#1
Pardon me, but shouldn't this article have been put in the War on Terror section?
Posted by: Matt ||
05/21/2006 9:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"And now the court is to decide whether it is legal to throw somebody into the street if he or she refuses to look at a strangers penis."
Suppose it depends on how strange the penis is. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 10:21 Comments ||
Top||
#3
sheesh. What a great idea. Fire your masseuse, who refuses to work as a hooker, and assure this story will hit the international papers rather than just circulate around as a rumor.
#7
Yeah, I was fully expecting an explanation by Mr. Costner when I spotted this, him being an occasionnal commenter here and all. Dang. He must be filming a new Motion Picture somewhere, I guess.
The world's first automatic wudu' (ablution) and drying machine will see the light soon with an impressive efficiency of water and time.
"We are in the process of concluding agreement to distribute Auto Wudu' Washers (AWWs) to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain," Anthony Gomez, inventor and designer of the new infrared-operating machines, told IslamOnline.net over the phone from Australia.
He said he has received so far 600 requests from all over the Muslim world to buy AWWs.
The AWWs is made of a purpose built ear, mouth and facial washer unit, a forearm and elbow washing unit and a foot and ankle washing unit all of which are incorporated in a single system.
Gomez, the Chairman and Managing Director of Australian AACE Worldwide PTY Ltd. Company, said no price has been fixed yet for the machine, but it would be "affordable."
"It will not be only for the well-off but for everybody as we are trying to make it affordable as possible," said Gomez, an Australian citizen of Malaysian origin.
Gomez, whose company is specialized in manufacturing aircraft components, said the new machine is fully computerized.
"You don't have to touch any tap but it is operated by infrared sensors based on Australian technology," he explained, adding that the assembly line is based in Malaysia.
"In the next stage, we are going to produce a domestic AWW, which will be like a huge refrigerator," he said.
Gomez said he first had the idea of manufacturing AWWs when he was on a ferry journey from Egypt's Taba to Jordan's Aqaba.
"It all started when our team was contracted to supply cockpit doors to an Egyptian airline in Taba," Gomez said.
He said they decided to visit Aqaba after having the job done, but they missed a fast ferry and had to take the slow one carrying Muslim pilgrims going to Makkah to perform `Umrah.
"The toilet was dirty and very crowded," he said, "and many pilgrims were performing their ablutions putting their legs in the wash basin and then stand on the dirty floor, which is not hygienic at all."
"Although I'm not Muslim, I felt very sad for them because the faithful in any religion have to be very dedicated as we all worship one God," he added.
Gomez said when he went back to Australia, he decided to produce a sophisticated wudu' machine based on state-of-the-art technology to ensure water and time efficiency.
"Makkah and Madina are often very crowded, and imagine up to two million people doing the wudu'; it's very difficult. In our system, it only takes three minutes to do it properly," he noted.
Spiritual Aspect
Gomez said that he consulted the Islamic Council of Australia first before pressing ahead with his innovation.
"The Islamic Council of Australia has issued a fatwa approving the new machine," he said.
Commenting on Gomez's invention, prominent Egyptian scholar Sheikh `Abdul-Khaliq Hasan Ash-Shareef said he sees nothing wrong in using the AWW as long as the basic pillars and requirements of ablution are strictly observed in a right and precise way.
"With the above in mind, there is a spiritual aspect of ablution that should be observed by a person using such modern means," he told IOL.
He said Muslims should not allow themselves to be distracted by the modern means, and they should not show laxity in achieving spiritual elevation while embarking on using such modern devices.
"Muslims who use this kind of washers should not forget that they are actually performing a worship act and not a routine act of washing bodily parts," he stressed.
"For example, it has been authentically reported that one's sins are forgiven when the drops of water drip from the organs of the person performing ablution.
"This spiritual aspect of ablution and other aspects should be present in one's mind and should in no way be absent."
#1
The "juju machine" would be just as accurate a name.
"For example, it has been authentically reported that one's sins are forgiven when the drops of water drip from the organs of the person performing ablution.
What the heck???? Please tell me I didn't read that.
I wish this guy success in seperating these suckers from their wealth.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/21/2006 3:55 Comments ||
Top||
#2
There is a really funny movie that starts with some guy who is going get rich inventing a people wash - like a car wash. Can't remember what it was. Just remember it was funny.
There was a young man with an orange,
Who kept that there orange for a month,
It didn't turn silver,
It turned kinda purple,
And that there was one spoiled orange.
#12
DMFD - if you had keep going with that asterix.... until it was the size of Phobos Barras head it would have been a hoot. Still 9.85 for amazing growing asterix on steriod graphic.
#16
Most of you are too young to realize that TV killed our society years ago. The internet is helping to reestablish some form of togetherness.
I know more about how or what you think and feel than I do about the old couple next door. And, I never met the people on the other side of me. Life was different years ago. We spoke to each other.
SHARM EL-SHEIK: President Hosni Mubarak opened the World Economic Forum on Saturday with a series of indirect but pointed jabs at the United States, warning that the world must overcome the widening gap between rich and poor and block escalating threats of terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) An adviser to President Hugo Chavez said Friday that Venezuela is considering buying about two dozen Russian fighter jets to replace its fleet of F-16s because Washington has refused to sell the country upgrades for the U.S.-made planes.
Venezuela is considering buying Sukhoi Su-35 fighters to replace the 21 U.S.-made F-16s, and Venezuelan pilots have already traveled to Russia to test out Russian warplanes, Gen. Alberto Muller told The Associated Press. He said Venezuela was considering a purchase of roughly 24 planes.
This is what you get with $70 a barrel oil and a socialist madman dictator.
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, meanwhile, said Venezuela is free to sell its F-16s to any country it wishes because the United States has violated a contract by refusing to sell replacement parts for the planes. When asked by a reporter if Venezuela would be willing to sell the F-16 fighters to Iran, Rangel said: "To whomever. What the United States does not have the right to do is suspend the supply (of replacement parts) after there's a contract and agreement."
U.S. officials have denied that they are violating their F-16 sale contract, and have insisted that Venezuela is bound under that agreement to get Washington's approval on any sale. "There are contractual obligations that prohibit Venezuela from selling the F-16s to another country without the permission of the United States," U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said.
Washington announced this week it is imposing a ban on arms sales to Venezuela, which the U.S. has accused of failing to cooperate in counterterrorism efforts. Chavez calls that a ridiculous claim, and has warned the U.S. is trying to disarm his government because it wants to overthrow him.
If we wanted to do that a few F-16s wouldn't stop us.
Muller said earlier this week that he had recommended Venezuela consider selling its fleet of 21 F-16s to another country, possibly Iran. But Defense Minister Orlando Maniglia later said that no sale was in the works and that Chavez had yet to decide what to do with the planes. Chavez has warned he could share the F-16s with Cuba and China. Venezuela also may invite scientists from nations like Russia, Iran or China to help upgrade and maintain the F-16s, Muller said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has called the talk of possibly selling planes to Iran "overheated rhetoric," and has said the U.S. move to curtail weapons sales would not affect exports of defense equipment or spare parts "under existing licenses and authorizations." U.S. officials, however, have said that they aren't bound to provide upgrades to the planes or supply parts indefinitely.
I'd send some parts -- duct tape, for example -- but upgrades are out of the question.
#1
Why bother even upgrading them? They're F-16A's, about the most advanced feature on them right now would be the fly by wire technology. Even stratfor says they're not much of a military impact. As for the Su-35s, well lets see 1) they aren't anywhere near production and only a couple of demo models were ever built, 2) Russia will only build the planes if someone else funds development and production of them and 3) this has all the basic earmarks of a temper tantrum kind of intent to purchase. Heck I'll be just slightly interested in how the fighters actually perform if Russia actually DELIVERS them.
