Washington, DC, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Democrats Monday signaled they would continue to try and unofficially oversee the Bush administration. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced several oversight hearings on a range of subjects next hear. minority parties can schedule hearings, huh?
The minority party in Congress argued the Republican leadership has skirted its responsibility for administration oversight as defined in the Constitution.
But the hearings -- eight this year on subjects ranging from the deficit to U.S. contracting in Iraq -- have had little impact beyond political show because they are highly partisan affairs with no subpoena power. Show-trials for W-bashing? Who'da thunk it? Schumer and Kennedy have to be in on this...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004
9:57:24 PM ||
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Former presidential candidate Howard Dean yesterday made a national pitch to head the Democratic Party, saying he will create a 50-state strategy to win new voters.
That's a very distinguished list of has-beens and never-beens...
The former Vermont governor said the Democratic Party has to "look at what the Republicans do well" and establish a grass-roots base of office holders.
What they do well is beat Democrats...
On Saturday, Mr. Dean told party leaders, "I want to do what the Republican National Committee does; they're better organized than we are."
"More articulate, too! Yeeeeargh!"
All of the candidates addressed the Association of State Democratic Chairs on Saturday in Orlando, Fla., although Mr. Dean said yesterday he has not decided whether he will seek the vote in February to replace outgoing party chief Terry McAuliffe. "I am going to run if I think that I can win, if I think they really want me," Mr. Dean said.
"But only if they like me, they really, really like me!"
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and assistant minority leader, declined to endorse Mr. Dean on ABC's "This Week."
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it. And despite my name, I do not lead a gang of train robbers, so you can just drop that!"
"I'm not going to be endorsing Howard or any particular candidate. I hope we find the right person," Mr. Durbin said. "Howard Dean made an ass of himself a great contribution to the American political scene. I want him as part of the leadership of the Democratic National Committee, even if he's not the chairman."
"I was thinking maybe he could be the court jester to Harold Ickey..."
Former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who served on the September 11 commission, said last week that Mr. Dean would do a good job as chairman but "he's going to have some 'splainin' to do, as Ricky Ricardo used to say."
"Lucyyyyyy!"
"Which Howard Dean are we talking about?" Mr. Kerrey asked. "If we're talking about the Howard Dean who was governor of Vermont, I would say, fine. But if it's the presidential candidate Dean, I would say, probably, no." The New Republic published an editorial opposing Mr. Dean, saying, "The liberal base is simply not large enough to win a national election."
Posted by: tipper ||
12/13/2004
9:53:59 AM ||
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#1
Pop quiz, Howard: who is Dale Earnhardt?
Posted by: Matt ||
12/13/2004 10:43
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#2
Go, Dean, go!
Howard might have recieved a briefing on Earnhardt. Unlikely, but possible. Better to ask, "What number is most associated with Dale Earnhardt?" Acceptable answers would be "#1" or "3".
#4
If Dean was smart he'd get on the Howard Stern show while Howard is still on FM, and still ticked at the Republicans. If that doesn't generate a buzz he might as well forget it because he's yesterday's news.
#5
With any luck he'll be rebuffed by the Dems' elites, he'll scream (as it were) and cry and take the MoveOn and Kos idiotarians with him into a new leftie party. Which would force normal, sane, moderate, hawkish Dems no choice but to try to form a new party that would peel off sensible, liberatarian-inclined non-religious RINOs like Giuliani-Arnold-McCain and dominate the political center.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 14:00
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#8
"We have a message to sell. I frankly think itâs a better message than the Republicansâ"
We wait with bated breath to hear that message, Mr. Dean. But based on this last election, we're fear there isn't one, excepting always, "Vote for us. We're not Republican."
An unpublished ruling by the U.S. Army's top court may herald the beginning of the end for the military's sodomy law.
The military has long outlawed sodomy under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a prohibition on "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex, or with an animal." The rule, otherwise translated into a ban on oral and anal sex, even applies to private conduct off the military base, allowing the long arm of military law to stretch a little further than might be constitutional.
LGBT advocates challenged the military sodomy earlier this year in a case that went all the way to the highest military court, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. In that case, Air Force Technical Sgt. Eric Marcum challenged his court martial, which was based on a number of Article 125 violations with other men. Since some of Sgt. Marcum's activities were possibly coerced, the court was not able to absolve him in the specific incident under review, a consensual episode with a subordinate.
In its ruling however, the high court took no position on the key question of whether the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas effectively gutted the military's sodomy ban along with that of the Lone Star State. In fact, the court suggested that Lawrence could govern a military case under different circumstances.
Now, that case may have arrived. Basing its ruling on Lawrence, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the guilty plea of an Army specialist who had oral sex with a female civilian in the barracks. According to the Washington Post, the decision is the first to uphold a right to sexual privacy that trumps Article 125.
The fact that the man involved was accused of a heterosexual violation is irrelevant to the legal principles at issue. Oral sex is oral sex, and if Article 125 no longer applies to straight sex, it no longer applies to gay sex, either.
If the Pentagon appeals the ruling to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the high court will have another chance to consider the impact of Lawrence on the armed services.
The ruling coincides with a new lawsuit challenging the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gay speech in the military. The issues of sodomy and "don't ask, don't tell" are separate, but related, since the ban on gay speech is supported by the more fundamental ban on gay actions. Taking away that support could weaken "don't ask" and could affect the outcome of Monday's challenge to the policy, brought before a federal court in Boston by a group of 12 ousted gay and lesbian service members.
#2
Interesting that a 'military court' overrules the law as passed by Congress, under their authority of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Can you say Oliver Cromwell.
"An unpublished ruling by the U.S. Armyâs top court" sort of like anonymous sources.
The Lawrence case may not apply as Justice O'Connor wrote that Texas unconstitutionally treated straights and gays different. However, the military, unlike civil government, still punishes hetero adultry. The name Kelly Flynn ring a bill? Her lawyer implied his client was being singled out as a women. Took a couple days for the AF to point out that some 60 male officers had been charged in the year or two before her.
So we'll continue to punish straights, but now gays get special protection for their adventures?
BTW - the 'don't ask, don't tell' comes from Art. 78. Accessory After the Fact: Any person subject to this chapter who, knowing that an offense punishable by this chapter has been committed, receives, comforts, or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial, or punishment shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Unlike civil society, the military environment requires that knowledge of a crime, must be reported and acted upon.
Maybe the fact this article comes from a gay website, makes the whole report somewhat suspect
Posted by: Don ||
12/13/2004 23:51
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As expected, Japan's cabinet extended the deployment of up to 600 troops in Iraq for another year, though they are largely sequestered in their high-tech desert fortress. This move was billed as unflinching support for its ally the United States and a helping hand to war-torn Iraq. A new defense policy unfurled the following day, however, showed that after a half-century, Tokyo's military and global aspirations, like a once-slumbering giant, may just be starting to stir.
The cabinet, in endorsing the new five-year defense policy, also cracked the door open just a bit, lifting a decades-old arms-export ban, citing as justification an "immediate" need for a joint missile-defense system with the United States. Only certain exports to the US will be allowed - the general ban was not lifted. And for the first time, the defense-policy outline singled out other nations as security concerns - understandably North Korea, but also China.
#3
moose: One of the unique things about the Japanese military is that it buys exclusively Japanese products. The Japanese do not buy weapons or technology from abroad. That means that some systems, such as their MBT, may not be as capable as what they might have purchased on the international market, but others like missle defense systems may be farther advanced because of Japanese strengths in micro-electronics.
The Japanese are currently more than capable of defending their homeland. In that regard, all they need to keep doing is upping the tech in their systems. Their economic boost would come if they began to export their weapons systems.
As with other cultures in the region, Japan also presents a specific governmental / business interface. For all intents and purposes, big business is government in Japan, through MITI, with the "mafia" running in second place. Japan, from MacArthur onward, is a technocracy, not a democracy.
#4
If Japan feels they have a real military again, they may question the need for funding all those U.S. troops on its soil. Yes, Japan pays the lion's share of the cost of keeping the U.S. military there.
#5
gromky: If Japan feels they have a real military again, they may question the need for funding all those U.S. troops on its soil. Yes, Japan pays the lion's share of the cost of keeping the U.S. military there.
US troops on Japanese soil is the cost of the US nuclear umbrella. If they're not there, Japan will never really know if that umbrella extends to them. Without the nuclear umbrella, confrontations with the Chinese over intrusions by Chinese ships becomes a lot trickier. (Unless by a real military, gromky is including the nuclear triad).
#6
My guess would be that Japan could be a nuclear power in six months from the go signal. They're one of the few countries with the tech but not the materials. And I suspect they would be able to buy the materials in a heartbeat.
#7
CS: My guess would be that Japan could be a nuclear power in six months from the go signal. They're one of the few countries with the tech but not the materials. And I suspect they would be able to buy the materials in a heartbeat.
I think delivery is a bit more of a problem. Even if Japan goes nuclear, developing the triad (air - ALCM's, sea - SLBM's, land - ICBM's) of delivery vehicles is going to take time.
#8
This is the inevitable result of the North Korean situation. The US has been warning China that eventually Japan would rearm to defend herself and apparantly the Chinese called, and are now finding out the west isn't bluffing.
The genie is much harder to get back into the bottle. I suspect China will work dilligently to resolve the North Korea issue in the coming months (assuming the North Korean leader isn't dead).
#9
You bring up an interesting point, rjs - Kimmie's demise - and that can be a whole range of possibilities from "heart attack" to dioxin poisoning to retirement.
A story I saw last night sez that SKor is headed for recession... If Kimmie falls, who will pick up the pieces / feed the masses, etc.? SKor looks unlikely to be able to help much - besides, if they were smart they would learn a lesson or three from Germany's re-unification debacle. China? What an interesting dent (dip) that would make in their growth charts. The US? Phat phucking chance.
Those with hardcore knowledge of the China / NorK minutia should spend a minute playing this out and let us know what they think is likely and the fallout it will produce. I haven't seen anyone actually address the issue - and it is coming soon, IMHO.
#10
Within minutes of Kimmie's retirement he would cease breathing. This may indeed already have happened -- he's been out of sight for a long time, relatively speaking.
As for his people, their only first need is rice and multi-vitamins. Lots of rice and multi-vitamins. Follow that with seed, and the entire nation will be occupied with farming for the next five years. Only once they trust that they'll no longer need to keep a reserve of babies and old folks for the larder, will the North Korean economy need to take the next step: formation of an industrial sector to employ the excess population.
#11
.com, beware the conventional wisdom. Even though I've seen first hand how infrastructure goes to sh** in communist countries and consequently have some appreciation of how much it will cost to fix, at the same time I don't think NKor will be another EGermany. Give them capitalism, access to know how, not a lot of capital and markets and they will fix it themselves.
#12
phil_b, you may be correct, but my understanding is the Norks are going to take a long time to readjust to the real world, a lot longer than the East Germans.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 17:02
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#13
Yep. Civil society has been destroyed in N. Korea. 3 generations to rebuild?
#14
Shipman, its only been 2 generations since the Korean war after which SKor was a wrecked agrarian society. Now they are beating the Japanese at their own game. The only world the NKors need to adjust to is the Skors and that will happen quickly - just a few years.
#15
I don't think the Korean(ness) of S. Korea was destroyed during the war... I think the Korean(ness) of N Korea may have been destroyed over the past 50 years. Hope to be wrong. Always funny, what the the Korean call the Japaneese (when colonial masters) The Lazy People.
#16
Its been remarked the only country in the world there are no chinatowns is Korea, becuase the chinese can't make money there (i.e. the Koreans are better at it)
#17
Phil_b, you are seriously underestimating the hell hole NorK has become. With as many reports of starvation and cannabalism as we are getting I suspect we will find an entire country that resembles Dachau more than post-communist Albania.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 18:56
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#18
Stalinist regimes that eradicate civil society poison those societies for generations. If Russia has lost a generation, and it has, then NKor will lose at least two generations.
#19
phil_b: Its been remarked the only country in the world there are no chinatowns is Korea, becuase the chinese can't make money there (i.e. the Koreans are better at it)
Actually, there are Chinese sections in Korean cities. But the ethnic Chinese population has tended to emigrate - typically to Hong Kong, Taiwan or the US - because until recently, they were barred from owning property in South Korea. As in Japan, discrimination against ethnic Chinese is extensive, leading many to attempt to mask their national origin.
Here's an excerpt from a State Department report:
The Republic of Korea is a racially homogeneous country with no ethnic minorities of significant number. Citizenship is based on blood, not location of birth, and Koreans must show as proof their family genealogy. Ethnic Chinese born and resident in Korea cannot obtain citizenship or become public servants and may have difficulty being hired by some major corporations. Due to legal as well as societal discrimination, many formerly resident ethnic Chinese have emigrated to other countries since the 1970's.
Recently an article was published in Iran's press entitled 'An Ideal President' by Ali Motahhari. The article is worth pondering upon from various aspects. Ali Motahhari is the son of the prominent ideologue of the Islamic Republic, Morteza Motahhari who was assassinated in the first months after the 1979 Revolution. Hadi Bolouki, the staff of Iran's reformist daily Etemad has written an article analyzing Motahhari's remarks. His article is entitled 'A President Should Create Enemies'. The following are parts of Bolouki's article:
Ali Motahhari believes that an ideal Iranian president has to firmly believe in the notion that Islam is a global power which does not need borrowing from other economic powers of the world, for Western economy and democracy are both rejected and unreliable.
That's why Islamic societies are so productive, and we in the West always have to steal technological advances from them, buying anything more technologically advanced than a claw hammer from them. Democracy, as we all know, is a Jewish plot, foisted upon the world. The so-called "laws of economics" are overridden by the Koran, and can safely be ignored...
Now I would like to ask him that based on which Islamic teaching we should avoid using others' experiences?
'Cuz if it didn't happen to Mohammad, it didn't happen. Everybody knows that.
Accepting the power of Islam is not equal to the negation of the economic might of socialist and capitalist systems. Can Motahhari who says that the economic rules of Islam are enough for running a society, help me with a source or a reliable book on Islamic economics over which all Muslim figures have reached a consensus? What is the pattern of Islamic economics? Has the Islamic Republic of Iran's economic performance in the past 25 years been a symbol of Islamic economics? If yes, in which sector?
The rubble sector. The rubble produced by the Bam earthquake puts to shame the amount of rubble produced in similar intensity earthquakes in other, less Islamic countries, like Mexico, Taiwan, and California. I'd also point out that the corpse counts from Bam are orders of magnitude higher. Why are the decadents states of the West (and the East) incapable of producing the heaps of deaders that are common in Islamic natural disasters? Even Turkey, caught up in the heresies of Kamalism and subject to regular earthquakes, is incapable of achieving numbers approaching those recorded departing this vale of tears in Iran.
Why is Motahhari ignorant of the fact that the general economic principles of Iran's Constitution have been inspired by the world's common and already-tested economic rules? Although the Islamic Republic has tried to give an Islamic color to all its aspects by adding an Islamic suffix to everything, one can hardly consider the Iranian economy as an Islamic one.
Adding the Islamic suffix seems to have made the economy fairly ineffective, though...
The absolute negation of western democracy is neither possible nor useful. Who can deny the fact that on many occasions western democracy and civilization have served human societies.
Ayatollahs deny it all the time. The principle is that societies need to be ruled by pious men with turbans and automatic weapons, with roving bands of fascisti keeping a contented Islamic populace in line. The ideal world government involves a caliph, seated on brocade cushions, wearing a jeweled turban and surrounded by bearded holy men, ruling the entire world, his coffers full of glittering gold provided by submissive dhimmis. On holy days, he can appear on his balcony, with Nubians fanning the flies away, and toss a few handsful of that gold to the cheering, beturbanned populace. Iran is only the first step in achieving that dream, an example to the rest of the world of what to expect.
Ali Motahhari says that an ideal president should be able to create enemies.
Now, I'd say that the ideal president should be willing to create enemies if necessary, but shouldn't go out of his way to do so. There's a good case to be made for pragmatism vs. warm milk G.W. Bush vs. Jimmy Carter but I can't see the case for truculence. Bob Mugabe and Kim Jong Il aren't what I'd call good role models for the world's governing classes, though I'd also add that the ayatollahs aren't, either.
If Motahhari could take a look at the problems of Iranian society and the number of its present enemies as well as the isolation of Iranians at world level and the issue of brain drain, then he would perhaps give a second thought to his description of an ideal president. Doesn't he really know that the weak management system and the contradictory policies of different governmental sectors have made many detach themselves from the system? How is it that certain people believe that the key to the survival of the Islamic Republic is the isolation of allies and provocation of enemies?
My guess is that the Islamic Republic is following a path similar to the one Saddam Hussein was following: taking upon itself the trappings of a superpower without building the economic and civil base to support it. That's why the fascination with nuclear weapons power, long-range missiles, this or that group of "special" revolutionary guards, and the involvement in the Wonderful World of Terror. And it's also why their economy sucks, the unemployment rate's high, and 41,000 people can be killed in a single earthquake what money doesn't go into the ayatollahs' pockets and subsidizing new mosques and other religious institutions (basically the same thing) goes into projecting power, rather than into bettering the lives of the citizenry. This makes sense from the Fascist (true meaning of the word) point of view of Fearless Leader and his henchmen, as the citizenry's there to serve the state, rather than the state being there as a reflection of the citizenry.
"An ideal president has to be well aware of his legal authorizes within the framework of the Constitution and has to be a defender of civil rights." says Motahahri. But according to Iran's Constitution, what are the authorities of the president?
For startsies, he's two steps down the power ladder, behind Fearless Leader and behind the Expediency Council. He's basically a mid-level manager, responsible for keeping the majlis in line...
If as an example a president can win 90% of the votes, will he be granted the same authorities or not? Is the president allowed to tackle the violation of other state organizations? As the one in charge for the security of its citizens, is the president allowed to replace the police head of even a small town? So through which means can a president defend civil liberties? Does Ali Mortahhari know that President Khatami won more than 80% of the votes, but he is not given even 20% of his legal authorities?"
He may have noticed, but he prob'ly doesn't care, since Khatami's not of his party. But a lot of that fault lies with Khatami and his warm milk personality. If Rafsanjani was president, even with 50.0001 percent of the vote, the Islamic Republic's presidency would be wielding a lot more power. But Khatami doesn't have his own bands of blackshirts roaming through the cities, armed with everything from sticks to automatic weapons, willing to do battle with his rivals.
Motahhari notes that a good president has to be interested in cultural issues and should try its best to correct peoples' social behavior even their driving. He says that the Hashemi Rafsanjani administration under the pretext of development ignored justice and describes Khatami's government a cultural invader.
"I mean, if he had his way, we'd hardly kill anybody!"
I would like to ask Motahhri who is really in charge of cultural affairs in Iran? Who draws up the general principles in this field? The theological schools? Universities? Friday prayer leaders? The state Broadcasting Organization or the press? Which one of the mentioned sectors is supervised by the president and which one of them feels obliged to find an answer to its misdeeds once questioned? This is while after a quarter of a century since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the rates of divorce, accidents, unemployment and addiction are all on the rise while respect for civil rights has declined."
Could have something to do with a deadlocked government, whose real priorities lie with power projection rather than with the state of the national economy. But more likely it has to do with a contempt for and impatience with the gummint as a whole, both the hardline black turbans and the warm milk "reformers" who haven't been able to reform anything. Khatami's a Karensky, not a Lenin. Rafsanjani's a Bukharin, not a Stalin. But don't feel too threatened. The Papal States languished in backwardness, ruled by holy men, for hundreds of years, Italia's black hole of poverty and misery. If it drops the silly great power pretensions, Iran could enjoy a similar run.
Motahhari who refers to the Iran-Europe negotiation as a black spot in Khatami's record has to be reminded of the fact that the general policies of the system are drawn up somewhere else rather than in the presidential palace. Motahhari notes that it's better for the Iranian president not to be a cleric and to justify his assertion he says that clerics are responsible for guiding people and propagating Islam, however as a president you should handle executive tasks and thus you are always prone to criticisms and protests, so your image may be tarnished.
At least we can agree on something, if for different reasons...
Therefore it's better for the clerics to keep away from such posts which may hurt their status!! According to Motahhari it's only the clerics whose status has to be safeguarded. Doesn't it mean that for Motahhri the non-clerics should serve the clerics as a scapegoat in times of hardships? Where does this discriminatory approach come from?
That's a reflection of the fact that the citizenry exists to serve the state, and the clerics are the embodiment of the state.
In all one can say that Ali Motahhri's article is full of contradictions and flaws and is in direct contrast with the Iranian Constitution and the realities in Iranian society.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
9:37:39 AM ||
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#1
--taking upon itself the trappings of a superpower without building the economic and civil base to support it.--
Anyone remember that ST:TNG ep where Geordie was stuck aboard a ship of stoopids who only advanced by stealing everyone else's stuff? Because they wanted acclaim/power/acknowledgement, the usual stuff?
Children as young as seven can be hanged in Pakistan's most populous province after a court overruled a federal law, which had abolished the death penalty for under-18s, a rights lawyer said on Tuesday. Capital punishment for minors was banned four years ago under legislation brought in by the military government of President Pervez Musharraf, which also created separate courts for juveniles. But Punjab province's Lahore High Court annulled the law in a judgement issued late on Monday, saying it encouraged young people to commit serious crimes such as murder and gang rape. "Any child of 7-12 years of age, if commits a serious crime like murder, now can be given death penalty by a court under the Pakistan Penal Code in Punjab province," Islamabad-based lawyer and child rights activist Anees Jillani said. Under the penal code brought back into force in Punjab, children over seven can be executed for murder, gang rape and drug trafficking, although judges can make exceptions up to the age of 12.
However the Lahore court's decision could be challenged in the Supreme Court, Jillani added. The judgement blamed the 2000 law for a rise in crime involving young people, saying it provided them immunity from capital punishment and release on probation after conviction. The law had "the tendency of not only encouraging persons below 18 to commit heinous crimes like murder, gang rape, terrorism and trafficking in narcotics etc but prompting the older people to incite their young ones to commit crimes," the judgment added. Special courts established for juvenile offenders in Punjab province would also be abolished. Jillani said the Lahore court had reopened a "settled" question as Pakistan had already ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as a person less than 18 years of age. The judgement may lead Pakistan's other three provinces to follow suit, he said. (Agence France-Presse)
Calamari(Galactic Free Press)—Nine million protestors, many from Interstellar ANSWER and such, descended on the capital of the Republic on Calamari on Saturday to call for an end to the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. Very common were signs like "Omas is Palpatine," "No circulatory fluids for biotech," and many other slogans.
Said Falynn Daydreamer of Tatooine, "The Yuuzhan Vong just want to live in peace. The Republic destroyed Sernpidal for agitation purposes and then attacked at Dubrillion. I suspect that the Jedi know they cannot grok the Yuuzhan Vong and so seek to wipe them out. Certainly they killed Supreme Chancellor Fey'lya because he did not lick their jackboots. They made him into a martyr for their cause to cover up their crimes, of course."
Jonash Gallamby of Nar Shaddaa echoed Daydreamer's thoughts. "Kyp Durron and Jaina Solo deliberately destroyed a Yuuzhan Vong worldship they knew to be full of civilians because the Jedi kill all those they cannot sway." He went on to add that "Cal Omas is a puppet of the Jedi, and will not defy them. The Senate should have a vote of no confidence in him, remove him, and either throw him in prison or force-feed him blaster bolts for his war crimes."
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
12/13/2004
9:16:45 AM ||
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A committal hearing has begun for a Sydney architect accused of planning a major terrorist attack on the electricity grid and a defence site.
Sydney Central Local Court is being asked to decide if there is enough evidence for 34-year-old Faheem Khaled Lodhi to face trial on nine terrorism-related charges.
In opening the case, Commonwealth prosecutor Richard Maidment SC told Sydney Central Local Court that between May and October last year, Lodhi created several false identities to buy maps of the electricity grid and obtain the prices of chemicals.
He is accused of downloading aerial photographs of defence sites in Sydney from the Internet.
The court also heard that Lodhi was closely linked to French terrorism suspect Willie Brigitte.
Mr Maidment told the court that Lodhi had established false identities for Brigitte. Prosecutors also allege that in 2001 Lodhi was an official in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The committal hearing is set down for six days.
Snippet. RTWT
...Imagine then if China, as it easily could, were to double its GDP in the next eight or nine years, and, taking advantage of a parallel increase in gains per capita, double the defense share of GDP. It would then have (PPP) defense outlays roughly equivalent to ours. China, however, moves with great deliberation, and many signs suggest that it is aiming for parity in 20 or more years time and in synchrony with advances in technology and military doctrine.
China is at risk if, as is its wont periodically, it runs off the rails into civil war, anarchy, or revolution. But the true counter-revolutionary import of the 11th Party Congress reforms of 1978 is that, unlike the former Soviet Union, China is making its transition to the free market in careful strides so as not to be forced backwards. Though neither ideal nor democratic, its incremental economic and policy choices are carefully calibrated, redolent of compromise, and configured for the survival and stability of the state. And the more time that passes, the more the development of its internal markets will protect its now mercantile economy from the gyrations of world markets.
With its new economic resources China has embarked upon a military traverse from reliance upon mass to devotion to quality, with stress upon war in space, the oceans, and the ether--three areas of unquestioned American superiority. China is establishing its own space- based assets and developing the means to counter others. It would neutralize American strategic superiority as the aging U.S. arsenal is reduced and it augments its own. Its submarine program is directed to the deployment of its strategic force and denial of successively greater bands of the Pacific--eventually reaching far out into blue water--to the safe transit of American fleets. It sees America's advantage in informational warfare both as something to be copied and as a weak link that, by countermeasure, can be shattered. In short, it harbors major ambitions.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004
9:08:00 AM ||
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#1
It will be interesting to see the 'careful strides' the Central Committee takes when the first really nasty recession hits.
