"News" release from Clear The Air website:
Washington, DC. "Clear the Air, a national public education campaign to combat global warming, today released a survey of scientific literature on global warming's impacts on seasonal cycles. More and more studies show that global warming is throwing off the seasonal rhythms of familiar species such as northern cardinals, tree swallows, lilacs and honeysuckles. Quick, Ethel - my pills! (Oh, wait - I don't have an Ethel. Oh, well.)
The data highlight the urgency of the global warming problem and the need for swift congressional action. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Isn't "swift congressional action" an oxymoron? (With the emphasis on the moron.)
"The science is clear: Like hell it is; lying is the same as breathing to these clowns.
global warming isn't off in the distant future or happening somewhere else, it's happening across the nation and it's causing our seasons to creep out of balance," Angela Ledford Anderson, director of Clear the Air "Global warming is already forcing changes to the signs of spring we are all familiar with like the Cherry Blossoms along the tidal basin."
The survey, Season Creep: How Global Warming is Already Affecting the World Around Us, finds that scientists who study changes in natural phenomena (when trees bud and when birds lay their eggs), are increasingly pointing their fingers at global warming as the reason for disturbing changes in wildlife, plants and the natural environment. Disturbing? How disturbing, you may ask. And they may answer:
"This survey should reinforce the need for us to treat global warming as an emerging and significant problem," said Professor Mark D. Schwartz from the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "We know that global warming is already changing the complex relationships of the natural environment and it threatens to bring even greater changes in the future. As scientists, we need to better understand the connection between climate and periodic biological phenomena. This is one of the reasons why I am working with my colleagues to implement a National Phenology Network."
Some of the species scientists have found to be already affected by global warming and changes they are experiencing are:
Lilacs and honeysuckle are blooming six days early; 6 days early? (Earlier than what, precisely?) We're all doomed, I tell ya'!
Canadian geese, robins and whip-poor-wills are arriving earlier; Hell, around central Virginia, the robins don't leave. And a lot of the Canada geese have decided to stay around, too, since they know people will feed them here. (Golf courses hate them.)
Spring snow-melt in the Western U.S. is happening 4 weeks earlier than in the mid 20th century; Ummm, care to tell us how today compares to, say, the early 20th century? Or the 1800's? And why is a longer growing season a problem, exactly?
Lakes and rivers are freezing six days later and thawing six days earlier; Hmmmm. 12 days less of winter. And (except for ski resorts) this is a problem because....?
and,
"These changes are so striking because they are taking place in so many places around the country," said Bruce Stutz, author of the new book Chasing Spring. "Gardeners, birders, and people who just generally enjoy the outdoors are seeing these changes. As I traveled around the country following the changes of the spring season, I found researchers and scientists who are studying the problem and concluding that the gradual warming is the main culprit. We stand to lose a lot, Yeah - a lot more winter. So who in the normal world objects to this?
and the biggest loss may be to the familiar and reassuring rituals we know as springtime." Like your familiar ritual of tossing out new "studies" to scare people into doing something economically disastrous to our country?
Global warming is throwing out of sync everything from plants and animals to springtime itself, but Congress still refuses to give in to loons deal with the problem," said Angela Ledford Anderson. "We urge the President and Members of Congress to listen to the science and deal with global warming before the sun's normal cycle turns it into global cooling again it's too late. We need a national policy on global warming that guarantees destruction of America's evil capitalist economy pollution reductions quickly enough to screw up everything before someone figures out we're full of it avert the most dire consequences of global warming." The "report" is available at the like - if you care.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/23/2006 13:10 ||
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And why is a longer growing season a problem, exactly?
Man, you don't get it! It's like, you know, a longer growing season means, you know, a shorter non-growing season, and that means the polar icecap is, totally, you know, melting and my English professor says that, you know, we're all doomed because Bush didn't sign Kyoto. Dude, more ice, less food.
Is this article a "lost" chapter of "State of Fear"?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/23/2006 14:04 Comments ||
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The last three falls I've planted bulbs in the 20 square feet alloted to my condo. The first year, they came up, didn't do much, and died. The second year, nothing came up. This year they came up, got a few inches high, and we got five inches of snow.
Global warming? Yeah. Right.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/23/2006 14:18 Comments ||
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#4
It's my understanding that American Robins do migrate: from Canada to Ohio and New York State, from New York to Pennsylvania, Penn to Virginia, etc. Northern Cardinals stay put though, like Blue Jays. And is the honeysuckle they are referring to one of the many native species, or Chinese bush honeysuckle and Japanese honeysuckle vine? 'Cause the Asian species leaf out much earlier than the natives, and hold onto their leaves longer -- that's one reason why they're so horribly invasive. Lots of ignorance revealed in the article; these people fall under the Passover heading of "those too ignorant even to know what questions to ask."
#5
Oh, and clearly this press release was drawn up before the current snowstorms across the Eastern US, which chilled all those overheated blooms and bird couples.
#9
We're all gonna drown, D *** you, as the BBC, etal. has a study arguing that global warming will raise sea levels by 3 feet; while Reuters quotes a SCIENCE arty whose author-scientist says 20 feet. Ergo the Enviro-nuts and Libbies want us all to go back to ancient/archaic times so that all mankind can achieve Utopian Equalism by being properly and equally roasted when the Sun goes, SSSSSSSHHHHHH, NOVA, or PLanet X = Earth/Sun's Dead Twin flys by after 2009??? All mankind - including post-Holocaust Amerikkk's surviving 100Milyuhn or less, prob less, Male Brutes - can and will be saved iff only mankind will put its hopes in OWG and the Motherly rockets of Russia-China - you know, the ones that keep blowing up.
#10
Joe reduces the difficult science of scamming government grants and pushing irrational fear mongering to the simple bottom line of logical reasoning and dope slaps. :) Thanks for the clarification JM
Sometime after 9 p.m. this Friday (March 24) the five-year-old "healthy penis" will hop into a van perhaps even a limousine and wave goodbye to San Francisco, his birthplace and home since the summer of 2002. With the city's syphilis rate among gay men plummeting by 23 percent last year, the nameless healthy penis is needed elsewhere.
"My job here is done"
Santa Clara County health officials have invited the healthy penis to San Jose for the next six months to alert gay men about the need to get tested and treated for syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease known to increase one's chances of contracting HIV.
"It's kind of sad it is coming to an end," said the healthy penis' father, Scott Metzger, a straight man who created the comical phallus character. "I am prepared for it, though it is going to be a bummer."
I think being known as the "father of healthy penis" would be enough of a bummer
Metzger, who insisted his progeny is not modeled after anyone, not only drew the cartoon advertisements featuring the healthy penis and his nemesis, Phil the red-faced syphilis sore, but wrote the dialogue in the strips. Les Pappas, owner of Better World Advertising who came up with the concept for the social marketing campaign, hired Metzger to bring his idea to life.
"Les wanted it to be like the Ritchie Cunningham of penises. He was not to be that square but a happy-go-lucky character," said Metzger. "He is just a silly little character I wanted to be goofy and likeable."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 09:45 ||
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They never mention his cousin, though. Glans the Scrofulous, the family's black sheep.
ZAGREB - One out of every two working Croats has had sex with a colleague, according to a study released on Thursday by the employment web portal MojPosao.net. Conducted on 1,807 women and men of all age and education groups, the study indicated some self-restraint only in the patriarchal Dalmatia, where 36 per cent of the polled said they had sex at work. The ratio of 50 per cent of those sexually active on the job was almost uniform in other Croatian regions.
The other 50 per cent were really depressed
The practice was equally spread across the labour market - in business and administration, among blue and white collars, junior and senior employees, apprentices and top executives.
While it did not provide separate figures for women and men, the study said that 25 per cent of the men and 48 per cent of the women saw their adventures as a comprehensive love affair. To most men and very few women, it was just sex or, at most, sporadic fun and sex without much emotion.
Nevertheless, there was wide consensus among those practising sex at work that it was not socially acceptable - 83 per cent of those who had it tried to hide it, with more or less success.
"Dammit, move. I need to use that copier!"
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 08:35 ||
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"Half of Croatias workforce had sex-on-the-job"
And the other half tried. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/23/2006 13:06 Comments ||
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Clearly they haven't yet been hit by the corporate efficiency drive. (And if they have, I really, really don't want to know!)