#2
If Hugo is serious and sane, he would go for SU-25BMs {http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/su-25.htm}.
They are already in service, have spare parts, and can be immediately supplied. But then, this is just public onanism for the international media.
CHINA says its steel industry cannot afford the 19 per cent price increase secured by Australian and Brazilian producers for shipments of iron ore in 2006-07. The government-owned China Daily said the US dollar price rise - it follows a 71.5 per cent increase last year - could end the resources boom.
China has fast become the biggest market for Australian iron ore with an annual value of about $4 billion, making the health of the steel-making industry there a key consideration for the leading exporters, the Pilbara operators BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. "When over-capacity is looming in China's steel industry, rising ore cost that further bites into domestic steel makers' profits could turn the current boom into a bust and no one will benefit," a China Daily editorial said. And China's Iron and Steel Association said its steel makers and their iron ore suppliers, including BHP and Rio, "still differ" on price and negotiations would continue.
An emergency meeting of 16 Chinese steel makers in Beijing on Friday was held in an effort to ensure a united front in China's opposition to the price rise - one that the rest of the global steel-making industry accepts as the new benchmark.
That was underlined by an announcement from Rio Tinto's Hamersley Iron subsidiary at the weekend that it had reached agreement with South Korea's Posco for a 19 per cent price increase for shipments of its Pilbara lump ore.
The chief executive of Rio's iron ore operations, Sam Walsh, said the agreement with Posco, the world's No.4 steel maker, confirmed the "tightness of the iron ore market and the very strong demand for Australian iron ore".
China's hopes of securing an increase of no more than 10 per cent were dashed last week when the world's biggest producer, CVRD, effectively set the new benchmark by agreeing to a 19 per cent price rise with Germany's ThyssenKrupp.
The Chinese have argued since that the CVRD deal is not a global benchmark.
The Australian Government's chief commodity forecaster, ABARE, predicts world seaborne trade in iron ore could rise 7.6 per cent to 706 million tonnes in 2006. China's booming economy would account for about 44 per cent of the total, up from 28 per cent in 2003. Expansion by BHP and Rio is expected to underpin a 17 per cent surge in Australian exports to 282 million tonnes in 2006, worth about $14 billion.
Meanwhile, India is moving to curb its iron ore exports, adding strength to the Australian push for China to pay more for the commodity. India's Steel Ministry has called on the Ministry of Commerce to curb exports so the interests of the domestic steel industry are protected. Exports from the country are not great but their removal from the global market to feed its booming domestic industry would tighten overall supply.
I recall another Asian nation that felt it's supply of raw materials was being cut off 50 or so years ago. That didn't turn out very well.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 18:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Economic Superpower huh?
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 19:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
China was hoping to use what it felt was its monopsony power as a big buyer of commodities to get a better price than other buyers in the market. It should be interesting to see if they succeed in doing so. At the same time, Chinese companies need the stuff. They can't function without it. Iron ore producers can idle some of their capacity without bringing everything to a halt. My feeling is that the Chinese will have to cave or bring their economy to a halt.
#3
Non-renewal commodity dependence can really be a back breaker, especially with metals. In the US, the metal markets have been totally controlled by insiders for many years. Insiders who rigidly control production and price. The US government encourages them to do this specifically to prevent situations like this.
Metals and non-metal ores not produced in the US in quantity are always under intense observation, and appropriate strategic stockpiles are always maintained.
It is good to remember the tale of Nelson Bunker Hunt (wikipedia).
AUSTRALIA will consider enriching uranium and storing the waste products to deliver value-added exports to the world in preparation for the age of nuclear power.
Opening up a new front in the nuclear energy debate, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said yesterday that voters were ready to confront uranium enrichment after years of simply digging it up and selling it overseas to be processed.
The move would bring the option of nuclear power a step closer in Australia because enriched uranium is a key component of nuclear energy, but it could also be established much earlier than the estimated 2020 timeline for power plant options.
Uranium enrichment would also raise environmental concerns and spark national debate on how to store and secure the toxic waste generated by uranium enrichment.
"It's a debate that Australians are ready to have," Mr Macfarlane said.
"That's based on the rising cost of energy and the fact that nuclear energy provides an answer to the climate change issue. Enrichment is value-adding and in the context of a nuclear debate there will be a series of issues.
"My understanding is enrichment of uranium doesn't produce a radioactive by-product but it does produce waste that is toxic. Uranium enrichment is the next step in terms of the exporting of uranium."
Enriched uranium is not the highly enriched or weapons-grade uranium used to produce nuclear weapons. Large commercial enrichment plants operate in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Britain, the US and Russia.
Australia produced about one-fifth of the world's uranium output last year and stands to reap multi-million-dollar profits as China embraces nuclear power. However, it has always outsourced the job of creating enriched uranium, which is required by most of the commercial nuclear power reactors operating or under construction.
As John Howard called for a "full-blooded" debate, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also backed a discussion over uranium enrichment yesterday.
"There's the question of whether Australia itself would eventually, some time, no doubt in the far distant future, build nuclear power stations. There's a question of whether Australia would ever enrich uranium - in other words, we go up the processing chain, rather than just dig it out," he said.
However, the enthusiasm is not shared by Finance Minister Nick Minchin, who is concerned nuclear power plants would be too expensive to establish as an alternative to coal and finding a site to dispose of the waste would be too politically difficult.
Mr Macfarlane conceded dealing with the by-products of a nuclear industry in Australia was a key consideration.
"Whilst the environmentalists argue what it leaves is a legacy of radioactive waste, the reality is the Swedes are storing it in deep-buried stable rocks. We could do that if we're talking about our own nuclear waste from our own nuclear power stations," he said.
The nation's premier science agency, the CSIRO, is working on ways to use a synthetic rock known as Synroc to immobilise some forms of high-level radioactive wastes for disposal.
Australia demands assurances exported uranium and its derivatives cannot benefit the development of nuclear weapons or be used in other military programs.
A spokesman for Education Minister Julie Bishop said she was optimistic about the potential for the nuclear power industry in Australia. She is working on establishing a panel of experts to consider the issue.
Mr Howard's decision to talk up Australia's nuclear future has been interpreted as an attempt to exploit tensions within the ALP.
New candidate and Australian Workers Union secretary Bill Shorten said yesterday the jury was still out on nuclear power.
#1
Quite sensible.
As a major Uranium ore supplier, moving up the value chain to provide enriched fuel or even fuel rods is the way to go.
Reprocessing and waste storage is the next step. Australia has the space and geology for it.
Not to mention the political credentials to be trusted with this technology
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
bet Baradei does a number on them... they aren't muslim
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2006 18:42 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Australia, with its enormous Uranium and Thorium reserves, will be a critical part of the nuclear power industry.
They will ignore the pipsqueak El Baradei.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 19:29 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Omigodomigodomigod! A western country is even considering the prospect of nuclear enrichment!
How can this be?
What will the civilized, peaceloving Islamic nations and North Korea have to say about this? What? What?
Oh, the humanity! Oh, the environment! Oh, what warmongers those Aussies must be to even be considering such a vile and evile thing!
Oh, woe, oh, woe, oh, woe be upon us...the end is nye!
Nearly 17 years have passed since Gotthold Schramm's world turned upside down, but his sense of outrage is still fresh.
With the collapse of communist East Germany, the former colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) -- universally known as the Stasi -- found himself out of a job and reduced for a time to running a small grocery store.
Today he has found a new role. As the author of half a dozen books, he is one of a growing and increasingly vocal group of former officers presenting their own account of East German history and defending the work of the widely reviled Stasi.
