BANANA growers in Western Australia, who had been poised to capitalise after Cyclone Larry devastated Queensland's banana industry, are instead bracing for their own potential losses.
Category-five Larry crushed the north Queensland banana industry early last week, prompting a big jump in the price of the fruit.
Growers in Carnarvon, 904km north of Perth, are now bracing for the impact of tropical cyclone Glenda, rated a category four, in what was expected to a big year for local producers.
The Carnarvon Banana Producers Association said Glenda, poised to cross the Pilbara coast in WA later today, could pose a threat to its growers in the Gascoyne region, to the south of the Pilbara.
Executive officer David Parr said crops could be destroyed in winds as low as 70km/h.
"It doesn't take an awful lot to knock bananas over," Mr Parr said.
"We were looking at a very lucrative business this year with the loss of the Queensland banana industry."
But Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Bruce Buckley expected WA banana producers would suffer more from flooding more than high winds.
At first, I thought this had been released to the wire services 3 days early, but it appears to be legit.
Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle which probably went for Kerry, what, 60-40?
say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer. "He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons." And when he reaches into his bag of tricks...
The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car. Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals. I could understand an Amway person, but Avon?
Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield. In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home. This should prove as effective as UN sanctions.
Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment. Has anyone asked why does he hate us?
#2
wow! House arrest for cats and we let hate-spewing Imams roam free....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 0:30 Comments ||
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#3
The solution to the problem is simple and requires 3 things:
1. A canvas sack.
2. A bunch of rocks.
3. A bridge to throw it off of.
All they need to do is figure out which sissy has the stones go grab an 8 pound cat.
Hint: grab it by the throat.
#5
Somehow I can't get the scene of the rabbit from The Holy Grail out of my mind on this one. They forgot the "big pointy teeth," lol! Great pic, BTW!
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 11:24 Comments ||
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#12
Having been owned by many cats over the years I can tell you this is entirely normal cat behavior.
When a cat rubs against your leg, he's actually marking you with "His" scent, (Scent glands are above the eyes in front of the ears) making sure that you're marked as "His" private property.
We humans can't smell it, but other cats can.
Obviously Lewis is smelling other cats scents. That's as plain a "Fight" signal as the middle finger at a NASCAR versus Biker rally.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2006 22:01 Comments ||
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#13
Quote from the article.
"Everyone who is complaining has a cat.
End Quote.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2006 23:05 Comments ||
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Two Kenyan athletes have defected to France, it was revealed on Wednesday.
Hitherto unknown James Theuri and Simon Munyutu were declared eligible to compete for France immediately, having not competed for Kenya for the past three years. The two names dont appear anywhere in Kenyas athletics records.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Council meeting in Osaka on Wednesday also confirmed that Moroccan Brahim Lahlafi became French on April 3 2002.
"The waiting period of three years have elapsed and he has been eligible to compete for France since 3 April 2005," said a dispatch from IAAF.
Nigerias Ambrose Ezinwa and Hanan Fahoun Collette acquired Australian and French citizenship respectively. The Council said that Collette was confirmed as eligible to represent France from January 20, 2006.
Meanwhile, IAAF general-director, Pierre Weiss has been elevated to act as general secretary following the death on March 12 of Istvan Gyulai, who died on March 12 until June next year. The Council observed a minutes silence to honour Gyulai.
"We mourn the passing of an exceptional colleague who, by the very nature of his position of course, but, beyond that, by his intelligence, his sense of duty, his managerial skills and the unerring quality of his work, was the lynchpin of the day to day operations of the IAAF," he said.
Later, the Council confirmed, with immediate effect, the appointment of general director, Pierre Weiss, as acting general secretary until the next IAAF Congress in 2007, prior to the World Championships in Osaka.
Weiss, who has been IAAF general director since 1991 with particular responsibility for events and marketing, worked in close association with Gyulai over the past 15 years.
Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to host the trial of ex-Liberian leader Charles Taylor, officials say.
A spokesman for the Dutch foreign ministry said a formal request had been made to the court in The Hague. Liberian leader Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has backed the request, reports say.
Mr Taylor, who was captured on Wednesday in Nigeria, faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including responsibility for murder.
Sounds good to me. Last couple of guys on trial there commited "suicide".
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2006 08:05 ||
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#1
Or he'll die an old man waiting for the 'paperwork' to be completed.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/30/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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#2
Taylor escaped from an American prison, fled the country and overthrew the Liberian regime.
Doubtful those UN guards can hold him.
Posted by: john ||
03/30/2006 9:35 Comments ||
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#3
Actually, he escaped from the Plymouth County House of Correction up here. It's not exactly Alcatraz guarded by Delta Force...
Advocates and analysts welcomed former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor's capture as a blow against impunity for war crimes but braced for political fallout from U.S. involvement in the affair.
