Hat Tip Drudge...
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's Legislature is flush with good ideas. Sen. Al Lawson's involves a 2 cent-per-roll tax on toilet paper to pay for wastewater treatment and help small towns upgrade their sewer systems. Bathroom humor inappropriate...desired comment ommitted by BigEd
The Democratic1 lawmaker's pay-as-you-go bill has been the source of many jokes - bathroom humor you might say - but he says the issue is a serious one, especially in some of the fast-growing Panhandle coastal counties in his district. Florida panhandle? - Go into Alabama or Georgia, and stock up!
"They're experiencing a tremendous boom in growth and they're not able to accommodate the growth," Lawson said. "We've got 17 million people in this state and all of them can contribute to protecting our underground water supply." Protecting ground water supply is good. The idea suggested is idiotic. Perhaps an increase in the cost per cu ft of water used which is an actual expense of producing water? But since most Dems have sexual arousal over tax increases, this never occured to the State Senator.
In a Republican-dominated Legislature that doesn't like new taxes, the idea is likely to pretty quickly end up in the tank. This idea is thankfully headed for the Toilet
Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he didn't think it would get too far, but didn't rule it out.
"We'll be getting to the bottom2 of it real soon," Lee said. The House is skeptical as well. "We're not wild about tax increases," said House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City. "But we'll certainly let it go through the system." Thats's the whole problem. Especially if one is constipated like Sen. Lawson.
If it were to pass, the extra two pennies would start being charged in October. Lawson said it could generate $50 million a year. It would also need approval from Gov. Jeb Bush. He said that if toilet paper is taxed, people might use less of it. "That's not necessarily a good thing," noted the governor. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jeb!
And what about consumers? Wouldn't they be squeezed by a tax on the Charmin? No, says Lawson. Everybody gets as turned on as Sen. Lawson about this tax.
"Two cents is not going to hurt families at all," he said. "This is one thing people don't mind paying for." He said, as they placed him in the straight-jacket... 1Did anyone think otherwise? 2After all a sump has to be pumped out occasionally.
#3
Endnotes, eh? Hokay, Fred, we gotta come up with a way to do endnotes now. Cheez, next thing we'll have footnotes, and ibids, and curly quotation marks, foreign languages, and a way to make Aris sound sensible and natter natter mutter mutter
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2005 13:01 Comments ||
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#5
What would you expect for such a scholarly article?!?
Can we get those little author background notes at the end? You know, like this:
Tom No-Last-Name is a hawkish freelance engineer in southeastern Pennsylvania. He is a member of the VRWC and a contributor to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/11/2005 13:10 Comments ||
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#6
Steve: Any reputable HTML manual will help1... Fred has to keep us all in line-he doesn't have time to [marquee>teach us the tricks... We have to do our OWN research!
#7
This is pretty strange since most folks already pay a user fee for wastewater treatment as part of their utilities bill. If more money is needed for infrastructure, the fee should be raised, not some weird tax added.
#9
Recently at work a bunch of us pooled some money and bought lottery tickets. A co-worker and I, we are both named Richard, made a pact to buy a septic tank cleaning truck and paint on the side, "2 Dicks Pumping. You Dump It, We Pump It." I certainly hope we win.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2005 19:30 Comments ||
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#10
I'm reminded of the Beatles' song about the Tax Man.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2005 19:31 Comments ||
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#11
Db Pooper Pumper around here got em big flower painted on the back. Named it Petunia.
Christopher Bochin is in trouble with the law for being a little too sharing with his students. Police in California charge the substitute teacher shared pot with students at Fresno High. According to authorities, Bochin asked two kids in his ninth-grade science class to get his pipe and weed from his car. Police say Bochin smoked the pot with about a half-dozen students from his class. He now faces felony drug charges and misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Bochin is free on bail and is to appear in court March 23rd.
Now, just exactly how stupid do you have to be to pull a stunt like this?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/11/2005 9:41:24 AM ||
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#1
Now, just exactly how stupid do you have to be to pull a stunt like this?
#3
A case of unintended consequences.
Arizona legislators decided in 1983 to add a licensing requirement to their arsenal of weapons for use against marijuana dealers. Dealers would have to purchase a $100.00 license and affix tax stamps to every bag of herb they peddled. Theyâd foreseen peddling-dope-without-a-license charges as a handy new tool with which to whack folks caught puffing on the evil weed.
However, Arizona dope smokers started purchasing the licenses and attaching those stamps. But this didn't stop the cops from arresting them for an illegal activity. The first judge to hear such a case saw things differently. He faced a defendant who produced a state-issued license to engage in the very activity heâd been arrested for engaging in. Case dismissed.
#1
Update: The judge is dead. 3 others were shot, as well, 2 Sheriff's Deputies and a Court Stenographer - no word on their condition.
The perp is a black man, balding, who has perped a few car-jackings in order to escape. Atlanta RBers might want to tune into Fox or other source for his description - this guy is a one-man crime wave in progress.
#7
I'm here at work just 2 blocks from where it happened. Guy that sits next to me saw the cops flying around when he came in and wondered what was up. Local news station is WSB-TV (google that). From what I heard it was 3 had been shot (judge, court reporter and a Sherriff's officer) and that the judge and court reporter had died.
Posted by: BA ||
03/11/2005 11:05 Comments ||
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#8
Addition: Used to go there for lunch. Pretty tight security regularly (it was in the Fulton County courthouse...judge and stenographer were shot in the courtroom as he entered and the Sherriff deputy shot on his way out the building). Now, I just wonder what Barney Fife let him grab their gun (it's being reported he grabbed it from the guard/sherriff escorting him in the building), and what freakin' security guard(s) let him walk/run out of the building (he's supposedly carjacked several cars & on his way out of town).
Posted by: BA ||
03/11/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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#9
Now Fox sez a Deputy has died. Still saying another Deputy was wounded.
I think you're locked in, BA. Fox is sticking with the story like glue - 5 car-jackings have been reported so far. Last known was a green '87 Honda, I think they said.
#10
Yeah, BA - the poop is that these Deputies don't use the type of holster that prevents a perp from taking your gun. They have to buy them themselves if they want them.
#11
You're right, .com! GREAT, not only Friday afternoon traffic, but roadblocks as well. Guess I'm gonna miss the CompUSA 6 hour sale tonight! Joking aside, I grieve for the victim's families.
Posted by: BA ||
03/11/2005 11:13 Comments ||
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#12
This guy's really bad news. The latest thing they talked about was that he was discovered with a shank in his shoe on Wednesday - and why wasn't he treated with extra care / security -- typical second-guessing now, which pisses me off. As you say, these people paid the ultimate price - and the appropriate thing to do at the moment is show some respect to their families. Truly sad.
