A JAPANESE artist has been paid £5000 ($11,800) of taxpayers' money to drink 48 bottles of beer and then fall off a wooden beam.
The "performance", which took place at an arts centre in Cardiff, has outraged members of the local council and caused bafflement among the public, many of whom do exactly that every Friday and Saturday night, without getting paid.
However, an arts centre spokesman said: "This wasn't just about a woman drinking a lot of beer. This was a powerful piece of art."
Tomoko Takahashi, 39, who performs under the name Anti-Cool, was once nominated for the Turner Prize for her installations of rubbish.
She says her performance "comments on the availability and use of mass-produced products".
But she is now being accused of encouraging binge drinking.
Takahashi put on the performance art show at the Chapter arts centre in the Canton area of Cardiff. The 50 people watching the show, part of a month-long Experimentica 05 season, saw Takahashi dressed in a smart black business suit and high heels, drinking beer from a large bag suspended from the ceiling.
They then watched as she tried to walk across a narrow beam 60cm above the floor.
The three-hour act consisted of Takahashi drinking more and more beer and trying to see how far she could walk across the beam before she fell off.
David Davies, a Conservative member of the Welsh Assembly, not to be confused with the Tory leadership candidate, said: "If anyone is daft enough to want to see a young woman getting plastered and tottering around in high heels, they can do it in just about every city centre most nights of the week.
"The worrying thing is that people are making decisions to hand out taxpayers' money like this when they are sober."
#1
I think she got paid a bit much but depending on her looks and the out door temp I might pay to sit, drink and watch. 48 beers is 2 cases of brew. This should have been quite amusing.
We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots.
But manipulating humans?
Prepare to be remotely controlled. I was.
Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car.
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.
I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called "non-lethal" weapons.
A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head _ either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.
I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.
The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation _ essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance.
I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced _ mistakenly _ that this was the only way to maintain my balance.
The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.
There's no proven-beyond-a-doubt explanation yet as to why people start veering when electricity hits their ear. But NTT researchers say they were able to make a person walk along a route in the shape of a giant pretzel using this technique.
It's a mesmerizing sensation similar to being drunk or melting into sleep under the influence of anesthesia. But it's more definitive, as though an invisible hand were reaching inside your brain.
NTT says the feature may be used in video games and amusement park rides, although there are no plans so far for a commercial product.
Some people really enjoy the experience, researchers said while acknowledging that others feel uncomfortable.
I watched a simple racing-car game demonstration on a large screen while wearing a device programmed to synchronize the curves with galvanic vestibular stimulation. It accentuated the swaying as an imaginary racing car zipped through a virtual course, making me wobbly.
Another program had the electric current timed to music. My head was pulsating against my will, getting jerked around on my neck. I became so dizzy I could barely stand. I had to turn it off.
NTT researchers suggested this may be a reflection of my lack of musical abilities. People in tune with freely expressing themselves love the sensation, they said.
"We call this a virtual dance experience although some people have mentioned it's more like a virtual drug experience," said Taro Maeda, senior research scientist at NTT. "I'm really hopeful Apple Computer will be interested in this technology to offer it in their iPod."
Research on using electricity to affect human balance has been going on around the world for some time.
James Collins, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, has studied using the technology to prevent the elderly from falling and to help people with an impaired sense of balance. But he also believes the effect is suited for games and other entertainment.
"I suspect they'll probably get a kick out of the illusions that can be created to give them a more total immersion experience as part of virtual reality," Collins said.
The very low level of electricity required for the effect is unlikely to cause any health damage, Collins said. Still, NTT required me to sign a consent form, saying I was trying the device at my own risk.
And risk definitely comes to mind when playing around with this technology.
Timothy Hullar, assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., believes finding the right way to deliver an electromagnetic field to the ear at a distance could turn the technology into a weapon for situations where "killing isn't the best solution."
