Edited for brevity.
The [Pennsylvania] state House Judiciary Committee today moved to outlaw "computer-assisted hunting,'' also known as "Internet hunting.'' The high-tech practice lets computer users in, say, Pennsylvania, pay a fee and log onto a Web site in Texas. Computer users can shoot captive animals on a fenced-in game ranch simply by clicking a mouse. Touching a computer in Pennsylvania fires a rifle on the game farm and the shooter can see on his computer whether he hit the animal. Has anyone here heard of this before? How sick is this to shoot a captive animal on a whim by remote control? I am a strong advocate of hunting, but this isn't hunting--this is just wanton killing.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/07/2005 15:20 ||
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#1
The only possible justification for one of these places would be if they dressed and then shipped the meat to you. I could almost accept it then; there is something to actually having to kill what you are going to eat, rather than have someone else do it out of sight/out of mind.
Otherwise, I don't know if I would make it illegal, but I have nothing but contempt for the customers.
#2
Muck4doo posted on this a few days ago. It first came to light for me a couple of months ago as it was in the planning stages. 15 states have banned or are in the process of banning this and there is a bill in the House, I believe, to ban it nationally. I do believe it should be illegal.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/07/2005 16:27 Comments ||
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I imagine we could all suggest more rational uses for this, otherwise, insane idea.
For instance, setting these rigs up in the Senate Bldg strikes me as a capital idea.
#4
This is stupid, cruel and useless. But if we tried to make a law for everything that was stupid,cruel and useless, the congress would have time to do little else. Arent there other things we should be working on?
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arab television network famous for airing images of beheadings and mutilated bodies, rejected a 30-second commercial from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals showing abuse of Australian sheep. The sheep, raised for wool, are later shipped alive to the Middle East for slaughter. The footage shows lambs partially skinned alive during a procedure called "mulesing." Sheep are repeatedly kicked as they are loaded onto what PETA calls "death ships." Other sheep are are shown being dragged and kicked in the head as their throats are slit while other sheep watch. The ad includes a narration of the following quote by the late Imam B.A. Hafiz al-Masri of the Shah Jehan Mosque located in the United Kingdom: "If animals have been subjected to cruelties in their breeding, transport, slaughter, or in their general welfare, meat from them is considered impure and unlawful to eat (haram). The flesh of animals killed by cruel methods (Al-Muthiah) is carrion (Al-Mujathamadh). Even if these animals have been slaughtered in the strictest manner, if cruelties were inflicted on them otherwise, their flesh is still forbidden food (haram)."
"Since Australian sheep are haram on the grounds of cruelty to animals, we call on people in the Middle East to consider whether importing live sheep from Australia is in accordance with Islamic law," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. PETA urged Al-Jazeera to reconsider accepting the ad, which is part of PETA's international campaign calling for a boycott of Australian wool until mulesing and live exports are stopped.
#1
The purpose of mulesing is the better welfare of the sheep. In humid/rainy weather, there is a strip of skin on the back end of a woolly sheep which remains wet with urine, dung and water and becomes fly blown. The maggots eat their way into the flesh and a painful and lingering death ensues if on-farm surgery (much more painful than the mulesing) isnt carried out. In practise a badly flyblown sheep is simply shot.
This is what anti- mulesing campaigners want to happen to these animals they pretend to care for.
FYO, mulesing is cutting away of a strip of skin on the back of a lambs leg, where it folds on itself and stays wet. The lamb goes baa baa for the few seconds it takes, runs off, shakes itself and is feeding happily minutes later. The wool never grows on the modest scar and the sheep is protected from flystrike all its life.
This is just a smokescreen issue from people who want to destroy the wool industry.
Profiling this year's leading candidate for the Congressional Pizza of Honor. Edited for brevity.
A robbery attempt and a gunshot wound to the leg didn't stop a Tampa [FL] pizza delivery man from making his deliveries Saturday night. Thomas Stefanelli says it was "dedication" that drove him to deliver four pizzas after being shot in the thigh. Stefanelli says a man in a Halloween mask approached him, pointing a gun and demanding money, when he mistakenly stopped at a vacant home. Yes, it's always a good idea to stop and talk to someone in a Halloween mask... in June.
He was shot in the leg as the two men struggled. He says his attacker fled to a nearby house. Stefanelli says his cell phone wasn't working, so he drove to his next delivery address to call his boss. He then made three more deliveries before being taken to a hospital. "Here's your thin-crust pepperoni and cordite!"
"I didn't order extra sauce...?"
"Oh, that's blood--sorry!"
An X-ray showed no serious damage. The bullet had stopped in 37-year-old Stefanelli's back pocket. Is that a bullet in your pocket, or... ?
Posted by: Dar ||
06/07/2005 12:33 ||
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"Neither rain nor snow nor bleeding through-and-throughs shall stay this messenger from his appointed rounds."
#3
I would carry mace or whatever was "legal" for self defense in Florida. The pizza guy was almost all sauced up! How much dough did the robber's get?
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: workin for a living ||
06/07/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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whole story is bullshit i would put a $100 on it he was a drug dealer too or was tryinng too buy soem
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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TH1864 - follow the story's link for 'More Articles' with the next headline being 'Man with no legs shot and killed'. Its a quagmire out there I tell you, a quagmire. We need to pull out of .... Tampa? Wonder how the prisoners are treated in the high security prisons down in Florida. Guess if they're not perfectly respecting the poor misunderstood perps like this shooter, they need to close the facilities.
#7
TH1864--I agree it's crap too. Sounds like a bogus drug deal went down and he was too afraid to report it. Then he decided to make up some B.S. story to cover his injuries and make himself look good.
This guy and the "runaway bride" would make a cute couple, don't ya think?
Posted by: Dar ||
06/07/2005 18:25 Comments ||
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Sounds like the Spanish Garden mafia is on the move.
#10
FYI, no excuse not to be armed. Florida is a "Shall Issue" concealed carry state. You can even get a carry permit as a visitor - apply via mail, the local police do you fingerprints & photo, the sherrif there does permit.
Posted by: H field ||
06/07/2005 12:38 Comments ||
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Hey, Ship, I didn't know hatfield could use a computer.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/07/2005 16:30 Comments ||
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I prefer defense in depth when walking the streets of Chicago. Black Lab at heel. Black Jack in the pocket. Black Beretta in the holster. Black Berry on the belt.
#6
F&king irresponsible assholes that keep Rottweilers and Pit Bulls with little care for what their pet can do. Why was he outside, unrestrained? Time for Assault chgs and when death occurs, murder charges.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 19:20 Comments ||
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He really can't DB, a loaner Border Collie was using his account.
The Government has refused to kill off the European constitution and hinted that key sections could still be introduced without a referendum in Britain.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, faced accusations that EU leaders were planning a "back door" implementation of the treaty - already voted down by France and the Netherlands - after saying that some provisions could still go ahead.
Jack Straw defends the future of the EU consitution yesterday
While confirming that Britain's referendum was being shelved, Mr Straw rejected calls from Conservative and Labour MPs to declare the constitution dead.
With the European Commission in Brussels appealing to EU leaders to stick by the constitution, Mr Straw told the Commons it was not for the UK alone to decide the future of the treaty.
It was the "property of the European Union as a whole" and it was now for EU leaders to reach conclusions on how to deal with the situation.
The Government reserved the right to bring back the Bill for a UK referendum should circumstances change. "But we see no point in doing so at this moment."
Mr Straw raised fears that the EU might seek to reintroduce the constitution's provisions by the "back door" when he said there were some "sensible" provisions that could be rescued and implemented.
Next month, Britain takes over the rotating EU presidency, and will be in the driving seat over the future of the constitution.
Mr Straw said there was widespread agreement over proposals to give national parliaments a new and better say over EU legislation.
These included a reformed voting system, increased "subsidiarity" - devolving decisions to the lowest possible level in the EU - and a "yellow card" provision that would require the European Commission to rethink a proposal that was rejected by one third of the national parliaments.
Mr Straw said that if the EU was to suggest introducing such reforms by other means, it would be "absurd" to put them to a referendum, and Britain ought to agree to them straight away.
He denied that it would amount to bringing in the constitutional treaty, or elements of it, by stealth.
But the anti-constitution No Campaign said Mr Straw had explicitly refused to give voters an assurance that the EU would not still implement parts of the constitution without a referendum
"Everyone knows that if they start going ahead with bits of the constitution now, gradually they will bring in more and more of it," said Neil O'Brien, director of the campaign.
