A porcelain urinal is the most influential work of modern art, according to a survey released Wednesday.
I think this pretty much sums up the state of the Arts, don't you?
The poll of 500 arts figures ranked French surrealist Marcel Duchamp's 1917 piece "Fountain" an ordinary white, porcelain urinal more influential than Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," Andy Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and "Guernica," Picasso's searing depiction of the devastation of war. Duchamp pioneered the use of everyday objects as art, an aesthetic that questioned the nature of art itself.
The phrase "piece of crap" comes to mind.
Art expert Simon Wilson said the choice of Duchamp's urinal "comes as a bit of a shock." "But it reflects the dynamic nature of art today and the idea that the creative process that goes into a work of art is the most important thing the work itself can be made of anything and can take any form," he said.
Fits right into the "Good Intentions" mean more than any real actions mode of liberal thinking.
The survey was conducted by Gordon's Gin, which sponsor's Britain's leading art prize, the Turner Prize.
Methinks they were sampling the sponsors products.
The winner of this year's Turner Prize is due to be announced next Tuesday.
I can hardly wait.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/01/2004 2:15:30 PM ||
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#1
Duchamp's stuff was not designed for its appearance so much as "concept" pieces, to question what art is. As such they worked, and were influential. Though I would certainly rather have a Mondrian, or a Barnett Newman, or heaven help us, a Picasso, in my living room than a Duchamp.
#5
Beats the hell out of the 2-holer we had in Michigan as a kid. Hey, "form follows function" as is said. The urinal is certainly one of "man's" more useful devices. Duct tape ranks fairly high also in my mind. I've worshipped the porcelain goddess a few times but not the porcelain urinal--although I hold it in high regard.
#9
I was reading somewhere recently that Duchamp's intent was, as LH says, to question what Art really is. According to this (now forgotten) article, Duchamp's own position was that the urinal was not Art, and he was fairly disgusted that the art world of his day did not get the joke, so to speak.
The article went on to say that a lot of early modern art strove to discover what Art was by determining what it wasn't. "OK, here's a certain aspect of Art. If we take it away, is the piece still Art?" This puts Martin Creed's Turner-winning "Lights Going On and Off" in a new perspective: here he's eliminated the picture, the frame, even the wall to hang it on, leaving only the light (intermittently).
This, no doubt, would be considered an extremely witty reductio ad absurdum of Duchamp's "Urinal", except in this case no one -- not even the "artist" -- is in on the joke.
Landscape Architects: Deer Are Designing Future Look of Forests Abundant Whitetails Munch Through the Underbrush; 'Like the Serengeti Plain' From the Wall Street Journal. Subscription required, so here's the whole thing.... I saw a little of what deer can do in the little 5 acre nature preserve I managed for several years for my children's elementary school PTA - wildflowers devoured as soon as the buds opened, few bushes except Chinese/Bush honeysuckle and a few other exotic invaders. We only had a 6-deer herd living in the preserve, and coyotes had been seen there by some of the school's neighbors.
The deer rose out of a distant swamp before dawn to browse in a hay field on a recent day. Then, as the sun came up, they made their way into a hillside forest, looking for concealment. But the forest offered few hiding places. It has lots of tall, mature conifers and hardwoods, some 100 years old. Under them, virtually nothing grows -- no seedlings, no saplings, no bushes, and only a few ferns. The floor of this forest, like others around the country, has been stripped clean by whitetail deer.
It's deer-hunting season across the land -- a time when Americans are reminded that bountiful whitetails have their costs. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said earlier this month that animal-vehicle crashes, mostly involving deer, killed more than 200 people last year and caused an estimated $1 billion-plus in property damage. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says deer cause more than $400 million in yearly crop damage, not including home gardens and ornamental shrubbery.But below the radar of most people, whitetails have been eating their way toward a more lasting legacy: They are wreaking ecological havoc in forests across the nation. They have become de facto forest managers, determining today what many forests will look like 100 years from now, say forest experts. "Deer have stopped the regeneration of our forests in many areas," says Peter Pinchot, a Yale-educated director of the 1,400-acre Milford Experimental Forest on the Poconos Plateau in Pennsylvania. That means little trees aren't growing up to eventually replace big trees.
