JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A powerful earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's Sulawesi Island on Monday, damaging houses and triggering widespread - but unfounded and certainly justified - fears of another tsunami in a country still traumatized by last month's disaster. No injuries were reported.
The epicenter of the 6.2-magnitude quake was in central Sulawesi, about 10 miles southwest of the seaside city of Palu, said Suharjono, a seismologist in Jakarta. It struck just before dawn. ``It was very strong. I felt the bed and the ground shaking and rushed out of my house. I saw everyone panicking,'' said Huwal Hayun, a 19-year-old student in Palu. Around 30 houses and shops in Palu, which is home to some 270,000 people, suffered minor damage, police said.
Thousands of residents in Palu ran to higher ground following the quake, witnesses and police said. Most of the patients at the city's main Undata hospital fled the building, said Dr Riri Lamadjido. ``They were shouting water, water because they feared waves after watching so many news reports about the tsunami,'' she said, adding that the hospital had received no injured patients as a result of the quake.
Police later toured the city in a car with a loudspeaker on top, telling residents there was no threat of a tsunami, said Sgt. Fandi Tuna. Some then returned to their homes, he said. It was highly unlikely the quake would cause a tsunami because its epicenter was not under the seabed, said seismologist Suharjono, who goes by a single name. Quakes measuring 6.2 rarely cause tsunami even if centered under the ocean.
Good luck convincing anyone in Sumatra of that.
Palu is 1,000 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2005 12:48:48 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
From 123India.com. The article includes a photograph of Deeyah.
A sultry pop singer dubbed the "Muslim Madonna" is facing the wrath of religious fundamentalists after releasing a sexy video for her first British single. Deeyah, 27, has become the target of violent threats from members of the Muslim community offended by her glamorous image. Her video is reportedly being shown on Indian channels. The singer, of mixed Pakistani, Afghan and Persian descent, has received intimidating phone calls, aggressive emails and verbal threats from Asian youths warning her to "tone down and cover up".
When Deeyah did a tour of junior schools, including some Muslim schools in Bradford, her performances provoked several boys to leave the room and fights broke out as tensions rose among the students. Since then, her sexy, urban style has divided young Muslims.
She said: "Over the past few months my single has been played on Indian cable channels and I have started to get recognised. That's when the threats began. I had to change my phone number and I am always wary about where I can go on my own."
Deeyah grew up in Norway and says she had problems there too. "I released two albums and was spat at in the street and threatened at school. In the end, it was one of the main reasons why I left Norway and moved to Britain. All I am doing is expressing myself," she said.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/24/2005 10:12:13 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
yeow! She's en fuego! MS - are due for areappraisal?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 22:48 Comments ||
Top||
Thousands of rent-a-mob demonstrators backed President Hugo Chavez, who accused US and Colombian officials of provoking a diplomatic crisis between the Caribbean neighbors.
'Cos the US really needs a diplomatic crisis in South America right now.
"I know where this provocation comes from: from Washington, not from Bogota!" Chavez said before a crowd of paid-for cheering supporters. Chavez said Sunday that the United States was behind Colombia's arrest, on Venezuelan territory, of a Colombian rebel, triggering a diplomatic crisis with Bogota. "This [kidnap] thing was not planned by Bogota," Chavez said. He also predictably criticized his counterpart, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, for "ignoring moi" "not having a moment" to address Chavez' charges. Last week, Chavez demanded an explanation and said he would freeze business between the two countries, which have a free-trade agreement. On Sunday, he threatened to freeze bilateral projects. "It is up to the Colombian government to admit to its error," Chavez said told a crowd of supporters. Chavez repeated a threat of canceling several bilateral infrastructure projects. "I am not going to have open and frank relations with a government that does not recognize the error that a group of its officials has committed. "I have ordered several measures be canceled: the international bridge, the binational oil pipeline and highways. "Binational trade will drop to a minimum," Chavez told the crowd.
"And you stupid peasants will bear the brunt of my unilateral trade embargo," he forgot to tell the admiring throngs.
EU is planning to lift arms ban on China in July 2005. This is in combination with the French-EU-China partnership on GPS Satellites.
US Could Shoot Down Euro GPS Satellites If Used By China In Wartime: Report
The United States could attack Europe's planned network of global positioning satellites if it was used by a hostile power such as China, The Business weekly reported Sunday. Galileo, a constellation of 30 satellites and ground stations due to go into operation in 2008, is being launched by the European Union and the European Space Agency to tap into a growing market of global satellite positioning. China last month became a partner in the Galileo program, which could help provide services such as communications for the 2008 Beijing Olympics but also has applications for strategic military use.
According to a leaked US Air Force document written in August and obtained by The Business, Peter Teets, under-secretary of the US Air Force wrote: "What will we do 10 years from now when American lives are put at risk because an adversary chooses to leverage the global positioning system of perhaps the Galileo constellation to attack American forces with precision?"
The paper also reported a disagreement between EU and US officials this month over Galileo at a London conference which led to the threat to blow up the future satellites. The European delegates reportedly said they would not turn off or jam signals from their satellites, even if they were used in a war with the United States. A senior European delegate at the London conference said his US counterparts reacted to the EU position "calmly".
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/24/2005 9:40:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe threatening to destroy the ground control installations as well would get their attention.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/24/2005 10:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
No need to threaten. Just do do the job that needs to be done at the appropriate time. The EU needs to learn that their projects with our potential adversaries do not come without risk. They apparently did not learn the lesson in Iraq.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/24/2005 14:38 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Various studies conducted within the Department of Defense (DoD) have pointed out that the economics and technologies to develop and field a credible threat to GPS are within the grasp of virtually any nation."
Source: http://www.gpsworld.com/; "GPS Vulnerability Testing: Jamming and Interference"; May 1, 2004; by Major West Kasper.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/24/2005 14:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
A senior European delegate at the London conference said his US counterparts reacted to the EU position "calmly".
EU delegate in London: "We will not deactivate the Galileo system if used by a party hostile to you."
U.S delegate in London: "No problem. We'll destroy it if we have to. Next subject?"
#5
A senior European delegate at the London conference said his US counterparts reacted to the EU position "calmly"
If used by a party hostile to the US, you can deactivate it or we can deactivate it. If you deactivate it, it will be able to turn on again. If we deactivate it, it will not turn on again. Take your choice.