#15
But let us all remember, 5 members of our esteemed Supreme Court think the death penalty is so uncivilized. Not that killing judges, stenographers, deputies is civilized. See, THEY got the death penalty, no due process, no appeal. These dead have no civil rights, no representation, no standing, no consideration as far as our enlightened betters are concerned. So when our betters talk about the death penalty remind them of these executions carried out everyday in our streets, homes, neighborhoods, schools, and businesses. It certain changes our behavior.
#18
One of the things that amazes me is how the police and newsies react like a disturbed anthill when a cop or judge or politician or celebrity type is killed - Fox is showing an amazing amount of activity, cars and helicopters all over the place in a massive manhunt - yet the irony is completely lost on them that almost anyone else would barely warrant a cruiser within the hour in many cities.
Law enforcement is, essentially, investigative... after the fact. Before and during the fact, you are on your own. You should vote with that fact in mind - every chance you get.
#19
Anyone really think this fellow will be taken alive. Being Georgia, somehow I think that his body will be "discovered" in the woods somewhere in a couple of days...Saves money on a trial...
#22
Big Ed (#19): I'd agree. I'd also state that now that he's gone and killed a Deputy and a Judge (not to mention the court reporter), the "fellow cops" in the Metro area won't be remiss in thinking twice about shooting this punk!
Posted by: BA ||
03/11/2005 13:28 Comments ||
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#23
One thing not mentioned thus far is that he isn't Mohammed something-or-other. He's just your run of the mill scumbag murderer. Remember back when this wasn't the exception, but the norm?
#25
At one point today, I think it was on Fox or MSNBC, one of the people being interviewed said this guy has "law enforcement training". Later he said the guy has "police skills".
That will make it much harder to find him. It also probably explains why he was so desperate about a rape/kidnapping charge -- if he's an ex-cop he knows the jury isn't going to give him much benefit of the doubt about laws etc. and the judge isn't likely to be lenient if he's found guilty.
It would have been nice if he'd just shot himself. Bastard!
Posted by: too true ||
03/11/2005 16:21 Comments ||
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#26
Is that the type of person Hillary Clinton and John Kerry want to see in the voting booth?
#27
# 26 YES, I AGREE ~LETS LEAVE THIS FELON OUT.
WHAT A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY. IT'S 7:30 P.M. HAS HE BEEN CAUGHT? NO ONE SHOULD HAVE GUNS WITH BULLETS....HOW ABOUT A TEAR GAS GUN OR STUN GUN?
WHAT DO THE RANTBURGERS THINK? HOW TO FIGHT CRIME SAFELY??
ANDREA JACKSON
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/11/2005 19:25 Comments ||
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#28
Sit quietly Andrea....
Thooop!
Posted by: Jim Fowler ||
03/11/2005 19:38 Comments ||
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#31
Oh, sorry, Andrea, didn't address your question directly. The guillotine is quite safe to use. It would also get high ratings on pay-per-pay, thereby helping to offset enforcement costs.
#33
I can't believe anyone one can be as dense as "no one should have guns with bullets."
He took a female deputies gun and shot her and the judge and court reporter.
Why was he being escorted by one deputy when he was a rapist? Rape is a violent crime. I saw some government rep in Atlanta talking about he wasn't a violent offender. The record indicates otherwise. I hope they use the Kern County method to bring him in (You are dead if you shoot a cop or office of the court 99% of the time.)
#34
Andrea? WTF? Carbon monoxide poisoning from the candles, I bet....perhaps Patchouli intoxication? If this KILLER is spotted, I hope they shoot first and yell "stop" second. Head shot, please, and the 10 ring
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2005 22:34 Comments ||
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With surprising and mysterious regularity, life on Earth has flourished and vanished in cycles of mass extinction every 62 million years, say two UC Berkeley scientists who discovered the pattern after a painstaking computer study of fossil records going back for more than 500 million years.
Their findings are certain to generate a renewed burst of speculation among scientists who study the history and evolution of life. Each period of abundant life and each mass extinction has itself covered at least a few million years -- and the trend of biodiversity has been rising steadily ever since the last mass extinction, when dinosaurs and millions of other life forms went extinct about 65 million years ago.
The Berkeley researchers are physicists, not biologists or geologists or paleontologists, but they have analyzed the most exhaustive compendium of fossil records that exists -- data that cover the first and last known appearances of no fewer than 36,380 separate marine genera, including millions of species that once thrived in the world's seas, later virtually disappeared, and in many cases returned.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Sobiesky ||
03/11/2005 6:45:14 AM ||
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#1
I read a different version on these two guys at:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0309_050309_extinctions.html
Here are a few choice excerpts that are left out of the version above:
"The pattern includes a rise and fall of marine animal diversity every 62 million years and a weaker cycle of rising and falling marine diversity, which repeats every 140 million years. The researchers think that expanding and retreating glaciers may explain the 140-million-year cycle..."
"Muller went so far as to purchase a lava lamp, plug it in, and studiously gaze at how often the blobs rose to the surface. He thought perhaps magma bubbles from the Earth's core rise in a cyclical pattern."
"We took all the best data and put it with the best timescale..."
"Perhaps the periodicity did not strike my eye because so many previous analyses on regularities in extinctions and diversity have proved erroneous in the past."
"Kiessling said the pattern most likely stems from fluctuations in the fossil record caused by fluctuations in sea level. The number and abundance of fossils preserved on the seafloor is less when sea levels are low, he explained."
"Alroy added that the observed cyclical patterns could simply be the result of an error in the statistical analysis."
Posted by: Tom ||
03/11/2005 8:34 Comments ||
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#2
62 million years is the time limit on the demo version of SimEarth. I'm not springing for the commercial version.
#3
So....eating lots of fiber, maintaining a veggy diet, working 3 hours a day at the gym is for naught? They promised me immortality, the damn con artists!
#5
or about every 62 million years on our ride around the galaxy, the Oort cloud is disrupted and sends greetings towards the inner orbital ring of the solar system.
JD:... Even at this blazing speed, it takes the sun about 200 million years to complete one journey around the galaxy's core.
DB: The orbital speed of a star around the center of our galaxy depends on its distance from the center. A star's orbital speed can be predicted from the galaxy's mass, and the star's location. But something mysterious is taking place at distances in the galaxy beyond the orbit of our sun. The speed of these outermost objects doesn't decrease as much as expected.
JB: So astronomers think there may be a large amount of undetected mass around our galaxy -- part of the unseen, dark matter of the universe.
Yep, just fine, like driving in bad weather conditions, even with your lights on, you can't see too far ahead of you. So we have speed bumps about every 62 million years. Or are we the deer in the headlights?
#8
One last thing, I believe the current state of "conventional wisdom" is that there isn't enough dark matter to make the rubber band theory work - and the universe will continue expanding infinitely with the distance between the galaxies increasing infinitely. So someday, we will only have the Milky Way to play with, sniff, sniff. Of course, if the string theory guys are right, and I get the gist correctly, someday our "plane" will collide with another "plane" in the 11th dimension and we'll see some serious Big Bang style fireworks. Again.
