#1
Ties are seriously fraying between the Saudi royals and the Bush administration, largely because the Saudis appear to have abandoned any pretext of confronting terrorism and instead have returned full bore to the long-held tradition of co-opting or buying opponents
What the hell they fund 80-90% of the shit hole anti-American mosques in the USA. Close them all down.
#7
It's the "Strong Horse - Weak Horse" theme in play. KSA figures that the US and the Brits are going to bug-out, leaving the anti-Persian Gulf states to the tender mercies of the Persians. Their best chance for survival is embracing the most savage, anti-Shia bad guys in town, so...
#10
Per .com's idea, we really need to appropriate KSA's Eastern oil fields as repayment for the cost of fighting all the Wahhabist terrorism they've sponsored. Screw the house of Saud with a rusty rattail file.
Saudi King Abdullah, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, yesterday slammed what he termed the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of neighboring Iraq and called for an end to the "unjust" U.S.-backed financial blockade of the Palestinian government.
In a rare public spat, both the White House and State Department quickly rejected the king's description of the U.S. mission in Iraq. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said flatly the king was "wrong" in questioning the legitimacy of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.
#1
We should also have pointed out that without our troops there would be daily large scale massacres of Sunnis in the country and quick impoverishment of the Sunni enclave in Anbar.
Of course said that way one could critize me by responding, "you say that like it was a bad thing"
Jailed New Yorker fends off rats Remember this "freedom fighter"? How soon their Lefty friends forget...
LORI Berenson, the leftist guerrilla convict in Peru who once drew support from US lawmakers and the White House, now sits alone in a cellblock 2750 meters up in the Andes fending off rats. Susan Sarandon is, "Rat Girl of the Andes"! Coming soon to a theater near you...
The native New Yorker and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student says she is pushing for educating barely literate inmates of the prison in Cajamarca, 850 km northeast of Lima, and fights hordes of rodents clanging bars. I'd be pushing for some rat poison, myself...
The sole inmate in a jail wing after 50 women rebel convicts there have been freed since 2003, she said she shares nights with hordes of rats almost a foot long including their tails, feeding from raw sewage. "It's just gross and disgusting," said Berenson, 37, over halfway through a 20-year sentence. 10 years left? Why don't you give them names like pets? Might make it easier for everybody?
Hoping for parole in 2010, she works in a jail bakery to escape her cellblock bordering the skeleton of an abandoned church building project. Cajamarca is the fourth jail housing Berenson since her Nov. 30, 1995 arrest. A military judge jailed her for life as a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Think she'd settle for Gitmo?
Under US pressure, a civilian court retried her, convicting her 20 years as a collaborator of the MRTA. Stating her innocence, she said in an interview conducted in the modern, rat-free prison bakery: "I may have been guilty of being sympathetic for leftist progressive ideals." You're definitely guilty of being a spoiled, snotnosed, know it all American bitch who thought you were immune to Peruvian law.
She denied any links to the MRTA as armed fighters, saying she knew them only under assumed names and as social progressives. There was, "Jose, the Bunny Petter", and " Juan, the Kitty Lover", and...
The MRTA demanded her release among inmates in its 123-day siege of the Japanese ambassador's residence in 1996/1997. Its insurgency, together with the bigger Maoist Shining Path rebels, were defeated in a conflict costing 69,000 lives. I take it Lori thought conflict was for the "little people"?
In Peru, her indelible image is of a post-arrest harangue when she said most Peruvians live in "subhuman conditions." She also said the MRTA was not a terrorist organization, alienating Peruvians scarred by a decade of rebel attacks. Don't you peasants realize I know what's best for you!!!
Her tirade surprised friends familiar with a mild-mannered pupil at New York's High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where her parents say Jennifer Aniston was a classmate. And I'm sure Jen would like to see her again about as much as she would like to hang out with Angelina Jolie...
Before her hoped for 2010 parole, Berenson sees no sign of leniency. In July 2000, 221 of the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives and 40 members of the 100-member U.S. Senate urged her release on humanitarian grounds. President Bill Clinton called Peru's president to seek ways to release her, local authorities said. But that was a long, long, loooooong time ago...
"I am a public figure," she said as she whipped up some icing for cakes. "It's not like Joe Schmo, who a judge can say poor thing and let him go. You can't do that in my case." Some advice? Might wanna keep that giant ego back on the cellblock when you come up for the parole hearing, rat girl.
#9
"The sole inmate... shares nights with hordes of rats almost a foot long including their tails, feeding from raw sewage."
She must produce a lot of raw sewage!
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian law enforcement agencies have tortured three former Guantanamo inmates and subjected them and four others to continual harassment and abuse, a U.S.-based rights group said in a report Thursday. Human Rights Watch urged the United States to do more to protect the rights of terrorism suspects subject to extradition, saying it should not transfer people to countries where they may be tortured.
So we can't keep them in Gitmo, we can't return them to the shithole countries from which they came because all of them are likely to torture the mooks, and we can't release them into the wild so that they can be terrorists again. Hmmm, there is one solution left ...
Allison Gill, Moscow director for the rights group, said three of seven men who were released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2004 have been beaten and tortured. All have suffered from detention and other forms of harassment by authorities, especially from the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service, she said.
Tusk, tusk, my heart pumps peanut butter for them ...
The report said four have been forced into hiding. Russia's Interior Ministry declined to comment on the accusations. The Federal Security Service, the KGB's main successor agency, also refused immediate comment.
And they won't ever comment, ever.
One of the former detainees, Rasul Kudayev, has been held in custody in the North Caucasus city of Nalchik on charges of participating in the October 2005 attack by hundreds of militants on police and government buildings.
So he's been a bad boy ...
Kudayev's lawyers and relatives say he was beaten while in custody to extract confessions and a regional court has ordered prosecutors to probe those allegations.
"We asked all the guards if they've beaten this vicious terrorist, yer honor, and they all said, 'no'!"
"Thank you, that settles it!"
Kudayev's mother Fatima Tekayeva told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her son was repeatedly beaten. "I saw traces of the beatings on his body with my own eyes," she said.
He'll get over it, unlike his dead victims ...
Two others, Ravil Gumarov and Timur Ishmuratov, were sentenced last year to sentences of 13 and 11 years, respectively, for blowing up a natural gas pipeline after having been acquitted in an earlier trial.
And they weren't even Bugtis ...
Human Rights Watch said the trial was unfair and that the two men were beaten in custody until they confessed. Gumarov was deprived of sleep for about one week and kept in a small cage, his hands handcuffed over his head, the group said.
"I am the only one who hasn't had a case fabricated against him and who is walking around alive and free," Vakhitov said. "I don't feel safe in this country."
So the terrorist is, well, terrorized. Warms the deepest cockles of my heart, it does ...
The seven were detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan on suspicion of fighting for the Taliban. They were released from Guantanamo Bay in 2004 and some were briefly jailed upon returning to Russia before being released after investigators said they found no evidence of Taliban involvement. Rights activists said the treatment of former Guantanamo detainees was part of a broader pattern by Russian authorities targeting heavily-armed pious Muslims with concocted criminal investigations or illegal coercion.
I'm sure the FSS isn't above concocting whatever it needs on someone, but it doesn't sound like they have to try too hard with these boyz ...
In its report, Human Rights Watch urged the United States to stop relying on diplomatic assurances of fair treatment by governments when extraditing terrorism suspects and to not transfer people to countries where they may face torture.
Instead, we should send them home with HRW representatives.
This article starring:
AIRAT VAKHITOV
al-Qaeda
Allison Gill
Fatima Tekayeva
Human Rights Watch
RASUL KUDAIEV
al-Qaeda
RAVIL GOMAROV
al-Qaeda
RUSLAN ODIZHEV
al-Qaeda
RUSTAM AKHMYAROV
al-Qaeda
SHAMIL KHAZHIYEV
al-Qaeda
TIMUR ISHMURATOV
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#4
So we can't keep them in Gitmo, we can't return them to the shithole countries from which they came because all of them are likely to torture the mooks, and we can't release them into the wild so that they can be terrorists again. Hmmm, there is one solution left ...
Love the comment!
It would be interesting see the moonbats in the U.S. and Europe having a mother of
conniption fits if the U.S. government acted on your suggestion. It would be worth it just for the press value alone.
Removing the problem permanently from Gitmo would save the taxpayers tons of money in the process. It would allow more soldiers to go after the nutballs the folks in Gitmo look up to.
#9
Kudayev's mother Fatima Tekayeva told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her son was repeatedly beaten. "I saw traces of the beatings on his body with my own eyes," she said.
Well, it sounds like he's got family visitation rights, at least. (Yeah, I'm a sunny-side up kind of guy!)
#10
Everyone recall when the families (mothers?) of some of the Russian-nationality Gitmo guests were pleading publicly that their sons not be returned to Russia? Naturally they knew what they were talking about. Love HRW (spit) pleading with us not to send detainees to bad places, while they make a full-time job out of slandering our ops at Gitmo and elsewhere.
The only important human rights organization on Earth is the US military. All other pretenders to that status can only dream of making the contributions that our soldiers do.
#11
Instead, we should send them home with HRW representatives.
My wife says the first thing she'd do if she hit the lottery would be to find out where the local head of the ACLU lives, pay exorbitant amounts of money for the houses on either side of him, and then fill them to the stuffing point with illegal aliens.
I wholeheartedly support her dream...
The body of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia's first post-Soviet president and one of the most controversial figures in the chaos of Georgia's early independent years, was returned Wednesday to Tbilisi for burial more than a decade after it disappeared.
The body, which was found in Chechnya earlier this month, was brought back by ambulance, with Gamsakhurdia supporters standing along snowy roads holding portraits of him as the vehicle passed. The remains were taken to the Gamsakhurdia family's ancestral house in Tbilisi to await burial. His widow, Manana, had demanded that he be buried on the grounds of Tbilisi's cathedral, but a government commission has recommended he be interred at the pantheon of noted Georgian writers on Mtatsminda mountain at the city's edge.
This article starring:
Zviad Gamsakhurdia
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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China has been pushing ahead with construction of a mega-sized nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be completed in 2020, according to a Chinese Communist Party's dossier.