"This would be the most logical situation for a nonlethal weapon that presumably would make your opponent dizzy," he said via e-mail. "If you find just the right frequency, energy, duration of application, you would hope to find something that doesn't permanently injure someone but would allow you to make someone temporarily off-balance."
Indeed, a small defense contractor in Texas, Invocon Inc., is exploring whether precisely tuned electromagnetic pulses could be safely fired into people's ears to temporarily subdue them.
NTT has friendlier uses in mind.
If the sensation of movement can be captured for playback, then people can better understand what a ballet dancer or an Olympian gymnast is doing, and that could come handy in teaching such skills.
And it may also help people dodge oncoming cars or direct a rescue worker in a dark tunnel, NTT researchers say. They maintain that the point is not to control people against their will.
If you're determined to fight the suggestive orders from the electric currents by clinging to a fence or just lying on your back, you simply won't move.
But from my experience, if the currents persist, you'd probably be persuaded to follow their orders. And I didn't like that sensation. At all. No Comment.
#1
Okay, here we go: Remote Control 'Controls' Humans.
can't wait till pak II comes out.
on a brighter note, wait till a sick freak f*ck like jeffery Dahmer or the BTK killer type gets their holly jollys off w/ a unfun tool like this.
nothanks, i'll have to pass on the Remote Control thingy, as I already have paid hansome sum to free myself from my ex wife a controlling device.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/30/2005 5:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If the RCDs are anything like cell phones, you can shut the signal off by wrapping tin foil around the implanted area. And you thought the tin foil hat people were just silly. Heh.
#3
I waht to be the Joystick Master at the Million Man Robot March.
Hehehehehehehe!
Posted by: john ||
10/30/2005 7:44 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Hmm... feeling drunk without drinking...there's got to be some bucks to be made there somewhere...hmm, still thinking.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
10/30/2005 7:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It happened to me. I was in south LA, lower Alabama fishin from my jon boat when this bright eerie green light swallowed me up. The next thing I knew was that I was sucked into this space ship and I had this thingee on my head and I was immobile. I was then used as a sex object repeatedly by aliens. I found the whole experience--well--exhilarating and stimulating. It happened to me--no lie.
Posted by: It Happened to Me ||
10/30/2005 10:28 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"We call this a virtual dance experience although some people have mentioned it's more like a virtual drug experience," ...
So, here we finally have it. The long awaited Zionist Death Dance Rayâ¢.
It survived sabotage attempts by T E Lawrence and bands of Bedouin tribesmen, but after a century of transporting passengers across Arabia, the celebrated Hijaz railway appears to have reached the end of the line. Built in 1900 to link Damascus with the Muslim holy city of Medina, its 1,000 miles of track was long-regarded as the zenith of Ottoman power and engineering skill. In the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, a white-robed Peter O'Toole leads Arab tribes in attacks on the railway as it ferries Ottoman troops to the fronts of the First World War.
Today, however, the magnificent rolling stock that once included the sultan's personal railway car, resplendent with wood panelling and plush armchairs, has been reduced to a single dilapidated railway carriage. All that remains open of the original line is a truncated section from Damascus to the Jordanian capital, Amman and even that is facing the axe. Jordanian officials have complained that the "tedious and snail-paced" service has become financially unsustainable, and the railway that both Lawrence and the Ottomans once considered crucial looks set to close forever.
In Damascus, Syrian officials say that the journey - which takes only couple of hours by car but is a day-long test of endurance by rail - has been shunned by all but a handful of passengers. "It's very old and not many people use it now," said Adnan Ebesh, the deputy manager of the Hijaz Railways. "In the past we used to run more trains on this line but now we use it for goods mostly."
The Hijaz, named after the north-west section of the Saudi peninsula that was its ultimate destination, opened in 1908 after 6,000 Ottoman navvies struggled in searing heat and shifting desert sands to get it laid. In its heyday, it ferried pilgrims to Medina in modern-day Saudi Arabia, shortening the desert journey once made by camel from two months to a mere 55 hours. The new mechanised pilgrimage became known as the "Women's pilgrimage" - for those not up to the rigours of the more traditional voyage. But to the desert Bedouin tribes that lost the pilgrims' custom the so-called "Iron Camel" became a source of resentment and financial ruin.