The Foreign Secretary provoked much hilarity on the Conservative benches when he confirmed the much-leaked decision to "postpone" further parliamentary debate on the Bill ratifying the constitution and paving the way for a referendum.
Liam Fox, the Tory foreign affairs spokesman and a former GP, mocked Mr Straw for failing to admit that the treaty should now be written off. He said: "I may no longer practise medicine, but I can tell a corpse when I see one - and this is a case for the morgue if ever there was one. This is a dead constitution."
Kenneth Clarke, the prominent Tory Europhile, welcomed the "common-sense" decision to halt the referendum on a "dead" treaty. He called on ministers to press European colleagues to end attempts to tinker with the workings of the EU and concentrate on the "real business" of economic reform.
In a carefully worded statement on the 30th anniversary of the referendum that confirmed Britain's membership of the Common Market, Mr Straw said "the first opportunity" for collective discussion would take place at an EU summit in Brussels next week.
Foreign Office officials later cautioned against expecting EU leaders to reach a quick decision to abandon the constitution, saying there were likely to be months of protracted discussions.
Mr Straw increased the air of crisis within the EU by saying Britain would "not hesitate" to use its veto to protect the £3 billion-a-year rebate on its budget contributions.
France and Germany are leading demands for the UK to give up its budget rebate at a meeting of finance ministers in Luxembourg today.
According to a poll carried out for BBC2's Newsnight programme, 64 per cent said they would vote No to the constitution, 20 per cent Yes with 15 per cent don't knows.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 11:50 ||
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"We're doing this for your own good, and you're gonna LIKE IT!"
#5
Not long ago former Secty of State Madeleine Albright declared that even if the Senate rejected a treaty, the US would still be obligated by it. It doesn't matter the nationality, its the individual who believes that people should never be permitted to rule themselves, particularly on the real important issues.
A Brazilian lawmaker at the heart of a corruption scandal battering Brazilian President Luiz Inäcio Lula da Silva's government said the ruling Workers Party had paid congressional allies the equivalent of $10,000 a month for their political support.
The allegations have deepened the crisis surrounding the da Silva government, rattled Brazilian financial markets and given a big boost to those calling for a congressional inquiry, which the government had been trying a block. A probe likely would drag on for months, stalling key legislative votes on overhauling the economy.
Rep. Roberto Jefferson, whose Brazilian Labor Party is accused of using appointees at the post office and other state-run entities to solicit bribes for his party, made the charges against Mr. da Silva's Workers Party during an interview with the Folha de S'o Paulo newspaper. Mr. Jefferson said he alerted six cabinet members about the alleged scheme, but that the payoffs only stopped after he took the matter to Mr. da Silva, who he claimed wept upon learning about the arrangement.
The Workers Party, known as PT, denied any wrongdoing.
Brazilian stocks tumbled 3.1% on the news, and the dollar strengthened as much as 2.2% against the real before settling 1% higher at 2.45.
The payoff charges come as Mr. da Silva's approval ratings are slipping and as opposition parties improve their standing in polls ahead of next year's presidential election.
Mr. Jefferson has been called a "human bomb" by newsweekly Veja for the explosive potential of what he allegedly knows about government corruption. Apart from Mr. Jefferson's alleged role in the post-office scandal, his party is accused by a former government employee of soliciting a monthly 400,000 reais -- about $165,000 at the current exchange rate -- from the state-run reinsurance monopoly.
This past weekend, the newsmagazine Ãpoca ran a story about an ice-cream salesman who allegedly fronted for Mr. Jefferson as a shareholder of two radio stations. Mr. Jefferson denies all allegations.
Mr. Jefferson's payoff claims appeared to be buttressed by Goiäs State Governor Marconi Perillo, who said in a television interview that he alerted Mr. da Silva last year "about the possibility that government sectors were paying off lawmakers." Mr. Perillo is a member of an opposition party.
Mr. Jefferson is a controversial figure in Brazilian politics. In the early 1990s, as then President Fernando Collor de Mello was losing political support amid corruption charges that eventually led to his impeachment and resignation, Mr. Jefferson stood by the president until the last minute.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 13:49 ||
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So you're saying the Dems are in charge down there? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/07/2005 14:07 Comments ||
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Two homemade bombs exploded outside the Buenos Aires branches of U.S. businesses before they opened Monday, spreading leaflets that read "Yankees get out of Latin America and Argentina!", authorities said.
Feeling inadequate, are we? Don't like having any competition? Afraid your pee-pee's too small?
No injuries were reported in the blasts, which caused minor damage to an ATM machine at a Citibank branch and the front of a Blockbuster video store in a Buenos Aires suburb. Police said a third bomb was found in a trash bag outside a McDonald's and disabled hours before the restaurant opened. The leaflets scattered by the bombs were signed by a group saying it was "working to liberate Argentina from imperialism." A series of similar bombings hit the Argentine capital in November, when bombs exploded outside three Buenos Aires banks, including a Citibank branch, killing a security guard.
Banks remain a flashpoint of public anger following the country's 2001-2002 economic crisis when the government froze bank accounts and thousands of Argentines saw their savings shrink after a bruising currency devaluation.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Authorities have ordered all China-based Web sites and blogs to register or be closed down, in the latest effort by the communist government to police the world of cyberspace.
Commercial publishers and advertisers can face fines of up to 1 million yuan ($120,000) for failing to register, according to documents posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Information Industry.
Private, noncommercial bloggers or Web sites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, it said. The ministry, which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance, said 74 percent of all sites had already registered.
"The Internet has profited many people but it also has brought many problems, such as sex, violence and feudal superstitions and other harmful information that has seriously poisoned people's spirits," the MII Web site said in explaining the rules, which were quietly introduced in March.
All public media in China is controlled by the state, though limits on the Internet have tended to lag behind as advances in technology and the Web's rapid spread outstripped Beijing's ability to keep tabs on users and service providers.
China has more than 87 million Internet users, the world's second largest online population after the United States.
The government has long required all major commercial Web sites to register and take responsibility for Internet content — at least 54 people have been jailed for posting essays or other content deemed subversive online.
But blogs, online diaries, muckraking Web sites and dissident publishing have been harder to police. According to cnblog.org, a Chinese Web log host company, the country has about 700,000 such sites.
Now, however, the government has developed a new system to track down and close those caught violating the rules, the ministry said.
"There's a 'Net Crawler System' that will monitor the sites in real time and search each Web address for its registration number," said one document listing questions and answers about the new rules. "It will report back to the MII if it finds a site thought to be unregistered."
The press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders protested the new rules, saying they would force people with dissenting opinions to shift Web sites overseas, where mainland Chinese users might be unable to access them due to government censorship filters. yup, that's the intent all right. to start with ....
The Paris-based group said that in May, many bloggers in China received e-mail messages telling them to register to avoid having their blogs declared illegal.
"Those who continue to publish under their real names on sites hosted in China will either have to avoid political subjects or just relay the Communist Party's propaganda," the rights group said. "This decision will enable those in power to control online news and information much more effectively."
The latest restrictions follow many others. Authorities have closed down thousands of Internet cafes — the main entry to the Web for many Chinese unable to afford a computer or Internet access.
They've also installed surveillance cameras and begun requiring visitors to Shanghai Internet cafes to register using their official identity cards — all in an effort to keep tabs on who's seeing and saying what online.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 10:37 ||
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Is china doing its very best to recreate the fall of the last major communist country? It sounds to me that they are getting less tolerant of reform not more. I'm going to sit back and laugh when the commies do it to themselves again.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 14:52 Comments ||
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#3
Eh? I have to register my site, just like everyone else. Relevant regulations here, if you care to use a machine translator such as babelfish.com or worldlingo.com.
China, the world's second-largest energy consumer after the United States, will spend some 400 billion yuan (US$48.33 billion) on building new nuclear power plants by 2020.
The energy-hungry country intends to increase the amount of installed nuclear power capacity from the current 16 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts - or 4 per cent of the total installed capacity - within 15 years, Kang Rixin, president of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), said.
More than enough to power a dozen flux capacitors.
Nuclear power generation is expected to triple to reach 60 gigawatts by that time, or 6 per cent of the country's total electricity output from the current 2.3 per cent, according to Kang.
To reach this rather ambitious goal, the country "should build another 30 or so 1-gigawatt (GW) units in China," according to the president of the country's largest nuclear reactor builder.
These greenhouse-gas-free power plants will be focused in the populous south and east provinces such as Fujian and Zhejiang, which are short on the hydrocarbons that fuel power plants in the north and west.
Nuclear power plant generation has so far reached 13 per cent of the total power generation mix in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, Kang said.
