With no justice from her government, Indonesian villager Parti has her own plans for the company executives blamed for unleashing a mud volcano that buried her village three years ago. Throw them in the steaming, stinking sludge and let them burn, she says.
"Let them burn to death so they can feel my suffering," said the 55-year-old mother of two, one of thousands of bitter victims who are still waiting for compensation so they can rebuild their shattered lives. "I'm not begging for sympathy, only demanding what's rightfully mine."
Three years after the May 29, 2006 eruption of "Lusi," East Java's massive mud volcano continues to ooze foul sludge over the countryside, consuming homes and farmland and defying every attempt at containment.
Continued on Page 49
#1
These people have ignored the rule of "when you get lemons, make lemonade." Where are the toxic therapeutic mud bath resorts they should have built by now? Everyone knows rich lefties would flock to take the cure (we could hope)...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/31/2009 1:06 Comments ||
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#2
Ah, good! Why should Lapindo pay for something like this, when it was God's will that it happened? The people should submit to God's will and not question such things.
An effort to recall Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser has fallen just short of the number of signatures needed.
The petition drive collected 16,821 valid signatures, 129 short of the required 16,950 signatures, The Kansas City Star reported on its Web site Saturday.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Funkhouser said he always expected the recall to fall short. He said he didn't know exactly how he would respond if opponents continued their efforts to remove him from office.
After hearing the results, petitioners said they would seek a recount, then consult an attorney about their legal options.
Funkhouser has been criticized heavily since taking office in May 2007. Much of the controversy centered on the role his wife, Gloria Squitiro, played in his administration. She volunteered nearly full time at his office and came under fire for her brash personality and control of the mayor's agenda.
Funkhouser sued the city council in November 2008 after it enacted an ordinance aimed at keeping Squitiro from volunteering in his office. That came after Squitiro was at the center of a lawsuit from an aide who accused her of harassment and discrimination.
On Saturday, Funkhouser said the recall petition arose more from people upset with his efforts to change the city's focus and priorities.
"All this means is change is hard," he said while vacationing in southern Missouri. "But every passing week I'm moving the city's agenda forward, dealing with the problems the city has, like people leaving the city, and finding solutions to work on basic services, education and crime. I'm going to keep doing that. I believe relations with the council are improving and we're moving ahead."
He said the complaints about his wife were a "smoke screen" for his opponents. "I think that was an excuse," he said. "I don't think that has anything to do with reality. It's a manufactured, fabricated reason to come after me and has nothing to do with the issues of the city."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Funky is my kinda mayor, style when it counts, so to speak. :)
California recalled Gray Davis and got Arnold and look how that has worked out.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/31/2009 7:32 Comments ||
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#3
Gray Davis was way worse than Arnold. Arnold started down the right path and then made a separate peace with the unions and Democrats. Even in big spender mode he's still scrooge compared to Davis.
Environmentalists are looking for help in all the wrong places when they look to politicians for help. Take as example the Waxman-Markey Energy bill (the cap-and-trade bill). The premise of this bill is that carbon emissions cause global warming and all the dire things Al Gore has prophesied in his book. According to a study at MIT, what this bill would accomplish is, basically, nothing as far as impacting global temperature changes. It is, in reality, a new tax that we will all pay, from the pockets of the very poor on up the socioeconomic ladder. From our pockets directly to the federal coffers.
This whole theory about carbon emissions is based on bad science, and has proven to be false by many scientists. According to a report from the United Nations, average global temperatures have decreased in the last 10 years, and carbon emissions have increased tenfold in the last 10 years. Now that is an inconvenient truth.
So who stands to benefit with the passage of this bill? Well, for starters there's Al Gore and his carbon-trading company, environmental consultants, all the new bureaucrats that would be needed.
The New York Times reported: "Cap and trade, by contrast, is almost perfectly designed for the buying and selling of political support through the granting of valuable emissions permits to favor specific industries and even specific Congressional districts."
This bill would be an open invitation to fraud. The only way it could work would be round-the- clock surveillance and monitoring everything we do.
We see who would benefit from this bill: the politicians and businesses big enough to keep the politicians happy. And the lobbyists and special interest groups. But who would pay this $1 trillion to $2 trillion energy tax? Well, for starters, it would raise an average family's annual energy bill by $1,500, and raise the cost of living for everyone because the cost of goods would be increased. Not only that, but an estimated 1-3 million jobs would be lost per year over the next 15 years.
