#1
In Flanders Fields
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Posted by: Unish Protector of the Apes1896 ||
05/05/2011 9:45 Comments ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] It looks like everything is working against Ghana's President John Atta Mills and he might end up being a one term president.
Just days after an opinion poll said he would lose an election to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo if elections were held now, he now has to contend with former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings who has picked her nomination forms to stand against him at the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) primary to elect a candidate for the party. Heh. Jerry Rawlings' wife. Change you can believe in.
The poll, conducted by a local research group in Accra, Synovate, found that 43 per cent of respondents to a question as to who they will vote for if elections were held in April, said they would vote for Nana Akufo-Addo while 41 per cent said they would vote for President Mills.
With a sample size of 1,000 respondents selected from households across the country, the poll found Mr Nana Akufo-Addo would win six out of the 10 regions.
Government officials have rubbished the poll saying it lacked credibility. Deputy minister of science and environment, Dr Omani Boamah said there were questions not only about the sponsors of the poll but also the processes and procedures that led to the conclusions reached by the researchers.
"The poll itself is fundamentally flawed [because]...for you to go for somebody within the household and assume that that person is going to be representative of the household's preference, in my view, is just a way of denying the illusory sovereignty of the other members of the household who are at the voting age, in terms of their voter preference," he said.
But a senior research officer at Synovate, Mr William Mensah, said the poll was neither shambolic nor was it sponsored by any interested person or group of persons.
He said, the sample selection was scientifically done and that Synovate was an international company with a track record and a reputation to protect.
Just before the argument over the poll could die out, Ms Rawlings went ahead to pick her nomination form as she promised.
Some women in Accra have welcomed the move saying that, it was in the right direction. "We must involve more women in high political office in the country and Nana Rawlings has shown the way," said, Sarah Acheampong, an advocacy officer for Ghana Women's Movement.
Ms Acheampong said, "those who have castigated Nana Rawlings for daring to contest against President Mills were doing so because they do not understand how democracy works.
''Nana Rawlings is a Ghanaian who has her right to stand for any elections in the country even though she has been a First Lady before that should not be used against her." Mr Asiedu Nketiah, NDC general secretary said, submission of the completed nomination forms is slated for June 1, vetting of potential candidates would be from June 7-8, and release of delegates' lists would be on June 10.
He said, the party's executive committee has approved a non-refundable fee of GH¢20,000 (Sh1m) to be paid by male flag bearer aspirants women aspirants would however have a 50 per cent rebate in line with the party's social democratic and gender sensitive credential.
This means that, Nana Rawlings would be paying half of the refundable fee of ($6,500).
Mr Asiedu-Nketiah, hoped this would encourage more women to participate in the democratic process and assume a more responsible role in the party and the country on the lam.
Today, former President Rawlings who is the founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) publicly denounced President Mills, the man he hand-picked and supported to win the 2008 saying "the time has come to change the driver."
Addressing supporters of the party at a ceremony where his wife Nana Konadu Rawlings, 62, launched her campaign to unseat President Mills Mr Rawlings accused President Mills of ineffective leadership and "President Mills has his limitations and l have mine," and must therefore realise that he has not got what it takes to continue and must give way.
He said, the poor leadership that President Mills has provided the country put the ruling party in crisis. "If any election was conducted today, President Mills would lose."
Nana Konadu told her supporters that, "President Mills' governance does not inspire hope for the future because he has not been able to establish a government devoid of arrogance and vindictiveness."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in the main city of Abidjan in fighting between Ivory Coast troops and the remnants of a militia loyal to deposed leader Laurent Gbagbo. ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker...
"We have seen many dead. We recovered 40 bodies over two hours, but we were forced to stop because he had no room left in our van," said Franck Kodjo, an official at the International Committee of the Red Thingy, adding at least five corpses were from Tuesday's fighting.
A commander for the Ivorian army, known as the FRCI, said the remaining pro-Gbagbo fighters in the Abidjan neighbourhood of Yopougon were mostly Liberian mercenaries hired in the aftermath of the November election dispute.