South Park has exacted revenge on its former star Isaac Hayes by turning his character Chef into a paedophile and seemingly killing him off. The opening episode of the 10th series, screened in the US on Wednesday, appeared to be a satire on Scientology. Hayes, a Scientologist, quit the animated comedy after a different episode ridiculed the religion.
In the new show, Chef is brainwashed by the "Super Adventure Club" - thought to be a veiled reference to Scientology. The other characters are angry at "that fruity little club for scrambling his brains". Hayes did not participate in the episode but his lines were apparently patched together from previous recordings.
Chef arrives after travelling the world with the Super Adventure Club and repeatedly tells the children he wants to "make sweet love" to them. The children take him to a psychiatrist and then a strip club, where he remembers his love for women and is cured. But he is brainwashed by the Super Adventure Club again - before falling off a bridge and being burned, stabbed and mauled by a lion and a grizzly bear.
At his funeral, one of the children says: "A lot of us don't agree with the choices the Chef has made in the last few days. "Some of us feel hurt and confused that he seemed to turn his back on us. "But we can't let the events of the past few weeks take away the memories of how Chef made us smile."
Soul singer Hayes recently announced he had left the show because of its "intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs". But co-creator Matt Stone said: "In 10 years and over 150 episodes of South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslim, Mormons or Jews. "He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show."
US TV network Comedy Central then pulled a different episode, which mocked Tom Cruise and more explicitly lampooned Scientology. That prompted rumours that Cruise had demanded that the episode be dropped, which were denied by his representatives. Hayes, 63, was admitted to hospital with exhaustion in January.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 08:29 ||
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I think the episode last night still featured the voice of Isaac Hayes.
Also the episode ended with the dead Chef being revived enough to be put into a Darth Vader life support armor type suit and using Darth type speech patterns.
#5
Hmmmm... "Woodland Creatures Christmas" is a favorite, as is the one where Jimmy and Timmy join a gang and the sea-people/sea-men episode.
Hard to really nail down an absolute favorite. There are a few I won't watch again, though, like the one where Mr. Garrison gets a sex change.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/23/2006 11:41 Comments ||
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Last night's episode featured Hayes' voice, but they spliced old dialogue together to do it. There was no attempt for it to be a believable edit - the intonation was unmistakably mismatched from word to word.
And yes, the original "get Tom Cruise out of the closet" episode is one of the funniest things I've ever seen sober. If you're self important, you don't want to be on these guys bad side.
#7
Last night's episode featured Hayes' voice, but they spliced old dialogue together to do it. There was no attempt for it to be a believable edit - the intonation was unmistakably mismatched from word to word.
Wonder if this was an intentional slam on the clams claiming to speak for Hayes?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/23/2006 12:53 Comments ||
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday. I guess they figured that was the best place to find drunks.
The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commissions Carolyn Beck. I'm surprised they only found 30 people in 36 bars.
Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said. The goal, she said, was to make a lot of money on fines and stick our noses further in to other people's business detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.
We feel that the only way were going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this, she said.
There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when theyre intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car, Beck said. People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss. I know people who have done that sober. the bottom line here, again, is the Nanny State says it has to protect you from yourself. They know whats best for you
She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/23/2006 07:15 ||
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There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when theyre intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car, Beck said. People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss.
#6
Herodes learned that a newborn woul be one day king of Isreal and he had all newborns put to death. Texas Democrats learned that an ex-drunk became a Republican President of the United States so they try to avoid this happenning again.
Disclaimer: I don't care about what W did or did not when he was young as long as he now does a good job. And I believening he is doing a very good one.
#7
Kinky Friedman is looking better and better for governor of Texas.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 14:43 Comments ||
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Friedman's just another word for nuthin left to lose.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/23/2006 16:14 Comments ||
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The clincher on this story is they arrested people that were staying at hotels where the bar was....people go to the bar, have a few drinks..the cops come in a bust them so they cant drive....they werent driving...they were staying at the hotel.
I'll take Kinky anyday over this pinhead we have now...talk about doing nothing and taking full credit for it....Perry is one of the worst ever in Texas history...and we all suffer because of it...thats why I vote for anyone else...anyone, doesnt matter...if you are in office, from now on people are going to be voting you out...anyone else...the NEW Texas battle cry.
Posted by: Live to Ride ||
03/23/2006 17:42 Comments ||
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TEHAS/TEXAS, unlike NOLA, either has enough $$$ in the coffers so as to afford sending law enforcement out to arrest people for simple public drunkenness; or more likely as #5 premises its about revenue enhancement, Dat time of year.
A coyote's romp in Central Park ended yesterday with a tranquilizer dart and a nap, but only after a messy breakfast (hold the feathers), a dip in a chilly pond and a sprint past a skating rink-turned-movie set.
There was also a final chase that had all the elements of a Road Runner cartoon, with the added spectacle of television news helicopters hovering overhead, trailing the coyote and the out-of-breath posse of police officers, park officials and reporters trailing it.
The coyote's pursuers joked that it even tried to turn itself in. It was hunting for a place to sleep it off after being hit by a single tranquilizer dart, and that place was a Fire Department dispatching station next to the Central Park station house overlooking the 79th Street transverse.
The coyote named Hal by his captors, who said he was about a year old woke up in a cage on the bed of a pickup truck carrying him out of the park. The city's parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, wasted no time in declaring that Central Park's 843 acres were once again a coyote-free zone.
This was a couple of hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had delivered some one-liners at Hal's expense. "Are New Yorkers in danger?" the mayor asked at a breakfast at the New York Public Library. "This is New York, and I would suggest that the coyote may have more problems than the rest of us."
Where Hal came from remained a mystery. Mr. Benepe said that he had probably been driven out of Westchester County. Older coyotes do that to young males at this time of the year, wildlife specialists said.
He speculated that Hal had made it down to the Bronx and trotted into Manhattan across a railroad bridge at Spuyten Duyvil"the narrowest, safest crossing," he said.
But Mr. Benepe said it was also possible that Hal had dog paddled his way through the water beneath the railroad bridge. From there, he said, Hal probably meandered down the West Side to 72nd Street, where Riverside Park ends. And then, Mr. Benepe said, he turned left.
That was news to people in the neighborhood. "I see a lot of things pass this way," said Ralph Mascolo, a doorman at an apartment building on 72nd Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, "but never a coyote."
Maybe he took the crosstown bus. Laura Simon, the field director for the urban wildlife program of the Humane Society of the United States, suggested that he might have hitched a ride, though she was thinking of a garbage truck. "Sometimes animals appear in the strangest places," she said, adding that the mashed-up contents of a garbage truck would have been a tasty dinner for a hungry Hal, and obviously Hal had managed not to get mashed up himself.
However he got to the park, Hal apparently hung out there for several days. Sara Hobel, the director of the city's Urban Park Rangers, said he was first described as a hyena by someone who called from a taxi on the 66th Street transverse. That was over the weekend.
Ms. Hobel's boss, Mr. Benepe, mentioned a later report from a late-night dog walker who saw "something," maybe a wolf or a coyote.
By Tuesday, Ms. Hobel was thinking it was 1999 all over again, the last time a coyote was known to have been on the loose in Central Park Otis, who now resides in the Queens Zoo. Someone from the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that runs the park, spotted Hal in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary, four acres of boulders and grass within sprinting distance of the Wollman Rink, the carousel and, if you are Mr. Benepe, your office.
Mr. Benepe went right over, as did Ms. Hobel. Soon the police joined the hunt for Hal, who by then had been named for the nature sanctuary.
Hal had "established a route" around the sanctuary, Ms. Hobel said. But around dinnertime on Tuesday dinnertime for people if not for Hal he made a daring escape, scrambling over an eight-foot-high fence and blasting by Ms. Hobel.
The search was called off Tuesday night. When it resumed early yesterday, a crew working on a movie called "August Rush" was busy at the Wollman Rink, just across a path from the Hallett sanctuary. Suzanne Kelly, from the film's wardrobe crew, saw Hal "going after this lady's dog." A small dog, a Westie, she said.
Hal "looked hungry, I thought," she said. "That's what I was worried about."
The posse chasing Hal cornered him by the Heckscher Ballfields, but he got away again. Hal retreated to the sanctuary, where a pile of feathers suggested that he had made a meal of a bird, probably a pigeon, Mr. Benepe said. After a quick swim across the sanctuary's duck pond, he sprinted past the rink, where an actress in a wig was doing figure eights.