Follow the money. Is there nothing that doesn't cause seething among the Bedu?
They were the first to target the railway line, with one uprising in 1910 brutally suppressed by the Ottomans after a tribe robbed and killed passengers on one train, and ripped up a section of the track. Lawrence then capitalised on Bedouin resentment of the railway to lead them in an audacious campaign of sabotage during the First World War. By then, pilgrims using the line were far outnumbered by Ottoman troops, deployed to the Arabian peninsula. Such was Lawrence's accuracy with explosives that the price of tickets for seats at the back of the train, away from the locomotive, was said to have cost several times more than those at the front. The wrecks of locomotives still lie near sections of long abandoned track in Saudi Arabia.
In Damascus, the landmark Hijaz station, with its stain glass windows, is also in mothballs. The tracks that once stretched into the distance behind it have been ripped up, and now books are sold in the area in front of the shuttered ticket counters. The last of the Hijaz trains leave from a station a few miles outside the centre of Damascus, where Majid Mattar, the station manager, sells tickets for about £2. "People can look at the view on the train, they can relax and have a picnic," he said. Haitham Mohamed, a regular passenger, said: ''It's cheaper and more fun than the car."
But while Mr Mattar boasted that the train took a mere "four to five hours", in practice the diesel engine that has replaced the steam locomotives of yesteryear usually takes about twice that. A typical journey from Damascus to Amman now takes up to 12 hours. "We left at eight in the morning and arrived at about 5pm," said Anne McMullan, from Belfast, who took the trip this week. "It blew the horn almost the whole time to warn people off the track. Once a whole market had to move off as we came through. I can see that it's very expensive to run it for so few people but it will be a terrible shame to close it completely."
#1
Arabs, Railroads, Unions, Arab Railroad Union, Arab, Diesel Maintenance, Arab Diesel Maintenance, Arab, Air Brakes, Arab Air Brakes, Arab, Traffic, Control Switches, Arab Traffic Control Switches
Posted by: JF Homer ||
10/30/2005 11:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The reason this train lasted so long is because it was built by Krupp. It was part of a scheme by Kaiser William II to extend German influence into the Middle East "from Berlin to Baghdad", with side routes to Mecca, etc.
Needless to say, the British were not thrilled with this idea, and set in motion many schemes to 'derail' this railroad scheme. Ah, realpolitik.
POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits. Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together. Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence.
Thank you for that statement of the obvious...
The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background.
At least Hindoos get special treatment, too. Suttee is back, I take it?
Some police officers have claimed the directives hinder enforcing the law equally.
Government of laws=equal enforcement; government of men=everybody gets different enforcement. Government of laws works, government of men doesn't work. Period.
Police are told: "In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims."
"Traditions might include the old man throwing acid in the woman's face, lopping off her nose and/or upper lip, or simply killing her. No concern of ours. They don't feel pain like we do."
They are told it would be appreciated in cases of domestic violence if police consult the local Muslim religious leader who will work against "fragmenting the family unit".
"I'm leaving you, Mahmoud! You're a brute!"
"The imam sez you ain't leaving and that I'm just devout! Now, where the hell's my acid?"
Islamic Women's Welfare Council head Joumanah El Matrah called the guidelines appalling and dangerous.
She also could have called them stoopid, patronizing, and several other things that are accurate if not complimentary...
"The implication is one needs to be more tolerant of violence against Muslim women but they should be entitled to the same protection," Ms El Matrah said.
Maybe more, since the men of the house seem to be incapable of controlling their violent impulses...
"Police should not be advising other officers to follow those sorts of protocols. It can only lead to harm."
