At only 2.75 inches in diameter, the Direct Attack Guided Rocket--DAGR, pronounced dagger--is designed to be the bread-and-butter air-to-surface weapon in the US arsenal. It's compatible with every flying thing, very low cost, laser-guided, extremely precise and extraordinarily deadly. The specs look almost wicked. They blow up slightly inside the target, further reducing collateral damage and increasing damage where you typically want it: Inside the mud hut.
Video at link.
But UAVs don't do laser guiding, right? So who would use them?
#1
But UAVs don't do laser guiding, right? So who would use them?
Actually they do. Also my understanding is this can be used by ships and ground vehicles.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/25/2011 13:04 Comments ||
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#2
But UAVs don't do laser guiding, right? So who would use them?
Lasers are easy. Remember all the bombing footage from the Iraq wars? Those crosshairs are where the laser gets pointed. Easily controlled even from a distance on a slow-moving, stable drone.
#3
Everything has a laser designator now. UAV, aircraft flying nearby, helicopters, infantry, tanks, APCs all can guide in munitions. There are even rumors that a satellite can do it, but I do not know if that is even true.
#4
The big question is what type of explosive is used. I suspect it is that same stuff they are using in the new 25mm rifle grenade, which is why it packs so much more punch than the standard 40mm grenade.
If that's the case, I imagine that there are going to be a lot more weapons systems coming on line soon that use it.
#7
I've been following this project for several years, this one and another called APKWS. These use the rocket motor and the warhead of existing 2.75" Folding Fin Aireal Rockets (FFAR)and insert a quidance section between them. The new rockets use the same 7 and 19 round launch tubes (as well as a new 4 pack for uavs shown in the video on an AH6). They are longer than unguided rockets, and a little heavier, but overall they fit into the inventory very nicely.
Moved from Britain to Short Attention Span Theater.
-- tw at 12:39 ET
A US woman has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly hanging her nephew's pit bull from a tree with an electrical cord and burning its body after it chewed on her Bible.
Animal control officers said that 65-year-old Miriam Smith told them she killed a female dog named Diamond because it was a 'devil dog' and she worried it could harm neighbourhood children.
Smith's nephew left the one-year-old animal at the home he shared with his aunt during the recent winter weather while he went away.
When he returned, he could find no trace of the dog and assumed she had broken the chain where she was usually tied at the front porch of the house.
An environmental enforcement officer came across the dog's body under a mound of dried grass, stinking of kerosene.
The dog had an orange extension cord wrapped tightly around its neck and its body was partially burned.
Authorities said bail was not immediately set for Smith, who remains jailed in Spartanburg County, South Carolina after her weekend arrest.
Smith is charged with ill treatment of animals in general, torture, according to an arrest warrant.
She faces 180 days to five years in prison if convicted.
Officials said she did not have a lawyer yet. Good thing it wasn't a Holy Crayon.
Though Olbermann's exit deal with the network reportedly prevents him from returning to television for at least six to nine months, the controversial host's Twitter post suggests he plans to make quick comeback.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2011 14:07 Comments ||
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#3
Then again, Keef is always useful right before an election -- help make sure the Tea Party folks are suitably worked up and ready to go to the polls.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2011 14:19 Comments ||
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#4
You have a point Steve. However, he is just so annoying. The cost of the effort of watching/listening to him is just not worth the cost of the aggravation.
* The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004
It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980.
Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.
Two-thirds of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave their homes. More
#1
But hampered by a lack of data they have stopped short of an all-out warning and they are unable to put a date on when the next disaster might take place.
Could happen at any moment. We'd better go take over Iran. And Norkland. And Venezuela. And "Palestine".
Some day, it will stop erupting. Or maybe it already has stopped. At least it's not related to global warming, although such an eruption would cool off the rest of the planet!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/25/2011 6:00 Comments ||
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#9
Lord Garth is correct, the rise slowed and stopped in 2010. However, we have no idea the warning signs for a supervolcano as we have never witnessed one in modern times. They have gone off several times in human history and one is even theorized to have caused a genetic bottleneck by killing so many animals that only a few thousand breeding pairs were left.
