THERE must be something in the water in Australia at the moment - our girls are continuing to blitz the competition in international beauty pageants. Following Jennifer Hawkins' crowning as Miss Universe earlier this year, Sydney-based 16-year-old Lauryn Eagle has been named the new Miss Teen International. She won the pageant, held at the weekend in Costa Rica, after clinching the Miss Teen Australia title in October.
Eagle wiped the floor with her competitors, picking up the Miss Photogenic, Miss Silhouette and Miss Congeniality awards in addition to the top honour. But modelling is not Eagle's first passion - she is also a champion water skier. She is the Australian and NSW State Champion for 2004 in the under 16 division and also placed second in the Junior Water Ski Racing World Championships in California last year. Eagle's win is a further boost for her Sydney-based management company Adpro, which also looks after Hawkins.
She's a cutie, all right. But can she tap dance? Where's her baton? Is her ambition "to help people"?
Posted by: God Save The World ||
11/16/2004 9:48:53 PM ||
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#1
Maybe it's their names? These birds are named Hawkins and Eagle.
Posted by: Tibor ||
11/16/2004 23:17 Comments ||
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#2
BTW, given yesterday's Rantburg Manifesto, this posting should probably be sh*tcanned.
Posted by: Tibor ||
11/16/2004 23:18 Comments ||
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Bono Vs Hawkins
Bono recorded line for Band Aid 20's rehash of Band Aid: 'Do they know it's Christmas?' His famous line was ... "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you". But Justin Hawkins of The Darkness also recorded it - and did such a great job that Bono's line was in jeopardy. Bono chucked a spaz and jumped on a jet. Hawins sez "I did it and I did it better than him" Going on to say if Bono couldn't get it right they'd use the original one they recorded all those years ago "when Bono was my age" But Bono's management had Justin's line tossed, insisting Bono's would be the one used.
hahahah, nothing better than a good celeb ego-stoush,especially from one so pompous as Bono!
Posted by: Anon1 ||
11/16/2004 11:12:09 AM ||
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#1
The obligatory prancing and slap fighting to commence shortly.......
EBay cuts Virgin Mary sandwich
Half of a 10-year-old cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin Mary was put up for auction on EBay. It attracted bids up to $22,000 when EBay pulled the plug. After making the cheese sandwich 10 years ago the owner took a bite and recoiled on seeing the Blessed Virgin appear. She put it in a clear plastic box and kept it on her nightstand. Miraculously it has never sprouted a spore of mould.
If I have any calls, I'll be banging my head against the wall for the rest of the day ...
Posted by: Anon1 ||
11/16/2004 10:51:10 AM ||
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#1
aaah the beauty of rap culture rearing its ugly head .
I do have a question which I have asked a number of my esteemed rap/hiphop loving friends . Why ohh why do the majority of kids who listen to this crap actually put on a limp when they walk !? Is it a prerequiste for some initiation into some kind of club ? hehe this one has me more perplexed than the paloe/israel issues :P
#2
The limp is for street cred. The slouching walk with pants hanging low simulates carrying a handgun in the cargo pocket (which would weight pants down). The latter isn't just an affectation - if people aren't sure whether or not you're carrying, they are less likely to mess with you.
#7
The pants hung low used to be an open invitation for a quicky in the prison system, I find it funny how these young people don't have a clue, and think it is cool.
Posted by: SGT. Rock ||
11/16/2004 7:53 Comments ||
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#9
This crap has happened several times before at other crap/hip-schlock awards ceremonies. Too much fake testosterone, chest-thumping and egos for one venue to handle i guess. I really despise the hip-hop culture in general, the music's boring and the message is lame. Boils down to a bunch of self-congratulatory ignorant braggarts with big mouths and bad taste in fashion. 90% of which don't even know how to play an instrument.
#10
Judging from video clips, it looked like Snoop and Quincy Jones were on the dais during the fisticuffs. Didn't those two even bother to say anything right then and there about what was transpiring right in front of their faces?
MANAMA — A Bahraini woman disguised as a male cleric tried to deliver a sermon during prayers here last week leading to a scuffle with worshippers and her subsequent arrest, the mosque Imam said yesterday.
"Shaykh Ya Bouti Masjid welcomes Mullah Pat as your guest imam to-day...hey, waitaminnit!"
