ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Unchecked civilian abuse by Ivory Coast military and rebels - ranging from robbery to killings - threatens to derail elections planned for this Oct. 31st, an international monitoring group said Thursday.
Human Rights Watch said police in Ivory Coast's government-held south have routinely extorted money from civilians at security checkpoints, at times beating or even killing citizens without facing prosecution. Meanwhile, rebels in the north forced bribes from those in their area, often arbitrarily arresting people and imposing jail sentences without any court or executive oversight, the New York-based group said.
The U.N. on Wednesday condemned continuing violence against civilians in Ivory Coast, calling on leaders to punish those responsible and to step up disarmament efforts.
Was that a strong condemnation or a regular one?
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that "unless measures are taken now to combat impunity, a repeat of the violence experienced during the 2000 presidential and parliamentary elections could occur." In a report, the group documented multiple incidences of torture by military police, forced roadside bribes, attacks against student groups between November and March. The information was based on interviews with victims and witnesses, along with officials from Ivory Coast security forces, U.N. workers, rebel leaders, aid workers, journalists and diplomats.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
But wait! This can't be! A commercial I saw on TV for soccer said the warring factions in the IC had called a truce and all was well at least until the match was over.
#2
Africa. From the headline I thought there were fears that elections would break out. I think the UN should focus all of its efforts there. In Africa. Solely. Mankind can't get any more naturally screwed up and the UN can do nothing that doesn't already pass for "normal". A perfect match of skills and perversions and problems. Bonus: no one will notice the additional hot air. Make Bono a permanent UN Amb to the entire continent, too, but with no budget of Other People's Money.
/sarcasm
Kim du Toit is right.
This article needs the young AK-totin' cross-dresser, IMHO.
Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory." Activists led by 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev had planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- a symbol of the World War Two struggle against fascism, and one of Russia's most sacred places. But police closed the gates to the park where the eternal flame burns under the Kremlin walls, and a heavy scrum of women singing hymns and shaven-headed nationalists tried to charge into the gay activists as the march arrived. "This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what's happening," Alexeyev said as he was dragged, bent almost double, away from the gates by two policemen.
"We win! They're thumping knobs on our heads!"
City authorities had banned the march, which they called an "outrage to society," while religious leaders from all major faiths condemned it. Interfax news agency reported police had detained around 100 people after the clashes. Even some rival gay activists said the march risked inflaming Russia's widespread intolerance of homosexuality, and wished Alexeyev had chosen a less direct way to protest against discrimination and homophobia. Homosexuality was only decriminalized in Russia in 1993 and, although some gay clubs exist in big cities, same-sex couples almost never make a public display of their affections.
#2
The worst thing my worst boss taught me: I don't know.
It's kinda like this, Cindy. There is always at least one arsehole in the crowd. If you are in the middle of a crowd, Cin, and you can't see any arseholes, then......
#3
What, is Jawn stepping out on his billionairesse?
Better hope Te-ray-sa doesn't find out....
;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/27/2006 13:19 Comments ||
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#4
Tipper? Is that you?
Posted by: Al ||
05/27/2006 13:30 Comments ||
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#5
What I like best about my job: Traveling around the world, making a difference in the world ass of myself, meeting people with loving and peace-filled hearts overflowing with Hatred of the United States and Freedom..
What I like least about it: Traveling around the world and being away from my three surviving children. Nobody pays attention to me anymore (sob!)
The best thing my best boss taught me: Trust my instincts.
The worst thing my worst boss taught me: I don't know [I haven't looked in the mirror lately].
I work best: When I have had enough sleep and water.
Education/experience: I went to UCLA and left school dropped out with one year left to earn my B.A. in history. The only thing that has trained me for my activism career is the death of my son, Casey, in the immoral and illegal war on Iraq and my handlers from ANSWER and CAIR.
Birthplace/home town: Inglewood, Calif. I grew up in Bellflower, Calif.
Where I live: My stuff stays in Berkeley, Calif., while I travel the world.
Age: 48.
Family: I am seeing a Vietnam vet right now. My children are Carly, 25, Andy, 22, and Janey, 20.
Person outside my family I most admire: Anyone hates america or freedom who is working to get our troops out of Iraq and for peace.
My real passion is: Peace. Getting attention.
Favorite place to go for enjoyment: Camp Casey, Crawford, Texas.My son's unmarked grave - if he hadn't died I wouldn't be so famous!
Music, munchies and mantra that get me through the day: I don't listen to music [- I have no soul]. I eat when I can.
Mantra: "Do, or do not. There is no try." (Jedi Master Yoda.)
Most valuable lesson I've learned: Life is precious and worth fighting for. Making an ass of ourself and using your son's corpse as a soapbox for a political agenda works pretty good.