Basically, it could go off at anytime or it could blow in a couple thousand years. If it does go, there is very little we can do except get out of the way. Disaster preparedness will mean nothing since your few days of food will not mean squat since entire years worth of food/farmlad will be buried and destroyed. There will be no cavalry to come save you since the cavalry will be casualties or running for their lives themselves.
#10
I would think flights being grounded would be the least of concerns.
Along with my family and personal collectables, I would like to have sealed copies of the EPA's letter outlawing this activity on account of emission violations and the Sierra Club's letter condemning the destruction of protected lands.
#11
Imma gonna get a case of beer and watch the fireworks.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/25/2011 12:45 Comments ||
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#12
Actually there ARE ways to help relieve pressure before it goes boom, but the EPA and others would NEVER allow it. If we cracked it open so that the magma could flow out instead of exploding, it'd probably stave off a massive kaboom. Course, cracking it means kissing Yellowstone National Park goodbye.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
01/25/2011 12:46 Comments ||
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#13
All theory silentbrick. Kinda like drilling a small hole in a champagne bottle to release the fizz. The problem is there are so many unknowns. It might work, if the pressure is correctly predicted, there are no weird cracks and faults over the miles of magma chamber, no earthquakes happen that to break the hole/create new fissures, etc., etc. I would consider an effort to release the pressure to be a very desperate and last ditch effort with a small chance of success. Better than the chance of no success if the whole thing blows, but still a long shot.
#14
Oh, I was thinking more along the lines of blowing bloody great holes, not drilling expect to drop a nuke down to break up the rock. We'd need a pretty big hole though to relieve enough pressure. But yeah, theory. Course, you have theory vs certain knowledge that at some point, it WILL go boom.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
01/25/2011 13:32 Comments ||
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#15
They are not particularly concerned, because the plume is about 8-10km down. If it was just 2-4km down, it would be a lot more worrisome.
That being said, a long time ago, the oceanic Farallon Plate was pushed at a shallow angle under North America, when the west coast of North America was about Utah. Its remnants are still sliding under the Pacific northwest.
There is some suggestion that this lighter, crust material provides much of the material pushed up from below by the heavier basalt.
#16
I'm sure Bruce Willis could turn this into a movie...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2011 14:21 Comments ||
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#17
letting the lava flow won't do it. Two types of volcanoes eruption wise:
(1) Kilauea type - low water basalt that flows river like although more viscous. Low hazard, minimal booms, predictable results
(2) Mt. St. Helens type - High water crustal content. Extreme boom, lots of ejecta, pyroclastic flow. Think a pressure cooker as the vapor builds.
The sheer size of the events dwarfs human ability to digest. Scientists for years knew there was a volcano in Yellowstone but couldn't find it. They were standing in the middle of the caldera but at tens of miles wide didn't realize what it was.
If this decides to go, every 600000 yrs +or-, there is nothing we can do. A true ELE Extinction Level Event.
Did my Master's field work on an extinct volcanic plug 30 miles SE of Yellowstone..
#19
"I'm sure Bruce Willis could turn this into a movie..."
Already been done, Steve - though not by Bruce Willis. It was a made-for-TV movie a few years ago.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2011 14:56 Comments ||
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#20
yup Babs...saw that one...Mrs. Warthog cringes whenever I watch something like this. As I remember...the science wasn't that bad (other than the 3-D prediction stuff....All in all...we don't now enough to predict weeks in advance...maybe days
Statistically, the probability of that happening in our lifetime is about the same as Obama embracing Tea Party views...we should all feel safe about this one...
#21
On the other hand, Sirius (the star, not the company) could go super-nova at any moment - at which point we have about 8 years before the gamma/x-ray flash sterilizes our planet.
But that's what we call an occurrence of "low-order probability"...
#22
On the other hand the eruption would stop global warming...
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/25/2011 17:23 Comments ||
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#23
On the other hand the eruption would stop global warming...