A source close to Chinese military affairs said on March 27 that China has been promoting the construction of a 93,000-ton atomic-powered carrier under a plan titled the "085 Project." The nation also has a plan to build a 48,000-ton non-nuclear-powered carrier under the so-called "089 Project," added the source.
The source made such remarks based on government a dossier that reveals that Chinas Central Military Commision recently approved the two projects. The dossier also contained specifications of the aircraft carriers.
China had so far been known to be pushing ahead with construction of a non-nuclear-powered carrier, but not an atomic-powered one.
Once the proposed Chinese carriers are deployed, the radius of the Chinese Navys range is expected to reach Guam, where a U.S. base is located. Thus, military experts are worried about Chinas moves prompting an arms race in Northeast Asia.
The dossier said the construction of the nuclear-powered carrier will be completed in 2020. China State Shipbuiling Corps Jiangnan shipyard located on Changxing Island near Shanghai, will be responsible for its design and construction. The size is similar to former Soviets unfinished atomic-powered carrier Ulyanovsk, the dossier states.
China reportedly secretly purchased the design of Ulyanovsk from Russia. When the nuclear-powered carrier is finished, China will own an aircraft carrier which is on par with the U.S.s newest of such vessels, the 97,000-ton atomic-powered USS Ronald Reagan, which recently docked at Busan Port to participate in a joint exercise between the South Korean and U.S. militaries.
According to the dossier, China plans to construct a non-atomic-powered carrier as a transition stage to building the larger nuclear-powered one.
The non-atomic-powered carrier, due to be completed in 2010, will be a mid-sized carrier with a standard displacement of 48,000 tons and a full-load displacement of 64,000 tons and will be able to carry 30-40 Chinese-built J-10 fighters, which China fielded in December last year.
The Chinese authorities are reportedly overhauling J-10 fighters to be loaded onto the new aircraft carriers. Until the work is complete, the new carriers are going to handle 10-20 Russian-made Su-33 fighters.
The non-nuclear-powered carrier is reported to be a revised version of Ukraines Varyag, which China purchased in 1998. A shipyard in Dalian is in charge of its design and construction. After the new carrier is completed, Varyag will be used for military training only.
Remarks made by Zhang Yunchuan, Minister of the Commission on Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, to reporters after the National Peoples Congress (NPC) on March 16 - "The construction of an aircraft carrier with China-developed technology will be completed by 2010" - support the dossiers information as reported by the source.
A general-ranked official at South Koreas Ministry of National Defense said, "Chinas plan to push ahead with construction of atomic-powered aircraft carrier has not been widely known. However, it is sufficiently to predict that the nation will ultimately pursue the ownership of such a vessel."
#3
Vari Netters claim the SU-33 is capable of carrying nuclear munitions, while others speculate the smaller CV may be designed wid an amphibious troop-carrying capability. Anyhoo, its debatable about how many NIMITZ's = CVN21's will still be around in US inventory come 2020, wid the USN-USDOD dev OFFSHORE/SEA-BASING CONCEPTS + GLOBAL STRIKE/PROMPT STRIKE.
"Reach Guam ...prompting an arms race in Northeast Asia" > Based on the timeline indic, tts gonna take awhile for the PLAN to become competent in flight operations, naval nuke reactor designs and operations, and of course gener Carrier-Task Unit/group/Force design, organz, and related proficiencies [Year 2040-50 at earliest]. I DON'T THINK MOUD = RADICAL ISLAM CAN WAIT THAT LONG - UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES, THE USA IS LIKELY TO GET STRONGER AND ENTRENCHED, NOT WEAKER AND FALLING BACK IN TIMID ISOLATIONISM. MOUD = RUSSIA-CHINA know it.
#4
This assumes, of course, that the Chinese don't pull a French move and have an aircraft carrier that consistently drops its propeller. Also, they will have a total of 2 aircraft carriers in 2020 supposedly : which means it will be 2030 to 2040 before they are capable of actually using them in combat. And then the Chinese still have to fill those carriers with aircraft, pilots, and the assorted crews; plus, they will have to build and equip the rest of the 2 carrier battle groups, unless they want their carriers to be multi-billion dollar targets. That is where the real money comes in concerning carriers : the carrier battle groups with all the ships, aircraft, crews, and equipment.
Also, the Soviets/Russians never did successfully build a full sized carrier, and the Chinese are relying on Russian plans for a super carrier? Not a good plan.
The Chinese ruling clique is welcome to waste as much money as they wish on such projects. I think that Taiwan will have absorbed the mainland before these IOCs, anyway ......
Wal-Mart reports that it purchased $18 billion of goods from China in 2004.
Wal-Mart was responsible for about 1/10th of the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2005. [U.S. Stock Investors Wary of Analyst `Yuan Plays': Taking Stock, Bloomberg, 7/1/05]
If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as Chinas eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada. [China Business Weekly, 12/02/2004]
Many of Wal-Mart's American Suppliers actually manufacture most or all of their products in China
An example of an American Supplier is Hasbro, headquartered in Rhode Island. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest purchaser of Hasbro productsaccounting for 21 percent of all Hasbro goods or more than $600 million in sales. But Hasbro reports, We source production of substantially all of our toy products and certain of our game products through unrelated manufacturers in various Far East countries, principally China. Hasbro specifies that the substantial majority of our toy products are manufactured in China. [2004 Hasbro 10-K filed with the SEC]
Wal-Mart's Chinese factory workers are treated poorly
Workers making clothing for Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 claiming that they were not paid the legal minimum wage, not permitted to take holidays off and were forced to work overtime. They said their employer had withheld the first three months of all workers' pay, almost making them indentured servants because the company refused to pay the money if they quit. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
Workers making toys for Wal-Mart in Chinas Guangdong Province reported that they would have to meet a quota of painting 8,900 toy pieces in an eight hour shift in order to earn the stated wage of $3.45 a day. If they failed to meet that quota, the factory would only pay them $1.23 for a days work. [China Labor Watch, December 21, 2005]
Elsewhere workers producing goods for Wal-Mart also face appalling conditions, despite Wal-Marts factory inspection program
Workers from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Swaziland brought a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 asserting that the companys codes of conduct were violated in dozens of ways. They said they were often paid less than the legal minimum wage and did not receive mandated time-and-a-half for overtime, and some said they were beaten by managers and were locked in their factories. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
A female apparel worker in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said she was locked into the factory and did not have a day off in her first six months. She said she was told if she refused to work the required overtime, she would be fired. Another worker said her supervisor attacked her by slapping her face so hard that her nose began bleeding simply because she was unable to meet her high quota. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
In 2004, only 8 percent of Wal-Mart inspectors visits to factories were unannounced, giving supervisors the chance to coach workers what to say and hide violations. Wal-Mart claimed it planned to double unannounced visits by its inspectors but that would still leave 80 percent of inspections announced. [CFO Magazine, August 2005]
A former Wal-Mart executive James Lynn has sued the company claiming he was fired because he warned the company that an inspection manager was intimidating underlings into passing Central American suppliers. Lynn documented forced pregnancy tests, 24-hour work shifts, extreme heat, pat-down searches, locked exits, and other violations of the labor laws of these Central American countries. [New York Times, July 1, 2005 and James Lynn to Odair Violim, April 28, 2002, www.nclnet.org]
they will have a total of 2 aircraft carriers in 2020 supposedly : which means it will be 2030 to 2040 before they are capable of actually using them in combat.
Great point, let's all hope that China enjoys the usual success that copycat nations obtain from their abject theft of military plans.
I think that Taiwan will have absorbed the mainland before these IOCs
Let us hope so, Verlaine. Nothing could be more fitting.
#8
China's ability to build such offensive weapons relies upon our (i.e., Wal-Mart's), continued financing of their statist military-industrial complex. Any questions?
#9
Z: China's ability to build such offensive weapons relies upon our (i.e., Wal-Mart's), continued financing of their statist military-industrial complex. Any questions?
We'll have to agree to disagree here. Wal Mart, K Mart, and just about every American retailer out there sources mainly from China because that's where the costs are lowest, and the quality is acceptable to American consumers. If we want to make China a less attractive place to source stuff, a simple remedy is to place a 200% across-the-board tariff on Chinese-made products. That would immediately move a lot of production out of China.
The other thing to beware of is Chinese estimates. The Chinese can build roads and other relatively simple things using old technology freely licensed from the West quickly and reliably. Complicated things are another matter altogether. They can't even rip off Russian engines, of which they have working copies in their air force, and Russian designers in their employ, reliably. They believe they can make working copies of two Russian aircraft carriers. I know why they have that belief - it's because their Han Chineseness (i.e. yellowness) will overcome all obstacles. Anyone else who shares that belief has been watching too much Chinese propaganda.
Take, for instance, earth-moving equipment. China has earth-moving equipment companies. Given that, why does most of the equipment I see at construction sites in China bear names like Hyundai, Hitachi, Caterpillar, and an assortment of other developed country brand names? This stuff isn't anywhere as complicated as an aircraft carrier, and Chinese heavy industry firms have revenues in the billions of dollars a year.
#10
Note also that the EU, which has a smaller economy than the US, is importing about the same amount of stuff (in dollar terms) from China as the US imports from China. Further, the EU doesn't have a significant Wal Mart presence.
Wal Mart's success isn't the result of imports from China. Rather, Wal Mart is successful, so it is the biggest single importer of products, from just about anywhere in the world, and the biggest buyer for many domestically-made consumer products as well. Why is Wal Mart a whipping boy? Because it started out displacing mom-and-pop stores and wiping out local elites who got rich overcharging consumers in little out-of-the-way places in flyover country. These local elites might not be talented at keeping their businesses going, but they sure are vocal. Then you get the limo liberals who wouldn't be caught dead shopping in a Wal Mart, and aren't happy that the great unwashed get to buy the same stuff that they do, but at lower prices. It's not enough to be rich - others must not be able to afford your toys.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/29/2007 6:08 Comments ||
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#12
Hey, if they were not working on Wal-Mart stuff, they'd be building aircraft carriers, right?
Besides, Japanese autos are the reason American cars are as good as they are today. I owned a 1972 Camero and a 1976 Plymouth Volare.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/29/2007 6:31 Comments ||
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#13
Your comments are ALMOST spot on, ZF. I agree that Walmart bashing is largely unjustified and unproductive. I especially like your comments about why limo leftists hate Walmart.
