ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.
Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times.
Mr. Spitzer, a first term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform an end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.
'Democrat' is omitted in later-posted versions of the story. It's like they want us to play 'Name That Party'!
Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.
But a person with knowledge of the governor's role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.
The governor's travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.
Mr. Spitzer appeared on a CNBC television show at 7 a.m. the next morning. Later in the morning, he testified before a Congressional committee.
An affidavit filed in federal court in Manhattan in connection with that case lists six conversations between the man, identified as Client 9, and a booking agent for the Emperors Club.
He had a difficult first year in office, rocked by a mix of scandal and legislative setbacks. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Spitzer seemed to have rebounded, with his Democratic party poised to perhaps gain control of the state Senate for the first time in four decades.
Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state's organized crime task force.
In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island. "This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure," Mr. Spitzer said at the time. "It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring."
Albany for months been roiled by bitter fighting and accusations of dirty tricks. The Albany County district attorney is set to issue in the coming days the results of his investigation into Mr. Spitzer's first scandal, his aides' involvement in an effort to tarnish Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, the state's top Republican.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2008 15:30 Comments ||
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#7
Fox's Greta has the Federal Complaint:
Illegal transfer of money interstate over wires
Text messaging and voice to arrange a crime (prost. visit in DC) over interstate wires.
Wire tapping.
His name is nowhere on the complaint and it is not an indictment. It is a complaint.
#15
NEW YORK - Gov. Eliot Spitzer, accused in news reports of being involved in a prostitution ring, apologized to his family and the public on Monday at a hastily called news conference. He did not elaborate on the story.
With his wife at his side, Spitzer told reporters that he "acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family."
"I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he said. "I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."
Rehab? Jesus? Sex addiction treatment? Face up to his "demons"? I mean, it couldn't be his fault, right?
#20
"acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family"
well, I guess that's one way to put it . . . if I was his wife, I would have a bit of trouble characterizing the relationship as an obligation, but that's just me
anyway, I think he looks like a creepy sleaze -- not suprised
My fellow Muslim citizens as well as the Imam at the local Albany mosque refer to these arrangements as "temporary marriages". These arrangements are neither illegal nor immoral in accord with the Koran and the example of the Prophet. Read your Koran, Hadith and Sira. I resent any other implication.
My name is Elliot Spitzer and I approve of this message.
#23
NEW YORK - A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap.
The official says Spitzer is identified in court papers as "Client 9," and the wiretap was part of an investigation that opened in the last few months.
The official says the New York governor met last month with at least one woman in a Washington hotel. The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
#30
Didn't Roger Miller have a song about this:
Client, Clinet Number 9,
Sending moeny doen the line,
What little nothin; did she have on...
(Sing along y'all, you know the words)
On the plus side: At least he wasn't chasing gay sex in some sleazy airport bathroom; not at $5500 an hour(HAHHAHAHAHAA)
Spitzer seems to have an affluent background, but not rich. And he's been a public servant all his life. So where does he get the cash to pay for a $5,500 trick? And really, we're talking about trickS; cause this sure isn't the first time. And how many times has it been? Since when?
So where's he getting the cash to pay the wenches?
And this outfit he's patronizing, is not some prostitution ring, it's Emperors Publishing Media Group with locations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, and Europe. So these two other "prostitution rings" he busted in the '90s, were they competitors of EPMG? Did EPMG benefit in some way from these competitors being eliminated?
And what other enterprises is EPMG involved in with it's global reach and snazzy website
#32
I was thinking the same thing. Some benefactor paying the tab or Spitzer was diverting gov money. Though that would seem really stupid with gov auditors around.
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2008 18:32 Comments ||
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#33
I doubt the diverting government money. But being on two payrolls does seem like a possibility. The names of clients 1-8 should be pretty interesting, too. Wonder if they got to double digits. Unfortunately, we'll probably only hear about the ones who violated the Mann Act, and I doubt there's that many dumb johns; but who'd have thought Spitzer was one?
#35
MICHAEL J. GARCIA, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, MARK J. MERSHON, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (âFBIâ), and PATRICIA J. HAYNES, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the United States Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigative Division (âIRSCIDâ), announced today the unsealing of charges against MARK BRENER, a/k/a âMichael,â CECIL SUWAL, a/k/a âKatie,â a/k/a âKate,â TEMEKA RACHELLE LEWIS, a/k/a âRachelle,â and TANYA HOLLANDER, a/k/a âTania Hollander,â for their roles as organizers and managers of an international prostitution and money-
laundering ring called the Emperors Club VIP (the âEmperors Clubâ). All four defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution statutes; BRENER and SUWAL were also charged with conspiring to launder more than $1 million in illicit proceeds from the prostitution crimes. BRENER, SUWAL, LEWIS, and HOLLANDER were all arrested this morning, and are expected in Manhattan federal court later today for their initial appearances. According to the Complaint unsealed today:
BRENER, SUWAL, LEWIS, and HOLLANDER used the Emperors Club to arrange connections between wealthy male clients and more than 50 **nerds** in, among other places, New York, New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; London, England; and Paris, France. The defendants charged the clients fees ranging from $1,000 to more than $5,500 per hour for prostitution services.