Taylor, an ex-warlord and president, is to stand trial nearly three years after a U.N.-backed court indicted him on 17 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in West African massacres.
Many observers said Taylor's capture could aid peace and stability in Liberia as it claws its way back from more than two decades of civil war.
However, some also decried the timing, saying Washington had bullied the fledgling government of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf into pressing Nigeria to extradite Taylor, and had held the Liberian people hostage by threatening to withhold economic life support if Johnson-Sirleaf did not push the issue.
Johnson-Sirleaf's government, in power since January, had sought to bring Taylor to justice after tackling the country's moribund basic services, 85 percent unemployment rate, and crushing HIV/AIDS crisis. Pushing it to deal with Taylor first could wrinkle the country's fragile peace, they said.
Taylor spent nearly three years in Nigerian exile and became the world's highest-profile fugitive Monday night, when he disappeared from his seaside mansion. Nigerian officials said border guards detained him Tuesday night as he attempted to steal into neighbouring Cameroon.
Taylor was repatriated Wednesday and then flown to the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, according to U.N. news sources.
"The wall of impunity has been washed away," said David Crane who, as the special court's chief prosecutor, wrote Taylor's 2003 indictment.
Crane, now a law professor at Syracuse University, brushed aside concerns that Taylor's extradition could undermine the power of exile as an inducement for dictators to relinquish power.
Taylor agreed to quit Liberia in 2003 because he received an offer of safe haven from Nigeria, Crane acknowledged in a radio interview here. But once Taylor was indicted as a war criminal, Crane added, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was obliged under international law to hand him over.
Some also saw Taylor's capture as averting a potential new crisis in Liberia, saying that he would have ramped up efforts to destabilise the country and discredit Johnson-Sirleaf had he given Nigerian authorities the slip and established a new base of operations.
Taylor maintained a small army of fighters in the countryside and supporters in key public offices -- including his wife, a legislator. He and some of these supporters had admitted they were in frequent touch. Thus, the former ruler remained a destabilising influence over Liberian politics even from exile, said Suliman Baldo, New York-based Africa programme director at the International Crisis Group.
The ex-warlord's "being put away means that his ability to manipulate and agitate for his own sake would be very seriously curtailed," Baldo said.
Taylor's handover came after Johnson-Sirleaf asked Obasanjo to extradite him. Relief at the successful extradition was tempered by what some saw as unreasonable U.S. pressure on Monrovia, however.
"Clearly, a hammer was being used on the Liberian government," said Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank. "There was a clear link between development assistance for the people of Liberia and actual extradition."
Several political and media analysts described U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as single-minded in her pursuit of Taylor, adding that some lawmakers also had trained their sights on him.
U.S. impatience over Taylor appeared to be driven in part by disgust at his reputation and in part by allegations he had harboured al Qaeda suicide bombers.
Perhaps more significantly, the Bush administration has been eager to see a major despot brought to swift justice by a judicial panel other than the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court, to which it stands firmly opposed, the Christian Science Monitor newspaper quoted Ayesha Kajee of the South African Institute of International Affairs as saying.
When it looked like Obasanjo might be dragging his heels -- and especially when it emerged that Taylor had gone missing Monday night -- the Bush administration brought its diplomatic cudgels to bear on Abuja, including threatening to cancel Obasanjo's long-awaited trip to Washington.
Taylor's extradition cleared the way for the visit to go forward as scheduled on Wednesday. Obasanjo thus dodged a political bullet he could ill afford amid opposition to constitutional amendments that would allow him a third term in office. Additionally, he is confronted with an insurgency that has cut off one-fourth of oil production in the country's Niger Delta region, a major U.S. supplier.
Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's much-trumpeted first female head of state, might not prove quite so lucky.
Her government won election last November on the strength of promises to improve the economy, health, and education services before turning to Taylor.
By catapulting Taylor to the top of the list, Washington appears to have exposed Johnson-Sirleaf to the political fallout of a Taylor trial without giving her time to make good on campaign promises and establish her own credentials as a provider of government services.
This when the country lacks an army following disarmament and demobilisation that have spawned new misgivings among old enemies, and even as Liberians pin their hopes of justice on a nascent, homegrown truth and reconciliation commission.
Instead of allowing the new Liberian government to tackle its problems and consolidate peace on its own terms, "the Bush administration, kind of like a bull in a china shop, said, 'Well, you do this and do this now according to our timeframe'," Woods said..
Even so, Bush told Obasanjo before reporters at the White House Wednesday that "the fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:18 ||
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#1
This was so screwy I could have placed that bet in the Strategy Page Prediction Market.