If Congress passes this Waxman-Markey Energy Bill (cap and trade), it will be yet another fine example of political incompetency and/or corruption. Let us watch and take note of who votes for it. And remember it at the polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
In a prior life-role, I had the distinct pleasure of actually working on energy and environmental legislation, regulation and technology issues. One thing was obvious - if you wanted to earn a 7 or 8 figure income via government study grants - then having a alarmist academic and scientific attitude seemed to bear fruit. Go look at all the money we spend at EPA, DoE, NOAA, et. al. and who the recipients are and find how many of these university or lab folks are "skeptics". None.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/31/2009 7:36 Comments ||
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Congressman John Murtha -- hosting his 19th annual convention for military contractors here -- was in no mood yesterday to take questions about federal investigations of companies tied to him, or the federal largesse he spreads around his congressional district.
In January, federal investigators raided the offices of one of the local firms -- Kuchera Defense Systems -- with ties to the military appropriations subcommittee chairman. The congressman has steered millions of dollars in contracts to the Windber, Pa., firm and its affiliate Kuchera Industries, and its executives are among his biggest campaign contributors.
"So what's that got to do with me?" he said, when asked by a reporter about the investigation. "Wait a minute. What do you think, I oversee these companies? That's the Defense Department's job. That's not my job. You guys write these stories [but] you don't have a clue what this is all about."
A federal grand jury has also subpoenaed records of another appropriations committee member -- U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Indiana -- in a criminal probe involving a Washington-area lobbying firm that specialized in providing congressional earmarks to defense contractors.
Mr. Visclosky said yesterday that the subpoenas went to his congressional office, campaign committees and some of his employees and that they demanded documents related to the firm PMA Group. The founder of the now-defunct company, Paul Magliocchetti, is a former Murtha staffer.
One out of every four dollars in political donations to Mr. Visclosky over the past seven years came from clients of PMA. Mr. Magliocchetti is under criminal investigation.
Mr. Murtha's news conference was held after his annual announcement of federal contracts getting awarded to local firms. This year's tally: $110 million in funding, to three local companies.
CTC -- another firm under investigation -- received two contracts: one of $16 million for a Marine Corps data program and another for $50 million for services to the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. (Federal agencies subpoenaed records from a CTC subsidiary earlier this year.)
JWF Defense Systems of Johnstown won a $24 million contract for assembly of military vehicles.
Martin-Baker America -- a Johnstown subsidiary of the English firm -- won a $20 million contract for Air Force ejection seats.
The announcements were made during the second day of the Showcase For Commerce, a trade show at the Cambria County War Memorial arena that matches international defense firms with local businesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2009 00:00 ||
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Two senior House staffers have received subpoenas for testimony in the corruption trial against former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.).
Roberta Hopkins, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), and Angelle Kwemo, an attorney for Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), notified the House of the subpoenas before the Memorial Day recess. Hopkins and Kwemo had served as Jefferson's acting chief of staff and legislative director, respectively, as late as December 2008.
The Department of Justice called Kwemo as a witness; it is unclear whether Hopkins will be testifying for or against Jefferson.
"Our office was aware of the subpoena and Ms. Kwemo is in full compliance of the law. It is my understanding Angelle was subpoenaed as a former staff member of Congressman Jefferson, and we are unaware of the extent of her role in any investigation," said a Rush spokeswoman. "Since joining Congressman Rush's staff she has done outstanding work and has been an exceptional employee."
Towns's office could not be reached for comment Friday.
Jefferson's trial is set to begin Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The former Louisiana Democrat lost his final pretrial appeal in mid-May when the Supreme Court refused to take up his request to throw out most of the criminal charges against him.
The DoJ has accused Jefferson of conducting a massive international bribery, money-laundering and racketeering operation that involved promoting business interests in Africa in return for bribes for his family members. Jefferson has maintained his innocence, arguing that it was all private business and did not involve official congressional acts on his part.
Jefferson lost his reelection to Joseph Cao (R) in November.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't see why they are doing this investigation at all. Jefferson is a Democrat, and thus above all laws. Besides, it was all just a misunderstanding. I mean, I keep wads of cash in my freezer all the time. Also, he was working in his official capacity as a Congressman at the time, and so the FBI is not allowed to investigate him anyway.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/31/2009 0:53 Comments ||
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In which the president discovers an American intelligence agency at Five Guys
On his trip to get a burger with Brian Williams at Five Guys this afternoon, the president appears to have learned of the existence of a Defense Department intelligence arm, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, from an agency employee also at the burger restaurant.
"So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial..." Obama said, after the worker mentioned his employer, according to a video of the event.
"We work with, uh, satellite imagery," the worker, Walter replied.
A POLITICO reader caught the exchange, which starts around 5:45 on this C-SPAN video.
The transcript:
Obama: What do you do Walter?
Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing that?
Walter: About six years
Obama: Yea?
Walter: Yes.
Obama: You like it?
Walter: I do, keeps me...
Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial...uh...
Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery..
Obama: Right
Walter: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so...
Obama: Sounds like good work.
Walter: Enjoy the weekend.
