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80 killed as Maoists derail train in India
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [7] 
2 00:00 Mike Hunt [7] 
6 00:00 Flapper Scourge of the Algonquins4926 [2] 
5 00:00 Anonymoose [4] 
8 00:00 Nimble Spemble [5] 
2 00:00 Grunter [5] 
10 00:00 Secret Asian Man [6] 
5 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [8] 
4 00:00 Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division [5] 
28 00:00 muck4doo [6] 
5 00:00 Goober Goobelopolous [2] 
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Page 6: Politix
6 00:00 CrazyFool [5]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
But the hangman isn't hangin', And they put you on the street
A convicted murderer who escaped the hangman's noose in the 1950s, skipped out on parole 38 years ago and was found recently running a wedding chapel in Arizona under an assumed name will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

The state Board of Pardons and Parole on Friday revoked the parole of Frank Dryman, 78, and said they won't even look at the case again for another five years. The panel indicated leniency isn't likely then, either.

Dryman was arrested March 23 in Arizona City, Ariz., where he was living a full life as Victor H. Houston, running a wedding chapel, working as a notary public and volunteering for various causes.

He was convicted of killing Clarence Pellett, who had picked up Dryman as a 19-year-old drifter caught in a snowstorm outside Shelby in northern Montana. His murder trial captivated headlines during the decade, twice going to the Montana Supreme Court before his original sentence to face the gallows in front of the county courthouse was overturned. Dryman was given as life sentence instead.

He was paroled in 1969 after serving just 15 years in prison and three years later, he disappeared.

Dryman told the board Friday he skipped out on his parole in California because he needed to get away from the woman he was married to at the time.

"I didn't want to create any violence or anything, I don't believe in that anymore, so I just left," he said.

The grandson of the victim tracked Dryman down after only recently learning the way his grandfather had been murdered.

Clem Pellett told the parole board that he found through research that his father very quietly kept tabs on the case and represented the family at the numerous court and other hearings during the 1950s and 1960s. Pellett said his father died shortly before Dryman was paroled, and had he been alive, Dryman may not have received that early parole.

"A year ago I unknowingly picked up my fathers' mantle," said Pellett, a surgeon in Bellevue, Wash., who has since amassed volumes of information on the case and Dryman, who has gone by several names.

A large group of Pelletts and their family members attended the hearing. They pointed out that the same board, four decades ago, was warned by a judge in the case that it was a bad idea to parole Dryman to California.

Several in the family testified that the murder, although nearly 60 years old, forever changed the family. Many said the family always missed its patriarch, and several lived in fear as children after a young Dryman allegedly vowed at one court hearing to kill the whole family.

Generations later, young members of the family are warned never to pick up hitchhikers.

"I thought that this was a particularly heinous crime," said Bob Pellett. "I believe the man is a sociopath. He does not deserve any leniency."

Dryman's daughter, Kathy Houston, who knew nothing of her father's past, pleaded with the board for leniency.

She fell to the floor sobbing as the board's intention grew clear and eventually needed to be taken out in a wheelchair. Houston said the original crime is not on trial and urged the board to consider that Dryman's only crime was to skip out on parole.

"For my natural life, my father has been the pillar of a community that loves him," she said. "He has volunteered for everything he could volunteer for."

Houston, who said her father is in very poor health, said he won't live another five years to see the parole board again.

The parole board said prison doctors found Dryman to be very fit and capable of serving his sentence.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/29/2010 08:46 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  his original sentence to face the gallows in front of the county courthouse was overturned. Dryman was given as life sentence instead.


Do they still do this in Montana? Seems like this would have a chilling effect on others who might be contemplating such crimes despite what the anti-capital punishment adherents spout.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/29/2010 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  So his daughter says he was a pillar of the community. Did he ever express remorse for what he had done? Did he ever apologize the the family of his victim?
No? Then let him serve his sentence. He got an extra forty years of freedom, when he should have spent the rest of his life in prison - either a very short time before he was hanged, or a long time after his sentence was commuted.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/29/2010 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  go back, jack, do it again. we'll turn them round and round
Posted by: Thrusoling the Bunyip9302 || 05/29/2010 15:24 Comments || Top||

#4  He served his sentence for murder to the satisfaction of the Montana parole board. The crime for which he's jugged now is skipping out on parole.