"It's got to the point where people say it was a 'criminal organization'!" says Schramm, 74.
He repeats the phrase several times, almost spitting it out, and pauses for dramatic effect, his eyelids flickering.
"We're talking about malicious imputations that have nothing to do with the reality. If there were crimes, they must be investigated, checked, and those responsible brought to book, even if they were employees of the Ministry for State Security.
"But to suspect everybody, as is happening today, and to call the MfS as a whole a criminal organization, that is something that the 90,000 former employees of this ministry cannot understand."
STASI COMEBACK?
Schramm's is just one voice in a resurgent debate, fueled in recent weeks by a popular new film, "Das Leben der Anderen" (The Lives of Others), which swept the German Film Prize last week, taking seven awards.
The powerful drama, which was a surprise box office hit, examines the moral choices facing both Stasi officers and those who fell under their surveillance in the German Democratic Republic (DDR), as the communist state was known.
Some Germans, including Stasi victims, say former officials of the security service are waging a "comeback" through books, media and the Internet.
They denounce what they see as an attempt to whitewash a powerful apparatus with a network of informers that bolstered four decades of communist rule by suppressing dissent and wrecking countless lives in the process.
The issue made headlines in March, when ex-Stasi men attended a public meeting at Hohenschoenhausen, a former Stasi prison in East Berlin and now a museum, accusing directors of turning it into a "chamber of horrors."
"I'm very worried because it's an indicator that we have been experiencing a creeping rehabilitation of the Communist Party dictatorship for years," Hubertus Knabe, director of the Hohenschoenhausen site, told Reuters.
Knabe believes united Germany made a mistake by not prosecuting communist-era crimes with sufficient determination. He notes that in the 16th year since reunification, not a single person linked to state oppression in the DDR is in prison.
"The criminal justice process basically failed," he says.
"CLEAN METHODS"
For the former Stasi men, the thin record of convictions is proof that their work was blameless.
No one has been found guilty of hundreds of alleged abductions, says former Stasi Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Kierstein, apparently overlooking spymaster Markus Wolf who got a suspended sentence in 1997 for three Cold War kidnappings.
"De facto, the employees of the Ministry for State Security have been legally rehabilitated," the 68-year-old says, alternately removing his glasses and putting them back on as he reels off his points from three pages of typewritten notes.
Kierstein, who spent three decades at the Hohenschoenhausen prison interrogating suspected spies, says he and his colleagues demonstrated "totally clean working methods."
The suspects had access to a lawyer from an approved list, he says. "It's true the lawyer only had full access to the files once the investigation was over. That's how it was prescribed in the DDR legal code. That wasn't a Stasi trick."
Every interrogation was recorded on tape, so it would have been impossible to extract a confession by violence, he said.
INTERROGATION METHODS
In fact, what former Hohenschoenhausen inmates say they found most oppressive was not physical abuse but the relentless psychological pressure to confess or incriminate others.
Hartmut Richter, 58, escaped to West Berlin in 1966 by swimming across a canal. Over the next nine years, he spirited 33 other people across the Berlin Wall. But he was caught in March 1975 while trying to smuggle his sister out in the boot of a car, and imprisoned in Hohenschoenhausen.
Today, he escorts visitors down the linoleum-floored corridors, past the gray cell doors with their observation hatches, through which the guards would peer every three to six minutes, 24 hours a day.
He recalls an interrogation where the telephone rang on the Stasi officer's desk, and he heard his imminent release being discussed. It was a sham: He was sent back to his cell and left without news for days, his hope slowly fading.
"To my mind, that too was torture," Richter says now. "It's possible to break people without laying a finger on them."
For the former Stasi men, Schramm and Kierstein, these were legitimate psychological tactics.
But do they still believe it was right to lock up people for criticizing the government? For the first time, the two men go some way toward acknowledging the communist state's dark side.
"These were the laws of the DDR, that is the problem," Schramm says in a pained voice. "There were laws that had to be obeyed. Whether it was wrong or right ... we see a lot of things differently today, I have to say."
#1
Spymaster Marcus Wolf was convicted for treason and espionage and sentenced to six years in prison.
This was later overturned and he recieved a suspended sentence on lesser charges.
At his conviction, he questioned the legality of the entire process, pointing out that he was born in Nazi Germany and grew up as a citizen of the DDR. How could be be convited of treason against the FRG, a state he was never a citizen of?
I recall a former CIA head testified in support of him.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 21:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Awwwwwww, da' poor babies.
Having had some passing contact with some of these clowns in the 1970's, I'd like to tell you how sympathetic I am to their complaints.
But I hate to lie.
Fred, perhaps the sympathy (or apathy) meter graphic would be appropriate? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 22:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I have no like of STASI, but it is wierd getting treason charges from a country your not a citizen of.
#4
Errr....
Germany was 'occupied' and divided along the lines drawn up by the victors of 1945. I don't recall any premeditation in creating a West and East Germany at the time. Germany before and Germany after is the basically the same country [minus Prussia, Silesia, et al - can't wait for the 'lost lands' issue to come up on that one]. Oh, and after two hundred plus years of militarism, they're now wusses which probably is not a bad thing.
Czech Health Minister David Rath has been in a punch-up with his right-wing rival, Miroslav Macek, during a meeting of disgruntled dentists in Prague.
Mr Macek, a presidential adviser and former deputy PM who is also a dentist, broke off an address to slap Mr Rath hard on the back of the head.
Mr Rath responded by calling him a coward and the two men traded blows.
This rare case of violence in Czech politics comes two weeks before highly anticipated parliamentary elections.
The meeting of dentists, at which Mr Macek was moderator, took place at the start of a period of planned protest against Mr Rath's policies, dubbed "A Week of Healthcare Unrest".
But, says BBC Prague correspondent Rob Cameron, no-one had envisaged the unrest going quite this far.
'Coward'
Mr Macek took the stage to begin the discussion.
But before he did so, he explained to the audience there was a private matter he had to settle with Mr Rath first.
He walked up behind him and slapped him, hard, on the back of the head.
The audience watched in amazement as a stunned Mr Rath rose and made to leave.
But then the health minister turned on his heels, walked up to Mr Macek and called him a coward.
Mr Macek responded by hitting him again, and the two men began throwing punches.
Mr Macek explained he slapped Mr Rath because he made comments about his wife.
But this incident, between senior members of the country's two leading political parties, comes less than two weeks before parliamentary elections.
Our correspondent says election campaigns in the Czech Republic are usually rather dull affairs - but this year's are proving anything but boring.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 19:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The European Commission has drawn up plans to set up a European coastguard, which critics fear is a back-door attempt by Brussels to create an EU navy with its own powers to stop and search shipping.
Plans to upgrade the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) into a fully-fledged coastguard are buried in a document revising European Union (EU) transport policy that is due to be published next month.
They come on the back of other "empire building" moves by Brussels, including a planned EU army, a common foreign policy and diplomatic service, and a European-wide policy on energy.
The commission says a European coastguard would help to enforce maritime legislation. It would have the authority to intercept shipping across all of Europe's traditional maritime borders, which could require that crews be armed - and raises questions of national sovereignty over coastal waters.
Lloyd's List, the daily newspaper which covers the maritime industry, accused the commission of attempting to build up a navy by stealth in a leading article last week.
"The concept of a European coastguard has a federalist charm about it that causes eyes to brighten instantly among gatherings of Europhiles, tired of endless discussions about fish or agriculture," the newspaper said. "In a way, it is a European navy, by the back door."
