President Bush today ordered a "comprehensive review" of care for wounded service members by a new presidential commission, and the secretary of the Army submitted his resignation, as the administration sought to deal with reports of festering problems in outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In a separate development, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it is issuing a subpoena to compel Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who was fired as commander of Walter Reed yesterday, to appear at hearing on Monday to testify about a controversial privatization effort at the Washington, D.C., hospital complex.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, meanwhile, announced this afternoon that he has accepted the resignation of Francis J. Harvey as secretary of the Army, and he said the Army later today would name a new permanent replacement for Weightman.
#1
One of those things I learned while I was in the service is that the Army has THE worst housing for personnel (regardless of status). When I arrived at Ft Meade MD as an E-4 with a wife I was offered a two bedroom SUBSTANDARD apartment. Substandard in the Army must have meant buildings that predate WWI, because these places were very old. Along with your apartment you got all the critters that came along with urban living (Rats, Cockroaches, and my favorite bats). After a couple of bug bombs, the acquisition of one-each rodent control system (Feline), some curtains, and a window mounted air conditioner the place didnt look too bad. Now I am not excusing the Army for putting wounded soldiers in substandard quarters but I add that they were using the same type of quarters since at least 1984. Maybe Congress should allocate some money to build some new barracks at Walter Reed. I dont think the General should have been relieved until he had a chance to fix the problem, especially since it was there before he took command and by and large it was an Army policy to allow substandard housing to exist.
#2
CS may be right about the general but the SEC ARMY has to go. This signal of need is long over due. The budget is set and approved by the SECARMY before going to congress. This place was, as I understood it, on the BRAC list to be torn down. When the POM budget is drafted many componants fight for the limited dollars. BRACKed facilities are last in line and usually get less than enough to just maintain what they have. The logic is to not throw money after a facility that is being torn down anyway and spend the dollars on places like CS talks about that will continue to be used. This is how it goes in a nut shell.
For the command to allow this to happen required a number of leaders from the hospital commander on up to SECARMY to allow this and not ask congress to take care of the wounded. From my chair-"off with their heads" and it probably will land on Rummy's shoulders in the end. There is no excuse for not taking care of those who give it all for us.
The next great disaster will be when the press discover how totally destroyed the VA situation is.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/02/2007 19:05 Comments ||
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#3
Or when they discover that maintenance dollars requested by our commanders and approved by our civilian leadership for the upkeep of military facilities and housing go as far as a pat of butter on an acre of bread.
Practically every facility I lived in and/or worked in for a 20 year career spent mostly overseas was a dump. Aging, cheap to begin with, and about two or three decades past its 'best-if-used-by' date.
You wanna know the dirty little truth? Most career service people have spent large chunks of their service lives in places that aren't any dumpier than the outpatient housing at WRAMC.
#4
Truth. Most spend a fair hunk of their own money just getting the assigned hovels into livable shape. It has been this was since the sixties, when I first experieinced it, and probably well before. It is about time this problem was rectified.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/02/2007 19:31 Comments ||
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#5
Most career service people have spent large chunks of their service lives in places that aren't any dumpier than the outpatient housing at WRAMC.
I've done temdu living in WWII era Q-huts, strongback tents and 12 to a room post war bunkrooms. That said, the wounded deserve better.
#6
Of course, they do... but this is the Army.
Which, IIRC, always griped, half-enviously at the Air Force troops about how well the Air Force lived, comparitivly speaking.
#7
I wasn't trying to minimze the problem I just wanted to point out that the Army has ALWAYS had substandard housing. I doubt that either the Commander or the Deputy Sec knew that substandard housing actully existed. I think thye should have been given a chance to rectify the situation and maybe Congress might want to allocate a little more toward Army housing. For the record I was Air Force but stationed on an Army post and every Air Force Base I ever lived on had great housing.
Sub-aqua ice hockey is the latest craze for extreme sports enthusiasts.