Looking at me you'd never guess: I am a radical peacenik. I used to be alive.
The Justice Department signaled to the White House this week that the nation's top three law enforcement officials would resign or face firing rather than return documents seized from a Democratic congressman's office in a bribery investigation, according to administration sources familiar with the discussions. Are they really this upset? And did they really leak this?
The possibility of resignations by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; his deputy, Paul J. McNulty; and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III was communicated to the White House by several Justice officials in tense negotiations over the fate of the materials taken from Rep. William J. Jefferson's office, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. My good fried Anonymous Sources is quoted again.
Justice prosecutors and FBI agents feared that the White House was ready to acquiesce to demands from House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other lawmakers that the materials be returned to the Louisiana congressman, who is the subject of a criminal probe by the FBI. Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, David S. Addington, was among the leading White House critics of the FBI raid, telling officials at Justice and on Capitol Hill that he believed the search was questionable, several sources familiar with his views said.
Administration officials said yesterday that the specter of top-level resignations or firings at Justice and the FBI was a crucial turning point in the standoff, helping persuade President Bush to announce a cease-fire on Thursday. Bush ordered that the Jefferson materials be sealed for 45 days while Justice officials and House lawmakers work out their differences, while also making it clear that he expected the case against Jefferson to proceed.
White House officials were not informed of the search until it began last Saturday and did not immediately recognize the political ramifications, the sources said. By Sunday, however, as the 18-hour search continued, lawmakers began lodging complaints with the White House. So, Gonzales OK'ed this without checking with the Cowboy? Wonder why? Didn't tell him, but is willing to quit over it. Hmmm.
Addington -- who had worked as a staffer in the House and whose boss, Cheney, once served as a congressman -- quickly emerged as a key internal critic of raiding the office of a sitting House member. He raised heated objections to the Justice Department's legal rationale for the search during a meeting Sunday with McNulty and others, according to several sources.
Hastert wrote in an article published in USA Today yesterday that House lawyers are working with the Justice Department to develop guidelines for handling searches of lawmakers' offices. "But that is behind us now," Hastert wrote. "I am confident that in the next 45 days, the lawyers will figure out how to do it right." He knows he lost in the Court of Public Opinion.
Also yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) met with Gonzales at the senator's Capitol Hill office.
"We've been working hard already, and we'll continue to do so pursuant to the president's order," Gonzales told reporters on his way into Frist's suite just off the Senate floor. Got some suspects there too? I hope Specter is one of them.
Jefferson, 59, has been under investigation since March 2005 for allegations that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote business ventures in Africa. Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him, including Brett Pfeffer, one of his former aides, who was sentenced yesterday to eight years in prison by a federal judge in Alexandria. I hate to pick nits, but don't the editors at the WaPo know that the past tense of plead is pled? Not that my grammar and spelling are ideal, but I don't claim to be writing the first draft of history.
As the week progressed, the confrontation escalated further. At some point in the negotiations, McNulty told Palmer that he would quit if ordered to return the materials to Jefferson, according to several officials familiar with the conversation.
McNulty, a former Alexandria prosecutor who was recently named Gonzales's deputy, was a central player in the contentious negotiations with Capitol Hill and the White House, sources said. He had also worked in the House for 12 years, as chief counsel for both the majority leader's office and a crime subcommittee. He probably knows where entire cemetaries are located.
A message that McNulty might quit was passed along to the White House, along with similar messages for Gonzales and Mueller. Sources familiar with the discussions declined to say which Justice officials communicated those possibilities to the White House.
The discussion of Gonzales and the others resigning never evolved into a direct threat, but it was made plain that such an option would have to be considered if the president ordered the documents returned, several sources said. "It wasn't one of those things of 'If you will, I will,' " one senior administration official said. "It was kind of the background noise."
"One of the reasons the president did what he did was these types of conversations and other types of conversations in the House were escalating," the official said, referring to murmured threats by some House Republicans to call for Gonzales's resignation. Did those other conversations in the House involve words that begin with "I"?
"If you tell the House to stick it where the sun don't shine, you're talking about a fundamentally corrosive relationship between two branches of government," the senior administration official said. "They could zero out funding; they could say, 'Okay, you can do subpoenas, so can we.' "
#1
why should they return the docs? You or I wouldn't get that treatment. They aren't above the law and I'm sick of these politicians thinking that they are.
Why is Hassert even asking this - a little nervous what they might contain? Cheney is asking this too? Heh- sounds like the good ol' boys may be going down. If the Repubs are going to also get caught up in this corruption scandal too - tough. Good riddance.
#3
There is some deeply weird shit going on here. Congressmen do have a constitutional immunity while conducting the business of Congress. But please tell me they are not making the argument that bribery and corruption are an essential part of conducting that business. I hope Gonzalez and company have the stones to follow this through.