Posted by: Don ||
12/13/2004 10:09
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#2
Mark Helprin is unduly alarmist at times, but I am glad he has put the finger on the biggest threat on the horizon - not Islam, but China.
#4
ZF - I'd say they are equal, yet different threats. China's been facilitating Islam against the west as a weapon
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 10:23
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#5
The whole WoT, Afghanistan and Iraq are just sidelights to what China and the US have been preparing some 20 years for. However, there is a new angle: India. Ironically, China and India are shoulder to shoulder, both have exploding and unbalanced populations, and both are "2nd tier" and vying for a bigger piece of the pie--quite possibly at the expense of the other. Much of India's defense expenditure is going to defend against China--they see Pakistan as a gnat, correctly or not. And China, seeking alliance, has tried to court Pakistan, only to be nudged out by the US; whereas India is technologically supported by of all nations, Israel. There is some interesting stuff in the works right now.
#6
US + Israel + India + Japan + Australia. Perhaps one day a more democratic Russia added as well. That's a pretty good basis for an alliance that can keep China off-balance.
#7
Imagine then if China, as it easily could, were to double its GDP in the next eight or nine years
Nope. Not gonna happen. China is booming bigtime right now. It's growing too fast. In a few years, it'll all come crashing down, and then they'll have unrest which will set them back a good bit. My guess is some time after the 2008 Beijing Olypmics.
There's so much opportunity here, it's crazy. Think dotcom boom circa 1997. It's stupidly easy to go in with nothing but a drawing on a napkin, and emerge with a fully-developed product. All you need are buyers and some cash.
#8
All the advances in China should lead to unmet expectations when the bubble bursts....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 11:05
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Everyone should take economic data from China with a huge grain of salt. The odds that the data hasw been manipulated are near 100%.
Most observers, at least here in Rantbug, feel that China is riding an unsustainable economic bubble. How and when it bursts is debatable, but it surely will.
At the present rate of growth as stated by the IMF (9%+), China will double its GDP within a decade. I remain unconvinced that a growth level of 9% is sustainable for that long. Just two years ago the growth rate was nearer 30%. The central government has monkeyed with some interest rates, and tried to limit growth. The decline is more correctly due to lack of demand and the yuan's tie to the dollar. The reports of dozens of empty office buildings in cities could not be happening if the economy is growing 9% per annum.
The reality is more likely that the Chinese economy is already in recession. Power shortages, turnabout to a food importer, and trade deficits with every country but the United States suggest an economy that is not growing as the central government portrays. An unusually bad winter this year, or crop failures next summer in the U.S. and Australia, or China's debtors asking for payment in a currency other than the dollar...
Two, three years tops, China has a problem [my fearless prediction] Move against Taiwan by 2007. Russian incursions 2008 or 2009 [depending on who's running for President in the U.S.] Between then and now, reimposition of central government controls and consequential unrest from ethnic minorities and capitalist regions in SE China.
#10
CS: Power shortages, turnabout to a food importer, and trade deficits with every country but the United States suggest an economy that is not growing as the central government portrays.
The power shortages have to do with booming demand for subsidized energy that the government is reluctant to fill because, well, it's subsidized, i.e. there's a cost to the government. China is importing food - primarily grains - because its farmers are turning to cash crop farming - fruits and vegetables are much more profitable and are becoming a big factor in the produce export business, competing with traditional exporters in a big way. The trade deficits have to do with the fact that China* is importing inputs from a lot of countries, and assembling them for re-export.
* Not the Chinese government, but a large array of domestic and foreign manufacturers.
#11
lex: What strategy do you recommend, ZF? Which China analysts/experts do you read?
I think Uncle Sam needs to keep its strategic arsenal ready, continue research on and deployment of missile defense systems, keep its conventional arsenal up-to-date (yes, that includes the F-22) and match China's military expansion. Still, China is far away. Even if it kicks off any hostilities, American involvement remains largely optional. I think it might be instructive to use East Asia as a test case of what happens when Uncle Sam stays on the sidelines. (I personally think it might be interesting to see what would happen if we zeroed out the defense budget and let our friendly foreign neighbors protect us from external threats).
#12
Chuck, power shortages are a way of life in every high-growth emerging market economy. If anything they're a sign of economic health. I wouldn't be surprised if China's opaque banking sector is riddled with bad debts, but I doubt that China's economic growth is heavily dependent on cheap credits or foreign capital inflows, so I can't envisage an 1998-style meltdown anytime soon.
As to "Russian incursions", you've got it backwards. Putin cannot project much power, military or political, in the Russian Far East, which is basically a set of independent fiefdoms run by kleptocratic "governors" who are at one and the same time the main employer, lawgiver, media owner, judge jury executioner etc. It's very likely that most of the regions east of Irkutsk will be Chinese vassal states within a generation. Already, more and more Russians are teaching themselves Chinese in order to survive economically in border regions.
#13
lex: Which China analysts/experts do you read?
Arthur Waldron, John Tkacik and Gerald Segal (deceased) are some of the China-watchers I've read. The national security issues in relation to China are the same ones that we had to deal with in relation to the Soviet Union. Chinese history (examined skeptically) is also useful as a indicator of future Chinese behavior - the Chinese are said to use historical interactions as a guide for current strategic and diplomatic issues. (John King Fairbank and Jonathan Spence have written creditable accounts of Chinese history). To put their hagiographies in context, think of China as a kind of Roman empire that never expired. The Germans merely dreamed of a thousand year Reich. The Chinese have lived it.
#14
[My fearless prediction] As China's economy grows and her people get wealthier they start demanding more and more political freedom. China eventually moves towards Democracy as Taiwan and South Korea did. As she grows wealthier the nation starts to be less beligerant and blustering and more calculating.
There is no war with Taiwan because its very bad for business and the chance of losing (and losing face) is far too high.
There is no war with Russia because Russia has oil and mineral wealth, two things China's industry will need as it expands. Close trade relations with Russia means China doesn't need a massive surface fleet to secure her trade routes (and she doesn't have to depend upon the US to do so either).
#15
Thanks, ZF. Have Fairbanks' book and will read it. RE security strategies what do you think of Jophn Mearsheimer's "offshore balancer" approach for us?
#16
If an editor's reading this, they may want to correct the thread title, especially if the article was written by Mark Helprin rather than Mark Halperin; this may not sound like much, but you're not just misspelling Helprin's name; there's a Mark Halperin out there who's a political hack.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/13/2004 13:28
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lex: Yes, I meant Chinese incursions into Russia, not the other way around.
Power shortages are not just signs of a growth economy, or places like Haiti wouldn't have them. Power shotrages are a sign that the societal infrastructure needed for growth is failing to match growth. If you don't have enough power, you have zero growth, sooner or later.
Zhang: When your trade deficit is oil, wheat and rice, basic metals like copper, you have the same problem that pre-war Japan had. As for food exports, China is competing against other countries in the region who have discovered the same thing, Vietnam and India to name two. I just don't believe China will grow based upon agricultural exports in a competitive market. There are still too many inefficiencies in the general Chinese economy.
rjschwarz: We did these scenarios not too long ago. I generated a couple of ways that China could take Taiwan relatively easily.
China can easily take the resources that Russia has, even if Russia goes nuclear. If China spends a hundred million people to take Eastern Siberia, so what? From their perspective, it's cheap.
China is building a massive fleet, and not just to threaten Taiwan. Remember that from the Chinese point of view Japan, Korea, the Phillipines, and Southeast Asia are all Chinese by history and tradition. In Peking, China is three thousand years old. A decade is nothing.
#18
China could take Taiwan in a decade, not now, and I doubt it would be easy. Add to that the West inability to look the other way and allow it to happen. Sanctions, disinvestment, and the death of the Chinese economy would be the result.
I'm betting that success makes these things to painful for them to accept considering they might have to destroy Taiwan to take it over.
#19
Depends on time horizons. Immediate threat is Iran, Syria, and NoKo. Three to five year threat is the ChiComs. The Japanese and Aussies will throw sand in their gears for a while.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:40
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#20
Depends on who's President. Some are bought good. If Hillary wins in '08, I predict an invasion in '09. I think there's enough Chinese in NYC to let the ChiComs know not to try if Rudy wins.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 16:46
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#21
The Chinese banking system is riddled with bad debts. Financial crises occur precisely because they are not anticipated. China will have a 1997 type crisis for the usual reasons - overbuilding the wrong things, condos, golf courses, airports, etc. My prediction is the crisis will hit in 2005 and will be substantially over by the end of 2006. Longer term China will be a great power and as someone said 'Great powers don't have friends. They only have interests."
#22
You don't build truly great wealth without free markets. You can't have truly free markets without free people and the rule of law. China will have a good run for a while. Then the Chicoms will hit a wall because the feedback mechanisms in the economy are fundamentally impaired and the distortions will become overwhelming. They will either emerge from that crisis a better, more free nation, or they will retreat to statism and restriction of liberty.
China and Russia will hold their first joint military exercise next year, the Chinese government said Monday, as President Hu Jintao called for an expansion of the rapidly growing alliance between the former Cold War rivals.
The announcement came during a visit to Beijing by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was expected to discuss expanding the Kremlin's multibillion-dollar annual arms sales to China.
The exercises are to take place on Chinese territory, the official China News Service said. But that report and other government statements didn't say when they would take place or what forces would be involved.
"We want ... to promote the development of the two countries' strategic collaborative relationship in order to safeguard and promote regional and world peace," CNS quoted Hu as telling Ivanov.
Beijing and Moscow have built up military and political ties since the Soviet collapse in 1991, driven in part by joint desire to counterbalance U.S. global dominance.
They are partners of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, formed to combat what they consider the common threat of Islamic extremism and separatism. The other members are the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The announcement of military exercises comes two months after Beijing and Moscow settled the last of their decades-old border disputes that led to violent clashes in the 1960s and '70s.
The agreement was signed during an October trip to Beijing by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said relations had reached "unparalleled heights." That visit also produced a pact to jointly develop Russian energy resources - an urgent issue for Beijing, which is trying to avert fuel shortages in its booming economy.
The frontier where at one point 700,000 Soviet troops faced 1 million Chinese soldiers is now a bustling cross-border market.
China has become the Russian arms industry's No. 1 customer, and is expected to buy $2 billion in weapons this year.
Russia is a key supplier for the Chinese military's effort to modernize its arsenal and back up frequent threats to invade Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory.
The United States and the European Union have banned weapons sales to China since its bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. But Moscow has supplied Beijing with high-performance Su-27 fighters and other top-of-the-line arms.
Ivanov also met with Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and Guo Boxiong, deputy chairman of the Communist Party commission that runs China's military, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Hu is chairman of the commission.
Hu is to visit Moscow in May during festivities commemorating the end of World War II.
#1
Wouldn't you know it...the Great Dragon 'ball n' chaining' the Bear! This is being staged to intimidate the West! I hope the Bear remembers that the Dragon is on its Eastern flank, as Germany was on it's Western flank "60 years ago"!
Sorry title was all capped :). Damn surprise meter is not working again. I think it's out of batteries...
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American ||
12/13/2004
8:28:40 AM ||
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#1
sleazy immoral unethical POS - and the guy he pardoned, too
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 11:03
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#2
Investigators are looking into a series of deals that took place in the months after his pardon from Clinton. If criminal wrongdoing is established in these deals, he could be subject to prosecution.
oh please, oh please!
This whole scandal feeds into my suspicion that the Clintons and the Dem party have long standing connections to organized crime, that is happy to join with anyone, no matter how bloody, to make a buck. It seems to start with Truman, (even the encyclopedia's note that he got his start as a cog in the The Pendergast Political Machine). Kennedy's election (well established fact that the mob rousted up the needed votes for victory and killed him when Bobby got tough), the love of Castro, and Clinton's association with Marc Rich just to name the most obvious.
If one has no convictions or morals, why not? Organized crime is more than willing to fund any candidate that will appoint the judges or fund those huge social projects that are so easy to skim off the top. Look at the left's most ardant supporters and you will see well known mob controlled entities: Teamsters, Publishing, Hollywood, Boxing, etc.
#3
2b:
Well, you'll get no argument from me about the Donks being totally corrupt and without morals BUT, well, as much as it pains me to say it.... Don King is a Republican!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 16:20
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#8
So, Rich was already close to Saddam when Clinton pardoned him. Either Clinton was grossly negligent (willfully blind?) in checking out who he was pardoning, or he knew it.
IMAGING technology could be used to detect terrorists as easily as it could find cancer, researchers believe.
Devices using TeraHertz, or T-rays, are being developed in laboratories around the world that will like never before see through clothing, packaging and other objects.
Safer and clearer than X-rays, T-rays are emissions between infra-red and microwaves.
T-rays enable scientists to analyse the composition and density of things the rays contact, and also to image them.
"Most molecules vibrate in the TeraHertz frequency, so if you can detect them with T-rays, you can get a very good fingerprint," Professor Derek Abbott, from Adelaide University said.
"T-rays pass through things like food packaging, clothing, plastic and cardboard enabling us to analyse what's inside.
"This means they can be used to detect and identify weapons of metal or plastic, illicit drugs or biological hazards like anthrax, even if they were hermetically sealed.
"You can find out much more about the substance than you would with optical, infra-red or X-ray imaging, and this helps to identify it precisely."
Leading scientists from the US, Europe, Asia and Australia will converge on Adelaide from Thursday to discuss the latest advances in T-ray technology.
Prof Abbott said scientists had recently discovered that T-ray technology could be used to detect cancer and it could also identify explosive compounds.
He said it had the ability to be used in food safety and quality monitoring, disease detection, airport security, postal scans for drugs, explosives or bio-weapons and military threat detection.
#4
BD, you just turn the dial and they are cooked in thirty seconds with the added benefit they glow in the dark. I've heard that Muslims cooked this way, taste just like pork.
#5
The frequencies between infrared and microwaves are usually called millimeter waves. In college I worked with a professor who was developing a milimeter wave system to image hidden weapons about 30 years ago. I am not sure how this "terahertz" stuff differs from these millimeter wave systems that have been around for a while.
The researchers used laser pulses each lasting only 100 femtoseconds (one tenth of a trillionth of a second) to generate, detect, and measure electromagnetic pulses -- T-rays -- each lasting a picosecond (a trillionth of a second).
They transmitted the T-rays through various objects, using an imaging system of lenses and mirrors to focus the signals and to analyze changes in the T-rays as they passed through the objects.
They characterized the materials by measuring the amounts of distortion -- from absorption, dispersion and reflection -- of the T-rays passing through to a detector. Those going through the lean portions of a slice of bacon, for example, are distorted into a different waveform than are those passing through the fatty portions.
A digital signal processing unit processes the data and translates it into images that appear on a computer screen.
The image of a slice of bacon shows different levels of T-ray transparency for lean and fatty areas. Since fat absorbs almost no T-rays, it looks white; meat absorbs roughly 25 times as many T-rays, so it looks dark.
The digital signal processor was programmed to recognize the characteristic shapes of transmitted waveforms and identify the particular material at the spot illuminated by the T-ray beam. This information was obtained for every point or "pixel" on each object.
Even though I've been a member of the "Liberal Hollywood Elite" for 15 years, I have never been invited to an orgy. And this article is your formal notice you want an invite, right?
Instead, I get invited to roughly three dozen charity events a year. Last Monday night, for example, I attended a dinner in which the Hollywood community raised $1.2 million for the Los Angeles Free Clinic. Week after week, people in this community put so much time and effort toward sharing their good fortune. I can think of no other industry that gives more.
Why, then, do so many conservatives hold us in the same esteem as the proprietor of the local porn shop? Are our morals and values so different from the rest of America? I believe "Hollywood" is more like middle America than many people imagine. Then you need to rent a pickup truck and go driving the 'middle America' if you think Hollywood is just like middle America.
I'm from Illinois (blue state), and my wife of 12 years is from Texas (red state). We have three children, two dogs and a picket fence. This was a typical weekend for us: Saturday, we went to our kids' soccer games (one loss, one tie). Saturday night we took the kids to see a movie (The Incredibles). Sunday, we went to a child's birthday party. Sunday night, we had dinner at home. Highlight of the weekend: My 6-year-old son scored a goal, his second ever. Lowlight: A bad magician. (Note: We didn't see Sean Penn or Michael Moore even once.)
You may have noticed there was no mention of church or Temple. I was raised Jewish, my wife was raised Catholic. Though we respect each other's heritage, and while many of our friends are deeply religious, we have chosen to focus on our similarities, not our differences. We teach our children compassion, charity, honesty and the benefits of hard work. We teach them to help those who aren't as lucky as they are. I am confident that they will go into the world with good morals and strong family values. But based on what? What Mom and Dad sez? How will that help when you and wifey are gone, dja think of that? Where is their moral center?
Friends in the Midwest often ask me what it's like to raise a family in Los Angeles. I say it's just like where they are, but warmer and with more traffic. I also tell them people here seem a bit more tolerant of those who are different. That's not what I hear. I have heard from the left as well as the east coast how we in 'flyover country' are a buncha pickup driving Jesus Freaks.
My wife and I are friends with several gay couples, many of whom have been together for 20-plus years. While I can joke that that's a rare accomplishment even for heterosexual couples here, in fact, many people have been together that long. What puzzles me, though, is why Britney Spears can get drunk and then married for 55 hours in Vegas and have more rights than a successful, loving gay couple who have been together for a quarter century. Because Britney chose a heterosexual partner, she gets her marriage recognized by the state. And all your gay couples/friends have to do is to find love in a heterosexual partner and their marriage too can be sanctified..
I feel lucky to work in Hollywood. I have also worked very hard. But I never forget that so many people in this world, in this country, work just as hard, even harder, yet are barely making ends meet. That's why, despite knowing his tax plan would have cost me a lot, I voted for Sen. John Kerry. Why doesn't that surprise me?
Expecting universal agreement at a dinner party just before the election, I voiced this view rather passionately, only to learn that half of the room was voting for President Bush. Huh? In liberal Hollywood? Is it warm in here? Pass the salt.
But what about the accusation that Hollywood is trying to advance its liberal agenda? Well, the fact is, while the creative community admittedly leans left, Hollywood has become a corporate town. Middle America may only see celebrities, but the real power here lies with the heads of studios and networks. In the old days, studio and network presidents answered to no one. Today, they report to corporate boards and shareholders — not exactly a bunch of lefties. Nice spin. A lot of people who read this rag will buy that. Those who won't understand regardless of who reports to whom, liberals are advancing a leftist agenda in American culture and you are part of that. As long as the corporate element is making money, employees can advocate child sacrifice and the corporate element won't even raise an eyebrow.
But wait. If they're so conservative, why did every studio in town pass on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? Is it because they're all liberal Jews controlling the media, or because they thought the film would bomb? Ask them today if they would have financed Passion knowing then what they know now, and you'll see enough green lights to make Hollywood look like a Christmas tree. Again, more nice spin. The facts, however are quite a bit more mundane. The Passion of the Christ was passed on because Hollywood is anti-Christian. Sure, the equalizer now is the success of the film, but its success hightlights by stark contrast how deeply prejudiced the left is, including those in Hollywood.
The point is, this town can't be summed up with one ideology. To label and dismiss us, to vilify us, is to wrongly assume that politically there exists an "us." In fact, we are just a group of very different people, most of us trying to raise our families, joined by the desire to grab an audience. Yeah, those gay couples trying to raise a family, I know what you mean.
It pains me that our nation is so divided. So, during the next four years, I'm going to try to better understand the so-called Christian Right that views Hollywood as the enemy. Much like in my marriage, I'm going to focus on our similarities, because I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that if we try, we can find common ground. God, I sound like such a liberal. You can try to understand the 'Christian Right' all you want. You have missed the point. People voted Dubya in because the alternative was a relaxation of security; the alternative was another leftist president, following Clinton's legacy: ignoring terrorism until it is just too late.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/13/2004
7:51:29 AM ||
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#1
I have never been invited to an orgy.
That's why he's pissed.
#2
Iâm going to try to better understand the so-called Christian Right
He should start by dropping the "so-called" insult.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 9:19
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#3
Steven Levitan is an Emmy Award-winning writer and executive producer of television comedies. He created the long-running NBC series Just Shoot Me and is developing two series for next fall. None of this impresses his wife and kids in the least.
Or me, either.
Ask them today if they would have financed Passion knowing then what they know now, and youâll see enough green lights to make Hollywood look like a Christmas tree.
We're supposed to be impressed that greed kicks in where there are no principles people are willing to stand up for?
Pfeh. This guy is self-satirizing.
Posted by: too true ||
12/13/2004 9:24
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#4
I am reminded of a comedian's routine about how a gang-banger behaves when he's outside of his 'hood: overly polite, even ingratiating, and with very precise English.
#5
"Free Clinic" sounds so high and mighty. Let's see what they actually do:
1) Free showers for the homeless. I don't think any homeless actually take them up on that.
2) HIV testing for gays. Well that was an obvious one.
3) Legal advice for illegal aliens and juvenile hooligans, so they can avoid jail and continue to break the law.
4) Women's Health. STD cures and abortion referrals.
5) Dental care. Well, no argument here.
6) Integrative medicine. Chinese herbs and yoga. These are treatments for real disorders? Hello, placebo effect!
Pretty much every page on their site has HIV status emphasized. Some people are more equal than others, eh?
Volunteers needed: Attorneys, law students, every single dental specialty (well I take back the positive statement about dental services...evidently they don't have enough dentists, and the openings are for 3-hour shifts), Spanish translators, and assorted admin staff.
Job opening: Grant writer. Well, that was obvious...the Hollywood types aren't getting the bills paid, they need more free money. Job requirement: "Willingness to commit to the philosophy and goals of The Los Angeles Free Clinic." I wonder how those apocryphal Bush voters would fit in here.
In short, this clinic, while admirable, panders to the liberal leanings of its elitist Hollywood sponsors, and mostly dispenses treatments that adhere to their liberal views.
#6
We teach our children compassion, charity, honesty and the benefits of hard work. We teach them to help those who aren't as lucky as they are.
Well, which is it? Do they benefit from the wages of hard work or the whims of fortune? These kids are likely to be every bit as confused as their old man.
#12
Not all are nuts. Roger Simon's cool, an ex-liberal, OSacr-winning screenwriter and part-time blogger. He's also friends with Charles Johnson. Check out his site: www.rogerlsimon.com
#14
Apparently, a surprising number of the younger creatives are conservative and Republican. They keep silent in order to be able to have careers, but it will be quite interesting in that part of the world within twenty years. As for the orgies, it isn't the 1920's any more, or the '60s, or the 80's. Nowadays, I imagine they are small, private affairs, with carefully picked guest lists -- people like us who are least likely to be infected with an unamusing disease, or to have spouses who would object to the activities.
#15
A largely unoticed trend is that Hollywood now gets most of its movie revenue from outside the USA and the TV industry is going down the same path. Hollywood is merely reflecting the prejudices of its market.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 17:44
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#18
The other aspect of Hollywood is that most of their revenue derives from an audience of subliterate teenagers and uneducated young adults.
They're out of touch with normal people because very few of them create works that normal people over the age of 22 have any interest in. Films for intelligent adults are a dying business. What struck Hollywood types about both F911 and the Passion was that these movies were bringing into the theaters millions of adults who had not attended a movie in years.
#20
What struck Hollywood types about both F911 and the Passion was that these movies were bringing into the theaters millions of adults who had not attended a movie in years.
Heh, I haven't been to the local theaters in years myself, and neither one of these was compelling enough to cause me to break my streak. :)
#21
Not that either F911 or that SM fetish romp, The Passion, were aimed at intelligent adults
that was the single most unintelligent thing I've heard - classing them in the same sentence and disparaging Christians and their history. Nice job, even for an atheist
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 18:47
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#22
The Passion is obscene. A smut flick. An embarrassment to Christians, and intellectually dishonest as well: note how Mikey, er, Mel lied about removing his anti-jewish insertion that recalled the blood libel. He removed only the subtitle, not the aramaic spoken words, which means that every foreign distributor is free to retain the blood libel portion, whether it be subtitled in arabic or polish or russian or whatever.
#23
Here's a surefire growth industry: an integrated production and distribution chain featuring both low-budget paranoid lefty agitprop crap and low-budget obscene funamentalist Opus Dei crap. Huge margins and a lock on the over-25 true believer market.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 18:57
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#25
Smut's smut, Frank. Sorry. Anyone who would expose his children to Mel's obscene gorefest is sick. As are most of the Opus Dei wackos who apparently inspired his, uh, "vision"
#26
I would not show the "Passion" to children, and I don't think any rational mind holds Jews today responsible for Roman and Rabbi political decisions 2000 yrs ago - this thread was run endlessly when the movie came out. As I noted at the time, Jews didn't kill Jesus, we all did, and it was his chosen fate to die - for all of us. The blood libel canard is available for anyone who wants to not understand the message - in fact Gibson is one of the hands in the movie nailing Jesus to the cross, to demonstrate that we all did it. Arabs, et al, will use anything they desire to for their own ends, or is Mel responsible for the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"? It's obvious you and I won't agree on this, sounds like you have some issues I can't help you with...sorry
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 19:14
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#27
btw - I didn't mean that last part to sound snarky....unusual for me, I know...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 19:16
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#28
Smut's smut, Frank.
Wow.
Iâve seen more graphic depictions of the crucifixion than the one Mel produced -- but I wouldnât call those depictions âsmutâ either. The New Testament record is fairly clear that Christ went through mockeries of trials before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and the Roman Governor. The record also is clear that Christ suffered beatings and insult along the way, including a severe scourging that Governor Pilate appeared to have hoped would appease Christâs enemies. In the end, Christ suffered a Roman crucifixion. Extra-biblical sources concur that Christ lived, drew a following, and was crucified by the Romans. The only real historical question is what happened to Christâs body thereafter.
