Could Sarah Palin's celebrity appeal be the thing to push incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) over the edge in the statewide run-off?
Chambliss seems to think so.
"She -- she truly is a rock star, Chambliss said on FOX. I mean, she came into town to help us electrify our base, make sure that these folks get fired up and turn out tomorrow, and she did exactly that.
Palin rallied for him in Augusta, Savannah, Gwinnett County and Metro Atlanta.
"We had huge crowds, he said, and they were enthusiastic and very electrified.
Chambliss said that although the turnout was high for Democrats in November, he expects to win this time.
"We expect them to turn out but we think we've got a pretty good ground game ourselves."
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss has won re-election in a runoff, dashing Democratic hopes of capturing enough Senate seats to thwart Republican filibusters. Chambliss, who fell just short of the majority vote needed to win re-election in November, prevailed in a one-on-one rematch with Democrat Jim Martin.
While leaving his Airoli home in suburban Mumbai on Wednesday night, Sudam Aaba Pandarkar, an assistant sub-inspector of the Thane Railway Police, could never have imagined the terrible night that awaited him.
Pandarkar, who is usually on duty in the ladies' compartment in Central Railway trains, reached the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus at around 9.50 pm.
Pandarkar initially mistook the sound of gunshots as firecrackers being lit by happy cricket enthusiasts, after India's victory against England [Images] in the fifth one day international that day. The gravity of the situation hit him when he saw the terrorists firing from their automatic rifles.
As he tried to make his way to the place where the terrorists were spraying bullets, he came across a terrorist standing just 15 metres away from him, near platform number 6. Without wasting any time, Pandarkar unlocked his .303 rifle and fired three shots at the terrorist.
Unfortunately, all three bullets missed the target. "When you shoot in such circumstances, it is to kill the target. The terrorist was fortunate that he was not hit by my bullets," he says when asked why he missed the target.
The terrorist fired back and the bullet hit Pandarkar in the chest. When the terrorist ran away, Pandarkar tried to follow him, but couldn't move beyond a few feet. His colleagues rushed to his rescue as he fell down, writhing in pain.
"The bullet narrowly missed his heart and ruptured his left lung. Had the bullet hit him just a few inches lower, it would have completely damaged his heart. He must thank his stars for that," says Dr Ashish Kumar Tiwari, staff physician and spokesperson of Bombay Hospital, who along with Dr D P Vyas, is in charge of all the injured patients.
Pandarkar's wife Parvatibai, who's been with her husband ever since he was hospitalised, stands at his bedside, as her husband talks to television reporters.
Though Pandarkar has no complaints against anybody for his condition, he wonders aloud, "It was.303 versus automatic rifles like AK-47s and AK-46s. Do we stand a chance?"
He also feels that something must be done to upgrade the outdated firearms used by the police, so that the force is better-prepared the next time.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/02/2008
16:54 ||
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#1
Here we go again. The cops want to be Storm Troopers.
#3
Read the previous article. Not only are they carrying a Enfield .303 (80 yr. plus old bolt gun) but many if not most have never fired them due to lack of ammo and NO ranges.
He was lucky to get off 3 shots let alone hit anything. The rifles were good in 1915, adequate in 1940, antiques in 2008.
#5
I know that India has made much more modern versions of the Enfield, chambered in 7.62mm NATO, which should be cheap-enough ammunition to practice with.
#6
With a spray and pray AK-47 he would have just filled the air with lead, and probably missed his target anyway.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/02/2008 17:25
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#7
I would respectfully submit that success in these sorts of events has more to do with effective leadership, training, and the determination of the operator than the age or type of weapon used. As I recall, one of the first casualties was a senior (if not the senior) counter terrorism chief. That cound not have had a positive impact on leadership at the scene.
#9
The lack of training, especially live firing, is what doomed the Indian cops armed with the SMLE. The old British .303 round is a deadly one, and if any of the terrorists had actually been hit by one, they would have been badly wounded if not killed. I wonder if the Indian cops are issued hollow points or not? A hollow pointed .303 would be a nightmare wounding bullet.
1. It happened there, and not here. Thank you "W".
2. The Indians were successful in capturing one of the terrs alive.
3. The Indians were successful in eventually bringing an end to it.
#11
Also, the Afghanis put a lot of Soviets in the ground using SMLEs during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - but then the Afghanis would practice anywhere they chose, and did enough live firing to be reasonably accurate.
#12
'How can our .303 rifles fight against AK-47?'
The gun is more than capable, it's the shooter who was not up to the task. Lack of training, lack of practice, or lack of temperment. Not at all unusual though.
#13
When I was growing up in the Australian bush in the 1950s the only rifles I ever saw were war surplus Lee Enfield's from the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, and every farmer had one to shoot kangaroos and for the rifle range. With open sights they are very accurate at 400 yards and more, and a roo has a smaller heart shot area than a Jihadi.
#17
I will concede that the Enfield was a fine rifle in it's time but at short range against a full or semi auto in trained hands it is not adequate. This cop had guts if not the skills to get those 3 rounds off.
Of course training matters but most police do not have the best training to face an armed combatant. Swat officers here in the US perhaps but that is specialized (read elite) training with hand-picked people. Beat Cops? Not hardly.
It still doesn't excuse the Political, management and supervisory mindset that allowed this lack of basic firearms training and practice. And the issuance of out of date equipment. Especially by a up and coming world power in such a dangerous part of the world.
#19
Assuming that the story is accurate, I too will give the sub-inspector credit fir;
1. Marching to the sound of the guns
2. Opening fire, attempting to engage
Thinking back to "Men Against Fire" by SLA Marshall, the mere act of taking offensive action sets this constable apart from the vast majority of combatants that have ever faced incoming fire.
Quoting Teddy Roosevelt:
It Is Not The Critic Who Counts
"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
#21
Thinking back to "Men Against Fire" by SLA Marshall, the mere act of taking offensive action sets this constable apart from the vast majority of combatants that have ever faced incoming fire.
I've read elsewhere that Marshall's assertions were tosh. The problem with US (and most other) forces has generally been that they were too trigger-happy, not that they were reluctant to shoot. The Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars were characterized by native allies who expended too much ammunition haphazardly without really looking at where their adversary was.
#22
FWIW, my Dad, God rest his soul, used to tell me fondly about when he was in the Army in the mid '50s in Germany. He grew up in the country and was a very good shot (though he'd always tell me he was nothing compared to Grandad).
He'd often recount that shooting all kinds of guns all the time was something he loved about the Army. He expressed great admiration for the older NCOs (WW2 or Korea vets in the company he commanded) who could fire the bolt action rifles (1903 Springfields I guess) at such high rates of fire and with such accuracy that he felt they would be at no disadvantage to modern firearms (he used to complain a lot about the M-1 so there was some bias).
I reckon most people do not try to fire bolt action rifles too quickly as they focus on hunting. But, when such rifles were issued to soldiers the situation must have been different and they probably would have held up fine vs. an AK-47. But I'm no expert. My son will probably think I'm a good shot by our citified standards and I'll have to tell him about Grandad. But at least he'll learn to shoot.
MUMBAI: The state constabulary was grossly unprepared to deal with the worst-ever terror attacks on the metropolis because of an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition.
Official records show that for a force of well over 1.8 lakh, the home department procured a meagre 2,221 weapons 577 for Mumbai, and 1,644 for the rest of Maharashtra.
Under the centrally sponsored modernisation programme, we purchased almost all types of weapons, but for a state like Maharashtra, the number of weapons was grossly inadequate , a senior official told TOI on Monday.
In the absence of a firing range and of ammunition for practice, members of the law enforcement agencies have not opened fire in the last ten years. Ive been in the police force for a long time, but I had no occasion to open fire for practice, a senior inspector of police said.
As per the police manual, officials ranking from constable to assistant inspector get rifles with 30 rounds each, and those with the rank of police sub-inspector and above get revolvers, also with 30 rounds each.
Jawans with the State Reserve Police Force are given SLRs or self-loading rifles. In addition, AK-47 rifles have been given to officials posted in areas where there is Naxal activity, while officials on VIP security duty are armed with either revolvers or carbines.
The manual also prescribes mandatory training for all officials, especially shooting practice at the firing range. According to a senior IPS official, the norms prescribed in the manual now exist only on paper because of the acute shortage of ammunition for practice and the non-availability of a firing range.
As per the rules, every district should have a firing range exclusively for the police. But official records indicate that more than half the states districts have no independent firing range.
We have constables who have not opened fire even for practice ever since their recruitment, the official said.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/02/2008
16:30 ||
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Chrysler says its November U.S. sales plunged 47 percent, blaming a slumping industry wide demand and a planned drop in fleet sales. The drop announced Tuesday includes a 59 percent decrease in demand for cars and 42 percent decline in truck sales.
Excluding fleet sales, the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based automaker says its November sales fell 36 percent. Chrysler LLC's sales drop compares with a 41 percent plunge at General Motors and a 31 percent decrease at Ford.
#1
Chrysler Nov. US sales drop 4.7 pct; GM down 4.1 pct should spook the market! But now that the stock market is Ben Bernanke's personal c4sino, who knows.
#2
and a planned drop in fleet sales.
Yes Officer, he slash under my chin was planned (Bullshit)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/02/2008 18:05
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#3
Slumping industry-wide demand, a planned(?) drop in fleet sales, and the possibility that the manufacturer of your new vehicle will be unable to honor a 90 day parts & labor warranty?
A senior police official said that, in all, the names and numbers of five members of the Pakistani group's leadership were contained in a satellite phone left behind by the terrorists on a fishing vessel they hijacked then abandoned before reaching Mumbai. Records from the phone show calls had been made from it to these five men.
Among them: Yusuf Muzammil, head of Lashkar-e-Taiba's terrorism operations against India. The senior Indian police official said he was identified as the mastermind of the attacks by the only terrorist captured alive, Ajmal Kasab, or Qasab. The police official said two of Mr. Muzammil's deputies orchestrated the strikes, according to Mr. Kasab's testimony.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/02/2008
15:32 ||
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#1
So the big question is: What happens when the Indians ask the Paks to hand these guys over?
#4
For a well planned, highly trained and rehearsed terror op, always remember your cell phones, credit cards, laptops, hotel room keys, family photos letters, and designer clothing. Never deploy without them!
#5
Not to be a conspiracy nut, but it would be nice to have some independent corroborating evidence: like Besoeker said, a planned op would not have left such behind, so either it was not well-planned (seems reasonable) or it was left behind for purposes of disinformation (perhaps not likely, but not impossible.)
#6
They came from the Land of the Pure, the Master Religion. It is blasphemy to think that those pagan Hinjoos could possibly trace them back after India's 9/11, so what matters a few phones and such left behind on a boat crewed by the dead in the middle of the sea?
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday renewed its authorization for countries to use military force against pirates operating off Somalia who have crippled one of the world's most important shipping lanes.
The U.S.-drafted resolution, adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council, extends for one year the right of countries with permission from Somalia's transitional government to enter Somali waters to pursue and attack pirates.
"The international community is sending a very strong signal of its determination to deal with piracy," said French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert.
He told reporters it would enable the European Union to start an air and naval operation off Somalia on Dec. 8. The operation is expected to involve five to six ships at any given time, plus maritime surveillance aircraft. "We think it will act both as a deterrent and also (provide) some immediate capacity to follow on and pursue pirates, if we can catch them," Ripert said.
Believe it when I see it ...
One unresolved issue is jurisdiction over captured pirates and where they can be prosecuted. U.S. envoy Rosemary DiCarlo told reporters Washington hoped more countries would use a 1988 convention against unlawful acts committed at sea to put captured pirates on trial.
Hanging them from a yardarm is no longer an option?
Ripert was confident the EU operation would improve security in the Gulf of Aden, a major sea lane for Middle East oil used by ships heading to and from the Suez canal.
There are already several international naval operations along the Horn of Africa, including a NATO mission to counter piracy, but they have done little to deter hijackers, who have been paid tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.
Nikos Tzanetakos, deputy captain of the Greek tanker Ellivita which crossed the gulf last month carrying Saudi oil to the United States, told Ta Nea newspaper his crew prevented pirates from boarding by draping the hull in electrified wire. "The military ships are only acting as traffic police in the Gulf of Aden," Tzanetakos said. "The situation there is permanently out of control and there is panic among the sailors, who have to pass through those waters."
Last weekend pirates came within 300 yards (meters) of the Nautica cruise ship operated by Miami-based Oceania Cruises Inc, the company said. "One of the (pirate) skiffs ... fired eight rifle shots in the direction of the vessel before trailing off," Oceania Cruises said in a statement. "No one aboard Nautica was harmed and no damage was sustained."