(Slow Motion Capture)
President Robert Mugabe won a vague pledge from the Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo last night to supply US$200 million worth of fuel to combat Zimbabwe's worsening shortages. Mbasogo arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday afternoon on a three-day state visit for negotiations on the deal that was entered in November 2004, following the capture of 62 mercenaries in Harare, who were on a mission to topple the government of Mbasogo.
Mugabe is said to have pleaded for desperately needed supplies that have spawned renewed threats to his 26 year old rule. The invitation to Mbasogo, official sources say, is a measure of Mugabe's desperation. Fuel supplies in Harare are in chaos. The international oil companies that distribute fuel to petrol stations have not received deliveries for more than a month from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim), the state-owned fuel company with a monopoly on importation. Noczim is bankrupt after more than two decades of a policy, directed by Mugabe, of selling fuel for a fraction of its international market price.
Thanks to the black market there is no visible reduction in the volume of traffic on the capital's streets. The Government tried to shut down the black market this week by banning motorists from carrying fuel in containers. Expectations were not high that Mugabe would succeed in sealing a long time deal, and the statement issued at the end of last night's talk left the extent of Guinea "co-operation" deliberately vague.
Mike Nyambuya, Energy Minister, recently announced that Noczim owed foreign oil companies more than US$135 million, and was paying off the debt at the rate of $5 million a month. Zimdaily heard that Mugabe was offering to pay Mbasongo with tobacco, cattle and tea. But with the mass expropriation of white-owned farms, the Zimbabwe tobacco industry has fallen from being the world's biggest exporter to producing only a third of its normal output last year. President Mbasogo was shown Zimbabwes prime producer of milk and related products, Dairiboard yesterday, raising speculation about government's intentions.
Mugabe's scourge of commercial agriculture has decimated the beef industry. Zimdaily heard that Mugabe had offered to pay the fuel partly with an unspecified shareholding in Zimbabwe's fuel pipeline system, storage facilities and petrol stations, only some of which are state-owned. Mugabe has also offered a selection of farms seized by the government. Mbasogo is accompanied by his wife Constancia Mangue, Equatorial Guineas First Lady. Zimdaily heard Mbasogo was set to address the Zanu PF central committee on Friday.
#3
I have mixed emotions about this
First, I expect the neighboring country will renege, no need to provide free fuel (They won't get paid)
Second, he's doing WHAT? Providing fuel under your own cost is a bribe, it'll shortly become impossible, and that just shortens his expected lifespan considerably.
Third, obviously there's fuel available if you pay the black market price, so it would seem it's just another failed ploy to buy loyalty.
I noticed the resounding silence from Mugabe's last ploy, to beg the farmers to return and lease their own land back from the state (You'd have to be a moron)
Tick, tick, tick, I give Mugabe less than 6 months, if that long.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2006 23:24 Comments ||
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Military unrest is reported to have rocked the headquarters of 2 Brigade in Harare last week when soldiers went on the rampage and sabotaged the brigades fleet of vehicles in protest at poor service conditions, The Standard understands. As a result of the sabotage, operations were partially grounded and would have left the country exposed in the event of an attack from hostile forces, said military sources. According to the sources, the underpaid soldiers allegedly removed batteries from the brigades vehicles including a bus and some Dong Feng trucks imported from China. The deputy commander of 2 Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Kalisto Gwanetsa, requested The Standard to submit a list of written questions to the brigades offices in Cranborne. "Usapinde mukati, ukapinda ndokugura musoro, (Leave your questions at the gate. If you get inside the camp I will cut your head off)," said Gwanetsa who claimed he was also a journalist. Gwanetsa later said: "There is no story. I am training my soldiers. I cannot divulge the nature of my training to you. Some of the questions that you have asked are very sensitive. That is what the enemy is waiting to hear ..."
Senior officers allegedly accused junior soldiers of stealing the batteries, The Standard was told. They immediately ordered that no juniors should leave the camp until all the batteries had been recovered or replaced. "The senior officers claim that if the junior soldiers leave camp, this will give them an opportunity to go and cash in on the allegedly stolen batteries," one source said. Other reports indicate that the soldiers have been asked to undertake menial tasks while the Special Investigations Branch of the Military Police conducts investigations. But junior soldiers have hit back saying only senior officers had the means to remove batteries from the fleet. "It is very simple. The senior officers are the ones who have A2 farms and those big batteries are ideal for use on many vehicles used on farms," said one of the soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity. "No ordinary soldier would be able to carry those big batteries out of the camp that easily. But it would be very simple for a senior officer to drive out of the camp with the battery in his car."
