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Jordan frees al-Maqdessi
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Pics of Spitzer's $5,000/hour Sex Therapist
Wholesome lass. Pro'ly drinks a glass of milk every day. Wonder if Fred will put her in the bl ... nah ...
Maybe I'll run Christine Keeler tomorrow, though.
Pappy and I are still waiting for Angie Harmon. Sigh ...
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/13/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She's a whore and a mutt. Spitz's bodyguards still haven't disclosed if public assets were used for his secretive private purpose. How could they not have been? That would put him in Breach of Trust. Wall Street attornies will keep the knife at his throat. He went after The Street; it is payback time now.

Hillary: is this issue jogging some OTHER public memories?
Posted by: McZoid || 03/13/2008 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  THE RADIO REPORTED THIS MORNING SHE WAS WORRIED ABOUT PAYING FOR HER APARTMENT, SINCE HER BOYFRIEND LEFT HER.

Heartbreaking. Sorry about the caps, I have to watch the keyboard to type....
Posted by: Bobby || 03/13/2008 6:44 Comments || Top||

#3  She's cute, but she's not $4,300 worth of cute. Certainly not federal-wire-fraud-conviction cute.
Posted by: Mike || 03/13/2008 6:48 Comments || Top||

#4  "To sell your soul for all the world.....but for Wales?"

/channeling St. Thomas More off
Posted by: no mo uro || 03/13/2008 7:09 Comments || Top||

#5  She would benefit from a good nose job.
Posted by: Tiny Ulirt4387 || 03/13/2008 7:44 Comments || Top||

#6  The better to snorkel with?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/13/2008 9:34 Comments || Top||

#7  She's 22 is she? Is that too old to adopt?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2008 10:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Spitzer (who's Jewish) marries a blonde shiksa and then proceeds to seek out the services of a Jewish hooker. Usually, it's the other way around - shiksas are for practice.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/13/2008 10:53 Comments || Top||

#9  She must have Skillz.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/13/2008 12:32 Comments || Top||

#10  The hell with Keeler, run Whaley-Kilmer!
Posted by: Chief Running Gag || 03/13/2008 12:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Something from "The Man Who Knew Too Little" would be kinda appropriate... Maybe a maid's uniform?
Posted by: Chief Running Gag || 03/13/2008 12:39 Comments || Top||

#12  She must have Skillz.

y'know, in all the various copies I've seen thus far of the Emp. Club's web site, they didn't seem to have pictures of any of those mythical "charismatic mature women between 30 and 40."

I have also been reading a fair bit about Spitzer since this thing broke; he seems to be a typical dominating, maybe even bullying personality type; Frankly, I DON'T think he or any other professional bullying politician type is gonna be the sort of person to be attracted to the "Inara Serra" personality type from Firefly.

I suspect the "skillz" he was paying for was: between 20 and 25, attractive, weak personality, and an ability to keep her mouth shut. And he's probably not doing it for the orgasm itself but for the thrill of getting away with it.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 03/13/2008 12:51 Comments || Top||

#13  I'm freezing at $225 an hour.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/13/2008 13:16 Comments || Top||

#14  How come a $400 million dollar man (or will when his daddy kicks the bucket) hires the cheapest hooker (3 diamonds) in the stable? You'd think with that much money Spitzer would go though 7 diamond hookers like a Saudi prince on a Paris vacation.
Posted by: Glatle Squank2096 || 03/13/2008 13:27 Comments || Top||

#15  Abdominal Snowman, interesting take. You seem to know us humans well, but I sure hope it's not because you're involved in those UFO abductions thingie!!!
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 03/13/2008 13:36 Comments || Top||

#16  Attorney General then Gubernator.
$5000 for a session wid a prostitute.

Spitzer's wife is hiz most costly contract...