I would take issue with your tariff solution. This has NEVER worked out well for the U.S. It precipitated the Civil War and was a major factor in making the Great Depression as bad as it was.
The ONLY solution to the problem is for the American worker to wake up and realize that the standard of living and level of wages that he/she had in 1954 was the result of a unique set of economic, military, and political circumstances that NEVER existed before in the history of the world (and NEVER will again) and is NOT the birthright of every American who shows up at a job 40 hours a week.
If and when this sea change in attitude happens, and non and semiskilled labor work in a non-unionized fashion and are paid wages that are more in line with historically reasonable levels, then it will not pay for companies to offshore jobs.
Mangement has not changed, despite union propaganda to the otherwise. What has changed is that workers in the U.S. and Euroland expect to live very good lifestyles in exchange for doing work that by any historical standards doesn't justify said lifestyles.
Since there aren't any politicians in either major party who have the sack to tell this incontrovertible truth to the American public, it is unlikely that government will be the force that will bring about the attitudinal change. It will be up to the invisible hand to make this happen, which means it could happen next week or in 20 years. But happen it must.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/29/2007 6:41 Comments ||
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#14
Zhang Fei, right you are regarding China industrial "potential".
It's not enough to be rich - others must not be able to afford your toys.
How about: It's not enough to be well off, you must be rich--meaning others must not be able to afford your toys. "Rich" means compared to something, implicitly.
Redneck Jim, LOL! You don't get it! A great deal of innovation is planned. They would be submersible aircraft carriers! ;-)
#15
The Chinese history with naval reactors does not give confidence that this carrier will ever leave port. Their SSBN has never left Chinese waters. Its missiles are a threat only to Beijing.
The Chinese ability to copy Russian technology is also suspect.
Consider the SU-30 Flankers. Russia sold licenses to both India and China. It withheld technology transfer of the AL-31 engines to China (but not to India) and shipped assembled engines to the Chinese.
The Chinese tried to copy the engines but can't. They've now bought hundreds of Al-31s. They tried to develop their own Mig-29 engine copy and that isn't going to well either. They have to buy RD-33 engines for the JC-1 planes it wants to export.
As for the Flankers themselves, the first Chinese assembled ones could not get into the air. The Russians had to send technicians to reassemble the aircraft.
Having never operated a carrier, making the jump to a nuclear one will be a challenge.
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/29/2007 6:53 Comments ||
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#16
Yeah, but the hafta keep up with the Mad Mullahs new infidel-crushing superweapons.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/29/2007 6:59 Comments ||
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#17
Zhang Fei, I'll need to come back later in order to make a proper reply. Your reparte, as usual, is of the highest quality. Please count yourself amongst the most favorite of my peers here at Rantburg.
#23
I thought part of the reason the price of Chinese goods was so low is because they dump the endless stream of [government subsidized] shipping containers at this end, passing on the cost of storing/shipping out the empty containers to their American customers?
The worst thing we could do to any of our enemies is hand them a Nimitz-class carrier and watch them bankrupt themselves trying to operate the damn thing.
Carrier ops takes a culture with an emphasis on safety, willingness to analyze and correct mistakes, and ability to hand responsibility to lower-ranked sailors. Not sure the Chinese score real high on any of those accounts.
#27
It's one thing to build an Aircraft Carrier but it's a whole nother game to run Aircraft operations onboard an Aircraft at sea and a further step to project that force. The PLN is a larger "Costal" force but they can't operate much outside their waters. The French have had the "Chuck de Gag" carrier for years and you can count on one hand how many times it has deployed. It will be decades before they become proficient enough to project power. On a Historical note the former USSR began building Carriers just before the whole political system went kaput.
#28
TW: I thought part of the reason the price of Chinese goods was so low is because they dump the endless stream of [government subsidized] shipping containers at this end, passing on the cost of storing/shipping out the empty containers to their American customers?
The major reason is that Chinese pay is low. (The reason I only say pay is that Chinese rents are higher than some East Asian countries with higher wages). Very low. In the bustling coastal regions, we're looking at factory wages of about $100 a month for an 9-hour day six-day week.
How are wages so low? Are they being exploited by foreigners? They're low partly because productivity is low and partly because domestic employers in non-export industries pay even less. We're looking at pay as low as $25 a month.
How do they live on so little? China is huge and sparsely-populated compared to most East Asian and European countries. Land in China is cheap. A three-bedroom condo twenty km from the town center in a relatively wealthy coastal area might cost $10,000.
Taxes are minimal for low wage workers. A worker with a $100 salary will take home $100. Meat is relatively expensive, given their salaries, but still affordable - a pound of chicken or lean pork (the Chinese staple meat) is about $1 a pound. Vegetables cost next to nothing - typical prices are about $0.15 a pound. A one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of town costs about $12.50 a month. Power and water cost about $10 a month.
Bottom line is that these low costs are the reason that China is somewhat competitive in the export sector. Why is China competitive on these other costs? Because while it does have a number of monopolies still, it has dismantled a good many more than some of its potential competitors, like India and Pakistan. Take phone rates - why are Verizon's rates to India and Pakistan $0.31 and $0.33 respectively, whereas the rate to China is only $0.15? The two South Asian countries are simply more wedded to crony capitalism, where friends of the country's rulers get special treatment at the expense of the rest of the population.
#29
..They're forgetting that in order to have a USEFUL carrier, you've gota be able to defend the damn thing - that is going to take at the very least a couple of world-class missile cruisers (ideally CGNs - if not, you've got to have an efficient, robust replenishment train, something Communist navies were never very good at), DDGs, and ASW forces. Then you get to practice, practice, practice, practice and practice some more - and it had better be realistic, again something Communist miltaries are not at ALL good at.
Then they need to remember the United States Navy wrote the book on carrier warfare with the finest ships and weapons ever built, run by the best trained professional minds who ever got to play with this stuff. We figured out every possible way the Russians (outnumbering us 2-3 to one in aircraft and ships)could come after us. I guarantee the Chinese don't have the slightest clue as to what we're capable of throwing at a CVBG, especially one that will end up staying very close to shore anyways, beacuse that's a lot of firepower to leave in the hands of one captain far from the motherland.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/29/2007 13:11 Comments ||
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#30
Carrier ops takes a culture with an emphasis on safety, willingness to analyze and correct mistakes, and ability to hand responsibility to lower-ranked sailors.
Exactly right. I would add that a willingness to analyze performance and push responsibility down the chain are almost totally incompatible with any tyrrany--Communits, Fascist, Ba'athist, you name it. The only tyrrany that ever operated an aircraft carrier successfully was Imperial Japan--which did it by developing a small, elite, rigorously-trained corps of pilots and a small, elite, rigorously-trained corps of air department personnel to service the planes. The IJN had a lot of operational proficiency, but only as long as the battle went according to plan. They couldn't handle unexpected adversity very well; damage control, among other things, was a serious weakness. At Midway, the biggest loss for the IJN was not so much the pilots (most survived Midway, but got kiled off later in the Solomons) as it was the loss of the carriers themselves and the hangar crews. (Read Shattered Sword for the full explanation.) Neither was replacable quickly enough to affect the course of the war.
I suspect the Chinese will run into some of the same issues. A qualified carrier crew which is the equal of the USN will have personality traits that make them politically suspect.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/29/2007 13:14 Comments ||
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#31
It's not the PLN, it's the PLAN. That may end up explaining a lot of the probelm.
#32
In response to Cyber Sarge, yes towards the end of the Soviet Union, there was an attempt to build full sized carriers. Not one full sized carrier was completed by the Soviets, and the carriers that were built fall into the Harrier carrier class. The reason that this is so important is that there has NEVER been a completed Soviet-designed full carrier, and there has NEVER been a completed shakedown cruise of said carrier. Even countries that have built carriers in the past can blow it big time : the UpChuck De Gag by the Frenchies being a prime example. Anyone with a shipyard can by brute force assemble a carrier shaped object and put it to sea; the real question is, will it actually function as a carrier? Also, the Chinese record with building Soviet equipment from purchased plans does not install confidence : the examples of the PLAAF's travails with jet engine construction given before are the most obvious. However, also reference all of the open source materials regarding the abysmal quality and workmanship on the PLA's versions of the T-54/55, PT-76, MiGs, and the like.
Moreover, the Chinese were given a 20 year technology boost by the Israelis through the transfer of the cancelled Lavi fighter plans and technology in the early 1980s. The Chinese are just now putting the J-10/Q-10 series into open production {20 years later}, and they are having to do it with purchased and licensed produced Russian jet engines - the Chinese engines are crap, and the pilots have been complaining about them. Also, the Lavi was to have been the ultimate version of the F-16 series with all sorts of major improvements; what the Chinese produce is rated between the last model of the F-5/F-20 and the first model of the F-16, basically an F-16A Light.
India, Vietnam, the Phillipines, Sri Lanka, and Japan are the countries that need to be most concerned with a Chinese carrier capability; since, excluding India, none of the others have any carriers at all. Of course, the Japanese are only restrained from having a carrier fleet by the restriction imposed after WWII, not by money, technology, or ship-building expertise.
#33
Assuming that the Chinese CV is able to get underway, i agree with the various posts about trainnig and it will NOT be on a par with any US boat (except the America or Oriskany).
And on the aircraft side of things, even assuming you can get the pilots to land on the thing, simply taking a land based aircraft, sticking a tailhook on it and plunking it down on a flight deck doesn't cut it. the increased stresses of the cat shot and the trap will rip them apart. compare the basic weights of the USAF F-4 or A-7 to the USN versions and you can attribute all that increase in the navy version to structural enhancements that will allow it to live on the boat. And that doesn't begin to address the increased corrosion exposure and how that will degrade the aircraft.
#34
Shieldwolf, I would think you'd add Taiwan to your list.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
03/29/2007 15:18 Comments ||
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#35
I expect this "carrier" will spend 90% of its time in port, if it leaves at all. I still say that the best way to twist the shorts of the Chinese is to give the Japanese the old "Kitty Hawk" when she retires. They'll have three more within five years, and each will be far superior to the original. China will implode.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2007 15:42 Comments ||
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#36
It's not the PLN, it's the PLAN
Heh. This always cracked me up. PLAN is People's Liberation Army Navy, for those not in on the joke.