Julian Brazier, the shadow shipping minister, said: "This is very worrying news. It seems the empire building ambitions of Brussels know no bounds. The drift towards an EU navy must be stopped." Mr Brazier has tabled a parliamentary question demanding to know the Government's position on the EU coastguard plans.
"The plan would be a betrayal of the maritime history of our country and the tens of thousands of men and women currently involved in our maritime sector," he said.
The commission document is written in French and entitled Préparer la Mobilité de Demain (Preparing Tomorrow's Mobility). In it, the commission says it believes the time has come to consider the "concept of a European coastguard". Such a body would improve passenger safety at sea and environmental protection legislation, it says.
Its main role initially would be to avert maritime pollution disasters, such as the oil slick that devastated French and Spanish Atlantic coasts in 2002, when the aged Prestige tanker snapped in half. The coastguard would be easy to implement, the commission notes, because the EU can "from today call on the support of the safety agencies", including EMSA.
The Lisbon-based agency came to life two years ago as a technical body to help the commission to draw up maritime legislation. But its remit and staffing levels have increased rapidly since then. It controls a small fleet of ships and has a staff of around 120 - more than twice the number originally envisaged.
The European parliament has long supported forming an EU coastguard, claiming that the principle of the coastguard is already accepted by all EU governments, including Britain. The Council of Ministers, the institution that represents governments in Brussels, last year agreed to a feasibility study on its creation. Until now, however, it has not been official EU policy.
Critics say a European coastguard would be more complicated to set up than a European army because national coastguards today have varying functions, both military and civil.
Willem de Ruiter, the executive director of EMSA, says talk of the agency becoming a fully-fledged coastguard was "far-fetched and unrealistic".
He said: "Many people don't understand what they mean when they say 'coastguard'. Are they talking about military operations or civil operations, or both?"
#7
This isn't aimed at US ships, at least not at first.
It's aimed at bringing all European countries to heel in compliance with their unelected masters in Brussels. THEN they impose their economically-destructive policies on anyone else who trades with them ... i.e. the US, because there's no way in hell they'll try it with China.
#8
DMFD that's a marvelous picture on many levels, at first glance they're transporting the airplane somewhere (San Diego, Pensacola?) by water, but after a bit of thought you could launch and recover a Harrier this way.
Hummmm,
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/21/2006 12:11 Comments ||
Top||
#9
not SD - no radio tower along north end of bay (Airport flight path) and the topography's wrong...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2006 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
#10
That's the batmobile preparing for underwater trials.
As the French government tears itself apart amid a trumped-up corruption scandal, and the socialist opposition fails to capitalise on the chaos, Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-Right National Front (FN), has gained record levels of support - without saying a word in public.
According to a survey in the news magazine Le Point last week, 22 per cent of the French population has a "favourable opinion" of Mr Le Pen - up five per cent from the previous month.
The rating is far higher than the 16 per cent popularity which Mr Le Pen scored in polls four years ago, just before the presidential elections in which he shocked France by beating the socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, in the first round. He lost to Jacques Chirac in the second round and political commentators insisted his success was a blip that would never happen again.
"His ideas have never been so popular," said his daughter and likely successor, Marine. She is "very, very optimistic" about her father's chances in next year's presidential election. "He will be in the second round, the only question is who he will be against," Miss Le Pen said.
"It's a case of people realising that reality is reflecting what we have been saying for the past 30 years. It is also because the political system is caving in on itself."
The swing to the extreme Right has been attributed to a series of events, during a period of economic gloom, that have crippled the government: last autumn's rioting in the suburbs; student violence over a proposed employment law; and now the Clearstream dirty tricks scandal.
Polls have shown the FN relentlessly on the rise since last November's violence in the immigrant ghettos on the outskirts of France's biggest cities. In October, eight per cent of French people said they would vote for Mr Le Pen's party.
By December that had risen to 11 per cent, and by February it was 12 per cent. In March, at the height of the student riots, would-be FN voters increased to 13 per cent and in April they were 14 per cent.
Before 2002, the highest point for the FN, which was created in 1972, was in the mid-1990s, when the party took over six mayoral posts, capitalising on increasing concerns over immigration.
Supporters believe that Mr Le Pen's silence over the Clearstream scandal has helped to distinguish him from the tarnished crowd.
Most critics of the French government have had a field day over the scandal, which has pitted President Chirac and the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, against Nicolas Sarkozy, the foreign minister - all members of the same right-of-centre party.
But Mr Le Pen has made a point of keeping out of the political mudslinging, telling friends that Clearstream is nothing more than a "sordid masquerade".
"There's no reason for me to attack these people with my little hammer when they're smashing each other up with a road drill," he said privately, according to Le Figaro newspaper.
Both Mr Sarkozy and Mr Chirac have attempted to win over FN supporters, offering increasingly hardline immigration policies.
But Miss Le Pen dismissed Mr Sarkozy's tough new immigration bill, which was passed by the lower house of parliament last week, and his declaration that foreigners in France could either "like it or leave".
She said: "Either he has changed and is convinced by our ideas, in which case why insult us, or he is obsessed with getting into power no matter what. "Personally I believe it is the latter." Pollsters who have been studying voting intentions - separate from popularity ratings - suggest it would be unwise to write off the FN leader in next year's vote.
In April - before the Clearstream scandal - a survey by the Sofres polling company predicted that Mr Le Pen could finish third in the first round of voting for the presidency.
It put him behind Mr Sarkozy and the Socialist contender Ségolène Royal, but ahead of Mr de Villepin.
#1
Big deal... even if he goes to 2nd turn (quite possible, the FN score is always and probably willingly minored by polls), he will lose 80/20... and even in the remotely probable possibility he's elected, he's 80 and will have not a snowball in hell chance of governing, having ALL of the Establishment up in arm against him.
Anyway, he's very ambigouus when it comes to islam, and while I like him for he is something of a monkeywrench in the machinery (though he's been instrumentalized by the System, and he perfectly knows it), he's anti-US, most probably antisemite (that didn't prevent about 20% of french jews to vote for him in 2002, more than his overall 18%, based on his anti-immigration/anti-arab stance), pro-Saddam, he thinks Iran should have the Bomb,...
I prefer De Villiers, but he will do about 5%.
Still, there are talks of a common front for the national right (Pépé Le Pen, De Villiers, and Mégret). who knows?
France is an oligarchy, backed by an another oligarchy (Brussel), it *won't* change, reform, anything,... until there is some kind of "paradigm shift", to use big words I don't fully understand. And this will come after say a real crisis, brought either by external event (this is how our Republics fall), or a State bankruptcy.
Then, all bets are open on what come next, with the caveat that leftists and their ideas are well supported by the public (endocrination by the national education system) and are well-organized.
And of course, there is the muslim minority, which is now placated by welfare and an unhinged underground economy. When th emoney dry off, anything can happen.
The same is true for the EU I think. It won't reform, it will fall.
Final preparations were under way Saturday ahead of a landmark referendum on Montenegro's independence as leaders urged rival supporters to accept the result peacefully. The referendum on Montenegro's independence from a federation with Serbia could be the final act in the dissolution of former communist Yugoslavia, four of whose six republics broke away in a series of 1990s wars.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE WORKED TO DEFEAT NAGIN
**Exclusive**
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) secretly placed political operatives in the city of New Orleans to work against the reelection efforts of incumbent Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean made the decision himself to back mayoral candidate and sitting Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu (D-LA), sources reveal.
Dean came to the decision to back the white challenger, over the African-American incumbent Nagin, despite concerns amongst senior black officials in the Party that the DNC should stay neutral.
The DNC teams actively worked to defeat Nagin under the auspice of the committee's voting rights program.