The country currently has 19 reactors in operation, under construction or with the central government's final approval.
Two under-construction reactors in Tianwan, Jiangsu Province, which use Russian technology, are expected to go on line by the end of this year and the beginning of next year. said the CNNC president.
The company will soon make a final decision over a US$8-billion contract to build four nuclear reactors at Sanmen of Zhejiang Province and in Yangjiang of Guangdong, said Kang.
Framatome ANP, a venture between France's Areva SA and Germany's Siemens AG, British Nuclear Fuels Plc's Westinghouse Electric Co and Russia's AtomStroyExport are bidding for the projects.
The EU-3 plus Russia. Surprise, surprise.
"We are still analyzing the bids and have some issues to clarify including technical levels, technology transfer and pricing, which are quite sensitive," Kang said. "We hope to make a decision as soon as possible."
To promote self-reliance in nuclear power technology, CNNC is currently developing a new form of reactor technology, known as CNP 1,000, which will be applied to future projects, Kang said.
A design of a prototype for the reactor may be ready by the end of this year, he said.
There was something decidedly fishy about one female passenger arriving at Melbourne International Airport.
Must. Control. Comments.
Customs officers found 51 live tropical fish hidden under her skirt. While examining the 43-year-old woman's bags on Friday, officials reportedly heard "flipping noises from the vicinity of her waist". "An examination revealed 15 plastic water-filled bags holding fish," the Australian Customs Service said in a statement.
I've heard of retaining water, but.....
The fish were allegedly concealed inside a purpose-built apron. Experts have yet to establish the exact species of the fish, but if the woman had successfully brought them into Australia, they could have posed potentially serious quarantine, environmental and health risks, customs officials said. The woman could face up to 10 years in jail and an $80,000 fine if convicted of smuggling wildlife.
Mind the tuna jokes, there are ladies present
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 08:22 ||
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INDONESIA today condemned as a "terror threat" the second security hoax at its embassy in Canberra in a week, amid growing resentment towards its neighbour's obsession with a young Australian woman jailed in Bali on drugs charges.
The propaganda boon of an envelope of white powder sent to the embassy was accompanied by an abusive letter WRITTEN IN INDONESIAN
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the incident was "part of a wave of threat of terror" against Indonesia.
Also, websites supporting Schapelle Corby such as banbali.com were subjected to repeated hack attacks and porn postings. The servers were traced back to Indonesia. That story didn't make the news though it appeared on the newswires last monday.
Many of Corby's supporters, who back her claim that she was the victim of an international smuggling syndicate, have threatened to boycott Bali as a holiday destination and have demanded the return of aid for Indonesian tsunami victims.
And rightly so, this was a miscarriage of justice by a tinpot 3rd world court that was overtly biased. They didn't even have a translator in court for her final plea so the judges sat there looking at her without understanding a word she said. It was a sham trial. There was not enough evidence to convict her in an Aussie court. She wanted the bag fingerprinted: they refused. She wanted the pot analysed by Australian police drug experts to track where it came from: they refused. She underwent drug tests: all negative. She asked for CCTV security camera footage: there wasn't any.
Aussies are angry as they rightly perceive this trial was run on the presumption of guilt.
Whether or not Corby could produce the real culprit is irrelevant to proving that she didn't do it: yet this is what the indon judges said on record she would have to do.
It isn't because she's young, pretty and white. It's because Aussies know injustice when they smell it.
This is one Aussie who is not going on holidays to Bali (though I had planned to go this year). Thailand is looking much better.
#2
While Indonesia was never high on my travel list, it fell much much lower on the basis of this trial. We all bent over backwards to assist Indonesia after the tsunami (just ask Chuck Simmins), and this travesty is the result.
#3
Yes, seafarious, I want my tsunami donations back, too!
I know it's not the poor innocent people who did this but it IS their culture that produced the court system and judges and government that is there.
Plus did you know that in January 05 while our donations and troops were helping patch up the wave struck areas, the INDONESIAN military was too busy facing off with Malaysia over an island they both claim.
So really if we denied them aid they could put their own military towards civilian projects instead of causing regional problems.
Also they conducted a web war, possibly the first ever? over that debacle. Indonesian hackers broke into Malaysian govt websites and posted the red and white javanese indon flag all over them, proclaiming the island was theirs (forgot the name of the island - these stories appeared on the wires in january and weren't picked up by all newspapers as tsunami news was bigger then)
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder dismissed a report today that his party had discussed plans for him to resign rather than press ahead with the tricky task of calling an early election. There seems to be an internal power fight going on inside the SPD to replace Schroeder with party boss Muentefering, because Merkel's approval numbers have risen "shockingly".
That would be bad news because anticipated elections would be scrapped and we'd be stuck with a real socialist who just called American investors "locusts".
Of course the SPD denies all that but it's a real threat. Since Schroeder has no chance at all to win against Merkel, the SPD might go for another year desperately trying to turn the tide with a leftist government.
The German president Koehler hasn't decided yet whether he will approve Schroeder's attempt to fake a non confidence vote in order to dissolve the Bundestag (currently the only way to achieve that).
Posted by: True German Ally ||
06/07/2005 19:36 ||
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Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar telling it like it is:
"Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States," Aznar said in an interview on the Bar-Ilan University campus. "Europeans don't like any problems. They prefer appeasement."
[snip]
Aznar said Europe had no chance of independently impacting on the situation in the Middle East and would be wise to work closely with the US. "Do we Europeans have the capacity to change the situation and influence this area? The answer is no," he said.
INVITING 40 German paratroops to land on Utah Beach was perhaps not the best way of celebrating the 61st anniversary yesterday of the Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches.
For one thing, it was a historical travesty. It was the US 82nd Airborne Division that dropped from the skies on to the town of Sainte Mere Eglise in the early hours of June 6, 1944, paving the way for the greatest seaborne assault in history.
Marc Lefevre, the town's mayor who invited the cream of the Wehrmacht to his weekend party, may have been feeling a pang of guilt at his fellow-countrymen voting a resounding "non" to further integration of a European community that has for six decades dissuaded the French and Germans from knocking lumps out of each other.
"I knew it would make me unpopular," M Lefevre admitted yesterday. "We needed to turn the page, and welcome the Germans without bitterness."
But, in a repetition of the events of 1944, the Allies won the day. At the last minute, after strong objections from US veterans in town for the commemoration, the German invasion was cancelled.
The organisers hastily muttered an excuse about the weather being too bad. US forces on the ground were more forthright. Barry Wells, 78, a veteran from Des Moines, Iowa, said: "There was no way we were going to allow German paratroops to hijack our time of remembrance.
"Our boys had a hell of an unpleasant time around here but came out victorious. Allowing the Germans to jump over Sainte Mere Eglise would be like allowing the Luftwaffe to fly a plane over London to commemorate the Battle of Britain. Some of the guys had a word with the French, and thankfully the jump was cancelled."
John Wayne would not have liked it either. He starred in the 1962 film The Longest Day in scenes that centred on the 82nd's parachute drop on the town. In one memorable, and more or less historically accurate scene, Private John Steele of the 82nd has his parachute caught on the church steeple, and he dangles there as fierce fighting continues beneath him.
Private Steele is now commemorated by a mannequin permanently suspended from the church.
Utah was one of the Normandy beaches designated for the huge amphibious landing that turned the tide of the Second World War.
A number of bold preliminary strikes in the early hours before dawn as a massive invasion flotilla approached the French coast included the US parachute drop and the British capture of Pegasus Bridge, a vital transport link across a canal near the city of Caen.
Although fighting was fierce, the Americans fared better at Utah than they did at their other designated landing ground of Omaha Beach, where casualties on both sides were much higher. By the end of the first day US forces had landed 23,000 men and 1,700 vehicles on Utah.
M Lefevre remained deflated at the cancellation of his Euro-friendly stunt. "We are all devoted to world peace now," he said. The German military maintained a diplomatic silence.
"It's best that we just go back to Germany," a spokesman for the parachute unit said, using words that the residents of Sainte Mere Eglise would dearly like to have heard in 1944.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 12:24 ||
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#1
Luftwaffe aircraft in a BOB re-enactment? Shit Yeah! Landser at Normandy Memorials? Hell why not? We should ask a certain turn-coat E. Tennessee Cav. about this.
#5
To begin with it was the Britsih who parachuted to Normandy.
And the Geman paratroopers didn't see action in France in 1940: they jumped over the Neterlands and made a glider assault on the Belgian front of Ebben Emmael.