Wait till she startz renegotiations.
Posted by: RD || 03/13/2008 13:38 Comments || Top||

#17  No, the only things I've ever "abducted" is luggage.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 03/13/2008 13:39 Comments || Top||

#18  Gotta agree w/ McZoid (re: mutt); not even close to making the cut for the SI swimsuit issue and doubtful if she even ever made Hugh's short list for Centerfold of the Month. Of course now she will because of her, uh, noteriety, but not for any other, shall we say, attribute.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/13/2008 14:23 Comments || Top||

#19  Fodder for the fourth estate to report on the first and second oldest professions. I always get the first and second oldest professions mixed up. That is, I can't tell which one it is that is screwing up.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/13/2008 16:58 Comments || Top||

#20  Correction: "...screwing us."
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/13/2008 16:59 Comments || Top||

#21  Spitzer is an idiot but then New York has a recent history of electing idiots. Should have spent the $80 K on his kids' educations. Might buy a year at Harvard for one of them.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/13/2008 17:07 Comments || Top||

#22  How come a $400 million dollar man (or will when his daddy kicks the bucket) hires the cheapest hooker (3 diamonds) in the stable?

She calls him "Daddy"
Posted by: Glavirong Tojo6612 || 03/13/2008 19:49 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Joseph Weizenbaum, inventor of ELIZA
Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer programmer who invented the natural language understanding program known as ELIZA and later grew skeptical of artificial intelligence, has died, his family said Thursday. He was 85.

Weizenbaum was born Jan. 8, 1923, in Berlin and fled to the United States in 1936 with his family to escape persecution as Jews, according to a short 2003 biography published by Magdeburg's Leibniz-Institut fuer Neurobiologie.

He began studying math at Detroit's then-Wayne University in 1941, but broke off a year later to join the U.S. Army Air Corps where he served as a meteorologist. The school is now called Wayne State University.

After the war, he completed his studies and early in his career he worked on analog machines, later helping design and build a digital computer at the school, the newsletter Tech Talk from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported Wednesday.

He joined a General Electric Co. team in 1955 that designed and built the first computer system dedicated to banking operations.

"Among his early technical contributions were the list processing system, SLIP, and the natural language understanding program ELIZA, which was an important development in artificial intelligence and cemented his role in the folklore of computer science research," Tech Talk said.

Weizenbaum was a professor at MIT when he developed ELIZA — named for Eliza Doolittle, the heroine of "My Fair Lady" — which became his best-known contribution to computer programming.

"The ELIZA program simulated a conversation between a patient and a psychotherapist by using a person's responses to shape the computer's replies," Tech Talk reported. "Weizenbaum was shocked to discover that many users were taking his program seriously and were opening their hearts to it. The experience prompted him to think philosophically about the implications of artificial intelligence and, later, to become a critic of it."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/13/2008 17:41 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My oldest boy did an AI science fair project built around ELIZA.

I also read that there was at least one instance where someone hooked up ELIZA to another program called PARRY, which simulated Keith Olbermann a paranoid schitzophrenic, and let them talk to each other.
Posted by: Mike || 03/13/2008 17:46 Comments || Top||

#2  and let them talk to each other.

That would be MSNBC.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/13/2008 20:36 Comments || Top||

#3  http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eliza.php3?
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/13/2008 21:50 Comments || Top||

#4  "Inventor of Eliza? Please continue."
Posted by: DMFD || 03/13/2008 22:23 Comments || Top||


Dave Stevens, 52; artist created 'Rocketeer' comic
Dave Stevens, an artist best known for creating "The Rocketeer" comic book, which reflected a fascination with Bettie Page that brought the 1950s pin-up queen renewed attention, has died. He was 52. Stevens, whose home was in North Hollywood, died Monday at Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, Calif., from complications related to treatment for leukemia.

In 1981, Stevens was working as a commercial illustrator when a friend asked him to contribute a story to another comic book. His "throwaway idea," as he called it, was a succinct ode to 1930s-style, pulp-fiction adventures and movie serials. The comic -- in which a stunt pilot battles evil after finding a rocket-powered backpack -- became a cult success. A decade later it was made into the live-action Disney movie "The Rocketeer" with Billy Campbell as the title character. . . .

