Hat tip: The Corner EFL. Oh, ferchrissakes
HALIFAX - The Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to hear arguments on whether the word "kemosabe" is racist to native people. The request comes from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, which is dealing with a grievance dating back to 1999. "Justice" running a little slow, is it? *snip*
Last February, a human rights board of inquiry ruled Moore was not discriminated against because she hadn't shown she was offended by the word, nor did she ask her boss to stop using it. Typical. Guess he's supposed to be a mind reader. Second choice: She's an idiot.
Are we limited to an either/or here?
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in October, saying Moore had not shown the term was "notoriously offensive." For the first time in its 37-year history, the commission has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal a decision of the province's Court of Appeals. My, my - methinks someone's got an agenda. *snip*
The board of inquiry spent one day looking at old Lone Ranger shows, eventually concluding that the term was never used in a derogatory way and that Tonto and the Lone Ranger treated each other with respect. Uh, guys - it didn't take those of us who watched the originals a whole day to figure that out. Or were you just enjoying the shows?
The Supreme Court has yet to decide if it will hear the appeal. That will probably depend on (a) whether they've seen The Lone Ranger, (b) whether they want to see the shows again, (c) how desperate they are to take on an idiot case, and (d) whether the majority of the Canadian Supreme Court has an agenda, too. Good luck, Canucks. You definitely need it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 11:09:02 AM ||
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#1
"Justice" running a little slow, is it?
Well, Canuckia does have a higher likelihood of having glaciers.....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 13:23 Comments ||
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#4
This is Canada we're talking about: let them settle it under sharia law.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/23/2004 13:25 Comments ||
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#5
Tom - that would probably work.
Of course, it would involve stoning or beheading her....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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#6
What do you mean we, white man?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/23/2004 13:45 Comments ||
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#7
I thought that "kemosabe" meant friend or buddy. I also seem to remember that the reason the Lone Ranger had cowboy superpowers was because he was raised by Indians rather than whites. Also, having an Indian sidekick that could track, fight, shoot, and move silently was supposed to be cool, not bigoted.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto rode the trail,catching outlaws and putting them in jail.
But the Ranger shot old Tonto cause it seems...He found out what "Kemosabe" means...
:-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 20:12 Comments ||
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#9
What I heard was that "kemosabe" was a corruption of the Spanish "quien mas sabe"-- in English, "he who knows more". If so, Tonto was just kinda sucking up.....
#10
In the US there are 4 busineses listed under Kemosabe and 7 enterprises calling themselves Kemo Sabe. Ya think they are intentionally offending their customers?
For "The Definitive Word on 'Kemo Sabe'" check this link. It seems that Canadian lawyers don't have enough to do.
#2
That's where we get our cats. This is one of the stupidest things I've heard of, but it costs too much to happen too often. Good thing is, it will get a lot of play in the press and give shelter operators a venue to bring up all the pets they have for adoption.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2004 11:10 Comments ||
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If I need another cat I don't think I would have a hard time finding one right here in the neighborhood. People don't spay and nuter. I am all for the shelter route if you can get a non feral kitten. It hard to ge6 the wild out of them even if you raise them from kittens. Momma has a wild gene she passes I think. I have had to trap feral Cats. It's a bummer to know they will be put down but you can't have then repropducing in the bushes and they will like rabbits.
#6
Kittens have to be accustomed to, and be held by humans from the very first, in order to adjust well to being a pet. A feral mother will never let you near her kittens,and by the time they are out and about, and encountering humans, it is almost always too late. We had a mother cat who let us handle her babies from the beginning, and they all made wonderful, well adjusted pets.
#7
SPoD and Sgt. Mom. the head cat around here is feral as hell... double feral. Fell from a tree when she had just opened her eyes. The other regular cats understand somehow the feralnisitiy (lol) and respect it.
#2
Conspiracy theories go in cycles. The "evil microwave" claim was red-hot in the mid-80s, when it made its way into the MSM and a reporter for Penthouse MoonbatOmni magazine claimed that her life had been threatened for investigating the sinister emissions.
It went into abeyance when cell phones became a required accessory for media conformists*, but appears set for a revival now that the devices are almost universal. Jan Brunvand, the folklorist who coined the term "urban legend," once noted that urban legends and allied phenomena, such as conspiracy theories, have a characteristic frequency of repetition. The "50 mpg carburetor," for example, swept the country every 3 years and 4 months without fail for almost 60 years. Other claims have different frequencies, that of the "Waldorf red cake" being over seven years.
This was true only so long as word of mouth was the chief vector. The Frequency of recurrence characteristic is almost obsolete, now that even the most bizarre ideas are kept current on the internet.
*Media elitist preferences and fads, or phenomena perceived as such, are almost never targeted by conspiracy theories.
#3
There's been a lot of negative effects from Eternal September.
You also have to take into account that as long as certain comspiracy theories fit a larger pattern, there are entire electronic networks devoted to their dissemination... like the late-night conspiracy radio shows.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/23/2004 0:55 Comments ||
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#4
I'd have to quibble about the "moonbat" description. More like the "Tin-Foil Hat Brigade" I think...
#5
Sheesh. Amateurs. All they gotta do is build a pyramid frame to cover the building - those waves'll bounce right off - and the bonus is the bread will rise higher and faster, Mrs Greenfield's cheeks will be rosier, all the wymyns there will have bigger boobs, and all the myns will have, uh, um, tighter buns and a much gooder time. Of course, there effect is the when you long stay too under the pyramid's influence, your English skills suffer, they do. Yes. I've happen seen it.
#6
Well if they are nervous there is a device know as a "Faraday cage"the can live in. I found this funny just so funny.
