Posted by: Steve ||
03/03/2005 9:20:42 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett flew over the Kansas-Colorado border Thursday morning, roughly close enough to Salina to glide to a landing without power and safely complete his nonstop, solo, around-the-world flight.
"I'm really starting to perk up, now realizing that I'm getting close to the end," Fossett said earlier in the day after crossing into U.S. airspace over Los Angeles. Fossett is expected back in the central Kansas town around 1:20 p.m., a feat that would make him the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone without stopping or refueling.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/03/2005 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Down and safe. Man, once that plane got down into ground effects, it just kept floating. I thought it would never land.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/03/2005 14:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yep! Gotta dive into the ground! Love it! Crazy Amercians with money!
ISLAMABAD — A moderate earthquake shook Peshawar and the town of Chitral in the northern Hindu Kush mountains yesterday, but there were no reports of injuries or damage, an official said. The magnitude 5.2 quake was centred about 300km north of Peshawar in the Hindu Kush mountain range in neighbouring Afghanistan, said Nasir Mahmood, an official at the state-run seismological centre in Peshawar. The tremor was felt in Peshawar and Chitral at 7.21 local time, he said. Earthquakes are common in the Hindu Kush mountain range that straddles Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We had a 4.6 in N. Arizona yesterday,very,very unusual.
#2
If I was an Iranian, I would see if the town I lived in was named Kabum, Pow, Blammu, or anything similar. And then promptly get the hell out of there.
#5
Raptor...where in Arizona was it felt? Didn't see anything here in Phoenix, and usually if there is a little rumble we might see water moving in stationary glasses or something like that.
EFL from the NY Times...free registration required....
The limited municipal council elections scheduled throughout eastern Saudi Arabia are expected to earn Shiite candidates all five seats up for grabs in Qatif, an urban area of 900,000 on the Persian Gulf.
In a sight startling for Saudi Arabia, Sheik Hassan al-Saffar, a dissident Shiite cleric who has been jailed and spent the 15 years before 1995 in exile, spoke for an hour in one candidate's campaign tent on the first big night of electioneering. Even limited elections are important, he said, "because they ignited in people's minds the spark of thinking about their interests and aspirations."
Sheik Saffar also drew parallels to Iraq, saying voting was the least Saudis could do, considering the risks their brethren had taken next door to exercise this new freedom. He took great pains to say it was a question for all Saudis, not Shiites alone.
The kingdom's two million Shiites, most living in the Eastern Province, constitute about 10 to 15 percent of the native Saudi population.
The minority naturally faces the same problems as other Saudis, utterly lacking freedom of assembly, expression and most other basic civil rights. Activist Shiite women are outraged that all Saudi women are barred from voting.
But the Shiites feel their problems more acutely because they have suffered religious and economic discrimination in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the aftermath of Iran's Islamic revolution of 1979.
They were viewed as a potential fifth column, not least because Shiite Iran urged the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and violent riots erupted here in the early 1980's. The fact that the Shiite minority is concentrated right above the country's richest oil fields inspired a particularly harsh crackdown.
There has been no Shiite cabinet minister, and only one Shiite ambassador - to Iran. Shiites are kept out of critical jobs in the armed forces and the security services. There are no Shiite mayors or police chiefs, and not one of the 300 Shiite girls' schools in the Eastern Province has a Shiite principal.
Saudi Shiites believed that the government would at least start to regard them as citizens, especially after Crown Prince Abdullah met nearly two years ago with a group that presented a petition for equal rights, titled "Partners in the Nation."
The prince called for a better understanding between Sunnis and Shiites and included prominent Shiites in a couple of sessions of his "national dialogue," virtually the only public forum where Saudis are allowed to discuss ways to combat the religious extremism carried out by Al Qaeda and its followers.
But the little that has changed outside Qatif raises questions in the community about the government's commitment to tolerance. Ashura celebrations are banned in Dammam, a neighboring city of some 600,000, including 150,000 Shiites.
There is only one officially sanctioned Shiite mosque there, and no functioning Shiite cemetery. The distinctive Shiite call to prayer is banned, and even the small clay pucks that Shiites are supposed to rest their foreheads on during prayer are outlawed.
Shiites in Dammam wish some of those issues could be discussed in the municipal election campaigns. The elections are being held in three stages in different parts of country, with the second, eastern stage scheduled for Thursday. But candidates and voters said they did not dare raise such topics in the election tents, lest the campaign be shut down.
"Whoever is going to be elected by the people has the legitimacy nobody else has, not even the king, believe it or not," said one Qatif candidate in a flush of excitement. Exactly three minutes later he reconsidered. "It would be wise if you don't quote the statement about the king," he said, sparking a burst of laughter from his colleagues.
The full-bore hatred that the Wahhabi sect bears for Shiites spills out on Web sites, in the local news media and even in school books.
Saudi textbooks contain passages that describe Shiite beliefs as outside Islam - the original split emerging because Shiites supported the claim of Muhammad's heirs to control the faith. Wahhabis believe that Shiite veneration of the Prophet's family, including worshipping at tombs in the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf, incorporates all manner of sins, including polytheism.
Such practices prompt some to revile Shiites as a lower order of infidel than even Christians or Jews.
A recent article in a Saudi magazine suggested that a form of temporary marriage allowed by the Shiites helped spread AIDS. When a Sunni was arrested for trying to set fire to a Shiite community center in Qatif, Sheik Fawzi al-Seif, a local cleric, said one writer on a Web site had asked why the arsonist had acted while the building was empty.
Web sites also urged Sunnis to vote Thursday lest they find the dreaded Shiites on their municipal councils.
Last week a prominent Islamic law professor, Abdel Aziz al-Fawzan, accused anyone who took part in any Ashura celebration of being an infidel, the rough equivalent of a death sentence.
Shiites say they have no recourse to address any manner of discrimination. "Who am I going to complain to, a judge who is a Wahhabi sheik?" said Hassan al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric.
What Saudi Shiites really seek is a clear statement from the government pronouncing Shiite Islam an accepted branch of the faith, believing that all other rights will flow from that. But the Saud dynasty gained its control over much of the Arabian Peninsula via adherents to the Wahhabi teachings, and its legitimacy rests on maintaining their support. The religious establishment considers itself the guardian of Sunni orthodoxy and holds sway over institutions including the courts and the education system.
Shiites say they have learned their lesson that riots only lead to repression, although the Saudi government remains wary that any sectarian violence in Iraq may ignite similar clashes at home. Shiites think a combination of outside pressure and changes like elections will slowly gain them equal rights.
They believe that Osama bin Laden and his ilk created an important opening, with the royal family now casting about for ways to limit the Wahhabi extremism that it has encouraged but which now seeks to overthrow Saudi rule.
More important, the minority puts great stock in what develops in Iraq, although the changes remain too raw and violent to gauge fully.
If the Shiites who dominated the Iraqi elections show that they can work with Sunnis and Kurds, Shiites in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf say, it will strengthen the idea that democracy works and undermine the longstanding prejudice that Shiites are monsters intent on undermining Sunnis everywhere.
The same holds for the Shiite majority in neighboring Bahrain, long ruled by a Sunni minority, and the Shiite minority in Kuwait. There are about 112 million Shiites among the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.
Fears about a Shiite wave have been expressed by such Sunni rulers as King Abdullah II of Jordan, who described the emergence of a Shiite crescent from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus to Beirut as a possible threat to regional stability. (The Alawite minority that runs Syria is a Shiite sect, though mainstream Shiites regard it as heretical.)
"What is happening today in Iraq raised the political ambitions of the Shiites," said Muhammad Mahfouz, the editor of a cultural magazine in Qatif, "that democracy and public participation is an instrument capable of defusing internal disputes, so Shiites can attain their rights and aspirations."
#1
The cat's out of the bag... that vaunted fiction, M.E. stability, is *poof*, poofta Abdullah, get used to it. Better yet, plan now, don't wait for the last minute rush, for your exciting new home in Switzerland! Pack! Go! Don't let the door hit you in the ass!
When the Sunnis begin to realize what the Shi'a have just figured out, the House of Saud will have to build a new city in Switzerland, too... with a sizable airport.
Just think of the job opportunities in Personal Security that will open up! Boom times, Bodyguard!
For Unix, I have been very happy with HostGator.com -- excellent pricing and great functionality / reliability. Their "swamp" account is a great deal!
For Windows, I am hosted with a friend. He doesn't sell many hosting accounts, mainly just friends. I have my commercial site with him - just came on-line last night, in fact. He's the best networking, systems, and admin guy I've ever known - he knows his stuff stonecold - so you can bet his hosting rocks, and I'll verify, heh. If you want to ask him about hosting...
You can start by checking out his cool Dynamic DNS services site: changeip.com and leave him a message.
#6
Hearty congratulations on your site going on-line .com. Here's wishing you such success that you'll be able to buy Fred his next hardware upgrade out of your spare change. :-D
#7
Thank you, tw! I'd be honored to do something that noble with the proceeds, heh. Fred is about the hardest working dude on the planet, believe me. It's simply astonishing that he keeps up with RB changes, and we're not talking about trivial stuff, and still holds down a hardcore development contract and keeps his customer grinning. A class act of the first order!
Many women want to be physically fit, but they are having a hard time accomplishing much without having to endure sexual harassment, sidewalks that look like moonscapes and drivers far more interested in going fast than respecting pedestrians.
Women in Jeddah claim there are not enough safe outdoor places for walking and exercise. They say they face constant danger from speeding cars, teenage harassment and air pollution as sidewalks around empty fields and enclosures are the only places for exercise.
Doctors contend those places are neither healthy nor safe environments to walk, but for many women it's the only choice they have. These places usually are crowded and full of so-called men and boys who bother and harass women, which forces many women to seek the escort of a male relative.
Hala Yousif, 26, longs for a place with privacy so that women could walk freely — without their abayas and away from the sight of leering, boorish men.
"Unfortunately, a huge, modern city such as Jeddah doesn't have a special public park for women to practice a simple activity like walking," said Sara Abdullah, 29. "The municipality should establish a fenced public park for us, with special sidewalks for pedestrians, a roadway for biking and green areas for picnics and other activities."
She says health clubs aren't the solution.