#9
There is evidence that ice ages rather than covering the earth up to the midlattitudes, cover the whole earth. Runaway cooling results in earth completely covered in ice and a mass extinction. This is stable until large scale volcanic activity breaks us out of the cold phase. Something similar may happen on Mars.
#11
The discovery of this theory is a classic scientific detective story. For decades there had been a growing 'X-File' of geological anomalies haunting the scientific community. Telltale signs of past glaciation have been found in places that should have been much too hot - very near the equator. Even during the most severe ice age, scientists believed that the ice only reached as far down as Northern Europe and the middle of the USA. So what could these tropical deposits mean? Snowball earth
#12
One thing the article doesn't go into but is key is that once the oceans are covered in ice, precipitation stops and hence no sedimentary rocks where we look for fossils are formed. There will be a discontinuity in the geological record but no evidence of what happened, so its kinda hard to prove.
#13
Phil, yea so its kinda hard to prove.. I can imagine that as the whole earth clima got colder that there were some seasonal/nocturnal ice formations in current tropical regions. But that doesn't mean the earth was a frozen icicle in toto.
#15
3 skunks talking: Poppa Skunk, "My instinct tells me it's gonna rain". Momma Skunk, "My instinct tells me it's gonna snow". Baby Skunk, "My end stinks too, but it doesn't tell me anything."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2005 19:47 Comments ||
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#16
When we last used up all the frozen natural gas deposits on the seafloor just before inventing multicellular life?
And this came out just now to save us from using those huge deposits that might be posible to mine in Alaska, Canada and the Golf of Mexico?
#17
Ice Age, gromgorru? It still is, last 2my. But then there are more icey ages within Ice Age. The last icey age (glacial) kicked in about 70k BCE and ended about 12.5K BCE. Since then we have interglacial (less icey age).
#18
3dc, I have a feeling that your 2 questions are inherently ... flawed. Could you please rephrase?
For instance, I have a hard time to accept that we invented multicellular life. If you can prove that one, then "using up all the frozen natural gas deposits just before" may have some merit.
"And this came out just now to save us from using those huge deposits that might be posible to mine"
What on earth you are trying to say?
Darn! You caused me a serious splitting headache now!
Going to take some aspirin... and get horizontal... breath in, breath out...
#19
Sobiesky, you've mixed them up again: drinking the Little Water causes the headache. Drinking a little water to wash down the aspirin is what makes the headache go away ;-D
#7
I realized immediately after I posted it that it is being updated and I caught it at dusk with no cloud and you could see both the ash plume and glowing lava fountaining out the top perhaps a thousand feet and running down the side of the volcano. I'm a little embarassed.
#9
Turkey in Risk, Indiana in Monopoly. Never build less than 3 houses, self-propelled artillery can save your ass, push your Mohawks far forward and do not emit from the surface. There's nothing wrong with trailer parks.
#13
Liberalhawk:
Just do like I did. Install the sim.. save game. Copy the save-sets. Run it for 1 year. save game. Binary diff the save sets. Binary edit for tons of money. Play the edited game. Everybody lives in lux.
More than 100 "boat people", Somalis and Ethiopians, are feared to have drowned at sea in the past week while trying to reach Yemen aboard smugglers' boats, the United Nations said on Thursday. Most perished when a vessel carrying 93 passengers sank on March 3 in the Gulf of Aden after developing a technical problem, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement. Only the crew of four are thought to have survived. A further 18 Africans are believed to have drowned on March 7 after the crew of another boat ordered its 85 passengers to jump into the sea while some distance from the coast, it said. "This tragedy is the latest in a series of similar accidents that have caused an untold number of deaths in the past few years," UNHCR said. Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians each year "fall prey to unscrupulous traffickers" in the hope of being smuggled into Yemen, from where many seek to make their way to Europe, according to the UNHCR. It said this "growing disaster" had its roots in poverty coupled with insecurity in the case of Somalia, which drive desperate people into smugglers' hands.
Just how desparate do you have to be to sneak into Yemen?
Survivors from the latest incidents, as well as some 450 passengers from other smugglers' boats who also sailed from Somalia at the same time, were intercepted by Yemeni authorities. They are are receiving care at Mayfa'a reception centre near the coastal village of Bir Ali in southern Yemen. They told UNHCR staff that some 1,500 people are waiting to be smuggled into Yemen from Bossasso, in northeastern Somalia, in coming days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2005 00:00:00 ||
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You know your life sucks if improving it means moving to Yemen.
#2
I was there for a few hours in the mid-60s just before Aden became the Peoples Democratic Republic. It was one of the scariest places in the world then and I doubt it is any better now.
#3
Mr. Wife was offered an assignment in Yemen once. He was so very happy to be able to say, "Sorry. Couldn't possibly. Jewish wife, y'know." That whole Jewish wife thing kept us from being transferred to Saudi Arabia, too, so he isn't complaining at all. ;-)
Yemen does not seem like the kind of civilized place I would be happy in -- by all accounts even further lost from history than Afghanistan was. They have not benefitted at all from ejecting their Jewish dhimmis.
A former Nazi who is wanted in Chile on child sex abuse charges has been arrested in Argentina. A joint operation between Argentine and Chilean police led to the detention of Paul Schaefer, who has been an international fugitive for eight years. Schaefer, who is in his 80s, is wanted in Chile over the abuse of children in a closed community that he joined in 1961 after arriving from Germany. The Colonia Dignidad community was cut off from the outside world. The Chilean government has praised the Argentine police for the arrest of Paul Schaefer and has said he should face a Chilean court as soon as possible.
A Chilean judge late last year convicted and sentenced him in absentia for sexually abusing 26 minors following allegations from victims. A government spokesman said he is also wanted in connection with the disappearance of one person. For years Colonia Dignidad was a mysterious community that was cut off from the outside world by barbed wire fences. But in recent years former residents have testified of sexual abuse, the use of drugs and the separation of families. German was the dominant language and Paul Schaefer was the supreme ruler. Paul Schaefer is believed to be more than 80 years old and when he was arrested he had no personal legal documents.
It would be interesting to find out who he really is
The Chilean government says it is waiting for the Argentine government to decide whether to expel him or whether he will need to be formally extradited back to Chile. Colonia Dignidad still exists and has about 280 residents. The community used to have close links with the military government of General Augusto Pinochet and there are accusations it was used as a torture centre for political prisoners.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/11/2005 8:38:33 AM ||
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A joint operation between Argentine and Chilean police led to the detention of Paul Schaefer, who has been an international fugitive for eight years.
How much of a fugitive was he? The guy was the bandleader for David Letterman the whole time.
It would be interesting to find out who he really is
If he's "more than 80 years old" that means he was born sometime in the early 1920s. So he was 20-25 years old when the Third Reich fell.