The Injun part of my background has a tradition of trading ponies for a bride. So I guess it's okay if I steal Mr. Police Chief's car to court Patti Ann Browne?
Ms El Matrah said Muslim leaders should be brought into domestic violence investigations only if requested by the abused woman.
In other words, don't start from the assumption the holy man's in charge.
The guide also advises officers not to hold interviews with Aboriginal suspects or set court hearings during Aboriginal ceremonies involving "initiation, birth, death, burials, mourning periods, women's meetings and cultural ceremonies in general".
All that involves is minor rearrangement of the calendar. What if the Aboriginal's beating up on the old lady, though? Does the local medicine man or whatever get invited in?
They are told to interview Baha'i suspects only after sunset in the fasting month. And they are cautioned that when a Sikh is reading the Sikh Holy Script -- a process that normally takes 50 hours -- "he should not be disturbed". The 50,000 handbooks instruct police to take shoes off before entering Buddhist and Hindu houses and mosques, and remove hats before entering or searching churches. They are warned that taking photos or samples from Aboriginal suspects could raise fears they could be used for sorcery and spiritual mischief.
Everybody seems to get a niggling little nod and reminders of good manners, except for the Moose limbs, who get to be ruled by their local caliphate.
Australasian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau head Gerard Daniells, who created the 82-page full-colour handbook, said common sense would prevail over the guide in an emergency. Mr Daniells said the next edition would include Maori spiritual beliefs and practices.
But what about the Esquimeaux? Don't they get a chapter? And Samoans. And the Frenchies. What happens when the Aussie cops need to break up a dispute among Apache dancers? And who the hell knows what rules should apply to Lapplanders in their interminable disputes over reindeer ownership? And I don't see anything about Veps or Mongols or Kazakhs...
The glossy guides would have cost at least $300,000 to produce, a printing industry expert said.
Money well spent. Otherwise, it could have bought 30,000 cases of beer, and you know how the Moose limbs feel about that...
Police Association secretary Paul Mullet said members had an appreciation of different cultures but their overriding concern was for safety of the community.
#2
They are told to interview Baha'i suspects only after sunset in the fasting month. And they are cautioned that when a Sikh is reading the Sikh Holy Script -- a process that normally takes 50 hours -- "he should not be disturbed". The 50,000 handbooks instruct police to take shoes off before entering Buddhist and Hindu houses and mosques, and remove hats before entering or searching churches. They are warned that taking photos or samples from Aboriginal suspects could raise fears they could be used for sorcery and spiritual mischief.
But ... but ... but, they left out the part about how Muslim women should be allowed to wear a veil while being photographed for their driver's license.
According to a new grammar rule in the Netherlands and Belgium, the name "Christ" will soon be written with a lower-case "c", as stipulated by an orthography reform published last Friday. According to the Kath.net agency, the new spelling rules also will stipulate that the Dutch word for "jews" (joden) be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion. The changes will be mandatory starting in August 2006.
#7
Allah = allan now yeah? Mohamed will now be known as 'The Great Pedophile Mohamed' after all he did marry a 9 year old didn't he?
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/30/2005 11:41 Comments ||
Top||
#8
No he didn't.
He married Aïcha at 6 (IIRC an hadith sez he had dreams of her starting at age 2!), and had his prophet way with her at 9, not because of any moral obligation, but because in the meantime she became very ill (she lost all her hair, for starters).
IIRC, she's the wife who never gave him children, possibly due to internal damages related to the age of the union.
#11
He had dreams of her at 2 ????
No wonder his religion is for Lunatics only.
Do these Moslys all have to notify someone when they move into the neighborhood ?
Henceforth, that will be Moslys with a capital m.
Link goes to the always-excellent No Pasaran blog. Their link goes to a registration-required Wash. Times article.
Excerpt:
France, grappling for decades with its colonial past, has passed a law to put an upbeat spin on the era, making it mandatory to enshrine in textbooks the country's "positive role" in its far-flung colonies.