#4
How many CENTCOM Commanders have we trained in Iraq on building a new government to replace one that no longer had the 'consent of the govern'? Germany, Japan, now Iraq. I think we have an interim alternative if these clowns want to keep pushing it.
It is no secret to the Muslim immigrants of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, that spies live among them.
Special Agenct Starchedshirt adjusted his binoculars as he ogled the nubile young Pakistani maiden from his hidden vantage point in the bushes opposite her sparsely appointed bathroom...
Almost anyone can rattle off what they regard as the telltale signs of police informers: They like to talk politics. They have plenty of free time. They live in the neighborhood, but have no local relatives. "They think we don't know, but we know who they are," said Linda Sarsour, 26, a community activist.
"We have our own ways of gaining precious information on their nefarious plots against innocent Muslims," she said, carefully adjusting her burka. "Young men who would gladly sacrifice themselves for a single glance from my sultry eyes are infiltrating the FBI and the NYPD, even as we speak! Victory will soon be ours!"
It is another thing for them to be officially revealed. Over the last several weeks, during the trial of a Pakistani immigrant who was convicted on Wednesday of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station, Muslims in Bay Ridge learned that two agents of the police had been planted in the neighborhood and were instrumental to the case.
Drawing his cloak more tightly around his skinny shoulders, the informant skulked down the alley, toward the House of Mahmoud. The poisoned dagger at his waist was ready to use at a moment's notice...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/27/2006 01:58 ||
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#1
One of the "brothers" plans to blow up subways full of New Yorkers and muslims can only complain that there are spies embedded to prevent just that. Well fuck you and the camel you rode in on Omar. Go back to your non-police state in Waziristan, unpolluted by infidels, or wherever the hell else you oozed in from. You and your breeding stock are no longer welcome. Get your ass out now and suffer the infidels no more.
It's another black eye for civil trials in what is the most vile form of warfare against American civilians. Two sources of insight into the ummah were burned, and terrorist-Americans alerted, in order to convict this Siraj peckerwood. A net loss in my view.
And for the unamed police official, you better be targeting the muslim population. That's where terrorists come from.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2006 2:52 Comments ||
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#4
First off I know no one outside of law enforcement that feels comfortable with them 100% of the time or trusts them 100% of the time. Thats reality. If these folks are bummed out about it then it's time to grow up and realise that is the way it is. This tension there for everyone. As Italians, Mexicans, your favorite ethnic group, and plain old "americans" will tell you if they are honest. If you find it's different you are living in a dream world or you are too wealthy for it to matter. The NYT sure as heck knows that fact but they have to make it some kind of sob story about "lost trust" to further their own transnational Socialist agendas and seditious bull crap.
I bet it's much worse in the places these muslims originate from if they were unlucky enough not to be born in the US of A. If they can't understand that they are required by living here to place the security or their fellow citizens above their family. religion and tribal groupings they should start saving for a return trip home or imigrating on to some place else. After all the lawful police power being used also protects them and their familes as well as the rest of us.
I am petty sure that some of them due to their religious beliefs would be better off returing to the place they originated from or immigrating on to someplace they will feel more at ease. That is if they can find one willing to accept them. We would also be better off if they did. Since that is a fact we will need to keep tabs on them and keep conducting lawful investigations for the well being and security of our nation and society.
No Islamophobic or racist agendas, it's just rational thinking by the people paid to protect us for once.
#6
This is nothing compared to what would happen to their islamic asses if they DID blow up a subway, a school and a mall. Either get the radical element out of your communities or we will do it for you, and if you help them, you will die.
#9
"It's like a police state here," said Omar Maged, 34, an assistant teacher at a public high school. "We do not feel that we are living in the most free country in the world."
That's great...and this one is in the school system. Not one word against the muslim brother who plotted the mass murder of New Yorkers...the more they talk, the more they reveal.
#13
I realise I am painting with a broad brush here, but I have to ask: Their co-religionists are plotting to blow up the neighborhood and these guys are whining about being spied upon. Are muslims as a group stupider than other people?
Or maybe this is just a difference between Islamists and, say, Methodists. If there was a group in my church planning to blow up a bus station, I would be ratting them out to the cops myself. Maybe it is simply a question of where your loyalties lie.
#14
Muzzies are a cancer growing within. They have no intention of joining in the American society and community. They only intend to over throw it. If they think they have it bad now, when the next outrage occurs here, they are going to be rounded up and incarcerated. Camps are being built now. But that's only if they're lucky that the feds get to them before the general public.
#15
Good to see the Times right out front with their priorities. Preventing possible terrorist attacks vs. offending Muslims? Which way you wanna go, Pinchy?
#16
Article: "It's like a police state here," said Omar Maged, 34, an assistant teacher at a public high school. "We do not feel that we are living in the most free country in the world."
