MIAMI - Two former America West pilots were convicted Wednesday of operating an aircraft while drunk in the cockpit after an all-night drinking binge.
Both men bowed their heads when the verdict was read after a two-week trial and deliberations over parts of two days. They face up to five years in state prison at sentencing.
Pilot Thomas Cloyd and co-pilot Christopher Hughes were arrested July 1, 2002, as their jet bound for Phoenix was being pushed back from its gate at Miami International Airport.
Police ordered the plane to turn back and arrested the pilots after security screeners smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Hughes, and Cloyd got in an argument over his attempts to bring aboard a cup of the hair of the dog coffee.
The pilots split 14 beers at a bar the night before the flight, ending their revelry about 4:40 a.m. - roughly six hours before their flight was to depart. Hours later, they registered blood-alcohol levels above Florida 0.08 legal limit.
Cloyd and Hughes, who maintained they were not operating the aircraft because it was being directed by a tow truck, were fired by America West after their arrests and lost their commercial pilot's licenses. Never heard of that defense working when someone was accused of driving drunk....hope they didn't pay big legal fees for this case.
A platoon of US Marines could wipe out the entire crop of Eurotrash hybrid "men" described in this story. I declare shenanigans! This is "metrosexual" repackaged as Austin Powers (with a touch less testosterone and and a lot more moisturizer and "pink flowered shirts").
This study was done by a bunch of effeminate fashion industry types (not that there's anything wrong with it) engaged in wishful thinking because their industry is in decline. Nine months from now, they will be pining again for the butch, masculine Rambo-types (as long as it fits into their sales projections).
I think Peggy Noonan was right when she wrote shortly after 9/11 that we would be seeing newfound respect for the stable, strong heroic men in our midst -- the firefighters who ran into the building despite the obvious risks, the soldiers who are taking it to our enemies, the President who sticks to his guns, etc.
Posted by: Tibor ||
06/08/2005 12:48 ||
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I remember seeing stories about this in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Typical liberal, wimpy-ass crap. Most men are men, most women are women and a few fall in between. Been like that since the stone age, ain't gonna change any time soon.
#2
Excellent news. If the Democrats make use of the same marketing data, Republicans won't have to worry about losing an election for the next 50 years.
A platoon of US Marines could wipe out the entire crop of Eurotrash hybrid "men" described in this story.
Hell, Tibor, any American high school girl's cheerleading squad south of the Mason-Dixon line could wipe them out.
In fact, I'm pretty sure the over-50 women in my volunteer rescue squad (of which I am one, so I know) could squash the entire lot of them like the vermin they are. In spite of our arthritis, etc.
(If you ask real nice, T, we'll even let you hold our coats. :-D)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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#11
Ok, per the article, the traditional guy still holds sway in China.
#14
FROM TFA: Arnold Schwarznegger and Sylvester Stallone are being replaced by the 21st-century man who "no longer wants to be the family super-hero", but instead has the guts to be himself, to test his own limits.
That pic is what Freddie Kruger looks ike in Eurostan, sans the razor glove and with a face-lift.
#15
Paris has always produced fashion no real woman could wear in public.
Now it produces fashion that no real man can wear in public.
What else is new?
#18
Has no one else noticed that the picture shows someone neither masculine nor feminine, but just plain goofy?
Jkrank of Sofia Sideshow contrasts and compares with an even worse example from a couple years ago. He forgot to include this Yahoo link, though, so I'm glad Tibor posted it.
That one was from Sydney, by the way. I remember because I commented on it at the time. (Note: the link is now broken there. But it's the same pic as at Sofia Sideshow.)
#31
I saw this article and it reminded me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series where they ran into the ship full of hairdressers and telephone sanitizers, who were the vanguard of the fleet of refugees from a dying planet. Problem was they kept looking in the rearview mirror for the other ships containing everyone else and didn't see anything. We need to start building a ship for people like the ones promoting this drivel.
Posted by: DO ||
06/09/2005 0:04 Comments ||
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HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) - A 200-pound black bear charged into a home and went on a 40-minute rampage, attacking a dog and damaging a basement guest room as it tried to claw its way out. The dog, Rosie, was treated by a veterinarian for puncture wounds but her owners were not injured.
Karla Irving said that when she let Rosie out Saturday night, she heard the dog barking and caught a glimpse of something small scurrying in the darkness. Her eyes followed a bear cub up a tree, and when she looked back down she saw more movement.
Cue scary music....
"I think the dog realized it before I realized it - that there's a bigger bear out there and she's coming," Irving said.
"Woof, woof, woo....Oh, shit!'
Rosie, a 3-year-old blue heeler, dashed inside,
"Furry paws, don't fail me now!"
followed closely by Irving and the bear.
So much for man's best friend defending the house. Lassie would have held off the bear while calling for help.
Irving tried to close the door behind her but the bear forced its way through, pinning her momentarily behind the door, and attacked Rosie.
"Coming through! Where's that damm dog?"
Irving screamed to her 82-year-old mother, Margaret Vest, to close a door leading to the rest of the house, which is just outside Harrisonburg in northwest Virginia. Then she went back outside, closing the door behind her.
"I was obviously terrified and so I ran back outside," Irving said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Rosie escaped the bear's jaws and fled, and Vest closed the door to the basement, trapping the bear inside. Karla Irving's husband, David, who was taking a shower upstairs, heard the commotion and called 911.
Going naked and wet into a besement after a angry bear being out of the question..
Sheriff's deputies let the bear out through a back door. It has not been seen since.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 12:45 ||
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Sheriff's deputies let the bear out through a back door.
How'd the deputies get the bear to leave?
They threatened to send the wet, naked David down there if the bear didn't leave.
It has not been seen since.
;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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Reminds me of a good story, told me by a friend who used to be a flying doctor in Alaska. One of the nurses at his clinic had a family of bears that transited her backyard every day around dusk. One week when her mother was visiting from the Lower 48, she arrived home from work to find the house completely dark. Mama had put some food out on the deck, and was sitting on the floor by the sliding glass doors, waiting for Mama Bear to come up on the deck so she could get a picture of the bear with her Kodak Instamatic 110.
As the nurse gently explained while retreiving the bear bait, when the flash went off, it would have been immediately followed by a twelve-foot bear crashing through the plate glass.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/08/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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LOL Steve. Crazy good inline. Furry paws indeed.
The second earthquake in South Asia in three months increased stress on fault lines in the region, making it vulnerable to another rupture and a tsunami, scientists said Wednesday.
"We're concerned about a large earthquake and there is a strong probability that if it happens, it will generate a tsunami," Professor John McCloskey of the University of Ulster told Reuters.
He and his team, who predicted the March 28 quake about 2 weeks before it occurred, said the area under the Mentawai islands west of Sumatra is most at risk of an earthquake with a magnitude of 8-8.5 or stronger.
"The potential for something bigger is there," he added.
Unlike the December 26 rupture that triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami in which 300,000 people perished, the March earthquake did not did create a giant wave because there was no rapid vertical movement of the earth's floor.
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A Saudi official denied allegations that the kingdom has arrested and tortured Christians, saying such actions run counter to Islamic tolerance.
Then his lips fell off.
The remarks to the official Saudi Press Agency came in response to reports in Iranian papers of recent arrests. The official, who spoke to SPA on condition of anonymity, said the allegations "don't go with the principals and values of the kingdom and above all our tolerant Islamic belief which guarantees the rights of Muslims and residents of different religions and ethnicities alike."
"Nope. Nope. Never happened!"
Members of other religions in the conservative Islamic kingdom generally are allowed to practice their beliefs in private but are prohibited from seeking converts or holding organized religious gatherings. The Washington-based watchdog group International Christian Concern, a nonprofit organization, reported last week that Saudi security and religious police have engaged in a major crackdown against Christians, saying it had received reports of 46 confirmed arrests of Christians in the wake of reports of the desecration of the Quran at the military prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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Then they won't have a problem when Liberalhawk and I open up a Jewish synagogue in Jeddah, right? Because it will suddenly be legal for us to enter their country?