To call any portrayal of Christâs suffering as âsmutâ is to equate blood sacrifice with depictions of prurient sexual gratification. You canât argue that Melâs depiction is anything but accurate as far as the historical record of Christâs suffering goes. Beating, scourging and crucifixion do have the results Mel depicts.
As for the blood libel charge, argue with the writers of the New Testament (who were Jewish) not with Mel. The words that were put in the movie by Mel are what the New Testament says some Jewish leaders were saying at the time. THE NEW TESTAMENT DOESNâT SAY THAT GOD OR THE CHURCH TOOK THEM UP ON THE OFFER. If the blood libel doctrine were correct, then was Christâs suffering a willing propitiation, or just the bad breaks that some race should now be cursed for? I donât doubt that some people (using the name of âChrist,â even) have claimed that the Jews are subject to blood libel, but those are the same types as supported the Inquisition. The Biblical doctrines condemn anyone who would claim a blood libel on the Jews.
The Christians revere Christâs voluntary suffering -- believing that Christ did not have to undergo the suffering, but chose to suffer as a blood sacrifice to erase the sins of the repentant. Christâs suffering is revered as an example of true selfless devotion, and as a challenge to how we should all live to help others.
#29
If my info is correct that the blood libel does not occur in all of the Gospels, only one of them, then why did Mel put it in? More to the point, he agreed with his critics that it was deeply offensive and inflammatory and said he would remove it.
But he lied. He left the scene and removed only the English subtitles. So every foreign jew-basher can not only watch the scene but also read subtitles that are now totally up to the discretion of shall we say less "sensitive" distributors in the middle east and Eastern Europe. Disgusting.
#30
Look, dude, if you find deathporn entertaining, then by all means go for it. But Mel's clearly a liar and an opportunist-- not just for his blood libel lies and shenanigans but also by pretending the Pope endorsed his project when Mel has consistently voiced his scorn for the Pope's "liberalism". In my book Mel's merely the right-wing version of MikeyBoy. Pox on 'em both.
#31
clearly you and your "deathporn" will never be reconciled with my view. No skin off my fore, as Master Fred sez. You're not going to change your opinion and I certainly have better to do.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 19:55
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#32
So every foreign jew-basher can not only watch the scene but also read subtitles that are now totally up to the discretion of shall we say less "sensitive" distributors in the middle east and Eastern Europe. Disgusting.
Ridiculous! Those who hate the Jews will do so at any provocation, and even without provocation. You may as well urge the suppression of the whole New Testament -- including the other variations of the gospels, because they can be misread as well. Frankly, the New Testament is much more supportive of Jews and the Jewish religion than you imagine. For the longest time, Christianity was considered by many to be simply one of the sects of Judaism.
Two aid workers have been shot dead in the conflict-ridden Darfur region of western Sudan, their employer said Monday. The British Charity Save the Children said their two employees, a medical assistant and a mechanic, both Sudanese nationals, came under fire Sunday while travelling in clearly marked humanitarian vehicles on the main road between Mershing and Duma in South Darfur. "We deplore this brutal killing of humanitarian workers in Darfur", the agency's director of International Operations Ken Caldwell said in a statement. The organisation said its operations in the area have been suspended and that the African Union force in Darfur is investigating the shooting. In October, two other Save the Children staff, one British citizen and one Sudanese, were killed when they drove over a landmine in North Darfur. The African Union, whose forces monitor the ceasefire signed between the Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government in April, has said the number of violations have risen in recent weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
7:50:05 PM ||
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Israel has called on [its] nationals to leave Iraq immediately. Israeli officials said Israelis in Iraq were deemed to be in danger of abduction and death. They said an undetermined number of Israelis were in Baghdad as well as in northern Iraq. On Sunday, the government's Counter-Terrorism Command issued a warning against Israeli travel to Iraq. In the first such acknowledgement, the unit also called on Israelis to leave Iraq immediately. Arab diplomatic sources have asserted that scores of Israelis were providing services and training to Kurdish militias in northern Iraq. The sources said Israelis have also been engaged in business ventures with Kurdish companies and transporting goods to and from Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
7:48:11 PM ||
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#1
sad, but good, advice
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 20:38
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...an undetermined number of Israelis were in Baghdad as well as in northern Iraq.
Israeli agents and businessmen go where NGOs fear to tread.
From The New York Times, an opinion article by Vali Nasr, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and by Ali Gheissari, a professor of history at the University of San Diego.
.... [Iran's] Revolutionary Guards were formed in May 1979 by young rebels loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini; their job was to combat the well-organized leftist militias that had challenged clerical control of the revolution. The guards evolved into a full-fledged military force during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980's, and were involved in many of the key campaigns. They also played a direct role in the organization and training of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Badr Brigade in Iraq.
While the guards had a lower profile in the 1990's, the victory of the reformist Mohammad Khatami in the presidential election of 1997 led the conservative clerical leadership to give them new support. In exchange for the guards cracking down on advocates of reform, the government gave them generous financing for troop training and new heavy-weapons systems - including giving them oversight of missile and nuclear research programs - as well as increases in salaries and benefits. The guard corps expanded its intelligence service, paramilitary ranks and even its air and naval capacity. It now has close to 150,000 soldiers, making up about a third of the nation's military.
Today the guards are commanded by a group of ideological conservatives, notably Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, who has even criticized the government for its willingness to negotiate with Europe over the country's nuclear activities. These commanders share strong personal bonds forged in the Iran-Iraq war, during which many were involved in ferocious campaigns that involved chemical attacks. They hold common views on Iran's regional dominant role, the nature of the country's external threats, and protecting the values of the revolution.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/13/2004
7:46:21 AM ||
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#1
an Islamic Mafia in charge of the nukes and missiles. These assholes can't be rehabilitated. Kill.Them
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 8:23
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#2
Probably similar to Saddam's "elite" -- we need to kill most of them and destroy their weapons in the first strike so they don't melt away and become "insurgents".
Posted by: Tom ||
12/13/2004 8:30
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Tom, right, albeit... I think that regular Reza Iraniani would have quite a score to settle with them Islamogoons, too.
#4
The conclusion of the article points out that the RGs are acting independently from the Mullaz and are equally corrupt. Iran is a tough nut. The fact that it has the potential for division into at least 2 corrupt factions works to our advantage. Worth tracking here @ Rantburg.
It is possible to envision independent minded RG generals with which we could do business. I tend to agree that the regular forces are the most likely hope for sparking regime change. Ambitious RG generals, JDAM and coffee house students are next in order of probability.
Something's gotta happen before they get nukes. Unfortunately it is doubtful we can take them out militarily so regime change by any means necessary must be our goal.
Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs, Ghazi Zeiter, called for the cooperation and cohesion between Syria and Lebanon against the pressures placed on both countries. Zeiter said during his meeting with popular factions that Lebanon will never feel afraid from the U.S. pressures. He also stressed on the importance of the cooperation with Syria and the commitment to the national unity. The Assembly of Scholars in Amel Mount, Lebanon, also emphasized that the recent Lebanese national rally in Beirut indicated the Lebanese opposition to the UN Security Council resolution No. 1559 that interferes in Lebanon's internal affairs. The Assembly also criticized the U.S. Ambassador in Beirut for interfering in Lebanon's domestic affairs in a way that violets the diplomatic norms.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
7:44:08 PM ||
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#1
"Lebanon will never feel afraid from the U.S. pressures - our protector, Syria, will be right here behind us! Uh, right?...hey! where'd ya go, Bashir?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 20:02
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Human Rights Watch said that it discovered new evidence that three more detainees have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The New York-based group also accused the Bush administration of "dragging its feet" on investigations that might have prevented the abuses of Iraqi detainees. It said in an open letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the United States is continuing to fail to probe the abuses or prosecute the guilty, noting that the U.S.-run jails in Afghanistan aren't operating according to the rule of law. Human Rights Watch also demanded the U.S. army to release an internal report on its Afghan detention facilities, which U.S. authorities promised to release several months ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
7:43:06 PM ||
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This is getting aggravating, folks. So pass the word, take no more prisoners, okay? Hopefully, if there are none to be abused, Human Rights Watch will not get pissed off.
Posted by: D. Rumsfeld ||
12/13/2004 21:40
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Very Interesting exposition of what it took to take down Dascle.
Guess what it took? Bringing down a newspaper. Read it all. Fascinating, as well as instructive...
Patrick Lalley, the Argus Leader's assistant managing editor, acknowledges that the blogs had an impact on how his paper covered the Senate race. They certainly got under the skin of some of the paper's executives. Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, called some of the bloggers work "crap" and said they represented an organized effort by conservatives to discredit his paper. In July, he explained to readers that "true believers of one stripe or another, no longer content to merely bore spouses and neighbors with their nutty opinions, can now spew forth on their own blogs, thereby playing a pivotal role in creating the polarized climate that dominates debate on nearly every national issue. If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog"...
The blogs and other alternative media outlets became the tail wagging the media dog. "Argus Leader reporters said the pressure from the blogs increased until a 'siege mentality' took over at the paper, according to one source. Complaints flooded the paper's office," National Journal's John Stanton reported.
The paper's readers also began to take notice of the range of coverage available on the blogs that mysteriously didn't show up in their local paper. "The Argus Leader often doesn't present the whole picture in its political coverage," Wendy Otheim, a teacher from Hartford, S.D., wrote the paper in October. "A multitude of blog sites make for interesting reading. Don't be held a captive audience to the Argus Leader." To its credit, the paper ran Ms. Otheim's letter.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/13/2004
6:52:23 AM ||
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#1
"true believers of one stripe or another, no longer content to merely bore spouses and neighbors with their nutty opinions..."
Nice attempt at equivocation, Mr. Beck.
"playing a pivotal role in creating the polarized climate that dominates debate on nearly every national issue."
Which means your 'professional media' really ought to work harder at providing information, and not just regurgitating handed-in talking points.
"...If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog"...
#4
The Wall Street Journal has its own blog (Best of the Web at OpinionJournal.com). It's very highly rated, too. Why can't the clever people at the Argus Leader do the same?
#5
the Argus spent all their time, and David Krantz's effots at trying to keep Daschle in office. When, as a news media, you spend all your time trying to suppress news and spin what's left, you don't have time to run a blog...
buh-bye, Tom Thumb
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 14:34
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The father of a Briton held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has spoken of his fears for his son's deteriorating mental, saying that solitary confinement is driving him mad. Azmat Begg told BBC radio that his son Moazzam Begg, he has been tortured by the U.S. guards, and that he was being driven insane by being confined in a solitary cell. "From what I gather from different sources, it looks that he is deteriorating very badly and things are going badly physically and mentally," Begg said. "I don't know how a person can stay in solitary confinement for such a long time and remain normal.
I doubt his normality when he went in there...
"He has been there nearly three years in solitary confinement without even a guard, just being watched by a camera. "It is a long, long battle, which I can fight but I don't think he can survive that long." Begg said he fears that by the time his son's case reaches the courts he would not be fit to defend himself. "By that time, mentally he will be finished. He won't be able to say anything. He will be a cabbage," Begg said.
Or maybe a rutabaga. That'd be a good thing for prospective jihadis to think about before rushing off to fight the infidels...
"By that time, mentally he will be finished. He won't be able to say anything. He will be a cabbage. Why do they want him to go mental? Is it because he has seen a lot of cruelty and a lot of irregularities and violations of human rights? That is possibly why he is kept aside, so he doesn't talk about what he has seen to the other prisoners."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
6:03:01 PM ||
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Posted by: N Guard ||
12/13/2004 18:17
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A cabbage? sell him to the NK's
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 18:52
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#6
Mmmmmm: CABBAGE. Fried with bacon? Yum.....
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
12/13/2004 19:35
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#7
When a jihadi goes mad, we're talkin' MAD. Works for me. Put him on LOW and let him simmer for a few more years. Same with the rest of them. Probably cheaper to keep them on ice than to have tribunals, with all the ACLU type buzzing around like flies.
Posted by: Alaska Paul In Nikolaevsk, Alaska ||
12/13/2004 21:07
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#8
I thought being hooked up with allen kept all that stuff from happening to you? I mean I read it on authority of some Mufti or Shiek someplace didin't I?
So of course this guy Begg is wrong according to the holy word of allen and all.
Fine with me. Cabbages can't fly airplanes into buildings or blow up buses or behead poor bastards that fall under their tender mercies.
If you're lucky, pops, maybe he'll hang himself.
#10
Or maybe they both will. No sympathy. Zero. Zilch. Nada. FOAD, Daddy. If any attention is due you, it is because you're at least partially responsible for the little monster.
In the past, scholars of Islam used to gain prominence by issuing important fatwas (religious edicts) that were characterized by their objectivity and integrity. But things have changed. Today, fatwas in Egypt are issued just about daily to forbid anything from the internet and satellite dishes to mobile phones and yoga. "Most of the fatwas issued recently are stupid, silly and against any kind of modernity," said Ahmed Shawki Al Fangari, an Islamic researcher and a writer at Rose El Youssef magazine. "These fatwas are a strong indication of the ignorance and frivolity of their issuers who want to keep people away from other important issues like democracy and technology," he added.
Rule with an iron first and technological backwardness are the Way of Allan...
According to Al Azhar scholars, proper fatwas play a very important role in the everyday life of Muslims. "World and life circumstances change every day and fatwas are one of the means by which Islam adapts to this change," said Mohammed Abu Laila, a professor of Islamic Studies at Al Azhar University and a member of the Dar Al Iftaa committee, the Al Azhar body responsible for overseeing interpretations and fatwas. "There are issues in modern life that are not mentioned in the Koran and the Sunna and so fatwas try to find an answer to questions concerning these issues," he told the Middle East Times. Today, however, sheikhs and scholars are issuing strange fatwas almost daily in mosques, in newspapers, on radio and on television. One recent fatwa forbade the practice of yoga on the grounds that it is an ascetic Hindu practice. Another declared that Muslims should not use the internet because it makes them waste their time. Most recently, a fatwa announced that ironing women's pants was forbidden as women are not allowed to wear pants in Islam.
That little detail's about the only thing Islam's got going for it. I always say "Down with Pants! Up with Skirts!"
This kind of fatwa has proliferated due to the lack of credible muftis (fatwa issuers). While official muftis require official qualifications, as well as a number of years served at Al Azhar and membership in Dar Al Iftaa, these criteria do not apply to unofficial muftis.
In that case, shouldn't their fatwahs be unofficial, too? What happens if you just ignore them, or use them instead of three pebbles?
VIEW FROM THE LEFT
- Harley Sorensen, Special to SF Gate
Today let us take the sad, sordid case of one George W. Bush. Our president. Love him or hate him, it was he and he alone who decided that our mighty armies should travel to Iraq and kill tens of thousands of people, most of whom were guilty of nothing more than being there. Like egomaniacal rulers forever, dating back to the cave, Mr. Bush demonized the people he wanted to kill. They have "weapons of mass destruction," he asserted. Yeah, like we don't. Like India doesn't. Like Israel doesn't. Like Pakistan doesn't. Like China doesn't. Like Russia doesn't. Why don't we invade them? Or ourselves?
It turned out the Iraqis didn't have those terrible weapons. But, the Iraqis are evil, Mr. Bush asserted. Well, at least their leader was, so, by extension, they all were. And, by gosh and by golly, they might have harbored terrorists at one time or another.
Quickly now, name a country that harbored the Sept. 11 terrorists! Ah, that was too easy. You got it right away. The answer: the United States of America. That's who sheltered the 19 terrorists before their attacks on Manhattan and Washington. That's where those terrorists worked and played, ate and slept, plotted and rehearsed right up to that tragic day. The U.S. of A. But, willing to overlook all that, and with a leader as esteemed and honest and clear-eyed as Mr. Bush, thousands of young men and women, eager to serve their country and save us from the Iraqi monsters, rushed to the recruiting offices to join up.
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#1
Margaret Murray,and those like her are being called up from the ready reserve.If they had taken a lump sum instead of an anuity,they would not have been called up.But this article falls way short of the truth.In fact,it sucks.
Was tempted to post under Great White - so the dems problem is lack of self-esteem?
hits bottom, crashes through the floorboards, and bores through the Earth's mantle, headed for the core like a bloated black hole of massive, gravity-warping schtoopidity.
His latest freakish screed approvingly quotes one of his admirers, comparing conservatives/Republicans to domestic abusers. (Hat tip: Coco.)
#2
Moore's friend claims that the reason they keep losing elections is because we are abusive and they like it. Also they didn't really lose this election, the people were fooled into voting for Bush and not for Kerry. I guess they didn't lose Senate seats, House seats, or State houses? I pray they make Moore the DNC chairman.
#3
Did that dumb broad he quoted from actually compare Dan Rather to a battered wife, because of the fake memo controversy????
(note...yes, I know it's politically incorrect of me to call her a "dumb broad", not to mention offensive to all the dumb broads out there to be compared to her.)
BTW, I thought Kennedy was the biggest liberal in the Senate. Kerry's just the biggest lazy-ass bum (9 bills in 20 years? Please.....Kennedy comes up with more than that before happy hour.)
#5
Priceless. Scott Ott couldn't top this. Aside from the mindless use of cliches -- sweetheart, it makes no sense to talk about a "cycle" of violence when one person's doing all the slapping -- there's the bizarre notion that Dems need to "fight back" and also "walk away."
Cupcake, if you want to win elections, you have to persuade millions of normal, intelligent Democrats like myself that you're serious about national security and that when you say you're going to fix the health insurance mess, you actually have an intelligent and moderate, achievable plan for doing so.
One of Minnesota's 10 presidential electors broke from the pack and cast a vote Monday for John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential running mate for John Kerry. The other nine Minnesota members of the Electoral College voted for Kerry, who won the state's popular vote in November. After the state's Electoral College ceremony concluded, no one stepped foward as the Edwards voter. Most electors chalked the vote up as a mistake rather than a purposeful political statement. Unbelievable. This is the real deal, and one of these party hacks can't even get it right. Is there some genetic thing in Democrats that leads them to find ballots too hard to fill out properly? Sheesh.
``I'm sure somebody made a mistake,'' said elector Michael Meuers of Bemidji. ``I'm certainly glad that the Electoral College is not separated by one vote.'' No kidding, genius. More at link.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/13/2004
5:03:06 PM ||
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#1
Yes, but the act that this elector voted for Edwards for both offices means that his VP vote should be thrown out. Since it makes no difference in the outcome that will be unlikely.
Oh well, since GWB has all the votes, 282, already marked for him (as far as I know) then just sit back and wait for the Veep to annopunce the actual result in the halls of congress on Jan 6.
#2
They (LLL Losers) had a demonstration here in Sacramento protesteing the election and electorial college. I walked by with my camera in hand and there might have been 25 people. One with a bull horn, two with Kerry/Edwards sign, and others with assorted "Count the vote" signs. They even had one idiot waving at cars in a count (from Sesame Street) mask. I guess the rest of the LLL had to work today.
Salama Nimat, an Arab journalist writing from Washington for the London-based Al-Hayat, is shocked and awed to realize that the first two free and general elections in the whole history of the Arab nation will happen in January, "in Iraq, under the auspices of the American occupation, and in Palestine, under the auspices of the Israeli occupation". Makes him feel almost warm and fuzzy towards Western imperialism.
He is the latest of several prominent Arab journalists bold enough to point at the obvious. He is so indiscreet as to mention that the only places in the Arab world where the press and media are truly free are now -- Iraq and Palestine. (Though the truth is Palestinian media are under the thumb of the Palestinian Authority.) Which is why he must file his articles from a considerable distance.
As one of my own Arab correspondents put it, "If one has been occupied for some time by the Saud family, or the Assad family, or the Mubarak family, let alone the Hussein family, one begins rather to envy the sort of people who get to be occupied by the Bush family." (He is far from alone, but the fact I cannot use his name, without imperilling his life, suggests he is a long way from power.)
The new voices are muted, and while there are not yet demonstrations, as on the streets of Kiev, demanding free, honest, and general elections in Riyadh, Damascus, Cairo and elsewhere, I do nevertheless sense a changing tone in even state-controlled Arab media. Call it a new curiosity about what democracy might entail. I cannot quantify it, but I can smell it.
The thing itself ("democracy") is frankly a Western export, and has been accepted as an import from the West -- in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and no w all along that Pacific Rim. It was carried in their baggage by the British to India, and by Europe's Jews to the Levant. The Americans airlifted it to Afghanistan recently. It is presently pushing and shoving across the Steppes. Yet even where it is imposed, it is warmly welcomed. (See Afghanistan.) There is no question it is in demand.
Why, then, are we only interested in whether Ukrainians may vote freely? Why aren't we equally engaged -- emotionally, intellectually, and morally -- when freedom, independence, and democracy are at issue in many other countries?
I will tell you, but you won't like the answer. It is because the Ukrainians are white people, and the other candidates for democratization are yellow and brown. This is especially so in Western Europe, and nowhere more than in France: where the whole idea of spreading democracy beyond "our common European home" is characteristically met with anti-American sneering.
Even the Ukrainians depended on quick thinking and response from the Bush administration to build international pressure. From Europe, they could only expect "mediators". For the people struggling to make or preserve democratic gains, in more exotic climes, it's the Bush administration or nothing. There is no huge Western media uproar about Zimbabwe, for instance.
Or about Taiwan, where the election for the Legislative Yuan is taking place today, in which there is a good chance the "Pan-Green" coalition, which wants a free and independent Taiwan, may edge out the "Pan-Blue" coalition, consisting of the descendents of the old Kuomintang, whose leaders increasingly advocate appeasement of, and political integration with, mainland China.
There are spooky resemblances to the situation in Ukraine. The incumbent President, Chen Shui-bian, is the Yushchenko of this piece, himself a moderate bourgeois politician trying to gain what independence he can for his country against constant Chinese threats. His rival, Lien Chan, who leads the Pan-Blue, is the Yanukovich -- prepared to serve Beijing's interests, even by stirring up domestic ethnic divisions that Beijing may exploit. The Putin of the piece is Hu Jintao, the Chinese President who is prepared to throw around his weight quite crudely to intimidate Taiwan, demanding subservience.
In the time since I last wrote about this issue, the Red Chinese have added at least another hundred surface-to-surface missiles on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, pointed at the island's cities and infrastucture. It is a very crude weight, indeed.
But do we care about this? Not that I've heard.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/13/2004
3:24:50 AM ||
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#1
Help me out here. Didn't Bahrain have an election under their new constitutional monarchy two years ago? Are the Bahraini Arabs? Did the constitutional monarchy in Bahrain provide a democratic election? I keep reading about these 'firsts' but no one mentions Bahrain, either to debunk the claim of a fair constitutional election or to confirm it. Mebbe I missed something (that happens).
The Parliament has 40 members elected in single-seat constituencies for a four year term. No parties are allowed in Bahrain. According to Rulers in parliamentary elections at 24 october 2002 the moderate Sunni Islamists and independents win 16 of 40 seats. Turnout is 53.2%. In a second round held on October 31, the independents win 12 seats and the Islamists 9. The secular representatives or independents secure a total of 21 of the 40 seats.
#3
That's over simplifying it a bit Sobiesky. Quasi-parties are allowed in Bahrain, they exist but under a different name as "political party" translated into Arabic has some objectionable connotations to Islamists - go figure. Anyway. The biggest "party" in Bahrain along with 3 others boycotted the elections in 2002 due to their objection to the new constitution released by the King on Feb 14, 2002. They want to go back to the 1973 constitution as it gives more freedoms, allows for only one elected house (rather than one elected and one appointed as in 2002) and gives MPs quite a lot of power. All of these were curtailed in the 2002 constitution.
So by boycotting the election and acting freely, this should have demonstrated to any observer that yes we do have democracy here. It might not be the best shining example, but for more than 50% of the people it's good enough to base development on, and that is what is happening now.
When you say "not shi'a and not women" I don't get your meaning. If you suggest that Shi'as didn't vote then that's a half truth. I did and I am a Shi'a. The Al-Wefaq didn't and they are the biggest shi'a political party, but even some of them voted. As for women who constitute slightly higher than 50% of the registered voters, it is unfortunate that they didn't elect a single woman to the post. That hopefully will change in the future, and various organisations are working toward that end.
The Political Parties law by the way is looking like it's getting the approval of the parliament into law possibly this session or the next, but it is certainly being discussed by both the boycotters as well as participating "political societies". You're right though, it is extremely important for the further development of political life to have legal political parties under whichever name people call them.
Quana, yes Bahrainis are Arabs - mainly! As an island that has been the crossroads of various civilisations, we are quite a mix. For the most part the Bahrainis are Arabs, yet some descended from Persia, others from India and Pakistan and various other points around the world.
The elections of 2002 were internationally observed and there were no "shenanigans" as far as the observers were concerned. And none of the opposition raised objections either. They did however accuse the government of coersion (every voter had to show his passport at the polling station and once voted they stamp the back of the passport - this drove some people to vote even though they didn't want to, but again most of those just screwed up the ballot paper and deposited in the box rather than mark a candidate's name).
So yes, the story is not finished yet, we have an awful long way to go and politics being politics there is always going to be give and take. At least it is semi-working, and that is much better than it used to be in the 80s and 90s. Heck, if it was even as bad as 10% of how it was then, I would be most definitely rotting in prison for what I write!
Lastly, tipper, democracy is not exclusive to skin-colour. That remark was racist to say the very least and is unbecoming of a discussion such as this.
#4
I don't think Tipper was being racist but was pointing out that other people - especially the Europeans - are racist and that is why they don't care about spreading democracy to the brown and yellow nations outside the Euro club.