The officers with the tranquilizer guns could not keep up with Hal. Ms. Hobel was confident he would resurface in the Ramble, and he did. And they got their coyote.
Mr. Benepe, said that the next event in Hal's young life was an examination by Dr. Mary Martin, the interim executive director of Animal Care and Control of New York City, a nonprofit group that runs the city's animal shelters, and Dr. Njeri Cruse, its medical director.
The examination confirmed that Hal was a he. It also showed that Hal had "nice clean teeth," Mr. Benepe said. And that Hal was coming to.
Mr. Benepe said the plan was for a wildlife rehabilitator to take Hal out of the city and, after some rest and relaxation, release him in a more coyote-friendly habitat.
#1
Bloody nonsense. Coyotes are as at home in American cities and suburbs as red foxes are in similar British territory. They mostly hunt small mammels (mice and rats) and birds (lots of pigeons in NYC, even after the falcons take as much as their fledgelings can handle).
They're very fond of stray cats, at least they were in New Mexico.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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And yes, they are fond of cats in the California hill country... my parents in Valley Center and any number of their friends have lost cats to coyotes... some of them in broad daylight, close to the house.
Homeowners in an Orange County, Fla., neighborhood claim their community has been overrun by rats big enough to pick fights with small dogs, according to a Local 6 News report. First, let's ask: "Why do they hate us?"
Residents in the Conway Acres neighborhood in Orange County said the rats are scurrying around their neighborhood 24 hours a day. Homeowners said they have seen the rats running on power lines into homes. "The rats are running off that power line and that telephone pole into this line and into the house," homeowner Andy Price said. "They say some of these rats are so big that if they wanted to, they could pick a fight with a small dog," Local 6 reporter Todd Jurkowski said.
Neighbors said a home that was left in deplorable condition after Hurricane Charley provided a structure for the rats to multiply unnoticed. The rats then apparently spread throughout the neighborhood, according to the report. Orange County code enforcement has ordered the homeowner to get a pest control company to assess the damage and kill the rats.
A town meeting will be held next week with experts from the health department offering tips on how to end the infestation.
#3
DB, maybe we can arrange to have the pythons eat the rats and then have the gators eat the pythons. (Don't know what to do about the gators. Leave 'em alone, I guess.)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/23/2006 6:54 Comments ||
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(Don't know what to do about the gators. Leave 'em alone, I guess.)
Eat 'em, make luggage out of 'em.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/23/2006 7:35 Comments ||
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MMMM bar-b-qued gator tail!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/23/2006 7:36 Comments ||
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EL AYOUN, Western Sahara - Morocco will consult the people of Western Sahara on the plan to give the territory greater autonomy which it is to submit to the United Nations soon, Communications Minister Nabil Benabdellah said on Wednesday.
Rabat, which annexed the largely desert but phosphate-rich territory after colonial rulers Spain pulled out in 1975, is proposing wider autonomy but rejects UN demands for self-determination by a referendum. On the other side is the Polisario Front, which fought a guerrilla war for the territory until a 1991 ceasefire and expects that a referendum will back its declaration of an independent state 30 years ago.
The process of consultation begun on March 11 with Moroccos political parties will be widened to the Sahrawi people, notably through the Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs, Benabdellah, the government spokesman, told AFP. He was speaking during a visit by Moroccos King Mohammed VI to El Ayoun, the territorys main city.
Benabdellah said Moroccos offer was final and Rabat could not improve on it. The great powers support the idea of a political solution, he said, calling on dialogue to end the conflict for good.
But he said that Rabats submission of its autonomy plan to the United Nations, originally scheduled for next month, could be delayed for several weeks. The political parties must hand their responses to the king by March 31, then we must draw up an analysis, he said. The main thing is that Morocco is committed to make proposals on autonomy, and will do it as soon as possible after the end of the consultations.
The UN-sponsored ceasefire in 1991 was supposed to have been followed by a referendum on self-determination, but Rabat failed to comply, initially raising objections over who was entitled to vote. It has since dismissed UN proposals that the referendum followed a five-year period of autonomy for the 266,000 square kilometres (90,000 square miles) of desert flatlands on Africas northwestern coast.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2006 00:00 ||
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The Gambian government has thwarted a coup attempt, a presidential communique said on Wednesday, but it is business as usual in the capital Banjul.
"Security forces yesterday discovered that a group of army officers led by Colonel Ndure Cham, former chief of defence staff, were at an advanced stage in their plot to overthrow the constitutional government of The Gambia," said the statement from the office of the president.
"All those involved are presently in custody and helping the security forces in their investigation, except the leader who is still at large," it added. An un-named military source told IRIN at least 12 people had been arrested.
On news of the trouble, President Yahya Jammeh cut short a trip to nearby Mauritania, returning to Banjul under cover of darkness some time Tuesday night or Wednesday morning with an escort of Mauritanian military commandoes, another military source said.
The government meanwhile called for calm. "The general public is hereby assured that there is no cause for alarm and the situation is firmly under control," the statement said.
But most residents of Banjul were unaware of the overnight trouble and shops, schools and businesses were open as usual on Wednesday.
President Jammeh seized power of Gambia, a tiny sliver of land on Africa's western coast surrounded entirely on its land borders by Senegal, in a bloodless coup in 1994 when he was just 29 years old. Since then, he has won two elections and the most recent in 2001 earned a thumbs-up from international monitors.
Presidential elections are due to take place this year with parliamentary elections to follow in 2007. Jammeh has already said that he will be running for a third consecutive term in office.
Some observers doubt Wednesday's coup claims and suspect that Jammeh is trying to purge his government of foes ahead of the upcoming poll. Splits are appearing in his ruling party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), and last month the APRC mayor of The Gambia's largest municipality, Abdoulie Conteh, was unceremoniously sacked.
In November 2005 three members of a newly formed opposition coalition were arrested for what authorities called "subversive activities", without providing further detail. The arrests followed by-elections in which the opposition bloc took three out of the four seats up for grabs.
In its communique on Wednesday the government also named a new head of the armed forces, Lieutenant Colonel Lang Tombong Tamba, previously the military's number two. Tamba, 39, and Jammeh were in the military together and come from the same ethnic group, as do many of the president's closest aides.
A new head of the national intelligence agency was also named, though the incumbent intelligence chief had been accompanying Jammeh in Mauritania.
Heavily armed police raided a hotel in Harares southern suburb of Mabelreign early morning Tuesday and severely assaulted the guests. The uniformed forces arrived at the Feathers Hotel at around 04:00 claiming they were searching for a fugitive armed robber. Without informing the management, the police surrounded the hotel and started assaulting the staff members on duty, accusing them of housing the wanted man.
Police then searched all the hotel rooms and assaulted their occupants, including this journalist who had booked there for the night. One of the attacked hotel guests who refused to be named said: I was sleeping with my wife in our room and the police used force to open the door. They assaulted us without posing any questions. My wife was left nude during the scuffle.
However, guests who had been turned out of their rooms by the police and grouped in the hotels corridors were saved from further beatings when a sound emerged from one of the rooms in the first floor. When police went to investigate, they found a woman sleeping in the room. She claimed she was a prostitute who had been hired by someone for the night. She claimed she did not know her lovebird who had disappeared whilst she was asleep.
Police officers at the scene suspected that the suspected robber had jumped to the ground but the suspect was not seen by any of their colleagues who had surrounded the hotel. The hotel guests were then paraded for identification. The wanted mans accomplice who was arrested in connection with a shooting incident conducted the identification and not any of the guests was positively identified.
#3
why were they there in the first place, I guess they get what they get
Posted by: bk ||
03/23/2006 10:19 Comments ||
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sounds like the Orchid in Zamboanga
Posted by: bk ||
03/23/2006 10:19 Comments ||
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#5
Without informing the management, the police surrounded the hotel and started assaulting the staff members on duty, accusing them of housing the wanted man.
Um, it's a hotel. Housing people is what they do!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/23/2006 10:35 Comments ||
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LONDON: Britain's highest court on Wednesday upheld a school's decision to require a Muslim pupil to abandon the jilbab in favour of school uniform, reversing a lower court decision. The Court of Appeal in March last year ruled that Shabina Begum was unlawfully excluded from Denbigh High School in Luton, north of London, after she refused to change out of the head-to-toe jilbab.