#7
M Lefevre remained deflated at the cancellation of his Euro-friendly stunt. âWe are all devoted to world peace now,â
And that is he wants to make peace with Nazism.
A month ago I was in Germany (Baden-Wurtemberg) and I never found more charming people than there. Far more than my beloved compatriots. And still I don't want any German however charming coming to Normandy commemorations or, worse, jumping over Normandy: the Germans were defending one of the more murderoous and evil regimes who ever plagued humankind and every minute they managed to delay Germany's defeat meant roughly the more people being gassed (I have made the calculations). The mere idea of honouring German soldiers is repellent. What is the next step for this clown? Inviting German concentration camp guards to the ceremonies at Auschwithz? Have them make an exhibition of handling attack dogs?
PS: I suspect that pressure from his voters was not foreign to his change of mind: I was in Normandy last September and to my delight (I was enraged by Chirak's decision to invite Schroeder) I saw the shops had tags "Welcome to war veterans" with little flags of every allied country and no German flag be it the old or the new.
PS2: There was a monument in Omaha Beach funded by French citizens from their own pocket. The prefet ie the governemnt representative wanted it withdrawn. There was a petition against it. I signet it but don't know how the whole thing ended.
#9
Private Steele is now commemorated by a mannequin permanently suspended from the church.
OK, that's just bizarre. Sounds like some of the more oblique semi-abstract "installation" sculptures inflicted on unsuspecting unversity campuses by deranged artists and their faculty enablers.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/07/2005 16:08 Comments ||
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#10
I think he's just trying to pull some gay shit on those guys.
#11
I've been to normandy. turning the corner into the american cemetary, my knees weakened at the sight of row upon row of headstones marking the extinguished lives of young men. we may be friends with germany now, but they do not belong there. they simply do not belong there.
if a loved one were killed, and the killer was repentant, I would not invite him to weep with me. though I may at some point forgive him (though I think I could never do so, fully), my pain, my loss, my grief is not his to share.
as for germany, it's the same. watch from the sideline. but do not "commemorate" with us ESPECIALLY if you include your own dead in the commemoration.
#13
All it would have taken was for the invited German paratroopers wait on the LZ and help those landing and saying last time we were opposed,today we are allies and we like it much better this way. Honor satisfied,and today's realities respected.
Posted by: Stephen ||
06/07/2005 17:08 Comments ||
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#14
Stephen
These guys were buying time to gas chambers operators to finish the job.
#15
One of the most moving places at West Point is the Civil War Reconciliation plaza. It documents step by step the coming back together again of West Point grads who fought for each side.
What is missing in this case was an invitation by those who actually fought to the Germans to participate. It was presumptuous, arrogant and manipulative for the French mayor to issue the invitation. But it might have been a healing occasion if the British and Americans had talked it over and done so themselves.
#16
This perfidious bastage LeFevre should be strung up by his thumbs from the same church steeple where Steele dangled.
I spit on his toupee from a great height!
I urinate on his favorite vineyard after drinking 12 pints of Guinness!
I force him to drink from his mother's bidet! while he is drunk!
Pttui! We protest!
That ought to scare 'em.
#17
Maybe the Vietnamese Nike-shoe Reds will invite French paras to drop in on the 60th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu in 2014.
Who knows, they might accept.
#23
Shipman - The Victory can fight the Constitution and the modern world can see exactly why the Royal Navy issued orders that American frigates were to be engaged only when outnumbered by 3-1 or better odds. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/07/2005 22:56 Comments ||
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#24
Hardly. The Victory is a 104 gun Man O'War with 32 pounders. The Constitution is a 54 gun Frigate with 24 pounders. It would be like a fight between a battleship and a cruiser.
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2005 23:42 Comments ||
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#25
JFM,
I rather doubt too many of today's German paras fought in WW2. As for most of the Germans at the time they fought for victory,for Germany and towards the end to delay the Russians long enough to get as many civilians as possible to Western Powers occuppied areas.
I have not and will never forget about the death camps. Just as I will not forget the Soviet gulags. I had distant relatives disappear into each. The question is how long does the guilt linger?
To me,the French Mayor was wrong to invite the Germans to participate in the jump,as that was part of a ceremony to show respect for the sacrifice made by the Allies who liberated France. But once he did,there was a better way out than saying Germans go home.
Posted by: Stephen ||
06/07/2005 23:46 Comments ||
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The European Commission is looking into long-range plans for an EU-wide taxation system, according to a German press report on Saturday. The Commission has set a 2010 target date for looking into the feasibility of a pan-European tax and providing EU member nations with details of the proposed revenue-generating system, said the report in Die Welt newspaper. The newspaper said its information came from proposals made by the Luxembourg EU presidency in planning 2007-13 finances. You didn't think they'd give up did you?
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 10:59 ||
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Ever heard about "no taxation without representation?"
#2
Er, what's the European Parliament? I mean, just because almost nobody votes in those elections doesn't mean that it isn't a certain half-assed species of representation.
I mean, presumably the Commission will deign to let the European Parliament rubber-stamp such a centralized tax.
If the European Union ever becomes a proper state, I would kind of expect this sort of thing. Of course, unless everybody involved were stark raving insane, they'd have to reduce the national tax schemes in parallel, or else wreck their economies. The central distinction between a federation and a state is the possibility of centralized tax authority. Under the Articles, the American states offered contributions to Congress, if Congress was lucky. Under the Constitution, taxes were levied directly, via the excise.
As I understand the current situation in the EU, its central institutions are funded by contributions from the constituent states, right? That's a federation. Federations suck. Look at Star Trek.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/07/2005 11:37 Comments ||
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#7
Great timing! A week AFTER the French and the Dutch started expressing doubts. What would the election results have been if this announcement had been made two weeks ago?
Posted by: Tom ||
06/07/2005 13:14 Comments ||
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#8
Proclamation of 1866, by the Confederate States of America: "Now that our right to own slaves is assured, we demand that the purchase of slaves be subsidized by the Union."
What you fellas been smokin'?
Nothing really new here, but why pass a little Chirac-bashing?! France's president has wasted ten years, devoted mainly to a search for scapegoats
UNDER France's fifth republic, prime ministers have come to serve a useful purpose for presidents: when the going gets tough, they get both the blame and the boot. Georges Pompidou got rid of Jacques Chaban-Delmas; François Mitterrand kicked out Pierre Mauroy, Michel Rocard and Edith Cresson. Sure enough, after the crushing French rejection of the European Union constitution in a referendum on May 29th, President Jacques Chirac turfed out Jean-Pierre Raffarin and appointed Dominique de Villepin, one-time foreign minister and unelected former diplomat, promising a "new impetus" from his government (see article). Having heard France's message, he said in a television broadcast, "I intend to respond." The trouble is that the selection of an elite technocrat is not a meaningful response to that message. For the ultimate responsibility for the political upset this week belongs not to the hapless Mr Raffarin, but to Mr Chirac himself.
The French had many reasons to reject the constitution, but underlying their defiance was a simple point: times are hard, jobs are scarce, nothing changes, promises go unkept, we are fed up, and you—the political class—refuse to listen. After ten years as president, Mr Chirac has received this message more than once. He received it in 1997, when he called an early parliamentary election on the wise suggestion of Villepin, among others and lost, landing himself with a Socialist government. He received it in 2002, when the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen made it into the presidential run-off. He received it in 2004, when the left swept the board at regional and European elections. Now, he has received it once again.
Leaders can respond to such discontent in two ways. One is to pretend that the French social model is still valid, that no trade-off exists between social protection and economic growth, that France can close the shutters and shelter from global capitalism, that all the blame belongs with outside forces—whether globalisation, America or Brussels. The other is to admit that France cannot isolate itself from the world economy, to explain that new markets are an opportunity for French companies, that job losses in manufacturing can be balanced by job creation in services and that inflexible social protection deters the creation of new jobs.
The source of France's troubles is not Europe, nor global capitalism, nor rebellious socialists, nor the far-right, nor the far-left. It is Mr Chirac. His failure to be straight with the French about the need for reform has come back to haunt him. That is why a better response would have been for Mr Chirac to follow the example set by Charles de Gaulle after he lost a referendum in 1969: to accept his responsibility and resign.
#5
anon5089 (which I recognize as you but you should try a more catchier name...), you can go to the O-club to set your cookie before posting an article, or make a comment first.
#6
Except for the fact that the second Chirac resigns, unless the socialist parliament grants him immunity, he will be criminally prosecuted. And, like most of his kind, his self-preservation is job #1, and screw France. With all of his efforts at "internationalisation", I wouldn't be surprised if, like Bill Clinton, he is looking for future work at the UN, or maybe the WTO, or anybody else that will keep his butt out of prison.
