Does this count as a sign or a portent?
As rains lashed the Saudi desert, tens of thousands of drenched Muslim pilgrims welcomed the deluge yesterday as a blessing from God while they circled the cubic Kaaba shrine in this holy city's Grand Mosque, the final rite in the annual hajj pilgrimage.
A record estimated 2.56 million people attended this year's hajj snip
While lightning cracked overhead, thousands of the faithful in Mina, about 4 miles from Mecca, opened umbrellas to shield them from the rain while hurling rocks at rectangular, billboard-sized stone blocks symbolizing the devil.
"Rain is always a blessing, and for it to fall so hard at the end of our hajj rituals means our sins are washed away and God has accepted our prayers," said a soaked Mohammed Jamal Khan, 42, from the Pakistani city of Peshawar, before a gust of wind blew away the plastic bag he had tied to his head. snip
#2
"Europe's intervention in what has become a major issue in the election campaign took Westminster aback."
I'll say! If the Tories had engineered this in some way, I'd say there was political genius at work. Not the case though: just good luck. The Tories can thank Brussels for massively bolstering the their eurosceptic credentials.
"The Conservative leadership responded by saying that a Tory government would immediately opt out of the new rules. If that were blocked, it would insist on renegotiation to allow Britain to determine its own asylum and immigration policies."
The EU aren't the only ones to attempt to interfere with Howard's plans for immigration reform. Incredibly, the UN also immediately bitched about it:
"The UNHCR said it would not cooperate with a Conservative government over its quota plan if Mr Howard withdrew from the convention on refugees."
#3
Give up your sovereignty to the Beauzeaux of Brussels⢠& look what happens. What do you think of your new Continental Overlords now?
Hey, Brussels, I've got an idea! You take in all migrants who want to emigrate it Europe - from anywhere in the world. ALL of them.
And make sure you follow all your hand-tying regulations. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2005 18:29 Comments ||
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#4
"The UNHCR said it would not cooperate with a Conservative government over its quota plan if Mr Howard withdrew from the convention on refugees."
Hey, Bulldog, if they won't go along with a "quota" plan do you think they'd accept a "no immigrants at ALL" plan? That would get their knickers in a twist. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2005 18:34 Comments ||
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#5
BD: The Tories can thank Brussels for massively bolstering the their eurosceptic credentials.
The Tories have euroskeptic credentials? Can't say I've detected any euroskepticism in that lot.
#6
Barbara - I think there would be a lot of spilled lattes somewhere in Manhattan.
Howard's proposals are for a quota system which would in effect dictate the number of immigrants to the UK every year. Howard (himself the son of refugees) doesn't want to stop immigration - just make the rate of immigration manageable. I'm not sure if a quota's the right option myself (I'd prefer a fairly high cap to allow for contingencies, but with a lot stricter screening), but he's not calling for an end to granting asylum to refugees. He also wants a new system whereby immigrants cannot claim refuge after illegal entry to this country - they'd have to apply elsewhere. That, it would seem to me, would deal effectively with the sort of scum which turns up here uninvited and successfully claims asylum because they've engaged in such barbarity back home that they're under sentence of death. Under Labour the rate of immigration has shot up - and that's just officially acknowledged immigration.
#7
The Tories have euroskeptic credentials? Can't say I've detected any euroskepticism in that lot.
Then you haven't been watching, ZF. They're not all Chris Pattens and Ken Clarkes. Generally the Tories are the more eurosceptic party, Labour the more europhile. Howard's going to run on a platform of rejecting the proposed Consitution outright, at the next election.
Number 1 Keep the Pound
Number 2 Oppose the European Constitution
Number 3 Spend more on our Armed Forces
Number 4 Get a grip on asylum and immigration
Number 5 Bring back powers from Brussels
#9
If a future British government were to enact laws that contravened EU regulations, the commission would begin "infringement proceedings". Those would be followed, if resistance continued, by legal action in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Y'know, that might not be a bad idea. Fight it out in a court of law to see if the regulations are actually legal -- how many of us suspect regulatory overreach by the Brussels bureaucrats? If they are legal, the various national referenda on the constitution take on a new level of seriousness; if they are not legal, the immediate problem goes away and the Brussels bureaucrats will start controlling their efforts to avoid such a face-losing exercise in the future.
#10
That's an overly optimistic appraisal I'm afraid, tw. For one, this is Howard talking - not Blair. For Blair, there's no problem (though you can guarantee with absolute certainty that he's working on a speech echoing his concerns about the issue but will do nothing in practice). He'll go along with whatever Brussels dictates in order to not rock the boat. So all we're going to see for the moment is this threat, which may or may not be picked up elsewhere.
As for any overreach - Brussels bureacrats will work on how to gain the powers they don't yet have, not accept their limitations. Any oversights would be written into the next treaty or added to the draft Constitution (added and re-added to drafts as necessary until accepted eventually during horse-trading).
A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.
In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist."
The letter, faxed in part to The Associated Press by the office of lawmaker Alexander Krutov, said, "The negative assessments by Russian patriots of the qualities and actions against non-Jews that are typical of Jews correspond to the truth ... The statements and publications against Jews that have incriminated patriots are self-defense, which is not always stylistically correct but is justified in essence."
The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia.
Jewish leaders have praised President Vladimir Putin's government for encouraging religious tolerance, but rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic and racial violence.
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said lawmakers were looking for support "by playing the anti-Semitic card."
The prosecutor general's office could not immediately be reached for comment on the letter, which the Interfax news agency said was signed by lawmakers from the nationalist Rodina and Liberal Democratic parties as well as the Communist Party.
Krutov, a Rodina member, is deputy chief of the Duma's Committee on Information Policy.
With Putin planning to join events this week commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops, Russia's Holocaust Foundation head Alla Gerber said it was "horrible that as we're marking the 60th anniversary of this tragic and great day ... we can speak of the danger of fascism in the countries that defeated fascism."
While the Russian state itself is no longer anti-Semitic, there are "anti-Semitic campaigns that are led by all sorts of organizations," she said.
"The economic situation is ripe for this. An enemy is needed, and the enemy is well-known, traditional," Gerber said.
Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States "has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism."
"It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of," the letter says.
Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers call for the prosecution of "individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing."
Do you mind me saying I am stunned at this article? I need to go sit down. This is awful.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/25/2005 12:38:55 AM ||
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#1
with a cossack heritage--a fat out of shape body--a small dick--and vodka for breakfast--any russkie worth his samovar will revert to jew hating--it was the national sport for years
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/25/2005 2:33 Comments ||
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#2
Damn! Cover has been blown again! Well, no more loans for them. And we re-possess all the tanks bought on credit.
Posted by: Elders of Zion ||
01/25/2005 7:08 Comments ||
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#4
At least this time the Jews have a nation of their own to flee to and the military power to defend themselves.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/25/2005 8:24 Comments ||
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#5
This is an example of Russians imitating the EU.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/25/2005 9:13 Comments ||
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#6
Russia's parallels with 1930s Germany keep on increasing and increasing, ain't they? This isn't even the disguised antisemetism of the "Israel is wholly at fault for everything" variety -- this is the naked revealed antisemetism of the "Jews everywhere are part of an evil global conspiracy" variety.
And as a sidenote: try not to be so much of a fucking idiot, Mark Z.
#7
My ancestors on my mother's side were Jewish farmers that had enough of the Russian pogroms, and decided to skidaddle to the USA, a decision I still support today.
I can see from #5 and #6 that this is going to be a loooooooonnnnnng thread. ***sigh***
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 9:30 Comments ||
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#8
Raptor: Stalin's Legacy,alive and well.
Anti-semitism in Russia predated Stalin. Communism provided Jews with opportunities for advancement in the Russian government. It wasn't perfect, but it was preferable to Tsarist rule, from a Jewish standpoint.
#9
Relax, folks. In the post-communist era there has always been a flagrantly anti-semitic hardcore minority with representation in the Duma, Zhirinovsky being the most visible advocate. (Zhirinovsky's own father is jewish, which he hides by describes his father as "a lawyer." Which has earned him the media epithet of syn advokata, or "Son of a Lawyer"...)