I know, for a fact, of several instances of intimidation against Christians. My favorite is when some muttawas - self-annointed Muzzy protectors of the faith - broke down the door of a friend's house and ripped the single little strand of blinking Christmas lights he had put up around the ceiling in his den. Apparently they were able to detect the blinking multi-colored frivolity through a slit in his drapes and it drove them insane. The funny thing is, they wouldn't have detected it driving by, they had to be up at the window, peeking, to have seen anything. Otherwise, it could've been the TV causing the only barely noticeable changing levels of illumination behind his thick drapes. Oh, did I mention that it was a side window, not the front, to boot? Details. They must've sensed it with their highly developed keen awareness of frivolity, methinks. He was single then, so there was no woman to peek at... which makes it even more, um, disconcerting.
And this was inside Aramco Camp, not out there, in the shit. He was protected by being an Aramcon, from physical arrest and detainment. Out there, it would've been jail - and there they can do any damned thing to you they feel like. That he had received them in a personal effects shipment which wasn't closely checked indicates the special status / more relaxed attitude accorded Aramcons.
I was sent a box of cookies by a former girlfriend, once. I received a box of crumbs. Every single cookie they didn't eat was crumbled to sand grain size. I guess they were checking for (cue hacksaw jokes) crucifixes or drugs or contraband pr0n or something, baked into the cookies. Luckily, they were just cookies or I would've been grilled for it.
I've dumped a few other stories here for their amusement value, such as the famous photograph of Einstein that my Indian friend, a physicist, was able to convince the customs guy was his uncle. Otherwise they would have confiscated it cuz it was a Jooo - oooooh! - and gone through everything else 10x more closely.
But to say that any expression of Christianity (or Hinduism or Buddhism or, gasp, Judaism) is even tolerated in private is total bullshit. The muttawas must be getting antsy to prove how Islamic they are, too. Not being able to string anyone up must be painful. Jealousy is an ugly thing.
#3
Ok then Mr Islamic tolerance, allow Bibles in the country and allow Christian churches and Jewish synagouges to be built. Allow Christians to worship openly and in public and to be free to promote their religion.
Or is it that the West of Christian heritage is just profoundly more tolerant than the shriveled and pathethic notion of islamic tolerance? I wonder how this supposed inherant tolerance of islam gets around the absolute fact that mo's dying wish, his last words were to purify the Arabian penninsula of all Christians and Jews. I wonder how they get around the idea that it was mo himself that instituted dhimmitude and prohibited Christians from fully practicing their faith by prohibiting them from spreading their faith or openly promoting it in any way, a prohibition that contradicts the Great Commission of Christ.
'slam was never as tolerant as we are now and never will be as tolerant as we are now. The proof is there for all to see. Its a myth contradicted by cold bare facts and historical evidence. And anyone who says different is a bald faced liar.
#4
Oh it's the good old "tolerant" religion tripe yet again. Maybe it's just a translator error. Maybe the word has a very different meaning for Saudis. Either way, methinks nasty little official saudi troll can rot with the rest of em when the oil runs dry and the party ends.
SAN MARCOS, Mexico (AP) - Mexico's Volcano of Fire has been hurling hot lava into the air and dusting surrounding towns with ash, forcing evacuations and raising concerns of a much larger explosion. The eruptions are the strongest recorded since scientific monitoring began 20 years ago, and even long-skeptical residents acknowledged Wednesday a newfound fear of the peak that straddles the line between Colima and Jalisco states, 690 kilometers (430 miles) west of Mexico City.
The volcano has had six spectacular eruptions in the past three weeks. The largest, late Monday, shot glowing lava 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the crater of the 3,820-meter (12,533-foot) volcano and showered ash over the nearby city of Colima. Authorities handed out surgical masks to protect against breathing the fine grit, but so far the volcano has caused no major injuries or damage.
"The ground shook, and there was this roar, and people came running out of their houses," Maria de Jesus Chavez, a 17-year-old high school student, said as she sat outside her home in San Marcos and watched the volcano with her family.
Seismologist Tonatiuh Dominguez said the increasing frequency of the eruptions and their intensity signaled the volcano was returning to an explosive stage like one that started in 1903 and climaxed when a massive explosion in January 1913 left a 500-meter (1,650-feet) deep crater at the volcano's peak and scattered ash on cities 400 kilometers (240 miles) away. "I think that we're seeing something similar to what occurred a century ago," said Dominguez, of the University of Colima. "We are comparing it to 1903, when there were more than 200 explosions in one year... "It's possible that we will see another one like 1913 in the coming decade."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 12:18 ||
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If things had gone to plan, European and Chinese officials would be clinking champagne glasses about now.
Back in December, the European Union said it would do its best to lift its 15-year-old arms embargo on China during the first half of this year.
That means the last rites on the ban would probably have been read at a foreign ministers meeting to be held next Monday, with a statement of official satisfaction at an EU summit later in the week.
It would have been the culmination of a campaign waged by French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, both keen to improve ties and trade with Beijing.
But although all 25 EU nations signed up to the plan, they failed to take account of three key factors: America, China itself and German public opinion.
In fact, the Chinese embargo is set to stay with us for a good while yet.
Take the American aspect first. President George W. Bush made clear his country's objections to any end to the embargo at an EU-US summit last June.
Then the US stepped up its complaints, to the surprise of European officials. Then it repeated them, still louder. This was not something the EU was figuring on.
Europeans complained that the current "symbolic" embargo did not work, that the US was in any case more concerned about transfers of technology rather than weapons, and that it was better to engage than to alienate Beijing.
They added that the EU would toughen up its code of conduct on arms exports throughout the world.
To no avail. The US Congress announced its plans to restrict technology transfers to Europe if the embargo was ever lifted and the Bush administration made clear it would not do much to help.
That was setback number one, which was so serious that setback number two, when it arrived, was something of a relief.
The second setback was China's own diplomatic clumsiness. Because the EU had originally imposed the embargo as a result of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, European leaders were understandably keen to see improvements in China's human rights record.
They took care not to express their concerns as a formal condition Beijing doesn't like being dictated to. But the Europeans did indicate that a Chinese move, such as ratifying a United Nations covenant on human rights, would make it easier to lift the embargo.
And what did China do? Nothing. No large-scale release of Tiananmen internees, no ratification of the covenant the EU wanted to see on the statute book, no gesture to help Europe on its way.
Instead, Beijing passed an "anti-secession" law a move widely seen as contemplating eventual military action against Taiwan.
Britain, always the most conflicted of the big powers over the Chinese ban, swiftly announced that lifting the embargo had become more "complicated" and then intimated that the whole project could be put on hold.
Still, Beijing's hopes of an end to the embargo were not yet definitively dashed. All of the EU's countries are alive to investment opportunities in China and no-one wanted to be singled out for blame by Beijing.
The UK wasn't alone in its objections - the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and the Czech Republic all had misgivings about phasing out the embargo, due to strong feelings about, variously, human rights and communist rule.
But there was little doubt that if Britain rejoined the lift-the-embargo-now school, no other country would want to stand in China's way.
And then came the third factor - the voters of North Rhine-Westphalia. The overwhelming defeat suffered by Mr Schröder's Social Democrats in the state poll, and his subsequent decision to hold a general election a year early, have transformed the landscape of European politics.
The opposition Christian Democrats, way ahead in the polls, have long made clear their misgivings about lifting the embargo and Mr Schröder's Social Democrats are none too enthusiastic either.
It now looks all but inconceivable that Germany can agree any change on the embargo ahead of the election, expected in September. It is difficult to see any rush after that.
That does not mean that the EU will never lift the embargo, but such a step now seems further off than any point over the past 18 months.