The party's field efforts also coincided with a national effort by Democrat contributors to support Landrieu.
Landrieu had outraised Nagin by a wide margin - $3.3 million to $541,980.
Preliminary campaign finance reports indicate many of Landrieus contributions came from out of state white Democrat leaders and financiers, including a $1,000 contribution from Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-NE) PAC.
The defeat of Mitch Landrieu is the latest setback for Dean's often criticized field operation.
In his victory speech late Saturday night, Nagin praised President Bush.
"You and I have probably been the most vilified politicians in the country. But I want to thank you for moving that promise that you made in Jackson Square forward," Nagin said.
Developing...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2006 21:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Iff this article is true, the Dems gave dug their grave for both 2006 and 2008.
If Nagin's pissed off the DNC that much, maybe I'll reconsider some of what I've said about him. :-D
Some.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 21:59 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Landrieus are all solid Democrats, lifelong machine cogs. Nagin was the interloper, even four years ago he ran against the machine. In the runoff he got the endorsement of the leading Republican who ran against him in the general election (Couhig). I would have been surprised had the DNC not moved the way they did.
This was the least racial and most civil major election I have ever seen in New Orleans. It probably wouldn't be worth much, but I would like to see Nagin convene all his major opponents into a task force to work on a set of recovery and evacuation plans.
#3
HELLO. I AM THE WIFE OF REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON CONGRESSMAN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. YOUT NAME WAS GIVEN TO ME BY A TRUSTED FRIEND AS SOMEONE WHO COULD HELP ME RECOVER FUNDS FROZEN IN A BANK ACCOUNT.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/21/2006 18:54 Comments ||
Top||
May 21, 2006 - Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., says George W. Bush is the "worst president of our lifetime," and "absolutely" worse than Watergate-tainted President Richard M. Nixon.
In an exclusive appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the former presidential and vice presidential contender said of Bush, "He's done a variety of things -- things which are going to take us forever to recover from.
"You have to give Bush and Cheney and gang credit for being good at politics -- you know, good at political campaigns," Edwards added (don't you mean 'better than you and Kerry'? - Ed.). "They're very good at dividing the country and taking advantage of it. What they're not good at is governing, and it shows every single day in this administration. And the country is paying a huge price for that."
The former senator, pitching his "college for everyone" program in rural North Carolina, also responded to recent criticism by Mary Cheney, Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter. In "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life", Cheney, the 37-year-old second daughter of the vice president and second lady, labeled Edwards as "complete and total slime" for congratulating Cheney and his wife during their 2004 vice presidential debate for "embrac[ing]" their daughter's sexual orientation.
Edwards did not back down, telling Stephanopoulous, ABC News' chief Washington correspondent, "I think what I said then was appropriate. And I do believe that it was in a very partisan political environment. We were in the middle of a very hot campaign, very close campaign."
Mary Cheney, a close political advisor to her father, told ABC News "Primetime" anchor Diane Sawyer in May that she seriously contemplated quitting the 2004 campaign over the Bush's opposition to gay marriage.
"I struggled with my decision to stay," she said.
Edwards told "This Week": "What happened is that the vice president had mentioned in several public appearances the fact that he had a gay daughter, had talked about some differences in policy that he had with the president. He was asked a question in the debate where that was referenced by the moderator, Gwen Ifill. He responded. I said that actually the fact that they had a gay daughter and embraced her is something that should be applauded for. He said thank you."
Mary Cheney has claimed in her book that her father was acting.
"He didn't seem like he was acting," Edwards told Stephanopoulos, "although you never know with the vice president."
Mary Cheney has since returned to private life, working at AOL and living with her longtime partner, Heather Poe, in Virginia.
With regard to her father, Edwards continued to level sharp criticism.
"It is not an accident that he's unbelievably poorly thought of," Edwards said. "He is one of -- if not the -- principal architects of this disaster in Iraq. He put us on an energy path that the American people are paying an enormous price for right now. He paid little to no attention to making sure the government was prepared to respond to the kind of disaster that hit our Gulf Coast. We've got a health care crisis going on, he's had no proposal of any kind that I know of. And people don't trust him anymore, which is understandable. I wouldn't trust him."
Edwards made the pitch for a Democratic president in 2008, claiming the Bush has "intentionally ignored" the law and constitution in the NSA wiretapping controversy.
"If I were in the Senate, I would vote for censure," over that controversy, Edwards said. "Again, I don't think this is where I'd spend my energy, but if I had an up-or-down vote, I'd vote for it."
#2
The Carter fiasco brought us the islamisc-fascist embedded into Iran of which the world is reaping the consequences of daily. Let's throw in the economy too. Carter left it headed to the toilet. GWB got one already heading south and now has it higher than when it was given to him, that's with a major war and biblical level natural disasters.
#6
"Bush displeases us. He defies our majesty and our personal will. He is not humbled before our personage as we demand. We no longer tolerate his impudence and insist that he cut it out. We are not amused."
The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.
Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.
Mass migration from Mexico began more than a century ago. It is deeply embedded in the history, culture and economies of both nations. The current wave began with Mexico's economic crisis in 1982, accelerated sharply in the 1990s with the U.S. economic boom, and today has reached record dimensions.
It is unlikely to ebb anytime soon.
"There is no scenario outside of catastrophic attack on the United States that would make immigration stop," said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
The fierce immigration debate now under way in Congress focuses almost exclusively on the U.S. side of the equation. Senate legislation attempts to reduce the flow by hardening the border, sanctioning employers who hire illegal migrants, and expanding avenues for legal immigration. The House passed a bill focused solely on U.S. enforcement.
Yet whatever the United States decides about immigration will have a huge impact on its closest neighbors, especially Mexico.
What happens in Mexico, by turn, has a big effect on immigration flows to the United States. Those events include a hotly contested election six weeks away that pits a leftist populist against a market-oriented heir to President Vicente Fox.
"We want Mexico to look like Canada," said Stephen Haber, director of Stanford University's Social Science History Institute and a Latin America specialist at the Hoover Institution. "That's the optimal for the United States. We never talk about instability in Canada. We're never concerned about a Canadian security problem. Because Canada is wealthy and stable. It's so wealthy and stable we barely know it's there most of the time. That's the optimal for Mexico: a wealthy and stable country."
What isn't wanted, Haber said, "is an unstable country on your border, especially an unstable country that hates you."
Three-quarters of the estimated 12 million illegal migrants in the United States come from Mexico and Central America. Mexicans make up 56 percent of the unauthorized U.S. migrant population, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Another 22 percent come from elsewhere in Latin America, mainly Central America and the Andean countries. These same countries send many of the half-million new illegal immigrants who arrive each year.
Migration is profoundly altering Mexico and Central America. Entire rural communities are nearly bereft of working-age men. The town of Tendeparacua, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, had 6,000 residents in 1985, and now has 600, according to news reports. In five Mexican states, the money migrants send home exceeds locally generated income, one study found.
Last year, Mexico received a record $20 billion in remittances from migrant workers. That is equal to Mexico's 2004 income from oil exports and dwarfing tourism revenue.
Arriving in small monthly transfers of $100 and $200, remittances have formed a vast river of "migra-dollars" that now exceeds lending by multilateral development agencies and foreign direct investment combined, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
The money Mexican migrants send home almost equals the U.S. foreign aid budget for the entire world, said Arturo Valenzuela, director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University and former head of Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.
"Where are we going to come up with $20 billion?" to ensure stability in Mexico, Valenzuela asked at a recent conference. "Has anybody in the raging immigration debate over the last few weeks thought, could it be good for the fundamental interests of the United States ... to serve as something of a safety valve for those that can't be employed in Mexico?"