#7
Except for the fact that the second Chirac resigns, unless the socialist parliament grants him immunity, he will be criminally prosecuted. And, like most of his kind, his self-preservation is job #1, and screw France. With all of his efforts at "internationalisation", I wouldn't be surprised if, like Bill Clinton, he is looking for future work at the UN, or maybe the WTO, or anybody else that will keep his butt out of prison.
A Canadian lawmaker resigned from the governing Liberal Party on Monday because of his opposition to its efforts to legalize gay marriage, further weakening Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government. Parliament member Pat O'Brien declared himself an independent, taking a seat away from the Liberals. The move comes shortly after Martin's scandal-battered minority government won a no-confidence motion in parliament by just one vote. O'Brien's defection does not dramatically change the balance of power for the Liberals, since an opposition Conservative Party member crossed over to the Liberals and another Liberal was recently elected in a by-election. But his departure gives impetus to the growing push by other Liberals to join Conservatives in blocking the gay marriage bill.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Mebbe the tipping point (back to sanity) is approaching. Here's hoping, anyway. If O'Brien is respected and listened to, he might bring some to (at least) think, if not follow.
#2
My politics on the subject aside ... is he really going to be a Liberal-at-heart on all other issues, or is this a real break?
I'm holding my breath until either Paul Martin is out on his ass, in jail, both, or there's a Democratic People's Republic of Quebec (DPRQ).
If the last one, I'll ROTFLMAO.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/07/2005 3:20 Comments ||
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#3
O'Brien was supposedly promised that gay marriage will be freely debated in parliament. Martin backed away from this promise, and this pissed off O'Brien and others.
Posted by: Rafael ||
06/07/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#4
Ah, I see now.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/07/2005 17:15 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/07/2005 19:58 ||
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Looking at that pic I felt a sudden urge to tear the flag pin off his lapel and stick it in his eye. Both eyes. Repeatedly.
But I'm all better now - I read the piece and laughed my ass off at the division and rancor this moron causes his fellow Moonbats. Another successful Rovian Plot, lol! I'm sure there's a clever way to tie in the Skeery Yale grades story with Rove and Prez Chimp, but I'm still laughing at the article, heh.
Three top fundraisers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned at a time when its chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, has come under fire from fellow Democrats for controversial comments and his Republican counterpart has raised more than twice as much money. Democratic sources link the resignations to Dean's decision to focus on raising money in small increments through the Internet, as he did during his 2004 presidential bid, and building up the party's grassroots infrastructure while paying little attention to major Democratic donors. But other Democrats say the first several months after a party's losing presidential campaign are naturally a time of transition and it will take time for committee officials to get their "sea legs." Dean's defenders also note that DNC fundraising is ahead of where it was at this point after the last presidential election, when Democrats could still raise unlimited amounts of soft money.
The committee's finance directors for the two biggest hubs of Democratic fundraising have quit. Bridget Siegel, finance director for New York and the surrounding area, resigned last week, and Lori Kreloff, finance director for California, left the committee last month. A third top DNC fundraiser, Nancy Eiring, the director of grassroots fundraising, has also resigned, citing strategic differences with aides to Dean, according to a report yesterday in ABC News' "The Note." Siegel told The Hill that she remained at the DNC for the first few months of the year only to help with the transition to leadership under a new chairman and that "Dean is moving the party in a great direction." Siegel will raise money for Andrew Cuomo's race for New York attorney general.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 10:18 ||
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#2
The big money donors will come in closer to election time. The donks always have gotten most of their money from a few people anyway. This will be no different.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/07/2005 12:52 Comments ||
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#4
How much money does the DNC really need, anyway? They have MooreOn, PAW, Media Fund, and all the other 527s. They have free campaign ads news articles from the MSM. About the only thing the Democratic party can do that those others can't is coordinated GOTV drives, and even there, the others can do GOTDV(*) or CFV(**) drives.
Senator John F. Kerry, ending at least two years of refusal, has waived privacy restrictions and authorized the release of his full military and medical records.
Well, that depends on the definition of the word "full"
The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe, are mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign for president, including numerous commendations from commanding officers who later criticized Kerry's Vietnam service.
The Washington Post's Michael Dobbs pointed out that although the Kerry campaign insisted that it had released Kerry's full military records, the Post was only able to get six pages of records under its Freedom of Information Act request out of the "at least a hundred pages" a Naval Personnel Office spokesman called the "full file." How many pages do you get, Globe?
The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions. An earlier release of the full record might have helped his campaign because it contains a number of reports lauding his service. Indeed, one of the first actions of the group that came to be known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was to call on Kerry to sign a privacy waiver and release all of his military and medical records. But Kerry refused, even though it turned out that the records included commendations from some of the same veterans who were criticizing him. On May 20, Kerry signed a document called Standard Form 180, authorizing the Navy to send an ''undeleted" copy of his ''complete military service record and medical record" to the Globe.
Note that he had his record sent to the Boston Globe, the official newspaper of John Kerry. The paper whose reporter, Michael Kranish, co-author of John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best , as well as THIS story. Whose reporters, assigned to cover the Kerry campain, were writing the John Kerry 2004 Victory Tour book, until they got caught. Yeah, we can trust the Globe.
Asked why he delayed signing the form for so long, Kerry said in a written response: ''The call for me to sign a 180 form came from the same partisan operatives who were lying about my record on a daily basis on the Web and in the right-wing media. Even though the media was discrediting them, they continued to lie. I felt strongly that we shouldn't kowtow to them and their attempts to drag their lies out."
Brilliant.
Many of the records contain praise for Kerry's service. For example, the documents quote Kerry's former commanding officers as saying he is ''one of the finest young officers with whom I have served;" is ''the acknowledged leader of his peer group;" and is ''highly recommended for promotion."
Yawn, standard boiler plate comments for a performace report.
"Walks on water. Able to leap tall buildings. Knows the intricate steps of the polonnaise. Promote with peers."
Kerry's refusal to waive privacy restrictions dates back to at least May 2003, when the Globe asked in writing for Kerry to sign the Form 180. As questions were raised about various actions in Vietnam, the Kerry campaign gradually released documents last year, but had not authorized the release of the entire file until now. In April 2004, Kerry said he had already released his military records. ''I've shown them, they're available for you to come and look at," Kerry said in a television interview. But when a reporter showed up at campaign headquarters, he was told that no new records would be released.
Now, why would anybody take Kerry's statement as a lie, just because it was false?
That prompted a flood of Republican criticism, and the campaign responded by gradually releasing more military records on its website. Kerry then released his ''fitness reports" -- evaluations by commanding officers -- on April 21, 2004. Two days later, the campaign allowed some reporters to view Kerry's medical record but did not allow copies to be made and did not post that information online.
He was stationed at Cam Ranh Bay, where the clap was... ummm... common.
By signing Form 180 now, Kerry may hope to achieve several goals: settle the question of whether there is an explosive document in the file; put pressure on critics to release their military records; and try to put to rest an issue that dogged his 2004 campaign and would probably come up again if he seeks the presidency in 2008. The file does not provide new documents about various combat actions. It contains mostly a repetition of Kerry's citations for the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. For example, it does not include the combat ''after action reports" that detail what happened in some of the firefights in which Kerry participated. Those reports are available for public inspection at the Navy historical center in Washington and have already been widely disseminated.
Do the records include, perchance, his original DD214?
John O'Neill, the leader of the Swift Boat veterans group and coauthor of the book ''Unfit for Command," said yesterday that he would be disappointed if Kerry's files do not contain new information. ''I would still have the same beliefs expressed in my book," he said. O'Neill, who said he has already authorized the release of his records, has questioned a number of Kerry's combat actions involving the first Purple Heart, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star. For example, Kerry received his first Purple Heart for action on Dec. 2, 1968. Kerry told historian Douglas Brinkley that ''I never saw where the piece of shrapnel had come from." Kerry's critics have questioned whether the wound came from enemy fire, and his former commanding officer said the wound resembled a ''scratch." The file includes a previously reported reference to Kerry being treated for the wound and that he was awarded the Purple Heart, but it does not address the details of the combat that night. No after-action report for the incident has been found.
And no mention of his original discharge paperwork, what type of discharge it was or even when it was. Those are the big questions and they won't be answered by the Globe.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 10:09 ||
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this will be enough who will hear what they want to hear and the rest of us already know he's a lying sob.
But...will Kerry ever be able to get past that Freshman photo? Now that is the real question!