The soldiers said they were also angry that while the brigade was not able to conduct normal military business because of an alleged fuel shortage, senior army officers were able to attend to personal business, including visiting their farms. Over the years, soldiers have watched as their conditions of service have continued to deteriorate. Wages have been whittled down by inflation with security guards last year earning more than some uniformed officers. Soldiers say the army has been hit by desertions with several deserters preferring to work as security guards in neighbouring countries like Botswana and South Africa. They claim they are now subjected to a miserable diet of beans as the army cannot supply them with meat on a regular basis. Some of them have resorted to armed robberies to make ends meet. The army has also denied reports that soldiers have been sent on forced leave because it cannot feed them.
#4
lol, RC! One for the ages. Goes down easy with other worldwide known quotes, eh? (like "Ask not what your country can do for you..." or "The buck stops here...."), lol.
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 11:12 Comments ||
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#5
...Suspect that this will be the pretext for a purge of the middle and lower ranks. Popcorn please...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/30/2006 13:23 Comments ||
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At least two-thirds of the candidates for the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) central committee office-bearers to be elected by the April 3-4 national council are near 40 in age and left behind their student life long ago. The student wing of Awami League (AL) has held only three national councils in the last 12 years, saturating itself with a huge number of aged and non-student 'student leaders', sources said. As a result, there is now a severe leadership crisis at all levels, from the centre down to the grassroots units, of the country's leading student body.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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But hey, George Mason is demonstrating his solidarity with the Paleos, so let's call it even... (photo hat tip LGF)
Muslims in Albania's northern city of Shkoder are opposing plans to erect a statue to Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian Catholic nun in line for elevation to sainthood by the Vatican. The dispute is unusual for Albania,
But not at all unusual for Dar-al-Islam,
where religion was banned for 27 years under the dictator Enver Hoxha, and "mixed" marriages are the norm. Seventy per cent of the population are moderate liberal Muslims,
who are ever so tolerant and inclusive...
the rest are Christian Orthodox and Catholic. But Muslim groups in Shkoder rejected the local council plan for a statue, saying it "would offend the feelings of Muslims".
"We do not want this statue to be erected in a public place, because we see her as a religious figure," said Bashkim Bajraktari, Shkoder's mufti, a Muslim religious leader. Several residents said they felt there was an underground effort to treat Shkoder as a Catholic town, ignoring its majority Muslim community. Shkoder's Muslims recently protested against crosses being erected on prominent hilltops around the city.
#1
I should have posted this short clip with the article:
Koizumi's Foreign Minister Taro Aso declared to his host Dick Cheney, no less, "Japan must also be nuclear armed." He could not have made the remark, let alone leak it to the media, idly.
#2
China's anti-Japan campaign on "history consciousness," as they call it, is not about indulging an old grudge. A communist dictatorship is a lot smarter than that.
#3
Couple years ago Japan announced it was missing about 300lbs of Plutonium. Just assumed this was their way of letting people know they'd already gone nuclear.
#4
The Japanese are not stupid - and there's not one Japanese politician on the planet who would make the comment to the Predident of the United States "Look, the sun is rising." without having a clear intent that that comment had powerful and monumental connotations.
Of the entire article that's the single biggest statement that struck me.
It's tantamount to a Japanese declaration that the Empire was back IMO.
The French president is facing growing pressure to intervene in the spiralling dispute over his government's youth jobs law. A day after more than a million people joined one of the biggest protests of recent French history, union leaders urged Jacques Chirac to use his powers to stop the controversial measure, which was voted through parliament two weeks ago and is waiting to pass into law. They called on Chirac to send legislation back to parliament stripped of the First Employment Contract, CPE.
In a letter to Chirac, France's five biggest unions urged him to order a fresh reading of the law, without youth job contract measures which allow employers to sack at will workers under 26 at any stage in a two-year trial period. "We ask you, Mr President, to appreciate how much the current crisis is a source of exasperation and tensions in the country," they wrote.
Aides said Chirac, who cancelled a trip to Le Havre planned for Thursday to stay in Paris and monitor the crisis, would speak out in the coming days. An announcement from the Elysee Palace early on Wednesday said that Chirac will speak publicly on the CPE soon, but it did not say when or give any indication of which way he is leaning.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
You spend years attacking "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism as the planet's greatest evil. Then you implement a mildly Anglo-Saxon reform. What the hell did Chiraq and de Villepin think was going to happen? It's like the permissive parents I knew as a kid. At some point they always decided that they had to discipline their little monsters. Then all hell broke loose.
I dont want to just get rid of the military, I want to cut the numbers in it so drastically that even those in high ranking positions will say we dont have a military.
Ohhhh the military is too expensive fiscally each year.
Constitution will fight for our rights, not the military.
#1
Could it be because the military takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and is therefore an impediment to your establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat?
#5
lol, Dread...that about sums it up. And, I'd like to see the "Constitution fight for us" instead of the military. Heck, we can't even get homegrown LLLs to follow the Constitution, much less binny and crew.
