Let the jokes run wild...
Britain is facing a sperm donor shortage after reversing confidentiality laws and limiting the number of women who can use sperm from one donor, fertility experts warned Wednesday.
Britain in 2005 changed the law protecting anonymous sperm donors and allowed children to learn the identity of donor fathers - one reason, fertility experts say, there are fewer donors now.
"The only countries that seem to have enough sperm are those that pay - like the U.S. and Spain - or the countries that retain anonymity," said Allan Pacey, a member of the British Fertility Society that warned of the shortage in the British Medical Journal.
"In the countries that have removed anonymity ... there seems to be a problem," he said.
In 1991, Britain logged 503 sperm donors, according to figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. In 2000, there were 325, and in 2006 - the year after the law was changed - the number dropped to 307.
Experts say 500 donors a year are needed to cope with the number of couples needing donor insemination in Britain.
Dutch authorities have also put out calls to encourage sperm donors after scrapping anonymity for donors in 2004.
"There is a shortage of sperm donors. This is because of the new laws that make the anonymous donation of sperm impossible," the University of Amsterdam's Fertility Clinic of the Academic Medical Center said on its Web site.
Usage limits could also affect availability.
In Britain, only 10 babies can result from one donor - a limit some have called arbitrary. The Dutch allow one donor to supply sperm to 25 women.
The United States does not cap sperm donations at all, according to Eleanor Nicoll, spokeswoman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. However, the group suggests that a single donor be limited to no more than 25 births in a population of 800,000 to avoid having siblings from the same sperm donor having children together.
In France, sperm donation is anonymous and the government covers donors' expenses but the country still faces a sperm shortage. France registered 248 sperm donors in 2006, according to the country's Agency of Biomedicine - a level an official there said was not enough to supply demand.
Unlike Britain, U.S. donors have the option of remaining anonymous, said Dr. Robert Visscher, former executive director of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
"I don't think we are having a problem with adequate numbers of donors at this time, primarily because we don't have that regulation," he said.
Mark Jackson, 40, decided to donate in 2005, even after Britain's government amended the donor law.
"To worry that someone might come and see you, that something might happen? That's a long way in the future," said Jackson. "I thought maybe I (could) do something to make a difference."
Olivia Montuschi, co-founder of the Donor Conception Network, said changing the confidentiality law was important for the donors' children but shouldn't prevent men from being willing to help.
"What is needed is someone who has the maturity to understand the importance of what they're doing for the future, and the impact that might have on anyone who's conceived," said Montuschi, whose children were conceived using donor sperm. "We are not talking about a fatherhood role."
Although sperm donations from other countries are allowed in Britain, clinics cannot pay donors and donations from abroad are not enough to cope with the shortage, said Pacey, who runs a fertility clinic in Sheffield, 100 miles from London.
"Once upon a time ... we had hundreds and hundreds of people phoning up every year," he said. "Now, 20 a year? Not in any great numbers." One would think that in Euro/Britain someone would have thought to put a 'donor booth' in every peepshow...then they'd have donors coming out their ears (ewww...sorry for that. lol)
MOSCOW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian General Staff has decided to buy unmanned planes from Israel over the next two to three years, a lawmaker in the lower house's defense committee said Thursday.
Mikhail Musatov quoted General Staff chief Nikolai Makarov as saying: "The General Staff has decided that while we don't have such drones, over the next two to three years, we will buy them from Israel."
Musatov said the unmanned reconnaissance planes at issue were those used by Georgia during August offensive on its breakaway republic of South Ossetia.
"These are unmanned reconnaissance planes, which had performed well in Georgia. They were used by Georgia at that time," he said.
Numerous flights by reconnaissance drones over South Ossetia were reported by Russian peacekeepers before Georgia launched its military offensive against the region on August 8.
Earlier reports said Georgia had acquired a total of 40 drones, worth around $2 million each, from Israel between 2006 and 2008.
#2
Well, now...seems they liked what they saw of the drones they stole from Georgia.
Whasamatta...too hi-tech to copy???
And, yes, I bet this sale will be blocked by the US.
BEIJING -- A thick brown cloud of soot, particles and chemicals stretching from the Persian Gulf to Asia threatens health and food supplies in the world, the U.N. reported Thursday, citing what it called the newest threat from global warming.
The regional haze, known as atmospheric brown clouds, contributes to the melting of Himalayan glaciers, reduces sunlight, and helps create extreme weather conditions that impact agricultural production, according to the report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Program.
These so-called "brown clouds," caused by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, play a significant role in exacerbating the effects of greenhouse gases in warming up the earth's atmosphere, the report said.
"Imagine for a moment a three-kilometer-thick (1.8-mile-thick) band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia," said Achim Steiner, U.N. undersecretary general and executive director of the UN program during a news conference on the findings.
"All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they're having on our global climate," he said.
The phenomenon complicates the climate change scenario globally because the brown clouds also help cool the earth's surface and "masks" the impact of global warming by an average of 40 percent, the study said.
Though it has been studied closely in Asia, the latest findings, conducted by an international collaboration of scientists, reveal that the brown cloud phenomenon is not unique to Asia, with pollution hotspots seen in North America, Europe, South Africa and South America.
The enormous cloud masses can move across continents within three to four days, said lead scientist, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego.
"The main message is that it's a global problem. Everyone is in someone else's backyard," said Ramanathan.
The report also noted that health problems associated with particulate pollution, which include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are linked to nearly 350,000 premature deaths in China and India every year, said Henning Rohde, a University of Stockholm scientist who worked on the study.
Ten people in Makassar South Sulawesi were admitted to hospital on Thursday after suffering bird flu symptoms, a day after seven people were hospitalised for the same symptoms.
All the 17 patients are being treated at Wahidin Sudirohusodo Regional General Hospital came from the same area of Jl Pate' ne in Sudiang District Biringkaya Subregency, where several chickens were found dead. Husbandry Directorate at the Regional Office of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries announced that the virus was found on the chickens.
Head of the Emergency Room at the hospital, Dr Wasis Udaya said blood samples had been taken from the patients and the patients had been x-rayed to determined the cause of their illness, fourteen among the patients are children the with youngest was three months old.
Other medical staff at the hospital reported only 14 among the 17 patients so far were treated in an isolation room as the room capacity could not contain all the patients.
The hospital had sent the blood samples to Hasanuddin University and the Health Ministry. Results were expected to come out in two days.
I'm truly sorry about the job losses - the average Joe Giorgi gets the shaft as usual, while the rich Oleg stays rich - but I'm glad the short-sighted pollution of Lake Baikal has stopped. Hope it's not too late....
After decades of campaigning, environmentalists in Russia are celebrating the closure of a notorious factory controlled by the billionaire Oleg Deripaska that pumped toxic waste into Lake Baikal.
Since it was built more than four decades ago the Baikalsk paper and pulp mill has allegedly run off thousands of tonnes of dioxin and other harmful byproducts into the world's deepest lake. Generations of activists had seemed powerless to stop the pollution, but yesterday the mill announced it was halting production and laying off 1,400 workers.
Pressure from activists forced the mill to transfer to a "closed-water" system in September, cutting waste discharge into the lake. A spokesman said that change had contributed to the closure because the factory could no longer produce bleached pulp, its most profitable export. The global economic crisis had also hit margins.
Roman Vazhenkov, head of Greenpeace Russia's Now there's a pairing I wouldn't have expected to survive
Baikal programme, said the closure was a "historic moment".
Lake Baikal - often called the Pearl of Siberia - is a Unesco world heritage site, which holds around 20% of the world's fresh water unfortunately undrinkable at the moment, but what's a little pollution when there's a buck to be made. A campaign to close the paper mill at Baikalsk on the lake's southern tip started in earnest during perestroika when some of the Soviet Union's first free public movements united around environmental protests.
Engineers must seal a toxic pond under the factory which is leaking, but Baikal's self-cleaning ecosystem will help to save the lake. Billions of tiny crustaceans known as epishura constantly filter out algae and bacteria, cleansing the water. Wonder how many other lakes have this "self-cleaning" feature? And why don't we know about it?
The mill's future will remain under review until February, but it is expected to stay closed permanently. Until the Russians come up with something else to pollute the lake with.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/13/2008
15:57 ||
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#1
This is a good thing. Lake Baikal is truly a unique, fascinating, and important ecosystem, one that actually is deserving of preservation. Properly developed, there are probably tourism opportunities that could provide gainful employment for the displaced workers.
#2
Lake Baikal is a truly amazing place. I remember having a Russian boat captain take me and a buddy out in the middle of it, dip a cup in the water and hand the crystal-clear (and I mean *crystal* clear) water to me to drink. When we got back to shore, we got schnockered on vodka from a label-free bottle, after which he cursed the paper mill referenced below. Chalk one up for the good guys.
Landikotal-- Militants hijacked 13 trucks carrying supplies for US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan on Monday as they passed through the Khyber Pass, a government official said.
Most supplies, including fuel, for US and other Western forces battling a Taliban insurgency in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through Khyber Agency, which is also facing growing militant violence.
Security along t More..h More..e road leading to the border has deteriorated this year and soldiers carried out a sweep in part of the Khyber region in June to push militants back from the outskirts of provincial metropolis. The trucks were seized at four places along a 35 km stretch of the road, said a senior government administrator in the Khyber region. "About 60 masked gunmen popped up on the road and took away the trucks with their drivers. Not a single shot was fired anywhere," the official, Bakhtiar Mohmand, told Reuters.
Mohmand said the trucks were not carrying weapons or ammunition but he was not sure what goods they were taking.
He said he believed militants loyal to Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud were responsible. "Baitullah's men are behind this as they're very well-equiped and trained," he said.
Residents said two Pakistani army helicopter gunships flew over the area after the trucks were hijacked and carried out some firing, killing a civilian.
In Landikotal, the main town before the pass, traders and transport company operators complained that the government wasn't taking security on the road seriously.
"The government is a silent spectator. They attack our trucks, loot them and kill our drivers in broad daylight, even near security checkposts, but they can't do anything," said Eshtiar Mohmand, who owns a trucking company
#1
This will get worse and worse. We should get out now or prepare for real slogging in Pakiland. I doubt anyone is really up for the former, except perhaps the Indians. Maybe we should outsource it.
Discount German supermarket chain Lidl has issued an apology after workers at one of its Swedish stores deliberately poisoned discarded food in a bid to keep homeless people at bay.
"Lidl Sweden has been informed that cleaning liquids have been poured into the trash to stop trespassers from stealing garbage at one of our stores during a short time period," Mathias Kivikoski, Lidl's chief executive in Sweden, said in a statement.
"We deeply regret what has happened and this is not something the company recommends or permits," it added.
A newspaper in the Stockholm suburb of Solna revealed that Lidl employees at a local store had become tired of homeless people searching trash bins had last week begun pouring toxic cleaning products on discarded food.
They put up a sign near the bins warning that the goods had been poisoned, but it remained unclear if anyone had eaten the food, the Mitt i Solna paper reported. Uhhh ... check the local hospitals ... and the morgues.
Food had disappeared from the bins after the staff began poisoning it, it said.
Rolf Nilsson, who heads a Stockholm homeless organization, described the employees' actions as criminally insane "crazy."
"This is just so upsetting and distressing. We're talking about people who have to dig in garbage containers to find food to eat," Nilsson told the Aftonbladet daily.
Must have had great faith that her new "religious conversion" would protect her at first. It sounds like she was wising up just prior to her kidnapping since she was asking for help for funding to bribe her way out of there due to concerns of kidnapping.
#3
She converted after 9/11... this really made all the loons come out of the wood, they had found their new "Strong horse", their new vehicle for their hatred, self or otherwise.
Scheduled shifts in Earth's orbit should plunge the planet into an enduring Ice Age thousands of years from now but the event will probably be averted because of man-made greenhouse gases, scientists said Wednesday. . . . Two researchers built a high-powered computer model to take a closer look at these intriguing phases of cooling and warmth. In addition to the planetary shifts, they also factored in levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), found in tiny bubbles in ice cores, that provide an indicator of temperature spanning hundreds of thousands of years.
They found dramatic swings in climate, including changes when Earth flipped from one state to the other in a relatively short time, said one of the authors, geoscientist Thomas Crowley of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. These shifts, called "bifurcations," appear to happen in abrupt series, which is counter-intuitive to the idea that the planet cools or warms gradually.
"You had a big change about a million years ago, then a second change around 650,000 years ago, when you had bigger glaciations, then 450,000 years ago, when you started to get more repeated glaciations," Thomas told AFP. "What's also interesting is that the inter-glaciations also became warmer."
According to the model, published in the British journal Nature by Crowley and physicist William Hyde of Toronto University, Canada, the next "bifurcation" would normally be due between 10,000 and 100,000 years from now. Do your part to prevent the next Ice Age: trade that Prius in on a carbon-spewing V-8 Detroit musclecar and go tear up the roads.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008
14:38 ||
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If you really want to warm the Earth up in a hurry, tunnel down into the oceanic floor methane ice and pump hot water into it. You'll get a gigantic eruption of methane gas that is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.
#3
Um...and fast shifts in climate are new how? We talk about such extensively in my geology courses and there's been LOTS of studies showing the onset of an Ice age can take as little as 10 years.
Not that many people outside of California care, but according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state faces a nearly $25 billion budget deficit. As the rich man that he is, the former movie star favors everybody else helping out by making his state's sales tax the No. 1 biggest, averaging 9.5%.
According to the nonpartisan legislative analyst, Mac Taylor, the state's deficit will actually be closer to $28 billion in the next 20 months. That's a lot of money, even at California prices; more money even than Barack Obama raised to get elected president.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, has drawn up a partial solution anyway: Federal money. Use some of those Wall Street taxpayer $700 billion bailout bucks on California! Bass has urged the federal government to hand over the money to states -- well, her state anyway -- as well as those rich Wall Street banks in another coastal state. Why should New York get it all?
With federal money it won't really cost anything, see? And she won't have to explain voting for more taxes back home come next election. It's the least Americans can do for the sunshiney state they love to hate.
"We think that with the state of California about to go over a cliff," Bass says, "we ought to be part of the bailout as well. Can we have $5 billion or $10 billion?"
Handing out that much federal money to the most populous state that can't balance its own budget is probably O.K. with the rest of the country, don't you think? How could anyone possibly object in any of those other puny places?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
12:55 ||
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Maybe. You go into receivership which in this case is territorial status. A territorial governor will be appointed who will oversee the Chapter 11 operation of the state till a new state convention will be called to write up a state constitution which will address and restructure the operation of the state within a budget that it can sustain by revenue generation and not bond creation. Said constitution must be approved by Congress. Meantime, you don't have any representatives or senators with voting rights in Congress [sort of like the District of Columbia or stockholders in AIG].
#2
Schwarzenegger has been spending a lot of time and effort on Climate Change (formerly Global Warming). He and his wife are probably angling for an Obama appointment to Energy Czar, Climate Change Czar or EPA so he doesn't have to deal with this mess.
#3
while i would like to think that the other 49 might have some objection to that, due to the state of many states' budgets, they all might want to get in line, so all the good little donks will strap on the feed bag and head for the pork.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2008 15:00
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#5
Since they like the whole idea of share the wealth and all, how bout a 85% income tax on all hollywood and music industry types making +$1 million per year (besides all those CDs and movies with promos is bad bad right)? Otherwise STFU and end the socialist programs and balance your account just like Average Joe must.
If there are 77.5 million (only stat I could find 2005 census.gov; any other figures out there?) households who file federal, then that means average household would pay litl over $320 to help California (of course, this depends filing household income). Gee, I think I would rather spend that on family groceries than an obviously floundering socialist state.
A married person no kids making $50-$60k per year already puts $7k in the Fed per year.
#9
That number above is not me, just an example. And yes, single no dependants is brutal and my guess will take the brunt of any future tax increases. Then there is state withhold, ss, med, and various local additions etc.
Still on for $2trillion total bailouts by eoy, $25billion divides into that number quite a few times (80). $100mil waste here there don't seem much until it all adds up and Tax Freedom Day is after 4 months of work. I don't mind paying taxes - roads, military, police so on are good; this however is bullcrap.
#10
I live in California and would be outraged if the US gov't acceeded to this request. This pressure is the only thing capable of inserting a modicum of sanity into the equation. The legislature (in particular) has built this monster and REFUSED to act responsibly. They could not act in any other position of authority in anything beside government because thye private sector eould have discded them long ago.
"But keep that foreign aid money flowing, kufrs!"
Recent editorials in the Egyptian press have been harshly critical of the U.S. for the October 26, 2008 raid in Syria, and for the U.S.-Iraq security pact that is about to be signed. The papers are depicting the raid as a murderous attack on innocent civilians, and the pact as compromising Iraqi sovereignty. One paper stated that the only thing that can compel the U.S. to leave Iraq is the Resistance.
Following are excerpts from the editorials:
Al-Ahram: The Attack in Syria Was Premeditated Murder
An editorial in the leading government daily Al-Ahram stated: "The U.S. had no justification for the crime of murdering Syrian civilians and infringing upon the sovereignty of an independent state. This brutal attack, carried out by American aircraft, targeted a nonmilitary building under construction in a Syrian village near the Iraqi border, and resulted in the death of eight construction workers who were inside it. By all standards, norms, charters and international laws, this [constitutes] aggression against an independent country and the premeditated murder of innocent civilians.
"The excuses presented by Washington to justify its aggression against Syria are unacceptable. Nobody can accept them, especially after the U.S. lost its credibility in the world at large, and in the Middle East in particular, by inventing the lie about Iraqi WMDs to justify its 2003 invasion and occupation of this country. America's bag of lies is full of ready-made excuses, justifications, and misleading explanations...
"There is no doubt that this American aggression against Syria may aggravate the already explosive situation in the Middle East, and that the U.S. alone bears the responsibility for this aggression against a sovereign country."(1)
Al-Gumhouriyya: Iraq Defended the U.S. Attack
An editorial in the government daily Al-Gumhouriyya attacked both Iraq and the U.S., saying: "The U.S. did not wait for the signing [of its security pact with Iraq, but] hastened to implement it [even before it was signed]. It staged a brutal attack on the Abu Kamal region in Syria, even though the centers for smuggling fighters [from Syria] into Iraq [which once operated in that region] have been eradicated. Strangely, the Iraqi government accepted this decision and even defended the U.S. raid, even though Syria recently dispatched an ambassador to Iraq while Iraq was still under occupation, and even though [Syria] is participating in the conference of neighboring countries aimed at providing security and stability for the Iraqi people.
"The Abu Kamal raid has revealed the depth of America's disdain for international law, which [is meant to] protect the sovereignty of countries, and its indifference [to the unacceptability] of using Iraq an Arab country to attack another Arab country, taking advantage of the fact that Iraq's decision-making [process] is in the U.S.'s pocket."(2)
The U.S.-Iraq Pact Perpetuates the U.S. Presence in Iraq
Another Al-Ahram editorial stated: "The [U.S.-Iraq] pact... perpetuates the U.S. presence in Iraq and compromises Iraqi sovereignty, because it grants U.S. soldiers immunity even if they commit crimes or break the law. Moreover, it grants immunity to any American in Iraq, and implicitly allows the U.S. forces to attack [neighboring] countries.
"The pact's clauses do not mention [the issue of] foreign citizens who enter Iraq but are not residents. They also do not [restrict] the Americans' authority to bring in persons who work against a [neighboring] country friendly [to Iraq]. The clause granting both sides the right to self-defense which under international law is absolute allows the U.S. to use its bases in Iraq for military operations in the event of conflict with one of the neighboring countries. This right, and its implications, require further clarification.
"Some clauses [of the pact] have been rejected by most of the sects, parties, and [political] blocs in Iraq, who [all] sense the danger inherent in them. This has placed the Iraqi government in an embarrassing position, forcing it to postpone approval of the pact and to drag its feet until after the [presidential] elections in the U.S."(3)
Only the Resistance Can Get the U.S. Out of Iraq
Another Al-Gumhouriyya editorial stated: "The U.S. secretary of defense and his senior officers have made threats against Iraq. They said that if the Iraqi government which rose to power under the sponsorship of the occupation refused to accept this dubious agreement, [this decision] would have disastrous consequences.
"In response, various sectors of the Iraqi public Shi'ites, Sunnis, and Kurds have expressed their opposition to this pact, which compromises Iraqi sovereignty for an unspecified period of time, legitimizes and perpetuates the [presence of] the occupying forces in Iraq, and grants them immunity so that they cannot be punished for the barbaric crimes that they are committing, such as the murder and torture of the Iraqi people. These sectors [which opposed the pact] have forced the government to seek amendments [to it].
"But the U.S. administration, which invaded Iraq based on pretexts proven to be false, is bent on forcing the Iraqis to succumb to its will and to sign this undignified pact. The national Iraqi Resistance, [which is opposing the] occupation, is the only [force] that can confront the American threats and compel the occupying forces to withdraw without any conditions or limitations."(4)
Endnotes:
(1) Al-Ahram (Egypt), October 28, 2008.
