"China Revealed", what a prophetic title for this film. At link highlight Jin Yang and click on Meet Jin. The competition was filmed in August of 2006.
Perhaps the most gripping tale is that of 12-year-old Jin Yang, who has been training for the Olympics since the age of two. Her performance for the selection committee will have you on the edge of your seat. She must have been too old by 2008.
#2
Poor child, caught in a rules change that raised the minimum age by two years, just when she expected to go... and by the time of the next Olympics she'll have an adult body instead of a child's.
#4
CNN this AM > IOC investigation is continuing on allegations that up to 1/2 of China's Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team is under age 16, and thus by IOC Rules ineligible/illegal to even compete in the Olympics, let alone to win = be awarded any medals???
With the parents growing indignant and the Beijing Games winding down, the International Olympic Committee wants to "put to rest" persistent questions about the age of China's gold medal women's gymnastics team. Good luck. I figger they'll be 18 in 2012.
The IOC said Friday there is still no proof anyone cheated, though it asked the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate "what have been a number of questions and apparent discrepancies," spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. However, all the information the Chinese gymnastics federation presented supports its insistence that its athletes were old enough to compete. There. What more do you want, Comrade?
"We believe the matter will be put to rest and there's no question ... on the eligibility," Davies said. "The information we have received seems satisfactory in terms of the correct documentation - including birth certificates."
No one would be happier to finally have closure on the controversy than the gymnasts' parents. China coach Lu Shanzan said the parents are "indignant" over persistent questions about their daughters' ages. "It's not just me. The parents of our athletes are all very indignant," Lu said. "They have faced groundless suspicion. Why aren't they believed? Why are their children suspected? Their parents are very angry."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Lu said Asian gymnasts are naturally smaller than their American and European rivals. "At this competition, the Japanese gymnasts were just as small as the Chinese," he said. "Chinese competitors have for years all been small. It is not just this time. It is a question of race. Can he say that? Does the ACLU know?
European and American athletes are all powerful, very robust. But Chinese athletes cannot be like that. They are by nature that small."
He said the governing body of gymnastics was given additional documents Thursday night to try to dispel lingering questions. Those documents included He's current and former passport, ID card and family residence permit. Lu said the documents all say she was born in 1992, which would have made her eligible to compete. Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible.
"Surely it's not possible that these documents are still not sufficient proof of her birthdate?" Lu asked. "The passports were issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The identity card was issued by China's Ministry of Public Security. If these valid documents are not enough to clarify this problem, then what will you believe? Who has enough power to fabricate this many false documents? Other then the government, I mean.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/22/2008 06:07 ||
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#1
No, no, no. Dad didn't have time to hitch up the rig to ride 100 kilometers to the local Peoples Revolutionary Hall of Justice and Records and Mahjong Sports Palace to register the birth, especially of a female. So they recorded it in the family's Little Red Book Bible. Yeah, that's the ticket. Right here in the family Bible.
#7
ah... Chinese consider you 9 months old when born and then call it a year.
Makes it rough sometimes to figure out how old somebody is the way we measure.
Not that there's anything wrong with that... ... perfect: the comedian who always was about nothing will praise Vista ... So what's the going celebrity rate these days for lying through their teeth?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I sense a pointless thread.
But let me say this, the 5.56 round is made of metal, which is a good thing.
#4
I like pointless threads because there is no point to them. I mean, if the thread had a point it wouldn't be pointless and the point of a pointless thread is to have no point. Wait, if the point is to have no point then it's not pointless. Never mind.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/22/2008 8:11 Comments ||
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#5
Have there been bullets made out of something other than metal since they retired the rifle-grenade?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/22/2008 9:25 Comments ||
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#6
Wood, wax. Last Saturday Jeff brought his Mountain Howitzer over and we fired wet tennis balls. They were going about 500 yards. Then we made some cardboard cutouts (5), placed them 50 to 100 yards out, and loaded a cannister round made with paintballs (100). The result was impressive. every cutout had at least one hit. The only problem was the paintballs didn't bust when thay hit but went right through. We'll try plywood cutouts next time.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/22/2008 9:54 Comments ||
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#7
Those of us who were around when rifle grenades were still in fashion might remember the old Centurion tank. Now the Cent was one of the few tanks that had a blank round. Very loud, but not very effective on exercises (or in battle, for that matter).
That is, unless you loaded one of those ration pack lima bean tins first. Not very accurate, but at 100 yards or so, it would splatter enough to stain most of the side of a tank. The faces of crews thus attacked were a joy to see.
Sure the can was metal, but it was mostly beans. Does that qualify as a non-metal bullet?
#11
There is a 90+ year old fellow up the road where I live that is suffering from dementia. Well, he saw a squirrel in his house, so he shot it with a 30-06. Then the next week he was asking just who in the hell put a bullet hole through his window.
The son-in-law took away his guns, but the old man got a lawyer and made them give them all back.
I used to visit with the old fellow, but I just go by his house now, whistling dixie, 'cause by induction, 30-06 bullets are made of metal.
And, in conclusion, I think that Jerry Seinfeld would be the perfect person (at least his persona) to sing the praises of Vista. So it all comes together.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/22/2008 16:38 Comments ||
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#12
"If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?"
Perhaps not, but Microsoft hopes that a new $300 million ad campaign about the flailing Windows Vista will somehow turn it into a success with the help of comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
LOL, yea right he may raise the dead too!
The olde Axiom about Computers Garbage In Garbage Out
VISTA
Quite Possibly Jerry Seinfeld may become synonymous with Garbage?
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2008 17:21 Comments ||
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#13
The new ad campaign will be part of Microsoft's general "Vista really is better than you think!" push that began earlier this year.
I guess "Vista doesn't suck as much as you think it sucks" was already copywrited by some enterprising entrepeneur?
In northern Greenland, a part of the Arctic that had seemed immune from global warming, but never before reported as such, new satellite images show a growing giant crack and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice hemorrhaging off a major glacier, scientists said Thursday. And that's led the university professor who spotted the wounds in the massive Petermann glacier to predict disintegration of a major portion of the Northern Hemisphere's largest floating glacier within the year.
If it does worsen and other northern Greenland glaciers melt faster, then it could speed up sea level rise, already increasing because of melt in sourthern Greenland. I generally save my r's for northern Greenland.
The crack is 7 miles long and about half a mile wide. It is about half the width of the 500 square mile floating part of the glacier. Other smaller fractures can be seen in images of the ice tongue, a long narrow sliver of the glacier. I can't see sh ... merde.