Forget ice skates, helmets and padding, all you need to have a go at sub-aqua ice hockey is a wet suit, flippers and a good set of lungs. Played under the ice of a frozen lake and upside down, the sport is proving to be a big hit among extreme sports enthusiasts.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe denounced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday evening, calling dependence on the crisis lender and other donors tantamount to economic slavery, reducing African countries to beggars. "We don't have to go to IMF for that, even to any European donor, for what we can do between and amongst ourselves," Mugabe told a business meeting organised in Windhoek by the Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "And when we start doing it on our own, you'll see them coming, saying 'Ah, you have a factory here. We want to assist you.' Then, if we want a partner, the partner must come on our terms, because then we will have the capacity to do things on our own."
"When we don't have that capacity, then we are like economic slaves. We go begging. There are still countries in Africa which go begging for money in order to pay their civil servants, and they got independent in the '60s," he said. Citing non-payments of arrears, the IMF has just frozen support for Zimbabwe, which has now reached the world's highest inflation rate at 1 600 per cent annually.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Help is forthcoming!
Parliamentary Debate - THE SEARCH FOR A "NEW MANDELA"
#2
That's what happens when you steal your treasury blind, other folks don't give you more to steal. seems plain to me. Try coughing up your personal fortune first, maybe then you'll be believed (But I doubt it)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/02/2007 7:01 Comments ||
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Joint forces yesterday arrested Baufal upazila Jubo Dal president and a local Awami League leader of Noakhali and seized 159 corrugated iron (CI) sheets meant for relief mostly from the houses of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami workers in different places. Police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel arrested 1,502 people including 19 convicts, 826 wanted criminals and six charged under Arms Act in 24 hours ending at 6:00am yesterday, home ministry sources said. Members of the armed forces arrested 57 people including 25 criminals during the time.
In Dhaka, the joint forces arrested Salah Uddin, president of Jubo Dal's Baufal upazila (in Patuakhali) unit, from Sheorapara in Mirpur in the early hours of yesterday, reports our correspondent. He is accused in four cases including one filed for the murder of one Mosharraf.
In Noakhali, the joint forces arrested AL leader and Chairman of Kadir Hanif Union Parishad (UP) Jasim Uddin Mallick from Old Bus Stand area yesterday noon.
In Gazipur, police recovered 12 CI sheets from the house of Kaliganj upazila Jamaat Amir Akhtar Munshi and sealed off the house while the Jamaat leader had managed to flee sensing the presence of law enforcers. He is accused in several cases including those for grabbing public land, police said.
In Satkhira, police recovered 23 CI sheets for relief from the house of local Jamaat-e-Islami leader Maulana Abdul Latif at Kushodanga village in Kalaroa upazila. Police also raided the house of a Jamaat activist and top local businessman Abdur Rahim at Katia in Satkhira town and seized 18 pieces of CI sheets from his possession.
In Netrakona, joint forces recovered 55 CI sheets from the house of Abdur Rashid, member of Purbadhala Sadar UP in Purbadhala upazila, at Nachhibpur village early yesterday. They also recovered 40 CI sheets for relief from BNP leader Abul Kashem's house at Laljana village in the same upazila.
In Mymensingh, joint forces recovered 23 such CI sheets from the house of Surya Banu, mother-in-law of arrested chairman of Rajoir UP Anwar Hossain, at Jamirpara village in Bhaluka upazila yesterday noon. The joint forces recovered two abandoned firearms and six bullets from Fatehpur village in Hathazari upazila yesterday morning.
This article starring:
ABDUR RAHIM
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh
MAULANA ABDUL LATIF
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh
Jamaat-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#5
Notice that this is a SERIOUS crime, in that the RAB is on the case. We can expect these miscreants, wanted on multiple sytems to wind up dead as a result of a shoot out behind what passes for the Bangla Home Depot (or should that be Home Upazila?).
US President George W. Bush will tour Latin America in March, in an attempt to curb the influence of his Socialist Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, and to neutralize recent Iranian efforts to improve ties in the region. Bushs visit crowns months of a US diplomatic offensive aiming to isolate the ongoing Socialist Revolution in Caracas by developing ties with South Americas giant, Brazil.