#1
Maybe if there is a remake of The Wizard of Oz, Rosie can play the Wicked Witch of the West. She's strident, rude, coarse, and not funny. I don't think she was ever funny.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008 20:05
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#5
I could only stand 2:48 of these fools fawning over that fat bitch. Trying to examine the reason the show tanked?
Might ask the late Capt John Smith about that little iceberg thingy in the Atlantic back in 1912...
I'd suggest this piece of lard crawl back under her rock, but i think only Mt Rushmore would be big enough to cover her humungous ass....
The Capitol Visitors Center, which opened this morning, may have tripled its original budget and fallen years behind schedule, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found a silver lining for members of Congress: tourists won't offend them with their B.O. anymore.
"My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway," said Reid in his remarks. "In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true." "We finally got the Peasants away from us Elites. Imean, who do they think they are? We've got Taxpayers to squeeze here and it's damned har to do with all the noise and smell."
But it's no longer going to be true, noted Reid, thanks to the air conditioned, indoor space. And that's not all. "We have many bathrooms here, as you can see," Reid continued. Larry Craig should be happy.
"Souvenirs are available."
$621 million well spent.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/02/2008
11:55 ||
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#1
As if we needed any more proof that the Senate Majority Leader holds his country's citizens in complete contempt...
#2
Those are not tourists - they are your inspectors and regulators. And compared to the last two years of operations especially I would imagine that a couple hundred visitors in from the heat should smell like a breath of fresh air compared to the stench of the public servants which inhabit the Capitol.
BANGALORE: When Mir Arshad Ali, 33, jilted his lover of nine years and married another woman six months ago, he did not think it would cost him more than his happiness. He almost lost his life when the furious woman lured him and bobbitised him neatly. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
12/02/2008
11:05 ||
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The chairman of the British Lap Dancing Association, speaking at a legislative hearing Tuesday, made an odd assertion, given his livelihood a lap dance is "not sexually stimulating," he said, the Guardian reported.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/02/2008
11:02 ||
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#1
Really! Oh, that's right, this is in England
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/02/2008 13:11
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#2
"No sex, please - we're British."
I used to think that was a joke....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/02/2008 18:23
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FloDesign Wind Turbine... has developed a wind turbine that could generate electricity at half the cost of conventional turbines.... Typically, as wind approaches a turbine, almost half of the air is forced around the blades rather than through them, and the energy in that deflected wind is lost. At best, traditional wind turbines capture only 59.3 percent of the energy in wind, a value called the Betz limit.
FloDesign surrounds its wind-turbine blades with a shroud that directs air through the blades and speeds it up...
---------
last month Technology Review had an article on a new generator design that could also help boost productivity of wind turbines:
#1
Let's talk about the dirty secret of wind turbines. Given that the wind can chnage from second to second, wind farms have to be complemented with gas powered generators. TRhese act by heating water so when the wind weakens and the gas turbine has to enter service there is energy lost (respective to conventional gas-powered generator) in order to bring water to boiling point: ie you are using gas and producing zero energy output. When the wind stiffens again the gas turbine goes off but that means you lose the energy you had used in getting the water hot.
In other ords the attached gas turbine is a lot less efficient than the one in a gas plant.
If you make a new more wind turbine design with doubled efficiency you must also double the size of the gas turbine who must be able, when there is no wind, able to produce 2*N instead of N watts.
#2
A 1MW wind turbine is about 125 feet in diameter. I'd like to see a shroud anywhere near that size and the support structure to hold it in place.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 10:28
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#3
It's even more fundamental than that. My next door neighbor has a small windmill. Sometimes it turns. But many times it don't turn when it should. Either it's pointing in the wrong direction because the wind shifted or the gearing is wrong. He paid $15K. He is not happy.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
12/02/2008 10:31
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#4
Imma gonna put a waterwheel in the creek.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/02/2008 11:34
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#5
this farmer/rancher in the Saudi Arabia of Wind energy (Kansas) has replaced water windmills with solar pumps. Why? more dependable and you can't keep the aeromotors working and when they break down you can't find anyone to fix them.
1. Assuming better energy storage devices are developed, wind power will be a major beneficiary. With so many different technologies being advanced, this seems a pretty decent bet.
2. The shroud would only work with some wind turbines; obviously not the huge ones. However, one effect of the shroud would be to allow for shorter blade size (which would mean, among other things, more densely developed wind farm areas, i.e., more turbines/acre).
3. At this point in time, the single most important constraint on wind power is the lack of transmission lines from the very rural areas where wind farms are desired and wind conditions are good.
#8
More bad news for wind energy: a recent article in one of the Seattle papers ( i think) was suggesting that wind farms can change the weather by a compination of removing energy from wind so that patterns are affected, or the turbulence from the blades can casue the weather fronts to move in reation to that turbulence. thier research went on to admit the theorized farm size was much bigger than any seen to date, but ".. well you can't be too careful..."
the reduction in available energy makes sense to me, but blade turbulence causing wx patern shifts seems a bit much. its not like we are comparing this to wing tip vortices on aircraft and how they affect other nearby aircraft....
time to put an option on that nearby cave, that's all we will be allowed to live in after the 'learned elite' gets done.
#10
the 'wind-turbines hurts birds' argument is pretty dead
utility lines, tall buildings, communication towers and other such things take out about 1 million birds per day vs. about 500 per day by all the wind turbines together worldwide
#11
Domestic cats kill 100mil birds a year. That is an doorstep estimate of course. Turbine kills amounted to 37,000 annually, based on counts at the base of the towers.
#15
in the cities, most cats are indoor cats (like mine, who's 14 yrs old, not very bright and would be short-lived outside, gawdloveher), so I think the estimate is a leeetle off. I've heard numbers like this before (no offense, Skunky), and it always seemed like Audubon nonsense. I remain unconvinced (except that birders seemed predisposed to alarmism - see Chicken Little)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008 22:28
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#16
Just cover the California coast with windmills that are using the power generated to do reverse osmosis on seawater turning it into usable water.
Then you don't need to depend on it for power nor care if it is an even source of power.
When the wind blows you make pure water.. When it doesn't nothing happens.
Water could be used for drinking/irrigation/whatever.
California is always short of water - that's why they steal it from elsewhere.
Al Frankens (D) campaign may ask the Democratic-led Senate to intervene on his behalf to allow some disqualified absentee ballots to be counted in his quest to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).
Franken attorney Marc Elias made the case to reporters Monday that as many as 1,000 absentee ballots were improperly disqualified and that the Senate or the courts may need to step in to resolve the issue.
No recount can be considered accurate or complete until all the ballots cast by lawful voters are counted, Elias said of the recount that became necessary when only about 200 votes separated the two candidates on Nov. 4.
Minnesota's Board of Canvassers ruled last Wednesday that it would not revisit the improperly disqualified ballots. The bipartisan board ruled unanimously that it did not have the authority to order that the ballots be reviewed and counted.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
09:18 ||
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#1
Same as any other liberal, if you can't win at the polls, go to the courts, or in this case the Senate.
#3
So far I haven't read anywhere that these ballots were improperly disqualified.
he wants the People's Voice to be Heard but if he doesn't like what he hears he throws a tantrum and goes to the courts.Sore Loser, or maybe just Loser in general, indeed.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/02/2008 10:23
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#4
Franken was a whinny bitch before the election, he is a whinny bitch now, and he will be a whinny bitch after. He is, after all, a liberal.
#6
From what I read, the vote recounters are doing exactly that ... they are recounting the votes that were actually processed on Nov. 4th. They really don't want to get into the business of reviewing whether discarded ballots should now be counted or not. :-/
#9
The insiders from both campaigns say Franken's real goal is to keep Coleman from being seated when the new Senate is sworn in, and then draw things out as long as possible.
That is why he is making so many rediculous challenges.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/02/2008 13:12
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#10
News reports say that the recount has increased Coleman's lead to 340 or so as of early a.m. today.
The U.N. mission in Iraq expressed "serious concern" Tuesday about overcrowded prisons and the treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody in its latest report on the human rights situation in the country.
Don't worry, we'll be blamed, we always are ...
The report, which covered the first half of the year, also singled out the problem of so-called honor killings of women in northern and southern Iraq.
Staffan de Mistura, the U.N.'s special representative in Iraq, warned that the issue of detainees will be a major challenge as the United States prepares to turn over control of thousands of inmates in its custody. "There is no secret that the (Iraqi) prisons are overcrowded and frankly not in very good condition," de Mistura said at a news conference to release the 13th report on the situation of human rights in Iraq.
How were they when you inspected them during Saddam's time ...
He cited one example of a prison in which 123 detainees were crammed into a 540-square-foot cell.
Reports of widespread mistreatment and torture of detainees also continue and need more thorough investigation, he said. "So far we have not seen one case of prosecution," he said.
The U.N. called on the Iraqi government to speed up legal reforms and strengthen the judicial system, saying improvements in the rule of law are necessary to ensure security gains are sustainable. It also promised to help and said training programs were being held to improve the administration of detention centers as well as the justice system.
Just what the Iraqis need, the UN training their people in European-style justice ...
"More sovereignty means more responsibility and more responsibility means less impunity," de Mistura said.
The report only covered the six-month period that ended in June due to staffing issues, so the numbers of detainees included was outdated. The U.S. has released thousands since then under an amnesty program.
De Mistura, who heads the U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq known as UNAMI, estimated Tuesday that there were a total of 40,000 detainees, including some 15,000 being held by the U.S. military. "UNAMI remains gravely concerned at continuing reports of the widespread and routine torture or ill-treatment of detainees, particularly those being held in pretrial detention facilities, including police stations," the report said.
It also renewed concern about the U.S. detention of suspects for prolonged periods without judicial review of their cases. Women also faced more violence, including the killing of women for perceived offenses to their families' honor. The problem is of particular concern in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq and in the mainly Shiite southern area of Basra.
A U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against Shiite extremists in Basra has failed to stop the killings, according to the U.N.
It wasn't designed to stop honor killings, only extremism ...
De Mistura said 80 to 82 women had reportedly been killed there so far this year, but there has been only one prosecution. The government has made a more concerted effort to stop the killings in Basra, but the grim statistics show "that the problem needs to be addressed more forcefully," he said.
UN administrators shouldn't use the word 'forcefully', it just doesn't work for them ...
The U.N. human rights report, which previously was issued quarterly but is now biannual, used to be closely watched for Iraqi civilian casualty figures. That practice stopped when the Iraqi government refused to release the spiraling figures to the U.N. De Mistura said the situation had improved and he was hopeful casualty figures could be included in the next report.
#5
UN agency feeling safe enough to be present thanks to US military power and sacrifice: check
UN agency singling out troubling conditions in a former dictatorship that only has a chance at a more civilized/open society thanks to US military power and sacrifice: check
Logically, I don't believe there's such a thing as "moral authority" - the whole point of morality is that it's above and outside individuals or organizations made up of individuals. Moral principles stand alone and can be applied logically to facts to yield judgments, and nobody has superior ability to identify the principles (though demonstrated ability to apply logical reasoning obviously varies substantially).
(end of geeky rumination on moral authority)
But .....
If there's anything like "moral authority" to judge and criticize Iraqi prison conditions and judicial processes, it is possessed solely by the US.
Note also the disingenuous slander that never dies: suspects are "held without trial" indefinitely (outrageous!) - because in fact they are NOT part of a normal judicial process, but detainees in a war emergency situation where normal civil judicial processes are neither feasible nor effective.
#6
exactamundo, Verlaine. The biggest mistake our internal and external traitors opponents have made is to apply criminal law protection to those who have neither earned nor deserve that distinction. Lawfare will be the undoing of us or the death of the opposition when the backlash hits. I expect the latter as they overreach and a "releasee" goes on a killing spree here at home
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008 20:15
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ht to Doubleplusundead
GAUHATI, India (AP) ― A bomb exploded in a train coach in India's insurgency-hit northeast on Tuesday, killing at least two people and injuring another 30, a state government official said.
The explosion occurred shortly after the train arrived at Diphu railroad station, about 200 miles (300 kilometers) south of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, said District Magistrate M.C. Sahu.
The train was heading from Lumding in central Assam to the eastern commercial hub of Tinsukhia, Sahu said.
While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, an intelligence official said an ethnic insurgent group, Karbi Longri National Liberation Front, fighting for wide autonomy in the state for the past five years was suspected. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not speak publicly about the details.
The front is one of the three groups active in the region; the other two groups have reached cease-fire accords with the government. uh huh
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008
08:37 ||
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I seem to remember a demand like this in Sept 2001.
India picked up intelligence in recent months that terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, an official said Tuesday, as the government demanded that Islamabad hand over suspected terrorists believed living in Pakistan.
A list of about 20 people -- including India's most-wanted man -- was submitted to Pakistan's high commissioner to India on Monday night, said India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee.