"The pictures speak for themselves," said Jason Box, a glacier expert at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University who spotted the changes while studying new satellite images. "This crack is moving, and moving closer and closer to the front. It's just a matter of time till a much larger piece is going to break off.... It is imminent." Waitaminute! This glacier is moving? Down toward the ocean?
The chunk that came off the glacier between July 10 and July 24 is about half the size of Manhattan and doesn't worry Box as much as the cracks. The Petermann glacier had a larger breakaway ice chunk in 2000. But the overall picture worries some scientists who were beginning to wonder if we had, in fact, been cooling since 2000.
"As we see this phenomenon occurring further and further north - and Petermann is as far north as you can get - it certainly adds to the concern," said Waleed Abdalati, director of the Center for the Study of Earth from Space at the University of Colorado.
The question that now faces scientists is: Are the fractures part of normal glacier stress or are they the beginning of the effects of global warming? "It certainly is a major event," said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally in a telephone interview from a conference on glaciers in Ireland. "It's a signal but we don't know what it means."
It is too early to say it is clearly global warming, Zwally said. Scientists don't like to attribute single events to global warming, but often say such events fit a pattern.
University of Colorado professor Konrad Steffen, who returned from Greenland Wednesday and has studied the Petermann glacier in the past, said that what Box saw is not too different from what he saw in the 1990s: "The crack is not alarming... I would say it is normal." A voice of moderation? Reported? By AP?
However, scientists note that it fits with the trend of melting glacial ice they first saw in the southern part of the massive island and seems to be marching north with time. Big cracks and breakaway pieces are foreboding signs of what's ahead. Further south in Greenland, Box's satellite images show that the Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest retreating glacier in the world, set new records for how far it has moved inland.
That concerns Colorado's Abdalati: "It could go back for miles and miles and there's no real mechanism to stop it."
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/22/2008 06:22 ||
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#1
Abgalati sounds a real schill, which is doubtless his job.
#3
And that is news because of? When I was child, there were icebergs bigger tan many inhabited islands.
BTW the part of a glacier who has extended over ocean (whose temperature is over the melting point) will sooner or later crack and melt. It can take decades but sooner or later it will happen.
The only thing who will never happen is the end of stupidity.
#6
So Greenland is going to return to it's "natural state" that Eric the Red and other Scandinavians lived with hundreds of years ago when they grazed and planted in their colonies there?
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has replaced his chief of defence staff and named new heads of the army, navy and air force in his first major military shake-up since taking office more than a year ago.
The reshuffle is the latest sign that Yar'Adua is throwing off the influence of his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo. It comes two days after he scrapped the office of chief of staff in the presidency, a post held by one of Obasanjo's top allies. Yar'Adua appointed Air Marshal Paul Dike, previously head of the air force, as his chief of defence staff late on Wednesday.
Major-General Abdulrahman Dambazau, formerly an army commander in the southwestern city of Ibadan, was made head of the army while Rear Admiral Isaiah Iko Ibrahim, previously head of Naval Training Command in the commercial capital Lagos, was appointed head of the navy.
Retiring from service: A presidency statement said the outgoing military chiefs were all retiring from service. "It could be interpreted as the latest indication of rolling back any lingering influence of the former president," Antony Goldman, an analyst at London-based risk consultancy PM consulting, told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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President Robert Mugabe plans to open parliament next week for the first time since members were elected four months ago, but the opposition said Thursday such a step would undermine power-sharing talks.
Members of parliament were to be sworn in Monday and Mugabe will open their session Tuesday, Cabinet clerk Austin Zvoma said on state radio late Wednesday.
Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking to reporters Thursday during a visit to Kenya, said he did not believe Mugabe would be able to open parliament.
"Convening parliament is a violation, is a repudiation of some of the conditions" of an agreement that opened the way to power-sharing talks, Tsvangirai said. The parties agreed that "President Mugabe will not proceed to do anything unilaterally, that any step that we take has to be by consensus."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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The High Court (HC) yesterday granted ad interim bails to former law minister barrister Moudud Ahmed, former health minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain and former BNP lawmaker Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anne in separate criminal cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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A special court yesterday sentenced Tariqur Rahman Prince, son-in-law of former adviser to caretaker government Justice Fazlul Haque, to three years' rigorous imprisonment for not submitting wealth statement to the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) in due time.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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SIMFEROPOL, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - About 50 protesters gathered in the Crimean capital of Simferopol on Friday, urging Russia to pull out of a friendship agreement with Ukraine and to make a territorial claim on the peninsula. The organizer of the rally, Valery Podyachy, told the gathering: "We ask Russia to tear up the agreement [on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership with Ukraine] and to file territorial claims to Ukraine."
The Crimea, which has a predominantly Russian-speaking population, has been the focus of frequent disputes between the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships, over the Russian Black Sea Fleet's lease of the soviet-era Sevastopol naval base.
During the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia that followed Tbilisi's August 8 offensive in breakaway South Ossetia, Ukraine threatened to bar entry to Russian Black Sea fleet vessels that had been deployed near Georgia's coast. Ukraine's Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov signed instructions on Thursday to implement an earlier presidential decree complicating the rules of deployment for the Black Sea Fleet.
Podyachy, who heads the Sevastopol-Crimea-Russia Popular Front, said: "While Russia sent aid to flood-hit Ukrainian regions, Ukraine failed to help Russia to force Georgia to peace, and took an openly hostile stance."
Ukraine supplied weaponry to President Mikheil Saakashvili's regime that was used to kill Russian peacekeepers, he said. "Ukraine has proved by its policies that it is not a friend but an enemy to Russia," Podyachy said.
Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who grew up in Ukraine, made the Crimean Peninsula - a territory of 26,100 sq km - part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954. The peninsula was until then a part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the Crimea has unsuccessfully sought independence from Ukraine. A 1994 referendum in the Crimea supported demands for a broader autonomy and closer links with Russia.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated recently following Kiev's NATO membership bid and its demand that Russia's Black Sea Fleet withdraw from its naval base in Sevastopol.
#1
And the same thing has been intimated by Russia w/r/t the Balkan states. I can see Pooty Poot's soul shining through.......and it ain't pretty.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/22/2008 16:04 Comments ||
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#2
With Georgia the Russians were at least along the border. In Ukraine the Russian army will have to plow through a lot of Ukrainian territory to get to the Crimean.
One almost thinks the Germans and/or Poles should start making a claim on that chunk of Russia isolated out there on the Baltic just to give the Russians something to think about.