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 11:30 Comments ||
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I dont think this document says we favor the immediate censure of the President. That is something that would be decided upon AFTER hearings and not before hearings; I doubt that this document supports the censure AT THIS TIME.
#1
The idiots still don't get it. Yeah, yeah, his poll numbers are down, but compared to what? That's the problem. As soon as you make it choice between GWB and anything the Dems have to offer, the majority suddenly hold their nose and choose GWB.
#4
And, that's the big problem, eL. It's all about the power for them, not what is actually going to be best for the country. And part of that power, is the votes...thus the caving to the illegal immigrants crowd.
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 11:33 Comments ||
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#5
Senator Combover hasn't been interested in doing anything for National Security, and "Little Debbie" Stabenow adds nothing as well. Neck and neck with my Sens Feinstein and Dumb as a Box of Rocks for worst pair
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 11:50 Comments ||
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#6
Frank G: your Sens get honorable mention, but mine are in a league of their own: I'm from Mass.
According to sources on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-emented) punched a Capitol police officer on Wednesday afternoon after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector.
Members of Congress are not required to pass through metal detectors. Sources say that the officer was at a position in the Longworth House Office Building, and did not recognize McKinney, nor saw her credentials as she went around the metal detector. The officer called out, Maam, Maam, and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm. Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest. McKinneys office has not responded to requests for comment. First time she's ever shut up.
According to the Drudge Report, the entire incident is on tape. Drudge continues, "The cop is pressing charges, and the USCP (United States Capitol Police) are waiting until Congress adjurns to arrest her, a source claims. The House has the power to expell her. Of course, she'll be reelected in the Fall.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/30/2006 0:57 Comments ||
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#2
"Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers," the statement says.
#4
From what I've read, she refuses to wear the badge that identifies her as a Congressthing. It has less to do with racism than with her own sense of superiority.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/30/2006 7:45 Comments ||
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#5
I don't agree with the punching part (and technically I don't agree with the "Congresscritters don't have to go thru the metal detector" part), but she has been her district's elected (and now re-elected) representative for many years, and the security staff ought to recognize her.
#6
Nonsense, Seafarious. New people get hired all the time. They can't be expected to know all the Royal Family immediately. It sounds like what the guard did was reasonable and what she did was unreasonable. If she doesn't like the security arragements she should change them or stay away. That's why I don't fly any more. Screw the TSA.
#8
HON. CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Monday, September 30, 2002
Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, as you know, I recently suffered a setback in my bid for reelection. I am beginning to get over the disappointment that I will no longer be able to serve the people of Georgia in the next Congress. I will miss serving. However, there were some alarming things about the campaign to defeat me that I think my colleagues of both parties should look out for. I am not talking about the Republicans who crossed over to vote for my opponent, but the heavy involvement of Indians in the primary. I am one of the Members of Congress who has tried to get out the truth about South Asia, and I am proud of that. Earlier this year, I was one of 42 Members of Congress who wrote to President Bush to urge the release of Sikh and other political prisoners in India. Apparently, this irritated the Indians because the newspaper article I am inserting in the Record along with this statement shows that they admitted that they invested heavily in the effort to defeat me. To my colleagues of both parties who have also been involved in the effort to expose India's brutal record, I say: Watch out; they are coming after you, too.
Posted by: john ||
03/30/2006 8:49 Comments ||
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#9
Damn! I didn't even get time to put a stopwatch on when the "racism" charge would show up! She's even quicker then I thought...
#10
I recall an anecdotal story about Admiral Rickover.
The Officer-of-the-Deck (OOD) of an in-port nuclear ship was standing watch when someone dressed in an Admirals uniform came aboard. The visitor saluted the flag and the officer of the deck (in accordance with custom) and proceeded to walk forward towards the Captains in-port cabin. The OOD said, Sir, please identify yourself. The visitor paused for a moment, looked at the OOD in disbelief, and resumed walking. The OOD said, Sir, please stop and identify yourself. The visitor did not stop. The OOD said to his fellow watch-stander, Petty Officer So-and-so, draw your weapon and chamber a round. To the departing visitor he said, Sir, you will stop and identify yourself.
The visitor was, of course, Admiral Rickover visiting one of his nuclear ships. The OOD received a letter of commendation from the Admiral, commending his performance of duties. The Commanding Officer received a picture of the Admiral, to keep on the Quarterdeck for all OODs to use for reference.
Moral: While the Admiral was in a clearly identifiable uniform, he recognized that the watch-standers were making no assumptions and were performing their duties properly.
I just need to make sure we have this correct. The new Democratic effort on national security, therefore, is to defy identification procedures, ignore common-sense safeguards, pretend not to hear warnings, and then assault the people protecting us.
#12
I love the spokesman for Dennis Hastert's comment: "On a day when the Democrats unveil their national security agenda, it's probably not a good idea to allegedly strike a police officer."