The school then appealed to the panel of five judges at the House of Lords, Britain's de facto supreme court, which ruled on Wednesday that the school had been fully justified in its actions. "It had taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs but did so in an inclusive, unthreatening and uncompetitive way," Lord Thomas Bingham ruled. "The rules laid down were as far from being mindless as uniform rules could ever be. The school had enjoyed a period of harmony and success to which the uniform policy was thought to contribute."
He said the rules - drafted by a school where 75 percent of the students were Muslim and Muslims sat on school bodies - were acceptable to mainstream Muslim opinion.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2006 00:00 ||
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How much you want to bet she's going to appeal to some EU court to overrule this decision? And win there?
#2
''So that if Castro has a heart attack or he dies, the only people who will know about it will be his family, the guards working at the time, and Raúl,'' Fernández said. ``Fidel never cedes control, and will never cede power.''
Looks like "Weekend at El Jefe's" might be in our future. Hopefully, the not too distant one...
Venezuelan police helped the U.S. ambassador leave a Caracas building after a group of President Hugo Chavez's supporters blockaded him inside, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
Guarico State Gov. Eduardo Manuitt, an ally of Chavez, said the protesters were peacefully demonstrating against U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield after he visited opposition leaders and a chamber of commerce. But U.S. embassy officials said a group of about 100 mainly students with anti-U.S. placards trapped the envoy inside the building for four hours while they burned tires and set fire to a U.S. flag before police stepped in to clear the way.
"When the ambassador went to leave the building, he felt he could not because he believed the protests were potentially violent," said an embassy spokeswoman. "The local authorities finally helped him out and he left for the airport."
#1
That's alright, the Chinese will make up the gap with their administrative access to American financial services firms trading systems.
As a measure to shed themselves of those lousy $75K domestic IT infrastructure wages, certain American firms, the ones that process your 401k, are handing over the processing system keys to enthusiastic Chinese nationals, not merely here on visa, but inside China itself.
But I'm sure nothing bad will happen.
Posted by: IT Insider ||
03/23/2006 21:22 Comments ||
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#2
Japan does not have to help the very government that is trying to destabilize the neighborhood around Japan. It does not make sense. The Chicoms have a huge mountain of shakey debt. No use taking a chance of being burned.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/23/2006 21:41 Comments ||
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Lula, the supposedly reformed communist, has rolled out the red carpet for his counterparts in China. The problem is that China is sucking manufacturing jobs out of Brazil - and Brazil's rigidly protectionistic policies and union-dictated labor laws are discouraging new domestic and foreign investment. Lula's also hoping to counteract Uncle Sam's political might. Too bad China's not interested in having Brazil set one barbarian (China) against another (the US):
For 51 of its 52 years in business, brush and comb maker Escovas Fidalga was solidly profitable. Then last year, it plunged into the red. Ask boss Manolo Miguez why, and he fingers a culprit that would be familiar to many hard-pressed American manufacturers. "Our biggest competition is Chinese imports. ... They started slowly, but today they take up 70% of the Brazilian market," says Miguez, the company director.
As Escovas Fidalga's plight demonstrates, American businesses aren't the only ones feeling the heat from the roaring Chinese economy. Brazilian manufacturers of toys, eyeglasses, footwear and textiles all howl that surging Chinese imports are submerging them.
#3
They did it to themselves, it's a good lesson for the USA though... dont import too much crap
Posted by: bk ||
03/23/2006 10:17 Comments ||
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#4
A couple years ago, Lula was parading the new strategic partnership with China when Hu was visiting. As soon as Hu got back to China, they slapped tariffs on certain Brazilian imports, making Lula look like a fool. He didnt say anything about it. Now he and Brazil are learning the hard way. The Chinese have never been known to honor any trade agreements or alliances.
I used to visit Sao Paulo a lot the last couple of years. What I noticed was that there was an increasing number of Chinese there, especially in the traditionally Japanese neighborhood of Liberdade. That surprised me. Looks like theyre taking over all over the world now.
#8
RC: OK, honesty time: would you rather go to a Brazilian beach, or a Chinese beach?
The Brazilian version has good-looking (and top-heavy) topless women, but you'd better bring a pistol along. The Chinese version has good looking (but slim) women in one-piece swimsuits, but you're perfectly safe. I think the Chinese version is more relaxing, in every sense of the word.
The competitiveness of Chinas manufacturing industries has suffered serious erosion over the past year, according to one of the worlds largest trade sourcing companies.
Hong Kong-based Li & Fung group, which manages a $7.1bn a year trading business, said price rises crept back into the Sino-US and EU supply chains last year, after at least six years of often severe deflation.
Looks like the end of their explosive growth if they can't transition their economy. If manufacturing growth slows significantly China is gonna go through a major depression due to overbuilding and bad loans. We could see a revolution soon.
#1
Another reason why NORTH KOREA = IRAN'S Mullahs are demanding to be invaded by Dubya in glorious "quagmire". Can't have implosion and revolution iff China and its PLA have to save the Mullahs from themselves and Dubya.
#2
China is still going strong. This is just a sign that the breakneck growth is becoming maturity. China's boom is due for a bust, but it's still 3-4 years away. Nobody I know is losing business to Vietnam or Bangladesh.
#3
Li and Fung does mostly clothing and accessories. Plus, I doubt the cost squeeze is across the board. If an illegal Chinese immigrant in NYC can generate a profitable garment at $8 an hour, her somewhat lower caliber counterpart in China can probably do the same at $4 a day.
Reflation is actually a sign that the overbuilding in China is finally done and over with. The overbuilding was what led to deflation. The really odd thing is that deflation (oversupply) coincided with explosive growth. Now that the period of oversupply is over, we should start to see really massive growth in the Chinese economy - I expect the Chinese central bank to start raising interest rates big time, which may ripple over to Treasury rates.
Note that Li & Fung stated that energy and raw materials costs are a major reason for the increase in Chinese costs. But these costs are the same in China and elsewhere. China's growth has a long way to go yet. When it starts approaching Thailand's wages, it will start losing production to the Thais. But it isn't yet at that point. The Southeast Asian countries to which Li & Fung is referring are Vietnam and Cambodia. Chances are they will now start their rapid growth era based on China's cast-offs, just as China's growth is based on the cast-offs from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.
#4
Heck, even if it's inevitable, China could slow or hold it off enough to minimize or even avert substantial decline in the national economy. I read in the Wall Street Journal some time ago that the government had started to "cool down" the economy in hopes of lowering the growth rate to sustainable levels.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
03/23/2006 1:00 Comments ||
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#5
gromky: This is just a sign that the breakneck growth is becoming maturity.
I don't think it's even begun, yet. Chinese wages are way below Southeast Asian wages. The Chinese consumer is starting to become a huge player, from almost nothing a decade ago. Car sales in China were 4m a year ago, compared to 1m in India, which actually has more people than China. On a per capita basis, Chinese car sales are already roughly half of Thailand's. That's a impressive record, when you consider the severe deflation in Chinese costs over the past several years.
"If an illegal Chinese immigrant in NYC can generate a profitable garment at $8 an hour, her somewhat lower caliber counterpart in China can probably do the same at $4 a day. "
You're forgetting about time to get product, which with shipping and customs takes close to 4 weeks. This is PAINFUL for inventory management. Also in many goods it's becoming more expensive to ship to goods than the price savings (automobiles for one). If China isn't significantly cheaper than mexico then China is in serious trouble for US manufacturing business.
"Reflation is actually a sign that the overbuilding in China is finally done and over with. The overbuilding was what led to deflation. The really odd thing is that deflation (oversupply) coincided with explosive growth. Now that the period of oversupply is over, we should start to see really massive growth in the Chinese economy - I expect the Chinese central bank to start raising interest rates big time, which may ripple over to Treasury rates. "
You're confusing goods price deflation due to oversupply of workers with goods price deflation due to oversupply of goods. There was no oversupply of goods, china was selling what it was making. The inflation is due to pricing pressure from a more demanding labor market in china, not because all the sudden chinese goods are selling where they weren't before.