#3
Again, RUSSIA >:
* OSama's + Radical Islam's "WAR OUTSIDE IRAQ" NEW STRATEGY > IS WORKING, with Radical Islam diligently carving out enclaves throughout CENTRAL ASIA + PAN-ASIAN PERIPHERIES/NEAR-ABROADS, BESIDES ALSO GOING NUKULAR.
* NET > RUSSIA itself anticipated to become MUSLIM-MAJORITY NATION [NUKE-ARMED] by 2050. AT curr trends, UNO > Russ popul to shrink down to approxi 20.0 Milyuhn +/- before 2100 [2080-2100].
MUSLIM/ISLAMIST RUSSIA 2050-2100 WILL SCARE CHINA.
* NEW ISLAMIST THREAT AGZ CHINA PER SE + NORTH ASIA. Lest we fergit, ditto for NORTHERN INDIA, PHILIPINES, SE ASIA = AUSTRALESIA/AUSTRANESIA, etc.
* NUKE-ARMED? ISLAMIST CENTRAL ASIA, etc. - read, RUSSIA's GEOGRAPHIC CENTER.
* HIGH PAN-MUSLIM BIRTH RATES inside and outside of Russ.
* FUTURE CHINA > future NUKE-ARMED ECON SUPER-JAPAN versus NUKE-ARMED STARVING SUPER-NORTH KOREA versus VARIOUS "ISLAMIST CHINA" SCENARIOS???
#4
IRONY > Russ helping empower and protect NUCLEAR-AMBITIOUS IRAN vv US-West/Allies ala "the Great Game", to wit Iran = Radical Islam is now turning agz Russ + Asia as it slowly but steadily Nuclearizes + StratWeaponizes. Russ econ is also still very weak despite improvements in selec sectors - RUSS FEARS THAT CHINA, INDIA, etc WILL MODERNIZE MORE RAPIDLY AND POTENTLY THAN IT WILL.
IOW, DESPITE ITS BELLIGERENT RHETORIC, RUSS COVERTLY NEEDS THE US-NATO/EU TO COVER ITS OWN STRUGGLING SIX AGZ FUTURE ISLAMISM + CHINA, etc. IN EURASIA.
#5
Ok, we need to form administrative teams and deploy them to the embassy in Moscow and consulate in St. Petersburg. Give each team a couple million US Passports to be given to any healthy wannabee former Russian farmer and his immediate family for immigration to the US. Kelo the lot of unattended farms, originally derived from the Homestead Act, in the Plains which only draw farm subsidies to absentee Manhattan owners. The deal is that each family will get the basics to get started and the usual subsidies the city folk were pinching. In return they will work the land for seven years. So, what's Puty going to do without farmers? Going to eat that oil and gas. Heh.
President Bush reiterated his demand that Russia remove its forces from Georgia in a speech here Wednesday, stating that the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of the former Soviet republic and that "the United States will work with our allies to ensure Georgia's independence and territorial integrity."
Condemning Russia for its "disproportionate response to a long-simmering conflict," Bush reiterated his call for all forces to return to their Aug. 6 positions. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said most of the troops would leave by Friday, although Russian authorities have said their peacekeepers must remain because of prior commitments.
Speaking to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention here, Bush praised Georgia's Rose Revolution of 2003, when the former government was deposed peacefully and President Mikheil Saakashvili took power, as "one of the most inspiring chapters in history."
Bush emphasized Georgia's role in the campaign against terrorism, reminding the audience that the East European nation sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. "Georgia stood for freedom around the world," he said. "Now the world must stand for freedom in Georgia."
Bush's comments underscored the continuing difficulty the United States has had in compelling Russia to withdraw forces from Georgia. Bush did not specify what Washington and its allies would do to uphold Georgian sovereignty over the breakaway regions, both of which are controlled by Moscow-backed separatists with the support of Russian peacekeeping troops.
In a briefing on Air Force One en route here, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said there were "early signs of some withdrawal" from Georgia by Russian forces. But he added, "It is not significant, and it needs to increase."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Did He shake his finger? He doesn't really means it unless he shakes his finger.
#3
Are you going to be this enthusiastic about Russia when Hezbollah is launching their no-money-down, debt-for-the-last-one-forgiven Russian artillery park at Haifa again?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
CNN > BLITZER SITUATION ROOM - TARGET:UKRAINE?; + WAFF.com > US DESTROYER ENTERS THE BLACK SEA. USS McFaul wid humanitar aid/supplies aboard - US LCC also reported being ordered to same???
ALso from WAFF> STRATEGYPAGE - BRITANNA FADES AWAY [No $$$ for MOD. Milfors + TOE].
A senior Russian army officer has been arrested in the Stavropol region on suspicion of spying for Georgia, authorities said Wednesday. Mikhail Khachidze, an ethnic Georgian, was recruited by Georgian intelligence late last year while he was stationed in a unit based on Georgian territory, according to a statement issued by the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko praised Russia on Tuesday for the handling of its military operations in Georgia -- a rare voice of approval after Moscow's allies distanced themselves from the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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The parliament of the republic declared the sovereignty of Belarus on July 27, 1990, and following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus declared independence on August 25, 1991. Alexander Lukashenko has been the country's president since 1994. During his presidency, Lukashenko has implemented Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of the economy, despite objections from Western governments. Since 1996, Belarus has been negotiating with Russia to unify into a single state called the Union of Russia and Belarus.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/22/2008 17:27 Comments ||
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#5
REGNUM.RU [paraph] > NAGORNO-KARABAKH CAN BE RECOGNIZED BY ARMENIA SIMULTANEOUSLY AS RUSSIA RECOGNIZES THE INDEPENDENCE OF SOUTH OSSETIA AND ABKHAZIA; + ONLY THE RECOGNITION OF ABKHAZIAN SOVEREIGNTY FROM GEORGIA WILL PREVENT THE EXTERMINATION OF ABKHAZIAN ETHNOS, + EX-UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PLACE WAR IN GERGIA AND 9-11 AT SAME LEVEL [No one is ever truly safe]
WASHINGTON - The secret holding, Barack Obama on Friday readied announcement by text message of his vice presidential running mate from a list suddenly spiced by a dark horse from Texas.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's prospects remained a mystery on a day full of them, although senior aides said the Obama campaign had never requested financial or other records from her.