#6
Hello Mahmood and thank you for your comments. I haven't seen you commenting here before! I understand your concerns regarding Tipper's post but I'm quite sure Tip is not a racist.
The racism here is the assertion by the academic and cultural "elites" (not necessarily all located in Europe, but many of them are) that it's ok for the middle eastern, african, and south asian peoples to live under brutal hereditary thugocracies "because that's how 'they' are, poor brutes."
#7
What's strange here is that the supposedly "progressive" westerners who always proclaim their concern for human rights are the ones most firmly opposed to the spread of liberal democracy in the middle east. It's Bush and the neo-conservatives who are the liberal revolutionaries today.
#8
If one has been occupied for some time by the Saud family, or the Assad family, or the Mubarak family, let alone the Hussein family, one begins rather to envy the sort of people who get to be occupied by the Bush family."
As Glenn would say, Heh!
Great piece. Interesting post Mahmood. Your English is outstanding.
#9
Mamood
tipper didn't make the comment that offended you -
Mike Warren did (Tipper is posting Warren's comment). I think Warren made this comment based on his discussion with his Arab co workers and customers (I have some Arab co workers and they do anything possible to avoid working for a black woman supervisor).
#10
Very cool: a thoughtful correspondent from Bahrain. And Shia, to boot! Welcome, Mahmood. I look forward to more intelligent commentary to inform my understanding of a part of the world where my husband once worked, but where I have never been.
#12
Mahmood wrote some very funny posts some months ago about the arrival of Formula One racing, and the Bahrainis randomly wandering onto and over the track. I sent those posts off to a few non-bloggy friends who are F-1 fans...
Internal Army documents advocate changing Pentagon rules on mixed-sex units in a way that critics say will risk placing female soldiers in ground-combat situations.
    The Nov. 29 briefing to senior Army officers at the Pentagon, presented as part of the service's sweeping transformation of its 10 war-fighting divisions, advocates scrapping the military's ban on collocation -- the deployment of mixed-sex noncombat units alongside all-male combat brigades.
    The briefing contained the phrase: "The way ahead: rewrite/eliminate the Army collocation policy."
    To some in the Army, the confidential briefing proves that the service is moving toward a decision to put women within direct combat units, despite statements denying such plans, including a Nov. 3 Capitol Hill briefing for senior congressional staff members by Army and Pentagon officials.
    According to one aide, the Nov. 3 briefers assured the staff members that the Army was complying with the collocation rule and did not want it changed.
    "We are not collocating," a senior congressional aide quoted the presenters as saying.
    But the Army's Nov. 29 paper suggests otherwise, and critics of the plan, both inside and outside the Army, argue that it is part of an overall plan to override a 1994 policy prohibiting women from serving in direct land combat.
...
    The Times reported last week on an internal May 10 briefing that portrayed the Army as in a bind. The briefing states the Army does not have enough male soldiers to fill the FSCs if they were to collocate with combat brigades and thus required to be men-only.
    All-male FSCs, the paper states, "creates potential long-term challenge to Army; pool of male recruits too small to sustain force."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004
3:17:52 PM ||
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#1
No, I better not say what I was gonna say...
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:48
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#2
Oh go ahead. Your a Captain.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 16:50
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#3
I'm sure the members of the 507th Maintenace Company will be impressed by the debate.
Posted by: Don ||
12/13/2004 17:09
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Once this happens, we are officially a nation of wussies.
#5
A completely straight question-
if upper body strength and speed are not problems with the females in combat, are there other difficulties? (I don't have an opinion on this yet because I don't know enough about it.)
#6
They call us babes in arms
but we are babes in armour.
They laugh at babes in arms
but we'll be laughing far more.
On city street and farms
They'll hear a rising war cry.
Youth will arrive,
let them know you are alive,
make it your cry!
They call us babes in arms
they think they must direct us.
But if we're babes in arms
we'll make them all respect us.
Why have we got our arms,
what have we got our sight for?
Play day is done,
we have a palce in the sun
we must fight for.
So babes in arms to arms!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 17:17
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NOW better not scream - this is what they wanted.
Beware of what you ask for, 'cause you might jus' git it. Heh heh.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/13/2004 18:33
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Get a grip people. Rummie is the one pushing the organization structure that leaves no choice that combat support personnel are up front and close to the action. Its the combat support units who are getting the higher ratio of casualties than the traditional combat units in Iraq. There is no front line. If you want the females 10k from the fighting then you better not send them into country. If you don't send the females that means someone else has to fill the requirement. Same pay and same chance for promotion, but different risks? The safe jobs stateside for one specific group and danger for the other. That'll really hurt morale. This is the inevitable consequences of choices made decades ago. It is the slippery slope fulfilled. Now you have to live with it. Make the best of the situation. Insist that the physcial standards for the soldier are tied to the physical situation the soldier is to operate, not just the MOS [military occupational specialty]. No waivers, no dumbing down.
#11
If she's a better shot, will that prompt the guy next to her to do a bayonet charge? Inquiring minds wanna know!
I see it now: Formation of the 1st Amazon Brigade...
Sillies aside, I have zero problem with this - if they are meeting the same specs then fold 'em in and let the bad guyz pay. My mother at 36 was a better shot than I was at 14, and I had 20/10 vision. My grandfather had to teach me to shoot - she had no patience when she was packing heat, heh.
I believe this is so obviously inevitable that it screams. The only proviso is as others said above - same specs, no dumbing down - that will get people killed. And no humping on guard duty, either - unless using those rubber ball gag thingys. And no... well, you get the idea: fight before fun.
#12
I believe this is so obviously inevitable that it screams.
And it will become even more so when we field nanotech body armour with strength augmentation and biomonitoring / medic systems built in and autonomous ground robots w/ weapons systems that respond to commands from authorized voices. The latter in the not too distant future, the former aren't far behind.
In the meanwhile, .com is right - there are no front lines anymore and support roles are equally dangerous. Let's get people qualified to do those roles so they don't get themselves and others killed. And if it washes out women and men who joined for a job but who aren't cut out to be soldiers, that's a good thing for all concerned. The Army's a bad place to run a jobs program when there are real wars to fight.
#14
ugly ills (rape and worse) visited upon women soldiers will be the MSM meme of the decade, mark my words. Jessica Lynch- all-the-time.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 21:59
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All of what follows is, I believe, common sense - and my opinion. The answer to most of such "crimes of passion" as rape - and I definitely use the word passion only to mean out of control, not passionate - is habituation. Familiarity, constant contact, leads to myn (particularly, lol!) not seeing wymyn as objects. When they do what you do every day, alongside you, talk to you, joke with you, save your ass & vice versa, you don't see them as a sexual object - unless you're well and truly screwed up. Check out the profiler info available (not the sociology tripe) and you find the one-time rapist is usually in one of 3 environs: under peer pressure - a group acceptance situation, out of control due to lowering of social strictures such as drunk, or obsessive about the victim as in put on a pedestal with no personal contact. Habituation - doing something frequently so that it loses its novelty, pulls the potential victim into the potential aggressor's social space - makes them real, removes the mystery and fear of rejection, permits the tension-easing banter that tears down the pedestal. A serial aggressor is something else entirely - a predator - but they are obviously a tiny minority of the potential aggressors.
Make it normal and it will be normal.
Humans can become accustomed to, inured to, or oblivious of almost anything. Walk to the edge of the cliff and your knees are weak the first time. Thirty trips later you're ready to dangle your feet over the edge and eat lunch. Habituation. Humans are funny critters, and usually quite predictable and trainable.
#16
I was in a unit (a video documentation unit) which deployed into interesting situations, and was about 1/3rd female to 2/3rds male, and which went on field excercises all the time... and since we all considered ourselves committed professionals, and well-adjusted grownups, who all had Significant Others at home... all the members of the team much preferred bunking in under the same roof, all together with the video gear (for which we were all responsible) and the other members of our team...(and hanging up a blanket as some sort of concession to what little privacy was available!)than having to camp out with strangers, on the other side of wherever, whom we didn't know, and didn't trust.
As for getting it on, in the field, with one of the guys that you work with? Ewwww.
Secont point: my daughter is a field wireman in the Marines. It's a combat support-type job, and I have to admit, she was better prepared for a situation like that, than I ever was as an Air Force very-much-in-the-rear-echelon-type. She was in Kuwait and in Iraq last year, and one of the things she said about the merits of various locations was that she rather preferred being somewhat forward, rather than in-the-rear-with-the-gear, because there, everyone was armed, loaded, looking after each other as a Marine, and paying attention. Make of that what you will.
Korean scientists developed a bacterium that can produce ethanol about 20 percent more than other similar microbes, paving the way for cheaper production of the alternative fuel. Microgen Inc., a Seoul-based biotech firm, yesterday said its research team had completely decoded genes of an alcohol-making bacterium called Zymomonas mobilis for the first time ever. The researchers used the knowledge to create a new breed of the bacterium with a higher production capability than its relatives. The scientists said this "Super Alcohol Bacterium" will help develop a cheaper and more efficient method to produce ethanol, a fuel that could replace gasoline in the near future.
"We will continue this research further to build a bioreactor that can quickly produce ethanol out of natural materials such as corn and timber," said Suh Jung-sun, the company's CEO. The research report will appear today on the U.S. journal Nature's Web site. The article is also scheduled for publication in the magazine's January edition.
Ethanol is hailed as a completely renewable and environmentally friendly fuel. Energy experts believe that along with other alternative fuels such as hydrogen, it will help reduce the world's dependency on oil. Ethanol fuel is already available in countries such as the United States as a mixture with a small amount of gasoline. Last year, the United States produced more than 10.6 billion liters of ethanol. Experts believe the figure will rise to 18.9 billion liters by 2012. Microgen officials said the study was conducted in tandem with the medical school of Seoul National University. The company plans to seek a patent on the technology with the Korean government, as well as an international one. Formed in 1997, Microgen has mainly supplied transgenic mice to medical laboratories nationwide. It also develops DNA chips that can locate a certain DNA at very low concentrations.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/13/2004
3:11:11 AM ||
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#1
OY! I can also see a great potential in the moonshine industry!
#2
massive farming is not sustainable unfortunately. The land has to rest and in essence rebuild all the nutrients that have been leached from it by crops. That's why it's often a practice to let a field go to fallow every so often to let the land rejuvenate.
if we start relying on agriculture to support our energy needs... I forsee some problems as we push our production capability.
The price of Saudi Black Slag is worldwide exporting of Wahhabist Islamist fascism with the attendant violence: september 11, bali, madrid, nigerian embassy bombing, violence from the horn of africa through asia to middle east and chechynya
I'd like to be OFF the black skag one day. Cars can run on Ethanol by the way. Car engines can be modified for a price to run on ethanol.
You can't run your car on nukes, by the way. Nukes have a very expensive price tag which I'm not willing to pay.
And hydrogen cells, solar, wind, wave etc are all too expensive and too silly and small.
I like ethanol, i think it is the only viable alternative in the long run.
#6
DeviousSaint: You might want to look into something called "crop rotation". Keen little invention from the somewhat-recent past. European immigrants have been introducing it in various places, last few years. Perhaps it hasn't made it into your end of creation as of yet?
Fallow fields... There's a reason we label fallow fields as "idle" in the ag databases I help maintain. "Fallow" is for farmers who haven't figured out to organize a crop rotation schedule.
Not that ethanol is anything other than an expensive government-subsidy boondoggle, but really! Fallow fields indeed...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/13/2004 13:48
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Not that ethanol is anything other than an expensive government-subsidy boondoggle,
While currently true, that's ultimately a pricing issue.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 13:54
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If you alternate main crop plantings with nitrogen-fixing legumes (or interplant with low-growing clovers), regularly plow in composted & sterilized sewage sludge, stop the practice of chemically sterilizing the soil before planting, and use plowing methods that don't turn the topsoil to a fine dust likely to be blown away with the first strong wind, the cropland will be fine for quite some time. Timberland is a different story, although the various Locust tree species (Black Locust and Honey Locust are both native to Eastern North America) are also nitrogen fixers.
On the other hand, if the plan is to use waste products such as sawdust and corn stalks as the feedstock for the bacteria, then there is no extra cost to the environment to produce the ethanol. I don't know enough on the subject to comment authoritatively, I'm afraid.
WASHINGTON - Despite a renewed American effort to repair relations with Europe, a disagreement between the Bush administration and European leaders over how best to persuade Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program has deepened in recent weeks, diplomats on both sides say. The diplomats said the disagreement focused on what Europeans maintained was the crucial next step in their drive to persuade Iran to move beyond its recently agreed upon voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment activities to the point of abandoning them outright. Europe wants to ply them with gold while America is still tending towards the use of lead.
Envoys from Britain, France and Germany gained Iran's agreement to suspend a vital part of its nuclear program last month. Which part and whether it was large or small, partially shut down, mothballed or merely given a new coat of paint remains unclear at this time.
The accord was later endorsed by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency. Both the European and Iranian officials who negotiated the accord said it was voluntary and temporary. Which, in Iranian terms, means nothing of the sort needs to be done whatsoever about complying with anything that was discussed.
Permanent cessation is subject to further talks in which economic and political benefits for Iran are to be discussed. As yet, the definition of "permanent cessation" is highly variable. Europe's interpretation involves a time span that allows for another significant round of big ticket infrastructure builds in Iran, while America is leaning more towards smoking holes in the ground.
But in recent interviews, European diplomats said that to gain a permanent cessation, the Bush administration must participate in talks with Iran and signal a willingness to be a part of an eventual final accord involving economic incentives and a discussion of security guarantees for Iran. Such a quid pro quo involving Iran is only possible if Tehran demonstrates the slightest ability to keep their word about anything at all. This is largely regarded as a low-odds longshot by most domestic diplomats.
"We have a deal with Iran that is not perfect," said a European diplomat. "We have to develop it into a permanent suspension. But we will succeed only if we can provide a lot of carrots." Which is just fine with America, but only so long as the "carrots" are shaped like really big sticks.
"We will not obtain a comprehensive deal on Iran without the United States." A diplomat from a different European country said the "biggest carrot" that could be offered Iran would be several hundred megatons a discussion about an eventual normalization of relations with the United States, including possible guarantees that Iran would not be attacked or subverted. American foreign policy experts attribute these concerns to our government's crash course development of really big stick-shaped carrots.
"It would be very helpful if the United States also embraced this view," the diplomat said of the need for American involvement. Just as soon as our latest crop of "carrots" comes in.
But he said that when some Europeans recently raised this issue with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and secretary of state designate, they failed to convince her. "Iran has this distinct credibility problem with all of us across the pond, see?"
A senior U.S. official said the administration was "deeply worried" about the entire European approach because it could lull the United States into a false sense of security. Any such deal, he said, could easily be subverted or circumvented, much as North Korea did after it agreed in 1994 to freeze its production of weapons-grade fuel at one reactor, only to renege on the accord and embark on what the United States charges is a plan to produce weapons-grade fuel at another, clandestine location. A plan which Iran has lifted directly from North Korea's playbook.
Another senior administration official said there was also no confidence within the administration in the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iran's compliance even with the accord hammered out by the Europeans. Mind you, that's merely the one citing "voluntary suspension." Any mention of "permanent cessation" is normally greeted with hysterical laughter in Tehran and terse discussions of throw-weights in Washington DC.
The official said that the Europeans had agreed to excessive limits on the agency's ability to inspect Iran's facilities including blindfolds, earplugs plus some really, really thick mittens, and that there was the added problem that Iran might pursue weapons programs at facilities that Western experts had been unable to locate or identify. Once again, this is where those several hundred megaton "carrots" come in.
European diplomats, responding to these criticisms, said that while their deal with Iran was fatally flawed, it represented the best hope for reaching an accord that would be accepted by the rest of the world, particularly Iran's fairy Godmothers, Russia and China, two players with economic ties to Iran. To get American involvement in the next phase of negotiations, European envoys said they told Iran that if it failed to comply with its agreement, they would join with the United States in referring the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council for possible further actions, including economic sanctions. Russia and China will, of course, veto such sanctions so that Iran can finish growing its own "carrots."
To some U.S. officials, the European attitude may be well intentioned but also naive and based on a fundamental misreading of Iran's lies intentions. What is needed, they contend, is a unified willingness to demand action and to threaten sanctions against Iran. Bush administration officials add that while bombing Iranian nuclear sites or taking other sorts of military action are not being contemplated now, they are not ruled out for the immediate future. The European-American differences on the issue show few signs of being resolved soon, despite a trip this week by Secretary of State Colin Powell to three European-American meetings and a planned trip to Europe by President Bush after his inauguration in January. The big money is on some major arm-twisting over this.
"The Europeans are barking up the wrong tree if they think the U.S. can bring the Iranians to the table to get an agreement on this," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy and an Iran specialist. "What is needed," he said, "is for the entire international community - the Europeans, the Chinese, the Russians and the United States - to tell the Iranians to make a deal on this or face the consequences. This will happen at the same time snow flurries start gusting in hell.
Right now, what the Iranians say they want from the United States goes far beyond what the administration would be willing to offer." As it typically has been. Always making with the deal-breakers.
The Europeans have begun discussion of an array of economic benefits that would accrue to Iran if it headed toward a full cessation of its suspicious nuclear activities. How will the Europeans be able to tell that a "full cessation" has ocurred? They cannot tell anything of the sort right now and nobody's going to show them all of the Iranian facilities anytime soon.
Among them, according to the Europeans, would be a reaffirmation of Iran's right to have a peaceful nuclear energy program, including access to nuclear fuel on international markets in return for an agreement to return the fuel once it is used. Pebble or thorium based reactors, maybe. U-238 fuel rods? Never!
Iranian access to Western high technology and discussing the establishment of the Middle East, presumably including Israel, as a zone free of all nuclear weapons, are also under consideration. It's really difficult to imagine Israel surrendering all, or even some, of their nuclear weapons anytime soon. Unilateral cooperation by Iran will remain the most likely scenario.
U.S. officials say, however, they are suspicious of any partial deals that do not encompass an end to Iran's support of insurgents in Iraq and to groups that carry out attacks on Israeli citizens, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and militant factions within the Palestine Liberation Organization. Major sticking points for Iran, seeing as how these are sources of national and patriotic pride for them.
But European diplomats say they are prepared to enter into a discussion of these matters, and also of Iran's repressive practices at home, in what they are describing as "phase two" of their talks with Iran. Phase two means: "We'll ignore all the wife-beating if you just promise not to cheat at cards anymore."
"Of course, the earlier the United States gets into the talks, the better," said a senior European diplomat, adding that the main incentive to Iran is to end the Western threat of economic and political isolation. And any possible use of those really, really big stick-shaped "carrots."
Posted by: Zenster ||
12/13/2004
2:47:39 AM ||
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#1
"European discord over Iran is deepening"
What does that remind me of...?
Saudi 'surrounding' popped in. Power of associations... It has the same neverending quality.
No surprise there. The good guys don't want the black turbans to have nukes. The unserious allies either don't care if they have nukes, or worse, may actually want the turbans to have nukes as a check on US power.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
12/13/2004 7:19
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Europe is caught in a philosophical malaise. Western philosophies can be placed on a four-square grid of "realism" and "idealism" on one side and "optimism" and "pessimism" on the other. America is realistic and optimistic. Russia is idealistic and optimistic. But Europe is realistic and pessimistic. Their attitude is that "Things will drag on like this for years, in slow decline, then get much worse." And this is why America, and eventually Russia, will overtake Europe in just about everything. It is born of 1500 years of war, with idealism and optimism burned out of them, and condemns them to an existence of appeasement, surrender, diplomatic failure, meanness, and inadequacy. It is rather repulsive to most Americans, typified in things like dour French movies, where people are bored and unhappy, and remain bored and unhappy.
#4
The "negotiations" farce continues. The EU Dwarves aren't on our side here. They would much prefer a nuclear Iran that menaces Israel and does lucrative (for the Euros) deals with the EU Dwarves to a non-nuclear Iran contained through aggressive sanctions and the real threat of US force.
The goal of the negotiations sham is to contain the US, not Iran.
#5
European envoys said they told Iran that if it failed to comply with its agreement, they would join with the United States in referring the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council for possible further actions, including economic sanctions.
Which would of course happen one week after the Iranians HAVE the weapons. ;)
The timeline is important. I'd love to see European leaders supporting this idea explain it chronologically, so everyone could get a real picture of what they are supporting. Don't dodge the question, Europe-when does the period of grace expire? Will that be too late to take alternative action (besides sanctions)? If action was finally needed, would we see UN II, where you back away from threats you have no intention in carrying through on?
Always with Europe, the MO is to scramble to fix problems after only after they've gotten so big that you CAN'T fix them and choose to "tolerate" them. Doing so seems to have the tendency to produce millions of dead people.
#6
European envoys said they told Iran that if it failed to comply with its agreement, they would join with the United States in referring the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council for possible further actions, including economic sanctions.
Ooooh, that'll be something, won't it? There'll be twelve years worth of resolutions for Iran to allow inspections, there'll be sanctions, Food-for-Oil 2 (and the accompanying UN scandal), and numerous calls to come clean while the mullahs play the UN like a fiddle.
#7
Yep. Looks like the UN problem that President Bush rightly raised (that its words do not match its deeds) is going to disappear of the radar screen so that everyone in Europe can pat themselves on the back on being so diplomatic and so clever in solving the Iranian problem. 'Cept, their solution just covers it up. When a cat turds in a box, he covers it up so everyone can eat their pate; in a couple of weeks, people figure out that covering it doesn't mean it's gone away.
#8
"European envoys said they told Iran that if it failed to comply with its agreement, they would join with the United States in referring the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council"
Make light of it if you will, but the Iranians realize that if they get just ONE MORE referral to the Security Council they may be suspended from ALL after school activities, have to attend Study Hallâ¦and may not get to graduate with their class! Theyâre quaking in their sandals in Tehran all right.
#10
It's Europe that's being plied with gold. The mullahs don't care about economic carrots; they've already skimmed off millions and couldn't care less about the economic wellbeing of their miserable subjects.
#12
This is the same fault line that we always break with on the Europeans. They always just want to talk about "doing it" so they never have to actually get around to "doing it". No wonder their birth rate is falling so low.
A TRAINING camp for anarchists will be set up in Scotland within months to maximise damage and disruption during next summer's G8 summit of world leaders at Gleneagles. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the first anti-capitalist training session will be held at a secret location in Glasgow in February to create an elite corps of "experienced activists" with the skills to pass on to other demonstrators. Activists will be taught "skills" including how to form blockades, carry out occupations, destroy CCTV surveillance systems, breach security fences, disable machinery and work as a team to cause maximum disruption. They will also receive a crash course in "legal skills" and how to act when arrested.
They always seemed to have that part down pat.
The camps are being organised by the Dissent Network, a loose group of activists which has organised mass protests at previous summits in Europe. The group's website makes clear that the July summit, to be attended by US President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, will not be the only target. It is also calling for "decentralised actions" on oil company installations and political buildings where the security curtain will not be as tight. Security experts said the military-style courses revealed a greater degree of organisation than had previously been recognised, and fuelled fears that violent anti-capitalist protests would erupt, as they did at previous meetings of world leaders in Genoa and Seattle.
I'm thinking it's time we release the Chicago cops on these guys -- you know, the ones with the baby blue helmets.
Direct action training camps are being organised by Dissent and a second group, the Blatant Incitement Project, in Sheffield next month and London in March, as well as in Glasgow. The Dissent Group's website says that the summit should be a "focus for protest for wankers like us people opposing liberty, freedom, adequate food, democracy war, the destruction of our environment, the abuse of human rights and capitalism". It adds: "Preparation is key to effective action against the G8. One of the things that made people work together so well at Seattle was the fact that a lot of them had taken part in direct action training months in advance."
Yep, it sure did seem like a conspiracy at the time.
#3
A TRAINING camp for anarchists will be set up in Scotland within months to maximise damage and disruption
I don't think it's going too far to call this a terrorist training camp. Raid them, arrest them all, track down their funding sources and arrest them, too.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 9:18
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#4
It's a shame, but many of the true Scots emigrated years ago. What's left are all too often those on the Left, who look to government subsidies, join CND and advocate violent strikes (or did until Thatcher resisted right back).
So this "training camp" will fit right in with some of the communities there. Pity -- Scotland was once a proud, self-sufficient place.
Posted by: too true ||
12/13/2004 9:26
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#5
...and the media will act shocked when violence erupts, and pin any blame firmly on "a few extremists unrelated to other protestors" or "outsiders taking advantage of the situation". That's what they did in Seattle.
#6
Student 1: What have you got today?
Student 2: From 9 to 10:30 I've got Stripping with Ms. Scarboob, from noon to 1:30 I've got Bulldozer Blocking with Ms. Corrie(and she's a ghost! Cool!), and from 2:30 to 4 I've got Explosives with Mr. Peacedove.
Student 1: You've got Peacedove too?
Student 2: Yes.
Student 1: I started his class yesterday. Today from 10:30 to 12 I've got Defacing 11-September Memorials with Mr. Forgetitall, and from 1:30 to 3 I've got Libeling Bush and Blair with Ms. Tolerance.
Student 2: Cool! See you around, I've got to get to class.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
12/13/2004 9:47
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#7
heh. The thought of anarchists organizing anything always makes me smile.
An Australian man of Lebanese origin has been detained in northern Iraq by Kurdish militiamen and Australian officials are investigating whether the detainee has links to terrorists, Kurdish and Australian officials said Sunday.
"Y'ain't from around here, air yew?"
"Crikey!"
Ahmed Jalal, 22, was recently arrested by members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. The official said Jalal was arrested because his brother is believed to be detained in Lebanon in relation to terrorist activities.
