the media is going to do to this cop what they did to joe the plumber: dig through his background all the way back to the womb in an attempt to uncover some dirt on him.
#7
But I'm guessing Officer Crowley's arrest record, dental records, overdue library records, internet history will be splashed across Page 1 momentarily.
#8
...except for the fact that Officer Crowley was the EMT on the scene trying to revive Reggie Lewis of the Celtics when he keeled over with a heart attack. THAT won't get much play at all.
#9
Unfortunately, it already has, AlanC. I've read there were claims that Officer Crowley didn't try hard enough because Lewis was black.
I'd give you my opinion of the clowns claiming that, but I don't know enough curse words....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/24/2009 10:01 Comments ||
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#10
M-O-R-O-N.
Posted by: Art ||
07/24/2009 10:25 Comments ||
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#11
The officer in question is a teacher that helps police prevent profiling. Or so I read elsewhere. I also read that the officer's microphone was "open" the whole time and there is a recording of the situation. This supposedly makes Mr Gates even worse off as he is alleged to become hysterical and profane.
#12
Not only does the good professor teach racism, he is one. (Sorry for the bad takeoff on The Hair Club For Men).
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2009 10:47 Comments ||
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#13
There's been a full court media press against the officer from the very beginning. All his news photos show him in a disparaging light, while Gates & Obama's "stupid" comments are getting the patented Teflon treatment. I hope a full audio recording of the encounter will hit the internet soon.
"...As a literary theorist and critic, meanwhile, Gates has combined literary techniques of deconstruction with native African literary traditions; he draws on structuralism, post-structuralism, and semiotics to textual analysis and matters of identity politics. As a black intellectual and public figure, Gates has been an outspoken critic of the Eurocentric literary canon and has instead insisted that black literature must be evaluated by the aesthetic criteria of its culture of origin, not criteria imported from Western or European cultural traditions that express a "tone deafness to the black cultural voice" and result in "intellectual racism."[3] Gates tried to articulate what might constitute a black cultural aesthetic in his major scholarly work The Signifying Monkey, a 1989 American Book Award winner; the work extended the application of the concept of "signifyin(g)" to analysis of African-American works and thus rooted African-American literary criticism in the African-American vernacular tradition."
they could have said, "Gates is a BS artist who has earned big bucks and prestige in pretentious nonsense, taking advantage of cultism devotion to having a black presense in a non rigorous academic area"
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/24/2009 11:00 Comments ||
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#15
Hey Boston burglars! You will be perfectly safe hitting this guys house. It's a gun-free zone and I am sure the Cambridge cops will have a lot of trouble locating the address.
#16
It's looking more and more like Sergeant Crowly has ample tapes and eyewitnesses to back up his version. Professor Gates may not be able to destroy him.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/24/2009 12:39 Comments ||
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#17
Wonder what it would take to get the tapes released? Can they be FOIA'd?
Heh-heh-heh
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/24/2009 12:42 Comments ||
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#18
Hey Boston burglars! You will be perfectly safe hitting this guys house. It's a gun-free zone and I am sure the Cambridge cops will have a lot of trouble locating the address.
Particularly if you are a 'person-of-color'. They aren't allowed to even question you then!
#19
Rush just made a point I've been thinking all day: Obama did this on purpose TO DISTRACT EVERYONE from the Obamacare issue so his team could twist arms in private. "Post-racial President", my a*s.
#22
P.O. created a real crises of character, but not to let a crises go to waste this will be the focus to smokescreen the administration's two major setbacks, setup a sub(see implied)-narrative they didn't pass b/c of racism.
Again he chooses the wrong side. Some would say he picked the side of a fellow traveler once again. Or, as my wife giggled, "Maybe its just his white guilt surfacing".
#23
I like the way the press consistently refers to him as a "respected scholar" -- in tones similar to how the describe the Reverend Shartpon/Jackson/Wright. Too bad most people see these descripitions as code for race hustler.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/24/2009 15:38 Comments ||
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#24
Rush said the same thing I said to a friend this morning - this is all a front to get the public conversation off the healthcare debacle.
Sidenote - The office of the presidency getting involved in a minor arrest incident is telling in it of itself. Just like when wonder boy went after Limbaugh - a private citizen.
A boy was killed when a herd of wild elephants attacked border village Bonpur Para under Lama upazila in the district on Wednesday night. Rassel, 12, son of Lutfur Rahaman was killed while he was going to the Bonpura bazar.
Witnesses said six wild elephants from across the border entered Bonpura and chased him. Rassel ran for life but the elephants killed him on the spot.
"Which spot?"
"That spot!"
The elephants also damaged houses and huge quantities of paddy in the fields.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Omer Bhatti, a Norwegian rapper, has claimed to be the son of the late king of pop Michael Jackson, Dunya News reported on Thursday. According to the channel, Bhatti said he would take a DNA test to prove that he was Jackson's biological son. Bhatti, a love child of dancer Attiya and Jackson, was born in 1984. He was also seen sitting next to Janet and Reddy at Jackson's memorial service. A British newspaper has reported that Jackson had accepted Bhatti as his son at a private gathering.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Grandpa Joe's Christmas list is growing! How lovely.
The head of Mauritania's electoral commission has resigned because he has doubts over the "reliability" of last week's presidential vote. Sid'Ahmed Ould Deye said that the complaints he had received had sown doubts in his mind.
The opposition said the poll was rigged and lodged complaints. Later, the Constitutional Court confirmed that the election was won by Gen Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, who took power in a coup last year.
On Sunday, the election commission gave victory to Gen Abdelaziz, stating he had won the poll outright with 52% of the vote, and put the turnout at 61%.