But the law is stirring anger among historians and passions in such former colonies as Algeria, which gained independence in a brutal conflict. Critics accuse France of trying to gild an inglorious colonial past with an "official history." At issue is language in the law stipulating that "school programs recognize in particular the positive character of the French overseas presence, notably in North Africa."
The measure is one article in a law recognizing the "national contribution" of French citizens who lived in the colonies before independence. It is aimed, above all, at recognizing the French who lived in Algeria and were forced to flee, and Algerians who fought on the side of France. »
#2
With all due regard, the French colonies in Africa generally did better than the English or Portuguese ones after independence, mainly because the French never really left (with the exception of Guinea, where they cleared out lock, stock and barrel.) They just changed the flag to some pattern of red, yellow and green, changed the faces on the postage stamps to whoever they had chosen to be the puppet ruler, and left their civil servants in place--and the knowledge of French troops on immediate call. Consequently, most of France's former African colonies actually continued to run much better than those of Britain, where when the British left they actually left completely--with the horrible results one still sees in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
Posted by: mac ||
10/30/2005 5:57 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Careful Crazy, the one American colony the Philippines isn't a second world wonder either. Now the former post-WWII quasi-colonies of Germany and Japan are doing much better. However each a had the structures though not the heart for representative instututions for many decades prior to their post war de-militarizations.
Given the witnessed events in Africa, I believe a reasonable case for colonial/adult supervision could be made. The amount of manmade dead bodies generated by the local population certainly is a starting point.
#4
It took a while for the Ghanans, Nigerians, ans Sierra Leonans to get to where they are. It didn't happen overnight. Same for Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa. I wonder if Africa is really a good example of anyone's colonial ability, except the Belgians.
OTOH look at the Francophone countries:
Belgium
Benin
Burkina-Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Democratic Republic of Congo
Djibouti
France
Gabon
Guinea
Haiti
Ivory Coast
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Mali
Monaco
Niger
Republic of Congo
Rwanda
Senegal
Seychelles
Switzerland
Togo
Vanuatu
Not many there I'd include in a League of Democracies.
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 54 minutes ago This article sickens me, I am tired of a blatantly biased media. I have started e-mailing feedback@ap.org and complaining about AP articles and you should too!.
WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Sunday that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should apologize for the actions of their aides in the CIA leak case. Why should Bush and Cheney have to apologize, Libby is the only person who did anything wrong.
Reid, D-Nev., also said Bush should pledge not to pardon any aides convicted as a result of the investigation into the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity.
"There has not been an apology to the American people for this obvious problem in the White House," Reid said. He said Bush and Cheney "should come clean with the American public." ohhh yes quotes from one of the most liberal senators begins. . .
Reid added, "This has gotten way out of hand, and the American people deserve better than this."
Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, resigned Friday after he was indicted on five charges relating to statements he made to the FBI.
and a grand jury investigating the Plame leak.
Reid also said that Karl Rove, the president's closest political adviser, should step down. Rove has not been charged with a crime. Shut up Reid.
The closest the indictment comes to Rove is its discussion of an unnamed senior White House official who talked to columnist Robert Novak about Plame and discussed the matter with Libby. That could describe Rove.
The prosecutor in the CIA leak case has said his investigation is "not quite done," but declined comment on Rove during a news conference on Friday.
"If you ask me any name, I'm not going to comment on anyone named, because we either charged someone or we don't talk about them," Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said.
When the investigation began, the White House denied that Rove had been involved. Bush promised to fire anyone on his staff responsible for such a leak. He later stepped back, saying just that he would remove aides who committed crimes.
"I think Karl Rove should step down," Reid said. "Here is a man who the president said if he was involved, if anyone in the administration was involved, out they would go."
Bush and Cheney gave glowing endorsements and expressed no criticism of Libby after the senior White House adviser was indicted, resigned and lost his security clearance.