The woman, bearded and bespectacled, made her way to the stand where Sheikh Adnan Al Qatan was about to give a sermon during Friday's weekly prayers "when the muezzin grabbed hold of "him' to ask where he was going," Qatan told AFP. "When I noticed what was going on below the stand, I started my sermon so as not to cause a scene. The "man' was taken to a room in the mosque," Qatan said. "The muezzin then noticed that the voice of the man had changed and become softer and that the beard was suddenly lopsided before they discovered the sheikh was a woman," he added.Â
"Besides, the beard twarnt long enough!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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Hey, this smells pretty funny, IMHO. These guys are raised by Ninjas. They can detect a femalian under a bucha potato sacks at a half-click. Believe me, I saw 'em in Saudi cruising up and down the coast road where the pinic areas were, oggling the MOB's from a distance of at least 40-50 ft. They know, intuitively, what they're looking at.
HARDLINERS have tightened their political grip on North Korea while Kim Jong-il, the Stalinist state's dictator, has retreated into virtual seclusion after the death of his favourite consort from cancer. Chinese and Western sources say the regime has prepared for a state of siege as it confronts a re-elected US administration under George W. Bush that is determined to break Pyongyang and disarm it of nuclear weapons. As Japanese envoys tried to persuade the North Koreans last week to rejoin multinational talks, Mr Kim's absence from the scene led to speculation a debilitating power struggle might have paralysed the ruling group. This followed the death of Koh Young-hee, a dancer who had provided Mr Kim with an heir-apparent to the world's only communist dynasty. "The loss of this woman was a blow," said a foreign diplomat. "But (US Democratic candidate) John Kerry's loss in the US election was a harder one. These are now very worried men."
Hosed that one, didn't they?
Diplomats and aid officials in Pyongyang noticed the first signs of a clampdown when some members of their North Korean staff were abruptly reassigned to new jobs and others became more nervous than usual about discussing current affairs. Restrictions had been imposed on foreigners' movements, they said. Telephones used by foreign residents have been cut off and the secret police have assumed control of the country's mobile phone service. Entry permits for foreigners have been curtailed.
It takes more mind than I've got to figure how this ties in with the missing Kimmie pictures, but my guess is that it does, in some obscure KCNA-Songun-Juche way...
The story of how personal bereavement and international crisis became intertwined began with the shipment of an elaborate coffin from Paris to Pyongyang during the summer. North Korean diplomats had ordered it for Koh, 51, who flew home to die after specialists at an exclusive Paris clinic decided she could not be saved from breast cancer. There was no public funeral, but North Koreans noticed that extravagant praise for a figure called Omonim ("respected mother") had vanished from propaganda documents.
"She's dead now. Knock off the praise, why dontcha?"
Koh, whose family arrived from Japan in the 1960s, caught Mr Kim's roving eye when she was dancing in the renowned Mansudae Art Troupe. The dictator, 63, has had at least two wives and many affairs, but defectors say Koh emerged as the most influential woman in a regime beset by dynastic rivalries. In 1981, she gave birth to their son Kim Jong-chul, who was educated in Geneva and now works in the propaganda department of the ruling Korean Workers Party. A second son, Kim Jong-un, followed three years later. South Korean intelligence officials have identified Jong-chul as Mr Kim's chosen heir, displacing his eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, whose mother, Song Hye-rim, died in Moscow in 2002 after seeking treatment for depression.
"I live in North Korea. I'm so depressed. What can you do for me?"
"I'm afraid it's justified depression. You live in North Korea."
"Can I borrow that straight razor?"
Chinese, Japanese and Russian diplomats have all urged the North Koreans to return to the negotiating table to avoid a showdown with the US. The response was a demand that the US President renounce a refugee law he signed to help North Korean refugees. Meanwhile, the human toll of China's treaty of friendship with North Korea is mounting. The Chinese have sent home 62 defectors caught in police raids, knowing they are destined for concentration camps. The deportations, commented Chosun Ilbo, the South Korean newspaper, were "tantamount to telling them, 'Go and die"'.
"The loss of this woman was a blow," said a foreign diplomat.
"But (US Democratic candidate) John Kerryâs loss in the US election was a harder one. These are now very worried men."
GOOD!
Are you listening, Democrats?
Oh, yeah - that's right - you don't care.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/16/2004 17:30 Comments ||
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My, my, my, we've been inundated w/Dear Leader stories the past few weeks.
And they're beginning to say the same thing, unrest and he's not in control.