Mr Deye said he had resigned as a matter of "conscience". "The complaints I received, as well as the contents of the challenges sent to the Constitutional Court, have sown doubts in my mind about the reliability of the election," he said.
Three of the opposition candidates had lodged complaints with the court, alleging massive fraud. However, shortly after his resignation, the court, which investigates complaints and has the power to declare the vote invalid, confirmed the results. It dismissed the opposition's claims of fraud due to lack of evidence, and said the elections had been "clean and transparent".
As clean and transparent as any in Africa ...
General Abdelaziz has denied that the vote was rigged.
Overseas observers praised the poll's conduct but said the opposition challenges should be investigated.
The general staged a coup in August 2008, ousting Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi - Mauritania's first democratically elected leader who had been in power for less than a year-and-a-half.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A union parishad chairman in Dimla upazila has gone into hiding following filing of a case on charge of raping a poor teenage girl. The victim, daughter of a day labourer, worked as domestic help at the Kakra village house of Mosharaf Hossain Mintoo, chairman of Nautara union parishad in Dimla upazila, said the victim's family members.
On Sunday night, the UP chairman raped the girl when his wife was away from the house, they said. Being informed, the victim's parents rescued her in a blood stained condition.
As they started with the girl for Dimla Upazila Health Complex for treatment, the accused chairman accompanied by his younger brother and other associates intercepted them on the way, forcibly lifted the girl onto a microbus and took her to an unknown place.
The victim's mother on Tuesday filed a case with Dimla Police Station urging rescue of her daughter and punishment to the rapist.
On Wednesday night, the victim fled away from her captors, went to Dimla Police Station and complained that the UP chairman violated her, said police. The victim's medical test was conducted in Nilphamari 100-bed hospital yesterday.
People in Nautara union yesterday formed a human chain demanding arrest and punishment of the culprits. Police has continued drive to arrest the accused chairman who went into hiding after filing of the case, said Dimla Police Station Officer-in-Charge Shawkat Ali.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The lady in the photo clearly needs some lessons in proper burqa wear - she has too much skin exposed compared to our local Alexandria, Virginia burqa babes. Here in Alexandria the eye-slit is much narrower, and looks more like the slit in a medieval steel helmet. Also the photo lady is not wearing sufficient layers to disguise her figure, if she should sway slightly. Here in Alexandria, the fashion, in 90 degree heat, is to wear what looks like a floor-length winter coat. Perhaps as American style Islam spreads overseas, foreign women will learn to dress properly.
Two men have appeared in court after the suspected lover of a married Muslim woman had acid thrown in his face and was stabbed twice in the back in a possible honour attack.
The woman was warned that her own wellbeing may be in danger, a source at Scotland Yard told The Times.
Detectives have been told that the man and woman were not in a sexual relationship but were just friends. However, their relationship is said to have upset her family.
The 24-year-old Asian victim, believed to be from Denmark, is in a critical but stable condition in a specialist burns unit in Essex. He has lost part of his tongue, been left blind in one eye and has 50 per cent burns and fractures to his face after being attacked in Leytonstone, East London, on July 2.
Both men are said to be related to the woman. One is understood to be her brother.
A police source said that the woman had not been moved into a safe house but that police were in daily contact with her.
The man was allegedly attacked at 2am by a gang wearing masks and gloves. Five other men have been arrested and bailed pending further inquiries by police. A 16-year-old youth was rearrested last night and is being held at an East London police station.
At the time of the attack, a police source said: It looks like this gang set out deliberately to target this man. They were dressed in masks and gloves so none of the acid would get on them.
#1
While the technique seems peculiarly Muslim the idea of attacking a guy with whom your wife is cheating on you is pretty much universal. (My great grandfather was shot for that - and the killer was even acquitted as it was considered a justifiable homicide.)
#4
Um Glenmore, the woman isn't married to anyone and apparently wasn't even doing it with the victim. THIS kind of behavior is peculiarly Muslim even if not uniquely so.
A publicly funded exhibition is encouraging people to deface the Bible in the name of art and visitors have responded with abuse and obscenity.
The show includes a video of a woman ripping pages from the Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.
The open Bible is a central part of Made in Gods Image, an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow. By the book is a container of pens and a notice saying: If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.
The exhibit, Untitled 2009, was proposed by the Metropolitan Community Church, which said that the idea was to reclaim the Bible as a sacred text. But to the horror of many Christians, including the community church, visitors have daubed its pages with comments such as This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all. A contributor wrote on the first page of Genesis: I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.
The Church of Scotland expressed concern, the Roman Catholic Church called the exhibit infantile, and a Christian lawyers group said that the exhibition was symptomatic of a broken and lawless society.
The exhibition has been created by the artists Anthony Schrag and David Malone, in association with organisations representing gay Christians and Muslims. Mr Schrag, the gallerys artist in residence, said that he did not believe in God, but that his research for the £7,000 show had underlined his respect for people of faith.
The community church, which celebrates racial, cultural, linguistic, sexual, gender and theological diversity, had suggested the interactive Bible and pens and Mr Schrag, 34, said he had been intrigued.
Any offensive things that have been written are not the point of the work, he said. It was an open gesture. Are those who say they are upset offended by the things that people write, or just by the very notion that someone should write on a Bible? Just to clarify that question in your minds guys, why not put a Koran on display and see how long your heads will remain attached to your bodies
#1
It would be so simple for a visitor to toss a Koran with its typical green cover on the floor next to the exhibit. Merriment would ensue, I'm sure. Perhaps that incident has already happened, but the staff has cleaned up the mess & the press, suppressed the news.