India has already demanded Pakistan take "strong action" against those responsible for the attacks, and the U.S. has pressured Islamabad to cooperate in the investigation. America's chief diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will visit India on Wednesday.
Among the prisoners sought by India is Dawood Ibrahim -- a powerful gangster, the alleged mastermind of 1993 Mumbai bombings, and India's most-wanted man. Also included is Masood Azhar, a terror suspect freed from an Indian prison in exchange for the release of hostages aboard an Indian Airlines aircraft hijacked on Christmas Day 1999.
Pakistan would consider India's request and respond after receiving the list, said Pakistani Information Minister Sherry Rehman. "We must try to dampen down the discourse of conflict and work toward regional peace," she said.
While the cross-border rhetoric between Pakistan and India has increased since the attacks, both countries -- by their often-bellicose standards -- carefully refrained from making statements that could quickly lead to a buildup of troops along their already militarized frontier.
In India, Pakistan's high commissioner met with foreign ministry officials late Monday and was told that "elements from Pakistan" had carried out the attacks. The commissioner was told that India "expects that strong action would be taken against those elements," said foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash. ...
This article starring:
Dawood Ibrahim
Masood Azhar
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008
07:46 ||
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#1
While it is true that every nation including us here in US get MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE warnings every now and then, you simply CANNOT afford to act on EACH one of them - how do we all think 09/11 happened???
This is a repeat - such kind of news keep coming at this time although I AGREE that the Indian officials do not act decisively even on some of the serious ones - they are too busy with the freaking politicking!!
At the end, I do want to emphasize for ALL of us, that this is called KARMA - if we (americans) do GOOD KARMA and REALLY help decimate this terrorism (regardless of whether it happens in one of our friends territory), it WILL come back to us as a good deed - if we do this as another wishy-washy eye wash, we are NOT progressing...
This is the least I expect from the new administration - get this Pakistani "agencies" including the current administration to ACT and it will help us long term!!
#2
We all pray that you are correct in your expectation, Captain Uleremp6677, that the president-elect will act at least as firmly against the jihadis as the current president has done these last eight years.
A few days old.
The federal government committed an additional $800 billion to two new loan programs on Tuesday, bringing its cumulative commitment to financial rescue initiatives to a staggering $8.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg News. That sum represents almost 60 percent of the nation's estimated gross domestic product.
Given the unprecedented size and complexity of these programs and the fact that many have never been tried before, it's impossible to predict how much they will cost taxpayers. The final cost won't be known for many years.
The money has been committed to a wide array of programs, including loans and loan guarantees, asset purchases, equity investments in financial companies, tax breaks for banks, help for struggling homeowners and a currency stabilization fund.
Most of the money, about $5.5 trillion, comes from the Federal Reserve, which as an independent entity does not need congressional approval to lend money to banks or, in "unusual and exigent circumstances," to other financial institutions.
To stimulate lending, the Fed said on Tuesday it will purchase up to $600 billion in mortgage debt issued or backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and government housing agencies. It also will lend up to $200 billion to holders of securities backed by consumer and small-business loans. All but $20 billion of that $800 billion represents new commitments, a Fed spokeswoman said.
About $1.1 trillion of the $8.5 trillion is coming from the Treasury Department, including $700 billion approved by Congress in dramatic fashion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The rest of the commitments are coming from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Housing Administration. Only about $3.2 trillion of the $8.5 trillion has been tapped so far, according to Bloomberg. Some of it might never be.
Relatively little of the money represents direct outlays of cash with no strings attached, such as the $168 billion in stimulus checks mailed last spring. Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008
07:17 ||
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#5
The rate of bailout growth is worrying. Last week the total disbursed funds was a bit over $2T. The burn increased by nearly a trillion in only 1 week. Won't even make it to Christmas at this rate.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 10:31
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#6
Holy moly! The U.S. GDP is only a little over $13 trillion. Where's this whole thing going to end?
#7
It will end when the currency collapses, when nobody, even the Chicoms will have any faith in our currency. Then the road splits into a number of forks. The people will have had enough and throw the criminals out. A dictator takes power, a military coup happens, or the US becomes a bunch of provincial enclaves. Or we become Zimbob on the installment plan. We are throwing good money that we do not have into a financial black hole, which can never be filled.
There is no oversight and accountability. You want energy independence? Where are you going to get the money? A gas pipeline from Alaska to Alberta will cost $20 to 40 billion? What banks can raise that kind of capital? It would take a consortium of banks to do it. I do not see anybody stepping up to the plate. Who is going to buy Treasury bonds?
A free press, which is necessary for a democratic form of government to flourish, cannot even ask questions. They have failed in their duty.
This whole thing is like a disease that must run its course. I hope that the nation survives it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/02/2008 12:50
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#8
I don't know, provincial enclaves sounds ok to me.
The 'Red State Block' would be a nice place to live.
#13
Poorly run and greedy companies deserve to go belly up. Money should be committed to deposit insurance funds, and that is it. In any case, loans appear as assets on the balance sheets of financial institutions. Non-performing assets still have value. If we stand clear, these would have to be sold for peanuts.
Japan's 12 year economic crisis has been prolonged by the insistence that everything be paid back, and not be written off as a worthless asset. Our recession will never end if we save companies that don't deserve to exist.
#15
I never thought we'd see anything like the market interventions we've seen under a Republican president. Let's face it - Bush isn't just a big government Republican like Nixon - he's the second coming of FDR, squared. After Bush's insane market interventions, anything under Obama is going to look like business as usual.
#1
If you are employed in the manufacturing or finance businesses you are probably in for a long hard slog. Everyone I talk to in the Engineering business is going like gangbusters right now, I have no idea how. Maybe 'project' money lasts a couple of years after the economy takes a turn. I recently interviewed with a company in CA that has work booked through 2010 and wants to add 20% to their workforce. So it all depends on what industry you are in I guess. Some seem, at least to me, to be doing fine.
#2
at least in infrastructure construction and design, phases of work are obligated (funds secured) years before needed. It's a FHWA requirement that before you get a phase OK'd, the next has to have funding identified
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008 12:36
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#3
That is true, Frank. The only thing is that if the financial crisis gets too serious, drastic measures might be made and that would include freezing already committed funding for infrastructure projects. The dems are in charge, and they are dumb enough to run the ship of state right into the rocks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/02/2008 12:54
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New Delhi: India on Tuesday sought to allay fears about an armed conflict with Pakistan, saying military action is not being considered and that it will wait for Islamabad to respond to its demand for action against terror groups and individuals operating out of the neighbouring country.
"What will be done, time will show and you will come to know," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters when referred to US President-elect Barack Obama's suggestion that India has a "right to protect" itself.
When asked whether it could mean military action, Mukherjee said "Nobody is talking about military action."
He said India "will await" Pakistan's response to a demarche (protest note) issued to it demanding action against terrorist groups and individuals operating out of that country and handing over of 20 fugitive terrorists.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday and issued a demarche. "Now, we have in our demarche asked (for) the arrest and handover of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and who are fugitives of Indian law," Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a function to inaugurate the India-Arab Forum.
"There are lists of about 20 persons. (These) lists are sometimes altered and this exercise is going on and we have renewed it in our demarche," Mukherjee said.
Investigations into the three-day Mumbai terror strikes have shown that the plan to carry out the attacks was hatched in Pakistan, suspectedly by Lashkar-e-Toiba and the perpetrators of the ghastly act came from Karachi by ships and boats.
Islamabad has been in a denial mode but India says it has hard evidence to show Pakistani link.
Angry at the Mumbai attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that India will not tolerate use of territories by its neighbours for launching attacks in this country and that there will be a "cost" to it.
The US is also building pressure on Pakistan, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying Islamabad must "follow evidence wherever it leads" and lend "absolute" and "transparent" cooperation to New Delhi in probe into the Mumbai terror strikes.
On the solidarity shown by the world leaders, including the US President-elect, with India in the aftermath of the Mumbai strikes, the External Affairs Minister said: "We appreciate the responses which we have received from all over the world, including Obama."
This article starring:
Dawood Ibrahim
Hafiz Mohammad
Masood Azhar
Posted by: john frum ||
12/02/2008
06:24 ||
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#1
BOHICA
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 7:13
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#2
OK ISI Chief, Mr. President or whoever is in charge of your failed country, please forward to RAW or the IB the photographs of the remaining 14 LeT terrorists who trained with captured, Azam Amir Kasav. Mr. Obama, please hold in abeyance the letter to the Indian PM admonishing him to prevent waterboarding Mr. Kasav.
#4
Deniability is all part of the fun of using non-state actors as players in your little war-by-proxy. Advice to those living in the tribal areas: stock up on tea and biscuits - you will be having many visitors soon. And watch out for those little flying Hellfire Roombas!
#7
Hell, if all India were to do was let its crazies loose against Pakistan, it would eliminate Pakistan as a functioning country. Remember, the Indians outnumber the Pakis by 8-9 to 1; so even with a 2-1 loss ratio among the Indian crazies, they could wipe out the Paki population before they ran short on their own population.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/02/2008 18:29
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#9
ION MUMBAI, TOPIX > NEW MUMBAI TERROR THREAT: MORE TERRORISTS, ACCOMPLICES STILL LOSE IN INDIA; + NEW DELHI: MUMBAI TERROR GROUPS MAY SHIFT FOCUS TO COUNTRYSIDE, + LASHKAR-E-TAIBA AND MUMBAI MILITANTS DESIRE TO BREAK-UP INDIAN NATION, FOMENT ASIA-WIDE UNREST.
Also, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE PAKISTANI RESPONSE TO LIMITED INDIAN MILITARY STRIKES: SWIFT RETRIBUTION, "measured" + wid potentially rapid easy escalation towards nuclear-possible Indo-Pakis regional conflict]
INDIA received warnings from US intelligence in October of a possible terrorist attack "from the sea" on targets in Mumbai, CNN and ABC News reported today.
Unnamed US intelligence officials told ABC they had warned their Indian counterparts in mid-October of a potential attack "from the sea against hotels and business centers in Mumbai". One intelligence official even mentioned specific targets, including the Taj hotel, the TV news service said.
CNN said Indian sources confirmed that US officials warned them twice of a possible attack on Mumbai.
About ten gunmen landed in rubber dinghies on the beaches of Mumbai on Wednesday and wreaked havoc with automatic weapons and hand grenades, in a 60-hour assault that killed at least 172 people, including two Australians, and injured close to 300.
Indian intelligence officials told ABC News that on November 18 they intercepted a satellite phone call to an address in Pakistan used by the leader of the Lashkar e Taiba terrorist group, revealing a possible sea-borne attack. The group is believed to be behind the bloody Mumbai attacks.
US officials also said US intelligence has been tracking prepaid SIM cell phone cards recovered from the Mumbai terrorists, which has led them to a "treasure trove" of leads from Pakistan and several possible connections to the United States, ABC reported. They said one of the SIM cards may have been purchased in the United States.
No further details were provided because of the ongoing investigation, ABC reported.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008
06:11 ||
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#1
Hope the US Intel Community underscores that some of that telephone traffic (that the story is based on) passed through the US, so we need to indemnify US companies from law suits. We have 14 terrorists at large, perhaps in India already, so let's get on this.
#4
Disturbing that some were based here and had help.
I didn't read that those who carried out the attacks were from the U.S., DarthVader, but rather that the LeT have connections providing support in the U.S.-- probably money and "stuff". We already knew there are those here whose support is not only vocal but material; it's nice that Intelligence now has actual phone numbers to trace.
And as many signs point to LeTs involvement in the Mumbai attacks, it should be noted that LeT terrorists are known to be operating inside the U.S. A number of LeT operatives trained in Pakistani terror camps have been arrested, tried, and convicted here at home, most notably those involved in the Northern Virginia jihad network. Other U.S. citizens have trained in LeT camps and been killed in operations, including Jibreel al-Amreekee, a 19-year-old convert to Islam from Atlanta killed in 1997 during a LeT attack on an Indian Army post. And two of the brothers of LeT leader and founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed were arrested in December 2006 on immigration charges while serving as imams of mosques in the Boston area.
#3
Ahmed added that the U.S., Israel and India are working to dismantle Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and the country's nuclear program.
I sure hope so. The entire world would be a lot better off.
#4
More and more I like the idea of India deploying a division or two to Afghanistan, to seal the border with Pakistan. Not only would it put the blocks to the terrorists who cross the border, but it would force the Pak army to occupy the troublesome enclaves.
The Pak seething would be amazing. No need for India to attack directly.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 10:34
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#4
"...[nor,] despite a flying visit to the Falklands and a couple of wet weekends in Wales, have I ever been attracted to sheep-shagging. But I imagine it feels a bit like dealing with Messrs Miller, Murphy and the Law R Cool kids: No matter how often you roger them senseless, they keep on bleating."