#6
Ah! That explains the pictures. No... wait it doesn't. It doesn't explain anything. These suckers are lunatics! Crazy! Nutz! 2 Tons of Asphalt short of a Paving job! 2 thousand yards of copper short of a circuit, faintified.
Mark me woids.... in 50 years they won't be able to reproduce with the rest of us.
#8
Keep in mind,when regimes go into a terminal spiral, they tend to engage in foreign misadventures [i.e. Falklands]. Better speed up the redeployment in S.Korea.
Posted by: Don ||
11/16/2004 18:24 Comments ||
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#9
Somehow, I get the feeling that if the family were all in one room, and someone came in calling "Kim Jong! Kim Jong!", that four different voices would say in unison, "Huh?"
#10
Bill Clinton was first as POTUS, Hillary wants to be second, and Chelsea will be numero tres - you know, Lefty criticisms of a "BUSH DYNASTY". And not unlike Osama, the North Korean Communists favored Kerry, and STILL DO - I'm sure this morning's news that OHIO will again recount their state-wide votes for the 2004 Elex should make the NorKor Politburo smile, if smiling were possible for Politburo members.
China has apologised for what it called an accidental incursion by one of its submarines into Japanese waters last week, Tokyo has said. Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said China had expressed regret for the incident, which sparked Japan's first naval alert since 1999. Japan lodged a protest last Friday after saying the sub, which entered waters off Okinawa, was Chinese. Beijing has not yet publicly confirmed its reported apology. Japanese officials said they had been told that the Chinese submarine entered Japanese territorial waters by mistake.
Japan's top government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said that Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister, Wu Dawei, told the Japanese ambassador to China on Tuesday morning that the sub was on routine manoeuvres, and that Beijing regretted the incident. "We consider this to be an apology," Mr Hosoda told a news conference. Japanese Foreign Minister Mr Machimura said the sub had made the incursion due to a "technical error". "The Chinese side said there is no change in its stance that it intends to build partnership with neighbour Japan," Mr Machimura added.
Yeah, right.
The incident threatened to further strain relations between Japan and China, already locked in disputes about contested resources, and sensitivities over their recent history. The submarine was first spotted last Wednesday near the Sakishima islands, which lie about 120km (75 miles) south of the disputed Senkaku islands - known as the Diaoyu in Chinese. It sparked a two-day chase, with Japan concluding it was Chinese due to its noise and general direction as it fled.
Loss of face, very bad for sub skipper
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2004 8:36:42 AM ||
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sooo...was the general direction he fled towards Israel?
#2
I know this shows my ignorance, but I'm curious and have little pride, so I'll ask it anyway. Considering all of this talk from our law enforcement re: Al Qaedea's planning to use and having nukes and this sudden upsurge in subs intruding on the territorial waters of Japan, Israel and ...somewhere else - forget where... do the Iranians or Chineses have the capability to launch nukes from their subs?
#8
AYMMETRIC WARFARE applies to air and naval combat, not just land-based insurgencies. I believe that that the next naval war invol major world powers, espec iff the USA vs China in East Asia over NorKor and Taiwan, will be mostly UNDERWATER,in addition to rapid airborne-based conventional strikes and milog, includ use of NUCLEAR. mostly TAC ARTY as SELF-DEFENSE of area conquered via "SEARCH/TAKE-AND-HOLD" tactics, submarines can be used for both delivery of sizable commando/sapper forces, PRE-INVASION/[ABN]FIRST STRIKE as well as POST-INVASION/FOLLOW-ON milog resupply -read, hide from US Carrier Groups. The Russkis a while back wanted to convert and dev TYPHOON-style hulls for use as UW Transports of valuable commodities, espec for use in [under]the ARTIC, in both the Pacific and Atlantic. They also dev LR HIGH-CAPACITY SEAPLANES and other high-speed "NICHE'" assets, ostensibly for alleged "COMMERCIAL" PURPOSES, i.e. DUAL/MULTI-USE includ Military.