The higher power phones that used to be common made me nervous (5 watts) The current phone output in miliwatts and vary power to only that which is needed. But I was taught years ago to not look into wave guides At high power and up close Microwaves are dangerous to soft tissue. But phones can't output in this power range. Very little to see here, move along.
#7
A friend of one of my uncles had one of those 100 mpg carburetors, evidently Pacific Gas & Electric bought the patent seeing 125 mpg automobiles has a threat to its near monopoly on urban transportation. General Motors then bought out PG&E to own the secret of the 150 mpg carburetor, but GM found that the patent earlier had been sold to Brown & Root. :(
#9
Angie - I can see the beacon from my balcony, heh. That sucker's so big I think the effects radiate for some distance... well, that's my excuse,anyway. ;-)
#11
Spot - Frequent visitor, perhaps? Must be another one in Texas where our guy lives... bigger, of course, but missing the glitz, which the Texans would eschew, anyway... ;-)
US immigration authorities Wednesday ordered the deportation of a former Cuban government employee accused of persecuting dissidents in his communist-led home country. Luis Enrique Daniel Rodriguez, a former Cuban interior ministry employee, was detained in July after a judge issued a deportation order. Rodriguez, 37, has been held at an immigration detention facility in Miami. US authorities accuse him, among other things, of breaking into the homes of two Cuban dissidents in Havana, including the residence of Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Rodriguez's attorneys said. But Sanchez has denied that Rodriguez took actions against him. Rodriguez's attorney say their client, who admitted having worked for the Cuban government, is a defector and denied he committed human right abuses.
"Lies! All lies!"
"Human rights violators cannot and will not use the United States as a safe haven," said Jesus Torres, head of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Miami office.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2004 12:15:13 AM ||
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#1
Putski, pull your head out of your ass. Don't "meddle" with the Ukraine they will always be attached at the hip to Russia unless you piss them off. Hey I am not asking ya to negotiate with Chechens. I am praying you kill every damm last islamo-terrorist there. There are no "freedom fighters there" just baby killers.
#2
I wonder why Putin isn't bitching & moaning about China trying to corner the world market on manufacturing, and aggressively consuming resource inputs that would benefit the entire world if shared. The 'Bear' can't seem to find that big 'Dragon' for the little 'Eagle' it's hiding behind!
#3
This is the strangest thing I've ever heard of. I don't really see what Russia needs from the West that it will stop getting because of this so-called isolation. It's not like we're going to stop buying oil from Russia or sending drilling equipment in that direction. Putin's just getting all paranoid in his old age. Just what the heck is "isolation" bad for Russia? The guy's just prone to strange statements. If there's one country that's isolated, it's the US, with Kyoto, the International Law of the Sea, the Land Mine Convention, the International Criminal Court, Iraq, et al, being points of contention. The US was isolated over Grenada, Panama, etc. But it made absolutely no difference. Russia's not going to be hurt by this so-called isolation. I think it's just a propaganda ploy to get Russian public opinion behind him, because the mean old West is supposedly out to get him.
#4
Bingo, ZF. Domestic consumption only. Another sign that Pooty is retrogresing Russia. I'll be he spends New Year's watching Alexander Nevsky.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/23/2004 19:50 Comments ||
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Russia has no real friends in this world, only customers of varying degrees of need. Export-oriented and energy-poor Germany dearly needs the Russian market and Russian natural gas; Britain less so and France still less. As to China, Russia needs a willing and indulgent Chinese partner. China will inevitably dominate most of the Russian FAr East, turning these semi-independent Russian baronies into de facto satellites within a generation. And of course we do with Russia as we please. Beyond these nations and Japan and Korea, no one else much cares about Russia.
#6
lex: China will inevitably dominate most of the Russian FAr East, turning these semi-independent Russian baronies into de facto satellites within a generation.
De facto will not become de jure. The US won't put up with a Chinese conquest of Siberia any more than it put up with the Japanese conquest of China. If China ever makes a move on Siberia, expect US troops to fight alongside Russian troops to recover the area.
#7
conquest by osmosis. chinese businessmen are calling the shots. russian businessmen across the far east are starting to learn chinese in order to survive economically. won't be long before the bandit governors of the far east russian regions kowtow as well.
A Summary of a Riveting Book of a truely gathering danger and American Corporations' Insatiable Greed.
Gutmann worked for a few years in Beijing, then did something extraordinarily useful: namely, this book. He has reported, clear-eyed, what he found in China, burning his bridges, spilling all the secrets. Secrets of whom? Mainly of the Americans who form sort of a permanent colony there. These Americans cooperate with the Chinese government to sustain the illusion of proper capitalism and progress. Gutmann is like some mammoth sociological, political whistleblower. And he blows it in irresistible style.
You can smell his Beijing. He is unvarnished about the Chinese, and unvarnished about the Americans. He offers a thousand insights, and a hundred character studies. The Chinese government — which lies as normal people breathe — helped stir the Chinese people into a hateful frenzy after the U.S. military's accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The next day, Gutmann's office mates (Chinese) demanded that his air conditioning be turned off. That is a tiny story to remember.
The author details how the Chinese government manipulates American politicians, American policymakers, and American businessmen, and how the Beijing Americans freely abet this manipulation. The Americans internalize the Party line, calling Falun Gong "a bunch of nuts," for example. Never mind the torture and murder. Gutmann's illustrations of American kowtowing are amazing. Our agents there mouth the mantra that "American business is the long-term catalyst for better human rights in China," and, despite what they know, they do this "with a straight face." They are also happy to do the Chinese government's work of blackballing peskily inquiring American journalists. The Washington Times's Bill Gertz, for instance, is not welcome in China, or in the American colony.
The chapter called "Visiting Day" is one of Gutmann's best. It describes the Potemkin tours given U.S. congressmen, CEOs, and others, all in a game of "fool the foreigner." So a Gov. Jesse Ventura is moved to say, "I know when I've come face to face with the future."