"Hey! Just 'cuz he's involved with turbans don't mean I am!"
"Oh, yeah? Whaddya you do for a living?"
"I work for an Islamic charity!"
"Book him, Mahmoud!"
Julie McDonald, a Canberra-based spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that a Sydney man had been detained by the PUK in northern Iraq. "This matter is under investigation by proper authorities who are looking into possible terrorist connections of the detained 22-year-old," McDonald said without identifying him or elaborating further. McDonald said Australian officials in Baghdad had learned of the man's arrest on Nov. 30 from the International Committee of the Red Cross and that his relatives in Sydney, Australia's largest city, have been notified.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
2:37:08 PM ||
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#1
I've been wondering why the Red Cross is handling things in Iraq. Isn't that more properly the sphere of the Red Crescent?
An action film star, who narrowly lost this year's Philippines presidential elections and then sought to nullify President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's victory, has suffered a stroke and is in a coma, his spokesman said Sunday. Fernando Poe Jr. complained of dizziness while drinking and dining with friends and employees in his suburban Manila film studio. He was brought late Saturday to a hospital, where he was in an intensive-care unit, said his spokesman, Rep. Francis Escudero. "Initially, he thought it was only because he changed his eyeglasses but later he could no longer stand his dizziness," Escudero said. "He did not fall to the ground but his condition was no longer normal so we rushed him to the hospital." Poe, 65, later slipped into a coma and doctors needed to conduct more tests over the next 72 hours to predict his chances of recovery, Escudero told a press conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
2:31:35 PM ||
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Is this for real? Fernando Po (or Poo) was an island in the Illuminatus Trilogy.
This is a sad story, but I can't help but laugh at the coincidence ... os is it a coincidence? Fnord!
#2
The island exists, and the unfortunate Mr. Poe takes his name from his paternal grandmother I believe, a Spanish-Filipino mestiza, which was originally Poo. I think it is a Galician or Portuguese name. His father Fernando, also a famous actor, changed his name to Poe.
Fernando Poo or Po is an island off the coast of Africa, named for its discoverer.
Fernando Poe Jr. is at least 3/4ths American, (his mother was, as well as his paternal grandfather) and what little Filipino he has is from his one grandmother.
He has a reputation as a good fellow, though not the brightest. I am sorry to hear this.
Iran acknowledged for the first time Sunday that it has convicted some Iranian nationals of supporting al-Qaida, saying the number was fewer than five. The United States has accused Iran of harboring al-Qaida operatives, with some U.S. counterterrorism officials alleging hard-line elements within the Iranian regime may have developed working relationships with some senior al-Qaida officials who fled to Iran after the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Iran has rejected the accusations. "A few pro-al-Qaida Iranian nationals have been tried and convicted," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. Their number, he said, is less than "the fingers on one's hand," he said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. He did not give details, including when they were convicted, what sentences they had received or what sort of support they had provided Osama bin Laden's terror network. Asefi said cases of foreign nationals in Iran with alleged links to al-Qaida are still under investigation and no trial dates have been set, IRNA reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
2:30:14 PM ||
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Europe should review its schoolbooks on Islam as a good start for introducing the true image of the Muslims' religion, European experts recommended on Sunday, December 12. "A lot of factual mistakes, misleading perceptions are prevalent in schoolbooks in Europe all over the past years, we have to admit," Wolfgang Hoepken, the director of Germany-based Georg Exkert Institute, told a three-day Euro-Arab Dialogue conference that opened here earlier in the day.
The Institute has analyzed several textbooks presented to school children in European countries on Islam. "There is relatively little on Islam in these selective texts," Hoepken said.
#4
Any chance they'll include a review of the textbooks the EU provided to the Palestinians? www.MEMRI.org translated the new textbooks not long ago, and "vicious" doesn't begin to describe them.
#5
Similarly, a number of participants have urged Muslim and Arab countries to clear their schoolbooks of âexaggerated fearsâ of the Other. Ashmawiâs study found that textbooks in Arab countries say, for example, that Moguls could have vanished all of the Muslim civilization if they were not defeated in Al-Quds. âThis is unjustified exaggeration that should be removed also,â she maintained.
Well, the Morguls did manage to kill off an increadibly large fraction of the civilian populations of what Moslem countries they did conquer. I'm not sure this is an exageration.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/13/2004 14:05
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Europe should review its schoolbooks on Islam as a good start for introducing the true image of the Muslimsâ religion, European experts recommended on Sunday, December 12.
Sounds like something the Paleos could use, but in their case, it's the stuff about everything else BUT Islam that needs to be checked for accuracy. Especially the writings about Jews, in particular.
Colombian troops have captured a top leftist rebel commander suspected of masterminding the 1999 kidnapping of an entire congregation from a Roman Catholic church, the army said Sunday. Ramiro Velez, a regional leader of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the smaller of Colombia's two rebel groups, was arrested Saturday during an operation in Chachaui, 300 miles southwest of Bogota, said Gen. Reinaldo Castellanos. "He directed all the terrorist activity in the southwest of the country. He is a very important commander, a member of the ELN's national directorate," Castellanos told reporters. Velez, known by the alias "El Viejo" ("The Old Man"), is accused of rebellion, kidnapping and ordering attacks on villages and the country's energy infrastructure. He is blamed for the May 1999 gunpoint abductions of 180 Roman Catholic worshippers from the La Maria church in the southwestern city of Cali, the army said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
2:27:54 PM ||
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Every year, UC Irvine hosts what it proudly calls the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Lecture Series. Faculty and administration officials nominate these "distinguished fellows" through a popular vote, with Chancellor Ralph Cicerone making the final selection. This year, one of the school's top nominees was Michael Moore, famed director of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11.
But Moore's flacks flaked, failing to contact UCI for a full two months, leaving the university with no choice but to invite a trio of speakers that is actually more controversial than Moore—but for all the wrong reasons.
Speaker No. 1 is former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who pushed his country into Iraq despite polls showing that more than 90 percent of Spaniards opposed the war. Spaniards despise Aznar for blaming the horrific March 11 Madrid train bombings, which killed 191, on Basque separatists before it was confirmed that Islamic terrorists were behind the act. His attempt to divert attention from Spain's role in Iraq led directly to his party losing the elections three days after the bombings and Spain's withdrawal from President Bush's ever-shrinking Coalition of the Willing.
In selecting distinguished fellows to speak on campus, UCI generally tries to find people who have never appeared anywhere else in Orange County. But in May, Chapman University presented Aznar with its Global Citizen Medal. A black-tie dinner honoring Aznar on May 15 raised more than a million dollars for the university, but organizer/GOP operative Mark Chapin Johnson told The Orange County Register, "The main reason to do this is to show support for a major ally."
#5
ZF - I'm in San Diego, and IMHO most would associate LA with greater Los Angeles City....
OCWeekly is a free newspaper, that tells you all you need to know...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 15:50
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#6
Could've been worse. They could've invited Bibi.
#3
and no half-crazed cry of 'Allahu Akbar' to greet the reaper's blade...
(see similar recent posting on 'why not to fire an rpg from the middle of the street.')
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/13/2004 9:20
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#4
That's why tankers refer to infantry as "crunchies", folks...
#7
Yikes! We should thank Al Jazeero, Arabiya, BBC and other enemy media for encouraging the cannon-fodder to believe that these piss-poor tactics are adequate.
It appears that this was an HE round that impacted just out of sight to the right, turning the alley into a kind of ad hoc cannon in its own right, with Mr. Jihad-al-Rambo firmly attached to the muzzle.
International terrorism charges and allegations of ties to al Qaeda might be enough to scare away some cellmates, in some countries. But Italian mobsters jailed on the island of Sardinia, apparently outraged by terrorism, beat up an Algerian terror suspect and threatened to kill him unless he got himself transferred to a new prison. The same threat was made against at least one other Algerian inmate. "You guys set off bombs and do massacres. If you don't change prisons, you're dead," the criminals were reported to have told Saadi Nassim, in comments confirmed by his lawyer.
Italian mobsters have forgotten more about intimidation than these guys will ever know.
The case won prominence in leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Friday in a story headlined: "Muslim prisoners beat up by Camorra," referring the Naples-based mob organization. The criminals who threatened Nassim were themselves accused of murder, the paper said, without naming names.
They'd rather not be beaten up themselves
Nassim is fighting charges of belonging to a cell linked to al Qaeda. A judge has authorized Nassim's transfer to a new prison, and a decision in the 2-year-old case is expected sometime next year.
The inference that there is organized crime involving persons of Italian origin is the opinion of the writer of the original article and in no way refelects the opinion of the poster or the members of his family.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004
2:06:09 PM ||
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#1
think the new prison will be devoid of irritated italian criminals? Me neither
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 14:27
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#2
Hahahaha,this is just tooooo funny.Saadi is learning a lesson in intimadation from the masters of intimidation.I feel so sorry for him(wink,nudge,nudge),hahahaha.
#7
The Italian Mob is extremely vicious. Over the years, they have killed hundreds of Italian public officials. Because Italy has no death penalty, none of these gangsters has ever had to pay with his life. If they're not afraid of killing Italian public officials, I can't really see why they would have a problem with killing a mere jihadi.
#9
Saadi should think of it as an opportunity for martyrdom. Glory be to Allan...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 15:27
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#10
The movie "La Scorta" was made about the day-to-day routine of guarding an Italian magistrate from the Mob. Although I have no idea how accurate it is, it is one of the tensest movies I have watched - very gut-churning and claustrophobic, combined with a sense of the inevitability of disaster. Oh - and it's subtitled and features a score by Ennio Morricone, the guy who did the Clint Eastwood classics - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.
Cuba's armed forces are gearing up for their biggest military exercises in almost 20 years, with hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of civilians expected to take part, officials here said. General Leonardo Andollo told reporters on Sunday that MiG-29 jets, anti-aircraft batteries were to be deployed during the weeklong exercises meant to be a warning to Washington that Cuba would vigorously defend itself against US aggression. The mass war games start Monday and are due to run through to December 19.
"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and tremble!"
Senior military and Communist government officials here warned that the administration of US President George W. Bush should take note of the island's war footing. "The determination of the US administration to destroy the (Cuban) revolution however they can, including militarily, determines the necessity of conducting these exercises," Andollo, the deputy chief of Cuba's Armed Revolutionary Forces (FAR), said. His comments come days after President Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, warned Washington should closely observe Cuba's military prowess and civil defenses during the manoeuvres. Raul Castro is the head of the Caribbean island's armed forces.
"Hello, Porter?... Hi. This is GW... Say, you got time to closely observe Cuba's military prowesss and civil defense during their maneuvers?... Oh. Afghanistan, y'say?... And Iraq?... And Iran?... And Soddy Arabia?... And North Korea... And South Waziristan?... Uhuh. Well, maybe we can closely observe them next year?... I see. Indonesia... And the Philippines... And Bangladesh... So when do y'think we can get around to Cuba?... After Samoa?... And Paraguay?... But definitely before Burkina Faso?... Okay. I'll tell Dick. Thanks."
Operation "Bastion 2004" will involve about 100,000 soldiers, sailors and air force personnel as well as some 400,000 reservists. Air force MiG-29s, anti-aircraft units and elite troops will also support the operation, billed as Cuba's biggest military exercises since 1986. Officials said the exercises would also involve several million civilians who will participate in two days of civil defense exercises, including a simulated aerial assault. Raul Castro said last week the exercises had been planned in part so Washington "does not commit the errors it committed in Vietnam and that it is now committing in Iraq. "So that they (Washington) do not underestimate our people, who are united and more powerful than those in Iraq."
"... and much better dancers!"
Posted by: tipper ||
12/13/2004
2:02:24 AM ||
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#1
Hey it's your money Raul. Waste it if you want to.
#3
So they are going to show us what they have. That way the planners will know exactly what -- and how much -- they need to set aside for the invasion. I think the correct response here is, "Thanks!"
#14
Look, You guys can make light of this all you want, but if I were you, any nation that can not only keep a '59 Buick running after all these years BUT ALSO make it seaworthy for a maritime run at the Florida coast is one that warrants some serious attention. (NOT!)
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/13/2004 16:05
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#4
the Manchurian Egomaniacal Candidate
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 16:09
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#5
Well, that settles it, doesn't it? Rummy gets no confidence from Johnny RINO.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:15
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#6
This just in...under continued "no confidence" pressure from Senator McCain, Rummy has sworn off of steriods. McCain to restore confidence at 11:00 pm.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:17
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#9
Aside from the personality issues, some of which are not uncommon in politics (the ego/attention thing), McCain has actually often shown very limited savvy on military matters. He panicked quickly after the start of the Afghanistan operation. His harping on troop numbers here (and his bizarre suggestion that every relevant linguist, civil affairs, and special forces body hasn't long since been thrown into the Iraq fight) is basically another demonstration of incomprehension -- no matter how popular it has become as a mythological explanation of imperfection, er, I mean "quagmire". (A friend at Army intel agrees that the troop # issue has become the "dog ate my homework" excuse for some Army commanders who've failed to adapt effectively in Iraq)
Just because McCain typically avoids the jaw-dropping schtoopidity of most congressional and media figures on military matters shouldn't obscure just how mediocre his grasp seems to be. A real military hero he is, a military genius he shows no signs of being ....
#10
1. McCain is no RINO. His positions on health care, abortion, and a range of other issues put him outside the Dem party.
2. He is NOT stupid. He may have panicked briefly on Afghanistan, but by and large hes been pretty good.
3. Do you really think Iraq has managed optimally? I dont. And yes, I still dont see a clear explanation for why we didnt go in with more troops. You want to blame Turkey? We should have had a contingency plan for that. As far as I can see it was because Rummy decided that changing the way the Pentagon does business was more important than getting the best possible outcome in Iraq. But go ahead with Rummy can do no wrong, if you must.
#11
Seems to me that Rumsfeld has done a far better job anticipating force requirements in Iraq than McCain did anticipating the effect of his horseshit Campaign Finance "Reform" bill.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/13/2004 17:29
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#12
McCain's not necessarily a RINO, and I agree his judgment's no worse than your average Senator's. But that's the point: he's a mediocrity who's been inflated by the MSM into their favorite Republican Bushwhacker. I don't have anything against him, and there are a few things to like about him, but I don't particularly trust his judgment regarding Rumsfeld. I could be wrong but suspect it's heavily personal, as are most of his complaints with Bush.
#13
What Dave said. Campaign Finance Reform is a lasting embarrassment, the most foolish and useless piece of legislation to come from the Hill in many years
#15
I'm convinced CFR sprang from his moral vanity and his guilt as one of the Keating five - he had to be holier than thou, regardless of whether the law was good for America
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 17:35
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#16
Lex i dontt think McCain is a mediocrity, and well, Bushies who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones. I mean really.
DaveD - maybe so. Camp Finance reform can always be tweaked again. The opportunity to transform the middle east that Iraq presented, may not come again. The consequences are much greater here.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 17:37
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#18
Depends on your definition. I think we will still probably beat the insurgency, ultimately, and i think the Shias and Kurds will make a democracy, of sorts. And it would be disaster to get out now, and its probably still worthwhile that we went in.
But we're sure as hell inhibited in doing anything else anywhere else that requires large numbers of troops. We dont have a model that anyone else in the region is particularly interested in following, in particular Sunni Arabs, who make up most of the region. Maybe we can get things to the point where its OK in 4 or 6 years. But we've wasted a hell of a lot of time - IF we had gone in with sufficient force, we might have been able to head off much of the insurgency - wed certainly have been able to get reconstruction started faster and better - and been able to hold Iraqi elections now in better circumstances. Things could be much better than they are now. That things are not much worse has more to do with the valor and competence of our troops, and the real commitment and courage of ordinary Iraqis, than it does to Rummy.
#19
LH, I'll be the first to admit that Rummy's arrogant and that we probably should have had more troops, but you and the MSM hyenas are vastly overestimating the impact that more troops would have had on Iraqi stability. The fact is that most of the military/security difficulties we face now are due not to Rumsfeld's strategic our failures but to his successes, specifically, the unanticipated wwiftness of our overwhelming victory last April over the Iraqi forces that forced the Ba'athist hardliners underground.
#20
Turkey's action WAS the problem because it delayed the combat in Fallujah by 18 months during which time the terrs made the place a hell hole and centere for metstasizing thier insurrection.
How many troops should have been sent to Iraq when, LH?
It took three years to get elections in Afghanistan, two in Iraq. So Afghanistan must be 50% more screwed up than Iraq?
As to being inhibited from doing anything anywhere else, I agre the Clinton administration reduced the Army by at least 2 divisions too many. I expect that eror to be rectified shortly.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 18:13
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#21
One thing I see, again and again, is that people who think Iraq is going badly for us seem to think that establishing a peaceful democracy there is our **ONLY** objective. It is not: it is a highly desireable outcome, one well worth fighting for; but there are many, many other reasons why we are over there. And chief among those reasons is to obtain something we've never had before, something absolutely indispensable for moving forward with the war on Islamist terrorism: a land base adjacent to Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
A larger list of likely reasons for our going into Iraq is here.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/13/2004 18:37
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#22
1. McCain is no RINO. His positions on health care, abortion, and a range of other issues put him outside the Dem party.
McCain's biggest constituency is McCain. As for him not being a RINO, it was interesting that a few years back, after a recall petition (which he initially dismissed) began gaining traction, he quickly tacked rightward.
McCain ran unopposed in the primary. Frankly, I wish someone had run against him. If the Libertarian candidate hadn't been a Harry Browne clone, I'd have voted for him instead.
#23
McCain is the poster boy for what defines a RINO. In 2001, the Club for Growth gave him the RINO of the Year award stating:
"Senator McCain wins for voting against final passage of the Bush tax cut and for a key anti-tax cut amendment by Democratic Leader Tom Daschle; for offering his own amendment that would have gutted the Bush tax cut; for teaming up with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to push massive new health care regulations; and for becoming the chief Republican Senate sponsor of the bill to make all federal airport screeners federal employees."
It's maneuvering for the 2008 Presidential Run plain and simple.
If the war goes well, he's on record as being strong on defense. If it goes badly, he's on record as having been one of the few Repubs to have criticized the current administration.
Come on folks - it couldn't be any clearer.
When Hillary echos his comments, that will signal the official start of the 2008 campaign.
#24
IF we had gone in with sufficient force, we might have been able to head off much of the insurgency
You know this, how, exactly? Do you have a palantir that lets you see into alternate realities?
Do you know what other limits on troop availability were?
Do you know what the limits in supplying troops were?
How would more troops have stopped a pre-planned, pre-supplied campaign of terrorism?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 20:47
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#25
McCain is probably panicking that Rudy seems already to have the "moderate, independent straight-talker" niche in the next primary sewn up. Unlike Rudy, of course, he has no idea how to discipline and market himself to actually win this primary.
I just have one question: Who's better at his job, McCain or Rummy?
If one thinks the answer is McCain, then the job of a Senator is to be primarily self-serving, self-aggrandizing, and self-promoting - and not much else. *slaps forehead* Duh! No wonder he & Skeery were such good buds! And Skeery & Teddy - bigger Duh! And Harkin! And Feinstein! And Boxer! And Leahy! And Rockefeller! Sheesh! And all this time I was thinking they were supposed to be something special...
Okay, now I get it. McCain's a friggin Senate Star, alright.
#27
The criterion for Election to the Senate is that one's shit don't stink. That's why they're all such good buddies.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 21:26
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#28
McCain is rightly honored for something he did/was many years ago, a POW War Hero with dignity and valor. He is not infallible, altruistic, and humble, as he has proved many times since. If he switched places with Zell Miller he be labeled a phony, corrupt, hypocrite. The fact he tweaks his nominal party, to the delight of the MSM, is what makes him a star. What has he done lately? I hear tell he and Kerry sold out possible POW/MIA's in VN. Was that ever looked at, or was it too radioactive? McCain should NEVER be allowed to gain the reigns of power in any governmental position
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 21:32
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CANBERRA is considering sending customs, immigration and security officers to improve security at Papua New Guinea's air and sea ports because of concerns the country could by used as a transit route for terrorists, weapons and people smugglers. Concern about lax border controls in PNG and steps Australia could take to improve the situation have been discussed by cabinet's National Security Committee, government sources told The Australian. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and six other ministers are flying to PNG today for two days of talks with their PNG counterparts in Lae. Border security is understood to be high on the agenda.
Australian security officials are alarmed at PNG's relatively porous borders and believe PNG staff are susceptible to bribes. Terrorist groups and other criminal gangs could take advantage of lax security to board flights to Australia or cross the relatively narrow Torres Strait. Plans for direct Australian intervention would have to be balanced by concern not to upset local sensitivities, diplomats believe. Even with PNG's co-operation, the presence of Australian staff could provoke a "colonialist backlash". A spokesman for Mr Downer declined to comment on the border security move last night. Australia earlier this year committed $800 million to restoring law and order and improving governance in PNG as part of its broader effort to ensure stability in the Pacific. The program known as the Enhanced Co-operation Package involves 210 police in Port Moresby and 64 public servants placed throughout the bureaucracy over five years.
In a briefing ahead of the meeting, Mr Downer said he did not believe Canberra could expand its commitment at this stage. "This meeting is really about getting a progress report on how the enhanced co-operation package is going," he said. "Police have only been on the beat for a week or so but we've had people working in the bureaucracy for some months now, so it's a good time to take a look at it."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/13/2004
1:48:02 PM ||
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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is seriously considering its role in talks on its nuclear plans because of what it sees as a concerted campaign to topple the North's ruling system, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The United States had launched a psychological campaign to persuade people there was a crisis in the North, including mass defections by generals to China, said a lengthy statement published by the official KCNA news agency.
"Under this situation the DPRK is compelled to seriously reconsider its participation in the talks with the U.S., a party extremely disgusting and hateful," it said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Although the North used trademark ambiguity in its wording, the ministry spokesman appeared to be referring to six-country nuclear talks that involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The five regional powers are seeking to persuade the North to ditch its nuclear weapons ambitions in return for aid and security guarantees.
The latest remarks represented a hardening of Pyongyang's position since it said in a ministry statement on Dec. 4 that the North would not return to the six-party talks until re-elected President Bush had assembled his new team and Washington had decided its policy. "Now that the U.S. is trying to shake the backbone of the DPRK, not content with hurling mud at it, the DPRK is compelled to say something to the U.S.," Monday's statement said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Zenster ||
12/13/2004
12:57:24 AM ||
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#1
Can these NK idiots be ignored until they take the matter seriously? All their yapping has gotten really tiresome.
#2
2.5? I dunno - the "not even a button of a general officerâs uniform" is a nice touch. I'd say a 2.8. Then again, the downplay in vitriol may mean the NorKs are really worried.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 11:13
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#4
The United States had launched a psychological campaign to persuade people there was a crisis in the North, including mass defections by generals to China...
Fools! It's all in your minds! Those darned 'Merkins has hip-no-tized ya in believing you're hungry! LIES! ALL LIES!
Cease-fire violations are on the rise in Sudan's bloodied Darfur region and the fighting is "poisoning" peace talks, where government and rebel negotiators met Monday for the first time, officials said. Thirteen violations of a cease-fire agreement were confirmed in September and 54 were documented between October and mid-December, said Assane Ba, a spokesman for the African Union, which is mediating the talks. "That means the violations are growing" in the western Sudan region, where the crisis has left tens of thousands dead and nearly 2 million homeless, Ba told reporters at the site of the talks in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.
Comes as a surprise, huh? I know. It floored me, too.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:54:59 PM ||
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Reformist opposition candidate Traian Basescu won Romania's presidential runoff election, according to nearly complete returns Monday — a blow to the successors of the once-powerful communists who ruled for most of the period since the 1989 revolution. His opponent, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, conceded defeat after results showed Basescu had won 51.23 percent of Sunday's vote, compared with Nastase's 48.77 percent. The results were based on 98.76 percent of the ballots counted. In a victory speech, Basescu pledged to fight corruption, restore press freedoms and prepare Romania to join the European Union by 2007. He said he would strengthen ties with the United States and Britain to guarantee Romania's security, while also seeking good relations with Russia and other former Soviet states.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:50:30 PM ||
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Via #2 Pencil, sorry if this was posted before, but what is going on over there, Bulldog and Peter????
PENCIL sharpeners have been banned from a primary school after a pupil dismantled one and used the blade to slash another child's neck. The victim was attacked in the playground at Waterloo Primary School in Ashton under Lyne. -SNIP-
#1
Who knew that little kids were so clever? I know I'm ignorant, but it never would have occurred to me that a pencil sharpener might be used as a weapon.
Who wants to go to jail for having a 3.5" pocket knife? And don't forget the US citizen who was charged with a crime for defending himself and others in his party against muggers, with his pocket knife of about 3 or 4", while riding the London Underground several years ago.
Posted by: DO ||
12/13/2004 15:41
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#5
Brilliant! Simply brilliant.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:27
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#6
I wonder just how far this foolishness will go before people realize it isn't making them any safer? Ban guns, and criminals will still carry guns-- and use them. Ban knives, and criminals will still carry and use them.
The only result will be large numbers of prey for the predators to feed on.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/13/2004 17:10
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After a two day expulsion, the "offender was allowed to return, while the sharp objects are not."
Expulsion is reserved for "very extreme" cases, the headmaster told parents. Apparently, premeditated and potentially deadly violence isn't all that extreme.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 17:26
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#8
Seems to me that some of the classmates of this little bastard should have beat his sorry ass black and blue.