#38
I'm still leery about allowing the Japanese to re-arm, Their memories are very long, in fact multi-generational, I REALLY, REALLY, DON"T want to go to war with a re-armed Japan.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/29/2007 18:53 Comments ||
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#39
Redneck Jim, LOL! You don't get it! A great deal of innovation is planned. They would be submersible aircraft carriers! ;-)
Yeah, once.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/29/2007 19:01 Comments ||
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#40
I apologize if this seems to be off-topic, but Wal-Mart represents a solid 10% of our trade deficit with communist China. This is some 12 BILLION DOLLARS or more each year being poured into communist China's coffers. Lots of that money is being converted into military weapons that threaten to destabilize the entire East Asian quadrant.
If we want to make China a less attractive place to source stuff, a simple remedy is to place a 200% across-the-board tariff on Chinese-made products. That would immediately move a lot of production out of China.
Agreed, in spades.
Why is Wal Mart a whipping boy?
Wal-Mart is a parasitic and predatory business entity. They represent the dark side of barely legal but unethical capitalistic business practices. Municipalities keen on getting a big-box store sited in their neighborhood grant them huge tax-credits and other financial incentives only to find that Wal-Mart employees are so underpaid that they become a burden on the local social services network.
A Substantial Number of Wal-Mart Associates earn far below the poverty line
· In 2001, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. The 2001 poverty line for a family of three was $14,630. [Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?, Business Week, 10/6/03, US Dept of Health and Human Services 2001 Poverty Guidelines, 2001]
· A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common job, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week. This brings in annual wages of only $11,948. [Statistical Analysis of Gender Patterns in Wal-Marts Workforce, Dr. Richard Drogin 2003]
Wal-Mart Associates don't earn enough to support a family
· The average two-person family (one parent and one child) needed $27,948 to meet basic needs in 2005, well above what Wal-Mart reports that its average full-time associate earns. Wal-Mart claimed that its average associate earned $9.68 an hour in 2005. That would make the average associate's annual wages $17,114. [Basic Family Budget Calculator online at www.epinet.org]
Wage increases would cost Wal-Mart relatively little
· Wal-Mart can cover the cost of a dollar an hour wage increase by raising prices a half penny per dollar. For instance, a $2.00 pair of socks would then cost $2.01. This minimal increase would annually add up to $1,800 for each employee. [Analysis of Wal-Mart Annual Report 2005]
Wal-Mart forces employees to work off-the-clock
· Wal-Marts 2006 Annual Report reported that the company faced 57 wage and hour lawsuits. Major lawsuits have either been won or are working their way through the legal process in states such as California, Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. [Wal-Mart Annual Report 2006]
· In December 2005, a California court ordered Wal-Mart to pay $172 million in damages for failing to provide meal breaks to nearly 116,000 hourly workers as required under state law. Wal-Mart appealed the case. [The New York Times, December 23, 2005]
· A Pennsylvania court, also in December 2005, approved a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by employees in Pennsylvania who say the company pressured them to work off the clock. The class could grow to include nearly 150,000 current or former employees. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 12, 2006 ]
· In Pennsylvania, the lead plaintiff alleges she worked through breaks and after quitting time eight to 12 unpaid hours a month, on average to meet Wal-Marts work demands. One of Wal-Marts undisclosed secrets for its profitability is its creation and implementation of a system that encourages off-the-clock work for its hourly employees, Dolores Hummel, who worked at a Sams Club in Reading from 1992-2002, charged in her suit. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 12, 2006 ]
Your tax dollars pay for Wal-Mart's greed
· The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. [The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]
· One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year. This cost comes from the following, on average: o $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
o $42,000 a year for low-income housing assistance.
o $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
o $100,000 a year for the additional expenses for programs for students.
o $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP)
o $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance.
[The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]
Wal-Marts corporate greed gives capitalism a major black eye. This does not even begin to address how their presence instantly dooms dozens of neighborhood mom and pop small businesses. Small businesses that are responsible for some 90% of job creation in America. They hollow out the business communities around them and foist their employees upon the local and state social services for health care, food stamps and child care.
I can count on one hand the times Ive shopped at Wal-Mart. Im going to do my best never to shop there ever again. They represent the very worst sort of business practices and need to be boycotted by all concerned citizens.
I'll also agree with many of the posters here that are noting just how crapulent Chinese high technology is. They make Japanese copy-catting look like pure innovation. Let's all hope that their aircraft carriers follow in that mold.
I guarantee the Chinese don't have the slightest clue as to what we're capable of throwing at a CVBG, especially one that will end up staying very close to shore anyways, beacuse that's a lot of firepower to leave in the hands of one captain far from the motherland.
A qualified carrier crew which is the equal of the USN will have personality traits that make them politically suspect.
The extremely concise observations above are, more than anything else, what will likely cripple communist China's carrier aspirations. Their's is a culture which eschews placing that much power into an independent thinker's hands. Let's all hope that this proves to be true.
#41
Zenster, I usually am with you, but some of your posts here are a little off the mark. To wit:
"One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year.
This is a straw man argument if I ever saw one. Even if you assume this is entirely true (and considering the source I'd say it is highly suspect), this number has to be weighed against the costs of not having the store. These costs would include higher prices for goods and services at mom and pop stores that were equally without competition in the pre-Wallyworld environment, more people on public assistance who have no job at all and so place an even higher burden on the taxpayer, higher costs for hardware and other goods not only to end user consumers but also to contractors and other businesses in the area which gets built into the cost of every service in the private sector, gas costs driving to several of those mom and pop stores,etc. I can't present any exact figures but I can pretty much guarantee that those costs are much, much higher than the ones incurred assisting people working at Wallyworld.
And where does THIS:
"The average two-person family (one parent and one child)"
come from? The average TWO PERSON family????????? Why didn't they choose the more accurate phrase "single parent household"? The fact that they didn't makes the whole quote less credible. That's lawyerese, not plainspeak. Entrepreneurship is somehow morally and ethically required to cater to and promote this arrangement? Bullshit.
Look, I'm not on the same page as Walmart for everything they do. Like any business, there are areas that could be critiqued. But the whole "Walmart is Satan" thing is a bit tedious at this point. There's a lot of good in their business model and a lot of bad things in the models with which it competes. Fix the bad parts of Wallyworld and leave the good ones.
I get weepy eyed for the mom and pop stores of my youth, for any of a number of reasons, but that business model is not the predominant one, and probably won't be for most goods ever again, so we all should just get over it and move on as soon as possible.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/29/2007 20:19 Comments ||
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#42
You make some good points, no mo uro, but I take issue with this one:
higher costs for hardware and other goods not only to end user consumers but also to contractors and other businesses in the area
Businesses and especially contractors shop at wholesale distributors, not at a retail outlet (albeit a low priced one) like Wal-Mart.
While the above numbers may be incorrect, they still reflect a predatory business model and that simply is not ethical. Why does their average employee work only 29 hours a week? Simply because 30 hours or more entitles a worker to benefits. Wal-Mart is not creating viable careers for their employees. While that may be their legal right, it does not strike me as very ethical. Communities are not just built on jobs, they are built on careers. Careers that have a future and can actually support someone with a living wage. Wal-Mart falls far too short in all of these respects to deserve any credit.
By directing so much of its business to communist China, Wal-Mart assists in the hollowing out this world's industrial economy. Military hegemony aside, communist China still continues to stand as one massive violation of human rights and the less business done with them, the better.
#43
Z: While the above numbers may be incorrect, they still reflect a predatory business model and that simply is not ethical. Why does their average employee work only 29 hours a week? Simply because 30 hours or more entitles a worker to benefits. Wal-Mart is not creating viable careers for their employees. While that may be their legal right, it does not strike me as very ethical. Communities are not just built on jobs, they are built on careers. Careers that have a future and can actually support someone with a living wage. Wal-Mart falls far too short in all of these respects to deserve any credit.
Again, we'll have to agree to disagree. Wal Mart's business lies in providing the same kinds of things that mom and pop stores used to provide to their customers for the lowest price possible. It is not to provide a career path for its workers. How many mom-and-pop stores did that?
Lest you think that Wal Mart the giant corporation has a greater social obligation than mom-and-pop stores, let me remind you that large corporations are little more than an agglomeration of mom-and-pop businesses with a lot of management cut out. This is what economies of scale are all about. You cut out a lot of middle managers and pass the savings on to the consumer.
Providing upward mobility to all of its employees is not what retail stores are all about. Not everyone can become a manager. It's not to do with the company being mean or anything - there's just not enough spots available.
As to workers working a low average number of hours, a lot of that is workers gaming the system. But keeping the amount of money they earn below a certain threshold, they become eligible for up to $10,000 in government benefits, ranging from food stamps, housing stipends to Medicaid.
*All* workers in low-end retail (and other low-wage, low-productivity jobs) - including those in mom-and-pop stores - game the system for benefits. If you want everyone to not have to deal with this, just have the minimum wage raised to $12 an hour. The problem is that this type of wage inflation would lead simply to prices rising to keep pace. The key problem with low-end retail, as far as wage rates go, isn't that stores like Wal Mart, K Mart, Dollar General, Albertson's, et al, pay too little, but that productivity is low. And there's not a lot that can be done to raise productivity - it's inherent to low-end retailing.
#44
I don't agree that it's a hollowing out at all.
What we are experiencing in our lifetimes is the final steps in leveling the labor industry on a planetwide scale. Finally, all laborers will be exposed to all others in competitive fashion. Nothing could be better for humanity, or for capitalism.
By shredding away barriers like lack of education and training, tariffs, and geography, a globalized, truly free (vs America in 1954) labor market lifts up the workers in squalor in 3rd world countries by providing them with greater opportunities than they would have otherwise. Simultaneously, it smashes down the greed of laborers (particularly unions) in those long-time industrial countries where they have been overpaid (on any historical basis) for the past 50 years.
Screw protectionism. It's time laborers in the West got exposed to some real competition, and to believe otherwise is the kind of nationalism (racism?) that has nothing good about it. Sorry, but it isn't the '50's any more, and it won't ever be again, no matter what the Dems and Repubs are trying to sell. Standards of living are going to have to be attenuated for many folks - the invisible hand will not be denied.