The people to watch are not a few wackos in the Duma but those in the big chairs in the Moscow Mayor's office and of course the Kremlin. Neither of whom has shown the slightest inclination to attack, or for that matter tolerate attacks on, jews.
#10
Putin has done more than any Russian leader, ever, to improve the standing and acceptance of jews in a notoriously anti-semitic nation. There are plenty of reasons to scorn Putin-- I myself believe he's merely a puppet for coirrupt security service officers-- but this ain't one of them. It's too early to say whether Russia has turned a corner in its acceptance of its jewish population, but there is no doubt about where the Russian government stands.
If this were not so we would not be seeing thousands of Russian jews returning to Russia from Israel, as has occurred in the last three years due to Russia's oil and other commodities bonanza.
#12
Lex, at least part of the reason the Russian Jews go home is that they don't like the rough'n'tumble Israeli culture. They went there expecting to be coddled and adored for their culturedness and education, and were shocked to discover that PhDs with honors in physics or linguistics are almost as common as dirt over there, concert violinists ditto. And to add insult to injury, they had to support themselves driving taxis and suchlike, whatever they could find, instead of a spot being made for them in the field of their choice. Some couldn't handle that much reality, so they grabbed the opportunity to go back to familiar discomforts.
#13
Interesting, tw. But the point for this discussion is that Russian Jewish emigrants are returning to Russia, which has never happened in recent history and which implies that anti-semitism in contemporary Russia is not a major force.
#14
trailing wife - Hmm, that sounds rather like some of those stories about people getting out of the USSR during the cold war, coming to the US and then freaking out and wanting to go back.
Spring of 1989 there were some exchange students from Russia that visited the Univ of Texas. My wife's roommate was one of their student "sponsors" while they were here.
The girls never would smile because they were self conscious about their dental work (not even when they were taken to visit Bergstrom AFB, now Austin's airport, and several fighter pilots at the base were all but fighting each other to try and ask them out).
The young men, though, spent most of the trip drunk and sitting around sulking. What started that, and I am not kidding, was a trip to the local grocery store (HEB). After that, they were just depressed and spent the rest of the trip getting sloshed.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 12:50 Comments ||
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#15
lex, I honestly think that, had the opportunity to go back been available to the Soviet/Russian emigrants in the past, there would have been a noticeable number of returnees then, too. LotR's tale rings true with what I remember of the Soviet Jews who came out in the old days. While some gorged themselves on opportunity, or were simply grateful to escape, quite a few did not make a good transition, even with the massive support of the local Jewish community.
What I think this means is that the familiar strains of antisemitism are not enough to prevent the uncomfortable from returning during a more favourable economic environment, not that the antisemitism is more or less pervasive than it was when they left. And I cannot judge that because, as you say, the nationalists and their fellow travelers have long been openly and flagrantly antisemitic.
#16
lex-It's not finally about Putin. It's about whether those politicians and populaces who consider themselves Europeans (Putin, Schroeder, Chirac and their constituencies) are heading down the path for a repeat of WWII. Sound impossible? As I said in my commentary #100 of 1/20, what percentages of the populaces I describe above side with Israel in the Israel/Palestinian conflict? Very few. The majority's sympathies tend to side with "the other"-in this case, with Mother Russia, in the case of Germany, with the Aryans---the other always meaning non-Jewish. Europe has some self-examination to do (and so does America, as anyone has been listening to the number of anti-Semitic callers coming in on C-Span regularly can attest). Schroeder may be making his comments to the BBC today in memory of the Holocaust, but let's not let him, Germany, the EU or anyone else off the hook when it comes to siding with the other. When Europe sides with the other, Jews end up dead.
#17
It's about whether those politicians and populaces who consider themselves Europeans (Putin, Schroeder, Chirac and their constituencies)
This is just a sidepoint but from everything I gather, I believe Russia doesn't consider itself to be "European" in the sense that France and Germany do.
I think it's a more fitting interpretation of global politics if you see Russia as a separate thing. It's Europe *and* Russia, not Europe-including-Russia. Russia is a global player and a "pole" in its own right.
As I said in my commentary #100 of 1/20, what percentages of the populaces I describe above side with Israel in the Israel/Palestinian conflict?
I don't have statistics to show it, but my feeling is that the overwhelming majority of Europeans supports the existence of Israel. That puts them in ideological opposition to terrorist groups like Hamas, Islamist Jihad or Hezbollah.
However I think that the overwhelming majority of European also supports the existence of a free and unoccupied independent Palestinian state.
Israel already exists, and (even though I think them wrong) most European don't consider its existence to be in danger. It's the independent Palestinian state that doesn't exist however.
So from that point on, I think it depends what you mean by "side with Israel in the Israel/Palestinian conflict".
Most Europeans see the basics of the conflict as being "the Israelis have an independent state but denying the Palestinians one". And since not large amounts of people are exactly informed of the full rhetoric of groups like Hamas, they see the Palestinians as using horrible means in order to achieve a just cause -- freedom.
I know many want to conflate the two, but I do believe there's a vast difference between anti-semetism and merely anti-Israel opinions, even though the latter indeed occasionally disguises the former.
#18
This is just a sidepoint but from everything I gather, I believe Russia doesn't consider itself to be "European" in the sense that France and Germany do.
In my more limited experience (in comparison with yours, since you live in Europe and I only lived there in 1993 and 1994), they DO consider themselves European culturally, intellectually, globally. It is one of the things that keeps their heads held high.
Europe may support the idea of an Israel or the idea of a Palestine (and I still disagree with you here-I think Europe has a very ugly skeleton in its closet, as I said in #100), but support of an idea and carrying through on actions to manifest that idea are two different things. What does Europe do to help each side? Well, they help by sending aid to Palestinians (which doesn't always end up in innocent hands) and always coming to their (verbal) defense, but they cannot seem to even muster the slightest sympathy for blown up Israelis. As I contended, most Europeans I hear from (on websites, news commentary blogs, acquaintances) will stand and shout wholeheartedly for Palestine, but always qualify their support for Israel with "buts"--this combination puts into question their true beliefs. Since the voice seems to reign supreme in Europe these days, why don't European leaders lead the calls denouncing terrorism against Israel? If they comment at all, it is to second someone else's comment--but most times, it seems that Europe is strangely silent or making excuses for people who blow up babies.
#19
Most Europeans see the basics of the conflict as being "the Israelis have an independent state but denying the Palestinians one".
For their part, I don't believe Americans as a majority want to stop the statehood of Palestine. That said, Americans will not be behind statehood for terrorists or terrorist backers, which is how the Palestinians have defined themselves in our eyes. These two differing views (EU's & US's) of the parties make our work together unpromising. We hope Mr. Abbas is able to move Palestine beyond this deadly impasse, but with Palestinians being held unaccountable (having to produce no security results of their own), with unconditional preference in Europe for Palestinians over Israelis, hope in the Peace Plan remains slim.
#20
Russia today is not all the Russia of 1989. At that time, Russians visiting the West were like carmelite nuns suddenly free to talk with others beyond the convent and to explore the world. After a lifetime spent in near-total isolation-- you really can't imagine it, but in fact they had no access to information, to ideas, no ability to travel, no relatives abroad in 99.999% of cases-- it was hugely disorienting for any Russian who was not a diplomat's kid or party hack to spend time in any western state. Which is why most resorted to the state of inebriation or of self-imposed isolation.
As to the danger of a revival of anti-semitism in Russia, I don't see it. It's simply not a major issue in Moscow or StP, and what anti-semitism exists is nothing new or virulent. It's the same old cranks-- and they are all old and getting older-- but without the crucial element of state support, which was solid and widespread under the soviets. Simply not a major issue in that country.
#22
lex's comments above are correct. These anti-Semites do occupy some positions in the Duma, but they're relatively insignificant.
One thing to keep in mind is that after the Soviet Union fell apart, several Jews became fabulously wealthy by acquiring assets that previously had belonged to the communist state. That development gave a fresh impetus to anti-Semitic attitudes.