[note to self, better develop inertial guidance systems on the head of a pin, in case they bump of f our GPS system.]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/24/2005 22:22 Comments ||
Top||
#6
destroy? Hack em and use em!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 22:23 Comments ||
Top||
Newly inaugurated President Viktor Yushchenko has told a vast crowd of supporters in Kiev's main square on Sunday he aims to secure Ukraine a fully-fledged place in a united Europe. "Our way to the future is the way of a united Europe. We, along with the people of Europe, belong to one civilisation. We share similar values," Yushchenko told hundreds of thousands in Independence Square after his swearing-in in parliament. In his 20-minute address he made no direct mention of Russia, where he meets Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin on Monday on his first foreign trip abroad before launching a tour of western and central Europe. But he said Ukraine would act strictly in its own interests. "Our place is in the European union," Yushchenko said, his wife standing with their five children nearby. "We are no longer on the edge of Europe. We are situated in the centre of Europe. "Ukraine will not be a buffer zone or a testing ground for anyone else," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Arlan Specter hires Kennedy confidant. Guy who told Kennedy to delay Bush's judical nominees until NCAAP action was taken in Michigan. On Friday Republican staffers in a number of Senate offices were holding meetings to discuss how to proceed with Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter and his recent hire, Hannibal G. Williams II Kemerer, who until recently was the NAACP's assistant general counsel. Kemerer was hired by Specter against the advice of senior Republican Judiciary staff and was to serve as a key vetter of Bush Administration judicial nominations. As word of Specter's hiring decision leaked off Capitol Hill, Specter is said to have shifted Kemerer into a job that would not deal with judicial nominations. "That is not true," says a Judiciary Committee staffer. "Kemerer may have a different stated responsibility, but we've been told he will be working with Specter on judicial nomination issues regardless of what his stated role is supposed to be." More disturbing than the hiring itself was Specter's willful behavior in hiring the left-wing litigator. "I wish I could say this was a one time, freak event," says another Judiciary Committee aide. "But I don't think I can. We got the distinct impression that Specter is going to continue to hire people like this. If conservatives care, they need to mobilize now. Because it's largely out of our hands." Midday Friday there were unconfirmed rumors that Specter had spoken with ranking Judiciary Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy about shifting Kemerer into a Democratic staffer slot, but that Leahy was not receptive to the notion. Sure, ole Patty knows a fool when he sees one (he looks in the mirror, doesn't he).
Beyond an expected backlash against Specter, there was growing concern among aides to Sen. Rick Santorum, who chose not to support then-Rep. Pat Toomey, a conservative, pro-life challenger to Specter in the Pennsylvania Senate primary last year. Instead, Santorum backed Specter, campaigning and fundraising for him, and then openly backing him for Judiciary chairman when that position was in doubt. Santorum is preparing for a tough re-election campaign, and was counting on strong support among Catholics in-state for votes and across the country for fundraising. But Santorum's decision to put politics before core beliefs may now backfire. On Friday Santorum staffers were meeting with allies to discuss how best to deal with what could become a crisis for the conservative junior Senator from Pennsylvania. Compounding Santorum's Specter problem was word that Robert Casey, Jr., a pro-life Democrat and the son of one of Pennsylvania's most popular politicians, was poised to announce his decision to seek the Democratic Senate nomination. "To say that Santorum's people are upset does not quite portray what is happening up here," says a Senate leadership staffer. "Without Specter's thumbing his nose at conservatives, Santorum could focus on issues and his candidacy. Now he has to worry about fallout from every step Specter takes."
All of this adds to what appears is going to be a congressional session full of Judiciary issues. Some Judiciary Committee staffers are already looking at the calendar for spring and summer and telling friends and family that they can not make too many plans as they expect there will be a Supreme Court confirmation fight to be dealt with this summer, perhaps into August.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/24/2005 4:37:37 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
crap - should've backed Toomey and got this back-stabbing RINO out!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 23:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He has already cost Santorums seat by splitting the party, and cost Bush PA by failing to campaign at all in PA for Bush. Now he is back to his backstabbing of conservatives... "friends" liek that, who needs enemies?
Kick Specter out - let him go to the Dems or cozy up to Jeffords - if he walks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck...
#3
He has already cost Santorums seat by splitting the party, and cost Bush PA by failing to campaign at all in PA for Bush. Now he is back to his backstabbing of conservatives... "friends" liek that, who needs enemies?
Kick Specter out - let him go to the Dems or cozy up to Jeffords - if he walks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck...
#4
He has already cost Santorums seat by splitting the party, and cost Bush PA by failing to campaign at all in PA for Bush. Now he is back to his backstabbing of conservatives... "friends" liek that, who needs enemies?
Kick Specter out - let him go to the Dems or cozy up to Jeffords - if he walks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck...
MILWAUKEE - The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day.
Sowande Omokunde, son of Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and Michael Pratt, the son of former Milwaukee acting mayor Marvin Pratt, were among those charged with criminal damage to property, a felony that carries a maximum punishment of 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The activists are accused of flattening the tires on 25 vehicles rented by the state Republican Party to get out the vote and deliver poll watchers Nov. 2.
Also charged were Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee, and Justin Howell of Racine. The GOP rented more than 100 vehicles that were parked in a lot adjacent to a Bush campaign office. The party planned to drive poll watchers to polling places by 7 a.m. and deliver any voters who didn't have a ride.
A criminal complaint said the defendants originally planned to put up Democratic yard signs, placards and bumper stickers at the Republican office in a scheme they called "Operation Elephant Takeover." But the plan was dropped when they learned a security guard was posted at the GOP office, the complaint said.
One witness told investigators the five defendants, dressed in "Mission Impossible" type gear, black outfits and knit caps, left the Democratic Party headquarters at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, and returned about 20 minutes later, extremely excited and talking about how they had slashed the tires.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Seth Boffeli said the five were paid employees of John Kerry (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign, but were not acting on behalf of the campaign or party.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 18:59 Comments ||
Top||
#6
This is also voter intimidation. The Republicans should sue their pants off too, for however much it cost to rent the vans.
Civil rights violations.
Whenever a Democrat is caught trying to rig an election -- or the evidence that he DID rig it bobs to the surface -- the Democrats trot out a hoary old line about Republicans being involved in "voter intimidation".
This year, though, we saw groups that operate in a lip-lock with the Democrats assault Republican campaign headquarters. We saw Democrats pull all the stops out to manufacture votes in Washington state and create TENS OF THOUSANDS of imaginary voters in Wisconsin.
All this gets ignored, though, so the Democrats can whine and moan about Ohio. Despite there being NO evidence of fraud, intimidation, or vote supression in Ohio, the press plays along so they can be sure to damage the political career of Ken Blackwell.