#2
As for Kerry's first Purple Heart, a lot of guys got their first one for a scratch.
My dad was in WWII and earned a Purple Heart. He was crossing a fence when an artillary shell exploded near him. He said that he did not know if it was schrapnal (sp) or if he cut himself on the fence. I'm still proud of ANYONE who receives a Purple Heart.
Posted by: DJ ||
06/07/2005 15:40 Comments ||
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#3
This guy is slicker than Clinton. He signed off the 180 with selective dates and only for Navy records not those in Denver at the NPRC where all the good stuff are kept. You have an option on the 180 to leave out certain dates or to have the whole record made available. I still think there is more here than an RIF discharge. Or maybe he was embarrassed by the fact the Bush turns out marginally smarter grade wise than he is shown to be.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/07/2005 16:09 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 10:06 ||
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#1
I know wee are all going to make much of his freshman grades, but I know of very few people who haven't taken a hit during their first year of college. That being said I like the final results of this sanctimonious asshole that likes to portray himself as some great thinker. Now AFTER the election we find out that at best he is at best on par (intellectually) with the current resident of the White House. I canât wait to see the Navy records when they are released (if ever). Did I mention that I REALLY HATE JOHN FRIGGIN KERRY? Thank God that three MILLION more people thought better that to vote for this âmanâ.
#5
gosh..I actually feel bad for saying what I did above. Somethings are just too true to be funny and qualify as downright mean. It could be helpful for John Kerry as people just won't feel right about making fun of ....that.
#7
Heh--my grades were pretty atrocious my first year too. I was spoiled in high school--hardly had to open a book to get good grades--but college was a slap of reality.
This should take the air out of that "Kerry smart, Bush dumb" fallacy though.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/07/2005 12:06 Comments ||
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#11
I'm with tu--where are the bolts in his neck?
What a moron...I made terrific grades my freshman year, but then I'm a girl and I took my poor non-Yale university seriously.
I didn't even have a freshman year: because of AP tests and Achievement scores, I started as a sophomore!
Anyway, so much for the deep intellectual roots of "Mr. Nuanced," the thinking man's presidential candidate!
I'm with Cyber Sarge--I really LOATHE John Kerry!
And I wanna see his real military records--I bet they are something else!
Swift Boat Veterans will always rule!
#12
Bush's highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy. Kerry's strongest freshman showing, a 77, came in French. Kerry's highest single grade in college was an 89 for a political science class. While amazed that neither one of them could score even a single "A" in four years of college, I'll take an anthropologist / historian / philosopher over a French politician any time.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/07/2005 13:22 Comments ||
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#13
Jennie, if his military records are half as scary as that picture, they'll never see the light of day!
#16
I mean - look at this guys life: private schools, gap years in Old Europe, mediocre grades, lots of clubs, playing hockey, tuttuting the war before he enlists, but has to enlist and find some quick fame for the old resume, treasonable behavior, part of wildass anti-war outfit, may be involved in assassination plots, soft assistant DA job, politics, no legislation, marrys into big time money, does F**K all with his life except windsurfing and driving other peoples SUV's around and can't beat a vulnerable President as a result of a hostile media and Soros money. That is the life of a big time self-absorbed loser.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/07/2005 16:18 Comments ||
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#17
An intersting note (I hope) is that Kerry acquired a BA; Bush a BS. Kerry went on to acquire a JD at Boston Law College; Bush to Harvard for his M.B.A.
Perky Katie Couric recently interviewed Kofi Annan for this morning's "Today" show.
First Question -
[Ms. Couric] began by asking him if he could convince an American audience that the U.N. is still a relevant and critically important institution.
Kofi Annan: Let me say, the U.N., like all organizations has some problems. Difficulties that we need to work out. But when you look at the U.N. as a whole, it is an organization of immense importance to every member state in the world.
And recently, you've seen situations where the U.N. has had to step in and help work with the international community to get things done. I think the most the vivid example is in the question of the tsunami. The U.N. had to lead the humanitarian response. We responded quickly. We organized elections in Iraq, in Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. These are things only the U.N. can do.
Second Question -
Katie Couric : Are you angry that the United States has not been more supportive of the U.N.?
Annan : Not angry but disappointed in the sense that there's a lot that we do together. The U.S. gains a lot by working with other nations through the United Nations. We are not beyond criticism. We welcome constructive criticism. But some of them really have gone beyond the zone of all reasonableness.
Finally, Kaite comments:
Couric : You literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Annan : I do. But not everybody understands that.
Lessee - The UN has problems; Couric pokes and prods Annan for some anti-Bolton-Bush-bashing heat; Kofi is misunderstood. That's a wrap
#1
I remember an excellent (unfortunately no longer existing) blog called "Diplomad" that gave an interesting description of the "quick UN tsunami response".
So Kofi = Atlas? Can't even keep an unruly son in line for crying out loud.
This is a fantastic (and long) article that fisks Robert Fisk, pillories John Pilger, and venerates Victor "In Excelsis Davis" Hanson. A must read. Via Tex at Whacking Day.
CitiFinancial, the consumer finance division of Citigroup Inc., said Monday it has begun notifying some 3.9 million U.S. customers that computer tapes containing information about their accounts — including Social Security numbers and payment histories — have been lost.
Citigroup, which is based in New York, said the tapes were lost by the courier UPS Inc. in transit to a credit bureau.
The bank said the tapes contained information about both active and closed accounts at CitiFinancial's branch network. It said they did not contain information from CitiFinancial Auto, CitiFinancial Mortgage or any other Citigroup business.
The statement said that CitiFinancial "had no reason to believe that this information has been used inappropriately, nor has it received any reports of unauthorized activity."
Norman Black, a spokesman for Atlanta-based UPS, confirmed that the tapes were missing.
"Despite an exhaustive search for this package, we've been unable to find it," Black said.
It was the latest in a series of data losses or breaches that have forced financial institutions and other data collectors to warn customers that their personal information may be at risk.
Last month, media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc. said that computer backup tapes containing data on 600,000 individuals were lost by an outside data storage firm.
The data covered current and former employees going back to 1986, as well as some of their dependents and beneficiaries, the company said. It did not include personal data on Time Warner customers, the company said.
Also in May, more than 100,000 customers of Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., both headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., were notified that their financial records may have been stolen by bank employees and sold to collection agencies. And in April, Ameritrade Holding Corp., a leading online discount broker, said it had informed some 200,000 current and former customers that a backup computer tape with personal information had been lost.
Kevin Kessinger, executive vice president of Citigroup's Global Consumer Group and president of Consumer Finance North America, told The Associated Press that the tapes left CitiFinancial on May 2 and were discovered missing on May 20.
Notification of customers was delayed at the request of the Secret Service, which is investigating the loss of the tapes, he said.
Kessinger said the bank's letter encouraged consumers to review activity on all their accounts to make sure nothing suspicious was occurring. He said CitiFinancial also was arranging for all affected customers to sign up free of charge with a credit monitoring service for 90 days. And, he said, if a customer is victimized, they will get free help from Citigroup's Identity Theft resolution service.
"Clearly we regret that this happened with our customers," Kessinger said. "We're trying to be upfront — to communicate and to talk about what the issues are."
CitiFinancial said in its statement that the data loss "occurred in spite of the enhanced security procedures we require of our couriers."
It said there was little risk of the accounts being compromised because most customers already had received their loans and that no additional credit could be issued without the customers' approval.
Debby Hopkins, chief operations and technology officer for Citigroup, said that the tapes were produced "in a sophisticated mainframe data center environment" and would be difficult to decode without the right equipment and special software.
Hopkins said that most Citigroup units send data electronically in encrypted form and that CitiFinancial data will be sent that way starting in July.
Citigroup shares fell a penny to $47.55 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. UPS shares fell 21 cents to $72.61 on the Big Board.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 11:53 ||
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Note the headline suggests someone actually got it, who wasn't supposed to have it, but that's unknown. It's only LOST. It could be in a landfill, or some credit bureau wankers in-box, or chewed up by a mail sorter.
But the headline IS an attention-grabber, isn't it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/07/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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CitiFinancial, the consumer finance division of Citigroup Inc., said Monday it has begun notifying some 3.9 million U.S. customers that computer tapes containing information about their accounts â including Social Security numbers and payment histories â have been lost.
Inside jobs are difficult to protect against, but how about taking care of some of the easier stuff, like encrypting data before writing to any kind of external storage medium?
#3
Screw Citibank. We have been getting a flood of pre approved credit card applications from them- at least a dozen in the last two weeks. They are setting us up for identity theft, if just one goes astray. Totally irresponsible. Wont deal with them. Ever.