China may still believe that its arguments and the Europeans' mercantalist streak will ultimately prevail. France, now prepared to give legal force to the hitherto voluntary code of conduct, has also not given up hope over an end to the embargo. But with the EU now in chaos over in its constitutional treaty who knows when it will ever happen. Certainly not next week.
we'll see. weapons sales are one of the ways Chirac can try to placate French demands that the welfare state stay plush. given France's willingness to go around their public commitments and the frothing-at-the-mouth, kneejerk desire to stymie the US I wouldn't bet the farm on them showing restraint now.
Posted by: too true ||
06/08/2005 09:19 ||
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i cant see Chirac doing anything that hurts Schroeder in the upcoming German election. I really doubt he wants to see Merkel in office.
Two Chinese defectors — one of them a diplomat who walked away from his post — claim that their homeland is running a spy network in Australia and other Western countries. The diplomat, Chen Yonglin, left his job as the first secretary at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney last month to seek political asylum in Australia. Chen, 37, claimed China ran a ring of 1,000 spies in Australia involved in illegal activities including abducting Chinese nationals and smuggling them back to China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed Chen's claims as slander. But a second Chinese official seeking asylum in Australia, Hao Feng Jun, backed Chen's claim of a Chinese spy network in Australia in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. television late Tuesday. Hao, 32, said he was a member of China's internal security police engaged in the suppression of dissidents before he came to Australia in February as a tourist and sought asylum. "I worked in the police office in the security bureau and I believe what Mr. Chen says is true," Hao told the ABC through an interpreter. "They send out businessmen and students out to overseas countries as spies. They also infiltrate the Falun Gong and other dissidents groups," he said.
The government has yet to rule on asylum applications of either Chen or Hao, which complicate bilateral relations as Australia and China negotiate a free trade agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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spies..
Well - Duh!
As to why they won't give them asylum.... Really sad.
#7
TGA, your resume has prolly earned you a Nobel Peace Prize, several times over. But you'd have to have your name engraved on it just under Arafat and Carter. So stick to the doggerel, it's healthier. ;-)
#8
The government has yet to rule on asylum applications of either Chen or Hao, which complicate bilateral relations as Australia and China negotiate a free trade agreement.
"Boot them out" and put them on a U.S-bound flight. We can take care of the rest.
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has indicated the nation's intelligence agencies are looking into allegations that Chinese spies are operating in Australia.
The claim has been made by two Chinese defectors.
Speaking on ABC TV's Lateline program, Mr Ruddock has indicated the nation's spy agencies are investigating allegations that up to 1,000 Chinese spies are in Australia.
"It would be naive to think that an agency would not explore those issues that are relevant to their mandate," Mr Ruddock said.
The claim was first raised by defecting Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin. It was then backed up by Hao Fengjun, a former security officer who has defected from China.
Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley now thinks Mr Chen should be permitted to stay in Australia.
"We think the prima facie case is out there for Mr Chen to be entitled to the Government's protection," he said.
"We have got international agreements to which we are party."
But Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has revealed the Federal Government has discouraged Mr Chen against seeking political asylum.
Mr Downer says an application for a permanent protection visa is a better way to go.
"It [political asylum] has only been granted twice that I know of in Australian history," he said.
A second Chinese fugitive has detailed allegations of human rights abuses, including the torture and brain washing of members of dissident group Falun Gong.
Hao Feng Jun, 32, who says he worked as a security officer in the "610 Office" in Tianjin in China's north, claims China has a large spy network operating around the world.
The 610 Office was set up by the Chinese government to examine practitioners of Falun Gong and other spiritual groups.
Mr Hao has been in hiding in Melbourne since disappearing from a tour group in February. He has since sought political asylum.
Mr Hao has echoed the claims of Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, 37, who is in hiding after abandoning his post at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney on May 26.
Mr Chen claimed China had some 1,000 spies working in Australia and said he faced persecution if he returned home after his four-year posting in Australia.
Mr Hao said such persecution was common, saying he was locked up for more than 20 days for claiming the Chinese media was fabricating stories against Falun Gong.
Brainwashing and torture were methods of "re-educating" people in forced labour camps, he said.
"First you will be sent to a brainwashing centre, and if they are not reformed they are sent to forced labour camps," he told the independent Chinese newspaper, The Epoch Times.
"There are no human rights whatsoever in these forced labour camps.
"It's pretty common in forced labour camps to use torture methods ... Almost every forced labour camp uses torture methods."
The former policeman also supported Mr Chen's claims that 1,000 Chinese spies were working in Australia.
"I think this figure is true, I know this," Mr Hao said.
"Chinese spies are not only in the Chinese consulate and embassy but also in businesses and overseas Chinese organisations."
Some were sent in by the military or the national security bureau, Mr Hao said, while others came in as investors or technical personnel.
"They are countless, wherever there are Chinese communities or not, there are Chinese special agents."
Mr Hao said he felt it was his duty to speak out in support of Mr Chen.
"First of all I think I cannot bear what they've done to Falun Gong and other religious organisations because that's not something I want to do," he said.
"Chen Yonglin is a diplomat and he stepped forward to speak clearly for Falun Gong and democratic activists. I think as a policeman I have a responsibility to do the same."
#4
Just us Tu, Gulags are damned expensive and only a corrupt colonialist, ogliark like Amerikkka can afford them. In the old days gulogs were cheaper and all countries large small could afford them.
#6
No Amnesty International complaints here. The allegations have to be of alleged torture at the hands of Americans for AI to even twitch a face muscle.
Oh, and it has to occur in a gulag for good measure.
STRASBOURG, France, June 8 (UPI) -- A European Parliament study released Wednesday said EU members should do more to recover some $1.2 billion in missing aid payments. The EU's anti-fraud agency, OLAF, has recovered less than 2 percent of an estimated $6.4 billion that disappeared between 1999 and 2003, according to report on budgetary control by Herbert Bosch, an EU parliament member from Austria.
Some members of the Parliament's Budget Committee fear the real level of misspending might be higher than has been indicated, the EU Observer reported. "Member states don't attach the same importance to protecting the EU's financial interests compared to their own," a parliamentary official said.
However, OLAF said its investigations take time because of their legal complexity. "OLAF is only five years old itself and this is just the beginning of the investigation process," the agency's spokesman, Allesandre Buttice, told EU Observer. "It is too early to measure us, you should measure us five years from now."
A five year plan, gee, that sounds familiar. Wonder how much money will be missing in another five years that they can't find?
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 15:51 ||
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Hmmm, taxation and spending by unelected officials with no oversight, what could possibly go wrong? The EU members should see this as a cheap lesson and walk away now. OTH this is nowhere near the amount mis-spent/stolen/wasted under teh un Oil for Dictators program so maybe they should give them a second shot.
#4
"Why five yrs? We figure it will take another yr to learn how it was done,a yr to figure out how we can do it,then three yrs of filling our bank accounts in the Caymans. We feel 3 yrs will be enough,we're not greedy."
Posted by: Stephen ||
06/08/2005 20:52 Comments ||
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The European Commission gave its greenlight Tuesday to plans for a French international television news network to rival the BBC and CNN, saying the project does not breach EU state aid rules.
"Breach EU regulations? Never! This project is...um, different."
The French International News Channel (CFII) is a joint operation between state broadcaster France Television and the the private channel TF1, with the government providing EUR 30 million (USD 40 million) to get it started. "I am delighted that the Commission has been able to give the go-ahead to this project for a public-service television channel," said EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes.
"State-funded propaganda programs compete better when they're funded by the State, see."
The commission said that, although the project involved state aid, "it could nevertheless be authorised as a project financing a service of general economic interest."
"It's more economical for us to use the EU Commisioner sauna, and the CFII will better be able to promote this message."
"The Commission also concluded that the project offered sufficient guarantees against the risk of distortion of competition, for example by preventing unjustified transfers of public funds to France Television and TF1, who will be shareholders in the future channel," it said. President Jacques Chirac championed the idea of the new network during the diplomatic spat with the United States in the run-up to the Iraq war. He was said to be unhappy with the way French policies were presented on international stations such as Britain's BBC World and the US-based CNN.