I doubt he was anyone important.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2005 8:56 Comments ||
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"I doubt he was anyone important."
Probably not a big-shot, but he could have been a really nasty concentration camp guard even at the age of 18-20.
I missed my issue, can I borrow yours Fred?
The National Liaison Council of the Japan Society for the Study of Kim Jong Il's Works That's a mouthful. Are they eating their words in Nork?
brought out the February issue of its organ naw, that's too easy...
"Juche Idea". On its first, fourth and fifth pages, the paper gives photo-illustrated accounts of a "new spring gathering" on the Juche idea and Japan-DPRK friendship held in Osaka.
Also carried in the paper is photo-accompanied news that the Tokushima Prefectural Citizen's Society for Supporting the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea held a meeting to hear a report about a visit to the DPRK under the title "Our Task Is to Establish Normal Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the DPRK".
It conveys news that Kenichi Ogami, secretary general of the International Institute of Juche Idea, and his company visited the DPRK from Jan. 8, and that the institute held a memorial symposium in Tokyo and deals with the content of Chapter 7 of "Biography of Kim Jong Il" Vol. 1.
The paper carries an article introducing "Juche Idea," the organ of the National Liaison Council of the Japan Society for the Study of Kim Jong Il's Works. All Juche, all the time!
TAIPEI: The number of Chinese ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan is expected to reach at least 800 next year, the island's defense minister Lee Jye said Wednesday. The People's Liberation Army currently has 700 ballistic missiles deployed opposite Taiwan, Lee said in his first report to the new session of parliament.
"The number is estimated to increase to 800 next year," Lee warned in a call for support of a new 480 billion Taiwan dollar (15.24 billion US) arms package aimed at deterring China. His report came one day after Taipei lodged what one senior Taiwanese official called "the strongest protest" against "threats resorting to violent means" by China, which on Tuesday outlined an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan. Beijing reiterated it was prepared to use force to bring the island to heel but only after all other avenues are exhausted. The alternative to force was peaceful reunification using the one country, two systems model adopted by Hong Kong, according to Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the National People's Congress, or parliament.
How many Patriot/Arrow systems do the Taiwanese need, and how soon can we get them there?
Wonder if they would be interested in the Zionist Death ray?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2005 00:00:00 ||
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I was thinking more along the lines of some stealthy cruise missile to take out the launchers.
Lawyers remain one of the last professions in Australia to be immune from negligence suits after a High Court decision that protects all work connected with a trial.
By a 6-1 majority, the court said opening up the work of advocates to lawsuits would be a nightmare for the administration of justice because cases would effectively be retried.
The decision drew scathing responses from surgeons, teachers and the dissenting judge, Michael Kirby, who said the court was "out of step with the legal world".
English, Canadian and New Zealand courts have removed the immunity, but the court said a central tenet of the judicial system was the "need for certainty and finality of decision ... The immunity of advocates is a necessary consequence of that need." The leading judgement conceded some would view the decision "as a case of lawyers looking after their own, whether because of personal inclination and sympathy, or for other base motives"...
Australia has agreed to suspend debt repayments this year for countries hit by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in December, the government said Friday. The government of Prime Minister John Howard already has pledged more than $789 million in post-tsunami aid, with most of it going to its northern neighbor Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the Dec. 26 earthquake - measured at magnitude 9 - and the killer wave it spawned.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Canberra said debt relief was not the right way to offer assistance and instead offered its biggest foreign aid package ever in the form of low-interest loans and grants. Indonesia was due to repay about $250 million to Australia in 2005, said Richard Forbes, a spokesman for Trade Minister Mark Vaile. Figures for other tsunami-struck countries were not immediately available. The decision to suspend repayments was taken after a meeting of the Paris Club group of creditor nations. ``Australia is pleased that the debt moratorium will be in addition to the direct assistance already committed by Paris Club members,'' Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile said in a joint statement. The moratorium will let countries concentrate on reconstruction, the ministers said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2005 00:00:00 ||
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What would really help would be if they (and My own country) would remove import barriers to their products. You can't repay debt if you can't sell stuff to get the cash.
Mayor Buddy Dyer, his campaign manager and a judge surrendered Friday on a felony charge that they paid for the collection of absentee ballots in last year's election. Dyer, Judge Alan Apte and campaign manager Patti Sharp surrendered at the Orange County Jail. None spoke to reporters as they left the jail after being booked. The three were among four people indicted Thursday by a grand jury. The fourth indictment remained sealed pending the person's surrender. State Attorney Brad King declined to comment, an aide said. The grand jury had looked at whether Ezzie Thomas, a campaign consultant for Dyer and Apte, had illegally collected absentee ballots in predominantly black neighborhoods before the election.
That's funny, I could have sworn that their votes were suppressed
Thomas was hired by Dyer's campaigns for state attorney general and Orlando mayor for get-out-the-vote activities. Thomas also has worked for some of central Florida's most prominent politicians, including Sen. Mel Martinez when he was a local county official, and Secretary of State Glenda Hood when she was mayor. Dyer has said he signed checks and approved invoices worth about $10,000 for Thomas during his campaign. The documents do not say what Thomas was being paid to do, and Dyer has said he didn't know, either.
"I dun know, I just signed the check. You mean I was supposed to ask?"
Earlier this year, Dyer testified in a separate civil lawsuit deposition that he was not involved in the field work for his re-election campaign. That suit was brought by the mayoral runner-up, Ken Mulvaney, who wanted the election thrown out. Dyer won re-election by nearly 5,000 votes but cleared the threshold that triggers a runoff by only 234. "I was mayor. I spent most of my time being mayor," Dyer said in the deposition. "I spent very little time actually on the campaign." The three were charged with violating a state law enacted after Miami's 1998 mayoral election was thrown out because of fraud committed in the collection of absentee ballots. The charge, providing pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection, is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Under Florida law, public officials charged with a felony are usually suspended by the governor until their case is decided and are removed if convicted.
Anyone notice what fact is missing in this story?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/11/2005 10:53:33 AM ||
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Some U.S. Marines say they were surprised by the decision made by Detroit auto workers about parking. It all started with the cars some Marines drove, and what was on them.
The words that have some U.S. Marines in shock came from the man in charge of security at the UAW Solidarity House, on Jefferson in Detroit. For a number of years now, dozens of Marine reservists have been thankful to park in the UAW's lot for weekend training with no problem at all - until now.
Marines at nearby Marine Corps Reserve Center say on Tuesday morning, the director of security at the UAW told them that while they support the troops, Marines driving foreign vehicles or sporting a President George Bush bumper sticker were no longer welcome to park there.
U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Joe Rutledge told Action News, "We received a phone call from the UAW, who support us by letting us park down at their facility. They called and said they weren't going to allow or they would turn away some vehicles."