And this isn't to be taken as a condoning of everything about the Chinese. One can appreciate the forces bringing about the globalization of the labor industry and simultaneously critique China, or any other nation, for that matter, without any hypocrisy at all. I certainly have a laundry list of thing s I don't like about that regime. But 200% tariff and attacking Wallyworld isn't the anwer.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/29/2007 22:04 Comments ||
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#45
What ZF said. Every word.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/29/2007 22:05 Comments ||
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#46
Providing upward mobility to all of its employees is not what retail stores are all about.
Nowhere do I say that any enterprise is obliged to do so. I just happen to take issue with a large corporate entity like Wal-Mart that exhibits such a distinct lack of ethics. I also maintain that by doing such a vast amount of business with a nation that unfairly manipulates its currency, Wal-Mart assists China in its destruction of America's and many other nations' industrial manufacturing base. I protest this unacceptable conduct by not giving them any of my business.
#47
Z: Wal-Mart is a parasitic and predatory business entity. They represent the dark side of barely legal but unethical capitalistic business practices. Municipalities keen on getting a big-box store sited in their neighborhood grant them huge tax-credits and other financial incentives only to find that Wal-Mart employees are so underpaid that they become a burden on the local social services network.
Wal Mart employees are certainly paid far less than carpenters and plumbers. But are they paid less than other companies selling similar products in the low-end* retail industry? That's what this laundry list of second-hand complaints hides. My impression is that the people compiling the list are engaging in distortion by means of selective disclosure. What is industry practice? Is it truly a shame that Wal Mart pays low wages? Or are Wal Mart's wages merely the industry average?
* Comparability is key. It's unfair to compare a retailer that sells nail clippers to Saks. Or Costco, which doesn't carry nail clippers and sells mainly higher-end items in bulk to more affluent customers either able to afford the cash or access credit cards that enable them to make large purchases. (These customers are buying wholesale, which isn't what Wal Mart's less affluent customers do). Or to unionized retailers. (By the way, how many mom-and-pop stores are unionized)?
#48
And this isn't to be taken as a condoning of everything about the Chinese. One can appreciate the forces bringing about the globalization of the labor industry and simultaneously critique China, or any other nation, for that matter, without any hypocrisy at all.
I actually agree with you. Instead of any tariff, I'd rather see China be forced to re-evaluate its currency to it real worth. China refuses to do so and effectively becomes a criminal enterprise. The shipping container scam alone is solid evidence of China's ill intent.
#49
I haven't even mentioned the possible skills and education gap. Could the average Wal Mart employee even get hired at Saks or Costco? All the way through the laundry lists I've seen via Google searches, I was thinking of all the factors they left out in their critiques of Wal Mart.
First off, the stuff about Chinese workers being exploited is a little problematic, because nobody forces them to work there. In addition, the wages paid by Wal Mart's suppliers are up to 4 times as high as the wages paid by domestic non-export-oriented companies.
Second, the stuff about Wal Mart exploiting workers in the US is a little disingenuous, because it's the nature of low-end retail. They are selling low-end products that require few selling skills. They are non-unionized*, which isn't a crime, the last I heard. Neither were the workers at most mom-and-pops that Wal Mart replaced. And the management positions at mom-and-pop's tended to be filled with trusted family members, so it's not as if they were a font of job advancement opportunities for stock clerks.
Third, the idea that Wal Mart is to be blamed because it imports a lot of stuff from China is a little inverted. It imports from there because that's where the industry suppliers are for clothing, shoes, et al. It imports from there for the same reason that Nike and Reebok make their shoes there, and K Mart and Dollar General source their products there. It can import from other higher-cost places and go out of business, but some other company would simply pick up the baton, learn from the lessons of Wal Mart's demise (never accept business advice from people who have no skin in the game) and start sourcing in China all over again.
* I tend to think of unionization as a legal form of extortion. If some workers can be part of a union, then all workers ought to be part of a union. But that's not what current union members want - since unionization only benefits its members when a select elite gets to extract an economic surplus from the rest of the population. If everyone else gets their pound of flesh, union members are no better off than they would be if they weren't unionized. In fact, they would be worse off, since they have to pay dues to support the parasitic union leaders in the style to which they have become accustomed - in return for no advantage over the average working stiff, since everyone else in this union shop world also gets his piece of the action, meaning all prices go up.
#50
The Harrier (and like models) is a nice enough support plane, and good enough against third world countries, but to have a chance against someone good, you really need fixed-wing fighters.
The difficulty there is that you need a catapult to launch them. AFAIK, only two countries in the world (guess who) have ever deployed successful catapults. Japan never did in WWII. France ended up buying from the US (I think; maybe the UK). The USSR/Russia never solved the problem.
Of course, a future Democrat administration would sell them the technology, but they still need the machine tools and process control to make the things.
Then, as others have noted, you need the "ground" crews to handle the planes, and the aviators to fly them.
Japan on Wednesday launched a new, elite military unit to counter terrorism and assist with the countrys growing defence role overseas. The 3,200-strong Combat Readiness Force was formed some two months after officially pacifist Japan created its first full-fledged defence ministry since World War II. The force will include specialists on biochemical weapons and a sub-unit, to be operational by March next year, that can be deployed to face terrorist attacks against Japanese cities. It will also train troops on peacekeeping missions and serve as an advance team for deployments overseas. Japan in January upgraded overseas operations to consider them a core mission of the armed forces. Deployments abroad had earlier been considered extraordinary, meaning that each one needed parliamentary approval. Prime Minister Shinzo Abes cabinet on Tuesday approved the first deployment since the change, sending a handful of defence personnel to help monitor the ceasefire ending Nepals civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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It's hard to believe, but that's what we're hearing from Capitol Hill. A resolution has been proposed in the House of Representatives that condemns Iran for the seizure of British sailors and marines, expresses support for our British allies. It's hard to see anything controversial in that. But apparently, the resolution has languished all week while Pelosi refuses to allow it to come to the floor.
Earlier today, Congressman Eric Cantor wrote the following letter to Pelosi:
Dear Madam Speaker:
Fifteen kidnapped British marines and sailors recently became the latest victims of a systematic Iranian campaign of terror and international defiance. The illegal seizure of the British forces is a signal that Iran views us as powerless to prevent it from realizing its aggressive ambitions.
For the sake of our standing in the world, our allies and most importantly the 15 British personnel and their families, I urge you to bring H. Res. 267 to the floor today before we adjourn. The resolution calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the British marines and sailors. It would also call on the U.N. Security Council to not only condemn the seizure, but to explore harsher sanctions to counter the growing Iranian threat.
A Republican Congressional staffer writes:
It is simply staggering to me that Pelosi refuses to stand beside America's closest ally. I literally would not have thought this possible, until I saw it this week.
Staggering, indeed. We'll see what happens this afternoon.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/29/2007 16:00 ||
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#2
Disgusting, but not surprising. If Pelosi & Co. don't support our own country, why would they support our allies. Besides to even consider the idea is to give credence to what the evil Bushitler(tm) is trying to do against Islamic terrorists.
#3
It is simply staggering to me that Pelosi refuses to stand beside America's closest ally. I literally would not have thought this possible, until I saw it this week.
I'm assuming that's just rhetoric on his part. Her behavior doesn't surprise me in the least. *spit*
#4
Two Questions
1 Who elected her? just what state or district is responsible?
2 Any possibility of a recall?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/29/2007 19:12 Comments ||
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#5
Why recall when just today another opening came up for the Granola State. So they can double their pleasure ( and our agony).
C'mon fabled fault line, please hurry and sink that morass.......
#6
Redneck Jim, California elected Pelosi (under what rock have you been the last few months, dude? Haven't you heard? She's the first female Speaker of the House ever!). I believe she's in the 11th House District (can't be sure).
#9
Pelosi problem: They included language in the House bill that Bush must go before Congress if he wants to do anything exciting against Iran.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2007 20:48 Comments ||
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#10
FOTSGreg, Pelosi is from California's 8th, basically San Francisco. The Bay area has spawned California's terrible trio, Pelosi, Feinstein (formerly mayor of SF), and Boxer (formerly Congressperson from CA 8th, Marin & Sonoma counties). Must be something in the water, or more likely the air up there.
#11
Radical Iran, the US- and World-acknowledged State bigwig in Radical Islamist Terror, is an innocent victim of Dubya's-USA's "Fascist" arrogance, aggression and wanton reckless imperialism. WANTON = WON TON > D ***ng, I could go for Chinese take-out for lunch right now.
#5
Anyone worried about the kinetic energy associated with a antiship missile used against an aircraft carrier automatically disqualifies themselves as a credible source. You don't worry about tertiary efffects.
#7
ENTERPRISE is a famous, illustrious name in both the US and Royal Navies [as well as in the running to be the future name of Earth's first Starship, Battlestar + Death Star, etc].
In a lengthy, five paragraph "editors' note" published on Sunday, the New York Times conceded that Amorita Randall, one of the woman featured prominently in the March 18 New York Times Magazine cover story, "The Women's War" about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the alleged sexual abuse of female soldiers in Iraq, in fact did not serve in Iraq as the story contended.
Sara Corbett had written in the article which featured a page-and-a-half-sized picture of Randall on a sofa: "Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury." Earlier, Corbett relayed how "'saying something was looked down upon,' says Amorita Randall, who served in Iraq in 2004 with the Navy, explaining why she did not report what she says was a rape by a petty officer at a naval base on Guam shortly before she was deployed to Iraq."
The March 25 editors' note concluded with strong suggestions of mental issues surrounding Randall: "It is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq. If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article."
In fact, as FNC's Brit Hume pointed out in his Monday "Grapevine" segment: "The Navy says it warned the magazine that Amorita Randall may not have ever been in Iraq, before the story was printed, a warning the Times disputes it got. The Navy says it established that the woman had never been in Iraq on March 12 -- that six days before the story's release. The Times could have pulled the magazine, which had been printed, or at least put a correction in the news section of the paper. Or it could have changed the online version of the article. It did none of those things. Instead readers had to wait until yesterday -- a full week after the story came out -- to learn the truth."
