Mexico's new government, struggling with rampant drug trafficking and crime, ordered thousands of troops to the western state of Michoacan on Monday to fight drug cartels locked in a vicious turf war. President Felipe Calderon's security cabinet said more than 5,000 soldiers and Marines were being deployed to crack down on drug gangs in the state, a key air and sea transshipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine. "We will establish control points on highways and secondary roads to limit drug trafficking, along with raids and arrests," Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez Acuna said.
The soldiers, accompanied by federal police, also would search for and destroy drug plantations in the state, famous for poppy and marijuana production, Ramirez Acuna said. Almost 3,000 people, mostly drug gang members and police, have been killed in the past two years in escalating cartel wars across Mexico.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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struggling?
Embracing is more like it.
Do they actually think folks may actually believe this line of bull?
Posted by: Jan ||
12/12/2006 0:59 Comments ||
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#2
love actually
oops
Posted by: Jan ||
12/12/2006 1:00 Comments ||
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#3
The real offensive: for the drug and bribe money that the Federal troops will pocket.
Shell is being forced by the Russian government to hand over its controlling stake in the world's biggest liquefied gas project, provoking fresh fears about the Kremlin's willingness to use the country's growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon. After months of relentless pressure from Moscow, the Anglo-Dutch company has to cut its stake in the $20bn Sakhalin-2 scheme in the far east of Russia in favour of the state-owned energy group Gazprom.
The Russian authorities are also threatening BP over alleged environmental violations on a Siberian field in what is seen as a wider attempt to seize back assets handed over to foreign companies when energy prices were low. It's not like they have the rule of law to restrain them.
The moves will alarm many investors in the City of London as Shell and other share prices are hit, but the news will also increase ministers' concerns about Britain's energy security. Not to mention making it clear that you can't do business in Russia. In that way they're no better than any other thugocracy. You know, like Saddam.
Russia is becoming a key source of natural gas to the UK and Gazprom has already made clear it would like to buy a company such as Centrica, which owns British Gas. One third of western Europe's natural gas is supplied by Russia - a figure expected to rise over the next decade. Boy howdy, the new Muslim rulers of Eurabia are sure going to have a problem figuring that one out.
The security of energy supply is now the main political issue between the EU and the Kremlin. Nervousness about the Russians was heightened last winter when the gas supply to Ukraine was cut off in the middle of a political dispute. "Everyone in class paying attention? You there in the back, Nigel, see what we did to Mikhail here?"
Shell confirmed last night that its chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, met Gazprom's chairman, Alexei Miller, in Moscow last Friday but would say only that the talks on Sakhalin-2 were "constructive". The Russian company said that "Shell did indeed make several proposals concerning Sakhalin-2" at the meeting which came after Shell was threatened with having its operating licence withdrawn. I'll bet they became real constructive.
The energy minister, Viktor Khristenko, is expected to give details today of a deal under which Shell and its Japanese partners are likely to get a small cash payment in return for giving Gazprom a big stake in the project.
Dmitry Peskov, the official spokesman of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, hit out yesterday at critics in the western media who implicated the Russian government in manipulating oil projects and the poisoning of dissidents. He said there was too much "anti-Russian hysteria". With reference to BP's oil spills in Alaska, he added: "If it's an environmental problem in Alaska it's environmental. If it's in Russia you call it politics." Well yeah, 'cause there hasn't been a big oil spill in Russia.
But other senior politicians in Moscow had no doubt Shell was being harassed into reducing its 55% stake in Sakhalin-2 to something close to 25% through relentless pressure from ministries. "In the current situation Shell will not be able to defend its economic interests in a civilised process with the Russian authorities, ... ... since a civilized process doesn't exist ...
... so they will be obliged to give up control if they want to save at least some adequate part of the project," said Vladimir Milov, Russia's former deputy energy minister.
Bob Amsterdam, the lawyer of the jailed oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said the Kremlin was "once again" using legal pretexts to cover what was essentially an expropriation of private resources in the energy sector. "The Kremlin ought to cease this behaviour," he said. That'll tell 'em.
The Sakhalin-2 project is scheduled to start operations in 2008 and involves finding and producing oil and gas near Sakhalin island, formerly known only as a penal colony during the tsarist and Soviet eras. The two fields that make up Sakhalin-2 have an estimated 1.2bn barrels of oil and 500bn cubic metres of natural gas. The gas is to be brought ashore, liquefied and frozen before being shipped to customers in Japan and elsewhere.