"Some women don't feel comfortable going to health clubs since they become a place for socializing and showing off rather than exercising which is annoying," said Sara. "Many can't afford to pay gym fees, which can be pricey. Some women just prefer to exercise in an open area and enjoy fresh air."
Some women find it ironic that a society trying to combat obesity and maintaining traditions can't help women by providing a safe place for exercise. Statistics show that 52 percent of Saudi women suffer from obesity because many of them spend most of their time at home unable to find a suitable place to exercise freely.
Besides the childish harassment, which men could easily remedy by giving women the respect they deserve, safety and health issues still remain. Some doctors advise pregnant women to avoid crowded places.
The famous Pregnant Wall in Jeddah, east of Sitteen Street, that many pregnant women use for walking and exercise, is said to be polluted and unhealthy. It is also somewhat unsafe for walking since the sidewalks are not flat and full of curves, stones, cracks, holes and garbage cans. Moreover, trees planted in the sidewalks creates an obstacle for walkers.
One physician said the problems of the Pregnant Wall could actually present health risks to the unborn children.
"Walking in an appropriately equipped place for pregnant women is beneficial because in the early months of pregnancy the muscles get flaccid," said Dr. Lamia Shaaban, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology. "Exercise helps tighten and strengthen the leg muscles to make a woman ready for delivery and improve her physical conditioning to help her endure the pain."
The doctor said a proper exercise area would be in an place with fresh air and be equipped with restrooms, food vendors and seating as the recommendation for pregnant women call for 30 minutes of walking followed by 10 minutes of rest.
Although there is no place especially dedicated to such activity, the physician does offer a suggestion. "The best place for pregnant women to walk is in Al-Shatia district near the Jeddah Hilton," she said. "Although it's not fully equipped, it is the safest place, marked for distances and provided with chairs for rest."
Most doctors recommend walking next to the beach near the Corniche. A public sidewalk that is marked for distance was established recently there for male and female walkers. However, it's still a place full of foolish boys, congested traffic, noise and speeding cars.
Many of the problems are the same for all Jeddah residents who enjoy walking.
"When I walk next to the stream in Al-Rawda district, I don't feel safe because of the speeding cars passing by us," said Muhammad Ahmad, 35. "These cars are noisy in addition to the exhaust they belch that we inhale. I don't think it's a suitable place to walk."
Sadly, for some Jeddah residents who seek to be physically fit, there can be a horrible price to pay.
Abdullah Hamed, a 50-year-old Saudi man, said his daughter was involved in a dreadful accident while she was walking on a sidewalk. She was severely injured with broken bones and injuries to several parts of her body. She has undergone 28 operations because of the accident, but she still suffers from excruciating pain.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2005 9:11:27 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's because islam respects women.
Posted by: ed ||
03/03/2005 9:25 Comments ||
Top||
ABU DHABI — In a daring and brave one-man rescue operation, an unarmed staff sergeant managed to free two kidnapped girls in Abu Dhabi whose drunken abductors were on their way to a desert area to rape them. The girls were kidnapped from in front of a hotel where they were staying after being forced into the car quietly by one of the abductors.
The car then drove on its way out of the city, but luckily had to stop at a petrol station before it left the capital for an unknown destination, possibly in the desert, where the girls could have been raped, killed and dumped, according to police sources.
Staff Sergeant Mohammed Jassim Al Hosani, a UAE national of the Ambulance and Rescue Unit of Abu Dhabi Police was returning from work late in the night when he suspected the four-wheeler on the Airport Road. He heard a strange sound coming from the car. The suspected car suddenly drove at a high speed on the main road. At that time, Hosani, who formerly worked in the patrols unit and Central Operations Room, saw a girl's head protruding from the car's window. Her head was quickly pulled back inside the car, and the window was shut aggressively.
Hosani drove his car to chase the suspected four-wheeler, using a police patrol sirens, which he was not allowed to use. Though he was unarmed, Hosani took the risk of chasing and blocking the car. After realising that the situation was serious, Hosani alerted the Central Operations Room. Though he was advised to keep away from the suspects as they may be armed, Hosani resumed the chase until [the perps] reached the Shahama Roundabout, and then took a right turn towards Suwaihan. But luckily, the driver lost control, the car hit the road pavement, and broke down.
The driver pushed his way out of the car and started running through the sand dunes. Hosani continued chasing the kidnapper in the desert where he overpowered him until he was handcuffed by the police force and taken to the police station. According to the police, the kidnappers were carrying knives. Liquor bottles were also found in the backseat where the girls were held.
Sergeant Hosani received a badge of honour from his superiors for risking his life to free the kidnapped girls.
This should happen more in the Arab world. It's either this or more crossfires.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2005 11:23:09 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...and the girls were promptly beheaded for being so irresistably girlish.
British men really do care more about their mothers than their lovers.
The worst fears of wives and girlfriends appeared to be confirmed by a survey showing that sons spend almost 40 per cent more on Mother's Day flowers than on Valentine's Day gifts.
While men lavish an average of £30.16 on bouquets for Mothering Sunday, they part with just £21.71 on 14 February.
The figures, based on sales at supermarkets, showed that Mother's Day bouquets tended to be more generous than predictable Valentine's Day red roses.
Tracey Solomons, brand manager at Sainsbury's, said the figures pointed to "the special relationship" that British men had with their mothers. However, social commentators said the findings cast an alarming light on the emotional maturity of British men.
Alex Bilmes,of men's magazine GQ, said: "I find this news slightly disturbing. Not that our dear old mums don't deserve the very finest." Psychiatrist Phillip Hodson said: "I think this tells you we're more afraid of our mothers than our lovers."
However, Jo Plant, of Ealing-based florist Favourite Things, said: "The typical spend for Mother's Day is between £25 and £35 while for Valentine's Day it is £60 to £80. Anyway I think men who bought Valentine's present from a supermarket deserve to get slapped."
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2005 9:36:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I can always get a new wife, girlfriend or mistress. On the other hand, I only have one Mother. Thus endeth the mystery.
THE BBC's reputation for fair and balanced reporting was at risk last night after top broadcaster James Naughtie blurted out his pro-Labour sympathies.
In a live chat with ex-Treasury chief Ed Balls — weeks before the May 5 election — he asked: "If WE win the election, does Gordon Brown remain Chancellor?"
He struggled to recover, saying: "If YOU win the election."
The blunder came on Radio 4's flagship Today programme. Mr Naughtie has frequently given Conservatives a rough ride in interviews while apparently giving Labour frontmen an easy time.
The veteran anchorman is author of a biography of Gordon Brown and is close to Tony Blair and other Cabinet ministers.
But he surprised his own colleagues yesterday by blurting out his true colours on prime time radio.
The slip-up is particularly embarrassing after the Beeb found its newsmen had swallowed pro-EU propaganda without finding out the facts about Europe.
The Tories are already at war with the Beeb over its allegedly one-sided coverage of the 1980s miners' strike in last week's BBC1 film Faith. And it follows Lord Hutton's bombshell report last year criticising the BBC's Iraq war coverage.
Blunders by correspondent Andrew Gilligan on the Today programme were followed by the suicide of MoD scientist Dr David Kelly and the resignation of two BBC chiefs.
Tory ex-Cabinet minister Norman Tebbit pounced on Mr Naughtie's comment. He said: "How often a slip of the tongue betrays the true thoughts in the mind of the speaker. We could all see the shape of the cat in the bag, but Mr Naughtie has now let it out for all to see."
Broadcaster and ex-Labour MP Brian Walden said: "It's not usual for a broadcaster to betray their true allegiances."
Posted by: gromky ||
03/03/2005 2:51:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#7
You can't believe a word of this - it's The Sun. /moonbat
The Sun's always a bit more careful when talking about interviews actually witnessed by many other Brits who would perceive lies in reporting easily. It's *lots* easier to lie shamelessly when they are instead talking about an interview given in an obscure journal - then they can simply refuse to give the actual name of the journal and few people will ever realize the deception.
#8
The Sun's always a bit more careful when talking about...
And just what the hell would you know? Don't you think you come across as absurdly arrogant trying to lecture other people about the journalistic character of a newspaper you've probably never seen an actual copy of, let alone read one, that's published on the other side of the continent to you and that has the highest readership in its coutry? Have you ever read The Sun, or just come across the occasional article online which you disagree with? You know less about The Sun than you know about American culture, which is half-truths and leftoid bullshit, you insufferable prick. Your ignorant postulating is in the same league as the moronic bigotry of people in this country who have never read another newspaper yet claim theirs is the only accurate one - usually because it misses no shameless opportunity to tell them so. Most of the time they don't even know how few people waste their money on the crap they subject themselves to.
Idiot.
Don't mention the pro-European Sun competitor The Mirror much, do you, Fleet Street Professor? When it comes to journalistic standards, a tabloid more to your taste whose editor was fired for publishing an entirely faked front-page story tarring British soldiers with *LIES* about abuse of prisoners gets no mention. Tell me the last time The Sun similarly misled its readers. You flaming hypocrite.
#14
No bulldog....don't stop. It's both good and true.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/03/2005 15:47 Comments ||
Top||
#15
And just what the hell would you know?
Well, I must have seen dozens upon dozens of its articles on the net over the last few years. It does seem like the furthest away from sources easily available to the British public, the more blatant the deception, misleading and plain-out lies.
But you're correct that I've never read a paper copy, I'm going by what I've read in it over the net. I simply assumed the same standards of journalism applied in both electronic and paper versions of it.
"Don't mention the pro-European Sun competitor The Mirror much, do you, Fleet Street Professor?"
Indeed. I know less about its standards, since I've come over fewer articles by it over the year, and it seems fewer people have bothered to post its articles on Rantburg. Be sure to post Daily Mirror articles regularly, and in a couple months I'll have formed an opinion to it as well.
File under 'Bankruptcies, Political'
The Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy faced criticism yesterday after he confirmed that he would give the vote to convicted prisoners. In an admission that may affect his party's so-called "tough liberalism" approach to crime, Mr Kennedy said even Ian Huntley, the Soham killer, should get the vote. "We believe that citizens are citizens, full stop," he said during questions on Channel Five television. Under the present rules all people sent to prison are automatically deprived of the vote. Labour seized on Mr Kennedy's remarks as "crazy political correctness". Later, Mr Kennedy appeared to backtrack on his comments when a spokesman said the policy would not be part of the election manifesto. But another spokesman said the proposal remained Liberal Democrat policy, and claimed that about 20 Labour MPs had signed a Commons early day motion in favour of giving prisoners the vote.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/03/2005 4:31:05 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Looks like a "Liberal" Kennedy is pretty stupid no matter which side of the pond you find him on.