A spokesman for the UAW released a statement to Action News which reads:
"While reservists certainly have the right to drive non-union made vehicles and display bumper stickers touting the most anti-worker, anti-union president since the 1920s, that doesn't mean they have the right to park in a lot owned by members of the UAW."
As U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Lee Cooper explained, "We're very appreciative, but on the other hand, it's kind of discriminating between, let's say a lance corporal going through college can only afford a 15-year-old vehicle and it happens to be a Nissan." It's a pity. The UAW used to be so patriotic.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
03/11/2005 8:37:06 AM ||
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#1
Dearborn, MI has a 30% Arab population. Anybody know what portion of the UAW is now Arab or Arab-American?
Posted by: Tom ||
03/11/2005 8:50 Comments ||
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#2
Gee - they don't really want to piss off 51% of America, do they? There won't be a job left to fight over if this takes off and gets coverage. The Blue Staters live in densely populated areas with lots of mass transit. The Red Staters all buy cars -- lots and lots of cars and trucks. Most of the cars and trucks, I'd wager.
Some people are just too stupid to live. So be it.
#3
I don't think this a UAW/Arab thing. Many moons ago, when my Dad worked for Pontiac, driving a non-GM car was an open invitation for the union guys to f**k with your parked vehicle. Imports were verboten from the lots entirely.
This is certainly an irony-laden situation, given that institutions like the Marines are what protects our Constitutionally guaranteed right to act like jerks.
Someone should explain to the UAW that irony is not a synonym for metallic.
#4
Next time Marines are sent to save some American tourists trapped in a hellhole they just ask "Anyone here is from UAW?". "Sorry, no passage for you"
#5
Screw the Unions. They have lost all sense of patriotism. I will make sure I go out of my way to buy non union items when ever I can. From food to firearms, If I can buy non union I will. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, you UAW bastards. You will never see me buy a Ford, Chevy or Chrysler If I can avoid it. I really feel like droping the F-bomb here. These stupid lamers need a ass kicking but it would be a waste since they wouldn't learn a damn thing from it.
#6
Just one more reason not to buy crappy Detroit cars.
a phone call was made to get a statement from the Japanese Automobile Workers Union, but they were too busy sending out press releases to make sure this good news got circulated in a timely manner.
#7
The unions have long sense lost their concern for their 'workers'. All they care about now is the 'union' - specifically the union leadership.
Unfortunately many workers are *forced* to join the union (that or not work). Take for example the teachers unions (please!). We need a anti-union movement (not anti-labor, anti-union - there is a difference) to shut these asswipes down.
#8
I emailed the story to several addresses at Fox. Anyone want to wager on whether or not this gets air-time in the next few days? Lol! The UAW had better figure out how they want to spin it - they'll be doing it soon.
#9
...the man in charge of security at the UAW Solidarity House
Sounds like some brainwashed union hack who pulls a nice paycheck, hasn't seen the inside of an auto plant in 20 years and wants to keep it that way. Might anyone have his name?
#13
On the other hand, they said the cars weren't welcome anymore instead of torching them. Gotta give them credit for that -- it's a rare sign of restraint for a Detroit union.
(I lived in Detroit during the newspaper strike about ten years ago. There were multiple reports of bombs in newspaper vending machines and caltrops spread in parking lots.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2005 10:36 Comments ||
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#14
So I guess my pickup is going to be a Toyota.
Great vehicles. Other than being a victim of the infamous 3.0 head gasket problem, my Toy truck has taken me everywhere I wanted to go, and done everything I've asked of it.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/11/2005 11:26 Comments ||
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#17
I've already gone Toyota, and mine was made right here in the USA. I drove Fords for years until they forgot how to make reliable engines (twice) and a Chrysler until I realized that they gave me a transmission that needed serious adjustment every 16,000 miles. Detroit and France now get the same treatment from me.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/11/2005 11:38 Comments ||
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#18
Lovely thought, Matt. Always a bad idea to annoy people trained to think, and with the muscles to back it up. Those gentlemen are Marine Reservists. Wanna bet at least one of them is an accountant the rest of the time?
Of course, technically the union is correct: it's a private parking lot, and they don't have to share. But I bet they back off pretty quickly as it becomes clear they've taken on Society, rather than what they were thinking of as just a few weekend warriors.
#21
I just can't believe that they were stupid enough to articulate (better yet PUT IN WRITING)that the reasons for forbidding Marine vehicles as POLITICAL!!! This is the WORST possible message from an organization devoted to building AMERICAN cars!!!!???? What are they thinking???
#24
I always tried to buy American, wife and I both had new black jeeps (Wrangler/Grand Cherokee) the Cherokee was the worst build vehicle I have ever owned and I have owned over 40 cars.
After a year of not being able to turn off the emission light, or being able to tell me why they could not turn off the light, or replacing the vehicle, or credit on a new one I said to hell with them.
Now I own a new Land Rover (2004) and a Mercedes ML320 and will never buy that cheap assed, UAW crap again.
I guess the sad thing is I am selling the Mercedes and was considering giving Detroit another try but after this childish, liberal rant I will never, ever, buy another UAW made car againâ¦ever
Looks like the Jag wins!
Posted by: Big Sarge ||
03/11/2005 22:36 Comments ||
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#25
Many moons ago, when my Dad worked for Pontiac, driving a non-GM car was an open invitation for the union guys to f**k with your parked vehicle. Imports were verboten from the lots entirely.
Yep. Back in the early 80s, I worked as a clerical temp for a firm that was also a UAW shop. Was quietly advised by the office staff to park my Fiat in the dirt lot across the street, so it wouldn't get messed with.
#26
Myabe summaya don't remember (1974?) when the UAW crowed it would now (after the new contract) take 9,000 more workers to create the same number of cars. Wasn't that about the time the floodgates opened to "foreign" cars? And they STILL don't get it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/11/2005 23:14 Comments ||
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>> An additional 11 people have been infected with bird flu in Vietnam and about eight of them have died, though the cases have yet to be reported officially by local health authorities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The cases add to the official death toll of 46 people, including 33 in Vietnam, the worst-hit nation, since the latest wave of cases of bird flu emerged in 2003.
The new cases also are fueling concern about the reliability of statistics regarding the extent of the flu -- especially data from Vietnam. In a separate bird-flu development, seven people who tested negative for H5N1 avian influenza in Ho Chi Minh City in January were later found to have the virus when their samples were retested. Some of them also died. <,
The above report identifies serious under-reporting of cases in Vietnam. The sudden halt of reports on human cases in Vietnam just before Tet was suspect. Many patients were hospitalized with symptoms, but not confirmed. The same was true of patients who died. It is not clear if these patients are included in the 11 unreported cases. SNIP
While its not clear if all of the new cases represent a real increase or just better identification, it's clear there has been a sharp increase in the number of cases over the last month or two - more in the last month than the whole of last year. Such an increase can only mean the virus is now transmitting person to person and the pandemic is on its way. It remains to be seen how severe it is. Current 50%+ fatality rates will certainly drop but even a 1% fatality rate will mean 80 million dead. Note that the MSM is parroting the WHO line that person to person transmission is not or only rarely occuring.