Ranters: Recent posts have included China's interest in energy (read oil) in Venezuela, Sudan, Iran, etc. -- and Canada, the US's number one oil provider.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/23/2004 4:04:37 PM ||
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December 23, 2004: The information revolution is being led, not by the Internet (with about 700 million users worldwide), but by cell phones (1.5 billion worldwide.) China is one of the more striking examples of how this works. With over 300 million cell phone users, China is finding that the Internet is easier to control than all those cell phone users. About a quarter of the population has cell phones and they are nearly everywhere. People see something, they immediately start calling people. Rumors were always a problem in communist nations, but the cell phone allows rumors, and real information the government would rather keep to itself, to travel nation wide in minutes. China's Stalinist neighbor, North Korea, is being invaded by Chinese cell phones (many held illegally by North Koreans), and posing a very real threat to government control of the media.
Actually, "controlling" the Internet is more a matter of limiting some information to users. This is much more difficult with telephones. China is known to be interested in software and technology that can be used to monitor large numbers of telephone messages, looking for anti-government material. There is also a limit, in terms of cost, to how many individual phones you can tap. The explosion in Internet and cell phone use in China, where two decades any phone service was an easily controlled luxury, has done more to introduce democracy than anything else. Government officials must pay attention to public opinion, because government misbehavior or incompetence can no longer be covered up. And when something does happen, most of the population will know about it quickly. And if the people are not happy with government actions, they now have the means to quickly mobilize protests. The government knows this, and has been reforming itself into a more efficient, and democratic, creature as a result.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2004 11:12:54 AM ||
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Cell Phones as a Weapon
Seems to me that the earlier days of cell phone use would have been a more dangerous time, what with all the large-sized, and therefore, heavier, units in use. Nowadays, the teensy little phones in use, when thrown, will only raise a rather small bump on the head upon impact...
#3
Well, injudicious use of the camera-cellphone CAN be hazardous to one's health. My daughter (the Marine) was on vacation in Florida a couple of months ago, out at a bar with some girlfriends, and there was a perv with a camera-cellphone taking pictures up womens' skirts. My daughter rather vaugely remembers smashing the phone and bouncing his head off the bar a couple of times. The perv was thrown out of the bar, and people there bought her a LOT of drinks.
It's not a good thing to provoke Marines in bars...
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, arrived Thursday in fuel-hungry China to sign an energy deal and discuss strategic ties. Chavez was due to meet with President Hu Jintao and China's No. 2 leader, Wu Bangguo, later in the day. "We are working on projects, on housing, energy, oil, technological and agricultural agreements," Chavez said in comments shown on Venezuelan state television after his arrival in the Chinese capital. China and Venezuela are discussing the possible joint development of a Venezuelan oilfield amid Beijing's worldwide hunt for fuel to avert energy shortages in its booming economy. Chavez and Hu planned to sign a deal to build a plant in China to produce the industrial fuel Orimulsion, according to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez. In return, Venezuela is to receive Chinese technical assistance to boost agricultural output and to start a state-run telecommunications company. "China has entered a new phase with Mr. Hu Jintao's government (and) we, in Venezuela, have entered a new phase to strengthen ... the relationship between the Bolivarian Revolution and the Chinese Revolution," Chavez said. Venezuelans and the Chinese "agree on many things on the domestic level, such as grass roots development ... and on the international level, like the need for a multi-polar world," he said. Chavez's four-day China trip comes amid a flurry of efforts by the Venezuelan leader to build ties with Russia and Middle Eastern governments. Some observers say Chavez is trying to ensure markets for Venezuelan oil in the event of a fallout in relations with the United States, which is its No. 1 buyer but also a critic of the Chavez government.
The first wave of 100 soldiers based in north Queensland is on its way to Solomon Islands in response to yesterday's fatal shooting of a Australian Federal Police Protective Service officer. Adam Dunning, 26, was killed while on a routine patrol in Honiara.
At the Townsville RAAF base today, there was a feeling of calm and orderly precision as the soldiers received their last safety orders before flying to the Solomons. Corporal Quinn O'Connell says his wife and two-year-old daughter who he will leave behind for Christmas understand he has a duty to fulfil. "My wife was happy enough that I went," he said.
Corporal Luke Woodward says many of the soldiers had early Christmas dinners with their families last night. "It was hard, they're obviously disappointed that we're going but they know that we're going over there to serve our nation and do well," he said. "Fingers crossed, everything goes well and we'll be back soon."
The Australian Federal Police Commissioner has rejected suggestions the military support for Australian police working in Solomon Islands should have been boosted before yesterday's fatal sniper attack. Australian protective services officer Adam Dunning, 26, was killed while he was on a routine patrol in Honiara. Australian forces there also came under sniper fire in October but Commissioner Mick Keelty says that was the first such attack in 16 months and it was considered to be an isolated incident.
Commissioner Keelty says although around 100 Australian troops will fly to the Solomons today, the mission has had military support all along. "We haven't been left vulnerable here and of course the police here are armed, but we have removed a large number of arms from the community," he said. "When you consider the progress that was being made, this has come as a bit of a shock, but it's part and parcel of the dangers of this sort of police work, not only in this country but in other countries where we've deployed."