#2
Heh, Hillary, and all of the other Dhimmidonks, are open about it here and want rights resored to all felons, regardless of their crime.
They speculate that they will get 90% of the votes of all the black felons who regain the vote. It's all couched in touchy-feely bullshit, of course, but it's starkly clear where their motives lie.
The vote is a privilege, IMHO, not a right. In the US, 33 states block felons from regaining voting rights - or so I heard today on a news program.
I guess this would confirm we are vicious barbarians, huh?
#3
On neither side of the pond to the pols who advocate such policies seem to have realised that every vote 'won' may not necessarily represent a net increase in votes for them. Pandering to every minority group, be it through the social poison of multiculturalism, racism ('affirmative action') or pacts with incarcerated devils, does not mean that you aren't alienating yourself from corresponding-or-greater numbers of voters within the silent majority.
If the Dems and the Lib Dems want to be the felons' choice, so be it. It's highly unlikely to change their electoral fortunes, and exposes fundamental truths about their politics: divisiveness and amorality.
#4
Mmmm! I think a citizen has an absolute right to a vote irrespective of their current circumstances. I realize the Left hopes to and probably will benefit from this, but in this case principle over-rides partisan disadvantage (to the Right).
#5
Prisoners are placed out of the society loop for a reason - their contempt for society. If they are considered undeserving of a right as fundamental as their freedom, they have certainly abrogated their right to vote.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2005 8:21 Comments ||
Top||
#7
At the end of a period of my life that I am ashamed of(20 years of alcoholisiam)I was guilty of and convicted of Felony DUI(11/94).That started my road to revovery,I haven't had a drop of alcohol since 1996(if you stop drinking immediatly then you probably weren't an alcoholic).As a result I lost one of America's most presious freedoms,the Right to Vote.I believe that after 10 plus years of recovery and 8 plus years of Sobriety I have earned the Right to Vote agin.All that being said there is no way in Hell I would vote for the Hildebeast.Phil is correct voting is a right(a right that can be lost)not a privilege.Driving is a privilege not a right.
#8
Raptor -- depending on which state you're in, you may be able to petition for the restoration of your vote.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/03/2005 8:50 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Raptor, congratulations on a decade clean and sober. Keep it up. Every day is a new victory.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/03/2005 8:57 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Rights cannot be "taken" - but their free exercise can justifiably be restricted. If you violate the rules, your ability to use your rights is restricted, not only as punishment but as a protection for society against people who would destroy it if left unchecked. After all a felons has screwed society over in the worst way.
Society needs the felon to prove him/her-self worthy of exercising the rights in the society in which they abrogated them.
So routine voting by felons should NOT be the rule, given the recidivism rate, etc. And thats what these loonies are trying to pass as a rotuine thing - that anyone can vote regardless of how badly they screwed over the society they live in. Thats flat out wrong.
I say no voting at all for felons. And a felon is a felon, for life.
That being said, there should always be room for redemption and forgiveness. If we do not provide such a thing as a society then we will be unnecessarily cruel. However, redemption and full forgiveness in society must be earned, not thrown away freely, to prevent abuse and preserve its value.
If the felon has proven himself, over time, to be a responsible and productive citizen, then there should be an application process, similar to the one for citizenship, to allow him to regain the full exercise of his rights as a citizen.
I would make it a voluntary but formal 5 year process, beginning 5 years after the end of parole. The first 5 years are showing the soon-to-be former felon can stay clean and be a good citizen on his own. The second part would show that he is willing to work to get back the free exercise of his full rights.
Call the second 5 years "Citizenship Rehabilitation". The felon must have zero arrests and convictions (i.e. parking tickets dont count against you), pass a citizenship test in terms of history and structure of the US government, participate in citizenship activities and classes, and be proficient in English.
If a felon does that, then he will have shown not only that he is a "responsible citizen" again, but that he is committed enough to being a good citizen that he put forth a sustained effort to demonstrate it. Faith without works is empty - a felon at the end of this program will have shown not only faith, but works as well.
At that point, the felon deserves to get back all his rights. And possibly even have the record expunged except in the case of subsequent convictions for the purposes of sentencing, say after an additional 5 years.
The only exception in my mind would be no firearms for someone guilty of crimes of violence.
Net effect: 10 years after the felon is released, he is completely and fully a citizen again, and after 15 years, he is no longer a felon or even a former felon.
Raptor - it sounds like you would be already voting again if this type of thing was in place. And owning firearms legally as well.
And there are others - I know one of whom now has a book out: Brother Townsend, formerly a murderer, now a capuchin monk.
#11
note well - whats being discussed above is NOT teh same as whats under discussion in the US. The brits are discussing votes for PRISONERS - the US we're discussing votes for folks whove "paid their debt" are no longer in prison, or even on parole. Free people. Having a class of free people who cant vote is troubling. Particularly when many of them were convicted of non-violent crimes, related to drugs, and are disproportionately from certain race or class backgrounds.
#12
every vote 'won' may not necessarily represent a net increase in votes well said bulldog.
Raptor - I hope you can find a way to legally restore your voting rights. So...this not about you...I was going to say this before I read your post. Perhaps we should re-examine the idea of making a DUI a felony crime...but that's for another discussion.
BUT ..I'm really tired of this uncontested belief in our society that we should always look to the exception to make the rule. We believe that we are being more humane by attempting to give each and every individual the opportunity for a do-over in life. We say, if there is a chance - we should embrace it. But the truth is we aren't being humane - because we know that there is a greater chance that these same people will shatter far more lives than we could ever hope to redeem, in our attempts to be "humane".
By having a rule that criminals can't vote - some good people, like raptor, may fall through the cracks..but that doesn't mean that society as a whole doesn't benefit by demanding higher standards of citizens allowed the right to vote.
Excuse me but this is BS. Here in France, a country who is far more liberal than Massachusets or Vermont judges routinely sentence to five years in jail and ten years of "suspension of civic rights" ie no right to vote. Sorry but I don't want to have a tight election being decided by the vote of thieves, convicted crooks, rapers or assassins (and politicians being tempted to go after their votes). About "having paid their debt to society" this is double BS: the suspension of civic rights IS part of the penalty so a person who has been released from jail but still hasn't recovered his right to vote has NOT paid his debt. Get over it.
#14
I'm with JFM on this. Make suspension of civic rights for a given number of years an explicit part of the sentence passed.
Then there's no need to ask whether former prisoners have paid their debt or not -- it'd be clear they haven't. We may still argue ofcourse whether felons should get their civic rights revoked for life or just for a number of years.
#16
Crazyfool: You forgot the tenants in the local cemetaries. They're the base for any Democratic reelection.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/03/2005 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Raptor, I'm having trouble posting the link and making it work, so here it goes so you can copy & paste it yourself:
http://www.lawyerscomm.org/ep04/50states/arizona.pdf
Adobe Acrobat required, but the short & pretty of it is that if you are here in Arizona (I think you are, right?) you can have your civil rights restored under most circumstances if you apply for them.
When you get them back, you have to let us know here on RB. Best of luck, and congratulations on your continued sobriety!
#19
note well - whats being discussed above is NOT teh same as whats under discussion in the US.
Sorry, LH, but that's just not the case. There were a number of stories recently whining about the "unfairness" of suburbs, exurbs and rural areas that have prisons counting the prison population during the census, but not allowing those people to vote. Supposedly this unfairly shifts representative power to the areas with the prisons.
There *ARE* groups trying to get the vote for prisoners. Their first step is to talk only about ex-cons.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/03/2005 15:22 Comments ||
Top||
#20
I like Old Spook's process. Just "paying your debt" often only means you have not been caught again, yet. My wif... my lovely wife spent ten years as a probation officer. Judges giving wrist-slap after wrist-slap really fried her. She said most (probationers, not judges)were just playing the system, but a few (10%?)recognized their mistake and wanted to completely and correctly serve their probation - and move on. Her favorite was a judge who was tough on repeat offenders (I can't spell recidivism) but also spent a lot on treatment (of drug addiction, alcohol, other problems). "Ya gotta problem, I can help ya. Ya don't gotta problem, then you must be a criminal, and then you're going to the slammer."
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/03/2005 16:13 Comments ||
Top||
#21
RC -well it does seem silly that they should get so many votes - i presume thats more of a local balance issue - ive never seen anything about it but ah the dreaded slippery slope - first you let the exfelons votes, then the prisoners, next thing you know it will be those whove been executed, right :)
Cmon, folks, we dont keep people other than murderers on parole all their life - why focus on VOTING, as opposed to all other rights? Could it be cause of what groups they belong to and how they tend to vote? - nah, of course it couldnt.
#22
Then there's no need to ask whether former prisoners have paid their debt or not -- it'd be clear they haven't.
How long does it take to pay your debt for possesion of crack? 20 years? 30? 50? Cmon AK, as info - the largest number of felons in the states is in on drugs, is poor, and is black. This aint about keeping murderers from voting, its about - well, I think you can figure it out.
#25
Interesting thing: In Germany, active voting rights can only be suspended for a very small range of crimes, usually high treason and other comparable political felonies. Even "regular" murderers can vote in prison.
The right to be elected to political office is automatically suspended if you are sentenced to one year or more in prison. It has to be restored after a maximum delay of 5 years after serving time.
I can't remember anyone having a problem with that.
#29
Rights cannot be "taken" - but their free exercise can justifiably be restricted. If you violate the rules, your ability to use your rights is restricted, not only as punishment but as a protection for society against people who would destroy it if left unchecked. After all a felons has screwed society over in the worst way.
Society needs the felon to prove him/her-self worthy of exercising the rights in the society in which they abrogated them.
So routine voting by felons should NOT be the rule, given the recidivism rate, etc. And thats what these loonies are trying to pass as a rotuine thing - that anyone can vote regardless of how badly they screwed over the society they live in. Thats flat out wrong.
I say no voting at all for felons. And a felon is a felon, for life.
That being said, there should always be room for redemption and forgiveness. If we do not provide such a thing as a society then we will be unnecessarily cruel. However, redemption and full forgiveness in society must be earned, not thrown away freely, to prevent abuse and preserve its value.