Anyone want to bet that a close look at Philadelphia would turn up some suspicious numbers? Or that the 2006 campaigns will be even more dirty -- and violent?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/24/2005 22:09 Comments ||
Top||
A trial opened Monday in a $3 million-plus lawsuit by 13 people who say they were injured or traumatized when federal agents seized a screaming Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives' home. The opening witness was neighbor Maria Riera, who testified that she clutched her chest and thought she was dying when an agent doused her with tear gas during the April 22, 2000, raid to reunite the 6-year-old boy with his father in Cuba. The 13 neighbors and protesters are seeking up to $250,000 each, claiming that agents used excessive force during the armed raid.
Look at the bright side, at least Reno's Raiders didn't burn your your houses down with you inside.
"I was stopped by a gentleman on my left approaching me with a shotgun," said Riera, who lived across the street from the home where the boy had lived since shortly after he was rescued from a shipwreck on Thanksgiving Day 1999. She said a black-garbed agent wearing a mask ordered her to "stand back" or he would shoot, adding a word of profanity. She said she complied, but a second agent approached with a gas gun as she stood in her driveway and left her in a gray cloud of tear gas. A total of 108 people sued over the raid, but U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore limited the case to people who were not on the Gonzalez family property and were beyond police barricades. Elian, now 11, was one of three survivors of a shipwreck that killed his mother. The raid took place after the family refused to return the boy so he could be taken back to Cuba.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/24/2005 3:19:19 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced this morning that five of the seven men arrested in the election-day slashing of Republican vehicles' tires - including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians - have been charged with felonies and will appear in court this afternoon.The five who were charged with felony criminal damage to property for slashing 40 tires on 25 vehicles are:
* Michael Pratt, 32, of the 400 block of N. 16th St., Milwaukee. Pratt is the son of former acting mayor Marvin Pratt.
* Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, Milwaukee. Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
* Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Milwaukee.
* Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St., Milwaukee.
* Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of N. Olive St., Racine.
The vans had been rented by the state Republican Party to transport voters to the polls on election day Nov. 2. If convicted, each of the five faces up to a $10,00 fine and up to 3 1/2 years in prison. The crime met the $2,500 damage threshold as a felony because the slashed tires and towing costs totaled more than $5,300, according to the criminal complaint filed today. It says the men were caught after a security guard in the Republican Party headquarters parking lot saw the vandalism and wrote down the license-plate numbers of a fleeing car.
McCann said the state's relatively clean political history makes such election-day sabotage without precedent in his memory. "This isn't what goes on all the time in Wisconsin," he said, citing his recollection of contentious elections from the late 1960s. "... There might be signs town down in those campaigns, but never anything like this." He said the investigation had taken nearly 12 weeks because witnesses had dispersed after the election to states including Georgia, Virginia, Maryland and New York, and FBI investigators were sent to conduct the interviews. "Lying to an FBI agent is a federal offense," McCann explained. He said the FBI reports only got back to his office Jan. 14 because the slashings, though locally controversial, probably weren't the highest priority for federal investigators more concerned with terrorism threats. "You've got to understand how this looks elsewhere," McCann said. "It's a tire-slashing case. ... I never got a call from (Attorney General John) Ashcroft about the case."
Election 2004 - the gift that keeps on giving
Posted by: Steve ||
01/24/2005 3:14:47 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Condi attacked me, damn it. Can I count on your sympathy?
Yours truly,
Senator Barbara Boxer
_________________________________________________
Sen. Barbara Boxer says she is the real victim of last week's confirmation hearing for Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, yet continued yesterday to question the national security adviser's honesty. "She turned and attacked me," the California Democrat told CNN's "Late Edition" in describing the confrontation during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "I gave Dr. Rice many opportunities to address specific issues. Instead, she said I was impugning her integrity," Mrs. Boxer said.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/24/2005 10:32:08 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can we just have her declared insane and let Arnold appoint her replcement?
"I just hate it when a domestic gets all insubordinate, don't you Robert?"
"Ah do agree, Mizz Barbara, ah do. Down in Wes'-by-God Virginny, we-all got verruh, verruh effective ways o' dealin' with them types. Y'all hand me that white hood on that hook over deah, if'n you please? It's part uh mah outfit."
Posted by: Mike ||
01/24/2005 11:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Babs is just a little to the left of Mao Tse Tung...
#5
She turned and attacked me," the California Democrat told CNNâs "Late Edition" in describing the confrontation during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
I call it counterfire, Ms. Boxer. You had it coming.
#6
yes, Babs is a weird one, unfortunately a bunch of people in CA voted her into office. Doesn't say much for CA. IIRC she is the third highest vote getter behind W and f'n kerry for a public office. Now that is disturbing.
#7
Will noone rid me of this meddlesome senator? Hey...I'm jus' sayin'. Part of the problem with Boxer's continued reelection is that the CA GOP continually fails to field a worthy candidate. Hell, this last time around I did not see a single TV add....absolutely pathetic. Try this one on for size....six years from now...Condi goes up against Boxer. Now that's a fight I'd buy tickets to.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/24/2005 12:55 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I got $20 that sez Boxer goes down in the first round.
#9
A persistent problem in the GOP out west is their adamant *refusal* to give money to their candidates. So the #1 discriminator for candidates is that they have to have enough money to pay their own way. This is why canker sores like John McCain get re-elected (his wife's money).
#10
My wife commented,"She (Boxer)knows she's going to be on national telivision, and she shows up with that awful haircut!?!"
My wife turned on her before Dr Rice even had a chance...
#11
One of the frustrations of being a Republican in California is the smug, self-satisfied "I'd rather be idealogically pure than elected" mentality of the party hierarchy. People like Howard Kaloogian and Tom McClintock are one of the reasons the Democrats have been able to run this state into the ground. Hopefully Arnold Schwarzenegger can turn things around and replace these bozos with someone that people might actually vote for.
#12
Actually, it's the huge number of Dems in the LA and Bay Area counties that causes the election of Dem candidates. Same reason LA gets to steal all the North's water, rather than having to build actual, y'know, resivoirs in LA...
#13
AMEN RWV! However, I think the last Senatorial candidate would have lost no matter how much he tried. The vote to give Kerry California was just too large for him to overcome. He didn't help himself by trying to on all sides of the issues. Boxer actually looked sane in comparison to her challenger. He never once put her on the defensive about any of her kooky ideas or conspiracies.