(2) Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), October 28, 2008.
(3) Al-Ahram (Egypt), October 29, 2008.
(4) Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), October 23, 2008.
An elderly woman bearing a cross who attended a gay marriage protest to voice her support of the California ban was attacked by demonstrators and may now press charges.
Carrying a large, Styrofoam cross, 69-year-old Phyllis Burgess showed up at a rally last Friday against Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage that was passed on Election Day in California. She was there to show her belief in traditional marriage, she said.
Within minutes, however, angry protesters swarmed around the Palm Springs resident, yanked the cross from her hands and trampled on it. The incident was videotaped and posted on YouTube.
Now, Burgess says she might press assault charges, according to The Desert Sun. "I guess I didn't see the gravity of the whole thing and how it was being portrayed to the public," Burgess told the paper. "People are incensed. They seem to want some kind of justice."
Palm Springs police have made no arrests yet, but said they spent time Sunday trying to convince Burgess to file charges against some of the demonstrators.
#2
Kudos to these brave chartreuse lions attacking a 69 year old woman instead of going into Watts and bending over those who voted for Prop 8 in large numbers.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2008 14:11
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#3
A great preacher who had a knack for seeing things ahead of times predicted that America's gay community would one day become militant and intolerant to the point of dieing for thier cause. But of course I think he was refering to how those people acted in the Bible stories that were written in the days of old...
Posted by: Jack Anginerong6126 ||
11/13/2008 14:17
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#4
The word I left out also was that they would be extremely obusive to those who regect their demands.
Posted by: Jack Anginerong6126 ||
11/13/2008 14:17
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#5
Carrying a large, Styrofoam cross...
These are a lot lighter if you are going to do much protesting.
How about sicing the gay protesters on the Westboro Baptist Church? Seems like a good match.
#6
JohnQC, I'll put my money on the Westboro crowd. Never ever get in a brawl with inbred idiots.
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But....although I am sympathetic to the idea of gay marriage, I gotta take the devil's advocate position in this argument. I don't see where they are denied any right that a straight person has. They have the right to marry (or not) anyone of the opposite gender just like the next guy or girl.
Love between the parties involved, the willingness to have children, or even sexual fidelity are not legal requirements for marriage in any of the 50 states. No one cares if you like men, women, furry animals or blow up dolls when you apply for the license. If any of those three things I mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph were a prerequisite for a license, they might have a legitimate bitch, but until they are, what they are essentially asking for is another option to be added.
You do not, nor have any of us ever really had, the legal "right" to marry someone based on love or sexual attraction alone. If I may quote one of my favorite musical philosophers, Tina Turner, "What's love got to do with it?" That's what it boils down to. The people have spoken, so....try to make your case better the next time.
BTW, guys....insulting the parties who disagreed with you, beating up on little old ladies and using ethnic slurs ain't the way to change hearts and minds, ok?
VIENNA, Austria -- Austrian prosecutors say the man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children has been charged with murder. The state attorney's office says it has charged suspect Josef Fritzl with homicide because one of the children died in infancy. Prosecutors say experts believe the infant might have survived if Fritzl had arranged for proper medical care.
The 73-year-old retired electrician also was charged Thursday with rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery. Fritzl's trial is expected to begin early in 2009.
His daughter, now 42, and several children were released in April and have been getting counseling at an undisclosed location.
#3
They are saying he would only get 10-20 yrs and the prosecutor wants him to spend it in an insane asylum. I know hes old but that seems too good for him. It should be 100 yrs or something. It would send a message to the daughter that what he did was horrible and he deserves the severest of punishments. Unless the asylums are horrific in Austria but I cant believe that. On another site they said He should go to prison and be in the general population. And let his crimes be known. I agreee! That would take care of him! I dont think shell ever feel free until he dies.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A day after a fierce suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan, insurgents struck Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to the United States military and Afghan police officials.
One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy, who died when a suicide car bomber in a Toyota Corolla approached an American military convoy and then swerved into a weekly market at around 8 a.m., according to American and Afghan accounts. Dr. Ajmal Pardes, the director of public health in the area, said 74 people were injured.
The strike was in the Bati Kot district of eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. An Associated Press photographer said that an American military vehicle, two civilian vehicles and two rickshaws were destroyed.
United States Navy commander Jeff Bender, an American military spokesman in Kabul, said the civilian death count, initially put at 10, had risen to 18.
On Wednesday, a tanker truck packed with explosives detonated outside the provincial council office in Kandahar, Afghanistan's largest southern city, killing the driver and at least six other people and wounding more than 40 others. The blast shook the entire city, caused at least five houses to fall and left a crater near the council building, which housed an office of a national security service.
"The enemies of Afghanistan and peace once again put us in mourning," Gen. Rahmatullah Roufi, the provincial governor, told reporters. He announced a "purification" operation to arrest insurgents in and near the city.
In a separate incident reported on Thursday, two soldiers from the American-led NATO alliance were killed in an explosion in the south of the country in an explosion on Wednesday, the alliance said, but did not specify the soldiers' nationality. The Defense Ministry in London later identified the two soldiers as members of Britain's Royal Marines who were taking part in a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers in the Garmsir district of Southern Helmand Province.
The American contingent is the largest foreign force in Afghanistan but Britain has about 8,000 troops there. A survey broadcast Thursday by the BBC said more than two-thirds of those questioned believed Britain should withdraw its soldiers over the next year while less than a quarter favored their continued deployment.This year has been the bloodiest since the American-led invasion of late 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime, whose supporters have revived their campaign to drive out foreign forces.
The latest American fatalities brought to around 148 the number of American military deaths so far this year, compared to 111 in the whole of 2001, the A.P. reported. Additionally, around 110 soldiers from other coalition forces have died this year.
More than 5,400 people, including almost 1,000 civilians, have died in violence related to the insurgency this year, the news agency said, citing figures provided by Afghan and international officials.
#1
IIRC, surveys in france are about the same; though, I certainly can understand, and agree to a point, with the feeling of both brits & french. I think I'm not alone, even here, in not really seeing the point of the war until now : ISAF fight, eventually lose men, and even while infliging disproportionate casualties on the taliban, they're on the losing side of the war of attrition (huge cost to maintain forces over there, compared with the wealth pakistain extracts from graciously leaving supplies go while propping up ennemy forces & opium trade; limited manpower, against the never-ending supply of islamic automations from pakistain's madrassa factories).
I'm certainly no strategist, but this so far constraints british forces (among others) in the position of having to suffer casualties, with no end in sight - how much time in afghanistan? The taliban only have not to lose, in the present situation, british opinion can feel that (cf. theRoss Kemp serie), and there's no apparent, obvious british interest over there, especially more since anti-americanism tells people that this is an "imperialist/unjust/illegal/... war", "for oleoducs",... (yeah, 7 years since 9/11 have shown that western attention span IS short), so the people's reaction, UK or french, is "let's have the yankees get themselves out of this one all by their own", no matter what alliances say. It's selfish, but it's understandable.
#2
It must just be a coincidence that these stories are popping up in the MSM just as Bambi has to consider how he's going to handle Afghanistan. Oh, oh, oh, I know, he'll work for a 'negotiated solution' (*) which allows him to pull our troops out with 'honor'.
(*) defined as giving the Taliban everything they want.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008 12:22
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#3
War is not a game, it's a very serious business. If you're not in it to succeed, you're screwed. The US has, to this point, been a "nice guy", just trying to give the Afghanistanis a chance to develop western-style government. The problem is, the nation is mired in a tribal mindset that it will take a dozen generations to flush. At this point, even I'm for pulling out - and salting the totally destroyed towns and villages of Afghanistan after we do. Pull out through Pakistan, and leave it equally devastated. Let India have what it wants from the remains of the carcass, and let the rest rot. If there's ever another terrorist strike that can be traced back to this part of the world, nuke it. Keep nuking it until there aren't even insects left alive, and the worms glow a bright blue. I have no sympathy, respect, or courtesy for those with the mindset of a seventh-century savage that wants to tear down what they cannot understand.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2008 13:32
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#4
OP, I agree with you, except for using nukes (unless we are hit with chem or nukes). The fallout would flow over India, a critical ally of ours going forward. I don't want that to happen to them.
But we should definitely employ your favorite arc light strategy should we get the slightest hit that originates in this region.
Afghanistan is not sustainable. It is not going to be a democracy of any recognizable form in our lifetime. Wasting blood and treasure on it is just plain stupid. Better to make sure that Iraq is a success and give our military personnel a breather.
#5
OP your comments are ridiculous but at least you used something different then your usual 'arclite' temper tantrums.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
11/13/2008 16:06
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#6
YS, I spent 26 years in the Air Force, and several of them drawing ARCLIGHT boxes for use in Vietnam. I also had the "unusual" experience of being within 25 miles of one, so I have a sense of what they're like on the ground as well. They worked in Vietnam - read some of the stories told by survivors. The thing they feared the most was an ARCLIGHT strike.
Like anything else, from a slingshot to a thermonuclear weapon, it's just a tool. However, it's a very USEFUL tool, and our failure to use it has been one of the most significant failure of this war. Go back and read some of the comments under the photos in the essay, "Korengal Valley Photos". I guarantee you that if we ARCLIGHTed that valley, the locals that survived would be TERRIFIED of supporting the Taliban, and would refuse to even discuss the issue with an outsider. We cannot win the "hearts and minds" of these tribals until we instill stark, abject fear into them, because the only other feeling they have for us is contempt.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2008 18:23
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#7
There is really only one reason to fight in A'stan - the people who are fighting against us are depraved and seriously need killing. The problem is you can't easily kill just the most depraved - you are bound to hit some 'innocent' women & kids and baby ducks. You either kill 'em all and let Allan sort 'em out, or leave and let them kill each other until they come after us here again, or continue this attempt at 'civilized' war. In general it is better to be on the offensive and choose your battlefield rather than try to protect everywhere. It's a tough nut to crack, and that's the real reason we went to Iraq in the first place (WMD was a good 'excuse'). This is one of those cases where it sucks to be the boss and to have to decide.
#8
As to using ARCLIGHT strikes, there is an adage that if you grab a man by his balls, his heart and mind will soon follow.
If you are willing to instill the fear that an ARCLIGHT brings, you will have taken the balls of the man on the ground. His heart and mind will not be far behind.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
11/13/2008 20:41
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A 24-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab man was sentenced to death on Wednesday for helping Israel fight terrorism, PA media outlets reported. The sentence will not be carried out until it is approved by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Don't expect Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to complain very loudly about the death penalty in this case ...
Prosecutors said the young man, whose name has been kept a secret, was recruited by Israeli agents while working at an Israeli gas station in 1999. He began watching local men who attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks in the Hevron region and turning their names over to Israeli intelligence agents.
The man was then hired by the PA police and began working as a naval officer. He allegedly informed on two terrorists associated with Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades to Israeli forces. The two were assassinated by IDF soldiers in 2002.
PA police say the man confessed to the allegations. Many PA prisoners who have "confessed" have later reported that their confessions were given under duress, and several human rights groups have expressed concern over the frequent use of torture by PA officers to obtain confessions.
Have those 'human rights groups' been anywhere as loud in their condemnation of torture by the PA as they have been about alleged torture at Gitmo?
The man was sentenced to death under a 1979 law that makes cooperation with Israeli troops punishable by death. The law is still enforced despite the PA's commitment under multiple peace accords to fight terrorism, including that carried out by the Al-Aksa brigades.
by Maayana Miskin
IDF officials left all crossings between Gaza and the western Negev closed on Thursday despite earlier plans to open the crossings and allow fuel and other supplies to pass through. The change of plans was attributed to warnings of a planned terrorist attack. Earlier in the day, defense officials had expressed determination to continue with the transfer despite several rocket attacks on western Negev towns.
According to Israel Radio, terrorists planned to attack the Kerem Shalom crossing. The crossing and surrounding area have been the site of several attacks, including the 2006 attack in which Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and two other soldiers were killed.
Hamas officials in Gaza complained that the delay in fuel transfer could force Gaza's power station to shut down. The station provides approximately 25 percent of Gaza's power, with the rest supplied by Israel and Egypt.
United Nations officials warned that the delay could impact the UN food distribution program in Gaza. The program provides food to approximately 750,000 people, more than half of Gaza's population, they said. UN officials have issued similar warnings several times in the past year as terrorist attacks force Gaza crossings to be closed for days at a time.
Along with delaying the opening of the crossings, Israel kept 20 European Union consul generals from entering Gaza via Israeli crossings. IDF officials said the group had been told it would not be allowed to enter Gaza, but attempted to do so anyway. The crossings are open only to those providing humanitarian aid, the officials said.
Ceasefire Still On, Israel Says
Despite dozens of rocket attacks in the past week and multiple clashes between IDF soldiers and Gaza terrorists, Israeli defense officials said Thursday that Israel's ceasefire with Hamas is still in effect. It is faltering, but it is not over, said Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai.
The temporary ceasefire was to last for six months, and to end in January. Hamas has already issued demands regarding the continuation of the ceasefire, and says it will only maintain the ceasefire if the IDF agrees to refrain from counterterrorist operations in Judea and Samaria as well as Gaza.
#1
I don't know where it says that they EVER have to open up the crossings. Where does it say that they have to give them electricity, fuel, water, medicine, food, parts, office supplies, teddy bears and microwave popcorn?
Maybe Egypt and Jordan should grab the bull by the horns and show some arab solidarity by financing this humongous welfare housing project.
#2
Better watch what Treas Sec Paulson does. He will probably put them on the bailout list, or the govt will buy NYT stock and merrily glissade down the slippery slope. I know that Ima bein snarky, but todays snark becomes tomorrow's policy at the national level.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 13:29
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#4
The N.Y. Times is a bad newspaper. Bad newspapers should fail. A good newspaper prints, well, news (not fiction), and does not try to defeat the USA whenever it can. Good bye.
#5
As an interesting sidenote, all the national press press in France simply wouldn't even survive without gvt subsidies (except for the rightwing publications, which are graciously left apart from any kind of aid) and/or disguized subsidies (like the national railway company, a bastion of commie unionization, buying bunchloads of advertiseemnt in the communist newspaper). Top ut it bluntly, the french press simply is not viable through readership, but grants keep it afloat, and even that barely (the leftist "libération" has been supported by the Rotschilds, lol), because, well, no one read them. And mags are only a bit better.
Note that in the case of the french press, there's a particularism, past the sheer mediocrity of it, it's that there's a printing & distribution monopoly that was "accorded" to a communist union, back in the immediate post-WWII of the gaullo-communist provisional gvt (commies got a monopoly on book & dailies printing/distribution, docking, and parisian sewers, all kind of useful stuff...), which basically make national press a very iffy business, if you're in to actually make money out of it.
#6
Actually the Franch tax payer pays about hamf the newspaper cost (and that without counting govenrmnent advertisings): German newspapers despite their much marger circulation cost twice more (I am referring of course to the price you pay in Germany not the price in France).
#8
Breaking: Obama agrees to a bailout of the New York Times
Only hours after Mediapost reported that The New York Times had a negative net worth, President-Elect Barack Obama announced a $5 billion bailout rescue package for the media concern. In a hastily arranged press conference at the newly constructed Office of the President-Elect, Obama noted the importance of the Times' ability to influence public opinion.
"It's not overstating things to say that I owe my presidency to the New York Times," he stated in his perfectly pitched, baritone voice. His hand smoothed a crease in his tailor-made Canali suit, which was precisely matched with a cream Ike Behar shirt and baby blue tie. "The Times' prowess at non-investigation and their matchless creativity related to John and Cindy McCain stories were, no doubt, critical to the process."
"Losing the Times would be like losing a father or, in my case, a preacher. Therefore, I'm happy to announce that the Federal Government will be writing Bill Keller a check for $5 billion dollars to keep the Times afloat for at least another four years."
The press conference was briefly marred by Maureen Dowd fainting and Paul Krugman experiencing "a thrill going up my leg."
#10
Well the owners of the papers and other media outlets would be happy to be subsidized by the govt. Follow the money. And BTW, lest we forget . . . these BUSINESSES are owned by private people--and not too many of them. Like sports team owners. We look at the (media) players, but it's all about the owners.
#11
Make note that the article makes no comment about content being part of the problem, just advertising and readership. They blame the symptoms, not the disease.
#16
As reassuring as it would be to think the NYT or other papers are dying because of the horrid problems with most (not all) of their content, it ain't so. Monster.com/other internet sites killed help wanted; Craigslist and EBay and etc killed classified; advertising has been siphoned off by diverse factors incl. more & better targeting of TV/radio, decline in auto dealers ads and also the consolidation of department stores, and a move by big-box stores to market only weekly through those shiny inserts, on which the papers make very little. Yes, circulation is way down, but even without that the revenue picture would have been grim.
No doubt many are disgusted at many things like the outrageous bias, and astonishing arrogance and irresponsibility such as with the revelations of GWOT surveillance activities. But this huge substantive problem afflicts almost all major "news" media; it crested (could it get even worse??) with this election cycle; and the electorate REWARDED this behavior by voting for the empty suit and his imbecilic side-kick.
#17
I don't know exactly what's going on with the NYT, but my local fishwrap is doing pretty good. It's a Freedom Group newspaper, and for the most part is fairly "fair and balanced" - although they do print a LOT of AP, McClatchly Group, and Rooters articles. It's been the home of Chuck Asay, one of the most conservative (and readable) political cartoonists of the last 50 years, for two decades, at least. I'm not sure if they have a union printing plant or not, but probably - the Printers' Union Retirement Home is located just two miles east of the newspaper.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2008 19:19
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#18
I don't care why the NYT dies, Verlaine - I only care that it DOES die.
SOON.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/13/2008 19:28
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Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says the US is violating international law by launching missile attacks on its tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. "The attacks are in violation of international law and in violation of all understandings between the two sides," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a press briefing on Thursday in Islamabad. He added, "the government of Pakistan is committed to do whatever is possible to stop these attacks."
The spokesman's remarks come amid growing tensions between Islamabad and Washington over US missile strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan's northwest tribal region along the Pak-Afghan border.
Earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari had said the attacks were against the UN Charter and vowed that Pakistan would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty.
Any thought, Gomez, on whether allowing the Talibunnies sanctuary in your country violates any international law?
Also, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon in October had urged the US to avoid incursions into Pakistani territories, emphasizing respect for the country's sovereignty.
The US Defense Secretary Robert Gates had earlier emphasized that the US was justified under international law in conducting unilateral military operations inside Pakistan to protect American troops in Afghanistan. US raids, drone attacks and air strikes have killed hundreds of Pakistani terrorists and camp-followers civilians in recent months. It is said that in the last seven months, the US has carried out more than 45 strikes and intrusions into Pakistan.
#6
The Pakistani state's recruiting, financing, training and arming of jihadis against India and Afghanistan violates international law and the UN charter.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/13/2008 20:19
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Four-Star Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.), a former Gulf War commander, has returned from a week of tours and meetings with civilian and military leaders in Iraq and concluded, "The United States is now clearly in the end game in Iraq."
McCaffrey issued a report to West Point, where he is Adjunct Professor of International Affairs. Among McCaffrey's findings:
-- "The United States is clearly in the end game in Iraq to successfully achieve what should be our principal objectives:
-- The withdrawal of the majority of our ground combat forces in the coming 36 months,
-- Leaving behind an operative civil state and effective Iraqi security forces,
-- An Iraqi state not in open civil war among Shia, Sunnis, and Kurds,
-- An Iraqi nation not at war with its six neighboring states."
However, McCaffrey asserts that "the security situation is still subject to sudden attack at any moment by Al Qaeda in Iraq or to degradation because of provocative behavior by the Maliki government."
Other findings by McCaffrey:
-- The past 18 months have witnessed a dramatic, positive change.
-- Iranian intervention is relentless but has to a great extent alienated the southern Iraqi Shia and been largely ineffective.
-- The Maliki government remains largely dysfunctional in its ability to deliver services to the population.
-- It is almost the case that an Iraqi government in the classic sense does not exist. The glue that holds Iraq together is the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. Embassy team, tribal leadership, and the Iraqi Army.
So let's remove the U.S. armed forces and dissolve the glue ...
-- The Sons of Iraq Movement has absorbed more than 100,000 Sunni insurgent fighters and brought them into a neighborhood watch program which has successfully confronted the remnants of the insurgency.
McCaffrey asserts that "Success in Iraq could turn to collapse if the Iraqi politicians cannot agree on a Status of Forces Agreement and the follow-on Strategic Framework Agreement ... This would return our US military units to their base areas and begin a unilateral withdrawal and the cessation of formal U.S. support for the Iraqi government. They are holding a gun to their own head."