And, as a side benefit, make a serious dent in the world's human population. To some people, this is a goal to work towards.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/25/2011 18:48 Comments ||
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#24
Every disaster is a new opportunity. I would drill the heck out of the caldera at key points and extract geothermal energy in quantities that would make Iceland's production dwarf. We could have geothermal steam plants that would generate some serious electrical energy. EPA get outta duh way.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2011 19:16 Comments ||
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#25
I would drill the heck out of the caldera at key points and extract geothermal energy in quantities that would make Iceland's production dwarf. We could have geothermal steam plants that would generate some serious electrical energy.
Sounds like the beginning of a made for Syfy channel movie.
[Iran Press TV] The head of Tunisia's armed forces Rachid Ammar has pledged to safeguard the country's historic revolution against any possible deviations.
Ammar made the pledge to a crowd of anti-government protesters in the capital Tunis on Monday.
"The national army is the guarantor of the revolution. The army has protected and protects the people and the country," Ammar said.
At some point Ammar will be pressed to save the revolution from nefarious outside forces, revanchists, and royalists. He'll repeatedly try to step aside but finally will succumb to the adulation of the people and the demands of the masses.
And then he'll crush them all.
The remarks come as police clashed with protesters camping outside the office of interim Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannoushi the premier's office, calling on the government to resign.
Protesters demand that the allies of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali resign from the interim cabinet.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Tunisian police have put Ben Ali's former interior minister and his advisor under house arrest. They also raided a TV station, arresting its owner on charges of treason and working for Ben Ali's return.
This comes as Tunisian schoolchildren returned to classes for the first time since the protests toppled the government ten days ago. Universities will also reopen on Wednesday.
Ben Ali's 23-year of dictatorship, which was marred by repeated human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... violations and torture, ended earlier this month after weeks of street protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Tunisian police fired tear gas and protesters smashed police cars as tensions resumed Monday in the capital of a country struggling to stabilize itself after the president was tossed.
Scores of protesters from Tunisian provinces gathered in front of the prime minister's office Monday morning, screaming and hollering and breaking windows of cars nearby. Police fired tear gas on the crowd, which included people who had defied a nationwide curfew and staged a sleep-in overnight.
Schools were set to reopen Monday after protracted closure amid the unrest, but teachers went on strike.
The protesters are angry that holdovers from former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime hold leading posts in the interim government in place since last week.
Ben Ali beat it from the country Jan. 14 after 23 years in power, pushed out by weeks of deadly protests driven by anger over joblessness, corruption and repression.
Noisy street demonstrations have continued since Ben Ali's departure, but most have been peaceful.
State TV also reported Monday that a former Ben Ali political adviser who had been sought by police, Abdelwaheb Abdallah, has been located and sent to his room.
Police have cracked down on key allies of the ousted president, placing two high-ranking officials under house arrest and detaining the head of a well-known private TV station for allegedly trying to slow down the country's nascent steps toward democracy.
Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution" sparked scattered protests and civil disobedience across the Middle East and North Africa. Many observers were looking to see if Tunisians can complete their fervent push for democracy.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who took that post in 1999 under Ben Ali and has kept it through the upheaval, has vowed to quit politics after upcoming elections. But he has insisted that he needs to stay on to shepherd Tunisia through a transition to democracy. Many other Cabinet members are also Ben Ali-era holdovers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Nigeria has called on the UN Security Council to authorize the use of force against the contested Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo and force him to give up power.
Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia says this is the only way to legitimize the use of external force and ensure peace in Ivory Coast.
"... The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) requires unequivocal international support through an appropriate United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Security Council resolution to sanction the use of force," Ajumogobia wrote in an editorial in a Nigerian newspaper. "This is the only way to legitimize the use of external force to effectively contain the increasingly volatile internal situation and ensure an enduring peace in Cote d'Ivoire and the West African sub-region."
"Gbagbo must be made to understand that there is a very real prospect of overwhelming military capability bearing down on him and his cohorts."
"It is only then that he will give serious consideration to the demands that he step down immediately."
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the internationally-recognized winner of the presidential election, Alassane Ouattara has called for a month-long ban on cocoa exports to pressure Gbagbo to step down. However, The infamous However... Gbagbo's youth minister said the incumbent is not prepared to make any compromise.