#14
mojo there are resivoirs in LA, that hold the water brought from the colorado river and from up north..mono lake, the largest resivoir for LA, is filled from the colorado and not from the northern part of the state.
As much as southern california 'steals' (as you say) the water from the north the south sends (including LA, Riverside and San Diego) tax dollars to the north. So in that respect you would say the north is 'Stealing' the souths money. If it were not for the business of the south california would not be one of the largest economies in the world. The south could do without the northern water but the north could not do without the souths money.
The problem with republicans in california is that we have been under the liberal yoke for so long it seems like a lost cause. But it is improving, just look at the voter stats for the last election. GW increased his voter share of california a few points.
Posted by: Dan ||
01/24/2005 15:38 Comments ||
Top||
#15
The reason that the Republicans in Ca always lose is because the party money flows to the more conservative republicans whom are unnacceptable to the average CA voter.
CA are interested in environmental issues, mass transit, and are more liberal on social issues such as choice and gay issues - but still much more conservative than Boxer, as a whole.
Republicans seem to grasp that the Dem's keep losing because they prefer "party purity" over actually winning. But they don't seem to grasp the idea that another McCain or Snow is preferable to a joke like Boxer in CA.
The reason Arnold won was because Grey Davis was impeached and Arnold did not need to win party support, had plenty of his own money and star appeal to pull it off in a run-off election.
CA Repubs will continue to lose until the party backs candidates that can actually win in CA v/s those that are deemed "pure" enough for the Republican party.
#16
When she was first elected (as a replacement for Wilson), she was up against Ed Zschau. Zschau had defeated Herschennsohn in the primaries. A number of people said "Well, it's only a two year term, we can take her out then. Better than letting a moderate like Zschau have the seat."
#17
#14 Dan,
As a former NoCal who was a confirmed LA Hata', I did find myself in many water resource debates in my days in the Golden State. It took a crotchety old lifelong Angeleno to stop me dead in my tracks by saying "Listen here, you little peckerwood, check out who paid for the entire Hetch Hechy - central valley canal system to be built, and you will find it was the 7-10 million Southern Californians who paid the taxes and did the heavy financial lifting on what was one of the great water resource projects of its time. I looked it up and he was right, taxes weighed much heavier on the southland than to "noisy neighbors" to the north. The water resources are exceptional for the 15 Million people expected to one day live in California when the designers laid out the plans.
#18
"I gave Dr. Rice many opportunities to address specific issues. Instead, she said I was impugning her integrity," Mrs. Boxer said.
Maybe because you WERE, Skank.
The previous sentence said it all:
Sen. Barbara Boxer says she is the real victim of last weekâs confirmation hearing for Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, yet continued yesterday to question the national security adviserâs honesty.
#19
Bill Jones was the last candidate to run against Boxer. He was the moderate. Kaloogian and McClintock did not receive the support of either the state or national republican party. Jones got the nomination and then proceeded to dissapear. I don't know that adherence to idealogical purists holds any longer.
#20
Dan - Mono is snow-filled runoff. The brand new reservoir in Temecula is Colorado water as are most of San Diego's reservoirs....LA's water tastes great - snow runoff. SD's sucks...too many minerals and alkaline
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 18:40 Comments ||
Top||
#21
But OT - Boxer is harmed most by letting her run her mouth, brain disengaged, before the widest possible audience. Truly an idiot. The national GOP didn't put $ into Jones' campaign as tehy considered it lost before it began. Too many SF/LA Dems with money
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 18:42 Comments ||
Top||
#22
The national GOP didn't put $ into Jones' campaign as tehy considered it lost before it began.
Before CA can be reclaimed from the grip of the Lefies that are in control of it now, it needs to be allowed to run itself into the ground.
I can see that you will not extend your sympathies upon me during the grevious time.
Especially for my beloved California constituents, I am pleased to remind you that I can be seen live on C-SPAN tomorrow on the Senate floor moaning and wailing the Gitmo-like treatment that Condi gave to me.
It's all her fault, damn it!
Yours truly,
Senator Barbara Box (a.k.a. Condi's victim)
Posted by: Senator Barbara Boxer ||
01/24/2005 22:48 Comments ||
Top||
It's been a long time coming, but we now have an approximate date for a confrontation in the Senate on judicial nominations. Majority Leader Bill Frist has announced that if Democrats filibuster the nominations he expects to bring to the floor next month, he'll take action.
Finally. Perhaps the biggest failure of Mr. Frist's leadership in the last Congress was his inability to corral Republicans and stop the Democrats' unprecedented filibuster of 10 of President Bush's appeals-court nominees. It was the first time in U.S. history that the filibuster had been used against nominees to the appellate bench, as a Congressional Research Service paper has amply shown.
Mr. Bush has said he will re-nominate those men and women left over from his first term who are willing, nyah, nyah and so the battle is about to be joined again. From the filibuster list, that includes Priscilla Owen, William Pryor, Henry Saad and Janice Brown. These highly qualified nominees had bipartisan support in the last Congress and would have won confirmation by majority vote, but they were denied up-or-down votes on the Senate floor.
Which brings us to the proposed change in Senate precedents that Democrats call the "nuclear option" to make it sound radical. If the Democrats filibuster again, Mr. Frist would ask for a ruling from the presiding officer that under Senate Rule XXII only a simple majority vote is required to end debate on judicial nominations. Assuming 51 Senators concur, the Senate would then proceed to an up-or-down floor vote on the nominee.
What this should really be called is the "majority-vote advice-and-consent" option. The aim is to restore the Founders' intent when they gave the Senate the responsibility of confirming or rejecting a President's judicial picks. The Constitution requires a simple majority vote and says nothing about a super-majority of 60 being needed to stop a filibuster.
Democrats inclined to cry foul would benefit from studying Senate history. They could start by querying their own Senator Robert Byrd who, during his years as Majority Leader, employed the same tactic four times to reinterpret Senate precedents. Martin Gold and Dimple Gupta detail this history in an essay in the current Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
The history of the filibuster itself also bears noting -- particularly by those Republicans who are worried about "giving up" a useful tool when they return to the minority. No one was more concerned with checking majority passions than the Founders, but even they never felt the need for a super-majority Senate voting requirement. The filibuster first appeared in the 1830s during the debates over the Bank of the United States and by 1917 had gotten so out of control that the Senate passed its first "cloture" rule limiting debate. It's been modified numerous times since then, and only in recent years has it evolved to where just about anything that passes (save the annual budget) needs 60 votes.
