008 17:02 Comments ||
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#5
I've read that in Singapore, they imprison illegals captured on the way out for terms ranging from months to years. They also fine them thousands of dollars. In other words, they treat them just as they treat illegals captured while living in-country. Oh - and they flog them as well, with rattan canes that leave permanent scars. I don't think that would fly here, but it's an interesting counterpoint to those who think we're mistreating illegals by deporting them or denying them driver's licenses.
#6
Dumb, but requires less work like already posted; how much $$ did they send home prior to returning home? add that to any fines. better yet, rfid implant to track repeats.
Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom, Real Clear Politics
In his recent incendiary remarks, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. claimed that criticism of his views is nothing less "an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition." Can it really be that millions of black Americans regularly choose to listen to viciously anti-white and anti-American rants on Sunday mornings?
Happily, Chicago's Trinity Church is an outlier in that regard. Most black churchgoers belong to congregations that are overwhelmingly African-American and are affiliated with one of the historically black religious denominations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) or the National Baptist Convention. Rev. Wright's Trinity Church, on the other hand, is a predominantly black branch of a white denomination that is not part of "the African-American religious tradition." The United Church of Christ (known until 1957 as the Congregational Church) has a little over a million members; a mere 4 percent of them are black. Fewer than 50,000 blacks in the entire nation worship at a UCC church.
In contrast, 98 percent of the National Baptist Convention's 4 million members are African Americans. Add in black Methodists and Pentecostals, as well as other black Baptists, and the total comes to more than 14 million members of an organized, predominantly African-American church. These churches include a substantial majority of all black adults today. In terms of sheer demographic weight, they clearly represent the "African-American religious tradition"-as Rev. Wright's branch of a overwhelmingly white denomination does not. There are also a non-trivial number of black Americans who are members of the Catholic church. Even among traditionally "ethnic" parishes*, the Catholic church has always been "salt & pepper" integrated as a matter of official policy.
These churches vary in many respects. . . . Some of these churches are led by figures like Rev. Wright, an adherent of what is called black liberation theology, which rejects racial integration and stresses the experience of black bondage. But not many. C. Eric Lincoln's mid-1980s survey of the leaders of 2,150 black churches found that two-thirds of them said they had not been influenced by "any of the authors and thinkers of black liberation theology." Indeed, 63 percent did not believe that the black church had "a different mission from the white church." A third did not even think it was "important have black figures in [their] Sunday school literature."
This integrationist vision is at one with the values of most Americans. A glance at the National Baptist Convention and the AME web sites is revealing. They feature what one might expect of any religious denomination-a statement of their creeds, the tenets of the theology and worship practices that distinguish their faith from others. There is almost no indication that these churches are predominantly African American. The closest they come to mentioning race is the AME's statement that its basic beliefs do not "differ from what all Methodists believe." The church, we learn, separated from the main Methodist body two centuries ago because of "man's intolerance of his fellow man, based on the color of his skin."
The web sites of Rev. Wright's Trinity Church and the national body to which it belong stand in shocking contrast. Before the Trinity site was sanitized in early 2008, its material seethed with racial animus and hostility towards America. . . . It is no accident that Rev. Wright's Trinity Church is affiliated with the bat-looney leftist highly progressive United Church of Christ. . . . The web site of the UCC currently features plans for a May 18 "sacred conversation on race" in which white participants will need to acknowledge "the sins" of their "ancestors" and their own "failures to confront racism." Non-whites who have "suffered the ravages of racism" will be expected only to keep their "rightful indignation" and their "temptation to despair" under control. The conversation is desperately needed, we are told, because "the quality of life for the majority of racial and ethnic people is worse today in many ways than it was during the 1960s"-a ludicrous claim.
Clearly, Rev. Wright does not speak for mainstream black churches-and he has done them a gross disservice by claiming to do so. He shares neither their vision nor their values. Why their relative silence in the face of Rev. Wright's rants? Perhaps they believe they are protecting Sen. Obama, but if Wright convinces white Americans that his hateful speeches reflect the ways African-American churchgoers think and worship, the quest for racial equality will be set back decades. *Where I grew up, as a consequence of 19th-century immigration, there was a part of town where you had St. Patrick's (the Irish parish), St. Stanislas' (the Polish parish), St. Cyril's (the Slovak/Ukranian parish), St. Francis of Assisi (the Italian parish), Our Lady of Hungary (obvious ethnicity) and the Greek Orthodox church all within a six- or eight-block space.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/07/2008 08:20 ||
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I googled "Black church" and the Wright agenda appears consistent with the rest of the movement. The common theme is: reparations. Wright and Obama are chasing the biggest ambulance of all: American private wealth.
