BLANTYRE Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has called for bygones to be bygones between black and white in his country, saying that the two sides had to live together.
The 82-year-old veteran, who officially opened a road named after him leading from the Malawian commercial capital of Blantyre to the tea-growing area of Malanje in the southeast, said this week that blacks and whites cannot avoid each other.
The road, which ultimately links Malawi to Mozambique, used funds from the European Union (EU), which has put a travel ban on Mugabe. Both the EU and the US have imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his associates, saying that elections since 2000 have been marred by fraud and violence against the opposition.
During a four-day state visit to the country Mugabe said: We declared a policy of national reconciliation to push off colonialism much further.
Many (whites) are left, including the notorious (former Rhodesian prime minister) Ian Smith, Zimbabwes long-time leader said at a banquet in his honour in Malawis administrative capital, Lilongwe.
#1
Most Zims would give their eyeteeth and crawl a hundred miles on their knees if it would bring Ian Smith's government back--now. Back when it counted they wanted Bad Bob, and now they've got him. Smith warned them this would happen, as did many others, but they were "racist doomsayers." Well, the Zims didn't listen and they got what they wanted. Sympathy meter here pegged at zero. Enjoy!
Posted by: mac ||
05/07/2006 18:26 Comments ||
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Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said he could seek "indefinite" re-election through a referendum if the opposition boycotts upcoming presidential elections.
Chavez made the remark late Friday, saying if the opposition pulls out of the Dec. 3 vote or makes false claims of electoral fraud to the Organization of American States, "I would call a national referendum to have the people decide if I can continue here indefinitely or if I have to go after six years in 2014."
Venezuela's constitution allows a president to be re-elected only once in immediate succession. That limit would give Chavez six more years in office if he is re-elected.
Chavez, giving a speech in the central state of Lara, said he would ask the nation "if I can or cannot continue presenting my name" in subsequent elections.
Polls indicate Chavez is likely to win the elections, and international observers have signed off on recent votes as fair.
But some opposition members have questioned the recent selection of new directors for the country's electoral council, claiming they are government sympathizers and cannot be trusted.
Chavez rejected those charges, saying he knew none of the newly elected members, and accused the opposition of "throwing stones at the arbiter" because they face a certain loss.
"Play fairly and legally," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 01:09 ||
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#1
I think the vote that removes Hugo from office will be 12.7mm.
#5
Nice twist on the usual president-for-life thing though. He gets style points for having an "election" certified by Jimmah instead of just declaring yourself eternal leader.
President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years. Speaking at a stadium packed with supporters in central Lara state, Chavez said he would hold a referendum to put the question of his remaining in office to Venezuelans if the opposition pulls out of upcoming presidential elections. "I am going to ask you, all the people, if you agree with Chavez being president until 2031," he said.
It was not clear if Chavez was talking about holding a legally binding vote to eliminate term limits or proposing a plebiscite. Chavez said Friday that he said he might seek "indefinite" re-election through a referendum if the opposition boycotts the presidential vote. "I would call a national referendum to have the people decide if I can continue here indefinitely or if I have to go after six years," he said.
Opposition leaders accuse Chavez, a former paratroop commander first elected in 1998, of becoming increasingly authoritarian and opening dangerous divisions along class lines in Venezuela the world's fifth largest oil exporter. The Venezuelan Constitution allows a president to be re-elected only once in immediate succession. Chavez is eligible for re-election to another six-year term in December, but if he wins he would not be able to run again in 2012. Polls indicate Chavez is likely to win the Dec. 3 election, and international observers foolishly at the insistence of Jimmuah Carter have signed off on recent votes as fair. Four government opponents have announced plans to run against Chavez, although not all have agreed to participate in primaries to choose a single opposition candidate.
#3
no - they'll just try to see if they can get Clinton back in office and then have NPR and BBC do a 24/7 PR blitz to tell us how great of an idea it is, like their health care systems.
#5
If I were me, political genius that I am, I would spin this as establishing term limits - two 25 year terms in this case. You have to be one lame-ass El Presidente if you can't steal enough in half a century.
WEARING camouflage and firing pellets from imitation AK-47 assault rifles, the Russians acting out battle scenes in the woods last week could have been mistaken for weekenders taking part in a game of paintball. But the secret military training exercise 70 miles southeast of Moscow was far more sinister. The three-day gathering was attended by 50 hardline neo-Nazis who worship Adolf Hitler and believe that dark-skinned immigrants living in Russia should be killed. The boot camp, which had taken months to organise, was planned to train them in combat skills and extremist ideology. Those taking part either support or have helped carry out a string of vicious racist attacks that have shocked Russia.
The delegates stayed in tents beneath the red and black swastika-like flag of the Nationalist Socialist Society. They fired mock firearms and trained with knives and clubs. At night, flanked by torches, they gathered around a bonfire exchanging Nazi salutes, chanting slogans celebrating Hitler and making speeches about a super-race made up of ethnic Russians.
We need to kill all dark-skinned immigrants, explained a young man renowned as one of Moscows most radical skinheads who introduced himself as Tesak, Russian slang for hatchet. Weighing 17 stone, shaven-headed and wearing a black bomber jacket, Tesak, 21, an unemployed building engineer, is respected by fellow neo- Nazis for his brutal attacks on non-whites. His hands are covered in deep knife wounds from a recent bloody clash with an armed man from Tajikistan. He walks the streets with a 10in hunting knife strapped to his side and boasts of having beaten immigrants to a pulp. Tesak recently launched his own neo-Nazi website, named in Hitlers honour, on which footage of attacks on immigrants is posted. He claimed his violent message was becoming so popular that he was asked for his autograph on the Moscow metro. We shouldnt just kill adults. We must get rid of their children too, he said. When you squash cockroaches to death, you dont just kill the big ones. You go for the little ones too.
The Soviet Union lost about 20m people in the second world war and in Russia which prides itself as the nation that did most to defeat Hitler the views of young men such as Tesak could be dismissed until recently as an aberration.
This is disingenuous at best ... blacks and others who came to the USSR to study found open racism.
No longer. Fuelled by rampant nationalism, racist attacks have become tragically common. Last month alone saw a record nine racial murders and 24 assaults, including the near-fatal stabbing of a nine-year-old girl. According to Sova, a non-governmental organisation that monitors the crimes, there were 28 racist murders in Russia last year. However, Amnesty International believes the true figure is much higher: the police play down the attacks by recording many of them as mere hooliganism. Last week Amnesty warned that racism in Russian cities was spinning out of control and attacked the Kremlin for failing to act.