#1
"The glue that holds Iraq together is the U.S. Armed Forces,the U.S. Embassy team, tribal leadership, and the Iraqi Army."
Notice that the Iraqi civil government is significantly missing from the list. That is why the January elections are so important. If Iraq ends up with a true representative government, this war is over.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/13/2008 11:13
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#2
Looks like the territory has settled down enough to turn things over to the sod busters and the usual corrupt and self serving territorial government and hacks and move on to the next duty station in another god forsaken place to deal with the restless natives. [circa 1865-1890 or today].
#3
I have never understood why, when we go to set up a government, we always wind up with an inherently unstable / dictatorial parlimentary system; rather than copying our own federalist system of separated powers, coequal branches and limited central authority.
The founding principal of a parlimentary system is that one party, or coalition, controls everything. Ideally if you separate the legislative election from the executive election you get legislators who are not beholden to the party cum executive in the same way.
They are then freer to be concerned with their constituencies and to criticize the executive.
#4
We are talking about taking a tribal country based on kinship, shieks, etc and turning it into a nation, where people are supposed to identify themselves as Iraqis. Anthro 101.
We are projecting our values on them and that will not necessarily work. Japan and Germany were similar industrialized societies, and we had full authority to mold them to our means.
This kind of a project takes years and huge resources to do successfully. Our short attention span politicians and public cant grasp it.
What were and are our main goals in Iraq, in Afghanistan? Got to clearly define what they are so we and objectively measure if we met those goals.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 13:25
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#5
This from the general who predicted 5000 US killed in the Battle for Baghdad.
#6
IMO its more correct to say A "LULL/BREAK" IN THE FIGHTING = BATTLE FOR IRAQ. The thing to watch is PAN-ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION + whether IRAN successfully conducts its own indigenous nucweaps tests before 2010, NLT 2012 maxima.
US-RADICAL ISLAM > ARE LOCKED IN A WAR FOR CONTROL OF ASIAN MAINLAND [large parts of RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, littorals] GOING INTO JAN 2009 + NEW OBAMA ADMIN = "BAMELOT".
The COLD WAR GEOPOL MAP OF ASIA = PAN-ASIAN ORDER IS AT DE FACTO RISK OF BEING OVERWHELMED + CHANGED.
#7
MUSLIM/ISLAMIC MIL HISTORY + IRAN NUKES + SAVING THE JIHAD > IMO means the ISLAMIST MILITANTS WILL EVENTUALLY RETURN TO IRAQ, like MACARTHUR TO THE PHILIPPINES, to refight the Battle for Iraq and regain "lost honor" agz the US-IGA-Allies.
Jan 2009- 2012 [2016] POST-DUBYA PERIOD > NEITHER THE HIDDEN IMMAM-MAHDI NOR IRANIAN/ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION AGENDISTS CAN ASK FOR BETTER OR MORE OPPORTUNE LOCAL-GEOPOL CONDITIONS.
Israel has faxed a message to Lebanese citizens asking them to send information about Israeli soldiers in exchange for a large reward.
Citizens in northern and southern parts of Lebanon received a fax from an unknown source which offered a USD 10 million reward for information on Israeli soldiers who went missing during earlier aerial attacks on Lebanon, Press TV's Beirut Bureau reported. Post offices in Nabatiyeh, Bint Jabil, Hasbaya, and Marjayoun received copies of the message on Wednesday.
"If you have any reliable information about the fate of missing Israeli soldiers, we guarantee you a cash reward of 10 million dollars," read the text in Arabic. "Your information will remain confidential and we will guarantee your safety," it added, urging readers to dial two numbers, which started with a British area code.
This is not the first time that the Israeli regime has sent illegal messages to Lebanese citizens.
In July, Israel violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701 by penetrating the country's telecommunication network and threatening people with a recorded voice message about the possibility of another war. Following the incident in July, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Claudio Graziano received an official complaint about the Israeli act of sabotage.
UN Resolution 1701 ended the 33-day war that Israel waged on Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
#1
It's illegal for Israel to send faxes now? Wow. In my naivete' it never occurred to me that one could be polluted by seeing a few words on a piece of paper.
Two years ago, this anti-war vote installed a Democratic majority in Congress, only to watch the Democrats hand over more money to George W Bush to continue his blood-fest. For his part, the "anti-war" Obama voted to give Bush what he wanted. Yes, Obama's election is historic, a symbol of great change to many. But it is equally true that the American elite has grown adept at using the black middle and management class. The courageous Martin Luther King recognised this when he linked the human rights of black Americans with the human rights of the Vietnamese, then being slaughtered by a "liberal" Democratic administration. And he was shot. In striking contrast, a young black major serving in Vietnam, Colin Powell, was used to "investigate" and whitewash the infamous My Lai massacre. As Bush's secretary of state, Powell was often described as a "liberal" and was considered ideal to lie to the United Nations about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Condaleezza Rice, lauded as a successful black woman, has worked assiduously to deny the Palestinians justice.
Obama's first two crucial appointments represent a denial of the wishes of his supporters on the principal issues on which they voted. The vice-president-elect, Joe Biden, is a proud warmaker and Zionist. Rahm Emanuel, who is to be the all-important White House chief of staff, is a fervent "neoliberal" devoted to the doctrine that led to the present economic collapse and impoverishment of millions. He is also an "Israel-first" Zionist who served in the Israeli army and opposes meaningful justice for the Palestinians - an injustice that is at the root of Muslim people's loathing of the US and the spawning of jihadism.
No serious scrutiny of this is permitted within the histrionics of Obama mania, just as no serious scrutiny of the betrayal of the majority of black South Africans was permitted within the "Mandela moment". This is especially marked in Britain, where America's divine right to "lead" is important to elite British interests. The Observer, which supported Bush's war in Iraq, echoing his fabricated evidence, now announces, without evidence, that "America has restored the world's faith in its ideals". These "ideals", which Obama will swear to uphold, have overseen, since 1945, the destruction of 50 governments, including democracies, and 30 popular liberation movements, causing the deaths of countless men, women and children.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008
10:51 ||
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#1
Well that's one good thing about Obama's victory. It will open up a divide between Yankee-hating marxists like Pilger and woolly liberals who think OB1 is some kind of messiah. Google Oliver Kamm's blog if you want to see some of Pilger's lies exposed.
#4
Wow, went to Mike's link, that guy was FAST! Not even the blink of an eye before relapsing in rabid anti-americanism, in fact, I doubt he was even swayed by 9/11, more likely, he opened a bottel of champagne and then starting blmaing the victims.
#7
rice not giving palestinians justice is what bothers me. justice for what, because other arabs don't want them in their countries either so they should be given land and then WE could keep on keeping them up. I'm sure Obama will be glad too give them their "welfare" along with the rest. Buy stock in Cadillac
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 12:14
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#8
opposes meaningful justice for the Palestinians
Given that we are taling of people who have used their childrenas human bombs, perpetrated every kind of crime, have projects of genocide all while lliving sixty fricking years without working then meaningful justice could be a little different of what he is thinking.
#12
...because other Arabs don't want them (the Palestinians) in their countries either...
Actually not true. Both Jordan and Syria offered to give up part of their land to make a Palestinian state. The Arafat turned it down. He wanted to kill the Jews to make his state.
An Iranian court has sentenced an Iranian journalist of Arab ethnicity to five years in prison for allegedly inciting a 'revolt' among Arabs in southern Iran. Yousef Azizi-Banitaraf was arrested three years ago and charged by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran with 'inciting revolt' among the Arab population in the south of Iran.
In April 2005, a group of people protested in oil-rich Khuzestan over an alleged letter that was reportedly attributed to Iran's presidential desk, saying that urgent action was needed to change the ethnic demographics of the province.
Banitaraf was arrested and released a few weeks later after he criticised the repression of protesters in the south of the country at a meeting at a Tehran human rights centre.
"The objective of this sentence is to silence the critical voices, and reduce freedom of expression to a minimum," said Banitaraf's lawyer, Saleh Nikbath
Banitaraf, 58, has published more than 25 works on various subjects, including tribal affairs, nomadic tribes and folk storytelling among the people of Khuzestan.
Turkey has reached agreement with the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq on a strategic plan to counter violent separatists from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). According to Turkish media reports citing the Firat news agency, the administration in northern Iraq led by Massoud Barzani will cut links between Europe and the PKK, which uses bases in northern Iraq as a springboard to launch cross-border attacks on neighbouring Turkey.
Turkey also wants Barzani to force PKK militants to leave northern Iraqi territory, the agreement says.
The agreement also includes the deployment of special Turkish forces to strategic locations in northern Iraq, in addition to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, in a bid to cut logistic, political and military support to the PKK.
In return Turkey will recognise the Barzani administration, Firat reported. Turkey will also open an embassy in Erbil and invite Barzani to the Turkish capital of Ankara, it added.
Turkish officials claim 2,000 PKK terrorists are hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq, where they enjoy free dom of movement.
Turkey, backed by intelligence from the United States, has stepped up its campaign to crackdown on the PKK both inside Turkey and in northern Iraq, since the organisation increased its attacks on Turkish soldiers, as well as civilians.
The PKK is classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, the US and several other countries.
A record number of would-be immigrants arrived in Italy this year, according to the daily Corriere della Sera. Over 40,000 people have requested refugee status so far this year, compared to 14,000 over the same period in 2007.
A total 24,241 illegal immigrants reached Italy between January and 16 September this year, and 3,176 in the following month, the paper said, quoting recent data from Italy's Interior Ministry. The illegal immigrants include 4,417 Nigerians, 4,320 Somalis, 2,918 Eritreans and 2,514 Tunisians.
The southern Italian region of Sicily received the highest number of illegal immigrants arriving by boat, followed by Sardinia and the southern region of Calabria.
The number of women arriving on the southernmost island of Lampedusa from January to November was 3,128 - over three times the 973 who arrived over the same period last year. Similarly, 2,002 children landed on the island between January and November, compared with 977 last year. Of these, eight percent were unaccompanied.
Over one-third of unaccompanied minors arriving on Lampedusa disappear, according to police in Agrigento, Sicily, where the children are sent to live in communities. Hundreds of these children have vanished since June, the Save the Children charity told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Despite dramatic reports of boatloads of illegal immigrants adrift at sea or coming ashore, 63 percent of illegals in Italy have arrived by land or plane, according to the Interior Ministry. Between January and September, 49,297 people were recorded as illegal immigrants. The total included 25,056 'overstayers' who remained in the country beyond the maximum three month period stipulated by their visas.
According to the Interior Ministry, however, the total number of foreigners living illegally in Italy is seven times greater - over 650,000.
The Italian Government estimates it will grant 170,000 permits of stay this year to foreigners currently living in the country illegally, mostly to domestic workers, out of 380,000 requested.
By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Iraqi-born militant Abu Akash survived a US predator drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan last month, sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI). Al-Qaeda's third in command, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, is also alive and reports of his killing in the Bajaur tribal area in August were fabricated by Pakistani security agencies, unnamed militant sources told AKI.
Abu Akash (known by his comrades as Abu Akasha) survived the deadly attack on the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali on 31 October, according to the sources.
"Abu Akasha left the house before the US predator drone missile strike in which over two dozen local tribal people were killed. He is healthy and very much in his routine," the sources maintained.
An announcement of al-Yazid's killing in Bajaur by Pakistani security forces was immediately contradicted by militants. "It was a cheap publicity shot on behalf of the Pakistani security forces to boast their military successes in Bajaur," the sources said, referring to the reported death of al-Yazid, believed to be Al-Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan. "Those who know the sheikh are aware that he is not based in Bajaur," sources said.
In further evidence of his survival, al-Yazid appeared in an Al-Qaeda video that surfaced in September warning 'Crusader' countries against offending Islam.
Abu Akash, who moved to the region three or four years ago, is known to have trained militants of Uzbek and Tajik origin. He has never been part of Al-Qaeda. Like most Arabs based in South Asia he is close to Al-Qaeda's inner circle but is not a member of the terror network or one of its advisors.
#2
We'll getcha next time.
Missiles coming out of the sky without warning must have them at the point of schizophrenia. At the rate we are bagging them they should be worried.
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 12:16
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#4
Ain't that the shitz.
Do like the bouncy fire balls tho...
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/13/2008 12:46
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#5
I'm still waiting for the first ACRCLIGHT strike on these worthless POS. Six BUFFS unloading everything they have on one of those "mountain villages" would change a lot of opinions, and not just in Phakestan. Once again we're being far too nice to people that need the sh$$ kicked out of them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2008 13:15
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President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is flirting with creating a White House "Climate Czar," but climate change crusader Al Gore says he doesn't want the job.
The Obama team declined to comment on such a post, even as environmentalists and power industry executives say it's being widely discussed inside the transition offices as a way to spur a clean energy industry, which Mr. Obama has promised will ween the U.S. from foreign oil and create millions of "green jobs."
Obama transition chief John Podesta promoted a similar idea earlier in his role as president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank.
Mr. Podesta authored a white paper calling for an Energy Security Council within the White House to oversee climate change and clean energy initiatives. The czar and the council would coordinate agencies, including the Energy and Interior departments and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The obvious choice to lead the council is Mr. Gore, whose campaign to address climate change earned him the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. But the former vice president is taking a pass. "Former Vice President Gore does not intend to seek or accept any formal position in government," Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said. "He feels very strong right now that the best thing for him to do is to build support for the bold changes that we have to make to solve the climate crisis."
Mr. Obama foreshadowed the new post on the campaign trail in April when he told a voter that Mr. Gore would be offered a special Cabinet post overseeing climate change. "Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem," Mr. Obama said.
With Mr. Gore out of the running for an administration job, leading candidates for the post likely include former EPA chief Carol M. Browner, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Other names mentioned for czar or membership in the energy council include World Resources Institute President Jonathan Lash, former Pennsylvania Environment Secretary Kathleen McGinty and California Air Resources Board chief Mary D. Nichols.
The Obama transition team declined to comment on administration jobs or who would fill them, stressing instead the next president's commitment to fulfilling campaign promises for clean energy. "Obama has outlined an aggressive energy and climate agenda and will put the resources in place in his administration to achieve those goals," Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Environmental advocacy groups are clamoring for the new White House post to raise the profile of energy and environmental policy. "There's clearly a pent-up demand for things that got blocked during the Bush years," Sierra Club spokesman Josh Dorner said.
Mr. Obama, taking a page from Mr. Gore's script, has argued that an energy policy strikes the confluence of economic, national security and environmental challenges facing the country. "Finding the new driver of our economy is going to be critical. ThereŽs no better driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy," Mr. Obama told Time magazine shortly before the election. "ThatŽs going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office."
#2
Should our (expletive deleted)guv Sebelius be assimilated you can pretty well kiss the country so long. Afterall, she personally shot down a $3 BILLION coal fired powerplant project and then turned around and asked for a 3% decrease in the state budget due to lower tax revenues. She does however possess the ability to talk out of both sides of her mouth at the same time......
#3
I believe Gore could have been President if he'd wanted. He won the Peace Prize and was considered a Profit by many. If he'd rolled into the Primaries he could have won before anyone knew who Obama was.
He claims he didn't want it because he can do more good for the environment as a free agent.
If he didn't want the Presidency why would he consider a cabinet post. His name was floated simply to kill speculation and put Obama on the side of the prophet and the shamans.
#4
The position of Climate Czar might seem a bully pulpit for al Gore's unique brand of buffoonery, but would *you* want to be in charge of global warming when the coming unstoppable ice age hits?
And when did we get started on this 'czar' business? This is America, dammit!
Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The event is part of a personal initiative by Saudi King Abdullah to promote an interfaith dialogue among the world's major religions. The Saudi leader agreed for the first time to dine in the same room with the Israeli president at a private, pre-conference banquet Tuesday hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But Ban hinted that the two leaders -- whose governments do not have diplomatic relations -- were not seated at the same table.
"Normally, in the past, they have not been sitting in the same place like this. That is very important and encouraging," Ban said. "I wholeheartedly support the convening of the interfaith meeting that will be held here at headquarters tomorrow. The values it aims to promote are common to all the world's religions and can help us fight extremism, prejudice and hatred."
The Saudi initiative emerged in the summer during a meeting of religious leaders in Mecca. The Saudi leader subsequently drew a range of religious groups -- including Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Taoists and others -- together in Madrid in July, where they signed a declaration calling for greater cooperation among religions.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to attend the conference to hear the Saudi King's opening address. Bush is scheduled to deliver an address Thursday. The White House said last month that it welcomed the Saudi initiative and supports "the right to practice one's religion" and other principles of religious freedom enshrined in the U.N. charter.
But Saudi Arabia's sponsorship of the event drew criticism from human rights advocates, who said that a country that oppresses its religious minorities lacks the moral authority to lead such a gathering.
"Saudi Arabia is not qualified to be a leader in this dialogue at the United Nations," said Ali Al-Ahmed, a Saudi national who serves as director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs. "It is the world headquarters of religious oppression and xenophobia."
Most leaders from Europe -- with the exception of Britain and Finland -- Latin America, Africa and Asia stayed away, sending lower-ranking representatives. Some U.N. delegates said they were put off by the prospect of holding a religious event in the world's premier diplomatic venue, the U.N. General Assembly chamber. They also expressed concern about having their top leaders participate in an event on religious tolerance sponsored by a government that has such a poor record on the issue.
"We all know what happens in Saudi Arabia," one U.N. ambassador said.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said a U.N. discussion on religious discrimination should spotlight places "where religious intolerance runs deepest, and that includes Saudi Arabia."
General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto, a Roman Catholic priest from Nicaragua Hum, do I smell liberation theology, AKA commies R us???
who is co-chairman of the conference, sought to play down the event's religious significance. "We're not here to talk about religion. . . . We're here to talk about tapping our innermost values and putting them at the service" of the world's neediest people.
"Humanity is in moral bankruptcy, and we are in need of being bailed out," d'Escoto said. Asked whether Saudi Arabia had the moral standing to preside over the event, d'Escoto said: "I never conceived the United Nations as an organization of saints. We are in the world a community of sinners . . . and we should accept warmly any brother who wants to join forces to resolve" the most pressing problems.
#5
This is like the fox preaching tolerance and love to the hens in the chicken coop. Tastes like chicken.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 13:31
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#6
Well, look on the bright side. There is less need for an extensive "fact finding mission", since the leading offender is chairing the pathetic joke conference.
Southern Californians by the millions were signed up to simultaneously drop to the floor on Thursday and huddle face down under tables and desks for two minutes of imagined seismic turmoil in the biggest U.S. earthquake drill ever.
The Great Southern California ShakeOut drill was organized by scientists and emergency officials as part of a campaign to prepare the region's 22 million inhabitants for a catastrophic quake that experts say is inevitable and long overdue.
The exercise is based on the premise of a magnitude 7.8 temblor striking the San Andreas Fault, similar in strength to a devastating quake that hit China in May.
Well over 5 million people officially signed up to take part in the drill, and organizers said they assumed many more would join in without registering.
At precisely 10 a.m. PST (1:00 p.m. EST), people in classrooms, offices and homes throughout the region will be asked to perform the prescribed "drop, cover and hold-on" exercise for two minutes, the duration of the hypothetical quake. They will be guided by a public service message distributed to businesses and schools and played over the airwaves by radio and TV stations.
#5
OTOH, we are severely impacted by illegal immigration, a federal problem. Although it's the federal government's responsibility to secure the border we get the bill for the health care, welfare, education and incarceration of illegal aliens. So maybe it is about time we get some help.
NATO, meeting on Russia's doorstep, held talks with Ukraine Friday to assess its progress toward membership of the alliance, but prospects for a promised entry action plan were dim.
Russia deeply opposes Ukraine's efforts to join NATO, while opinion polls show only about a third of Ukrainians support it. Ukraine's domestic political turmoil has made NATO hesitant, though the alliance has said Ukraine, and Georgia, will one day be members.
"A country's right to freely choose its security alignments is another important principle in this regard and a test for a Europe we all seek to build," said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, referring to Russia's objections.
The talks were being held in the capital of Estonia, another former Soviet state, which entered NATO in 2004, breaking away from its powerful neighbor to the east.
Speaking at the start of the talks in which NATO was to assess Ukraine's security and defense reforms, the NATO chief also took a fresh swipe at Russia for recognizing breakaway Georgian regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He said the recognition of the regions after a short war with Georgia in August violated basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Despite such words, Ukraine's hopes for a promised Membership Action Plan -- the path to NATO membership -- at a summit of the alliance in December looked dim.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has pushed his allies to offer Ukraine and Georgia a MAP this year but this now seems unlikely.
"I doubt very much that either in Estonia or at the ministerial (in December) or even at the NATO summit next year Ukraine is going to get an invitation to a MAP, unless of course something dramatic is going to happen," said Janusz Bugajski, of Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He cited Ukraine's political instability as a major reason for the country not getting the action plan.