#8
China's own consumption can cushion lots of the slow down in growth and increases costs of production.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/23/2006 1:37 Comments ||
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#9
Yes it can cushion but this is the boom bust cycle. Overbuilding during boom times leads to bust times. The greater the overbuilding the greater the bust. China WAY overbuilt. Just look at their bad loans... crazy that they have so many considering their growth and explosive economy recently. There's no controls over how money gets distributed in the chinese economy... it's gonna be painful. Mark my words.
#10
The 'severe deflation' referred to is price deflation (decreasing prices) that was bound to come to an end at some point. I doubt it signifies anything other than a shrinking pool of cheap available labor. I'd argue its good news, because it means labor is gaining control over the price of labor, i.e. people will no longer take any job offered. Its a sign China is progressing down the road to a middle class that wants control over their lives.
I not aware of significant asset deflation in China, which is the deflation that brings debt and other problems.
#11
DPA: If China isn't significantly cheaper than mexico then China is in serious trouble for US manufacturing business.
Wage rates in many of the Southeast Asian countries are significantly more expensive than China, yet they continue to get tons of American manufacturing business. Mexico just isn't in the running for a lot of manufacturing activities - its labor force is illiterate, skills are lacking, investment regulations are convoluted and costly, labor laws are nutty, etc. This is why hard disk companies like Maxtor and Seagate manufacture in Malaysia and Singapore, both of which have higher wage rates than Mexico. The attraction of China as an investment destination lies in a cheap and well-educated work force. The workers don't generally speak English, but they are intelligent and extremely trainable. This is why countries across Latin America are losing their manufacturing industries to China. The sad reality is that China doesn't compete with the US - it competes with Mexico. And Mexico loses on both quality and price.
#13
The bad loans are another problem that has to be dealt with. I think that is a seperate issue and problem. Outside banking experts have to be brought in and given the power to set things to rights.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/23/2006 2:49 Comments ||
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#14
I'd love to go to the Beijing Olympics, so I hope the revolution can wait until after then.
#15
ZF: I thought China had about 1 1/3 times the number of people that India did?
Posted by: Phil ||
03/23/2006 11:01 Comments ||
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#16
There's no controls over how money gets distributed in the chinese economy
Actually there are controls on how wealth is distributed, DPA. Most of those controls involve making sure that the money's direction of flow is towards the pocket of a politburo Mandarin.
#17
Jake-the-peg
If you get there for the olympics, may I recommend the street food vendors close to Tiananmen Square, for their exotic cuisine.
How exotic?
Well how about 4 seahorses on a double kebab, frog legs ditto, river beetles, locust, silkworms, lambs testicles on a kebab, as well as penises etc and all ridiculously cheap
Excellent after a night carousing the karaoke joints where a stubbie of beer will set you back $1 and the company of a hostess for the night will cost $20.
Two Australian fighter jets bombed and sank an impounded North Korean cargo ship on Thursday in what Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said was a strong message to Pyongyang about its involvement in drug running. The 4,000-tonne ship the Pong Su had been impounded since 2003, when it led the Australian navy on a 1,100 km (680 mile) chase off the southeastern coast after being spotted unloading part of a 150 kg (330 lb) shipment of heroin at a secluded beach.
The ship came to a spectacular end on Thursday when two Royal Australian Air Force frontline F-111 jet bombers fired missiles into the vessel during target practice at a secret location offshore. "It is appropriate that we publicly demonstrate our outrage at what has happened by sinking this ship," Downer said
Posted by: ed ||
03/23/2006 07:55 ||
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#1
Maybe we can get the Aussies to take care of the Pueblo.
#5
It would have been more appropriate to demonstrate our outrage by convicting the officers in charge. The Pong Su case was an atrocious bungle. I still can't believe it.
A hotel in Germany has started charging its guests by the pound for an overnight stay, according to a Local 6 News report. The hotel owner in the town of Norden, Juergen Heckrodt, said he was continually getting overweight guests, so he decided to make them step on the scales to determine room costs. "Und iff Michael Moore and Ted Kennedy stay here, I can retire!"
The hotel requires guests to pay half a euro or 61 cents per 2.2 pounds, according to a Reuters report. Divide by 22, bring down the 1... That's $0.27/lb. Even cut-rate hamburger is more than that.
The report said that the move appears to be working with returning guests. "Much to (Heckrodt's) surprise, the guests were thinner on their next visit," according to the report.
Heckrodt said he hopes his initiative will inspire others to lose weight too and live longer. The hotel does not turn anyone away who refuses to step on the scales. If they do refuse, they are charged a regular room rate -- without a discount.
#2
There are an awful lot of very big boned people in Germany, as I was shocked to discover when we moved there. The babies are much bigger, too, not surprising given the habit of feeding them bits of the wares as Mama make the rounds of the shops (a slice of wurst at the butcher, half a roll at the baker, gummi bears at the dry cleaner, lollipops at the pastry shop, a banana at the green grocer). I wasn't organized enough to do my shopping in the mornings, so the trailing daughters were stuffed by the traditional suppertime. German babies are too large to move until about 18 months, and generally don't approach walking until after 24. American babies are generally thoroughly mobile by a year, walking at 18 months.
Two Norwegian soldiers in the Telemark Battalion are dead after their tank went through the ice and into a bog during the military exercise Cold Response
The removal of 'snowshoes' to avoid ruining roads may have been a contributing factor to the accident that claimed two lives during the military exercise Cold Response. "Our investigations show that the tank slid sideways down into the ice-covered pool," said Kjell Rambøl of the Narvik police. The tank apparently had one tread on land and the other on ice, and Rambøl confirmed that how the tank was shod is being checked now. Pictures from the rescue action show that the tank that entered the water did not have ice crampons on its treads. When Aftenposten visited Cold Response before the accident last week, the crampons were being laboriously removed with crowbars and sledgehammers in order to move the vehicles without damaging the roads. A few days later the accident occurred.
The preliminary autopsy report indicates that the soldiers died of drowning," Monica Samland Johansen, lawyer with the Midtre Hålogaland police, told news agency ANB. The two who succumbed were inside the tank, the survivors were in the turret. Major Christian Chramer of the sixth division confirmed that the crew had training in evacuation procedures in case of a crash in water. Breathing equipment was mounted by the driver and the crew had rehearsed evacuation in an underwater simulator. Police also said their technical investigations show that there was nothing wrong with the tank, but the military investigation was continuing, with a focus on the lack of 'snowshoes' on the vehicle. Rest well, and give our regards to Odin.
The News just gets Better and Better...
Demographics 101:
Abortion - Check.
Too Stoned To Vote - Check.
To Busy Waxing Cat To Vote - Check. Smog Bad For Sperm EPA: NY, CA Air Is Dirtiest Heh, heh.
2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is blasting a GOP-backed immigration bill, claiming bizarrely that the legislation would "literally criminalize . . . . probably even Jesus himself." Clinton invoked the biblical theme on Wednesday while restating her opposition to a bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner that would make illegally entering the U.S. a felony.
Be careful, Hillary. Separation of church and state and all that.
Surrounded by what the Associated Press described as "a multicultural coalition of New York immigration advocates," the former first lady ripped the GOP bill as "mean-spirited" - insisting that it flew in the face of Republicans' stated support for faith and values. "It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," she declared, before adding: "This bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."
Well, Jesus was a legal resident of The Kingdom of Israel last time I looked. And unless Hillary has been in direct contact with our Lord, there's no way of knowing if the Good Samaritian had his green card or a tourist visa.
After being passed by the House, the Senate is set to take up Sensenbrenner's bill, H.R. 4437. The legislation would instruct law enforcement to seek out illegal aliens and cut federal funding for cities, such as San Francisco, that have sanctuary laws. Other provisions include the creation of a border fence, the elimination of the diversity visa lottery system and the indefinite detention of some immigrants.
In 2003 Mrs. Clinton blurted out during a radio interview that she was "adamantly opposed to illegal immigrants." But her actions never lived up to the tough talk.
Well, her position depends on who she's talking to.
Two weeks ago Clinton announced her support for a defacto amnesty program that she said would grant illegal aliens "a path to earned citizenship for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes [and] respecting the law."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 14:55 ||
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#1
Yeah, it criminalizes "Jesus" (pronounced "Hey-soos") - not to mention Juan and Jaime and anyone else who commits a CRIME by sneaking across the border illegally.
Tell ya' what, Hill - somebody commits a crime by bonking you on the head and stealing all your money, you're quite welcome not to be "mean-spirited" enough to prosecute him. But I'm not holding my breath.