If the felon has proven himself, over time, to be a responsible and productive citizen, then there should be an application process, similar to the one for citizenship, to allow him to regain the full exercise of his rights as a citizen.
I would make it a voluntary but formal 5 year process, beginning 5 years after the end of parole. The first 5 years are showing the soon-to-be former felon can stay clean and be a good citizen on his own. The second part would show that he is willing to work to get back the free exercise of his full rights.
Call the second 5 years "Citizenship Rehabilitation". The felon must have zero arrests and convictions (i.e. parking tickets dont count against you), pass a citizenship test in terms of history and structure of the US government, participate in citizenship activities and classes, and be proficient in English.
If a felon does that, then he will have shown not only that he is a "responsible citizen" again, but that he is committed enough to being a good citizen that he put forth a sustained effort to demonstrate it. Faith without works is empty - a felon at the end of this program will have shown not only faith, but works as well.
At that point, the felon deserves to get back all his rights. And possibly even have the record expunged except in the case of subsequent convictions for the purposes of sentencing, say after an additional 5 years.
The only exception in my mind would be no firearms for someone guilty of crimes of violence.
Net effect: 10 years after the felon is released, he is completely and fully a citizen again, and after 15 years, he is no longer a felon or even a former felon.
Raptor - it sounds like you would be already voting again if this type of thing was in place. And owning firearms legally as well.
And there are others - I know one of whom now has a book out: Brother Townsend, formerly a murderer, now a capuchin monk.
#31
Rights cannot be "taken" - but their free exercise can justifiably be restricted. If you violate the rules, your ability to use your rights is restricted, not only as punishment but as a protection for society against people who would destroy it if left unchecked. After all a felons has screwed society over in the worst way.
Society needs the felon to prove him/her-self worthy of exercising the rights in the society in which they abrogated them.
So routine voting by felons should NOT be the rule, given the recidivism rate, etc. And thats what these loonies are trying to pass as a rotuine thing - that anyone can vote regardless of how badly they screwed over the society they live in. Thats flat out wrong.
I say no voting at all for felons. And a felon is a felon, for life.
That being said, there should always be room for redemption and forgiveness. If we do not provide such a thing as a society then we will be unnecessarily cruel. However, redemption and full forgiveness in society must be earned, not thrown away freely, to prevent abuse and preserve its value.
If the felon has proven himself, over time, to be a responsible and productive citizen, then there should be an application process, similar to the one for citizenship, to allow him to regain the full exercise of his rights as a citizen.
I would make it a voluntary but formal 5 year process, beginning 5 years after the end of parole. The first 5 years are showing the soon-to-be former felon can stay clean and be a good citizen on his own. The second part would show that he is willing to work to get back the free exercise of his full rights.
Call the second 5 years "Citizenship Rehabilitation". The felon must have zero arrests and convictions (i.e. parking tickets dont count against you), pass a citizenship test in terms of history and structure of the US government, participate in citizenship activities and classes, and be proficient in English.
If a felon does that, then he will have shown not only that he is a "responsible citizen" again, but that he is committed enough to being a good citizen that he put forth a sustained effort to demonstrate it. Faith without works is empty - a felon at the end of this program will have shown not only faith, but works as well.
At that point, the felon deserves to get back all his rights. And possibly even have the record expunged except in the case of subsequent convictions for the purposes of sentencing, say after an additional 5 years.
The only exception in my mind would be no firearms for someone guilty of crimes of violence.
Net effect: 10 years after the felon is released, he is completely and fully a citizen again, and after 15 years, he is no longer a felon or even a former felon.
Raptor - it sounds like you would be already voting again if this type of thing was in place. And owning firearms legally as well.
And there are others - I know one of whom now has a book out: Brother Townsend, formerly a murderer, now a capuchin monk.
EFL, Translated from Spanish. Geez, a two and a half hour speech. Wotta windbag. Though for half a billion, I guess I'd sit through it and smile. I kinda see this is Chavez' Mein Kampf. It states pretty clearly what he is up to. Hmm, and using petrodollars to achieve your political goals in the region. Where have we seen that before? (PS Argentina is widely believed to be the Latin country that came closest to acquiring nukes.)
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, said that his country will buy US$500 million in Argentine goverment bonds. Chavez made the announcement in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, after meeting with his counterparts from Argentina, Nestor Kirchner and Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva.... In a public act in the city hall of Montevideo, Chavez said that the acquisition of Argentinian public debt is something that "already has been decided." "It is a small sacrifice, but we make it because we know the burden that debt has placed on Argentina, and furthermore it is the fault of neo-liberalism [this is a slam at US economic policy, not the Democratic Party; trans.]," emphasized the Venezuelan President.
In a speech of two and a half hours long, Hugo Chavez added, "We are resolute that the 21st century will be a century of liberation, of bringing equality to our peoples. I am convinced that capitalism is not the solution the the problems of of misery and inequality." The Venezuelan President added, "We are not going to finish in one day, nor in one country, but I am convinced that the path is socialism. It is not just any socialism. It is not a question of whether to buy new models, it is the question of something to succeed that is the grand measure of success; we are obligated to invent socialism [I had a lot of trouble translating this sentence. It's probably as meaningless as it seems, but I'm always open to constructive criticism.]
#2
De nada, Seafarious. Looks like ol' Hugo is adopting Saudi tactics, doesn't it? I don't think that he'll get as much ROI on Argentina as the Saudis get on their investments. And FARCquistas probably aren't as dedicated to the cause as your typical Jihadi. I also think that he's an idiot to identify himself as a socialist. I rather liked his "Bolivarian" cant. If you were an Indio, you could pretend that it was coded language for Indianismo. If you were a Castroite or a socialist, you could likewise delude yourself.
I wonder what he'll be next week? I wonder how long he can get away with this crap?
Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Plans His Assassination (Update1). Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, stepping up allegations the U.S. is plotting his assassination, said the plans include making his demise appear to be a suicide. This asshole has something up his sleeve. The look at me, look at me cry goes beyond just trying to divert the citizenry's attention from internal problems. The cry is too loud!!!
``They're preparing the ground for a suicide, which won't work with me,'' Chavez said during a news conference today in Uruguay on Venezuela's state television station. ``If I'm killed, the U.S. can forget about getting even one drop of oil.'' Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is among the four biggest suppliers to the U.S., providing 15 percent of its petroleum. Chavez's remarks, made in Uruguay's capital Montevideo where he attended the inauguration of President Tabare Vazquez yesterday, come as Venezuela seeks to lessen its dependence on the U.S. oil markets. Chavez has signed oil deals with China, Paraguay and Uruguay since last year, and will travel to India later this week to peddle the country's oil.
Chavez, who says he is a friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, first described himself as a ``socialist'' in a speech on Feb. 25. He began accusing the U.S. of planning his death in January after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the former army lieutenant colonel was a ``negative force'' in Latin America and called some of his government's actions ``very deeply troubling.'' Chavez today said the U.S. may be trying to make him to take his own life by criticizing him. ``There are cases where they have pressured presidents into suicide,'' Chavez said. ``Or through a communication war they can incite an assassination.''
The spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Robert Zimmerman, declined to comment. Relations between the two governments have remained tense since Chavez said the U.S. helped plan a failed two-day coup against him in 2002.
Posted by: TMH ||
03/03/2005 9:20:33 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Relations between the two governments have remained tense since Chavez said the U.S. helped plan a failed two-day coup against him in 2002.
Next time, lets nab him first, get him to an isolated place OUTSIDE VENEZUELA. (Saddahm's hole near Tikrit is available) Then his cronies can squabble over who's in charge, while we take over the governmental infrastructue.
#2
``There are cases where they have pressured presidents into suicide,ââ Chavez said. ``Or through a communication war they can incite an assassination.ââ
I hear a bullet works quite well too. We have some great snipers here that would be happy to assist...
#4
The raw power of self-delusion seems to be driving most of what the poor wretch says and does. He does seem to believe himself more often than not. An intervention for his own good may be necessary to save him from himself!
#12
These comments are not intended for the US audience but for his own people, and perhaps for his neighbors. Blame someone else is an age-old political strategy and blaming Costa Rica just doesn't cut it.
#13
Somebody help me out here with the decoration's Hugo's wearing. I recognize the Failed Coup Sash, but is that for failing to pull one off or for surviving a failed coup? Or does the dancing pony signify the wearer has managed both?
Everyone, of course, knows the Prickly Medal of Supporting Terrorists over his heart, but that thing around his neck -- is that the Kissed Castro's Ass medallion, or the Incipient President for Life amulet?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/03/2005 13:36 Comments ||
Top||
#14
RC, LOL. Anyone else think it looks like he's had collagen injections to his lips?
Posted by: Matt ||
03/03/2005 13:47 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Actually, Matt, his face looks very, very native for that part of the world. He's the spitting image of any number of Mayan statues.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/03/2005 13:55 Comments ||
Top||
#21
How about instead of killing him, we capture him, and take pictures of him in his skivvies with panties on his head. We'll post them on the internet and then let him go in Iraq.
#24
But, controlling his people will be much harder after that..it's hard to be macho with panties on your head, just look at how it affects the jihadis.
There's a great post at Bros. Judd you might find informative.
Since this is a topic that is probably relatively little known, please allow me to present some background on Hong Kong and its current tricky relationship with China.
Hong Kong is a tiger being ridden by China's rulers, and they are praying that choosing the right leader for Hong Kong will help them to avoid being eaten by the tiger.
Yes, for China, Hong Kong is a major source of investment and business expertise. And, yes, Beijing, in a political alliance with Hong Kong's big business interests, is trying to reshape the city in its own image.
Things, however, also go the other way. While China is subverting Hong Kong's freedoms, Hong Kong's economic clout, although now slowly declining, is also subverting Beijing's political authority. For instance, while the rest of China's provinces adopted daylight-savings time when the regime decided to do so in the mid-80s, Guangdong province, just north of Hong Kong, did not.