This guy doesn't seem to understand what a police state is. In a police state, people who say the wrong things disappear and are never heard of again. Ever. Because they are lying in unmarked graves.
My feeling is that this guy misses the freedom he had to talk about killing Americans back in his home country. Back there, talking about killing Americans would have been fine, whereas talking about killing his home country's leader would probably have led to his disappearance. But he figures he was free back home because he could plot his murderous anti-American fantasies in peace. I doubt he'll ever return home, though - the living is usually better here, unless he has inherited wealth.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A state appeals court on Friday rejected Apple Computer Inc.'s bid to identify the sources of leaked product information that appeared on Web sites, ruling that online reporters and bloggers are entitled to the same protections as traditional journalists. "In no relevant respect do they appear to differ from a reporter or editor for a traditional business-oriented periodical who solicits or otherwise comes into possession of confidential internal information about a company," Justice Conrad Rushing of the 6th District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous 69-page ruling.
"We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of what constitutes 'legitimate journalism," he wrote. "The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here." The online journalists are thus entitled to the protections provided under California's shield law as well as the privacy protections for e-mails allowed under federal law, the court ruled.
Two years ago, Apple went to court seeking to identify the culprits behind the leak of confidential information about an unreleased product code-named as "Asteroid" to online media outlets. Apple contended it was entitled to identify the sources presumed in this case to be company employees because the leak constituted a violation of trade secrets. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company subpoenaed the Internet service providers of three online journalists to turn over e-mail records aiming to uncover the possible sources.
A lower court last year ruled in Apple's favor, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose attorneys represent the online journalists of AppleInsider.com, PowerPage.org and MacNN.com appealed. The appeals court based in San Jose sided with the civil liberties organization, overturning the lower court's decision. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the ruling "a huge win." "Today's decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large," said the group's staff attorney Kurt Opsahl, who argued the case before the appeals court last month. HT to Drudge - I'm sure he likes this....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I think this is a good thing because in the end, it will show that the reporters shouldn't have extra protections than you or I. I'm not sure I like the idea of people being able to leak classified secrets or trade secrets or personal privacy secrets as anonymous sources without being held responsible for what they print - but that's a fine mess indeed.
This is a bummer for the NYT staff - cause we can do to them what they can do to us. heh.
The Saddar Police have sealed a first information report (FIR) that had been registered against a Christian, Qamar David, in a blasphemy case on Wednesday night. David was arrested on Wednesday night after a travel agent, Khursheed Ahmed, complained that he had sent blasphemous text messages to several people through his mobile phone. However by Friday, the Saddar Investigations Police claimed no knowledge of the FIR when Daily Times questioned a town investigation officer and superintendent investigation officer about its contents. On Friday, Saddar Operations Police confirmed that the FIR had been registered and sealed.
The Saddar Operations and Investigations Police both denied on Friday that David was in their custody. Police sources said that David had been remanded into police custody till June 10 for interrogations. The accused can face imprisonment of up to 10 years and a magistrate can try the case. If the FIR is registered under Section 295 C of the PPC, then the accused can be given the death sentence or 25 years imprisonment.
Clifton Town Police Officer Imran Minhas told Daily Times on Thursday that the travel agent, Khursheed Ahmed, had received some of these text messages which he had saved in his cell phone. According to the TPO, David sent the blasphemous messages in revenge for the attacks on churches in parts of the country. We have arrested the accused after it was confirmed that the messages were sent from his mobile phone and he also admitted his offence, an official said, requesting anonymity. The accused told investigators that he had been offended over attacks on churches in various cities this year, the official said, but declined to disclose the content of the messages because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2006 00:00 ||
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The National Assembly (NA) Secretariat has refused to disclose details about the performance of the National Assembly to Opposition Leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Sources in the legislation branch of the NA Secretariat told daily Times on Friday that Fazl had requested details of bills and other motions submitted by members of the House. The legislation branch had said it was "too difficult" to maintain a record of all motions, questions and bills.
Silly me. I'd have said that was their blasted purpose in life.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Desperate relatives searched rubble for survivors Saturday after a powerful earthquake flattened nearly all the buildings in this rice-farming town while residents slept, killing more than 3,500 people on Indonesia's densely populated Java island. The magnitude-6.3 quake wounded thousands more and was the nation's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. It also triggered fears that a rumbling volcano nearby would erupt.
The earthquake struck at 5:54 a.m. near the famed Borobudur temple complex, caving in roofs and sending concrete walls crashing down. Thousands were wounded. Survivors screamed as they ran from their homes, some clutching bloodied children and the elderly.