#9
JAPAN TIMES - the Chinese sub may be the same one that was detected off the US island of GUAM and chased/followed by USN P-3C patrol planes. Guam, the CNMI and Micronesia in general are militarily strategic for the USA as these islands cover any military offense or defense to and from the Philippines and East Asia, as well as the strategic approaches to the western USA, Hawaii State, and NORAM from Asia. The Chicoms know this as they have declared Guam, the CNMI, and Micronesia to be not only their "SECOND-TIER/LAYER OF DEFENSE AND CONFRONTATION", and "ISLANDS/TURTLES OF WAR" to confront, counter and defend China from the USA and USAF/USN Carriers, but also have declared the same to be within their "Sphere/Circle of Influence
or Control" - Chinese Communist and Beijing-ese lingo for future Chinese territory(s). Control of Guam, et al. also potentially allows the USA to extend Global Missle Defense and SPAWAR/SATWAR reach over AT LEAST 3/4's of the Pacific Ocean and then some. Like for Yamamoto and the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2, the capture of American Guam, etal, will likely also be a highly important priority for the PLA Army-Navy-AirForces-Second Artillery should any shooting war break out between the USA and China o'er North Korea andor Taiwan. China cannot achieve her desires of East Asian hegemony as long as anti-Chinese Asian democracies, espec JAPAN, let alone the USA, are there to successfully compete econ and militarily against her. China's Communists are like Russia in that they both believe that if nothing is done to stop the USA now, in the future the USA and internal pressures /demands for Western-style DemCapitalism will be too strong for any nation, group of nations, or International-Global Leftism-Socialism-Communism to milpol successfully resist! ERGO 9-11, Bill Clinton's anti-USA "Big BOY" speech, and world Islamists, Communists, Socialists, and Fascists sleeping together in the love bed of anti-Americanism and OWG.
TWO Indonesian boats tried to ram a navy patrol vessel after being caught fishing illegally off the Northern Territory's coast, federal Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald said today. The boats and the 19 crew aboard were today being towed to Gove, in north-east Arnhem Land, after being caught with almost 1000kg of fresh fish and dried shark fins, Senator Macdonald said. The fishermen had initially tried to flee after being detected off Cape Wessel about 8pm (CST) yesterday. When that failed, the crew aboard the wooden boats attempted to ram HMAS Gladstone, Senator Macdonald said. "It is a credit to the crew of the Gladstone, who were able to take control without any damage to the vessel or injury to the crew, and then make the arrest," he said in a statement.
He said the fishing boats were equipped with GPS plotters and depth sounders. "These are not traditional village fishermen who are lost and far from home," Senator Macdonald said. "They know exactly where they are and the illegality of their actions." Officers from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority will begin their investigations when the boats dock in Gove. There have been 144 illegal fishing vessels caught in Australia's northern waters this year.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
11/16/2004 9:45:35 PM ||
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In France, 12 people have gone on trial for running a phone-tapping operation used by the late President Francois Mitterrand to monitor his opponents. The defendants were almost all civil servants and they include current Renault chief Louis Schweitzer. The case has taken 22 years to come to court, because of state secrecy orders that prevented the judge gaining access to key documents. It has been described as France's own Watergate scandal...
The late French president set up a specialist anti-terrorist unit, after the 1982 bombing of a Jewish area in central Paris. Somehow, the unit turned into a massive private eavesdropping exercise, taping thousands of hours of conversations. It reported directly to the president, by-passing the French intelligence services. Journalists, lawyers, businessmen and even the actress and model Carole Bouquet were among those whose private phone conversations were tapped over long periods of time. Most of the 12 defendants in this three-month trial will argue that they were only carrying out orders from above.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
11/16/2004 11:23:22 AM ||
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When U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in Ottawa — probably later this year — should he be welcomed? Or should he be charged with war crimes? It's an interesting question. On the face of it, Bush seems a perfect candidate for prosecution under Canada's Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act. This act was passed in 2000 to bring Canada's ineffectual laws in line with the rules of the new International Criminal Court. While never tested, it lays out sweeping categories under which a foreign leader like Bush could face arrest. In particular, it holds that anyone who commits a war crime, even outside Canada, may be prosecuted by our courts. What is a war crime? According to the statute, it is any conduct defined as such by "customary international law" or by conventions that Canada has adopted...
#3
I think arresting President Bush would be ... unwise.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
11/16/2004 19:32 Comments ||
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heh heh - attempting to could be hazardous
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2004 20:01 Comments ||
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#5
Well, actually, there would be some positive aspects in that kind of scenario.
1. Ottawa arrests Bush.
2. US declare hostilities and invades.
3. Bush returns to US while occupying force stays to sort out some issues.
4. Requests a reparation for the mental anguish in the form of Alberta and BC. The request may be polite, but would be non-negotiable. (Yukon may be added, it will make a territorial sense).