This wasn't the first embarrassing mess-up in the past year by the New York Times Magazine. Clay Waters of the MRC's TimesWatch recalled on Monday how in January "a pro-abortion story from El Salvador," run last April, "backfired when one of its main scary anecdotes about the harsh anti-abortion laws in that country turned out to be absolutely false." For more, go to: www.timeswatch.org
Clay also pointed out how the Marine Corps Times chided the paper for insufficient fact-checking on the Randall case:
The Navy, while expressing sympathy to a woman it believes is suffering from stress, is annoyed that the Times did so little to check the woman's story. A Times fact checker contacted Navy headquarters only three days before the magazine's deadline. That, said Capt. Tom Van Leunen, deputy chief of information for the Navy, did not provide enough time to confirm Randall's account of service in Iraq. Nonetheless, Van Leunen said, by deadline the Navy had provided enough information to the Times 'to seriously question whether she'd been in Iraq.'
Aaron Rectica, who runs the magazine's research desk, disputes that. He said that by deadline, the Navy had not given the Times any reason to disbelieve Randall's claim of service in Iraq. Rectica said the Navy only told the paper that Randall's commanders believed she'd been in Iraq but that no one in the unit had been in combat.
#1
" A Times fact checker contacted Navy headquarters only three days before the magazine's deadline." Why would the NYT attempt to discredit a story that fits neatly into it's percption of the Military? Just ANOTHER reason not to subscribe the U.S. version of Pravda.
#3
Why would the NYT attempt to discredit a story that fits neatly into it's percption of the Military?
Exactly. If it fits their agenda all the "rules" of journalism (basic fact-checking, vetting sources, holding a story until those processes are complete, etc.) go out the window, knowing that a correction can be published after the fact (on page H-13 among the public legal notices).
#7
So those who paid for their paper can get a refund for the active participation in commercial fraud? Last time I checked, most businesses can't claim ignorance or immunity even if they use material supplied by sub-contractors. They sold lies and just like any other interstate business which engages in such practices they should be subject to punitive action.
Heartwarming tale of well-deserved torment...
An anti-American anti-war group, Code Pink, is hounding Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at almost every stop she makes on the campaign trail, hitting her again yesterday as she joined other candidates in seeking a union endorsement.
Standing in front of the Capitol Hill Hyatt Regency, the group made its presence known, inviting a sea of union members from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to go back downstairs and kiss Hillarys a--.
While the group of laborers, enjoying cigarettes between speakers at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) forum, looked on with bemused interest, the protesters sang songs and waved signs advising Clinton not to buy Bushs war. "Bemused interest"? That ain't the IBEW I know...
They won't hit wimmen ...
Although they rarely show up at an event in large numbers, the pink-clad protesters do make their presence known with persistent nuttiness persistence and insanity intensity.
As The Hill reported last week, former President Bill Clinton all but acknowledged his wifes glaring vulnerabilities stemming from her vote for the Iraq war authorization in 2002 by offering an animated and full-throated defense of her decision. That vote and her refusal to apologize for it, combined with continued votes for the war-funding bill, has spurred the anti-war crowd to make itself a thorn in Sen. Clintons side at most every campaign event. While the crowd at the CWA forum repeatedly rewarded Clintons Tuesday morning speech with standing ovations, Code Pinks presence was noticed and mentioned by the labor brass present.
We dont need that to be the focus of the news today, CWAs secretary-treasurer, Barbara Easterling, told the group. One of Code Pinks communist co-founders, Gael Murphy, said the group has been following Clinton for almost two years and will continue to do so until she introduces legislation to bring American soldiers home from Iraq. Murphy said it was likely the group would protest Clinton and other candidates at this mornings forum sponsored by the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.
Hildebeast can't buy this kind of advertising.
We think its important to put pressure on her as one of the most important politicians in the United States, Murphy said. Murphy said not even an apology for the 2002 vote, like the one rival candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has given, would appease the group. Shes welcome to apologize, and it would be great to hear her apologize, Murphy said, adding that the group would only be satisfied with a candidate who will sincerely demonstrate his or her commitment to ending the occupation of Iraq.
Murphy said the group has been targeting a number of candidates, including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), at whose Chicago field office it has been conducting weekly sit-ins. But Clintons front-runner status has made her a marked woman for anti-war candidates. Clintons campaign did not return phone calls from The Hill Tuesday, but President Clinton hardly was shy in his wifes defense last week, questioning the fairness of media reporting on Sen. Clintons votes.
Its just not fair to say that people who voted for the resolution wanted war, the former president said last week. Murphy said this weeks vote on supplemental funding for the Iraq war is an opportunity for Clinton to start making her way back into the groups good graces. Don't forget to pluck out her liver while you're at it...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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Do NOT forget the stake through her heart, hardwood is best.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/29/2007 6:07 Comments ||
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#2
Methinks this is the type of red on red activity that the gathering of eagles would not wish to counterprotest. ;)
Just saying...
Posted by: DanNY ||
03/29/2007 8:09 Comments ||
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President Bill Clinton all but acknowledged his wifes glaring vulnerabilities stemming from her vote for the Iraq war authorization in 2002 by offering an animated and full-throated defense of her decision.
9/11 was a joint Bush administration/Israeli operation. It is time America to wake up and smell the thermite!- Posted on the 9/11 Truth page of www.DevalPatrick.com
You dont have to be a clueless, conspiracy-obsessed moonbat to support Deval Patrick. But it sure doesnt hurt.
Deval Patricks official grassroots political Web site was launched with great fanfare by Team Patrick. Its purpose is to energize Patricks grassroots base as he confronts the evil Beacon Hill insiders who dont share his desire to shaft businesses and kill jobs - or as he puts it, bring economic justice and close loopholes.
Massachusetts corporate tax policy is an important issue, to be sure. But inspiring? Somehow I dont see Liberals Against Loopholes! clogging the hallways of the State House. Will angry mobs really gather to shout Two, four, six, eight. Change the way capital-intensive, multistate, non-LLC businesses depreciate!
Probably not.
So how do you motivate your key activists? Traditional political machines had patronage and payola. What grassroots organizations need is passion, passions that come from pushing hot-button issues. Not corporate taxes or government reform, but issues like same-sex marriage, abortion rights and, of course, Bush-bashing, conspiratorial paranoid delusions.
Or as its known at www.DevalPatrick.com, 9/11 Truth Is The Key To Ending This War.
Youll find the 9/11 conspiracy page on Patricks Web site somewhere between Making Renewable Energy Work in the Commonwealth and More Funding to Public Education. The 100 or so postings you find there represent the worst of the worst of far-left irrationality and unadulterated kookery:
The Bush Crime Syndicate MUST be stopped, (emphasis theirs) reads one entry.
Controlled demolition. Clearly, reads another, referring to the theory that the World Trade Center was brought down by bombs (almost certainly planted by the Mossad), not by the two planes that flew out of Logan Airport that morning.
While some DevalPatrick.com posters are dispirited (It is the birth of the 4th riech [sic] and we have no one to protect us.), many are grateful for the forum Gov. Patrick and his campaign dollars give the 9/11 truth.
Thank you SO much for speaking up about this. I am proud to have you in office and actually standing up for this, writes Nicole in Lawrence.
Nicoles entire name and most of her address is easily accessible at Patricks Web site, by the way, and, according to the secretary of state, may violate privacy laws. This Big Brother approach seems at odds with the tinfoil-hat-and-shortwave-in-the-basement sensibilities of the content.
Patricks defenders say that the postings on DevalPatrick.com have nothing to do with Deval Patrick, the governor. Its a blog, they point out, and once you register, what you post is your business.
Really? So if some homophobic kook starts a Why Gays Deserve to Die From AIDS discussion on the governors Web site, hell leave that one up, too?
Of course not.
This is his campaign, his money, his name. And yet, as of this writing, the governor has chosen to leave this vile, anti-Semitic, America-bashing 9/11 idiocy up for five days. Its been debated on my radio show, written about in the Boston Herald, and the entire Web site is monitored by the staff of his committee. Why is this nonsense still there?
The conspiracy theorist in me suggests that Patrick needs these netroot nuts so much, hes willing to abide their anger. They may be irrational and hateful, but they show up at campaign events. They send e-mails. They call legislators.
Broader political pressure may eventually force Patrick to dump these losers, but for the moment, your local dose of Bush Blew Up The World Trade Center moonbattery is proudly sponsored by the Deval Patrick Committee.
President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress lurched toward a veto showdown over Iraq on Wednesday, the commander in chief demanding a replenishment of war funding with no strings and Speaker Nancy Pelosi counseling him, "Calm down, take a breath." Bush said imposition of a "specific and random date of withdrawal would be disastrous" for U.S. troops in Iraq and he predicted that lawmakers would take the blame if the money ran short. "The clock is ticking for our troops in the field," he said. "If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on the front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible."
Bush spoke as the Senate moved toward passage of legislation that would require the beginning of a troop withdrawal within 120 days, and would set a goal of March 31, 2008, for its completion. The House approved a more sweeping measure last week, including a mandatory withdrawal deadline for nearly all combat troops of Sept. 1, 2008. Both bills would provide more than $90 billion to sustain military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After passage, the next step would be a House-Senate compromise measure almost certain to include conditions that Bush has said he finds objectionable, and the president's remarks seemed designed to lay the political groundwork for a veto showdown with the new Democratic majority later this spring.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
D ***ng it, them Commie Paratroopers ala RED DAWN were landing becuz they were invited to a Malibu beach barbecue, and then shot up the Midwest becuz no beer + bikini babes showed up as promised???
#2
While stumbling around Congress.org, I discovered this little gem of a letter to Ms. Madam Speaker Pelosi:
Subject: I am Loyal Democrat - Your Manifesto
To: Rep. Nancy Pelosi
March 28, 2007
I am Loyal Democrat.
I will take the side of any entity that declares itself to be an enemy of the United States. I will consider any action taken by my government to be improper, and defend the position of any nation that opposes my own. I will not stand by while the concepts of freedom and liberty are allowed to infect the thoughts of repressed peoples. Rather, I will combat such efforts and convince the slaves of dictatorships that they have it better than anyone else.
I am Loyal Democrat.
I will tell all Americans that they had 9/11 coming as retribution for all of our evil deeds inflicted upon members of the most peaceful religion on earth. I will work to undermine any effort to destroy the Islamic tidal wave of terror that has vowed to wash onto our beaches. I will strive to weaken our military as it attempts to carry out its mission overseas. I shall encourage total surrender to any foe that threatens us.
I am Loyal Democrat.