Posted by: phil_b ||
03/11/2005 1:34:02 AM ||
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#1
This is exactly what China did with SARS. They fudged their case numbers until WHO got very serious with them, and they fudged their death rate.
Why, oh, why would you expect a Communist dictatorship to tell the truth? They never have.
#4
It's less arrogance than a combination of less-capable technology and indifference to the problem. The Chinese had a major revelation with SARS when the light dawned that they had *no* infrastructure for physicians to communicate between themselves and health authorities--it was a splash of ice water in their face. In a pretty amazing reaction, the Chinese not only correctly identified the problem, but are starting on the long and difficult road to fixing it. Truthfully, the US needs a much more advanced version of the same thing, in that its system is early 1980s quality. However, the US has reached the conclusion that avian flu is so dangerous, and it is so far beyond our capabilities to treat like a normal flu, that they are reverting to the old quarantine rules. That is, instead of the standard "vaccine for the very old, infirm, and very young", they are changing to "vaccine for school-aged children who are most likely to spread the disease, and outbreak areas", figuring that it will save more lives just to stop the flu from getting to the US than to try and treat it once it is here. This change in tactics could mean the difference between 200,000 US dead and 2,000,000 US dead.
#6
reverting to the old quarantine rules This worked in the case of SARS. Its unclear if it will work with flu which is more infectious. The problem is that if disease control can eliminate the disease completely then it must be the highest priority. However, it still leaves you with a population that has no immunity and hence susceptible to new outbreaks. That is, if you can not eliminate every outbreak then you will still eventually have the pandemic. It does buy you time which may allow development of an effective vaccine or more effective treatments.
BTW, this bird flu at this stage looks a lot like the 1918 version in that young healthy adults with good immune systems are the worst affected.
#7
The US is in the position of having no choice. Avian flu kills the chicken ebryos used to make vaccine for the 'swine' type of flu; this means that other animals, mostly horses, are used. But there are far fewer horses than chickens. This means that it would be almost impossible to produce and distribute the vaccine to enough of the population to make a difference. So the alternative is plain: interrupt the transmission at its biggest vector source, schoolchildren; and vigorously attack outbreaks. On the plus side, America is underpopulated, we have very good hygiene and public health services, and we also have the communication network to advise the public about conditions, what to do, and what to avoid. And these are potent tools. The Americans most likely to die are those that are concentrated, such as prisoners and in other institutions; those that insist on attending public gatherings; health care workers and then those who usually are at risk: the elderly, the sick, and very young infants. And just because we don't have enough vaccine at the outset does not mean we cannot continue to produce it once the flu has arrived. With vaccine production in surge mode, more and more of the population will be resistant, making it harder and harder for the disease to spread.
University of Colorado officials investigating embattled professor Ward Churchill received documents this week purporting to show that he plagiarized another professor's work.Officials at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia sent CU an internal 1997 report detailing allegations about an article Churchill wrote.
"The article . . . is, in the opinion of our legal counsel, plagiarism," Dalhousie spokesman Charles Crosby said in summarizing the report's findings.
Churchill did not return calls to his home or office Thursday seeking comment... Accompanied, as usual, by Churchill's physically threatening his accuser--his typical M.O.
#4
From what I've been hearing, if they don't find an actionable offense, they'll have to pay this asstard big bucks to get rid of him.
Of course, not only should he go out the door without a penny, he should get a size 12 up the ass to help him on his way.
I hope this one sticks - and I hope Mrs D is right that this offense breaks the goddamned tenure bullshit. I'd abolish tenure. I know the reasons for it, and there are obvious reasons against it. Hey, I believe that employees should have to prove competency to keep their jobs - and management should have perf stats that determine if they stay - or go -- all of this done annually or bi-annually. Not very fond of dead wood.
#5
Now, now....as you all know, in Ward's tribe (the Where-the-hell-are-we), copying the work of another is considered the highest compliment.
You are all just culturally insensitive little Eichmanns!
/sarcasm off
#12
Plagiarism is definitely grounds for termination, tenure or not. A student who did this would be expelled instantly.
Speaking of tenure, one of my favorite cartoons in the old Omni magazine pictured a maniacal type in a white lab coat menacing another guy in a lab-coat, with the latter chained hand and foot to the wall of an apparent laboratory. The maniac is gleefully rubbing his hands and saying, "Mad? Me? Mad? Why, yes I'm mad, but I have tenure!"
I wish I could find a copy of it for my office door.
#17
fire his ass for plagiarism and make it a public firing. He'll still have the Berkley/Columbia honorariums for speechs to the professionally outraged, but other than that - stick a fork in his ass, he's done
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2005 21:16 Comments ||
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#18
AC: Churchill is a bully and as such is extremely unlilkely to piss off anyone with the capability of doing him in, let alone b*tch slapping him.
And as such he will mostlikely get into trouble for when he bravely attacks elderly men and women, and then hopefully he will serve some time.
#19
Our Indian friends might welcome an unmarked sedan carrying a "bound/gagged n' bitching" load in the trunk.....consider it taking out the trash :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2005 21:28 Comments ||
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They just can't get over it... Her Bush-Cheney sticker sent him into a tirade that led to a dangerous car chase through the streets of Tampa.
TAMPA - Politics has always been divisive, splitting families and turning friend against friend. This week, though, a Tampa woman learned that simple Bush-Cheney bumper sticker can bring trouble, if not danger, from a total stranger.
Police say Michelle Fernandez, 35, was chased for miles Tuesday by an irate 31-year-old Tampa man who cursed at her as he held up an anti-Bush sign and tried to run her off the road. His sign, about the size of a business letter, read: Never Forget Bush's Illegal Oil War Murdered Thousands in Iraq. Looks like he's read the manual. Hell, he's memorized it...
"I guess this was a disgruntled Democrat," Tampa Police spokesman Joe Durkin said. "Maybe he has that sign with him so he's prepared any time he comes up against a Republican." ...or maybe he's just friggin nuts?
Police arrested Nathan Alan Winkler at his home on N Cleveland Street near Hyde Park within an hour of the incident. After finding the antiwar sign in his car, they booked him into the county jail on one count of aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, Durkin said. They're suppressing dissent in Tampa! Damn Ashkkkr...wait, who's the new guy?
He posted his $2,000 bond and was released early Wednesday, jail records show. This was Winkler's first arrest in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.Winkler, listed in jail records as a contractor, could not be reached Wednesday. Durkin said Winkler told police officers he got upset with Fernandez because she "gave him the finger." Fernandez told the Times Wednesday that "whatever gestures I made, I made them because I was trying to figure out why he was honking at me and pointing to his sign. At first I didn't know why he was screaming at me," she said. "Then it clicked."