The Emperors Club took in more than $1 million in illicit proceeds from its international prostitution business.
It accepted payment in the form of cash, American Express charges, wire transfers, and money orders. To conceal the illegal nature of the business, BRENER and SUWAL received prostitution proceeds in United States bank accounts in the names of front companies, including two accounts in the names of âQAT Consulting Group, Inc.,â and âQAT International, Inc.â
The Emperors Club advertised their prostitution services in part through the use of a website that included photographs of Emperors Club **nerds**â bodies, with their faces hidden, along with hourly rates for different categories of **nerds**. The Website ranked the **nerds** using a ranking system from one to seven diamonds, and charged hourly rates according to the assigned ranking. According to the Website, the Emperors Club charged $1,000 per hour for a three-diamond prostitute, and $3,100 per hour for a seven-diamond prostitute.
The Website also offered the Emperors Clubâs most valued clients âmembershipâ in the âIcon Club,â a status which allowed the clients to access restricted areas of the Website and permitted them to schedule appointments with the most highly-ranked **nerds**, whose fees started at $5,500 per hour. According to the Website, in certain circumstances, the Emperors Club also offered its clients the opportunity to exercise a âbuy-out clause,â which permitted them to purchase direct access to one of the Emperors Clubâs **nerds** without having to contact the
agency.
BRENER was allegedly the leader of the Emperors Club, with ultimate decision-making authority. He recruited prospective **nerds**, determined how to market the Clubâs **nerds** to clients, and resolved problems that arose.
SUWAL was the day-to-day organizer of the Clubâs operations. She controlled the Emperors Club bank accounts,
supervised the booking agents, and received applications from the prospective **nerds**.
LEWIS and HOLLANDER were allegedly booking agents for the Club. They took requests from clients and coordinated
meetings with **nerds** over the telephone, and referred issues -2relating to payment to SUWAL.
In connection with today's takedown, the FBI and IRS-CID executed three search warrants on locations connected to the Emperors Club's operations and four seizure warrants for bank accounts containing proceeds of the organization's criminal activities.
BRENER, 62, and SUWAL, 23, both reside in New Jersey; LEWIS, 32, resides in Brooklyn, New York; and HOLLANDER, 36, resides in Rhinebeck, New York. If convicted, the defendants face maximum sentences of 5 years in prison on the count charging conspiracy to violate the federal prostitution statutes; BRENER and SUWAL face additional maximum sentences of 20 years in prison on the money-laundering conspiracy count.
Mr. GARCIA praised the investigative work of the FBI and IRS-CID.
Assistant United States Attorneys BOYD M. JOHNSON III, RITA GLAVIN, and DANIEL STEIN are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
#36
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#38
Spitzer's dad was a very smart cookie who bought real estate in Manhattan back in the day. So Eliot has access to a fair amount of family dough and has a rent-free pad on Central Park...
#40
That's too bad. As a Governor, Spitzer's been a major dumbass -- he damaged himself and Hillary with the whole driver's licenses for illegals. But he was very effective as a prosecutor cleaning up a lot of outright fraud and corruption on Wall Street.
#41
He is a fiscal idiot for using Emperor's Club when there are so many good choices on the erotic review.
He uses an international corporation instead of hooking up with some mid thirties single mom trying to make ends meet. He is an asshole for outsourcing.
#42
The ring is run by an international money laundering group who also donated $50,000 to his campaign.
But according to him it's a 'private' matter between him and his family.
Uh huh.
I hope this jerk who prided himself on being a 'bulldozer' has the book thrown at him: interstate money wiring in commission of a crime, interstate phone messages in planning a crime, the whole bit.
And not because of the whore. Because of his misuse of the state police from day one to try to attack the Republican leader in the state legislature, because of his intent to pervert the intent of the law re: drivers licenses for illegals and a bunch of related arrogance.
#43
Em, Thanks for the additional background. Not being a New Yorker, I'd say that makes him rich, not affluent; although you can never be certain the way real estate types leverage themselves.
I would not, however, call him effective as a prosecutor; as a shakedown artist, sure but prosecutor? No. Name all the big name convictions he got in hard fought courtroom battles as opposed to pretrial settlements that saved everybody money. He was a bully whose luck ran out. Him and Lerach close to the slammer...I never thought I'd live to see such justice.
#44
"NY TIMES: Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring" -- wait, you mean OTHER than the Democrat Party?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/10/2008 21:08 Comments ||
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#45
"I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."
Sounds like lawyer talk. Let's make a deal. Might take the rest of his life to regain trust. Is there ever going to be enough time to regain the lost trust? I feel sorry for his family.
I'd say the Halliburton Earthquake/Tsumani Division just about has their feasibility project done. Now it's time for an operational decision ...