ATLANTA A Georgia man has become the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of executions by lethal injection. Convicted killer William Earl Lynd was pronounced dead at 7:51 p.m., a state prisons official says.
Lynd, 53, was convicted of kidnapping and shooting to death his 26-year-old girlfriend two days before Christmas in 1988.
Far as I know, his girlfriend is still dead.
I'm not real good at arithmetic, but it looks like he got to breathe for 20 years more than she did.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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As a lifetime resident of GA (except for my college stint at Auburn, AL), let me be the first to say:
Nee-ner, Nee-ner, Nee-ner! We're #1! Take that Texas!
Posted by: BA ||
05/07/2008 11:03 Comments ||
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Virginia's started scheduling them again, too.
As far as I'm concerned, they should go back to using Ol' Sparkey.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/07/2008 11:23 Comments ||
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"Those people who gave us Jimmy Carter should better ask we forgive them"
#4
Even though I was only 3 at the time (in GA), I humbly ask all Rantburgians to forgive me for the pock known as Jimmuh that Georgia gave this great nation.
And, Barbara, I agree. I always think back about when "Sir" Charles Barkley (yes, the NBA star, who played at Auburn University) was running for Governor of Alabama (as a Democrat, but a "Southern" one). Someone from the press asked if he believed in the "electric chair".
His response was telling. It went like this (paraphrasing here): "Electric chair (singular)? Heck, I believe in electric BLEACHERS!"
Posted by: BA ||
05/07/2008 11:52 Comments ||
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Supply concerns? Inventories are building, not falling ...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures blasted to a new record near $123 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks.
A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday's buying, although a falling dollar and increasing concerns about declining crude production in Mexico and Russia contributed, analysts say.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped to a new record of $122.73 a barrel before retreating to settle up $1.87 at a record $121.84 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In other Nymex trading Tuesday, June gasoline futures rose 5.26 cents to settle at $3.1055 a gallon after earlier setting a new trading record of $3.126. June heating oil futures rose 4.7 cents to settle at $3.3535 a gallon after rising to their own trading record of $3.3712, and June natural gas futures fell 2.8 cents to settle at $11.15 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, June Brent crude futures rose $2.18 to settle at $120.31 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
The Energy Department raised its oil and gasoline price forecasts, but also predicted that high prices will cut demand more than previously thought.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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$ 1.54 per gallon for regular is bad, but 1.34 per litre in Germany recently was much worse. Domestic drilling is ONE of the solutions.
#6
On Good Morning America yesterday, the weather guy was broadcasting from one of the two villages in ANWAR (the southern one, which would be a very long way from the drilling area). It was all about DON'T DRILL HERE EVER!!! They did show one guy from the northern town (where the drilling would be) who was in support of the drilling, but he had few teeth and wasn't nearly as urbane and photogenic as the nice people who opposed the drilling. Made me want to puke!
#7
Just saw a Dodge commercial (during the Seattle ballgame) where the perky blonde promises $2.99 a gallon fuel for the next 3 years or first 12,000 / year if you buy their vehicles. didn't catch the small print so don't know what exclusions, but may almost be worthwhile to do so and put the rig on blocks and stick the speedometer cabel in a drill to clock 11,999; i bet $2.99, hell $3.99 is going to look awful cheap in a couple years.
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.
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7 and May 8, 1945, the dates when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. . . . The act of military surrender was signed on May 7 in Reims, France, and May 8 in Berlin, Germany. . . .
Former vice president tells NPR's 'Fresh Air' cyclone is example of 'consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.'
MOGADISHU - Angry Mogadishu residents protested for a second day on Tuesday against food traders who rejected old currency notes, blocking roads and stoning cars. Witnesses said at least one storekeeper was stabbed by protesters after one demonstrator was shot and killed on Monday.
Researchers last month at online security company Finjan uncovered a 1.4 gigabyte cache of stolen data from North America, Europe, the Middle East and India on a Malaysian server that provided command and control functions for malware attacks in addition to being a drop site for data harvested from compromised computers. Since the discovery in early April, the companys Malicious Code Research Center has discovered two similar servers in different parts world with similar data. They appeared to have been in operation for shorter periods of time.
SAN DIEGO -- U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out. 