We don't agree, as some of our pro-filibuster friends on the right argue, that the filibuster was instrumental in stopping the New Deal and the Great Society. Those efforts ended as their excesses became clear and political support ebbed. Some argue that the threat of a filibuster saved us from HillaryCare in 1994, but we think that it was dying of its own weight and would never have had even 50 votes. In any event, no one is talking about doing away with the legislative filibuster. The "nuclear option" would stop only filibusters of judicial nominees.
One of the weakest objections offered by some Republicans is that Democrats will do the same thing in some future Senate. Well, yes, but we doubt Republicans would ever have the nerve or unity to filibuster a Democratic nominee, and Democrats have shown in their willingness to filibuster that they don't need a GOP precedent to do whatever they want. They'll "go nuclear" if it suits Ted Kennedy's purposes, whether Republicans do it first or not.
It's possible Mr. Frist won't have to pull this trigger, or at least he won't if his 55 Republicans hold firm. It hasn't escaped the notice of the 17 Democrats up for re-election in 2006 that obstruction of Mr. Bush's judicial picks was one reason Tom Daschle was defeated last November. Colorado's newly elected Democrat, Ken Salazar, has said he hopes all nominees get an up-or-down vote.
Democrats may decide the wiser course of action is to agree to limit debate on judicial nominations. If so, there's a ready-made, face-saving proposal at hand. In the last Senate, Mr. Frist and Democrat Zell Miller proposed a three-step process to gradually cut off debate on judicial nominees. This was based in turn on a plan put forward a few years earlier by Democrats Joe Lieberman and Tom Harkin. Whether it's nuked or not, the judicial filibuster deserves to be defeated.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2005 2:24:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
At this point, the "nuclear option" is a requirement. What good would it have been for President Bush to push his original slate again if the Reps weren't willing to bust the filibuster?
President Bush won the election with the original slate already fully vetted. Let's have an up or down vote, now!
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/24/2005 10:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Frist should give them one chance to do the right thing and then go with thei majority option. I would love to hear Hillary or any other Dem defend the filibuster rules.
The global warming danger threshold for the world is clearly marked for the first time in an international report to be published tomorrow - and the bad news is, the world has nearly reached it already. The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world - and it is remarkably brief. In as little as 10 years, or even less, their report indicates, the point of no return with global warming may have been reached. The report, Meeting The Climate Challenge, is aimed at policymakers in every country, from national leaders down. It has been timed to coincide with Tony Blair's promised efforts to advance climate change policy in 2005 as chairman of both the G8 group of rich countries and the European Union. And it breaks new ground by putting a figure - for the first time in such a high-level document - on the danger point of global warming, that is, the temperature rise beyond which the world would be irretrievably committed to disastrous changes. These could include widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the death of forests - with the added possibility of abrupt catastrophic events such as "runaway" global warming, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, or the switching-off of the Gulf Stream. Most of all, DON'T PANIC! We know how to spend your money.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/24/2005 9:57:51 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
There have been more tidbits coming out recently on how this stuff is BS, and it seems like the more it gets questioned, the more outlandish these claims get.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/24/2005 10:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Idjits.
MT Etna spewed as much stuff between October 2002--January 2003 as all human caused emissions for 7 years worldwide.
A multi-million dollar study is being conducted in Aspen, for the leaders of this movement meet for a 3 month conference to further study the impact of decreasing temperatures and ice.
#6
And of course Mt Erebus in Antarctica erupting straight up into the "ozone hole" has no effect on things at all. It's spray cans and jet planes, man.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/24/2005 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
#7
2b---a 3 month conference!!!!! WTF? What do you do at a conference for 3 months?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/24/2005 10:54 Comments ||
Top||
#12
". . .why, it could mean the end of life as we know it."
"Oh, no! Not that! That's my favorite show!"
"Yeah, I know. That Kelli Osborne sure is hot."
"Yeah."
"Anyway, we need to convene a Plenary Conference to appoint a UN Working Group to flesh out a Preliminary Plan of Action so we can present it at the next Global Impending Doom Conference."
"Hey, right . . . and we can hold it in Los Angeles, charge it all to our expense accounts, and have Kelli Osborne be the honorary chairman."
"You're a genius!"
Posted by: Mike ||
01/24/2005 11:35 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Jeepers, if it's that serious, then maybe they ought to get China and India on board their plan now instead of just urging the formation of "a climate group".
Re Seantor Snowe:
"Snowe is co-sponsor of the McCain-Lieberman 'Climate Stewardship Act of 2003' which calls for mandatory domestic reductions of carbon dioxide. In September 2003, the bill received 43 votes in the Senate, though could likely garner more support should the legislation be revisited in the next Congress."
Source: http://snowe.senate.gov/prt_environment.htm
Okay, junk science, no India, no China, and only 43 votes in the U.S. Senate. The only warming here is these do-gooders pissing in the wind.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/24/2005 12:04 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Doom de doom doom doom...
Will it be warmer? I'm so cold.
Posted by: Gir ||
01/24/2005 12:19 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Did this announcement coincide with a viewing of "The Day After Tommorow", which just came out on DVD? I heard Al Gore was a guest speaker.
#17
Via Bros. Judd, maybe they know the jig is up and trying to grab all they can - and those are his comments, not mine:
SAVE CANADA: BURN YOUR (MAPLE) LEAVES.
Humans 'may have saved world from ice age': HUMANS may have unwittingly saved themselves from a looming ice age by interfering with the Earth's climate, according to a new study. (John von Radowitz, Irish Examiner, 1/24/05)
The findings from a team of American climate experts suggest that were it not for greenhouse gases produced by humans, the world would be well on the way to a frozen Armageddon. . . .
The research showed that without the human contribution to global warming, Baffin Island would today be in a condition of "incipient glaciation".
"Portions of Labrador and Hudson Bay would also have moved very close to such a state had greenhouse gas concentrations followed natural trends," said the scientists.
The experiment had probably underestimated the amount of ice that would exist today in north-east Canada without human interference, they said.
This has been obvious for a while to those paying attention (basically, just Harry and me).
Rear Adm. William Crowder, commander of the USS Abraham Lincoln, dismissed fears that the U.S. military is ending its relief effort for tsunami victims too soon, as a U.N. agency delivered aid on its own for the first time Sunday - a sign of civilian groups preparing to fill the gap as militaries pull out. On Sunday, a 400-ton landing vessel carrying World Food Program aid was due to arrive in Sumatra's coastal Calang city, said program spokesman Gerald Bourke _ the first time the U.N. agency has used its own ship to deliver aid in the disaster.