Three days before the party gathers in Denver to nominate Obama for the fall campaign, several officials said Rep. Chet Edwards, whose district includes President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, had made the roster of potential running mates. Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Evan Bayh of Indiana were also in the mix, as were Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas -- and any unknown others Obama had managed to keep secret despite intense scrutiny.
"It'll be exciting news," Sebelius told reporters in Kansas. I'm betting on Oprah... Nah, can't be anyone who'd overshadow him ...
#5
..If it's Biden, remember this little note from Neptunus Lex (www.neptunuslex.com):
"...I love him less well: As a lieutenant, I served as the casualty assistance calls officer for the family of a friend that had been killed in a training accident. His grief-stricken wife insisted upon seeing his body, and when I tried my best to tactfully demur, one of the bereaved family members called the senator on the phone to speak to me. After about five minutes of increasingly emphatic browbeating, I turned away from the family and quietly whispered into the phone that there was nothing left to see - nothing recognizable at least - the plane had burned for hours after the mishap. Did the senator have a way for me to share this with the family that would help lessen their grief rather than increase it?
He did not."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/22/2008 22:02 Comments ||
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#6
Biden would be a treasure. Pleaseohpleaseohplease!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2008 22:08 Comments ||
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#7
"...I love him less well: As a lieutenant, I served as the casualty assistance calls officer for the family of a friend that had been killed in a training accident. His grief-stricken wife insisted upon seeing his body, and when I tried my best to tactfully demur, one of the bereaved family members called the senator on the phone to speak to me. After about five minutes of increasingly emphatic browbeating, I turned away from the family and quietly whispered into the phone that there was nothing left to see - nothing recognizable at least - the plane had burned for hours after the mishap. Did the senator have a way for me to share this with the family that would help lessen their grief rather than increase it?
If Denver police see the potential for violence or destruction brewing during the Democratic National Convention, they have been trained and instructed to swarm in and take down troublemakers with immediate and direct force, Mayor John Hickenlooper said.
In an interview with The Denver Post, the mayor was asked how police would respond if "bad actors"try to become a disruption during an event such as an otherwise peaceful parade. "So if they're actually pulling out let's call it the paraphernalia of violence police are going to move right in and take them out of that group," Hickenlooper said.
The mayor also said his office has communicated with protest groups considered peaceful and law-abiding and been told most demonstrators would not prevent police from such action. "They don't want violence," Hickenlooper said. "The people who are in that protest march . . . would just as soon have them removed."
Not so fast, some war protesters said. "We don't believe in pre-emptive arrests, just like we don't believe in pre-emptive strikes with other nations," CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said. "What might seem to police as, quote, 'bad actors' might be some young people wearing black that they have been profiling. A pre-emptive arrest I would consider illegal," Benjamin said. "And no, we wouldn't just walk by and let that happen." Ah, to see Medea with a nightstick up her ass...
The mayor's comments come as an immense security force bolstered with millions of dollars in federal money for training and equipment prepares to meet scores of protest groups and known anarchists hoping to attract media attention next week. "Ninety-nine percent of the people expressing their views and taking advantage of our rights to expression are peaceful," Hickenlooper said. "They do not want to disrupt or cause violence or disrupt the convention for others." Oh, no. Absolutely not...
Hickenlooper said police have received thorough training and are prepared to act appropriately. The mayor also has long held that he wants police to appear user-friendly to the 50,000 visitors expected next week.
Adam Jung, a Denver organizer for the anti-war group Tent State University, said he didn't agree with the mayor's tactics. "I think we've made it clear that we can take care of ourselves," Jung said. "I know that we've not said we would create a pathway" for police to any troublemakers in their midst. Then they'll create their own...
Councilman Charlie Brown, a vocal watchdog of the protest movement preparing for the convention, said he agrees with the mayor's approach. "These people have their rights," Brown said. "They also have duties and responsibilities to obey our law, respect private property." Lucy still pulling the football trick on ya, Charlie? I'll bet she is...
Better yet:
"Please put down that brick and disperse. We are asking nicely. No?"
BANG!
"Get the body bags, Ponch"
"Oh and an ambulance for the survivor"
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
08/22/2008 18:44 Comments ||
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#3
I'm hoping the Denver PD gets overwhelmed and the Code Pinkos, anarchist, and nutroots make it into the convention center. But then again, I'm an evil asshole. Think how great it would look on live Network TV...heh
then I hope the CO NG take back the center with tear gas and wicked thumpings
/wake up Frank, you're dreaming ...and smiling
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2008 18:49 Comments ||
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#5
If it follows true to form, the ninnies will demand that the police have to be nice to the demonstrators. The demos sense this, and riot while the police back off. So the next day, the ninnies tell the police to brutalize the demos.
However, if some serious agitators get organized, the police could quickly find themselves outmaneuvered. They do this by creating feints, that cause the police to concentrate, then the agitators attack from a different direction, where there are few police.
The police then shift, but by the time they arrive, the agitators have moved on to where the police aren't. And by using throw away cellphones, the agitators have commo, and use brief text messages or single world codes. The only way to stop it is to turn off the cellular towers, or disrupt phone service, and that ain't gonna happen.
One grand technique is for a small group of agitators to rush a high rise business office in another part of town. They take the elevator up to a high floor, then just hang out with the terrified office workers, who flood the 911 lines calling for police help. But the agitators don't actually do anything, except meander around, so can't even be cited for trespassing.
Denver is such an amazing opportunity for troublemakers that it almost boggles the imagination.
#1
Except of course for the half-billion people away from the coast who haven't seen bupkus from Beijing while the elites get rich. Maybe if they weren't so embittered and clinging to their little Red books ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/22/2008 19:18 Comments ||
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#2
Has O ever been in China? And it's a lot easier to build infrastructure (and factories) when you don't have to worry about environmental regulations, lawsuits from NIMBY whiners, tree huggers and so on. If they need to take land, they just take it.
Yep, the USA could make a lot more progress if we were more like the Chicoms.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
08/22/2008 19:39 Comments ||
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#3
That's why people in away from the cities still cook with charcoal and are on a subsistance level. Bugwit!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/22/2008 19:40 Comments ||
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#4
And don't forget the Chicoms wonderful environmental record ... oh, wait ...
#5
Perhaps he's referring to its political infrastructure.
I can easily see how a Marxist like Obama would love the Chinese political system. He probably gets a tingle running up his leg over the North Korean political infrastructure.
Yup, it's people like this that I want running the U.S. government...
(CNN) Well over two months have passed since Hillary Clinton formally abandoned her White House bid, but newly-released Federal Election Commission reports show the New York senator has made little headway in paying off her sizeable campaign debt. Baby steps, folks. Baby steps...