Spain's prime minister, heckled Monday by opposition lawmakers, angrily denied his Socialist party instigated anti-government rallies on the eve of a general election to reap political benefit from the Madrid train bombings. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero also accused former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of misleading Spaniards by blaming Basque militants for the bombings, even after evidence of an Islamic link emerged and accumulated. Thousands of demonstrators — spreading the word by cell phone text message — convened protest rallies outside then-ruling Popular Party offices in Madrid and other cities on March 13, two days after the bombings that killed 191 people.
They accused Aznar's pro-U.S. government of making Spain a target for al-Qaida by endorsing the Iraq invasion — and the next day, the opposition Socialists won the election. Under Spanish law, political rallies are banned the day before an election. "We did not know about, plan, participate in, instigate or support the demonstrations on March 13," Zapatero said at a raucous session of a parliamentary commission probing the bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:49:22 PM ||
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One of the field commanders of Hamas' Qassam Brigades in Nablus city was killed early Monday in clashes with Israeli occupation soldiers who besieged a number of buildings in the city in a bid to arrest him. More than 20 Israeli army jeeps, five tanks, armored vehicles and two bulldozers had advanced into Al-Jabal Al-Shamali area since 10.00 pm Sunday and encircled a number of houses. The Israeli forces started firing live bullets and tank shells at one of the buildings where the the Hamas man Ihsan Shawahna, 28, was entrenched. He refused to give himself up and exchanged gunfire with the Israeli troops wounding three of them before he was hit with a fatal bullet in the head leading to his instant death.
"You'll never take me ali...BANG!..."
The body of Shawahne, who has been on the run for a long time, was left on the ground for several hours, PIC reported. Palestinian sources said that soldiers broke into a number of houses in the same area, wreaking havoc in the process before arresting Hussein Hassiba
."Yar, we be the havoc wreaking IDF! Moshe, kick that puppy! Yar!"
Meanwhile, in nearby Balata refugee camp Israeli soldiers stormed the house of Nimir Ka'bi also at dawn Monday for the fifth time over the past five days.
"Morning, Nimir, good to see you again. Got any coffee?"
Eyewitnesses said that seven army patrols encircled the home of Ka'bi and soldiers fired wildly at houses in the area. Occupation troops had arrested 11 members of the Ka'bi family including four brothers and caused the burning of Ka'bi's home in a previous incursion.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004
12:32:15 PM ||
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U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police detained more than 50 Iraqis in several raids targeting insurgents in the Baqouba area, north of Baghdad, the military said Sunday. Two raids were conducted on Saturday in Hib Hib, a town about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, in a "search for known insurgents," according to a statement released by the 1st Infantry Division. Soldiers also seized a range of firearms and other weapons in the raids, the military said. Seems the intel machine is churning out hits. Rock 'n roll, boyz!
Posted by: .com ||
12/13/2004
12:30:32 AM ||
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#2
The question for me though is how much of that 50 captured is going to be catch and release.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/13/2004 10:18
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#3
The question for me though is how much of that 50 captured is going to be catch and release.
It can't be said enough - entice the jerks into attacking, then use our firepower to decimate them. No capturing, no arresting. If these jihadists are willing to become martyrs, then the appropriate action to take is to grant them their wish promptly. As hardheaded as Arabs are, it's difficult to believe they wouldn't get the message if it became apparent that no jihadi was being captured alive.
(2004-12-10) -- In an announcement which has already raised the hackles of environmental groups, President George Bush today proposed to fight the increasing cost of coffee by drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
"Our dependence upon Arabica beans is a threat to our national security," said Mr. Bush. "We must develop our own coffee reserves or we'll be caught sleeping."
A spokesman for the Sierra Club said, "President Bush and his cronies in Big Java are leveraging America's caffeine addiction to ravage ANWR. A coffee pipeline rupture would devastate the pristine Alaskan habitat, leaving thousands of caribou jittery and irritable for days."
Is this what everyone means when they talk about solving our energy problems with caffeinol?
It's the sort of scene that rattles Turkey's Western-looking establishment: angry demonstrators raising fists for Islam and waving posters supporting Chechen separatists, the Iraq insurgency and hard-line Palestinian factions such as Hamas. "Islamic resistance will win!" chanted nearly 400 protesters, including women wearing green headbands with Quranic verses - similar to those worn by suicide bombers in farewell videos.
Radical cries from the fringe - like these in Istanbul last weekend - are driving concerns that the Muslim nation's push toward Europe may stir momentum in the opposite direction. Ahead of a key European Union vote Friday, pro-Islamic political groups appear ready to seek gains if Ankara's bid to join the EU falters and more extremist elements could use the East-West split as fresh ground for recruits in a country still stunned by bombings last year linked to al-Qaida. "Turkey is like a firewall between radical Islam and the West," said Dogu Ergil, a political science professor at Ankara University. "The consequences if the firewall comes down are scary."
It's already been shaken. Turkish authorities are still trying to assess the alleged role of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in attacks last November in Istanbul's European side. Some 60 people, including the British consul-general, were killed in bombings at two synagogues, the British Consulate and the headquarters of London-based HSBC bank. Turkey's top military officer says terrorism is Turkey's top domestic threat. In response, authorities have clamped down on underground funding networks for Chechen rebels and are watching a growing trend of political Islam in Turkey for signs of drifting into radical orbits.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: .com ||
12/13/2004
12:23:43 AM ||
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#1
The Turkish military has withdrawn from 70 years of excluding Islam from politics and Islam has been encroaching ever since. As the mullahs are now the most organized, persistent, and funded force in the country, I expect that after one generation, Turkey will look a lot like the rest of the muslim countries.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2004 0:48
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Ed, trend's there. But I am not sure there will be much of Islam's influence left in one generation. Anywhere.
#3
Turkey like the rest of the Muslim countries?
What exactly do you mean?
Sounds like you have no idea what you talk about, and know zero to extremely less about Turkish history.
Posted by: Murat ||
12/13/2004 5:21
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#4
Turkey like the rest of the Muslim countries?
What exactly do you mean?
Sounds like you have no idea what you talk about, and know zero to extremely less about Turkish history.
Posted by: Murat ||
12/13/2004 5:22
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#5
Murat, they say that repetition is a mother of wisdom, but I make an exception in your case.
Here is what ED said: "I expect that after one generation, Turkey will look a lot like the rest of the muslim countries."
So, that is not history, that is future projection. I think it will not pan out, not because Turkie is in some way different from the muslim ME countries, but because Islam will lose big time in the next 25 years.
#6
Ya know, Murat, instead of lamentations about our ignorance of the Turkish history, why don't you explain why you think this Ed's idea does not have a chance of transpiring...based on history, how it is reflected in present situation and what are your projections into future. Oh, and without any impromptu namecalling. That would be something novel.
#7
SOBiesky, Turkey is since 1921 a democractic republic, that's 3 or 4 generations now (more than most countries on earth), even you should realise that it would take a hell lot of change to reverse that (something like America becoming comunist)
Posted by: Murat ||
12/13/2004 6:43
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Murat, it took a firm hand of Turkish military to hold Turkie on that path. It is not as firm anymore. I hope that you are right.
#9
Democracy and a secular government are not cast in stone. They are dynamic balances that must be reaffirmed regularly or they will disintegrate into chaos, sliding to one side or the other of tyranny.
Will that happen in Turkey? I hope not. But the reality is that it could happen ANYWHERE if people are not vigilant - including in the US - given a generation or so who are raised to disrespect the demands of democracy and adhere to any extremist ideology.
#11
Sobiesky said: Murat, it took a firm hand of Turkish military to hold Turkie on that path. It is not as firm anymore. I hope that you are right.
First I see no any sign that Turkey becomes radicalized, sure there are always a few nudheads (where don't you have them). Secondly take Iran for example, it is actually Iran that is militarily hold Theocratic and not vice versa, the same counts more or less for the Arab kingdoms too.
So compared yes we did have some military coups in our past but on the contrary to what people might imagine or think about Turkey, it is very hard to say Turkey is a militaristic country.
I for my part would bet my money on the democratic system instead of the Theocratic systems you fear (they are doomed to follow the path of Communism)
I know that the Muslim rethoric is played by the politicians a lot, even as an argument to get Turkey in the EU. But Turkey becoming fundamentalistic is really out of touch, near to unrealistic.
Posted by: Murat ||
12/13/2004 8:04
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Murat, in Iran, the military is a tool of mullahs, not vice versa.
In Turkie, military was a guarantor of secular nature of the state. Often with a firm hand. The target in the past were mostly communists, but that is another religion, too.
I hope that you are right. I have some friends in Turkie, and I have to say that they are a bit worried, especially the females.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 8:16
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#14
Yea, Frank, I would like to see Murat once acknowledging that it happened and although he can blame mostly Ottomans for it, they were Turks. His Turkish history starts in 1921, curiously, but the Armenian genocide was still going on until 1923.
But, no, it's illegal to bring up the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 8:50
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Sobiesky,
Well I don't know what kind of friends you have then, are you sure they are in Turkey?
And what Armenians concern, fuck them who cares. It was war and people die end of story. You guys better concentrate on the genocide in Iraq right now.
Posted by: Murat ||
12/13/2004 10:38
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#19
Sounds like you have no idea what you talk about, and know zero to extremely less about Turkish history.
How about refuting what was said?
You guys better concentrate on the genocide in Iraq right now.
And now, back to the Moonbat Hour, starring Murat.
#20
Welcome to Brinkmanship 101. It's the "Let us in or we shoot Grandma" routine. Problem is:
1. The Europeans aren't sure that Grandma won't get shot anyway. Once the metaphorical Islamic-radical genie is out of the bottle (even for threat/demonstration purposes), it's going to be hard to put it back,
2. The EU won't be the 'EU' if Turkey becomes a member (even if Grandma doesn't get shot),
3. The Europeans are trapped by their decades of rhetoric and 'tolerance'; either way they decide, they (and Grandma) "lose".
As far as Iraq is concerned, whatver is going on there, it sure as hell isn't genocide. The only that really got massacred was the Arabs' high opinion of themselves.
#21
I doubt the theocrats will gain much traction in Turkey. The durability of Turkey's secular democracy has been shown by the ease with which Turkey has accomodated the coming to power of an Islamist party in recent years.
#22
cool...another new Murat. His english varies between sounding more westernized but less accomplished than Murat 1. He's starts very smooth, but his emotions get the better of him. More interesting than Murat II, on a par with Murat I.
#23
Is Murat a Turkish name? I always thought of it as a Napoleanic Field Marshall's name. Or does Murat mean stupid in Turkish?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 13:16
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MD: Is Murat a Turkish name? I always thought of it as a Napoleanic Field Marshall's name.
Murat is an Arabic name. Napoleon's Murat may have had Arab ancestors (perhaps Christian, perhaps Muslim). Napoleon himself was of Italian (Corsican) origin.
#25
Since Armenian genocide's been mentioned here you go.
"France has said it will ask Turkey to acknowledge the mass killing of Armenians from 1915 as genocide when it begins EU accession talks.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Turkey had "a duty to remember".
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 14:16
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#29
(although France has a few facing-ups to do in its own closet of "duties")
I'd like to see them own up to their destruction of the Natchez, the last of the Mississippian mound-builders. There are much, much bigger crimes in their closets, but this one particularly pisses me off.
They'll never do it, of course, because it interferes with the easy story blaming "Americans" for "killing all the Native Americans".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 14:28
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I think Murat ran away. Bummer.
I was hoping he would tell us what ethnic group we're committing genocide against. Maybe the Kurds? I mean, they have a very special place in the Turkish heart.
#31
Poor Murat. Everytime he shows to bring up American genocide, that Armenian "thing" seems to magically pop up in the conversation and kick him in the ass.
Bye Murat.
Severely EFL
The war in Afghanistan inflicted severe damage on Al Qaeda, forcing it to adapt to survive, intelligence specialists agree. Today, they say it functions largely as a loose network of local franchises linked by a militant Islamist ideology. But Mr. bin Laden remains much more than just an iconic figurehead of Islamic militancy, most American intelligence officials now say. From a presumed hiding place on the Pakistani side of the Afghan-Pakistan border, he controls an elite terrorist cell devoted to attacking in the United States, the officials say they suspect. They contend that he personally oversees the group of Qaeda operatives, which he hopes to use for another "spectacular" event, like the Sept. 11 hijacking plot. American counterterrorism analysts say this special Qaeda unit is probably dispersed, though they do not know where. This "external planning group" can communicate with regional affiliates around the world to work with them when needed, one senior intelligence official said. "There is a strong desire by bin Laden to attack the continental United States, and he wants to use the external planning node to do it," the official said. But the United States has failed to penetrate the group and has no idea when or where it will try to strike, the officials acknowledged. Intelligence officials would not provide any details of how they reached their conclusions about Mr. bin Laden's current role, which have not previously been reported.
Has Hot Pursuit Cooled?
As a result of the restrictions, American military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan are no longer really hunting for Mr. bin Laden, an intelligence official said. They are trying to provide stability for Afghanistan's new government while battling a local Taliban insurgency and a scattering of Qaeda fighters. On Saturday, the United States military began an offensive in Afghanistan to pursue those militants. While the United States conducts some air operations over Pakistan, they are tightly controlled. Unmanned Predator drones are authorized to fly over Pakistani airspace, but only with approval from the Pakistani military chain of command, frequently leading to costly delays, C.I.A. officials say.
Hoping to collect more intelligence, the C.I.A. opened secret bases with small numbers of operatives in Pakistan in late 2003, but it has been unable to use them for aggressive counterterrorism operations, intelligence officials say. The operatives, many of whom are C.I.A. paramilitary officers, depended on Pakistani Army commanders, whose views on cooperation with the C.I.A. vary widely, American officials say. "There are real limits on our movement" inside Pakistan, said one American official, and it has deeply frustrated intelligence officers. A C.I.A. spokesman declined to discuss any aspect of the clandestine bases. Pakistani officials said that the Americans were instantly identifiable and unlikely to succeed working alone. They say the Americans are escorted to prevent them from being kidnapped or killed, or their presence exposed, which would be damaging to the Pakistani government.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
12/13/2004
1:21:53 AM ||
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Israel will withdraw its troops from Palestinian towns for 72 hours during next month's Palestinian presidential election, the defense minister said Monday, signaling that a deadly weekend attack on an Israel army post is not derailing fledgling peace efforts. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also said it is in Israel's interest to coordinate next year's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with the Palestinians — a marked departure from Israel's initial insistence to act unilaterally.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the new Palestinian leadership is not doing enough to restrain militants. "By now, we don't see any change," Sharon said of Palestinian efforts. The comments marked the first time since Yasser Arafat's death last month that Sharon criticized the Palestinian leader's moderate successor, Mahmoud Abbas, although he did not mention Abbas by name. Later Monday, Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said militants are trying to undermine the new Palestinian leadership, but he hinted that Israel's patience is growing thin. "We have no choice but to act ourselves," Yaalon said at a briefing in the Gaza Strip. "That is what we are doing and that is what we will do unless someone on the other side takes responsibility and starts to deal themselves with the terror groups."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:14:37 PM ||
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Kinda like when the toll collectors all disappeared before Sonny Corleone drove up the causeway...
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych accused the United States on Monday of meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs, claiming the Americans have financed his opponent's presidential campaign. Yanukovych, in an interview with The Associated Press, said the "interference" can be described as Western pressure intended to exert the will of the Americans on this country of 48 million.
How insidious! Guess we're not allowed to talk about democracy any more.
"The United States' meddling into Ukraine's internal affairs is obvious," he said. "It is appearing as the financing of Yushchenko's campaign." The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine. U.S. officials say the activities don't amount to interference in Ukraine's election but are part of the $1 billion the State Department spends each year trying to build democracy worldwide. No American funds were sent directly to Ukrainian political parties, U.S. officials say. "The financing is unacceptable," Yanukovych said.
Yanukovych said he "stands for democratic values propagated in the United States and for trade and cultural ties." He also distanced himself from the Kremlin, saying: "I've never used any help from any politicians but Ukrainian ones." "Russia remains Ukraine's strategic partner," he said, even as he stressed that political alliances "between Yanukovych and Russia do not exist."
And all that money and aid from Putin?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:11:56 PM ||
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Why spend money this way when we could just zap our political opponents with the Zionist Death Ray instead?
A member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas escaped unhurt on Monday when a bomb blew up his car in the Syrian capital Damascus, a Palestinian source said.
Too bad
Curses! Foiled again! Shoulda used the Zionist Death Ray™!
"This is the second incident in which an explosion targets a Hamas member," the source said. He said the bomb, placed under the driver's seat, blew up shortly after the unnamed member and his daughter had parked the car and left it.
Hummm, being of a nasty suspious mind, I wonder if he blew his own car up. That sort of thing is a career enhancement in his circle.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004
12:11:03 PM ||
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Yeah, their cars never mysteriously blow up on their own. Wonder if he was picking up or delivering?
China and Russia will hold their first joint military exercise next year, the Chinese government said Monday, as President Hu Jintao called for an expansion of the rapidly growing alliance between the former Cold War rivals. The announcement came during a visit to Beijing by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was expected to discuss expanding the Kremlin's multibillion-dollar annual arms sales to China. The exercises are to take place on Chinese territory, the official China News Service said. But that report and other government statements didn't say when they would take place or what forces would be involved. "We want ... to promote the development of the two countries' strategic collaborative relationship in order to safeguard and promote regional and world peace," CNS quoted Hu as telling Ivanov.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:08:50 PM ||
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Will this be a live ammo exercise?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 14:35
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The exercises are to take place on Chinese territory, the official China News Service said. LOL! The Russ just haven't realized it yet.
#3
Wouldn't you know it...the Great Dragon 'ball n' chaining' the Bear! This is being staged to intimidate the West! I hope the Bear remembers that the Dragon is on its Eastern flank, as Germany was on it's Western flank "60 years ago"!
A key party ally in Brazil's ruling coalition decided to leave the fold Sunday to forge its own political path. Following a national convention of party leaders, the Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, voted to leave the coalition led by the leftist Workers' Party, PT. Leaders for the centrist PMDB said they would like to put forth their own presidential candidate in 2006 to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula and the PT have relied on the PMDB to help the administration push key reform legislation through the Congress over the last two years.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
Posted by: .com ||
12/13/2004
12:07:53 AM ||
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In Baghdad, a militant in an explosives-laden car waiting in line to enter the western Harthiyah gate of the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and Iraq's interim government, detonated the vehicle as he drove toward the checkpoint, police said. Dr. Mohammed Abdel Satar of Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital said 13 people were killed and 15 wounded in the suicide blast. The U.S. military said there were no injuries to its troops. Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted on an Islamic web site regularly used by militants. "On this blessed day, a lion from the (group's) Martyrs' Brigade has gone out to strike at a gathering of apostates and Americans in the Green Zone," the group said in a statement, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:07:45 PM ||
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NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will resign this week, a government official said Sunday, and a spokesman for Louisiana State University said O'Keefe is a leading candidate to become a chancellor there. The committee looking for someone to fill the $500,000-a-year job running the campus in Baton Rouge, La., meets Thursday, and O'Keefe will make his case for the job, search committee chairman Joel Tohline said. O'Keefe has led the space agency for almost three years, a tumultuous period marred by the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts as well as budget battles and debates over the future of American space travel. The administrator plans to resign this week, said the government official, who did not want to be identified because the procedures for O'Keefe's departure still are not certain.
"The White House still has to decide how it wants to announce his departure," the official said. Despite O'Keefe's appointment with the search committee on Thursday, the official said his resignation is not linked with an offer from LSU. The official said the resignation probably will come earlier than the scheduled meeting in Louisiana. White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis had no comment on O'Keefe's future. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said, "When the administrator is prepared to announce his future plans, he will tell us and the public."
Posted by: .com ||
12/13/2004
12:06:02 AM ||
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Wonder how many more elementary school teachers they could afford in LA with 500K?
Posted by: Don ||
12/13/2004 9:51
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One teacher + the requisite three politically-appointed school administrators
Ukrainian lawmakers reopened their investigation Monday into Viktor Yushchenko's allegations that authorities tried to kill him, after doctors in Austria determined the presidential candidate had been poisoned by dioxin. The decision by a parliamentary commission followed a similar move by the country's prosecutor general on Sunday. Yushchenko had asked investigators to wait until after the Dec. 26 runoff so as not to influence the outcome of the vote. The commission will be led by Volodymyr Sivkovych, a lawmaker who has supported Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Yushchenko's opponent in this month's election.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
12:05:04 PM ||
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#1
Item One: Ask for copies or originals of all camera shots taken that evening in September, along with any video takes or feeds!
Item Two: seek testimonials of personal recognitions and memories in the room and or complex!
Item Three: Require polygraph tests on all the cooks and preparers!
Sen. John McCain, the publicity-seeking straight-talking Republican who often challenges the GOP establishment, has taken on a headline-grabbing issue - steroids in baseball - and generated talk of a presidential bid in 2008.
Ohfergawdsake. GW hasn't even been inaugurated for this term yet.
Amid revelations about baseball's biggest names, McCain has threatened to push legislation early next year if Major League Baseball and the players do not clean up their act. McCain long has advocated harsher penalties for athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs. The three-term senator from Arizona has earned a reputation as a go-to lawmaker, tackling campaign finance, the war on Iraq, federal spending and climate change.
Helluva job you do on that campaign finance reform, John.
It's little wonder that his foray into the baseball scandal has revived Republican speculation about McCain and the 2008 presidential race. I didn't realize it was so easy, lol!
Posted by: .com ||
12/13/2004
12:03:44 AM ||
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Maybe he's really running for Baseball Commissioner.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2004 0:31
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#2
MSM strategy: first, deny reality (Bush didn't win!). When above fails, then deny significance of reality (Bush doesn't have a mandate!). When above fails, change the subject (McCain in '08!!)
#3
Maybe he's really running for Baseball Commissioner.
Ed: Nahhhh, I think he's going for UN Ambassador slot recently vacated by John Danforth. Think of it... can you just imagine the look on Kofi Klepto's face the first time McCain takes the podium at the General Assembly and promptly goes into a spontaneous 'roid rage? :-D
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
12/13/2004 0:56
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#4
Come to think of it, Johnny McC really is starting to look more and more like Nikita Khrushchev (with better teeth)
#6
I can't believe this will make a difference in his chances in 2008. I mean, here he is screwing up a sport that's working perfectly well, and we still don't have hockey!
#7
Somewhere along the line, John seems to have missed out on taking any classes about the US government or Constitution. He's utterly confused and annoyed by those who don't want to do things his way, because he *says* so. "You don't seem to understand. I want everybody to do *this*. Why are you arguing with me? Do what I say!"
#13
Now, will Johnny RINO take off his shoe and bang it on the counter? We need actions like these, not simply Nikita gestures. Give us a shoe banging Johnny.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:34
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#14
DB - that was cold. Funny, but cold.... :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 16:37
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#15
"Doctor. You have testified that the following symptoms exist in Sen. John McCain's Lieutenant-Commander Queeg's behavior. Rigidity of personality, feelings of persecution, unreasonable suspicion, a mania for perfection, and a neurotic certainty that he is always in the right. Doctor isn't there one psychiatric term for this illness?"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2004 16:42
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#16
ring-pounder?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 16:47
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#17
I dunno about the rest of youse, but I personally couldn't give a rat's ass about sports and steroids. The only game I like is hockey, and even then, it's the game itself that does it for me (I can watch any team, any league) and not any particular team(s) or player(s). If overpaid athletes want to sully their game, their team, and their reputations, go right ahead.
All that aside, I don't see why Sen. McCain feels a need to get involved. It's the various sports leagues' problem, so leave them alone to either either solve it on their own or fall by the wayside in the process.
Seven U.S. Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq's Anbar province, a vast region encompassing the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said Monday. It was unknown whether the deaths Sunday were connected to heavy fighting in Fallujah. American warplanes pounded the city with missiles as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces. On Sunday, the military reported the death of another U.S. Marine in Anbar. The seven members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died while conducting ``security and stabilization operations'' in Anbar, the military said in a statement. The statement gave no other details about the deaths, saying the release of more information could place U.S. personnel at risk. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of their families.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2004
12:00:58 AM ||
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#1
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD.
#12
In flight to TS's home now...Simi Valley, was it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 9:42
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#13
I'm with The Death Ray Group now. No more bed wetters for me.
But we could use some practice since, you know, the ummmmmmmmmm...Paris thing got over with. I'll talk to my supervisor...
Posted by: The Mossad ||
12/13/2004 9:43
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#14
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADLUSA on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#15
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADLUSA on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#16
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADL USA [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#17
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit ADL USA [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#18
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#19
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of Jewish lies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#20
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#21
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com dedicated to restoring America's dignity.
#22
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#23
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [no spaces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#24
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#25
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of Israel on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#26
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#27
Americans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#28
A_mericans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
#29
A_mericans are dying in Iraq for the State of I_srael on basis of J_ewish l_ies about WMD. Visit A D L U S A [n_o s_paces] on the web for more info -- that's a .com d_edicated to restoring A_merica's d_ignity.
DUBAI — Dubai port, a leading world operator, signed a deal with the United States yesterday under which US officers will help screen US-bound containers that have been identified as a potential risk. Containers shipped to the US number between 1,000 and 2,000 on an annual basis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2004
12:00:00 AM ||
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#1
A nice effort, but what about ports (and there are many more) that send a larger number of containers to the U.S.?
#2
Patience, BaR. Necessarily limited resources means they start with the most likely source of problems. Starting January 2002, U.S. Customs inspectors were stationed at the twenty highest risk ports, such as Hong Kong, those which ship the most to the U.S. These top 20 ports handle some 70% of the shipments arriving in the U.S. There is a nice overview from the Homeland Security head for international affairs of the situation as of June this year. It looks to me that, with Dubai port getting ready to go on-line, Homeland Security is starting in on the second tier. And, the Office of Management & Budget provides a look forward for 2005 on all the Homeland Security initiatives, which I found quite interesting.