There's a lot of anger in the society, and a lot of the old prejudices and beliefs persist. In general, though, anti-Semitism is whithering away.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 18:24 Comments ||
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#23
Lex and Mike, I disagree. I am watching trends since mid 90's and the antisemitism is on the increase worldwide, Russia is no exception.
I have a feeling we're back in 1930's again. In 5 years or so, the EUros would have a choice, giving up their Jews to Mohamedans for appeasement, or else. After a while, the jihadis would declare they were kidding, infidels must be cleansed too.
#24
Lex-Perhaps I am overreaching, but can we break it down?
Is Russia's identity European in their own eyes? They certainly shared a significant past, in trade and secondary language spread, in wars and alliances, in music and art...Germany was the enemy of Russia in WWII, but ask your relatives and colleagues that lived at that time: outside of Jewish families, what was the opinion of Jews among rank and file Russians in the 1930s and 1940s? Did anything in the subsequent decades change that view, from a demographic aspect?
#25
To broaden the topic a bit (how complicated our world is becoming):
Is Russia a part of Europe in EUROPE's eyes?
With whom is Russia more likely to ally itself, its Moslem neighbors along its southern borders, its European neighbors to the west, with America, China, with countries in South America, in Africa? Or to every place at every time for Russia's own well-concealed reasons?
What about Cat D12's point? The general conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims has a vigorous second front now-Europe. How are the Europeans responding to that threat? Who has been trying to "work with who"; who is being sought out for satisfaction? That should be of much concern to Mr. Putin, who has ridden through 2 very ugly terror incidents (that I know of) in the last couple of years and will need to get his hands around a sound policy. Is he taking America's track (or so we would wish it)-fighting any and all affiliates of terror, or is he more attracted to the EU elixir for hudna, commerce-based solutions with a dash of dialogue? Makes one wonder. Mr. Putin has some potentially massive problems on his hands along that southern Russian border.
Is the reason Putin became so cold with the US (predating Beslan) primarily an economic one-that we have ruined a good thing he had going in Iraq? What on earth has made him throw away a good hand?
Lex-I agree that anti-Semitism may not be at crisis stage in Russia, nor in Europe. Yet.
#26
Re #24 (jules): what was the opinion of Jews among rank and file Russians in the 1930s and 1940s?
There was a lot of prejudice against Jews in the 1930s and 1940s among Russians, as there was among Germans, other Europeans, and North Americans. The reasons everywhere were similar. Jews were non-Christians. Jews were prominent in finance, trade, crime, radical politics, and other endeavors that upset people. Jews had Asiatic, not European blood. Jews were not loyal to their governments. Jews were involved in secret conspiracies to take over the world. Such ideas were widely spread.
In Russia and Germany such ideas were aggravated by military defeats, economic catastrophes, political violence, tyranical government, censorship of information, suppression of dissent, and systematic brainwashing.
In Russia several of these factors persisted through the 1980s.
As the Soviet Union collapsed and people were allowed to criticize Communism, the criticism included accusations that Jews were largely to blame. Russians read such accusations for the first time, and many Russians were impressed by the evidence. They read long lists of Communists who Jews or who were thought to be Jews. They also learned that many Jews became fabulously rich after the Soviet Union fell apart.
More generally, though, the Russians are gradually and freely learning, discussing and accepting their true history. They are hearing all sides of arguments, and they gradually are putting Russians and Jews in proper relationships and perspectives in their thinking. You can be sure that this proposal in the Duma is being critized and that Russians are hearing that criticism.
Also, most of the Jews have left Russia. I don't know the percentage, but I think that Jews now must constitute less than one percent of the population. So, blaming the Jews for current problems just can't resonate much in a real way.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 21:45 Comments ||
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#27
Mike, you don't understand. You have no idea how deeply anti-semitism is weaved into the EUro and Russian cultures.
The ability to learn freely does not in any way diminish this trait, otherwise it would have been eliminated already in EUroland, it's a red herring.
It really does not matter how many Jews remain in Russia, when the opportunity arises and people would feel the need to elevate the blame game to social events, because it is easier than to resolve the issues by exerting an effort, who do you think they will target?
Some Russians still blame Jews for social and economic problems. The posted article is a vivid example. Those Russians are a small, vocal minority who exert decreasingly little influence on Russian society's thinking. Blame for current problems is placed much more on organized crime, official corruption and Moslem terrorists than on Jewish conspiracies. Hostility toward Jews has been withering away along with the departure of Jews themselves from Russia. Most young Russians have never personally met any Jews.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 22:34 Comments ||
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#29
I know quite a few people that never met any Jew personally, and yet they are anti-semites. How do you parse that?
#30
Some people study evidence for Jewish conspiracies and become convinced that there are such conspiracies and that they are very important. Most people don't bother to study such issues, and they are influenced more casually by general talk, general impressions, and personal experiences. The latter group, which is much larger, is decreasingly influenced by the smaller group of anti-Semite zealots. Their accusations do not resonate with most people's experiences and concerns.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 22:46 Comments ||
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#31
Okydoky then. How do you explain that the anti-semitism incidents are on the increase worldwide? According to your analysis, the trend should be just the opposite, n'est ce pas?
#32
Mike, your analysis is flawed. When I lived in Frankfurt during the first half of the '90s, there were fewer than 50,000 Jews living in all of Germany, including me. And yet some 25% of Germans admitted in surveys to hating the Jews (a significant and joyfully-acclaimed decrease from previous levels). I suggest to you that at that time not only did most Germans not know any Jews personally, but they also didn't know anyone who'd ever met a Jew. So where did the antisemitism come from?
Antisemitism, it is said, is the philosophy of the mentally impoverished. It explains everything in a most satisfying way, and as such needs no true facts or real persons to justify its existence. Certainly not the existence of real Jewish people! Else why would the Japanese, who as a group are neither Christian nor Muslim, who have never had any Jews living in their midst, and who have no dog in the Israel v. Palestine fight, be antisemitic?
Question: How can one tell whether Putty is happy or mad? The forced smile and expression is the same.
UKRAINE'S Western-minded new President, Viktor Yushchenko, risked further aggravating Moscow yesterday when he appointed Yuliya Tymoshenko, his outspoken ally, as acting Prime Minister, despite the Kremlin's objections. Mr Yushchenko made the appointment shortly before flying to Moscow for talks designed to mend ties with President Putin, who backed his opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, in the election. It was a highly provocative choice, coming the day after Mr Yushchenko had pledged at his inauguration to lead Ukraine out of the circle of corrupt, authoritarian postSoviet states and into the European Union. This just in: Yushchenko won the election. Hello?
Mrs Tymoshenko, 44, is one of Mr Yushchenko's key allies and financial backers (a Ukranian dish) and was perhaps the most inspirational figure in the Orange Revolution that overturned the rigged election in November. She is, however, wanted in Russia on charges of bribing defence officials in the 1990s and is widely reviled in Russian-speaking eastern and southern Ukraine as antiRussian. She has denied the charges, which she says are politically motivated. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin on the appointment, which was announced as Mr Yushchenko began talks with Mr Putin. The Ukrainian leader, making his first official trip, told Mr Putin: "This is a sign of great respect for our relations. Russia is our eternal strategic partner."
Mr Putin received Mr Yushchenko warmly, despite the Kremlin's humiliating foreign policy failure. "Recently we did only that which was asked of us by the Ukrainian Government (crooks)," he said. "We only hope that we can also have the same friendly relationship with you." Nevertheless, Russia — Ukraine's main energy supplier and biggest trade partner — could try to scupper Mr Yushchenko's efforts to deliver the reforms that he has promised if he does not agree to compromise. Mr Putin wants him to commit Ukraine to economic and political bodies grouping former Soviet republics. Mr Yushchenko appears to be determined to move Ukraine towards the West. English translation: Yush, watch your back.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#3
Putin's not in control of his own government. It's unlikely that he'll finish out his term. I'd say that Yushchenko, if he's patient and plays his cards right, will end with a much stronger hand in 3 years than he currently has in his dealings with Moscow. We'd be wise to let the Kremlin know that we know this.
#4
Putin's not in control of his own government. It's unlikely that he'll finish out his term.