Caught after 38 years? No crimes in the intervening period? Behaved himself? I'd leave him alone.

That's just me.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/29/2010 16:25 Comments || Top||

#5  That's the deal. If you catch 'em, you hang 'em, quick. But they reduced his sentence, then they paroled him, to another State, yet. But just because the liberals screwed up, doesn't mean it is just to change it back later.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/29/2010 17:25 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Dennis Hopper Dead at 74
Local San Diego boy - quirky, but a fave of mine (see True Romance. The scene with Christopher Walken . Even worse, in Hollywood, a Republican!
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2010 13:18 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hippy bus.noooo! first cindy lauper, then gary coleman, now this. :(
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 13:34 Comments || Top||

#2  cindy lauper is not dead ! is she?
Posted by: chris || 05/29/2010 13:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah, what a pisser man!
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 05/29/2010 13:59 Comments || Top||

#4  now thats a sammich. luaper, hopper, whats the diffrence?
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Just think, until Easy Rider he was making movies with John Wayne
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 05/29/2010 15:21 Comments || Top||

#6  AW, MAN!
Posted by: Flapper Scourge of the Algonquins4926 || 05/29/2010 16:36 Comments || Top||


Former Child Star Gary Coleman Dead at 42
Former child TV star Gary Coleman died Friday after doctors took him off life support, Fox News confirms. The "Diff'rent Strokes" star had slipped into a coma after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage at his home Wednesday. He was 42.

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank says life support was terminated and Coleman died at 12:05 p.m. MDT.

Coleman was conscious and lucid until midday Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness.

Coleman had continuing ill health from a kidney disease he suffered as a child. He had at least two kidney transplants and had ongoing dialysis.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  diffrent stroke?
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Been a long time, muck!
Posted by: gorb || 05/29/2010 2:01 Comments || Top||

#3  His annoying and overused catch phrase, "Watcha doin' Willis?", was turned into an amusing, mildly NSFW flash movie, "Tales From Hell".

http://megaswf.com/view/1689f1dedcc4f85adf3a38f6c08e9b6b.html
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/29/2010 9:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Blood thiners finally will out. He did damn well. 42.

0/Dialysis nusses
Posted by: Shipman || 05/29/2010 10:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I believe it was "Whatcha talkin 'bout Willis?", just for the record.

Posted by: Goober Goobelopolous || 05/29/2010 20:57 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Approaching space object 'artificial, not asteroid' says NASA
NASA boffins report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid.
Ooh! Ooh! I seen dis movie!
Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona earlier this month, and subsequently tracked by NASA's asteroid-watching service, the Near-Earth Object Program headquartered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

According to the NASA experts:
Observations by astronomer S J Bus, using the NASA-sponsored Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, indicate that 2010 KQ's spectral characteristics do not match any of the known asteroid types, and the object's absolute magnitude (28.9) suggests it is only a few meters in size.
The mysterious artificial object has apparently made a close pass by the Earth, coming in almost to the distance of the Moon's orbit, and is now headed away again into the interplanetary void. The object has used no propulsion during the time NASA has had it under observation. However the spacewatch boffins believe that it must have moved under its own power at some point, given its position and velocity.

"The orbit of this object is very similar to that of the Earth, and one would not expect a [naturally occurring] object to remain in this type of orbit for very long," said Paul Chodas, a brainbox at JPL.

The experts believe that the object must be a spacecraft, or more accurately part of one - sadly not an alien visitor, though. Rather it's likely to be a booster stage from an interplanetary mission of the past, now drifting back in to Earth and out again. The next visit will probably be 2036, at which time there's a small chance that 2010 KQ will crash into the atmosphere and burn up.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nazi UFO's returning to their secret base in Antarctica. Sieg Heil, baby!
Posted by: borgboy || 05/29/2010 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Rendevous with Rama
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/29/2010 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  "Almost to the distance of the Moon's orbit" >
D *** NG IT, DATS COMET APOPHIS' JOB!

2029/30-2036.