Actually, it looks like Bush is applying that Harvard MBA training quite competently to the issues surrounding homeland security, and quietly making, to me, astounding progress.
At a mountaintop market in eastern Congo, a Rwandan Hutu rebel demands cassava as bribes from children and elderly women who have climbed for hours with heavy loads — his militia still lording it over Congolese villagers despite international pressure to disarm. In the skies, a U.N. helicopter patrol spots nothing in a sweep over the remote villages of this mountainous region often preyed upon by the same Hutu militias.
Kinda sez it all, I guess...
Based at the small town of Walungu, peacekeepers and officials with the more than 11,000-member U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUC, have taken on what looks like an increasingly daunting joint mission with the Congolese army: disarming Hutu militia fighters at the heart of 10 years of conflict in central Africa. The U.N. and Congolese forces risk reigniting large-scale conflict if they fail to disarm the fighters or if they generate armed resistance to their efforts. Last month, Rwanda — much tinier but far more powerful than its Western Europe-sized neighbor — threatened to invade Congo if the estimated 8,000-10,000 Hutu militia fighters still hiding in the forests there were not disarmed. Rwanda says the militia fighters include large numbers of Hutu extremists who first fled into Congo in 1994, escaping retribution for their roles in Rwanda's genocide of more than 500,000 people, mostly from the Tutsis minority. Although U.N. officials say they have found no proof of it, Rwanda claims the Hutu militias are attacking again, launching small-scale raids from longtime hideouts in eastern Congo.
UN officials seem to have a real hard time finding proof of invasions and atrocities. Maybe they should get out more...
Congo, in turn, accuses Rwanda of using the Hutu militia threat as a pretext for keeping financial control of resource-rich east Congo.
I hesitate to point this out, but, for all their faults, things like that didn't happen when Belchium ran things...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
1:16:21 PM ||
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#1
Things like this didn't happen when Belgium ran things because the Belgians preferred not to outsource their massacres. Remember, the Belgian Congo was the private property of the King himself, and a major profit center. People and good governance cost money, which cuts significantly into profits, y'know. And they were just Africans, after all.... The Africa museum in Tervuren (where the King lives just outside Brussels), is quite, quite interesting -- the omissions as well as the displays.
I'd recommend firearms and long periods of incarceration for any survivors, myself...
Despite recent successes in preventing terrorist attacks in Europe, threats from radical Islamists are real, serious and long-term, according to the European Union's chief anti-terrorist coordinator. Closer cooperation and exchange of intelligence between the European Union's intelligence services have thwarted nearly a dozen terrorist attacks since 9/11. The most recent success was upsetting a plot by Ansar al-Islam, a group affiliated with al-Qaida, to kill Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Berlin last month. In addition to the Islamist threat, Geert De Vries, the EU's top anti-terrorism man, speaking to United Press International in his office in the European Union headquarters in Brussels, said that Europeans should not ignore risks from "classic terrorism" — Europe's home-grown terrorist groups, such as the Basque's ETA. A recent spate of bomb attacks across Spain was claimed by ETA, the Basque separatist organization.
We don't ignore the "classic" terror orgs here, but they're so overshadowed by the turbans that they become almost negligable. Plus, the lessons learned fighting the turbans apply just as well to the "classics," who've pretty much ceased to be a real threat; John Kerry would probably describe them as "irritants" or something.
Radical European Muslims who volunteered to fight the U.S. invasion of Iraq and who are now reported to be heading back to their respective countries may pose a more imminent risk, however.
I just said that, didn't I?
This is raising concerns that the former jihadis — now armed with hardened combat experience — may become members of active or sleeper cells upon which al-Qaida or its affiliates could call on for future terrorist operations in Europe. Claude Moniquet — of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center in Brussels, who monitors Islamist terrorism — worries the Europeans are not adequately prepared to handle this new crisis.
I doubt they are, in Belchium. The Netherlands are picking up speed on it, and the French and German intel services have been on the case for quite a while. The Swiss are also doing good work, when it suits their peculiar chocolate purposes...
#2
Let's differentiate education (good) from indoctrination (bad), K?
Stop teaching hate, Jooo Lies, and Islam in your schools - unless you want us to treat it as we should: a barbaric superstitious bloodthirsty world-domination ideology cult - eminently worthy of extermination.
Start teaching health and hygiene, for crying out loud - Hint: what hole you put it in does matter. History - the truthful variety - for motivation, and yeah, the West / Great Satan did invent all that shit you love and depend on. Mathematics (so you can begin to live up to the hype), physics so you can understand cause & effect, general science so you can finally discard the moon cult & djinn BS, literature so you can see that you don't have to live as barbarians, etc. We'll save PCBS 101 for when you're ready to complete the cycle and self-destruct.
#3
Radical European Muslims who volunteered to fight the U.S. invasion of Iraq and who are now reported to be heading back to their respective countries
I guess that means that we've offically won in Iraq. I wonder where they will initiate the next battle?
#4
From the article I'm unable to figure out who needs to be educated.
Do we need to educate radical Islamics in the premise of moderate Islam (I think the author might be getting at this)?
or do we need to educate law enforcement officials about the specific individuals who will be returning from the middle east (maybe the author meant that)?
or do we need to educate the kaft community on what the radical Islamic people believe (don't they know that already)?
#5
Antoine Sfeir, editor of a French publication specializing in Arab affairs, conducted a survey of several thousand young French Muslims. He was surprised to learn that despite their claims of adhering to a strict form of Islam, most were unable to name the five pillars of Islam, the basic tenets of the religion.
So these people don't know the five pillars of Islam. Big deal. The Islamozoids doing the inciting would be fools to demand that the foot soldiers doing the dirty work be fully knowledgable in Islam's nuts and bolts (and let's face it, these less-than-enlightened folk would definitely be doing the dying on behalf of the clerics). As long as these young, French Muslim suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H recruits believe in the cause, then that's good enough, which is usually independent of whether they've been "educated" or not.
Keeping an eye on the Tranzis:
International pressure groups may pose a serious threat to the Belgian economy, it was reported on Monday. The Flemish daily newspaper De Tijd said the Comite R, which coordinates the work of the Belgian intelligence services, is worried about some NGOs who damage the reputation of Belgian companies. The fears were reportedly expressed by Comite R president Jean-Claude Delepiere in a closed session in front of the Belgian senate. Some members of the senate rejected the committee's view that NGOs — of which there are 1,400 or so in Brussels alone — amount to a threat. Senate president Anne-Marie Lizin, who is also the president of the parliamentary commission which monitors Comite R, said the concerns only applied to NGOs who conducted campaigns against businesses and gravely damaged their image.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/13/2004
11:07:36 AM ||
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#1
Y'know, when you think about it, a simple 10-megaton thermonuke in Brussels would solve quite a few of the world's peskiest problems... Best wait for the wind to turn to the south-southeast, though...
#2
Mojo,
Theoretically speaking,it would be best if it was a "lost" Russian nuke,and Arab-speaking black-masked group took credit for striking a blow against Western Crusader Infidels.
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/13/2004 14:31
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#3
How does one damage the reputation of something Belgian?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 14:33
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#4
Douglas Adams was of the opinion that there was no single word, curse or otherwise, in the universe worse than "Belgium."
Posted by: The Doctor ||
12/13/2004 21:38
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#5
"Brussels" comes to mind ..... They call 'em Brussels Sprouts for a reason LOL
Posted by: too true ||
12/13/2004 21:50
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Pakistan on Monday denied a newspaper report that the CIA has set up covert bases in the country's remote tribal regions to hunt for Osama bin Laden and stop him from plotting another attack on the United States.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
The report in Monday's New York Times, citing anonymous American officials familiar with the operation, said the CIA had concluded that bin Laden was being sheltered by local tribesmen and foreign militants in northwestern Pakistan, and was suspected of controlling an elite terrorist cell that could be aiming to launch a "spectacular" attack against America. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has faced heavy criticism at home for his strong ties with Washington, has previously acknowledged that a small number of American experts were working with Pakistani troops in their operations against al-Qaida militants. But he has denied that U.S. forces — deployed in their thousands in neighboring Afghanistan — are actively hunting bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
"They're... ummm... doing something else."
"There are no CIA cells in Pakistan ... in our tribal areas, and there is absolutely no truth in this New York Times report," said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
1:06:13 PM ||
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#2
It's also SOP for the Times and the WaPo to break stories like this one, that might do some damage to operations and maybe even get somebody killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 13:17
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Fred - too true... but then what's a humint life compared to a "breaking" story, eh? Hey, then they can decry the lack of humint with another round of stories. Win-win in MSM-think.
#4
"Because we live according to the credo that your right to know supercedes your right to exist..."
-- Reporters in most of Gary Burbank's skits
(http://700wlw.com/garyburbank.html)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 13:55
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#5
Since late 1979 there's been a U.S. military presence in the NWFT and the FIT (primarily the Parchinar Salient area)..Initially we trained the muj to operate against the Soviets. Over the years, close but tenious ties were established with local tribesmen. These ties have greatly assisted our efforts to track down OBL and "foreign fighters" that remained in the region due to marriage among the locals.
Still blood is more important than friendship which is fleeting at best. It will take time to bring OBL (if he's still alive) out. I would suggest sometime around Pres. Bush's second inauguration.
According to the Iranian website of 'Baztab', months after the purchase of a six million dollar apartment in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, by a famous Iranian multibillionaire, rifts are underway between the Saudi government and the Iranian trader. The Iranian businessman reportedly one of the main figures involved in the cell phone business in Iran recently bought a luxury apartment in the most expensive district of Mecca. The apartment is located in front of King Abdulaziz's palace. However there are differences between the Iranian and the Saudi government over the location of the apartment and the residence of the Iranian there. The Iranian businessman is said to have close links with the Iranian government officials and owns vast areas of lands in northern Iran.
#1
The apartment is located in front of King Abdulazizâs palace.
I guess the Saudis must have overheard that Iranian bigshot bragging about how his new digs were "just a rifle-shot away from the King's palace." Still, you have to wonder just how warm a welcome this Shi'ite guy is getting in Mecca. Sorta like a whore in church, if you ask me.
#2
The Saudis would rather have a devil worshipper as a next door neighbor than a Shia.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2004 1:08
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The Iranian businessman [is] reportedly one of the main figures involved in the cell phone business in Iran... The Iranian businessman is said to have close links with the Iranian government officials and owns vast areas of lands in northern Iran
Wonder how much the mullahs' take is? What does radio spectrum go for these days in Iran?
An Iranian woman arrested in a judicial clampdown on reformist journalists was freed on bail but needed hospital treatment due to her detention, her husband told AFP on Saturday. According to Ahmad Beigloo, journalist Fereshteh Ghazi "was kept in solitary confinement for 38 days and had to be checked into hospital as she was not in a good physical or mental shape".
Another head wound, huh?
The woman was arrested over her articles on women's rights published on Internet sites. She was released on bail of 500 mln rials (about $57,000). In recent months, Iran's conservative-run judiciary has arrested a number of pro-reform journalists accused of publishing propaganda against the Islamic regime, acting against national security, disturbing public opinion and insulting religious sanctities, according to AFP. Four confined reformist journalists, three of them recently freed, have written letters of repentance, saying they were "brainwashed" by foreigners and "counter-revolutionaries". Two weeks ago the European Union lodged a formal protest with Iranian authorities over the arrest and harassment of journalists, staff of non-governmental organizations and members of religious minorities, AFP added.
Majlis is not satisfied with the trend of reconstruction of the quake-hit city of Bam , the rapporteur of Majlis Development Commission said Saturday. Vali Azarvash also told Fars News Agency that a delegation of lawmakers visited Bam recently and discussed the pending problems of residents. "Bam reconstruction needs a proper timetable. Lack of a suitable distribution system is linked to the delay in Bam reconstruction," he added. Commenting on the absence of new roads and transportation minister since the former minister's impeachment, Azarvash said President Mohammad Khatami will introduce the new minister soon to Majlis. Some 35,000 people perished and more than 70% of buildings were destroyed in the devastating quake that hit Bam on Dec. 26, 2003.
[snippet from another article]: The Deputy Mayor of Bam in civil affairs said that out of 18 billion toman credit ($20,400,000) allocated by the government to the reconstruction of the city only 500 million tomans ($568,000) has been handed over to city officials — Fars News Agency.
#1
... out of 18 billion toman credit ($20,400,000) allocated by the government to the reconstruction of the city only 500 million tomans ($568,000) has been handed over ...
Gee, some $20,000,000 gone missing. Sounds exactly like the sort of money needed to make those expensive things called "nuclear bombs." As usual, Iran's mullahs continue to feast upon their people's flesh.
Any takers on when the rest of all this reconstruction money is going to show up?
#3
Yes, the mullahs are desperate for more trade and economic opportunity for their suffering people. Right.
I'd guess that less than 20% of the $20 mil went to the nuke program. The rest paid for another holy mercedes S-class fleet or two plus some beachfront villas plus substantial additions to certain Geneva numbered accounts.
Insurgents rained mortar rounds on a U.S. base in Afghanistan, wounding three Afghan government soldiers, while 14 suspected Taliban were arrested, American and Afghan officials said Monday. Eleven mortar rounds fell near the base in southeastern Paktika province in the past 24 hours, a U.S. military spokesman said. The wounded soldiers from the new U.S.-trained Afghan National Army were evacuated to a field hospital at a larger U.S. base in neighboring Khost province and were in stable condition, said the spokesman, Maj. Mark McCann. No American soldiers were reported hurt.
McCann said eight Taliban members were detained in a raid about a week ago in Char Cheno district of Central Uruzgan province after American forces received intelligence on their whereabouts. One was believed to be a brother of the former Taliban governor of Kandahar, the southern city that was the hard-line regime's capital. McCann declined to identify him.
Afghan troops seized another six suspected Taliban in the same province on Saturday, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Mohammed Azimi said. Two were Taliban commanders called Mullah Ghulam Nahim and Abdul Qadir, he said.
Azimi also reported the injury of six Afghan civilians in an explosion Saturday near Asadabad, in eastern Kunar province. Three were taken to the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, where they were recovering after treatment, he said. The cause of the explosion was unclear, although the area has seen roadside bombings aimed at Afghan and U.S. security forces as well as clashes between rival Afghan factions.
About 18,000 mainly American troops continue to hunt militants in southern and eastern Afghanistan, three years after U.S. and allied forces ousted the hard-line Taliban regime for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The U.S.-led force last week began a new winter-long offensive aimed at weakening rebels ahead of parliamentary elections slated for the spring, and at persuading Taliban militants to accept an Afghan government amnesty.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004
1:03:24 PM ||
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PROFESSOR Elspeth Probyn shouldn't be so modest. In Wednesday's The Australian she denounced "Andrew Bolt's annual column in the Herald Sun on how useless academics are." Actually, professor, I have never claimed all academics are useless. In that column last month, I discussed only a few stand-outs -- ones who'd had work of dubious benefit financed by a $500 million-a-year system of Australian Research Council grants that seems unfocussed, wasteful and far too clubby. I wondered, for instance, how members of ARC committees could hand each other big grants, including one of $880,000 to study the "the classed, racialised and ethnicised dimensions of the bodily experience" in Japan.
I'm still waiting for my check to study the effects of liquor on multiethnic hookers. Maybe I didn't use obscure enough terminology in my grant application?
Did such grant-making help explain why the humanities in particular have become so insular and self-indulgent? Probyn, professor of gender studies at Sydney University and author of Sexy Body, tackled none of my arguments in her piece, simply wailing: "Would (Bolt) care that it hurts to be told that your 50-or 60-hour work week is pointless?"
If your 50- or 60-hour work week consists of pounding sand with a claw hammer, yeah, it's pointless...
Pointless? Now that I've checked Probyn's own faddish work and who has paid her to do it I can understand why she seemed to take my criticisms personally. Or why she sure should. In 2000, she received an $11,000 grant from the ARC to study The Making of Mod Oz: the roles of the food media in the construction of contemporary identity. In 2001, she won another $137,500 to ruminate over Practices and performances of alimentary identities: a comparative analysis of the food media and their audiences. And that same year she shared a $118,000 ARC grant to study Girl Cultures: the effect of media on young women's self-representations.
Yep. That's what I'm doing wrong. Gotta reword that synopsis...
That last study involved such things as quizzing girls on "their reaction to Sara-Maria Fedele (de facto star of the first Big Brother series) as a focal point for analysing both young women's interest in the Big Brother format and, more broadly, their responses to popular discourses of protection which circulate around their media consumption".
"Opacity factor 99 percent and rising, captain!"
I suspect, from their bloated titles, you'd understand her other studies even less, so I'll let Probyn describe what she's up to in one article, using her best English: "I argue that queer theory needs to extend its theoretical reach beyond an increasingly over-privileged and narrow use of sexuality."
I think I'll see if I can't work some hetero theory into my application. Maybe that'll help. And I'll use that "increasingly over-privileged and narrow use of sexuality," too. Do you think I'll have to attribute it? Does she want a royalty?
Which has her doodling:
The mouth machine registers experiences and then articulates them utters them. In eating we may munch into whole chains of previously established connotations, just as we may disrupt them. For instance, an email arrives, leaving traces of its rhizomatic passage zapping from one part of the world to another, and then to me.
A chain letter?
'UNSOLICITED, it sets out a statement from a Dr Johannes Van Vugt, in San Francisco, who on October 11, 1999, National Coming Out Day in the US, began an ongoing 'Fast for Equal Rights for persons who are gay, lesbian and other sexual orientation minorities'.
Wowsers! Lemme write this down: "The machine of desire registers experiences and then articulates them utters them. In chasing hookers we explore whole chains of previously established connotations, just as we may disrupt them. [That'd be the spike heels, fishnet stockings, and Quik-Release Wonder Bras. Or should I explain that? Mebbe I should let the imagery speak for itself?] For instance, an email arrives, leaving traces of its rhizomatic [since I have no idea what rhizomatic means, if anything, I'll have to use it at least once] passage zapping from one part of the world to another, and then to me."
'UNSOLICITED [or maybe solicited, since we're gonna get lotsa money to write about hookers], it sets out a statement from a Dr Johannes Van Vugt [I gotta find somebody with a "van" or a "von" in his name to cite], in Baltimore's Hustler Club, who on [insert date here], National Boudoir Acrobatics Day, began an ongoing 'Fast for Equal Rights for persons who are heterosexual but with marked proclivities toward trapezes, German shepherds and Jolly Green Giant Cream Corn'."
And, no, it doesn't get any more readable -- or meaningful.
I thought it was profound.
Several questions zap into my thinking machine as I eat my dinner of connotations, leaving traces of their rhizomatic passage on my shirt. What exactly are Probyn's students learning that is of use to them? Or us? Why are we paying for her to write such dismal stuff, and so turgidly? And what does it say about the ARC that Probyn is just one of many academics who have received grants of $100,000 or much more to subject us to even more such arid theorising? But let me be as clear as I can so even Probyn understands: I am not criticising all academics in asking these questions. This time I've named only her.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/13/2004
10:28:21 AM ||
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#1
Well, professor, at least I can recognize bullshit when I read it.
#6
Fred, if your opening sentence is less than half a page long of closely written text, with no less than 10 footnotes, forget it. Whatever your field of inquiry, it is recommended that approximately 20% of the words be buzzwords common in that field, and you have at least 4 appendices. Good luck: I think this could be a valuable study, extending our psycho-social understanding of the sub-genre immensely, and perhaps even guiding future government endeavors.
#7
What is "rhizomatic" you ask? Here it is. Sounds to me like a way to justify f*cking off: no really, it's a [poem, art, essay, etc.] because I say it it!
#8
Sounds like the Australian Research Council pays out a helluva lot better then my Zionist overseers, and coherence or relevance does not appear to be a prerequisite for a grant.
I may have to play out my option, become a free agent and start raking in the Big Bucks!
"Rhizome" is one such term. It's opposed to the model of "the tree" which symbolizes hierarchical structures, extreme stratification, and linear thinking.
Arborescent systems are hierarchical systems with centers of significance and subjectification, central automata like organized memories. In corresponding models, an element only receives information from a higher unit, and only receives a subjective affection along preestablished paths. (16)
Deleuze and Guattari also cite an essay by Pierre Rosenstiehl and Jean Petitot who denounce arborescent models:
Accepting the primacy of hierarchical structures amounts to giving arborescent structures privileged status ... In a hierarchical system, an individual has only one active neighbor, his or her hierarchical superior. ... The channels of transmission are preestablished: the arborescent system preexists the individual, who is integrated into it at an allotted place. (16)
The result of the tree model, in its various cultural and social manifestations, is a heavily restricted economy, a structure of power and dominance.
Thus the authors speak of dictatorship theorems. Such is the principle of root-trees, or their outcome: the radicle solution, the structure of Power. (17)
Right. Got it. Now the word can come tripping off my tongue and I can give people who don't know that it's a made-up word the hairy eyeball of innalekshul superiority. Thanx.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 18:29
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EFL
The following article was signed by Madeleine Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton administration, and by seven former foreign ministers: Robin Cook of Britain, Hubert Vedrine of France, Lamberto Dini of Italy, Lloyd Axworthy of Canada, Niels Helveg Petersen of Denmark, Ana Palacio of Spain and Jozias van Aartsen of the Netherlands.
Foreign ministers from France, Germany and Britain meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator this week at a moment of enormous consequence. The United States will not be there, but the subtle signals it will send from a distance will have a tremendous impact on the outcome. There are some who believe that Washington expects, and perhaps hopes, that the talks will collapse altogether. But if the United States and Europe are to be successful in preventing a radical regime from gaining nuclear weapons, there will have to be much greater coordination and new approaches on both sides of the Atlantic.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Ugh....what nonsense and a sure fire blueprint for failure.
And so Halfbright rears her ugly head. And she still hasn't learned anything from her previous failures.
Its no wonder the mullahs are playing their hand the way they are with this befuddled old crow blathering this appeasing garbage.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 15:48
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#6
American and European heads of state must emphasize that the West does not seek to deny Iran the right to a peaceful civilian nuclear energy program under the necessary safeguards.
"Now, just hold still while we strap these remote-control explosive-decapitation packs to the back of your heads...Don't worry, the turbans will cover them..."
#7
I had a nighmare the other night. Something about me being stupid drunk and waking up the next morning with Mad Albright on one side and Janet Reno on the other. Its mad, mad I tell ya.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:21
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#8
"Refrain", you bastards!
Or....we'll have to ask you again!
"While it is unclear whether this deal will ultimately halt Iranâs nuclear ambitions, only a unified approach will enable Europe and the United States to find out."
We can't afford to wait and "find out", you idiots. Iran's nuclear ambitions must be crushed, NOW.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/13/2004 17:25
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#10
Sounds a lot like Albright doesn't have a helluva lot to do nowadays. Maybe she should go get a job at Wal Mart or something.
#11
"While it is unclear whether this deal will ultimately halt Iranâs nuclear ambitions, only a unified approach will enable Europe and the United States to find out"
Shut down this farce. This is more idiotic genuflecting before "multilateralism" while refusing to recognize the reason that we and the Euros are not and will not be "unified": they're more opposed to the threat of US force vs Iran than they are to Iran getting nukes.
The simple, blindingly obvious truth here is that on the crucial question of enforcement, we and the Euros are on different sides. And without enforcement via serious sticks-- military measures, sanctions, a blockade-- no agreement will mean anything.
This disgraceful episode represents nothing more than the complete humiliation of the West by pisspot kleptocrats. Well done, Maddie.
From the Rantburg Industry & Trade Desk: Egypt's coming trade agreement with Israel and the United States is stirring a debate in Egypt, with business executives saying it could create 250,000 jobs in a year and politicians saying it favors Israel. As part of an accord scheduled to be signed Tuesday in Cairo, goods produced in certain areas in Egypt with a minimum Israeli content will gain tariff-free access to the United States. The deal is one of several moves that signal hopes of reviving the Mideast peace process after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last month. The secretary-general of Egypt's Ready-Made Garment Exporters Association, Magdy Tolba, and the vice chairman of the Chamber of Textile Industries, Mohammed Kassim, said the agreement should give such a boost to clothing manufacturers that they will hire 200,000 to 300,000 workers in the first 12 months after it is implemented early next year. Tolba forecasts Egypt's garment exports to America will jump from the current $560 million a year to at least $1 billion by the end of 2005.
The job-creation predictions are dismissed as wildly exaggerated by Rifaat el-Said, the leader of the opposition party Tagammu, and by a former economic minister, Moustafa el-Said. The two are not related. If it would create 250,000 jobs, "I would sign the agreement," said Rifaat el-Said, whose left-wing party opposes Egypt's diplomatic relations with Israel until there is submission to peace with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Good. If this goes through, Israel will have a useful weapon to force Egypt to behave better, as Egypt needs the jobs considerably more than Israel needs the cost savings. The last I heard -- about 1990-- Egypt was gaining population at the rate of 1 million every 9 months. Idle hands being the Devil's playground, and all that.
#3
with business executives saying it could create 250,000 jobs in a year and politicians saying it favors Israel.
See here, Mr. Politician, this is the practical application of a concept known as capitalism. In optimal arms-length transactions, trade works for the benefit of both parties, to the utter amazement of members of academia, the mainstream press and the Democratic party (to the extent they can be differentiated)...
About 1,000 people gathered on Sunday, many with their mouths covered by yellow stickers reading "Enough," to protest the possibility that President Hosni Mubarak might run for a fifth term or that his son, Gamal, might succeed him. Later Sunday, hundreds of security forces surrounded the offices of Kamal Khalil, a veteran activist who spoke out against the Mubaraks at the protest. The police stayed four hours but did not make any arrests. Hosni Mubarak, 76, has been president since 1981, when he replaced the assassinated Anwar Sadat. His current six-year term ends in October, and he has not said whether he will run again. Some participants said the largely silent action — held in front of Egypt's Supreme Judiciary Court — was the first purely anti-Mubarak protest since he came to power.