This was shown again Wednesday when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dropped plans for an early parliamentary election, which he had wanted to resolve political deadlock after the break-up of a coalition led by him and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally and now arch rival.
Within NATO, nations such as Germany and France are concerned about the alliance's relationship with Russia and not want to see it soured by overtures to Georgia and Ukraine.
The United States views Russian threats to place tactical missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad as provocative and misguided, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Russia made the move in response to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe, which Moscow sees as a threat to its security. Washington says the system is needed against missile strikes from what it terms rogue states, notably Iran.
Gates, speaking after a NATO meeting with Ukraine, said the Russian threats were "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserved," referring to the fact they were made immediately after Barack Obama won the presidential election. "Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided," Gates told a news conference in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
At the same time, Washington would continue to seek a constructive and positive relationship with Russia, he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told French daily newspaper Le Figaro, in an interview published on Thursday, that Moscow could cancel its deployment of the Iskander missiles if Obama scrapped plans for the missile defense system. "I don't think that is a credible offer," Gates said, adding that Washington had put forward detailed proposals to Russia for partnering in missile defense.
"Quite frankly I am not clear what the missiles would be for in Kaliningrad. After all the only real emerging threat on Russia's periphery is Iran and I don't think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad," he said. "So, this is an issue apparently between ourselves and the Russians. Why they would threaten to point missiles at European nations seems quite puzzling to me," he added.
The Indian army was shocked to discover that one of its senior intelligence officers, 37 year old colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit, worked with Hindu terrorists to carry out a recent (September) bombing of a Mosque, which left six dead. Hindu terrorism has been around for thousands of years, but it has never been a major problem, and this was the first time a senior army officer had been caught working with Hindu terrorists. Most army officers are Hindu, as are 80 percent of Indians (13 percent are Moslems). Moslem and communist terrorism does far more damage, and for years the army had been far more concerned with Moslem or leftist officers turning radical. In the course of the Purohit investigation, a retired army Major was also arrested, and it is feared that more officers may be involved. The biggest problem with Hindu terrorism, aside from the death and destruction, is that it makes it easier for Moslem and communist terror groups to recruit.
India is having increasing problems with its military officers. The Indian Army is short 24 percent of its officer strength, and is desperately seeing solutions. The air force and navy are also short, but only by 12-15 percent. The military fears that commanders are compromising standards to hold on to what officers they have.
Moreover, India is at war, with troops getting killed and injured in Kashmir, the northeastern tribal areas, and fighting Maoist rebels in eastern India. The casualty rate is actually quite low, but just serving in a combat zone is hard on the nerves, and not attractive to many educated young Indians. The result is best demonstrated by looking at who applies to what school. The elite Indian Institutes of Management gets 200,000 people applying each year, for 1,200 slots. The Indian Military Academy got only 86 applications for 250 slots.
The source of the problem, in a nation of 1.1 billion, is the corruption in the primary school system. Teaching jobs in many parts of the country are considered political patronage. These teaching assignments are handed out to political activists, with the understanding that they are no-show jobs. So, despite a lot of money being put into primary education over the last half century, the illiteracy rate is still 39 percent. The army cannot compete with a booming economy when there is such a shortage of qualified personnel.
#5
WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph = Google Chinglish translation]> INDIA'S POPULATION MAY SURPASS CHINA'S BY 2050, perhaps even earlier 2020-2025, as per WMF Poster Opinions + UN Population Fund'd "208 State of the World's Population" Report. China's fertility rate is less than 1/2 of India's > in 2050, India's population at present and projected rates will be 1.6Bilyuhn to China's 1.4Bilyuhn, as compared to 1.1Bilyuhn to 1.3Bilyuhn respectively for 2008 Curr Populations.
Also from WMF > INDIA IS WORRIED OVER IMMIGRATION OUTFLOWS TO CHINESE SIDE OF SINO-INDIAN LINE OF CONTROL [new threat]; + CHINA TO STOP NEW INFLUXES OF HINDU PILGRIMS INTO TIBET, + JANES DEFENSE WEEKLY: CHINESE DEFENSE MINISTER'S LUANG GUANG-LI's VISIT TO TIBET OVER SINO-INDIAN ARUNSCHAL PRADESH ROW MAY HIDE A COVERT WARNING TO THE USA: STOP NEW ARMS SALE TO TAIWAN, OR CHINA WILL MILITARILY INTERVENE AGZ USA IN AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN.
* SPACEWAR > CHINA'S ENEMIES ARE ALL AROUND HER, PART 1. China foresees ACTUAL/REALISTIC CONFLICT AGZ TAIWAN, USA, + JAPAN, in that order, while foreseeing POTENTIAL CONFLICT WID INDIA, VIETNAM, SE ASIA, RUSSIA, + NATO [non-US], these latter all also in respective order, but all ostens over TAIWAN = INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE OF SAME.
#6
As per above WORLD MIL FORUM Articles > CHIN DEFENSE MINISTER = iff need be, CHINA's PLA forces will FORCIBLY/MILITARILY extend its reach from TIBET= LOC to the BAY OF BENGAL???
WMF POSTERS > TIBET, XIANJING, KOREAS + TIBET ALL BELONG TO CHINA; + MONGOLIANS + KOREANS WILL NOT GO/FIGHT AGZ CHINA.
Network runs correction on air after reporting an adviser to John McCain had identified himself as the source of an embarrassing story about Sarah Palin, information stemming from a hoax. ...
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2008
09:53 ||
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#1
Now, if this had been the mainstream press, they wouldn't have made such an obvious error because their layers of fact-checkers and editors, and their journalistic professionalism, would not have allowed it to...oh!..What's that?...MSNBC is part of the mainstream press?
Oh. never mind.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008 10:20
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#2
there should be unpaid leaves for all the reporters and editors that let this sh*t go out on the air without the barest fact-checking
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2008 10:43
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#3
I'm surprized that they even bothered to retract. After all, no harm, no foul. She's a Republican, you know.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/13/2008 11:28
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#4
Gaines told the Times that someone in the network's newsroom restroom had presumed the information solid because it was passed along in an e-mail from a colleague.
Fixed for accurate reporting.
"Kudos to the inventor of this whole thing," Stein wrote. "My only consolation is that if I had as much time on my hands as he clearly does, I probably would have figured this out and saved myself a fair amount of embarrassment."
Or actually cared enough do some factual reporting, eh? Or perhaps if your boss had TOLD you to check your fact before going live?
Descendants of World War I flying ace Harvey Weir Cook celebrated the Veterans Day dedication of a new passenger terminal bearing his name, a belated consolation for the removal of his name from the airport he helped develop more than 60 years ago.
Indianapolis International Airport, known as Weir Cook Airport before 1976, dedicated the $1 billion terminal Tuesday with more than a dozen members of the Cook family and others in attendance.
"We all took it hard," said Harvey Weir Cook III of Columbus, Ohio, who helped ceremoniously cut a red ribbon to open the midfield terminal. "It's a great honor to have my grandfather recalled this way."
Cook, a native of Wilkinson east of Indianapolis, shot down seven German planes while a captain with the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I. He returned to military service in World War II as a lieutenant colonel in 1942 and died in a plane crash the following year in New Caledonia, in the South Pacific. The airport was named after Cook in 1944.
The development of the new terminal sparked an effort by family members, veterans groups and others to return the Weir Cook name to the entire airport, but a compromise with airport leaders resulted in naming the new structure the Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal Building. The main road serving it is also named after the flying ace.
#1
God forbid naming the entire thing after him. Ehat they saving the name for Obama international airport,. it will go right along well with the local high school named after Obama too.
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 10:33
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#1
"Europe must decide whether it needs this pipeline or not," Mr. Putin told Matti Vanhanen, the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, at a meeting in Moscow.
Russian pipelines seem to be getting more expensive by the day. In every sense of the word.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/13/2008 11:29
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#2
Have they got any viable alternatives to that pipeline?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
11/13/2008 13:20
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#3
ION REDDIT > RUSSIA IS WILLING TO "BUY ICELAND" FOR "GOOD MONEY"; + GREENLAND'S QUEST FOR SELF-DTERMINATION/GREENLAND BRACES FOR INDEPENDENCE AND WEALTH.
* DER SPIEGEL > ICELAND MAY REJECT 1.0BILYUHN EURO LOAN.
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, YA SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T SEND IN THE MARINES AND THE AIRBORNE - THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING OVER THE HILL!
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 10:34
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#2
8,000 cousins? Yeah, I've got barely 8,000 Thorn/Thorne 'cousins', and that's after almost FOUR CENTURIES of frontier-style f'huge families. Somebody's counting the sort of relation which bears more resemblance to 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' than to proper genealogy.
Reading closer, it sounds as if one of Obama's third or second twice removed cousins married into this Bedouin tribe back in the thirties. Which in and of itself sounds kind of dodgy. Isn't this what Arabic-style cousin marriage is designed to avoid?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 12:31
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#3
their all inbred who knows mitch
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 12:34
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#4
We knew hed win, the sheikh said, constantly interrupted by a barrage of phone calls from wellwishers and those hoping to cash in on his newfound wasta, an Arabic term denoting influence or clout. We have always been a lucky family
Mark Begich made a dramatic comeback Wednesday to overtake Ted Stevens for the lead in Alaska's U.S. Senate race. Begich, who was losing after election night, now leads Stevens by 814 votes -- 132,196 to 131,382 -- with the state still to count roughly 35,000 more ballots over the next week.
The state Division of Elections tallied some 60,000 absentee, early and questioned ballots on Wednesday. The ballots broke heavily in the Democrat's favor, erasing the 3,000-vote lead Stevens held after election night Nov. 4. The state still needs to count at least 15,000 questioned ballots and an estimated 20,000 absentee ballots that made it to the Division of Elections after election day last Tuesday.
Most regional elections headquarters will count their remaining ballots on Friday. But the most populous region, based in Anchorage, won't count its ballots until either Monday or Wednesday, state elections chief Gail Fenumiai said.
Begich pushed hard in the campaign for people to vote early, a factor both Democrats and Republicans said contributed to his surge. More than 9,000 of those early ballots weren't counted until Wednesday in order to give the state time to double check and make sure people didn't vote early and then come back and vote election day as well.
Neither candidate was around Wednesday night as the drama unfolded. Begich was on vacation with his family "at an undisclosed location" and not available Wednesday night to comment, his campaign staff said. Begich, who is the mayor of Anchorage, also did not return a message left on his cell phone. Stevens is back in Washington, D.C., where it was well past midnight when the returns came in. His campaign spokesman said there would be no comment on the turnaround.
Republican Party of Alaska Chairman Randy Ruedrich wasn't giving up hope for Stevens, saying Begich's advantage could lessen as the state finishes counting the early votes. "We expect that the subsequent absentees will be more truly by mail absentees, which should be much more favorable to Republicans," he said.
But state Democratic Party spokeswoman Bethany Lesser said Begich workers are "cautiously optimistic" the lead would hold. She noted that the election district based in Nome, which covers northern and western Alaska, has not counted any of its absentee ballots yet. Begich beat Stevens in that area on election day, just as he did throughout Bush Alaska, a traditional Stevens stronghold that relies on federal appropriations.
Stevens' loss would end an era in Alaska history that started not long after statehood, when Gov. Wally Hickel appointed him to the Senate in 1968. The Republican has never even had a close election since, often drawing just token opposition. He's had a hand in many of the laws shaping the state and was honored as "Alaskan of the Century." The state Legislature named the Anchorage airport after him, a rare honor to bestow on a politician who is still alive.
But that was before the FBI and IRS raided his Girdwood home and a Washington, D.C., jury found him guilty of lying on financial disclosure forms about $250,000 in gifts and home Is it jus coincidence that the vast majority of late-counted votes are for the Democrat candidate? Look at Minnesota where the same thing is happening.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/13/2008
08:33 ||
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If a citizen emails his legislator about an issue of concern, does that make him a lobbyist? If you blog about the legislative session, will you have to report this as a lobbying activity? Tomorrow the Public Disclosure Commission is discussing potential guidelines for Internet lobbying.
The story can't possibly be as good as the headline, so we'll just leave it at that.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008
07:08 ||
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#1
You know how you can tell if the beer keg is hot? Your pee glows in the dark.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/13/2008 11:20
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#2
We certainly could have used these for our underage keggers out in the deep woods back in the day...
Posted by: Dar ||
11/13/2008 13:47
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#3
If you wre evil and wanted an easier path to smuggle a nuke or dirty bomb into the US, what better way than to contaminate the scrap metal stream so that millions of products emitted radiation to provide you with a 'smoke screen.'
A top investigator says a sailor set off the fire safety system on a Russian nuclear submarine last weekend that killed 20 people.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin says officials have opened a manslaughter investigation into the actions of the unnamed sailor, who he says confessed to the act. He gave no further details Thursday.
The announcement contradicts previous official statements that the fire-extinguishing system aboard the Nerpa had gone off on its own.
The Nerpa was undergoing tests Saturday in the Sea of Japan when its firefighting system activated. Freon gas asphyxiated 20 people on the sub and 21 were hospitalized.
#1
what's the point of a fire system that kills the ppl running the boat especially if it is still underwater? Are the Russian sub crews volunteer like the US?
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:51
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#2
This fire-extinguishing system is designed to be used only when the compartments are unmanned and sealed off from the rest of the ship.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/13/2008 12:30
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#7
Russian philosophy has always been: 1) control from the top; 2) trust the lower levels as little as possible; 3) automate (which backs up the top two assertions); 4) don't teach the lower ratings any more than you have to. Plus initial reports were that there were several riders along for the sea trials, also, that the dead were 2 sailors and 18 riders. The riders would have had no clue what to do in case of an emergency.
#8
Most modern systems have a switch one can hold to prevent the fire suppression gas from being released until everyone is out of the area. Either Russian systems don't have such a safety feature or it was disabled/overridden.
#9
It appears that anything that could wrong aboard a submarine before and during a cruise DID > ABOUT THE ONLY THING MISSING IS THE NERPA LAUNCHING AND BEING KILLED BY ITS OWN TORPEDO/MISSLE!
The U.N.'s top Iraq envoy on Thursday condemned the killing of two Christian sisters in Mosul, the volatile northern city where Christian residents were starting to return a month after extremist threats forced thousands to flee.
Gunmen killed the sisters Wednesday as they were waiting in front of their house for a ride to work, police said. Their mother was wounded in the attack, and the U.S. military said the family's house was destroyed by bombs planted inside.
U.N. special representative Staffan de Mistura "expressed his shock and outrage at the continued targeting and killing of religious minorities" in a statement.
The attack came after about 13,000 Christians fled Mosul, an ethnically mixed city of Kurds, Christians and Arabs, following a spate of threats and killings last month. Sunni insurgents are believed to be behind the campaign to drive them out.
Some families were starting to return because the security situation had shown signs of improvement, de Mistura said, citing a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He called on Iraqi authorities at the national and local level to protect Christians and other minorities in Iraq and to ensure those behind the attacks "are swiftly brought to justice."
Tensions are high in Mosul, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been trying since last spring to rout insurgents from Iraq's third largest city.
#1
It's not just the Christians, the Sunni groups are targeting Ahmadis, Sufis, Maronites, Kurds, anyone who isn't a Sunni basically. They're real shitheads.
An Iranian diplomat was kidnapped and his bodyguard was killed by unknown gunnies in Pakistain's northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, the Pakistaini government said.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a statement, condemned the kidnapping of Iranian diplomat Heshmatollah Attarzadeh and assured Iran that Pakistaini authorities "will take all necessary measures for his safe and early recovery."
The official Associated Press of Pakistain quoted local police as saying the gunnies intercepted a vehicle carrying the Iranian Consulate's commercial attache as he was going from home to his office in Peshawar's posh Hayatabad township.
The report said the bodyguard was shot dead after resisting.
The incident occurred a day after an American aid worker was shot dead in Hayatabad.
Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Pakistain Abdul Khaliq Farahi was kidnapped by unknown gunnies in the same township a few weeks ago. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Iran's Ambassador to Pakistain Mashallah Shakeri was quoted by his country's official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying he holds Pakistain responsible for ensuring security of foreign diplomats and that Iranian officials are working with Pakistani officials on the case.
IRNA quoted witnesses as saying three gunnies with long greasy beards were involved in the abduction, though no group had yet claimed responsibility.
Pakistaini Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a statement, strongly condemned the abduction of the Iranian diplomat and ordered urgent steps to be taken for his safe release.
Peshawar is the capital of restive North-West Frontier Province, which has seen fighting in recent months between Pakistaini forces and pro- Taliban militants.
On Tuesday, a boom attack at the main gate of Peshawar's Qayum Stadium claimed four lives, including the suicide boomer.
Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has gone on a hunger strike to protest his jailing, his lawyer said Thursday, while legal woes mounted for family members also implicated in the corruption scandal.
Lawyer Cheng Wen-lung said Chen has refused food since entering his cell to protest "the death of the law and to mourn the decline of democracy" under the "authoritarian regime" of the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT).
In a stunning fall from grace, Chen, who just six months ago held the island's top office, was detained Wednesday on suspicion of graft. He reportedly occupies a single-person cell in a Taipei detention center, its open toilet visible from the door's viewing slot.
"I have urged (Chen) to eat and keep up his strength for his case, but (he) has...gone on a hunger strike," Cheng told reporters outside the jail. He said Chen has been allowed legal counsel but no other visitors.
In Taiwan, criminal suspects can be detained without formal charges on the grounds they pose risks of flight or collusion.
The former president claims the KMT-led government of current President Ma Ying-jeou is engaging in political persecution.
Graft cases surrounding Chen have weakened the opposition Democratic Progressive Party that he once led before it lost in landslide defeats to the KMT in the general and presidential elections held early this year. Chen, 57, stepped down as president May 20 after serving the maximum two terms. Ma and prosecutors deny allegations that Chen's incarceration is politically motivated.
The Supreme Prosecutors Office has been investigating Chen since he left office, allegedly for misusing a secret diplomacy fund while in office and laundering political contributions dating back to 1994. Chen admitted his wife Wu Shu-chen wired abroad some $20 million in campaign contributions, but he has denied breaking any laws or pocketing the money.
Nine people, including a former intelligence chief, vice premier and presidential aide under Chen, have also been detained in connection with his cases.
Prosecutors on Thursday served summonses to Chen's wife and their son Chih-chung, ordering them to report for questioning in the same cases. The former first lady already faces trial, currently on hold for health reasons, for dipping into the same diplomacy fund Chen allegedly misused while he was in office.
Wu has been wheelchair-bound since 1985, when she was run over by a truck in a politically motivated attack while Chen was campaigning for a county-level office.
Chen Chih-chung and his wife Huang, who was also issued a summons Thursday, are under investigation for allegedly helping launder Chen Shui-bian's campaign contributions by moving them to and from a slew of overseas bank accounts.
Adding to the former first family's woes was a decision Thursday by the Taiwan High Court to uphold a seven-year jail term and fine for Chen Shui-bian's son-in-law Chao Chien-min. Local media quoted him as saying he would further appeal to the Supreme Court.
Chao is accused of using his connections to Chen when he was in office to conduct insider trading.
'Al-Quds Al-Arabi' Editor Abd Al-Bari Atwan Calls on Obama to 'Impose American Model of Equality, Rights, and Opportunities on All Arab Countries,' Says: In an Arab Country, Obama Would Be Told, 'You Are a Slave'; 'We Arabs Are The Epitome of Racism'
Following are excerpts from an interview with Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. The interview aired on BBC Arabic TV on November 7, 2008:
Interviewer: "Is it really so difficult to achieve a breakthrough in the Arab ruling system, similar to what happened in the U.S? Will it take decades or centuries, Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan?"
Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan: "By coincidence, at a time when a black president was elected in the U.S., President Bouteflika amended the Algerian constitution so that he could remain in power for the rest of his life.
"What a paradox this is. In the U.S., not only is the change of power carried out by peaceful means, but there is [now] a black president - [who came] from the lowest ranks of society to the top.
"If Obama was in an Arab country, like Saudi Arabia or one of the Gulf states, they might have required him to have a 'guarantor' [like any foreign worker]. Under no circumstances - even if he died - would they have given him citizenship. They'd say to him: You are a slave, you are black, you need a 'guarantor,' you are a Kenyan, and your origins are unknown.
"I'm sad to say that we Arabs are the epitome of racism. Look at the foreign [workers] in the Gulf - they have no rights. These workers demonstrate, demanding to be placed 10, rather than 20, in a room, demanding to be transported in buses like human beings, rather than in trucks like beasts.
"We are the epitome of racism, and I believe that Obama will demand that these Arab countries carry out reforms: First, to abolish the 'guarantor' system, and then to grant rights not only to the blacks, but even to the Arabs themselves, to the whites. The whites in the Arab world are humiliated. Unless you have the 'holy' citizenship of a certain country - you are humiliated.