These fools are pathetic. And transparent as hell.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/23/2006 15:17 Comments ||
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#2
I thought the left was in favor of criminalizing Jesus?
#15
Hillary is wigging out on this bill because she needs the illegals for her voting base. We need to keep this bill in the news, as Hillary will show the country what her real agenda is. Keep up the heat.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/23/2006 20:37 Comments ||
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#16
"mean-spirited"
Well, if there was ever anything the hilderbeast would be qualified to comment on it would most certainly be a "mean spirit."
#17
hmmmm Hillary's up for re-election, numbers, while low, aren't shakey yet. Anybody remember the Orthodox Jews or Puerto Rican pardons by Bill on the way out the door? consider this a clumsy phase 2
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2006 22:19 Comments ||
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(CNSNews.com) - The scientist touted by CBS News' "60 Minutes" as arguably the "world's leading researcher on global warming" and spotlighted as a victim of the Bush administration's censorship on the issue, publicly endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president and received a $250,000 grant from the charitable foundation headed by Kerry's wife. Scientist James Hansen has also admitted that he contributed to two recent Democratic presidential campaigns. Furthermore, he acted as a consultant in February to former Vice President Al Gore's slide show presentations on "global warming," which Gore presented around the country.
But Scott Pelley, the "60 Minutes" reporter who profiled Hansen and detailed his accusations of censorship on the March 19, edition of the newsmagazine, made no mention of Hansen's links to Kerry and Gore and none to the fact that Kerry's wife -- Teresa Heinz Kerry -- had been one of Hansen's benefactors.
Pelley's "Rewriting the Science" segment focused on Hansen's allegations that the Bush administration was preventing his views from becoming publicized because it did not like his conclusions. Hansen's complaints were first publicized in January. "In my more than three decades in the government, I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public," Hansen told Pelley. But Hansen had made similar claims of another Republican White House allegedly censoring his views. In 1989, Hansen claimed that President Bush's father - then-President George H. W. Bush - was censoring his climate research. Kerry and about a dozen other senators eventually co-signed a letter written by Gore, who was also a senator at the time, demanding an explanation for the alleged censorship.
Hansen has previously acknowledged that he supported the "emphasis on extreme scenarios" regarding climate change models in order to drive the public's attention to the issue, but Pelley's "60 Minutes" report made no mention of that admission.
"Not only are [Hansen's] apocalyptic predictions not coming true, but more and more countries are beginning to realize that they will destroy their economies just under Kyoto 1, to prevent about 0.1 degrees of warming," Paul Driessen, the author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death, told Cybercast News Service.
"Hansen's rants might still garner headlines in the Washington Post and New York Times, and raves from CBS - especially if you believe every beetle infestation, forest fire, cold snap, hot flash, dry spell, flood, frog death and malaria outbreak is due to global warming - but they're complete hogwash," Driessen said.
In endorsing Kerry's presidential bid late in the 2004 campaign, Hansen conceded that it could harm his reputation. "Dr. Hansen, 63, acknowledged that he imperiled his credibility and perhaps his job by criticizing Mr. Bush's policies in the final days of a tight presidential campaign." according to the Oct. 26, 2004, edition of the New York Times. In a speech delivered on that same day, Hansen praised the Massachusetts senator, declaring that "John Kerry has a far better grasp than President Bush on the important issues that we face."
Three years earlier, Hansen had accepted the $250,000 Heinz Award granted by the foundation run by Kerry's wife Teresa. But the same day Hansen publicly endorsed Sen. John Kerry's presidential candidacy in 2004, the New York Times quoted Hansen as saying that the grant from the Heinz Foundation had had "no impact on my evaluation of the climate problem or on my political leanings."
But George C. Deutsch, who served as a spokesman for NASA until resigning in February, said he quickly learned that "Dr. Hansen and his supporters have a very partisan agenda and ties reaching to the top of the Democratic Party." Deutsch resigned his post earlier this year following a controversy surrounding a false resume claim that he graduated from Texas A&M University.
Deutsch also denied that the Bush administration was clamping down on scientific views that did not support its preferred conclusions. "There is no pressure or mandate from the Bush administration or elsewhere, to alter or water down scientific data at NASA, period," Deutsch said, according to a Feb. 11, article in the Washington Post. Instead, he said, there existed a "culture war" at the federal agency. "Anyone perceived to be a Republican, a Bush supporter or a Christian is singled out and labeled a threat to their views. I encourage anyone interested in this story to consider the other side, to consider Dr. Hansen' s true motivations and to consider the dangerous implications of only hearing out one side of the global warming debate," Deutsch added.
Hansen fired back at Deutsch's assertions in an online statement published in February, calling Deutsch's claims "nonsense." "I can be accurately described as moderately conservative," Hansen wrote, while acknowledging that he had endorsed Kerry for president in 2004 "because he recognized global warming problem." Hansen stated that he had great respect for former Vice President Al Gore, noting that he met with Gore in January 2006 and ended up consulting Gore on his climate change slide show presentations. "I have great respect for Vice President Gore and his dedication to communicating the importance of global warming. He has a better understanding of the science of global warming than any politician I have met, and I urge citizens to pay attention to his presentation, which I understand will come out in the form of a movie," Hansen wrote.
Hansen wrote that his only two political contributions were to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and to either the 2000 Al Gore presidential run or the Kerry 2004 campaign. "I don't remember which," Hansen stated. Hansen, described by Pelley in the "60 Minutes" report as an "independent," also reportedly refused to go along the Clinton administration on the issue of "global warming." The Clinton administration "wanted to hear that warming was worse than it was," Pelley reported.
In the March 2004 issue of Scientific American, Hansen appeared to be justifying the past use of climate models to scare the public into believing the "global warming" problem was urgent. "Emphasis on extreme scenarios may have been appropriate at one time, when the public and decision-makers were relatively unaware of the global warming issue," Hansen wrote in 2004. "Now, however, the need is for demonstrably objective climate-forcing scenarios consistent with what is realistic under current conditions."
Patrick J. Michaels, the author of several books on climate change, including the recently published "Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming," declared that Hansen has "advocated the use of exaggeration and propaganda as political tools in the debate over global warming." Michaels, who leveled his charges in a Feb. 21 commentary entitled "Hansen's Hot Hype," wrote that "Hansen thought the public should be subjected to nightmare scenarios regardless of the scientific likelihood of catastrophe, simply in order to gain people's attention." Michaels, who believes claims of catastrophic, human-caused "global warming" are scientifically unfounded, is a climatologist at the University of Virginia and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
Michaels has previously credited Hansen with taking a more moderate stance toward climate change. "The irony is that, in recent years, Hansen's positions on global warming have come increasingly in line with those of the administration he claims is censoring him," Michaels said. Several attempts to contact Hansen for comment were not returned. Telephone calls to Bill Owens and Catherine Herrick, the two CBS News employees who produced Pelley's "60 Minutes" segment, were referred to the network media affairs office.
"60 Minutes" spokesman Kevin Tedesco defended the segment, telling Cybercast News Service that "it was a fair and accurate report." A call to reporter Scott Pelley was not returned by press time.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 08:54 ||
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#1
I haven't watched 60 Minutes since I stopped reading Mad Magazine.
#3
"Pelley's "Rewriting the Science" segment ...". Rewriting science, indeed. And likely history as well, given half a chance. Oh, wait; "Hansen has previously acknowledged that he supported the "emphasis on extreme scenarios" regarding climate change models in order to drive the public's attention to the issue, but Pelley's "60 Minutes" report made no mention of that admission." Since those 'extreme scenarios' tend to ignore certain historical trends and periods, I guess he's pretty much already done that as well.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/23/2006 13:15 Comments ||
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#4
I once thought this was the scam that would never die. I sure hope it becomes the ultimate object lesson for sniffing out bogus science and political scams before a single dollar is spent. Everyone who has pushed it or used it to further their political aims is destined to become an unemployed laughing stock. More truth, more exposure, please.
#8
Another scientists wants Milyuhns and Zilyuhns of $$$, + another 10-20 years, to tell the world Global Warming is about the Sun thats not about the Sun, and why we're all doomed, doomed Doomed DOOMED D-O-O-M-E-D DDDUUUUUMMMEEEDD they tell ya, unless we go back to wearing togas and getting around in hosses and Conestoga Wagons, and why all mankind can't do anything to get off the perm SAFE =DOOMED planet Terra until after the scientist(s) himself is dead, and spendt or hid all the monies. THE SUN'S SOLAR OUTPUT IS "NORMAL" BUT MAY GO HAYWIRE UNLESS WE BUY THOSE TOGAS AND SUBMIT TO OWG WID OUT EXPLANATION!?