But Commissioner Keelty says even with the support there will still be dangers. "The leads that have been followed by the investigation team who we've spoken to this morning seem fairly concrete at this stage," he said. "But there's no gaurantee even if the people responsible for this are arrested that nothing will happen in the future. That's the dangers of policing and that's the danger that police face anywhere in the world even in our own country."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/23/2004 12:46:05 AM ||
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Three planeloads of Australian troops will today leave for Solomon Islands, in a show of force directed at rebels around Honiara. The Federal Government has ordered an infantry company from Townsville to leave for Honiara, after the murder of 26-year-old Australian Protective Service officer Adam Dunning. A sniper using a military-style rifle fired on the police vehicle that Mr Dunning was travelling in with another officer. Mr Dunning was shot in the back and died at the scene. The infantry company, who have been on rapid response stand-by for several months, was given just 24 hours notice of their deployment. Defence Minister Robert Hill says 100 troops will leave in three waves, arriving in the Solomons throughout the afternoon. "They will travel by C-130," he said. "We expect the first C-130 to be off the ground by midday."
Aussies don't screw around, do they?
Senator Hill says the military deployment is intended to send a message to armed rebels that Australia will not be intimidated. There will now be around 260 Defence personnel and 150 Federal Police in the Solomons. The Government is giving no indication how long the soldiers leaving Townsville will be required to stay. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday that the murder was being fully investigated but agreed it would not deter the work of Australian police in the Pacific region. He said commanders of the force in the Solomons were considering the use of body armour. "The police in Solomon Islands, remembering that it is largely an unarmed mission because so many weapons have been removed from the community, don't [want to] have a knee-jerk reaction to this," he said. "[We want to] have a measured response. Having said that, we will take every precaution necessary to protect our own staff."
The Federal Member for the Townsville-based seat of Herbert, Peter Lindsay, says Australian troops will stay in Solomon Islands for as long as it takes to restore safety. About 100 troops will be sent from Townsville to Solomon Islands today in response to the murder of an Australian Protective Service Officer on patrol in Honiara. Mr Lindsay says it is unfortunate timing. "It is hard for the soldiers going today to the Solomons, they will be away from their loved ones at Christmas but they are part of the ready deployment force," he said. "They understand they can be called anywhere in 24 hours notice and they will be responding today where Australia needs them."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/23/2004 6:11:25 PM ||
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good points made, but he ignores one teenie-weenie area of weirdness: the twin obsessions with Israel and with US power. "Normal" Germans get very weird in a hurry when the subject turns to any of the following: US military might, Israel, US technological dominance, Israel, Microsoft, Israel, US postsecondary educational superiority, Israel...
HOME-MADE pornographic videos shot by a United Nations logistics expert in the Democratic Republic of Congo have sparked a sex scandal that threatens to become the UN's Abu Ghraib.
The expert was a Frenchman who worked at Goma airport as part of the UN's $700 million-a-year effort to rebuild the war-shattered country. When police raided his home they discovered that he had turned his bedroom into a studio for videotaping and photographing sex sessions with young girls.
The bed was surrounded by large mirrors on three sides, according to a senior Congolese police officer. On the fourth side was a camera that he could operate from the bed with a remote control.
When the police arrived the man was allegedly about to rape a 12-year-old girl sent to him in a sting operation. Three home-made porn videos and more than 50 photographs were found.
The case has highlighted the apparently rampant sexual exploitation of Congolese girls and women by the UN's 11,000 peacekeepers and 1,000 civilians at a time when the UN is facing many problems, including the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal and accusations of sexual harassment by senior UN staff in Geneva and New York.
The prospect of the pornographic videos and photographs now on sale in Congo becoming public worries senior UN officials, who fear a UN version of the scandal at the American-run Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. It would be a pretty big problem for the UN if these pictures come out, one senior official said.
Investigations have already turned up 150 allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers and UN staff despite the UN's official policy of "zero-tolerance". One found 68 allegations of misconduct in the town of Bunia alone.
UN insiders told The Times that two Russian pilots based in Mbandaka paid young girls with jars of mayonnaise and jam to have sex with them.
They filmed the sessions and sent the tapes to Russia. But the men were tipped off and left the area before UN investigators arrived.
The Moroccan peacekeeping contingent based in Kisangani a town on the Congo River with no road links to the outside world had one of the worst reputations. A soldier accused of rape was apparently hidden in the barracks for a year.
In July 2002 the rebel commander Major-General Jean Pierre Ondekane, who subsequently became Minister of Defence in a postwar transitional government, told a top UN official that all that Monuc (the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) would be remembered for in Kisangani was for running after little girls.
An international organisation examining the sex trade between Monuc and local women found that in March there were 82 women and girls who had been made pregnant by Moroccan men and 59 more by Uruguayan men.
According to UN insiders, at least two UN officials a Ukrainian and a Canadian have had to leave the country after getting local women pregnant.
Jordan's Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein, a special adviser to the UN Secretary-General, who led one investigative team, said in a confidential report obtained by The Times: The situation appears to be one of zero-compliance with zero- tolerance throughout the mission
Sexual exploitation and abuse mostly involves the exchange of sex for money (on average between $1 — 52p — and $3), for food — for immediate consumption or to barter — or for jobs, especially affecting daily workers, the prince's report said.
More at the link if you haven't had enough.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/23/2004 6:36:39 PM ||
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"The UN’s Abu Ghraib"? That's rich! Nothing remotely as revolting as this went on at Abu Ghraib.
But then, to brains twisted in a certain way, there was no difference between AG under Saddam and AG under the Yanks. Weird!
Sex scandal in Congo threatens to engulf UN’s peacekeepers
And this is different from usual how, exactly?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 19:59 Comments ||
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#3
Lyndde England for Secretary General: the logical choice.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2004 20:26 Comments ||
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#4
If the pictures are on sale in the Congo,I'd say they were pretty public. What the writer meant is the UN is afraid they will become public in the US,making Grand Poobah Kofi toast.
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/23/2004 20:38 Comments ||
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#5
Paging Mike Sylwester...
Posted by: Tom ||
12/23/2004 21:04 Comments ||
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#6
a Frenchman, ya say....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2004 22:09 Comments ||
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday that when Congress returns in January, she will propose a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a one-person, one-vote one-party system for electing the nation's president and vice president.