ESTELI, Nicaragua -- Honduras reinforced its southern border with Nicaragua Thursday as the country's ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, said he will try to cross the frontier, possibly within hours or during the next few days.
At Las Manos, a usually sleepy border crossing with Nicaragua, police in riot gear and soldiers with M-16s patrolled the area, telling travelers that they would not be able to cross until afternoon.
Zelaya, who was ousted June 28, is threatening to lead a caravan of supporters across one of Honduras' three international frontiers to reclaim the presidency. He has spent much of this week in Nicaragua, where he has found a staunch ally in President Daniel Ortega, leading many to believe it's along Honduras' southern flank that he will make his move. Key to Zelaya's return, aides say, is being able to gather a protective crowd of supporters on the Honduran side of the border.
On Thursday, police seemed to be thwarting attempts by Hondurans to congregate near the border.
Antonio Cartagena, 71, said he traveled with about 40 others from Sonaguera, a town in the Honduran department of Colón, to await Zelaya at Las Manos -- one of three official border crossings with Nicaragua. Cartagena said police detained their bus about nine miles outside of town, and only about a dozen passengers were able to make it to the border by walking and hitchhiking.
Cartagena said at least four other buses had been detained before they could reach the border. ``We're here to welcome a good man back to the country,'' said Cartagena. ``The government claims they are not restricting our travel or speech, but what do you call this?''
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:05 ||
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Honduras' deposed president headed toward his nation's border Thursday to prepare a risky return home to reverse an ouster that is testing the vitality of democracy in Latin America.
The interim government that sent Manuel Zelaya into exile vows to arrest the president if he sets foot in Honduras. Zelaya said he would make a second attempt to return home Saturday, saying U.S.-backed attempts at mediation had broken down.
Accompanied by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Zelaya drove a white jeep out of the Honduran Embassy in Nicaragua, heading toward the northern town of Isteli, where he said he would spend Friday preparing for his return. Honduran Embassy officials broke into applause and chants of "Long live Mel!" using his nickname.
Zelaya said he hoped soldiers at the border would stand down when they see him. He called on supporters to meet him at the border, although he has not yet said exactly where he plan to cross into Honduras. "I think the guns will be lowered when they see their people and their president," Zelaya said at a news conference shortly before leaving.
Latin America expert Vicki Gass said that if Zelaya's opponents succeed in driving him from power, it could have a ripple effect in a region where left-leaning elected governments are challenging small classes of elites that have ruled many countries for decades.
Said another way, leftist thugs are subverting elected governments to establish themselves as the new elites ...
"Coups could then happen in Peru, where President (Alan) Garcia has a very low approval rating, or in Argentina or in Guatemala," said Gass, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America which promotes human rights and democracy. "Constitutional order and rule of law have to be restored."
Already done in Honduras. Now, about Venezuela ...
Zelaya said the mediation efforts, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, had failed after representatives of the interim government flatly rejected the possibility that he might return to the presidency. They say they cannot overturn a Supreme Court ruling forbidding Zelaya's reinstatement.
But Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, held out hope that the two sides might still reach a settlementand called Zelaya's attempt to return without an agreement "hasty." "He has always wanted to return to his country, but it's important to make an effort to avoid a likely confrontation," Insulza said.
He said that neither delegation had officially responded to Arias proposal, which calls for Zelaya's reinstatement, amnesty for the coup leaders and early elections.
The United States warned of tough sanctions against Honduras if Zelaya is not reinstated, but also said Thursday it does not support Zelaya's plan to return on his own. "Any step that would add to the risk of violence in Honduras or in the area, we think would be unwise," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.
Zelaya dismissed the concerns of Insulza and the U.S., saying "defending our rights is not an act of violence ... we are going to seek dialogue."
It was unclear exactly when or how Zelaya planned to enter the country. Zelaya has set and let pass a series of deadlines for his return, and spokesman Allan Fajardo said Thursday that Zelaya could travel by air, sea, or land from any of Honduras' three neighboring countries. Fajardo told The Associated Press that Zelaya would set up base Thursday in the Nicaraguan city of Esteli, near the Honduran border, and then figure out his next move. He said Zelaya would be accompanied by family, supporters and journalists.
Lorena Calix, a spokeswoman for Honduras' national police, said Thursday that officers were ready to detain Zelaya if he makes another attempt to come home. "When he comes to Honduras, we have to execute the arrest warrant," she said.
Honduras' Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's arrest before the June 28 coup, ruling his effort to hold a referendum on whether to form a constitutional assembly was illegal. The military decided to send Zelaya into exile insteada move that military lawyers themselves have called illegal but necessary.
Zelaya's opponents, who objected to his populist and socialist policies, have argued the president was trying to change the constitution to extend his term. Zelaya denies that.
If he is arrested, Zelaya faces four charges of violating governmental order, treason and abusing and usurping power that could bring 43 years behind bars. Prosecutors say they are investigating a raft of other allegations ranging from misappropriation of public funds to drug smugglingaccusations Zelaya says are purely political.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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The US "fully" backs Georgia's hopes of joining Nato, US Vice-President Joe Biden has told the country's parliament on a visit to the capital, Tbilisi.
But it's Joe so who knows ...
Mr Biden is addressing fears in Georgia that the US might sideline its ally in favour of improved ties with Russia. In a speech to Georgian MPs, he insisted that was not the case and declared: "We will stand with you."
However, Mr Biden also said that the former Soviet republic had to do "much more" to deepen its democracy. The Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili, set out a reform plan only days before Mr Biden's arrival, but the US visitor said reforms had to be followed through.