As illustrated by OBAMA-VS-BP as per the GULF- OIL-SPILL-DAT-SHOULD-HAVE-BEEN-LONG-CAPPED-BY-NOW, KAMALEN + APOPHIS are two space rocks whose capacity/potential for danger to desired OWG-NWO is way beyond their SMALL SIZE per se.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/29/2010 1:29 Comments || Top||

#4  yellow rose of texas
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 1:36 Comments || Top||

#5  ION TOPIX > SOLAR SCIENTISTS AGREE THAT THE SUN'S RECENT BEHAVIOR ISODD, BUT THE EXPLANATION [true cause]REMAINS ELUSIVE.

* SAME > WHY NASA KEEPS A CLOSE EYE ON THE SUN'S IRRADIANCE.

IMO 'twas the original SIRIUS EVENT, and the EARTH/GUAM-VISIBLE MASSIVE SOLAR FLARES since,
1960's-early 1970's MADONNA MTV Videos notwithstanding.

JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP > "CHERRY BOMB".

The above being said, SPACEWEATHER.com > seems the RECENT + LATEST/NEWEST SOLAR FILAMENTS + MAGNETIC STORMS was another opportunity for GUAM TAOTAMONAS to walk the streets of Agana.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/29/2010 2:05 Comments || Top||

#6  teapot. tell it to the mayans joe.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 2:55 Comments || Top||

#7  can you really understand that jibberish muck4doo?
Posted by: chris || 05/29/2010 8:58 Comments || Top||

#8  IF it's a spent upper stage it'll be like a big aluminum can. And if someone's up there they can probably return it for the deposit.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/29/2010 10:56 Comments || Top||

#9  can you really understand that jibberish muck4doo?

And there you have it. Muck4Doo is a trained translationist.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/29/2010 11:02 Comments || Top||

#10  I'M glad someone can understand joe, i have been trying for years now and still don't know what he's saying 99% of the time the other 1% I'm drunk and it tends too make sense the.
Posted by: chris || 05/29/2010 11:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Chris, listen to JOE with your tendrils and your heart.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/29/2010 11:16 Comments || Top||

#12  Are tendrils like tonsils? Mine got removed by a greedy doctor back in the day, according to the Precedent.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 05/29/2010 11:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Now we are quoting Avatar instead of Shakespear?

Actually, ETA's are like terrorists, no one in Government will admit they are the real deal until one of them lands/blows up in their front yard.
Posted by: James Carville/Karl Rove || 05/29/2010 12:22 Comments || Top||

#14  What does

JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP > "CHERRY BOMB"

mean?
Posted by: Bugs Spealing3182 || 05/29/2010 12:57 Comments || Top||

#15  what is a tendril? like I said i have read Joes post for years I just can't put alot of it together and honestly some of it is over my head. Not tryin too be mean or anything like that
Posted by: chris || 05/29/2010 13:41 Comments || Top||

#16  A schooner is a sailboat
Posted by: bman || 05/29/2010 14:23 Comments || Top||

#17  A Schooner is also a Gravy Bowl.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/29/2010 14:32 Comments || Top||

#18  Let me break down #5 for those who are interested. JosephM's prose is very dense, with a lot of references that aren't obvious to those without the various keys.

ION TOPIX > SOLAR SCIENTISTS AGREE THAT THE SUN'S RECENT BEHAVIOR ISODD, BUT THE EXPLANATION [true cause]REMAINS ELUSIVE.

In Other News (ie not necessarily related to the topic of the thread -- Joe dumps his finds wherever he happens to be, trusting his Rantburg readers to mentally put it into the right category) from the Topix website, followed by Joe's summary of the article. Joe uses > the way we would use colons (:). Note that is odd was accidentally elided into a single word.

* SAME > WHY NASA KEEPS A CLOSE EYE ON THE SUN'S IRRADIANCE.

From the same article, another bit of info.

IMO 'twas the original SIRIUS EVENT, and the EARTH/GUAM-VISIBLE MASSIVE SOLAR FLARES since,1960's-early 1970's MADONNA MTV Videos notwithstanding.