#4
It said there was little risk of the accounts being compromised because most customers already had received their loans and that no additional credit could be issued without the customers' approval.
Bullshit! You can get a credit card without having to show any ID, talking to any live person, or anything else. Just fill in the 'personal information' into a webpage.....
Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, on Monday night highlighted the unusual behaviour of global bond markets, and acknowledged that investors might be correctly signalling a period of economic weakness ahead.
Mr Greenspan, in remarks prepared for delivery via satellite to a conference in China, pointed to the "unusual behaviour" of market-determined long-term interest rates.
Since last June, the US central bank has raised short-term interest rates from 1 per cent to 3 per cent but the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has declined by about 80 basis points to just under 4 per cent.
Emerging market bond spreads have fallen to low levels, and the spread of investment grade corporate bonds and junk bonds over Treasury bonds has declined.
"The economic and financial world is changing in ways that we still do not fully comprehend," Mr Greenspan said. this is the key point - for a variety of reasons ranging from the Internet and 24 hour computerized trading to globalization of goods trading - not to mention geopolitics - there are changes going on that the central banks don't understand and can't necessarily control well.
Some analysts have suggested the market signal meant the Federal Reserve would soon end its interest rate tightening cycle. Mr Greenspan acknowledged that "policymakers need to be able to rely more on the markets' self-adjusting prices and less on officials' uncertain forecasting capabilities".
Mr Greenspan said: "One prominent hypothesis is that the markets are signalling economic weakness. This is certainly a credible notion."
But he added that there was no fully satisfying explanation for such low long-term rates, which are a worldwide phenomenon and which have been insensitive to signs of strength in the global economy.
Foreign central bank purchases of US Treasuries was part of the explanation, but the overall impact had probably been "modest", and could not explain the drop in long-term rates over the past year around the world, he said.
Similarly, global competition and the rise of China and India had contributed to lower inflation pressures, but could not account for the fall in rates.
Previously Mr Greenspan has referred to the "conundrum" of low long-term interest rates. Some analysts suggest that privately Mr Greenspan sees rates as too low at a time when the Fed sees the US economic fundamentals as healthy and inflation risks as the greatest concern.
Very low long-term rates had contributed to speculative activity by investors searching for yield, including possibly excessive flows into hedge funds and private equity funds, that was likely to result in diminishing investment returns, he said.
"After its recent very rapid advance, the hedge fund industry could temporarily shrink, and many wealthy fund managers and investors could become less wealthy," he said, adding that sensible risk-management by banks and other financial institutions meant there should not be systemic problems.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 10:27 ||
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#1
Surplus capital formation. Too much capital chasing too few investment opportunities.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 17:04 Comments ||
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#3
Shipman is right. The reason longer maturity bonds etc., traditionally have higher interest rates is more time = increased risk (not only of inflation). Essentially the market is saying we see no future risks or at least we see future risks declining over time. What seems to be happening is excess liquidity is chasing returns and bidding down future risks to zero (which is what I think Greenspan is saying here - policymakers need to be able to rely more on the markets' self-adjusting prices). Only time will tell if they are right.
Yes, when I'm bored, I just sail off to Yemen...but I must admit, they did a nice job.
An American couple who fought off Yemenite pirates during a Red Sea crossing in March swaggered into Ashkelon this weekend bearing the story of their daring escape on the high seas. Joseph L. Barry III's and Carol Martini's journey on their private yacht began in 1999 from their quiet, north Boston suburb. But the couple's swashbuckling skills were put to the test when they and another American couple found themselves the victims of modern-day pirates. Lake Winnippisaukee is usually good enough for most of us around here.
Over the past seven years, the Red Sea crossing has become dangerous for private boats. Yemenite pirates found they could loot and pillage the luxury yachts to their hearts content, due to a lax Coast Guard presence in the area, say Israeli authorities. According to what the couple told Israeli authorities on their arrival here, Barry and Martini had teamed up with another American couple to make the trip across the Red Sea. Next time folks, Massachusetts Bay. Run over to P'town or through the canal to the Vineyard. Trust me on this.
On the evening of March 6, the couples were making their way toward the coast of Yemen. It was sunset when they approached two small, wooden fishing ships commonly used in the area. Not the smartest move I've ever heard of.
Suddenly men with guns sprung up from the boats and began firing at them. Martini immediately ran below deck and began dialing SOS codes to nearby ships, while Barry and the couple aboard the second yacht began to plan their defense. As the man aboard the second boat fired his handgun at their attackers, Barry decided to take a desperate move to save his yacht. Turning toward his attackers, he gathered speed and rammed into the small wooden boats at nearly 7 knots. The move devastated the wooden boats and knocked several of the men overboard. Barry shot at least two of the attackers, wounding them enough to deter the others. Yarrr! We be showing ye how its' done! To the Deep Six with ye!
The pirates quickly retreated, leaving the couples to patch up their boats and sail to port of Aden. However, the couples found the Aden authorities to be largely indifferent and watched as their complaint was added to a thick pile of similar reports on the local secretary's desk. They should've told them a Koran fell in the water but that probably would've got them jugged.
The couples stayed in Aden long enough to have basic repairs made to their yachts, and then set off for what they found to be the nearest "modern world" port — Ashkelon. Hillel Reshef, head of the Ashkelon Port Authority, received an e-mail from the couple explaining the situation and requesting to dock at Ashkelon. "I was not at all surprised," he said. "We have had several of these reports over the past two years." My advice? When sailing near these paradises, have some guns. Lots of guns.
Reshef said there had been increasing criminal activity in that area and many Western tourists had been targeted. But almost ending up in "Davy Jones's locker" apparently did not deter Barry and Martini, who set sail for Turkey on Sunday. What is this, their dream "Shitholes of the World" tour?
#1
Oh I don't know .... there's something useful about letting the punks know we're not afraid to walk on the public streets -- and will fight back if attacked. Plus the pirates lost their boats, which will slow them down slightly.
That said, it's a good idea to be sure you are likely to win any such encounter. Not for untrained tourists ....
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 9:17 Comments ||
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#2
Q-ship time. A really pretty, easy-prey looking ship, armed to the teeth. No effort at all to apprehend the pirates. Just kill them and sink their boats. No mess, no fuss, no evidence. One Q-ship can clean an area of pirates very quick, with no one the wiser.
#3
Rig em up like the old raiders from WWI and WWII with concealed .50 cal mounts and maybe a small AA cannon that allows depression of the barrel to tag targets from 30 yards out. Rip up most of the blackhearts and let a few go home wounded to tell the sorry tale of suprise on the seas. They'll then have pause to reconsider their chosen trade.
#5
I wonder how hard it would be to form a Rantburg Navy and implement Anonymooses' idea! I know I'd give it serious consideration being an ex-naval officer and still single!!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
06/07/2005 11:01 Comments ||
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#6
Q Ship? No way. The RB Shadow Navy should snag the shitty kitty when it becomes avilable. It would give the RB Airforce more flexability.
#12
shitty kitty
Sea, he's talking about the Kittyhawk. She used to be stationed down the road from me at Yokosuka. Held the banner as oldest ship in the fleet till they retired her last year.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 16:24 Comments ||
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#13
Supposedly nicknamed the 'Shitty Kitty' because it was one of the worst carriers to operate with (and it was, IMNSHO).
There's one version of the story at the above link, here's another:SANTA FE, N.M., June 7 (UPI) -- A whistle-blower at the Los Alamos National Laboratory was reportedly severely beaten in the parking lot of a Santa Fe, N.M., topless bar.
Gee, that's never happened before
Tommy Ray Hook, who had boot marks on his face, told his wife about the incident, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Tuesday. The wife said someone identifying himself as an Los Alamos auditor called her husband and arranged to meet him at the bar.
"Honey, a guy from work called. Something important he needs to talk to me about, I'll be back later"
But the auditor did not show up for the meeting last Friday, the report said.
I'm sure he waited at the bar, watching the titties bounce, checking his watch, between beers.
Hook later went to his car where four to six assailants attacked him, the wife said.
Hook's wife, Susan, alleged the assailants told her husband during the attack: "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut." Of course, in a alternative universe, he may have been oggling the wrong girls titties and offended her boyfriend.
They fled, leaving him injured. He was taken to a hospital by police. His wallet was untouched, the report said.
Which would fit either version of the story
The University of California, which operates the laboratory, denounced the attack. Hook had been preparing for a congressional investigation later this month. He is known at the nuclear-weapons lab for taking strong stands against fraud and abuse, and has a lawsuit pending against the University of California, the report said.