#2
This is great! Now we can pull out our personnel, and allow the affected countries to make their own comparisons between the responses as to efficiency. Needless to say, the matter of timeliness has already been settled.
#3
BAR - except by the end of 2005 when they are doing all the 'year in review' shows Dan Rather and the MSM will be telling now the Koffi and the UN were so quick to respond to the disaster rushing tons and tons of ai to the areas within days of the disaster while the Lincoln made a mere 'showing of the flag'....
Mark my words they will start spinning it in that direction by March, April at the latest....
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/24/2005 10:45 Comments ||
Top||
#7
People always complain about the US spending too much money on hotels and lunches, but the UN's stragegy would have been much more cost effective overall, in the long run.
#12
Title that "UN delivers tsunami aid four weeks late".
Subtitle it "Has French aid ship left Mediterranian?".
Posted by: Tom ||
01/24/2005 11:28 Comments ||
Top||
#13
After a "small" handling fee of say 50%.....
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/24/2005 11:46 Comments ||
Top||
#14
And what does their aid relief consists of? "I support the U.N." bumper stickers, pet rocks, cans of dehydrated water, ping pong balls, swizzle sticks, remaindered "We Are The World" music CDs, and 50,000 copies of the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming.
#15
..except by the end of 2005 when they are doing all the 'year in review' shows Dan Rather and the MSM will be telling now the Koffi and the UN were so quick to respond to the disaster rushing tons and tons of ai to the areas within days of the disaster while..
Danny can put one hell of an artificial shine on the UN, but the blogosphere is more than a match for bullshit. The days of the MSM being largely unchallenged are over.
MEN frequently despair at women's map-reading skills - or rather their lack of them. Now scientists believe they have pinpointed the reason for this conflict between the sexes. Researchers say it is all down to differences in the reliance of the sexes on either grey matter or white matter in their brains to solve problems. They found that in intelligence tests men use 6.5 times as much grey matter as women, but women use nine times as much white matter. Grey matter is brain tissue crucial to processing information and plays a vital role in aiding skills such as mathematics, map-reading and intellectual thought. White matter connects the brain's processing centres and is central to emotional thinking, use of language and the ability to do more than one thing at once.
Professor Rex Jung, a co-author of the study at the University of New Mexico, said: "This may help explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing, like mathematics and map-reading, while women tend to excel at integrating information from various brain regions, such as is required for language skills. "These two very different pathways and activity centres, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests." Previous studies have shown that women have weaker spatial awareness than men, making it harder for them to read maps. Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.
For the study, published in the online edition of the journal NeuroImage, researchers performed a series of brain scans on 26 female and 22 male volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging equipment. All the volunteers were in good health, had no history of brain injury and the average IQ scores of the two sexes were similar. Their brains were scanned while they carried out tests designed to assess their general intelligence. Researchers then created a map of a brain showing the varying levels of activity in the brains of men and women. About 40 per cent of the human brain is grey matter and 60 per cent white matter.
#5
yes but they were women scientists, so he didn't listen
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 21:03 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Correction..
"...in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day in a single sentence compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000 all day."
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/24/2005 21:07 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Personal experience: I read maps very well (I even made some in college).
From my experience training ambulance attendants (vol. rescue squad), I can tell you that both men and women have a problem reading maps. It's been about equal in my trainees, and those who didn't learn very well were also deficient in other areas.
I think it's mostly about training and incentive to learn. For instance, I'm a bit of a control freak, so I always want to know where I'm going and what the alternate routes are. And I'm not willing to trust someone else to take care of it unless I know from experience they're good at map-reading and thinking in terms of alternative routes in case of problems on the main route.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/24/2005 21:27 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Barb - good point - I know guys I wouldn't trust to park my car...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2005 21:32 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Of the people who've been with me travelling, the two who were actually the best navigators were both women. I'm always a bit skeptical with "brain scan" studies like this, and wonder how much is just cultural expectations steering people in a particular direction.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/24/2005 21:38 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I've never had trouble reading a map. At least, one that's accurate.
#11
Another good question to ask is, just because something shows up on brain scans of 25 year old women (or 12 year old girls), doesn't mean it wasn't the result of socialization and reinforcement instead of the result of some sort of genetic destiny.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/24/2005 21:52 Comments ||
Top||
#12
researchers performed a series of brain scans on 26 female and 22 male volunteers Bad science, guys, unless the purpose was to support the grant proposal for the definitive study. A study like this needs a huge base to account for the fact that the variation within each sex is about as broad as the average variation between the sexes. I conform to stereotype in this matter, Barbara and all those female engineers out there do not. And I don't think socialization factored into my own lack -- my father had me map out directions for every single bloody new location he drove me to, until I escaped to the college dorm, and I'm still hopeless as a co-pilot.
#13
Do a survey of 2nd Lts next... seems no gender bias there at all - the only difference I ever saw is that the West Pointers will be damn sure they know where they are and not listen at all when told where they REALLY are, especially by a corporal or sgt.
#14
Do a survey of 2nd Lts next... seems no gender bias there at all - the only difference I ever saw is that the West Pointers will be damn sure they know where they are and not listen at all when told where they REALLY are, especially by a corporal or sgt.
#15
Do a survey of 2nd Lts next... seems no gender bias there at all - the only difference I ever saw is that the West Pointers will be damn sure they know where they are and not listen at all when told where they REALLY are, especially by a corporal or sgt.
Via Drudge:
Central banks are shifting reserves away from the US and towards the eurozone in a move that looks set to deepen the Bush administration's difficulties in financing its ballooning current account deficit. In actions likely to undermine the dollar's value on currency markets, 70 per cent of central bank reserve managers said they had increased their exposure to the euro over the past two years. The majority thought eurozone money and debt markets were as attractive a destination for investment as the US. The findings emerge from a survey of central bank reserve managers published today and conducted between September and December of last year. About 65 central banks, controlling assets worth $1,700bn, took part and the results showed a marked change in attitude over the past two years. SNIP
#1
Article: Central banks are shifting reserves away from the US and towards the eurozone in a move that looks set to deepen the Bush administrationâs difficulties in financing its ballooning current account deficit.
I don't think these guys understand. A current account deficit comes from imports that are priced too low in dollar terms - meaning US demand is high for foreign goods, and exports that are priced too high in foreign currency terms, meaning foreign demand is low for US goods. When the dollar weakens, that helps to resolve current account deficits by lowering American demand for the now-more-expensive foreign goods and raising foreign demand for the now-cheaper US goods.