In My Opinion ... (I think the Sirius event has to do with the Dog Star, not the radio station or Harry Potter's godfather. Dear anonymous5089, who has visited some of the stranger conspiracy sites, suggests that Joe gets some of his more impenetrable ideas from those, so that may be what the Sirius events refers to, or it may be something astronomical that I can't find with a simple google search.) Joe thinks the Sirius events may be the unknown cause of solar flares, which are visible on Guam where he lives. Madonna/MTV has nothing to do with anything, as far as I can tell, but I'm not up on American pop culture, especially of the Baby Boom period, so those references are over my head. Joe keenly enjoys American pop culture, and throws in musical, movie and television references as they seem to him to illustrate the subject he is discussing.

JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP > "CHERRY BOMB".

I've no idea what this means -- is that a song, an album, a tour? In Joe's mind it somehow connects to either solar flares or Madonna or MTV.

The above being said, SPACEWEATHER.com > seems the RECENT + LATEST/NEWEST SOLAR FILAMENTS + MAGNETIC STORMS was another opportunity for GUAM TAOTAMONAS to walk the streets of Agana.

Spaceweather.com is another website. + means and. The Taotamonas are Guamian ancestral spirits/ghosts. Agana is the old name for the capitol of Guam. Joe may be theorizing that the ghosts are as much an artifact of the solar magnetic storms as the flares he sees in the sky over Guam.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2010 14:54 Comments || Top||

#19  Thank you for the research, TW. It appears Joe should be giving briefings at the UN...
Posted by: Muggsy Glink || 05/29/2010 15:02 Comments || Top||

#20  Joe M is an oracle---he is OUR oracle---he cranks this stuff out. Some of it is kernel, and some is chaff---it is up to us to sort it out if we have the time or the interest.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/29/2010 16:03 Comments || Top||

#21  John Mellencamp's Cherry Bomb

I think it's a reference to OS and GT.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/29/2010 16:14 Comments || Top||

#22  Just ignore his verbal vomit. EVEN IF he said ANYTHING INTERESTING, the MIXED case use of ALL CAPS would be ENOUGH to make me NEVER READ ANYTHING HE POSTS.

He does it deliberately, too, I've seen him talk normally once or twice. He's a regular from fark.com, one of those internet communities where they make jokes about people who die in car accidents and such.
Posted by: gromky || 05/29/2010 17:41 Comments || Top||

#23  Brilliant work Gromky, the sage of the Middle Kingdom enlightens us barbarians.

Now please, GTFO.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/29/2010 18:30 Comments || Top||

#24  No, Joe isn't our Oracle.

He's our Prophet!

After all, the writings or sayings of a prophet have to sound like the ravings of an insane lunatic - however hidden in the depths if the gibberish are a few choice gems. That is how one 'disguises the message' so that only his (or her) chosen few will understand.

Actually if you ponder his writings (typing) you can usually work out what he's saying - however it does take some work.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/29/2010 18:35 Comments || Top||

#25  To be honest, I only read JosephM's posts when I have the energy. When I don't, just looking at at it frustrates me, so I understand both attitudes toward him. Yes, he can write normally, but chooses to write in his personal shorthand. So do Shipman and muck4doo, sometimes, although we must admire how much better mucky has learnt to spell during his vacation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2010 19:23 Comments || Top||

#26  Wasn't Sirius also the name of Hannibal's (personal/remaining through the marshes) elephant?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/29/2010 20:43 Comments || Top||

#27  Mucky! You're back!

Howz it going?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/29/2010 21:41 Comments || Top||

#28  munchkins. good ta se ya Barabra. :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 23:52 Comments || Top||


Britain
Police braced for rival marches in Newcastle
Around 1,000 members of the English Defence League (EDL) will face 1,300 followers of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) when two rival marches come to an end. A major police operation has been planned for weeks in Newcastle to prevent serious disorder between the far right group and its opponents.

The EDL claimed not to be racist and said it was set up last year to oppose militant Islam. But it has a hardcore following among known football hooligans who, its opponents state, have overtly racist views. The Grauniad Guardian has reported that the EDL is planning to provoke a summer of unrest.

Despite violence between the two groups elsewhere in the past - including Stoke, Bolton and Dudley - Chief Supt Graham Smith expected city life to continue as normal.

Northumbria Police would not disclose how many officers will be on the streets, but said it had received back-up from five forces. Officers from the Metropolitan Police and Northern Ireland were among hundreds already on patrol ahead of the marches on Saturday afternoon.

