Diplomats hailed the "toilet diplomacy" of an impromptu chat in the washroom between the foreign ministers of feuding neighbours China and Japan at security talks here. Look for the Ex-Lax on those little trays with the Perrier
The two regional powers, whose relations are strained by historical enmities and territorial disputes, have held only a handful of high-level meetings in recent times. Sounds like relations are a bit constipated
So when China's Li Zhaoxing popped into the toilet during Wednesday's talks in the Malaysian capital, and found that Japan's Taro Aso happened to be inside, the two seized the chance for a discussion. "It would have been nice of you to turn the exhaust fan on."
Journalists who had been pursuing Li through the hallways were mystified by the long visit to the facilities as they waited at the door for 20 minutes, unaware that Aso was also inside. I bet they're smoking something.
You want to go in there?
Not me.
When Aso returned to the meeting of ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea, he informed his counterparts of the encounter. "I just met Li in the toilet and we had a good discussion," Aso said ... Don't squeeze the Charmin!
... to the other ministers when he returned, a Japanese foreign diplomat told AFP, adding that their contingent was referring to the incident as "toilet diplomacy".
Provides a new meaning to diplomats washing their hands of something.
The two ministers on Thursday finally held their much-awaited official "bilateral" meeting which took place in the more dignified surroundings of five-star Nikko Hotel.
The chief prosecutor for war crimes in former Yugoslavia yesterday voiced admiration for and fascination with her most formidable opponent, Slobodan Milosevic.
Carla Del Ponte, whose mission is to bring the worst criminals from the Yugoslav wars to justice and who spent more than four years trying Milosevic, paid tribute to the late Serbian leader, declaring him superior to the dozens of other suspects who have been in the dock at the tribunal in The Hague.
It only seems like ten years.
"The way he questioned certain witnesses was fascinating," she told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "He really knew how to deal with people. I admired that. He was the only accused who mounted his own defence alone ... Milosevic always spoke out. He had been the president of Yugoslavia. He was head and shoulders above the rest."
I'm told Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were charismatic guys too, Carla ...
Milosevic died in custody in his cell outside The Hague earlier this year, almost five years after being flown there following his overthrow in Belgrade. The death was a major blow to the tribunal, as it deprived the former Yugoslavia of a verdict in the biggest and longest trial before the court.
And deprived them of a reason to exist, to collect pay checks, a pension, good health benefits, and their names in the papers on a regular basis.
In contrast to her admiration for Milosevic, Ms Del Ponte rounded on his successor, Vojislav Kostunica, whom she accused of having protected another key genocide suspect, General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander still on the run more than 10 years after being indicted for genocide in Bosnia. "Kostunica knows exactly where Mladic was until February this year. Kostunica knows that he even protected Mladic until 2002 ... until recently he didn't want to have him arrested. He was sure that [Mladic] could be persuaded to give himself up."
And you never seemed to get around to doing anything about it, did you?
At Ms Del Ponte's recommendation, the EU has frozen integration talks with Serbia because of its failure to capture Mladic. "We're concentrating now on Mladic because we know where he is," she said. "And we know that Belgrade can deliver him to us."
Freeze integration talks. Yeah boy, that'll do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2006 00:00 ||
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The Serbs were trying to get rid of Muzzies weren't they ? Why did big Mr. BJ step in and save their sand ? All big PR for that worthless Clinton. Another appeaser like Kerry, Dodd, ad infinitum.
The Army's plan to destroy deadly VX nerve agent in Indiana and truck the byproduct to New Jersey for treatment and disposal adequately addresses public health concerns, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The CDC said the plan is "sufficient to address critical issues" such as potential human poisoning and transportation and treatment of the neutralized VX byproduct. The report said the Environmental Protection Agency found that the plan addressed ecological concerns.
Still, New Jersey Reps. Robert E. Andrews (D) and Frank LoBiondo (R), who oppose the plan, said the CDC report did not definitively say it was sound.
And nothing could convince them otherwise ...
Andrews said the CDC's conclusions were based on "the rosiest of scenarios, the best-case assumption."
Col. Jesse L. Barber, project manager for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency's Chemical Stockpile Elimination Project, praised the report. "We will continue to destroy the nation's chemical stockpile in a manner that is safe to the American public and will not adversely impact the environment," Barber said. The plan is on hold until the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, finishes a study of the entire operation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2006 00:08 ||
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There is a very simple environmentally-friendly way to get rid of the stuff. There are a bunch of madrassas and mosques that store all kinds of nasty stuff. Just air drop it on them and they will know what to do.