Bush is expected to visit Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia to show agreement following years of divergences in Washingtons southern flank. According to analysts, the ultimate goal is to stop Chavez' plans to turn the Common Market of the South into a Latin American body where political anti-US stances prevail over plain economic integration. As such, Bushs visit to Uruguay becomes one of the hot spots of his tour. In Montevideo, Washington diplomats are expected to deepen trade ties between both nations, something that could disrupt the Mercosur block that Uruguayans founded with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
Washington wants to strengthen the Brazilian leadership in the region to corner Chavez efforts to export his Bolivarian Revolution. US diplomats see President Lula Da Silva as a moderate reformist who could take an alternative leadership to the radical moves of the Venezuelan. According to analysts, in order to counter the Venezuelan oil diplomacy, Washington suggested an energy deal with Brazil for production and trade of biofuels. Together, the US and Brazil amount to around 70 percent of the world ethanol production.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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PARIS: The Airbus superjumbo program suffered a major new setback Friday as UPS Inc. said it would cancel its order for 10 A380s, leaving the aircraft maker with an empty order book for the cargo version of its much-delayed flagship.
The move comes just a week after UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, said it had agreed with Airbus to postpone its first freighter delivery until 2012 three years later than originally promised.
#3
The good news: Free A380 with every box of Lucky Charms starting in 2011.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/02/2007 17:22 Comments ||
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#4
This will spell the end for eads.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/02/2007 18:20 Comments ||
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#5
If the Europeans are even somewhat intelligent, they will spinoff the helicopter business from EADS. The helo side is doing great, with sales all over; no sense in having it drug into the pit with Airbus.
#6
That didn't take long: less than 8 hours prior to this UPS anouncement, Airbust announced they were stoping work on the A380F, so they could concentrate resouces on the PAX version. This sound you heard was that of the FIRST shoe falling.......
#7
It is not that bad. There is far too much, industry wide, invested in the program. It will exist, maybe in token terms, but it will exist.
The Euros can't let it fail, nor can they let EADS fail. It may spell a large change for them, but not the not the end. They'll probably roll A380 into a new designation sooner or later to avoid any stigma, but it will go on.
The supplier work still continues, so it is not over yet. Your sign that it is truly over will be when the suppliers stop.
Neutrals, my ass! It was all a big diversion...
ZURICH, Switzerland - What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein. The way to victory goes through... what's the capital of Liechtenstein?
According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back. ...before they faced the wrath of Liechtenstein!
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion. "We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press. Yeah, that's just what they want you to think...
Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident. Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said. Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army. Well, then the Swiss were smart to start there in their quest for world conquest. Today Liechtenstein, tomorrow Andorra!
#2
What do they need assault rifles for? I've heard the Swiss will get MEDIEVAL on your ass with a corkscrew-tweezers combination from that handy-dandy knife of theirs. Riiiii-co-lllaaaaaa!!!
#3
Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army.... and unlike D.C., doesn't NEED ONE!
#5
It's time for the Axis of Weevil (Andorra, Monaco, and Vatican City) to show those uppity Swiss what-for!
Posted by: Dar ||
03/02/2007 13:48 Comments ||
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#6
Forgive my ignorance but is this the standard training for Euro armies? One with no ammunition invading one with no army and retreating before the counterattack?
#10
"Der Swiss, ze march in here with zere army, und dey leer at der women, und stomp down our streets in ein moral outrage! And dey don't even buy anything, not so much as a struedel before marching aus again!"
#11
You know, oddly enough I was in Liechtenstein about two weeks ago (the bus I was on drove between Innerlochen, Switzerland and Innsbruck, Austria). It pretty much looks like any other Swiss Canton or Austrian Providence. You can kind of see how they wouldn't know.
#13
Something's fishy here. The border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland is the Rhine River on 3/4 of the border, and a pretty well defined border on the shorter, east-west boundary - also some pretty tall mountains on most of that. Of course, knowing Rhine fog as I do from 10 years in Wiesbaden, it's possible - very possible.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2007 17:21 Comments ||
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#14
Any chance the Rhine could be frozen over that high up at this time of year?
#15
Back in the days when I was a proud member of the dutch armed forces, a similair thing happened to my platoon, we got lost (reconplatoon for an armored unit :-) on the german side of the line and walked around for half the night shouting things like:" Wir kommen unsere fahrader zuruckholen, und diesen mal habben wir die waffen" (we are here to tack our bycicles back, and this time we have the guns) untill a very pissed of major spotted us and forcemarched us back to the barracks.