The EDL, estimated to bring 1,000 supporters, will start at one end of the city and finish at the Bigg Market. Around 100m away police expect 1,300 members of the UAF to gather in Newgate. The UAF have requested to have "line of sight" of the EDL, Mr Smith said.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/29/2010 07:36 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I suspect things are starting to heat up again in northern Ireland. There are just too many people who want to fight each other.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/29/2010 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  This is England, not Ireland.
But the second sentence is still accurate. We think of the English as passive and biddable, and that just isn't so.
I recall a comment from medieval Europe, when English mercenaries ran amok in a captured town for three days..."truly the English glory in slaughter".

Posted by: Grunter || 05/29/2010 15:38 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Pirates threaten boats on US-Mexico border lake
Posted by: Mike Hunt || 05/29/2010 15:24 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is at least the 3rd posting for this news on the 'Burg.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/29/2010 23:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Mr.Search says NO!
Not posted here before.
Posted by: Mike Hunt || 05/29/2010 23:50 Comments || Top||


Economy
Oakland to license, tax indoor marijuana growers
Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.

If you can't beat 'em, tax 'em.

After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations.

One of the authors, Councilman Larry Reid, said the proposal is more of an effort to bring in money than an endorsement of legalizing marijuana use — although the council has unanimously supported that, too.

The city is facing a $42 million budget shortfall. The tax voters approved last summer on the four medical marijuana clubs allowed under Oakland law is expected to contribute $1 million to its coffers in the first year, Reid said. A tax on growers' sales to the clubs could bring in substantially more, he said.

"Looking at the economic analysis, we will generate a considerable amount of additional revenues, and that will certainly help us weather the hard economic times that all urban areas are having to deal with," Reid said.

How much money is at stake isn't clear because the tax rate and the number of facilities the law would allow haven't been decided. A report prepared for AgraMed Inc., one of the companies planning to seek a grower's license, said its proposed 100,000-square-foot-project near the Oakland Coliseum would produce more than $2 million in city taxes each year.

Given their likely locations in empty warehouses in industrial neighborhoods, the marijuana nurseries under consideration would have more in common with factories than rural pot farms.

Dhar Mann, the founder of an Oakland hydroponics equipment store called iGrow, and Derek Peterson, a former stock broker who now sells luxury trailers outfitted for growing pot as a co-founder of GrowOp Enterprises, have hired an architect to draft plans for two warehouses where marijuana would be grown and processed year-round.

Their vision includes using lights, trays and other equipment manufactured by iGrow and creating an online system that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to see what pot strains are in stock, place orders and track deliveries.

"We are emulating the wine industry, but instead of 'from grape to bottle,' it's 'from plant to pipe,'" Mann said.

"Or seed to sack," offered Peterson.

The pair say they intend to operate the pot-growing business they have dubbed GROPECH — Grass Roots of Oakland Philanthropic and Economic Coalition for Humanity — as a not-for-profit. They anticipate gross sales reaching $70 million a year. After paying their expenses, they'd funnel the money to local charities and non-profits through a competitive grant process.
Posted by: tipper || 05/29/2010 07:06 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The beginning of the end. Now that was quick. Expect 'high' prices. Cheech, "man, it was cheaper in the days it was illegal."
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/29/2010 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  I know a kid with a medical marijuana card. He has a 'neck injury' from his childhood. He buys his pot from a dispensary for $125 for 1/8th of an ounce. Don't know what variety. He's not a bad kid, harmless to society.

I think it is worth mentioning though, that he's 27, still lives at home with his parents and works at the Lucky grocery store around the corner from his house.