In her frantic nine-minute call Tuesday to a 911 dispatcher, Fernandez said it was the Bush Cheney '04 bumper sticker on her green Ford Expedition that set the other driver off. "I was just almost run off the road by a man," she told the dispatcher at 5:14 p.m. She was taking her son, 10, and daughter, 3, to a ballfield. AH-HA!!!An evil SUV! C'mon, lady. Can you blame the guy? Your evil gas guzzling SUV caused the war in Iraq!
"He just ran me off because I have a Bush bumper sticker in my car. He had some type of - he drove up next to me with - he had a sign on it like hanging from his - from the passenger window, that said something about the war in Iraq. . . . I'm shaking like a leaf." Durkin said Winkler started following Fernandez at the intersection of Columbus Drive and Armenia Avenue shortly after 5 p.m. "He told our officers that he just got mad at her, so he went after her," Durkin said. As Fernandez drove south on Armenia, the other driver pulled alongside her in his black 1996 Nissan, beeping his horn and "flailing his arms," according to a police report. He held the antiwar sign up to his passenger-side window, she said, following her along busy streets in south and west Tampa and veering into her path, forcing her to swerve to avoid a collision. She pleaded with the dispatcher for help and tried to get away by running through stop signs and changing directions.
"Oh, now he's following me! I'm gonna get back on Kennedy now. I don't know what to do!" she told the dispatcher, her voice rising. At one point the man pulled his car in front of Fernandez's, got out and started running toward her, Fernandez told police. At that point, I would've turned him into a hood ornament.
"He just pulled over next to me, he's stopping the car, it's ridiculous, this man!" she said. "He's running after my car. Oh my goodness, he's a fanatic, he's in the middle of the street!"
She drove along Arrawana Avenue and Habana Street, then back onto Kennedy Boulevard, but she couldn't shake him, Durkin said.
"He's trying to hurt us. Look at this, what a moron," she said. "Look at him! . . . Idiot!" Nah. Kerry voter. Well... yeah, he's an idiot.
The dispatcher told Fernandez to drive to the Tampa police office near Raymond James Stadium, but she drove instead to the ballfield where she had been headed with her children before the chase. She met with a police officer and carefully described the Nissan and its tag number, Durkin said.
Officers traced the tag to Winkler, went to his home within an hour and arrested him.
Janee Murphy, chairwoman of Hillsborough's Democratic Executive Committee, said bumper stickers and campaign signs attracted plenty of aggressive behavior during the election cycle, although nothing as scary as Tuesday's confrontation. "A lot of our Democrats that had Kerry stickers came across people who got very aggressive," Murphy said. "They were having their cars keyed, having cars come up very close to them. We've had situations where people curse at them, give hand gestures because of what they have on their car."But it's just sad, no matter what your political beliefs are," she said. "We don't need people fighting with each other at home when we have so much going on in the Middle East." So we know who you're blaming for this, don't we, Janee? And it ain't Mr. Winkler...
Records show Winkler has been registered as a Democrat since 1996 and has lived in the Tampa Bay area for more than a decade. Calls to his home were not returned. Winkler's father, John Winkler, 59, of Safety Harbor, didn't know about the incident until a St. Petersburg Times reporter called him. He said his son, a Web designer, is "kind of a laid back guy."
"That is so not like Nathan," he said. "I know that he is very anti-Bush. But I don't see him doing anything like that. He's certainly not aggressive. He's the least aggressive person I know."
Fernandez, too, is a Democrat. She has been a card-carrying party member since August 1988 - a few months before George W.'s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, was elected president.
Members of Fernandez's family said they don't necessarily vote along party lines. Fernandez voted for Bush in his recent re-election bid, they said. "I'm registered as a Democrat," Fernandez's mother Marie Fernandez said. "And I voted for Bush, too. Party doesn't matter."
"I respect him for having his beliefs and feeling so strongly," Michelle Fernandez said Wednesday night, her nerves still frayed. "But here he is protesting the war and lost lives, and he is going to put me and my children in danger? This man has a serious problem." Hey, he's just exercising his First Amendment rights, lady. Don't try to "disenfranchise " him!
#3
Heh. I saw some chucklehead on Morrissey Blvd. three weeks ago sporting a "Re-Defeat Bush" sticker on his shitty little van. I rolled down my window & motioned to him to do the same. I yelled out "Re-Defeat Bush? How's that working out for ya?" and punched the gas before he could react as I flew across the intersection, the light just turning yellow. I could see the guy flipping me the bird, caught at the red light. Laughed all the way to Manch Vegas!
#4
I'm waiting for someone to pull that crap with me; I have a surprise sitting on the floor between the seat and the door of my truck. (I might be waiting for a long time, as I don't have any political stickers on the bumper...)
#8
Ship, do you remember the carbonated beverage during that campaign called Au H2O? It tasted like, bleech, Mt. Dew.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2005 19:24 Comments ||
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#9
YES, I BELIEVE IN THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, HOWEVER- DON'T ENDANGER ANYONE. THIS SITUATION
SHOULD NEVER HAD HAPPENED. I ONCE HAD A "HONK IF YOU LIKE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN" BUMPER STICKER ON A CAR I OWNED AND THE TENANTS IN THE APARTMENT IN FRONT OF ME ASKED THAT I TAKE THE STICKER OFF BECAUSE THE WHOLE WORLD KNEW WHERE I LIVED AND CAR'S WERE DRIVING PAST THE DIRVEWAY HONKING LIKE CRAZY! THUS, I WAS DISTURBING THE PEACE. I HATED TO TAKE THE BUMPER STICKER OFF- I FELT LIKE I WAS BURNING THE CROSS!
ANDREA JACKSON
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/11/2005 19:35 Comments ||
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#10
Andrea! My Ears! Take the caps lock off!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2005 19:37 Comments ||
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#11
I get it. The guy is anti-war (and I would assume anti-violence). So he attacks, and tries to kill someone that disagrees with him.
#13
To many fans Springsteen is like GOD**
(we all have different taste buds)
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/11/2005 20:45 Comments ||
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#14
Eric Clapton was God to a generation too. I was a Jimmy Page/Rob't Plant guy, and although not God, they kicked Bruce's ass. See: records sold
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2005 21:14 Comments ||
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#15
was and still am, I should've said.... Plant/Page No Quarter - Unledded is a masterpiece of RnR and some world music influences. Rent the DVD if you're too cheap to buy the CD and DVD
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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#16
Hey don't insult my Jimi Hendrix T-Shirt. I can't even keep him in the same drawer with my Lead Zepplin T-Shirts.
Bruised Spreingbock. What a freeking joke to someone hard core like me. That's like claiming John Cougar Mellonhead is a rocker. I think Ballader is actually the word that describes both of them.