"Obama should impose the American model of equality, rights, and opportunities on all the Arab countries."
#3
Blacks in the US struggled for decades to earn their rights. It wasn't something imposed from without. Now that you have seen one of the problems fix it.
#4
I believe that Obama will demand that these Arab countries carry out reforms
Now there's an idea. Remind me, please, how these same Arab countries responded to the second/third most powerful person in the world during the Bush administration, Secretary of State Dr. Condoleeza Rice?
#5
Gutsy editor, but he doesn't understand the American model. Equality cannot be imposed, as it is an attitude; changing the heart changes the mind, resulting in how we view others. As for rights, they are derived from our Constitution, which they are free to adopt. We would all gladly support the reform from within, as fascist Islam is the only ideal we cannot tolerate and survive.
"And I thought MY jokes were bad"./geek mode
An ancestor of Monty Python's famous Dead Parrot comedy sketch has been found in a joke book dating back to Greece in the 4th Century.
Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, which has been translated from Greek manuscripts, contains a joke where a man complains that a slave he was sold had died. "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!" is the reply.
In the Python sketch, written 1,600 years later, the shopkeeper claims the dead parrot is "pining for the fjords". The 265 jokes in Philogelos are attributed to a pair of jokers called Hierocles and Philagrius, about whom very little is known.
Their manuscripts have been published into a multimedia online e-book, which features video of veteran comic Jim Bowen bringing the old jokes back to life in front of a 21st Century audience. Some of the jokes are strikingly similar to modern ones, with subjects including farts, sex, ugly wives and a dimwit referred to as "a student dunce".
"One or two of them are jokes I've seen in people's acts nowadays, slightly updated," said Bowen. "They put in a motor car instead of a chariot - some of them are Tommy Cooper-esque," he added.
Jim Bowen performed the old jokes in front of a 21st Century audience. Some jokes are likely to baffle modern audiences, however - especially the ones about lettuce, which only make sense if you share the ancient superstition that the vegetable is an aphrodisiac.
The book has been translated by William Berg, an American professor of Classics. "The text of Philogelos comes to us from several manuscripts ranging from the 11th to the 15th Centuries," Berg said. "All of them trace back to an earlier original, probably - judging from the content and language - from the 4th Century."
Other jokes in the book include:
Someone needled a well-known wit: "I had your wife, without paying a penny". He replied: "It's my duty as a husband to couple with such a monstrosity. What made you do it?"
An Abderite sees a eunuch talking with a woman and asks him if she's his wife. The guy responds that a eunuch is unable to have a wife. "Ah, so she's your daughter? "
A misogynist is attending to the burial of his wife, who has just died, when someone asks: "Who is it who rests in peace here?". He answers: "Me, now that I'm rid of her!"
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008 11:37
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#2
Nothing new under the sun...
Seriously, when I did a Greek and Roman lit course in college, I began to think that Roman comedy was very like American TV sitcoms - about six characters and that many stock situations and jokes... most of them were encapsulated in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". If you watch that, you've seen everything there was to Roman popular comedy...
If you think they're out to get you, you're not alone.
Paranoia, once assumed to afflict only schizophrenics, may be a lot more common than previously thought. According to British psychologist Daniel Freeman, nearly one in four Londoners regularly have paranoid thoughts. Freeman is a paranoia Expert™ at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College and the author of a book on the subject.
Experts™ say there is a wide spectrum of paranoia, from the dangerous delusions that drive schizophrenics to violence to the irrational fears many people have daily. "We are now starting to discover that madness is human and that we need to look at normal people to understand it," said Dr. Jim van Os, a professor of psychiatry at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Van Os was not connected to Freeman's studies.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Traumatic events can make people more vulnerable to having paranoid thoughts. Since the attacks, Penn said Americans have been conditioned to be more vigilant of anything out of the ordinary.
With the possible exception of presidential elections.
#5
unfounded fear that others are trying to hurt you
So is paranoia up by a factor of three - or are there three times as many people out there trying to hurt others? It's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you.
#8
It's not paranoia if they're really out to get ya.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/13/2008 12:09
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#9
A) London is an increasingly non-homogeneous society. Of *course* trust levels will decrease - one of the benefits of social homogeneity is higher levels of implicit social trust.
B) London is an increasingly more dangerous environment, what with actual, living, breathing terrorists wandering about under 'surveillance'. Paranoia is a rational response to changing conditions.
C) The authorities have stripped the populace of their means of self-defense, and poisoned the civil wells from which social trust is periodically refreshed. If all trust and authority is delegated to the government, and it becomes increasingly clear that the government doesn't have your best interests at heart, a raging case of squint-eyed paranoia is an increasingly necessary tool for survival. After all, if it's in the government's best interest that you die quickly so as to not burden public health service, and not defend yourself against chavs and 'yoots', then your stringy ass is all alone in the New Britain.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 12:48
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#12
Another factor beyond being told that dangerous things aren't dangerous and pay no mind and give up your right to self-defence is that sometimes the media exagerates the threat of fairly mild things.
If the facts are mailable how can we blame people for not trusting anything.
VANCOUVER - A former B.C. provincial politician and his wife have recovered what is believed to be the seventh detached foot to have washed ashore on the West Coast since last year.
Ken Johnston says his wife Diane was walking their dogs along a Fraser River beach in Richmond, B.C., on Tuesday when she spotted the sneaker. "She could see it was a running shoe and it was sitting on a rock about 10 feet from the beach, but the tide was in and she had the dogs with her and was unable to reach it," he said.
Johnston said the pair returned to the spot later in the day. "She said, 'Let's go and see if the shoe is still there.' Now it was between two logs, so she went down the bank and threw it up to me.
"I flipped it over and could see a sock and other material inside I couldn't identify," said Ken Johnston, a member of the B.C. legislature from 2001 to 2005. The couple decided to phone the police, who collected the shoe.
Richmond RCMP said the left New Balance running shoe, thought to be a woman's, has been turned over to the Coroners Service of British Columbia, so that any tissue inside can be processed for DNA tests. "It's too early to draw any parallels (to other shoes) until we conduct an examination and extract a DNA sample from the remains," said Const. Annie Linteau. She declined to provide any details about the size, colour or model of the latest shoe.
Another New Balance sneaker, a white shoe fitted for a right foot, washed up in B.C. in May. Of all the shoes that have washed ashore in B.C., that was the only other woman's shoe. In the previous cases, there was no indication of foul play. The feet appear to have come detached "through natural processes," according to police.
Five of the six previous feet were found in B.C., and the other was found Aug. 4 on a beach south of the U.S.-Canada border, near Port Angeles, Wash.
There were also several hoaxes. On June 18, what was thought to be a foot washed up near Campbell River on Vancouver Island. It was later discovered that someone placed the bones of an animal's foot in a sock and packed it inside a sneaker with seaweed. Then in September, someone placed a plastic foot in a runner on an East Vancouver beach.
"Obviously, due to the fact that a hoax was perpetrated previously . . . we want to proceed cautiously until we know what exactly we are dealing with," Linteau said.
Diane said she hopes the find will help determine the identity of the victim so their family might find some solace. "I feel a great deal of empathy for a family in that situation," said Diane.
In the summer of 1989, the couple's six-year-old son, Adam, drowned at a nearby beach. The boy had vanished during the outing and it took the police more than a day to recover his body. She doesn't need to describe the agony she and rest of the family endured while waiting for him to be found. "My son would be 26 now so, yes, it did occur to both of us how important it is to find something - even just a small part of someone's loved one," she said.
Police are continuing to probe missing-persons files to identify the remains in all the cases where human remains were confirmed through tests.
The first two shoes, both containing right feet, were discovered within a week in late August 2007 on islands in the Strait of Georgia. The third case, also involving a right foot that washed up on an island in the Strait of Georgia, was in February. The other two shoes - containing left feet - were found on islands in the Fraser River last May 22 and June 16.
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 9:05
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#4
Has there been any human trafficking there lately. Maybe all of these feet belong to illegals that were thrown off a boat and have finally come to rest. Or, maybe there is a cannibal loose that doesn't like feet and prefers only to eat the other parts. Ha Ha.
A suicide bomber rammed his car into a U.S. military convoy as it was passing through a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 20 civilians and an American soldier, officials said. The attack outside Jalalabad, the capital of the eastern Nangarhar province, also wounded 74 civilians, said Ajmal Pardes, a provincial health official.
Separately, an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed two NATO soldiers, the military alliance said in a statement, without dislcosing the soldiers nationalities.
The bomber struck the convoy near a crowded market in the Bati Kot district, where people were trading sheep, cows, goats and other animals, said Ghafoor Khan, the spokesman for the provincial police chief. An Associated Press photographer said that an American military vehicle, two civilian vehicles and two rickshaws were destroyed in Thursday's blast.
#2
This really p*sses off, because it assumes there's some kind of inherent positiveness in having a "minority" president. Because, the dominant ideology plainly and clearly posits that whites must share power in their own (historically white & homogenously white) homelands. Again, to go back at the idea of transnational positivism, this is YET an another avatar of the progressist ideology, which is RACIST again (but with whites as the demonized ethnicity), and which again aims at "deconstructing" society to achieve utopia.
Anyway, the simple fact of having a guy named with a muslim name, who is let's just say "ambiguous" in his relationship with islam, and who is anyway an apologist (cf his goal of an excusatory seech in a big muslim country during the early days of his presidency), elected just 7 years after 9/11 is in itself a very worrying symptom of a sick society, to put it bluntly.
And, no, I still think the USA are less advanced in the deathcurve of civilizational suicide, as compared to EUrope... but you've got to admit, you've got seriously worrying entropic forces at play here.
#3
I suspect we'll have a pagan before a practicing Muslim. After all the US is at war with some Muslims and other Muslims have shown a remarkable indifference to picking sides.
If we do have a Muslim President in my lifetime I suspect he'll be a hero who fought for the US military and thus removed any and all doubts about where his loyalties are. The media is trying and I'm just not seeing a lot of Muslim hero stories, at least not ones that are in the US military so I think it's unlikely.
#5
As long as the president is an American first, I could care less about the rest.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008 10:23
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#6
That is akin to asking during WWI when "We will have a Nazi or a "Japan uber alles" guy as president? Being Muslim is not being part of a minority but adhering to an ideology. And if it is about minority ideologies how about "When we will have a Republican as President?". Republicans are people (sort of) too!
(1) Main designer of the P51 Mustang a German American. A German Americans got the Medal of Honor fighting Germany during WWI. Their genes could have been German but their minds were as Americans than the one of any "Son of the Mayflower"
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 10:31
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#8
And as regards German-Americans in World War Two - Both Eisenhower and Chester Nimitz were of German descent; Nimitz was the grandson of Charles Henry Nimitz who was a leading citizen of Fredericksburg. I don't think anyone during World War II had any doubts about where those gentleman's true loyalties lay.
Incidentally, CH Nimitz is an on-going character in my soon-to-be-available and hopefully local-niche-best-selling "Adelsverein Trilogy"
The usual caveats for Debka
DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that for five days, around 1,000 armed young Bedouin tribesmen have been holding Egyptian positions along the Sinai-Israeli border south of Rafah to siege.
The besiegers, mostly Tarabin, Azazme and Tihama tribesmen, have shut the troops in and reinforcements and supplies out. Egyptian General Mohammed Shaarawai and 50 soldiers were taken hostage until the insurrectionists' demands are met.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources note that many Bedouin were hunted down and detained by Egyptian police after the string of al Qaeda terrorist attacks against tourists and Egyptians in Sinai between 2004 and 2006 and accused of complicity. Tourists were warned off the scenic peninsula in recent years, taking with them jobs and aggravating Bedouin poverty. Land ownership is a sore point for the semi-nomadic desert tribesmen. Some of their lands on the enchanting Sinai coasts have been impounded for hotel operators. The Bedouin are increasingly hostile to the Egyptian authorities and simmer on the brink of insurrection. I expect that, if push comes to shove, Egyptians will just exterminate Sinai Bedouin---it isn't as if they had to fear the response of "International Community".
#4
There is a way for Corn making a dramatic contribution to reducing US dependecy on oil.
1) Use it for producing bourbon.
2) People drink the bourbon
3) People are now under influence so they can't drive
4) If they don't drive, they don't use oil.
#6
That mission was accomplished. Iowa, apparently, can now go scratch.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
11/13/2008 8:08
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#7
JFM, I regret to say that drinking does NOT prevent people from getting behind the wheel and driving. Here in Wisconsin, we have probably the nation's highest drinking culture, and the accident rates to prove it.
I would love to see a better public transportation system for commuters and shoppers. Unfortunately, the people promoting rail around here have zero grasp of economics, a touching faith in ethanol, and way too much political dogma to make the system work.
#10
Here in Wisconsin, we have probably the nation's highest drinking culture
Interesting choice of words. The brandy Manhattan is high drinking culture? (I say this with great affection to my Wisconsin roots.)
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
11/13/2008 11:18
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#11
Grenter, perhaps 'Wisconsin culture often focuses around drinking, and we have one of the highest incidences of public drunkenness and drunken driving'.
Because yes, the quantity of say, Boonsefarm or Beast imbibed here on a regular basis does not exactly lend itself to high culture. ;)
However, as a Wisconsinite with good taste, I would like salute JFM's suggestion of more Bourbon. As you say sir, an excellent use of corn.
#12
AlanC from what I have read biodiesel can run in a modern diesel engine with no alterantions of the engine at all. The only issue is that in cold weather some folks need to either cut the biodiesel wtih regular diesel to prevent freezing and/or install a pre-heater in the engine to get it going when things are cold.
#14
Petroleum diesel becomes too viscous in the cold, too. My mother had a diesel in Buffalo, NY some years ago, and had real problems in winter with it.
#15
I know a fix for the winter diesel viscosity problem.
Some years back, filling up I happened to see a Diesel Oldsmobile pull up to the regular gas pump and start pumping, I (of course ) shouted to the drivr he was at the wrong pump, he replied "I know, I always put 2 gallons of regular per fillup, it helps the engine start easier"
Figuring that wasn't healthy for the engine, I asked him how long he'd ben doing that, he answered "for the last 600,000 miles".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2008 20:43
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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday adopted proposals put forward by a national forum to solve the Darfur crisis, announcing an immediate ceasefire in the war-ravaged western province and calling for a campaign to disarm militias there.
"I hereby announce our immediate unconditional ceasefire between the armed forces and warring factions provided that an effective monitoring mechanism be put into action and be observed by all involved parties," Bashir told participants of the closing session of the Sudan People's Forum - made up of ministers and opposition figures but boycotted by Darfur rebels.
The forum, backed by Bashir himself, has recommended that Sudan should call for a fresh ceasefire in Darfur and release political prisoners as part of a new peace push. It also recommended Sudan's government should pay compensation to displaced Darfuris and appoint a national vice-president for the region.
Bashir also called for "an immediate campaign to disarm the militias and restrict the use of weapons amongst armed forces," in apparent reference to the feared Janjaweed militia that Khartoum is accused of backing. "We confirm our commitment of negotiations to reach peaceful solutions which guarantee the eradication of disputes," Bashir said.
The forum's recommendations are expected to lay a foundation for a possible peace conference in Qatar by the end of 2008.
Sudan is pressing a diplomatic offensive to persuade the U.N. Security Council to delay possible proceedings against Bashir, who could face an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Darfur. Convincing the international community that Sudan is serious about promoting peace in Darfur, where the government has been accused of brutally repressing a nearly six-year insurgency, has been key to the people's initiative.
Bashir set up the forum weeks after the International Criminal Court prosecutor called for him to be tried for war crimes in Darfur. Many observers saw the new body as part of a diplomatic push to deflect the prosecutor's move and to show Sudan could find its own solution to the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#1
Guess which "militia" will get "disarmed", and which one won't. Bashir is a bucket of feces.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2008 13:09
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#2
Why wouldn't Bashir want to freeze the battlefield now that the African Furs have been burned out, raped, killed, and exiled?
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2008 23:00
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SINGAPORE (AP) Oil prices slid to near $55 a barrel Thursday in Asia as more bad economic news from the U.S. heightened fears of a severe global downturn that will pulverise demand for crude. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 81 cents to $55.35 a barrel, after falling as low as $55.03, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore.
"There are fears of reduced demand through 2009," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "Market sentiment is extremely bearish. It seems like there's nothing that can stop the bears."
The crude futures contract overnight fell $3.50 to settle at $56.16, the lowest closing price since January 2007, after the U.S. Energy Department slashed its 2009 oil consumption forecast. The department said Wednesday it expects U.S. consumption of petroleum to next year drop more severely than any time since 1980. The department's Energy Information Administration said 2009 petroleum consumption is projected to sink by 250,000 barrels per day, or 1.3 percent, more than twice that projected in its previous outlook.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40 percent of world supplies, has signaled it may cut production before its next meeting in December on top of a 1.5 million barrel reduction in output quotas last month. "I think OPEC considers $50 a must-defend price," Shum said. "There are bullish elements that the market has been ignoring."
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 1.39 cents to $1.82 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 0.3 cents to $1.24 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery slid 8.6 cents to $6.32 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, December Brent crude fell 41 cents to $51.96 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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#1
Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm betting it won't stay that low for long, especially when the Chinese start ramping up the projects their own "stimulus package" is paying for...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
11/13/2008 1:10
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#2
Home prices in my area are already starting to recover. A friend's home who had dropped over 200K in value according to zillow went up 25K over the past three weeks.
#3
Ah, ok, oil didn't fall because of any "economic concerns". The dollar rose again today. When the dollar rises in value, things traded in dollars fall. Oil went up today if you are paying for it in Euros.
#4
And don't forget that the banks are all lining up to get their cut of the bailout pie since they're not lending money [particularly to their paper fronts they used to speculate on oil just a month or so ago]. If you can't borrow money to speculate, you can't keep the price up either. Market call by natural forces [which should have been done by regulators months ago to avoid a lot of this crap].
#5
Yeah, the financial companies were buying huge amounts of oil as a hedge. Now that some of them are being liquidated (Lehman, etc) that oil is being sold in the market.
But it is temporary, oil "belongs" about $60-$65 at current supply/demand.
#7
Oil's fluctuation has clearly been due to more than supply and demand. I don't know what the "real" price of oil is...maybe it is $65 a barrel. If it had stayed at that price, I wonder if we would be writing a $50 bil check to the car companies now. Maybe it would have delayed things a year. Regardless, this is great for folks at the margin and great for the country as a whole.
#9
I can't say I'm terribly surprised by this and I'm sure the same goes for most people who've been paying attention. I'm no "economist" in the Paul Krugman sense of the word (and for that, I'm very thankful), but the exorbitantly high prices from this past summer were simply not sustainable in the long term.
The price of oil, much like the price of real estate for most of the last 7 years, rose quickly on the basis of speculation, by and large. There were few, if any, good rationales behind $150 per barrell oil. At it's height, it was priced at least 30% to 40% higher than the supply and demand would normally dictate. As with any speculative bubble, the speculators blew the bubble up too big until it finally popped. The credit crisis and the following economic downturn have served to exacerbate and accelerate the process and could well extend it out longer than normal.
What goes up must come down. Although how long it will stay down is anyone's guess.
#10
Operations. Drilling in North American oil and gas fields continues at full speed. During October, operations on American sites involved rig counts ranging from 1,964 to 2,018, 11-13% ahead of the comparable periods in 2007. In Canada the rig counts varied from 431 to 470 and topped the year-ago levels by 30-37%.
Canada's prime minister has denied reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan that two "dangerous" Taliban leaders were released in exchange for abducted Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung's freedom. "There have been continued reports about ransoms being paid. That was not done in this case," Premier Stephen Harper told reporters late Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Five Army soldiers and a civilian were killed and 11 others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into the gate of a school in Subhan Khwar area of Shabqadar town here on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses told The News that a young man tried to drive a white-colour Hiace into the Government High School at 10:30 am. The security forces stationed at the school fired at the vehicle, which exploded with a big bang. The sound of the explosion was heard in a three-kilometre radius.
Sources said five security personnel and a civilian, identified as Amir Zada, were killed. Eleven others, including eight security personnel, Sena Public School students Rab Nawaz and Umar Farooq and a passer-by Ayub, were injured. However, in a press release, an ISPR spokesman conceded the death of only three security personnel and injuries to four others in the blast.
The injured security personnel were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar, while the forces launched a search operation in the surrounding areas, including Maluk Koroona, Samanat, Pir Qilla, Rashakai and Subhan Khwar. The main Shabqadar bazaar was closed due to a curfew and the Peshawar-Bajaur road was also blocked.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Aswat al-Iraq: Kurdish politicians rejected the calls of Nouri al-Maliki to reconsider the relations of Kurdistan region and Iraqi provinces with the center, considering such calls "unconstitutional" and causing Maliki to lose his legitimacy as the prime minister of Iraq.