Example: oaks. Deer love acorns. Surviving acorns sprout seedlings. Deer love them, too. Surviving seedlings become saplings. Deer strip them of leaves and bark. They die. Result: no young oaks. Deer also love hickory and white ash, and eschew black birch, American beech and black locust. If they get hungry enough, they'll eat almost anything, and their victims aren't just trees.
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#1
I live 30 miles north of NYC and I see at least 1/2 dozen deer on my drive home every night. I also see deer in the woods behind my house pretty frequently. While I do see wild turkeys now and then, they are only in groups of 2 or 3. They don't destroy cars when they get hit like some deer do. White tails delenda est!
Posted by: Tibor ||
12/01/2004 16:43 Comments ||
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"Today, Pennsylvania has an estimated 1.6 million whitetails."
We seem to be Ground Zero for these damned overgrown, hooved rats. They are EVERYWHERE: in the fields, on the roads, in backyards and gardens, and one time, even on my porch. Ten years ago the deer population in PA was about 850,000 and the situation was deemed an emergency; now it's almost twice that.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/01/2004 16:57 Comments ||
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It is called poaching. It works really well too at control too. Just get yourself a 22 magnum and get good at head shots up close and personal. Hillbilly welfare, side hill salmon, wild goat meat. Shoot does without young. Since you don't have natural wild preadators you have to be the preadator. QED.
..wildflowers devoured as soon as the buds opened, few bushes except Chinese/Bush honeysuckle and a few other exotic invaders. We only had a 6-deer herd living in the preserve, and coyotes had been seen there by some of the schoolâs neighbors.
Not to mention stuff that happens off preserves, such as bent autmobile front ends, trashed motorcycles, and road-rashed skin....
#9
great - mouse flavored cat food? They'd be dragging it in the bedroom so proud of what they killed...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2004 22:25 Comments ||
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Frank, your cat (or more) is not well behaved. My cats at least leave it on the mat of the front door, neatly stacked. They know not to bring it in. Yes, it often looks like some kill-the-mouses jihad is going on, the heads separated from bodies (if it is a squirrel, then head and tail is what's left).
Fortunately my postie is a brave woman--rural area--so she may have to butcher a deer or a bear once a while.
Oh, the snakes? They are sorta cat gummi bears.
Have you seen a 5 lb rat? Neither did I until recently. Not sure which of my critters did the kill, but it was a mother of all mothaf..ing rats!
The forbidden marriage between a handsome young Marine and a gorgeous Arab princess — which sparked headlines and a splashy TV movie — has crashed and burned.
Gee, we didn't see that coming
Jason Johnson made headlines in 1999 when he smuggled his ravishing teen lover out of the island nation of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, and whisked her to Las Vegas for a quickie wedding. But after their love was feted on "Oprah" and made into a TV movie, the fairytale romance turned to a nightmare. The groom got booted from the military, the bride narrowly avoided being blown away by a hit man and she then dumped him for the nonstop parties and round-the-clock nightclubs along the Vegas Strip, he said. Two weeks ago, the two filed for divorce. "She's gone off the deep end," a devastated Johnson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Johnson was a Marine stationed in Bahrain when he fell for Meriam al-Khalifa, a ravishing teen princess who was part of her island nation's royal family. He was 23, a Mormon, she 19, a Muslim, and their love had to remain secret. Johnson sneaked his sweetie back to America aboard a military plane by disguising her with a flannel shirt, Yankees cap and a fake military ID.
Security must have been asleep that day
In Vegas, they at first basked in attention of glowing publicity and had their story told in a 2001 NBC movie, "The Princess and the Marine." Then the problems began. The State Department tried to boot Meriam out of the country, even though she pleaded that her life would be in jeopardy for "disgracing" her country.