#5
Somebody got "punked" in this article but it sure wasn't Steyn. I'd say the three characters who took him on certainly regret it now. Of course, maybe they LIKE being "punked"...
#6
God bless Mr. Steyn. The man has a knack for putting these uppity, liberal, Western Civ-hating, cultural-moral relativists in their place, I must say.
A paid FBI informant in the case of five men accused of plotting to kill soldiers on Fort Dix said he didn't understand at first why his handlers sent him to make contacts in a place that hardly seemed like a hub of criminal activity. In July 2006, Besnik Bakalli was to seek out three Albanian-speaking brothers in a Dunkin' Donuts shop in Cinnaminson in suburban South Jersey.
A few weeks later, he told jurors, he saw why the men might seem dangerous to authorities: Riding with them and another suspect to a fishing spot on the Jersey shore, the men laughed as they showed him videos of American troops being shot by snipers in Iraq and U.S. military vehicles exploding. "I was scared," Bakalli told jurors. "I never saw these videos before. I'm thinking, 'Who are these people and what am I doing here?'"
The accused men, all in their 20s at the time of their May 2007 arrests, are foreign-born Muslims who lived for years in the comfortable Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill. They are charged with conspiracy to kill military personnel, attempted murder and weapons offenses. If convicted, the men could face life in prison.
The government built the case against them largely with hundreds of hours of secret recordings made by Bakalli and another paid informant, Mahmoud Omar, who spent 13 days testifying earlier in the trial. Defense lawyers deny the men were seriously planning anything.
In more than five hours of testimony Monday, Bakalli said the defendants talked about Islam, their admiration for Osama bin Laden, martyrdom, a war between America and the Muslim world and guns. But he was not asked by the prosecutor who questioned him about either Fort Dix or any specific plan to attack it.
Bakalli told jurors he was in jail in May 2006 as the government tried to have him deported. FBI agents came to him and offered him work as an informant. Bakalli, who was once convicted , and later pardoned , for shooting a man in his native Albania, said he was willing to help the government in the hope that he could stay in the United States. "I can have a better life here that I never had in my country," Bakalli told jurors.
So in early July 2006, his handlers sent him to the Dunkin' Donuts. Indeed, three Albanian brothers , Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka , showed up. Bakalli told jurors he spoke Albanian into his cell phone to get the attention of the men. It worked. That day, he drank coffee with them. Within a few weeks, he was going to their mosque and, later that month, on the fishing trip with them and Mohamad Shnewer.
In February 2007, he went with the men and others on a weeklong retreat at a rented house in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. He said he hoped the trip would merely be a relaxing vacation. Deputy U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick asked him what the trip turned out to be. "Training," Bakalli said, "for jihad" , or holy war. He said the men spent the first night looking for guns to buy, then went to shooting ranges and played paintball. "It was not a vacation for me," Bakalli said. "I started to figure that out."
On one recording, made the night before they went to the Poconos, Dritan Duka is heard as he is showing a gun to Bakalli, who had told the men that he spent three months in the Kosovo Liberation Army. Bakalli, who keeps describing guns as "hot" and "cute," tried to open the weapon. Dritan Duka teased him when he wasn't able to do so.
Fitzpatrick asked if he was afraid he'd be discovered as an informant. Bakalli said he was.
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader praised the three Bali bombers recently executed in Indonesia and criticized Saudi and other Arab leaders for participating in a U.N. interfaith conference in a recording posted on the Web Monday.
Ayman al-Zawahri said in the audio recording on an Islamic Web site that Indonesia and other governments in the Islamic world are protecting the interests of the "Crusaders" and the Jews and preventing Muslims from joining the jihad, or holy war, against them. The 22-minute recording is al-Zawahri's third in less than two weeks.
The recording contained short statements by two of the men executed in Indonesian in which they call on Muslims to continue the jihad against the United Sates and the West. The three men had urged retaliation for their pending deaths in countless TV interviews broadcast to a national audience in Indonesia before they were executed by firing squad on Nov. 9, prompting some critics to accuse authorities of allowing them to cultivate an image as Islamic martyrs. Al-Zawahri praised the three men as "unshaken heroes who adhered to their faith."
Al-Zawahri described a Nov. 13 U.N. interfaith conference as a "ridiculous play organized by the Saudi government under the pretext of interfaith dialogue that other Arab and Islamic governments took part in." He said the meeting was "an exposed trick to hold direct talks with Israel." The 80 countries at the event issued a declaration rejecting the use of religion to justify acts of terrorism and other violence against innocent civilians. The two-day meeting was initiated by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and brought 14 world leaders to New York, including the heads of Pakistan and Afghanistan and Israel's president.
The al-Qaida posting included video images from the conference showing Israeli President Shimon Peres addressing the meeting, as well as the Saudi king and two senior clerics from al-Zawahri's native Egypt. "The strange thing is that the Saudi rulers who call for dialogue are far away from talking to their people. ... They are ready for a dialogue with anyone whom the United Sates orders them to talk to," he said.
Osama bin Laden's deputy also accused the Saudis of helping the United States form and finance the groups of former insurgents who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq known as awakening councils.
The Web posting was produced by al-Qaida's media arm, al-Sahab, and was posted on an Islamic Web site that frequently carries al-Qaida statements.
MUHALLADIYA, Iraq -- At this dusty combat outpost 4 miles west of Mosul, Iraqi soldiers complain that they haven't been paid in four months, even though the nation's coffers are bulging with tens of billions of petro-dollars.
Stationed along a key highway used by insurgents, the soldiers live in old shipping containers without water or electricity. Their only furniture is a few mattresses flung on the floor. "In the winter it's very cold, and in the summer it's boiling," said Ibrahim Hassan, 36, who shared a container with four other soldiers.
Short on everything from housing to Humvees to bullet-proof vests, their training suspect and their society racked with tensions, Iraq's security forces are being reborn in places like this, with massive American assistance to prepare them for the moment when U.S. troops are no longer on the ground.
The clock is ticking. President-elect Barack Obama, when naming his national security team Monday, reiterated that his promised 16 months for withdrawing U.S. combat forces was "the right time frame." And he said the recently approved U.S.-Iraq security accord--requiring all 150,000 U.S. forces to withdraw from major cities such as Mosul by mid-2009 and the rest of the country by the end of 2011--put the U.S. on a "glide path" toward accomplishing that.
The area around Mosul, a city of 1.8 million people that straddles the Tigris River, offers a good window into the Iraqi soldiers' preparedness and challenges. In 2006 and 2007, it was overrun by insurgents and has seen some of the toughest fighting since.
During a visit by a journalist last month, U.S. officers, Iraqi commanders and residents painted a generally positive picture of the progress being made, even if slip-ups at checkpoints and outbreaks of gunfire offer persistent hints of how difficult the road ahead may be.
"The situation is better than it was five or six months ago," said Gen. Abdullah al-Sattar, commander of the 17,000-strong 2nd Iraqi Army Division, headquartered in Mosul. "I'm not going to be afraid if the coalition forces leave. The 16 months will be enough time for us."
The general's confidence was not shared by everyone under him, though. "I want [the U.S. forces] to stay a long time," said Col. Tawfiq Abdullah, one of the general's officers. "This is my opinion. . . . I think three years--until we have all parts of our military [ready]."
Five years after the Iraqi army was dissolved by the Bush administration, the readiness of the new Iraqi security forces varies from place to place, with the military generally much further along than the nation's lightly regarded police force.
In Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, where Al Qaeda in Iraq remains potent, several hundred U.S. troops still operate from bases in the city and patrol its streets backed by hulking Stryker Armored Vehicles, evidence that Iraqi forces still need U.S. soldiers as advisers and partners in combat.
Only two years ago, Iraq's police force was little more than a collection of militias that, in some cases, acted as death squads, according to U.S. military officials. In Mosul, the Iraqi military lived on large bases on the city's periphery and rarely challenged the insurgents.
Using the troop surge strategy that worked elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. commanders initially sent in several thousand U.S. troops with armored vehicles and took back Mosul. Then, with Iraqi assistance, U.S. troops set up traffic checkpoints throughout the city to deter insurgent movements and built dozens of heavily fortified bases in many of Mosul's most dangerous neighborhoods.
As the violence ebbed, Iraqi forces stepped forward to operate the checkpoints and launch raids and patrols--often in conjunction with U.S. forces--from the fortified bases.
One neighborhood in Mosul where security has improved dramatically is Hay Al Tinek, where signs of past fighting can be seen in concrete walls blasted to rubble and roads littered with burned-out vehicles. Hashim Qasim, 44, a teacher at the Halab elementary school, said last year that the neighborhood was controlled by insurgents. They kidnapped and killed residents, set land mines and detonated so many bombs that he often prohibited students from playing in the school courtyard.
Today, he said, the Iraqi army controls the neighborhood. The troops operate out of a combat outpost opened in September only about a mile north of the school. "Before there was no army or police here," he said. "When the army came, the situation changed."
#1
I'm still assuming that this insanity - actually exiting Iraq any time in the near future - was just a foolish campaign stance that will be easily finessed into the memory hole. If that twink about to become president actually does it, it will be among the greatest betrayals in our history, not to mention a self-inflicted strategic catastrophe.
How anyone in uniform (or thinking about it) could accept such an amateurish eff-up is beyond me.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the new Legislature in to work on its first day, declaring a fiscal emergency Monday in response to the state's deteriorating finances and urging lawmakers to "get off of their rigid ideologies." How about your multi-billion dollar Global Warming spending?
But even as Schwarzenegger warned that California could run out of cash within two months, there was little indication that the Capitol's partisan gridlock has waned enough to allow for an easy resolution to the state's $28-billion budget gap.
Republican lawmakers, who last week blocked a Democratic proposal to cut billions of dollars from schools, healthcare and welfare programs while tripling the vehicle license fee, quickly reiterated their opposition to any new taxes, which both Schwarzenegger and Democrats say are indispensable. Democratic legislators again dismissed some of Schwarzenegger's proposals to ease labor rules on business in order to boost the economy.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Look for CA legislators to fall dead from strokes when they see next year's tax revenues.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 7:28
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#2
Zim politicians haven't fallen dead from strokes [internal types at least]. Why should the legislatures, bureaucrats, and academics of California be different. Operating on a third world model just makes for interesting times. Unfortunately, for the bordering states who'll end up getting a lot of economic refugees, they haven't altered their residency status requirements, so the socialist plague that created this mess will just spread.
#3
I have a very dear friend out in California, who draws a pension from the state for working nearly 30 years as a high school teacher (music and history) - in November his pension check was one quarter of what it was supposed to be. He says, laughingly, that if December's check is down at the same amount, it wasn't just a weird and temporary hiccup. He'll have to get a job after Christmas. (He's in his 80s, and a WWII vet. In good health, but still...) Anyone else hear anything odd like this going on with California state pensions being short-changed lately?
#4
That's a dog act, I hope its just an error that can be corrected. My father draws a pension from the police dept, he hasn't mentioned anything out of the ordinary to me. That's a city pension though, not a state fund. If that was widespread, I'm sure you'd be hearing a LOT of people raising hell.
Yes it is. Socialism doesn't work. That accident victim was run off the road by a government chartered armored car hauling money around and it ain't the first incident.
#8
Many of the problems in California can be laid directly at the feet of the federal government. We are severely impacted by illegal immigration. I don't know how many billions of dollars it costs us. I don't know if anybody does because the laws prevent making people prove they are citizens before giving them public services. But it has to be a whole helluva lotta money. This is a failure of the federal government so IMHO the feds should be helping us with the expenses.
But our state legislators are like so many spoiled children who are completely out of touch with reality. Arnold isn't perfect but he seems to be doing his best with an impossible situation. It shouldn't be rocket science to come up with a budget where spending does not exceed revenue. But when greed and corruption are involved then the logic gets too convoluted even for the criminals. I don't know what to do about that. It makes me fear for the future of American democracy. Our elected representatives are running this country right into the ground.
#12
We have government salary and pension obligations in CA that are unsustainable. On top of that the voters don't seem able to constrain themselves when it comes to idiotic propositions (high speed rail than no one will ride, govt funded stem cell research, etc, etc.). Fortunately, the repubs in the CA legislature are holding the line on raising taxes. This at least forces the argument over to cutting spending. We'll see how long they can hold out.
#13
A Russian scholar is predicting that the United States' current financial crisis will lead to the breakup of the country.
Igor Panarin, a professor at the diplomatic academy of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the newspaper Izvestia on Monday that America will break apart into six regions following the crisis.
"Dissatisfaction is growing, and it is only being held back at the moment by the elections, and the hope that [President-elect] Obama can work miracles," according to a translation by Bloomberg. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."