Obama: Appreciate it.
Sad, very, very sad. Balance at the link.
I dunno, first I ever heard of them either. I bet the NGIA likes keeping a low profile ...
The president needs a bit of work on his Lady Bountiful routine. Dear Diana, Princess of Wales, would have been a bit smoother and more sympathetic, but wouldn't have said much different.
#1
NGA does satellite IMINT of terrain. Defense uses it, but so does interior (forestry for example, uses it to survey growth and observe fires).
Been around for years as NIMA - changed name a few years back.
I wonder if Obama knows about NRO yet? /sarc
The guy really is damnably ignorant and is going to hurt the nation and get a lot of people killed because he DOES NOT KNOW things he should know.
I wish he would drop dead of natural causes before he does more harm due to his ignorance combined with his preference for other similarly ignorant Chicago style thugs around him, like Rahm Immanual the little facsisct.
It is a Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency that has been assigned an important, additional statutory mission of supporting national-level policymakers and government agencies. It is a member of the Intelligence Community and the single entity upon which the US government now relies to coherently manage the previously separate disciplines of imagery and mapping. By providing customers with ready access to the world's best imagery and geospatial information, this agency provides critical support for the national decisionmaking process
NIMA founded in 96, renamed NGA sometime after 9/11. Probably works with NRO since NRO flies the satellites.
NGA (then NIMA) was formed through the consolidation of the following: the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA), the Central Imagery Office (CIO), the Defense Dissemination Program Office (DDPO), and the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) as well as the imagery exploitation and dissemination elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO), and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Damnably bad that he appears to know nothing about who is making the maps for him and his briefings, or else he is simply not paying attention at all, like the stupid boob that he is.
Sad thing is, were Bush to have done this, the press woudl be lampooning the hell out of him. But the press ow is too busy fellating him to notice that they are destroying our nation by failing utterly at their job of informing the populace.
#3
Lest anyone call em unsympathetic to the idiot that got elected president, I will grant that he may have been at a disadvantage: he did not have his teleprompter, nor his puppet masters in his earpiece telling him what to say.
Fascist Idiotocracy. That's the Obama administration.
Isn't NGA the old Defense Mapping Agency off McArthur Blvd?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/31/2009 7:39 Comments ||
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#7
The link is not pretty, but it willget you there Jack. There are several office for the NGIA across the WDC area and in St Louis MO, brief rundown available at the link.
Link embedded. Please use the 'link' function to do this in the future; otherwise you break the formatting of the Burg. AoS.
#9
Rupert, honey, you need to use Fred's wonderful and easy "link" feature. If I can do it, anyone can.
Copy the link, then come back and click on "comment" in the article you want to comment on. Type your comment, then select a word or words ("link" is often used) to use to place your link. Highlight the word(s), click on the "link" icon at the bottom of the comment block (it's a tiny blue/green world with a tiny chain link in front of it), paste the copied link into the little window that opens up, and press OK. The link is now embedded with the word(s) you chose.
To "test" it, click on the "Preview" button and look at the preview of your comment. If you hover your mouse pointer over the word with the link, the word will turn red and the link will show at the bottom of the preview screen.
Not being a computer-savvy person, it took me a while to figure it out, but now that I know how, it's really easy. And it doesn't "break" the page.
/pedant ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/31/2009 9:46 Comments ||
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#10
I think his puppetmasters are probably thinking the less he knows the better for them.
#13
I worked in the Air Force liaison office in the old NPIC building for most of 1980. Great job, just in a terrible location. I could easily have done the job for the rest of my career if I could have done it from Colorado Springs or Great Falls. Even Omaha is preferable to DC.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/31/2009 14:33 Comments ||
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#14
Obama: What do you do OP?
OP: I'm a USAF LNO and work at an intel agency that I'm sure you've never heard of.
Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing that?
OP: I was assigned there in 1980.
Obama: Yea?
OP: Yes. It's work though. I doubt you'd understand.
Obama: You like it?
OP: I do, I help stamp out communism....
Obama: So explain to me exactly what this agency...uh...
OP: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery..
Obama: Right
OP: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so...
Obama: Sounds like good work.
OP: Enjoy the weekend dipshi*.
Obama: Appreciate it.
#19
Besoeker, maybe its because while Bill was otherwise occupied in the oval office with Monica acting stupid and letting Bin Laden get away, at least the economy was so golden it gleamed.
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.
With no justice from her government, Indonesian villager Parti has her own plans for the company executives blamed for unleashing a mud volcano that buried her village three years ago. Throw them in the steaming, stinking sludge and let them burn, she says.
Congressman John Murtha -- hosting his 19th annual convention for military contractors here -- was in no mood yesterday to take questions about federal investigations of companies tied to him, or the federal largesse he spreads around his congressional district.