President Vladimir Putin, whose elder brother died as an infant in the siege of Leningrad, has condemned racist attacks, but experts say the authorities are failing to crack down. No one wants to admit that the country which defeated fascism could possibly be a breeding ground for fascists, said Galina Kozhevnikova, of Sova.
#2
You look at a common thead in many of these distorted minds one thing is clear unemployment matters.
People with living wage jobs don't easily morph into monsters like this. They are to busy working and playing to bother with this crap. Only the sicko true beliver hardcore will stay with this crap if a job and future is available to them, when it's not the "others" and "outsiders" are easily scap goated by those with this kind of sick idology and these movement take root.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 8:59 Comments ||
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#4
Ubenployment?
How about looking at this the other way around, Nobody wants to hire murderous thugs.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/07/2006 10:13 Comments ||
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#5
Why is it that when the Muslim clerics call for a worldwide, well organized, well funded, nuclear effort to kill all infidels we are supposed to "understand" their cultural difference, but it is something more "far more sinister" when 50 losers get together to play paintball and take it to the next level of using terrorism to get paid attention to ... and we are all supposed to start quaking and shaking and clucking our tounges.
I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned - I'm just saying 50 yahoos isn't as big of a threat as the other threat - you know, the one Bush made up to get reelected.
#6
SPoD makes an important point, and one related to why I posted this article.
The important issue isn't 50 or so punks playing wannabe soldier - or even 50 punks intending real mayhem.
The important issue is that Russian economy, society and law are all pretty much non-functioning. And that portends much great instability in the coming decade. Since Russia remembers the USSR (and since the Nazis were invaders) these kids take a rightwing fanaticism to follow. In other places, like Latin America, it's leftwing fanaticism. But whichever the local flavor, the common theme is gangs that both threaten and emerge from a breakdown of economic and political stability.
And the reason it matters to us is that that instability will spread here too. The southern border / immigration mess is an example - but what we have right now is only a tiny taste of how bad it could get if the governments and economies of Latin America completely collapse.
Ditto for western Europe, with the corresponding push to break down the border controls between northern Africa and Spain, for instance.
Add in local unemployment in places like Sweden and the potential for explosive backlash is pretty real.
A HARD core of violent Polish fans led by neo-Nazis is emerging as the biggest hooligan threat to the World Cup, displacing the traditional troublemakers from England and the Netherlands.
It will be the battle for Berlin, Andrzej said, with a crooked, toothy grin. Clasping a can of beer and singing obscene anthems, he is one of the estimated 250,000 Polish supporters who will be travelling to Germany next month, with or without a ticket.
We met the 38-year-old mechanic outside the Lech Poznan Stadium before a low-key encounter with Dyskobolia, a local rival, but the talk was of war, blood and the settling of scores on an international level. Poland play Germany on June 14 and whatever the outcome on the pitch, passions will be stirred among the two largest hooligan contingents at the tournament.
To our surprise, Andrzej disappeared to the gentler side of the stadium and squeezed among the younger supporters. There were tougher fans than him at the game, who were shepherded into a huge metal cage: a couple of hundred baying skinheads. As in every Polish game, ritualised chants echoed across the stadium but there was anger too, waiting to be exported across the border to Germany. Dont want no education, bellowed the crowd in a warm-up song borrowed from Pink Floyd. Dont want no thought control.
Police calculate that there are between 2,000 and 2,500 potentially violent Polish hooligans. But the figure is guesswork. Each region has its own figures. There is no central list, little monitoring and no clear overview.
Only about 5 per cent of the fan community are really hooligans, Jaroslaw Kilinski, head of Wiara Lech, the Poznan supporters club, said. The Germans are exaggerating the problem.
But 5 per cent of 250,000 adds up to more than 12,000 thugs, enough to change the balance of the hooligan problem during the World Cup. By comparison, 100,000 England fans are expected, with more than 3,000 forced to stay at home under banning orders.
The dynamics of Polish hooliganism could be observed in the Poznan cage. About six organisers, none of them wearing fan regalia, slipped through the barred entrance resembling the exercise yard of a high-security prison and controlled the mood of the terraces. Using mobile phones to co-ordinate with other parts of the stadium, they whipped up or calmed the fans. After the match, they disappeared into the crowd.
According to Marcin Kornak, the head of the fan-monitoring agency Never Again, they were almost certainly linked to far-right groups. The hooligan scene has become a prime penetration target for organised neo-Nazis, he said.
The far-right group Blood and Honour has infiltrated the fan clubs of Wroclaw, Gdansk and Lodz. Each club in Poland, according to Filip Janczak, of the Poznan Supporters Association, has a hooligan cell, often just a handful of young men. They have their own web of communication with mobile phones and the internet, he said.
Grudge matches bring them out. The arithmetic is complicated, Jacek Purski, of Never Again, said. Legia Warsaw has 70 hardcore violent fans who can be spotted at most matches. When Legia plays away, that can swell to 400.
Now the hooligan cells are co-ordinating their actions ready for the World Cup.
Hooligans act on unspoken rituals rather than on explicit orders: that is what makes them so difficult to monitor.
Sociologists compare the hooligan structure with the Mafia. Indeed, it is extremely violent. Six people have died in clashes between supporters of Wisla Cracow and their rival Cracovia. Training video clips on the art of kicking to cripple have been put on the internet. In lock-up garages, hooligans have gathered arsenals of axes, knives and chainsaws.
There are many border crossing points between Poland and Germany and the police know the identity of only a few offenders. Last November 100 Polish fans fought Germans in the forests of Brandenburg outside Berlin. Many were Poznan supporters and have been put on a list of undesirables. There is no sure way of stopping even these fans coming to the World Cup.
#2
I think this is a consequence of a demilitarized Europe. The Eu Commikssioners and their tranzi apologists keep insisting that Europeans have evolved beyond petty violence and that it's only hotheaded America and natives who don't know any better that wish to beat people up.
#5
SOCCER, right - at worst, a chick game; at best a warm-up game or pre-game for competitive aggressive males. Give these Euro-Sociologists a clue - MALE FOCII > the Groin area is for love and sex, i.e. for PEACE; the upper body = everything else is for AGRESSION, VIOLENCE, AND COMPETITION, i.e for WAR AND SELF-CENTEREDNESS. THESE EURO-SOCCER, EURO-GIRLEY MEN NEED TO EXPLORE AND REDISCOVER THEIR INNER NAPOLEON, INNER BISMARCK, THE SCOTS-IRISH-CELTIC HIGHLAND CHARGE, MONTEZUMAS, PLATOS, AND ROMAN CAESAR(S), ETAL. THAT LAYS WITHIN.
Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House's first-term energy task force and probably including the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, "You never know where it leads to."
In recent days, Democratic confidence has been buoyed by a series of polls indicating that not only is Bush growing increasingly unpopular, so are Republicans in Congress. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday found that 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest rating of his presidency. And only 25 percent approves of the job Congress is doing, a figure comparable to congressional approval ratings before the 1994 elections that swept Republicans to power.
The AP-Ipsos poll found that 51 percent of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress. Only 34 percent favor Republican control.
"We have to be ready to win," Pelosi said, "and we have to tell [voters] what we will do when we win."
Republicans say Democratic leaders run the risk of looking overconfident -- if not foolish -- in predicting they will win the 15 net seats necessary to take the House.
"If they fall short [of control], she's going to be severely damaged," Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said of Pelosi.
But Democratic planning parallels similar efforts 12 years ago, when GOP leaders were plotting a return to control after 42 years. By May 1994, Republicans had the outlines of a legislative agenda that would become their "Contract With America," said Richard K. Armey, who was the chairman of the House Republican Conference at that time.
Republicans then needed to pick up 40 seats, something most analysts considered virtually impossible six months before the election.
Democrats need to pick up 15, a task that many analysts still believe is a long shot. Democratic leaders do not.
"We are more and more confident that we are going to have the responsibility of leading the House, so we have to prepare," said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (Md.).
Despite waves of redistricting that have solidified the positions of incumbents from both parties, Pelosi said 50 Republican seats are in play, while fewer than 10 Democratic seats face strong challenges. That figure of GOP seats is disputed by independent analysts, but even the most cautious estimates put more than 15 Republican seats in jeopardy.
Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, said his most expansive estimate classifies 52 seats as "unsafe," 40 of them Republican, 12 of them Democratic. But, he said, only a tidal wave would dislodge the incumbent party from many of those seats, and more realistically, 30 Republican seats and five Democratic districts are vulnerable.
To seize control in 1994, Armey said, Republicans needed three key ingredients: scandal, which was provided by House members' abuse of the House bank and postal system; a policy fiasco, provided by the Clinton administration's failed national health-care plan; and a coherent plan of action, which came with the "Contract With America."
This year, the House is engulfed in bribery and influence-peddling scandals that have forced the resignation of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), sent former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) to jail, and yielded guilty pleas from two former DeLay aides and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
But those scandals are also linked to a Democrat, Rep. William J. Jefferson (La.), leading some Republicans to conclude they have been inoculated.
The war in Iraq has provided a policy debacle at least on par with the health-care issue, Armey said. But Democrats cannot offer policy alternatives because, he said, Americans remain leery of their prescriptions for an activist government and higher taxes.
To counter that perception, House Democrats have formulated a plan of action for their first week in control. Their leaders said a Democratic House would quickly vote to raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1997. It would roll back a provision in the Republicans' Medicare prescription drug benefit that prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from negotiating prices for drugs offered under the program.
It would vote to fully implement the recommendations of the bipartisan panel convened to shore up homeland security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Democratic leaders said.
And it would reinstate lapsed rules that say any tax cuts or spending increases have to be offset by spending cuts or tax increases to prevent the federal deficit from growing.
Armey dismissed the substance of the Democratic proposals as demagoguery but said that the politics "really, frankly, are not too bad."
Pelosi also vowed "to use the power to investigate" the administration on multiple fronts, starting with the task force convened in secret by Vice President Cheney to devise the administration's energy policy. The administration has successfully fought lawsuits since 2001 that sought to reveal the names of energy company executives tapped to advise the task force.
"Certainly the conduct of the war" in Iraq would be the subject of hearings, if not a full-fledged House investigation, Pelosi said. Another subject for investigation could be the use of intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make the case for the 2003 invasion.
Hoyer added that he would like to see investigations into the extent of domestic wiretapping by the National Security Agency, and the billions of dollars wasted by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Campaign chiefs for Republican Senate and House candidates have already begun using the threat of such investigations to raise money and rile core Republican voters. A recent mailing by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, warned that Democrats "will call for endless congressional investigations and possibly call for the impeachment of President Bush!"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:58 ||
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#1
You know I kind of want them to win because after just two years they will be out of power for good. Nancy D-Facelift and her cohorts will be shooting in multiple directions without taking time to aim. They will want to investigate EVERYTHING to umpth degreee. Americans wil come to realize in short order how idiotic it was to place the government of this country in the hands of such disturbed people. And before you ask No I don't think they can hurt the country in two years, but it would be a wakeup call to the country.
#2
I read stuff like this and I really start to lose it. This could happen. You will even get people posting who say they hope it will happen. Wake up People
If this happens I will seriously consider heading for the hills and participating in an armed insurection. I am not going to be shit on or pushed any father by Democrats. They have already just about destroyed my state. Any hope I might have of a living wage job in my lifetime will be forgone, down the gutter, totally dashed. Do you stupid Republicans hear this. I am not going to give you a pass on this. I am still watiing for that job to trickle down to me. I think it stopped before it got to me though. I think some sub-minimum wage earning illegal aliens got those trickle down jobs. You know the ones your buddies that own the construction companies say I wont do. The ones your pals in the manufacturing plants say I wont do. I'd do it if it was offered. I has not been offered. I never heard about those jobs.
I am talking about armed insurection that will sweep you Republicans away too. The first thing these Democrat clowns will do is cut support for our troups ala Viet Nam. I will not stand by and let that happen. I will not let you swing this country anymore into the socialist camp as has been done to my state. I am not funning here I am dead serious. I am at the end of my rope. Elected Republicans get a clue.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 5:10 Comments ||
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#3
Wow. A poll shows they're popular. Whoopee.
Wasn't it about the same time two years ago that there was a poll showing J F'n K ahead of Bush? And what is stopping them now (or stopped them in the past) from introducing the measures they're talking about?
Once they realize that the only "poll" that matters is the one that takes place on Election Day, they might have a chance. Until then, sounds like someone's counting chickens a bit too early.
#5
Also note that this is an AP-IPSOS poll. For those who don't know, IPSOS is a French "DIY" polling company with very dubious methods. As in "Tell us the poll results you want, and we will give them to you."
I saw the raw poll results, and it was obvious that there were two "memes": first, that Conservatives were deserting Bush; which unusually for a poll quoted from people who said they were "Conservative republicans", but are now embracing the entire left-wing agenda. Uh-huh.