You've said that before, but I don't remember you providing any datapoints to back it up.
I'd urge Yushchenko to be extremely *impatient* at pushing forward reform. Recent Eastern European history has shown that it's the nation that speeded up, like Poland and Estonia that solidified their western democratic orientation. The ones that were "patient", like Kazakhstan, Moldova, and so forth, just regressed to oligarchic tyranny.
With a murderous-imperialist tyranny still nearby, it's imperative that Yushchenko moves as quickly as possibly to have his country break away from the Russian sphere and cleanse away as much of the Kremlin-Kuchma corruption as quickly as possible.
#5
A further point: given a largely horrid "election package reform" pushed forward just before the rerun election, large powers of the president will be moved to the Parliament the next year.
Yushchenko doesn't have five, or four, or three years to push forward reform. He has only one. (that's, btw, why I've called the Orange Revolution a very *partial* victory, rather than the triumph for democracy others consider it). He needs to break the corruption instituted by the old regime as much as possible before the next parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for 2006.
Luck, courage and skillful handling of the media have won German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a comeback thought impossible last year when his welfare cuts plunged his party into a record series of regional election defeats and sparked talk of the "Twilight of the Chancellor." He has been helped by the economy, which pulled out of a three-year slump in 2004 with 1.7 percent growth, according to figures released last week. They coincided with a poll showing Mr. Schroeder's coalition of Social Democrats (at 35%) and Greens (10%) neck-and-neck with the opposition conservatives (38%)and liberals (7%) for the first time since late 2002... The article finishes with lots of details about Germany's internal politics, for those who are interested.
The greatest shooting festival in the world for youngsters takes place every year in Zurich, Switzerland. Imagine thousands of boys and girls shooting military service rifle over three days amid an enormous fair with ferris wheels and wild rides of all kinds. You're at the Knabenschiessen (boys' shooting contest).
<SMALL>**SNIP**
It's September 13, 2004. In the U.S. on this date, the Clinton fake "assault weapon" ban sunsets. In Zurich, some 5,631 teens — 4,046 boys and 1,585 girls, aged 13-17 — have finished firing the Swiss service rifle, and it's time for the shootoff.
Geschossen wird mit dem Armee-Sturmgewehr
That rifle is the SIG Strumgeweher (assault rifle) model 1990 (Stgw 90), a selective fire, 5.6 mm rifle with folding skeleton stock, bayonet lug, bipod, and grenade launcher. The Stgw 90 is a real assault rifle in that it is fully automatic, although that feature is disabled during the competition. Every Swiss man, on reaching age 20, is issued one to keep at home. Imagine all those teenagers firing this real assault rifle while their moms and dads look on with approval, anxiously awaiting the scores.
**SNIP**
Ends:
Zurich's youngsters who shoot military rifles have a lesson to teach Americans. It is a lesson of peace, thru strength???SPAN> family values, and responsibility, while gaining the ability to defend oneself and one's community from aggression. As was well known to America's Founders, who were enamored of the Swiss model, teaching the young to shoot is both a civic virtue and a wonderful sport.
#5
Switzerland actually has a gun law. What most people don't know is that in Switzerland every adult male is legally required to own a rifle which can fire standard military ammunition, and is required to fire at least 100 rounds per year. Women have no such obligation, but are encouraged to participate as well.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste ||
01/25/2005 18:37 Comments ||
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#7
Yes, when I was a lad and spending my summers in Switzerland, I would see the citizen soldiers riding their bikes up the mountain roads to meet at their prescribed rendezvous points high up in the mountains. Later, as an adult, I was taking a training course there, and the instructor invited us home, and showed us his assault rifle and other gear he kept in his closet. Every male citizen is essentially on call and must report to the secret rendezvous points when the general mobilization order is given. He said IIRC that Switzerland could field 1 million men in two weeks using this approach.
Candidates and others raised vote fraud allegations following the November election. Without East St. Louis votes, Reeb had a lead of 52 percent to 48 percent over his Democratic opponent, Mark Kern, and a 4,000-vote edge. After East St. Louis was included, the numbers reversed ... FBI agents raided City Hall on Nov. 23 and took from [Mr.] Ellis's office computer hard drives, boxes of files and his lizard-skin briefcase. He's a Democrat precinct committeeman with ties to other leaders in the city. According to his indictment, within two days of learning about the witness's contact with authorities, Ellis worked on a plan to plant one-half ounce of crack cocaine on the witness this refers to a witness to the vote rigging and fraud in his precincts
and have her arrested. Conversations between Ellis and an undisclosed person were apparently recorded. The talk shifted from a set-up to Ellis' alleged instructions to "dispose of her."
"She knows too much, Muggsy! She gots ta disappear!"
The other person showed Ellis a photograph "depicting what appeared to be the murdered" witness, the indictment states. The other person told Ellis, falsely, she was thrown to the bottom of Horseshoe Lake in Madison County. According to the indictment, Ellis also tried to corruptly influence several witnesses to invoke their right to remain silent when they appeared before a grand jury in November. For all this alleged activity, including the attempted murder accusations, he faces four charges of obstruction of justice.
#1
Add this to the dead people and felons voting in Washington State - and it paints a picture of the Democratic Party as the PArty of Fraud and deciet.
From the Blog thats pushing this story (since the MSM are ignoring it)...
could you imagine if Ellis would have been Republican? This story would be on the front of every major newspaper in the country. The New York Times would finally have their story to replace Abu Ghraib. And, CNN would be set up outside his home.
Media Bias?
You're damned straight it is. We need to call our congress-critters and demand that a FEDERAL inquiry into systematic fraud at the polls in Democratic run areas be investigated byt he FBI and FEC.
Hey you grandstanding prick McCain, here's a good one for you to go after if you have the testicular fortitude. But I dont expect anything from you - you are good only at beating up on wives and kids of MIAs and trying to drag down the president and the SecDef.
#6
OS, sounds like you haven't heard about Milwaukee. Check this out. sKerry won Wisconsin by 14,000 votes. But based on this, he probably lost it when the dead and fraudulent are removed. I suspect the same is true in Philadelphia and every other big city. We just don't have a Sharkansky or Captain Ed in them.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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#7
Mrs. Davis -- I have no doubt Kerry won in the big cities. What I wonder about, in light of Milwaukee, is if the fraudulent margin in those cities was enough to swing a couple states.
Like, say, Pennsylvania.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 17:51 Comments ||
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#8
I agree. Bush is really misssing a beat by not having Gonzales focus on this like, say , a laser. There should be a whole bunch of prosecutions of Democrats for violations of civil rights by Federal prosecutors in 2007.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 17:54 Comments ||
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#9
RC:
College roommate of mine who's big on politics and such went to Philly to help raise votes for Bush right before the election, and even though he's blind he could see the voter fraud. He couldn't believe the political machine that the Dems have operating in that area, and he's convinced that if it wasn't for that, Bush would have won PA.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
01/25/2005 18:14 Comments ||
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#10
Holy cow! East St. Louis is one weird place. Do not miss the article referenced by Gateway Pundit, detailing all the shennanigans and goings-on.
The mayor, Carl Officer, is (or used to be) one crazy SOB. See here, especially after the part "Carl turned strange." -- sleeping in coffins ... pistols ... Uzis ... speeding Jags ... jail ... "monkey blood".
Seems he's back to being mayor again. Last fall he was out stumping for Bush. (Naturally he's a Democrat.) Of course, this was only a week before the election, so damage was minimized.
#11
Add this to the dead people and felons voting in Washington State - and it paints a picture of the Democratic Party as the PArty of Fraud and deciet.
From the Blog thats pushing this story (since the MSM are ignoring it)...
could you imagine if Ellis would have been Republican? This story would be on the front of every major newspaper in the country. The New York Times would finally have their story to replace Abu Ghraib. And, CNN would be set up outside his home.
Media Bias?
You're damned straight it is. We need to call our congress-critters and demand that a FEDERAL inquiry into systematic fraud at the polls in Democratic run areas be investigated byt he FBI and FEC.