TEHRAN - Three tremors, the biggest measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, struck eastern Iran on Sunday but an official said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, Irans Mehr News Agency reported. The quakes struck a region near the eastern city of Birjand, which is about 780 km (490 miles) east of Tehran in South Khorasan province that borders Afghanistan, Mehr reported.
Mohammad Akhundi, head of South Khorasans disaster headquarters, said there had been no reports of human casualties or damage to property after the quakes struck.
The second of the tremors, which struck at about 7.20 a.m. (0350GMT), was the biggest. They all hit an area around the town of Arianshahr, about 60 km (38 miles) from Birjand. Iran is criss-crossed with fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes. Sundays tremors were far from Irans main oil and gas producing regions in the southwest and south of the Islamic Republic.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Also tremorin' here on Guam, but very subtle or lite.
Venezuela said Sunday that it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Colombia that were broken off in a regional crisis sparked by a cross-border Colombian attack on a leftist rebel camp in Ecuador. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said it was reopening its embassy in Colombia and will allow back Colombian diplomats it expelled last week. It cited an easing of tensions at a summit in the Dominican Republic on Friday, where President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa shook hands with Colombia's U.S.-backed leader, Alvaro Uribe, after a tense debate. Venezuela described the reconciliation as a defeat for egotism and terror-coddling wannabe dictators "victory for peace and sovereignty."
The Socialist and Green parties won 47.5 percent of the votes in the first round of the French municipal elections, which kick-off here earlier today, according to exit polls. The polls revealed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's right party registered a major drop during the first round of the local elections, winning only 40 percent of the votes.
Up to 44.5 million eligible voters are casting their votes for more than 287,000 candidates running for the elections. About 36,000 city mayors and 500,000 municipal councilors will be elected. The poll stations closed at 20:00 local time in the large cities and at 18: 00 in the smaller ones.
The second and final round of the elections is due on March 16, where candidates who scored more than 10 percent in the first round will be continuing their fight, whereas candidates win outright with more than 50 percent today.
These elections are considered the first "significant electoral test" for Sarkozy since taking office in May 2007. The Socialist party called for "punishing" Sarkozy through the elections as they are fighting to win the cities had lost to the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the 2001 elections. According to polls, the Socialists and the left-wing party are expected to gain an "easy" win in Paris and other prominent cities, such as Paris, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
In the 2001 municipal elections, Socialist Bertrand Delanoe won Paris while this year Francoise de Panafieu will represent the UMP party as the right tries to regain the capital but polls indicate that Delanoe is favored to win an easy re-election. According to reports, two-thirds of Sarkozy's 22-member cabinet are competing for municipal seats, in addition to his son Jean Sarkozy, 21, who is running for a seat in the posh Neuilly-sur-Seine suburb in Paris, where his fathers political career began as mayor for 19 years.
The UMP ruling party currently controls 55 percent of the 230 French cities.
#1
I wouldnt make too much of this. Over here, we tend to vote left in Council elections, for high public spending, then vote right in the General elections, for low taxes.
However, we are talking about France here, a socialist beast by nature - may well be that the power/money is local.
Posted by: Oscar Shins5027 ||
03/10/2008 7:10 Comments ||
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Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama -- this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former first lady.
He'd be the number 3 on the ticket ...
In hailing Obama as a possible vice president, the Clintons are reaching out to him and, perhaps more importantly, to his backers, whose support she would need to defeat Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election.
"The Clintons are in a difficult position," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Iowa, who has tracked the presidential race. "If she wins the Democratic presidential nomination, she would need Obama's supporters. But she needs to be careful. If this talk of him on the ticket is seen as a cynical maneuver, it could backfire and hurt her," Goldford said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
First sure sign of desperation, hope Obama says "Fuck Off". (He'll live longer.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/10/2008 3:03 Comments ||
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#2
Hillary is going to steal the nomination, ends justify the means. Then Obamites will go apesh*t, and Hillary will throw BHO a bone of the VP slot. Then ball is in BHO's court. It will get ugly....before it gets uglier.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/10/2008 3:27 Comments ||
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#3
Hillary can't win both the Democratic nomination and the general election. Obama will eventually push her out of the way and she will then, citing Obama's inexperience, endorse McCain in order to set up another run in '12. You heard it here first. ;)
#7
Gee, some choice. If he doesn't select her as VP, she would rather see McCain as President, to open up the field in four years, then do everything she could to ruin his Presidency. If she couldn't get him killed before he is nominated.
But it he did select her as VP, she would spend the next eight years trying to get him killed.
#11
Woodrow, exactly. I would hate to be president with HRC as my VP. The ONLY thing between her and the presidency is my last heartbeat.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/10/2008 12:42 Comments ||
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#12
Hillary won't run in 2012 if she's not the nominee this time.
Face it: she had all the advantages coming into this election. She had money, name recognition, a sense of inevitability, and a bunch of intellectual and moral munchkins as her primary opponents.