The scheme created almost immediate controversy with western conservation groups because it involves putting equipment close to breeding grounds of endangered western grey whales. There has also been criticism that sensitive salmon fishing areas are being hit by dumping of dredging spoil waste amid worries about oil spills from platforms in the Okhotsk and Japanese seas.
But even non-governmental organisations have expressed surprise at the way the Russian authorities have taken up environmental issues since the summer after taking little interest before. Mr Peskov said it was a coincidence of timing and that it was "a process that is natural for every country" to come to eventually. Mr Putin's spokesman said Russia wanted to encourage western investment and wanted closer links with west European countries to foster mutual "interdependence". "We love our baby seals! We used a dozen of 'em on Mrs. Putin's coat, and lemme tell ya she thought they were great!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Sakhalin island, formerly known only as a penal colony during the tsarist and Soviet eras.
Actually, Sakhalin was jointly ruled by Russia and Japan from the 1860s. Japan annexed the southern half of the island in 1905. Russia regained possesion by bravely invading 4 days before Japan surrendered in 1946
#3
Doesn't matter.
All of eastern siberia will be part of either China or the New Manchu Peoples Republic within another 10 or 20 years...
Putie is playing a losing hand.
#4
So whatcha gonna do Werld? And you, Nederlanders? Neener-neener. I am Tsar! I am invincible! I steal Super Bowl rings and companies and assets! Bwahahahaha! No bauble too small, no conglomerate too large! I have Po210! I can do anything!
#5
This is what happens when you snuggle up with the Bear.( Bear gets hungry and swallows ya) Same is happening in China. All these turncoat bastards who moved all American jobs there are getting shafted. Motorola lost their ass and all their technical capital. Shit, same happened 30 years ago when Chrysler got f**cked over. These greedy numbnuts never learn. Have to get bashed right in the face again to get a friggin' clue.
#7
ASIA TIMES says it more succintly - Russia is using its post-Berlin Wall/1991/USSR newfound econ wealth and redirecting POL flows from the world unto itself + Asia [Asia = read, Russia]. Meanwhile, JAMESTOWN.ORG > BEIJING'S NEW GRAND STRATEGY > China ,for now, seeks to PC stay a THIRD-WORLD, "STATUS QUO" STATE-POWER while quietly or subtlely STRENGTHENING ITS GLOBAL = GEOPOL POSITION vv USA , by use of "extra-military instruments". IOW, like Dubya in IRAQ, will "stay the course" while simul BUILDING-CONTRUCTING ITS FUTURE DESTINY. JAMESTOWN - National Modernization is viewed by China as [temporarily?]more important than the Re-Unification Issue wid TAIWAN.
*NOTE wid JAMESTOWN.org article > USA ONLY, NOT AGZ RUSSIA.
#9
It's Chinese government policy to regain all the territories lost under 'unfair' 19th century treaties. This includes most of Khabarovsk Krai and Sakhalin Island lost to Russia in the 1850/60s (although Chinese control of Sahkalin was never more than token).
Incidentally the background to my next novel, if I ever get around to finishing it.
#12
Look for other oil countries to 'renegotiate' contracts with the big oil companies. There's profit in those company coffers just waiting to be harvested. In the past the result has been cessation of investment of industry capital and expertise, but 1) they (oil governments) don't look that far ahead (goose - golden egg), and 2) now there's China just waiting (instigating?) to offer ITS capital and expertise. And the Chavezes of the world won't recognize the chains attached to the deals - tougher by far than any chains attached by Shell or even the US government.
#13
The Mexican government seized and then incorporated into the ruling family alliances nationalized the foreign oil assets in the 30s. We see today where that has led to. I guess the Chinese had better get working on refurbishing that Great Wall now in anticipation of the wave of illegals to be headed their way in another 30+ years. At least they have a wall in place.
#14
Everything is proceeding to plan. All the 60's Leftists that were enraged and horrified at the collapse of the Soviet Union are diligently working towards our defeat.
Given that our politicians can't find the spine to resist the Islamists, should one expect them to fight the resurgent Russian Commies? It's a toss up as to whom the Lefties will deliver us to first.
#16
Shell should get ALL of their people out of Russia.
And the last one to leave should set the gas field on fire just before his helicopter lifts off.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/12/2006 15:40 Comments ||
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#17
In the wake of the Chinese leasing a chunk of Siberia, the US should start buying it- start at the Bering Strait and work its way West. It would be money well spent and keep two enemies a bit further back. The political and population vacuum in Siberia will not last forever.