"We are in the process of securing the town but there are heavy weapons," the commander said. "We're not the ones firing them, it is those we oppose, the Liberians," he said.
Security slow to return
Tuesday's festivities highlight the West African country's struggle to restore security after a violent power struggle between Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara, ...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo.... who won a November election and is now president.
The world's largest cocoa grower nation tipped toward civil war after Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara, triggering a conflict that killed thousands and displaced more than a million people and only began to ease with Gbagbo's arrest last month.
Other parts of Abidjan were coming back to life after the conflict, with banks reopening and street traffic slowly returning to normal.
Ivory Coast's main industry, the cocoa sector, is poised to resume exports by the end of this week .
There is a backlog of nearly half a million tonnes of beans, exporters said on Tuesday.
Ouattara's government is investigating Gbagbo and his inner circle for alleged human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... abuses during the conflict as he used his military to cling to power.
Gbagbo, under house arrest in the country's north, has called on his supporters to allow the country to restart its economy in peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Canada's ruling Conservatives have won a crushing victory in federal elections, handing prime minister Stephen Harper a coveted majority that eluded him in the last three elections.
Crickets chirp in the US media. I've seen very little about this in the Chicago newspapers. It's like they don't want to remind voters that other voters in North America vote conservative...
Provisional results showed the Conservatives had 166 seats in parliament, well above the 155 they needed to transform their minority government into a majority. They won 40 per cent of the vote, more than most pollsters had expected.
"Canadian politics has changed dramatically tonight," Jason Kenney, immigration minister in the last Conservative government, said a day after Monday's vote. "Canadians have gotten what they want; a stable majority which will focus on governing and economic growth and responsible fiscal policy."
The Conservatives, describing themselves as the guardians of a surprisingly resilient economy, had stressed throughout the election campaign that they needed a majority to keep the economy strong, and they promised a string of tax-cut goodies that will take effect once they balance the budget.
'Polarisation of politics'
The provisional results showed the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) winning about 103 seats, by far its strongest showing, and catapulting itself into the position of official opposition in the nation of more than 34 million people.
The NDP gains came largely at the expense of the separatist Bloc Quebecois and of the once-mighty Liberal Party, which lost more than half its seats in a dismal black eye for party leader Michael Ignatieff, a broadcaster and academic turned politician who never managed to connect with Canadians.
"We have seen tonight I think the emergence of a polarisation in Canadian politics," Ignatieff said in an address to the party faithful. "We have a government that will pretend to govern from the centre and there's a risk it will move the country to the right. We will have an official opposition that will criticise from the centre but possibly move the country to the left."
He added: "It's tough to lose like this."
Setback for Liberals
The result was a historical low for the Liberals, who saw both their lowest seat total ever and their smallest share of the popular vote, at just under 20 per cent.
Their massive defeat will prompt more talk about a possible merger with New Democrats to create a united centre-left party capable of defeating the Conservatives.
The Bloc Quebecois was set to win just three seats. Party leader Gilles Duceppe lost his seat and said he would quit.
Before the election the Bloc, the federal offshoot of a party that wants independence for French-speaking Quebec, had 47 seats, a strong majority of seats in the province.
The Canadian dollar firmed as the results emerged, and analysts expected the stock market to follow it up on Tuesday.
"It may even give the Canadian dollar an extra boost, given the fact that perhaps that the question of illusory sovereignty is really going to be put on the back burner," said Serge Pepin, of BMO Investments in Toronto.
"Canadian markets should react relatively positively."
In a first for Canada, Green Party leader Elizabeth May captured the party's first seat in parliament, where she would be a vocal critic of a Conservative government that opponents say has dragged its heels on global warming.
Before the election, the Conservatives had 143 seats, compared to 77 for the Liberals and 36 for the New Democrats. There were two independents and three seats were vacant.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Sometimes people get the government they deserve. I know this is usually said when people get a bad gummint, but it goes both ways.
#2
This is a MONSTER, HUGE, realignment in Canadian politics.
Two major political parties were destroyed, one of them being THE MAJOR party in Canadian political history. Two party leaders resigned.