#16
Hey, Lurker? WTF has happened to your countrymen that they let themselves be pushed around so much by a bunch of raghead bastards? The Dutch used to be tough and stubborn; why are they now rolling over for these Muzzy scumbags?
Posted by: mac ||
03/02/2007 19:00 Comments ||
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#17
Lurker, that was pretty funny :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2007 20:53 Comments ||
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#18
Liechtenstein doesn't have an army, but it does have a jail.
#19
Forgive my ignorance but is this the standard training for Euro armies? One with no ammunition invading one with no army and retreating before the counterattack?
Well, it might be if we were talking about France.
An arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this years Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist.
Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, 78, who retired as Archbishop of Bologna three years ago, quoted Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), the Russian philosopher and mystic, as predicting that the Antichrist will convoke an ecumenical council and seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions. The masses would follow the Antichrist, with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants who would fight to prevent the watering down and ultimate destruction of the faith, he said.
#1
I'm not Catholic, but I thought the official Vatican position was to eschew eschatological speculations. They used to seem content to leave that to the fringier Protestant sects.
VIENNA - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso inaugurated a new EU Fundamental Rights Agency on Thursday in Vienna to advise on European Union legislation.
Fundamental rights are kinda like Human Rights, only they're more... ummm... fundmental.
But the new agency, which replaces and extends the scope of the current Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) founded in 1998, will be limited to collecting and analysing data on states observance and application of EU legislation. A Europe that only monitored the most serious disease of racism and xenophobia -- the two shames that made the EUMC necessary -- would, in todays world, be doing only half the work needed to promote and protect fundamental rights, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said at the inauguration ceremony.
I thought governments had that responsibility, but this is Y'urp we're discussing ...
The result of long negotiations started in 2003 by the 25 EU members and concluded in December, the agency, with its 80 to 100 staff, will have limited powers and lack the authority to file suits against states or examine individual complaints.
Little to do except enjoy lunch and look important.
The EU 25 also decided it could not intervene in matters of judicial and police cooperation between states -- arguably the area in which it could have done the most work -- following strong opposition from Britain and Germany especially.
The agencys expertise will instead be used in implementing Union policies -- on the common market and transport for example -- where there are discrimination and racism issues, in the 27 current EU members. The EUs new agency will work above all in the legislation preparation phase, Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said while Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer added it will have an advisory duty so that fundamental rights do not suffer because of tensions caused by the fight against terrorism.
Because terrorists have fundamental rights too, you know.
This article starring:
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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The result of long negotiations started in 2003 by the 25 EU members and concluded in December, the agency, with its 80 to 100 staff, will have limited powers and lack the authority to file suits against states or examine individual complaints.
Sounds like the perfect EU organization. Good jobs at good wages, no heavy lifting, accomplishes pretty much nothing
#4
I did some research on this agency for a friend, and actually read some of the EUMC's "reports."
Like all EU documents, they make the Internal Revenue Code seem like light, leisurely reading. This is deliberate; 99.9% of the population would rather stick pins in their eyes than actually plow through them line by line, so no one does, and the illusion that there's nothing to worry about is perpetuated.
So just for the heck of it, I downloaded the PDF of their most recent annual report, read most of it, then ran searches for Islamophobia/ism and anti-Semitic/ism. I'm sure you could guess the ratio of hits. These people disgust me.
#5
tu, unfortunately, it does accomplish something. The EUMC, founded in 1997, was not an EU institution, and its recommendations had no legal effect. Now that it's an official EU agency, the EU Commission (the EU's Politburo) can basically dictate to national governments what laws they must pass, or impose "federal" law and regulate these matters directly.
Creepy, especially where it's already more or less illegal to own guns, stockpile much of anything, or homeschool your kids.
In sum, Europe keeps driving out its smart, independent folks, while the dumb, tyrannical ones stay behind and keep doing this to their subjects. Lather, rinse, repeat.
#7
Any coincidence that this new agency was stood up following the announcement from Airbus concerning the loss of ~10k jobs??? I think not....after all, in the EU, getting paid for not working is after all, fundamental.
(KUNA) -- Within the next six months, 3,500 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping soldiers working in the Balkan region would be withdrawn, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana's spokeswoman, Christine Galliach said Thursday.