Mr Biden's speech, which lasted a little longer than 30 minutes, received rapturous applause from gathered members of parliament.
Keep applauding and maybe he'll stay ...
The vice-president said the US continued to regard the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of Georgia, despite their unilateral declarations of independence, which have been supported by Russia. "We will not recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and we urge the world not to recognise them as independent states," he said.
With the anniversary of last August's conflict between Russian and Georgia over South Ossetia approaching, Moscow has accused the Georgian government of rearming and of planning "provocative" actions.
Georgia and other countries say Russia has not met the terms of the pact that ended the war, which required that it withdraw its troops to pre-conflict positions. Instead, Russia has built up its presence in the breakaway regions. Mr Biden told parliament: "We call upon Russia to honour its international commitment, clearly specified in the 12 April ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of all forces to their pre-conflict positions and ultimately out of your territorial area."
The BBC's Tom Esslemont in Tbilisi says Mr Saakashvili is keen to capitalise on every bit of American support he can get, especially with vocal domestic opposition over his handling of the war and alleged democratic shortfalls.
Nato has promised eventual membership to Ukraine and Georgia, but has not given either a potential entry date. The war last year convinced some Nato states that Georgia was too insecure to join the alliance yet, analysts say.
It had been reported that Georgia would ask the US to join patrols along its de facto borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are currently carried out just by EU monitors, after the UN and OSCE closed down their monitoring missions at Russia's insistence.
Mr Biden said: "We support the expansion of international monitors throughout Georgia to promote peace and stability," though he did not explicitly say the US would contribute. And he added a warning that there was no "military option" to restore Georgia's territorial integrity.
Meanwhile, the European Union has agreed to extend the EU monitoring mission in Georgia for another year, an EU diplomat was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
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07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- Election officials in Kyrgyzstan said early Friday that partial results from the presidential election give incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev an overwhelming lead of around 90 percent of votes counted. The Central Election Commission released the results based on returns from more than one-quarter of the 2,330 polling stations in this mountainous Central Asian nation.
The main opposition candidate, Almazbek Atambayev, has dismissed Thursday's election as fraudulent and called for a rerun. Atambayev claimed widespread ballot-stuffing and the intimidation of opposition election monitors. He also charged that official turnout of nearly 80 percent was inflated.
Atambayev won just over 5 percent of votes counted, according to the election commission's data.
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After a full week of a Keith-less Countdown; "Keith Olbermann has the night off," is turning into MSNBC's, "Hiking the Appalachian Trail." "You don't suppose he has a girl in Argentina, do you?"
"Olbermann--with a girl?"
"Good point."
Nothing against David Shuster, as he does a good job, but the reason I have tuned into Countdown from the beginning is because of Keith. "Without Keith to stoke my purple-faced rage, I might calm down and view the world rationally, and then Gaia only knows what might happen to me!"
If Keith is going to take extended, unexplained absences, he's going to have to let "Worst Person in the World" go. Right now it's essentially proprietary and only featured on the show when the show features Keith Olbermann. When Keith does come back, maybe he should name himself "Worst Person in the World" for leaving so long and so often. Keith Olbermann, worst person in the world by his own admission. I could get behind that one.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/24/2009 14:53 ||
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#2
No mystery. I have it on very good authority from friends at Mayo that he's there having the tingle in his leg removed - next week he goes to the Betty Ford Center to work on his coprolagnia problem.
Followup to Mark Steyn opinion piece from yesterday
The father, mother and brother of three teenage girls from Montreal whose bodies were found in a submerged car in a Kingston, Ont., canal were charged Thursday with killing them and a woman believed to be the father's first wife.
Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13, were found dead last month along with Rona Amir Mohammed, 50, in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock near Kingston.
Parents Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yehya and their son Hamid Mohammad Shafia, 18, have each been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to murder, Insp. Brian Begbie announced at a news conference at Kingston Police headquarters on Thursday....
The father told police he discovered his car was missing after the family had stopped at a Kingston motel following a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont., the day before.
Police said they are looking into whether the deaths were an "honour killing" -- a tribal custom practiced in some parts of the world in which the majority of victims are women who are perceived to have brought shame to their family. "honour killing", tribal custom...just cannot bring themselves to mention a religion?
Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner said he received an email from someone who is likely a relative of the family who claimed it was such a killing. "That will form a part of the ongoing investigation," said Tanner. "There are family members in a variety of parts of the world and investigators will be following up with them.
"Whether that was a part of the motive within the family, based on one ... or more of the girls' behaviour is open to a little bit of speculation."
Tanner said the girls were living as "Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians."
The family, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, spent 15 years in Dubai before moving to Montreal two years ago. Aha! Must be Presbyterians! in other news...
Naila Yasmin had wanted to make the most of her vacation time. The mother of four had a two-week break from her job as a supervisor at the Tim Hortons at Merton St. and Mount Pleasant Rd., and thought it was the perfect time for a quick vacation -- or two. Nooo! Timmy's? Say it ain't so!
So after they returned from Niagara Falls on Thursday night, Yasmin convinced her husband, Sanaullah Tarar, to take the kids on a weekend getaway to the Thousand Islands.
"She always wanted to use her vacation for the kids," said Tarar, a real estate agent, in a brief interview at his Thorncliffe Park home.
They arrived Friday evening at the Best Western Country Squire Resort in Gananoque, but Kinza Kaianad, 14, and Sunaila Kaianad, 11, were up bright and early Saturday morning and convinced their mom to take them swimming in the hotel pool. They wanted to go before it got crowded.