#1
Telopea St., Punchbowl is the center of Lebanese Muslim gang activity in Sydney- they are called the Telopea St. gang. It is more or less a no go zone for Police, and gang members own it all.
If the NSW Government is going after the Telopea St mob ( and that decision would be taken in the Premier's office, it being in his Electorate and anyway having serious political implications) then that is an upturn in anti- Muslim criminal activity.
If Ms. Hage-Ali lives in Telopea St, or is tight with the Telopea St gang, she bears close watching, and not just for her drug use.
German police have uncovered a radioactive trail linked to what prosecutors believe could be a possible suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in London last month. Police said on Monday a BMW used to pick up Dmitry Kovtun at Hamburg airport on October 28 had traces of polonium 210, the same radioactive substance used to poison Alexander Litvinenko.
Kovtun, 41, was one of two Russians who met Litvinenko at a London hotel on November 1, the day the ex-KGB agent and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin fell ill. "Contamination was also found in a second car, a Chrysler" used by Litvinenko, a police statement said.
The radioactive trail linked to Kovtun goes further. Kovtun's ex-wife, her current partner and their two young children all tested positive for traces of polonium 210, the statement said. Kovtun spent the night of October 28 at his ex-wife's Hamburg apartment, it said. It was unclear if the contamination of the four people was internal or external, police said. They were brought to a special hospital ward for people with radiation sickness. Litvinenko died on November 23 from a lethal dose of polonium 210. In a statement released after his death, he accused Putin of killing him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What did they do? Roll in this stuff sort of like Ann Margaret in the movie Tommy?
#5
What other documentaries are out there this year?
You just know Al looked over Mike Moore's documentaries and decided he could easily make one of his own and get attention and money to boot for his campaign funds.
#2
If its a Donk, "Pants" Studds or "Refrigerator" Jefferson, their voters don't care and keep reelecting them cause they know its never been about principles, its about power. The Trunks are still encumbered with a sense of Christian sin that the left hasn't had for nearly a half century. They got to learn to give that up to survive. Its like the war. You got to clearly win it first before you spend the effort to do clean up afterwards. Trying to clean up before the enemy is defeated only makes for more problems.
By ERICA WERNER - Associated Press - December 11, 2006 8:04 PM EST
WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency granted California long-awaited permission Monday to slash emissions from lawnmowers and other small-engine machines, a change it will seek nationally next year.
The EPA waiver will allow the nation's most populous state, starting Jan. 1, to require highly polluting small engines to be sold with catalytic converters that cut smog emissions by roughly 40 percent. "The emission standards we are considering would reduce smog-forming pollutants from lawn mowers by over 40 percent when fully implemented," said Bill Wehrum, EPA acting assistant administrator for air and radiation. "EPA approved the California waiver request because new, cleaner engines can safely reduce emissions."
Engines under 50 horsepower account for 7 percent of smog emissions in California from mobile sources, the equivalent of about 3 million cars. The engines also power pressure washers and small generators, but the bulk are on lawnmowers.
The EPA action Monday ended several years of political dispute driven by Republican Sen. Kit Bond, whose state of Missouri is home to two factories owned by Briggs & Stratton Corp., the nation's largest small-engine maker. Briggs & Stratton had resisted installing catalytic converters on its engines, and Bond had sought to block California from instituting its regulation. The state has unique authority under the Clean Air Act to set tougher pollution standards than the federal government, once it gets an EPA waiver.
Bond backed off under pressure from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., but he did succeed in blocking other states from being able to copy California's rule, something the Clean Air Act normally allows. Instead, he required EPA to write a national standard.
Bond had questioned whether mowers with catalytic converters could spark fires, but an EPA study earlier this year found there was no safety problem. "This is a giant step forward for California," Feinstein said. "It paves the way for California to implement strict citizen emission controls on lawnmowers and other small engines and to see major reductions in air pollution."
California, home to some of the nation's most polluted air in the Los Angeles basin and San Joaquin Valley, is under constant pressure to meet federal air quality standards or risk sanctions including losing money for highway projects. The California Air Resources Board, which passed the mower emissions rule three years ago but couldn't enforce it pending the EPA waiver, welcomed the news as key in developing clean air plans. "We're really having to struggle to find enough reductions to achieve the air quality standards, so if you take away a piece that's this big it would probably permanently handicap us," said Tom Cackette, the agency's deputy executive officer.