Falah Mustafa, head of the foreign relations directorate in the Kurdistan regional cabinet, told Aswat al-Iraq "if we want to reinforce Iraq, then this should be achieved by strengthening regions and provinces, which is contrary to what al-Maliki is aiming for."
"Kurds agree with amending the Iraqi constitution, but according to the mechanism specified by the constitution itself, and provided that such amendments would contribute to expanding freedoms of race and religion, while preserving superiority of law," he said.
"The political experience of Iraq's Kurdistan is an example of success for the federal system in Iraq," he added.
For his part, Lawmaker Nassih Abdulghafor of the Kurdistan Alliance parliamentary bloc told Aswat al-Iraq, "The Iraqi constitution was drafted within three years, which is a suitable period for drafting, and acquired consensus from all sides."
"80 percent of Iraqis voted on the constitution," he said. "What al-Maliki currently demands is against the law and constitution," he added.
While legislature Khalid Shawani, a member of the Kurdistan Alliance, also echoed Abdulghafor's tone in defending the constitution. "This constitution specifies the shape of Iraq's ruling system, and was voted upon by around 12 million Iraqis," Shawani told Aswat al-Iraq.
"This is not the first time for al-Maliki to make such statements aimed at establishing a strong central government," he said. "Over a period of around 80 years, and until 2003, Iraq was ruled through a central government, and many crimes and human rights violations were committed in all Iraq's provinces during that era," he explained.
"After voting on the current constitution, we will not accept being ruled once again by such central governments," he proceeded. "The state is now one of law and a constitution, and al-Maliki is mistaken if he thinks the state can be established by force."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#1
ION KURDS, IIRC WAFF.com > IFF EUROPE RECOGNIZES THE SOVEREIGN RIGHTS OF IRAQI KURDS, WHY NOT FOR THE 15-20MILYUHN OR MORE KURDS LIVING IN TURKEY!?
A U.S. based Web hosting firm that security experts say was responsible for facilitating more than 75 percent of the junk e-mail blasted out each day globally has been knocked offline following reports from Security Fix on evidence gathered about suspicious activity emanating from the network.
For the past four months, Security Fix has been gathering data from the security industry about McColo Corp., a San Jose, Calif., based Web hosting service whose client list experts say includes some of the most disreputable cyber-criminal gangs in business today. On Monday, Security Fix contacted the Internet providers that manage more than 90 percent of the company's connection to the larger Internet, sending them information about badness at McColo as documented by the security industry.
On Tuesday afternoon, I heard back from Global Crossing, one of McColo's major Internet providers. Their spokesman declined to discuss the matter, except to say that Global Crossing communicates and cooperates fully with law enforcement, their peers, and security researchers to address malicious activity.
Two hours later, I heard from Benny Ng, director of marketing for Hurricane Electric, the Fremont, Calif., company that was the other major Internet provider for McColo. Hurricane Electric took a much stronger public stance: "We shut them down," Ng said. "We looked into it a bit, saw the size and scope of the problem you were reporting and said 'Holy cow! Within the hour we had terminated all of our connections to them."
Hadn't noticed before, they hadn't, nope, nope ...
As of this writing, McColo's Web site is no longer available. In fact, I pinged no fewer than three different researchers who have tracked activity at McColo for many months: None could find a single Internet address assigned to the hosting provider that was still reachable. Officials from McColo did not respond to multiple e-mails, phone calls and instant messages left at the contact points listed on the company's Web site before the site was taken offline.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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#1
This could explain why we are seeing rather amateurish spamming activity; by the next generation of trainees...
#3
Some interesting points raised on this subject in a different forum:
At the very least, it seems that this makes any prosecution more difficult. While it appears that folks did a great job of following the network connections--to nail the individuals involved you need to follow the money. Even worse, what if the FBI *was* investigating them already, and now their target has been shut down? Unless there was behind-the-scenes cooperation that hasn't been reported, someone (on either the technical or law enforcement side) was not behaving responsibly. This should have been a coordinated shutdown--simultaneously involving closing network connections and arresting individuals.
Secondly, aren't we still playing whack-a-mole here? The network controlled over a million compromised PCs. Those machines are still compromised. Since the individuals who controlled them are evidently still at large, I think it's safe to assume that the keys to those machines are still out there. If that's the case, then those machines will be up and spamming again inside of a week. The only thing that might delay that would be if the primary payment processors really were taken offline as well. I don't want to open the "counter-virus" can of worms. But how hard would it have been to identify the control sequences for those PCs and change them to random sequences? Shutting down a central control center is good news, but taking 1.5 million PCs permanently (at least until next infection) out of a botnet would be really impressive.
Maybe more information will prove me wrong, but right now this seems more like a lost opportunity than a great success. I was quite surprised to hear that so many operations were centralized in one place. I doubt that opportunity is going to come again.
#7
So, you guys started building the gallows yet? I've got some plywood and 2x4s in the garage if you need them. And a nail gun. Come to think of it, let's dispense with the hanging and just use the nail gun on them; cheaper that way.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/13/2008 11:40
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#8
Plenty more potential spammers where these came from.
#9
They didn't catch any spammers, just got the network shut off to one of their nests. They will build a new nest and be back online in a week or two.
Posted in its entirety since Bloomberg News links tend to disappear
The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that national security trumps environmental rules, ... Don't worry - Bambi will fix that
... lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar during training exercises off the coast of Southern California. A divided high court rejected arguments by environmentalists that the judge-ordered restrictions were warranted to protect whales and other marine mammals. The environmental interests "are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
The case tested the power of the White House and the military to skirt federal environmental regulations in the name of national security. Opinion in a "news" article? Surely not!
The Bush administration argued that courts should be deferential when the president concludes that a military exercise is essential for the country's safety.
Two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, ... Also know as 'the usual suspects'....
... dissented, while two others, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens, agreed with Roberts in part.
The ruling applies to the last of 14 training exercises designed to prepare naval strike groups for deployment in the western Pacific and Middle East.
Environmental groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council sought to limit the Navy's use of mid-frequency active sonar, also known as MFA sonar, which ships use to detect submarines. The environmentalists said MFA sonar has killed and injured beaked whales and other marine mammals. Easy to fix - why don't y'all "environmentalists" swim on out there and shield the whales with your bodies
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper limited the Navy's use of MFA sonar, pointing to the National Environmental Policy Act's requirement that government agencies prepare an environmental impact statement before taking harmful actions. I hope that when terrorists are attacking her courtroom, the gummint files an EIS before sending in the Marines. Assuming they decide to send them....
Cooper said President George W. Bush's Council on Environmental Quality had improperly cited "emergency circumstances" as a basis for exempting the Navy from that requirement. It's not an emergency to her. Yet.
Trade groups representing the forest-products, pesticide, agricultural and home-building industries supported the Bush administration in the case.
Cooper's order required the Navy to take a number of steps, including shutting down MFA sonar when marine mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards and reducing sonar power by 75 percent in the presence of a water condition known as "surface ducting." Is she going to require enemy subs to do the same? Nah, I don't think so either.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circus Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Cooper's order, though it also issued a stay that temporarily relaxed the restrictions. The stay is a shocker, all right - wonder what they were smoking that day?
The case is Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 07- 1239. If anybody cares.
Posted by: Va. Gal ||
11/13/2008
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#1
Perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court (or Congress) will dissolve the Federal District Court that issued the order, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, it would make for a better U.S.A. Its been done before, and sure sends a good signal to arrogant judges.
#2
Commercial fishermen in Alaskan waters routinely kill more marine mammals in one season than the entire US Navy has harmed with active sonar in the last 30 years.
#3
#2 Commercial fishermen in Alaskan waters routinely kill more marine mammals in one season than the entire US Navy has harmed with active sonar in the last 30 years. Posted by anymouse
In a direct challenge to President-elect Barack Obama, America's Roman Catholic bishops vowed on Tuesday to accept no compromise for the sake of national unity until there is legal protection for the unborn.
About 300 bishops, gathered in Baltimore for their national meeting, adopted a formal blessing for a child in the womb and advised Chicago's Cardinal Francis George, president of the conference, as he began drafting a statement from the bishops to the incoming Obama administration. That document will call on the administration and Catholics who supported Obama to work to outlaw abortion.
"This is not a matter of political compromise or a matter of finding some way of common ground," said Bishop Daniel Conlon of Steubenville, Ohio. "It's a matter of absolutes."
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#2
Good luck Bishops. Here is an example of a true maverick among your competition:
Conservative Jewish actor, writer, economist, and lawyer Benjamin Stein (of "Win Ben Stein's Money" on the Comedy Channel), strongly anti-abortion, said recently:
...I had to feel some respect for those who -- like John Brown -- will go to any lengths to stop abortion. Murder, never. But picketing, demonstrating -- I am not part of their group but I respect them. [The American Spectator, July 1998, p. 56]
#4
...Interesting to compare the attitude of these bishops to the ones 37 years ago, who claimed that because I was working with nuclear weapons in SAC, I was committing a mortal sin - and furthermore, that I should ignore any orders to defend my country with such weapons. Glad to see they found at least a couple of vertebrae.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/13/2008 7:58
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#5
" she said the Faithful Citizenship document made it clear that while the rights of an unborn child are a priority voters should consider a whole range of issues regarding the preservation and quality of life."
COMPLETELY incorrect.
Cardinal Francis George "too many Americans have no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood. This can't be something you start playing off pragmatically against other issues."
Archbishop Chaput: The truth is that for some Catholics, the abortion issue has never been a comfortable cause. It's embarrassing. It's not the kind of social justice they like to talk about. It interferes with their natural political alliances. And because the homicides involved in abortion are ''little murders'' - the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives - it's easy to look the other way.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon released on Wednesday $50 million in an effort to keep Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 fighter production line humming until President-elect Barack Obama can decide the fate of the top-of-the-line U.S. warplane.
"These funds provide a bridge to a January decision by the next administration," John Young, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, said in clearing the Air Force to buy parts that must be ordered well in advance for four more F-22s.
Congress provided $140 million in the fiscal 2009 defense budget for "long lead" parts for up to 20 F-22s to keep the line open pending a decision by Obama, who will be sworn in as president on January 20. In releasing only about a third of the congressionally approved funding for advance procurement of such things as titanium bulkheads, Young left it to the next administration to use the rest of the $140 million as it saw fit. "Industry has indicated that four aircraft of Advance Procurement now, and additional Advance Procurement in January, will bridge the F-22 line with little or no additional cost to the taxpayer if additional F-22s are purchased," he said through Chris Isleib, his spokesman.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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#1
A-hundred-and-forty-two-million-phucking-dollars is a lot of bread.
I'm kind of with Gates on this one. Let's add them to the fleet in small numbers.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/13/2008 0:52
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#2
A 140 million dolllars is not even peanuts it is crumbles of peanuts compared to 700 fricking billions. Today, the USAF, USMC and USN are mostly flying outdated planes. Remember hen American pilots on P40s Wildacts and Buuflaos had their clocks cleaned by the Zeros and Messerchmitts?
#4
I'm with JFM, they are bitching about how much it is costing too maintain opur troops in iraq an afghanistan but then they are bailing out private companies too the tune of 100's of billions and they are still lining up for more. What's another $140,000,000 especially for something you will actually get use of
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:54
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#5
What's the actual unit production cost - excluding all the sunk R&D costs and all the bribes & kickbacks? What do the parts and labor go for, even at inflated government contract prices?
One of the extremely Dirty Little Secrets of the defense industry (and DoD, for that matter) is that NO ONE - not the auditors, not DoD, not LockMart - really know what the damned airplane costs. Don't forget, this project has been underway since the mid-1980s - its been stretched out, delayed, and rescheduled so many times that it's impossible to know exactly how much a given aircraft costs.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/13/2008 10:52
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#7
A bigger secret: they really _don't_ want to know what the incremental cost of one more airplane is.
--------------
Although I do think Gates has a point; I suspect that if all is said and done, $ 240 million dollars worth of F-35's are more effective fighters than $ 240 million worth of F-22's.
It can carry 4 A-A missiles each as is, can probably carry 6 internally without major modifications, has a panoramic IRST system built in (that doesn't cause drag the way the systems on a F-16 does), has relatively lower fuel consumption and greater fuel fraction (meaning it can stay on station longer or at a longer distance)....
And it has a large, flat, aerodynamically clean fuselage that will contribute much more to maneuverability than the fuselages on older aircraft.
#8
JFM: so where are these sixth-generation stealth Zeros and Messerschmitts which are going to clean our clocks?
Personally, I expect the aerial battlespace to be dominated by UAV swarms run out of boxcar motherships before anybody other than the US gets second-generation stealth warcraft in the air, let alone air-supremacy stealth fighters.
I'm starting to wonder if the fighter airfleet isn't going to be the equivalent of the WWI-era cavalry corps - something to control space you already own, or to be held in reserve until the battle's already over. And meanwhile, the horses keep eating their heads off & the coronets sit around playing canasta while the other branches do the bleeding.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 12:19
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#9
either way the jet drops bombs in space we do own and should keep owning. the WW1 era horses just dropped shit
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 12:32
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#10
Air superiority fighters being used for ground attack runs? You're sure you want to get behind that?
Because you could always put horses into stables somewhere & issue the troopers tin pots and Enfields & send them into the trenches; it just wasn't considered a proper use of the investment represented by a cavalry regiment's worth of equipment & training.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 16:01
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#11
Doesn't matter. Zero, Pelosi and Reid are gonna gut defense spending. We'll be lucky if they don't institute pay cuts to the soldiers.
#12
Thing From Snowy Mountain said "I suspect that if all is said and done, $ 240 million dollars worth of F-35's are more effective fighters than $ 240 million worth of F-22's."
I have to disagree strongly with your abominableness and so does the air force.
While I'm no expert myself, I talked to an F22 test pilot about 5 years ago about the F22 vs the F35. (The test pilot is a friend of a friend.) I asked him specifically if it wouldn't be a good idea to buy more F35s instead of F22s. While he gave away no secrets, he was unequivocal that the F22 would be significantly superior to the F35 in air-to-air. The F22 is faster, far more agile, longer-ranged, has a better LPI radar for air-to-air, carries twice as many missiles and has superb situational awareness due to it's complex data linkages. The test pilot loved the F22. Best thing since sliced bread.
The advantages of the F35 all lay in economy of production and much wider surface strike capabilities.
If the game is air-to-air, the F22 wins hands down.
Posted by: Some guy ||
11/13/2008 23:16
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The Palestinian leadership mounted a security operation in Bethlehem on Tuesday similar to those launched in other West Bank towns that have drawn charges of partisanship."The security plan is aimed against those who do not respect the law and is not intended as a basis for carrying out political arrests," Bethlehem security chief Colonel Suleiman Abu Hadid told.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#1
So what if it does?
They are essentially at war for control, that's what you do in a war.
Remnants of an Islamist government waging an insurgency against Somalia's interim authorities took over two strategic towns in on Tuesday, the latest territory gain by a strengthening rebellion, officials said. The Islamist Al-Shabaab movement, once part of the Union of Islamic Courts government that splintered after being pushed from power, seized Al-Dheer in central Somalia and Qoryoley in the south as part of a burgeoning campaign to take territory held by the weak UN-backed interim government and its Ethiopian allies. The new seizures give the group a strategic base in central Somalia, where it controls Kismayo, the third-largest city.
The Union of Islamic Courts had brought the first order in years - in the form of strict Sharia law - to large swathes of central and southern Somalia in 2006. The group was ousted after Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia at the behest of the interim regime, a body formed in exile and, at the time, ruled territory along the Kenyan border.
Al-Shabaab fighters took over Al-Dheer, a crossroads linking southern, central and northern Somalia, Tuesday, according to Sheikh Ali Dhere, the group's spokesman. The town is 340 kilometers north of Mogadishu.
"The town seems to be under the full control of Al-Shabaab," local human rights worker Mohammad Gule Hassan said. "After 24 hours of tension and fear in the town, which forced hundreds of people to flee from their homes, the fighting ended."
In a separate attack, nearly 1,000 insurgents seized Qoryoley in southern Somalia from militias loyal to Somalia's crumbling government. "They opened fire on our checkpoints and after we realized they were more mobile than us we decided to withdraw," said the town's police chief, Nor Shakow Jibril.
Since being ousted from government, more moderate members of the Islamic courts have signed an ineffectual peace deal with the government.
Earlier Monday, at least four Somalis were killed near Al-Dheer in clashes between Al-Shabaab fighters and a local militia that took up arms to protest a ban on qat, a widely consumed narcotic leaf, witnesses said Tuesday.
The militia attacked the Islamists late Monday near Al-Dheer, killing two of them and sparking a retaliatory attack in which two of their own died.
Al-Shabaab members had set up camp near the town before taking it Tuesday.
"The gangs attacked our forces in the region trying to stop moves to eliminate drugs, including qat, which is part of Sharia," said Sheikh Hassan Mohammad, an Al-Shabaab commander. "We defeated and killed two of them. We fully control the region now."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#1
wow, i would rather control half my bathroom than that shithole
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:41
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A former high-ranking Karensky Khatami official says the former Iranian president will 'definitely' run for office in the next presidential election. Hossein Marashi, the vice president for cultural heritage and tourism in the Karensky Khatami administration, was quoted by Tabnak as saying that political factions in Iran already know about Karensky Khatami's decisions. "Yeah. We're a shoo-in!"
Representing the Reformist Party, Karensky Khatami was the Iranian president from 1997 to 2005. The Iranian scholar and cleric is an iconic political figure in the country.
It has been widely speculated that Karensky Khatami will make a comeback on the Reformist platform and challenge the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the 10th presidential election scheduled for June 12, 2009. "Karensky Khatami will definitely participate in the 10th presidential election," said Marashi, a close ally to the former president. "Although he is yet to officially and publicly announce his candidacy, the political society in Iran is in on his decision," he added.
Marashi stressed that Karensky Khatami's reported hesitations before deciding on the issue was logical considering the office he will run for. "I have to give serious consideration before I decide whether to run in the election. Personally, I have neither the desire nor enthusiasm to return to power," Karensky Khatami said late October.
While claiming that he would need assurance of his executive powers before running for the presidency, Karensky Khatami had repeatedly said that he would decide to do whatever serves the best interests of the country.
Mehdi Karroubi, a member of Iran's National Confidence Party, has already announced his candidacy in the country's 2009 presidential election. Hojjatoleslam Hassan Bukharin Rowhani, a member of Iran's Expert Assembly, is also expected to run for office.
This article starring:
Hojjatoleslam Hassan Rowhani
Hossein Marashi
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Parking on the left wishes to become the parking on the right. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
ARBIL / Aswat al-Iraq: President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region on Wednesday expressed his doubts that the proposed Iraqi-U.S. security pact would be signed, warning of a civil war in Iraq if the pact is not approved, as Iraqi security forces are unable to control the situation.
If the pact is not signed, the situation in the country may deteriorate to the point of a civil war, Barazani said in a press conference in Arbil that was attended by Aswat al-Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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Aswat al-Iraq: President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region on Wednesday expressed his doubts that the proposed Iraqi-U.S. security pact would be signed, warning of a "civil war" in Iraq if the pact is not approved, as Iraqi security forces are "unable" to control the situation.
"If the pact is not signed, the situation in the country may deteriorate to the point of a civil war," Barazani said in a press conference in Arbil that was attended by Aswat al-Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#1
They cannot do it without US support---but maybe Obama will be simpatico to PKK.
Curfew remained imposed in villages close to the Mohmand Agency on Wednesday as two more suspected militants were killed and five others injured during clashes on the second day of the search operation launched by the security forces.
People remained stranded in their houses as the Army and the Frontier Corps troops and cops of the Peshawar Police raided various hideouts in Michni, Mathra, Pir Bala, Khandaro and other towns along the boundary between Peshawar and Mohmand Agency.
The road between the Mohmand Agency and the provincial capital remained blocked and no vehicle was allowed to ply on the road.The militants and criminals continued attacking the security forces with rockets and other sophisticated weapons on Wednesday. The security forces retaliated, killing two militants and wounding five others.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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The head of Lebanon's ruling coalition Saed Hariri called on the Arab League Tuesday to investigate the alleged "confessions" of a terrorist group broadcast on Syrian state television that accused his Future movement of funding the group that carried out September's deadly car bombing in Damascus, local press reported. Y'don't suppose Saad's caught the same whiff of old flounder we have, do you?
Hariri called on Secretary General Amr Moussa to form "an Arab committee that would investigate the confessions," according to a report in the Daily Star.
Alleged members of the al-Qaeda linked Fatah al-Islam appeared to confess on Syrian TV last week to carrying out the car bombing that killed 17 people, mainly civilians, in the Syrian capital in September. They claimed that the explosives used were smuggled in from northern Lebanon, where the extremist group battled the Lebanese Army last year at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
Wafa al-Abssi, the daughter of Fatah al-Islam leader Shakr al-Abssi, said that the group had received money from Saad Hariri's Future Movement, which is part of the March 14 coalition that leads Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and is heavily backed by the U.S. Hariri called the allegations "fabrications and lies" in a statement released shortly after the broadcast.