A witness said he saw the two girls playing in the shallow end of the pool around 8:50 a.m. while their mother watched from the deck.
A short while later, all three were found unconscious and face down in the pool. Yasmin, 43, died Sunday, Kinza died Monday and Sunaila died Tuesday at a Kingston hospital.
"They probably didn't even know what a swimming pool was," said a grief stricken Tarar. Friends confirmed the girls didn't know how to swim.
Tarar said he was asleep when the girls slipped out with their mom. His two boys, aged 4 and 7, were with him.
So the boys didn't want to swim?
He went into shock when the police came to his room to inform him that his wife and children were on the way to the hospital. "This is a nightmare for me," said Tarar. "Every day it is worse and worse."
The family had moved to Canada from Pakistan seven years ago. The bodies are going to return home to Pakistan on Tuesday for the funerals. A prayer will be held at the Islamic Foundation next week. To review: 7 mysterious deaths. All female. All Presbyterians. All visit to Niagara Falls then Kingston. Definitely something in the water up here.
If you own a 1984 or newer vehicle that has been insured and registered to you for the past year and gets a "combined" 18 miles to the gallon or less, you can qualify. The car must also be drivable.
If you trade it in for a car that gets an additional four more miles per gallon or more, your reward is a $3,500 voucher, which can be used toward purchasing a new car.
If you switch to a vehicle that gets 10 miles-per-gallon or more in fuel efficiency, then the government gives you $4,500.
To see if your used car has a qualifying miles-per-gallon rating, the Department of Energy has set up a Web site with the official used car mileage ratings.
Many auto dealerships have accepted cars for the program since July 1, but the program officially begins today, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will release the system's final guidelines.
Chrysler Group LLC announced Wednesday it would match the government's incentive program for most of its 2009 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models. The automaker will offer consumers an additional $3,500 to $4,500 rebate or zero precent financing on top of the money they will already receive from the federal government.
But before any consumer takes part in this program, there are some pitfalls and guidelines to watch out for.
The concept is noble: Get less fuel-efficient, more emissions-producing cars off the road and stimulate new car sales all at once. But critics say it doesn't go far enough with its fuel efficiency requirements and could end up being a subsidy for big SUVs and trucks.
From a strictly consumer standpoint, some experts contend the Cash for Clunkers program is not a great deal. Yes, if you are bent on buying brand new, you will save money. But the savings are nothing compared with how well you can do by buying a used car.
New cars typically depreciate 20 to 30 percent in just the first year, according to the auto Web site Edmunds.com. By year three, their value is down an average of 45 percent!
Edmunds says the average sale price of a brand new car is $27,800, whereas the average price of a used car is $13,900. That's a savings of roughly $14,000 achieved simply by letting somebody else be the chump who buys the brand new vehicle!
Still want to be green? There are plenty of 3-year-old vehicles with excellent fuel economy. The technology hasn't changed much in the past few years. It's also a great time to buy used because cars and trucks are incredibly reliable these days. They can easily chug along for 200,000 miles with few problems.
So, you decide. Would you rather save $4,000? Or $14,000?
Considering who thought it up, what else would you expect?
And besides the problem mentioned in the article, you'd also have a car payment, which many of these idiots don't have right now.
"Clueless loons" comes to mind....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/24/2009 12:41 Comments ||
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Man, is it just me, or are cars' prices going up way faster than the alleged official rate of inflation? I buy dirt-cheap new cars, so I've been not paying attention to the mid-line, but when the hell did a bare-bones mini-van crack 28k?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/24/2009 13:09 Comments ||
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Don't be a chump, car prices are up BECAUSE of this "Subsidy", The dealership tacks the 4 grand onto ALL and the profit doubles.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/24/2009 14:56 Comments ||
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Oh, it gets better--the program regs require that the engine of the traded-in "clunker" be destroyed by running it without oil until it siezes up--and then the remains have to be crushed. You're not allowed to strip it for parts.
In other words, perfectly useful machinery has to be reduced to scrap.
Wonder what the tree-huggers have to say about that?
Posted by: Mike ||
07/24/2009 15:43 Comments ||
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#5
In other words, perfectly useful machinery has to be reduced to scrap.
Hey, classical WPA and NRA practice. Forcing farmers to destroy their crops and spill their milk while people go hungry to 'pump' the economy.
An internal Pentagon oversight board has reported that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is two years behind schedule, according to multiple congressional aides familiar with the findings.
Talk of the program's problems comes amid intense debate over the future of another fighter plane, the F-22. Defenders of the F-22 argue that continued production is vital to national security. The White House and some lawmakers who favor halting the production of any new F-22 warplanes say the F-35 will fill the gap and meet the nation's combat aircraft needs.
Senators and aides are now lamenting that the Pentagon oversight panel's more pessimistic view on the F-35 program was not publicly released during the F-22 debate. They are calling for more open disclosure of the problems with the development of the F-35.
The Pentagon's Joint Estimate Team (JET), which was established to independently evaluate the F-35 program, is at odds with the Joint Program Office, which runs the F-35 program, the aides said. The oversight panel's calculations determined that the fighter won't be able to move out of the development phase and into full production until 2016, rather than 2014 as the program office has said. That's assuming there are no further problems with the program, which has already faced cost overruns and schedule delays. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the delay could cost as much as $7.4 billion. The discrepancy between the Joint Estimate Team and the Joint Program Office was noted in a March report by the GAO, but it received little attention at the time.