So Fornicalians are now saved from the dangers of the little evil combustion engines, too. This will crimp some styles and harsh some mellows, though, methinks... I guess we'll have to let 'em import more, um, undocumented migrants, since the Toils and Tribulations of the Gardeners of the Rich and Famous just went up a fewbuncha notches.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Next - ban the sale of charcoal followed by firewood.
Then a watersaver shower to complement the toliet that works so well.
#3
Can't be - SPACEWAR.com > US Study says TREES are a cause of GW - Global Warming, NOT DUBYA - ergo LESS CATALYTIC-IN', MORE TREE-CUTTING. The Lefties = Enviros can't complain. No fooling around - the Trees must agree to unconditional surrender. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, once the Trees surrender, surely the Sun will follow.
#5
YAHOO NEWS/AP > Lake Victoria is shrinking, but OTOH GW = CO2 [Global Warming, NOT Dubya] is good for saving space junk and keeping them flyin' high while simul shrinking/killing the atmosphere. IONews, ITS STILL [GOVERNOR?] DUBYA'S FAULT.
#7
Replace the lawn mowers with cows. Gets rid of the smog-making emissions and provides natural fertilizer (and steaks). Of course, then you add to the global warming problem through bovine methane emissions. It's hopeless; just eliminate all the people and the earth will be happy again.
#13
California, I got an idea, why don't you ban the non-essential use of internal combustion engines.
So, no more drag racing, boating, model airplane flying, chainsaw art, air shows, tractor pulls, poker runs, and so on.
[/snark]
#14
go here: www.fasttractors.com
best l/m racing north of the border.
in western WA look for the Whidbey Island Blade Benders, coming to a fair / event near you.
Well, the Donks wanted them to go after the evil employers, so do I...
Federal agents raided six Swift & Co. processing plants in six states on Tuesday in search of illegal immigrants who stole the identities of lawful U.S. residents and used their Social Security numbers to get jobs at the beef and pork company.
Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency executed search warrants at Swift's processing facilities in Greeley, Colo.; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.
ICE officials didn't give the total number of people arrested but said workers were being apprehended on administrative immigration violations and in some cases, existing criminal arrest warrants. The warrants allow federal agents to arrest anyone at the plant who is in the United States illegally.
ICE said criminal charges of aggravated identity theft and other violations were possible. No charges have been filed against the company.
In Greeley, cars lined the street leading to the plant as family members stood outside. One person held a sign that said, "Presents! No tears at Christmas!"
A company statement obtained by FOXNews.com said all the facilities raided except the one in Hyrum are unionized. No civil or criminal charges have yet been filed against Swift or any current employees.
The company said every employee hired since 1997 has completed the proper forms and received proper work authorization from the government.
"Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals," said Swift & Company CEO Sam Rovit. "Swift has played by the rules and relied in good faith on a program explicitly held out by the president of the United States as an effective tool to help employers comply with applicable immigration laws."
A federal investigation that began in February of this year uncovered large numbers of illegal immigrants who may have used the Social Security numbers of lawful U.S. citizens or residents to get jobs at Swift.
Hundreds of potential victims have been identified by immigration officials and the Federal Trade Commission.
ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, FTC and other agencies will hold a press conference on the raids in Washington Wednesday.
"We have been investigating a large identity theft scheme that has victimized many U.S. citizens and lawful residents," ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said at the plant in Greeley.
ICE chief Julie L. Myers told reporters in Washington that immigration officials were "looking very aggressively" at who may have sold the identities to the workers in several cases. She said ICE had uncovered several different rings that may have provided illegal documents.
Some immigrants targeted had genuine U.S. birth certificates and others had other kinds of false identification, Myers said.
"The significance is that we're serious about work site enforcement and that those who steal identities of U.S. citizens will not escape enforcement," Myers said
Swift said operations at its facilities have been temporarily suspended and expects that ICE will be finished interviewing employees by the end of the day. Once the company gets back up and running, the statement said, "production levels will depend on the number of employees, if any, detained for further interviewing or otherwise unable to return to work."
Swift said it's not sure how the raids will affect its operations but said "any loss of a significant number of employees" at any one facility could slow things down until those workers are replaced.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who will chair the House Committee on Homeland Security when Democrats take control of Congress in January, issued a statement applauding ICE's actions, which he said "sends a clear message to businesses and employees across the nation that worksite enforcement and hiring only authorized workers is critical to our nation's safety and security.