In an interview with the Voice of Lebanon Tuesday MP Ahmad Fatfat also called for the confessions to be referred to the Arab League in hopes a "fact-finding mission" would "put an end to the exploitation of the Fatah al-Islam issue."
Another Future MP, Hadi Hbeish, told Future TV Tuesday that the confessions were fabricated by the Syrian intelligence.
During a visit to Syria Tuesday Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud said discussions about the televised confessions were on the agenda for his meeting with Syrian counterpart Bassam Abdul Majid. "We asked for more information and details and to look into the investigation and we will take necessary measures accordingly," said Barroud.
He was in Syria to discuss security cooperation and finalize the formation of a joint Lebanese-Syrian committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > SHAH MEHMOOD QURANI: THE SECURITY OF IRAN IS THE SECURITY OF PAKISTAN; + TOPIX > NUCLEAR TRACES SHOW SYRIA'S NUCLEAR TRAIL AGAIN LEADS BACK TO PAKISTAN.
OTOH, FARK.com > IRAN LAUNCHES/FIRES MORE SURFACE-TO-AIR PHOTOSHOPS.
(APP): Advocating peace, justice and tolerance as the key Islamic values, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said religions should not be used as “instruments to cause misery”.“Human beings were created as equals and partners; either they live together in peace and harmony, or they will inevitably be consumed by the flames of misunderstanding, malice and hatred,” he said in a speech to U.N. General Assembly.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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#2
Advocating peace, justice and tolerance as the key Islamic values
Problem is, "islamic values" define "peace", "justice" and "tolerance" in a strictly muslim way, completely at odds with the meaning given in western civilization to those words.
#5
yes, King A-hole, how many crucifixes were confiscated last year?
Funnily enuff, saudis also conficate and DESTROY a great quantity of Korans each and every year, during Haji, from pilgrims who happen to have a "non-approved" version of it.
So, in fact, saudi arabia is the greatest SERIAL desacrator of Koran ever, without even mentioning the SYSTEMATICAL destruction of non-wahabi mosques both in saudy arabia and elsewhere (even in bosnia, for example), or archaelogical items or buildings (both pre-islamic, and islamic era ones, which could go against the "official history" of islam as proponed by the Learned Elders),...
Authorities in Baghdad on Tuesday opened a major bridge linking historic Sunni and Shiite districts that was closed in 2005 after nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims perished in a deadly stampede. The move is expected to help repair the deep sectarian divisions that have plagued the city since the start of major Sunni-Shiite violence in 2006 and ease traffic in the bustling capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, on a surprise visit two weeks after a US raid on a Syrian village launched from Iraq that caused tensions with Baghdad. Damascus criticized an initial government statement in Baghdad that appeared to condone the October 26 helicopter-borne raid on a Syrian border village.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Iran has said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries should take action to stabilise oil prices. Expectations of weaker energy demand has pushed prices to fall below $60 a barrel for the first time since March 2007.
Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran's oil minister, said that the stability of prices "needed a far reaching decision and further measures," after prices fell from a peak of $147 in July. "We are going to review oil market conditions and if there is a need, there might be an emergency meeting," he said on Tuesday.
Iran depends heavily on oil sales, earning 80 per cent of its revenue from oil exports, and the Islamic Republic set its annual budget on the assumption that oil would trade at $90 a barrel.
After cutting oil production by 1.5m bpd in October, an Opec source said on Tuesday the group may cut oil supplies by a further one million barrels per day (bpd) when it meets in Algeria in December.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has already cut about 200,000 bpd from an output of around 4.04m bpd in line with Opec's October agreement, an Iranian oil official said on Friday.
Elahe Mohtasham, an Iranian analyst at the Foreign Policy Centre in London, told Al Jazeera: "In 2000, Iran established an oil stabilisation fund for rainy days like today where oil prices have dropped. The oil reserve fund's purpose was to keep a surplus, and was obtained in times when oil prices were high, back in July for example.
"But apart from mismanagement ... there is an ideological economic policy behind some of the advisers of President Ahmadinejad. If there were better policies in place, we wouldn't be in such a mess today."
And it's going to get worse, since oil could easily go to $40 a barrel. That means Iran would be earning less than half it planned to earn. Going to be hard for the Mad Mullahs to keep the population in line if they don't have cash to spread around to the Revolutionary Guards.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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#1
Going to be hard for the Mad Mullahs to keep the population in line if they don't have cash to spread around to the Revolutionary Guards
They just going to switch to African model---as long as the Army is paid, the rest can starve.
#3
So where do the MMs keep their billions? in Switzerland?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 10:09
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#4
So, does Saudi have the margin to put the screws to the Iranians on the downward slide? There were a lot fewer Saudis, and a lot more Saudi margin, back in the 80s during the last time this particular scenario played out.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 12:11
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#5
They sure bet the farm on $100 a bbl. oil after only a 2 year rally.
Don't know what to tell them. They can cut production, but they will probably need to do that anyway as they are going to run out of storage soon.
#6
It would be nice to see a comprehensive policy from the BO admin that included heavily expanded use of NG, the building of nukes and alternatives to just drive a spike in the price of oil. But I am dreaming.
#7
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has already cut about 200,000 bpd from an output of around 4.04m bpd in line with Opec's October agreement, an Iranian oil official said on Friday.
Idiots, that's a sure course to financial ruin, you don't make enough per barrel, so cut the number of barrels.
I say again Idiots.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2008 20:34
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#8
They won't go broke. There will just be less money for the mullahs to steal. Iran's terrestrial oil lifting cost is $2-3/barrel. Double that for offshore oil. Add another $2 for transport/processing onto tankers.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2008 22:22
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Oil lifting and transport costs may be low, but when you have MMs on the dole, and a big nuke program going, there ain't much left for the unwashed and ignorant masses
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
11/13/2008 22:42
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North Korea says Pyongyang will not allow the inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex to verify its past activities. North Korea says Pyongyang will not allow the inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex to verify its past activities.
A Wednesday Foreign Ministry statement said a request for samples from main Pyongyang nuclear complex would be considered as a breach of Pyongyang's sovereignty, the official Korea Central News Agency reported. "It is an act of infringing upon sovereignty little short of seeking a house-search... to insist on adding even a word except the written agreement," it read.
The statement was released following Washington's request for soil samples.
North Korea has agreed to halt all its nuclear activity in exchange for aid and economic concessions following a six-nation agreement. The countries involved in the six-party process are North and South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the US.
The deal appeared on the verge of collapse a few weeks ago when North Korea threatened to restart its nuclear program, after the US failed to remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The collapse, however, was narrowly averted in late October when the US announced it was removing the North from the list after Washington and Pyongyang reached a new compromised deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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NOKOR pulling a pre-Jan 2009 "Kruschev" on BARACK = "JFK" BAMELOT???
DAMASCUS - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Wednesday repeated Baghdad's denunciation of a deadly US raid on a Syrian village that he said harmed relations between the neighbouring countries.
"The Iraqi government rejects the American raid launched on Syrian territory. We were not informed about it, and we have asked that there be no repetition (of such attacks), which harm our relations with Syria," Zebari said after meeting President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
During a news conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, he also repeiterated remarks made on Tuesday that Iraq would not serve as a base for attacks on its neighbours. "There will not be permanent bases of American forces in Iraq," he said. "Iraq will not serve as a base for aggression against its neighbours."
Zebari was referring to an October 26 attack by helicopter-borne US soldiers, which Damascus said left eight people dead in a Syrian village near the Iraqi border.
At the time Syria criticised Iraqi government comments justifying the raid and postponed a November 12-13 meeting of the Syrian-Iraqi high commission. Two days after the raid, government spokesman Ali al-Dabgagh said the "Iraqi government rejects the US helicopter strike on Syrian territory, considering that Iraq's constitution does not allow its land to be a base for launching attacks on neighbouring countries. "We call upon American forces not to repeat such activities and Baghdad has launched an investigation into the strike," he said.
The United States said the raid was part of a campaign against foreign fighters operating in Iraq and that one of those killed was a "facilitator" of foreign fighters.
On Wednesday, Muallem said "other means should have been used," and said that Syria would have responded to a United Nations request for action.
Just like they have all the other times.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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WASHINGTON -- People want the tax cuts promised during the presidential campaign, but may be willing to wait while President-elect Obama takes on the larger issue of fixing the economy. Eighty percent say trimming personal tax rates should be a goal when the new president takes office in January, but only 36 percent say the cuts should a very top priority, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. That was less than half the 84 percent who cited improving the economy as a No. 1 goal, and the 80 percent who said creating jobs should be a paramount task.
Obama promised to cut taxes for working families during the campaign.
Even fewer people -- 29 percent -- said another top priority should be Obama's plan to allow tax cuts to expire for families earning more than $250,000 a year. He has said he would use the revenue that would raise to help finance some of his priorities.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Nearly three-quarters -- including most Democrats -- said they'd like Obama to name some Republicans in his Cabinet, as the Democrat has said he would do.
For some reason -- can't put my finger on it -- Republicans like John Bolton, Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney wouldn't be their first picks for cabinet positions.
#8
or more likely, the AP, in the spirit of modern journalism, just made the whole thing up to represent what they thought people should be thinking. Anyone who believes anything they read in the press anymore is a fool.
#10
I'm not an old guy, but I'm old enough to know that the middle class will never get out from under the tax load that we carry. The rich class is just too slippery and they have too many resources to keep from paying many taxes no matter what the law says. You can't tax the rich, they'll weasel out of it, you cant tax the poor, they got no money, so that leaves the good ol' middle class.
#11
-No new government programs such as that stupidly expensive indentured servitude plan.
-No more bailouts. Period.
-Audit of the current bailout money.
-Drill, gotta set up a program to train wildcatters ok they will be working.
-Trim the pork.
Do that to pay off this crazy large debt and I'll high-five personally.
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi cabinet will vote on a controversial military pact to govern the presence of US troops in the country on either Saturday or Sunday, Iraq's finance minister said. "We received the last draft from the Americans and now it is being discussed between the American and the Iraqi committees and the prime minister's office," Baqer Jabr Solagh told AFP on Wednesday. "The cabinet will meet (Saturday or Sunday) to see the last draft and then the cabinet will vote ... They have to vote, yes or no."
Baghdad and Washington have been racing to agree on a pact ahead of the December 31 expiry of the UN mandate governing the presence of the 140,000 US troops currently stationed in the country.
The most recent draft stipulates that American forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 2009 and from the country by the end of 2011, and contains amendments made by the Americans in response to Iraqi demands made last month.
"The deliberations are continuing in the cabinet in order to ascertain the scope of the amendments that have been added in order to reach a clear agreement and to see if it is acceptable to parliament," Safaldin al-Safi said."The American response contained many positive elements, but at the same time it contained clauses that require more discussion," the head of Iraq's parliamentary affairs committee said in a statement Tuesday.
Should the cabinet vote to accept the agreement it would then go to parliament for final approval.
The signing of the so-called Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) has been repeatedly delayed despite several months of negotiations, and the draft agreement has drawn fire from leaders of Iraq's majority Shiite community. On October 28 the cabinet met to decide on the agreement but instead asked Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to demand further changes from Washington.
National security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said last week Iraq had proposed "110 changes" and received "responses," including an agreement to remove a clause which could have allowed US troops to remain after 2011.
The United States has insisted that the current draft is the final text and on Tuesday the embassy declined to say whether more talks were in the offing. The Baghdad edition of the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the Americans have agreed to three of five changes proposed by Iraq, including allowing Iraqis to inspect incoming and outgoing US parcels.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki assured Arab countries in a letter on Monday that the agreement had met Iraq's demand that its territory not be used as a launch pad for any attacks on neighbouring countries.
US negotiators were however reluctant to further ease the immunity offered to soldiers, after already agreeing to allow Iraq to prosecute American troops and civilians if they commit serious crimes outside their bases when off-duty. Iraq wants to be able to prosecute them for crimes conducted on their bases as well.
A failure to agree on the current draft would raise a new set of thorny problems for both Washington and Baghdad, starting with the need to request a new mandate from the UN Security Council.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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It would be smartest in the long run for Iraq to vote no on the SOFA. As well, Iraq should officially ask the UNSC to not extend the UN mandate.
From the very beginning of the second Iraq war, the US military knew that it was only a matter of time before the US congress and a Democrat president would try to sabotage the war effort, like they did in Vietnam. So they worked very hard to get the Iraqis as capable as possible.
That day is now. And while trying to extend our time there would be pleasant for a while, in the long term it would be deadly. The Democrats plan to gut the US military, and have a deep and abiding hatred of a peaceful and democratic Iraq.
Pakistan will join the countries which have approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan in the face a global financial crisis.
Shaukat Tareen, a finance adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, informed the Senate on Tuesday that Islamabad would approach IMF in two weeks. Tareen added that the country would have to 'swallow the bitter pill'.
Pakistan has been exploring other sources in order to avoid IMF conditions, but the efforts were met with failure.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had earlier said Pakistan could avoid IMF assistance if it could receive billions of dollars in aid from its allies. Islamabad is seeking USD 10b to USD 15b to retrieve its ailing economy and avoid defaulting on international debts. This is while the country is facing balance of payment crisis with plunging foreign exchange reserves and high inflation.
An aid package from the IMF is likely to require deep spending cuts and tax increases that could take its toll form low-income people in Pakistan and escalate public discontent.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"We'll think it over carefully. Ah, yes, we've considered it and decided it would be in our best interests to let your shithole degrade back to the eighth century domain you desire. And, don't call us, we'll call you if we change our minds. Maybe you should speak again with your masters in the Magic Kingdom."
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A federal appeals court upheld bribery and other charges against Louisiana Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson on Wednesday, clearing the way for a trial.
Jefferson, who cruised to victory in a primary last week and is expected to easily win re-election, had sought to dismiss a 16-count indictment charging him with taking bribes, laundering money and misusing his congressional office for business dealings in Africa.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Jefferson's claims that a federal grand jury received evidence that violated his constitutional right to legislative immunity. Jefferson's attorneys argued that three staffers should not have been allowed to tell the grand jury about Jefferson's relationships with African leaders and his knowledge about West African nations because those activities were part of his legislative duties.
Jefferson could further delay a trial by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. A telephone message was left Wednesday with his attorney, Robert P. Trout.
Prosecutors contend Jefferson used his influence as chairman of the congressional Africa Investment and Trade Caucus to broker deals in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and other African nations on behalf of those who bribed him. The 2007 indictment alleges that Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and demanded millions more between 2000 and 2005, including $90,000 he received from an FBI informant that was later found in the freezer of his Washington home. He has pleaded not guilty.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III had refused to dismiss the indictment, saying Jefferson was trying to apply the legislative immunity clause so broadly that it would be virtually impossible to charge a congressman with a crime. Ellis "accorded Congressman Jefferson every substantive and procedural protection to which he was entitled," the appeals court judges wrote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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No more immunity. Live by the same damned laws you pass on us.
#2
The 2007 indictment alleges that Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and demanded millions more between 2000 and 2005, including $90,000 he received from an FBI informant
Appears the bureau was on to him already. A speedy trial and summary execution should have followed.
KHAMIS MUSHAYT: When an eight- or ten-year-old girl is told that she should cover her entire body from head to toe -- as an adult woman is supposed to do -- then immediately the child's mother asks why.
This is exactly what is happening in the southern province of Asir where school regulations stipulate that pre-pubescent girls should dress in such a way that no part of their body, including head and face, is visible.A child who dares to violate the new dress code faces severe punishment, including a public scolding and deductions from her marks.
This has put parents in a real dilemma. On the one hand, this new dress code is being imposed; on the other, they find it difficult to convince their young daughters that it is necessary for them to be completely veiled.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
11/13/2008
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Mohammed married Ayesha when she was six and started raping her when she was nine. Bin bags for eight year olds sounds like a sensible precaution given the cultists surrounding them.
HT: Drudge
Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty's warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.
In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory. By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates' vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as "compliant".
Yesterday's dramatic confrontation, the latest in a series of piracy incidents in the Gulf of Aden in recent months, took place 60 miles south of the Yemeni coast and involved the Royal Navy Type 22 frigate, HMS Cumberland, which has a Royal Marine unit on board, on short-notice standby to engage in "non-compliant boardings".
HMS Cumberland, on anti-piracy partol as part of a Nato maritime force, detected the dhow which was towing a skiff, and identified it as a vessel which had been involved in an attack on the Danish-registered MV Powerful earlier yesterday. The pirates had opened fire on the cargo boat with assault rifles.
Under rules of engagement which allows the Royal Navy to intervene when pirates are positively identified, the commandos were dispatched from the frigate in rigid-raider craft and sped towards the pirates' dhow. The Ministry of Defence said the Marines circled the pirates' boat to try and persuade them to stop.
As they approached, however, several of the pirates, a mixed crew of Somalis and Yemenis ... (led, apparently, by Moroons),
... swung their assault rifles in their direction and opened fire. The MoD said the Royal Marines returned fire "in self defence", and then boarded the dhow -- a stolen Yemeni-registered fishing vessel.
The commandos found guns and other "paraphernalia" on board the dhow and a handful of terrified pirates. The MoD said it was unclear whether the Yemeni who died had been shot by the Marines or was wounded from a previous incident involving the pirates.
Yesterday's battle signalled a new policy of maximum robustness for the Royal Navy on the high seas. Captain Mike Davis-Marks, a senior spokesman for the Navy, said: "This is bound to have an impact on pirates who for the last two years have been getting away with seizing vessels and receiving large ransoms. Now suddenly there's the threat of death and this may force them to think again, but they are determined people, so we'll have to see."
The Russians claimed a helicopter based on their own frigate Neustrashimy had also taken part in yesterday's battle, though the Royal Navy knew nothing about it. The Royal Marine commandos who boarded the pirates' dhow were supported by a Lynx helicopter from HMS Cumberland, the MoD said.
You know, I doubt those guys would have made even average pirates back in the olden days of european piracy in the Caraibes and such, an indomitable fighting spirit doesn't seem to be their dominant trait.
Anyway, this short phrase excerpt above made my day, and it's only 12 AM.
#2
The Cumberland should make a call at the nearest Somali port with the bodies of the pirates (killed and captured) hanging from a yardarm substitute. They should be cut down and tossed ashore, then the ship should depart. Send a message which could not be misinterpreted.
The Sri Lankan military on Wednesday charged that even as its troops were getting closer to "their ultimate mission with increasing pace and vigour", LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran has ordered his followers to prepare for counter-offensive using civilians as a shield.
The Defence Ministry said the troops were proceeding as per their plans despite cynicism expressed by some defence observers and political segments.
The Ministry claimed that the Army Task Force 1 spearheading at the West of the Kilinochchi frontage is just few km behind Pooneryn, the final destination to accomplish its immediate mission.
As per the Ministry, troops on Tuesday reached Pallavi and Kiranchi hamlets sealing off the strategically vital Devil's Point. A 15-km-long land projection to the Indian Ocean, the point has been a safe heaven for the Sea Tigers .
It said the Task Force 1 troops heading for Pooneryn along the A-32 road (Mannar-Pooneryn) are now successfully negotiating the large marshlands in the South of Pooneryn.
Defence observers say once the B-69 at Nallur had been cut off, the remaining terrorists in Pooneryn, Alenken, Vallaipadu and Veravi will have either to surrender or meet the elite Rapid Action Boats squadron (RABS) of Navy.
"No land escape routes are available for the terrorists in these areas with the Army's advance," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
is it just me or has the Sri Lankan gov been talking alot of shit for ALONG time about ousting the Tamils? Every time they have a battle they kill scores but then they get bombed at THEIR airfield by a cessna. I think someone in the info dept is full of it
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:43
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It's been clear for a while that the SL government is winning and rolling up the Tamil Tigers, but the terrain is difficult and well defended. In WW2 terms it would be like fighting up the length of Italy.
#3
they may be winning but I think their body counts and other gains are greatly exagerated. Not that i'm pulling for the tamils either just an observation on my part, i think the same of the pakis fighting their homemade militants
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 12:22
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#4
At least the Sri Lankans are finally winning, chris. They've been fighting the Tamils for a generation or two, I think. I'm not convinced the Land of the Pure is capable of even facing the goal from the other end of the field, let alone coming close enough to score.
/end sports metaphor -- I seem to be feeling vaguely poetical at the moment.
A bomb-filled tanker exploded outside the office of the provincial council in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing six people and wounding 42.
Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and head of the council, was in the building at the time but was unharmed. ìI am fine and safe,î he told reporters later. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast.
A spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, told AFP by telephone that the target was the provincial council. The explosives-filled tanker dug four metres deep and eight metres wide crater into the road just outside the council building.