According to an FEC report filed Wednesday, Clinton's debt as of the end of July stood at just under $24 million a decrease of only $1.2 million since the end of June. More than $13 million of that total is owed to the New York senator herself, while close to $11 million is owed to individual vendors. Clinton has suggested she is not seeking to pay back the money she owes herself. Good luck getting any of that money, individual vendors.
The report also shows Clinton was only able to raise $2 million in the month of July down from close to $3 million in June. By comparison, Barack Obama raised over $50 million for his White House bid in the same time period. So she raises $2 million in the last month, but can only afford to pay down $1.2M in debt? What happened to the other $800 large?
The report comes as some high-profile Clinton backers have expressed disappointment Obama has not made more of an effort to help his onetime rival retire her campaign debt. Typical Democrats - pay for things with someone else's money...
He has provided her with a pittance compared to what the Clintons have given Obama, prominent Clinton backer Lynn Forrester told the Times of London. Her debt could have been cleared within 10 days. Its ungracious. "You fucked up, Flounder. You trusted us!"
Obama and Clinton have begrudingly appeared at a handful of joint fundraising events, and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has publicly urged his supporters to donate to his former primary season rival though at a joint appearance with Clinton at a July fundraiser, the Illinois senator forgot to call on his backers to contribute to her. (He later went back on stage to correct himself.) Sorry, my bad!
According to Clinton's disclosure forms filed Thursday, she owes the most ($5.2 million) to her former top advisor Mark Penn's polling/political consulting firm, Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. This is why I ask for large retainers before doing anything for certain clients.
Filed under: Barack Obama Hillary Clinton
#3
She will probably pay off her debts with "carbon credits."
Posted by: Bill Shusorong1219 ||
08/22/2008 15:13 Comments ||
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#4
Its ungracious.
and the Clinton camp would know what ungracious means. Billy Dale and the former WH Travel Office staff could not be reached for comment
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2008 18:52 Comments ||
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#5
ITS NOT OVER FOR HILLARY UNTIL THE DAY AFTER THE CONVENTION = DEM NOMINATION, as Barack does NOT have the big $$$ backers which suppor Bill in the 1990's, nor Hillary's Senate run and as present. Barack's going to need them NATIONAL SECURITY CREDENTIALS.
Update on Federal Lawsuit [Filed Today Against Obama]
Texas Darlin' Blog ^ | 08/21/08 | Texas Darlin'
Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 5:48:28 PM by freespirited
Update 1: Case #08-CV-4083
This is the information I have received as of 5:28 PM EST:
Papers have been filed, not yet scanned into the Pacer system.
The complaint is asking for declaratory (asking the court to declare Obama is not a US citizen, a natural born citizen and not eligible under the qualifications of the US Constitution to run for Office of President).
Also asking for injunctive relief and an emergency TRO. Further asking for EXPEDITED Discovery.
We are asking that Obama provide a ceritified copy of the oath he took to regain his citizenship. We are asking for court orders, ordering the state department, HI department of records and other governmental agencies to turn over any and everything on Obama, all certified.
Plaintiff: PHILIP J. BERG
Defendant: BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, a/k/a BARRY SOETORO, a/k/a BARRY OBAMA , a/k/a BARACK DUNHAM, a/k/a BARRY DUNHAM, THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE, THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION AND DOES 1-50 INCLUSIVE
From another source: "I filed this action at this time," Berg stated, "to avoid the obvious problems that will occur when the Republican Party raises these issues after Obama is nominated.".
In the lawsuit, Berg states that Sen. Obama was born in Kenya, and not in Hawaii as the senator maintains. Before giving birth, according to the lawsuit, Obama's mother traveled to Kenya with his father but was prevented from flying back to Hawaii because of the late stage of her pregnancy, "apparently a normal restriction to avoid births during a flight." As Sen. Obama's own paternal grandmother, half-brother and half-sister have also claimed, Berg maintains that Stanley Ann Dunham--Obama's mother--gave birth to little Barack in Kenya and subsequently flew to Hawaii to register the birth.
Posted by: Snosing and Tenille9185 ||
08/22/2008 13:11 ||
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The federal government will scrap a program for illegal immigrants to turn themselves in for deportation after only eight people volunteered during a nearly three-week trial, an official said Thursday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered the pilot program in five cities, giving illegal immigrants facing court orders to leave the country 90 days to plan their departure and coordinate travel with relatives instead of facing the prospect of being arrested, detained and deported.
ICE will end its "Scheduled Departure" program when the trial period concludes Friday, Jim Hayes, acting director of ICE's detention and removal operations, told The Associated Press. "The bottom line is it is not effective," Hayes said. "Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement."
The initiative drew skepticism, even ridicule, from many immigration activists who have criticized ICE's increasing raids on homes and businesses.
Hayes said lack of support from those activists shows they are unwilling to accept any enforcement. "They want amnesty, they want open borders, and they want a more vulnerable America," he said.
Hayes told the AP that other tactics have proven more effective. ICE has been tracking down so-called immigration "fugitives" by knocking on their doors at home, often during pre-dawn hours.
ICE offered the program to 457,000 illegal immigrants nationwide who have ignored judicial orders to leave the country but have no criminal record. Applicants could sign up at ICE offices in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego and Santa Ana. ICE estimates 30,000 eligible immigrants lived in the five cities where the program was offered.
The eight volunteers included an Estonian man in Phoenix, a Guatemalan man and Indian couple in Chicago, a Salvadoran man in Charlotte, a Mexican woman in San Diego and a Guatemalan man and Lebanese man in Santa Ana, according to ICE.
ICE spent $41,000 to advertise the program. Hayes said the government may have saved money because the cost of detaining the six immigrants who turned themselves in during the program's first week would have been $37,000.
Immigrant advocates said the program had few incentives and failed to consider undocumented immigrants' ties to family in the U.S. They said they worry that ICE will cite the weak turnout as a reason to step up the raids, since it now can say that it made an effort to enforce the law in a way that was less disruptive to illegal immigrants and their families.
"My hope is it isn't going to empower them or fuel their enforcement even further," immigration lawyer Lisa Ramirez said Thursday.
ICE said it hatched the plan to quell criticism of the surge in immigration raids. One supporter of tougher enforcement said the low turnout will help insulate the agency from some of that criticism. It was calling their bluff," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The program was criticized for offering little incentive for illegal immigrants to step forward since they would be barred from returning to the United States for as long as a decade.