"It's a cultural thing, you wouldn't understand."
The programmes will mostly be in French, although English and other languages would also be used, and, though they would be beamed to several countries, they will not be seen in France itself - limiting the attraction for French advertisers.
#4
So, they're going to start a leftist "news" channel to compete with the other 2 leftist "news" channels.
Hey, guys - hate to break it to you, but the LLL audience is finite. Even in Phrench. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2005 13:15 Comments ||
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#5
You know how fox news has the american flag flying in the corner all the time? I wonder if the new Phrench channel will have their flag flying. A white flag. With Swahili subtitles.
A clear majority of French citizens want the EU constitution renegotiated, and around three-fourths believe France could achieve major changes in the text, according to an opinion poll to be released Wednesday.
Both France and the Netherlands voted in referendums to reject the constitution, dealing a double body blow to the treaty aimed at streamlining decision-making in the expanded European Union.
The poll by the CSA Institute showed that 61 percent of French voters said it should now be renegotiated, while only 35 percent said nothing more should be done with it.
A total of 74 percent believe that France could achieve some "significant and positive changes" in the text, according to the poll of 1,000 people taken June 6 and 7.
It said around two-thirds of French people are also opposed to Turkey eventually joining the EU, against just 28 percent who approved.
In the May 29 referendum almost 55 percent of French people rejected the treaty.
Britain on Monday shelved plans for its own referendum on the EU constitution, driving a further stake into the heart of the stricken treaty.
Posted by: too true ||
06/08/2005 10:10 ||
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Great idea, Just drop all the odd-numbered articles.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/08/2005 10:21 Comments ||
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But a French dude wrote the darn thing. How much Frencher could it get?
The EUcrats fight back. it may (or may not) be a coincidence that this week they are attacking those who joined the Iraq coalition - Italy on this, UK on the rebate. No word on real action against either the French or the Germans, both of whom have ignored EU financial limits when/as it suits them.
Italy on Tuesday became the the first country to face disciplinary action under the European Union's revamped stability pact amid fears that public borrowing in the eurozone is getting out of control. The European Commission wants to crack down on Italy's ballooning budget deficit to set an example to other countries and to prove that the eurozone can still maintain budgetary discipline.
But finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg fear that borrowing in Germany, the eurozone's biggest economy, is just as worrying and could severely undermine the credibility of the pact.
The opposition Christian Democrats, favourites to win German elections in the autumn, have warned that the German deficit could top the EU's 3 per cent of GDP limit until 2007. They do not expect it to fall back until 2009.
The rising tide of red ink across the 12-country eurozone compounded an air of gloom at yesterday's meeting of the Ecofin council, held against the background of political uncertainty caused by a double rejection of the EU constitution.
With markets fretting about the long-term prospects of the euro, JoaquÂŽn Almunia, EU monetary affairs commissioner, was determined to show that fiscal discipline had not broken down by starting proceedings against Italy. Mr Almunia's produced a report, adopted by the Commission in Strasbourg yesterday, highlighting how Italy had broken the pact's deficit ceiling in 2003 and 2004, but had disguised the fact through faulty statistics.
He also predicted "excessive deficits" for 2005 and 2006 and said Italy's public debt at 106 per cent of GDP was far above the EU's 60 per cent target. "The report indicates that this situation is not exceptional," Mr Almunia said.
The stability pact was made more "flexible" by EU leaders in March to save France from punitive actions, a move strongly criticised by the European Central Bank, which fears it will lead to a relaxation of fiscal discipline. It allows countries to escape action under the pact if their breach of the3 per cent ceiling is "small and temporary" and if they have sound underlying finances.
The Commission's report will now be analysed by national Treasury officials. If endorsed it will be referred for further action to finance ministers, possibly in July.
Silvio Berlusconi's government would then be asked to take action to curb the deficit. The only bright spot at the meeting was the publication by the International Monetary Fund report praising structural reforms in some countries, including Germany.
Meanwhile, Mr Juncker said he would intensify efforts to get a deal on the EU budget at next week's summit in Brussels, culminating in a meeting with Tony Blair, British prime minister, next Tuesday to discuss the future of the UK's annual refund.
Posted by: too true ||
06/08/2005 09:13 ||
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#1
One of these fine mornings we're going to wake up and find out that the German Central Bank is really pissed and that's the game's over.
European leaders lined up behind a plot to ambush Tony Blair yesterday, threatening to blame him for the spiralling European Union crisis unless Britain "saves Europe" by surrendering its multi-billion pound annual rebate.
One after the other, European premiers fell in line with a Franco-German plan to portray the rebate as the sticking point that is blocking a "miracle" last-minute agreement on the size and scope of the bloc's plans for the next five years.
As ministers and officials huddled for crisis meetings in Luxembourg and Strasbourg, they converged around a single line of attack: if Britain would only give ground on the rebate the EU would be able to defy expectations and pull off an early deal on its budget for the years 2007-2013.
That, it was argued, would convince people that the European project is in robust health, and not derailed by the votes against the constitution in France and Holland.
Gordon Brown, who was in Luxembourg for a meeting of finance ministers, insisted that Britain's position was "unchanged", the rebate was fully justified.
Threatening to block the entire EU budget, Mr Brown said: "We are prepared to use the veto if necessary to protect the British position."
However, Britain faces unprecedented pressure to give away some of the rebate, under which Brussels hands back two thirds of our net contribution to the EU coffers - a deal worth £3.7 billion to the Treasury in 2003. The rebate is opposed by all 24 other members.
The EU plot emerged as figures published by the Treasury showed that Britain's gross contributions to the European Union could rise to £14.6 billion by 2007-8, from £12.1 billion this year. Snip, Reg required
#1
We must have your, else our little farms will fail.
Posted by: Farmer Generalin B Hard ||
06/08/2005 7:44 Comments ||
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#2
The EU plot emerged as figures published by the Treasury showed that Britain's gross contributions to the European Union could rise to £14.6 billion by 2007-8, from £12.1 billion this year.
#3
"But who will help me plant the crops?", said Little Red Britain. "Not we!", they all cried, "For that is hard work!"/"But who will help me harvest the crops?", said Little Red Britain. "Not we!", they all cried, "For we can't be bothered!"/"But who will help me bake the bread?", said Little Red Britain. "Not we!", they all cried, "Because it's our month off!"/"Now I shall eat my fresh baked bread", said Little Red Britain. "Gimmeegimmeegimmeegimmeegimmeegimmee!", they all cried./ "Oh, you all can jolly well go sod off!", said Little Red Britain.
#1
Certification needs to be rigorous here, especially in software. Problems in the air with software running the show do not leave the pilot with many options. I wonder what the FAA requirements will be if the A380 will be flying to the US. I can see a battle brewing if the FAA sticks to its guns.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/08/2005 11:21 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, might be a good idea to work the bugs out...
#3
Thanks to that rigor, computer circuits have never been implicated in a major plane crash. Still, electronic glitches have led to crashes of jetfighters and spacecraft and there have been some close calls with commercial airliners. On Feb. 8, a Virgin Atlantic Airways flight to London from Hong Kong with 293 passengers and 18 crew on board made an emergency landing in Amsterdam after bugs in the computerized fuel-management system of the Airbus A340-600 starved one engine of fuel and almost shut down a second. British investigators are still analyzing the "serious incident," but Airbus reprogrammed the system at their urging.
Not a good precedent.
The subcontractor, closely held TTTech Computertechnik AG of Vienna, denies the allegations of the former employee, Joseph Mangan. TTTech's chief executive, Stefan Poledna, says he fired the engineer in October for poor job performance and contends Mr. Mangan now wants revenge. TTTech has brought both a criminal and a civil suit against him for defamation and has taken legal steps to stop him from making claims about TTTech and its products, which Mr. Poledna said caused TTTech "considerable damage." Attempts to settle out of court have failed.