#6
Hell, in a fit of nice-guyism, and to sweeten the deal (for us, not for them), we could give them the Northeast blue states in exchange for the Western provinces.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/16/2004 20:48 Comments ||
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#7
Not sure you want Yukon or British Columbia -- they've legalised same-sex marriage there. ;-)
#13
Who cares about same-sex marriage in the Yukon and BC? Hell, in the Yukon, they invented the third sex on -60F nights! They got mines, and they got yeller gold, Arrrrr!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2004 23:05 Comments ||
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#14
Nah. Not a troll. Nope. Contributor. Deep. Pithy. Valued. Plain as day. Not a troll.
As the purge of pragmatists continues in Burma, there are signs that a major shift of power is also underway within the junta. A new generation of military officers is beginning to emerge which may signal a significant shift in policy, particularly towards the outside world.
Long article at the link, looks like the younger generation of thugs are even harder than the current crop.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2004 2:22:08 PM ||
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The supreme command of Burma's military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) ordered all ministries and regional military commands to sack all the relatives of Military Intelligence Service (MIS) agents working in the civil service departments. According to the confessions of the MIS agents, there are many relatives of theirs who are serving in the civil service, and the supreme command office has issued a directive to all the authorities concerned to remove them all as soon as possible. The order came after the wives of the ousted "Prime Minister" of the junta General Khin Nyunt and his associates were removed from their positions in women and child care associations by the wives of their ruling comrades.
The Burma purge continues.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2004 10:12:19 AM ||
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A TINY unmanned NASA jet has soared over the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate a radical new engine technology by attempting to fly at a record speed of about 11,263km/h, almost 10 times the speed of sound. The 3.6m long X-43A supersonic combustion ramjet, or "scramjet" was to fly under its own power at Mach 10 for about 10 seconds after separating from a booster rocket at 33,000m, then glide to a splash landing. At that speed, approximately 3.2km a second, the aircraft would cover the distance from Sydney to Los Angeles in just over one hour.
Scramjet technology, NASA has said, could open the way to cheaper, safer and faster flights into the upper atmosphere, with smaller and lighter craft. The flight was an apparent success, and confirmation of the speed achieved was expected to be announced later by officials at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. "The research vehicle was absolutely rock-solid stable," said Griff Corpening, chief engineer on two previous X-43A flights. "All indications (are) we had a successful experiment."
The X-43A, mounted on a Pegasus rocket used to boost it to flight speed, was carried under the wing of a B-52 aircraft and released at an altitude of 12,000m over a test range off the Southern California coast. The rocket motor then fired for a 90-second ascent. Like its predecessors, the X-43A will not be recovered from the ocean. The flight was the last in a US$230 million ($298 million) effort to test technology most likely to be initially used in military aircraft, such as a bomber that could reach any target on Earth within two hours of takeoff from the US, or to power missiles.
Scramjets may also provide an alternative to rockets for space launches. Unlike conventional jet engines, which use rotating fan blades to compress air for combustion, the X-43A has no rotating engine parts. Instead it uses the underside of the aircraft's forebody to "scoop" up and compress air for mixing with hydrogen fuel. The X-43A launched Tuesday (US western time) was the last of three built for NASA's Hyper-X program. The first X-43A flight failed in 2001 when the booster rocket veered off course and was destroyed. The second X-43A successfully flew in March, reaching Mach 6.83 - 8045km/h - and setting a world speed record for a plane powered by an air-breathing engine. That was more than double the top speed of the jet-powered SR-71 Blackbird spyplane, which at slightly more than Mach 3 is the fastest air-breathing, manned aircraft.
The old X-15 was the fastest rocket-powered manned airplane, hitting Mach 6.7. Rockets do not "breathe" air, but instead carry oxidizers that are combined with fuel to allow combustion. Not having to carry oxygen is one of the advantages scramjets hold over rockets. Rockets can also achieve high speeds, but the weight of oxygen tanks or other oxidizers reduces the amount of payload they can carry. Tuesday's launch was expected to be the last research flight for NASA's B-52, which is being retired after some 40 years of service.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
11/16/2004 9:41:17 PM ||
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Kewl!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/16/2004 22:25 Comments ||
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Mach 10 - slower when carrying weapons
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2004 22:27 Comments ||
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On a bend in the Mississippi River, beneath the chocolate brown water, archeologists have come across a surprising find: A sunken, hulking Civil War gunship that played a heroic role in the Battle of Mobile Bay. The USS Chickasaw — brainchild of engineering genius James Buchanan Eads and Union stalwart in the Battle of Mobile Bay — was recently rediscovered in a graveyard of shipwrecks in the area known as Carrollton, once a town upriver from the French Quarter. "It was designated as shipwreck No. 2," said Duke Rivet, a state archaeologist. "They had a total of 19 shipwrecks there." The Chickasaw, which is now the only known Milwaukee class ironclad river monitor left, was put to rest in 1944 at that spot on the river, fading into memory along with other outdated and unusable vessels and barges...