I shall stir up domestic unrest by separating my fellow citizens into groups, and then I will encourage each group to distrust the next, and convince each that I am their one true friend. Through this magnificent deception, I will rule them all. I will convince minorities that they are inferior, and that they need my special help to succeed in life. Once I have them suspicious of others and fully demoralized, I will keep them down, and make their every gain dependent on what I decide to let them do. I shall oppress minorites worse than any avowed racist could ever hope to.
I am Loyal Democrat.
I will make every effort to criticize people that achieve, to hinder those that aspire, and ridicule those that display self-worth. In spite of my lack of personal merit, I will elevate myself in the eyes of others by bringing people with actual character down. I will prey on people's envy of others' success, and I will gain undeserved power as a result. I will take from those that earn until they lose the motivation to build up mankind any longer.
I am Loyal Democrat.
I will promote the tyranny of socialism, and crush the only economic system that has advanced mankind. And when we are all financially destitute and controlled by an omnipotent government, I shall laugh at the destruction I have wrought, for I truly hate mankind.
I am Loyal Democrat.
New Braunfels , TX
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/29/2007 6:02 Comments ||
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You can also go here and send the same e-mail to the President, both your Senators, and your Representative with a single click of the mouse!
Somewhere at that site, they even have starter messages for you to build on, but I can't find it this morning.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/29/2007 6:05 Comments ||
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I hope Bush sticks to his guns and uses the bully pulpit to just hammer these traitors every day until the elections of 2008. Democrat=Criminal=Traitor.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/29/2007 8:54 Comments ||
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Not only do I want him to stick to his guns, talking about the consequences, but I want him to, everytime he talks of this mess, to read the list of pork millions that the Dems have attached, using bribery to get folks' vote.
Forget the date leaving part of the bill. Bush will get more support if he would just repeat after Rep Mike Pence each day, "Spinach, shrimp, peanuts and shellfish? That's not a war funding bill, that's the salad bar at Denny's."
#7
W should sign the bill, then make a signing statement in which he takes the money and rejects the deadline. Let the Democrats try an impeachment. What the hell, W's polls can't get any worse and might just improve.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/29/2007 13:40 Comments ||
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The fools believe that votes mean power. Dictators have no problem generating 100% votes. The 'consent of the governed' cited by Jefferson is the willingness to pay the ultimate price, to give that last full measure of devotion. Anyone willing to die for Congress?
By Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 29, 2007
It was almost a year ago that I first introduced readers of FrontPage Magazine to the story of how I returned to my hometown of Hilliard, Ohio a sleepy Columbus suburb and a longtime red-state haven after more than a decades absence, only to quickly discover that the hometown of my youth had vanished and instead had become yet another battleground in the Global War on Terror.
This story was first presented to FrontPage readers in Hometown Jihad, where I recounted my finding a Muslim Brotherhood operative, Dr. Salah Sultan, living right around the corner from me and teaching out of the Islamic school, Sunrise Academy, which had set up shop during my absence in the citys former library building. Sultan is a protégé of Yousef Al-Qaradawi, the Qatar-based spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who the Anti-Defamation League has described as The Theologian of Terror for his advocacy of HAMAS suicide bombings against Israel and giving religious edicts for Muslims to fight and kill American troops overseas.
In a follow-up article, Hometown Jihad: Blowback, I wrote about the fallout from the publication of that first article, including how the local paper, the Columbus Dispatch, rose to the defense of Salah Sultan and Sunrise Academy. Not only did the Dispatch article ignore all of the documentation I had provided to the paper on Sultan and the Islamic school in addition to what appeared in that first article, but it went so far in its defense to characterize FrontPage Magazine (and by association, myself) as neo-Nazi propaganda tool for daring to raise the issue.
But in a strange turn of events, that Dispatch article, which airbrushed Sultan as a moderate Muslim, was published just days before Sultan appeared on Saudi Arabian Al-Risala TV, where he informed viewers that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks, which he said were planned to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism, and defending Yemeni al-Qaeda cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani, a close associate of Osama bin Laden that has been listed by the US government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and identified by one analyst as the Yemeni Sheikh of Hate. Fortunately, Sultans Al-Risala interview was recorded [video] by the good folks at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), though the Dispatch offered no retraction when informed about these new statements from the man they had just days before defended as a moderate Muslim.
#1
Bye bye? I doubt it. Wrong party affiliation. Otherwise, she'd be hounded out by intense MSM attention within a week. I think "conflict of interest" stuff gets to the level of fetishism, most of the time, and typically depends on popular ignorance of procurement processes. Even here it would be easy for me to believe there was no direct hanky-panky. But in this case, the appearance of a very direct conflict was striking.
Pork in "historic" war bills, Cold Cash Jefferson still serving, Murtha's nepotistic conflicts unmentioned - such a nice breath of ethical fresh air the country got with a turnover in Congress.
#3
Good riddance. I suppose that I must owe Rantburg some sort of an apology for ever having voted for this waste of skin in the first place.
Long ago, my dissatisfaction with the overwhelmingly male dominated political process led me to hope that electing female politicians would have some sort of counterweighting influence.
Trust me, I have overcome my rejection of chauvanist politics.
If I have to vote for male politicians for the rest of my life in order to overcome the damage done by the likes of Feinstein and Pelosi, I'll be happy to do it. Rest assured that if there is even a single woman politician who will reverse the damage done by these liberal moronettes, I'll vote for her in a heartbeat too.
Out of deep respect for everyone here, I'll keep to myself any regrets I might have about voting for these idiots.
#5
Long ago, my dissatisfaction with the overwhelmingly male dominated political process led me to hope that electing female politicians would have some sort of counterweighting influence.
What matters is what people have in the head not what they have between their legs.
#7
As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.
and
Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?
Ouch! Too bad it's a weekly newspaper.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/29/2007 5:41 Comments ||
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I asked this question some time ago and didn't get an answer. I did, however, raise lotp's ire and got a gentle reprimand from TW. The question was, why are so many (apparently the large majority) elected female reps/sens so CLUELESS?
They certainly all aren't: Britain, for example, has only had two good PMs in the last century: Maggie and Winston. On our side, there's Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas that I can think of immediately as a truly solid Senator. There are OBVIOUSLY a LOT of smart, conservative women out there. Why, then, is their gender generally so poorly represented in the American legislative branch?
Posted by: Mac ||
03/29/2007 8:50 Comments ||
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I suspect they're too busy doing real work to run for politics, Mac dear. Most sensible men are, too. I agree it's a pity, though. We could use more tough-minded, clear-eyed, pragmatic politicians, of both sexes and all parties.
#14
Its why I want candidates selected by lottery. Anybody who actually wants one of these positions is either a crook or insane.
It should be just like jury duty. Here is the randomly drawn pool from this electoral group now vote one in. It won't get the cream of the crop but it is obvious the current system doesn't either.
To top it off the aides need to be chosen the same way or the capital moved every 4 years with aides not permitted to move with it.
#18
So far the MSM is not covering this at all. 3 hours ago Judicial Watch in DC took notice but I'm guessing we won't hear a peep out of the rest of the media. Bias, what bias?
#19
The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction, it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.
From East Asia Intel, subscription. I put this under WoT Politix because of the ramifications this deal has with Iranian finances, which affects the outcome of things in the present situation in the Gulf.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said during a visit to India that the proposal for an Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline does not figure in the continuing negotiations to end American prohibitions on nuclear and other high-tech transfers. But that may not be the way Congress sees it.
The 520-mile, on-land pipeline would be expected to carry 150 million cubic meters of gas a day and would cost about $8 billion to build. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said publicly that Washingtons opposition to the project could cripple attempts to finance it in international markets. But all parties are ostensibly going ahead with negotiations.
And Washington has repeatedly publicly said it sees the deal as sabotaging its efforts -- with its reluctant European allies -- to halt Teherans program to move toward nuclear weapons. A gas deal would provide additional revenues at a time when Iran is in deep economic distress, in part a result of longstanding American bilateral sanctions. India also plays a significant role in Teherans economy by providing a large part of the almost half of Irans imported petroleum products that its own decrepit industry cannot meet. A tangled web of relationships, until the first nuke goes off.
Bodman, answering reporters' questions, took the line that the proposed lifting of bans of high-technology transfers to India -- imposed when New Delhi started its own bomb-making program outside the international anti-proliferation treaty that it refused to sign, along with Pakistan means that both countries must now be brought into the anti-proliferation nuclear weapons club.
With this history and earlier quarrels between Washington and New Delhi over fuel supplied to a Canadian-built Bombay reactor that had no safeguards against diversion to military use, there may yet be problems with lifting the bans in the U.S. Congress.
With its economy growing at 9 percent annually, India is desperate for new sources of imported fuel. But the IPI project is fraught with other difficulties, not the least that gas would have to transit Pakistan, with which New Delhi still has a tenuous relationship after three and a half wars since their mutual independence from Britain. The latest development is a blowup with Islamabad over fees to be charged for transit of the gas. Price negotiations with Teheran, too, have not gone smoothly. I can see India's need for the energy, but deals with Teheran and Islamabad are shakey, to say the least. Who knows who will be in charge in PakLand in the future, and what will the MMs do? Ya wanna bet $8 billion on this horse, if you are the Indian govt?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2007 14:46 ||
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I would expect this to turn into a security nightmare since pipeline bombings are a way of life over in the world's rectum. if there are holes, the gas will not reach its intended destination and buyers will go elsewhere. Only when the area achieves some semblence of political and religious stability will we need to worry about enriching the MMs.
#2
Besides GMD in Eastern Europe + CENASIA, the RUSSIANS are also reportedly not happy about the USA + host nations working to dev alternate pipeline routes.
Britain has failed to win UN support for a statement deploring Iran's detention of 15 UK sailors and marines and calling for their immediate release.
A senior Iranian official suggested Iran may put the British captives on trial.
After three hours of talks, ambassadors from the 15 UN Security Council nations were still trying to agree on a watered-down press statement.
One compromise that would take note the council's concern about the detentions and call for their immediate release was rejected by Russia, diplomats said.
Russia proposed instead that the statement take note of the general situation and call for humanitarian access. Russia-Humanitarian: They fit together like, say, Yankees-Red Sox
The nation, which has strong commercial links with Tehran, raised serious objections to the thrust of the original British statement. Well, Blighty, you know you've hit bottom as a respected military power when even the Kremlin's kleptocrats call you fibbers.