Cheney called Libby "one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known." Bush said Libby "has worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and sacrificed much in the service to this country."
Reid said he was disappointed that Bush and Cheney expressed support for Libby in their public statements.
"The vice president issues this very terse statement praising Libby for all the great things he's done. Then we have the president come on camera a few minutes later calling him Scooter and what a great patriot he is," Reid told ABC's "This Week."
Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, said it was premature to discuss a presidential pardon because no one has been convicted in the investigation.
"People who actually were trying to use this, of course, to the president's political disadvantage, I think, are going to be disappointed by the fact that this appears to be limited to a single individual," Cornyn said.
Reid said the Libby indictment and other scandals in the Republican-led government â including the indictment of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and an investigation of Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee â as well as 2,000 dead in Iraq and high energy prices have had a negative impact on the outlook of Americans.
"I think they're as disappointed as I am .... almost dejected," Reid said. The only think that comforts me is that thankfully thankfully thankfully Bush won last November, despite what the lies going on now, he will be in D.C. till '08.
The president's overall job approval was at 39 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos survey conducted in early October. The poll also found that only 28 percent of respondents said the country was headed in the right direction.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the White House should conduct its own investigation of the CIA leak. Graham, however, said allegations of illegal activity appeared to be focused only on Libby.
"I think the likelihood of Karl Rove being indicted in the future is virtually zero," Graham said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"I think this will be seen in history and in politics as Mr. Libby giving false information, if proven, and it will not be about an effort by the vice president to disclose a CIA operative."
Schumer said the investigation showed Cheney's office was in a campaign to discredit Wilson's wife because of his criticism of the administration's use prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and that Rove, despite public statements to the contrary, had discussed Wilson's wife with reporters.
If necessary, Schumer said, Bush should take Cheney "to the woodshed."
"The president, again, ought to have some nonpolitical person look into this and see what should be done," Schumer said. "The standard shouldn't just be escaping indictment."
If I counted correctly there are 8 quotes by Democrats to 4 quotes by Republicans. Our media is hurting this country with their ridiculious coverage of our President and the war in Iraq. I am tired of it.
The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved dividing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in two, arguing the split would result in two more effective circuit courts.
"The 9th circuit is too large, too cumbersome," Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, a former California attorney general, said after the 22-12 vote.
But opponents said the move was based partly on GOP opposition to some of the court's rulings, among them the 2002 opinion that declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional when recited in public schools.
Conservative critics say the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals often goes beyond its Constitutional mandate of interpreting the law, by creating new law based upon the personal opinions of judges.
"There are all kinds of bogus arguments about judicial efficiency," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys. "It masks the real reason, which is the right wing doesn't like some of the 9th circuit's decisions."
The 9th Circuit covers nine states with about 54 million people, and has 28 judgeships. The circuit with the next-largest number of judges is the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit, with 17.
The legislation by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would create a 9th Circuit covering California, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, and a new 12th Circuit covering Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Arizona.
A bill making the same division has been introduced in the Senate by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and John Ensign, R-Nev. It got a hearing Wednesday before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.
Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill would create dozens of new judgeships throughout the country, something with wide support in Congress. Democrats contended supporters were jeopardizing the new judgeships by attaching them to the controversial 9th circuit split that would be unlikely to make it through the Senate.
The GOP-led House passed a 9th circuit split measure last year, also adding it to a bill creating more judgeships, but it didn't get a Senate vote.
This time around, the House Judiciary Committee is trying to make the bill part of a budget-reduction package that would not be subject to Senate filibuster.
Although the bill creates new costs by adding judges, in combination with another House Judiciary measure to raise fees on visas, it meets the committee's $300 million spending-reduction goal.
Prospects for that move were uncertain. The Senate Judiciary Committee's budget-reduction bill does not include the 9th circuit and judgeship provisions, and the differences would have to be resolved.