The comic's square-jawed hero, Cliff Secord, bore more than a passing resemblance to the soft-spoken Stevens. The female love interest, a lingerie model, was drawn as a tribute to pin-up Page. "Bettie was a look, a standard of beauty that I spotted as an adolescent," Stevens told the Post-Intelligencer.

The attention the retired Page received because of the comic helped revive interest in her. Stevens paid Page to use her likeness and helped her get paid by publishers who used her image, friends said. Artist and subject became friends, which led Stevens to marvel: "After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks." . . .
Posted by: Mike || 03/13/2008 13:48 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A sad loss. He was a tremendous talent, and by all accounts a genuinely decent human being.
Posted by: Angomoper Bourbon1763 || 03/13/2008 15:50 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Global Warming Alert: Guns and fists as "snow rage" erupts

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec (Reuters) - Although Canada is one of the snowiest countries in the world, a series of violent "snow rage" incidents reveal that even the locals have their limits. Police in the French-speaking province of Quebec said on Wednesday that people were fighting over snow clearing and even parking spaces.

Recent Canadian winters have been mild but this one looks set to break all-time records for snow. One storm last weekend dumped 23 inches on the capital Ottawa and 19 inches on Quebec City, which has already received 210 inches this year.

Quebec City police said they had been called to a dozen violent disputes about snow from one property ending up on someone else's. The drifts outside some houses are 12 feet and higher.

Last Sunday, a man in an upscale Quebec City neighborhood became so upset a woman from a snow removal service was putting snow on his yard that he shouted at her and then took a shovel and hit the window of the vehicle she was driving. "The woman apologized and returned to work ... a bit later the man opened his garage door and emerged with a shotgun, pointed it at the ground and looked at her in a threatening way," said police spokeswoman Catherine Viel.

Police arrested the man, who will be charged with negligent use of a firearm, and seized a total of 13 weapons from his home. Viel said snow-related fights were unusually common. "It's happened particularly often this year ... you have to be used to snow if you live in Quebec but it's been a bit extreme this year. People are fed up," she said.

In Montreal, police said a man had produced a toy gun during a heated dispute Sunday between two drivers over a rare parking space. He may face weapons charges.

There may be more trouble to come, since Environment Canada says there is no sign winter is about to end. Snow fell again on Quebec City and Ottawa Wednesday.

Montreal is also having problems disposing of the snow. One massive mound is around 80-feet high and officials told reporters that unless steps were taken to dismantle the pile, much of it would still be there when next winter started.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/13/2008 10:34 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was living in Marion Ill. in 1993 when we had a series of very goodly snowstorms, the snowpiles in Wal-Mart and the Mall parking lots lasted well into the summer, and they werent anywhere near 80 ft tall. These guys might actually have snow lying around until next winter. Where the hell is Al Gore when you need him? Also, I hear an increasing amount of people rationalizing global warming into "climate change" to explain this recent cold/snowy weather. Some people just NEED to believe we are doomed I think.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/13/2008 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  See???? This is why we call it "The Great White North". I'd like to see yet another 23 inches of snow fall on Ottawa this coming weekend. . . . and the one after that. . . . and the one after that. ollowed by more discussions on the Kyoto Treaty.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/13/2008 13:42 Comments || Top||

#3  That would be "followed" as opposed to "ollowed". I missed the "f"ing "f".
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/13/2008 13:44 Comments || Top||

#4  One massive mound is around 80-feet high and officials told reporters that unless steps were taken to dismantle the pile, much of it would still be there when next winter started.