The worst devastation was in the town of Bantul, where 80 percent of the homes were destroyed and more than 2,000 people killed. Residents started digging mass graves almost immediately, with family members sobbing and reading the Quran beside rows of corpses awaiting burial beneath a blazing sun.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2006 17:35 ||
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#1
I'm sorry for the victims. But I won't send one more penny. The money I gave after the tsunami hit taught me two things, because I watched carefully what happened: Moslems would rather finance their jihad against the West than help co-religionists in an emergency situation; and no matter what Americans do we will be hated and denounced ("stingy" they said).
Sorry. Try to hold your co-religionists responsible, for once. I'll reconsider my options after I see Moslem countries donate money to help innocents (no matter what their religion) rather than financing jihad on infidels.
#3
KF: But I won't send one more penny. The money I gave after the tsunami hit taught me two things, because I watched carefully what happened: Moslems would rather finance their jihad against the West than help co-religionists in an emergency situation; and no matter what Americans do we will be hated and denounced ("stingy" they said).
Money is fungible. Unfortunately, every dollar donated to a Muslim country is another dollar available for jihad.
#7
1933: 6.3 quake hits southern California. Long Beach is devastated, schools collapse, 115 people are killed.
1971: 6.4 quake hits San Fernando, 65 people killed, over $1billion damage; hospital wings collapse, major dam is cracked.
1983: 6.4 quake hits Coalinga. I get moved sideways a traffic lane, brick buildings come crashing down,
1984: 6.2 quake hits Morgan Hill, over $10 billion in damage
1987: 6.1 quake hits the Whittier/Rosedale area, 8 killed. Within the next month, another major quake and then a 6.2 and 6.6 as well. Several dozen dead, nearly 4000 people seriously injured; fortunately the aftershock quakes were centered away from dense populations. Over $10 billion in total damage.
6.3 can do significant damage even in a well-prepared wealthy country. Java is neither.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's ruling military junta extended the yearslong detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, a government official said. Suu Kyi, who has spent about 10 of the last 17 years in home detention, was most recently taken into custody on May 30, 2003, after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob as she was making a political tour of northern Myanmar.
That detention order expired early Saturday, and her supporters were hoping the military government would grant her freedom.
But the government official said Saturday morning that her detention order had been extended, though it wasn't immediately clear for how long. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the case with the media.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Misperceptions of Islam are helping to promote dangerous divisions in the world, Malaysias prime minister said Friday, calling on the West and the Muslim world to foster respect for each others cultures. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on a weeklong visit to Japan, said both parties should work to make religious extremists irrelevant.
The greatest injustice is the (tendency) to associate Islam with extremism, he said in a speech at the United Nations University in Tokyo. Al Qaeda ... has been very wrongly taken as speaking on behalf of Muslims. Abdullah, whose country is considered a shining example of a moderate Muslim-majority democracy, said that fostering mutual respect for other cultures could prevent misperceptions from deepening divisions between the West and Islam. The Malaysian leader met earlier this week with Japans Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, agreeing to explore using palm oil and other energy sources amid rising crude oil prices.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#8
Abdullah Badawi is just another islamist scholar bull shitting big time. Not only is Soddy Araby teaching hatred in their school curriculum but malaysian schools as well - School textbooks advocating murder - Malaysiakini (url deleted for busting page format - mod)
#9
He's right. Islam shouldn't be linked to extremism. So why aren't Muslim leaders cutting these links? Why is Islam still joined at the hip with extremism? Why are Muslim leaders not cracking down on terror funding? Why are the financiers of terror movements not getting long jail terms in conjunction with having their assets confiscated?
#11
If the Islamic world would treat it's mentally ill and put the most dangerous in institutions then the problem of linkage would not be there. Instead they declare them Iman's and Shieks. So, yes it is linked.
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Central Java province early Saturday, killing at least 46 people and flattening buildings, authorities and state media said. Scores were injured.
The magnitude 6.2 quake also triggered heightened activity in the region's deadly Mount Merapi volcano, which has been spewing out clouds of hot ash, gas and lava for several weeks, a scientist said. The quake struck at 5:54 a.m. 15 miles southwest of the city of Yogyakarta, causing damage and casualties there and in at least two other nearby population centers, officials said.
At the city's Sardjito hospital, there were at least 36 dead bodies, a staffer at the morgue said. At least 10 corpses were laying in Bethseda hospital, state news agency Antara quoted the hospital director as saying.
#4
An Internet kook predicted a massive earthquake on the 25th that would result in a tidal wave that would wipe out the eastern seaboard. Today, he said that the 25th was the start of a 48-hour window.
And if you felt even a tinge of concern when you read that, he reached this great conclusion psychically.
It was an "Eric Julien", an ex-french army air controller turned ufo guru (and perhaps a raelian), announcing a comet impact just in time for my birthday.