Hey you grandstanding prick McCain, here's a good one for you to go after if you have the testicular fortitude. But I dont expect anything from you - you are good only at beating up on wives and kids of MIAs and trying to drag down the president and the SecDef.
#12
Add this to the dead people and felons voting in Washington State - and it paints a picture of the Democratic Party as the PArty of Fraud and deciet.
From the Blog thats pushing this story (since the MSM are ignoring it)...
could you imagine if Ellis would have been Republican? This story would be on the front of every major newspaper in the country. The New York Times would finally have their story to replace Abu Ghraib. And, CNN would be set up outside his home.
Media Bias?
You're damned straight it is. We need to call our congress-critters and demand that a FEDERAL inquiry into systematic fraud at the polls in Democratic run areas be investigated byt he FBI and FEC.
Hey you grandstanding prick McCain, here's a good one for you to go after if you have the testicular fortitude. But I dont expect anything from you - you are good only at beating up on wives and kids of MIAs and trying to drag down the president and the SecDef.
Grab your popcorn, open your wallets! Via Lucianne:
The co-author of the Swift Boat veterans' book that attacked Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio] plans to move to the Bay State this year so he can challenge Kerry for his Senate seat in 2008.
``I'm going to do it,'' said Jerome Corsi, 58. ``I've got serious political aspirations now.''
Corsi, who has had to apologize for inflammatory comments he made about Islam, the pope and Judaism, lives in New Jersey but plans to establish residency in Boston this spring.
Though not a veteran himself, Corsi co-authored ``Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.''
#2
OS - you're right, unfortunately. But it would be refreshing to to at least have some viable opposition to Kerry up here in Mass. Last time out he ran unopposed, at least by a Republican.
#3
Should make good folly though. Corsi has his own problems, but he has performed considerable research on Kerry, and he will be prepared to confront Kerry on his four month tour, the only thing that Kerry has run on during his senate career.
The idea of an American right of secession -- a state's right to abandon the union -- today invites a veritable cyclone of scorn and bafflement. Secessionism, you will be told, is immoral, treasonous, seditious, the failed machination of slave-holding Southerners whose nutty dream died in the judgment of 1865. "What insanity it is to reopen this issue," says Pauline Maier, professor of American history at MIT.
What you will not hear is that secessionism is as old as the states themselves, that is was not always a reviled idea, that it cleaves to the heart of a celebrated but perhaps outmoded American principle -- the rebellion against centralized power -- and that it is a founding American act enshrined in our most revolutionary document. "[W]henever any Form of Government becomes destructive," counsels the Declaration of Independence, "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government." Although secessionism today is politically impossible, if tenuously legal, the secession specter has arisen again, waking to the Declaration's call to self-governance. In 2005, it is the blue-state Northerners, bitter from the defeat of Nov. 2, who are, ironically, wearing its robes.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/25/2005 8:42:39 AM ||
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#1
In 2005, it is the blue-state Northerners, bitter from the defeat of Nov. 2, who are, ironically, wearing its robes.
Curiously, it's always the Democrats who want to split the country when they lose. Is there something karmic that makes the party that extreme, or is it just the natural home to the spoiled brats?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 9:06 Comments ||
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#2
And if Kerry had won these sanctimonious jerks would be mocking any similar calls from the "Red" states. ****ing crybabies.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 9:17 Comments ||
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#3
Yep, and it was us Dem's in 1860 and 2004 who didn't give a rats ass about freedom and human rights. Better them all shut up and obey their masst'ers. Them's not like us white folks.
#4
Notice how they invoke the wording of the Declaration of Independence but seem to ignor the words of the Constitution, Article I -
"To provide for the calling forth of the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions"
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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#5
Secession makes sense if the political and cultural differences concerned are rooted in a fundamentally incompatible economic system. Slaveholding states whose economies were driven mainly by exports of cash crops indeed had a fundamentally different socio-political structure antagonistic to the North's industrializing, protectionistic political economy.
So what is the distinctive political economy of today's secessionist wannabes? Media professions, academe and interior design don't count. Try again, folks.
#6
Let's see: the Northerners had the legitimacy (who brought many Southerners to fight for the Union: eg Farragutt) the Navy and the industry but the Southerners had the better soldiers and generals (I know about Grant and Sherman but it took a looong time until they displaced the McLellans, Burnsides or Mc Dowells). Notice too that there were strong majorities for secession in all the slavist states.
This time the Union would have the Navy, the soldiers, the generals, at least as much industry and the legitimacy. Plus the fact that in many "Democrat" states the Democrat majority is small and given that many Democrats would not approve secession the moonbats would never get a majority accepting to secede (and still less spend blood and treasure or suffer hunger for the new CSA). In fact there would be no secession: you don't proclaim secession when you are Vermont and Massachusetts facing a war against 48 states.
#7
cmon folks - nobody serious in the 'blue states" or in the Dem party is interested in this. Its a pet of pundits and internet commentors. I dont read Salon anymore - theyve never been very serious, and while they were amusing when defending Clinton - they somehow didnt get the word from Raines et al that Clinton was NOT LEFT - theyve been a bad joke recently. Read Slate instead. No sessesh there.
#2
Try a different Character Encoding setting on your web browser. Unicode (UTF-8) will make the apostrophes display properly in the text samples you cited.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/25/2005 6:14 Comments ||
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#3
Thanks, Dave.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 7:45 Comments ||
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#4
YW, Mrs. Davis. But I'm still trying to find an encoding setting that unravels the following:
"The activists � all employees of the John Kerry (news - web sites) campaign � are accused of..."
What I see there, are question marks where the original Yahoo article had "long dash" characters.
When I look at the page source for the Yahoo article, I can see the character was written as an HTML code (an ampersand, a pound sign, then "151" for the ASCII code for long dash), but my theory is that the code doesn't carry over when copying and pasting the article to Rantburg.
Does ANYONE see long dashes instead of question marks in the text I italicized above? If so, then my theory is wrong...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/25/2005 8:22 Comments ||
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#5
Eds -
I've included the fix for this in the "squish" function. I'll apply it to the regular save routine when I get a few minutes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 8:59 Comments ||
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#6
OT - Fonts
Dave D. - I set my browser to use my fonts all the time, switched to Book Antiqua and ISO-8859-1 and I can see the long dashes, apostrophes, etc., in the article. However looking down at the comments as I type this, I see all manner of strange characters.
#1
If this is true then we need to put somone's feet to the fire to get them moving. And I dont care if its Kerry, Kennedy, or even President Bush. We need to lock down the borders, or at least enforce them far better than we are doing now.
#3
If this is true then we need to put somone's feet to the fire to get them moving. And I dont care if its Kerry, Kennedy, or even President Bush. We need to lock down the borders, or at least enforce them far better than we are doing now.
#4
If this is true then we need to put somone's feet to the fire to get them moving. And I dont care if its Kerry, Kennedy, or even President Bush. We need to lock down the borders, or at least enforce them far better than we are doing now.
The treaty in question is the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST). It was drafted more than 20 years ago at the behest of Soviet Bloc and "nonaligned" nations as the centerpiece of their so-called "New International Economic Order," a scheme to transfer wealth from the industrialized to the developing world. Ronald Reagan objected to LOST's creation of a supranational agency to govern the world's oceans at the expense of U.S. sovereignty and America's capacity to utilize and assure freedom of the seas. When American concerns were ignored or simply voted down, he refused to sign the accord. The treaty has not improved with age, despite claims by its supporters that Mr. Reagan's objections have subsequently been addressed. For example, it still allows an international organization for the first time to collect revenues from U.S. taxpayers as the price for exploiting the world's seabeds. LOST also would still infringe in significant ways on the movement and activities of U.S. military and intelligence operations at sea. It still would oblige the U.S. to transfer sensitive data and technology to potentially hostile nations. Note last paragraph as it applies to WOT.
#1
Law of the Sea Treaty? Is this that blast from the past that was whipped up by the Soviets and their satellites back in the days of the Glomar Explorer to keep the Evil Capitalist Running Dog Imperialists from exploiting the mineral riches on the seafloor? IIRC, the cover story for Glomar Explorer was mining manganese nodules on the bottom of the ocean; as opposed to it's real task of hoovering up sunken rooskii missile subs.