"In every parameter and in every respect, the Joint Program Office's projections were always a hell of a lot rosier than what the Joint Estimate Team found," said one Senate aide who was briefed on the findings.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
OK, class repeat after me: "technological risk"
Lots of eggs - one basket?
Gates has never inspired much confidence. His bosses (and deputies) ..... yikes.
Not hard to imagine a US in the medium future lacking sufficient tactical air power and surface combatants to cover its basic commitments.
#4
...Not good at all. The F-15 and F-16 fleet may be sufficient to hold on for a while yet until the first unmanned dogfighters get into service (probably around 2020) but they have suffered from increasing structural problems for some time. And if they start falling out of the sky during the Obama Administration, I fear the response will be to simply deactivate units.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/24/2009 5:24 Comments ||
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#5
We gave up more F-22s for this?
Unless Zero is actually trying to destroy the US this doesn't make any sense.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/24/2009 11:53 Comments ||
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#6
Whaddaya mean "unless," Al? >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/24/2009 12:37 Comments ||
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A split between rich and poor nations in the run-up to climate-change talks widened on Thursday.
India rejected key scientific findings on global warming, while the European Union called for more action by developing states on greenhouse gas emissions.
The Euros call for more action in the absence of 'key scientific findings'. I'm liking the Indians more and more ...
Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, accused the developed world of needlessly raising alarm over melting Himalayan glaciers. He dismissed scientists' predictions that Himalayan glaciers might disappear within 40 years as a result of global warming.
"We have to get out of the preconceived notion, which is based on western media, and invest our scientific research and other capacities to study Himalayan atmosphere," he said. "Science has its limitation. You cannot substitute the knowledge that has been gained by the people living in cold deserts through everyday experience."
Mr Ramesh was also clear that India would not take on targets to cut its emissions, even though developed countries are asking only for curbs in the growth of emissions, rather than absolute cuts.
His stance was at wide variance with that of Andreas Carlgren, his Swedish counterpart. Sweden holds the European Union's revolving presidency until a conference in Copenhagen in December at which governments will try to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto protocol on curbing greenhouse emissions -- the main provisions of which expire in 2012.
Mr Carlgren said in Are, Sweden, that developing countries such as India, China and Brazil must propose more ambitious plans to reduce emissions if they were to receive finance from wealthy nations.
That might be just the thing for India, Brazil and China to say "screw you" to the West, forego the 'finance' and just build their countries on their own.
Rich and poor countries have been squabbling over the issue of financing for months, imperilling the outcome of the Copenhagen talks. Rich countries have not agreed to provide the funding that poor nations say is necessary to help them cut their emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Mr Carlgren went on the offensive on Thursday, saying poorer countries must come up with firm plans to cut emissions before financing will be forthcoming.
But if they don't, they won't get financing to do something they don't want to do in the first place. I guess that makes more sense in the original Swedish ...
States such as China and India have produced plans for curbing the growth in their emissions but these have not been formalised within the negotiating process.
Mr Carlgren also criticised rich countries for failing to agree to cut their emissions by the amounts needed. "So far, what we have seen from other countries is too low. We expect more from developed countries," he said.
Sweden first. We in the U.S. will sit back and watch for oh, twenty years or so, and see how it works out.
But the Swedish environment minister said poor countries must also do more to forge an agreement. "We are prepared to put money on the table. But it should also be said that if we don't see significant reductions that will really deviate from business as usual . . . then there is no money," Mr Carlgren said, singling out China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia. "We are also prepared to deliver financing, but we must see that there is something to pay for."
India has taken the hardest line in the negotiations so far. Along with China, India refused at the meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised nations this month to sign up to a target of cutting global emissions by half by 2050. The countries were holding out to gain concessions from the west on financing.
The claims from Mr Ramesh that Western science was wrong on the question of melting Himalayan glaciers appeared to reinforce Delhi's recalcitrant stance.
Mr Ramesh on Friday reiterated that India would not accept emissions caps to held curb global warming, Bloomberg reported. "The world has nothing to fear from India's development ... An artifical cap is not desirable and not even necessary as we haven't been responsible for emissions in the first place," he said.
Earlier this week, he also challenged Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, over her appeal to India to embrace a low-carbon future and not repeat the mistakes of the developed world in seeking prosperity fast industrialisation.
The consequences of depleted glaciers -- sensitive to rising temperature and humidity -- would be dire. Seven of the world's greatest rivers, including the Ganges and the Yangtze, are fed by the glaciers of the Himalayas and Tibet. They supply water to about 40 per cent of the world's population.
Water supply is likely to become an increasing national security priority for both India and China as they seek to maintain high economic growth rates and sustain large populations dependent on farming. Some scientists have warned that rivers such as the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra could become seasonal rivers as a result of global warming.
Indians are also fearful of weakening monsoon rains. Some parts of India, including Delhi, the capital, are still waiting anxiously for this year's rains to come in earnest. A late, or a poor, monsoon would be a drag on economic growth.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, has described melting glaciers as a "canary in the climate-change coal mine", warning that billions of people depend on these natural water storage facilities for drinking water, power generation and agriculture.
Mr Ramesh said the rate of retreat of glaciers in the Himalayas varied from a "couple of centimetres a year to a couple of metres", but that this was a natural process that had taken place occurred over the centuries. Some were, in fact, growing, he said.
The glaciers -- estimated by India's space agency to number about 15,000 -- had also been affected by debris and the large number of tourists, he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/24/2009 16:13 ||
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Some experts have questioned the alarmists theory on global warming leading to shrinkage of Himalayan glaciers. VK Raina, a leading glaciologist and former ADG of the Geological Survey of India is one among them.