#11
This could be any where on the ring of fire (where I also live.) We can make fun top quiet our disease, but next time you pass a burnt out home multipliy that hundreds of times and ad in fatalities. I hope the light bulb goes on for you. There but for the grace of G_d go you too. You and your family too could end up with nothing but the clothes on your back far up Shitz Creek.
I won't be hitting the Red Cross with money this time. Let their coreligionists care for them, or not.
I will not ridicule them in their suffering. I am pretty sure that is one of the seven deadly ones and my karma sucks as it is.
#12
I beg to differ SPoD. Have a magnitude 6.4 quake most places and it is a few dozen dead. Have one in a muslim country and its thousands or tens of thousands dead. The variable aint the earthquake.
#13
"Last Updated: Saturday, 27 May 2006, 08:59 GMT 09:59 UK
Hundreds die in Indonesian quake
More than 2,200 people have been killed and thousands more injured by a strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java, officials have said.
The quake, measuring 6.2, flattened buildings in a densely-populated area near the city of Yogyakarta on the southern coast of Java."
If this hit places in central California you could see hundreds of dead. Not thousands but hundreds. You might have very large number of person with out homes or food and water however.
By the way phil_b how much training have you had a a first responder in case of earthquake? I have had training provided by the State of California. This can happen in in a 6.5 quake right here in central California. People in my state and county plan and train for it and much, much worse. They don't plan for if they plan for when.
I don't plan on acting snarky and feeling superior. I live to close near to several faults the San Andreas being only one.
#14
I'm with SPoD on this one. I've been in mag 6 and mag 7 quakes in California ... have one hit at just the right place and we would see major casualties and chaos.
Whatever the cause for the poor building codes (fatalism, poverty ....) that's thousands of human beings who are now dead, and children who've been orphaned etc.
#15
My brother used to live on Elm Street in Berkley, less than a kilometer from the San Andreas fault. I asked him once, don't you worry about earthquakes. His response was the house is made out of wood and nobody keeps anything heavy in the upstairs rooms.
My point being that deaths from earthquakes are a largely solvable problem. The fact that Indonesia hasn't solved them means both they are responsible for the deaths and they will get to portray themselves as the eternal victims with the consequent myriad opportunities for graft and corruption.
#16
Sure they're solvable ... if you have less dense population and 2 story wood houses to deal with, plus are wealthy. My in-laws built their small 2 story home on the top of the hillside north of Berkeley back in 51 and it's remained intact throughout a dozen or more quakes. Of course, as is the case with Berkeley, they are built pretty much on bedrock. My mother-in-law's parents did fine in the Richmond district of San Francisco in their 2 story home as have my sister-in-law and her husband over in Marin County.
At a price.
One major reason for the sprawl in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in California is the building code that imposes very expensive conditions on buildings more than 2 stories high. The result has been the destruction of lovely mature orchards, the loss of a lot of fertile agricultural land and a lot of runoff into the Bay because of all the paved surface, but those 2 story buildings with paved outdoor parking lots rather than parking structures don't tend to fall down in quakes. So yeah, it can be done if you're willing and able to pay the price and have the flat land to build out onto.
No doubt the victim card will be played and graft will ensue. For my part, though, I will continue to feel sorry for those who have lost loved ones this way. Even here, deaths in quakes are in part a matter of luck. My in-laws were the 2nd car back from the edge when a section of the Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed in the last big one to hit the SF Bay area, the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake. Quite literally feet away from death. When you've been in one like that -- and I was driving through Coalinga when that 6.7 quake hit and all the historic brick buildings began to collapse around us -- you develop a healthy respect for the random element that also plays a part. In Coalinga, the first wave literally moved our car sideways a full lane while we were moving at 45 mph. I *saw* the movement of the earth in front of us as it happened. I was in the Santa Cruz mountains visiting a friend when the 6.5 hit that sent the homes near us sliding and crashing down the hillsides. (Hint: homes in that part of the Santa Cruz mountains tend to be expensive, recently built and to code.)
Anyway, 2500 people died in Java yestereday and their loved ones have my sympathy.
#17
I'm with SPoD on this one too; my snarky title is a 'whistling past the graveyard' kind of thing - sort of like the Halliburton Weather Division was just testing things here in New Orleans last August.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/27/2006 10:03 Comments ||
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#19
2900 is the lastest number I heard. My best wishes to the survivors -- they won't be getting much useful help from outside after everyone who can takes their bit off the top.
#21
a 7.0 is 10 times as strong as a 6.0 - your stucco/wood single family homes should make it through a 7. These poor bastards live in hovels barely held together. Our snark is that rather than channel their energy and money to aid the victims, their muslim brethren will continue the fight for the Cliphate and blame us for not taking total care of the victims. I won't contribute a single dollar. Been there, done that for the tidal wave
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2006 11:26 Comments ||
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#22
Understood, Frank. I did the same and will do the same this time around.