"Enough. No more extensions. No heredity. No succession. Please Don't Kill Us," read one of the banners held by the protesters, who were cordoned off and outnumbered by riot police and senior police officials. More at the link.
#1
This from page 2,damn near broke my surprise meter:"...Oman's Sultan Qaboos has donated land for the construction of several Catholic and Protestant churches and Hindu temples. Oman is not a Western democracy, but that is just the point: It is an Islamic state, whose recognition of Israel would furnish a stunning rebuff to Saudi Arabia and Iran, both of which claim to be more Islamic than any other Muslim society, and both of which are dominated in reality by Islamist ideology rather than Muslim faith, law, and tradition."Could it be possable we are seeing a fundimental change in Islam,think I will reserve judgement for awhile yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 8:56
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#4
definitely a good point
we need more sarcasm about Islam
Instead of saying 'Mohammud was a pedophiliac as shown by him having sex with a 9 year old'
say,
'notwithstanding his having sex with a 9 year old and notwithstanding his fonding of Aisha's breast during her period, Muslims consider Mohammud to a a moral examplar for all time and are required to model their behavior on the behavior of Mohammud'
#5
I've said since 9/11 that the worst thing about picking a fight with the US is not that you will get your ass-whuppin', but that you will be ridiculed mercilessly while you are getting your ass-whuppin'. Ridicule is a very powerful weapon, especially in a war with a PR element.
#6
I posted last year on the virtues of Precision-Guided humor:"As bullets and bombs find their mark, so does laughter prove as fatal to the humorless and fanatical. That we can laugh at them means we do not fear them, that they have been cut down to size and they have no more power over us. So pillory them with parody, scourge them with scornful laughter, fling the cream pie of derision in their direction, metaphorically de-bag them and giggle at their inadequate marital tackle, hector them ceaselessly with light-bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, yo-mama-osama jokes, savage them with satire, lambaste them with dirty limericks and punish them with puns. A fanatic can handle anything but being laughed at..."
#9
Turkey is right - they are being jerked around by the EU.
Too bad they chose Chirac over the US when they refused permission to go into northern Iraq. The Sunni triangle would be quiet by now, their Kurdish problem would be on the mend as Kurds moved back to northern Iraq from the Turkish mountains to which they fled, and they would have the gratitude of US friends rather than the normal perfidy of France and her allies.
A pity, you know? But not a damned thing we can do about it. So have fun, Turkey, being jerked around by Les Franks et al ....
Posted by: too true ||
12/13/2004 9:21
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#10
Sobiesky, I was only pointing out to the Turks where they need to look.....surely Poland didn't take the lead on this, although our good friend Aris says any member could....riiigghhhtt
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 10:00
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#11
Turkey is right - they are being jerked around by the EU.
And the Turks didn't see this coming? Hahahaha...
On the other hand, it would probably be a good thing if the EU rejects Turkey's membership. Being willing to shaft the U.S. for short-term political gain and then warning of a "wave of terror" if not given membership in the EU don't strike me as the hallmarks of a potential good neighbor.
#12
Resorting to idle threats now... Turkey in the EU?? Mwahahahahaha! The touchy-feely mob aren't going to have that - even their love for an ethnically diverse Europe won't overcome their disgust at Turkey's human-rights record. Much seething and panty-knots to come...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/13/2004 11:09
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#13
surely Poland didn't take the lead on this, although our good friend Aris says any member could....riiigghhhtt
Haven't been reading up on Ukraine, have you? A situation when Poland did take the lead of the EU.
Keep your sarcastic "riiiigghhhtt"s to yourself. They are as ignorant as the rest of you.
#14
Re Ukraine, Aris is right. The EU has worked exactly as it should, with an unambiguous support for democracy from the elites, the huge magnet of EU prosperity inducing Ukrainian fence-sitters to support Yushchenko, and the political flexibility to let Poland take the lead. The problem we have is EU elites' behavior outside Europe, mainly in the middle east.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 12:01
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#16
Damn. I thought he said he was going to leave.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 12:29
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#17
And here they go: The troll and the clown. The one who thinks his ignorance is a virtue to be praised, and the one who proudly tries to pretend to be even slower than he actually is (isn't having much success -- can't be slower that fully stopped after all).
#18
Someone on this board long ago mentioned that if Turkey joined the EU that would mean the EU has a direct border with the Middle East and al of its problems. Problems that Europe doesn't want to deal with.
This fact alone seems to ensure Turkey will never make it until the Middle East quiets down significantly.
So what ever happened to Israel's push to become a member of the EU?
#19
Someone on this board long ago mentioned that if Turkey joined the EU that would mean the EU has a direct border with the Middle East and al of its problems. Problems that Europe doesn't want to deal with
If so, that's a foolish argument. The dysfunctional middle east is already throwing its toxic waste into the EU's back yard and will continue to do so whether Turkey's in or out. Al Qaeda's already heavily penetrated major European cities. I would think it makes more sense to have Turkey inside the EU tent pissing out than v-v.
#20
Murat - Where are you???? You don't have anything to say about this?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/13/2004 12:49
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#21
I would think it makes more sense to have Turkey inside the EU tent pissing out than v-v.
If this politico's threats are to be taken seriously, it seems a weak liability like Turkey would either be pissing within the tent from inside it or pissing up against it from outside, seeing as Erdogan thinks it's little more than a conduit for Islamist nutjobs. That's a more accurate analogy.
I'm in favour of Turkish membership as a way of limiting the insane federal ambitions of EU federasts and Franco-centralist neo-Gaullists, but if Turks start threatening to rain down Muslim barbarity on their more civilised neighbours if they don't get their way and get in... Perhaps they had better try again later. What a load.
Posted by: Alaska Paul In Nikolaevsk, Alaska ||
12/13/2004 13:00
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#23
Dang Aris, you might hurt my feelings, if I cared....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 13:02
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#24
22: I thought that was Mr. Davis?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2004 13:19
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#25
RE: Poland, the point was well taken even if Aris missed it.
Poland is one of the most Christian countries in Europe but it isn't at the forefront of rejecting Turkish membership -- the much more secular, almost anti-Christian countries like France and Germany are.
Posted by: too true ||
12/13/2004 13:37
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#26
Frank, don't care about my opinion (indeed I wish that you were indifferent enough about my person that you wouldn't care to troll for me) -- but please do try to care about facts.
#27
too true> I think the reason that France and Germany are to the forefront of objecting to Turkish membership is actually their fear of an influx of worker immigrants from there -- it would probably not be Poland that'd receive them.
I don't think that Christianity or lack thereof really plays the greatest of parts -- though to some point I guess it may be true, that the less conservative nations might have an additional reason to not want the membership of a conservative country like Turkey, especially one of this size.
#28
I don't think that Christianity or lack thereof really plays the greatest of parts
Don't kid yourself.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 13:47
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#29
Mrs Davis> That'd be helpful if it actually contained an argument. Can you (or "too true") tell me *why* you think the Christian nations would have an added reason to include a Muslim nation in the EU but the "anti-Christian" nations wouldn't?
As I said socially conservative-vs-socially progressive might be a better explanation.
But a stark "don't kid yourself", Mrs. Davis, is just rude for rudeness sake. Please, expand your reasoning, and don't automatically think that anyone who disagrees with you must be merely deluding themselves.
#32
You're right, Fred: Murat (I forget which iteration) and Mr. Davis fought over Miss Gentle, and Mr. D won, which is why that Murat turned mean. It was quite a tale Mrs. D told us that evening.
#34
Since I'm not a politician, and I don't owe any of you either money or votes, there's a difference between a promise and a statement of intent.
Saying "I won't post again since you are all imbecilic jerks" or something similar, does not exactly qualify as a "promise" in my books. It's more of a declaration.
#35
a declaration you won't back, typical, and a shame
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 15:24
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#36
One signed copy of "Howe to Win Friends and Influence People" to our Turkish friend.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/13/2004 16:13
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#37
Sort of like the Declaration of Indepence. That's why we colonists all consider ourselves subjects of Her Majesty Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and North America and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith .
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 16:20
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#38
It's called "Changing one's mind" -- but that idea may be overnuanced for you. The experience did teach me however that if I ever decide to leave again, I neither need nor will I bother to announce it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 17:44
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#42
The moral is ... it is like Beetlejuice, the moment you call his name, he's back with all the label props like 'imbecillic, ignorant, etc., yada, yada'. No feeding, please.
#43
... it is like Beetlejuice, the moment you call his name
More accurately "the moment you troll for him". There's a difference: For the trolling to be successful besides the invocation of the Name, you'll also have to add mixtures of insufferable and wilful cluelessness. For even better results you'll need to display that quality while simultaneously trying to claim it for my person.
As for the labels, I'm a member of the reality-based community, and both eager and proud to deal in facts -- people who hate this, people like Frank who spew their ignorance as if they are proud of the vomit they cast before the world -- I have utter contempt for those people and am not ashamed to show it.
Mrs. Davis "don't kid yourself", Robert "I thought he left", Frank's trolling and sarcastic "thank you"'s, Sobiesky's own personal attacks.
...check, check, check. Frank never cared to either defend or concede his point (typical troll behaviour), Mrs Davis lack of argumentation for the sake of the easy applies-to-everything phrase....
Anyone cares to discuss political points as I did in #13, #27, #29? Nope, didn't think so -- you'll just insult and jeer, without any strength to back your punch. You are still contemptible maggots.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 19:48
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#45
Poor little Aris. No one will play nicely with him. Don't be surprised if he picks up his keyboard, stamps his feet and goes home without warning.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 19:50
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#46
...I'm a member of the reality-based community...
LOL Wonderful quote! So many of us are reality-based, but it takes a real visionary to ascend to the highest levels of self-importance and logical incomprehensibility.
#47
Aris: "Anyone cares to discuss political points as I did in #13"
Lemme see: "Keep your sarcastic "riiiigghhhtt"s to yourself. They are as ignorant as the rest of you."
Kettle, meet pot. Pot, meet kettle.
It is just amazing that you see the fault in everyone but yourself. Well, it is not that amazing. I learned to expect that from people of your political leaning. I am sorry to say...
#51
I read today where the foreign minister of France wants and apology for the Armenian Genocide. Thats a non starter. Turkey will never admit to it. If it walks like a duck talks like a duck, it is a duck. It was a genocide. So whats France telling Turkey?
#53
Aris sees the world thru the lens of socialist historicism and as a result terms like 'progressive' make sense to him. While he is better than he used to be, he still has a problem dealing with issues that don't compute in his world view and resorts to 'facts'. To quote an Indian Marxist friend of mine. 'Never get into an argument over facts with a Marxist. They will always have more facts than you do.' The point being a fact per se is the most worthless thing in the world, becuase there is an infinite supply of them.
#54
And from what I've read of prominent Marxists, many of said facts were made up on the spot. Aris doesn't specialise in facts - he specialises in wordplay and sophistry.
#55
my take on Aris - he goes for EU-baiting like a hungry trout. He assumes he knows more about America than those living here because the whole world conforms to his EU-centric worldview.Yes, I'm a bad boy for baiting him, and I'll get a chunk of EU German coal in my stocking for Xmas, but it's fun, dammit, because he responds exactly the way he bitches at me about. Pot meet kettle is a good call, Sobiesky, he just can't see the irony. I firmly believe the all-smothering EU-nanny state is a tragic mistake for many fine european countries, who desperately want the economic benefits without understanding the selling-out of their political rights to un-elected, un-appointed EUro-crats. France is playing them for suckers, with German help. We'll see how easy it is to get out without losing all econ benefits
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 20:31
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#56
I wasn't even trying to troll him. He's just such a know-it-all asshole, he thinks he has to respond to everything.
Anyone cares to discuss political points as I did in #13, #27, #29?
With you, Aris? I'd rather go through LASIK again.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 20:35
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#57
So, RC, which of us is the troll, and which the clown? :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 20:37
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#58
I'll be the clown, since they're the natural enemies of mimes.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 20:38
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#59
If you go back 2 or 3 years in the RB archives you will see that Aris used to drive me nuts. He is a chronic avoider of issues that don't fit in his worldview. The irony is the issues he is right about get lost in the noise resulting from the issues he avoids.
The point being a fact per se is the most worthless thing in the world, becuase there is an infinite supply of them.
Mere listing of facts aren't enough because people must also use logic in order to apply the facts. But other than that, your friend didn't have a point. In order to battle someone who is well informed you have to know your own mind and know *why* you are opposing them. If you don't know why you disagree with him well enough to make a reasonable argument against him, then it's time to change your mind, rather than resort to mockery.
But what exactly are *you* saying -- that people shouldn't use facts in their arguments? If so, that's as horrible as Bush's mockery of the use of numbers in his debate with Gore.
"and as a result terms like 'progressive' make sense to him"
LOL! There are lots and lots of people here who consider "conservative" a meaningful term, and yet you have a problem with "progressive"?
But if it makes you feel better I only use the word "progressive" in reference to societal issues, not economic ones. Namely those issues where "conservation of traditions" and fear of change is the main (non-) argument of the so-called right-wing. And where changing out of those traditions (aka society progressing) is the main motivation of the so-called "liberals/left-wing"
I've never used "progressive" in reference to economical issues.
#61
And there Aris goes again, failing completely to get someone's point because, frankly, he can't comprehend the language well enough.
Bulldog's point is that facts are most often little more than anecdotes, and useless for reaching a conclusion. You can find, for example, instances of Stalin being incredibly compassionate. Those instances are facts, but are useless because they don't adequately explain the reality.
Another example is your depiction of conservative positions. There are no doubt instances where fear of change is the "main argument", but that's not the general case, and the anecdote is useless as explanation.
It's a wonderful straw man, though, and no doubt believing it makes you feel better about yourself.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 20:57
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#62
I firmly believe the all-smothering EU-nanny state is a tragic mistake for many fine european countries, who desperately want the economic benefits without understanding the selling-out of their political rights to un-elected, un-appointed EUro-crats.
Wow. both unelected *and* un-appointed?
Frank, you say "He assumes he knows more about America " and yet it's *you* who's condemned the EU, it's not me who's condemned the USA. How many times have you seen me discuss USA's internal issues and USA's internal politics? Other than support of same-sex marriage ofcourse, which hardly concerns the USA alone.
You have as much right to your hatred of the EU as anyone, and it wouldn't bother me. It's the fact that's it's an utterly *ignorant* hatred that I despise. It's the fact you honestly seem proud of that ignorance.
On my part I'd rather have some abstract "nanny-state" that gets blamed by the Brits but which I know has in practice *increased* my freedoms rather that *twenty-five* "nanny states" that diminish them.
"point is facts are most often little more than anecdotes, and useless for reaching a conclusion"
And I vehemently disagreed with him.
"You can find, for example, instances of Stalin being incredibly compassionate."
And that's a fact that shows even mass-murdering dictators can be compassionate when the mood strikes them.
If you want a complete picture, then you *add* facts to form the picture, you don't just guffaw and say "I have no use for steenking facts". You don't close your eyes/ears and hum.
YOU DON'T DENY REALITY.
Another example is your depiction of conservative positions. There are no doubt instances where fear of change is the "main argument", but that's not the general case, and the anecdote is useless as explanation.
Even when it's not the "main" argument, "conserving tradition" always remains a big part in the minds of those people who think that something being so-and-so for thousands of years is an argument in favour of preserving it so-and-so for the next thousand as well. You'll see that in each case tradition is brought forward only by one side of the argument, the one not coincidentally labelled "conservative" one.
Some times ofcourse they won't call it "tradition", they'll call it "values of the founders of our nation" instead. Or "Christian morality". Or "Judeochristian heritage". "Or Christian roots of European civilisation". Or something.
#64
"abstract" or otherwise, nanny-states, by definition, don't increase freedoms, ya statist nut. Why, if you graduated today, are you here arguing with us...get a life, get out, and celebrate! Jeeebus! troll, clown, or loser, which would you rather be?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 21:07
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#65
Well "troll" is definitely something I don't want to be, and I'd rather be the loser than the clown. So, yeah "loser" is the choice.
As a sidenote it feels obnoxious when you insert things about my personal life into a discussion about something else. I don't comment on *your* life.
On your worthless existence and stupidity yes, as they are evidenced in the thread *here*. But I don't search the net for tidbits of your life you may be posting elsewhere. Once again I'd ask you to become *less* interested in me that you are.
#66
This is almost getting as bad as LGF. Pretty soon, we'll all be putting little AK and Murat to bed, having a nightcap or two together, asking each other about our kids, and saying nighty-night.
Of course, some other token antagonists might s-troll through...
OK, nevermind, it is fun after all. :)
Not that I have much against LGF; it just got a little sappy after registration.
#68
LOL, OK, then, Loser it is. I aim to please, if I aim at all....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 21:22
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#69
Trolls are not real. What ever they say is just that, trolling for the desired result, disruption and thread jacking. Aris is not a troll. Aris is a real person with his own perspective. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't cause him to become a troll.
#70
SPOD - you have to scroll all the way up to #17 to see where that came from..... I guess I'm the Troll. RC took Clown. Aris chose the other
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2004 21:26
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#71
Has anyone noticed how Aris and Murat seem to show up together, flame around for a few days then disappear at the same time to return again afew days later? Coincidence? I think not.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 21:29
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#72
A complaint about the "reality based community" thingy: it's wearing a bit thin. I take it it's meant to be a put-down of the "faith-based community". But then does the reality based community include atheist conservatives? For instance,among bloggers people like Steven den Beste, Jon Ray, and Keith Burgess Jackson. The conservative atheists subscribe to a different reality than the leftist atheists do. So which reality is the real reality? :-)
#73
HV> Actually "reality-based community" is a label given us, not one we've invented for ourselves.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/101704A.shtml
'In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'
#74
It would keep the comments section a bit shorter if some posters refrained from "Aris-baiting" whenever a posting about the EU comes up. :-)
Re Turkey: The question is not so much whether the EU can accomodate Turkey. The heart of the matter is: What kind of an EU do we want? This is the question the Turks can't answer for us.
As long as we can't define what Europe is now and what we want it to be in the future, we should pause.
If we want a real close European unity, with a common policy, I just don't see how Turkey could fit in. If we opt for a free trade zone with an association of states (some of them closer associated than other), we can go ahead and even take in the Maghreb and the Caucasus, maybe even Russia. But this is not what the founders of the European Union wanted.
What we definitely need (with Turkey or without) is a profound de-bureaucratization of the EU and a vigorous democratization at the same time. If we fail to do both, the European Union will not last... with Turkey or without it.
Right now the decisions that affect our lives the most are already cast in Brussels while we the people have only a very limited control and say over them.
The Euro was decided without us, the European Warrant was decided without us and the European Constitution is intended to be decided without us. Thousands of EU regulations that deeply affect our daily life are also decided without any meaningful participation of the people.
The EU that demands high standards of democracy from new members could need a healthy dosis of the same.
#4
1) Oona is black
2) She's a woman
3)"Bethnal Green and Bow has a large Asian community which amounts to just under 40% of the electorate - many of whom were opposed to the Iraq war."
(hint: "Asian" is BBCish for Chinese, Indian or Arab/Muslim - guess which in this case...)
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom ||
12/13/2004
01:15 ||
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#1
I wouldn't mind them at all if they actually gave a f*ck about anyone else. When travellers (and we're not talking pretty handpainted horsedrawn caravans - more like £50k caravans pulled by Mercedes/ Motorway Maintenance trucks) move into the area, incidences of burglary, petty theft and casual assault rocket. The land they've illegally pitched on is usually left a mass of human waste, dead animals, burnt mattresses/cars etc.. If they behaved like humans then they'd be treated humanely. Until then, f*ck 'em.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/13/2004 10:57
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#2
hehehe I knew you would love this Howard. See the problem is over here we have that same type of people but they don't have the nice travel trailer. They do have the big truck however and it's likely to be a Damiler product as well.
I found it interesting how this guy is going to " get even." Perhaps they all should be alowed to travel to a small island.
#3
One marine had returned only six weeks ago from a seven-month posting in Iraq. He will be going back soon. âItâs what I do,â he said. Had the course taught him anything he had not learnt in the field? âItâs helped me to know how the enemy thinks and appreciate how sophisticated they are.â
If he were in charge, how would he deal with the Iraqis? âIâd kill them all,â he replied. âThey donât know what democracy is.â
There may still be a lot to learn.
Sounds like a good Marine to me.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/13/2004 13:23
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#5
Oh, my... I have a very ordinary cycad in a pot by the foot of my driveway. Time to move it around in back, no assurance at all the local petty thieves can tell an ordinary one from a rarity.
#1
No time to waste to build nuclear power plants. 250 1000MW plants and new cars built for electric ops will replace all oil imports. Waste heat can be used for second stage electric gen, or boosted to use in thermal breakdown of water.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2004 1:02
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#2
AMEN. Nuclear power, now. This is so f***ing obvious it makes me want to scream. What are we waiting for?
#3
I dunno, it is 4 years old, but I don't think much changed:
The labels are kinda hard to read, but the oil is noted as petroleum (109).
That does not seem to be that high. Of course, as a fuel in vehicles, it currently the only resource utilized. Theoretically, it may be possible to use water as a fuel, but that brings all sorts of potential problems. Who cares! Let GM pull it out of their vault!
#5
Gas is good to burn, we can sell you loads of that. Coal is good.
Nukes are BAD for reasons i've stated a million times.
For example: if you promote nuclear power, that gives countries like Iran and North Korea a really GREAT excuse : we want nuclear power too.
Then they instantly have enough nuke material for weapons. You want the third world to have nuclear weapons? Great idea.
Secondly nuclear power is VERY EXPENSIVE.
it is expensive to build a nuke reactor.
It is expensive to decomission it after its 30 year life is up.
It is expensive to clean up the inevitable accidents that occur due to human error and parts wearing out/ faults. These happen ALL the time, there are hundreds of small accidents at nuke power plants around the world every year.
thirdly: there are lots of HIDDEN COSTS such as: higher incidences of cancer and birth defects (cost the public through paying for health care, sick leave, insurance).
fourthly: there is no safe eternal way to get rid of the waste
lastly: you cannot guarantee that people will speak english or live in civilisation in 3,000 years. For all you know the survivors might be Ugh and Ughlette living in caves.
They won't understand the warning signs on the toxic waste or the abandoned reactors.
Even if civilisation as we know it is around in 3,000 years they still may not understand that a site used to be a nuclear power station. Those people are our surviving descendants, we owe it to them not to foul up the pool.
In Australia there is an abandoned uranium mine called Rum Jungle. The old mine shafts flooded in the tropical rains and the tailings are leaching out of the dumps every Wet season.
There used to be warning signs up about 20 years ago warning people not to fish in the 'lake' (flooded mine) or to swim, and if you swam more than a couple of times to see a doctor immediately.
Those warning signs have long gone, councils forgot to put them back and the town near Rum Jungle has a high-turnover of population: people come and go.
People swim there now, there are no signs to tell them not to.
That is why nuclear power is a stupid idea. IT is the last resort not the first.
Only a few countries should have access to the bomb, like America. I'd like to keep it that way.
#6
Iran and N Korea have no "excuse" for nuclear power. Iran's swimming in oil, has ~8% of world reserves. N Korea's intentions are obvious.
As to expense, our mideast policy designed to secure access to oil is a not-so-hidden cost of oil dependence. Were we independent of mideast oil, we could probably reduce that cost by tens of billions annually.
You make good points re human error and disposal concerns. I'm curious: the French rely heavily on nuclear power. Obvious jokes aside, is it really so difficult to institute safe practices that will prevent the calamities you mention? Presumably the French have done so successfully. Why can't we?
#7
For example: if you promote nuclear power, that gives countries like Iran and North Korea a really GREAT excuse : we want nuclear power too.
Er, no, Iran is sitting on a sea of oil. Sound resource management can make their reserves last for quite some time, without necessitating the development of nuclear power. We here in the U.S. don't have that kind of luxury. Besides, Rafsanjani already conveniently gave away the game; the "power" that the mullahs are seeking is not the kind that will provide everyday Persians with electicity.
#8
thirdly: there are lots of HIDDEN COSTS such as: higher incidences of cancer and birth defects (cost the public through paying for health care, sick leave, insurance).
Go peddle that crap somewhere else. Mining, transporting, burning coal and disposing of its waste releases more radioactivity and harmful chemicals than nuclear.
That is why nuclear power is a stupid idea.
No, that's why buying into anti-nuclear propaganda is a stupid idea. Pull your head out and take a breath for a change -- go read something that isn't Greenpeace Approved and get educated.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2004 12:49
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Again, sidestepping the obvious jokes, where's the parade of horribles in France? They're heavily dependent on nuclear, have been for many decades. If I understand correctly, their political class decided long ago that nuclear made absolute sense and they refused to tolerate any bullshit from their environmentalists. THey went ahead and did the smart thing for their nation. What's stopping us from being similarly hardheaded?
#11
Anon1,I use to be a Hazmat tech.Cleaning-up a spill is not a whole lot more dangerous than any other hazmat spill,almost always it is low level radioactive waste.Good heavy work clothes and a good respirater is ussally all that is needed.The Nuclear physicists cleaning-up and monitoring Chernobal use paper dust masks(not something I would do).As for the waste,have you ever heard of glassification.Mix the waste(low level or high makes no difference)mix it with sand insert 2 electrodes and aply high voltage current.What you end-up with is a big ass block of glass.Enviromentally as stable as regular non- radioactive glass.
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