Like the State Department cared.
Johnson was demoted for his bride-smuggling plot and later discharged under the condition he never try to re-enlist.
"Git out and don't come back!"
Meriam's family was furious their daughter, whom they had set for an arranged marriage, wed a Christian. The FBI foiled an assassination plot against Meriam by intercepting Reggie Jackson a Syrian national who said he was paid $500,000 by a source he didn't name to kill her.
Everyone knows if you want somebody wacked in Vegas you hire a Italian.
As tensions mounted, Meriam threw herself into the Vegas nightlife, Johnson said. Last year, she walked out on him.
Too bad, so sad.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/01/2004 12:53:42 PM ||
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Hey, .com, don't you live in Vegas? You ever run into either of these people?
Actually, the article I read said that, after the movie money was gone, he made a living parking cars while she was out on the town with her pals. Kinda sad, really. You can take the princess out of the palace, but you can never take the princess out of the princess.
#6
Sounds like a Lorena Bobbit story- worthless, senseless Who really cares? A love story gone sour? PLay it again Sam- another fool will try this again. Better luck at a dating service HA HA!!##**
The future of David Blunkett was plunged into fresh doubt last night after new evidence emerged about claims that he speeded up his lover's nanny's visa application. An independent inquiry led by Sir Alan Budd has started into claims, which the Home Secretary strongly denies, that he interfered in the Filipina nanny's application for permanent leave to stay in Britain. But Home Office letters painted a picture of a visa application that could have taken months suddenly being fully granted in weeks. One letter to the nanny, Leoncia Casalme, dated April 23, 2003, said her application had been accepted as valid but that it could take up to a year. Only 19 days later, the nanny - who was working for Mr Blunkett's then lover Kimberly Quinn - was told that her request to stay permanently had been approved. The letters, published in today's Daily Mail, will heighten speculation about whether Mr Blunkett had a role in granting the visa.
I am singularly not distraught over this. Since Kimberly was presumably making whoopee regularly with the Home Secretary, I don't find it in the least unusual that she'd be able to get her nanny's visa application greased. My friends come to me for help with computers or with questions on WoT. His friends come to him for help with visas. If there's sin, it would appear to be pretty venial.
The new material appeared only hours after he made an embarrassing apology for giving a parliamentary first-class rail warrant, reserved for the spouses of MPs, to Mrs Quinn.
Sorry. That doesn't make my indignator quiver, either.
Is it time to build an Acme Indignator?
Last night Mr Blunkett's office said the Home Secretary, who has admitted checking over the application before it was submitted, stood by his denial of wrong-doing.
Whoopdy doo. That's the best scandal you can come up with? What's Christine Keeler doing? Maybe you should hire her as a consultant.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
12/01/2004 3:53:42 AM ||
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Not sure how many laws were broken (if any), but we should be glad that he is in a straight relationship! When I read 'lover' I feared the worst!
#8
Doesn't excuse his lack of either a full beard or a neat shave. I have blind friends they all can shave. One is even a damed lawyer.
So being blind excuses his squinty eyed gittiness? He can't afford some shades? I have yet to see him in a picture with a white cane therefore I was un aware of his bing unsighted. I intensely dislike the man. He is a statist prick.
#9
Holy cow! I didn't realize that he's the father of the woman's son, whom her husband has been raising as his own. Blunkett wants "access" to the kid. Now that's just cold. Hey, Sparky, next time knock up a single woman, why don't ya?
If Blunkett wore shades, he might look kinda cool, like a white Ray Charles. We wouldn't want that.
The United States is watching possible Venezuelan purchases of MiG fighter jets from Russia but doubts that such sales would destabilize Latin America, a senior US administration official said Tuesday. "Let me put it this way: We shoot down MiGs," the official, who spoke to reporters at a White House-organized briefing on condition he not be named, replied when asked whether Washington was worried about such sales. "It should be an issue of concern to the Venezuelan people. Millions of dollars are going to be spent on Russian weapons for ill-defined purposes," the official said.