If he was testifying against the Teamsters I might buy his story. Somehow, I don't see university lab managers as the leg breaking kind.
About 300 Egyptian prisoners began a hunger strike on May 26 to protest detention conditions and mistreatment by prison administration, a human rights organization said on Sunday.
The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRAAP) said in a complaint filed to Prosecutor General Maher Abdel Wahed that the prisoners in Wadi Al Natroun prison 2, 100 kilometers north of Cairo, began the hunger strike for better conditions.
"Many of the prisoners should have been released sometime ago and some secured court orders to be set free but the authorities ignored these orders," the complaint said. "The prisoners were mistreated by the prison administration, denied family visits and medical treatment and some have been tortured." Muhammad Zarei, president of the rights group, told Arab News that an inspection team of the organization has paid a visit to the prison and verified the complaints they received from the prisoners' relatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Police threatened Monday to deal "ruthlessly" with anyone who joins a strike to protest an internationally condemned government demolition campaign that has left at least 200,000 homeless in the middle of winter. A previously unknown group calling itself the Broad Alliance urged people to stay away from work Thursday and Friday to protest police demolition of shacks around the country and the arrest of more than 30,000 street traders.
Police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena promised to deal "ruthlessly" with those who stay away from work. Under Zimbabwe's law, anyone convicted of attempting to "coerce" President Robert Mugabe's government risks a 20-year jail term. Opposition parties are "trying to take advantage of the clean-up exercise to make political capital," Bvudzijena said, adding that government opponents had hired youths to build highway barricades. The government has said the campaign, which began May 19, is aimed at cleaning up cities and crushing the black market for scarce staple goods like cornmeal, sugar and gasoline.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Fuck that, brothers. It's time to beat feet. The UN and those asshole NGOs who won't give you squat inside Zimbabwe will have to feed and house you if you manage to get across an international border. Pack the homefolks up and leave Bob behind. I hear Zambia is nice this time of year.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/07/2005 8:21 Comments ||
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#2
Nice work, Bob. Get ya another medal for sure...
On today's Jerry: Gold-digging Banglababes and the ex-dictators who love them!
A day after landing his wife in court on charges of theft, former Bangladesh dictator Hussain Mohammad Ershad flew out of the country Monday, denouncing the mother of his only son as a bigamist. "She cheated me. She has got two husbands," the one-time military strongman, now 77, told a large crowd of reporters at Dhaka's Zia International airport en route to Saudia Arabia.
"I am going to Arabia, and you all can go to hell!"
Ershad said he believed his wife was a bigamist because she had named her former husband as her spouse in a 2002 passport application. "She didn't divorce her former husband ... I divorced her on June 3," he added, without giving details of any official divorce proceedings.
"I never even knew I had a husband-in-law! I'm an ex-dictator! She can't do that to me!"
Ershad's secretary Khaled Akhter told AFP that Ershad believed his second wife had not divorced her British husband, Peter Wilson. "He (Ershad) divorced her on Friday," he said, also declining to elaborate. On Sunday, Bidisha Ershad, 35, collapsed in court when she appeared to face allegations of theft, criminal damage, and making threats to Ershad's life. Police arrested her on Saturday after Ershad accused her of stealing money and ornaments, damaging property, and threatening to kill him. Her lawyers said the second wife of the former president was the victim of a "deep conspiracy".
"Yeah! It's a deep-laid plot if I ever saw one!"
Television newscasts on Saturday showed dramatic scenes of her threatening to throw herself from an upper storey of her apartment building before police managed to take her into custody.
"Jump! Jump!"
Their deteriorating relationship has been making headlines in recent weeks in Bangladeshi newspapers. On Thursday, Ershad, Bangladesh's military ruler between 1982 and 1990, expelled his wife from his centrist Jatiya Party, the third largest party in parliament. The couple married five years ago after a long affair. As well as a young son with Ershad, Bidisha Ershad has two sons with her former husband Wilson.
"Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Robert Mugabe continues his insane demolition of houses and businesses as he increasingly starts to look like Pol Pot reborn, seeking to depopulate the cites and drive the now homeless and unemployed population into the countryside to eke out an even more miserable living, thereby dispersing and isolating people from communities which might oppose his tyrannical rule.
On Friday morning last week I got a call that the riot police had come into a section of the area and demolished everything - most of the wooden Shacks are just broken to pieces. I went out on Friday and Saturday - people were sleeping out in the open, many of them sick, cold and hungry. On Saturday I visited again some had managed to leave (those who have Z$500 000 - and have some relatives in "legal" places".On Sunday morning I got a call that the police had given instructions That all structures in the original section have to be demolished within 24 hours, including the creche, clinic and other structures which we had built with and for the people. Where do I get people on Sunday to come and dismantle all the buildings. I decided to wait until Monday. On Sunday evening I received one phone call after another saying "come quick they are going to kill us" - others would say "don't come you might be killed".Early on Monday morning I drove out to Hatcliffe, already in the distance I Could only see smoke rising up - nothing else. I arrived, I wept, Sister Carina was with me, she wept, the people tried to console us - they were aLL outside in the midst of their broken houses, furniture and goods all over the place, children screaming, sick people in agony. Some of the people who are on ARV drugs came to us and said we are phoning Sister Gaudiosa (Sister is doing the ARV programme) but she is not answering us, we are going to die". We explained that Sister was on Home leave but that we would help in whatever way we could. Continued on Page 49
#1
Not worry. Bob Geldolf is going to hold a concert. You should see about $3.50 USD for your community in about six months.
Sorry.
Until Mugabe and others like him are killed and their repalacements do not drink Old Karl Marx from the bottle, there will be no end to Marxist inspired "economics."
Unlike the pale, WASPy Bushitler(tm), ZimBob is a noble, dark-skinned 3rd-worlder and therefore his actions and motives are beyond media reproach. So what if f**ks up their economy and commits a little mass murder; at least he isn't a white Republican.
Chump-ass media bastards, indeed. Of course, I suppose it is easier to yammer and grandstand in a nice air-conditioned press conference briefing than go mucking about in hot, humid Africa where you might get a bullet in the head for your investigative efforts.
#6
So what would happen to Zim if a big JDAM landed on the palace and sent Bob to the Parts Guy? Would anarchy be a step up in this troubled land? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/07/2005 22:50 Comments ||
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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.
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arab television network famous for airing images of beheadings and mutilated bodies, rejected a 30-second commercial from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals showing abuse of Australian sheep. The sheep, raised for wool, are later shipped alive to the Middle East for slaughter. The footage shows lambs partially skinned alive during a procedure called "mulesing." Sheep are repeatedly kicked as they are loaded onto what PETA calls "death ships." Other sheep are are shown being dragged and kicked in the head as their throats are slit while other sheep watch. The ad includes a narration of the following quote by the late Imam B.A. Hafiz al-Masri of the Shah Jehan Mosque located in the United Kingdom: "If animals have been subjected to cruelties in their breeding, transport, slaughter, or in their general welfare, meat from them is considered impure and unlawful to eat (haram). The flesh of animals killed by cruel methods (Al-Muthiah) is carrion (Al-Mujathamadh). Even if these animals have been slaughtered in the strictest manner, if cruelties were inflicted on them otherwise, their flesh is still forbidden food (haram)."
Two homemade bombs exploded outside the Buenos Aires branches of U.S. businesses before they opened Monday, spreading leaflets that read "Yankees get out of Latin America and Argentina!", authorities said.
The European Commission is looking into long-range plans for an EU-wide taxation system, according to a German press report on Saturday. The Commission has set a 2010 target date for looking into the feasibility of a pan-European tax and providing EU member nations with details of the proposed revenue-generating system, said the report in Die Welt newspaper. The newspaper said its information came from proposals made by the Luxembourg EU presidency in planning 2007-13 finances. 
A Canadian lawmaker resigned from the governing Liberal Party on Monday because of his opposition to its efforts to legalize gay marriage, further weakening Prime Minister 
Three top fundraisers at the 
Senator 
About 300 Egyptian prisoners began a hunger strike on May 26 to protest detention conditions and mistreatment by prison administration, a human rights organization said on Sunday.
Police threatened Monday to deal "ruthlessly" with anyone who joins a strike to protest an internationally condemned government demolition campaign that has left at least 200,000 homeless in the middle of winter. A previously unknown group calling itself the Broad Alliance urged people to stay away from work Thursday and Friday to protest police demolition of shacks around the country and the arrest of more than 30,000 street traders.
A day after landing his wife in court on charges of theft, former Bangladesh dictator 