Hat Tip: Gwinnett Daily Post (suburban County of Atlanta just north of McKinney's district). And, their story follows what RC said. That Congressmen/women get to bypass the metal detectors if they are wearing a certain pin on their lapel. She has refused from day one (according to this article) to wear it. I assume it must have the American flag on it, or something for her to be so disgusted by a lil' pin not to wear it. Sometimes, it's just better to not (politically) attack, and just sit back and watch the Demos dig their own ditches, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 11:21 Comments ||
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#13
This reminds me of when I was a consultant working at an NCR building. The security was oddly tight (maybe because of bomb threats from unbalanced former employees, maybe because one floor had a bunch of half-assembled ATMs for testing), and the guards would *NOT* let anyone past the lobby without either an ID or the signature of an employee.
I saw the same guards every day for a year and a half; they recognized me, I know they did, but they still wouldn't let me pass without an ID or an employee vouching for me.
McKinney's a bint, and blaming racism is just her the default state of her "mind".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/30/2006 12:17 Comments ||
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#14
Seafarious: She doesn't have her cornrows anymore. She had a "BIG FLUFFY" hairstyle. Doesn't look much like her photo below with it.
Its a good argument for retinal scanners in Congress Land.
The Prostitutes' Union
Among the poor and most vulnerable, Smarajit Jana has found a way to slash the incidence of HIV--by organizing sex workers as any other labor collective...
[..]
"I strongly believe that for a program to succeed, the subjects have to adopt its goals as their own," he explains. They have: the sex workers run the HIV program themselves. Jana persuaded them to form a growing collective that now includes 60,000 members pledged to condom use. It offers bank loans, schooling for children, literacy training for adults, reproductive health care and cheap condoms--and has virtually eliminated trafficking of women in the locale. Best of all, the project has kept the HIV prevalence rate among prostitutes in Sonagachi down to 5 percent, whereas in the brothels of Mumbai (Bombay) it is around 60. Other sexually transmitted diseases are down to 1 percent. Jana now works with CARE in Delhi, assisting other social workers in similarly transferring their HIV prevention programs to the people they serve. Such community-led interventions have become integral to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in its five-year, $200-million effort to combat AIDS in India.
[..]
#1
Hats off to the Gates. I'm sure there's a million nay-sayers out there, but the Gates' are out there doing something for no other reason than they believe it's the right thing and because they can. Keep it up!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/30/2006 14:32 Comments ||
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#1
You got Iran to deal with, Russia, and the US will go with India. Better get the red-line drawings turned into as-builts for Bushehr before it is returned to the earth from which it came.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2006 2:40 Comments ||
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#2
This is the fear of GE and Westinghouse.
India is not likely to buy Russian VVER units when GE offers its LWRs.
Cirus was excluded from the list of 14 local sites India vowed to open for the International Atomic Energy AuthorityM
Wrong. India will shut down the CIRRUS reactor.
CIRRUS was a sore point with Canada and India wants to buy Canadian Uranium. India therefore had to placate Canada, NOT the US.
Problem was that CIRRUS is located inside the BARC weapon complex and no IAEA inspector will be alowed inside BARC.
Solution - Indians will just shut down CIRRUS, and Canadians will ask no questions about the Plutonium derived from CIRRUS over the last few decades.
the Indians might face big problems in terms of the secrecy of their military effort and the availability of dual-use technologies for peaceful purposes.
Indians will not allow IAEA inside any of their military nuclear complexes.
IAEA will inspect the civilian plants only.
India has had decades of experience working with the IAEA. Four of India's reactors are under safeguards, two more under construction will also be under safeguards.
One of India's Plutonium reprocessing plants is placed under safeguards whenever spent fuel from a safeguarded reactor is being processed. Its nuclear fuel complex is likewise put under safeguards whenever fuel rods are being fabricated for a safeguarded plant.
Albright from ISIS has already named Indian Rare Earth Ltd. of Bombay as the first potential victim of U.S. proliferation action
Albright alleges that Indian government tenders for equipment (to local Indian manufacturers) published in Indian newspapers amount to proliferation.
No wonder he could find no WMD in Iraq.
RMP at Ratahili will never be opened to IAEA. It will receive no foreign fuel or equipment.
It is where Indian centrifuge cascades are located. Uranium is being enriched there for use in naval reactors (for a nuclear submarine being built at Vizag naval base).
It may also be where U233 is separated.
India apparently tested a weapon using a U233 pit and its Thorium reserves can be used to breed U233 for weapons.
The comparison with Iraq is absurd.
When a country has a population one sixth that of the entire planet, a large professional volunteer military that can actually fight and win wars and a huge internal economy, it gets to do things denied to rogue arab regimes.