In a phone call with KUNA, Galliach said that the pull out would not affect "readiness and efficiency" of the troops in Bosnia, stating that troops' reduction from 6,000 to 2,500 would be done in a dynamic yet gradual manner. NATO forces were taking direct responsibility for security in Bosnia, and would continue observing the situation in the region in order for it to get involved whenever necessary, the EU official said. She added that the international follow-up committee's decision taken on February 28 to extend the mandate for the international commission for an additional year came to maintain stability in southeast Europe.
In a related development, the Bosnian presidency today called for an expanded meeting with major political parties of the parliament to discuss a draft resolution presented by EU police experts to unify police duties in Bosnia. The plan was apposed by Serb representatives in the parliament who claimed the plan would jeopardize the ethnic identity of their autonomous ruling, representing 49 percent of Bosnian land.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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dynamic yet gradual manner - how European!
Bosnia....Does the US still have troops there? How long were they there? How many were killed again; I forget. Civilians? Fluffy ducks? Baby kittens? Chinese embassies? Was there any sectarian violence there?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2007 6:00 Comments ||
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And, in addition to the above, I believe it behooves us to remember that President Clinton promised that the Bosnia mission would not be "open ended" and that US soldiers would be, if I remember correctly, "home by Christmas".
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
The pro-Beijing Hong Kong port magnate Li Ka-shing is interested in buying into a major expansion operation at Vancouvers shipping port. Li Ka-shing is head of Hutchison Wampoa, front company for the Chicoms. Got Panama port contracts, both ends of the Canal, acquiring mineral companies in Canada for the Chicoms, get the picture?
Lis Hutchison Port Holdings is among the international port terminal operators that have shown an interest in Port Vancouvers Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project, according to Canadian press reports.
Patrick McLaughlin, the Vancouver Port Authoritys director of planning and development, told reporters that Li's company was creating the most buzz. "We want to start this by going to the international community and say, 'We've heard you're interested, we need to confirm that,' and from that, pick someone who is interested in being a partner in this process," McLaughlin said.
Hutchison operates 46 container terminals in Europe, Central and South America, Asia and the Middle East.
If acquired, the Terminal 2 project would be Lis first foothold in North America.
The Vancouver Port Authority is expanding existing facilities at Roberts Bank with a container expansion program that would add a third berth to the existing two-berth Deltaport container terminal, plus future development of a new three-berth container terminal known as Terminal 2.
Hutchison Whampoa currently operates two ports at either end of the Panama Canal. U.S. intelligence officials say these could be used to disrupt military shipments to Asia in a future conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan. Or have Nukes in a 40' Box
A declassified Army intelligence report from 1998 stated that Li was planning to take over operations of the Panama Canal.
"According to a DIA Intelligence Information Report, Li Ka-shing, the owner of Hutchison Whampoa Lt. (HW) and Cheung Kong International Holdings Ltd. (CK) is planning to take control of Panama Canal operations when the U.S. transfers it to Panama," the report from the office of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence stated.
"Li is directly connected to Beijing and is willing to use his business influence to further the aims of Chinese government," the report stated. "I make my billions and you get the world."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Yep, see also STRATEGYPAGE > RUSSIA DISCUSSES ITS COMING WAR WITH AMERICA.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/02/2007 12:46 Comments ||
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#3
Li Ka-shing is head of Hutchison Wampoa, front company for the Chicoms. Got Panama port contracts, both ends of the Canal, acquiring mineral companies in Canada for the Chicoms, get the picture?
Thanks Paul, the pic is clear as hell for most of us but way too many in North Americans [even a couple of RBees] think that the Chicoms are nothing but rival trading partners.
guessing that most of those who "think" this way likely derive $$$ themselves directly from the Chicom Trade.
#4
And in a related development that has received very little attention, Washington State Rep, Mary Margaret Haugen (democrat, natch) has introduced legislation in WA that would levy a 'container tax' on all incoming units to help stimulate construction of infrastructure to move goods out of the Puget Sound ports inland. Understandably, all the shippers have stated that if that goes throuhg, they will look to take their business elsewhere. And KaChing will have oeprators standing by......