Every tenth word in the poll was "Conservatives".
The second was an odd one. Remember how it is usually said that in mid-term elections "the party in power loses seats"? Well, in the IPSOS version, this has been changed to "the party with the most energized voting base wins most in mid-term elections."
I suspect there is some reason for them wanting to change this meme, and will be watching it in future. Though the bottom line is that this is a desperate effort to shore up democratic enthusiasm, which has been in an extended and moribund depression for years now.
It is a truism that all politics is local. For this reason, it doesn't matter if the public is opposed to one party or the other being in power--they still vote for *their* candidate, because they know and like him. He will lose only when he becomes arrogant enough to stay in Washington instead of going home to campaign.
#7
I an not buying it Anonymoose. The Republicans are falling all over themselves to see how badly they can lose this election. I hear lots of pep talk and little action to forclose such a outcome.
The issues are imigratiion, energy indepencence and jobs. The Republican's suck on these issues. Bush sucks on these issues. The Democrats may be full of hot air but the Republicans have lost the trust of the voters. All that is required for the Dems to win big is for people who will not vote for a Democrat to stay home in anger.
I tell you what If I don't have a living wage job come election day Ill vote Libertarian and that might let a Democrat win. The win will replace William Thomas of California. His replacemnet looks like a weak bought and paid for "Republican." The Dems can win that seat.
The Democrats win I am grabing a bag of rice and freholes skedaddling for the hills.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 8:37 Comments ||
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#8
30 Republican seats and five Democratic districts are vulnerable.
And Patrick Kennedy just shot himself in the balls over this "I consumed NO alcohol" lie.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/07/2006 10:29 Comments ||
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#9
The people who elect Patrick Kennedy are true believers it's not going to matter. Unless he is in jail he will be relected.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 10:42 Comments ||
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#10
If Ted Kennedy gets elected to the Senate six times, Patrick Kennedy's a shoo-in to retain his RI seat. The only thing 'Patches' loses out on is the shot at Chafee's Senate seat this fall.
#11
Can anyone point me to any comprehensive, hard-headed, clear-eyed analysis of what effect a Democratic victory this Fall will likely have on the War? Other than fuck it up beyond all recognition, of course...
I keep trying to get my mind around the subject, but every time I do I get so upset I can't think straight.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/07/2006 12:01 Comments ||
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#12
SPOD:
Maybe if you spend a little less time obsessing on the internet. Rantburg isn't a job website or even a training site. Think about how much time you waste here writing your long rants and quit expecting the government to hand you a job on a silver platter.
Why would you vote Libertarian? They actually expect you to take care of yourself even more so. You better vote Democrat. They say the want to be your nanny.
A cheap job is easy to find, a good job takes a lot of effort. But they are there.
And whining isn't a character trait most employers are looking for.
#13
SPoD - I am still watiing for that job to trickle down to me.
Waiting for the winds of change
To sweep the clouds away
Waiting for the rainbow's end
To cast its gold your way
Countless ways
You pass the days
Waiting for someone to call
And turn your world around
Looking for an answer
To the question you have found
Looking for
An open door
You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be Rush - Something for Nothing
#15
Hupoter Slereth4505 go soak your head. I want the goverment to get the hell out of the way. The reason there are no jobs is because the government is an impediment to their creation. You can't get anymore Libertarian than that. But since you are not really an internet troll you just play one on TV don't know that.
By the way any training I have ever had has been paid for out of my own pocket at my own expense.
The government and no one else owe me a damn thing except to not get in my way. So Sod off Swampy nice try.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 12:51 Comments ||
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#16
The people who elect Patrick Kennedy are true believers it's not going to matter. Unless he is in jail he will be relected.
Indeed.™ This is the same state that re-elected a man Mayor of Providence (Buddy Cianci) after he did his jail time for having his State Police detail all-but-torture a man for sleeping with his wife.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2006 13:05 Comments ||
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#18
watch the sampling in the polls - where W's losing, Donks are routinely oversampled. As noted above, you can make a poll walk and talk and say anything you want - see "Zogby"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 13:14 Comments ||
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#19
Typical overblowing of the Democrats. They will gain a few seats at the end of this and cut down the Republican majority a little. Enough to make the Republicans nervous and actually listen a little bit to what their voters are telling them. Two more years of the same last two years. '08 will be interesting. We will see how well the Republicans listened.
#20
The problem is they Republicans don't apper to be listening at all.
More pork than you can shake a stick at piled on by Republicans to piss off their natural base. No energy policy yet really, we are still held hostage to media lies and hype and Middle Eastern suppliers who hate our guts. Lots of talk about pie in the sky technoligies and boondoggles that make little sense even as a stop gap, No concrete action like getting nuclear plants permitted and under construction on an expidited basis. Enviromental wackos and Democrat posturing and demagoguery blocking all attempts at dealing with the real energy issues facing the nation. Government red tape and regulations still denying US citizens the possibility of good paying blue collar jobs while service and technology jobs are outsourced over seas on a continuing basis. Abject failure to carry out the obligation to provide for secure borders. Letting the Democrats demagoguery on the issue of illegal imigration to win the day.
IMNSHO yea that is really a winning formula. I don't think so.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 13:50 Comments ||
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#21
Michael Barone has been following this "shift" closely, and so far it appears there has been a 1% shift in the popular vote in favor of the Dems. (This is in special elections since 2004, as opposed to polls).
I expect 2006 to be a big nothing as far as shifts in power are concerned.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/07/2006 13:58 Comments ||
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#22
I share SPoD's frustration at how impotent the Republicans have been in Congress. My suspicion is that the pork flows from that, i.e. the Rep. leadership hasn't gotten the party in line and so Bush doesn't veto any spending, in effect buying off the Dems. to keep the war effort more or less funded and on track.
I will say that the blue collar job thing seems to be a function of industry and region, at least to some degree. My brother's in the construction trades in the northeast. Had to switch from leading a team that did concrete foundations for big buildings to becoming an ironworker, but he has more work than he really wants, at union wages.
I don't want to know if he had to grease any palms to get into the union in that region, or if the union buys its way into jobs. I do know that there are construction sites in NY / PA / NJ area that AREN'T union, because I've passed a few of them and seen the union picket lines.
#23
What really pisses me off about this aticle is the Donks admit once they get in congress their real motive is to tie congress down with investigation after investigation and not get anything done but to just go after Bush. SPOD's frustration I share, not as wildly mind you, but if the Dems get into power all they will do is flail in an anti Bush camapign, in which he will go on a veto spree. This will do nothing for our country except drive our friends away, leave our soldier out to dry, and further bankrupt our nation.