Conservatives won a majority without needing Quebec voters. Western provinces about to get even more seats in the House of Commons therefore reducing Quebec's influence even more.
No blood running in the streets, no bodies hanging from lamp posts. I'm still spun out from it all.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > TREASURY SUGGESTS US$2.0TRILYUHN US DEBT CAP RISE, to support USG operations thru 2012 POTUS, Congressional elex thru early 2013 widout having to bring up the issue again
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > OBL KILLING SPARKS CALLS FOR EARLY AGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL, by members of the US Congress.
* SAME > [India] EXPERTS: WITH OSAMA DEAD, US CAN START TROOP PULLOUT, but keep a minimal mil presence for Advisory + anti-Terror activities.
* SAME > US FBI [back] ON "WAR FOOTING" AFTER OBL'S DEATH, as it was after 9-11 according to a an anonymous US Senior CT Official.
[Al Jazeera] Maldives police briefly jugged an opposition politician on the fourth night of anti-government protests in the capital Male, amid growing public anger over the island country's troubled economy.
The police tossed in the slammer Umar Nazeera, deputy leader of the opposition Dhivehi Raithunge Party, and 30 others who had gathered along with three to four hundred protesters in front of the Maldives Monetary Authority late Tuesday night, Ahmed Shiyam, police front man, said on Wednesday.
Some reported a bigger turn out of thousands.
Nazeera and 24 protesters were released within a few hours, while the rest remained in jug for further questioning, Shiyam said.
Public discontent
Maldives have in the past few days witnessed violent protests over alleged wasteful spending and financial mismanagement by the government.
Many are unhappy with President Mohamed Nasheed's decision last month to peg the Maldivian currency rufiyaa against the US dollar, which led to a quick drop in value and soaring prices for key necessities. Most commodities are imported to the Maldives, an archipelago of 1,200 islets in the Indian Ocean.
Nasheed announced a 50 percent cut on fuel import tax on Tuesday, as an effort to abate "drastic fluctuations in diesel prices in the Maldivian market in quick successions due to unpredictable world fuel prices".
"The government understands that many people are concerned about the economy and recent price rises and we are doing everything possible to ease the situation," Mohamed Zuhair, the president's press secretary, said.
While noting the public's discontent with the economy, the government condemned former president and opposition party leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom for organising such a demonstration.
Nasheed was elected president in the country's first multi-party election in 2008, ending Gayoom's 30-years of one-party rule, but the country has recently struggled with soaring food prices and unemployment.
"Peaceful protest is legal and welcome in the Maldives' new democracy. But former President Gayoom is taking advantage of the economic situation to cause violence in the streets. These protests are more to do with Gayoom trying to shore up his position in the opposition, than the state of the economy," Zuhair said.
"In the Middle East, you have democrats on the streets bringing down dictatorships. Ironically, in the Maldives, the remnants of the former dictatorship are trying to bring down a democratically elected government," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] MQM leader Farooq Sattar announced on Wednesday that the MQM was rejoining the Federal Cabinet, speaking at the Governor House Sindh along with Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. , DawnNews reported.
Dr. Farooq Sattar said that the decision was made after assurance was received that all reservations of the party will be cleared.
Sattar said that the decision to rejoin the federal cabinet was based on a three-point agenda; maintenance of peace, arrest of killers, elimination of extortion and economic impoverishment along with good governance.
Speaking at the occasion, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the relationship of reconciliation between the PPP and the MQM will always remain intact and both parties are working for the people.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2011 00:00 ||
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The most familiar item in the Army's arsenal is getting an upgrade.
The M855 bullet was designed in the 70s -- and has been in use since then, despite some complaints from soldiers that it's often less than effective. The new M855A1, which the Army will be demonstrating Wednesday at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, is deadlier, faster, and may soon replace its older cousin.
The new ammunition is notable for being "green" for one thing; it's lead-free, meaning the new ammo is environmentally friendly, the Army said. The military began providing the lead-free round last June to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. It's good to know the creatures in the North Arabian Sea will not be harmed from dining on UBL.