So I'm not sure medical cannabis has done him much of a service. Nor has it turned him into a raving heroin junkie either though.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 05/29/2010 14:19 Comments || Top||

#3  a cat. not in a hat.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/29/2010 14:51 Comments || Top||

#4  If they set the taxes too high . . . we already have in place an effective and widespread smuggling system. All the smugglers need to do is counterfeit tax stamps.
Posted by: James || 05/29/2010 15:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Seem like there would still be a large demand for cheap, crappy pot to me. All the stuff being grown in the high tech hydroponics gardens is very pricey.
Do people still smoke cheap swag? Mexico won't get cut out of the game altogether if they do.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 05/29/2010 15:44 Comments || Top||

#6  seriously $125 an eighth? that is crazy expensive. gotta be a typo in there. just asked my kid, and it goes for $10 a gram in the local high school
Posted by: abu do you love || 05/29/2010 18:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Nope, highest grade medical, exotic variety I guess, $125 per 1/8th oz. I'm sure that there are a lot cheaper varieties, but why mess around if you are going to smoke that crap.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 05/29/2010 22:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Remember, they're emulating the wind industry. You probably drink the $5.00 stuff, so you wouldn't appreciate the bouquet of Chateau Neuf de Pape.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/29/2010 22:19 Comments || Top||


Europe
French secret service fear Russian cathedral a spying front
The French secret service has reportedly expressed alarm over plans for a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Paris, fearing it will be used by Moscow as a front for spies.
Posted by: tipper || 05/29/2010 00:41 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But mosques are OK?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2010 4:50 Comments || Top||

#2  The solution is obvious: let the Russians have a mosque!
Posted by: Steve White || 05/29/2010 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Perhaps if more of the Russian mafia emigrated to the French banelieus. But the Russians have more sense than that.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/29/2010 12:03 Comments || Top||

#4  The question is not why would Russia want to spy on France. The question is why would Russia need to spy on France.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 05/29/2010 21:18 Comments || Top||


Turkeys Erdogan says nuke powers must disarm
[Al Arabiya Latest] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the United States and other nuclear powers should "eliminate" their arsenals to be "convincing" in the standoff over Iran, as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva underlined his insistence that a "negotiated solution" be found with Iran over its nuclear program.
Short Round is feeding Erdogan his talking points ...
Erdogan, speaking at a U.N. conference on cross-cultural understanding in Rio, made the comment in the context of a deal Brazil and Turkey struck with Iran over its uranium stocks, and a U.S. push for U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.

"When we hear people talking about stopping Iran getting nuclear weapons -- who are they to talk against the idea of having nuclear weapons!" Erdogan exclaimed.

"Those who talk like that should eliminate nuclear weapons from their own countries.... That's the only way to be convincing," he said. "We will not manage to have world peace with the proliferation of nuclear arms."

The Brazilian president, meanwhile, reiterated his insistence that a "negotiated solution" be found with Iran over its nuclear program, as the U.S. and other powers mulled sanctions. Lula said he "went to Iran in search of a negotiated solution" to the international standoff over the program, which the United States claims -- over Tehran's denials -- is a cover for building atomic weapons.

The Brazilian president also stated that he saw nuclear arsenals as "obsolete" and highlighted his country's constitutional ban on possessing such arms.

The comments, made at the opening of a U.N. conference in Rio, came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "we have very serious disagreements with Brazil's diplomacy vis-a-vis Iran."

The United States is pushing a U.N. resolution to punish Iran with a fourth set of sanctions after deeming that it is not doing enough to meet international demands to show its nuclear program is peaceful.

Lula and Erdogan on May 17 extracted an agreement from Iran to deposit around half its stock of low-enriched uranium in Turkey in exchange, later, for nuclear fuel enriched to a level for medical -- but not military -- use. They hailed the deal as a diplomatic breakthrough, and said it aligned with demands set out to them by the U.S. government to avert an escalation against Iran.

But Washington subsequently said the accord did not go far enough, notably with Iran insisting it would still enrich its remaining uranium stock, and the sanctions resolution was submitted to the U.N. Security Council, upon which Brazil and Turkey both sit.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Turkeys Erdogan says nuke powers must disarm

To me, this says something about how other nations view the West.
Posted by: gorb || 05/29/2010 2:02 Comments || Top||


Spain Loses AAA Rating at Fitch
May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Spain lost its AAA credit grade at Fitch Ratings as Europe battles a debt crisis that's prompted policy makers to forge an almost $1 trillion bailout package for the region's weakest economies. The ratings company yesterday cut the grade one step to AA+ and assigned it a “stable' outlook, according to a statement from London. Spain has held the top rating at Fitch since 2003. Standard & Poor's lowered Spain's ratings to AA on April 28.