#2
This shows why TV glamor puss RINOs like Lugar are so dangerous. It is hard to believe this crap is coming up for a vote and thaat president would sign it. So much for his speech on freedom.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 16:57 Comments ||
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Trials for more than 300 people linked to Myanmar's disbanded military intelligence unit began on Monday under a cloud of secrecy inside the notorious Insein prison, a legal source said. "The trials have started today," the source told the news agency. "No fewer than 16 special tribunals being presided over by 16 divisional and district-level judges were set up inside the jail premises," said the source, who went inside the prison. Some 30 special courts are expected eventually to be operating within the prison walls, and the trials are expected to end within 45 days. Thousands of people have been summoned for closed-door preliminary hearings in recent months.
Most defendants face multiple charges, including corruption and possession of illegal foreign currency. Some of the higher-ranking officials are likely to be charged with conspiracy, the legal expert said. The defendants are closely connected to former military intelligence chief and deposed premier General Khin Nyunt, who has been accused by the ruling military junta of insubordination and abuse of power. Two of his sons are among the 300 people facing trial. Khin Nyunt himself faces several charges including high treason, abuse of power and graft but is unlikely to be put on trial at this time, sources said.
Khin Nyunt, who led military intelligence for two decades, had favoured limited dialogue with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was replaced by junta hardliner General Soe Win. Myanmar's military rulers have painted the purge as a crackdown on corruption. In October they scrapped the National Intelligence Bureau, the body that gave widespread powers to military intelligence officers. The intelligence wing was believed to control much of the black market and drug money in Myanmar - the world's second largest opium producer - and was a bitter rival of hardline army factions loyal to the junta leadership. But the hardline faction is also deeply involved in corruption, and analysts have said the crackdown is in part a battle over who controls black-market money. Myanmar is ranked among the world's top five most corrupt countries by watchdog Transparency International.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Myanmar government forces have launched an offensive against a rebel ethnic minority group just across the border from one of Thailand's northern provinces, a senior Thai army officer said on Monday. Government forces and rebels from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) have clashed three times in the past week, Thai army spokesman Colonel Acar Tiproch said.
About six mortars fired during the attacks landed across the border near the Thai village of Ban Mae Suay Oo, in Mae Hong Son province, 924 kilometers north of Bangkok, he said. They fell in jungle areas and caused no casualties, he said. "The Thai border committee has sent a letter of protest and met local Myanmar authorities urging caution in their operations near the border," he told AFP. Myanmar's shelling of a KNPP base located near the Thai border started last Monday after the rebels attacked an army base and killed eight Myanmar soldiers, border sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#3
Ted Turner called FOX an arm of the Bush administration and compared FOXNEWS's popularity to Hitler's popular election to run Germany before WWII ... His no-nonsense, humorous approach ... generated frequent loud applause and laughter ...
Well, I guess that depends on what your chosen meaning of the word 'nonsense' is.
Ted Turner called Fox an arm of the Bush administration and indirectly compared the Fox News Network's popularity to Adolph Hitler's popular election to run Germany before WWII. Turner made those fiery comments in his first address at NATPE since he was ousted from Time Warner five years ago. The 66-year-old billionaire who leveraged a television station in Atlanta into a media empire, made the comment before a standing-room-only crowd at NATPE's opening session Tuesday. His no-nonsense, humorous approach during the one-hour Q&A generated frequent loud applause and laughter.
Among the highlights:
On Fox News: While Fox may be the largest news network, it's not the best, Turner said. He followed up by pointing out that Adolph Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII. He said the network is the propaganda tool for the Bush Administration.
Nothing about CNN being the propaganda tool of the Democratic Party?
"There's nothing wrong with that. It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy. Particularly when the news is dumbed down," leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff," he said.
So, that's why you hired Bobby Batista to be the female anchor of CNN back in the day, her really big....brains?
On TV news in general: "We need to be very well informed. We need to know what's going on in the world. "a little less Hollywood news and a little more hard news would probably be good for our society."
A little more truth in the hard news would help as well.
On media consolidation:"The consolidation has made it almost impossible for an independent. It's virtually impossible to start a cable network." Broadcasters and programmers "don't want more independent voices out there. They own everything. That's why I went into the restaurant business. Either that or I'd work for a salary for one of the big jerks.
No, it's because Time lured you to merge networks with them and then didn't even leave cab fare on the dresser.
The war in Iraq: "We've spent 200 billion destroying Iraq. Now we've got to spend 200 billion to rebuild it, if they'll let us -- and all to find a nut in a fox hole -- one guy," Turner said. "He posed no threat to any of his neighbors, particularly with us there with overwhelming military superiority." --"it is obscene and stupid"
Still following CNN policy to avoid saying bad things about Sammy to maintain access, eh, Ted? We haven't forgotten that.
Why selling his company to Time Warner turned out to be a huge mistake: At the time he agreed to sell his company, "it was from a business standpoint the right thing to do." He owned 9 percent of the merged company, which "which got me some real serious respect." But after the company acquired AOL, Turner's stake in the new company was diluted to 3 percent. "Then I got the pink slip"
The slip and a pair of panties over your head
Why it wasn't that huge a mistake: "I have a responsibility not to be too critical of my old company. It is a good company and I had a lot of experiences there. A lot of time things that are painful at the time they occurred turn out to be for the best."
Translation: I still own stock and I don't want it going down
Ted Turner for President? "I'm too old and too burned out to take on that responsibility. I thought about it when I was younger. I don't know if I could have gotten elected or not. It would have been a lot of fun to do when I had higher energy levels."
It would be a lot of fun, for us.
What he'll put on his tombstone: "I have nothing more to say."
Can we speed that day up, please?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005 2:28:16 PM ||
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#1
sarcasm on/
Ted Who?
Oh that guy. Wasnt he married to some aerobics video check or something? He's so 80's anyway.
A host of Hollywood celebrities are backing a bill to allow illegal migrants to get driver's licenses.
The usual "A-list" celebs. And we all know what word begins with the letter "A".
More than 30 celebrities including Diane Keaton, Carlos Santana and "Million Dollar Baby" writer Paul Haggis are urging California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to approve the bill, saying it would make roads safer and calling driving a civil right, according to brachman.com. An estimated 2.4 million people living in California are illegal immigrants. "A lot of us in the entertainment business are terribly spoiled, and we live in a world where we are overprotected and overpaid," Haggis was quoted as saying. "At the same time, I think we have a duty to give voice to those who perhaps haven't the same access. It's about basic fairness."
"If those poor oppressed immigrants don't have licenses, how will my gardener get to my estate?"
Among the other celebrities supporting the campaign are Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez, Alfre Woodard, Danny Glover and musician Jackson Browne.
Like I said, the usual A*&holes
But there are also opponents like Mike Spence, who is leading a campaign to permanently prohibit illegal immigrants from getting a license. "I think it's another example of how rich Hollywood elites are out of touch with what's going on in California," Spence was quoted as saying. "They don't see the impact of immigration unless it's hiring someone to help out with chores around their mansions and they're not in competition with illegal immigrants for jobs."
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005 1:01:14 PM ||
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#1
..saying it would make roads safer and calling driving a civil right, according to brachman.com.
Ooooh, giving licenses to illegal aliens will magically make our roads safer! What a concept!!
Phuquing idiot.
An estimated 2.4 million people living in California are illegal immigrants.
(2005-01-25) -- In another apparent attempt to position herself as a centrist candidate for the White House in 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, yesterday told 1,000 abortion supporters that she's neither pro-life nor pro-choice.
"I'm Pro-Chife," she announced to the stunned crowd. "Being pro-chife means you support a woman's right to end the life of a fetus that will never exist because the government will prevent the pregnancy."
Mrs. Clinton said the federal government should announce a policy of "zero tolerance" for unwanted pregnancies, and could begin to achieve the goal through a combination of condom distribution and government promotion of homosexuality in the public schools.