#1
I hope its salvageable - would make a great floating museum on the Civil War and the importance of rivers to both sides. Wonder what other naval gems are buried there.
#3
We really need to put an end to this institutional terrorism against the Boy Scouts. Is there no way that the President or Congress can save this institution? There has to be some way to put a stop to the ACLU.
#8
All here is the text of an email I sent to the White House today:
Dear sir,
Is there anyway you can stop the attacks by the ACLU on the Boy Scouts? There must be some legal way of making them cease and dissists their releantless attacks on the Scouts. Please step forward and spend some of that 'political capital' and put an end to the tyranny by litigation. If you want to make a big statement with in your second term, here is one that the entire country can rally around. Make the ACLU explain why they want/demand that gays have access to our young men. You need only check the results of the 'gay marriage' ammendments to know which side 75% of the country stands on this issue too. Please consider some action to save the Scouts from any more attacks from the ACLU.
I encourage all of you to help and let the President know that he should act on behalf of the Scouts. The email address is: president@whitehouse.gov
#9
I recall the president (quickly passing over which one that was) visiting the National Jamboree when it was held at Valley Forge in 1964. There'll be another Jamboree this summer. Wonder if W will attent.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/16/2004 18:31 Comments ||
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#10
If you want to help, the best way is at the local level; get involved with the local troop(s); many do not have enough adult leaders for various activities. You can also become an advisor for any of the various Merit Badges, depending on your talents and interests if you desire. I used to donate to the federally sponsored Combined Federal Campaign, but after the United Way (one of the CFC fund recepients) pulled their support of the BSA due to the gay issue, all my formerly CFC-earmarked money now goes to my local Troop.
#11
Given the Pentagon's own personnel policies, why the heck are they supposed to act offended about the Boy Scouts'? This makes no sense on any level.
A division of MoveThemOn.org
HELP THEM LEAVE is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people who can't stand the idea of living in the United States with George W. Bush as the President and wish to leave. We feel your pain and we want to help you.
Posted by: Don ||
11/16/2004 11:36 ||
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#1
Moveon dudes, it's not enough to be sorry about the war in Iraq. You need to go help them rebuild the country, starting with Fallujah. Good luck and be careful -- I hear the Marines are kind of annoyed just now.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/16/2004 14:58 Comments ||
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#2
Actually, I don't feel their pain. But I'll take their word for it, and am more than happy to help, provided they actually do leave, never to return.
Peace must be "imposed" on the natives Ivory Coast if the warring sides there refuse to abide by a ceasefire, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Tuesday, hailing sanctions voted by the UN Security Council against the west African state. "There must be a lasting cessation of hostilities in the country," Barnier said on Europe 1 radio. "If some parties don't immediately understand how to do that, then peace will have to be imposed," he added.
Gee, I can only think of one way to "impose peace". It involves killing vast numbers of people.
Hey! I've got an idea! Why not hold elections, and then people can vote for the guy they want to be in charge and... Oh. Wait. They did that. Maybe they should vote for the guy the Frenchies want to be in charge, huh? That's kinda the essence of democracy in the Francophile world, isn't it?
"That's the message the members of the UN Security Council were trying to send" by unanimously endorsing a French-proposed resolution calling for sanctions against Ivory Coast.
Is that what the resolution sez?
The 15-nation Security Council on Monday heeded a weekend call by African leaders and voted unanimously to impose an immediate arms embargo on Ivory Coast for a 13-month period. The council also hung the threat of a targeted travel ban and assets freeze over individuals in the divided nation if steps are not taken by December 15 to implement a peace accord brokered by France in January last year to try to end the civil war that broke out in the former French colony in September 2002.
Hummmm, don't see anything there about "imposing peace".
France drafted the resolution earlier this month after nine French peacekeepers and a US aid worker were killed in an air strike by Ivorian government war planes in the north of the country, held by rebels since their failed coup bid against President Laurent Gbagbo in 2002 sparked the civil war.
Gbagbo's the guy that got elected president. But the Frenchies don't want him, 'cuz he's not democratic enough...