And she still couldn't close the deal. It's like arguing that Al Gore should run again: who would vote for him today after he had all the advantages and lost in 2000?
Hillary will go to the mattresses this time because this is her only chance, and she knows it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2008 14:06 Comments ||
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#13
Clintons push a Hillary/Obama ticket
Clintons. Plural.
Thanks for making it official. "HILLARY/BILL'S CADDY:2008".
#14
Steve - the difference between Gore and the Clintons is that Gore never had control of the machinery of the Democratic Party the way the Clintons do. Their iron grip certainly appears to be slipping but these things have a funny way of turning around on a dime. The only way the Hildebeeste doesn't rear its ugly head in '12 is if Obama is elected President and doesn't embarass himself too much between now and then.
Here, have a double serving now. The entertainment will be ongoing for a while. :-D
BTW, I read somewhere else (don't have the link right now, but could find it) that, in response to the "Obama as vice president" talk, Obama responded that if Hill didn't think he was experienced enough to be president, how could she think he was experienced enough to be vice president.
Somebody in his campaign has at least a little smarts....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/10/2008 19:52 Comments ||
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#16
Gonna need that extra helping, barb. Spitzer is one of Hillary's superdelegates.
#17
GUAM MCDONALD's Patrons > when asked by me why do they think OBAMA should get HILLARY to be his VEEP > believe that HILLARY [STILL] HAS THE $$$ + CLINTON ORGANZ [from 1990's] + MANY STILL-LOYAL SUPPOR WITHIN THE US DEM PARTY = DNC THAT OBAMA NEEDS IFF HE DE FACTO WINS THE DEM NOMINATION, DESPITE MSM RHETORIC TO CONTRARY??? PLus, also believe that while OBAMA HAS THE PERSONAL CHARISMA TO BE POTUS, HE DOES NOT HAVE MUCH POL EXPERIENCE AS FORMER STATE POL + IS STILL "A BLACK MAN/MINORITY IN WHITE AMERICA" IN WARTIME.
*OTOH, RENSE > JOHN MCCAIN-TRAITOR? Article, from VETERANS DISPATCH [1999]/ BENJAMIN BULFORD -MCCAIN IS NO "HERO POW"!
IMO, ITS A DEAD HEAT RIGHT NOW, wid still-high potential for a DIVIDED CAMPAIGN??? Personally, I more concerned about RADICAL ISLAM's NEED TO UNILATERALLY STOP US ME ENTRENCHMENT BEFORE OR NLT YEAR 2010, as coupled wid IRAN's PERENNIAL REFUSAL TO HALT NUC ENRICHMENT. The Islamists including IRAN will use any seemingly US GOP-DEM campaign divisions = chaos to their advantage.
As a reminder, MORT KONDRACKE. BARNES, KRAUTHAMMER, THOMAS, WILL > are in BROAD OR ROUGH CONSENSUS THAT RADICAL ISLAM + IRAN WILL GET THEIR NUKE WEAPONS IFF AMER DOES NOTHING TO STOP IRAN, OR CHOOSES TO DEPEND WHOLLY ON THE UNO TO STOP IRAN + NUCMATS/TECHS PROLIFERATION.
#20
It's going to get uglier and sleezier before it's over. BO isn't going to want the Veep slot. Why should he, he's ahead in the popular vote (if you don't count Florida and Michigan) and the delegate count? Hillary can't catch up even if she wins on out. The only way she can win is by counting Florida and Michigan and convincing (manipulating) the the superdelegates that she is the anoited, inevitable candidate to beat McCain. She will try to steal the election which should make things very interesting. The Clintons will do anything to achieve power. They represent a sad, venal, and tawdry era in American politics. BO should remind voters of this tawdry era. BO had better watch his back because the Clintons are going to go after him like he has never seen before. They will use a take no prisoners, scorched earth approach to winning all the while acting like they had nothing to do with BO's downfall. I wonder if Spitzer is still one of Hillary's superdelegates?
NEW DELHI - India is close to finalising the text for an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but may fail to save a nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington that remains clouded in political uncertainty.
The nod of the IAEA is among several mandatory clearances required for the contentious India-US nuclear pact that will give India access to American nuclear fuel and technology. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said talks had concluded with the IAEA and an agreement could be reached.
A source familiar with the India-IAEA talks in Vienna said a final text was close, but India still needed to confirm that there is an agreement on the text. Until then there is in fact no agreement, the source said on Sunday.
Indias confirmation has been held up because the communist allies of the government oppose the nuclear deal, threatening to bring down the coalition government if it went ahead. Mukherjee has so far stayed away from a showdown with the communists, saying the government would not move on the deal without the support of the leftists.
Caught up in Indias domestic politics, time is running out for the deal. Still to come are clearances from the IAEA board of governors and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. Then, the deal goes to the US Congress for final approval.
The US has said the pact may fall through if it doesnt reach the US Congress by July as a short legislative calendar before the Nov. 4 US election could complicate its passage.