#23
Frank, I believe the increase in energy released is 32X for each increase of 1 in the Richter scale. A 7.0 is 32 releases 32 times as much energy as a 6.0. Examples are at the bottom of this page.
What really matters is the Mercalli number for the damage sustained. A 9.0 in the middle of the cocean with no resulting tsunami creates no damage, whereas a 7.0 was sufficent to bring down the Cypress Freeway in Oakland. Like everything in real estate, location, location, location.
For those of you in California, if you haven't been to the Earthquake Trail at Point Reyes Seashore, the epicenter of the 1906 quake, you're missing a treat.
#24
NS - that's (32X) different than I recall, but seems to authoritative, so I'll buy it. I do know the current codes are designed to maintain a safe exitable (with damage) building, not a quake proof building. Current Calif code is 2003 and most structures should make it to 7-7.5 depending on yes, intensity and type of seismic wave/shaking. Uplift and liquifaction matter, especially liquifaction for high-rises and heavy structures on saturated soils...hello L.A. and S.F.! Your normal house will have cracked stucco, some wall damage, and windows broken, but you are actually more at risk from shelves, book cases, etc. falling and fires from severed gas lines (with little water to put them out...)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2006 15:29 Comments ||
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#25
Frank, the other big issue is water. In a big one I have no confidence that there will not be a major disruption in water distribution, particularly on the penninsula. Keep those hot water heaters bolted to the walls.
Regarding liquifation, the interesting Loma Prrieta result was the lack of damage in Foster City. A building in Redwood Shores I worked at sat 6 inches above its pre-quake level. As a result, after 3d ay weekends there was the distinct odor of methane in the building until the AC had run for a couple of hours. But the Marina and Oakland paid.
#26
if the bldg "rafts" it out, it doesn't get damaged as much....another reason for Post-Tensioned Slabs where liquifaction and expansive soils (clay) occur
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2006 16:00 Comments ||
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#27
I'm not at all surprised at another earthquake in the Indonesian archipelago. There are so many faults running through there it makes a geophysicist's heart race. I predicted back in December that the volcanos on Java and Sumatra would begin erupting about six to eight months after the big quake off the coast of Sumatra. SO it's only five months - big deal. After an event as massive as last December's earthquake, a lot of 'adjustments' have to be made to relieve stress. Additional earthquakes and volcanic activity are two ways that stress is relieved.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/27/2006 17:58 Comments ||
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#28
OSHA FR and CERT team member.
Figure if it has hit the fan, then somone's got to do the scut work while the pros are busy with the difficult stuff. May as well be me.
Got a "go" locker in the trunk - smaller Medical go-bag rucksack (complete with our ugly green CERT team hardhat and orange reflective vest), half a dozen MREs and coastie approved water rations stored in a cheap cooler, a wrecking bar, and a tac vest with a k-bar and other stuff on it, as well as a light kevlar under-vest if needed. And a stout japanese hard oak "walking stick" that happens to double as a jo staff for places I cant carry my CCW. Oh and the CCW: Kimber (40 S&W) concealed carry stays with me IWB mostly, or kangaroo pouch if I dont care about it being a little obvious.
Theres also a 12ga 870 with an 18 inch barrel and tac grip and flashlight (with bandolier holding #8, 00, and deer slugs) but it stays in the lockbox in the trunk, with the military flap holster and Glock 23 (40S&W same as the kimber) on a drop leg extension and a standard military pistol belt. I hope I never need those - if Im using those items, then something has gone very very wrong.
If Im headed to a military facility, then I have to drop off the bang bang stuff in a storage place nearby.
Yup. Ready to go. Disasters and jackals that prey on them, ready to handle either.
#30
Frank is right (sort of). The Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake (more or less how much the earth moves) on a base 10 log scale. A magnitude 6 quake is ten time bigger than a magnitude 5 quake. However a mag 6 quake releases something like 32 times as much energy as a mag 5 quake.
#31
So it takes 32 times as much energy to make the earth move 10 times as much? (Serious question) So what is the Richter Scale measuring when it measures "magnitude" or "moving the earth"? I thought it was the energy released as the movement in the earth depended on the specific geological structures between the epicenter and the surface.
DILI residents awoke to burning houses close to the city centre and shots from various sites, as families with children fled in all directions. Earlier, a group of heavily armed Australian soldiers responded to an outbreak of repeated gunfire near the UN compound in Dili. Fighting has also been reported in various districts of the East Timor capital, Dili "I heard shooting at 7am or 7.20am, and at 8am they began burning houses. People are fighting between themselves: I don't know who," local resident Jocelino Alves said. "They were running and shooting. I just got in my car and went. People are very scared. Please call the Australian peacekeepers," she said, after reaching safety at the International Organisation of Migrations.