#17
LOL - Hendrix was a pioneer, although SRV could do his songs lick for lick. Zeppelin is still my band - although I like everything from the Dead to the Blasters...3600 songs in my MP3 files and 700+ CDs - I like a lot, just Zep was/is my fav
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2005 22:26 Comments ||
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Hundreds of United Nations troops launched a major offensive in northeast Congo on Friday to hunt down militiamen who killed nine U.N. Bangladeshi peacekeepers last month, a U.N. military source said. "We are conducting a cordon-and-search operation as well as trying to apprehend the perpetrators of the killing of the Bangladeshis," the source said. The operation northeast of the town of Bunia in the Ituri district involved around 500 peacekeepers and started at around 7:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EST), the source said. Witnesses said rotations of U.N. helicopter gunships had been leaving Bunia airport throughout the morning.
The United Nations has been criticized in the past for being ineffective in reining in marauding militias in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo, but has said it plans to step up operations to dismantle militia training camps in the region. U.N. soldiers killed at least 50 militiamen in a fierce gunbattle involving helicopter gunships earlier this month, five days after the Bangladeshi soldiers were killed in an ambush in lawless Ituri.
Killing thousands of civilians doesn't rate a yawn, kill a few UN troops and they get all bent out of shape.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/11/2005 9:11:49 AM ||
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Kofi has 10,000 troops and many helicopter gunships in the DRC, but he spent the week trying to define "terrorism". He is responsible for the killing of 50 malitiamen who attacked his foreign helicopter gunships in their homeland. I certainly hope that the 500 troops and helicopter gunships in this operation "respect human rights and the rule of law".
Posted by: Tom ||
03/11/2005 11:13 Comments ||
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#4
BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) - Hundreds of United Nations troops backed by helicopter gunships swooped into a village in northeast Congo on Friday but failed to find militia fighters blamed for killing nine peacekeepers, officials said. The operation, launched just before dawn at Penie, around 16 miles northeast of the region's main city of Bunia, had aimed to hunt down the killers of the nine Bangladeshi U.N. soldiers who died in an ambush last month, U.N. sources said. "We had names of some people we wanted to arrest in connection with the killings of the Bangladeshis. They were supposed to be in this village but we did not arrest any," said one U.N.
"(The operation) is a failure from the point of view that they did not arrest any militia but in a sense it was a success because word will get around that the U.N. mission is serious," said a second U.N. military source.
Once more the UN mindset becomes clear; words are more important than deeds.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/11/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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#5
Dude! That's my truck! Try not to dent the hood.
I've been looking for the 3rd World Tech Assualt Kit, but sadly, the after market supply chain on this side of the pond is lacking.
NEW DELHI: The United States has reminded India about its concerns over Iran, as New Delhi prepares for talks on a $4 billion pipeline to bring Iranian gas to South Asia, Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday. Aiyar said that New Delhi had "noted" Washington's concerns and hoped that the US would resolve its concerns over Iran by the time India negotiated a deal with Tehran.
Washington's ambassador to New Delhi David Mulford conveyed US concerns to him about a month ago, he said. "I think the United States is well aware of our energy security requirements," said Aiyar. He said, "So long as we are sensitive to each other I don't think it will be an insurmountable obstacle either to their concerns or our being able to take the measures required for our security."
He added, "We hope they can resolve their issues with Iran by the time we can resolve contractual issues." Aiyar had said on Wednesday that he planned to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart on the gas pipeline that would help meet India's huge energy demand.
India barely produces half the gas it needs and imports 70 percent of its crude oil requirements. Pakistan, which has been quite keen on the project, will earn millions of dollars in transit fees from the "peace pipeline."
Indian officials said that US Ambassador David Mulford had conveyed Washington's reservations about the energy deal during the meeting two weeks ago. The paper claimed that although Mulford said he appreciated New Delhi's interest in the pipeline, "He felt it was his duty to highlight US concerns about Iran." He had said that Washington was facing serious difficulties with Iran on its nuclear weapons programme, with no immediate solution in sight to ending the impasse. Washington's concerns were likely to be raised again when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits India on March 16, added the paper.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder which of the Pakistani tribes will blow up the pipeline first?
#2
While I wonder which of the Pakistani tribes will be the first to blow up the pipeline? Darn! I thought I learned English, but it seems to me, perhaps another 20 years may do...
#3
Sobiesky, my silly darling, both are correct. It's just a matter of rhetoric -- my statement concentrates on the "first", yours on the pipeline. Go learn yet another language, and stop worrying so much ;-)
#5
Rene the cat knows exactly how true your statement is. She was just applying the possibilities to mice... or your typing hands. We used to have a cat who brought us mostly living things to teach us to hunt with, poor thing never did understand why we let them go, or buried them. But then, he was traumatized when his brother ran off and got lost in the Royal Woods of the King of the Belgians outside Brussels.
A fire broke out on a tanker belonging to the Pakistan navy at a dock in this southern port city on Thursday, and relief officials said at least 60 people - most of them sailors - were injured in the blaze. A naval doctor said he feared many others are trapped on the ship, and that hospital officials had been put on emergency call to deal with the situation. Witnesses saw at least a half dozen of the injured being rushed to the PNS Shifa Naval Hospital, some covered in red blankets, their faces burned from the fire. "We have pulled out 60 to 70 injured people," rescue official Rizwan Edhi told The Associated Press. Hospital officials said 48 injured had been brought in so far and more were on the way. The Pakistan Navy confirmed the fire, which is said broke out during routine exercises on the boat, but had no comment on the number of injuries. Lt. Cmdr. Salman Ali said the cause of the fire was not known.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Christopher Bochin is in trouble with the law for being a little too sharing with his students. Police in California charge the substitute teacher shared pot with students at Fresno High. According to authorities, Bochin asked two kids in his ninth-grade science class to get his pipe and weed from his car. Police say Bochin smoked the pot with about a half-dozen students from his class. He now faces felony drug charges and misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Bochin is free on bail and is to appear in court March 23rd. 
With surprising and mysterious regularity, life on Earth has flourished and vanished in cycles of mass extinction every 62 million years, say two UC Berkeley scientists who discovered the pattern after a painstaking computer study of fossil records going back for more than 500 million years.
A former Nazi who is wanted in Chile on child sex abuse charges has been arrested in Argentina. A joint operation between Argentine and Chilean police led to the detention of 
Mayor 
Hundreds of United Nations troops launched a major offensive in northeast Congo on Friday to hunt down militiamen who killed nine U.N. Bangladeshi peacekeepers last month, a U.N. military source said. "We are conducting a cordon-and-search operation as well as trying to apprehend the perpetrators of the killing of the Bangladeshis," the source said. The operation northeast of the town of Bunia in the Ituri district involved around 500 peacekeepers and started at around 7:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EST), the source said. Witnesses said rotations of U.N. helicopter gunships had been leaving Bunia airport throughout the morning. 