Migration has caused significant social disruption in Mexico, though research is scant, said B. Lindsay Lowell, director of policy studies at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University.
"We do know that it can break up families, and has done so in many traditional sending areas," he said. "The husband comes to the United States and stays for many years. His wife is on her own with the children. In some cases, the couple comes to the United States and leaves their children behind with relatives."
The migration is driven in part, experts say, by the large income differentials between the two nations. A rural Latin American migrant may earn 10 times in the United States what he or she can earn at home.
But an equally intense pull comes from U.S. employers, including private households, who employ large numbers of illegal immigrants as nannies, housekeepers and caregivers, said Jeffery Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.
The U.S. information economy has created a split labor market, one with a powerful demand for high- and low-skilled workers, economists say.
While U.S. professionals toil in office buildings, others come to clean their offices, prepare their food and provide the host of services that support modern life. In a bygone era, teenagers, women and rural U.S. migrants filled these jobs. The U.S. labor market offers opportunities to "a younger, vibrant labor force and Mexican immigration has been filling that void," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
U.S. demand has driven a record increase in wages for newly arrived immigrants, about 30 percent between 1994 and 2000, according to Lowell. The migration has also raised average wages in Mexico by 8 to 9 percent, economists estimate. As the first U.S. Baby Boomers turn 60 this year, this demand is only expected to intensify.
Once migration starts, social and economic networks sustain and fuel it, which explains in part why flows have not fallen despite solid economic growth in Mexico.
Most illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America have not completed high school, although education levels are rising. Harvard economist George Borjas found that in 2000, 63 percent of Mexican immigrants had not finished high school.
New immigrants are much more broadly dispersed than previous waves. A lower percentage are going to the traditional magnet states such as California and New York. The fastest-growing destinations for new arrivals, according to demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution, are North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Iowa and Nebraska.
This geographic dispersal may account in part for rising public discontent over immigration, many believe. Migrant workers have also shifted from the fields to the cities, working in hotels, restaurants and construction, where they are more visible to the public.
Mexico is aging too, which will eventually cause migration to ebb. Its population trails the U.S. age profile by 30 years. By then, demographers expect Mexico may be importing labor.
While migration has long served as a safety valve for Mexico, the current wave may also be hindering the political and economic reforms that most agree are needed -- in education, taxes, energy, agriculture and law, where systemic corruption is a serious barrier to growth.
"The good news is that a million Mexicans were on the street recently demanding good jobs and good government and justice," Roger Noriega, former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told a recent panel at the American Enterprise Institute. "The bad news is they were marching in someone else's country. Every day, thousands of Mexico's most industrious people leave their families behind ... leading many to wonder why Mexico's political class is not capable of creating economic opportunity for its citizens in a land rich in mineral wealth, hydrocarbons, agricultural potential and human capital."
The United States is not the only country that shares a long land border with a poorer nation. So does Germany, with Poland. France once did with Spain. Many point to Europe's unification as a better way to integrate the North American economies without disruptive migration flows.
Before the European Union opened its labor markets, its wealthier countries invested billions of dollars to develop the economies of its poorer members -- at the time, Spain, Portugal and Greece -- that had been sending migrants abroad. Since then, Spain has become the economic engine of Europe, and this month opened its labor market to Poland. The Irish, who once fled economic calamity by the millions to the United States, are today having their gas pumped by Eastern Europeans.
Many contend that U.S. investment in Mexico would be less expensive and more effective than a wall. Poorly developed Mexican credit markets make it all but impossible for a low-income family to get a mortgage.
If, when the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1994, "the United States had approached Mexico and its integration into the North American economy in the same way that the European Union approached Spain and Portugal in 1986, we wouldn't have an immigration problem now," said Princeton University sociologist Douglas Massey, co-director of the Mexican Migration Project, a survey of Mexican migrants.
Given the predominance of Mexicans and Central Americans in illegal immigration to the United States, Papademetriou wonders why the Senate's guest worker program would be open to all comers, if it is intended to provide temporary workers for the U.S. market.
"If 60 percent of our illegal immigration comes from a single country, and another 20 percent comes through that country, logic would say the vast majority of visas should go to the country of origin," he said. "The last thing you would do is create a global temporary worker program, as if somehow we should need Bangladeshis or Russians to pick our fruits and vegetables."
Targeted visas could also leverage Mexican cooperation in undertaking politically difficult reforms, and would be more likely to keep guest workers temporary. "You keep it a neighborhood project," Papademetriou said, "so you have people going back and forth visiting their families, not spending thousands of dollars to come from all over the Earth. People who already have a network in place that will support them in the United States, that will help them find jobs."
Given that Mexico is the second-largest U.S. trading partner, the two nations' economic integration is well under way, and labor is part of that, experts say.
Even a new wall -- already under construction on the border with Mexico with bits of triple fencing here and pieces of National Guard units there -- has not stopped migrants entering yet and probably works more to trap them in the United States, many believe.
"These are human beings," said Audrey Singer, an immigration expert at the Brookings Institution. "It's not like a water faucet we can turn on and off. I think of managing them better -- because it's very hard to stop them."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 10:22 Comments ||
Top||
#3
They're saying it's our fault for not investing more in Mexico but Mexico's laws aren't just very strict against such a possibility, its electorate is very strictly against changing those laws.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/21/2006 11:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Annex Mexico. One set of problems solved
And a bunch more adopted. Although it may come to that.
#8
Mexico is VERY wealthy professor. It currently has the most billionaires in the world. They don't share. The real problem is that the US is becoming more like Mexico. Super wealthy and the dregs. Exporting middle class jobs and importing poverty changes the balance rapidly. If Mexicans had guts and guns, they would have changed this long ago. Mexico made certain that only the ruling mob had guns. The leftists, like you professor, are trying mightily to do the same here. Let's all hope this doesn't happen.
FBI agents searched the congressional office of Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana Saturday evening in connection with a public corruption investigation that has already netted two guilty pleas by two associates, authorities said. The search began at 7:15 p.m. EDT in the Rayburn House Office Building, where Jefferson's office is located, said Debra Weierman, an FBI spokeswoman. It was not clear what agents were looking for and Weierman said she could provide no additional details because the affidavit supporting the search warrant was sealed. But she indicated the search could take several hours. Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, complained that FBI agents refused to allow him or the general counsel of the House of Representatives to witness the search.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Isn't this the guy that commandeered a National Guard truck in the middle of Katrina to clean out his house?
#2
"Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, complained that FBI agents refused to allow him or the general counsel of the House of Representatives to witness the search."
More like didn't allow you and your pal to obstruct and interfere with the search.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/21/2006 3:57 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Think it's the same guy, Matt?
public corruption investigation
What happened to the good old days of private corruption investigations?
India has hit back at criticism attributed to Pope Benedict XVI about "disturbing signs of religious intolerance" in the country, saying people of all faiths enjoy equal rights under the law. "It is acknowledged universally that India is a secular and democratic country in which adherents of all religious faiths enjoy equal rights," India's foreign ministry said in a statement late Friday. "The constitution of India states that 'all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion'," the ministry said, adding it was responding to reports of the pontiff's comments.
The statement came a day after the pope reportedly criticised India for "disturbing signs of religious intolerance which have troubled some regions of India". The Times of India, and other media, reported that the pope voiced strong criticism to India's new ambassador to the Vatican, Amitava Tripathi, over attempts by some Indian states to introduce legislation to ban what some call "forced conversions". The pope criticised India for a "reprehensible attempt to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right of religious freedom," the Times said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Do you? Actually India is a secular democracy...well, most of it. And in "most" regions of India freedom of religion is the norm.