The sailors and marines were seized after they allegedly went into Iranian waters - but Britain has insisted the servicemen and woman were in Iraqi waters.
The UK had wanted the council to say it deplores Iran's actions, to state that the incident took place in Iraqi waters, and demand the Britons' immediate release of the Britons.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, said only that he had made "constructive suggestions" and hoped members could agree on a statement.
#2
Can we send out a search party for the Balls and Backbones of the unsc.
u - unicks
n - ninnies
s - scared
c - criminals
That about describes them. Yes I know I spelled eunuch wrong but it fits this group.
#5
"After three hours of talks, ambassadors from the 15 UN Security Council nations were still trying to agree on a watered-down press statement."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, will be the epitaph of our times.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2007 19:43 Comments ||
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What's the difference between a statement of 'grave concern' and the 'watered-down' statement? About a bucket full of spit either way.
Does anyone expect 'strongly worded statements' by the UN or anyone else to do any good about getting the hostages released?
This is too much like the kid saying to dad, 'He's doing it again - make him stop it!" Except there ain't no dad to slap the other one upside the head.
When /if Blair finds his cajones and starts bombing Iran or blockading ports, then we might have reason for hope.
I'm sure that the irony of such a deplorable institution as the UN refusing to deplore a moral cesspool like Iran is entirely lost upon the UNSC members.
Researchers at Yale have identified multiple pathogenic "alien islands" in the genome of the A. baumannii, bacteria that has been responsible for new and highly drug-resistant infections in combat troops in the Middle East, according to a report in the March 1 issue of Genes and Development.
"Drug resistant bacterial infections are a rapidly growing problem in hospital settings, and now in difficult conditions of combat. We targeted A. baumannii as a growing threat for our troops in Iraq," said s principal investigator Michael Snyder, the Lewis B Cullman Professor of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology. "Having the genome sequence of this microbe is critical for understanding how it harms humans."
A. baumannii causes infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis and urinary tract infections. Although it rarely causes infection in healthy individuals, persons with diabetes, chronic lung disease, or with compromised immune systems are at increased risk.
The bacterium has been isolated from soil and water, as well as the skin of healthcare workers, and hospital-acquired infections due to A. baumannii have been associated with a mortality rate as high as 75 percent.
Recently an outbreak of blood stream infections with drug-resistant A. baumannii was reported in over 240 troops in Iraq.
The DNA sequence analysis of A. baumannii revealed several important features including some that may allow researchers to design better drugs to treat infection. A surprising 17 percent of the DNA that codes for protein in this microorganism is present in "alien islands," or sequences that originated in other microorganisms.
"It is like an old pair of jeans-no pun intended-which have been patched so many times that the patches represent a significant portion of the structure," said Snyder. "Although not originally part of the organism, these 'alien island' sequences have become integrated into the A. baumannii DNA and now represent a significant portion of that genome."
Bacteria typically acquire alien DNA from other microorganisms through a process known as "horizontal gene transfer," and alien DNA is more likely to be retained and passed down to next generations of bacteria when it provides a survival benefit.
This study reported that 16 of the presumed 28 alien islands in A. baumannii, contain genes implicated in virulence.
Two of the alien islands identified contained genes that did not match known sequences in the databases. The experiments showed that genes in those islands were important for virulence by a selectively inactivating them and causing a loss of virulence.
The authors suggest that these newly identified virulence genes may be good targets for antimicrobial drug development in addition to providing insight into the way organisms evolve virulence.
The researchers used a combination of cutting-edge technologies, including the high-density DNA pyro-sequencing process developed by 454 Life Sciences and functional screening via transposon mutagenesis. Using this process the genome of a comparable microbe could be sequenced and analyzed completely in only a few weeks, according to Snyder..
Michael Egholm, vice president of research and development with 454 Life Sciences, said, "454 Sequencing allows the rapid elucidation of the DNA sequence of any microbe and, when combined with gene function screens, can identify many novel genes important for microbial pathogenesis."
454 Life Sciences has made its technology commercially available via the 454 Sequencing Center, which offers sequencing services to clients worldwide.
According to Snyder, "The new 454 Sequencing technology allows any lab to be able to efficiently sequence a bacterial genome at high quality. In fact, a bacterial genome can be now sequenced and annotated for less than the price of a car."
#2
A surprising 17 percent of the DNA that codes for protein in this microorganism is present in "alien islands," or sequences that originated in other microorganisms
#3
Look up plasmids. Bacteria are far more promiscuous than most humans.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/29/2007 21:22 Comments ||
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#4
That's a real swinger bacterium.
The word for today is 'bacterial conjugation'. It's not exactly sex, but the little sumbitches *are* swapping their precious bodily fluids - well, cellular fluids. And not necessarily with the same species, either. Microbial sluts!
Leaders of the 22 countries in the Arab League decided Wednesday night to approve the Saudi peace plan and called on the Israeli leadership to adopt the initiative as soon as possible. The decision was made unanimously during the Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa urged Israel not to immediately submit its reservations to the initiative, as it had done so in 2002 when the plan was first proposed. The initiative offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It also calls for setting up a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
Following the agreement to revive the plan, Moussa said that the Middle East was at a "critical junction. If we don't move forward we will witness an escalation (of violence) in the region."
In response to the Arab League's decision, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that the Saudi initiative was the card with which to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nevertheless, Peretz went on to say that Israel would not agree to the clause in the plan regarding the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Army Radio reported. "Israel must present a government initiative which should be discussed at the next conference in Riyadh and should include a final settlement proposal," added the defense minister.
In contrast, MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) said that the Arab leaders had been thrown off course by extremists. "They have adopted an illogical plan. It is impractical and unreasonable." said Shalom.
Moussa rejected amending the peace offer, saying, "They tell us to amend it, but we tell them to accept it first, then we can sit down at the negotiating table." But he said the Arabs must "do more to convince" the Israelis on the offer.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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Yeah, yeah, sure...
Now what's for dinner and where are the hookers...
#2
A collection of thugs and theocrats engaged in blackmail. Such is life in the ME.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2007 10:36 Comments ||
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#3
The words 'arab' and 'peace plan' make my eyes glaze over. Is this the plan that calls for the Jews to throw themselves into the sea and the Paleos to continue to behave as the stupidest people on earth?
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged Arab leaders on Wednesday not to compromise on the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees. Haniyeh spoke at the much-anticipated Arab summit in Riyadh, where the leaders were to discuss the 2002 Saudi peace plan calling for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Haniyeh: Don't compromise on "right of return"
But of course not. Any compromise on the "right of return" might lead to some sort of settlement with Israel. We can't have that now, can we?
Haniyeh needs a slug, stat! Few other measures will obtain any sort of resolution than the swift elimination of those who support global jihad.
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said yesterday a political standoff between his ruling coalition and an opposition that includes Hezbollah might result in the creation of two rival governments if not resolved.
Jumblatt said talks this month had made no progress toward solving the crisis, which has triggered Lebanons worst unrest since its 1975-1990 civil war. He described the situation as risky. The split between the ruling coalition, which is opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon, and the opposition, which includes factions allied to Damascus, was on show at an Arab summit yesterday in Riyadh. Lebanon has two delegations at the meeting. If the summit is unable to deliver something on Lebanon, meaning that it is unable to stop the Syrian regime from sabotaging the stability of Lebanon... well, its an open crisis. We will stay in this stalemate, Jumblatt said.
Pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, whose term ends in November, has said he will not hand his authorities to the current government because, like the opposition, he considers it illegitimate. The handover is part of the procedure toward the election of a new president by parliament, where the majority of seats are held by the anti-Syrian coalition but the speaker, Nabih Berri, is an opposition leader and a Damascus ally. Jumblatt said: They might appoint... another president on their behalf, so well end up with two presidents maybe, or two governments.
The opposition has been demanding veto power in an expanded cabinet. The standoff began in November when opposition ministers quit the Cabinet and declared it unconstitutional. Jumblatt said the governing coalition would not give in to the demand for veto power. Once they have it, they (will) block everything, he said, adding that the opposition would use it to halt the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri.
Jumblatt and his allies accuse Syria of the killing. Damascus denies involvement. The ruling coalition says the opposition campaign aims to derail the tribunal. Hezbollah and its allies say they have no objection to the court in principle but want to discuss its mandate.
Opposition leader Berri and Saad Al-Hariri, another ruling coalition leader, failed to agree on the government and the tribunal in talks this month. There was no progress because Nabih Berri was asking for ... the blocking minority, which means the (return) of direct Syrian influence ... in exchange for a vague promise to study the tribunal. So no progress, Jumblatt said.
Resumption of talks depended on the regional sponsors of the rival Lebanese, said Jumblatt, describing Hezbollah as an advanced military post of the Iranians. Jumblatts coalition is backed by states including Saudi Arabia. Its a balance of power, he said. A regional balance of power between the Arabs on one side and the Iranians, with the Syrians, on the other.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I always wondered what happened to Maud's TV husband.
#2
Despite reports a few years back Syria never went home. It's seems Syria with the help of Hezbollah is going to reabsorb Lebanon once again, unless someone stops it, and the odds are not good. The UN will sit by and watch
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.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian law enforcement agencies have tortured three former Guantanamo inmates and subjected them and four others to continual harassment and abuse, a U.S.-based rights group said in a report Thursday. 
The body of 
Japan on Wednesday launched a new, elite military unit to counter terrorism and assist with the countrys growing defence role overseas. The 3,200-strong Combat Readiness Force was formed some two months after officially pacifist Japan created its first full-fledged defence ministry since World War II. The force will include specialists on biochemical weapons and a sub-unit, to be operational by March next year, that can be deployed to face terrorist attacks against Japanese cities. It will also train troops on peacekeeping missions and serve as an advance team for deployments overseas. Japan in January upgraded overseas operations to consider them a core mission of the armed forces. Deployments abroad had earlier been considered extraordinary, meaning that each one needed parliamentary approval. Prime Minister Shinzo Abes cabinet on Tuesday approved the first deployment since the change, sending a handful of defence personnel to help monitor the ceasefire ending Nepals civil war.
Dianne Feinstein exits MILCON following Metro exposé, vet-care scandal
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said yesterday a political standoff between his ruling coalition and an opposition that includes Hezbollah might result in the creation of two rival governments if not resolved.