"We don't think Wyoming should have any influence in the electoral process. Nobody we know lives there!"
In introducing the amendment, the Democrat from San Francisco is joining Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who last month introduced a similar proposal in the House, which she said she would reintroduce in the 109th Congress that convenes on Jan. 3. The two California lawmakers say the current system makes most Americans election bystanders, pointing toward the recent campaign in which President Bush and his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, focused almost all their time, energy and campaign funds on a handful of undecided states in search of their electoral votes.
Instead of the civilized East and Left coasts.
"The Electoral College is an anachronism, and the time has come to bring our democracy into the 21st century," Feinstein said in a statement. "During the founding years of the republic, the Electoral College may have been a suitable system, but today it is flawed and amounts to national elections being decided in several battleground states.''
"Those damm people in fly-over country with their outdated values keep denying us our permanent grip on power!"
But explain how it's flawed, Diane. Why shouldn't Wyoming have as much of a voice in the election as it has in Congress? Or were you thinking of yanking its representatives and giving them to Marin County?
Despite some popular appeal, the proposal faces a difficult road to passage. It takes a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress followed by ratification by 38 states for a constitutional amendment to become law.
Including those pesky Red states
Like Wyoming.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2004 12:02:06 PM ||
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#1
After the abolishment of the Electorial College they will install a Caliphate. Then those pesky red staters will know what fear is. I am thinking of running against her in 06. Given the past performance of Republican candidates, I can't do much worse.
#4
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday that when Congress returns in January, she will propose a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a one-person, one-vote system for electing the nation's president and vice president.
What's next? Apportioning U.S. Senate seats based on population concentration?
"The Electoral College is an anachronism, and the time has come to bring our democracy into the 21st century," Feinstein said in a statement.
Odd, but I don't recall that the beginning of a new 100 year cycle necessitated making changes that never needed to be made before.
"During the founding years of the republic, the Electoral College may have been a suitable system, but today it is flawed and amounts to national elections being decided in several battleground states."
Abolish the Electoral College, and all a candidate has to do is capture most major metropolitan areas (typical Democrat strongholds, no less) and voila!
Now shut the phuque up, Feinstein, and go peddle your scheme somewhere else.
The Electoral College is not strictly democratic, but neither is the Senate, and noone complains about that.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/23/2004 12:52 Comments ||
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News flash Dianne, we live in a REPUBLIC, not a democracy. Checks and balances chum. Now, I know you libdems hate that checks and balances stuff since it keeps you from having perminate power, but you are gonna have to live with it or you ain't gonna live.
#8
This would be a nightmare with every vote contested everywhere. But I'm not concerned because it would have to be approved by a lot of states that aren't as foolish as she is. This is not a pure democracy, it is a republic. There are good reasons for that.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/23/2004 13:19 Comments ||
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#9
Bwahahahaha!
The folks in Wyoming and North Dakota are sure to vote for this one. This is the last amendment passed before the one replacing the Constitution with Sharia.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/23/2004 13:44 Comments ||
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#10
DiFi wants to do alot of stuff like grab you guns.
"She can bite my shiney metal ass" once again.
#11
I doubt she'd allow Californians outside LA and the Bay Area to count - too many of "the wrong people"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2004 14:26 Comments ||
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#12
The most charming expression I have heard used in San Francisco is "carboard cut-out people." I had a person that lives here explain to me that those who don't live in a place like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York don't lead real lives or have real interests; they're like the cardboard people you see at the movie theater.
#13
I had a person that lives here explain to me that those who don't live in a place like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York don't lead real lives or have real interests; they're like the cardboard people you see at the movie theater.
Throw a burning match on her. I bet she lights up like the rest of us.
#14
Is old DiFi shopping for a legacy issue - something that will put her in the history books? The ClueBat says this isn't it either, DiFi. Keep looking - you'll find something warm and fluffy amd suitably pointless eventually...
#15
All right, then, let's dump the EC. Instead, the election will simply be 1 state = 1 vote. We need to strengthen the states against the central government.
Oh, and and as a package deal, let's have term limits for Senators.
#16
By Feinstein's logic, and I use the term loosely, the Senate is an anachronism, since the number of senators representing each state does not depend on the population of that state. That was the whole point of having a senate.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2004 16:37 Comments ||
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#17
This shows just how STUPID feinstein is. She knows nothing about our system of checks and balances. If the Electoral College were abolished, Presidents would be elected by Massachussetts and New York liberals.....PERIOD!
#18
Uh, Floting Granter5198, I think she knows exactly that.
She's counting on it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 18:32 Comments ||
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#19
But I'll bet a staffer had to explain it to her. She's remarkably uninsightful... As for the "cardboard cut-outs" - she's a "grocery store checkout news" politician...
#20
has anyone bothered to look at turnout figures by state? if blue state republicans had, overall, significantly lower turnout than red state democrats, then direct election would have probably increased Bush's popular vote margin.
Poor idiotic DiFi. She still thinks that election turnout is driven by MSM advertising in major TV markets. The Dems blew tens of millions on ads in the greater NYC market and Bush increased his share of the NYC are vote by 36 percent vs 2000. Has DiFi even heard of Rove's 1.4 million volunteers?
Also, the only real hope for the Dems in upcoming presidential elections is to win a few of the rapidly growing southwestern and rocky mountain states. Direct election would nullify these gains and magnify the Republicans' superiority in turning out their base in not just Texas but also pro-Repub counties across California and New York.