The Easter Bunny has been sent packing at St. Paul City Hall. A toy rabbit, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words "Happy Easter" were removed from the lobby of the City Council offices, because of concerns they might offend non-Christians.
Stuffed rabits being one of the holiest christian symbols
A council secretary had put up the decorations. They were not bought with city money.
St. Paul's human rights director, Tyrone Terrill, asked that the decorations be removed, saying they could be offensive to non-Christians.
And heaven knows we wouldn't want to offend
But City Council member Dave Thune says removing the decorations went too far, and he wonders why they can't celebrate spring with "bunnies and fake grass."
Guess we should just rename it the "Spring Festival"
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 14:45 ||
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Let's be honest. It wasn't the bunny, plastic grass, and eggs that might give offense. It was the word "Easter".
As far as I can tell, our elites have decided that celebrating the dominant faith in our society causes offense and criticizing minority faiths causes offense, so both have to be banned. What left, of course, is celebrating the minority faiths and criticizing the dominant one.
Nothing wrong with doing any of the above, so long as they're all allowed. But the present situation is hardly one that is fair, honest, or moral.
Thus "Happy Holidays" alongside "Happy Kwanza"; it's "offensive" to mention one of the two holiest days of 3/4ths of the population, but you gotta push, push, push a thirty-year-old "holiday" created by a Marxist, racist, violent crackpot.
I'll bet good money that the St. Paul City Hall puts up signs marking Earth Day.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/23/2006 15:08 Comments ||
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#2
What farce. This absurd PC shit will never end - until PCism, in all its social engineering forms, is totally eradicated for the mental illness cowardice it is.
#7
It's an embarrassment, being from the frozen tundra state and all.
But the idiotic state senate leader, a donk, is entertaining. The fool is on tape telling folks not to get all excited about passing DOMA because he spoke to all the justices and there are already enought laws on the books to safeguard marriage (1F+1M). Only problem is the chief justice polled his justices and none of them ever spoke to this fool about DOMA.
The Reps are all over this.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/23/2006 16:50 Comments ||
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#8
think Tyrone would have a problem with Kwanza?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2006 17:05 Comments ||
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Students from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, drew an angry crowd on Sproul after displaying images that compared animal treatment to the lynching and enslavement of black Americans. About a dozen Berkeley students furiously engaged the PETA members, accusing the animal rights group of racism. The situation intensified when one member of the crowd threw ketchup and mustard on the PETA display and another tore down part of the exhibit. If your message doesn't play in Berkely, perhaps you should rethink it
One image presented by PETA featured a chained elephant foot juxtaposed with the chained foot of a slave. Another showed black individuals hanging from a tree by their necks contrasted with the image of a cow being hung by its hind legs. Several black students shouted down the PETA students and called for the display to be taken down. One student who was upset by PETAs comparison of slavery to animal mistreatment shouted amid tears, Im not trying to say that people should eat meat. I understand you, but the way youre depicting our history, the way you are depicting the things that happened to us, the thing that happened to our ancestors, its not ok, its not ok!
Another student, identified as Autumn by her peers, tore down one of the images in a fit of rage. Dominique Nisperos, a third year Cal student, was also upset by PETAs display and argued with one of the groups members. When asked if tearing down the display was appropriate on a campus that touts its free speech history, Nisperos responded, I can see why they did it. She added that bringing up the free speech issue isnt getting to the root of the problem. The means at expressing [PETAs] message was racist. Veronica Nisperos, a Berkeley student also incensed by the exhibit, stated that the group did have a point, but the way in which they made it, created opposition among people who should be allies.
Sengeeta Kumar, who led the PETA group, was surprised to have encountered such a reaction at UC Berkeley. I was really hoping that people would think critically it became very emotional and almost dangerous in the sense that people were threatening and pulling things down and it just became unsafe, she said. Kumar noted that her group has taken the exhibit to 13 different schools and never faced a hostile reaction.
PETA eventually gave into the pressure and dismantled their display. Kumar expressed disappointment in her organizations inability to get their message across. When emotions are risen, people can be closed to dialogue. She added, We are all part of oppression, of beings who cant speak for themselves. Animals are enslaved in our hands. This exhibit isnt about demeaning any people, it about uplifting humanity. PETA members spent the rest of the afternoon wiping off the ketchup and mustard that was sprayed on their display.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/23/2006 10:10 ||
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#1
Free speech for us.... (well some of us...) but not for thee....
#2
This exhibit isnt about demeaning any people, it about uplifting humanity.
Bullcrap. It is about demeaning people that don't agree with you and trying to shame them into your way of thinking. Good for the people that tore down this abomination. PETA needs killed.
My victimhood is more important than your victimhood. Nah, nah, nah.
Must be getting desperate when the 'victim' game starts to lose its value to sell guilt and the players have to fight among themselves for the few remaining angsts available to con people with.
#5
Veronica Nisperos, a Berkeley student also incensed by the exhibit, stated that the group did have a point, but the way in which they made it, created opposition among people who should be allies.
Why exactly should those people be allied with a far-Left wacko group? Because they are black?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/23/2006 12:51 Comments ||
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#6
If you stuck with that Holocaust motif PETA was pushing a few months back, Sengetta, I'll bet you nobody at Berkeley would've bothered you at all...
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/23/2006 16:25 Comments ||
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#8
Now, now, don't insult innocent "M1 Tanks mean Nothing To Us" fruitcakes - its bad enough we Male Brutes can't enjoy waffles or hoagies anymore until after America comes under OWG. Califerney is going after chocolate.
It's been nearly a month since Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakahan blamed "Zionists and neo-cons" for "manipulating" President Bush into invading Iraq - before blasting "wicked Jews" in Hollywood for promoting "lesbianism [and] homosexuality."
Yet, outside of a few newspapers in Chicago, the same press that showers positive coverage on Farrakhan's Million Man marches has yet to get around to covering his Feb. 26 Saviours Day speech.
"These neo-cons and Zionists have manipulated Bush and the American government and our boys and girls are dying in Iraq and in Afghanistan for the cause of Israel, not for the cause of America!" the honorable minister claimed. "Israel is the tail waggin' the dog, which is America."
"I'm warning you America," Farrakhan continued. "You better get rid of them neo-cons. That's the synagogue of Satan. They have made America weak. You're a weak nation now, and your country has been taken from you by the synagogue of Satan. They own Congress. That's why the Congress ain't right."
After critiquing the Washington political scene, Farrakhan turned his attention to Hollywood:
"These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength ... It's the wicked Jews the false Jews that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It's wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!"
The honorable minister went so far as to predict that "wicked state of Israel" would be "cleansed with blood."
"And the Christian right, with your blindness to that wicked state of Israel ... can that be the holy land, and you have gay parades, and want to permit to have a gay parade in Jerusalem when no prophet ever sanctioned that behavior. How can that be the Israel, how can that be Jerusalem with secular people running the holy land when it should be the holy people running the holy land. That land is gonna be cleansed with blood."
One wonders how much coverage Rev. Pat Robertson would have gotten if he'd uttered similar comments.
WINCHESTER - Winchester police are investigating whether an unidentified man found hanging from a flagpole outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post early yesterday is connected to the burning of the hall's American flag a couple of hours earlier. Police are "leaning to believe" that the dead man "is responsible for the flag burning," said Winchester police Detective James Hall. Police say the death is a suicide because "there is no foul play that we can determine," Hall said. Nothin here folks, let's go inside for some shots of Jack!
Post 2728 Commander Ray Christy told The Associated Press that he suspected the man burned the flag because he had burn marks on his hands.
"Legume! I believe I have found our culprit. Bring me my saxophone!"
The strange circumstances left other members of VFW Post 2728 flabbergasted. "It's all a mystery to me," said VFW member Ray Jones, 73, a Korean War veteran. "Why would he burn a flag and then hang himself?"
I'll bet he said that with a straight face, too
Further clouding the issue was the discovery of a second body yesterday afternoon at an efficiency apartment next door to the post. But police said they think the cases are unrelated.