Why? Because Guangdong, which is physically as large as France and today has more than 100 million inhabitants, preferred to be in sync with Hong Kong, which did not have daylight-savings time. For centuries, the cultural heart of Guangdong was its provincial capitol, Guangzhou. Anyone who wanted to be someone in the province learned to speak the version of the Cantonese language spoken in Guangzhou. (Spoken Cantonese, by the way, is as different from Mandarin Chinese as French is from Italian.) Today, the province is overflowing with millions of illegal satellite dishes that are tuned to Hong Kong's television stations, and Guangdong's people, who increasingly look at a chic Hong Kong as the new center of Cantonese culture, are all learning the modern English-influenced Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong. Here, the flow of ideas goes from Hong Kong to Guangdong and from Guangdong to the rest of China, not the other way....
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
03/03/2005 10:41:02 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
March 3, 2005: China, which currently only has small hovercraft (LCAC), is buying some of the world's largest LCACs from Russia. These are the Zubr class craft, which can carry 130 tons (three tanks, or a combination of lighter armored or non-armored vehicles). The Zubrs also carry two stabilized MLRs (multiple tube rocket launchers), four short range anti-aircraft missiles systems (Igla-1Ms) and two AK-630 six-barrel 30mm close-in weapon systems (CIWS), for defense against anti-ship missiles.
Typical Russian overkill.
The current LCACs China has were designed and built in China, but carry only about twenty soldiers and are used to quickly get troops from amphibious ships to shore. The Zubrs, with a top speed of 100 kilometers an hour, can go right from the Chinese coast to Taiwan, and land troops and armored vehicles on shore areas that would otherwise not be passable by troops coming in on standard amphibious boats. It's not known how many Zubrs the Chinese are getting. These craft are expensive (the price and weapons configuration is negotiable, but the cost is somewhere over $10 million each) and China might only want to buy a few to get some experience, and figure out how to build their own. However, a dozen or more Zubrs would greatly complicate Taiwanese defense plans against a Chinese amphibious assault.
Very fast, can go right over mines or torpedos and with a missile defense capability. Tricky problem.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/03/2005 9:02:16 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I've often wondered why the Chinese never upgraded their amphibious capabilities. Looks like they're finally getting around to it.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/03/2005 12:42 Comments ||
Top||
#8
This is also where a nice, low tech, radar guided shore gun comes in handy. Cheap, easy to operate and not neutralized by any anti-missle weapons. One 155mm shell would make short work out of any hovercraft.
#9
Also, nice fat target for the 120mm main gun on a M-1 class MBT. Can you imagine what a HEAT-DP round would do to the main compartment of one of those :) And considering the range of most tank kills in Iraq, the stupid thing would still be in the ocean when it took the hit - sharks would be having Chinese for dinner.
#10
Um...need I mention here that anything like tank traps or the kind of stuff that they lineded the beaches with in Normandy with as obstacles for landing would just shred the skirts?
#12
There's the little matter of build-up at the coast followed by 300 kilometers (3 hours minimum) travel over the water to get to Taiwan. Not much chance of a surprise attack. Lovely $10 million targets, not including the tanks that sink with them.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/03/2005 15:07 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Watch D-Day or Band of Brothers,GC.You'll get the idea.
Dozens of men and women accused of the rape and abuse of children have gone on trial in one of the biggest court cases in France's legal history. The trial, which involves 66 defendants, is taking place in a specially built hall in the town of Angers in western France. More than 60 lawyers are taking part and the prosecution case runs to 430 pages, the French news agency AFP reports.
There are 45 alleged child victims. The oldest was aged 14 and the youngest just six months.
Of the 66 defendants, 39 face charges of raping children under 15 and of pimping. A total of 39 men and 27 women are going on trial. The crimes could incur jail terms ranging up to 30 years.
The crimes allegedly took place between June 1999 and February 2002 in Angers' Saint-Leonard district. The prosecution says most were perpetrated in the flat of a former convicted sex offender and in sheds on garden allotments. The crimes reportedly came to light when investigators monitored the activities of another convicted sex offender released in 1999. The two men allegedly ran the paedophile ring.
Nearly all the defendants were living on welfare benefits. "Parents of one kid sold her for a new car tyre," said lawyer Philippe Cosnard, quoted by the AFP news agency. Other children were allegedly bartered for small sums of money, food or cigarettes. A girl of 10 was allegedly raped by more than 30 adults.
Prosecutors say more than half of the accused have admitted their guilt. But the prosecution hopes to avoid any repetition of the errors that plagued a previous high-profile paedophile trial - the Outreau case in northern France last year. In that case, the accused spent months in prison awaiting trial and 13 people were implicated on the testimony of a woman who later admitted she had been lying.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2005 9:20:45 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Google or "Wiki" (my source for just about everything) Marc Dutroux.
If the network rumors in both Belgium and France are true, I wouldn't be surprised if they're one and the same -- or for that matter if such has anything to do with their governments' bad tendencies ...
#7
I'm already seeing the liberal spin that "The couple at the centre of the trial were themselves both sexually abused as children." So, they're victims, which makes them morally superior, and who are we to criticize them?
I'm going to be one of those judgemental Americans and say this is not "sick." This is not something for which you get therapy. It's downright evil. OK, it wasn't as many people as Auschwitz or the Ukraine, but on a personal scale it was. These children, these infants were sent through Hell for the pleasure of these evil-doers.
I am normally opposed to the death penalty for rape itself (unless the rapist murders the victim as a witness), but I'd make an exception here. I wish these "people" were visiting in the Southwest. I don't think you'd find a jury willing to convict someone of killing them. I sure wouldn't. They need killin'.
Oh, and note they were all on welfare, which presumably means there were lots of social workers "helping" them cope. Don't ever tell Me that we need the government to seize children from parents who spank their children or are Christian Scientists or whatever. If the welfare case workers didn't stop something of this nature from happening over three years, they have no business doing anything except cleaning out their desks.
Ah, hell, let the God-damned Jihadis take over the miserable excuse for a country. We'll nuke the place and get rid of all the filth at once.
The European Commission sought yesterday to establish itself as the EU's chief auditing authority, demanding new powers to police the budget offices of member states. This coming from the EU, whose own auditors have refused to sign off its accounts for almost a decade, saying they simply don't know what happens to 95% of its budget...
Under the proposed law, the Commission could carry out spot checks and "in-depth monitoring visits" anywhere in the EU, at any time, to ensure that Brussels was not being fed bogus data by member states. Eurostat inspectors would be able to demand access to debt figures and "underlying government accounts" to safeguard the "credibility" of monetary union. Findings would be made public if national data was found to be misleading. How many more decades will it be before the EU's own accounting is made public?
This follows revelations last year that Greece had cooked its budget books by more than 2pc of GDP every year from 1997 onwards to meet the deficit limit for the euro. The Commission said Greece would never have been allowed to join the single currency had the truth been known. We haven't seen the EU's books since '95. How do we know it hasn't been cooking its book for even longer?
Britain could also be the target of raids, even though it is not a member of the euro. The Government attacked the plan yesterday, insisting that there was no need for further bureaucracy. "Our statistical body has a worldwide reputation for excellence and doesn't need Eurostat officials marching in," said a British official. "Brussels should be focusing on countries that have problems." France and Germany are expected to give the proposal a frosty reception when it reaches EU ministers in coming months.
In January, EU finance ministers voted for sanctions against Athens, which now admits to a budget deficit of 5.5pc of GDP in 2004, far above the legal limit of 3pc. Italy also came clean this week, admitting that it had understated its deficit by as much as 0.5pc of GDP for the past three years. While Eurostat officials have railed privately in the past at "statistical alchemy" by offending states, they have been powerless to police the abuses or bring the culprits to book. Forced to rely on figures provided by national capitals, their only recourse has been to add footnotes hinting at possible error.
Ironically, Eurostat is itself embroiled in scandal. A leaked memo by investigators described a "vast enterprise of looting" by top officials, entailing the disappearance of â¬5m (£3.4m) of taxpayer funds in illegal black accounts. Contracts were awarded off-books to a shadowy network of suppliers linked to the officials and their families. A report today by Britain's National Audit Office will say that investigators were still investigating nine cases of abuse by Eurostat officials. Don't hold your breath.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/03/2005 4:20:12 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
80 with an over/under of 12. See Pappy for chits.
#2
Profligate Greeks failing to live up to their treaty commitments. What do they think they are? Frogs?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/03/2005 7:50 Comments ||
Top||
#3
If the various oblasts member states don't keep within the spending limitations, how will the Central Committee Comission be able to skim their share off the top? Just like Andropov and Gorbachev and their "anti-corruption" campaign, which meant to keep the lower levels from stealing the pelf before it got to them, the EUSSR reserves corruption to itself.
#4
"...revelations last year that Greece had cooked its budget books by more than 2pc of GDP every year from 1997 onwards..."
A fine upstanding member of the EU.
"...Eurostat is itself embroiled in scandal... a 'vast enterprise of looting' by top officials, entailing the disappearance of â¬5m (£3.4m)... Contracts were awarded off-books to a shadowy network... linked to the officials and their families."
These guys are rehearsing for U.N. jobs?
"EU" and "Greek" in the same thread, imagine that. When Aris shows up, I am not going to post any further comment in this thread. Not even one keystroke. I urge everyone else to do the same, no matter how much tempting bait Aris provides.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/03/2005 8:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
EU and Greek corruption,Aris must be so proud.Tell me,Aris,since you have no authority(no vote,no recall,no method of holding corrupt EU officials to account)what are you going to do about your precious EU.Let me guess nothing,naadaa,bupkiss.
#6
A leaked memo by investigators described a "vast enterprise of looting" by top officials, entailing the disappearance of â¬5m (£3.4m) of taxpayer funds in illegal black accounts. Contracts were awarded off-books to a shadowy network of suppliers linked to the officials and their families.
Huh. Imagine that. Corruption in the EU.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/03/2005 8:42 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Raptor and Tom, you are feeding the troll by giving him the attention he so desperately craves. Wouldn't it be great if this thread had one angry response from the troll at the bottom, with no replies?
#12
Of course France & Germany are going to give it a frosty reception. Weren't they guilty of violating some deficit ceiling that the EU imposed on all countries using the euro?
95% of the budget unaccounted for? Damn... it makes the UN look good! I'd sure feel like a tool if I was the 5% they could track.
#13
Am I supposed to answer the rhetorical questions posed me, or would that me being an asshat as I've been called in the past whenever I tried to answer rhetorical questions whose questioners didn't actually want a response because it'd be invonvenient for their attempts to present me as incapable of answering?