"It's going to be a Blue Christmas" -- and a busy new year -- for a three-week-old website that urges "blue state" voters to "buy blue," too. "You may have voted blue," the website warns liberals, "but every day you unknowingly help dump millions of dollars into the conservative war chest. By purchasing products and services from companies that donate heavily to conservatives, we have been defeating our own interests as liberals and progressives." BuyBlue.org describes its mission as a "concerted effort to lift the veil of corporate patronage so consumers can make informed buying decisions that coincide with their principles." The website identifies what percentage of a company's political donations go to which political party -- and it urges liberals to "shop accordingly."
Gee, I'll bet if "Red voters" did something like this, the "Blues" would scream that Bush and Rove were violating the companies rights or something.
Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Dollar General and Coors Brewing make the website's relatively long list of "red" companies -- those with political action committees and/or officers that donated heavily to Republicans. The list of "blue" companies is much smaller at the moment. It includes Costco, Barnes & Noble, J. Crew, and the Gallo winery, to name a few.
If I was a company on the "blue" list, I'd be very nervous about this getting too much play
The data comes from the Center for Responsive Politics and the Federal Election Commission, the website says. According to its organizers, the idea for BuyBlue.org dawned on the morning after the 2004 election -- when "half the country woke up in disbelief and disgust...It didn't take long for all of us to collectively realize that we had lost our country to the other side, and we wanted, no needed, to do something about it." Individuals can't have much impact on their own, BuyBlue says -- "but if we are part of an army of Blue buyers, through the power of the free market we can create the changes we desire. All we have to do is make it profitable to be ethical."
I see, if you boycott products it's ethical. If conservatives do it, it's supressing free speech.
The website's co-founder, Raven Brooks, said the "Buy Blue" Christmas campaign has been a big success -- "not because I can quantify how much it did or didn't effect (sic) retailers this Christmas season but because of the overwhelming response to the idea." In fact, the website has received extensive media coverage in the few weeks since its inception (much of it documented on the group's website); and it has an interview lined up on CNN on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
No wonder I haven't heard about it.
Brooks is a computer systems analyst in San Francisco who co-founded the website with a fellow Democratic activist he met online, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A similar website, launched independently of BuyBlue.org, also offers consumer a blue/red shopping directory, but ChoosetheBlue.org, despite its name, does not offer any ideology with its data.
Yeh, right
BuyBlue.org, on the other hand, has grand plans. According to its vision statement, "BuyBlue.org will become a powerful tool used by a community of millions dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of our elected and appointed leaders." The fledgling organization said it plans to form "strong coalitions" with stockholders, shareholders, corporations, small businesses and communities that "share our values."
And destroy anyone who doesn't
"We will influence the political landscape, stimulate economic growth among participating businesses and industries and use the American dollar as an incentive for corporate transparency and responsibility," the vision statement concludes.
Works both ways, A**hole
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2004 11:24:15 AM ||
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Brooks is a computer systems analyst in San Francisco..
EFL After losing the first two counts in the extraordinarily close Washington governor's race, Democrat Christine Gregoire pulled ahead by 10 votes after King County reported its hand recount results on Wednesday. Gregoire's slim margin could widen on Thursday, when Democrat-heavy King County plans to count 700-plus belatedly discovered ballots. Over Republicans' objections, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that those ballots should be counted. At a news conference in Seattle, Gregoire said she won't declare victory yet. "Keep the faith," she told cheering supporters. "The election process is working exactly as it should." According to the Democratic Playbook.
"When Christine Gregoire was 261 and then 42 votes behind, she referred to it as a 'tie,'" Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said, quoting Gregoire's reaction to Rossi's victories in the first two statewide vote counts. "We're not going to call this a tie but it is extremely close. It's certainly too close to call and Dino is not conceding," Lane said. "This election is not over."
Gregoire, 57, a three-term attorney general, was the favorite going into the election against Rossi, 45, a real estate agent and former state senator. But Rossi suprised political experts by squeaking out a 261-vote win over Gregoire. His lead was whittled to 42 votes in a subsequent machine recount. Democrats paid $730,000 for the hand recount, though by law the state has to repay the party if the recount reverses the results. Gregoire won another victory on Wednesday when the state Supreme Court ruled that King County should include hundreds of recently discovered ballots in the hand recount of the still-undecided governor's race. Gregoire called the high court's decision "a victory for the voters of the state of Washington." I have witnessed this Democratic tactic many times here in California. The election is close and suddenly election officials discover hundreds (or thousands) of uncounted (and questionable) ballots that just happened to be stored by the Democratic election official. Check with your state elections official and I bet you will find that EVERY election the last precinct to file is large and predominately democratic. It's almost as if they are waiting to see if they need to spring the ballot surprise or not.
Here in California, Berkley and San Francisco are always the last two places to file their results. What if it was Orange County (Very Red) and they suddenly had a thousand ballots that could turn the election? The LLL would descend on that county with an army of lawyers and demonstrators.
I say let the results stand and let the Democrat become the next Governor. It may not be right but it's probably the right thing to do. Mr. Rossi stand a good chance of winning the Senate race in 2006 and retiring another Democrat from the Senate. It would be a nice counter balance to the other Senator Pat Murray — C (Communist).
Bunch of lightweight wimps. Here in Chicago, no self-respecting ward-heeler would ever allow an election to be this close in the first place. We don't discover uncounted ballots after the election, we make sure they all get counted the first time.
Old story: young pup working his first election rigs a precinct so that the final vote is something like 1400 for the Democrat and 0 for the Republican. The old ward boss is aghast, rips the pup a new one and reminds him that no one, no one will believe this. He then tells the young pup to go back and give the Republican candidate 3 votes. That's how we do things Chicago-style.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge ||
12/23/2004 10:58:24 AM ||
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700-plus "discovered" ballots seems to me to be a sign of incompetence, if not outright wrongdoing. It is the responsiblity of election officials to account for ALL of the ballots after they are cast.
Take careful note of what happened in this instance, folks. This is how the 2000 election was to have played out, had more time been available.