Speaking to thousands of Gbagbo supporters, Charles Ble Goude ruled out the possibility of negotiations over Ivory Coast's freedom on Monday.
Gbagbo and his rival Ouattara have been locked in a standoff since the presidential elections in November. Tensions further escalated after they both claimed victory and formed separate cabinets.
The UN recognized Ouattara as the winner of the presidential election in Ivory Coast and announced that it only accepts Ouattara's representative as the Ivorian envoy to the international body.
The disputed presidential election has raised the risk of a long power struggle that could trigger another civil war in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The head of the central bank of West African states, who is accused of not cooperating with the internationally recognised winner of Cote d'Ivoire's presidential elections, has resigned.
The decision by Philippe Henri Dacoury-Tabley was announced on Saturday after a meeting of the heads of state of the West African Economic and Monetary Union in Bamako, Mali.
Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo has refused to give up power despite international calls for his ouster. The regional central bank had recognised Alassane Ouattara as the head of state and revoked Gbagbo's access to state accounts in December.
Officials with the regional union said that only representatives of Ouattara's government would have signing privileges on state accounts. The regional bank, known by its acronym BCEAO, regroups the treasuries of eight West African countries.
Ouattara officials have said that despite this action, Gbagbo has still been able to access money from the central bank. Without access to state funds, there is speculation whether Gbagbo would be able to pay state salaries.
Gbagbo's supporter
In a statement read to media after the meeting, the union said that it accepted Dacoury-Tabley's resignation and called on Ouattara to propose a replacement for the bank.
Dacoury-Tabley is known to be a close confidant of Gbagbo. He said he was pressured into the resignation after having been accused by Ouattara's camp of going against the bank's policy to cut off funds to Gbagbo.
"I agreed to hand in my resignation as that is what was asked of me," Dacoury-Tabley said after the meeting.
He defended his actions as head of the bank, pointing to various practical and technical reasons for not giving control of Cote d'Ivoire's accounts to Ouattara.
"Some people can't understand what really went on," he said. "I am profoundly sad for the institution that I served for 35 years."
Cote d'Ivoire was represented at the Bamako meeting by Ouattara's prime minister, Guillaume Soro, who said this was a positive step for the country.
"The measures that were taken were good ones because the legitimate government of Ivory Coast could not accept that someone who confiscated power continued to withdraw money from the Ivory Coast's accounts," Soro said.
'Forced resignation'
The government of Gbagbo "rejected the forced resignation" of Dacoury-Tabley.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Polls have opened in the Central African Republic where voters are casting ballots in an election to determine whether incumbent president Francois Bozize will stay in power.
Bozize, who seized control in 2003 and consolidated his position with an election victory in 2005, is expected to win Sunday's vote.
His challengers include Ange-Felix Patasse, an ex-president ousted by Bozize who returned from years in exile to run as an independent candidate, along with Martin Ziguele, a former prime minister of Patasse's.
If no candidate wins a majority, a run-off between the two finishers is scheduled for March 20.
A total of 868 politicians are also running in legislative elections with 105 seats in the country's parliament up for grabs.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire's Alassane Ouattara ordered the suspension of the country's cocoa and coffee exports, media reports quoted a statement from Ouattara's government as saying on Monday.
Ouattara was backed by the international community including the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society (UN), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States and La Belle France as winner of the West African country's presidential elections, although the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refuses to step down.
After the presidential run-off held on Nov. 28 last year, Ouattara was declared winner by the electoral commission while the Constitutional Council, which has the final say on the results of the poll, said Gbagbo won the vote.
Gbagbo was sworn in as the new president by the Constitutional Council, and Ouattara also swore himself in as the president.
Gbagbo has refused to step down, and retains control of government buildings, state television and the security forces.