Prodded on the purpose of such purchase, the official replied: "My understanding is that they're looking to upgrade their fighter fleet, and they've decided that MiGs might be the fighter to purchase." White House national security spokesman Sean McCormack said Russian fighter jet sales to Russia "would be an issue we would monitor closely." Asked about the anonymous official's "shoot down" comment, McCormack winced and said "I would leave that part out." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed Friday, after a two-day visit to Russia, that Caracas would buy 40 military helicopters and an unspecified quantity of automatic weapons from Moscow. The Financial Times reported Monday that this was expected to be followed by Venezuela's acquisition of a fleet of the most advanced model of the MiG-29 fighter jet.
I see Hugo is doing his Christmas shopping. Dictators always buy the best new toys.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/01/2004 1:06:56 PM ||
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Emerging paranoid MSM Meme du Jour: The New Cold War
I thought the whole point was that it was easier to vet the loyalty of a couple hundred pilots / knights-in-shining-migs than a couple tens of thousands of infantrymen.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/01/2004 16:57 Comments ||
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Actually, an article on increased missile development by China compared to buildups in personnel (complete with cutbacks in army size) stated that whereas you can make an army look scary enough to hold down the population without them needing to be good, you need a higher level of competence to "fake it" with your air force. You can discount the loyalty of tens of thousands of infantrymen if they all suck compared to loyalist elites -- if your pilots sucked as bad, they'd crash 24/7. Missiles don't have loyalty issues ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
12/01/2004 17:03 Comments ||
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Think bombing the Presidential Palace, abode, hometown, :) The pilots can start it up and if it don't look good.... scram!
Heavy gunfire has been heard around Haiti's presidential palace, where US Secretary of State Colin Powell was holding talks at the time. The government blamed supporters of the former President, Jean Bertrand Aristide, for the shooting. UN forces returned fire. It is not clear if there were any injuries. Mr Powell is on a one-day visit to help promote political stability. He was also due to meet young Haitians living with HIV, to mark World Aids Day. The BBC's Hannah Hennessy, in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, said the gunfire came in three or four bursts over a 15-minute period.
Hell, that's a slow day.
In recent months, renewed violence between government forces and supporters of Mr Aristide has claimed dozens of lives. Mr Powell was holding talks with caretaker Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and other key figures during Wednesday's gunfire. A US state department official said talks scheduled for later in the day would be relocated because of the shooting. It is Mr Powell's second visit to Haiti this year, following a previous one-day visit in April. On that occasion, he became the first senior US official to visit since the three-week rebellion that ousted Mr Aristide in February. Mr Aristide has repeatedly accused the US and France of forcing him into exile. But the US and France insist that Mr Aristide agreed to leave the country voluntarily, and signed a letter of resignation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/01/2004 12:52:00 PM ||
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Pakistan and Brazil have expressed their common determination to fully develop the potential for cooperation in the fields of trade and investment and vowed to fight against hunger and poverty as well as combat illicit trafficking of drugs.
They've done such a bang-up job on their own
The two countries declared this in a joint declaration issued at the conclusion of President General Pervez Musharraf's visit to capital Brasilia. The declaration said that both the countries held fruitful discussions in a friendly and cordial atmosphere on various bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest including current developments in South Asia. The two sides stressed the political importance of this bilateral visit and hoped that it would lead to increased cooperation between them. Pervez Musharraf and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recognised a wide potential still to be explored to enlarge bilateral trade and reciprocal investments in order to reflect both the countries' economic and trade status in their respective regions and in the world. Both the countries agreed to fully implement the 1982 bilateral commercial agreement particularly the creation of a committee of representatives to facilitate the interaction of businessmen of the two countries through a joint business council.