"And while critics will note that the government already does that, I believe that these are just intermediate measures," she said. "Ultimately, abortion is caused by pregnancy, which is a manufacturing activity carried on by small enterprises with no government regulation. During the 109th Congress, we plan to expand the mandate of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the IRS to regulate and tax the production of human embryos. We have found that the best way to control any creative activity is with government oversight and taxes."
Mrs. Clinton said she looks forward to the day when the burden of filing OSHA and IRS paperwork makes pregnancy "safe, legal, expensive and rare."
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005 9:43:33 AM ||
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#1
If the Spectator is Columbia U's newspaper, expect every copy of the issue to be stolen.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005 9:17 Comments ||
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#2
Money quotes:
Challenge Israelâs policiesâfine. Call Israel a racist stateâsure, thatâs your opinion. But how dare you label all people of the Israeli nation, including my friends and family, as possessing a âvulgarity of character?â Professor Dabashi, while your freedom to teach your political viewpoint must be protected, your bigoted statement should mark you as a racist.
...
The plain truth is that if a professor had made the same comments about blacks, Muslims, or Chinese, he would have been rightfully attacked by a plethora of students denouncing his racist and colonial attitude. The lack of response from current students, especially those who are closely associated with Professor Dabashi and the MEALAC department, is a shame and will stain the University in my mind for years to come.
------
And to think that this place and Northwestern are famous for thier journalism schools. Now what was it we have been saying here at Rantburg about journalism bias....
#3
You should see the tripe coming out of Columbia as cutting edge ESL. It's complete nonsense, wrapped up in the school's (fading) reputation. Thank God there are some smaller, lesser known researchers, publishers and educators dedicated challenging these educational behemoths.
Over the past few days, the media in Israel have reported a scandal at the Hebrew University involving a radical feminist professor who was forced to resign because of alleged gross fabrication and distortion of research results.
At Weissâ initiative, it was decided to allow her to resign in the middle of the academic year, rather than face âprosecutionâ or probable dismissal in disgrace. She hopped the first plane to California and is now a visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.
#5
The clips of her quotes sound more like boilerplate guilty-Westerner/self-hating liberal talk than feminist commentary to me. Maybe we'll get some specifics that will explain Frontpages' headline. In any case, there sure seems to be more than a few nutcases in the ranks of Columbia.
#6
The point is: that guy has paid a (big) sum for being teached. But he is not getting what he paid for, instead he is receiveing propaganda. Thus he should sue the University in order to get not merely a refund but a BIG compensation for the year he lost. When enough people do this universities will no longer professors using their pulpits for propaganda on tax pyaer/sytudent money.
Challenge Israelâs policiesâfine. Call Israel a racist stateâsure, thatâs your opinion. But how dare you label all people of the Israeli nation, including my friends and family, as possessing a âvulgarity of character?â Professor Dabashi, while your freedom to teach your political viewpoint must be protected, your bigoted statement should mark you as a racist.
...
The plain truth is that if a professor had made the same comments about blacks, Muslims, or Chinese, he would have been rightfully attacked by a plethora of students denouncing his racist and colonial attitude. The lack of response from current students, especially those who are closely associated with Professor Dabashi and the MEALAC department, is a shame and will stain the University in my mind for years to come.
------
And to think that this place and Northwestern are famous for thier journalism schools. Now what was it we have been saying here at Rantburg about journalism bias....
Challenge Israelâs policiesâfine. Call Israel a racist stateâsure, thatâs your opinion. But how dare you label all people of the Israeli nation, including my friends and family, as possessing a âvulgarity of character?â Professor Dabashi, while your freedom to teach your political viewpoint must be protected, your bigoted statement should mark you as a racist.
...
The plain truth is that if a professor had made the same comments about blacks, Muslims, or Chinese, he would have been rightfully attacked by a plethora of students denouncing his racist and colonial attitude. The lack of response from current students, especially those who are closely associated with Professor Dabashi and the MEALAC department, is a shame and will stain the University in my mind for years to come.
------
And to think that this place and Northwestern are famous for thier journalism schools. Now what was it we have been saying here at Rantburg about journalism bias....
Passion of the Christ received 3 minor nominations, no surprise. No nominations at all for F911, which is a surprise.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005 8:47:32 AM ||
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Unbroken link, please?
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005 9:01 Comments ||
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#2
Works for me...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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#3
Surprise? IIRC the Oscar telecast the last couple of years has been dropping faster than a 500 lb bomb in terms of viewership. Its becoming the tar baby of prime time programming. How can you have a "Hey look at me, I'm so beautiful/important" moment when most channels are turned to re-runs in most American homes. If your industry is based upon bringing the people to the show, you don't do it by flashing the customers the finger. If you want to send a message, use Western Union. Calling Mr. Stone, Calling Mr. Stone.
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:50 Comments ||
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#4
Good lord, an unbroken sweep! I haven't seen a bloody one of any of the nominated pics!!
I'm not even sure if some of them even showed in theaters here in San Antonio...
#5
The two best movies of last year (The Passion of the Christ and The Incredibles, IMNTBHO) were too politically incorrect to be nominated for Best Picture. OTOH, good to see the Moore expelled from consideration.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/25/2005 10:26 Comments ||
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#6
Agreed - Best two films last year was Passion of the Christ and the Incredibles. Great Movies.
#8
The Oscars, as always is a politically correct responce to national events. The Passion Of The Christ should have been nominated for best picture; best foreign language film; and best actor for Jim Cavezal! Michael Moore's F911 should have been nominated for best documentary...a child could see through all this hypocrisy!
#9
smn - a documentary? lies, edited fraud, qualifying as a documentary, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 12:38 Comments ||
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#10
..and the fat SOB had the nerve at the GLobes to say he dedicated it to the troops which he trashed in F911. But the left never did get the miltary, never will.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/25/2005 12:43 Comments ||
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#11
What I cannot fathom is how they left out the Best Actor nomination for Caviezel in POTC. Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY? I like Clint Eastwood, and I've seen the film, but I'm sorry, his job there is nto nearly as good as he has done before, much less better than Caviezel.
I don't know how anyone could rate that above POTC in terms of acting performance.
Then again, you have things like the travesty (last year?) of Sean Penn robbing Bill Murray of an oscar he very much deserved.
And the movie itself certainly should have been nominated for best foreign language motion picture at a minimum - it certainly was not in English.
Anyway, IMHO Don Cheadle deserves the best actor, even if Caviezel had been nominated.
But the best acting job all this year in film that I have seen was Jeffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" - which HBO stupidly did not release into movie theaters here although it did so to good crowds and super reviews overseas.
All that, and Gibson shoudl certainly have gotten at least a nomination for POTC - this was every bit as much an acheivement as Braveheart or Hamlet for Gibson as a director, especially compared to the drab competition. TO take that many chances in cinema (aramaic, latin, the bloodiness of the whoel thing, the challenege of characterizing all those historical figures from Christ to Pontious Pilate) - and to pull it off as a work of cinema verite - that speacks ofd a great directorial acheivement.
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year - thier lack of guts to even NOMINATE POTC in any of the main categories shows quite clearly tht Hollywood does philosophically piss on the Flyover country (the Red States) that feeds them.
Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
I demand a recount. F911 voters repeatedly broke fingernails trying to cast their ballots. Karl Rove stole the election. Diebold rigged the voting machines. My ideas can't fit inside their ballot boxes.
Posted by: Michael Moore ||
01/25/2005 14:21 Comments ||
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#13
I haven't seen any of the 'top honors' movies! I saw Shrek 2 but the others are mystery to me.
#14
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year... Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
Gerard Vanderleun (American Digest) sumrises that F911 didn't get any nominations was because the Academy and Hollywood were fearful of "paying the price".
Besides the industry's institutional bias, I suspect that POTC didn't get any major nominations because Hollywood wanted to avoid giving the impression that it was 'pandering' or had caved in.
#17
What I cannot fathom is how they left out the Best Actor nomination for Caviezel in POTC. Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY? I like Clint Eastwood, and I've seen the film, but I'm sorry, his job there is nto nearly as good as he has done before, much less better than Caviezel.
I don't know how anyone could rate that above POTC in terms of acting performance.
Then again, you have things like the travesty (last year?) of Sean Penn robbing Bill Murray of an oscar he very much deserved.