The problem is that there are regions of India not under Delhi's control. India, is NOT a homogenous country or people.
Delhi is working hard to bring these troubled areas into line with national policy, but it is not an easy task. They protest "too much" as you ignorantly (I mean that in the best possible way...think uninformed) put it, because it has been an uphill slog to get to where they are today.
Put another way, the have made tremendous progress and continue to work hard to make religous freedom a fact of life in all of India.
Naturally, they would resent the Pontif, pontificating about crap he himself is probably misinformed on.
#3
I agree with Manola here. India goes to extraordinary lengths to achieve religous equality.
BTW Manola, are you the one who put the sidebar ad at MM's site. At first I thought your pitch was dumb, but after a few viewings it bounced around my head and it made an impact. Never went to your site thought; just for info.
#7
Actually the religious conversion bill (which seeks to ban forced conversions) has been vetoed by the Governor of Rajasthan State a few days ago.
So there was a reaction to the Pope's complaint.
The FM statement is for public consumption...
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 10:11 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I'm not sure if the state legislature of Rajasthan can override this veto. They probably will attempt to appeal to the Indian President, but he is unlikely to respond.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 10:15 Comments ||
Top||
#9
India has an active radical Muslim movement bent on killing all Hindus they come upon. The Pope should pull his head out of his a** and get on the train. India is correct, and it's about time. How many have to be murdered before these countries take a stand ?
ISLAMABAD: Tensions have been building up at the International Islamic University's (IIU) girls' hostels after several clashes occurring between local and foreign girls during the last few days. Serious brawls between the girls have also resulted in severe injuries to the students. Both local and foreign students have accused each other of aggression, however the local students are also targeting the universities administration for being biased and siding with the foreign students.
Razia, a student of the Hasool-e-Din department at the university allegedly suffered severe injuries at the hands of three foreign students in the H-10 Hostel. Three Chinese students of the Arabic department living in the IIU B-Block girls hostel, allegedly attacked Razia on Tuesday evening. Razia reportedly sustained severe injuries and was rendered unconscious after the incident. IIU students told Daily Times that they rushed Razia to the Pakistan Institute Medical Sciences (PIMS), where doctors said that the case should be reported to the police. Students said that the warden who accompanied them to PIMS refused to file a report with the police saying that "this would tarnish the image of the university" and took the girl back to hostel.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Islamic catfight! Wonder if they wore burkhas?
This reminds me of that story (here? Can't remember) of two gangs of egyptian schoolgirls fighting over boyz with chains and bricks and stuff. Now, THAT'S a catfight, by gum!
ISRAEL and South Africa carried out a nuclear test on an offshore platform in the northern Antarctic in 1979, according to a newly disclosed US document, Yediot Aharonot newspaper said.
The document, released at the request of the security studies centre at Georgetown University in Washington, says a mystery explosion detected on September 22, 1979 by a US satellite was a nuclear test.
Prepared for the White House in December 1979, it said Israel and South Africa, then under apartheid rule, were cooperating on military issues, including nuclear research.
US intelligence services reported in 1990 that South Africa was producing nuclear weapons, while Israel is estimated to possess 200 nuclear warheads, although it has never confirmed or denied holding such weapons. South Africa later dismantled its nuclear weapons program under UN supervision. Some confirmation of long-held suspicions. However, at the time it was suggested that Argentina was involved with the other two in the test. South Africa's peaceful use continued, and along with Japan, they are known to produce small reactors of great utility, both today and in the future.
But if the Persians get close, isn't it maybe time for show and tell? Perhaps the Zionist entity ought to come clean. Let the world know that yep, 3rd nuclear power. 25 in the hillz, 16 in the subs, 60 for the F-15Is and another 30 occulated and waiting for the hidden mahdi.
#8
Oh, I didn't say the UN had AUTHORITY to intervene. But they will do everything they can, with sanctions and pressure to do nothing about Iran, as a result of an admission that Israel has nuclear weapons.
#9
But the UN can't do anything with nations like iran or israel. Israel will show more backbone than say the united states has and tell the UN too fuck off
#12
Since the Zionist entity felt it was necessary to test their 2 stage device as did India and the ISI, does this imply that Iran will feel the same way? Or will they trust their math?
#15
Since the Zionist entity felt it was necessary to test their 2 stage device as did India and the ISI
Thankfully the Paks don't have a thermonuclear weapon. Yet.
They can't design their own weapons and rely on Chinese designs. The Chinese have not yet proliferated this class of weapon.
The pictures and details revealed by the traitor Vananu suggests that the Israeli hydrogen device is a Sloika, not a true staged weapon.
There are questions regarding the yield of the Indian thermonuclear device. Iyengar, who headed the team that developed the first Indian fission device tested in 1974, wonders if the secondary burn failed.
Posted by: john ||
05/21/2006 14:29 Comments ||
Top||
#16
on an offshore platform in the northern Antarctic
Ummm ... except for the South Pole, couldn't just about everywhere in the Antarctic be considered the "northern" part? ;-)
Posted by: ExtremeModerate
#2
With her slender figure, clear complexion and winning smile, she could be one of South Korea's most eligible women. But her skin is made from silicone jelly and her conversation can be rather dull.
I'll bet that wouldn't stop Hef.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Tens of thousands of conservative Muslims rallied in the Indonesian capital Sunday in support of a proposed anti-pornography bill that critics say would chip away at the country's secular traditions.
The protesters, who arrived in buses organized by mosques and conservative Islamic groups, urged parliament to immediately pass the bill, that in its current form would ban kissing in public - as well as erotic poetry, dancing, drawing, writing, photos and film. Organizers said 1 million people would attend the demonstration. Turnout appeared far less than that, perhaps 25,000, but it was still one of the largest shows of force by conservative Islam in recent years.
They say the same thing about anti-war rallies here, each of which is routinely outdrawn by Major League Baseball.
Some demonstrators carried banners calling for the imposition of Islamic law in the country, which is home to some 190 million Muslims - more than any other country in the world - but also has significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities.
The bill, which was originally drafted in 1999 following the downfall of ex-dictator Suharto, is facing opposition from nationalist lawmakers, who form a majority in the house, and is unlikely to pass as in its current form. Those opposed to the bill include the country's minority faiths, liberal Muslim groups, artists and several outlying regions which fear their traditional dances and culture may be criminalized.
The US Senate has adopted a resolution calling on Washington to spearhead a campaign for a UN Security Council resolution compelling Myanmar's military junta to work with the world body on a plan for national reconciliation. Adopted late Thursday, the resolution also condemned the military rulers of the Southeast Asian nation for its current "campaign of terror" against ethnic minorities, reportedly the most serious in a decade. The resolution reflects the Senate's "grave concern about the deteriorating situation in Burma (Myanmar)," said Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority whip, whose resolution received bipartisan backing.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sometimes, in these moments when I cannot sleep and read articles like this one, I wonder if the US Senate actually conspires to provide cover for genocide by burying its horror in verbage like this.
Senior UN official Ibrahim Gambari met detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Yangon guest house on Saturday, her first contact with an outsider in three years, a government source said.
The meeting followed an audience between Gambari and Than Shwe, the ruling military junta's supremo, in his new jungle capital. It lasted for about an hour, according to the source, who asked not to be identified. There were no further details. Gambari, undersecretary-general for political affairs, is the first senior UN official in two years to be allowed into the former Burma, which has been under military rule of one form or another since 1962.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Next UN supremo = Asian wimman". Wisheful thinking, I know, but, hey!