And while ICE has increased arrests of illegal immigrants who fail to heed court orders to depart, several immigrants said many people feel they have a decent chance of sticking it out here longer than the government would give them if they came forward.
"Why are they going to go back to their country and pay someone to bring them over here again?" asked Rigoberto Moreno, 46, who entered the country illegally from Mexico as a teenager in the 1970s and has since become a U.S. citizen.
#1
well, now that that has failed, how about a dragnet for all those who wouldn't self-deport? Take a few of the open-borders assholes too. They want to recreate their third-world hellholes here? Let em live it for a while in-situ
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2008 8:05 Comments ||
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#2
This was one of those "if you don't believe people pay enough taxes, go ahead and kick in more yourself" type government opportunities that in the end show its all talk. Self Deportation = the real amnesty program. Now lets enforce the exiting laws to their fullest extent without any further talk of "amnesty", which is just another political code word of saying non-enforcement.
#3
The program was criticized for offering little incentive for illegal immigrants to step forward since they would be barred from returning to the United States for as long as a decade.
Without that measure, this would have become a free vacation ticket to their homelands at taxpayer expense.
#5
Tucson Police Dept. cannot make inquiries of citizenship even when a crime has been committed. Tucson Unified School District asks only for a local address. Arizona Dept. of Economic Security (food stamps, assistance, etc.) has Mexican plated cars in its parking lots. The entire region here in southern Arizona is "don't ask, don't tell" pc turf. So why should anyone voluntarily turn themselves in?
#6
And I forgot to add, Mexican plated cars regularly drop off children to Tucson's schools. And the feds ("No Child Left Behind") are continually puzzled why (English language) test scores are so abominable down here...
The Unicorn Rider can't be so dumb as to have made an unforced error this big, could he ...
A spokesman for Sen. John McCain vowed to retaliate against today's story about how many houses the GOP candidate owns with a renewed focus on Sen. Barack Obama's ties to a Chicago developer and charges that Obama is an elitist.
"We're delighted to have a real estate debate with Barack Obama," said spokesman Brian Rogers, adding that the press should focus on Obama's house. "It's a frickin' mansion. He doesn't tell people that. You have a mansion you bought in a shady deal with a convicted felon."
Go ahead and bring up the housing issue in a debate, Senator Obama ...
The felon reference was to Tony Rezko, a former Obama friend and financial backer who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges this year. Rogers vowed to intensify efforts to link Obama to Rezko in the coming days. "That's fair game now," he said. "You are going to see more of that now that this issue has been joined. You'll see more of the Rezko matter from us."
The McCain campaign was in full damage-control mode as the housing story took off today. Rogers tried to play down the story, saying that reports of the many McCain houses were overstated. "The reality is they have some investment properties and stuff. It's not as if he lives in ten houses. That's just not the case," Rogers said. "The reality is they have four that actually could be considered houses they could use."
Those four include an apartment in Arlington, a ranch in Sedona, and two condos, in California and Phoenix, he said. The others include "some investment properties and things like that."
He also added: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War. Rogers called the house story "by far the most personal attack" of the campaign, and said "it comes from a candidate who said he was against this kind of thing."
A story is told that when John McCain first ran for Congress, his opponent accused him, in a debate, of being a carpetbagger since he'd lived in Arizona for only a short time. McCain in his response apologized to the audience, noting that given the demands of his military career, the one place where he'd had lived the longest was the Hanoi Hilton.
There was a pause and then an audible gasp from the audience as they took in what he'd just said. He won that election.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
From Politico: John McCain's family owns at least eight properties not the seven Democrats are alleging or the four McCain's staff identified according to a Politico analysis of property and tax records, as well as interviews.
The presumptive Republican nominee, though, may have some wiggle room in explaining why he couldn't immediately provide an answer when asked by Politico how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. Sen. McCain himself does not own any of the properties. They're all owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/22/2008 8:33 Comments ||
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#2
If he's making his payments (no shady VIP mortgages or special discounts), keeps the grass trimmed, and is keeping up with the taxes, I could care less if he owns a thousand houses. He's NOT part of the current problem.
#3
I don't recall McCain preaching Goreism, "tell others that they have to give up their standards of living while wildly expanding their own levels of consumption." On the other hand, the socialist dogma of the O'man preaches just that. If the man or his spouse can afford it, right on. Lead by example. Just don't preach to me things counter to your own behavior.
#5
I think that McCain's battleworthiness in a political campaign has been consistently underrated. Sure he doesn't make teleprompter speeches that run a tingle down your leg, but in off-the-cuff remarks and rapid response, McCain is very good. Looks to me like Obama is bringing a peashooter to the fight with a fighter pilot.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/22/2008 10:34 Comments ||
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#6
"In my Father's house there are many mansions basketballs."
Posted by: Bill Shusorong1219 ||
08/22/2008 15:09 Comments ||
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#15
The Obamas moved from a condo to that? Writing autobiographies is more lucrative than I thought. On the other hand, I've lived in a house of that vintage. Maintenance is a killer, even if the building has been kept up.
New Zealand diplomats last night played a major role inside a secretive international group to block a nuclear deal between India and the United States.
The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) - which includes New Zealand - was meant to have approved the deal in Vienna, Austria, but consensus was not reached. In an unusual situation Wellington, along with Austria, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland, have the power to block NSG approval for India.
New Zealand's stance over the deal has won front page headlines in the Indian media who clearly do not know what to make of having their nuclear dream frustrated by what headlines tag "hardline non-proliferationists".
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invested his political future in a treaty with the US in which Washington will supply India with civilian nuclear fuel and technology. He narrow survived a confidence vote last month in push through the deal on his side.
New Zealand refuses to accept the deal saying India cannot have it because it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India wants a waiver from the rule.
New Zealand's basic objection appears not to involve the specifics of the India deal, but over its concerns that the NPT itself is being weakened.
On Tuesday Prime Minister Helen Clark said that New Zealand, as a nuclear free state, was concerned about the deal. She said New Zealand was working with "like minded" countries.
New Zealand would attend the NSG and listen carefully to the other countries. "It would be no secret that we would like to see more conditionalities around the agreement," she said.
The Press Trust of India quoted diplomatic sources in Vienna this morning as saying no member country opposed an NPT waiver for New Delhi but some unnamed member countries proposed amendments to the draft of the exemption.