#1
Might I humbly suggest that the NEW 9th circuit continue to be based in San Francisco, and the OLD 9th circuit and all of it's staff be situated somewhere on Alaska's North Slope.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2005 13:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
No DMFD, I live in Washington. Let LALA Land and Berkeley have the existing (old) judges. Cut us loose with halfway decent (conservative) judges who intrepet the consitution and not legislate from the bench.
#4
I like this also. And creating the new judgeships makes it nearly irresistible for the Congress. And Bush gets a two-fer: the 9th Circuit's impact becomes more limited, and he gets to fill those new judgeships. Heh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2005 14:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
let the old court oversee Hawaii, San Fran, Oregon, No. Cal and the rest goes to the new court. Pack it with true westerners, not the non-fat latte and same-sex marriage crowd
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2005 15:15 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"No-fat latte, dogs and cats living together..."
Posted by: Phil ||
10/30/2005 15:36 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Thank G-d!! Finally, some chance for sharpening the "tools" in the old shed; or, better yet, let's float the damn thing out to sea, somewhere near that watery vortex that leads straight to the Center of the Earth and all of those other cool dinosaurs, just like in the movies.
Mmm...death by obsidian-tipped spear...(lip-smacking with drool)...mmm....
Posted by: ArmChair in sin ||
10/30/2005 15:55 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The old 9th Circuit should be limited to Berkeley and no where else.
#10
The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved dividing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court
This will be very big..IF we can find rent enough RINO senators some stones. Watch the dimmmiecrats & msm traitors have shit conniptions aplenty trying to weasel some picks themselves.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/30/2005 17:38 Comments ||
Top||
#11
split the old justices in both courts so they are an elderly minority...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2005 18:10 Comments ||
Top||
#14
vertically and horizontally - Orange County and San Diego along with all interior counties (Kern, Imp., SB, etc) have common sense and decent judges (with the exceptions noted)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2005 19:41 Comments ||
Top||
#15
This is not the first time a circuit has been split: the Fifth Circuit used to also take in the Eleventh.
It's a matter of efficient judicial administration and nothing more. The Ninth Circuit is just too bloody big.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/30/2005 21:52 Comments ||
Top||
State health officials said Wednesday that they think a young woman in Brownsville has the nation's first case of dengue hemorrhagic fever acquired from a mosquito in the United States. She got medical care and survived.
The woman, who was not named and is believed to be in her 20s or 30s, is among 15 cases being investigated in Brownsville for dengue illness. Three of those cases have the more serious form of the illness, dengue hemorrhagic fever, while the others might have dengue fever, said Dr. Brian Smith, director of the Texas Department of State Health Services region that includes South Texas... Dengue is a mosquito-borne illness endemic to Mexico. With first infection, you are seriously ill for about three weeks, and every joint in your body hurts. A second infection may unpredictably turn into the hemorrhagic form, like ebola.
#2
No dengue vaccine is available. Recently, however, attenuated candidate vaccine viruses have been developed. Efficacy trials in human volunteers have yet to be initiated. Research is also being conducted to develop second-generation recombinant vaccine viruses. Therefore, an effective dengue vaccine for public use will not be available for 5 to 10 years. SOURCE (CDC)
Oh great. Yet another disease to worry about. Damn birds and mosquitos.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/30/2005 22:53 Comments ||
Top||
BISSAU - Guinea-Bissauâs new President Joao Bernardo âNinoâ Vieira has sacked the government of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, the presidentâs office said in a statement on Saturday.
Vieira said on October 20 the coup-prone west African nation was facing a âdeep social, economic and political crisisâ after 14 of the ruling PAIGC partyâs 45 members of parliament split with the party. The rebel lawmakers aligned themselves two weeks ago with the main opposition Social Renovation Party (PRS) and the United Social Democratic Party (PUSD) to form the Convergence Forum for Development (CDF).
The CDF umbrella group is headed by the leader of the PUSD, Francisco Fadul, and is made up mostly of lawmakers who supported Vieira in the presidential election against the candidate of the PAIGC. The PRS has 35 seats in the 100-seat assembly while the PUSD has 17.