What they need if they want to be in power is a real plan to build America and close the gap between left and right.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/07/2006 14:50 Comments ||
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#24
One thing that's bugging me is that it takes something like 10% of the Republicans to defect on energy issues and side with the Democrats and institute their energy independence platform: don't drill in the United States, and buy from the Salafists instead.
Then as a result oil prices and gas prices go up, people blame "The Republicans," and we get the Democrats in to pursue what changes in energy policy? None whatsoever.
I'd expect the "you know how dumb someone with 100 IQ points is, well half the public's dumber than that" to go along with it, but I didn't think Sock Puppet o' Doom would fall for it too.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/07/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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#25
What they need if they want to be in power is a real plan to build America and close the gap between left and right.
Except they have no desire to do either of those things. Their core believes America is the root of all evil in the world -- we were the inventors of slavery, the only people who abused the natives, the instigators of every war since 1800, and -- worst of all -- the US has prevented Workers Paradises all over the world from flourishing in peace and harmony.
They don't want to build up the US, they want to tear it down.
As for closing the gap between left and right -- they think every last one of us is a demon, intent on enslaving everyone who doesn't look like us, on burning every book except the King James Bible, and throwing anyone who has sex in any but the missionary position into prison. They have no more desire to close the gap than we would to hug a leper.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/07/2006 15:01 Comments ||
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#26
RC, you defined Pelosi well. The key leaders of the Dems only see the hate for the repubs, I agree, and they would rather eat glass than sit down with the repubs. We as a nation do need at least two partied for democracy to work. Might be time for a third party to move forward into the plan and watch the Dems wither and fail.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/07/2006 15:13 Comments ||
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#27
Actually, RC, I'd rather hug a leper than have the Demon-cRATS get back in power.
Particularly with what they have publicly admitted - gleefully, I might add - they intend to do with that power.
Which is, bottom line, to fuck over America for their own personal pleasure and gain.
It's even more frustrating to those of us old enough to remember when (most) Democrats didn't act like this, and actually had a platform with America's best interests in mind. (Or had a platform, period.)
As far as I'm concerned, the whole lot of them today can FOAD. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/07/2006 15:18 Comments ||
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#28
The enregy policy problem is not new. It's left over fron Georges first term in case no one noticed. It's wimping out on this stuff that has registered Republicans like me pissed off.
30+ years and we still are at the mercy of The Saudi and Iranian regimes. It's time to put our energy security in a position of priority.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 15:21 Comments ||
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#29
Makes me wonder what the hell its going to take to get through to the mopron Republican leadership.
If they'd bother, we've been telling them the same thing every time they send us a mailing;
Act like a majority party - stop wussing out and caving in on drilling, judges, consdut of the war, etc.
All they need to do is show they are aserious about 5 things. Just these 5.
1. Win the War (on Terror, and in Iraq).
2. Secure the Border.
3. Cut the pork, cut government size and spending. (This means earmark reform and chopping lobbying).
4. Get solid conservative non-activist judges approved.
5. Get us energy independant: drill the continental shelves and ANWR, promote Nuc power, bolster R&D into hydrogen, wind and solar.
They've failed on damn near everything but the first - and if they get booted, they will have failed on it as well.
Trent Lott ought to be strung up from a lamppost - its him and the old country-club big-government (Chaffee and other RINOs included) types that have killed the Republican party. Lott is a perfect picture of whats wrogn with the Republican Party and why its about to lose the house and the seante - WAKE THE FUCK UP you idiots!
#30
SPoD - As a long-time conservative, I feel your pain. I live in SC where we have one of those arrogant, non-responsive Republican(?) senators (Graham). I believe there will be a blood bath for the Republicans in November and again in 2008. The polls don't mean much, because folks like me will not answer them. The poll in Nov will tell the story.
Other than the WOT, there is little material difference between the parties. Unfortunately, the Dims and the left have weakened the nation to the point that being right on the war will end up being a distinction without a difference.
#31
And I dont mean start with slogans now - I mean pass laws to make the changes NOW.
Start building the fence NOW.
Kill Earmarks NOW.
Put in Budget controls for non-defense spending NOW.
Ramrod the judges through NOW.
Pass laws allowing for drilling the outer contientnal shelf and ANWR NOW.
Don't firggen sit and talk about it liek youve been doing for the past year.
Frist has been fiddling while the senate BURNS. Whne wil eh show some balls and bring McCain to heel, crack down on Spector's obstructianism in the justice comitte, and kill pork from Stevens and Lott etc? First has been a disaaster as leader of the senate Republicans.
#33
Have a little faith in Boehner, people. He's no dummy and can read accurate polls as well as anyone. What needs to happen is the Porkbuster campaign go bigtime (thanks Sen Coburn, Instapundit), W veto the latest spending bill, and some party discipline where mavericks (yes, you, Specter, McCain and Hagel, ya publicity seeking assholes) suffer loss of party support and lose their committee posts. Crack the fucking whip and make them unite (or at least STFU)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 19:24 Comments ||
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#34
Personally, I'm about ready to revolt, and shoot members of both parties - in droves.
Things looked pretty nasty in 1786-87, too. Then there was a little altercation known as Shay's Rebellion. That was over high taxes and low farm prices, among other things, but the real underlying reason was that "elected officials" were tone-deaf to the local populace. Weren't a lot of people hurt, but it got the attention of the government in Washington, and things changed.
Right now, the folks in Washington don't care what the electorate does, as long as it returns them to power every two to six years. It's time to quit playing their game. There needs to be a thorough house-cleaning, not only of people who have been in elected office too long, but of their "assistants" and "aids", too.
If the Democrats win the House this year, there will be nothing done during the next two years that will help the United States. We need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent - the Democrats will definitely kill them. We need to continue to wage aggressive war against islamonazi fruitcakes - the Democrats will attempt to appease them - again. The Democrats currently demand an amnesty for all illegal aliens, even though 70% or more of the people of this country oppose any form of amnesty. The Democrats want to increase the minimum wage law, which is the most stupid law ever enacted by the government of the United States, and is patently economically insane and unconstitutional. The Democrats will also do everything they can to destroy the Bush Administration, including a few things they are already doing that are patently illegal. They WON'T follow through on the leaking of classified information, since it's in their best interest for those "leaks" to continue.
If the Democrats do win, and I pray to God to prevent it, I will have no choice but to start shooting them. We should have started 10 years ago.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/07/2006 20:05 Comments ||
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#35
People say I need counciling for talkng like that Old Patriot.