Officials and diplomats said a "lot of ideas" were exchanged during the day-long intense deliberations of the 45-nation grouping on whether or not India should be allowed to have civil nuclear trade with international community. The Hindu newspaper, quoting an unnamed participant from a former Eastern Bloc country, said the meeting opened with the United States urging the adoption of the waiver as it stood "in a nice but not so forceful way."
The diplomat said Austria, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland expressed concerns. New Zealand's basic objection appears not to involve the specifics of the India deal, but over its concerns that the NPT itself is being weakened. It did ask why India should be given a waiver.
The meeting was unable to reach a decision and will hold another one next week.
Under NSG rules, all nuclear trade with India is banned because it refuses to sign the NPT. The United States argues that the deal will bring India closer into the NPT fold after 34 years of isolation and help combat global warming by allowing the world's largest democracy to develop low-polluting nuclear energy.
The deal is on a tight timetable and NSG delay could kill it as it needs to be passed by the US Congress before the end of the term of President George Bush at the end of the year.
New Zealand's anti-nuclear principles could cause problems with a country Wellington has been strongly courting over the last five years.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2008 08:28 ||
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#1
New Zeeland had been ruled by idiots for a few decades.
Free doughnuts?
If politics is the name of serving masses on one hand and enjoying perks and privileges for being in the government or opposition on the other, then Maulana Fazlur Rehman is one of the best politicians and his Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) is a leading political party in the country.
In the previous government the JUI-F, a major component party of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, ruled the Frontier for five years, while in Balochistan the party was in coalition with Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman was enjoying incentives equal to a federal minister as opposition leader in the National Assembly. In the present set-up, the JUI-F is a ruling partner with Pakistan People's Party at the centre and in Balochistan, while in the NWFP Assembly it is in the opposition and his close aide and former NWFP chief minister Muhammad Akram Khan is leader of the opposition, drawing salary and allowances equal to a provincial minister.
The NWFP Assembly was told that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government recruited 2,675 untrained teachers without test and interview in Dera Ismail Khan, the native district of Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Likewise, the previous provincial government had allotted about 470 acres of cultivatable land, belonging to the NWFP Agriculture Department, to its blue-eyed persons in the district. Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao MPA Israrullah Gandapur raised the issue on the floor, who claimed that some 1,567 male and 1,108 female teachers had been recruited in government schools in Dera Ismail Khan district during the last five years. He was demanding probe into the mater through a House committee as the authorities had not conducted test and interview for appointment of teachers in primary and middle schools.
However, the matter was kept pending when a PPP MPA asked the chair to distribute copies of the documents to the whole House. In the second case, provincial minister for Agriculture Arbab Ayub Jan endorsed the claim of MPAs from DI Khan regarding the illegal allotment of official land to a few persons on lease and said that he had ordered an inquiry into the matter.
He said the former MMA government had leased out on lease about 500 acres of land, belonging to the Agriculture Department, in DI Khan, Kohat and Hangu. "The cabinet had neither approved allotment of the precious land nor any legislation was made to allot the land on lease on throwaway prices," the minister told the House.
The PML-Q MPA from DI Khan said the agriculture department was used to cultivate best kind of wheat and rice seeds in order to further distribute it amongst the local farmers. "Now the lessees were earning million of rupees by producing good quality of wheat and rice crops on the land," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Iran this summer resumed buying U.S. wheat after a 27-year hiatus, a sign of the limited options for importers seeking large quantities of high-quality grain.
Since the 2008-09 marketing year began on June 1, Iran has bought more than one million tons of hard red winter wheat directly from the U.S., which is "a very large amount," said Bill Nelson, analyst for Wachovia Securities. The purchases mean at least 3% to 4% of domestic wheat exports for the marketing year will go to a country the U.S. hasn't done business with for more than a generation. Government sanctions don't prohibit U.S. agricultural exporters from doing business with Iran.
Drought is expected to slash Iran's domestic production by one-third this year. Iran is forecast to produce 10 million tons of wheat this year, down from 15 million tons in 2007-08, and to import 4.5 million tons, up from 200,000 tons last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Experts on Iran and food commodities said the move stemmed largely from necessity. The two countries are locked in a struggle over Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. suspects is aimed at developing weapons and Tehran says is intended to generate electricity.
"Do you think Iran would come to the U.S. if they had any place else they could buy it?" said Jerry Gidel, analyst for North America Risk Management Services. "In general, they need wheat. They're searching the world for wheat. They're buying the U.S. because it's the only thing they can buy."
Robert Looney, a professor of economics in the department of national security at the Naval Postgraduate School, said Iran appeared to be trying to diversify its food sources in response to rising commodities prices. "Politically they would have a hard time domestically unless they had some other reasons justifying it," he noted.
But, he added, "One thing you don't want if you're the potential adversary of the U.S is being too dependent on the U.S. for food, unless you have a reason for believing there's going to be some kind of détente."
The State Department said it wasn't possible to divine the motives of the Iranian regime from the trade, but that it was pleased the trade was taking place.
Rob McInturff, a State Department spokesman, said the exports highlight the U.S.'s willingness to engage with the Iranian people even as it continues trade sanctions against the Iranian regime, which prohibit the export of technology but permit agricultural and medical trade.
"We have a longstanding policy...of engaging the Iranian people on the one hand while sanctioning the Iranian government on the other," Mr. McInturff said.
A spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations said he wasn't able to comment.
NEW YORK - Oil prices tumbled more than $6 a barrel Friday the biggest one-day percentage plunge in nearly four years after a rebounding dollar and a Russian troop pullback in Georgia sparked another frenzied sell-off.
Crude's nosedive wiped out all the gains from the previous day's big rally and reaffirmed the belief that high energy prices are still cutting into consumer demand for fossil fuels in the U.S. and overseas.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $6.59, or 5.43 percent, to settle at $114.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was crude's largest single-day price drop percentage-wise since Dec. 27, 2004, when prices dropped 6.47 percent. In dollar terms, it was oil's steepest one-day slide since Jan. 17, 1991, just after the start of the Gulf War. Crude prices had risen for three straight days, including an almost $6 rally on Thursday.
At the pump, a gallon of regular fell another penny overnight to a new national average of $3.692, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Prices had peaked at $4.114 a gallon on July 17, but have come down as high energy costs force Americans cut back on their driving.
Gen. David Petraeus is used to controversy surrounding the war in Iraq, but his publicized thoughts on an Army chaplain's book for Soldiers put him squarely in the middle of the ongoing conflict over religious proselytizing in the U.S. military.