"It is the duty of employers to ensure that they are following the letter of the law and only employing people who have a legal right to be here. Those who don't will be penalized," Thompson added.
Swift said it believes Tuesday's raids "violate the agreements associated with the company's participation over the past ten years in the federal government's Basic Pilot worker authorization program and raise serious questions as to the government's possible violation of individual workers' civil rights."
Basic Pilot is a voluntary federal program where businesses can check the legal work status of new employees against government databases. In his fiscal 2007 budget request to Congress early this year, President Bush requested $135 million to expand the current program.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2006 19:49 ||
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They are only 'immigrants' if they are legally here.
I also suspect this is free transportation home for Christmas and they will be back after the new year.
#2
Swift isn't going to hire back the ones who were deported, surely? I think the Swift management fail, as yet, to realize that the purpose of getting such paperwork filed is to create a papertrail that the investigators can use to prosecute cases of presenting false information on the part of the illegals -- not to get the managers. For factory managers, who are after all paid for productivity above all, being forced to significantly cut production is a very attention-getting thing; they'll be extremely careful about the bona fides of future employees with poor English language skills, I'm certain.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) has decided that it will start a Deen Bacho Tehreek (save the religion movement) against the Womens Protection Act (WPA) and contact other religious parties and clerics for their support, party sources told Daily Times on Monday.
The sources said that the JUI-S had also decided to hire lawyers to challenge the WPA in the Supreme Court. They added that these decisions were taken in the JUI-S Majlis Shura meeting held at Akora Khattak a few days ago. The sources said that the meeting also formed four provincial and one central committees to plan the anti-WPA campaign.
The sources said that party chief Maulana Samiul Haq warned the meeting that the governments next target would be amendments to the blasphemy laws. They added that the meeting pledged to launch a campaign against the government to stop it from anti-Islamic legislation. The sources said that the meeting criticised MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman for adopting a friendly behaviour towards the government. They (the MMA) are friends of the government and are paving the way for a secular Pakistan, a participant quoted Haq as telling the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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(2006-12-11) Kofi Annan, just a day after delivering what was billed as his final speech before an American audience as U.N. Secretary-General, today gave what was billed as his second final speech.
My first speech was like a Security Council resolution, recommending policy changes to one of our member states, said Mr. Annan to an audience of well-wishers at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. My remarks had all the impact and power of a U.N. resolution. So, today I will make my farewell speech again, recommending policy changes to one of our member states.
Mr. Annan said he would continue to deliver his farewell speech periodically for 10 to 12 years, or until something happens to make my suggestions irrelevant.
John Bolton, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the U.N., when told of Mr. Annans remarks, said simply, What did Kofi mean by until?
WASHINGTON - The ice sheet covering the North Pole and Arctic Ocean could recede and disappear completely in the summer months by 2040, researchers said Tuesday in the Geophysical Research Letters magazine. Start looking for a young girl with a map tatooed on her back.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, ... ... and we all know they will, couldn't possibly change, nope, nope ...
... the Arctics future ice cover will undergo periods of relative stability followed by abrupt retreat, said a team of scientists of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Canadas McGill University. Retreat? Don't say that around the French ...
Only a small portion of the permanent ice pack would cling in the summer season around the northern coastline of Greenland and Canada, the researchers said. I'm looking forward to a summer fishing cabin in Labrador ... We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice, but our research suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far, said NCAR scientist and lead author of the study Marika Holland. ... and yummy New Jersey oranges ...
The melting ice pack is expected to have a devastating effect on global warming, warned the scientists. Open water absorbs more sunlight than does ice, meaning that the growing regions of ice-free water will accelerate the warming trend, they report said. So we'll find Indian crocodiles rummaging through underwear drawers in Norway ...
The loss of the ice pack in the summer would also hold dire revenge consequences for the environmental balance of the polar region and for the survival of some species like the polar bear, who need the ice pack for hunting.
They can hunt crocodiles. That'll make Animal Planet for sure ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It always amazes me how grant-whores can command so much ink peddling pseudoscientific claims of impending catastrophe. These limp dicks haven't been right about anything in the last 50 years, so I have little confidence in anything they say now. When you extrapolate from a point, anything can happen. The ice sheet could disappear unless there is another ice age.
This sort of bilge results from a confluence of the general dumbing down of the American people, the desperate desire of academics for continued funding, and unscrupulous grifters with political agendas.