#2
Hold on to them. There will be a need to dispose of them over Iran.
Posted by: ed ||
07/29/2006 1:08 Comments ||
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#3
I agree with #'s 1 & 2. Don't get rid of it now. We need it. This should be dispersed over Wazoo territory in liberal amounts ASAP. And fer-godsakes, if we have any napalm squirreled away somewhere, save it.
#4
I think BZ would be more effective and hard to pin anything on the user. VZ leaves bodies. BZ's Zombies are so much more work for the support staff. A win win scenario.
#7
Global Security has a good entry-level background article here.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/29/2006 7:55 Comments ||
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You've become them.
According to MSM and the talking heads who seem to be the only ones to get public coverage, we've been worse than them since slaverysuffrageHiroshima
the beginning. You know after a while, who gives a S**t. If there's nothing we do that doesn't provoke them anyway, there's no reason to hold back. Lets follow the Democratic Party strategy - anything is legitimate as long as it leads to power.
#9
I'm missing something here. To my knowledge, the US spent a bloody fortune on the Toole, Nevada destruction site, that incinerates chemical weapons and filters the air so thoroughly that it is cleaner than fresh air.
So what the heck are they doing in Indiana?
And the transshipment excuse doesn't fly, because we have chemical munitions crossing the country at intervals with no problem.
Well, what you might mean to say is that we are both willing to use similar means to achieve our ends. Supposing this were so, which it isn't yet and hopefully will never have to be, the difference between the two cases is in the ends. Whose world would you prefer to live in, assuming you were dropped into it at random.
#14
The US has been destroying Sarin, VX, and mustard gas for a decade at the Pueblo Army Depot, north of Pueblo, CO. As far as I know, no one has ever died from it. Chemical weapons were also stored at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver since the Second World War, without killing anyone. A couple of congresscritters are just playing NIMBY, possibly for large "accommodations" to be named later.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/29/2006 23:18 Comments ||
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Newspeak comes to Iran...
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday. Mmmmmmmmmm...elastic loaves...
The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported. "Deranged midget" will now be known as "12th Imam".
The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensitive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic. "Footstool" will now be known as "photograph the 12th Imam standing on one and you will be beaten severely".
Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy. "Dildo" will now be known as "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad".
HT Tim Blair. Oped piece that refers to some recent research on political attitudes and racism. Not a real surprise to me, but interesting nonetheless.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/29/2006 16:48 Comments ||
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The left collectively have a superiority complex. It the the pretense that they are intellectually, emotionally, and especially morally superior to others.
Since even a dullard can see this is not the case, it is coupled with a continual effort to re-define what intelligence, emotional maturity, and morality is. Often they try to define these things as the exact opposite of what they are.
Lastly, they try to destroy existing standards of quality. Lowering educational standards, "defining deviancy down", and citing their own whiny temper tantrums as example of emotional maturity.
All in an effort to feel superior to others while knowing beyond doubt how inferior they really are.
This superiority complex truly defines most in the left. It explains what they feel is important, how they attack their enemies, and how and whom they embrace.
Race is one of the easiest ways for them to feel superior to someone else. In past they saw other races as "children of nature living in a state of grace". But reality soon made itself known. So they re-defined other races as inferiors who must be raised and enlightened by their betters, namely the leftists.
But this is the crudest and most offensively patronizing way to approach someone else. Even the smallest handout must be repaid with bowing and scraping before the superior leftist. Almost nobody, even among primitive peoples, were willing to demean themselves for some trinket.
In the 1950s, this resulted in all the white liberals being expelled from the NAACP, an organization they had helped found. In the 1970s, white liberals were kicked off the Indian reservations, again for being rudely patronizing.
Only Africa, that bottomless pit, was willing to bow and grovel endlessly. But it was such a nasty place, and so out of the limelight, that only the hungriest of egos could abide the place any great length of time.
But this being said about leftists, it is obvious what their psychological weak point is. And when a pschological gambit is used that irritates this personality flaw, will you see the blind rage and hate within them, directed at those they feel are unfairly blessed with "life's lottery".
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.