Panarin predicts the U.S. will split into: the Pacific, the South, Texas, the Atlantic coast, the central states and the northern states, and hinted that Alaska could be Russia's for the taking.
The professor said China and Russia will become the world's great regulators.
#17
I was busy banging my head against the wall in Iraq watching our do-nothing strategy fail when Ahnuld made his first and far as I know only attempt to actually fundamentally change the trajectory out here. His propositions were voted down, and since then he's been fighting a mostly tepid rear-guard action on fiscal matters, while beclowning himself on global-wormening and energy issues. Spectacular, epic, galactic-sized disappointment.
CA was warned years ago that its tax burden was so disproportionately on the upper bracket that huge revenue volatility was certain (here we are - as noted by a commenter, just wait til they see the new revenue figures in Sacramento and in big-metro/county offices).
Meanwhile, CA's tax burden is high overall. So we've got excessive taxes, disastrously stacked against wealth and success and entrepreneurship (this ignores the horrendous regulatory environment), and spending that is out of control.
Just anecdotes, I know. A friend teaches as a guest lecturer at a prominent state college (not a UC). The salaries of the tenured profs are unbelievable - and for this, they plagiarize for their publications, back-stab in a petty manner that defies belief, and mostly teach crap to young minds (we're talking social sciences obviously, not geology or accounting).
The dumbing-down of the country - especially the "educated" elements - may lie behind much of this. CA libs and others are suckers for any stupid faddish "idea" that comes along - stem cell institutes, high-speed rail, unicorn power, you name it. It's rare to meet someone who really has any clue about anything even a few inches outside their professional competence.
Could be we're at that point, long feared by many right-wing death beasts like us, that public "education" and an unhinged politicized media and culture have tipped the balance, and common sense and history have lost, permanently, to prejudice, ignorance, and emotion.
#18
IIRC State revenues increased by something like 40% over 2000.Unfortunately the expenditures increased by approx 70%. The intelligent voters of blue-county California also locked in mandated %'s of expenditures to education and other causes. An all-around clusterfuck. Any cut in next year's budget increases is slammed in the press as "budget cuts" with willing complicity by the LAT, SF Chron, Sac Bee, et al.
What is needed is a mandated return to a prior year's (say 2005) budget, and all increases offset by cuts instead of tax increases
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008 20:36
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After eight years as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton is trading places, moving from Congress to the incoming administration. On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he asked his former rival to be his secretary of state.
That means the scramble begins to replace Clinton on Capitol Hill. Among those mentioned to take her seat as New York's junior senator is her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
At a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, after Obama announced her selection, Clinton said she wanted to "thank my fellow New Yorkers who have, for eight years, given me the joy of a job I love with the opportunity to work on issues I care deeply, in a state that I cherish."
Clinton added that "leaving the Senate is very difficult for me."
The task of choosing a successor falls to David Paterson, New York's Democratic governor. Whomever he picks would serve for two years, before a special election in November 2010 to decide who fills the last two years of Clinton's term.
Paterson has a strong bench to choose from. There are a number of contenders, including at least eight members of New York's delegation in the House of Representatives, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Caroline Kennedy, and her cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr.
"This is not an election. This is not a campaign. It's a constituency of one. David Paterson. It's all about what the governor wants to do," said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report. "Paterson has said he would prefer someone from upstate New York, or a woman or an Hispanic candidate," Rothenberg said.
As for some of the more unconventional picks, Rothenberg said Paterson could "try to make a splash with a big name like Robert Kennedy Jr." or a "quirky interesting pick" of someone like Caroline Kennedy, who is not a politician.
But some are suggesting the former president should take his wife's seat. In an op-ed column last week in The Washington Post, journalists Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac urged Paterson to "send Bill Clinton to the Senate."
If that happened, Clinton would become the third former president to go from the White House to Capitol Hill. President John Quincy Adams lost his re-election bid in 1828. Two years later he returned to Washington after winning election as a congressman from his home state of Massachusetts. He served in the House of Representatives until his death in 1848.
President Andrew Johnson also served as a Senator from Tennessee in 1875, 7 years after the Senate acquitted him of impeachment charges. He died a few months after taking office.
Bill Clinton would bring gravitas to the job, and he obviously knows his way around Washington. But some Democratic strategists who used to work for Bill Clinton don't think the former president would want to go from leader of the free world to being the junior senator from New York. Clinton's office deferred to Paterson's office when asked for a comment.
In a statement released Monday in which he praised the choice of Hillary Clinton for the nation's top diplomatic post, Paterson said, "In order to appoint the best possible candidate to replace Sen. Clinton, I am consulting with a wide variety of individuals from all across New York State.
"I expect to announce Sen. Clinton's replacement when the position becomes officially vacant," he said.
#10
Yep, I think that this may have always been Rahm's the donk plan. Give her a year or two at State, to provide, experience, high vizibility, travel... she's a prime candidate for either position or a Obama-Clinton ticket in 2012. I fully expect her first trip abroad to be to Communist China, followed by monthly trips back for either herself or Slick.
Oil prices on Monday fell below $50 a barrel for only the second time this year after Opec delayed a further production cut until mid-December. The oil cartel, which controls 40 per cent of the world's production, said demand was weakening fast with the global economic crisis but it agreed to wait until a meeting in Oran, Algeria, on December 17 to further reduce its output.
In late trade, Nymex January West Texas Intermediate fell $5.15 to $49.28 a barrel. ICE January Brent fell $5.52 to $47.97 a barrel.
Abdalla El-Badri, Opec secretary-general, said the cartel was heading for a cut. "We are all geared towards a cut in Algeria...There will be action there."
The cartel has promised to lower its production by about 2m barrels a day in the past two months but analysts said it had so far cut about 1m-1.2m b/d.
Ed Meir, of MF Global in New York, said that, in spite of knowing that the oil markets were oversupplied, Opec decided to pass on making any quota cuts at its weekend meeting in Cairo. "Apparently, Gulf producers insisted on stricter compliance of existing cuts before new ones were introduced," Mr Meir said.
The drop in oil prices was exacerbated by signs of sharply lower manufacturing activity worldwide in November, traders said.
Oil products were also lower. Nymex January RBOB gasoline dropped 8.9 cents to $1.1197 per gallon while Nymex January heating oil dropped 10 cents to $1.6270 a gallon.
#1
...I suspect that this is a great deal of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Any production cut at this point would be shooting themselves in the foot, as the world economic situation isn't going to change. On top of that, when it comes to production cuts, OPECs record isn't good. They tend to talk a good fight while cheating left and right. It shows how little these people understand the market and its forces that they seem to believe the speculator-driven price hikes of the last year or so were a perfectly natural event that will happen again just by their wish that it happen.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/02/2008 6:09
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#2
here's hoping a lot of speculators lost their asses
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2008 8:26
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A lot of these Opeckers are in a cash flow situation. They are going to lose their shirts, because their spending has doomed them in times of low oil prices. They HAVE to sell oil to get cash, and that drives the price down even lower.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/02/2008 12:59
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#4
Yesterday I filled up at $1.67, on the way past the same station today it's 1.61.
Speculators, DIE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/02/2008 13:40
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#5
The true speculators have made a killing since the same folks who added the last $20-30/bbl on the way up are the ones currently pushing oil down. The crude price will undershoot in the same way it overshot thus providing a nice opportunity for the speculators to exchange their short positions for longs.
I don't know what to say about this story. Brings tears to my eyes are white hot fury to my heart. Go to the story and see the pictures. Religion of Piece my ass. Until every Iman is condeming this from the rooftops of each and every mosque I'll won't believe that Islam is anything but a religion of Death, destruction and hatred.
H/T: Anti-Itiotarian Rottweiler
What horrors has this two-year-old child seen? And how much does he understand?
His face wracked with sobs as he cries for his mother, tiny Moshe Holtzberg has had a miraculous escape: He was inside the Jewish centre stormed by Islamic militants during last week's Mumbai attacks.
His rabbi father and mother were both murdered by the militants. Moshe was rushed to safety - drenched in blood - after his nanny found him crying by their bodies.
He only turned two this week. Today he attended the emotionally-charged memorial service for his parents at a Mumbai synagogue before being flown to Israel.
Now he is safe in the care of his mother's parents - but what effect the trauma of his horrifying ordeal has had on him remains to be seen.
'I don't know that he can comprehend or that he will remember seeing his parents shot in cold blood,' said Robert Katz, a New York-based fund-raiser for an Israeli orphanage founded by the boy's family. Read the whole thing.
#1
Nice picture of the good jihadi there, too: Perforated, bloody and already starting to rot. 100,000 down, millions to go.
And while we're at it, let's not forget the soul-dead Nazi beasts at StormFront, who were gloating today over the slaughter of the Holtzbergs.
We're watching you, Nazi/KKK scum and we have eyes everywhere. We'll show up in person when you inbreds least expect it. Now go back to your pork rinds and moonshine.
#2
His rabbi father and mother were both murdered by the militants.
Militants? Even calling them militants is an outrage. These jihadis are disgusting, murderous thugs--scum of the earth. They should be called what they are--ba$tard offspring of swine. No, that is not fair to pigs. Pigs don't engage in such dastardly, bastardly abjectly evil deeds.
Staging a global forum on climate change is a dilemma, for it adds to very problem it is trying to solve. How about a video conference? Or maybe some emails.
Around 13,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) will add to Earth's greenhouse effect from the December 1-12 meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UNFCCC said. That estimate is based on a turnout of 8,000 people, but as of Sunday 10,657 people had registered for the talks.
Poland, which is hosting the meeting, "plans to offset the total emissions resulting from the conference once a final calculation has been made," the UNFCCC said. The modern equivalent of buying indulgences.
Under offsets, anyone emitting carbon can invest in a scheme that mitigates the pollution by the same amount. Typical projects involve reforestation or transferring cleaner technology to developing countries in order to ease their own emissions of greenhouse gases. More like easing their own guilty consciences, if they have any. A suggestion: unplug Al Gore's house for a awhile. Put your (our) money where your mouth is.
The UNFCCC, based in Bonn, is sending 200 people to the Poznan talks, who are traveling by the most "carbon-friendly means possible," either by train or bus, it said. The Poznan talks are a stepping stone to a new global treaty on climate change, scheduled to be concluded in Copenhagen in December 2009. Watch your wallets, good people. My bet is that the new treaty will be Kyoto on Steroids.
Greenhouses gases are so called because they linger in the atmosphere and trap the heat from the Sun, instead of letting it radiate out into space. As a result, Earth's surface is slowly warming, inflicting potentially dangerous impacts on its climate system.
Most greenhouse gases come from the burning of oil, coal and gas. Emissions from the Poznan talks come principally from delegate travel and heating and lighting the conference venue. And flambe's. Don't forget the lighting of the desserts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/02/2008
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#5
Simply convince them that not-breathing will end pollution of several million units of carbon dioxide, also to help promote plant growth, simply lay down at the base of some tree (Fruit or nut bearing preferably) and cease polluting the atmosphere(Stop breathing).
I see it as a win-win situation.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/02/2008 17:46
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Doctors in Saudi Arabia witnessed a rare phenomenon after a baby girl was born pregnant, press reports said. The baby girl's mother was initially pregnant with twins, but doctors said the fetuses developed abnormally causing a rare condition known as fetus in fetu, Britain's Metro newspaper reported.
Under normal circumstances the babies would be born twins; however, in this case the fetus grew inside its sister creating what has been described as a 'unique case in the world.' the paper said.
A fetus in fetu occurs in 1 in 500,000 births and is technically considered alive and has sparked debates about whether or not removing the baby can be considered murder. But doctors say the fetus is only alive in the sense that its component tissues have not yet died or been eliminated.
In January, a two month old Indonesian baby was diagnosed with a tumor after her stomach began swelling, but doctors later discovered she was carrying a five month old fetus.
In 2006, a 36-year-old Indian farmer had his twin brother removed after the man sought medical assistance for a swollen stomach that hampered his breathing. Doctors initially diagnosed the man with a stomach tumor but after surgery they found human genitalia, hairs, limbs and a jaw.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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#2
I guess that's one way to prevent being molested by a 50 year old Arabian.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 7:04
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I wonder how the Islamic radical crazies spin this. Is this a virgin birth? Is the father dishonored by the fact that one of his daughters is pregnant. So, he can kill her with Allah's blessing, right? What about his wife? Surely she can't be without sin in this manner. Questions, questions, questions. I await expert religious pronouncements on this matter breathlessly.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/02/2008 11:02
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Bombing attacks targeting Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and a U.S. patrol the northern city of Mosul left at least 31 people dead and dozens more injured, Iraqi officials said, making Monday one of the deadliest days in recent weeks in Iraq.
In eastern Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt at the back gate of a police academy about 1 p.m. Two minutes later another bomber exploded a booby-trapped car at the main entrance of a nearby government building, said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, the top spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Baghdad.