#3
There si not ice in Sibiria. Yet, it is friggin cold there. From that follows that cold does not make ice. Ice is formed by precipitation. That is, in polar regions, the water falls as snow or small hail of ice. In order to have precipitation, you need evaporation. The more evaporation, the more precipitation. Meaning, in a warmer period, in summer months, the ice sheets may retreat some, but they will make it up in winter with incerased precipitation.
The basic fact that relates to warming trend is that the air remains relatively stable at present, there are no substantial swings in the average temp. What is warming up is the oceans. But the funniest part is that the warming flows from the bottom up, not from the surface down.
What that means no one knows, but this factoid simply gets glossed over as it is somewhat inconvenient.
Pork is paramount and the climactologists (not a typo, they climax every time a grant is fortcoming) have their needs.
We can see a hockey stick alright, but it seems to be swinging at puck located in 1000 AD!
2X4, it's no mystery the oceans heat from the bottom. The Earth is hot. That heat dissipates outwards towards the surface. When it reaches the ocean floor it gets distributed upwards by convection/conduction. This is despite the deep oceans being colder than surface waters. Were this not true, the earth would get hotter and hotter.
#8
Where would we be without you, phil_b, oh wise one!
Of course heat dissipates outwards towards the surface by convection/conduction.
What I do point out is that the temperature of deep ocean has risen in the last 15 years, in average by about 1.25 °C, in comparison with static temperatures in the previous 50 years.
#15
So those Artic oil prospects that can't be developed because the pipelines might get the caribou overheated will be accessible to conventional oil tankers, just like Saudi Arabia, but without Iranians threatening to mine Hormuz. Hope the muzzies don't get to converting the Eskimo.
#19
Artic ice melting won't affect water levels much, but antartic ice on the other hand would be added to the world's water and the land beneath would have to grow out of the ocean to compensate, so the sea level in the northern hemisphere should get higher by the amount the antartic 'grows' plus the additional water distributed worldwide.
#20
Ten thousand years ago glaciers covered Ohio. Should we be worried about that?
I'd take forty year predictions more seriously if we could get reliable forecasts of the weather two days out.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
12/12/2006 13:36 Comments ||
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#21
North Pole ice sheet could disappear by 2040
Ok, ok, that's fine and dandy, but let's keep focused on the real issues : will I be able to get some action on an at least semi-regular basis by then?
I say, let's not disperse ourselves, and let's all use our ressources and the collective might of the international institutions to further the *only* really important, global cause around... my sex life.
#26
Let me get this straight. Global warming could flood the coasts and the coasts are generally blue states right? Bush really is a long-range thinker.
JAKARTA - The United States, China and now a resurgent Russia are all competing for regional influence in Southeast Asia, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is shrewdly playing his diplomatic cards among all three suitors.
Yudhoyono visited Moscow early this month and signed a wide raft of bilateral agreements, including big new arms, energy and trade deals. Most significant was a broad agreement to develop stronger military cooperation over the period spanning 2007-10, an arrangement that, if fully implemented, promises to tip the region's current strategic balance.
According to news reports, Jakarta has expressed its desire to purchase about US$3 billion worth of Russian armaments, and Moscow has provisionally offered $1 billion in five-year loans to facilitate the purchases. The multibillion-dollar arms deal is expected to be finalized when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Indonesia next June.
Continued on Page 49
Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan troops exchanged artillery and mortar fire during a fierce daylong battle in the countrys east that left at least 64 combatants dead, the military said Monday. An officer at the governments Media Centre for National Security said 24 soldiers were killed and 69 wounded in Sundays battle with the insurgents in the eastern Batticaloa district. Forty rebels were also killed in the clash, the officer said speaking on condition of anonymity due to policy. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said, however, that at least seven rebel fighters died in the clashes.
The military said guerrillas mounted artillery attacks on four army locations in Batticaloa district, prompting soldiers to launch retaliatory attack. Sundays fighting came a day after thousands of ethnic Sinhalese fled from their homes to escape violence in neighbouring Trincomalee district. Tamil Tigers said in an e-mail statement that 19 civilians were killed by army artillery fire Sunday, a day after 22 Tamil civilians reportedly died from military shelling. The military, however, accused the Tigers of holding Tamil civilians as human shields. Independent verification of the incidents was not possible because reporters and aid workers are not allowed into the area.