I think I'll answer.
Tell me,Aris,since you have no authority(no vote,no recall,no method of holding corrupt EU officials to account)
Gee, more false assumptions. Did you actually read the article, and which people are responsible for said corruption, whether it was national officials or EU ones?
I certainly do have a vote that can punish Greek officials cooking their books.
As for me "having no vote" concerning European officials, tell me. Have you even heard of the words "European Parliament"? Do you know that they forced the Sander Commission to resign?
And as for "vote, recall" and etc, etc, etc, I've done the most I can to support democracy in the European Union -- most of the ones who lyingly claim that their objection to the EU concerns the lack of democracy there, are also the ones who never support any move at all that tries to fill the democratic deficit. Ask the Brit people here. Ask them whether they would wish to see a directly elected President of the European Commission. *I* definitely would want to see such a one.
And, gromky, your false assumptions about my "reactions" are as idiotic as the people whom you addressed.
People asking about the difference about trolls and me, have their answer yet again. It's not me who tries to bait people into responding. It's others who try to bait *me* to a response, using insults, innuendos, jabs and whatever else they think most likely to succeed.
#17
Aris,the other day I ask about the EU and voting/holding EU bearuacrats to account.The answers I got(questions that you either did not see or ignored)are were limited,no,no,no,no.So your democratic EU isn't.
#18
Raptor, "my EU" is suffering from a democratic deficit that I've never denied.
I had seen your questions but I believe they'd been answered already by the time I saw that post of yours.
What you don't understand is the way that eradicating that democratic deficit (which I strongly wish) to a very great extent means a further removal of national vetos, and thus, of national sovereignty.
Let's say that the European people directly elect the President of the Commission, the way they currently aren't able to do.
Do you know what this means? It means that Britain alone (and any other nation) would no longer be capable of *vetoing* those people that they don't like for the job.
Each nation currently has the right to veto the position of the President of the Commission -- with a directly elected President, the individual nations would lose that right.
So, please consider that for a moment, and think real carefully whether it's the europhobes or the europhiles which stand in the way of democratizing the Union. In order to establish full democratic accountability on a European level, you have to first *further* let go of national sovereignty.
Barrosso was installed as the product of compromise, one acceptable to the UK. Directly elect the President of the Commission (as I'd prefer), and the UK no longer gets such a veto.
So now, yet again, I ask you to inquire Bulldog or Howard UK or any of the anti-EU British chaps here, whether they'd prefer to forego this national veto in order to have the position directly elected from the European public.
I'm all in favour of direct election of the position myself. But I've never yet met a europhobe who has been in favour of it.
#19
You know guys, Aris does have a point here. The problem with his "democracy deficit" is true. To have a true EU all the members have to give up a lot of sovereignty. Equivalent to the difference between States and the Feds here.
Now, the problem is that the EuroFeds don't want to live with the kind of constitution that we have where there powers are enumerated and constrained and all the bureaucrats are answerable to elected officials.
The guys pushing the EU WANT an oligarchy that is not democratic and the guys fighting the EU don't want a democratic EU either (they want a trade association as far as I can tell). So, no one other than maybe Aris types really want a democratic EU. Good luck Aris, doubt that you've got the power.
#20
AlanC, the people pushing for the EU have different things in mind. I believe that some of these people are indeed seeking a democratic EU.
Giscard d'Estaign has for example been often vilified here, doomed by association it seems, but from what I've judged of him he seems to indeed be democratic. For example -- I believe he had wanted it inserted into the EU Constitution that future amendments would have to pass through a Europe-wide referendum.
A democratic idea. This idea was rejected however in favour of the present situation where each nation ratifies the way it wants -- this means that the political nations of each nation will unfortunately still be able to reject or accept or choose to hold referendums on each issue, as they see fit.
But nonetheless other democratic improvements over the functioning remained in the EU Constitution, such as the Citizen's initiative where a million signatures by European citizens can propose new laws.
The question of directly electing EU officials besides the Parliament is kept on being posed with greater frequency. National referenda on participation in EU politics are kept being made with greater and greater frequency.
The (directly elected) European Parliament is likewise slowly seizing more power for itself. It recently rejected several choices for Commissioners, forcing Barrosso to send some away and shuffle others. It's turning back laws like the software patent thingy that displease it.
Yes, all democratic progress is going at a snail's pace. But I definitely think it's going at a snail's pace towards a democratic direction. Some institutions (like rotating presidencies, undemocratic by nature) are in their way abolished. Their replacements are still only indirectly elected, but it's a step to the right direction.
Zippy might have to nix the Euro: Via Barcepundit: Spain's socialist government has vowed to liberalise the country's capital markets and energy sector as part of several initiatives aimed at tackling the economy's flagging global competitiveness. Among the measures unveiled yesterday are a 40 per cent cut in registration costs for bond issuers and new limits on how much equity electricity and gas companies can hold in national distribution networks. The economy ministry has also promised to liberalise the telecommunications, transport and postal services markets, provide incentives for investment in technology and strengthen consumer rights. The policy reforms, many of which will require parliamentary approval, are designed to address concerns about Spain's long-term economic growth.
In spite of outstripping average gross domestic product growth rates in the eurozone over the past 10 years, the gap between Spain and its neighbours is starting to close. More worryingly, the economy ministry's calculations show that GDP per worker grew just 3.9 per cent between 1998 and 2004, compared with 5.4 per cent in the eurozone and 16 per cent in the US. During the same period the current account deficit has moved from surplus to deficit and inflation levels have constantly remained above the European average. Tourism and construction, principal drivers of the economy, are showing signs of a slowdown, while local and international manufacturers have begun shifting production to eastern Europe and Asia at a rate of one or two facilities a week, according to some private sector estimates. TRW, the US car parts maker, recently announced plans to close a plant in Burgos, in the north of the country, with the loss of more than 300 jobs. Spain long ago ceased being viewed as a low-cost production option for the automotive industry.
"If this situation continues we'll have to drop the euro and return to a floating rate currency to avoid mass unemployment and bankruptcies," said Luis de Sebastiän, economist at the Esade business school in Barcelona. "Returns from tourism are no longer compensating for our lack of export competitiveness." Economists point to state bureaucracy, labour market rigidity, "cartelism", low research and development spending and abuses by former state monopolies as the main culprits for the country's receding competitiveness. In response to this, the economy ministry yesterday promised to cut red tape, improve tax breaks in some high-technology and export sectors and facilitate foreign investment. Telecommunications and media groups will also be free to sell radio, television and mobile telephone frequencies under reforms planned for later this year....
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
03/03/2005 1:14:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm still predicting the Great Recession of 2005.
#2
I thought he wanted to be more European, like France and Germany. Is unemployment there over or under 10%? At least it's a nice place to vacation. Plenty of hotel jobs.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/03/2005 6:35 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Spain has been in fast growth during the Aznar years, however there are signs that Zapatero will run its economy on the ground even if due to inertia of Aznar years 2004 was quite good
Hat tip Drudge. Looks like the Hildabeast is starting her run early...
Here SHE is.
The President of the United States.
Coming soon, if ABC's drama pilot "Commander in Chief" gets picked up.
Anticipating a run by Hillary Clinton, Geena Davis will star as the first female president of the United States!
Davis, a Democrat political activist, is set for the two-hour pilot with writer/director Rod Lurie.
Casting Director Jeanne Boisineau will hold an open call for men and women to play government officials and members of the secret service and military this Saturday in Richmond, VA.
Developing...
Posted by: CrazyFool ||
03/03/2005 11:46:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#8
2b: Actually, in their liberal fantasy world this is the first step. Get people to see it, let them become familiar with it, present it in a non-threatening way and let them get their minds around it, and you break down the opposition to it. This could soooo bite them in the a$$ if Rice runs.
#9
It's funny to watch "The West Wing" as they struggle to side-step the context of a George Bush changed world. Does the Taliban run Afghansitan on "The West Wing"? If not, how did they get run out of town? Jeb Bartlett certainly wouldn't/couldn't do it. It would not be consistent with his politics. To solve the issue, the writers simply choose to ignore that bit. How did Jeb cope with the recent Iraqi election. Oh yea, it never happened. Labanon? Hah!! The show was always fantasy, but with each W. driven change in the real world, the show becomes that much more fantasy and thus that much more farcical. It is downright campy these days. The calender is permanently stuck on 9/10 in the Bartlett White House.
#3
The cognitive disconnect is systemic - top to bottom. Any org so clueless as to have put Eason Jordan in charge is terminally screwed. The only way they can be saved is by the stockholders demanding that upper management be fired en masse. King stockholder isn't there to promote a cause, he's there for successful profit generation. The Moonbat Model doesn't cut it. Adapt or die.
#6
Have any of you watched CNN lately? What a joke it's become. News consists of Michael Jackson, BTK Killer, Pope Vulture Watch and did I say Michael Jackson? On the hour they have maybe one 5 second spot of the biggest story of the day. I don't know why they just don't pack it in, hire Jerry Springer and dump the whole "news" angle all together.
#10
My Estonian girlfriend is of the modern peacenick Euro variety -- war is always bad, blah, blah.
But Fox News is now carried by a lot of the local cable channels over here in the last 12 months, here in Estonia, in Sweden, etc.
She's become a big Bill O'Reilly fan, of all things. The other night, when there was a piece on Baby Assad on Brit Hume's show about his links to the bombing in Lebanon, she turned to me and said, "He is, how you Americans put it -- cruising for a bruising?"
Music to my ears. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, the U.S. State Department under Powell abandoned the intellectual field to the likes of the BBC and Euronews in the last four years. But as much as I detest screechfests like Hannity and Colmes ... god bless Fox News.
Posted by: Baltic Blog ||
03/03/2005 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
#11
That is really not fair to Powell. He entered the job thinking he would actually be allowed to do what was required of the Secretary of State. He was window dressing. The administration would not allow him to make any decisions and when he was bold enough to make a statement he was spanked.
Posted by: Jones ||
03/03/2005 15:50 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Jones,
When I was a little bit younger, I thought Powell was the cat's meow. I was hoping he would run for president post Gulf-War days.
But, he ended up being one of the least-travelled secretaries of the last 50 years. Spent too much time in D.C. fighting the turf wars he thought he needed to be fighting, instead of articulating the position of the present adminstration, which is what the FREAKIN' JOB IS for the SecState. Not to set policy, but to explain it and implement it.