He feels that the research on Indian glaciers is negligible. Nothing but the remote sensing data forms the basis of these alarmists observations and not on the spot research.
Raina told the Hindustan Times that out of 9,575 glaciers in India, till date, research has been conducted only on about 50. Nearly 200 years data has shown that nothing abnormal has occurred in any of these glaciers.
It is simple. The issue of glacial retreat is being sensationalised by a few individuals, the septuagenarian Raina claimed. Throwing a gauntlet to the alarmist, he said the issue should be debated threadbare before drawing a conclusion.
Surprisingly, Raina, who has been associated with the research and data collection in over 25 glaciers in India and abroad, debunked the theory that Gangotri glacier is retreating alarmingly.
Maintaining that the glaciers are undergoing natural changes, witnessed periodically, he said recent studies in the Gangotri and Zanskar areas (Drung- Drung, Kagriz glaciers) have not shown any evidence of major retreat.
"Claims of global warming causing glacial melt in the Himalayas are based on wrong assumptions," Raina, a trained mountaineer and skiing expert said. He rued that not much is being done by the Government to create a bank of trained geologists for an in-depth study of glaciers.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/24/2009 16:23 Comments ||
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I am frankly surprised.
Angelina Jolie consorting with the US Military?
What is the world coming to?
Or is she wanting to associate with some REAL men for a change.
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/24/2009 11:33 Comments ||
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#3
Even though she looks creepy now and is quite weird, any of the celebs that go visit the troops get lots of bonus points.
#7
Wow, she looks like one of my old students: She had incredible natural glam, but had a real problem laying the makeup on. I kinda figured it was the makeup version of anorexia.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Japanese government has decided to delegate its ambassador to Baghdad and another diplomat to monitor the Kurdistan elections on Saturday, July 24, 2009.
This comes after an invitation from the Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq (IHEC), the Japanese embassy in Baghdad said in a press release. Two staff members of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will also monitor the election, it said.
The Japanese participation in monitoring the Kurdistan election is to support democracy in Iraq, it added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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It looks at first glance like a typical block in Gaza: concrete facades spray-painted with political graffiti, collapsed roofs, and a battered United Nations sign. But looking a bit closer, you notice that there's something a bit too orderly, a bit too purposefully neglected, about the row of dilapidated buildings. The U.N. sign seems hastily painted on. Nearby is a fish pond.
Welcome to Hamaswood, one of the first movie sets owned by a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Hamaswood -- or, as the locals call it, the Asdaa Land for Artistical and Media Production -- is a small studio city near the Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Less than a city block in size, Asdaa's movie set is much smaller than any Hollywood studio, and it boasts a few features that you wouldn't find in Cinecittà: for example, the fish pond as well as goat yards and cow yards, not intended for animal films but as money making livestock. As it turns out, running a terrorist movie studio involves problems that Samuel Goldwyn would never have dreamed of.
Despite the challenges, owning your own studio seems to be all the rage in the Middle East. In Lebanon, Hezbollah's TV station, Al-Manar, is a key part of the group's information warfare strategy. Al-Manar is more than just a mouthpiece; it brings Hezbollah's message to a wider audience through broadcasts that range from news programs to a quiz show in which contestants are tested on their knowledge of martyrs. (Perhaps not surprisingly, the TV station itself has been labeled a "terrorist organization" by the United States.)
Hamas already runs a modest media empire, its reach stretching to newspapers, radio, and satellite television. But Asdaa represents an ambitious foray into the world of film and entertainment, a medium that could prove an even more potent propaganda tool -- if Hamas can just get it off the ground.
Although the executive director, Abed Al Aziz Monsour, says production space at Asdaa isn't reserved exclusively for Hamas, it's clear that the current filming plans revolve exclusively around the conflict with Israel. Asdaa recently completed its first major production -- a two-hour documentary on Imad Akel, a Hamas activist who was killed by Israeli forces in 1993. The film used a professional director, but the dialogue was written by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a cofounder of Hamas. Rather than a Hollywood feature film, it's more like straight-to-DVD; Asdaa plans to sell copies of the movie to help cover production costs. Whether the studio's spaghetti Western production values can compete with the pirated Hollywood blockbusters and Egyptian movies popular in the Middle East is unclear, since the film is still unreleased.
But competition from more mainstream studios is just one of the problems facing Asdaa at the moment. Asdaa's director's office is bare-bones: just a meeting table stacked high with Asdaa-produced newspapers describing the city's work and activities. Seated behind the room's one luxury, an executive-style wood desk, Mansour outlined some of the roadblocks to building the huge studio that Hamas originally envisioned. Asdaa, he explained, sustained several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, which took place between December 2008 and January 2009. The strikes heavily damaged the administrative building, blowing out windows and doors, and totally destroying the fish pond.
It has been hard to rebuild, too, because the continued blockade of Gaza has driven construction costs way up. Mansour says he intends to build a smartly furnished media center that will house a theater, museum, conference room, production facilities, and even a restaurant -- but there is little evidence of actual construction, cement now being particularly expensive with the blockade. Financing is an uncomfortable subject for the executive director. When I asked what the budget for the studio city was and who paid for it, an uncomfortable silence fell on the room, followed by nervous laughter from the bearded members of Hamas who sat at the conference table. "It's a sensitive question," Mansour said, a statement that was not surprising, given the murky origins of Hamas's funding (it is generally believed that Iran and Syria are the organization's major benefactors). The film about Akel, says Mansour, was funded by an anonymous donor.