#1
The new round has other benefits. Fear not the press and PR-touted greeniness; although it was a factor, increased lethality is the major upside. A lemonade from lemons story.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/05/2011 1:44 Comments ||
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#2
Personally I'm more concerned about the lack of international Pert consensus as per "PEAK OIL/ENERGY/RESOURCES", e.g. GULF OF MEXICO + 2040-2070.
#4
Only the copper alloy jacket touches the rifling.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/05/2011 4:05 Comments ||
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#5
While I'm not at all a fan of banning lead and it is useful stuff for bullets and shotgun pellets, some of the solid copper and copper/tungsten stuff out there is pretty awesome stuff. This year for deer hunting season I loaded up some Barnes Tipped Triple Shocks on a lark and had the chance to try them and I would say they work just as well as the bonded lead-core/copper jacketed Trophy Bonded bullets I had been using, both for accuracy and for lethality on CPX-2 sized game (IOW, human sized).
One drawback of all copper or copper/tungsten core is the cost, quite a bit more than all-lead or even the thin copper jacket/lead core bullets like most militaries and hunters have traditionally used. For a hunter and occasional target shooter this isn't too daunting but for the millions of rounds the military must fire to stay sharp it might be.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/05/2011 5:41 Comments ||
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#12
The core is tin and bismuth. I wonder if these bullets mushroom. The copper Barnes bullets mushroom into big sharp petals, which act like the blades of a blender when entering the body cavity.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2011 10:35 Comments ||
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#13
So we're basically going to be replacing cheap lead with expensive copper.
Who's supposed to be bleeding out from this, the enemy or us?
#14
The obvious choice for next-gen bullets is depleted uranium. Lots of M for the old 1/2 MV**2, plus the initials DU alone will make heads explode at 1,000 meters without even firing the dang thing.
I'm sure there is no truth to the rumor that the DARPA poindexters are developing a bacon-flavored Hydra-Shok round. None at all. No, really.
#15
Each bullet is "green" because they all have GM bamboo seeds in them, designed to sprout when exposed to warm, salty, brackish liquid, and can grow up to a foot a day.
#16
I have made similar rounds. I can get the bullet to range in mass from 105 grains to 260 grains in the exact same jacket, varying just the powdered metal core. That is for a .308 x 24mm long bullet. This is an interesting technology. You can grade the density, partition the density, etc.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/05/2011 12:15 Comments ||
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#17
When going after grizzly bear or moose, I used to load Nossler partition bullets, where the copper partition held the base lead in and the top half of the lead went into the spitzer part of the jacket. These rounds mushroomed well, and lead retention was good, so after the round mushroomed, it was like a battering ram. They were twice the cost of Hornaday bullets.
I shot a grizzly in a cornered situation from 30 ft with a 175 gr Nossler in a 7 mm rem mag. It rolled this big animal right over when hit in the chest. He ran away into the brush. I waited 2 hours then my dog and I tracked him. Found him dead about 100 yards away. When I gutted and dressed him, I found that I hit him in the heart. Scared the sh*t out of me when I saw where he went after the heart hit.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2011 14:37 Comments ||
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#18
Whiskey Mike----That is a neat thing you did with the varying the density of the core.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2011 14:58 Comments ||
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#19
Alaska Paul . . . . if I could have only one chambering it would be the 7mm Rem Mag. Not found anything else in 52 years of high- powered rifle shooting with more versatility/hitting power. Come visit Winnipeg some time and we'll swap shooting/hunting stories.
Close allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).
Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".
The arrests come amid a growing rift between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei which has prompted several MPs to call for the president to be impeached.
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a hardline cleric close to Khamenei, warned that disobeying the supreme leader who has the ultimate power in Iran is equivalent to "apostasy from God". Guess Khamenei has promoted himself to the rank of 'god'.
#3
Oh yeah, those accused of magicraft will be prolly lowered into a river with stone tied to their limbs. If they drown, they'll be innocent. If they don't, crane they'll go. Confessions? The mullahquisition can be very persuasive.
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.
Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in the main city of Abidjan in fighting between Ivory Coast troops and the remnants of a militia loyal to deposed leader 