#4
Well, Friday nights are already holy in Texas, but you try to cover up our women folk and we'll have a problem.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/21/2006 10:28 Comments ||
Top||
#5
There's always been a fringe in the evangelical Christian movement that emphasizes submission of women. I know a few such women who don't do the food shopping, because it would expose them to the outside world. They are being "cared for" just like the Muslim men say they are "caring for" their wives, daughters and other females.
This may not be as big a leap as it sounds, unfortunately.
#7
One day, when Islam has been totally obliterated, mostly by former Muslims, we will look back on these days and laugh at this false religion's perfidy.
In Islam-based Gamma Gamma Chi, sisterhood is in, but alcohol, clubbing out
Greek letters gleamed from a satin banner, sequins flashed on little purses, and a woman holding a brochure blushed crimson, trying to explain why she liked the idea of this new group. Another widened dark eyes lined with kohl, watching everyone closely. Tasmim Anwar smiled and said, with a little gush, "I am such a sorority type of girl."
And long before the first Gamma Gamma Chi rush in Maryland was over a student had politely interrupted to ask if they could break for maghrib, a sunset prayer. The students, draped in dark scarves, knelt to praise Allah in a hallway at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
These women came curious about a new kind of sorority, one that could change stereotypes of Muslim women, one based on Islamic beliefs: no drinking, no socializing with men. Like Anwar, a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, most had never seriously considered going Greek. They've heard the stereotypes, such as keg parties with fraternity guys, and, well, that's plenty right there.
So they came to this new kind of rush, some covered head to toe in dark abayas, some with scarves pinned carefully around their heads and strappy 4-inch heels, some with hair loose and jeans tight. Few of them fit into any easy cultural niche; they've been blending and balancing all their lives.
And some wondered whether this most American of college traditions might be too tricky to pull off. "I'm curious to see how that will be, that balance," Anwar said.
I'm curious to see how many of you will be abaya-free in a year.
Greek life has changed dramatically from the days when wealthy, young white men drank gin and tonics on the verandas of fraternity houses. As the mix of students at colleges becomes ever more varied, so do their campus groups. At schools nationwide, there are Hispanic, Jewish, Indian and lesbian sororities and multicultural ones, sometimes formed in reaction to the others.
There isn't, apparently, any other Islamic sorority or fraternity in the United States. The idea for Gamma Gamma Chi started with Althia F. Collins, an educational consultant in suburban Washington, and her daughter Imani Abdul-Haqq, who wanted to pledge a sorority in North Carolina. When Abdul-Haqq walked in wearing her hijab, Collins said, "everyone looked at her like she had three heads."
Collins and her daughter, who became Muslims several years ago, thought sororities' emphasis on volunteering and leadership would make Muslim women more visible and help dispel stereotypes. And Collins, who was in a sorority in college, said she thinks the bonds are stronger and more long-lasting than those formed in a club or dorm. So they dreamed up Gamma Gamma Chi, choosing letters, colors and such symbols as a waterlily, for its ability to flourish in difficult surroundings.
The first chapter recently started in Atlanta. Applications are coming in from Rutgers in New Jersey. The next chapter could soon be in Maryland, likely beginning as a regional group with members from several schools.
Not everyone likes the idea. Collins has visited some places where she hung the banner, set out plates of grapes and cookies, explained the sorority and no one asked to join.
The national Muslim Students' Association welcomes the effort, but some members of campus chapters disapprove. "Sororities are played out to be very exclusive," said Haleema Yahya, a senior at UMBC, explaining why she thinks Gamma Gamma Chi would be controversial.
Some people are skeptical just because the idea is new, said Misu Tasnim, a junior at Johns Hopkins. Some worry that the sorority sisters would splinter off the main Muslim student group. "And also because 'sorority' denotes drinking and dating and stuff," Tasnim said, "people are not sure how it will play into the Muslim ideals."
Or traditions. In the Muslim Students' Association, "the guys have more say than the girls do, just because that's how it is," said Narmin Anwar, Tasmim's sister, who introduced the sorority idea. "This would be more for the girls, to have more of a leadership role."
They already have that in Islamic societies -- as long as they're with other women. It's when you introduce the men that problems start. So how does an Islamic sorority change that?
Tasmim Anwar came to the meeting with her long, wavy hair uncovered, hoping to find a middle ground between the stereotypes of Muslims and sorority girls, fearing the group might be too strict.
She had heard stories of sororities at Johns Hopkins. "My friends would go to rush events, stay up all night talking to each other, wear high heels," she said, half wistful, half laughing at herself. "That sounds like so much fun."
Collins told the students that they wouldn't preach but would support one another in a society that often misunderstands them. And like most Greek organizations, Gamma Gamma Chi wouldn't turn people away just because they're different it would be open to non-Muslims as well and it would have social events for women. But no drinking, clubbing or hooking up.
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.
SHARM EL-SHEIK: President Hosni Mubarak opened the World Economic Forum on Saturday with a series of indirect but pointed jabs at the United States, warning that the world must overcome the widening gap between rich and poor and block escalating threats of terrorism.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) An adviser to President Hugo Chavez said Friday that Venezuela is considering buying about two dozen Russian fighter jets to replace its fleet of F-16s because Washington has refused to sell the country upgrades for the U.S.-made planes.
Final preparations were under way Saturday ahead of a landmark referendum on Montenegro's independence as leaders urged rival supporters to accept the result peacefully. The referendum on Montenegro's independence from a federation with Serbia could be the final act in the dissolution of former communist Yugoslavia, four of whose six republics broke away in a series of 1990s wars.
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE WORKED TO DEFEAT NAGIN
FBI agents searched the congressional office of Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana Saturday evening in connection with a public corruption investigation that has already netted two guilty pleas by two associates, authorities said. The search began at 7:15 p.m. EDT in the Rayburn House Office Building, where Jefferson's office is located, said Debra Weierman, an FBI spokeswoman. It was not clear what agents were looking for and Weierman said she could provide no additional details because the affidavit supporting the search warrant was sealed. But she indicated the search could take several hours. Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, complained that FBI agents refused to allow him or the general counsel of the House of Representatives to witness the search.
India has hit back at criticism attributed to Pope Benedict XVI about "disturbing signs of religious intolerance" in the country, saying people of all faiths enjoy equal rights under the law. "It is acknowledged universally that India is a secular and democratic country in which adherents of all religious faiths enjoy equal rights," India's foreign ministry said in a statement late Friday. "The constitution of India states that 'all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion'," the ministry said, adding it was responding to reports of the pontiff's comments. 
ISLAMABAD: Tensions have been building up at the International Islamic University's (IIU) girls' hostels after several clashes occurring between local and foreign girls during the last few days. Serious brawls between the girls have also resulted in severe injuries to the students. Both local and foreign students have accused each other of aggression, however the local students are also targeting the universities administration for being biased and siding with the foreign students.
ISRAEL and South Africa carried out a nuclear test on an offshore platform in the northern Antarctic in 1979, according to a newly disclosed US document, Yediot Aharonot newspaper said.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Tens of thousands of conservative Muslims rallied in the Indonesian capital Sunday in support of a proposed anti-pornography bill that critics say would chip away at the country's secular traditions.
The US Senate has adopted a resolution calling on Washington to spearhead a campaign for a UN Security Council resolution compelling Myanmar's military junta to work with the world body on a plan for national reconciliation. Adopted late Thursday, the resolution also condemned the military rulers of the Southeast Asian nation for its current "campaign of terror" against ethnic minorities, reportedly the most serious in a decade. The resolution reflects the Senate's "grave concern about the deteriorating situation in Burma (Myanmar)," said Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority whip, whose resolution received bipartisan backing.
Senior UN official Ibrahim Gambari met detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Yangon guest house on Saturday, her first contact with an outsider in three years, a government source said. 