The AU mediator and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga last week ended his mission to Cote d'Ivoire without making any breakthrough. Gbagbo has rejected Odinga as mediator, saying he is "biased."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Why do Rantburgers call the UN the 'Oyster Bay' society? The UN is in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. Oyster Bay is 29.6 miles away.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/25/2011 6:51 Comments ||
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#2
Because they are so out of touch with reality they don't know where they are anyway, and Note that NO UN member has ever bothered to notice or correct us either.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/25/2011 10:48 Comments ||
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#3
Any New Yorker or Long Islander will know the difference.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/25/2011 19:53 Comments ||
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A London law firm has abandoned its widely-criticised attempts to extract hundreds of pounds in damages from internet users it accused of unlawful filesharing, claiming it has received bomb threats.
In a statement read to the patent court, Andrew Crossley, the founder of ACS:Law, said he had stopped issuing demands for damages.
"I have ceased my work... I have been subject to criminal attack," he said via his barrister, the BBC reports.
Mr Crossley made the announcement in the middle of a case against 26 alleged unlawful filesharers, brought on behalf of MediaCAT.
"My emails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats," Mr Crossley's statement said.
Today the Metropolitan Police told The Telegraph it had no knowledge of any bomb threat against Mr Crossley or ACS:Law. In October however, Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver, a Virginia law firm involved in a similar pursuit of alleged unlawful filesharers in the United States, evacuated its offices after receiving a bomb threat via email.
[El Universal] Average monthly sales have dropped since August 2010
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Good. Deciding between a pick-up and a horse, sometimes a horse makes more since, especially when it comes to deciding to send de'niros Senor Hugo Chavez's way.
Ukraine has been providing China with the technics to build an aircraft carrier, says the latest issue of the Canadian magazine Kanwa Asian Defense.
Ukraine experts are also involved in the restoration of Varyag, an derelict carrier that China bought from Ukraine in 1999.
"The restoration of Varyag has been completed, and the vessel has been equipped with Ukraine developed power systems, " said the monthly.
China bought the Kuznetsov-class Varyag, without any power, radar or battle systems, and towed it through the Black Sea to the northern port of Dalian under the pretext of turning it into a tourist attraction.
But many military observers believed that China is changing Varyag into a training ground for its pilots on the soon-to-be-established fighter fleets on the carrier.
Andri Pinkov, founder and editor-of-chief of the magazine, said that Ukraine also helped China's Harbin boiler plant manufacture military boilers and steam machines in order to adopt the "catapult assisted take off and arrested recovery system" that is used by Russian carrier aircraft.
Besides, China has constructed two platforms to train its pilots for its carrier fleets, he added.
#1
"Two platforms to train its pilots" > Unless I've missed something, AFAIK both are on LAND. China now needs to build new platforms that are actually afloat on water.
#1
Check with your COC. Review our business regulations and policies in the U.S. Review our trade policies. Review who owns our debt. Review the outflow of our monies. That should give an explanation for your alarm.
#2
As illustrated by China's decisions during the first Korean War, Vietnam, + Sino-Soviet border clashes, WHAT INTIMIDATES THE USDOD IS CHINA'S DEDIC WILLINGNESS TO FIGHT + MILITARILY INTERVENE DESPITE ANY WELL-RECOGNIZED LACK OF ECON ANDOR TECHNOLOGICAL SUPERIORIORITY OR DOMINANCE, ETC. AGZ MODERN OPPONENTS.
E.g. SINO-SOVIET BORDER CLASHES > its now known that Beijing was willing to let the USSR invade or nuke a number of Chin cities in order to gain Operational or Mil Advantage over the Soviets iff the border clashes ever expanded into full-scale major war between it + Moscow.
IOW, THE CHINESE WERE WILLING TO ACCEPT = TOLERATE MASSIVE MILITARY + CIVILIAN CASUALTIES, + LOSS OF TERRITORY(S), TO ACHIEVE ITS AGENDA = DECISIVE VICTORY IN THE END.
Aka OUTLASTING AN ENEMY = "WINNING BY NOT LOSING".
CHIN = RADICAL ISLAM/MUSLIMS = WAGE WARS OF YEARS, DECADES, + GENERATIONS, e.g. EX-POTUS DUBYA'S "LONG WAR".
Lest we fergit, NET > PLA OFFICIAL > China can win agz the US in a major US-China Nuc War because Chin's 1.3-1.5 Bilyuhn-n-rising massive population is such that Amer may lose ALL of its population in major war while China may only lose roughly 1/2-plus/minus.