#5
There was a report I saw many years ago online that basically stated that the Chicoms had already moved ICBMs or at least nuclear warheads into the ports they basically own at both ends of the PC.
The Weekly Standard's Noemie Emery does a great public service in listing the history of Al Gore's hypocrisy. I don't remember all the incidents.
---------------------------------------------------------
....Richard Cohen had barely published his paean to Prince Al and his vision (about the need for austerity, and leaving a wee tiny imprint upon Mother Nature) when news broke that His Princeness, in his palazzo in Nashville, was burning through kilowatts in staggering numbers, and trampling all over Mother Earth (if not an Earth Mother) with hobnailed and giant-sized boots. This was the real Al, not the virtual one, and one we knew well from the past: the one who at the 1996 convention made a five-Kleenex speech about how his sister's horrific death in 1984 from lung cancer had turned him into an indefatigable foe of tobacco, when in 1988 he had bragged about raising the crop; who went from co-sponsoring a bill to make a fetus a person to defending late-term abortion at NARAL celebrations, and then denied that he had changed anything; the Al who wasted unknown gallons of water during a drought to float his canoe for a save-the-earth photo op; the Al who in March, 2000, declared his intention to crusade for campaign finance reform, because he had been nearly indicted in a fund-raising scandal; the Al who ran in 2000 as, a people-vs.-the powerful populist, while being outed as a slumlord who left his indigent tenants living in squalor; the Al who in the Florida recount promised to "count every vote" (for him, that was), while trying furiously to discredit those of overseas servicemen, and others whose problem was a slight technicality...
Fatima Ruling Condemned by Ex-Minister
Maha Akeel, Arab News
JEDDAH, 21 February 2007 The ruling that upheld a judges decision to divorce a couple in absentia at the request of the wifes half-brothers has been condemned by a former deputy minister of justice.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Newspapers report similar stories with brothers, half brothers, cousins, uncles and even tribal chiefs filing court cases demanding divorces of women due to unequal tribal affiliations. And that dear friends is why cousins should marry cousins. Keep it in the family to avoid tribal disputes.
(AKI) - In an unexpected move, conservatives and liberal members of the Church of England have joined forces to reject bishops' controversial policy allowing gay clergy to enter civil partnerships if they vowed to abstain from sex. Instead the General Synod on Wednesday backed a motion acknowledging deep splits over the issues and encouraged bishops to review their policy. The General Synod is taking place this week through Thursday.
In Wednesday's motion, the General Synod said it: "Acknowledges the diversity of views within the Church of England on whether Parliament might better have addressed the injustices affecting persons of the same sex wishing to share a common life had it done so in a way that avoided creating a legal framework with many similarities to marriage."
The motion followed an often passionate debate, in which dissatisfaction with the bishops' guidelines was voiced by a range of speakers. Even several bishops expressed their unease with the pastoral guidance issued in 2005. A number of gay clergy and laity reportedly spoke openly about the value of their own sexually active relationships.
But the General Synod also rejected criticism of the bishops by conservative evangelicals that their policy undermined heterosexual marriage by effectively condoning gay "marriage".
The bishops on Wednesday presented a united defence of their 2005 guidance - even though they are themselves profoundly divided, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. The bishops described their guidance as a "balanced and sensitive attempt" to apply Church teaching to civil partnerships.
After years of campaigning by gay rights activists, in December 2005 a new law entered into force in Britain allowing civil partnerships giving gay couples the same property, inheritance, pension, immigration and tax entitlements as married heterosexuals.
Anglican traditionalists in the Church of England, the Roman Catholic church and British Muslims opposed the move.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2007 00:00 ||
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The motion followed an often passionate debate, in which dissatisfaction with the bishops' guidelines was voiced by a range of speakers. Even several bishops expressed their unease with the pastoral guidance issued in 2005. A number of gay clergy and laity reportedly spoke openly about the value of their own sexually active relationships.
From the well of the Anglican pulpit you could hear them all shout,
The corrupted clergy preached the married homo life without the slightest doubt,
Evanglized for robust arse buggery under that old Anglican redoubt.
A man infected with an especially virulent strain of tuberculosis has spent eight months in a hospital jail ward under a court order and may be held until he dies.