TTTech's suits against Mr. Mangan, a 40-year-old American, as well his own suit against the company, are playing out in Vienna district court.
Mr. Mangan, a freelance aerospace and software specialist who worked for TTTech for six months, contends that certain potential problems in TTTech's products, if they arise, could ripple throughout the cabin-air system and cause passenger injuries or even a crash.
It appears that they adapted some commerical off-the-shelf software, but the original vendor did not write the code or certify the development and testing process to the level they require. It's used in other transportation applications, but in contexts where the lower level of certification is appropriate.
They took an unacceptable short-cut. If I was on the Jury, i'd vote to nail TTTech.
However, the REAL experts usually get bumped first during jury selection. If they're not using a jury, I sympathize with the Judge.
Ok I jist finished sending an email to my brain-dead Senators from the PFTAW website email service. The email was in oppisition to Judge brown, but I was able to edit the text to whatever I wanted. So my email FROM PFTAW went to my two Senators as follows:"As a constituent, I want to express my STRONG support to the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. She should be immediately confirmed for the D.C. Court of Appeals. Hopefully, she can stop the judicial tyranny that the Loony Liberal Left keeps trying to get passed over the objections of the American People.
I urge you to vote for the confirmation of Ms. Brown.
Thank you for your time and consideration"
I wonder what Boxer and Feinstein will think? Well maybe Feinstein will have a thought. I know I am easily amused but maybe we should start a campaign through them for Judge Pryor when he is publicly crucified debated next week.
#2
Not sure, but DiFi sent me a nice letter thanking me for my email. I got a second one from her telling me that her and the other idiot set up a committee to pick "Moderate Judges" for President Bush. I fell like writing back with: "Fuck you very much, when you win the presidency you can pick judges."
And how many more donors dropped off the list today?
WASHINGTON - Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday defended his recent harsh criticism of Republicans, including his observation that they are "pretty much a white, Christian party." Dean noted that he, too, is a white Christian. But he's "one of the good ones". Not a bad, evil one. Like that Bushhitler guy.
But he said the GOP is too narrow in its scope and the Democratic Party is far more diverse. We'll screw anybody...
While even prominent Democrats in recent days have distanced themselves from some of his comments, the outspoken Dean, appearing on NBC"s "Today" show, said criticism of him is meant by Republicans to divert attention from the country's problems and make him the issue instead. Katie pitching more BP this morning? Her arm's gonna fall off.
Dean told a forum of journalists and minority leaders Monday that Republicans are "not very friendly to different kinds of people, they are a pretty monolithic party ... it's pretty much a white, Christian party." Challenged on that during the NBC interview, Dean said "unfortunately, by and large it is. And they have the agenda of the conservative Christians." Keep digging, Howard. Pretty soon you'll be down so deep, they'll have to send down a bucket on a long rope to get the dirt out.
"This is a diversion from the issues that really matter: Social Security, and adequate job opportunity, strong public schools, a strong defense," Dean said. Asked about it on the "Fox & Friends" show, GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman joked that "a lot of folks who attended my Bar Mitzvah would be surprised" he heads a Christian party. Yeah, Howard so throw some "Jewboys" in there next time, okay? They're feeling left out.
"We gotta get ourselves beyond this point where when we disagree about politics, we call the other guy names," he said.
The former Vermont governor also recently raised eyebrows when he told a group of progressives that Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives," a comment he was forced to explain a day later. Yes, Mr. Big Time Broker's son who grew up on, what was it, the mean streets of Central Park West? Given your background, tell me all about working for a living why don't you. I'm listening...
The one-time presidential candidate also said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who has not been accused of any crime, ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence. Howard ought to go back to Vermont and catch up on his partial birth abortions...
Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday that Dean is doing a good job, but is not the party's spokesman. Is this a must with the media with every subject under the sun? "Hmmmmmmm. Get Richardson on the phone. Let's run this by him."
Last weekend, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards criticized Dean for his recent remarks, saying he doesn't speak for them.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, talking with reporters Wednesday, said she did not agree with the statement Dean made about the Republican Party. I think they should all be shot and their heads mounted as trophies in gay bars, but that's just me. Ooooooops, there's my limo.Ta-ta.
"The role of the chair of the Democratic National Committee is one that is different than the role of the Democratic leader of the House or in the Senate," the California congresswoman said, "and sometimes the exhuberance of that position results in statements that neither of us would make.I don't think that the statement the governor (Dean) made was a helpful statement," she said. But Pelosi said she thought that Dean was "doing a good job." With all this support, look for Howard to fall down the proverbial elevator shaft. Soon.
"Listen. Any one of us at any given time will make a statement that we may, in retrospect, say maybe that was a little over-enthusiastic," she said. "And I can put that statement in that category for Governor Dean." He's sooooooooooooo exuberant! Could be why his campaign went down the shitter last year...
Biden, asked about Dean Wednesday during an interview on the Don Imus radio show, also said the chairman is doing a good job. "A lot of things he does say, I agree with," Biden said. But he also said that Dean "has views that are slightly different than mine .. .But look, he's a lightning rod. ... It's probably good that there's a guy out there that's a lightning rod ... ." Were they sitting on a fence when they did this interview?
Biden, however, added that he thinks "the rhetoric is counterproductive.I think this country has a purple heart, not a red heart or a blue heart," Biden said. "If we can't bring this (country) together, man, boy, we're really in deep trouble." They get back in, we'll all be up for Purple hearts...
#1
It's probably good that there's a guy out there that's a lightning rod ... .
"Besides, we need to give Karl Rove a headstart for 2006. The guy is such a pathetic loser."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/08/2005 12:29 Comments ||
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#2
Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday that Dean is doing a good job, but is not the party's spokesman.
Reporter:And specifically what job is that which he's doing a good job at?
Gov:Why that would be keeping Giant Pandas from overrunning the country.
Reporter:But there are no Giant Pandas other than those confined in a few of our zoos.
Gov: See! That's how effective he is.
#3
You wanna know what this is about? Some very large voting groups are coming to a personal conflict with the democrats, The "Black vote" and the "Hispanic vote" are important blocks to compete for. Black and Hispanic communities are very religious as groups go, and I think that they are beginning to resent the democratic onslaught of religion. Also, there is a growing awareness in the Black community that by giving their vote to democrats automatically, and refusing to vote Republican no mattter what, that they have marginalized their influence on both parties. Dean is in the know about all this and what you are seeing is desperation.
#4
The best part is that young overpaid, over-educated donkeyites love their Dean and feed off his rants in an electric amplifier feedback effect! He's done more than his share in personally burning any bridges that might have existed between his party and independent voters as well as a few traditional democrats. You go doc Dean!
#7
James Taranto at Best of the Web: "We most assuredly are not jiving you: Howard Dean--scion of Park Avenue, former governor of Vermont, a state that is 96.8% people of pallor--is faulting Republicans for being white, even though he himself is whiter than an albino polar bear with dandruff."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/08/2005 16:25 Comments ||
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#8
HHHHHmmmmmmmmm,,, lets see, CLintonian =Amerikan Communist-controlled/domin "Fascists" must save the world from alleged American anti-Communist Fascists. America, Rightism, and DemoCapitalism, etc, works and is superior, ergo these must be suborned or destroyed by anti-American Americans whom hate America and Capitalism while loving the American and Capialist lifestyle, as honest injun as eight years of Bill Clinton Republicanism absolutely and undeniably validated Leftism-Socialism once, before, and forever unto eternity. Which is why ala Ted Kenedy, the future of the Democratic Party lies in its evolution=devolution towards more SOCIALISM, REGULATION AND ORIENTALISM - you know, sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh/btw, the threat from Radical Islam!? *0000000000PPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSS. The Democratic Party must become the future Revolutionary Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USA, where the world-feared USSA = mere local Amerikan SSR!?