Also, China's above 1.3-1.5Bilyuhn population figure [official Govt figures]remains heavily disputed by US-Western Analysts.
A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer was sentenced to 32 years in prison Monday for selling military secrets to China in the latest of several high-profile cases of Chinese espionage in the U.S.
Chief U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway said Noshir Gowadia, 66, would likely be in his late 80s by the time he is released if he gets credit for good behavior in prison.
"He broke his oath of loyalty to this country," Mollway said. "He was found guilty of marketing valuable technology to foreign countries for personal gain."
Gowadia was convicted in August on 14 counts, including communicating national defense information to aid a foreign nation and violating the arms export control act.
#6
So - according to the UNITED NATIONS and their HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (as well as most liberals) - this kind of treatment is perfectly ok - she probably 'deserved it' (according to them).
But keeping prisoners in too warm rooms or daring to touch an unholy Quaran is a crime against humanity...
Perhaps we should start abiding by the UN Human Rights commission's standards and start treating the guests at GITMO like this.
[Iran Press TV] The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has agreed on a deal to take over a US retail bank, at a time when American financial institutions are falling one after another.
The ICBC will buy 80 percent of the US unit of Bank of East Asia Ltd. for USD 140 million, the two companies announced in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.
The move, which is yet to be approved by US regulators, could be a positive step for the arrival of Chinese banks to the US retail market.
The deal was signed during President Hu Jintao's state visit to the US.
The acquisition "will enable us to establish a solid presence in the US," ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing said in the statement.
"With this commercial bank license in the US, ICBC can further expand its retail banking business and operating network across the nation."
In January, ICBC opened its first branch in Gay Paree, and is doubling its presence in Europe through branch openings in major cities.
Over 10 percent of the 7,760 banks in the US are in financial trouble and despite receiving a total of USD 4.2 billion in bailout cash, 98 US banks are still at risk of failing.
In 2010, 157 US banks failed and so far this year seven banks have failed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe they can be convinced to take over US schools?
#8
I saw a deal about 6 months ago for a youth center in Wichita KS which advertised a different perspective on the news and the chance to learn chinese in order to get a job. I found that odd so I did some research and there were interesting connections but cannot find the site again whatever that may mean.
I guess the frank dodd bill has not been translated yet.
That's nice. But until the Belgians get themselves some new politicians, they're going to have the same old impasses.
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Belgian capital Sunday in support of national unity and to demand that the rival political groupings finally form a coalition after seven months without a government.
Organizers said the peaceful rally in downtown Brussels -- the seat of the European Union -- is also meant to promote solidarity among the country's Phlegmish and Walloon communities and to reject nationalism.
Police said between 20,000 and 30,000 people took part in the demonstration called by a group of university students who say they're fed up with the political deadlock.
"We're sending a clear message to the politicians that we want them to form a government," said Felix De Clerck, one of the organizers.
"We are sick and tired of the enduring political impasse," said Thomas Decreus, another organizer. He said the protest showed "the people can act where politicians fail: i.e. working together across the language barrier" that slices Belgium in half.
The demonstration -- the result of a Facebook campaign under the banner "Shame. No government, great country" -- was the second of its kind in just over three years. On Nov. 18, 2007, around 35,000 people marched through the capital to vent their anger about a political deadlock that by then was preventing the formation of a government for 161 days.
Like in 2007, Sunday's protest led demonstrators -- Frenchie-lovings and Dutch-speakers -- to a vast stone arch in the Cinquentenaire park. The arch marks Belgium's independence from the Netherlands in 1830 .
Political parties representing Belgium's two communities have been unable to form a coalition since parliamentary elections last June -- a record period of deadlock in postwar Europe.
Politicians have been trying unsuccessfully to broker a new constitution with increased regional autonomy for the 6 million Dutch-speaking Flemings and 4.5 million French-speaking Walloons.
The deadlock has sparked fear that Flanders could secede from the union formed in 1830.