To the contrary, he's way too democratic for the French ... and not nearly Muslim enough.
French forces retaliated, wiping out the tiny nation's air force in a move that set off deadly anti-French and -foreign riots and vandalism that reportedly left dozens dead and sent thousands of Europeans fleeing. Many Westerners who were airlifted out of Abidjan on board planes requisitioned by the French government, said on arrival in France that they had been the target of atrocities, including rape, during the pogroms in Ivory Coast. Officials at a court in Bobigny, near Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, where a special unit has been set up to deal with the influx of fleeing Westerners from Ivory Coast, said 75 complaints had been lodged by French evacuees from the former star French colony in west Africa, including three for rape. "All the complaints concern attacks on property. The number of complaints is not final because others could be filed elsewhere in France," a prosecutor at the court, Patrick Poirret, told AFP. Barnier said those responsible for the atrocities should be held accountable for their actions.
You going to bring them in front of the World Court?
"We saw atrocities that are absolutely unacceptable," the French foreign minister said. "Those who committed them must be held accountable," he said. Barnier also assured European expatriates wishing to leave Ivory Coast that they "will be able to do so." "Everyone, French, European, who chooses to leave because they no longer feel safe, because they are worried, will be able to do so," he said. More than 5,500 foreigners have fled Ivory Coast since the country's civil war escalated sharply 10 days ago.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2004 10:48:20 AM ||
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#11
If France wants to be a world power it will have to project power. So that is what it is using Cote d Ivorie for. They could care less about the actual native peoples.
Employees at a Little Rock office building have been asked to leave their deer hunting rifles at home because the president and three former presidents are coming to town to open Bill Clinton's presidential library and massage parlor. Acxiom Corporation distributed a memo to the 420 employees in its 12-story sales and marketing building in Little Rock's River Market district -- near the Clinton library -- reminding them of its policy forbidding weapons on company property. "This would not be a time to violate that policy," said Dale Ingram, spokesman for Acxiom. The Acxiom building overlooks the library, where President Bush and former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Clinton are to speak.
The Secret Service will be at Condition Red with so many potential terrorist targets in one place at a well publicised event.
Deer hunting season in Arkansas began last weekend, and overlaps with the dedication, on Thursday, of Clinton's library. Deer hunters in Arkansas take the sport so seriously that many of them keep their rifles and shotguns and other equipment in their cars, which makes it easier for them to get in a few hours in the woods before or after leaving work.
Deer, it's what's for dinner.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2004 9:48:38 AM ||
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Deer hunting season in Arkansas began last weekend, and overlaps with the dedication, on Thursday, of Clinton's library. Deer hunters in Arkansas take the sport so seriously that many of them keep their rifles and shotguns and other equipment in their cars, which makes it easier for them to get in a few hours in the woods before or after leaving work.
Seriously but not Taylor County Serious, else why are they at work?
Around 300 Gurkha troops are being sent to Ivory Coast to help take Britons fleeing the strife-torn West African country to safety. Members of the Army's Spearhead Lead Company, drawn from the Royal Gurkha Regiment, flew to the Ghanaian capital Accra last night where they were put on "immediate notice" to move into Ivory Coast. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, announced the deployment in a written statement to the Commons. He added that the assault ship HMS Albion, which can carry up to 700 troops and 60 vehicles, had been redirected towards the region as an "additional contingency".
"Don't make us come in there. You won't like it, trust me."
Mr Hoon said about 400 Britons in Ivory Coast were entitled to protection from British forces. "We would expect the operation to last days, not weeks," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2004 3:41:31 AM ||
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#1
Hmm....it sounds like the party is about to get broken up in a serious way. Don't pull the pin on the the short brown guys . . . you will never hear the end of it . . . well, not you. Once they are done redecorating with your body then we will see the end of it. These are some of the most serious soldiers on the planet, getting chosen for one of the regiments is an objective for most young men from the province and they work hard to qualify.
Look out Ivorians . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
11/16/2004 8:27 Comments ||
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#4
I was struck by this: There was little respite after the First World War, with fighting in the Third Afghan War in 1919 followed by numerous campaigns on the North-West Frontier, particularly in Waziristan.
Those damn wazibillies have been a pain in the ass for a long time, lol.
#5
Fact is Tony Blair should pull the French out of the fire on this one, and in the process yank French West Africa out of the French sphere of influence.