U.S. congressional Democrats on Tuesday sought to deflate a Republican bill that would link U.S. dues to the United Nations with reform of the world body, offering a version of their own that doesn't directly tie payments to change. The offer from U.S. Representative Tom Lantos of California would give the U.S. State Department the choice of withholding up to 50 percent of dues if the United Nations doesn't carry out reforms, Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weil said. But it does not require the money be held back.
So why bother?
The proposal is far less drastic than a Republican bill introduced by Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois, on Tuesday. It would oblige both the United Nations and the United States to take specific steps
Looky! A Roadmap®!
, and has raised fears of a funding battle that could plunge the United Nations into financial crisis. The U.S. House International Relations Committee, which Hyde chairs, was set to begin debating his bill during a hearing Wednesday. The offer from Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the committee, is an amendment that would replace it entirely. The prospects for Lantos' amendment are dim because Democrats are the minority in the committee and Congress as a whole.
Insert AP stylebook frowny face here--> <-- and then look for silver lining:
Overall, however, the success of Hyde's own bill isn't guaranteed.
(fingers crossed...)
The administration of President George W. Bush has said it opposes tying reform to dues, while the U.S. Senate would also have to craft similar legislation.
This reform stuff, it's very difficult, see...and now trot out State Dept. hack:
A U.S. State Department official said Tuesday that the Bush administration believes U.N. reform is critical and wants greater accountability and management reform, but
the lifer wing at State
sees some of Hyde's reform conditions as not feasible. "We believe moreover that U.S. obligations for our dues should be fully funded," the official said.
"I mean, someone's gotta pick up the bar tab in Kuala Lumpur."
Hyde's bill has caused a stir in part because the United States is the biggest financial contributor to the United Nations, paying about 22 percent of the annual $2 billion general budget. That doesn't include money for peacekeeping, most international tribunals, or programs like the U.N. Development Program and UNICEF, which are funded separately.
By whom, I wonder?
It comes as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan pushes his own proposals to reform the United Nations. Some officials fear that Hyde proposal would only alienate other U.N. member states, which generally oppose the idea of holding back money.
Only American money. All the other currencies want to spend more time with their families.
"Withholding dues is a terribly counterproductive tactic because the rest of the reformers don't believe in it," Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said last week.
Yassss, yasss. Very bad. Very bad. A catastrophe in the offing. Say, is it warm in here?"
"There is much broader public support in the U.S. for tough reform than many in the U.N. are willing to acknowledge," Hyde spokesman Sam Stratman said. Hyde's bill would require that several U.N. programs now funded under the general budget instead raise their money through voluntary contributions from governments and individual donors. If that doesn't happen, it would require the United States to either withhold or redirect tens of millions of dollars in dues. On peacekeeping, Hyde's bill also requires the United States withhold support for future missions unless a series of reforms are enacted, mostly to crack down on sex abuse. Lantos' offer would let the State Department waive that requirement if U.S. interests are at stake.
#5
Third alternative - Numerous Nations. Diaspora. Send them packing outside of these grounds to other locations; Geneva, Paris, Rome, etc. where they already have office space.
#9
Why not Bali? Tourism is going to plummet after that last judicial farce . The Islamicists would love it - imagine a whole range of international targets, and not just Aussies.
#16
We should make the UN headquarters on a rotating basis, so that means they should rotate over to europe and it wont be our turn for oh, say 1000 years or so.
#17
I hate the idea of hosting and pampering anti-American A-holes from all over the world. The UN has shown it's colors from Sudan to the Congo and
distinguished themselves as a powerless,self-serving, bunch of mooches. And to think we pay for 22% of all of this. Out of 200 countries we have to pay one fifth.
#19
Not quite, mojo. One of the post-Watergate "reforms" was to reduce the President's discretion on spending. If the Congress says that $X billion is to be spent (and doesn't explicitly give discretion), then it's a federal crime not to spend it. It's doubtful it would hold up in court, but no President has tried it.
#20
I rather like Big Jim's idea, with a minor change. The UN HQ will rotate to the capital of the country currently heading the Human Rights Commission. That way the UN could get a nice long look at their wards. The current UNCHR chair is Indonesia. Perhaps Their Excellencies would like to have their sleeves rolled up by their staffs and help rebuild a village or two.
#21
That's the best idea anyone's come up with yet, Sea.
Let's propose it to the President and Congress. Get Rush and Hannity and O'Reilly on board.
Imagine the fun. (Imagine the fun if it actually came about! :-D)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2005 13:25 Comments ||
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#22
The more I think about it, the better I like it. As the UN travels about the globe, it turns into a giant circus, with gypsies and buskers, and tie dye EVERYwhere. Better than Dave Matthews, bigger than a Grateful Dead tour. Papier Mache puppets, pink cardboard tanks, the works. Like a black hole for LLL, the siren call of the UN on tour will empty the streets of Berkely and leave only echoes in the halls of Evergreen State....
#26
Nice of you to offer TGA but think it through. The un is just like a chapter 8 (welfare) housing case here in the States. Once they are in the house you have to let them stay as long as they live. While I think that the un is on the way out ala League of Nations, it may be decades until the world notices. If I were King for a day, U.S. funding for this organization would end today. I would also start making them pay rent, utitlities, and parking tickets. The only useful part of this sad excuse for a world body is that un Health organization, which could (and should) be brought under the International Red Cross. A nice thought but the un has turned out to be a collosal waste of money.
Imagine there's no UN
It's easy if you try.
No secure job for Kofi,
Bet you can hear him cry.
Imagine how damn happy
We'll be on that day!
Imagine there's no budget
To pay for five-star meals!
No cash for "peacekeepers"
Let 'em see how it feels!
Imagine all the kickbacks
That would go a-way...ooh hoo!
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I think Kofi can see it too
That's why he's on the run!
PHOENIX - A substance thought to be ricin after it was confiscated from a man's apartment has been retested and found not to be the deadly toxin, officials said yesterday.
All 15 samples retested came back negative for ricin, said state epidemiologist David Engelthaler. Previous tests indicated three samples contained ricin.
No mention of the French in this venue for some reason.
HANOI (Reuters) - Communist Vietnam said a visit by a senior U.S. defense official will firm up ties between the former Vietnam War enemies and boost understanding between their armies, state-run media reported on Wednesday.U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Rodman held talks with Vietnam's Defense Minister Pham Van Tra and his deputy Nguyen Huy Hieu on Tuesday at the start of the two-day visit, the defense ministry-run Quan Doi Nhan Dan daily said.
A front-page article in the newspaper quoted Tra as telling Rodman that he believed the visit "would contribute to enhancing friendship and mutual understanding between the two armies."
The United States is seeking to build closer military ties with Vietnam, but will let them evolve in the long term instead of pushing hard, officials said before Rodman arrived. State media said Rodman visited a military facility in Hanoi which specializes in bomb and land mine disposal techniques.
He was also due to meet officials from the Police Ministry, the National Defense Academy where Vietnamese military officers are trained, and the Foreign Relations Institute.
Rodman's visit to Hanoi comes ahead a planned June 21 meeting between Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President Bush in Washington. Khai will be the most high-ranking Vietnamese to visit the United States since the Vietnam War.Vietnam and the United States mark the 10th anniversary of their normalisation of relations in July.
#3
O 'member have some pretty close ties back in '67 out Na Trang way.
Posted by: Michael ||
06/08/2005 18:30 Comments ||
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#4
My guts tell me its NOT too late for the US and Western democracy in Vietnam - the locals have along history of fighting everybody, from the Chinese to the Mongols to the Japanese, French, and America. Unlike the Norkies, many of the Hanoi boyz are still intensely anti-Chinese/Russian despite being dedicated Commies, and despite Beijing doing everything it can to control the Vietnam CP. They remember France and America and espec the general national wealth that came with them. The Russians who came after the fall of of Saigon were belabeled as
"Americans without Money", whilst the Chicoms were "poor Japanese", etc. Vietnam is America's CUBA in the Pacific/East Asia - if we use the right policies, we can defeat Comunism locally without having to take any mil action, or disrespecting or suborning local nationalism. THe Viets know that ags China they might win a few battles, but eventually China will take them over.
The secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party Nong Duc Manh, who is visiting France, was welcomed by President Jacques Chirac Tuesday for a lunch at the Elysee palace.
"Vietnam and France are natural partners. France would like more than ever to be Vietnam's partner of reference. For that our economic relations must be further deepened," Chirac said in a toast.
Nong Duc Manh evoked "the significant potential of a renewed Vietnam which is making rapid progress on the way of development and integration in the international economy."
The party leader, who is on a three-day visit to France ending Thursday, met business leaders
in the morning to urge greater investment in Vietnam. He was also to hold talks with several senior politicians during the course of his stay.
France is Vietnam's former colonial power and the biggest European investor in the country
Posted by: too true ||
06/08/2005 09:43 ||
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#1
"But whatever you do, don't liberalize and democratize. We hate doing business with non-dictatorial regimes."
Switch on your satellite television receiver in Tehran nowadays and something is amiss - "No Signal", the otherwise fuzzy television screen says for much of the day and night.
With presidential elections just over a week away, Islamic Iran's technological guardians appear to be waging a war against enemies in the airwaves - opposition-run television channels.
The problem, however, is that they may also be frying people's brains.
"Microwaves," explained an Iranian satellite television technician, who earns his keep by installing dishes even though they are technically banned.
"They're jamming, and these signals used to block the satellites have never been so strong," said the dish man, who for obvious reasons preferred that he not be named.
Since Iran's Islamic revolution 26 years ago, the regime has been fighting off what it calls "Westoxication". But in recent years satellite dishes have mushroomed across the rooftops of the sprawling, smog-ridden capital.
Police and militiamen launch occasional crackdowns, but it is a losing battle. So instead they appear to be throwing out noise -- blocking out 20 or so opposition channels and their mix of heretical anti-regime chatter and saucy Persian pop videos.
"Day and night, the opposition radio and television stations keep calling on our people to boycott the election," fumed Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, a top cleric, in his Friday prayer sermon last week.
Eager to prevent a boycott of the polls -- and therefore more questions being raised over how the ruling clergy mix Islam and democracy -- the jamming effort appears to be unprecedented.
"It's as if they found a huge microwave oven, opened the door and switched it on. The microwaves are going out day and night," the technician said.
"The signals are so powerful that even other channels using the Telestar 12 satellite have been blocked in some areas of Tehran," he added.
Experts believe that while Iran may be unable to totally block the signals, they can beam so much noise over the city's grey-brown skyline that broadcasts suffer lengthy drop-outs.
The main targets are around six channels run by sympathisers of the ousted monarchy. These stations, mostly based in Los Angeles, spend their time trying to convince Iranians that the rule of the late shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was a golden age, and that Islamic Iran isn't.
Other channels teasing the turbans include the MTV-inspired Persian Music Channel, which shows far too much flesh for the regime's liking.
But there are also possible side effects of the battle of the frequencies.
The local signals of state television, busy trying to drum up interest in the elections, have also suffered. The mobile telephone network, already subject to overcrowding and poor service, is another apparent victim, given that the coverage zone has reportedly shrunk in parts of the capital.
When reports of the jamming effort emerged two years ago in the Iranian press, the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone (PTT) -- technically in charge of frequency space -- pleaded innocence.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also cautioned that such microwave frequencies could "induce heating in body tissues which may provoke various physiological and thermoregulatory responses, including a decreased ability to perform mental or physical tasks as body temperature increases."
Birth defects and male infertility were also cited as possible risks.
Newspapers daringly pointed the finger at the well-equipped armed forces and intelligence establishment, but calls from the then reformist-controlled parliament for a government probe apparently came to nothing.
Hence a headache for viewers and -- given the circumstantial evidence of a high prevalence of migraines -- possibly everyone else who lives in Tehran.
As one resident complained, "it's like my head has been put inside a microwave oven".
Democrats generally cheered, and Republicans groused, when a bipartisan group of senators crafted a compromise on judicial nominations last month. But with the Senate now confirming several conservative nominees whom Democrats had blocked for years, some liberals are questioning the wisdom of the deal and fretting about what comes next.
"Our problem with the compromise is the price that was paid," Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said yesterday. She and other Congressional Black Caucus members plan to march into the Senate today to protest the impending confirmation of Janice Rogers Brown.
President Bush nominated Brown, an African American on the California Supreme Court, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, second in prestige and importance only to the Supreme Court. She has expressed her vividly conservative philosophies in speeches and written opinions that dismay liberals. Brown's record "shows a deep hostility to civil rights, to workers' rights, to consumer protection and to a wide variety of governmental actions in many other areas," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in the first of two floor speeches opposing her nomination yesterday.
The Senate voted 65 to 32 yesterday to end a nearly two-year Democratic filibuster of Brown. The vote stemmed from last month's deal in which seven Democrats agreed to drop filibusters of Brown and four other long-contested nominees, and to refrain from future judicial filibusters except in "extraordinary circumstances." In return, seven GOP senators agreed to scuttle Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposed rule change banning judicial filibusters.
Before the deal was reached, Democrats had used the filibuster -- which can be stopped only with 60 votes -- to block 10 of Bush's appellate court nominees. Republicans hold 55 of the Senate's 100 seats. Bush renominated seven of the 10 this year, and senators were headed toward a bitterly partisan showdown until the 14 negotiators announced their pact.
The deal cleared the way for five of the seven renominated jurists to be confirmed, probably this week. Controversy has largely faded for two: Richard A. Griffin and David W. McKeague, Michigan judges tapped for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. But the other three -- Brown, Priscilla R. Owen of Texas and William H. Pryor Jr. of Alabama -- still draw sharp denunciations from liberal groups who say they are outside the political mainstream.
After a four-year impasse, the Senate last month confirmed Owen for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. A confirmation vote on Brown is scheduled for today, and Senate leaders said they expect approval of Pryor for the 11th Circuit court by late tomorrow.
Several conservative commentators described the "Gang of 14" deal as a setback for Frist (R-Tenn.). Frist reinforced that notion with speeches describing his disappointment that two of the renominated judges -- William G. Myers III of Idaho and Henry W. Saad of Michigan -- appeared unlikely to be confirmed. But others say several sharply conservative judges are now being seated, and it is far from clear that the "extraordinary circumstances" clause will enable Democrats to block future conservative nominees to the Supreme Court or elsewhere.
"It looks like in some ways Frist is seizing the initiative," said Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. Moreover, he said, liberals may be deluded in thinking the bipartisan deal will thwart another contentious nominee -- Brett M. Kavanaugh, the White House staff secretary -- who is not named in the two-page agreement. Two years ago, Bush nominated Kavanaugh, who helped independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr pursue the Monica S. Lewinsky case, to the D.C. Circuit appeals court.
"I think it's wishful thinking by the Democrats that he won't move forward," Tobias said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said of Kavanaugh in an interview yesterday, "I intend to push him."
Yesterday, the Senate devoted itself entirely to Brown. Frist called her "a superb judge" who applies the law "without bias, without favor, with an even hand." Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of the 14 negotiators, called Brown "an extremely talented and qualified judge" who will "advance the cause of conservative judicial philosophy."
But Democrats recited a litany of Brown's controversial statements, including several from a 2000 speech titled "Fifty Ways to Lose Your Freedom." She said senior citizens "blithely cannibalize their grandchildren because they have a right to get as much 'free' stuff as the political system will permit them to extract." Elsewhere, Brown has said: "Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates. . . . When government advances . . . freedom is imperiled, civilization itself [is] jeopardized."