In a statement, the U.S. military said 15 police officers died and 35 officers and civilians were injured in the attack. Iraqi authorities said the blasts killed 11 people and injured 34.
When the blast occurred, students were leaving the academy after classes, said Lt. Ahmad Kadhim, a member of the SWAT team assigned to guard the academy. He said his men had left their posts to receive their salaries. "The bomber seized this opportunity, so it seems the suicide attack was organized," Kadhim said. "The bomber received information from inside the academy telling him that the SWAT team is not available."
In Mosul, a suicide bomber struck a U.S. military patrol, detonating his explosives about 9:40 a.m., the U.S. military said in a statement. Initial reports indicated that no U.S. soldiers were injured but that "the battle damage assessment may change." A hospital official in Mosul said the blast killed 15 people and wounded 25 others.
Although its influence has diminished in other parts of Iraq, the Sunni insurgency remains resilient in Mosul, staging bold attacks in recent months targeting not only U.S. and Iraqi forces but Christians and local journalists.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari made an urgent appeal to India on Sunday not to punish his country for the terror unleashed on Mumbai last week, warning that militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
As the government in New Delhi faced mounting domestic recriminations after the three-day terrorist rampage in Mumbai, Zardari urged India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resist striking out at his government should investigations show that Pakistani militant groups were responsible for the attacks.
Zardar warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbors. "Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Zardari in an interview with the Financial Times.
Not Lashkar-e-Taiba, that's for sure ...
"We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the United States or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Zardari. "Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace."
The Mumbai assaults that killed 195 people bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group blamed for previous attacks in India. Indian officials said most, perhaps all, of the 10 Islamist attackers who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan.
The fallout from the three-day rampage in Mumbai, India's commercial center, has threatened to unravel India's improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India's security minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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#1
militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region
He's right about that part - and those militants are called the ISI. They've "precipitated" numerous wars.
#2
See also FREEREPUBLIC > ISLAMIC TERRORISTS TARGET: INDIA-PAKISTAN WAR; + APOLOGETIC MUMBAI KILLERS:"WE DIDN'T GET THE MEMO ABOUT OBAMA [winning 2008 USELEX].
ION DRUDGEREPORT > IRAN WILL HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB IN OBAMA'S FIRST YEAR/EXPERTS WARN BARACK OBAMA OF "HORNET'S NEST" IN MIDDLE EAST [CFR-Brookings Institute Report/Nuke Headache = GEOPOL JIGSAW]; + PRAVDA > US WILL NOT BE ABLE TO STRIKE ANY NUCLEAR BLOW AT RUSSIA WITHOUT RESPONSE [1st- andor any 2nd-Strikes]!?
The emir of Kuwait accepted the resignation of the cabinet on Monday and asked the outgoing prime minister to form a new government, parliament speaker Jassem al-Kharafi said. Kharafi told reporters that the emir, who has the last say in politics, had informed him of the decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, the Israeli army said.
An Israeli army spokesman said troops entered Nablus to arrest what he described as a wanted man. When the man attempted to get away, the troops fired warning shots and then fired at his lower body, the spokesman said. He was hit and was transferred to an Israeli hospital, where he died of his wounds, he said.
Bled out from a foot wound ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2008
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I suspect this is a case of finding what you expect to find. Alzheimer's commonly appears in people around 70, with an incubation period of 10-15 years where the signs aren't visible. So we should see people who were born in 1938 or prior showing the signs, and people born 1948-1953 incubating, their brains steadily shrinking.
McDonalds opened their first store in 1955. Prior to that we had to make do with the Dairy Queen, Twin Kiss, the Dixie Diner, Hot Dog Frank's, Bill Jones' Diner, and probably thousands of other local or regional dispensers of burgers and dogs, fries and shakes. All of these prepared meals to order, rather than grabbing them out from radiation emitted by infrared lamps at a Frederick Taylor-measured productivity-maximized rate using 2.8 man minutes per customer order.
The regionals also sold a wider variety of foods: Illinois and Iowa and neighboring regions were big on pork cutlets. You could get fried brains in Missouri, though I'm not sure why. Nectar and ambrosia in Texas was referred to as a hamburger basket and an order of fried beans. And all across the south you could buy things that taste like chicken but weren't. All of these were delivered by young women named Madge or Trixie or Millie, sometimes on roller skates.
If you were born in 1938 or prior, the fast food phenom didn't hit until you were 17 if you were at the first McDonald's on opening day, with your DA haircut and your gaspers rolled up in the sleeve of your white tee shirt. You'd expect to find those of us who matured subsequent to fast food as an industry -- McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and similar joints -- incubating at a much heavier rate, while those in their 80s would be relatively free of the disease.
Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.
The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.
"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement.
"We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors ... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's."
Alzheimer's disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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#1
Couldn't the intake of ANYTHING, combined with the right 'genetic factors' adversely affect several brain substances? I'm sure Nitrogen will give you Alzheimer's if you have enough genetic disposition to it. This is just another attempt to modify peoples behavior to suit you own values. I don't think academics have any more credibility than journalists do any more.
#2
On the other hand, these researcher's did mention that vast quantities of lutefisk were conducive to a long life, healthy skin and fresh breath. I suspect some bias.
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 7:30
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#3
I'll call hooey as well. For example, as a rule of thumb, Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia are mutually exclusive.
Those with less education are as a group more likely to develop Alzheimer's, as well.
#4
Most people do not have a diet of exclusively cheeseburgers, french fries and Coke. Even those who eat only at McDonalds have the option of a salad, orange juice, and a carton of milk on occasion. This feels like the tests that were used to show that cyclamates are dangerous while saccharine is safe, which infuriated my research biochemist father. Interestingly, as I understand it, Canada took the same research to support banning saccharine and promoting cyclamates.
It would be interesting to see a proper study following three identical groups of mice for at least a year: one group eating exclusively junk food, the second part junk food and part normal mouse kibble, and the third exclusively mouse kibble.
#8
I think a factor is the preservatives used in most American foods. Some fat is impossible to lose, as it is dense and fibrous, and will not yield even to liposuction. The doctors call it human transfat. American remains also fail to decompose as rapidly as others, if disinterred. The very long shelf life of hamburger buns, processed cheese, and all the transfat from french fries is only part of the story, as nearly all our food from the grocery store has preservatives. Even OTC meds have shelf lives of 3-10 years! Even our milk is homogenized by law but other nations often cook using fresh products or are literally homemade. When Native Americans or the Caribbean islanders eat store bought food and fast food, they gain weight and have diabetes and other diseases of obesity they didn't have when eating indigenous diets. Then there is the corn syrup in so many products, like soft drinks and candy. They need a test population such as rural Asians that eat no junk food or even access to store bought products. Also, I've seen what was called Alzheimers with fairly rapid onset in a hunter who ate mostly deer and elk, besides homegrown garden vegetables; it was Kreutzfeld-Jacobs (sp) or a form of Mad Cow Disease found in wild game. This disease is caused by prions, a protein not killed by heat. Cooking or sterilization procedures such as autoclaving surgical instruments will not destroy prions, making a misdiagnosis on a surgical patient a potential means of transmission.
#11
CNN AM > Pert basically argues that the human brain at birth is a self-contained, self-regulating/limiting pool of CHOLESTEROL, and that the addition of fast food cholester = fats puts the brain's normal cholesterol oper system in overload.
* REDDIT > THE SIX MOST GROSSEST ITEMS ON US FAST FOOD MENUS.
(AKI) - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region. In an interview with the British Financial Times newspaper, Zardari urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resist any attack if speculation confirmed the militants came from Pakistan.
"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Zardari. We're not too sure, actually, since Hafiz Saeed's not in jug.
Pakistan is supposedly fighting militants from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the border of Afghanistan.
"We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the United States or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Zardari. "Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace," he said.
New Delhi was facing growing criticism over its failure to anticipate the attacks and its response. The chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra has offered to resign amid criticism of the handling of the Mumbai attacks. Vilasrao Deshmukh said he was awaiting a Congress party decision. His deputy, RR Patil, has already resigned.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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Two more associates of "top criminal" Rozen were killed in an encounter between RAB men and their cohorts at Kadomtoli in the capital city early Monday, four days after the death of the ringleader in the same way.
Rolling up the network, RAB style, just like before ...
The deceased were identified as Babu, 26, and Suman, 25, known as 'killer Suman'.
Now known as 'killed Suman' ...
"Both of them were wanted on twelve systems in a number of criminal cases, including murder and extortion.
So they weren't loved by their mothers ...
They were listed criminal in the city's Jatrabari, Sabujbagh, Shyampur and Kadomtoli areas," a RAB officer said.
We have no idea where those places are, but they pro'ly gave money in the last election ...
Earlier on Nov 26, Rozen and one of his close aides, Bidyut, were killed in crossfire during another encounter with RAB at Shanir Akhra in the city.
Somehow we missed that one ...
Being informed that accomplices of Rozen gathered in Kadomtoli water-purification area to reunite the gang and plan crimes, ...
They meet at a water purification plant? What happened to the secret lair?
... a team of RAB-10 raided the area at about 3:05am to arrest them.
You can guess what happened next ...
"Sensing danger, ...
their spider senses collectively tingled
... the gangsters opened fire on RAB men, ...
Not that they hit anything, including the walls
... forcing them to fire back. During gunfire that lasted 25 minutes, Babu and Suman were caught in the line of fire and died instantly," says a RAB account of the shootout.
The elite force also recovered two revolvers, one pistol and 203 rounds of bullets from the spot.
No time to plant a shutter gun ...
Both the bodies were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.
"Here's two more for you, Dr. Quincy!"
"Stack 'em in the back with the others, Sam."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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The November 26 passing of Rozen's friend, Bidet was overlooked due to the the extreme mirth and laughter his name created. lotsa sophmoric humor there, you betcha.
#2
They meet at a water purification plant? What happened to the secret lair?
Give 'em a break, Doc. Vacant extinct volcanos are hard to come by in Bangla.
Indian and American officials are now reporting that the Mumbai attackers seem to have connections to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based Islamist organization. Among other analytical clues, over the weekend, one anonymous American official quoted in the Washington Post noted that Lashkar has a known "maritime" capability. I'm not sure how much seaworthiness a group needs to demonstrate in order to be labeled "maritime" terrorists, but I can testify to the existence of Lashkar's pontoon boat fleet, as I was not too long ago a passenger on that line.
Late in 2005, I travelled for The New Yorker to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to report on the earthquake that devastated the region. To facilitate international aid, the Pakistani government opened the region to journalists, creating a very rare opportunity to travel without escort and to poke around on the border. I was particularly interested in looking up Lashkar, which I had been following for many years. I made several visits to facilities run by its charity, called "Jamat-ud-Dawa," which is today tolerated openly by the government of Pakistan but banned as a terrorist organization by the United States on the grounds that it is merely an alias for Lashkar.
In Muzuffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, Jamat had brought in a mobile surgical unit staffed by long-bearded doctors from Karachi and Lahore--very impressive young men, fluent in English, who offered a reminder that unlike, say, the Taliban, Lashkar draws some very talented people from urban professions. (With its hospitals, universities, and social-service wings, Lashkar is akin to Hezbollah or Hamas; it is a three-dimensional political and social movement with an armed wing, not merely a terrorist or paramilitary outfit.) As part of its earthquake relief work, Lashkar ferried supplies to remote villages isolated on the far side of the churning Neelum River, one of the two snow-fed canyon rivers that traverse the area. I asked to take a ride with its volunteers, and their media officer (yes, they have media officers) agreed.
We rode in a van to the river's edge, scrambled down a rocky hillside and boarded one of Lashkar's rubber pontoon boats, about fifteen feet long, with a large outboard motor--useful for carrying relief supplies, but not coincidentally, also useful for infiltrating militants into Indian-held Kashmir. It has long been an open secret, and a source of some hilarity among foreign correspondents, that under the guise of "humanitarian relief operations," Lashkar practiced amphibious operations on a lake at its vast headquarters campus, outside Lahore. The events in Mumbai have taken the humor of these "humanitarian" rehearsals away. That day on the Neelum, I chatted with our thick-bearded captain in my very poor Arabic. He spoke Arabic as well--from his religious studies, he said, although he conceded, too, that he had travelled to Saudi Arabia, where it is well understood that Lashkar has raised money. I was also told that around the time of the earthquake they set up fund-raising operations in Britain, to tap the Pakistani diaspora there.