#4
the dems already have both legislative bodies in Wash State
I tend to agree with Cyber Sarge that getting the governorship isn't such a great idea for the republicans
not only is the legislature hostile and inclined to raise taxes but the regional economy still hasn't recovered from the bubble and some of the old line businesses have looked at the anti business attitude in Seattle and decided to move
#7
let em rot - they have Baghdad Jim as a rep - they're already on the other side
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2004 19:51 Comments ||
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#8
These things always provide an increase in democratic votes and a decrease of republican votes, then there is the slight-of-hand production of "found" votes.
Sooner or later this kind of action will reach past well dressed lawyers and corrupt judges. The rule of law depends on peaceful transition of power--if we lose that then the republic is at risk.
#9
Hey Frank, not all of us in Washington are blue.
What is not mentioned is that the Republicans are likily to sue - stating that if King County can 'discover' 700-odd ballots then other (mostly red) counties should be able to do likewise. There are also (at least) 70 vets who have signed affidavids stating that they voted but their votes were 'rejected' due to signatures or some such BS....
Then there are the military men who (for some odd and unexplained reason....) received their absentee ballot too late to be able to vote.
In short its the same shit they tried in Florida...
Of course now that the Dims are in front the MSM here is saying 'move on.... nothing to see here....'.
After a conspiratorial glance over the shoulder to make sure he is not overheard, Hakim, a Myanmar Muslim, leans over his beer to deliver a whispered verdict on his country's military government. "Saddam Hussein -- he great big bastard. In my country, the same," he tells Reuters in the bowels of a grimy Yangon bar. However, unlike many in the former Burma, Hakim's gripe against the ruling generals is economic, not political. As a 37-year-old trying to support a family of four, he curses the junta's mismanagement of the economy more than its contempt for the results of 1990 elections it lost by a landslide, or its detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Hakim estimates that he and the thousands like him eking out a living as second-hand salesmen on the streets of the capital earn around $30 a month -- placing the once wealthy former British colony on a par with war-ravaged Cambodia. Decades of poor policies, U.S. and European sanctions and, more recently, the purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and his network of business interests, have left the economy way behind those of prospering neighbours such as Thailand, analysts say. snip
One rare bright spot has been the discovery in recent years of sizeable oil and natural gas reserves off the Myanmar coast.
Cue seething, oppression, and the 7,343rd holiest site in Islam.
South Korea and India in particular are pouring investment into the sector, which produced 350 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 7 million barrels of crude oil in the 2003-04 fiscal year, according to official figures. One Asian diplomat estimated that Myanmar needed a minimum of $6 billion in reconstruction aid and loans from the likes of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to drag its economy into the late 20th century. Getting it into the 21st century will take much longer. Automatic cash machines are still the stuff of dreams, as are credit cards and text-messaging on mobile phones. The Internet is making slow inroads for those patient enough to deal with the power cuts and 28k telephone lines. Just don't try accessing Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or anything to do with the words "Myanmar" or "Suu Kyi" -- they are all blocked. Now go read the rest.
Iran confirmed Wednesday that a court has sentenced a young woman to death for prostitution but denied reports by rights watchdog Amnesty International that she was mentally disabled. Leyla Mafi, 21, was sentenced to death more than a year ago by a court in Arak, central Iran, for having illegal sex, judiciary official Mohammad Hossein Pourianmehr said. The verdict is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court, as is customary in Iran in capital cases, Hanging is the usual form of execution in Iran.
Mafi's case had been little noted here but was brought to international attention last week by London-based Amnesty International. The group said the woman, whom it identified only as Leyla M., was 19 with the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. Pourianmehr, the judiciary official, said Mafi was in full mental and physical health and had confessed. Pourianmehr said Mafi was 19 when she was arrested, which may account for the age given by Amnesty, which had relied on a report on the case in a small Iranian newspaper. Mafi started working as a prostitute when she was 14, Pourianmehr said, and has two children now being cared for at a state orphanage. Amnesty had said the woman's mother forced her into prostitution when she was eight. It said the girl was raped repeatedly and gave birth to a baby when she was nine.
Amnesty said that as a party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran had promised not to execute anyone for crimes committed while they were under 18. Pourianmehr said Mafi was working as a prostitute as an adult. Last summer a 16-year old girl who was reported to be suffering from a psychological disorder was executed in the northern town of Neka on charges of having an illegal sexual relationship. Under Iranian law, girls over the age of 9 and boys over 15 face execution if they commit crimes punishable by death, such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions, capital punishment is also imposed for those engaging in an illegal sexual relationship.
Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to protect the rights of children and improve human rights in Iran, last month tried to hold a rally to protest the executions of those under 18. Ebadi said she was told by the Interior Ministry that there was no need to hold a protest because the judiciary was drafting a bill to limit death verdicts against those under 18. Ebadi said the judiciary promised two years ago that it would present its bill to parliament but it has not done so yet. On Tuesday, Iran rejected a U.N. resolution criticizing its human rights record.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/23/2004 9:35:04 AM ||
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The scribes and pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in their midst they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanced that such should be stoned. But what do you say?"
....Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though He did not hear...He raised himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her. And again he stooped and wrote on the ground. John 8:3-8
I wonder what he was writing on the ground. Perhaps, "Where's the man?"
How can these judges prove a case of adultery without the men being involved? Oh, wait--these are mullahs. Logic doesn't matter.