#2
The issue is the long-term debt we've taken on and whether there is sufficient savings or other capital within the US to finance it, if the foreign banks don't.
Shorter term, this is an income issue for the central banks: More than 90 per cent of central bank reserve managers said that the income from reserve management was "important" or "very important".
In the two years since a similar survey was conducted, reserve managers had begun to seek higher returns for the money under management.
For these managers, dollar assets have become less attractive because the fall in the dollar since 2002 has reduced the yield they received and, in some cases, has led to negative real returns. With their economies in trouble, for the most part, they can't afford to lose income from their reserves.
#3
They do indeed understand, but I agree that this is a bullshit issue so long as the japanese and the chinese and koreans do not shift massive funds out of Treasuries, which is unlikely. The issue is that the bond markets have been mispricing euro-denominated debt for years, on the low side.
The majority thought eurozone money and debt markets were as attractive a destination for investment as the US.
"Attractive" depends of course on the price. Is eBay attractive at 100x earnings? Of course not? At 40x earnings? Maybe. It depends on the price, and the bond markets have been systematically overvaluing US debt and undervaluing eurodebt for years. This will not last forever, and presents a nice arbitrage opportunity that smart fund managers like Bill Gross of PIMCO picked up on two years ago. This is a matter of bond arbitrage, not a US-vs-Europe fundamanetal competitiveness issue.
#4
lex: They do indeed understand, but I agree that this is a bullshit issue so long as the japanese and the chinese and koreans do not shift massive funds out of Treasuries, which is unlikely.
Even if they do, I don't see a long-term dislocation, although leveraged players will get creamed. During the Long Term Capital imbroglio, Russian debt went through the floor. It has recovered considerably since - yields on benchmark Russian sovereign (government) dollar bonds due 2030 plunged to about 8.1 in July 2004 from 17.4 percent in March 2001. We're not Russia. I don't see US long bond yields going to 7%, let alone 8%.
There's an asset base of 34 trillion dollars available to finance the federal budget deficit. If yields become more attractive (i.e. rise), domestic (and foreign) investors will jump in. There's no shortage of capital - it's just that an overabundance of it has led yields to plunge.
Will a rise in yields trigger Armageddon? I doubt it - Volcker pushed yields to double-digit levels without triggering it.
#5
The dollar was also undermined by a report from Central Banking Publications, which showed that of 65 central banks surveyed, 39 increased exposure to the euro in their forex reserves between September and December, while 29 cut their exposure to dollars.
Breaking news.... a little bit of surfing across the FT's various reports on this survey of central bank managers indicates that it's bullshit. Under the rubric of "lex" (not me), another FT article notes halfway through that:
More importantly, a third of those who responded said they would raise the proportion of non-dollar currencies in 2005. The survey did not include Japan or China, the countries with the largest forex reserves
In other words, the FT blares headlines in several places that "70% of Central Bank Fund Managers" are reducing dollar holdings and buries the fact that this survey did not even include the central banks that between them hold more than half of US Treasuries!
What's going on? Partly this is simply the traditional pessimism and caution of the British banker mentality-- glass half full. But I suspect there's also an effort to snipe at Bush. Note that this other article describes several "event risks", including not just the Iraqi elections but "Bush's inauguration speech"!
Do they really mean to argue that Bush has the same effect on the markets as terrorist attacks?
#7
I see the falling dollar as an intentional, guided policy to both slap Europe and settle down China, who had figured out how to use the strong dollar to boost their economies at the expense of the US. Not only does this force Europe to cut expenses, read "welfare", but it makes the Chinese economy cool *naturally*, instead of violently bursting its bubble and crash all of the Asian markets. Neither Europe or China had the will to take the measures neccessary on their own, so Bush is using the invisible hand to both clear the new path and make it the unavoidable choice.
Hat tip: Instapundit. EFL. HUMANS may have unwittingly saved themselves from a looming ice age by interfering with the Earth's climate, according to a new study. The findings from a team of American climate experts suggest that were it not for greenhouse gases produced by humans, the world would be well on the way to a frozen Armageddon. Scientists have traditionally viewed the relative stability of the Earth's climate since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago as being due to natural causes, but there is evidence that changes in solar radiation and greenhouse gas concentrations should have driven the Earth towards glacial conditions over the last few thousand years. What stopped it has been the activity of humans, both ancient and modern, argue the scientists. Ya' don't say! Heh. I've been doing my bit. :-D More at the link.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/24/2005 2:06:02 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I looked into this a half dozen years ago, but couldn't find one critical piece of information.
We've got a good collection of numbers on solar output (TSI) cycles, as well as variations on our orbit. What I couldn't find was something that tied them all together, showing where we are in them now. The book I found useful was The Sun in Time.
If anyone knows where to find better data, I'm interested.
So says historical data from the U.S. Treasury. From the WSJ, reprinted in full.
Some people continue to believe, or at least still assert, that tax rates don't influence taxpayer behavior all that much. We therefore direct their attention to the Treasury Department's latest historical data on revenues from taxes on capital gains.
The numbers look like a 25-year demonstration of the Laffer Curve in action. Taxes paid on capital gains have been highly responsive to the maximum capital gains tax rate. Especially notable is how, over the years, capital gains realizations and the taxes paid on those gains have tended to increase in the years following a cut in the capital gains tax rate.
The reductions highlighted in the chart include the famous William Steiger tax rate cut that passed Congress in late 1978 over Jimmy Carter's objections, the Reagan tax cut passed in 1981, and the cut that was part of the Clinton-Gingrich balanced budget deal of 1997. All of those reductions caused taxpayers to cash in more of their gains and thus yielded revenue windfalls for the federal Treasury in succeeding years.
On the other hand, the capital gains tax increase of 1986 -- which moved the rate back up to 28% from 20% -- proved to be a revenue disaster. Taxes paid on long-term capital gains (those typically held longer than one year) fell off a cliff to $33.7 billion in 1987 from $52.9 billion a year earlier. And they stayed at close to that mediocre lower level for nearly another decade. In other words, higher rates didn't do anyone any good, not even the politicians who thought they'd be getting more tax revenue to spend.
We aren't asserting that tax-rate changes have been the only factors influencing revenue changes. The performance of the broader economy and the stock market have also mattered a great deal. Capital gains revenues boomed in the late 1990s after the 1997 rate cut, but they fell abruptly with the bursting of the dot-com and tech bubbles in 2001.