Earlier this year, I met with a Lashkar official in Lahore. We talked about how Jamat was getting along under international pressure. I took no notes and the conversation was intended for my informal guidance, but I came away with a number of impressions. On the one hand, the group's bank accounts remain unmolested by the Pakistani government, which gives Lashkar quite a lot of running room; on the other, the group resents the accommodations reached between Pakistan's government and the United States. Clearly, Lashkar knows what it must do to protect the Pakistan government from being exposed in the violent operations that Lashkar runs in Kashmir and elsewhere. For example, some of its younger volunteers wanted to join the fight with the Taliban in Western Pakistan and Afghanistan, my interlocutor said, and so Jamat had evolved an internal H.R. policy by which these young men would turn in their Jamat identity cards and go West "on their own time," much as think tanks allow policy scholars to take leaves of absence to advise political campaigns.
One question that will certainly arise as the Mumbai investigations proceed is what the United States should insist the government of Pakistan do about Jamat and Lashkar. Even for a relative hawk on the subject of Pakistan's support for Islamist militias, it's a difficult question--comparable to the difficult question of managing Hezbollah's place in the fragile Lebanese political system. To some extent, Pakistan's policy of banning Lashkar and tolerating Jamat has helpfully reinforced Lashkar's tendency toward nonviolent social work and proseltyzing. In the long run, this work is a threat to the secular character of Pakistan, but it is certainly preferable to revolutionary violence and upheaval right now. On the other hand, there is little doubt that the Army and I.S.I. continue to use Jamat's legitimate front as a vehicle for prosecution of a long-running "double game" with the United States, in which Pakistan pledges fealty to American counterterrorism goals while at the same time facilitating guerrilla violence against India, particularly over the strategic territory of Kashmir, which Pakistan regards as vital to its national interests.
Lashkar is a big organization with multiple arms and priorities and its leadership is undoubtedly divided over how much risk to take in pursuit of violent operations in India, particularly given the comfort and even wealth the group's leaders enjoy from their unmolested activities inside Pakistan. If the boys in Mumbai had support from Lashkar, did the group's leader, Hafez Saeed, who runs Jamat, know of the plan? If so, that would be a radical act that would likely mean the end of his charity's tenuous legitimacy.
If it can be credibly established that Saeed did not know--that this was a rogue operation of some sort, or a strategy cooked up by elements of Lashkar and groups such as the Pakistani Taliban or even Al Qaeda (perhaps conducted, too, with support from rogue elements of the Paksitan security forces)--that would be an even more complicated equation. I was at a conference this morning where another panelist well-versed in these issues said he would not be surprised if it turned out that Lashkar conceived the Mumbai attacks as a way to pull Pakistani Army units and attention away from the Afghan border and into defense positions in the east, to protect the country from the possibility of military retaliation by India. In any event, if the evidence does show that uncontrolled Lashkar elements carried out the attacks, it would force India's government to judge how to calibrate policy toward a civilian-led Pakistan government and Army command that may have little control over the very same Islamist groups that it purposefully built up and supported just a few years ago. If the evidence shows that these were purposeful attacks endorsed by Saeed and aided by elements of the Army, then the Pakistan government will have no choice but to at least make a show of closing down Jamat and arresting Saeed. Unfortunately, it has taken such action in the past, but that action has turned out to be partially symbolic and constructed for international consumption, rather than marking a true and complete change in policy.
The U.S. can do a few useful things here. At a minimum, it can provide transparent information about the investigation and where the facts lead, so that the Indian and Pakistani political systems are on the same footing; it can indict individuals and groups that can be established as culpable for the Mumbai murders, no matter who those individuals and groups are--even if they include officers in the Pakistan Army; and it can emphasize in public that the United States seeks the end of all Pakistani support for terrorist groups, no matter whether they are operating in Afghanistan, Kashmir, or Mumbai.
This article starring:
Hafez Saeed
Posted by: john frum ||
12/02/2008
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A bid by Somali pirates to hijack a luxury cruise ship was foiled by an international taskforce, officials said on Monday, as ransom negotiations for a Saudi super-tanker stretched into overtime.
A spokesman for the Danish navy, the current lead nation in the NATO taskforce, confirmed the operation had stopped a group of pirates from boarding a civilian vessel which reports said was carrying some 400 passengers and 200 crew.
"The (Danish) navy's tactical command on Sunday led a military operation, dispatching a vessel from the coalition to the aid of a civilian ship threatened by pirates, thereby preventing an act of piracy," Danish navy spokesman Jesper Lynge told AFP. Lynge said it was up to the countries involved to give details of the cruise ship involved.
But according to Danish TV2 News, six to eight armed pirates on two speed boats were observed speeding toward the Nautica, a cruise liner that had set sail from Florida. A French navy warship, alerted by the Danish Navy, scrambled a helicopter to the scene, which sent the pirates fleeing, TV2 News said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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#1
Captain Abraham Smollett: Where to, Captain Hawkins?
Jim Hawkins: To wherever the wind may take us!
Gonzo: Off to Zanzibar to meet the Zanzibarbarians!
Rizzo: Oh, brother! Here they go again!
(AKI) - India has lodged a formal protest with Pakistan's envoy over the brutal terror attacks in the city of Mumbai last week. Indian officials have repeatedly said in recent days there was evidence that the militants behind the attacks on two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre in Mumbai had Pakistani links.
The Ministry of External Affairs late Monday summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner, Shahid Malik, to the ministry's office in New Delhi to protest against the attacks.
Islamabad has denied any involvement in the attacks and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has warned that any escalation of tension between the two neighbours would be disastrous. But he conceded the terrorists may have come from Pakistan. "All the terrorists involved in the Mumbai blasts are related to Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Toiba," Zardari told London's Financial Times newspaper. "We are seriously concerned and the government won't let such acts go lightly."
India's new Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram vowed to "respond with determination and resolve" to the crisis.
The White House says it has heard nothing to suggest the Pakistani government was involved.
At least 188 people were killed - including 22 foreigners - after the attackers opened fire in several locations, including two hotels, a restaurant and a Jewish centre. The attacks on the two hotels - the luxurious Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi - and the Jewish centre resulted in three days of conflict between government security forces and militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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In January 2002, the government of Pakistan reluctantly announced that it would ban Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Kashmiri guerrilla group suspected of crossing the border into India and storming the Parliament in New Delhi, an incident that nearly triggered a war between the two nuclear-armed countries.
Almost seven years later, Lashkar-i-Taiba, or Army of the Pious, once again stands accused of helping to carry out a stunning terrorist attack in India, this time in Mumbai. The group, although technically still outlawed in Pakistan, has managed to expand its membership, its operational reach and its influence among the constellation of radical Islamist networks seeking to spark a revolution in South Asia.
Inside Pakistan, Lashkar still operates training camps for militants, runs a large charitable and social-services organization that has been embraced by Pakistani officials, and even has designated spokesmen to handle inquiries from the news media.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Dawood Ibrahim
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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More top Indian officials resigned Monday in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, while the U.S. and Indian governments stepped up pressure on Pakistan to cooperate in investigating responsibility for a siege that left 174 dead.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, which includes Mumbai, submitted his resignation as an acknowledgement of security failings that allowed the attack to extend over three days, and the ruling Congress Party was expected to accept his offer to step down. Deputy chief minister R.R. Patil resigned earlier on Monday, while Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil had quit the day before.
As authorities finished clearing bodies from the devastated Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, FBI forensic teams landed in the country and began visiting the hotel and other of the 10 sites attacked by a band of gunmen.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is en route to the country and said in London that the United States expects "total transparency and cooperation" from Pakistan as the investigation proceeds. The band of 10 attackers is thought to have trained in Pakistan, and the one surviving member of the group belongs to the outlawed Kashmiri guerrilla organization Lashkar-i-Taiba, according to Indian security officials.
"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said, according to the Associated Press. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation, and that's what we expect."
India's government, meanwhile, protested what it deemed "the use of Pakistani soil for terrorist activities." The complaint was included in a letter submitted to Pakistan's top diplomat in the country. Indian officials said that they also presented evidence of Lashkar-i-Taiba's involvement in the attacks, and warned that relations between the two countries would suffer if Pakistan did not help fully in the probe.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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OTTAWA -- With the announcement of a formal alliance among opposition parties, Canada moved closer Monday to removing its Conservative government without holding an election. If the pact -- signed by the Liberal and New Democratic parties and the Bloc Québécois -- is successful at dislodging the Conservatives, it will be the first time since 1926 that the federal government has changed hands without a vote.
Coalition governments are rare in Canada, and the opposition plan still faces constitutional and political uncertainties.
Adding to the political turmoil is speculation about how Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose government is outnumbered by the opposition in Parliament, will respond. Over the weekend, the Conservatives tried to stifle the movement against them by withdrawing some economic proposals, including an end to public financing of political parties, that angered the opposition parties and prompted the negotiations that led to their alliance.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2008
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#1
A modern day coup. The conservatives gained even more seats in last month's election, but the lefties are hell-bent on stealing the government. They're so desperate that they will ally themselves with a separatist party and install a PM who resigned from party leadership just a few weeks ago, after his dismal election loss.
#4
This has the potential to be a HUGE constitutional crisis. There are lots of people who are not pleased with the prospect of a "Separatist" party holding a veto over any government action. Almost as many as those who are displeased with this coup.
Much anger and ugly actions forthcoming from the Great White North.
#6
I find it hard to imagine such a coalition will last long. I remember when the a coalition removed the Conservatives in Germany. The greens wanted to enact all of their mad schemes and the Social Democrats had to explain the way the real world works and how they would be tarred and feathered and lose power if they followed the Green agenda. Of course today it would be different.
#5
Don't know, ever see those shows where the two guys go live with the locals...those gals are tough; to the point I wondered if the guys were going to war just to get away for a few weeks vacation.
#6
The New Guinea Highlands has been awash with tribal war since forever- it got to the stage where Government clinics were forbidden to treat arrow wounds. And nothing else ever gets done- the men are obsessed with trying to kill each other. Don't know if this infanticide story is true, or something to try and shock the men into waking up.
#7
This reminded me of another battle of the sexes. I think it was a village of Turks that the women were fed up with no indoor plumbing and denied the males sex until they got water pumps so they wouldn't have to haul it any more! I guess you can't just say no when the aggressive males apparently are testosterone-charged but killing their own babies? Too bad this kind of feminine persuasion doesn't catch on in Muzzie countries.
North Korea, one of the world's most shuttered states, pulled the curtains tighter on Monday, drastically cutting South Korean access to a joint industrial complex in the border city of Kaesong.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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#1
TOPIX > UNKNOWN SON OF KIM JONG-IL APPEARS TO CONTEND FOR SUCCESSION?
Also from SAME > ARMENIAN EXPERTS ASK RUSSIA TO GIVE PART OF DAGESTAN FOR NAGORNO-KARABAKH [compensation/over 4000 square kilometers of Russ]???
Lest we fergit, [old]RUSSIA THREATENS TO PREEMPTIVELY STRIKE NORTH KOREA [in case NK goes Nukeys].
#3
Kimmie said to tell the SorKs, "Thanks for the factories, sucka."
Posted by: ed ||
12/02/2008 7:03
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#4
Well without the technical experts from the south, their transportation, logistics, materials sourcing and consumer market, I don't see the point of even keeping the factories open. It was kind of a freebie for the north, if they don't want it, screw em. They had to bring in all the tech guys and managers from the south I think.
#5
North Korea restricts border traffic? Will anyone notice? I can't imagine a big influx in the northernly direction. North Korea is not exactly a vacation capital of the world.
#8
North Korea is crazy to think that any one will actually be affected by this. I don't know what will happen to them in the future, but they need to start opening their borders more in order to bring more power into the country. Their civilians will figure out a way around Kim Jong Ill's tyranny.
Posted by: John ||
12/02/2008 15:20
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#9
Obviously this isn't about South Korea. The North Korean elites are gearing up for an old-fashioned succession struggle, and would prefer to not have an audience for the familial bloodletting. God knows only what kind of kibitzing they're expecting from their sanctimonious and deluded cousins to the south.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/02/2008 19:25
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BANGKOK - One anti-government protester was killed and 22 wounded in a grenade attack at Bangkoks occupied domestic airport Tuesday, in the latest incident targeting demonstrators, emergency services said.
The explosion at Don Mueang airport came just hours after the Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD) ended a three-month sit-in at the prime ministers offices in Bangkok following a series of grenade attacks. The hundreds of protesters abandoning the premiers offices moved to Don Mueang and the main Suvarnabhumi international airport, which they seized last week as they upped a six-month campaign to topple the government.
A 29-year-old man was killed and 22 others wounded in bomb attack early Tuesday (at Don Mueang), an emergency services spokeswoman told AFP. She said the man died from shrapnel wounds to the stomach.
A grenade attack early Sunday at the prime ministers Government House offices wounded about 50 people, prompting PAD leaders on Monday to vacate the protest site and reinforce their numbers at the two occupied airports. Two protesters were killed in blasts at Government House last month, in attacks which led to the PADs final battle against the government, which has developed into an economically crippling week-long siege of the airports.