Earlier, about 10 soldiers are heading on foot in combat formation towards the scene of the outbreak. Two houses were reported to be burning about one kilometre from the compound. Local people reported gunfire coming from gangs of armed civilians. Australian soldiers searched houses and laneways, bringing children from the houses under armed protection.
Earlier, The HMAS Kanimbla, carrying Australian troops and armoured vehicles, was this morning stationed off the coast within sight of the missile frigate HMAS Adelaide. At Dili airport, a Malaysian air force Hercules landed, unloading supplies and equipment.
#1
"a group of heavily armed Australian soldiers responded to an outbreak of repeated gunfire near the UN compound in Dili"
Not telling y'all how to do your jobs, Australia, but you might want to keep your soldiers in reserve to protect something of value - something that actually, you know, matters.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/27/2006 1:06 Comments ||
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Donald E. Rudolph Sr., who received a Medal of Honor for bravery for destroying two Japanese machine gun nests during World War II, has died. He was 85.
Rudolph died Thursday of complications from Alzheimer's disease, said Itasca County Veterans Services Officer Marvin Ott, who spoke with Rudolph's wife, Helen, on Friday. He had been ill for several years.
President Harry S. Truman presented Rudolph with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, on Aug. 23, 1945.
On Feb. 5 of that year, the young Army sergeant crossed a battlefield on Luzon island in the northern Philippines alone protecting himself with grenades when the company that was supposed to be supporting his unit was pinned down. He destroyed two Japanese pillboxes before attacking and neutralizing six others. Then, when his unit came under fire from a tank, he climbed onto the tank and dropped a white phosphorus grenade through the turret, killing the crew.
According to the U.S. Army Center of Military History, "Rudolph cleared a path for an advance which culminated in one of the most decisive victories of the Philippine campaign."
Rudolph, who was struck by shrapnel, was promoted to second lieutenant...
#6
"Then, when his unit came under fire from a tank, he climbed onto the tank and dropped a white phosphorus grenade through the turret, killing the crew."
White phosphorus? I didn't know that the US used chemical weapons in WW II. I guess that war wasn't a just war either. Maybe Cindy Sheehan is right after all.
Posted by: Tibor ||
05/27/2006 21:58 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory." Activists led by 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev had planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- a symbol of the World War Two struggle against fascism, and one of Russia's most sacred places. But police closed the gates to the park where the eternal flame burns under the Kremlin walls, and a heavy scrum of women singing hymns and shaven-headed nationalists tried to charge into the gay activists as the march arrived. "This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what's happening," Alexeyev said as he was dragged, bent almost double, away from the gates by two policemen.
It is no secret to the Muslim immigrants of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, that spies live among them.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A state appeals court on Friday rejected Apple Computer Inc.'s bid to identify the sources of leaked product information that appeared on Web sites, ruling that online reporters and bloggers are entitled to the same protections as traditional journalists. "In no relevant respect do they appear to differ from a reporter or editor for a traditional business-oriented periodical who solicits or otherwise comes into possession of confidential internal information about a company," Justice Conrad Rushing of the 6th District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous 69-page ruling.
The Saddar Police have sealed a first information report (FIR) that had been registered against a Christian, Qamar David, in a blasphemy case on Wednesday night. David was arrested on Wednesday night after a travel agent, Khursheed Ahmed, complained that he had sent blasphemous text messages to several people through his mobile phone. However by Friday, the Saddar Investigations Police claimed no knowledge of the FIR when Daily Times questioned a town investigation officer and superintendent investigation officer about its contents. On Friday, Saddar Operations Police confirmed that the FIR had been registered and sealed.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's ruling military junta extended the yearslong detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, a government official said. Suu Kyi, who has spent about 10 of the last 17 years in home detention, was most recently taken into custody on May 30, 2003, after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob as she was making a political tour of northern Myanmar.
Misperceptions of Islam are helping to promote dangerous divisions in the world, Malaysias prime minister said Friday, calling on the West and the Muslim world to foster respect for each others cultures. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on a weeklong visit to Japan, said both parties should work to make religious extremists irrelevant. 
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Central Java province early Saturday, killing at least 46 people and flattening buildings, authorities and state media said. Scores were injured.
DILI residents awoke to burning houses close to the city centre and shots from various sites, as families with children fled in all directions. Earlier, a group of heavily armed Australian soldiers responded to an outbreak of repeated gunfire near the UN compound in Dili. Fighting has also been reported in various districts of the East Timor capital, Dili "I heard shooting at 7am or 7.20am, and at 8am they began burning houses. People are fighting between themselves: I don't know who," local resident Jocelino Alves said. "They were running and shooting. I just got in my car and went. People are very scared. Please call the Australian peacekeepers," she said, after reaching safety at the International Organisation of Migrations.