Mukherjee said his government had told Washington it cannot work to a deadline. There is a timeframe because they have an election process, Mukherjee told New Delhi Television in an interview aired on Sunday. But so far as India is concerned we have mentioned to them that it is not possible for us to work within a specific timeframe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2008 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI - An Indian arms broker who has been accused of taking kickbacks to help seal a defence deal with Israel seven years ago was arrested on tax evasion charges at the weekend, a report said Sunday.
Suresh Nanda, one of several people accused of corruption in an 11.5 billion-rupee (288-million-dollar) deal clinched with Israel in 2000, was arrested late Saturday, the Press Trust of India reported. Nandas son, a tax accountant and an income tax official were also arrested by Indias Central Bureau of Investigation at a hotel in the financial hub Mumbai, the report said. The four were arrested on charges of cooking Nandas account books, PTI said.
Nanda, the son of a former Indian navy chief, was interrogated about his finances by the agency in January, which is trying to trace a money trail back to the deal to purchase seven Barak anti-ship missile systems from Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. Investigators believe Nanda received about 100,000 dollars in kickbacks in the deal.
A sting operation in 2001 allegedly caught a political party treasurer admitting on tape that money changed hands over the deal and led to corruption charges being brought against a former defence minister.
But even as the Barak investigation continues, India and Israel have deepened their military cooperation. Israel is now Indias number-two defence supplier. The two countries decided last month to jointly produce anti-aircraft missiles for the Indian navy in a 625-million-dollar deal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2008 00:00 ||
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Hat tip Jerry Pournelle
New derivation of equations governing the greenhouse effect reveals "runaway warming" impossible
Miklós Zágoni isn't just a physicist and environmental researcher. He is also a global warming activist and Hungary's most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. Or was.
That was until he learned the details of a new theory of the greenhouse effect, one that not only gave far more accurate climate predictions here on Earth, but Mars too. The theory was developed by another Hungarian scientist, Ferenc Miskolczi, an atmospheric physicist with 30 years of experience and a former researcher with NASA's Langley Research Center.
After studying it, Zágoni stopped calling global warming a crisis, and has instead focused on presenting the new theory to other climatologists. The data fit extremely well. "I fell in love," he stated at the International Climate Change Conference this week. "Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations," Miskolczi states. Just as the theory of relativity sets an upper limit on velocity, his theory sets an upper limit on the greenhouse effect, a limit which prevents it from warming the Earth more than a certain amount.
How did modern researchers make such a mistake? They relied upon equations derived over 80 years ago, equations which left off one term from the final solution.
Miskolczi's story reads like a book. Looking at a series of differential equations for the greenhouse effect, he noticed the solution -- originally done in 1922 by Arthur Milne, but still used by climate researchers today -- ignored boundary conditions by assuming an "infinitely thick" atmosphere. Similar assumptions are common when solving differential equations; they simplify the calculations and often result in a result that still very closely matches reality. But not always.
So Miskolczi re-derived the solution, this time using the proper boundary conditions for an atmosphere that is not infinite. His result included a new term, which acts as a negative feedback to counter the positive forcing. At low levels, the new term means a small difference ... but as greenhouse gases rise, the negative feedback predominates, forcing values back down.
NASA refused to release the results. Miskolczi believes their motivation is simple. "Money", he tells DailyTech. Research that contradicts the view of an impending crisis jeopardizes funding, not only for his own atmosphere-monitoring project, but all climate-change research. Currently, funding for climate research tops $5 billion per year.
Miskolczi resigned in protest, stating in his resignation letter, "Unfortunately my working relationship with my NASA supervisors eroded to a level that I am not able to tolerate. My idea of the freedom of science cannot coexist with the recent NASA practice of handling new climate change related scientific results."
His theory was eventually published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in his home country of Hungary. To paraphrase Churchill "without intellectual integrity, all the other scientific talents are worthless
#1
NASA's Hansen and the frauds that have co-opted him will be held in the same regard as the "scientists" that supported Piltdown Man some day in the not distant future.
#2
Jeebus - since 1922. APPARENTLY THE HOLLYWOOD WRITERS STRIKE, where highly educated andor experienced Producers, Directors, etc, SEEMINGLY FORGOT HOW TO WRITE SCRIPTS/PLOTS, EXTENDS TO SCIENCE???
They should had just stuck wid the hidden or covert premises of GLOBAL/PLANETARY WARMING, i.e. THAT THE SUN IS WEAKENING OR IN ALTERN BOTH GOVT-SCIENCE PERTS DON'T KNOW OR DON'T TRUST PREVAILING SOLAR MODELS-THEORIES AS TO STABILITY OR VARIABILITY.
#3
OTOH, REDDIT SCIENCE > first was the ARCTIC SEEDS VAULT, now cometh the LUNAR ARK, in case Earth and Human Civilization gets wiped out by ASTEROID, NUCLEAR WAR, or now WR104.
#5
Assume an infinitely thick atmosphere?! Wouldn't that give an infinitely large amount of greenhouse gases?