Cool. An anthropogenic proto-glacier.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/13/2008 17:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Peaceful Canadians. We could learn so much from them.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/13/2008 17:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Where's our old bud Chong Stalin to tell us how much better Canucks are than us violent, benighted Murcans?
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 03/13/2008 18:01 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Robbers loot train, kill attendant
An attendant of a Dhaka-bound train from Chittagong was killed by a gang of robbers that attacked the passengers and looted money and valuables between Akhaura junction and Imambari station early yesterday. The victim was identified as Md Shamsul Haque, 54, son of Md Abdul Latif of Pashdak village under Ramganj upazila of Lakshmipur. A passenger was also injured during the robbery.

According to the Government Railway Police (GRP), the robbers boarded a cabin on the mail train Chittagong Up-1 at Comilla Railway Station in the guise of passengers. The train arrived at Imambari Railway Station in Brahmanbaria at 2:28am yesterday. As soon as the train left the station, cries were heard from the cabin.

When the train reached Akhaura Railway Station, the GRP recovered the body of the attendant from the cabin toilet.

The passengers in the cabin said the gang tied their mouths with tapes and looted their money and valuables. Passenger Abdur Rauf, 50, was injured during the bustle. They said the robbers dragged the attendant into the toilet, tied him there and killed him.

The train reached Brahmanbaria Railway Station at 6:50am--over three hours late than usual time.
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
Global Warming: Basic Greenhouse equation is wrong.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/13/2008 12:48 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The CO2 given off daily by the oceans equals nearly 100% of planetary releases. The human factor is insignificant.
Posted by: McZoid || 03/13/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Guy got in one. The thing driving the Global Warming crisis is MONEY. The scientist whores and their management pimps are trying to scare governments into more and bigger grants to keep them from having to earn a living.
Posted by: RWV || 03/13/2008 15:15 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ashleys pics and music
Posted by: tipper || 03/13/2008 00:56 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Taliban ban two Urdu dailies for spreading 'obscenity' in Mirali
Local Taliban imposed a ban on the sale of two Urdu dailies in the Mirali sub-division of North Waziristan on Wednesday. The Taliban warned newsagents of Urdu dailies Aaj Kal, published from Islamabad, and Waqt, published from Lahore, that if their newspapers were sold in the Mirali area in the future, the newspapers would be burnt at Mirali Chowk. The Taliban said both newspapers were spreading obscenity by publishing un-Islamic and immoral photographs of women.

Separately, a missile fired from the Afghan side landed in Faiz Muhammad’s house in Madda Khel village on the Pak-Afghan border on Wednesday, killing two women.
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Taliban



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
6Taliban
5al-Qaeda
1al-Tawhid
1Global Jihad
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hamas
1Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Palestinian Authority
1TNSM
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in North Africa

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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.

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2008-03-13
  Jordan frees al-Maqdessi
Wed 2008-03-12
  Israel-Hamas Hudna
Tue 2008-03-11
  Qaeda in North Africa grabs two Austrian hostages
Mon 2008-03-10
  Jaber al-Banna released on bail in Yemen
Sun 2008-03-09
  Chinese aircrew thwarts hijacking attempt
Sat 2008-03-08
  Police Believe Recovered Bike Was Times Square Bomber's
Fri 2008-03-07
  Viktor Bout arrested in Bangkok, indicted in U.S.
Thu 2008-03-06
  Times Square recruiting station boomed
Wed 2008-03-05
  Double kaboom at Pak navy college kills 5
Tue 2008-03-04
  Hamas claims 'victory' as Olmert dithers, IDF pulls out of Gaza
Mon 2008-03-03
  U.S. bangs Qaeda big in Somalia
Sun 2008-03-02
  70 Gazooks titzup in IDF operation
Sat 2008-03-01
  Colombia bangs FARC 2nd in command in Ecuador
Fri 2008-02-29
  Predator zap kills 10 in South Wazoo
Thu 2008-02-28
  VA imam thought to have aided al-Qaida
Wed 2008-02-27
  Boomer on a bus kills 40 near Mosul


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