The hanged man was found a couple of hours after Winchester firefighters responded to Evelyn Kincaid's report after 11 p.m. Tuesday about a flag burning outside the VFW post. Kincaid lives in a mobile home next door to the post. "I was sitting here and I could see something orange glowing," Kincaid said. "So I peeked out and it was a fire." Firefighters extinguished the fire, and police took the burned remains of the flag as evidence. Then he just hung himself, I swear it's true, just ask Earl!
"Then around 1 o'clock we get this call of somebody finding an individual hanging from the flagpole," Hall said. Welcome to Winchester Kentucky, burn flags at your own risk!
More at link...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/23/2006 08:06 ||
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Works for me. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/23/2006 11:19 Comments ||
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I wonder. The full story says there were footprints on the old mailbox near the flagpole, where people leave old flags for the VFW to dispose of respectfully.
I wonder if this guy was suicidal, burned the flag and then killed himself. Somehow it seems symbolic, but we'll probably never know what symnbolism was really intended.
#14
Weird - I was watching Channel 12 KGTF [aka PBS] last night, and caught snippets of some show about Britain during WW2. In these snippets, a man with a gunshot wound/bullet in his head was found by Brit soldiers hanging from a truck/vehicle hook. *Theme from DRAGNET follows.
More than 70 percent of citizens throughout the state of New York support a missile defense system with the ability to protect the United States from a nuclear, chemical or biological attack. The results came from a new poll commissioned by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA).
The poll also registered how New Yorkers viewed political priorities and public safety concerns. Based upon the poll results, 81 percent of registered voters in New York believe that both the state and New York City will be a likely target for a missile attack by countries or terrorist groups wanting to strike the United States. The results of the poll were announced by Riki Ellison, MDAA president, at the Fourth Annual Missile Defense Conference in Washington D.C.
"These results show that New Yorkers strongly support a missile defense system as an important part of homeland security and public safety," said Ellison, who founded MDAA in 2002. "It is clear that New Yorkers are aware of the threat and see missile defense as an additional solution along with diplomacy and international treaties to negate the proliferation of missiles that can carry weapons of mass destruction."
More than one-third of New York voters believe that the most important priority for the President of the United States and Congress to address this year is national defense and homeland security. Healthcare and the economy were the second and third-most reported priorities, with 22 percent and 21 percent respectively. In addition, 31 percent of voters reported they believe terrorism is currently the most significant threat to the U.S. and its allies, followed by dependence on Middle East oil and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Shows that not all of us are shrill barking moonbats!
Posted by: DanNY ||
03/23/2006 01:02 ||
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The results came from a new poll commissioned by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA).
And in other news, more than 70 percent of people agreed that fuzzy bunnies are cute.
I don't dispute this outcome. New Yorkers are pragmatic people who are in the bullseye of terrorists.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/23/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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PRAVDA tells us why, or at least one of the major reasons, why the Failed/Angry Left and anti-Amer agendists want the US under [anti-American American]Socialism and OWG c. 2015-2020 [Russia-=China 2014/2015-2018] - Russia fears that it may NOT be able to maintain its ever-shrinking level of forces, including its nuclear forces, by or after 2015, and that one day soon wid GMD America will be able to take out both it [Russia's] and China's strategic nuke forces in one single strike. Other sources hint at similar condition(s), but infer that only by colluding together vv conventional forces can Russia-China hope to offset US nuclear dominance. SUPPORTS WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING ON THE WEB - WORSE COMES TO WORSE, AMERICA AND ITS VOLUNTEER ARMY WILL RUN OUT OF BEANS AND BULLETS BEFORE THE COMMIES OR AMER'S ENEMIES RUN OUT OF BODIES/HUMAN WAVE CANNON FODDER!? Is why, in part, Russia-China are pragmatically focusing on mil, pol and economic ventures-alliances wid India, Africa and the lower Americas. Fron NOLA to the Shanghai Coop/SCO, the Left > getting the Fed and only the Fed to take over and socialize everything domestic, while overseas America faces stalemate/"quagmire" iff not defeat. The Left > America either unilat "volunteers" to give up its sovereignty, Govt., and endowments to OWG and non-/anti-American nations, OR AMERICA IS MILITARILY FORCED TO - the waffling dialectic policratic Governmentist Lefties don't and won't care becuz they win no matter what happens, AND REGARDLESS OF WHETHER AMERICA FAILS OR SUCCEEDS AT EMPIRE ANDOR ITS OWN VERSION OF OWG, AND WHETHER REVOLUTION ANDOR INVASION OCCURS IN AMERICA OR NOT - you know, Left-beloved SECULAR MORALISM where one doesn't have to believe in God or Ethics to tell the truth. Remember, the MSM/Left since Y2000 > Dubya and the GOP = despicable unreliable dishonest Liberals and Socialists; whereas Dems are Honorable, True-Blue Regulatory and Protectionist Conservatives and Americanists. Dubya for 2006-2008 is Adolf Bushitler whom needs to be stopped, defeated, or wiped out, but the same Dubya is a mere, imperfect, Half-a-Commie when it comes to dev Amer global empire WHICH AMERICA WILL LOSE = GIVE UP LATER ON, along wid everything else.
#4
Rest assured the Lefties won't care iff their feel-good scheme of treason and 3000-dead non Murder is found out becuz they'll lie to everyone about everything anyways.
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A retired aircraft carrier returned Wednesday to Pensacola, where the Navy plans to sink it and create the first of many artificial reefs from former warships. The USS Oriskany, a famed Korean and Vietnam War ship, is scheduled to be sunk May 17. Explosives will placed on board and the ship will go down about 22 miles off the Pensacola coast.
A permit issued by the Environmental Protection Agency allows the carrier to be sunk with toxic PCBs in its paint, insulation and other ship parts. The EPA said the chemicals would slowly leach as the carrier rusts, and would pose no danger to marine life or humans. The Oriskany was first towed to Pensacola in December 2004, only to be towed back to Texas in June to ride out the 2005 hurricane season.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2006 00:00 ||
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A retired and honored veteran, given a sendoff intended to provide benefits to the environment after they're passed on... good for all involved, it seems. :)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
03/23/2006 0:57 Comments ||
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Coral reefs grow beautifully and very quickly on sunken ships. A lovely offset for the reefs being destroyed by dynamite-laden fishermen in other parts of the oceans. Also, I understand that corals can actually be transplanted -- break off a bit of coral from an established reef, glue it to the new substratum, and watch it grow. No need to wait for nature to take its course...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
ZAGREB - One out of every two working Croats has had sex with a colleague, according to a study released on Thursday by the employment web portal MojPosao.net. Conducted on 1,807 women and men of all age and education groups, the study indicated some self-restraint only in the patriarchal Dalmatia, where 36 per cent of the polled said they had sex at work. The ratio of 50 per cent of those sexually active on the job was almost uniform in other Croatian regions. 
South Park has exacted revenge on its former star Isaac Hayes by turning his character Chef into a paedophile and seemingly killing him off. The opening episode of the 10th series, screened in the US on Wednesday, appeared to be a satire on Scientology. Hayes, a Scientologist, quit the animated comedy after a different episode ridiculed the religion. 
Homeowners in an Orange County, Fla., neighborhood claim their community has been overrun by rats big enough to pick fights with small dogs, according to a Local 6 News report. 
LONDON: Britain's highest court on Wednesday upheld a school's decision to require a Muslim pupil to abandon the jilbab in favour of school uniform, reversing a lower court decision. The Court of Appeal in March last year ruled that Shabina Begum was unlawfully excluded from Denbigh High School in Luton, north of London, after she refused to change out of the head-to-toe jilbab.
Venezuelan police helped the U.S. ambassador leave a Caracas building after a group of President Hugo Chavez's supporters blockaded him inside, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The Easter Bunny has been sent packing at St. Paul City Hall. A toy rabbit, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words "Happy Easter" were removed from the lobby of the City Council offices, because of concerns they might offend non-Christians. 
WINCHESTER - Winchester police are investigating whether an unidentified man found hanging from a flagpole outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post early yesterday is connected to the burning of the hall's American flag a couple of hours earlier. Police are "leaning to believe" that the dead man "is responsible for the flag burning," said Winchester police Detective James Hall. Police say the death is a suicide because "there is no foul play that we can determine," Hall said.