Vieira, who was overthrown in 1999 by the armed forces after 19 years of iron-fisted rule, said the crisis âseriously compromises the sustainability of the policies and strategies of governanceâ in the former Portuguese colony.
Gomes called the decision âregrettable and sadâ and said his African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) would meet at its headquarters to analyse the situation. âThe dismissal of the government will seriously penalize the country as we were preparing a national reconciliation conference which provided hope for Guinea-Bissau,â he told reporters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
I'm sure this is just an average week in PakiWakiLand...
FAISALABAD: Three women were murdered at various places in the district.
* In first incident, an old woman (50), was found dead in his house in Kathchi Abadi Railway Colony area in the jurisdiction of Peoples Colony Police Station, in mysterious circumstances. According to details, Irshad Bibi was residing in a house of Kutchi Abadi Railway Colony along with her six children since the last six years after separation with her husband Muhammad Rafique. Last night some unknown persons scaled into the house and clubbed the throat in mysterious circumstances. The dead body was sent for an autopsy to Allied Hospital and the police registered a case on the report of Muhammad Asif son in law of deceased.
* In another case, a pregnant woman Shamim Akhtar was injected to death by her husband Ejaz Ahmad in nearby village 174-GB in way to hospital. Samundri Police have arrested Ejaz Ahmad, who confessed the murder and stated that he was wanted marriage with his sister in law Shomiala. Police also searching Shomiala younger sister of deceased, however investigation is in progress.
* Furthermore, one Samaira Bibi on Friday, yielded to her burn injuries at Allied Hospital Faisalabad after having been under treatment at the Burn Unit for a couple of days. Samaira, a resident of Basti Sheikhan, Sarifpura Samundri was burnt allegedly by her inlaws, but they declared it suicide case.
Splashed herself with gasoline and set herself on fire, did she? Reminds me of the one who threw acid in her own face.
"It don't say Eid 'til Qazi sez it sez Eid, capische?"
PESHAWAR: Leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Peshawar, MNA Sabir Hussain Awan has said that they would distribute 10000 Eid gifts worth Rs 2500 each among the quake survivors and demanded of the provincial government to ban Eid fairs (Melas) in order to express sympathy and solidarity with quake affected people. âWe are going to establish relief camps at all the mosques of provincial metropolitan on the day of Eid, to collect donations and get volunteers for the help of quake victims,â he told a press conference here at Peshawar Press Club on Friday. Provincial Minister for Zakaat and Usher Hafiz Hashmat, who is also associated with JI, was also present on the occasion.
So NWFP's minister for charity is affiliated with JI. How unsurprizing. And how sad.
Sabir said that all these Eid gifts provided by Amir JI Qazi Hussain Ahmad would be carried by a group of JI activists comprising 250 persons under his leadership to the quake affected areas of NWFP from Peshawar on the second day of coming Eid. âWe have sent 750 activists of JI from Peshawar to the affected areas who are taking part in relief operation. Besides we had established 7 relief camps at Peshawar district wherein we collected Rs 4.3 million donations for quake affectees as well we have distributed 23 trucks of relief goods among quake survivorsâ he said.
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.
It survived sabotage attempts by T E Lawrence and bands of Bedouin tribesmen, but after a century of transporting passengers across Arabia, the celebrated Hijaz railway appears to have reached the end of the line. Built in 1900 to link Damascus with the Muslim holy city of Medina, its 1,000 miles of track was long-regarded as the zenith of Ottoman power and engineering skill. In the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, a white-robed Peter O'Toole leads Arab tribes in attacks on the railway as it ferries Ottoman troops to the fronts of the First World War.
Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence.
BISSAU - Guinea-Bissauâs new President Joao Bernardo âNinoâ Vieira has sacked the government of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, the presidentâs office said in a statement on Saturday.