The book is "Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel," by Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William McCoy, and according to Petraeus' published endorsement of the work, "it should be in every rucksack for those times when soldiers need spiritual energy."
But the endorsement - which has spurred a demand by a watchdog group for Petraeus' dismissal and court martial on the grounds of establishing a religious requirement on troops - was a personal view never intended for publication, the book's author now says.
"In the process of securing ... comments for recommending the book I believe there was a basic misunderstanding on my part that the comments were publishable," McCoy said in an Aug. 19 email to Military.com. "This was my mistake."
In addition to Petraeus, Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling also is quoted plugging the book in press releases and advertisements and on the jacket. McCoy, writing in response to Military.com's Aug. 18 inquiry to Petraeus' office for comment, said the two generals' endorsements "were intended for me personally rather than for the general public."
In response to follow-up questions from Military.com, McCoy said he has asked that all distribution of the book be halted until a new "graphic overlay" for the back cover is produced "so there is no further public misunderstanding."
McCoy did not respond to questions on the timing of the endorsements, and why it took so long before the officials learned their endorsement has been used in print. Petraeus' endorsement has been on the book since its 2007 publication, while Hertling's plug first appeared on the 2005 edition. Both also are quoted in newspaper ads for the book and on the book's Amazon.com Web page.
Patraeus spokesman Col. Steven Boylan said the general has been Iraq since the beginning of February 2007, "and unless someone [like Military.com] notes it, we would not be aware of it," he said in an Aug. 19 email. "We don't get the stateside papers in Baghdad and I doubt very much that Gen. Petraeus goes to Amazon.com much, if at all."
Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, believes McCoy is taking the fall for Petraeus and Hertling's improper endorsements. Weinstein said it "strains credulity" that Petraeus never knew that his private written endorsement of the book was in the public domain since last year. Weinstein is a former Air Force judge advocate general and White House counsel during the Reagan administration. His group has been fighting in the courts to keep improper proselytizing out of the military. Now, he said, he intends to incorprate the Petraeus and Hertling endorsements into an ongoing lawsuit against the Pentagon for an alleged pervasive and permicious "pattern and practice" of religious liberties violations in the military.
"MRFF is now officially putting both Army chaplain Lt. Col. Bill McCoy and General Petraeus on notice not to destroy any of the written or electronic records of their communications about this [issue]," Weinstein said.
The chapters in McCoy's book are offered up as "Orders," he said, and one of them is titled "Believe in God."
With his plug for "Under Orders," Weinstein said in a statement to Military.com, Petraeus - one of the most widely recognized officers in the American military - is endorsing religion as something all Soldiers should have and, specifically, the Christian religion. "General Petraeus has, by his own hand, become a quintessential poster child of this fundamentalist Christian religious predation, via his unadulterated and shocking public endorsement of a book touting both Christian supremacy and exceptionalism," Weinstein told Military.com Aug. 16.
And by endorsing a book that argues only those who believe in God can fully contribute to the military mission or unit, Weinstein contends that Petraeus insults ""the integrity, character and veracity of approximately 21 percent of our armed forces members who choose not to follow any particular religious faith."
He said that even if Petraeus offered his comments personally, that's a distinction without a difference. "Privately he's denigrating 21 percent of troops," Weinstein said. Suppose he privately denigrated women, African-Americans or Jews? Weinstein asked. "He should still be relieved of duty and court martialed," he said.
Rev. Billy Baugham, a retired Army chaplain and executive director of the International Conference of Evangelical Christian Endorsers, backs Petraeus' right to plug the book. Past generals, among them George C. Marshall and George Patton, made the case for religion in the ranks.
Marshall claimed that the Soldier's spiritual life was critical to his morale, even more than equipment, while Patton, said Baugham, had a chaplain pray for good weather for an coming battle and then submitted him for an Army Commendation Medal afterwards, when the weather turned out clear. "So the ICECE would support what General Patreaus has done," Baugham said.
Chris Rodda, a freelance writer and researcher for the MRFF, noted in an Aug. 16 column on the Daily Kos Web site that she found much in "Under Orders" that was "pretty good." It offered sound advice and promoted a brand of Christianity that it would be good to see more often both in the military and civilian worlds, she said, and even warned against the practices used by some "para-church groups" within the military that Weinstein's group considers dangerous and unconstitutional.
But in the end, she claims, the book paints those who don't believe in God as "somehow deficient," in that they may - in McCoy's words - view their own "agenda [to be] more important than [the] unit's agenda and thus lead to unit failure."
Author McCoy, writing Aug. 11 in his blog on Amazon.com, acknowledges that the book does promote Christianity. "No one [else] has written a book which allows for varying world views and perspectives while suggesting the Gospel might have an idea worth considering. Under Orders does just that," he wrote.
McCoy is endorsed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to a recent press release for his book. Now the chaplain for U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern, Germany, McCoy previously served as chaplain for the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and, before then, the 10th Mountain Division, according to the release.
#3
I just saw a book aimed at Wiccans and pagans in the U.S. military, like Under Orders aimed at showing how their particular faith can help them when fighting a war. I believe a Protestant bible is not issued to new troops along with uniforms and weapons, nor are the troops required to purchase this or any other religious tome, so I'm really not sure what the fuss is about.
#5
Just another battle in the war against the West. Destroy military morale and the armed forces won't be able to wage 'imperial' wars against the Third World. And then rainbows will come out and the whole world will be at peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2008 11:42 ||
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Doubt this will get Mr. Farley etal. many invites to H-Wood parties, but I SINCERELY hope this is a BO (no, not that one, or that one either...) SMASH!
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.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has replaced his chief of defence staff and named new heads of the army, navy and air force in his first major military shake-up since taking office more than a year ago. 
The High Court (HC) yesterday granted ad interim bails to former law minister barrister Moudud Ahmed, former health minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain and former BNP lawmaker Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anne in separate criminal cases.
A special court yesterday sentenced Tariqur Rahman Prince, son-in-law of former adviser to caretaker government Justice Fazlul Haque, to three years' rigorous imprisonment for not submitting wealth statement to the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) in due time.
The federal government will scrap a program for illegal immigrants to turn themselves in for deportation after only eight people volunteered during a nearly three-week trial, an official said Thursday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered the pilot program in five cities, giving illegal immigrants facing court orders to leave the country 90 days to plan their departure and coordinate travel with relatives instead of facing the prospect of being arrested, detained and deported.
New Zealand diplomats last night played a major role inside a secretive international group to block a nuclear deal between India and the United States.