And, in reality, wouldn't a warmer atmosphere expand, increasing its surface area and thus radiate more heat?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/10/2008 5:52 Comments ||
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#6
I heard this morning that the Southern Baptists have come out saying we must fight global warming, and that they have been way too slow to recognize it as our religious duty to do so.
#7
Grade school & High school teachers all across America are still pushing the hell out of this absolute drivel. Gore-Bots
"When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
Its a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of edu---cation
Hasnt hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall"
Kodachrome - Paul Simon
#4 Global Warming
Grade school & High school teachers all across America are still pushing the hell out of this absolute drivel. Gore-Bots
Our local school requires all 6th graders to have a 'global warming' project for %25 of their grade.
item 1 of the grading rubric states that the project MUST show that global warming is real and man made.
And that is why we home school... (well one reason)
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
03/10/2008 11:39 Comments ||
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item 1 of the grading rubric states that the project MUST show that global warming is real and man made.
"So, Mr. Grundy, this is an exercise in indoctrination, not research."
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/10/2008 12:11 Comments ||
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#11
Before we go nuts here please remember that the venusian atmosphere did undergo a runaway greenhouse. It has a surface temp higher than Mercury.
Of course the Venusian atmosphere is about 100x thicker than Earth's and is over 90% CO2. On the other hand the planet has the highest reflectivity in the solar system (about 60%) vs about 10% for Mercury and about 40% for earth.
Enough real scientific data to choke a liberal with.
Two of my kids are dealing with this AGW religious indoctrination at their schools, which I do my best to counter at home. But it's so much easier for them to just be quiet or parrot the dogma than to research and argue the facts and deal with the sh*tstorm that would result from their heresy.
Posted by: Elmutle Scourge of the Leprechauns2673 ||
03/10/2008 13:12 Comments ||
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#13
Oops, lost my cookies - Elmutle Scourge of the Leprechauns2673 was I. But I like the new name better.
#16
mhw, you are assuming that Venus had a runaway greenhouse effect.
Have you onsidered a posibility that Venus is young and did not have time to cool down? (Another posibility is that Venus had an close encounter with another body and things got more than warm between them. In fact, historical records suggest both young age and at least a couple of close encounters).
There is an ample evidence that this may be the case.
1. Before ~ 2500 BCE, there was not any record of Venus, anywhere, zip. The records started to be more frequent ~ 1700 BCE, refring to Venus as "comet" (in many languges, Venus is still called "hairy one" or "bearded one", although from its appearance today, you wouldn't know why). Venus gained prominence amongs the heavenly bodies at about 1450 BCE. Considered at hat time the most important comet/planet/body. Was also called a "small sun", shining brilliantly during the day. Since then, its brightness diminished substantially. Seems that at one time Venus was smoking hot. BTW, a side note... it is a consensus amongst many biblical sholars now that Lucifer does not refer to an entity called Satan, but to the planet Venus. The wrong association was due to mis-translating some passages that mentioned Venus, and it is obvious from the original Hebrew text what is refered to there.
2. The surface temperature is greater than the temperature of the atmosphere. The temperature gradient is not going inward, but outward. Venus is radiating heat, rather than its atmosphere that just dissipates the heat into outer space.
#17
Venus has craters that seem to be hundreds of millions of years old based on reasonable estimates of the rate of erosion and the rate of crater formation. This goes against the 'young planet' hypothesis.
Because it has a magnetic field, it presumably has a metal core and heat comes from the core and gets to the surface which is in an equilibrium with heat absorbed from backradiation of the atmosphere plus heat received from conduction equaling heat given up by radiation from the surface (although this is complicated by the fact that it is at different wavelengths and several other things).
The reason to believe that Venus has a runaway greenhouse going is because, using reasonable estimates of the radiation budget of various layers of the atmosphere the math works out and produces an answer that corresponds with measurements.
#18
Don't forget there is evidence of Venus getting smacked with a large body in the past. The hit would produce heat and if the atmospheres of the bodies was still in place, the heat would have no place to go. Also a hit in the right spot would cause the retrograde rotation Venus has.
#19
Long ago, Venus was inhabited by a beings who were somewhat "intelligent" but very shortsighted. They burned too many hydrocarbons and started a runaway global warming cycle that left Venus in the condition it is today. They had a leader named Al who had a vision of what was happening and tried to warn everyone else what was coming. He had a few followers who were mesmerized by the motion his arms made, but for the most part people got a kick out of how fire would erupt from his mouth when he got upset, so they took to teasing him often. Feeling sidelined, he and his followers built spaceships and headed off to colonize the third planet from the sun a few years before everyone else would follow in the hopes that they would be able to claim all the prime real estate. Some landed in the Ozarks, some landed in SE Asia, and it's not certain but it is believed that Al himself and his closest followers landed somewhere near what is present day Washington, D.C.. The folks in the Ozarks got depressed because their leader was gone and developed a medicine called Moonshine that made them happier, but also made them do stuff that to this day they still refuse to talk about. If they are one of the lucky ones who can communicate effectively with the outside world. Those that landed in SE Asia were pretty upset, but rather than turn inwards they built great monuments to their absent spiritual leader in the form of larger and larger pyramids and other inspirational forms. They would climb to the top of them from time to time and hope to see where his spaceship landed or perhaps to see him wandering around in the desert looking for them, but alas it was all in vain. Al's descendants are still believed to be living amongst the population where he landed, but nobody can be sure since he and his followers never kept records. There is also a rumor that Al and some of his followers landed in what is now called India, and that the god Shiva is modeled after them.