After a fierce battle in Trincomalee district on Saturday, at least 3,000 Sinhalese civilians from 750 families took shelter in two Buddhist temples and two schools in Kantale village, some 30 kilometres southwest of Trincomalee town, said Sirimevan Dharmasena, the chief government bureaucrat in Kantale.
Maj Upali Rajapakse said five civilians died and 16 more were wounded by shells fired from rebel areas into ethnic Sinhalese villages in Trincomalee, prompting civilians to leave their homes. Medical sources said dozens of civilians wounded in weekend shelling poured into a hospital inside rebel-held territory. Sources in the Vakarai hospital inside territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) said 27 dead civilians were brought there. We also have 65 people wounded who have been brought for treatment, a medical source said when contacted by telephone. He said some areas were still unreachable due to fears of shelling, although there were fewer attacks Monday.
Meanwhile in the capital Colombo on Monday, about 5,000 people participated in a rally demanding the government ban the Tamil Tiger rebels. The protesters held placards which read Shame for daydreaming a political solution, and Shame for persisting with cease-fire agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The Muslime terrorist in Sri Lanka have artillery? Not news but here is an open question, who is funding them?
HT to Crackerbarrel philosopher
An Arizona appeals court has upheld a jury's $600,000 judgment in favor of a rancher in a defamation lawsuit, rejecting an environmental group's argument that documents it posted on the Internet were shielded by the First Amendment. refuge of scoundrels, liars, and journalism majors, but... I repeat myself..
The Court of Appeals upheld a Pima County Superior Court jury's award of compensatory and punitive damages to Jim Chilton in his lawsuit against the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit with offices in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, D.C. these A-holes are behind almost every frustrating lawsuit here in SoCal, and make demands for atty fees even when they lose....of course they don't always get them..heh heh
A lawyer for the rancher said the appellate court had stood up for a person wrongly defamed, while an attorney for the center said the ruling trampled citizens' right to petition for redress of grievances.
Chilton contended he and his business, Chilton Ranch and Cattle Co., were defamed by false postings the center made on its Web site. The posting referred to alleged overgrazing on Chilton's grazing allotment ,issued by the U.S. Forest Service for 21,500 acres in the Arivaca area northwest of Nogales, Ariz.
The center unsuccessfully opposed the 10-year renewal granted for Chilton's grazing permit, and the group subsequently posted links to the center's appeal and related photographs on its Web site.
The environmental group argued that the documents were shielded by state and federal constitutional protections for the right to petition the government over grievances because the appeal and photographs submitted with it were public records related to official proceedings.
However, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel in Tucson said the center did not raise the issue of constitutional protections until too late in the case. bad lawyering
The center asked for extra leeway on that point, but the court refused, saying that the jury found evidence of "actual malice" that indicated that the center knew that some of the material was false. lies and malicious accusations without merit cost the rancher, why shouldn't it cost you?
The court also declined to rule on whether past Arizona court rulings provide a blanket protection against defamation claims arising from official proceedings. Chilton's suit challenged the posting of the documents on the Internet, not their submission in the Forest Service appeal proceeding in which the public comment period was already completed by the time the postings were made, the court said.
The trial jury found the center made false statements in photo captions, including one that implied that grazing by Chilton's cattle was responsible for damage actually caused by hundreds of people, including the photographer, who attended a May Day festival. heh...May Day...nuff said
Kraig Marton, a lawyer for Chilton, said he was pleased by the ruling. "We hope that this sends a message to anyone who would wrongly defame any good person," he said.
Susan Seager, a lawyer for the center, said it would ask the Arizona Supreme Court to accept an appeal.
At stake is important legal protection for citizens who want to republish documents they've already filed in appeals and petitions with the government, Seager said. "even if they're blatant lies"
"This court held that they lost that privilege," Seager said. "It's the Internet age colliding with the very old right to petition." IMHO - Ms Seager is looking for deep pockets to recoup her time, expenses....a couple more cases like this and she'll be reduced to ambulance chasing
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2006 19:36 ||
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It's time we and the "state" start making these asholes pay the for bullshit they try and get away with in courtrooms and in hearings.
We have too many lawyers in a chase for money and persuing issues best settled by legislatures not in courts of law. Time for the legal system to start thinning the herd.
"Do you think you could be a spy?" This provocative question is addressed to visitors to the International Spy Museum here. After I had browsed through all the deadly paraphernalia on display--including the type of umbrella that a KGB assassin used to fire a fatal poison pellet into the right thigh of Bulgarian anticommunist Georgi Markov in London in 1978--I decided, no, I don't think so. The horrible radiation-poisoning death of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in late November, most likely inflicted by his former Moscow playmates, didn't change my mind.