I am with you 99.9% of the way. My only difference is I demand the government get out of the way of full employment. I am for a living wage work force. But the market must determine a living wage not the government. A living wage job for every one that wants one. The government needs to get the hell out of the way of such al labor market.
Put a bounty on Democrat lawyers to boot.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 20:22 Comments ||
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#36
I wrote the following on Monday night, November 1, 2004-- on the eve of the Presidential election. Seems to me what I said about a possible Kerry victory serve just as well to predict what will happen if the Democrats re-take either the House or the Senate this Fall.
What if Kerry Wins?
1. For those Americans who voted for John Kerry out of ignorance, or party loyalty, or habit, the first hint that they may have just done something really, REALLY stupid will be a wave of ululating that spreads across the Islamic world starting shortly after midnight EST.
2. The terrorist insurgency in Iraq will intensify dramatically, as the Islamists redouble their efforts to make Iraq into Mogadishu writ large: Osama bin Laden's counsel-- that if you bleed the Americans enough they will eventually give up and go home-- will be tentatively vindicated by a Bush defeat, and all that will be left will be to seal the deal with a Kerry withdrawal in the face of massive terrorist attacks in Iraq. If Kerry wins, Iraq will get much, MUCH worse, and Islamists elsewhere around the world will be likewise emboldened.
3. Iran and Israel-- the former emboldened by Bush's defeat and America's defeatism, and the latter disgusted and appalled by it-- will duke it out sometime soon. Israel or Iran, or maybe both, will be reduced to radioactive slag.
4. There will be a massive exodus from the U.S. armed forces, as recruitment and re-enlistment rates plummet. Short of electing "Hanoi Jane" Fonda as president, no worse insult to our troops than John Kerry as their commander-in-chief would be possible. Kerry will either have to drastically scale back U.S. troop deployments abroad or ask Congress to re-instate the draft.
5. As for Kerry's "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World" slogan, prepare to endure unprecedented contempt and arrogance from France, Germany and the anklebiters at the U.N. as they move to take advantage of a weak U.S. president who neurotically craves European approval and will do almost anything to get it.
6. The budding democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq will collapse. Whether or not Kerry actually intends to abandon our democratization efforts doesn't really matter: he's said he intends to bring the troops home quickly, and our new democratic allies will act in the expectation that he will do just that: both countries will shortly be back in the hands of dictators, and the best we can hope is that they will not be excessively hostile towards us.
7. America's credibility will be completely, utterly DEAD. Never again-- and I mean NEVER-- will the committment of the American people to the defense of freedom be trusted, anywhere in the world, under any circumstances. We will be seen from this time forth, forevermore, as a profoundly silly, fickle, infantile, gullible, lazy, naive and stupid people with short attention spans and a tendency toward changing our minds and abandoning our committments completely every four years.
8. The very idea of democracy and freedom as the cure for what ails the Arab/Islamic world will be discredited by a Kerry victory, and our own lack of resolve will be held up as proof of democracy's inferiority.
9. China will move quickly to sate its long-held appetite for the island nation of Taiwan, calculating that Kerry will have no stomach-- or political support amongst his constituency-- for doing anything whatsoever to defend it.
10. North Korea will do... something horrible and insane-- and get away with it. Exactly what it will be is anybody's guess, but one thing's for certain: we won't like it, one damn bit. And Kerry will not lift a finger to stop it.
11. Future U.S. presidents will draw one overriding, indelible lesson from the 2004 Election: the "Greatest Generation" is long-gone, and the American people no longer have the stamina or the courage or the attention span for long, difficult struggles, nor the vision for noble deeds.
Any future terrorist attacks-- even attacks using WMD-- will have to be dealt with rapidly and decisively, within the span of a few months at most; beyond that time frame, the American people will lose courage; their attention will drift; they will become impatient; and the venture will become a fatal political liability as did Operation Iraqi Freedom.
There will be no more "nation-building". There will be no more exercises in bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed peoples in an effort to remove the root causes that breed Islamic extremism.
There will be no more wars of liberation. There will be no wars of conquest and subjugation, either, unless some U.S. president decides it's the only way to secure a supply of oil. Nor will there be any punitive wars, as that is just not in our blood. All that will be left will be a simple, stark choice: surrender to Islam, or exterminate it.
The American people may come to realize, with horror, that their vote for John F. Kerry on November 2, 2004 was a vote to condemn one-fifth of the world's population to death in a thermonuclear holocaust.
Tomorrow, if we elect John F. Kerry, we will have foreclosed all other options.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/07/2006 20:30 Comments ||
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#37
gentlemen... ixnay on the ootingsh....
The minority party has demonstrated that there are other procedural and oppositional ways to stop the Majority from imposing its' will, God forbid the sides ever change. We need to be as ruthless and cunning and shameless as a Chuck Schumer 3 rows back from a TV camera.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 20:30 Comments ||
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#38
A revolution maybe a long time in coming. I often wonder what our founding fathers (the real greatest generation imho) would think of today's politicos.
Yeah, I know, they'd prolly think they're a bunch of spineless two-faced pussies to.
#39
Polls don't mean anything. I hang up on about 3 polling firms a week.
All they tell you is how lazy folk with nothing better to do with their time then answer loaded questions from pollesters mis-answer the questions.
#40
Sorry,
I knew Rantburg was right-leaning, as I am, but I didn't know it was a site promoting armed overthrow of the US if your candidate doesn't win. Given a choice between the wacked-out lefties who threatened to go to Canada and wacked-out righties who threaten armed overthrow this troll prefers the lefties. At least those who leave can come back during the next election and still have the USA here.
#41
I am for taking the counrty back from the Corporocracy Sir. Anyway I'll try it again with the ballot box. A bullet box must serve if the ballot box is indadaquate.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 20:54 Comments ||
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#42
HS4505, people are venting here. There is no one here who seriously promotes overthrowing the government, and no one here is going to go out shooting opposition candidates.
Let me remind everyone of the Rantburg policy: one can vent, one can complain, one can grumble. Outright advocacy of murder of a U.S. citizen, however loathsome a person, will be redacted immediately. Fred and the mods do not need or want the kind of legal scrutiny that comes with that sort of thing, so we won't permit it.
We're not going to shoot Dhimmicrats nor are we going to overthrow our government if the Dhimmis win. We'll instead buckle down, bide our two years, get our ducks in a row and win some elections in 2008. That's how it's done.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2006 21:03 Comments ||
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#43
Can we pants them? On national TV?