#20
Along the line of the arctic seed vault, and possible moon "Reservoir" has the moon been thoroughly searched for any evidence of prior visits? (No I'm NOT positing UFOs and Aliens, but possible past civilizations erased by time and geological activity,) we only have reliable "History" around 5000 years (Or so) but humanity has been proven to be millions, if not billions of years old, figure that 99.999% of past history simply doesn't exist.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/10/2008 19:03 Comments ||
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#21
Compare wid RENSE.com > WHY THE WESTERN WORLD NEEDS ARMAGEDDON!? IIRC, to cure the World of the perennial headaches + "split personality" disunities, etc. wrought upon mankind and civilization by God-Religion, the world needs to actually go through the latter's proclaimed "end-times" phases in order to finally cure itself from same???
#23
REUTERS/ALERTNET.org > MINORITIES ARE HARDEST HIT BY CLIMATE CHANGE. Often at the bottom of the AID LISTS.
NOT BY GOD, though, although on surface it may appear to be. GREAT CHANGES IN WORLD-HUMAN-HISTORY > TYPICALLY WERE NOT VIA THE HANDS OF THE EDSTABLISHED MAJORITY = THOSE IN PREVAILING/CURRENT POWER, BUT THE LESSOR, THE WEAK, OR THE SUBORDINATE.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi will be looking to fill three cabinet spots today after his ruling coalition took a battering at the weekend's elections. Mr Abdullah will visit the country's King today to introduce his new government.
His Barisan Nasional coalition won the national vote but saw its majority drop by 60 seats. It has also lost control of four state governments which have been picked up by one of the major parties in the new opposition alliance.
Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim did not contest the vote because he is still banned from politics, but he brought the opposition parties together against the ruling coalition which has held power for five decades. The ban against him will end next month. As yet he has not revealed his immediate plans, but he is expected to contest a by-election sometime soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
One thing about trying to force Sharia down non-Muslims throats, is that it is a powerful unifying force among those that hate it.
#2
See also WAFF.com > INDONESIA: MUSLIM BRIDGE -BUILDER. Across the Muslim World + World Peace.; + THE NEWS.com > MABAWI: MALAYSIA IS ONE NATION/COUNTRY. Also ONE PEOPLE despite diferen in religion.
When even Mayor Nanny says no, you know you're pushing it too far. Not that they won't try...
Mayor Bloomberg is rejecting calls from lawmakers to make two Muslim holy days official school holidays, saying students cannot afford more days off. "The truth of the matter is we need more children in school," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday. "More, not less."
Council Member Robert Jackson of Manhattan, who is Muslim, and 12 co-sponsors introduced a resolution this year calling on the state to require that New York City students be given days off for the Muslim holidays of Eid Ul-Fitr, typically in October, and Eid Ul-Adha, which falls in December this year."Parents have had to make a decision on whether or not to send their students to school on the holiest day of the Muslim calendar, celebrating the month of the fast of Ramadan, or to send their kids to take a test," Mr. Jackson said in an interview. "That type of situation should not be."
A 2004 Columbia University study estimated that 102,000 Muslim children attended city public schools, making them about 10% of the city's student population.
State Senator John Sabini, who has sponsored legislation that would require city schools to recognize the two holidays, cited the growing Muslim population as the primary reason for the proposed changes. "I think that the Muslim population in schools is now large enough that we need to talk about it," Mr. Sabini, who represents parts of Queens, said in an interview.
Mr. Bloomberg said that adding holidays could be a slippery slope that may lead students to miss too much school."When you have a city as diverse as we do, with virtually every religion known to man practiced, if we closed school for every single day there wouldn't be any school," he said.
He added that he thought schools could still deal appropriately with students who need to take days off to practice their religion without adding official holidays.
#1
The public school I went to was about 10% Jewish. The school did not close for Jewish holidays, but individual teachers could choose to schedule tests on other days, and to plan to repeat coverage of critical material the following day. *shrug* There are many costs to choosing to believe differently than the majority, one of which is having to work a little harder when schedules clash.
I'm also willing to bet that the Muslim students are mostly clustered in certain neighborhoods and schools. Why should the rest have to give up learning time to accommodate those who are not there?
#2
When a sizable part of population havent the same holidays than the other part i think they should have their official holidays. 10% is not a sizable but maybe 25 or 30% starts to be.