Posted by: john ||
03/30/2006 8:37 Comments ||
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The Check Is in the Mail
Does the money immigrants send home do any good?
[..]
Even though the average migrant sends back just a couple of hundred dollars a month, it adds up to serious money. The World Bank estimates that developing countries received $167 billion last year--twice as much as they got in foreign aid. Mexico's intake has quintupled in a decade, to $18 billion; labor is now the country's biggest export after oil. And that is just the amount flowing through official channels.
To be showered with money seems like a happy arrangement for the receiving country. Yet in the 1980s remittances acquired a reputation among social scientists as "easy money" that, like an oil windfall, can rot out an economy. Case studies have found that recipients invest little of the money in farm equipment or business start-ups, preferring instead to go on shopping sprees. People grow dependent on the MoneyGram in the mail, and all that cash sloshing around pushes up inflation. Those not so lucky to have relatives abroad fall behind, worsening social inequality, and exporters' costs rise, making it harder for them to compete in global markets.
In the 1990s, though, Durand and others argued that case studies do not track the full effect of remittances as they ripple through an economy. Even if families do not invest the money, the businesses they buy from do, so remittances can jump-start growth. In one widely cited model, $1 of remittances boosts GDP by $3. The infusion of money makes a real difference in places where entrepreneurs have no other access to capital. Compared with alternatives to catalyze economic development, such as government programs or foreign aid and investment, remittances are more accurately targeted to families' needs and more likely to reach the poor.
Today the debate has settled into a "both sides are right" mode. Some towns achieve prosperity aided by remittances; others get trapped in a cycle of dependency. A number of cross-country analyses, such as one last year by economist Nikola Spatafora of the International Monetary Fund and his colleagues, have concluded that nations that rake in more remittances have a lower poverty rate--but only barely. A larger effect is to smooth out the business cycle, because migrants increase their giving during economic downturns in their homelands and scale it back during upswings. Averting the disruptive extremes of boom and bust can help bring about long-term growth.
One burning question is whether immigrants who sink roots into their adopted countries send less money. "Some people are actually saying that in Mexico remittances might stop in 10 years' time," says World Bank economist Dilip Ratha. Meanwhile his institution and others are working to procure good data. "When these flows are as large as they are and as important as they are," Ratha says, "it would be worth investing in a better database."
#3
The money sent back home also doesn't go into the local consumer-based economy in the local communities. Small local businesses in agricultural areas do not benefit, as they establish their own groceries imported from home and don't spend it here. The immigrants rent, not paying property taxes to support the local public schools. They also use the emergency room for primary medical care, at taxpayers expense. It has the opposite effect of the economic boost that tax breaks give by putting money into circulation. Sending money home encourages the illegals even more. Immigrants that come here should want to become Americans,learn English and good citizenship, like paying taxes, and not for the free ride at taxpayers expense it has become. I don't want my children to be Islamomexican.
#4
You've got to wonder what it says about a nation, like Mexico or the Philippines, when self-exiled individuals who remit earnings to support their stranded families are the country's largest economic sector. In other words, aren't these shells merely a house of cards with some major parasites hooked in at the top? The flipside of the coin is just how much more successful would the host countries be without all of that cash flight?
#5
And after having rreceived all this free money for years from America (and other western countries), they fund their own illegal arrival on the shores - entititled to their entitlements. Heck, they are already citizens in their own minds.
#6
IMHO, the host countries won't be any better until their way of doing things are cleaned up. That is business, government, law enforcement, etc. The home countries are not evolving and developing positively when they depend up a huge labor force working somewhere else and sending back money. Take a look at Mexico. Great oil potential, manufacturing, tourism. But it is a mess. The oligarcy likes the status quo, so nothing happens and in the case of Mexico, the US is the safety valve.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2006 20:59 Comments ||
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#7
Zenster--Shells merely a house of cards? A house of cards with parasites hooked in at the top? Block that metaphor!
Danielle, renters DO pay property tax. Surely you don't think the landlord pays it cheerfully, without passing on the costs to the tenants?
More than a quarter of U.S. schools are failing under terms of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, according to preliminary state-by-state statistics reported to the U.S. Department of Education.
At least 24,470 U.S. public schools, or 27 percent of the national total, did not meet the federal requirement for "adequate yearly progress" in 2004-2005. The percentage of failing schools rose by one point from the previous school year...
..."Most people thought that at this point in the law, we'd be seeing these numbers go way, way up" as standards toughen, said Petrilli, a former Education Department official who helped implement the law in 2002... Seems to me that if a school is already doing well, it is a lot harder to improve than if a school is doing poorly, so insisting that everybody improve doesn't make much sense. Second, why would student scores be going up if the standards keep getting tougher? They should be going down. Is 1% change in the margin for error?
The WaPo reporter is apparently a graduate of Lake Wobegon High, where all the kids are above average.