Other projects, meanwhile, are on the way, at least in theory. Now that the documentary on Akel is complete, the next big production is supposed to be a TV series about the life of Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin, the blind sheikh who served the spiritual leader of Hamas until he was assassinated by Israel in 2004. But the constant challenge is recruiting experienced actors. Gaza does not have a homegrown entertainment industry, so Asdaa recruits amateurs, in one case hiring the family member of an employee. And Asdaa might be producing entertainment, but it still must adhere to Hamas's conservative social mores. "There is no problem with women acting, as long as they are covered, respect religion, and are traditional," Monsour said.
Then there is the problem of filming in wartime. For the recent documentary, the director needed to re-create the atmosphere of Gaza in the early 1990s, before the Oslo Accords, but getting some details right was difficult. For example, sequences that involve shooting or heavy fighting proved particularly challenging, and not just because Asdaa lacks the budget for Hollywood pyrotechnics. There were serious concerns that the Israeli military, which conducts regular surveillance flights over Gaza, would mistake them for real fighting or paramilitary training. "They were scared for the actors' lives in that area," Mansour recalled. "They thought Israeli drones would attack them."
If the films do make it to distribution, Hamas should hope they meet with a better fate than its computer games. In Gaza's many computer cafes, teenagers spend hours playing Counter-Strike, a first-person shooter game from the United States played between a team of terrorists and a team of counterterrorists. It turns out that Hamas has made its own version of Counter-Strike, in which the two teams are -- no surprise -- Israel and Hamas. But the boys told me they preferred the better graphics from the American games. At one computer cafe, an owner offered me a copy of Hamas Counter-Strike for free -- apparently, no one was buying.
It flies like a butterfly, and boy, will it sting a lot more than a bee.
Aurora Flight Sciences recently tested a half-scale model of its new Excalibur unmanned aerial vehicle, or "drone" to the rest of us.
Unlike the military's Predator and Reaper drones currently in use along the Afghan-Pakistani border, the Excalibur won't need a runway. That's because it's a vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft. Like a Harrier jet, it rises straight up off the ground before using forward thrust like a regular jet.
Three horizontally mounted propellers help a tilting turbojet push the craft up, and are then stowed away as the jet drops into flight position.
The model tested on June 24 is only 13 feet long with a 10-foot wingspan, but Aurora hopes the successful flight test will help it secure additional Pentagon funding for a full-scale version with roughly twice the dimensions. The final version should be able to cruise along at 460 mph, near the speed of sound, and carry four Hellfire missiles.
By comparison, the Predator maxes out at 135 mph and carries two Hellfires. The Reaper does about 300 mph, but can carry up to 14 Hellfires, or a combination of Hellfires and laser-guided bombs.
What moron wrote this? It ain't near - it ain't even in the same neighborhood. (Same city, though.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/24/2009 10:07 Comments ||
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Two points. Except as CAS, VTOL seems counter productive, because it burns up a lot of fuel.
Second, I wonder why in blazes we haven't developed a fanwing-type aircraft? A fanwing uses a "paddlewheel" type prop for lift and propulsion. It has a much better lift for power ratio than a helicopter, is mechanically simpler, quieter, and more scalable. It is also very stable in flight.
Unfortunately, the British have the patents, and at their current rate of development will have a working aircraft in about 200 years.
#4
'moose it was lost along with PG&E street cars when GM get wise. Ever notice they're no phish-carb public transit? Ever wonder why? It's right in front of your noses. Most of this shit was either buried in cermaic cases in area 51 (Operation Stroganof) or launched in a failsafe orbit to the Heliosphere - except for one dark launch which ion booster failed and dropped a load on Ludawici GA.
The Indonesian Election Commission has released its final count of all the votes cast in the 8 July presidential election. The results show that the incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has 60.8% of the national vote, giving him a resounding victory. The election commission will formally announce the results on Saturday.
There are already indications that the results may be challenged by opposition candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri. A former president, she received 26.79% of the votes, while Yusuf Kalla, the vice president, received 12.41% of the vote.
It is thought that Megawati Sukarnoputri and her running mate Prabowo Subianto will lodge a complaint about the way the elections were conducted. They had alleged in the run-up to the elections that the voter lists were flawed. According to the election commission, opposition candidates have 72 hours from the time the results are formally announced to challenge them.
In an unofficial early tally of 2,000 polling stations, Mr Yudhoyono had won around 60% of the popular vote. Indonesians have been impressed by his ability to manage the economy and clamp down on corruption. Most see him as the man who helped to turn their economy around, someone who brought much needed stability and security to this vast archipelago.
It's rather amazing: five years ago I would have sworn Indonesia was going to be the next Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A boy was killed when a herd of wild elephants attacked border village Bonpur Para under Lama upazila in the district on Wednesday night. Rassel, 12, son of Lutfur Rahaman was killed while he was going to the Bonpura bazar. 
The head of Mauritania's electoral commission has resigned because he has doubts over the "reliability" of last week's presidential vote. Sid'Ahmed Ould Deye said that the complaints he had received had sown doubts in his mind.
A union parishad chairman in Dimla upazila has gone into hiding following filing of a case on charge of raping a poor teenage girl. The victim, daughter of a day labourer, worked as domestic help at the Kakra village house of Mosharaf Hossain Mintoo, chairman of Nautara union parishad in Dimla upazila, said the victim's family members.
If you own a 1984 or newer vehicle that has been insured and registered to you for the past year and gets a "combined" 18 miles to the gallon or less, you can qualify. The car must also be drivable. 
An internal Pentagon oversight board has reported that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is two years behind schedule, according to multiple congressional aides familiar with the findings.
A trip inside Hamas's movie studio.