The evidence is overwhelming, however, that lower rates induced more taxpayers to realize their capital gains, and thus produced more tax revenue despite the lower rates. The top capital gains rate was cut again in 2003, to 15%, and it is likely that Treasury will also report an increase in revenues in that year and in 2004 as the stock-market rebounded smartly.
In each of these episodes, we should add, Congress's Joint Tax Committee predicted more or less the opposite. Wedded to its static models that underestimate the impact of behavioral incentives, Joint Tax predicted revenue losses from tax-rate cuts and revenue gains from tax-rate increases. In recent years Joint Tax has finally acknowledged some "unlocking" effect on capital gains realizations from lower rates, but it still refuses to recognize any revenue impact from faster economic growth or from a stronger stock-market that tax reductions on capital help to promote.
The refusal to take control of Joint Tax has been a major failure of the GOP Congress, and should be a priority as it contemplates tax reform that President Bush has said must be "revenue neutral." Republicans will have a much better chance of passing a pro-growth tax reform with lower rates if they have a revenue-estimating bureaucracy that is pledged to accuracy instead of to its old habits. Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, take note.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2005 2:19:16 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Thanks TW, the supply siders prevail. Not on page one of your friendly MSM publications was how increased revenue into the US coffers has decreased the budget deficit by roughtly $20B.
Could it be the MSM unintentionally forgot to mention this?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/24/2005 9:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'd consider the Wall Street Journal to be pretty mainstream, in a conservative, business-specialty, we tell the truth because otherwise our readers lose money, which really annoys them kind of way, Captain A. But the New York Times it admittedly is not.
#4
TW: I'd consider the Wall Street Journal to be pretty mainstream, in a conservative, business-specialty, we tell the truth because otherwise our readers lose money, which really annoys them kind of way, Captain A. But the New York Times it admittedly is not.
Editorial pages are conservative - news pages are more liberal than the NYT - with writers like Yochi Dreazen, Andrew Higgins (ex-Guardian), Hugh Pope, Greg Ip, et al...
#5
Also, let's distinguish between the WSJ print and on-line editions. The on-line edition includes articles and commentary written exclusively for the online edition. Perhaps not held to the same standard as the print edition.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/24/2005 14:04 Comments ||
Top||
#6
January 24, 2005; Page A18 This article appeared in the print edition, too. Also, the reporters may be as liberal as they like (and I agree that they are), but articles like this involve money, not world events.
#7
Liberals hate the Laffer curve so much that they become hysterical at its mention. "It has been disproven!", said one, "By who and how?", I asked. "It just has! By economists!", was the informative comeback. Another insisted that Arthur Laffer worked for Reagan, not Carter, until I showed him a reference book. Then he mumbled something about a conspiracy, implying that Laffer had been sent to sabotage the Carter administration by Reagan.
#8
As if Carter needed outside help! Thanks, Anonymoose, I didn't know that about liberals and Laffer. Up 'til now I've had no reason to know about his curve, let alone discuss it in putatively polite company ;-) Google, here I come!
CNN hemorrhaged more than half their audience from the 2001 Inauguration, overnights show. The troubled news network only averaged 779,000 viewers during yesterday's Inauguration coverage from 10am-4pm with just 168,000 of those viewers landing in the coveted 25-54 demo.
Like CNN, MSNBC also suffered major losses, only averaging 438,000 viewers throughout yesterday's coverage (141,000 in 25-54), down a whopping 68% over 2001 and faring even worse in primetime with just 385,000 viewers.
In contrast, Fox News averaged 2,581,000 viewers from 10a-4p (up 30% over 2001) and their 25-54 demo average of 705,000 came close to CNN's total coverage ratings yesterday.
PRIMETIME:
FNC -- 2,439,000 (up 57% OVER '01)
CNN -- 1,353,000 (down 14% over '01)
MSNBC -- 385,000 (down 47% over '01)
Developing...
You don't suppose American viewers actually put a premium on truth telling by their favoured news organizations?
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2005 2:47:55 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
Thousands of 
Newly inaugurated President 
On Friday Republican staffers in a number of Senate offices were holding meetings to discuss how to proceed with Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter and his recent hire, Hannibal G. Williams II Kemerer, who until recently was the NAACP's assistant general counsel. Kemerer was hired by Specter against the advice of senior Republican Judiciary staff and was to serve as a key vetter of Bush Administration judicial nominations. As word of Specter's hiring decision leaked off Capitol Hill, Specter is said to have shifted Kemerer into a job that would not deal with judicial nominations. "That is not true," says a Judiciary Committee staffer. "Kemerer may have a different stated responsibility, but we've been told he will be working with Specter on judicial nomination issues regardless of what his stated role is supposed to be." More disturbing than the hiring itself was Specter's willful behavior in hiring the left-wing litigator. "I wish I could say this was a one time, freak event," says another Judiciary Committee aide. "But I don't think I can. We got the distinct impression that Specter is going to continue to hire people like this. If conservatives care, they need to mobilize now. Because it's largely out of our hands." Midday Friday there were unconfirmed rumors that Specter had spoken with ranking Judiciary Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy about shifting Kemerer into a Democratic staffer slot, but that Leahy was not receptive to the notion.
A trial opened Monday in a $3 million-plus lawsuit by 13 people who say they were injured or traumatized when federal agents seized a screaming 
Milwaukee County District Attorney 
Rear Adm. William Crowder, commander of the USS Abraham Lincoln, dismissed fears that the U.S. military is ending its relief effort for tsunami victims too soon, as a U.N. agency delivered aid on its own for the first time Sunday - a sign of civilian groups preparing to fill the gap as militaries pull out. On Sunday, a 400-ton landing vessel carrying World Food Program aid was due to arrive in Sumatra's coastal Calang city, said program spokesman Gerald Bourke _ the first time the U.N. agency has used its own ship to deliver aid in the disaster.
HUMANS may have unwittingly saved themselves from a looming ice age by interfering with the Earth's climate, according to a new study. The findings from a team of American climate experts suggest that were it not for greenhouse gases produced by humans, the world would be well on the way to a frozen Armageddon. Scientists have traditionally viewed the relative stability of the Earth's climate since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago as being due to natural causes, but there is evidence that changes in solar radiation and greenhouse gas concentrations should have driven the Earth towards glacial conditions over the last few thousand years. What stopped it has been the activity of humans, both ancient and modern, argue the scientists. 