From what I've seen, Rice is already better in a few short months. Euros know that when she speaks, she's speaking for the administration, and not herself.
Plus, IMO it's pretty cool to walk into your local American embassy and see a black woman on the wall as the U.S. representative to the world, methinks.
Posted by: Baltic Blog ||
03/03/2005 16:04 Comments ||
Top||
#13
A complaint from our "allies" was that Powell didn't travel enough. He doesn't like to fly, which would be a hindrance (sp) for the job, me thinks.
This is probably the most powerful story of Islamic Apostasy I have ever read.
My name is Aisha (name changed). I would like to tell you about my spiritual journey out of Islam.... I decided to show some of your articles, especially about misogyny, to my Imam.
He is not hateful at all and strongly condemns all acts of violence. Even though he is imam and a well-educated man in the Islamic science, I now doubt he has ever read the Quran!... I handed your articles to him. To tell the truth, I expected him to burst out into laughter, but he began to read your writings carefully. When he finished, he told me that he had learnt the truth. My eyes were blank and I barely could respond to him. He then continued. As a matter of fact, he has known that Islam is false for some time. He said he was too old (70 years) to change his life and so he kept on preaching sermons in mosques. Of course, he chose some more or less peaceful verses from the Quran. But it was not all! I will just quote what he said. "I'm old. My life is coming to an end. But you, Aisha, are young. Run, girl, run before it is too late!"
Posted by: mhw ||
03/03/2005 9:47:37 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Then I joined millions of forums. I even chatted with a much respected Ph.D. carrying scholar from Egypt. Boy, was he angry! He literally commanded me to stop reading your articles and move to the Middle East (I am from Australia).
But that was the proof I needed. You donât ask people who share your views to stop reading Islamic sites. Why? Itâs clear. You are not afraid of opposing views. You really mean what you say. Islam is based on blind faith. Muslims seem to accept everything Mohammed (or as they like to think, Allah) said with blind faith.
#5
Iâm old. My life is coming to an end. But you, Aisha, are young. Run, girl, run before it is too late!â
I'm sorry...that's just too over the top. They need to tone it down a bit. He looked at me with sadness in his eyes. "Aisha, the world is changing, go if you feel you must."
#6
Fun link. For the psychologists at ratnburg, here may be the earliest recorded story of projection:
What interests us at this moment is the fact that women prior to Islam did not wear this veil of shame that they are forced to wear today. It was because of Muhammadâs own insecurities, who as an old man, hoarding a harem of young and beautiful women, was fearful of younger and more virile men casting eyes on his wives that the order of veiling was issued.
#8
MHW-Yeah, I get it. It's just fun to think about the reasons behind the genesis of the veil. Because Muhammad would violate other women who had some smidgen of flesh open to the air, he believed others would do so, too, thus heralding in the era of the burqa/hijab/whatever the hell else you want to call the caftan of feminine shame.
#9
Similar to the masculine dominated early jewish religion blaming original sin on Eve. Adam didn't take responsibility for his own actions but blamed Eve. Not taking responsibility for one's own actions and blaming others seems to be a cornerstone of Islamic belief. May bees pee upon them.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/03/2005 14:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
What interests us at this moment is the fact that women prior to Islam did not wear this veil of shame that they are forced to wear today.
IIUC thats true for Arabia, but not for the entire East. Women were veiled in some eastern med civs prior to Islam. IIUC Big Mo' picked that up, like he picked up a lot of stuff. Whether there is a psychological reason he picked it up is another q, but its hardly something he invented.
#11
Might it be a legacy from their days of living in the desert under intense sunlight? A full head covering helps to keep a woman's facial skin from aging as quickly.
#14
GK
Some muslims call "Islamic Science" the study of the suras and hadiths and their classification by category, by degree of applicability in sharia and by degree of authenticity.
#15
I had the same thoughts about the little girls I saw outside my apartment waiting for the schoolbus back in '92. I wanted to tell them to run while they still could, before the darkness closed in on them. But, of course, as long as there is anything like Wahhabism holding any form of power, anywhere, there's really no escape, no hope, no future for these wymyn. It's the single most depressing thing about this pathology.
President Robert Mugabe confessed yesterday that millions of acres of prime land seized from Zimbabwe's white farmers are now lying empty and idle. After years spent trumpeting the "success" of the land grab, Mr Mugabe, 81, admitted that most of the farms transferred to black owners have never been used. All but a handful of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white farmers lost their homes and livelihoods when armed gangs of Mugabe supporters began invading their property in 2000.
In the first 18 months of the campaign, eight white landowners and 39 of their black workers were murdered, court orders defied and Zimbabwe's economy plunged into crisis. Mr Mugabe said this was the price that Zimbabwe would have to pay to redress the wrongs of the British colonial era, which left much of the best land in white hands. He claimed that the seizures would boost production and benefit millions of blacks.
Yet in his home province yesterday, Mr Mugabe chided the new landowners for growing crops on less than half of their land. "President Mugabe expressed disappointment with the land use, saying only 44 per cent of the land distributed is being fully utilised," state television reported. "He warned the farmers that the government will not hesitate to redistribute land that is not being utilised." Some 10.4 million acres were seized under a scheme designed to create a new class of black commercial farmer. By Mr Mugabe's figures, 5.8 million acres are lying fallow.
Last year, Mr Mugabe boasted of a bumper harvest and said that Zimbabwe no longer needed help "foisted" on it from the United Nations World Food Programme.
His land grab had made Zimbabwe "self sufficient", Mr Mugabe repeatedly claimed, and the national maize crop was a record 2.4 million tonnes. The Commercial Farmers' Union said that Zimbabwe grew only 850,000 tonnes of maize last year, not enough to meet domestic demand. In 1999, the last year before the land grab began, Zimbabwe grew 1.5 million tonnes. Then, Zimbabwe also earned about £263 million from tobacco exports. Last year, production had fallen by more than 70 per cent and earnings were down to £77 million.
Critics said Mr Mugabe's admission exposed the land grab's "failure". "It has been a phenomenal and absolute failure on every level," said Tendai Biti, secretary for economic affairs of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "It has failed both in terms of production of crops and in terms of the occupation of the land."
The new farmers are unable to raise bank loans because their properties are formally owned by the government and they have no individual title deeds. Without loans, they cannot buy seed, fertiliser or farming equipment and the regime has broken a pledge to supply them with tools. Some farmers have resorted to using horse-drawn ploughs. Many have given up trying to produce anything at all.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/03/2005 2:46:20 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Forget land grabs, now's the time to go for complete collectivization.
LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, BALAD, Iraq, March 2, 2005 — Over the past month, the military police here have responded to 54 larcenies, including burglaries, theft of government and private property, postal theft and shoplifting. "Larceny is probably the majority of our cases," said U.S. Army Spc. Daniel Krupka, 939th Military Police Detachment (Law and Order).
Two of the most recent incidents involved third country nationals who were caught with unauthorized items from alcohol to digital cameras to military issued equipment. We got a tip that the [Army and Air Force Exchange Service] employees had alcohol in their possession, so we went over there and found all kinds of stuff," said Investigator Shane Stephens, 939th MP Detachment.
The suspects were adamant that soldiers gave them the items, but much of it had clearly been stolen, Stephens said. One suspect was in possession of 11 brand new military issue knives worth $144 each. Others had expensive digital cameras, SAPI (body armor) plates, rucksacks, load bearing equipment and desert camouflage uniforms.
In the second incident, two men were caught by Army and Air Force Exchange Service loss prevention attempting to steal two packages of underwear. When they were questioned, loss prevention personnel found an additional four packages, said Capt. Gary Blagburn, 939th MP Detachment operations officer. {snip}
In both cases, the individuals were fired by their companies and flown out of theater.
"Usually, when they're caught, they're back home in one to two days," Blagburn said.
#7
True story--- I was out shopping in one of the big open-air markets near Tongdemun Statium, downtown Seoul and one of the local vendors there had a whole big box of camoflaged mini flashlights... with the original AAFES price tag still on every one!
#9
In Korea(1974)every time a shpiment of Levi's came in they were gone in a matter of hours,Marlboro's hard to find,and the only beer you could get at the remote sites(ex:A-Battery,1-44 ADA)was Black Label.
The Pakistan government has allied with Islamists to reject a bill which sought to strengthen the law against the practice of "honour killing". The parliament rejected the bill by a majority vote on Tuesday, declaring it to be un-Islamic. The bill was rejected after being declared un-Islamic by a majority vote.
"By Allan, Mahmoud, those tricky devils almost made me vote for something unIslamic! Phew, whatta close call!"
Law Minister Wasi Zafar told parliament that there was no need for further amendments in the country's penal code after an amendment bill was passed last December. However, the opposition - along with several women members from the government benches - has continued to call for further amendments, arguing that the law remained riddled with many loopholes despite the amendment. Tuesday's bill was introduced by Ms Kashmala Tariq, a member of the ruling Muslim League.
Under the so-called Islamic legislation enacted by General Zia ul Haq, Pakistan's Islamist military ruler in the 1980s, proven killers could seek or buy pardon from the victim's family under the Islamic principles of compromise. The law has remained essentially unchanged since then. Observers say that it has been grossly misused and has contributed directly to an alarming increase in the practice of "karo-kari" or the so-called honour killings. Once such a pardon has been secured, the state has no further writ on the matter.
Actually it hasn't been "misused", it's been used precisely as was intended.
Human rights agencies in Pakistan have repeatedly emphasised that most women falling prey to karo-kari were usually those wanting to marry of their own will. In many cases, the victims held properties that the male members of their families did not wish to lose if the women chose to marry outside the family. Government and independent researchers estimate that over 4,000 women have fallen victim to this practice in Pakistan over the last six years. In December last year, the government passed a bill making karo-kari punishable under the same penal provisions as murder. But it did not alter the provisions whereby the accused could negotiate pardon with the victim's family under the so-called Islamic provisions. These provisions often conflict with the Anglo-Saxon law inherited by Pakistan in 1947.
"Anglo-Saxon law! We'll have none of that in a proper Islamic republic! Mahmoud, bring me my sword and turban!"