The US should provide Tony Blair with any and all support we can for such a move. With those "down with the French" and "US invade us" signs in the region a year or so ago I think the British might not have to fight to hard.
In the 4th century B.C., Alexander the Great fell afoul of Pashtun tribesmen in today's Malakand Agency, where he took an arrow in the leg and almost lost his life. Two millennia later the founder of the Mogul empire, Babur, described the tribesmen of the area now known as Waziristan as unmanageable...
The United Nations Security Council has imposed an immediate arms embargo on Ivory Coast and vowed to punish key government and rebel leaders with additional sanctions next month.
I don't recall a shortage of arms being the problem.
Maybe it's a problem with short arms? It could just be an issue with the translation from the French.
The 15 nation council unanimously adopted a sanctions resolution drafted by France, the former colonial power, after the Ivorian Government launched bombing raids on the rebel-held north a little over a week ago, shattering an 18-month truce and killing nine French peacekeepers and a US civilian. The council had delayed a vote last week to give African Union officials a chance to patch up the peace process between the Government forces holding the south and the rebels controlling the north of the world's largest cocoa producer, but no deal was reached.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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Why should "W" soften and reach out to that sap sucking Chirac?! I can't believe how far Bush wants to lean over for the france. There are enough AU and french to handle the Sudanese matter without getting our hands 'dirty'.
#7
The more important story here is that yet again a people attacked by Moslems is told by the UN that it should not seek to defend itself. And France is supporting the Moslems.
#8
I think we voted with France to collect markers for further use. An arms ban won't make a bit of difference in IC. It's strictly Old Europe kneejerk reaction. The Ivoirian militias and various troublemakers don't need bullets and mortars. The guys who have been rampaging up and down streets in Abidjan use machetes and crowbars to main and rob since the French military has to wait for the UN to tell them it's OK to fire on troublemakers. Result: Frenchie soldiers don't shoot, just watch. Troublemakers know this. Let EU/UN/AU handle it and we just vote along patting Jacques on the back wishing him good luck.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
11/16/2004 13:28 Comments ||
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Moving right along on Sudan, I see? Cause, you know, a few threatened French people is so much more important than 100,000 dead Sudanese. We shouldn't have gone along this time-not because we wanted revenge for their avoidance of Iraq, but to prevent our being associated with those who are blase about genocides.
#10
Chicago Mike - What markers are you talking about? Not like they are ever going to back us up or vote for us when we need them....
I guess "Blood for Cocoa" is ok, but "Blood for Oil!" isn't.
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.
THERE must be something in the water in Australia at the moment - our girls are continuing to blitz the competition in international beauty pageants. Following Jennifer Hawkins' crowning as Miss Universe earlier this year, Sydney-based 16-year-old Lauryn Eagle has been named the new Miss Teen International. She won the pageant, held at the weekend in Costa Rica, after clinching the Miss Teen Australia title in October. 
HARDLINERS have tightened their political grip on North Korea while Kim Jong-il, the Stalinist state's dictator, has retreated into virtual seclusion after the death of his favourite consort from cancer. Chinese and Western sources say the regime has prepared for a state of siege as it confronts a re-elected US administration under George W. Bush that is determined to break Pyongyang and disarm it of nuclear weapons. As Japanese envoys tried to persuade the North Koreans last week to rejoin multinational talks, Mr Kim's absence from the scene led to speculation a debilitating power struggle might have paralysed the ruling group. This followed the death of Koh Young-hee, a dancer who had provided Mr Kim with an heir-apparent to the world's only communist dynasty. "The loss of this woman was a blow," said a foreign diplomat. "But (US Democratic candidate) John Kerry's loss in the US election was a harder one. These are now very worried men." 
French forces retaliated, wiping out the tiny nation's air force in a move that set off deadly anti-French and -foreign riots and vandalism that reportedly left dozens dead and sent thousands of Europeans fleeing. Many Westerners who were airlifted out of Abidjan on board planes requisitioned by the French government, said on arrival in France that they had been the target of atrocities, including rape, during the pogroms in Ivory Coast. Officials at a court in Bobigny, near Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, where a special unit has been set up to deal with the influx of fleeing Westerners from Ivory Coast, said 75 complaints had been lodged by French evacuees from the former star French colony in west Africa, including three for rape. "All the complaints concern attacks on property. The number of complaints is not final because others could be filed elsewhere in France," a prosecutor at the court, Patrick Poirret, told AFP. Barnier said those responsible for the atrocities should be held accountable for their actions. 