#2
Nothing gives these islamic judges and mullahs a woody like the propect of personally putting the noose around the neck of a teenage "harlot". At 19, she doesn't excite as much, though the mental age of 8 does compensate some. It's the prospect of interrogating and executing a 13 year old that gives islam's finest a really fat chubby.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2004 11:10 Comments ||
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Something strange is happening on Mars. It seems something or someone is cleaning the windows on one of two rovers probing the surface of the red planet. The rovers are proving to be quite the machines. NASA expected they would last only 90 days when they hit the surface of Mars. But now, after a year, they're still going strong. The rovers are not only still scooting all over the place, but one of them is getting some special attention from something there on the red planet. So what's going on? The rover collects a lot of the red Martian dust on its solar panels, enough so it actually starts to lose energy. But then, suddenly, something comes along to clean them off. What was it?
Squeegee wielding homeless Martians is my guess.
Internet sites have been buzzing with the mystery. Duke Johnson, Clark Planetarium: "There were lots of explanations floating around out there, lots of jokes that I saw from little Martians out doing a good cleaning job on these things, to people writing things on the solar panels, and things like that." Of course, as much as we would like to hold on to that Mars mystique, Clark Planetarium's Duke Johnson says JPL has a more practical theory. Duke Johnson: "From what I've been able to tell from talking to some of the scientists there, they've really not got a concrete explanation for what's happened. Their best guess though, sometimes the wind blows just right across the rover and then it's able to remove some of the dust." If it is the wind, it routinely cleans the panels, boosting Opportunity's power output close to its maximum 900 watt-hours per day.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2004 3:29:07 PM ||
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It seems something or someone is cleaning the windows on one of two rovers probing the surface of the red planet.
A big green blob with three eyes and drool oozing out of its mouth armed with a squeegee.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2004 16:35 Comments ||
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#5
Come on people;
NASA just wants to spur public interest in the program! The truth...either the wind or rain is causing the 'cleaning'. Remember the wind can be any type of dust or sand element! 'Rain' could be any liquid other than H2O, even plasma.
Well, obviously it's Marvin Martian. Just ask Bugs.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/23/2004 20:06 Comments ||
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#9
Everyone knows the aliens who built the Pyramids left maintainence robots on Mars to look after the Great Face. They are simply following programming and cleaning our rover in mistaken belief it's one of theirs.
Posted by: Mr. Tin Foil ||
12/23/2004 22:53 Comments ||
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#10
Hmmmm....
Hospitality to strangers, manual labor, concern for cleanliness...
I don't know who's wielding the squeegee, but they're obviously not French.
He doesn't do undercover. And he is not someone who easily melts into the background. But when an industry thinks it is about to become the latest target of the film maker Michael Moore, precautions have to be taken. According to the Los Angeles Times, at least six of America's largest pharmaceutical firms have issued internal notices to their workforces warning them to be on the lookout for "a scruffy guy in a baseball cap" who asks too many questions. Rotund and amiable he may seem, but this could be Moore, digging for dirt for his new movie, provisionally entitled Sicko.
Having watched the Bush administration and the gun lobby come a cropper in Moore's last two works, the pharma giants are not taking any risks. "We ran a story in our online newspaper saying Moore is embarking on a documentary - and if you see a scruffy guy in a baseball cap, you'll know who it is," Stephen Lederer, a spokesman for Pfizer Global Research and Development, told the LA Times. Five other big companies have told employees that any approach by Moore should be rebuffed and referred to the company's corporate communications department. "Moore's past work has been marked by negativity, so we can only assume it won't be a fair and balanced portrayal," said Rachel Bloom, executive director of corporate communications at AstraZeneca, which is based in Delaware. "His movies resemble docudramas more than documentaries."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2004 2:47:59 PM ||
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Bloggers, get to work. Arm the docs and drug reps with mini-cameras, film away, and show the video footage on a hundred blogs prior to the Mikey idiot-film.
Perhaps these clips can be cobbled together in an anti-documentary: Dicko
Turkey leftovers will take on a whole new use after a Minnesota company finishes construction of a power plant fired by the birds' droppings. It may not be the total answer to relieving the United States' addiction to foreign oil, but the plant will burn 90 percent turkey dung and create clean power for 55,000 homes....
Honest. We don't make this crap up!
Turkey dung is prized [those four words would make a great name for a rock band as Dave Barry might say]
over pig excrement and cow chips. "Poultry litter is drier material, so it burns better, and there's a lot of it," said Charles Grecco, of HH Media, LLC, an investment bank that helped arrange $202 million in financing for the plant. The 55-megawatt plant will burn 700,000 tons of dung a year and produce fertilizer as a by-product,
[this is pretty conventional combustion -- not the fancy in situ pyrolysis that is supposed to produce petroleum type products from biomass see for example http://listserv.repp.org/pipermail/gasification/2004-September/007102.html
--- but I just loved the phrase 'turkey dung is prized']
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.
President 
The first wave of 100 soldiers based in north Queensland is on its way to Solomon Islands in response to yesterday's fatal shooting of a Australian Federal Police Protective Service officer. Adam Dunning, 26, was killed while on a routine patrol in Honiara.
After losing the first two counts in the extraordinarily close Washington governor's race, Democrat Christine Gregoire pulled ahead by 10 votes after King County reported its hand recount results on Wednesday. Gregoire's slim margin could widen on Thursday, when Democrat-heavy King County plans to count 700-plus belatedly discovered ballots. Over Republicans' objections, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that those ballots should be counted. At a news conference in Seattle, Gregoire said she won't declare victory yet. "Keep the faith," she told cheering supporters. "The election process is working exactly as it should." 
Something strange is happening on Mars. It seems something or someone is cleaning the windows on one of two rovers probing the surface of the red planet. The rovers are proving to be quite the machines. NASA expected they would last only 90 days when they hit the surface of Mars. But now, after a year, they're still going strong. The rovers are not only still scooting all over the place, but one of them is getting some special attention from something there on the red planet. So what's going on? The rover collects a lot of the red Martian dust on its solar panels, enough so it actually starts to lose energy. But then, suddenly, something comes along to clean them off. What was it? 