#3
When a sizable part of population havent the same holidays than the other part i think they should have their official holidays. 10% is not a sizable but maybe 25 or 30% starts to be.
10% is the magic number that represents the point at which Muslims start to demand special treatment. It's phase 2 of the The Plan. Phase 1 is just getting to the 10% mark.
#6
Just another front in the all consuming jihad. The MSA: Segregation Not Integration This is in line with similar initiatives in the United States, where the Muslim Students Association carries, on the Muslim Accommodations Task Force page of its website, pdfs of pamphlets entitled How to Achieve Islamic Holidays on Campus, How to Establish a Prayer Room on Campus, and How to Achieve Halal Food on Campus.
The MSA directs Muslim students to present these demands in the context of multiculturalism and civil rights. Most campuses, explains the publication on getting recognition of Islamic holy include respecting diversity as a part of their mission statement. They consider enrollment of diverse students an asset to the community, as they enhance the classroom learning experience and enrich student life. Try to find these statements specific to your campus, and explain that recognition of Islamic holidays would serve as a practical example of upholding these ideals.
...
Whats more, the MSA, the chief proponent of the growing Muslim accommodations movement in the United States, was listed as a friend of the Muslim Brotherhood in the infamous 1992 memorandum which spoke of the grand Jihad aimed at eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allahs religion is made victorious over all other religions. The victory of Allahs religion over other religions is a Quranic imperative: And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah (8:39), and it is an inherently supremacist imperative, in which non-Muslims pay a special tax from which Muslims are exempt, the jizya, with willing submission and feel themselves subdued (9:29).
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2008 16:34 Comments ||
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#7
Let me repeat: Muslim Brotherhood in the infamous 1992 memorandum which spoke of the grand Jihad aimed at eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allahs religion is made victorious over all other religions.
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2008 16:36 Comments ||
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#8
Muslim Holy Days Shouldn't Be School Holidays
In fact, they should make sure important exams fall on these days. >:-}
Canada has warned the US government that a narrow interpretation of new energy legislation would prohibit its neighbor buying fuel from Albertas vast oil sands, with unintended consequences for both countries.
In a letter to Robert Gates, US defense secretary, Canada said that it would not want to see an expansive interpretation of the Energy Independence and Security Act 2007. A copy of the letter, from Michael Wilson, Canadian ambassador, and copied to Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, and Samuel Bodman, US energy secretary, has been obtained by the Financial Times.
Section 526 of the law limits US government procurement of alternative fuels to those from which the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are equal to or less than those from conventional fuel from conventional petroleum sources. Canadas oil sands are considered unconventional fuels, and producing them emits more greenhouse gas than conventional production.
The Bush administration has, nonetheless, encouraged developing oil sands, given the USs favorable relationship with Canada and that it would reduce reliance on Middle East imports.
Amy Myers Jaffe, energy expert at Rice University, said cutting out the oil sands as a source of fuel would also limit global supplies further, forcing up the price of oil: $106 a barrel is going to look cheap. Something about unintended consequences? Our Congress seems to generate a lot of these situations when dealing with alternative/green fuels (Bought any groceries lately?).
#1
We now live in a paradoxical era where many decisions are too complicated to be made by a group of imbeciles who have never done anything more intellectually rigorous than run for office, but at the same time, we don't want elite "technocrats" running things either. Honest politicians and scientists? Waaaaaay too much to hope for...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/10/2008 12:41 Comments ||
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#2
Energy Independence and Security Act 2007
What a misnomer, like Religion of Peace. Also known as the alcohol (hic) producer's income security act.
the law limits US government procurement of alternative fuels to those from which the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are equal to or less than those from conventional fuel from conventional petroleum
Also limits US gov purchase, therefore private development of, coal (200 year US supply) or oil shale (100 years) based fuels. What's smarter, purchasing a barrel of high quality CTL diesel at $45 or West Texas Intermediate Crude at $100+. We are ruled by either by idiots or cynical greedheads. Put them in a black box and I'm not sure one could tell the two apart.
We produce less than half the oil we did during the 1973 Arab oil embargo and our leaders go around insisting nothing is wrong. Oh well. Hemp oil isn't prohibited. At least Willie Nelson and stoners across America have a song in their hearts.
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2008 15:35 Comments ||
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#3
Now it is starting to become clear why W was pushing back on this Gorbal Warming crap.
#5
From http://www.businesswire.com/
The US oil import bill last year came to some $327 billion, and should easily top $400 billion this year. That's an increase of some 300% since 2002, according to PIW.
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.
NEW DELHI - India is close to finalising the text for an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but may fail to save a nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington that remains clouded in political uncertainty.
NEW DELHI - An Indian arms broker who has been accused of taking kickbacks to help seal a defence deal with Israel seven years ago was arrested on tax evasion charges at the weekend, a report said Sunday.
Canada has warned the US government that a narrow interpretation of new energy legislation would prohibit its neighbor buying fuel from Albertas vast oil sands, with unintended consequences for both countries.