Observers in Pakistan say that the defeat of Ms Tariq's bill is a clear indication of the influence that the conservatives still wield on policy-making in Pakistan, despite President Musharraf's liberal outlook.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2005 9:23:08 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There is a traditional solution to the problem of men treating women unfairly. Poison. When women in Pakistan realize that they can kill obnoxious men-folk, the death rate will jump. Even in ancient Rome, a particular plant had become so favored by housewives to off their husbands with, that a decree was made to eradicate every one of those plants for miles around the city.
Zimbabwe is set to free more than 60 suspected mercenaries linked to a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea last year. They may be sent back to South Africa as early as Thursday, although their lawyer thought this unlikely.
A court reduced the jail terms imposed for breaking Zimbabwe immigration laws, so they have now served their time.
Somebody got their palms greased big time, did they?
The alleged ring-leader, Briton Simon Mann and the two pilots of the plane will not be released, as they were given longer sentences.
The Zimbabwe authorities said the group was en route to Equatorial Guinea last March to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in the oil-rich country. But they were found guilty of lesser charges of illegally landing a plane at Harare airport.
Ronnie Mamoepa, from South Africa's foreign ministry, said he expected the men - most of whom carry South African passports - to arrive in Johannesburg on Thursday afternoon. But their lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said paperwork and plane tickets still had to be arranged, so he doubted they would arrive on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the 12-month sentences the men had been given were reduced by four month on appeal. Mr Mann's seven-year sentence for trying to buy weapons has also been reduced from seven years to four years and the pilots' 16-month jail terms have been cut to 12 months.
Sir Cliff Barnes Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister, appeared in court in South Africa last month to answer questions over his role in an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea in West Africa. He was given a suspended jail term and fined after agreeing a plea bargain to raise the bribe money for his pals help investigators.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2005 9:03:20 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There is so much good stuff in there. The most inportant thing is that because of the Leftists Totalitarian bent of the tenured professors must be exposed to the light of day, and any "F" grade assigned to a conservative student solely on the basis of politics must be overturned at the threat of removal of public funds from the school.
Yesterday when I was out at lunchtime listening to Hannity, a student called from UC Irvine stating that another Communist Totalitarian Teacher has spewed forth farting, stating that Timothy McVeigh was a political protestor, not a terrorist.
Hannity has enlisted this student to get this so-called educator on the HANNITY & COLMES show to "discuss" the matter. I imagine that seeing the Grilling to a crackley crunch that Ward Churchill is getting, this cowardly creep is likely to refuse.
According to a 2001 report by the Minerals Management Service as much as 519 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie under the permafrost of northern Alaska in the form of gas hydrates. With the prospect of a gas export line from the North Slope, could any of this vast resource be brought to market?
A team from industry, government and university is taking the first steps towards the use of gas hydrates on the North Slope by investigating known deposits of the material in the central North Slope. BP Exploration (Alaska), ASRC Energy Services, Ryder Scott Co., the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Arizona are all collaborating in this project.
The team has completed the first phase of its work, Robert Hunter of ASRC Energy Services and Dr. Timothy Collett of the USGS recently told a joint meeting of the Alaska Geological Society and the Geophysical Society of Alaska. Phase one included reservoir characterization, reservoir engineering, petroleum engineering and reservoir economic modeling.
Gas hydrates concentrate huge volumes of methane gas by combining methane with water under certain temperature and pressure conditions.
"Typically we have a methane molecule within a lattice of water and this forms a solid substance within the pores in the subsurface," Hunter explained. "The gas storage capacity's tremendous — that's one thing that makes hydrates very attractive as an unconventional gas resource."
When gas hydrate crystals break down or disassociate they can yield 164 to 180 times their volume of free gas, Hunter said.
Gas hydrates occur in many places worldwide, in deep-ocean or Arctic conditions where low temperatures and elevated pressures enable their formation. However, the U.S. Department of Energy has taken a particular interest in gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore Alaska, Hunter said. These areas offer economic potential because they're associated with known petroleum systems and they contain existing oil and gas production infrastructures. Also there are known technologies for extracting gas from hydrates in these areas and established business models for gas production.
Under the North Slope there is an approximately 900 meter thick zone of temperature and pressure within which gas hydrates can exist as stable crystals, Hunter said.
"On the North Slope of Alaska ⊠that pressure/temperature regime in which gas hydrates can exist is anywhere north of the Brooks Range," Collett said. The gas hydrate stability field extends from inside the permafrost zone to well below the permafrost, he said. This is excellent news. In the debate on energy alternatives the potential of methane hydrates is ignored. Yet there is more energy in hydrates than in all other fossil fuels combined. The problem has been how do we exploit them. The article goes on to discuss how hydrates will initially be used as an energy source in the oil and gas industry.
Posted by: phil_b ||
03/03/2005 12:19:13 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
CAPTAIN Shahid Ashraf Khan and his team of 20 Bangladeshi peacekeepers were patrolling the foothills that rise above Lake Albert last Friday morning when they heard a wild shout in Congolese. Then a loud whistle. Then the rattle of gunfire. "We are encircled," Captain Khan shouted into his radio. "Bring the helicopters. One of my men has been shot." His colleagues manning the base in the town of Kafe, a few kilometres away, then listened with horror as Captain Khan started reciting verses from the Koran that are usually read out when somebody is about to die.
Reinforcements were called to help the patrol, but it was too late. Nine peacekeepers were killed in the worst attack on UN forces in Africa since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. And as the bodies were returned yesterday to Bangladesh details of their horrific deaths began to emerge.
UN troops in Kafe said the bodies had been mutilated by the time they were recovered. Captain Khan, who was 30 and engaged to be married, had his eyes gouged out. The eight other members of his platoon had been stripped naked. Some had been shot at close range. Others had deep cuts to their knees, thighs and backs. One man had his head sliced open and his brains spilt out, according to one of the soldiers who helped to move the bodies.
"They were definitely tortured," said Lieutenant-Colonel Shahid Ul-Islam, acting head of the Kafe base. "It may have been after they were dead but we think it may have happened while they were still alive." The attackers, who numbered more than 100, fled into the bush. The UN responded by launching a massive hunt for militia gangs, using helicopters supported by armoured vehicles on the ground. Their efforts yielded fruit yesterday when one rebel leader was arrested and another turned himself in. Scores of rebels were reported killed in the operation.
Etienne Lona, military chief of militia group the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), surrendered to UN officials while FNI political leader Floribert Ndjabu was arrested by Congolese authorities. The FNI is a militia group from the Lendu tribe that has been terrorising villagers along the shores of Lake Albert for two months. But it has denied any involvement in the killing of the peacekeepers. Two years ago they killed two UN peacekeepers in the same area, covering them with cigarette burns and cutting off their penises.
But Friday's attack raises questions about whether the UN mission has sufficient military strength and political backing to bring peace to a region where 1000 people are dying each day from violence, disease and malnutrition. The Bangladeshi peacekeepers were sent to Kafe, in the northeast province of Ituri, in January to help to protect more than 10,000 people who had gathered to escape the fighting between the FNI and a rival militia from the Hema tribe. Situated on a strip of land between mountains and Lake Albert, Kafe is highly vulnerable to attack.
Posted by: phil_b ||
03/03/2005 3:40:35 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The calculation of whether or not (probably not) there are enough UN troops there changes if they actually start acting like soldiers instead of playground monitors.
Hosni Mubarak's move to allow for a competitive election to succeed him as Egypt's president has thrust open a long-closed door for an opposition caught unprepared after years of autocratic rule.
Wotta surprise.
"We are suffering from a political vacuum that has lasted more than 20 years and has suppressed a whole aspect of political life on the grounds that the state had to confront extremist Islamic organizations," analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah said.
"The leading political figures who might have challenged Mubarak, the ruler since 1981, have slipped into oblivion or retirement. Others were simply literally morally assassinated," he said, in reference to U.S.-Egyptian rights activist Saadeddine Ibrahim. The army has remained mum since Mubarak's call Saturday for a constitutional change, which allows other candidates to run for the country's top job and effectively strips it of its vetting power. Since the 1952 military coup that toppled the monarchy, the army has co-opted every presidential candidate before the single nominee was submitted to a popular referendum.
Polled for the second time in six months on the Web site of the popular talk show "Al-Qahira Al-Yom" (Cairo Today), Egyptians picked Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa as their favorite to succeed Mubarak. A dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the Palestinian cause, the former foreign minister's popularity culminated at the height of the intifada with the release of the hit single "I hate Israel, I love Amr Moussa" before being sidelined as the head of the largely toothless pan-Arab body.
Sayyed Badawi, the secretary general of the Wafd party, sees the president's move as a way of lending a veneer of legitimacy to what many see as growing efforts by Mubarak to groom his son Gamal, 42, for succession. Gamal Mubarak heads the influential policies committee of his father's National Democratic Party, but both have vehemently denied any attempt to impose a hereditary presidency. "Egypt will witness in the coming months a period a great political agitation, because Mubarak's decision has fanned the ambitions of many figures who had so far been excluded," Badawi said. "But whatever the remaining flaws may be, the people will regain its democratic culture over the six years of the next presidential mandate and will then be really ready to freely choose its executive."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 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.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, stepping up allegations the U.S. is plotting his assassination, said the plans include making his demise appear to be a suicide. 
Spain's socialist government has vowed to liberalise the country's capital markets and energy sector as part of several initiatives aimed at tackling the economy's flagging global competitiveness. Among the measures unveiled yesterday are a 40 per cent cut in registration costs for bond issuers and new limits on how much equity electricity and gas companies can hold in national distribution networks. The economy ministry has also promised to liberalise the telecommunications, transport and postal services markets, provide incentives for investment in technology and strengthen consumer rights. The policy reforms, many of which will require parliamentary approval, are designed to address concerns about Spain's long-term economic growth.
The Pakistan government has allied with Islamists to reject a bill which sought to strengthen the law against the practice of "honour killing". The parliament rejected the bill by a majority vote on Tuesday, declaring it to be un-Islamic. The bill was rejected after being declared un-Islamic by a majority vote.
Zimbabwe is set to free more than 60 suspected mercenaries linked to a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea last year. They may be sent back to South Africa as early as Thursday, although their lawyer thought this unlikely.
Hosni Mubarak's move to allow for a competitive election to succeed him as Egypt's president has thrust open a long-closed door for an opposition caught unprepared after years of autocratic rule. 