Positions in Flanders have hardened over the years, bringing to the fore the center-right N-VA nationalist party headed by Bart De Wever. He is negotiating on forming a government with the socialist PS party, the dominant political party in Wallonia.
In a reference to De Wever, several demonstrators carried pictures of cartoon character Bart Simpson with his face crossed out. Others carried signs saying "Separation? Not In Our Name," and "Less Bla-Bla, More Results."
Many carried umbrellas, hats, shawls and other items in the black, gold and red colors of the Belgian flag. "What do we want? We want a government," they chanted.
"When do we want it? Before the euro collapses."
Since the elections, the country has been run by a caretaker government led by Prime Minister Yves Leterme. But that government only has a limited remit and, as the euro currency tries to weather a deepening crisis, international investors are looking unkindly at the political stalemate that hamstrings the nation and prevents it from taking decisive action.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2011 00:00 ||
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Angela Davis on University-funded invitation, came to campus this past week, for pay to "preach" on rights abuses and moral and ethical and civil compasses?
Her publicity states: "She worked with prisoners." Here's how:
Angela Davis supplied guns to friends in 1970 that took over the Marin County, Calif., courtroom of almost retired 65-year-old Judge Harold Haley, duct-taped a cut-down, sawed-off double-barrel shotgun to his neck like a tie and terrorized him like that for several hours.
When a rescue was desperately attempted, they cut short his retirement plans but ended his suffering by pulling the trigger and literally blowing his head off with both barrels.
Today, Angela Davis is now an honored guest of the University of Oregon.
How about the "prisoner work" she did do prison time for - smuggling a handgun into Folsom Prison buried in her then beehive-styled hairdo? Davis is no squishy American communist, but embraced full Stalinist communism as her cause.
#1
What? She's still around and not serving time? She's like Bernadette Dohrn (Bill Ayers wife)--part of the violent left-wing who deem the ends justify the means.
"To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I'm not sure why we're there," Roberts said last March. But the escalated calls for bipartisan civility on Capitol Hill might argue against Roberts sending his regrets.
"Objectively, he's completely correct," she said about Roberts's assertion. Greenhouse noted that justices have for many years expressed concerns about attending the speech. "As Justice Alito learned, to his dismay, you can't react like an ordinary human being without becoming the news."
The controversy from President Obama's 2010 annual message to Congress came in two parts.
First, some people objected to the substance and setting of the president's direct critique of the court's 5-4 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, a high-profile decision giving corporations and labor unions the right to spend unlimited amounts of money on political speech.
"For many years the more senior members of the Supreme Court, Justice [John Paul] Stevens before he retired, Justice [Antonin] Scalia, stopped the practice of attending State of the Union addresses because they have become very political events and very awkward for the justices," Alito told a group at the Manhattan Institute in October. "We have to sit there like the proverbial potted plant most of the time. And we're not allowed to applaud--and those of us who are more disciplined refrain from manifesting any emotion or opinion whatsoever."
Indeed, the State of the Union has often produced the odd visual juxtaposition of a House chamber full of lawmakers standing and applauding while the justices remain seated and expressionless.
"I don't go because it has become so partisan," Justice Clarence Thomas said to students in Florida last year just days after the State of the Union speech, which he did not attend. "And it's very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there. There's a lot that you don't hear on TV: the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments. One of the consequences is now the court becomes part of the conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It's just an example of why I don't go."
Scalia was even more stinging in his critique.
"It is a juvenile spectacle, and I resent being called upon to give it dignity, Justice Scalia told the Federalist Society in November. "It's really not appropriate for the justices to be there."
But the court is hardly unanimous on the matter. Justice Stephen Breyer has only missed one State of the Union address since joining the court in 1994. He recently told "FOX News Sunday" host Chris Wallace that he'll be there again Tuesday night. "Sorry. Prior engagement. Gotta wax the dog."
The Transportation Security Administration, the 21st century's answer to F Troop, may get even more efficient, responsive and diligent about ignoring concerns about matters of security and complaints from travelers.
A vote to unionize the 40,000 person workforce is scheduled for March 9.