"Six people, including an intelligence employee were killed, two intelligence guards and three passers-by, including a woman were injured," Kandahar province governor Rahmatullah Raufi told a press conference
Posted by: Fred ||
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Religious police in Saudi Arabia announced the creation of a new council to monitor its activities after recent criticism that they had overstepped their authority, in a move that was greeted with mixed reactions.
The Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice announced Monday that it was forming a Presidency Council charged with monitoring the activities of the religious police, president of the commission Sheikh Ibrahim Bin Abdullah al-Ghaith said in a press conference Monday.
The council, whose members will come from the top leadership, will review the policies and strategies of the commission's presidency as well as monitor its activities.
Self-monitoring, that's going to work about as well as Eliot Spitzker's review of his own hotel bills ...
"The council will also develop the commission's financial, administrative, technical and field matters and will set the proper mechanisms to facilitate the work," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted Ghaith as saying.
The commission has fallen under harsh criticism recently in the wake of flagrant violations committed by its officers, including illegal detentions, beating and car chases.
" The name reminds me of the authority of Arab revolutionary councils "
Dr. Ali Saad al-Moussa
Some viewed the formation of the watchdog council as a positive step intended to address criticism. "This shows the Commission is a dynamic body that redresses its mistakes. We are happy about these decisions since they mean more accuracy and efficiency in the Commission's performance," Saudi journalist Khaled al-Moshawah told AlArabiya.net.
He added that this step will have a positive impact on the Saudi society, especially since the majority of Saudis support the commission's goals and consider it as the community's "safety valve."
Saudi academic and author Dr. Ali Saad al-Moussa expressed concern that the council would expand the authority of the commission and overlook its mistakes. He noted that the newly formed council's expanded powers would effectively turn it into a legislative and executive authority that can arrest and try people.
"This means if the Commission finds out that a problem in one of the ministries requires its intervention, they will have the right to summon top officials," Moussa told AlArabiya.net, adding that he objected to the name "Presidency Council". "The name reminds me of the authority of Arab revolutionary councils," he said.
In response to criticism of the religious police overextending their authority, the Saudi Ministry of Interior earlier this year banned commission officers from detaining offenders at their headquarters and confined their role to transferring them to police stations. The head of the Commission for Investigation and General Prosecution circulated a copy of the new regulations and said that surprise visits to commission officers will be made to ensure there are no illegal detentions.
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(APP): President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday met the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here along the margins of a high level meeting on the promotion of inter‑religious and inter‑cultural dialogue for peace.The President discussed with the US Secretary of State the Pak‑US bilateral relations, the situation along the border with Afghanistan, the economic crisis the country was facing and the forthcoming meeting of the Friends of Pakistan in United Arab Emirates later this month.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Great images. Rugged, stark country. Thanks for posting these, Matt.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 10:00
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#3
amazing how it looks like the Eastern side of the Sierras (Owens Valley) or S-2 highway in the valley east of the Lagunas in San Diego County, including similar vegetation types
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2008 20:22
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Ukraine's parliament voted Wednesday to dismiss a close associate of President Viktor Yushchenko as its speaker -- raising speculation that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko might fall next.
In the latest twist in an ongoing power struggle in the eastern European nation hard-hit by the global financial crisis, 233 members of parliament voted for the sacking of Arseny Yatseniuk -- seven more than the minimum required. They included not only members of the pro-Russian Party of Regions and the Communist party, but also 10 members of Yuschenko's own party who reportedly suspected that Yatseniuk did not support the idea of early elections.
Yushchenko, who favours early elections, suggested Tuesday that the vote -- already re-scheduled for December 14 -- might now take place in the New Year, or three years earlier than required. He had dissolved parliament on October 8 in a bitter power struggle with Tymoshenko, who along with her supporters in parliament had long refused to prepare for the early elections.
Delaying elections until next year could help Yushchenko chip away at Tymoshenko's popularity by pinning the impact of the global economic crisis in Ukraine on her, political analysts say.
Tymoshenko's faction in parliament sought to block Yatseniuk's ouster. Some of its deputies went so far as to try to foil the chamber's electronic voting system and to brawl with members of the Party of the Regions.
Supporters of the prime minister fear that the speaker's downfall could be followed by that of Tymoshenko and her government. "The prime minister's team suspects that the removal of the president of parliament is but a first stem," the influentual online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda wrote Wednesday. "The next would be a motion of censure against the government."
"If the president of parliament can be sacked, then early elections and the removal of Tymoshenko will follow," added the Segodnya newspaper, which is close to the Party of Regions.
Elections were last held on September 30 last year, five months after Yushchenko dissolved the parliament, giving a narrow majority to the pro-Western coalition grouping supporters of the president and the prime minister. That alliance, however, broke up in September this year after Tymoshenko's faction voted with the Party of Regions to curb the powers of the president.
Ukraine has been among the nations hardest hit by global financial turmoil as a plunge in the price of steel, its main export, exacerbates a credit crunch and a sharp fall in stock prices. The hryvnia currency has lost 20 percent of its value in recent weeks, sparking panic in a population already suffering from massive layoffs.
The economic downturn has become increasingly politicised, with the president blaming the government for the problems of Ukraine, an erstwhile Soviet republic of 46 million. Needing urgent help, parliament on October 31 approved legislation clearing the way for a 16.5 billion dollar (12.8 billion euro) International Monetary Fund crisis loan after long political wrangling.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: 12 people were killed and 60 others were wounded in a dual bombing with a booby-trapped car and roadside bomb at al-Neairiya neighborhood, eastern Baghdad, a source from the Iraqi police said on Wednesday.
"The incident took place at a bus station," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
"The car bomb went off first, and then was followed by the roadside bomb," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I guess the chap (Totten?) who claimed that it's Sadr's militia who kept Baghdad boom free by killing every Sunni entering, was right.
Finally, former prime ministers and arch-rivals Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia yesterday agreed to sit together to solve the crises confronting the country.
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ION REGIONAL, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > COMMUNAL-FASCISM:AN MERGING THREAT TO [India's, Region's]INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. Communalism + Fascism = ASSAM HINDU-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE, NOT NATION-CENTRIC UNITY + NICENESS.
The day after meeting face to face with President Bush at the White House in a momentous affair, President-elect Barack Obama continues to work on his transition to take over the Oval Office on Jan. 20.
One person leading the transition is Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest confidants and a longtime friend. As an insider to Obama's strategy and his meetings, Jarrett called Obama's Monday meeting with Bush "very cordial" and said it was a good sign that he invited Obama so soon after the election. "It was a very productive meeting and it was a good first step," Jarrett told NPR's Melissa Block.
"It was an opportunity for Obama to put clearly on the table the issues that he had emphasized in the course of the campaign," she said. "Putting people back to work, making sure that we stabilize our economy in the midst of this economic crisis, ensuring that people are not losing their homes as a result of foreclosure, having an infrastructure bill that will also put people to work. And then do the work that we need so desperately: our roads, our bridges, our schools."
Jarrett said Obama will create an Office of Urban Policy that will be charged with focusing on cities and "have a comprehensive approach to urban development."
It is unclear who will lead the office, which will be tasked with advocating for cities and targeting programs in a "logical and systematic way," but it is a key position, according to Jarrett. "For those of us who have worked in city governments across the country, we recognize how invaluable that person will be," she says.
When asked whether Obama would seek to reverse executive orders President Bush signed, including those concerning stem-cell research and oil and gas drilling, Jarrett said that the president-elect would have the attorney general comb through those after taking office and "determine which ones need to be revoked immediately."
#1
Jarrett said that the president-elect would have the attorney general comb through those after taking office and "determine which ones need to be revoked immediately."
Something tells me Obama ain't going to wait for a new AG to rescind some executive orders.
#2
Jarrett said Obama will create an Office of Urban Policy that will be charged with focusing on cities and "have a comprehensive approach to urban development paying off his supporters."
#4
Jarrett said Obama will create an Office of Urban Policy that will be charged with focusing on cities and "have a comprehensive approach to urban development institutionalize and make permanent government funded regional offices, networks, communal support, free clinics, and cultural re-education centers for the disenfranchised which reflect the administration and ACORN Chicago machine model." The goal of course is to ensure that no potential 2012 voter will be left behind.
#7
Keep planning kid, your fellow Donks in Congress are already or already have spent all the money on the ever growing bailouts. You and yours missed the lesson from Hugo, pacing. A scorpion will remain a scorpion. Spend, spend, spend.
If the government kept quiet over the issue anymore, the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) protest camp could be exploited by the unseen forces that are bent upon causing chaos and uncertainty in the country.
Though Maulana Sufi Muhammad-led black turban movement's activists are peaceful and their sit-in has been given the name of a 'peace camp' aimed at enforcement of Shariah in Malakand, those trying to create law and order problem might exploit the situation for bad.
The sit-in entered 34th day on Wednesday, but the government response has so far been cold as no serious efforts have been made to either convince TNSM on winding up the camp or accept any of its three demands -- the government should implement the 1994 Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in letter and spirit, restore peace in Malakand, especially the restive Swat valley or admit in written to have failed to maintain peace.
The release of TNSM Ameer Sufi Muhammad from jail was also an attempt on the part of the ANP-led provincial government to use his influence in ending insurgency in Swat, but that failed to pay dividends.
Though the sit-in at the Rest House ground has been peaceful, with Sufi vowing to continue it even for three years in case of non-acceptance of the Tanzim demands, the 'unforeseen' forces or elements might exploit it for their designs.
The recent threatening letter received by the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Timergara from unidentified elements, asking the students and teachers to observe 'pardah' or face the consequences, could be an example.
The one-page letter written in Urdu stresses use of a 'special kind' of 'pardah' by wearing shuttlecock 'burqas', although the students and teachers of the school are already observing veils. The only difference is that the unidentified elements delivering the letter insist wearing 'burqas', instead of 'chadar' (shawl).
The letter mentions the setting up of the TNSM 'peace camp', saying that from the very first day of the camp, students and teachers were advised to observe 'pardah' by wearing shuttlecock 'burqas' but that was not complied. Further non-compliance would not be tolerated, stated the letter, written on plain paper. It also mentions the name of 'Tehrik Taliban Lower Dir zone'.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM Threads > INDIA FACES TERROR FROM ANOTHER FRONT [NE Corridor]. CHINESE MILITARY/ARMS ASSISTANCE, vee MYANMAR, to ANTI-INDIA/NEW DELHI, INDIA-BASED INDIAN- and PRO-PAKIS ISLAMIST AND COMMUNIST-SECULAR MILITIA GROUPS-NETWORKS???
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched a bitter attack Tuesday on the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, as a divided nation marked the fourth anniversary of historic leader Yasser Arafat's death. Abbas accused Hamas of sabotaging efforts to mend the rift in Palestinian ranks created by its seizure of Gaza last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Well, Abu Maze, they expect you to be gone with Miz Rice.
#1
ION RIAN > BARACK OBAMA FOR A COSMOPOLITAN AMERICA. PEW Research Center Report [Feb 2008] > by 2050, America's population will rise to 438Milyuhn, wid 82% of increase coming from foreign immigres from 2005 [base year] and their later US-born natural descandants.
ALso from RIAN > GORBACHEV CALLS FOR OBAMA TO CARRY OUT "PERESTROIKA" [restructuring]INSIDE AMERICA. The era of Reaganism and Thatcherism is over, the USSR is gone, EUrope has changed, and CHINA, BRAZIL, + MEXICO are assertive and desiring to becom new major/decisive players in the global arena.
FORMER RUSS OILGARCH MIKHAIL KHORDORKOSKY > THE PARADIGM OF WORLD/GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT IS ABOUT TO CHANGE.......WORLD WILL TAKE A LEFT TURN .....GLOBALIZATION WILL CHANGE, SLOW TO A CRAWL BUT IT WILL NOT STOP. The World's richest people may no longer be able to increase thier wealth as much as desired due to worldwide
"mainstream" consumer-citizen demands for intensive improvements as per their own personal and community wealth, and a higher or better quality-of-life, etc.
#2
A narrow slice of rich Californians now pay virtually all the state's taxes, so when a downturn occurs, the budget collapses.
This is an outright lie. I'm not rich but I do pay a hefty state income tax. It hurts too.
As for Arnold, to be fair, he's up against a liberal Democrat legislature, the California Teachers Association and various state employee unions. Every year they wrangle over the budget until months after the start of the fiscal year. We thought Arnold could do better than Davis but now we see that he can't. Maybe nobody can. My solution would be to dissolve the legislature because they have all lost touch with reality.
#3
California has pension problems. The Prison Guards, the Teachers Union, the Firemen and cops as well as a dozen others not only get decent salaries but they have excellent pension benefits and once something like that is given it is very difficult to retract.
#4
You are right about that, my father makes more on his police dept. pension than he did when he was working. He's not going to be surprised if they have to trim that back a little in the future.
North Korea said on Wednesday that it would close all land borders with the South from Dec. 1, accusing its neighbor of taking confrontation "beyond the danger level", the North's official media reported.
"We officially inform the south side that the actual crucial measure taken by the KPA (North Korean army) to strictly restrict and cut off all the overland passages through the Military Demarcation Line will take effect from December 1," North Korea's KCNA news agency said.
The statement, carried in English, did not make it clear whether border crossings would be totally halted or heavily restricted. A ban on all crossings would effectively shut down the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex just north of the border.
Wednesday's announcement follows months of icy relations, including threats by the communist state to expel South Koreans from Kaesong. The move also follows increasingly angry rhetoric from the North against South Korea's conservative government, which came to power earlier this year with a promise to get tough if the North did not give up its nuclear weapons program.
Last month, North Korea threatened a sea of fire to reduce the South to rubble unless it stopped civic groups from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the communist state. Analysts say the recent flood of such leaflets had rattled the North's leaders.
A Unification Ministry official in Seoul said it regretted the move, but that it respected all past agreements between the two and called for talks to resolve the issue. "We express our regret over the North's decision and if the north carries out these measures it would negatively affect the efforts made thus far to improve inter-Korean ties," he said.
There are two main road crossings over the demilitarized zone that has divided the peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, for which a peace treaty has never been agreed. One leads to the Kaesong industrial park, operated by the South just across the border and the one tangible commercial link between the two, and takes tour groups on to nearby Kaesong city.
The other is on the east side of the peninsula to another tour site, Mt Kumgang. That site was closed to tourists earlier this year after a South Korean tourist was shot dead.
A rail link was opened for regular runs last December for the first time in almost 50 years but it carries almost no cargo.
The closures, however, will not impact the delivery of energy aid agreed under a six-nation nuclear agreement as the fuel is delivered by ship.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008
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Top|| File under:
#1
As a reminder, MANY PERTS > believe NOKOR's agricultural sector will collapse this year, an anticipated event likely worsened by Kimmie's new health crisis.
Also, NOKOR in the past was proud of its State ability to resist the kind of "FOREIGN" OR "MUSLIM" IMMIGRATION PROBS BEING FELT IN SOUTH KOREA > NOKOR = PYONGYANG IS PROB UNSETTLED BY CHINA'S POST-OLYMPICS UIGHUR-MUSLIM TROUBLES IN ITS WESTERN REGIONS, + India + SE Asia.
NOKOR > IFF INDIA, ETC. BREAKS UP 2015-2020, WILL IT HAPPEN TO NK-BACKER CHINA???
The ISLAMIST THREAT is a NEW CARD IN THE PAN-ASIA, PRO-NUCLEAR DECK - ITS NOT JUST CHINA ANDOR US-SOKOR-JAPAN ANYMORE!
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two men on a motorcycle used water pistols to spray acid on girls walking to school Wednesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, blinding at least two of them, military spokesmen said.
U.S. Col. Greg Julian said Afghanistan's National Military Command Center told him that four girls were hurt in the incident. Two were blinded and remain hospitalized, and two were treated and released, he said. The men escaped after the attack, and no one claimed responsibility for it, but Arab-language network Al-Jazeera said Taliban militants were suspected to be responsible.
The incident occurred about 8 a.m. near Mirwais Nika Girls High School in the Meir Weis Mena district. Kandahar government spokesman Parwaz Ayoubi gave different figures on the number of girls injured, saying six were burned, one of them severely. He called the attackers "enemies of education."
According to Al-Jazeera, the girls were attacked with battery acid. Two teenage sisters, one of whom suffered serious burns, were among the victims. "We were on the way to school when two men on motorbikes stopped next to us. One of them threw acid on my sister's face. I tried to help her, and then they threw acid on me, too," Latefa, 16, told the Qatar-based satellite network. "We were shouting, and people came to see what was going on. Then the two men escaped," she said. Latefa told Al-Jazeera that she was hurt, and her 18-year-old sister was in serious condition with acid burns on her face.
Al-Jazeera said schoolgirls in Kandahar can be recognized by their uniform of black pants, white shirt, black coat and head scarf.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan condemned the incident, as well as a suicide bombing that occurred near a government building hours later that killed and wounded several civilians, including women and children. "These cowardly acts reflect how dishonorable the insurgents truly are," Gen. David McKiernan said in a statement posted on the Web site of the International Security Assistance Force. "No one can honestly say they are fighting for the people, then purposefully attack innocent women and children," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008
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Top|| File under:
#1
where are all the brave men who have toted AK's all their life when something like this happens? Steal one of their goats and they would get blasted but throw acid in their daufghters face and they stand back smoking a bugler
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:45
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#2
The Taliban are so brave, when attacking schoolgirls.
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.
BEIJING -- A thick brown cloud of soot, particles and chemicals stretching from the Persian Gulf to Asia threatens health and food supplies in the world, the U.N. reported Thursday, citing what it called the newest threat from global warming.
Not that many people outside of California care, but according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state faces a nearly $25 billion budget deficit. As the rich man that he is, the former movie star favors everybody else helping out by making his state's sales tax the No. 1 biggest, averaging 9.5%.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A day after a fierce suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan, insurgents struck Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to the United States military and Afghan police officials. 
by Maayana Miskin
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says the US is violating international law by launching missile attacks on its tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. "The attacks are in violation of international law and in violation of all understandings between the two sides," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a press briefing on Thursday in Islamabad. He added, "the government of Pakistan is committed to do whatever is possible to stop these attacks." 
Four-Star Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.), a former Gulf War commander, has returned from a week of tours and meetings with civilian and military leaders in Iraq and concluded, "The United States is now clearly in the end game in Iraq."
Israel has faxed a message to Lebanese citizens asking them to send information about Israeli soldiers in exchange for a large reward. 
John Pilger, New Statesman
A record number of would-be immigrants arrived in Italy this year, according to the daily Corriere della Sera. Over 40,000 people have requested refugee status so far this year, compared to 14,000 over the same period in 2007.
By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Iraqi-born militant Abu Akash survived a US predator drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan last month, sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI). Al-Qaeda's third in command, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, is also alive and reports of his killing in the Bajaur tribal area in August were fabricated by Pakistani security agencies, unnamed militant sources told AKI.
President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is flirting with creating a White House "Climate Czar," but climate change crusader Al Gore says he doesn't want the job. 
Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. 
Southern Californians by the millions were signed up to simultaneously drop to the floor on Thursday and huddle face down under tables and desks for two minutes of imagined seismic turmoil in the biggest U.S. earthquake drill ever.
NATO, meeting on Russia's doorstep, held talks with Ukraine Friday to assess its progress toward membership of the alliance, but prospects for a promised entry action plan were dim.
The United States views Russian threats to place tactical missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad as provocative and misguided, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
(below the pictures)
An Iranian diplomat was kidnapped and his bodyguard was killed by unknown gunnies in Pakistain's northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, the Pakistaini government said. 
Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has gone on a hunger strike to protest his jailing, his lawyer said Thursday, while legal woes mounted for family members also implicated in the corruption scandal. 
If you think they're out to get you, you're not alone.
A suicide bomber rammed his car into a U.S. military convoy as it was passing through a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 20 civilians and an American soldier, officials said. The attack outside Jalalabad, the capital of the eastern Nangarhar province, also wounded 74 civilians, said Ajmal Pardes, a provincial health official.
SINGAPORE (AP) Oil prices slid to near $55 a barrel Thursday in Asia as more bad economic news from the U.S. heightened fears of a severe global downturn that will pulverise demand for crude. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 81 cents to $55.35 a barrel, after falling as low as $55.03, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon released on Wednesday $50 million in an effort to keep Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 fighter production line humming until President-elect Barack Obama can decide the fate of the top-of-the-line U.S. warplane.
A former high-ranking 
Curfew remained imposed in villages close to the Mohmand Agency on Wednesday as two more suspected militants were killed and five others injured during clashes on the second day of the search operation launched by the security forces. 
A bomb-filled tanker exploded outside the office of the provincial council in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing six people and wounding 42.
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two men on a motorcycle used water pistols to spray acid on girls walking to school Wednesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, blinding at least two of them, military spokesmen said.