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 21:07 Comments ||
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#44
Corporocracy? Some Libertarian. A bullet box must serve if the ballot box is indadaquate.
'Inadequate' meaning that your choice didn't win.
Nice.
I have 16 years active duty and I say go for it. You'll soon be wishing to be back in your mommy's basement.
I can tell I don't belong here. So long.
#45
T'is why the Dems needs American Hiroshimas to oocur - IMO, the ZOGBY and RASMUSSEN, etal. polling datas do not show any significant Dem gains other than Dubya appearing to tempor lose points. Dubya's well-reported loss in POTUS performance approval points simul does not show the American voter wants a Democrat in the WH. MSM > DUBYA'S POINTS DOWN, BUT LARGE TO DOMINANT POLL MAJORITES SHOW CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR THE GOP = DUBYA AGENDUMS, NOT THE DEMOCRATS. America wants the WOT, directly or indir, politically or militarily, fought or resolved "over there". not here in America. Why do you think PELOSI is now claming the Dems can't or won't impeach Dubya - THE GOP, DUBYA, DEMOCAPITALISM, FEDERALISM, AND GOP-LED AMERICA = CLINTONIAN AMERIKA, AND ONLY THESE, MUST GET THE DE FACTO BLAME FOR ANY AND ALL PRE-OWG, PRE-AMER SOCIALISM NEW TERROR ATTACKS, NATIONAL PROBLEMS, OR EMPIRE, NOT THE DEMS. THE DEMS, OWG, LEFTISM-SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM, ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY, AND TOTALITARIANISM IS THE SOLUTION TO AMERICA'S NATIONAL AND GLOBAL WOES AND IMPERIALISM, NOT AND NEVER THE CAUSE.
#46
I knew Rantburg was right-leaning, as I am, but I didn't know it was a site promoting armed overthrow of the US...
I am not suggesting the armed overthrowing of the United States, just the armed destruction of a political party that is doing it's level best to destroy the Constitution. I'm a military retiree. I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. I've spent most of my life doing just that. The Democratic Party is home to traitors and scumbags like John Kerry, who, instead of being elected a US Senator, should have hung by the neck until DOORKNOB DEAD. I believe in using violence to purge those that don't want to continue the government of the United States according to the Constitution, and who wish to subjugate the people of the United States to others, such as the United Nations. I wish to fight against those that wish to grant another 20 million illegal aliens amnesty, so they can buy their votes. I wish to destroy a political party that will do anything to gain power, including some of the most shameless, ACKNOWLEDGED voter fraud ever to go unpunished.
We have an enemy in our midst, and it's the Democratic Party led by Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton. We need to purge these and dozens of others who only see the US as the problem, and want to do their level best to make us another France. Killing them is actually too good for them, but it at least keeps someone like Ted Kennedy or Charles Schumer from ever getting elected again.
It's impossible to fumigate Washington. Move the capital to Manhattan
Kansas.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/07/2006 22:46 Comments ||
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#47
> It's impossible to fumigate Washington. Move the capital to Manhattan ...
#48
Hupoter Slereth4505 quite frankly how many years you have "in" and a cup of coffee make you equal to me. Just another citizen free to say your piece. I can say my piece as well.
I'll hang with Old Patriot and be in good company if it ever comes to that. I won't back down and I sure will not be in fear. The worse they can do is kill me for my convictions.
One should not be of the opinion that they or anyone else besides the Owner, editor and modarators of this fine site are going to run you me or anyone else off without cause. So far I don't believe I have given them cause. If I do they will be well with in their rights.
Take care now.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 23:06 Comments ||
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US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is to enter into an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday to send two scientific instruments on board Chandrayaan-I, the country's first unmanned moon mission.
NASA administrator Michael Griffin will sign the MoU with ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair to send a mini synthetic aperture radar (miniSAR), developed by the agency's applied physics laboratory and a moon mineralogy mapper, built by the jet propulsion laboratory, an ISRO official said.
The official said, "The American instruments will be part of the Chandrayaan payload, which will have 15-20 instruments, including 11 from India and three from the European Space Agency. The lunar mission is to be launched in 2007-08".
A five-member NASA delegation, led by Griffin, will also hold discussions with ISRO officials on extending the Indo-US cooperation in space exploration as agreed during the visit of US President George W Bush to India in March.
During the Bush trip, both the countries had agreed to continue exploring cooperation in civil space, including areas such as space exploration, satellite navigation, and earth science.
The official said that NASA had evinced interest in joining India's moon mission project.
Michael F O'Brien, NASA assistant administrator, will discuss with Indian space scientists the experiments to be conducted by the two US instruments on board Chandrayaan-I, which will circle around the lunar planet.
"Project work on the moon mission is on course. Most of our instruments are at various stages of development. Some of them are meant to map the lunar surface and study its mineral content. The spacecraft has already been designed for fabrication over the next 12 months along with its sub-systems," the official said.
Chandrayaan-I will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh, using the new polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 11:28 ||
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#1
The out-sourciing of NASA's mission to India, can it not be a good thing?
#5
During the Bush visit, India and the US decided to expand cooperation in civil space, including space exploration and satellite navigation.
However, a more ambitious project between the two countries on a space launch agreement is still a distance away this agreement would permit India to launch third country satellites with US components and technology in them. While the two countries have worked out the details of a technology safeguards agreement, which protects US technology from proliferation, a more mundane issue a commercial launch agreement is still out of reach.
Meanwhile, India will push for removal of sanctions on the remaining ISRO entities that remain under US curbs
The US had asked for an Indian astronaut on a US mission which formed a part of the July 18 joint statement. But ISRO determined that it would entail a cost for India which it did not want to pay for instead wanted to concentrate on unmanned missions.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 15:15 Comments ||
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If successful, polio would remain epidemic in only two countries, India and Nigeria And why is that? Perhaps because followers of a certain religion of peace are obstructing the campaign?
The World Health Organization plans to launch a massive immunization program this week aimed at eradicating polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Starting Monday, tens of thousands of health workers are scheduled to fan out across the remote and dangerous border areas of the two countries to vaccinate some 16 million children who live there, the BBC reported Sunday.
It will be one of the most demanding programs ever carried out by the World Health Organization. "It is extremely challenging to run immunization campaigns in these areas, extremely dangerous," a spokesman for the organization said.
If successful, polio would remain epidemic in only two countries, India and Nigeria, the BBC said. This year five cases of polio have been reported in Afghanistan and two in Pakistan.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 16:26 ||
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - In the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code", a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception."