“The process of adjustment to a lower level of private sector and external indebtedness will materially reduce the rate of growth of the Spanish economy over the medium-term,' Brian Coulton, Fitch's head of Europe, Middle East and Africa sovereign ratings in London, said in the statement.

Spain is struggling to cut the euro region's third-largest budget deficit as the economy, still reeling from the collapse of a debt-fueled construction boom, is forecast to contract for a second full year. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has angered traditional allies by cutting public wages and freezing pensions, has failed to convince investors he can put the finances back in order as borrowing costs continue to surge.

“I would like to emphasize that it's still a high rating,' Soledad Nunez, the director of Spain's Treasury, said in a telephone interview. “The agency recognizes that public finances are strong and the government's commitment to fiscal reform.'

Earlier in the day, the extra yield investors demand to hold Spanish 10-year bonds rather than German equivalents rose to 153 basis points from 152 basis points on May 27. The spread compares with an average of 23 basis points over the last decade and is just 10 basis points below the level before the EU created a financial backstop for the weakest euro members.

Fitch's move follows Standard & Poor's decision to cut its rating on Spain twice since the start of 2009. Moody's Investors Service retains an Aaa rating. Spain's debt burden as a proportion of GDP was 53 percent last year, lower than Germany, France and the euro-region average.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/29/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Simmons Calls For Obama to Take Over BP; Military To Nuke Oil Leak
Posted by: tipper || 05/29/2010 15:28 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This "story" steaming pile of crap.
Posted by: Parabellum || 05/29/2010 16:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Simmons? The former Connecticut congressman? Richard? Oh, an investment banker!

And - there's another "fissure" 5-7 miles away? And BP has what to do with that?

And he wants the army or the Russians to nuke them?

No wonder the Chinese ad Cubans' have made an exploration deal. Maybe the POTUS can subcontract this all to them.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 05/29/2010 16:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Media tonight say "Top Kill" has failed. Time to try something else.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/29/2010 23:06 Comments || Top||


Joe McGinniss on why he moved in next to Sarah Palin
Posted by: ryuge || 05/29/2010 07:16 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because he's hoping Todd will punch him in the face?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2010 8:30 Comments || Top||

#2  creepy thin-skinned attention whore: Joe McGinniss
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2010 10:05 Comments || Top||

#3  By being here I have learned things, and I've gotten an insight into her character, into her ability to incite hatred, that before I only knew about in the abstract.

Glad you got it out in the last line, Joe. Your head probably would've exploded if ya didn't...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/29/2010 11:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I didn't know he was still alive.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/29/2010 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  #4 I didn't know he was still alive.

My guess: He's not. See: "Hate-animated Zombie"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2010 12:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Exclusive. Joe McGinniss talks.

Umm, why do I care?
Posted by: Steve White || 05/29/2010 16:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Umm, why do I care?

Because we can't really rid ourselves of their lies except by showing what they're saying is bull****. This necessitates occasionally listening to said bull**** ourselves.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/29/2010 18:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Big Journalism has a funny 'diary' of Joe's first days:

Dear Diary: On Literary Stakeout In Wasilla, Joe McGinniss Can See Sarah Palin’s House!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/29/2010 18:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Todd should take a ball peen hammer to this shitheads knee caps.
Posted by: Jefferson || 05/29/2010 20:01 Comments || Top||

#10  My feelings about Palin are pretty much neutral, but I would gladly take this McGinniss douche bag for a trip behind the woodshed on GP. No guarantees he would make the trip intact.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 05/29/2010 21:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Facebook rival launched in Pakistan after 'blasphemous' Prophet images published
Web developers in Pakistan have launched a version of Facebook for the Muslim world after the social networking site was blocked for showing “blasphemous' images of the Prophet Mohammed.
Posted by: tipper || 05/29/2010 00:53 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Burkabook?
Posted by: Mullah Lodabullah || 05/29/2010 3:43 Comments || Top||

#2  facelessbook
Posted by: gorb || 05/29/2010 4:18 Comments || Top||

#3  acid-washed
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2010 10:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Drone-Target-Book.com
Posted by: Bugs Spealing3182 || 05/29/2010 13:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Fatwabook.com
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/29/2010 23:09 Comments || Top||



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Sat 2010-05-29
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