But exploring the shadow world in perfect safety was well within my risk parameters, so last month I became one of the many thousands of visitors who've prowled through the Spy Museum since it opened in July 2002. . . .
As any number of ex-spooks have written, a lot of intelligence gathering is the dull, painstaking work of putting pieces of information together to form hypotheses about nefarious enemy goals. But the Spy Museum specializes in the exciting stuff, with lots of interactive displays to test spying skills. My wife, Jody, was better than I at detecting suspicious behavior. School kids lap up this sort of thing, which is why the museum is on the agenda of a lot of student tours. I encountered teenager Brooke Gunter, from Wyomissing, Pa., listening on headphones to a classmate who was being bugged elsewhere in the museum. "Great!" she chortled. Crawling through an air conditioning duct to spy on those below was another favorite of the Pennsylvania youths. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
12/12/2006 06:57 ||
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Very good museum, make sure you budget at least four hours if you're like me and stop to read every freakin' sign. Buy advance tix and if you go with a big group, be prepared to wait in the excellent gift shop for the stragglers to dift out.
They have the umbrella (or a model of it???) that the Soviets used to kill Georgi Markov by jabbing a ricin pellet into his thigh on a crowded bridge, a nice section on George Washington, spymaster; and lots of cool spy stuff.
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Very good museum, make sure you budget at least four hours if you're like me and stop to read every freakin' sign. Buy advance tix and if you go with a big group, be prepared to wait in the excellent gift shop for the stragglers to dift out.
They have the umbrella (or a model of it???) that the Soviets used to kill Georgi Markov by jabbing a ricin pellet into his thigh on a crowded bridge, a nice section on George Washington, spymaster; and lots of cool spy stuff.
sounds way kool Sea, but the intel I picked up from reading your comment is to NEVER go shopping with you!
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.
Mexico's new government, struggling with rampant drug trafficking and crime, ordered thousands of troops to the western state of Michoacan on Monday to fight drug cartels locked in a vicious turf war. President Felipe Calderon's security cabinet said more than 5,000 soldiers and Marines were being deployed to crack down on drug gangs in the state, a key air and sea transshipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine. "We will establish control points on highways and secondary roads to limit drug trafficking, along with raids and arrests," Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez Acuna said. 
Shell is being forced by the Russian government to hand over its controlling stake in the world's biggest liquefied gas project, provoking fresh fears about the Kremlin's willingness to use the country's growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon. After months of relentless pressure from Moscow, the Anglo-Dutch company has to cut its stake in the $20bn Sakhalin-2 scheme in the far east of Russia in favour of the state-owned energy group Gazprom.
The scheme created almost immediate controversy with western conservation groups because it involves putting equipment close to breeding grounds of endangered western grey whales. There has also been criticism that sensitive salmon fishing areas are being hit by dumping of dredging spoil waste amid worries about oil spills from platforms in the Okhotsk and Japanese seas.
German police have uncovered a radioactive trail linked to what prosecutors believe could be a possible suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in London last month. Police said on Monday a BMW used to pick up Dmitry Kovtun at Hamburg airport on October 28 had traces of polonium 210, the same radioactive substance used to poison Alexander Litvinenko.
By ERICA WERNER - Associated Press - December 11, 2006 8:04 PM EST
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) has decided that it will start a Deen Bacho Tehreek (save the religion movement) against the Womens Protection Act (WPA) and contact other religious parties and clerics for their support, party sources told Daily Times on Monday.
WASHINGTON - The ice sheet covering the North Pole and Arctic Ocean could recede and disappear completely in the summer months by 2040, researchers said Tuesday in the Geophysical Research Letters magazine.
JAKARTA - The United States, China and now a resurgent Russia are all competing for regional influence in Southeast Asia, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is shrewdly playing his diplomatic cards among all three suitors. 
Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan troops exchanged artillery and mortar fire during a fierce daylong battle in the countrys east that left at least 64 combatants dead, the military said Monday. An officer at the governments Media Centre for National Security said 24 soldiers were killed and 69 wounded in Sundays battle with the insurgents in the eastern Batticaloa district. Forty rebels were also killed in the clash, the officer said speaking on condition of anonymity due to policy. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said, however, that at least seven rebel fighters died in the clashes. 