Arinze's appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough.
"Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget," Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.
"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.
"This is one of the fundamental human rights: that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he said, without elaborating on what legal means he had in mind.
A transcript of the documentary, due to be screened in Rome later this month just before the release of the film version of the best-selling book at the Cannes Film Festival, was made available to Reuters.
The book, written by Dan Brown, has sold more than 40 million copies.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 16:02 ||
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#1
I wouldn't be too concerned about The Da Vinci Code or other books Cardinal Arinze. You might better spend your time looking after the homosexual and pedifile situation among your priestly colleagues.
#2
amen, B. As a Catholic I think these efforts are stupid, counterproductive, and should be better spent in rousting the evil among the clergy. Start with Mahoney and Law
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 18:54 Comments ||
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#3
You know if you bring back the inquisition and lop a few heads off, they'll pay more attention to you. Its been shown to work with the loud mouth self-important hollyweird types. Note how much effort they've put into offending the Religion of Peace [tm] by portraying the actual acts of mayhem and destruction. Learn and apply.
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Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
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Hey Cardinal, how about just boycotting the film and not paying to see it? In the mean time how about rooting out all the short eyes in your own house?
Arinze's not a very smart pr guy. If he was truly slick/savvy he'd just call the film a theologically irrelevant piece of fiction and actually encourage people to go see it and enjoy it for the hollywood entertainment it really is. Instead, by making a stink about it he will encourage the opposite effect.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and several Japanese firms will launch a joint project with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing Co. of the United States to develop a next-generation supersonic passenger aircraft, business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on Sunday.
The project, due to start this summer, aims to develop a supersonic jet by around 2020 that could travel at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, carrying 200-300 passengers, the daily said. The Japanese firms involved include Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Nikkei said. Officials were not immediately available for comment.
The paper said the new jet would make only around one-hundredth of the noise produced by Concorde, the first supersonic jet jointly developed by Britain and France in the 1960s. Concorde was retired in 2003.
#1
As I recall the concorde lost money from the first flight to the last flaming crash.
It was prestege, not good engineering.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/07/2006 19:14 Comments ||
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#2
The Frenchies had to choose between the price-costly, fuel-inefficient/guzzling, traditionalist but fast-moving Concorde; or POTUS Dick Nixon's uglier, bulkier, but all-around better "Space Plane" designs one of which later became the basis for Le'Reusable Space Shuttle. America still has the Space Shuttle and are dev hyper-velocity or extar-orbital crafts to go to the Moon and Mars and beyond, while dubious moneymaker Concorde is now officially junked. America actually have to restrain its space efforts/ventures in order to give our Allies a chance to catch up.
TO the Burmese, who love a puppet play, they are like three characters in a drama: the evil king, the fallen prince and the fair prisoner. But to appalled spectators in foreign embassies here, the play has taken a sudden turn for the tragic.
The king is Than Shwe, the senior general in Burma, who has adorned himself with regal trappings, switched his junta to one-man rule and ordered the government to move to a new city whose name, Nay Pyi Daw, means royal capital. The fallen prince is General Khin Nyunt, purged from his fiefdom in military intelligence, who languishes under house arrest, his hopes of a lucrative moderate policy in ruins. And he now shares that plight with the fair prisoner he sought to make his political partner, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner. Guards slouch outside both their houses in leafy suburbs of lakes and gardens built by the British rulers of colonial Burma in the days when this impoverished land was the richest producer of timber, rice and commodities in southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, Than Shwe, 74, and his wife Kyaing Kyaing, have adopted the airs of ancient Burmese royalty, taking elaborate titles and performing temple rites once reserved for kings and queens, under the guidance of astrologers. They have built a residence in the new capital for which Italian marble was deemed inadequate and replaced by choice polished stone from China, the juntas keenest friend.
Confined at home, Khin Nyunt has watched his associates thrown into the depraved conditions of Insein prison and seen the leader discard his schemes to lure Suu Kyi, who won a democratic election almost 16 years ago, into a transitional administration. She made a grave miscalculation by not making a compromise with Khin Nyunt while he had the power, said one international official here. Now they will make her irrelevant.
More at the link...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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They have built a residence in the new capital for which Italian marble was deemed inadequate and replaced by choice polished stone from China, the juntas keenest friend.
The party that has ruled Singapore for four decades, has won another overwhelming mandate, but failed to achieve the clean sweep of all parliamentary seats it had hoped for. The People's Action Party (PAP) on Saturday won 66.6% of the votes cast, down from 75.3% in the 2001 poll. But it held on to 82 seats in the 84-seat parliament, giving it an almost unchallenged free hand to continue its pro-business policies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Article: The People's Action Party (PAP) on Saturday won 66.6% of the votes cast, down from 75.3% in the 2001 poll.
By most standards, this is a landslide. But Singapore's ruling party controls the press and the judiciary. This means that the press toes the ruling party line, and judges always rule in favor of the ruling party in the incessant libel lawsuits (involving hundreds of thousands in money damages) filed against opposition politicians. A 9% fall in its share of the vote is pretty significant.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years. Speaking at a stadium packed with supporters in central Lara state, Chavez said he would hold a referendum to put the question of his remaining in office to Venezuelans if the opposition pulls out of upcoming presidential elections. "I am going to ask you, all the people, if you agree with Chavez being president until 2031," he said. 
WEARING camouflage and firing pellets from imitation AK-47 assault rifles, the Russians acting out battle scenes in the woods last week could have been mistaken for weekenders taking part in a game of paintball. But the secret military training exercise 70 miles southeast of Moscow was far more sinister. The three-day gathering was attended by 50 hardline neo-Nazis who worship Adolf Hitler and believe that dark-skinned immigrants living in Russia should be killed. The boot camp, which had taken months to organise, was planned to train them in combat skills and extremist ideology. Those taking part either support or have helped carry out a string of vicious racist attacks that have shocked Russia. 
Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls.
TO the Burmese, who love a puppet play, they are like three characters in a drama: the evil king, the fallen prince and the fair prisoner. But to appalled spectators in foreign embassies here, the play has taken a sudden turn for the tragic. 
The party that has ruled Singapore for four decades, has won another overwhelming mandate, but failed to achieve the clean sweep of all parliamentary seats it had hoped for. The People's Action Party (PAP) on Saturday won 66.6% of the votes cast, down from 75.3% in the 2001 poll. But it held on to 82 seats in the 84-seat parliament, giving it an almost unchallenged free hand to continue its pro-business policies.