The election will be the largest in the history of the federal government. To be decided will be whether to unionize, and if so, whether to join the National Treasury Employees Union or the American Federation of Government Employees
If the to vote to unionize is yes, as expected, expect dramatic changes. It will be like Gilligan being able to file a grievance if the Skipper should smack him with his hat.
#1
If they do vote for a union, it will be the end of them.
A big part of W.'s post 9-11 reforms was to break a bunch of government unions, during the big security reorg. This saved a ton of money, so chances are that if the TSA goes union, it will be the end of the TSA. The next Republican prez will turn security back over to the airports and airlines.
A 57-year-old Palestinian woman with a pacemaker died over the weekend, after passing through the scanning machine at the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The woman, Fatima Mahmoud Abu Obeid, crossed over to Egypt along with her husband, and about half an hour later suddenly collapsed. She was taken by ambulance to a Rafah hospital on the Egyptian side where she was pronounced dead.
Palestinian sources blamed her death on the border scanning machine, described as a "U.S.-made advanced portal using millimeter wave holographic technology to screen passengers for weapons and explosives."
Military sources deny any link, saying that the machine has been tested and found not to harm those passing through it. Similar machines are also used at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Abu Obeid reportedly did not tell the operators that she had a pacemaker, and the incident is being investigated. The sources also dismissed the idea that the millimeter waves were not the same level used for all other passengers. Palestinian operators last week closed the Rafah Crossing to protest the installation of the new machine; they claim it emits dangerous radioactive waves.
The Bakken Shale has sparked a drilling frenzy in North Dakota, with drilling rig counts at the highest they have ever reached - 151 active drilling rigs in the state last week, despite the winter weather. All of the rigs are drilling for oil in the Williston Basin of North Dakota, and 93 percent of them are drilling horizontally.
Should the increase in drilling and production in North Dakota continue, the output in North Dakota may rise to between 450,000 and 700,000 barrels of oil a day within the next five to seven years, reported the North Dakota Pipeline Authority. Meanwhile...
On the other hand, the production coming out of Alaska is slated to drop to 450,000 barrels a day by 2017, the DOE reported.
By implementing horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota may well surpass Alaska in crude oil production by 2017, reported Bloomberg. According to separate reports from both the North Dakota Pipeline Authority and the US Department of Energy, if the current trends in production continue, North Dakota may overtake Alaska as the No. 1 producer in the US by 2017.
Resources and infrastructure have threatened to slow the drilling and production in North Dakota, which boasts a plethora of jobs but lacks housing for the employees and their families.
Here's hoping the EPA and Sierra Club don't read this!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/25/2011 12:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
I sure hope not:p That's where I work now:p
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
01/25/2011 12:42 Comments ||
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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.
"He was impossible to work with," Beck said.
The head of Tunisia's armed forces Rachid Ammar has pledged to safeguard the country's historic revolution against any possible deviations.
[Arab News] Tunisian police fired tear gas and protesters smashed police cars as tensions resumed Monday in the capital of a country struggling to stabilize itself after the president was 
[Iran Press TV] Nigeria has called on the UN Security Council to authorize the use of force against the contested Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo and force him to give up power.
[Al Jazeera] The head of the central bank of West African states, who is accused of not cooperating with the internationally recognised winner of Cote d'Ivoire's presidential elections, has resigned.
[Al Jazeera] Polls have opened in the Central African Republic where voters are casting ballots in an election to determine whether incumbent president Francois Bozize will stay in power.
[Iran Press TV] The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has agreed on a deal to take over a US retail bank, at a time when American financial institutions are falling one after another.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Belgian capital Sunday in support of national unity and to demand that the rival political groupings finally form a coalition after seven months without a government.
"To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I'm not sure why we're there," Roberts said last March. But the escalated calls for bipartisan civility on Capitol Hill might argue against Roberts sending his regrets.
The Bakken Shale has sparked a drilling frenzy in North Dakota, with drilling rig counts at the highest they have ever reached - 151 active drilling rigs in the state last week, despite the winter weather. All of the rigs are drilling for oil in the Williston Basin of North Dakota, and 93 percent of them are drilling horizontally. 