And the movie itself certainly should have been nominated for best foreign language motion picture at a minimum - it certainly was not in English.
Anyway, IMHO Don Cheadle deserves the best actor, even if Caviezel had been nominated.
But the best acting job all this year in film that I have seen was Jeffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" - which HBO stupidly did not release into movie theaters here although it did so to good crowds and super reviews overseas.
All that, and Gibson shoudl certainly have gotten at least a nomination for POTC - this was every bit as much an acheivement as Braveheart or Hamlet for Gibson as a director, especially compared to the drab competition. TO take that many chances in cinema (aramaic, latin, the bloodiness of the whoel thing, the challenege of characterizing all those historical figures from Christ to Pontious Pilate) - and to pull it off as a work of cinema verite - that speacks ofd a great directorial acheivement.
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year - thier lack of guts to even NOMINATE POTC in any of the main categories shows quite clearly tht Hollywood does philosophically piss on the Flyover country (the Red States) that feeds them.
Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
#18
What I cannot fathom is how they left out the Best Actor nomination for Caviezel in POTC. Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY? I like Clint Eastwood, and I've seen the film, but I'm sorry, his job there is nto nearly as good as he has done before, much less better than Caviezel.
I don't know how anyone could rate that above POTC in terms of acting performance.
Then again, you have things like the travesty (last year?) of Sean Penn robbing Bill Murray of an oscar he very much deserved.
And the movie itself certainly should have been nominated for best foreign language motion picture at a minimum - it certainly was not in English.
Anyway, IMHO Don Cheadle deserves the best actor, even if Caviezel had been nominated.
But the best acting job all this year in film that I have seen was Jeffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" - which HBO stupidly did not release into movie theaters here although it did so to good crowds and super reviews overseas.
All that, and Gibson shoudl certainly have gotten at least a nomination for POTC - this was every bit as much an acheivement as Braveheart or Hamlet for Gibson as a director, especially compared to the drab competition. TO take that many chances in cinema (aramaic, latin, the bloodiness of the whoel thing, the challenege of characterizing all those historical figures from Christ to Pontious Pilate) - and to pull it off as a work of cinema verite - that speacks ofd a great directorial acheivement.
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year - thier lack of guts to even NOMINATE POTC in any of the main categories shows quite clearly tht Hollywood does philosophically piss on the Flyover country (the Red States) that feeds them.
Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
...the "Minuteman Project" will field volunteers from 37 states, many of them ex-military and law enforcement personnel, to man observation posts and a communications center, along with seven pilots from Arizona who will provide aerial surveillance.
"I believe we will bring serious media and political attention to the shameful fact that 21st century minutemen/women have to help secure U.S. borders because the government refuses to provide the manpower and funding required to do so."
Posted by: Ebbavith Angang9747 ||
01/25/2005 4:06:15 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
Admendment X of the Constitution
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Seems the people are taking up the slack created by inaction or refusal to act by the government to enforce its own laws. This is the militia, not vigilantes.
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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#2
This is good. Thin out the economic migrants and the bad guys will be easier to find. Do they plan to make citizen's arrests as well?
#3
"Do they plan to make citizen's arrests as well?"
240 volunteers vs 10,000 illegal crossings a day.
And that is if all the volunteers were working everyday. Not wise.
I have seen bullets flying while floating on the Rio-Grande on the tex-mex border. It is a very dangerous place. Bodies floating in the river are fairly common.
#8
I've only ever experienced civilized borders like Canada at Buffalo, NY, and international airports. Never mind.
Hmmm... does the Detroit/Windsor crossing count as "civilized"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 14:34 Comments ||
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#9
Tex:
According to the article, they are simply spotters. They just observe and report to Border Patrol who may detain them for a while, then let them go return them to Mexico. It's a start, anyway.
That area is pretty nice. To the west is the Coronado nat'l forest, lots of trees and some impressive vistas. Importantly, it has water and lots of concealment. If you are healthy enough to do some mountain climbing, it's probably the best area to cross. To the east it's more range land, mostly grass and scrub, but some actual creeks (part year, anyway).
By patrolling that area, you are forcing the law breakers west into the desert (maybe scaring them off the idea) or east into the Bisbee/Douglas area, which has more development and trespassers can be found more easily.
RC:
Having lived in the Detroit area (Dearborn Heights/Livonia) for 20 years, I can say that the Windsor side was civilized.
#10
I think it is a great start jackal.
If I did not have to work for a living I would head west and help them " spot ".
This is a major problem in my eyes.
I am pro Bush, but on this stance I disagree.
But remember, it is probably political suicide to support lock down on the border.
#11
I dunno, Tex. Cutting down illegal immigration is pretty popular from all the polls I've seen, usually like 60-70%. Many of the grassroots Republicans and many state-level officeholders support the idea; it's just the national GOP that is the problem.
It's not impossible that someone like Hillary could get to the right of the GOP candidate in 2008 on this issue. Of course, once in office, it would be the "Middle-Class Tax Cut" all over again, but it would be too late.
FLASH: 'We have a leak of reactor coolant into the containment structure... leak rate was about 75 gallons a minute but is reducing,' John Austerberry, spokesman... 'there is no indication of a radioactive release'... MORE...
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/25/2005 12:26:39 AM ||
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Link ||
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#1
On the 16th, the Fermi 2 facility completed a scheduled 27 day outage for maintenance and refuelling. Detroit Edison
Quite a bit of work was done during that period:
-Replacement of the computer that manages the visual annunciator system in the control room.
-Replacement of 23 control-rod drive mechanisms, 13 control rod blades and eight local power range monitors.
-Replacement of 15 main steam safety relief valves.
-Replacement of the coolant water pump on one of the plantâs four emergency diesel generators.
-Inspection and maintenance of the reactor core isolation cooling system turbine, which is performed every 10 years.
#5
...Fermi had a weird accident in the 70s not long after it opened that IIRC was similar to this and was badly overhyped in the book We Almost Lost Detroit - but the point of the book (that Detroit Edison badly botched the design and construction of the plant) was never seriously questioned.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/25/2005 22:22 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Sorry - that was the 60s, and here's some more data on the record of the plant:
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.
Luck, courage and skillful handling of the media have won German Chancellor 
Candidates and others raised vote fraud allegations following the November election. Without East St. Louis votes, Reeb had a lead of 52 percent to 48 percent over his Democratic opponent, Mark Kern, and a 4,000-vote edge. After East St. Louis was included, the numbers reversed ... FBI agents raided City Hall on Nov. 23 and took from [Mr.] Ellis's office computer hard drives, boxes of files and his lizard-skin briefcase. He's a Democrat precinct committeeman with ties to other leaders in the city. According to his indictment, within two days of learning about the witness's contact with authorities, Ellis worked on a plan to plant one-half ounce of crack cocaine on the witness 
The idea of an American right of secession -- a state's right to abandon the union -- today invites a veritable cyclone of scorn and bafflement. Secessionism, you will be told, is immoral, treasonous, seditious, the failed machination of slave-holding Southerners whose nutty dream died in the judgment of 1865. "What insanity it is to reopen this issue," says Pauline Maier, professor of American history at MIT.
Trials for more than 300 people linked to Myanmar's disbanded military intelligence unit began on Monday under a cloud of secrecy inside the notorious Insein prison, a legal source said. "The trials have started today," the source told the news agency. "No fewer than 16 special tribunals being presided over by 16 divisional and district-level judges were set up inside the jail premises," said the source, who went inside the prison. Some 30 special courts are expected eventually to be operating within the prison walls, and the trials are expected to end within 45 days. Thousands of people have been summoned for closed-door preliminary hearings in recent months.
Myanmar government forces have launched an offensive against a rebel ethnic minority group just across the border from one of Thailand's northern provinces, a senior Thai army officer said on Monday. Government forces and rebels from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) have clashed three times in the past week, Thai army spokesman Colonel Acar Tiproch said.
(2005-01-25) -- In another apparent attempt to position herself as a centrist candidate for the White House in 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, yesterday told 1,000 abortion supporters that she's neither pro-life nor pro-choice.