The PAD accuses the current administration of running the country on behalf of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and currently lives in exile abroad to escape corruption charges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2008
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(AKI) - Israeli warships on Monday turned away a Libyan ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza residents on Monday, forcing it to dock instead at the Egyptian port of Al-Arish. Israeli naval authorities stopped the Libyan vessel Al-Marwa, and ordered it to turn back, said Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz.
The Libyan ship was the first aid vessel sent by an Arab government to Gaza and was carrying 3,000 tonnes of food supplies, as well as Palestinian and international peace activists.
Libya immediately condemned Israel for preventing the boat from reaching Gaza.
According to Libya's official news agency Jana, quoted by Israeli TV Infolive, Libya claimed that a submarine, a fighter jet and two vessels were sent to force the boat to turn around.
Israel claims the blockade, imposed after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, is to counter indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli cities by Palestinian militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
What part of the term NAVAL BLOCKADE don't they understand?
And I didn't realize Libya was an ARAB govt(?)
Isn't Ghaddafi a Berber?
#2
Qadafi is from the bedouin Gadadfa, known in history as a wandering tribe of the Sirte Desert region. His birthplace (zawaya), however, was at Sirte, along the coast.
(AKI) - Sri Lanka was close to defeating the Tamil Tiger militants fighting for a separate homeland in the north of the country, according to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Speaking to the media in Rome, Rajapaksa said government forces had "cleared" the eastern province and was now focused on the north.
"I am confident," Rajapaksa said of the armed forces' prospects. "We have cleared the eastern province, we have had elections."
Now the president said the armed forces had made key gains in fighting members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the country's north. "We have got very close to their headquarters, we may be able to take over that too," he said.
Sri Lanka's military said on Monday it had recaptured a key northern town near the Tamil Tigers' Kilinochchi stronghold. They said that troops on Sunday took Kokavil, 20 kilometres south of Kilinochchi, 18 years after it was seized by the insurgents.
The pro-rebel TamilNet website has accused the air force of dropping cluster bombs at a camp for internally displaced people. On Thursday the Tigers' leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said that the government was living in "dreamland" if it expected outright military victory.
Rajapaksa made a two-day unofficial visit to the Italian capital Rome where he met Pope Benedict XVI before flying to Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#13
After further review it looks like the last aircraft is a little tail heavy. But, what the heck, a good pilot can handle a tailspin and once you get her trimmed you can sit back and enjoy the ride.
#15
3dc, No I just love aircraft and their accessories. I flew back seat in the Marine Corps and one of my good friends restores WWII fighters. He did a couple of P-40s and a Mustang. Flew one of the P-40s in the Movie 1941 and raced a Yak-11 at Reno. He also did some P-40 flight scenes in the Pearl Harbor movie a few years ago. Here is his latest project, F4F Wildcat:
When his planes were on static display he would put a sign on the control panel that read: Rides - Gas, A$$ or Grass
#16
(wipes drool from chin)
I Love Airplane Noise
Between the raspy growl of an old radial or the whiff of burnt JP in the morning, i don't even have time to think about anything else (well except for scantily-clad wimmins posing by 'em)
#21
3dc You're absolutely on target. There is nothing like a good set of Radial Engines. Doesn't that Twin Beach prop pitch motor cover (spinner) look a little long and hard. I wonder why?
#24
My dad was a ground crewman for B-24's in WWII. One of his best friends was very artistic, and did the nose art for several planes in the unit. Of course, today, those pictures would be banned for being at least R-rated.
Do they even do nose art on planes anymore?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/02/2008 17:31
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#25
Rambler:
I'm afriad I'll be referring you to the Rantburg IG's office for the mention of this sexist practice. I would recommend you block your schedule for the inevitable sensitivity training sessions.
The Australian National Imams Council condemned a recent study that accused Muslim preachers of sanctioning domestic violence and polygamy and stressed its support of women rights. The study accused Muslim imams, or preachers, of promoting domestic violence and spousal rape as well as sanctioning polygamy, which is illegal under Australian law.
The study found that preachers applied Islamic law only when it served men and hindered police investigations in cases of domestic violence. It also found that imams gave men the green light to rape their ex-wives under the pretext that they are still religiously married even if legally divorced.
"We understand Australian law very well and we are not trying to change it. We don't believe that problems facing the Muslim community will be solved through that"
Moez Nafti, ANIC president
The study by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council in Australia's southeastern state of Victoria was based on a series of interviews with lawyers and police officers, though the researchers noted that the ANIC had declined to be involved with the study. They presented their findings at an Islamic studies conference earlier this month at the University of Melbourne.
An ANIC statement Friday condemned the study's findings and said it was based on the individual mistakes of a few preachers. "This study is not objective," ANIC president sheikh Moez Nafti told AlArabiya.net, adding that he did not agree with outcome.
When asked about polygamy, Nafti said that a group of imams had called for sanctioning it but that ANIC refused because Australian law prohibits it. "The media took advantage of the situation to give the impression that all preachers are like that," he said. "We understand Australian law very well and we are not trying to change it. We don't believe that problems facing the Muslim community will be solved through that."
Nafti also expressed his disappointment that NCEIS did not invite any imams to the conference even though the conference basically tackled issues related to imams. "This disregards the role of imams in the Muslim community," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
President Bush says "islam is peace," therefore everything a muslim does promotes peace.
India on Monday demanded Pakistan take swift action over deadly attacks in Mumbai it said were carried out by militants from its rival neighbor. Indian investigators said the Islamist gunmen who raided India's financial capital, killing 183 people in a three-day assault, had months of commando training in Pakistan.
The fallout prompted a second senior politician from the ruling Congress party to resign as fury grew among Indians over apparent intelligence lapses and a slow response from security forces.
The attacks against two luxury hotels and other landmarks in the city of 18 million are a setback for improving ties between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
After days of finger pointing, India called the Pakistani ambassador in New Delhi to the foreign ministry. "He was informed that the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by elements from Pakistan. Government expects that strong action would be taken against those elements, whosoever they may be, responsible for this outrage," a foreign ministry statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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President-elect Barack Obama Monday formally announced a national security team that is led by his onetime chief Democratic rival and includes a top member of President Bush's Cabinet -- a bipartisan group that he said shares his pragmatism and his commitment to strengthen America's standing in the world.
In a news conference in Chicago, Obama introduced Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, bringing on board the candidate who battled him for the Democratic presidential nomination during a long primary season. As America's top diplomat, Clinton will be the face of Obama's efforts to remake the country's foreign policy.
Obama also announced that Bush's defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, has agreed to remain in the job in the new administration, providing continuity while taking on what the president-elect said would be a new mission: "responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control."
In response to questions, Obama said, "I assembled this team because I'm a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that's how the best decisions are made." He vowed to counter the danger of "group-think" that precludes dissenting views and pledged to welcome "a vigorous debate inside the White House."
He stressed, however, that he will set policy, will be responsible for his administration's "vision" and will expect his team to implement decisions once they are made. "So, as Harry Truman said, the buck will stop with me."
As he introduced Clinton, Gates and other members of his team, Obama said that "in the 21st century, our destiny is shared with the world's" and that the United States has a stake in global events regarding such matters as financial markets, public health, climate change and security from terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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#1
Hillary's appointment is unconstitutional. More hope and change I can't believe in.
#3
I don't see any democrats bothered by any section of the constitution, they just ignore the laws they don't agree with,(And always have, in my memory at least)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/02/2008 17:50
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#4
He vowed to counter the danger of "group-think" that precludes dissenting views
After running the campaign he just finished...that statement took some real chutzpah.
The Left-liberal intelligentsia in our country is more than happy to see the UPA regime compromise national security: For both, this means keeping Muslims at home and abroad in good humour. The bloodbath in Mumbai shows how horribly wrong they are
In the outpouring of anguish and anger, now that Islamic terrorists have struck at iconic and internationally renowned five-star hotels, restaurants, lounges and a Jewish outreach programme's headquarters in India, a significant Left-liberal dogma has been left intact.
This is not surprising, because the same dogma has been promoted relentlessly, and been taken advantage of by, among others, Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorist organisations and their local supporters over nearly five years of UPA rule.
When Osama bin Laden, the global grandmaster of terrorism, declared that America and its Nato allies, Israel, and India were the principal enemies of the Islamic world, it was perhaps inevitable that only India, with its innate callousness, would not take the threat seriously and stay vulnerable, even in the face of near continuous attacks.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/02/2008
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#1
That dogma is the notion that the porous national security situation is a fair consequence of a bungled 'heart and minds' matter at the root.
There is a lot of hogwash from the left parading as logic. When it's all said and done, these murderous thug jihadists want to kill us whether we embrace the notions of the left, center, or right--they really don't care what we believe.
.(AKI) - A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people, including two policemen, and wounded 27 others in a town in south-western Afghanistan on Monday. The attacker was believed to have targeted a police convoy in a crowded bazaar in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province.
In a separate incident in Ghazni province, Taliban gunmen killed district chief Abdul Rahim Desiwal, while in the northern Baghlan province two Taliban militants were killed while planting a bomb.
Helmand province is one of Afghanistan's most volatile provinces because it is the country's largest opium-producing area, accounting for up to two-thirds of the national crop.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2008
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MONROVIA - More than 200 prisoners escaped from Liberias highest security prison in the heart of the capital Monrovia Monday, after overcoming guards by pelting stones and other objects, police said.
So maybe it wasn't so secure ...
The UN mission in the west African country, UNMIL, deployed troops at the South Beach jail after the breakout but only some 30 prisoners were apprehended, a police official said.
Send in the mighty Uruguayans!
The discontented prisoners were spurred among other things by a tuberculosis outbreak in the overcrowded penitentiary.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2008
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#1
I'm surprised they caught that many.
Posted by: James ||
12/02/2008 11:55
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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.
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader praised the three Bali bombers recently executed in Indonesia and criticized Saudi and other Arab leaders for participating in a U.N. interfaith conference in a recording posted on the Web Monday.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the new Legislature in to work on its first day, declaring a fiscal emergency Monday in response to the state's deteriorating finances and urging lawmakers to "get off of their rigid ideologies." Arnold_Schwarzenegger_Photo.jpg)
After eight years as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton is trading places, moving from Congress to the incoming administration. On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he asked his former rival to be his secretary of state.
Oil prices on Monday fell below $50 a barrel for only the second time this year after Opec delayed a further production cut until mid-December. The oil cartel, which controls 40 per cent of the world's production, said demand was weakening fast with the global economic crisis but it agreed to wait until a meeting in Oran, Algeria, on December 17 to further reduce its output.
Doctors in Saudi Arabia witnessed a rare phenomenon after a baby girl was born pregnant, press reports said. The baby girl's mother was initially pregnant with twins, but doctors said the fetuses developed abnormally causing a rare condition known as fetus in fetu, Britain's Metro newspaper reported.
Bombing attacks targeting Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and a U.S. patrol the northern city of Mosul left at least 31 people dead and dozens more injured, Iraqi officials said, making Monday one of the deadliest days in recent weeks in Iraq. 
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, the Israeli army said.
Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.
(AKI) - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region. In an interview with the British Financial Times newspaper, Zardari urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resist any attack if speculation confirmed the militants came from Pakistan.
Two more associates of "top criminal" Rozen were killed in an encounter between RAB men and their cohorts at Kadomtoli in the capital city early Monday, four days after the death of the ringleader in the same way.
A bid by Somali pirates to hijack a luxury cruise ship was foiled by an international taskforce, officials said on Monday, as ransom negotiations for a Saudi super-tanker stretched into overtime. 
(AKI) - India has lodged a formal protest with Pakistan's envoy over the brutal terror attacks in the city of Mumbai last week. Indian officials have repeatedly said in recent days there was evidence that the militants behind the attacks on two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre in Mumbai had Pakistani links. 
BANGKOK - One anti-government protester was killed and 22 wounded in a grenade attack at Bangkoks occupied domestic airport Tuesday, in the latest incident targeting demonstrators, emergency services said.
India on Monday demanded Pakistan take swift action over deadly attacks in Mumbai it said were carried out by militants from its rival neighbor. Indian investigators said the Islamist gunmen who raided India's financial capital, killing 183 people in a three-day assault, had months of commando training in Pakistan.
President-elect Barack Obama Monday formally announced a national security team that is led by his onetime chief Democratic rival and includes a top member of President Bush's Cabinet -- a bipartisan group that he said shares his pragmatism and his commitment to strengthen America's standing in the world. 
.(AKI) - A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people, including two policemen, and wounded 27 others in a town in south-western Afghanistan on Monday. The attacker was believed to have targeted a police convoy in a crowded bazaar in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province.