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) told reporters that Brown is "one of the most extreme nominees that has ever come before the United States Senate in the 32 years I've been a senator."
Others warned that last month's compromise could be threatened soon. The pact permits the seven Democratic signers to filibuster Myers -- whom environmentalists strongly oppose -- without triggering support for a filibuster ban by the seven GOP signers. But Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said that if Myers is filibustered, "the 14 are going to be in a real quandary, because they know how good he is."
Nan Aron, head of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said the accord reached by the 14 senators "is very mixed. Like all compromises, it had some really good and some really bad. . . . It was a bright day for the Senate and a dark day for the judiciary."
Be interesting to see what happens after the agreed 5 are seated. Wonder how the poker player in the White House will bid.
Posted by: too true ||
06/08/2005 13:12 ||
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#3
But others say several sharply conservative judges are now being seated, and it is far from clear that the "extraordinary circumstances" clause will enable Democrats to block future conservative nominees to the Supreme Court or elsewhere.
Can we assume now that this trial baloon, disguised as a "news" story signals the left is going to welch on their deal?
#4
"Trial balloon" hell, Bad. The Left will welch anyway. On any deal.
Like the scorpion - because it's their nature. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2005 15:33 Comments ||
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#5
Brown's record "shows a deep hostility to civil rights, to workers' rights, to consumer protection and to a wide variety of governmental actions in many other areas," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in the first of two floor speeches opposing her nomination yesterday.
"Not black enough" for you, Ted? Maybe like Mary Jo was "not bouyant enough"?
#7
Brown has said: "Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates. . . . When government advances . . . freedom is imperiled, civilization itself [is] jeopardized."
Court of Appeals, hell. Put her on the Supreme Court.
Damn, and I only have read "Mein Kampf"! What gaping holes in my culture!
HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books nominated. A title received a score of 10 points for being listed No. 1 by one of our panelists, 9 points for being listed No. 2, etc. Appropriately, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing. Top ten at link.
#2
I wonder what the list would like if Liberals were to compile a list. Let me start:
1. The Bible
2. The Constitution
3. All of The Great Books (tip of the hat to St. John's College!)
4. Allan Bloom: The Closing of the American Mind
5. Leo Strauss
6. Leo Strauss
7. Leo Strauss
8. Leo Strauss
9. Thomas Sowell
10. Friedrich August von Hayek
#3
Its obvious to me that the most harmful book of the 21st century so far has been the Koran.
Inciting mental deficients and sociopaths to murder and mayhem, while firmly entrenching its adherents in the 7th century.
Way to go Allah, that's why your book will always be nothing more than asswipe to me.
#8
Dragon - Kevin Drum attempted a liberal version of the list. He didn't include the Bible, but at least a dozen of his commenters insisted it belonged (along with a number of votes for the Scofield Reference Bible in particular). Hayek was on Drum's list.
#9
Dragon - Kevin Drum attempted a liberal version of the list. He didn't include the Bible, but at least a dozen of his commenters insisted it belonged (along with a number of votes for the Scofield Reference Bible in particular). Hayek was on Drum's list.
#10
A short radio report yesterday on the end of the filibuster on Janice Rogers Brown quoted a Senator (didn't catch which one, sorry) stating that she'd be basing her opinions on "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Road to Serfdom" rather than the Constitution. He said it like it was a bad thing...
*Note: Of COURSE I expect federal judges to base their decisions on The United States Constitution. So no hate mail please.
#11
Which one Seafarious? The one 'as written' or the one they keep making up everytime the judges [left or right] want something their way? Newspeek, alive and well in the 21st Century.
#12
Don't know, but there is a good deal of nonsense involved in any list.
"Mein Kampf" which ranked second, seems to be an easy decision. Yet the book itself wasn't nearly as harmful as it is thought to be, since it was barely read. It's writer certainly was one of the most harmful people ever.
If you want to compile a list of truly harmfil books, it should consist of books that were widely read and followed.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be such a book. It was meant to harm, was read by millions and had direct harmful consequences. It's still one of the most popular books in the Muslim world.
The "Stürmer", while not being a book, was way more harmful than Mein Kampf.
And then there is that big Atlas, my wife once used to hit a intruder over the head with: Now THIS book was truly harmful!
Good thing you all don't live in Britain - she probably would have been sent to jail for hurting the poor intruder. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/08/2005 11:59 Comments ||
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#14
Oh she was questioned by police whether this was "necessary".
The guy poot a foot in the door. She told him to withdraw the foot. He didn't
Whammmm!
Of course she didn't try to get a UN resolution first.
#21
If Phyllis Schlafly hates it I like it.
Phyllis is a Jerk and cost the lives of lot and lots of agents in the early 80s. (A stupid scene she had with the US Amb in our embassy in Switzerland - a big mouth idiot)
Phyllis had her stance on the ERA amendment because her insurance companies were cheating women in childbearing age.
Phyllis should have disappeared from the US scene decades ago. After the debacle in Switzerland she should have been shot for being an Idiot. (I had that on the word of a relative who lost lots of agents and heard her rant that caused it.)
As to Margaret Mead ...
I spent a nice day with her once. A class act woman and scientist. Much more pleasing to be around than that harpy Phyllis.
And no I am not open to discussing any of those twits who did the dissing.
#23
I detect an anti-science bias in the 'honorable mentions': Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner (a minor masterpiece) Score: 18, Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin (arguably the most influential book ever written at least by a single author) Score: 17. I haven't read The Descent of Man, but will. You can find the full text here.
Nine Libyan policemen and a doctor were cleared yesterday of charges of torturing five Bulgarian nurses to force them to confess to deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. "The court has decided that all the defendants are not guilty and they were acquitted of the charges against them," the Tripoli court judge Abdullah Aoun said.
A Libyan court last year sentenced the Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for infecting 426 children in a hospital in the eastern town of Benghazi. The case has damaged Libya's ties with the European Union, which rejects the evidence against the nurses. The medics, who have appealed against their convictions, say they were forced to confess. They say Libya has made them scapegoats rather than admit the HIV infections were caused by poor hygiene. The medics have been in prison since 1999. The Supreme Court is set to rule on their appeal in Nov. 15. Bulgarian officials had hoped for guilty verdicts against the policemen which could have helped overturn the nurses' convictions. The nurses' lawyer Othman Bizanti said they would launch an appeal against Tuesday's verdicts.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SAN MARCOS, Mexico (AP) - Mexico's Volcano of Fire has been hurling hot lava into the air and dusting surrounding towns with ash, forcing evacuations and raising concerns of a much larger explosion. The eruptions are the strongest recorded since scientific monitoring began 20 years ago, and even long-skeptical residents acknowledged Wednesday a newfound fear of the peak that straddles the line between Colima and Jalisco states, 690 kilometers (430 miles) west of Mexico City. 
Two Chinese defectors — one of them a diplomat who walked away from his post — claim that their homeland is running a spy network in Australia and other Western countries. The diplomat, Chen Yonglin, left his job as the first secretary at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney last month to seek political asylum in Australia. Chen, 37, claimed China ran a ring of 1,000 spies in Australia involved in illegal activities including abducting Chinese nationals and smuggling them back to China.
The European Commission gave its greenlight Tuesday to plans for a French international television news network to rival the BBC and CNN, saying the project does not breach EU state aid rules.
U.S. congressional Democrats on Tuesday sought to deflate a Republican bill that would link U.S. dues to the United Nations with reform of the world body, offering a version of their own that doesn't directly tie payments to change. The offer from U.S. Representative Tom Lantos of California would give the U.S. State Department the choice of withholding up to 50 percent of dues if the United Nations doesn't carry out reforms, Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weil said. But it does not require the money be held back.
Nine Libyan policemen and a doctor were cleared yesterday of charges of torturing five Bulgarian nurses to force them to confess to deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. "The court has decided that all the defendants are not guilty and they were acquitted of the charges against them," the Tripoli court judge Abdullah Aoun said.