#2
THIS should be required reading in the required statistics course, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2006 2:35 Comments ||
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#3
Seems to me that if a school is already doing well, it is a lot harder to improve than if a school is doing poorly, so insisting that everybody improve doesn't make much sense.
Counterintuitive, but true. "Good schools" are generally good because they get good students. Teachers don't have to work hard (and don't) because students know the material already or have parents who will see that they learn. "Poor schools" are those where the teacher's primary concern is personal saftey and the students' is getting out. Out of which do you think would be easier to get improvement?
#4
Paint me as a skeptic. I still remember High School and my fellow classmates. There were those with aptitude and those without. Even those with aptitude didnt necessarily have the motivation to actually work. No amount of government funding as amply demonstrated by various welfare programs will succeed in anything but the lowest common denominator when you leave out the critical factor that the individual has to actively participate in the program. Why do so many children from Asian and Jewish background consistently score higher on testing? Maybe its because the culture for literally thousands of years has impress the value of education as a means to survive if not advance in life. Look at the discrete groups in the lower scoring category and check whether their culture stresses education to the extent the aforementioned groups have done?
No child left behind? Bullhockey. You dont screw over 80 percent in the name of 20 percent. Make it plain and simple. Dont participate, dont advance. Theres a lot of difference between removing obstacles and just hand carrying people through life. Poverty sucks. Low life expectancy and less than enjoyable conditions. Your choice. Work in school or work the ditches or, in most cases, the corner moving unregulated pharmaceuticals. A short mean brutish lifestyle awaits. Time for that message to be sent into the classrooms.
#6
Asian and Jewish families are also usually two-parent and non-violent. Our teachers are put in untenable positions trying to teach such disparate and diverse students as are in the classroom today. We have had nearly an entire town pull their children out of public school to home educate after a huge influx of non-English speakers came north to work and flooded the classroom. Our local community schools also allow students to go as far as they can, allowing sixth graders to take calculus at the high school level if they have the aptitude so no one is drug down by others. If the school doesn't offer the course at a secondary level, the student may take it at the college level on the district. Tracking and segregating slower students is often criticized as discrininatory but you simply can't teach if you have 100+ languages in a school district! Many special needs kids are hands-on learners and don't do well with current clasroom teaching styles. Those without the aptitude to do college prep coursework really need apprenticeships to learn job skills. I'm thinking we need to rethink the public school system as one size doesn't fit all and failing schools serve no one well.
#7
Parents are a much bigger factor in children's education than are schools. There are bad schools when local parents accept them. There are good schools when local parents demand them.
The children of involved parents do better in good schools and in bad schools.
When good parents are stuck in bad districts they force home learning or find private alternatives.
Vouchers are a threat to school establishments because they give good parents options and force school districts to pay attention to people who would otherwise simply be gadflies.
#9
All the money for the kids who can't perform. Keep the special needs kids in regular classes where they can't get the one-on-one they need and allow the disruptions to hinder everyone else.
Too many "special" kids in the wrong setting. Too many bright kids being ignored and not taught with attention because they are not "special".
The idea of sugar-loaded dummies with no parental concern for education or desire taking all the focus, bucks and attention is annoying.
I don't know about the US experience, but the Canadian one is as I've stated.
Three teacher assistants for a wheelchair student with the mentality of a 4 year old in a Grade 6 class. The school says there is no money for books for the library.
but they do have to fund the 3 assisants for this child. Who screams and lashes out for the entire school day, despite the 3 assistants. The rest of the class - who can understand when they can hear through the noise,have a frustrated and exhausted teacher. And they learn that the gorp has more rights than them.
The teacher, though, is on the side of the gorp. Can't check the effectiveness of teaching in this class. Job safe forever.
#10
My father used to say
"Be very careful with statistics and averages. Think of a man with one foot on a block of ice, and the other foot on a hot stove, on the average, he's comfortable."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2006 23:33 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
At least two-thirds of the candidates for the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) central committee office-bearers to be elected by the April 3-4 national council are near 40 in age and left behind their student life long ago. The student wing of Awami League (AL) has held only three national councils in the last 12 years, saturating itself with a huge number of aged and non-student 'student leaders', sources said. As a result, there is now a severe leadership crisis at all levels, from the centre down to the grassroots units, of the country's leading student body.
The French president is facing growing pressure to intervene in the spiralling dispute over his government's youth jobs law. A day after more than a million people joined one of the biggest protests of recent French history, union leaders urged Jacques Chirac to use his powers to stop the controversial measure, which was voted through parliament two weeks ago and is waiting to pass into law. They called on Chirac to send legislation back to parliament stripped of the First Employment Contract, CPE.
According to sources on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-emented) punched a Capitol police officer on Wednesday afternoon after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector.