Robert Daniels has not been charged with a crime, but the 27-year-old violated the rules of a voluntary quarantine, exposing others to a potentially deadly illness. Maricopa County public health officials got a court order to keep him locked up.
The TB strain Daniels has is so dangerous that he has never met his appointed lawyer, Robert Blecher, who describes the situation as "extremely unusual."
Daniels' hospital room is designed so that air flows in, never out, to prevent the bacterium from spreading.
Daniels, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Russia, contracted "extreme multidrug resistant tuberculosis" while living in Russia, court records show.
He was diagnosed two years ago in Russia, and said he came to Phoenix in January 2006 after being told drugs were hard to get and expensive.
Daniels went to a Phoenix hospital with respiratory problems in July 2006, and was sent to a Phoenix halfway house for indigent TB patients under a voluntary quarantine. He was ordered to continue treatment and wear a mask when he went out in public because the disease is spread by airborne contact.
Daniels stopped taking his medication and went unmasked to a restaurant, a convenience market and other stores, court records stated.
Robert England, Maricopa County's tuberculosis control officer, said in court filings that Daniels understands the rules, but "merely refuses to follow them."
England applied for and received a "compulsory detention" order for Daniels, a legal tool used about once a year in Arizona.
Daniels, who has a wife and child in Russia, said in a telephone interview with The Arizona Republic that he didn't want to confuse people by wearing a mask and that doctors at Russian clinics where he was treated didn't even wear masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there were 14,097 cases of TB in the United States last year. Just 15 were of the rare strain Daniels has. Prospects for his release are unclear. A 2006 medical assessment indicated the disease was mutating in Daniels. Few people realize that when push comes to shove, the Health Department in any country can be by far the most authoritarian branch of government.
#4
Lock him up until there is no trace of TB or until he expires. MDR TB costs $250,000 per patient to treat and 1/4 fatality rate. Extreme DR TB is much worse: Doctor who discovered killer TB strain in South Africa says it's probably widespread A particularly drug-resistant tuberculosis discovered in eastern South Africa is likely to have spread beyond the rural area where 52 of the 53 people first diagnosed with the new strain have died,
Of course, being South Africa, a good percentage of the TB patients have HIV, but still a 98% death rate.
Posted by: ed ||
03/02/2007 10:13 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Leprosy is an extremely hard disease to get. It takes intimate contact with a sufferer for a very long time. The Biblical descriptions are much overstated. You weren't in any danger, Anonymoose.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/02/2007 11:46 Comments ||
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#6
Bigger risk of starving to death in Sheriff Joe's tent resort.
#7
I've no idea if I'm among that 10% of the population that can get Hansen's disease. And not having a reference with me when I saw the man, why rely on memory?
I suppose it's like smelling gangrene. You may not know what it is, but you know that it is bad.
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.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe denounced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday evening, calling dependence on the crisis lender and other donors tantamount to economic slavery, reducing African countries to beggars. "We don't have to go to IMF for that, even to any European donor, for what we can do between and amongst ourselves," Mugabe told a business meeting organised in Windhoek by the Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "And when we start doing it on our own, you'll see them coming, saying 'Ah, you have a factory here. We want to assist you.' Then, if we want a partner, the partner must come on our terms, because then we will have the capacity to do things on our own."
Joint forces yesterday arrested Baufal upazila Jubo Dal president and a local Awami League leader of Noakhali and seized 159 corrugated iron (CI) sheets meant for relief mostly from the houses of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami workers in different places. Police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel arrested 1,502 people including 19 convicts, 826 wanted criminals and six charged under Arms Act in 24 hours ending at 6:00am yesterday, home ministry sources said. Members of the armed forces arrested 57 people including 25 criminals during the time.
An arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this years Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist. 
VIENNA - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso inaugurated a new EU Fundamental Rights Agency on Thursday in Vienna to advise on European Union legislation. 
(AKI) - In an unexpected move, conservatives and liberal members of the Church of England have joined forces to reject bishops' controversial policy allowing gay clergy to enter civil partnerships if they vowed to abstain from sex. Instead the General Synod on Wednesday backed a motion acknowledging deep splits over the issues and encouraged bishops to review their policy. The General Synod is taking place this week through Thursday.