Brief, vivid vision of Qazi, Fazl and Sami visiting the beach in Rio... In summer...
In the context of international fora, both the countries reiterated their commitment to multilateralism and their confidence in the success of the Doha round of negotiations of the WTO. The two presidents reaffirmed the right to development and the use of technologies for peaceful purposes and reiterated their commitment to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
You mean like the Khan network and Brazil's refusing to let the IAEA look at it's enrichment program?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/01/2004 9:34:38 AM ||
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Posted by: Steve White ||
12/01/2004 12:54:02 AM ||
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#1
The actual first test flights of the vehicle, perhaps about 2010 Bwahahaha! I also understand they have a bridge in New York for sale.
On a more serious note, this looks like a shuttle - who needs more 1970s technology? The sooner governments get out of this business the better. Let Scaled Composites and others develop the technology then buy it.
Second, we're in a train wreck with ISS already because Clinton started a policy that we're supposed to buy Soyuz for the station, but there's also legislation that we can't buy from the Russians because of their deals with Iran.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/01/2004 9:12 Comments ||
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So NASA can't doi anything? OK, let Burt Rutan do it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/01/2004 9:22 Comments ||
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but there's also legislation that we can't buy from the Russians because of their deals with Iran.
#1
Did you actually read that article? The guy that wrote it is a communist and the article is filled with technobabble... seriously most of what he says is nonsense which he hides behind terms of the art to sound sophisticated.
#3
DPA's right. Its full of marxist econobabble. Nonetheless it contains an interesting core truth, which is the world trusts the USD far more than it trusts anything else. To take China as an example (as the article does). Nobody forced the Chinese to link the Yuan to the USD. They could have linked it to anything - a basket of currencies, gold, oil, a basket of commodities, even the price of rice. China's problem is that removing the dollar peg would make their currency less trusted and hence worth less.
#4
The Yuan is currently grossly undervalued because of the peg. They'd have to do something really stupid for it to drop if they let it float. Invading Taiwan might be enough. Threatening to nuke Hong Kong probably would, but even that's not certain.
It's an idea that was popularized by Princess Leia's plea for help in "Star Wars": sending a 3-D hologram. Professor Susumu Tachi (right) of the University of Tokyo and researcher Tomohiro Endo of the University of Nagoya view a 3-D hologram image on their new invention, dubbed SeeLinder, at a laboratory in Tokyo.
Now, two scientists have developed technology they hope will one day turn the humble telephone booth into a high-tech chamber for beaming holographic images. At a University of Tokyo laboratory, a woman stands inside a booth where a 360-degree digital camera surrounding her face sends data to a cylindrical tube. Soon, she appears to be staring out from the tube. Viewed from the side, only the side of her head is visible. Go round to the back, and only her hair can be seen. "We can see the 3-D image as if it's inside the cylinder," said Susumu Tachi, a Tokyo University professor of computer science and physics, during a recent demonstration. With the device, "we can have a family gathering or conference at a remote place."
Tachi and Tomohiro Endo developed the cylinder -- dubbed SeeLinder -- by combining fiber optics, electronics and white light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The hologram cylinder resembles a zoetrope, a primitive motion-picture wheel. Inside the cylinder, an outer wheel with vertical slits revolves clockwise at a fast clip, while an inner wheel moving counterclockwise at a slower speed lined vertically with LEDs projects thin slices of a person's face. The rapid succession of image slices seen through the slits produces the illusion that the viewer can see the person's entire face at once, in 3-D. The image appears to be about 20 cm in diameter and 25 cm high.
There are limitations. Looking at the cylinder from above or below doesn't change the image, and the hologram is still fuzzier than modern TV screens. It's also pricey. One cylinder costs 10 million yen, though Tachi and Endo expect that to fall if the gadget is ever mass-produced. Endo said they're refining the technology, and given demand, can commercialize their product soon. "We think this can be on the market in the near future," he said.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/01/2004 3:31:45 AM ||
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Hehe doubt they will be a success in my neighbourhood . Picture the scene , 12am pub throwing out time , everybody binge drinked into oblivion , violent neighbourhood . Dont think they would mix well esp at 10 million yen a hit . Normal phone boxes only last a matter of days , b4 the next weekend maurauders pile thro !
Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook on Taiwan to negative yesterday, citing the rising risk of conflict with China. "The credit ratings on Taiwan could be lowered if there are further fiscal slippages, or economic growth slows materially, in part because rising tensions with China undermine investment and consumer spending," Philippe Sachs, sovereign credit analyst, said.
The move by S&P, which affirmed its ratings on Taiwan at AA-/A-1, mirrors comments by rival Fitch two months ago that China-related political risk was limiting Taiwan's chances of a stronger rating. Mr Sachs said that while the ratings on Taiwan continued to be supported by its massive foreign exchange reserves - $235bn as of October - its robust economy and its strong external balance sheet, growing government debt and high structural deficits were weakening the island's fiscal flexibility. The Taiwanese government has said it will undertake broad tax reforms if it wins a majority in the December 11 legislative election and has pledged to balance the budget by 2010.
We were commenting recently on how China could retake Taiwan without firing a shot. Here's one weapon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/01/2004 12:46:05 AM ||
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Mmmmmmmmm maybe. With those cash reserves, borrowing isn't as important and the rating has less of an effect. I suspect that there are ways around it, as well, by the government holding assets abroad in trust for lenders.
Just like Israel, this is a nation on a war footing. Deficits result. Because of the refusal of most world governments to recognize Free China, they have to pay cash on the barrelhead for their weapons. Heck, even the Congo can get credit, but not Taiwan.
Reacting to four months of political and administrative turmoil for the conservative government, Portugal's president has decided to dissolve parliament and hold early elections... An election, previously scheduled for 2006, is now likely in February. The president's decision came after weeks of feuding within Mr. Santana Lopes's cabinet, public gaffes and organizational problems that had beset the conservative administration since it took office.
Recent opinion polls have put the main opposition Socialist Party far ahead of the Social Democratic Party, which heads a coalition government with the Popular Party. The Socialists have opposed the government's backing for U.S. policy in Iraq, where Portugal has about 120 police. If they won the election, the Socialists would likely withdraw that contingent.
Portugal could get its third prime minister in eight months if Mr. Santana Lopes isn't returned in the election. Mr. Sampaio rejected appeals from opposition parties for a general election when Mr. Barroso quit and allowed the Social Democrats to appoint Mr. Santana Lopes, who took up the post in July. However, Mr. Santana Lopes's term in office has been riddled with problems, and Mr. Sampaio reportedly was angered by the prime minister's handling of some state issues. The school year was delayed by weeks because the Education Ministry was late assigning teachers to schools; Finance Minister Antonio Bagao Felix publicly disagreed with Mr. Santana Lopes over tax cuts; and the government has also locked horns with the media for allegedly trying to muzzle its critics at newspapers and TV networks.
Mr. Santana Lopes had to reshuffle his cabinet last week after pressure over the performance of some members of his cabinet, but one of the reshuffled members quit Sunday, accusing Mr. Santana Lopes of "being disloyal and not speaking the truth." Socialist leader Jose Socrates described the past four months as "a disaster" and said he had asked former European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino to prepare the election campaign. The move comes at a difficult time for Portugal, which is struggling to find a way out of an economic recession that was the worst in the EU last year. The economy contracted by 1.3%. The election also threw into disarray the plans for a national referendum on the European Constitution. The government recently decided on what question to ask -- despite complaints from the Socialists that it was hard to understand -- and was intending to call a vote early next year.
Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe got a new lease on his political life on Wednesday when appeals judges reduced his sentence in a party financing scandal, opening the door for his possible return to office in elections in 2007. The court sentenced Mr. Juppe to a 14-month suspended prison sentence, down from the original 18 months, and barred him from elected office for just one year, instead of the potentially career-ending 10-year ban handed down in January in his first trial. The shorter ban could allow Mr. Juppe to run for office in 2007, when presidential and legislative elections are scheduled. Nevertheless, Mr. Juppe will, for now, still have to give up his remaining post as mayor of the southwestern town of Bordeaux. Allies on the right immediately expressed hope of a comeback for Mr. Juppe once the ban is over. But opposition politicians questioned whether he owed his reprieve to his long relationship with President Jacques Chirac....
Before his conviction, Mr. Juppe was widely seen as Mr. Chirac's favorite to succeed him as president. Mr. Juppe served as Mr. Chirac's first prime minister in 1995-1997, and the French leader famously once praised his ally as "the best among us." Mr. Juppe's decision to step down as head of Mr. Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, party opened the way for the ambitious Nicolas Sarkozy to take over the post... But Greens party legislator Noel Mamere said the ruling shows that Mr. Chirac "still has a lot of power over a section of the justice system." ...
Mr. Juppe was convicted for an illegal party funding scheme while he served as finance director at Paris City Hall during Mr. Chirac's tenure as mayor, from 1977 to 1995. The verdict was an embarrassment to the French leader because in convicting Mr. Juppe judges sanctioned a system of political financing in place under Mr. Chirac's watch. City funds were used to pay personnel of Mr. Chirac's Rally for the Republic party, the UMP's predecessor. Bogus city jobs were created to hide the source of funding. In its ruling, the appeals court said it was "regrettable" that Mr. Juppe sought during the trial to minimize his role in the scandal and "did not think it necessary to assume the entirety of his legal responsibilities before the law." The ruling also criticized Mr. Juppe for not applying party financing regulations that he had voted for as a lawmaker...
France's opposition Socialist Party was holding a referendum Wednesday on whether to back the EU constitution, a vote with potential repercussions for France and the European Union. After heated internal debate, the 120,000 Socialist party members are being asked to cast "Yes" or "No" ballots on whether they support the constitutional treaty that was signed last month by leaders of all 25 EU countries.
The charter is supposed to take effect in 2007, but must first be ratified by all EU states. Many are leaving the decision to lawmakers, but at least nine countries -- including France -- are putting the constitution to nationwide referendums. A single "No" would stop the constitution in its tracks. The outcome of the Socialist vote, expected during the early hours of Thursday, was being anxiously watched for its potential to influence a nationwide referendum that President Jacques Chirac has promised to hold next year. Party members will cast ballots from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. local time. If the Socialists vote "No," it could also cause upheaval within the party, whose leaders have started jockeying for support ahead of France's 2007 presidential election.
Party leader Francois Hollande supports the constitution as a way to make the EU more efficient. Speaking on France-2 television Wednesday he urged party members to vote yes and show they "consider that Europe is part of our future." Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius is one of several high-profile campaigners against the constitution, which he says it too liberal and goes against what he calls a "social Europe." "Either we vote for the constitution and we will have a liberal Europe dominated by the British and the Americans," he told LCI television Wednesday. "Or we want a social Europe, and in that case, we have to vote 'No."'
#1
All right, I realize that Socialists/Communists don't have to make sense, but:
"Either we vote for the constitution and we will have a liberal Europe dominated by the British and the Americans,"
Is there some other proposed constitution that we haven't seen? He's sure not talking about this puppy
Ukraine's parliament brought down the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych with a no-confidence motion Wednesday in a show of the opposition's strength in the country's spiraling political crisis. Yanukovych and his opposition rival Viktor Yushchenko, who both claim the presidency after a Nov. 21 run-off vote, sat down for talks Wednesday in the presence of European mediators and outgoing President Leonid Kuchma in an attempt to work out a resolution. Earlier, Kuchma — who supported Yanukovych in the race — called for an entirely new election to be held. A new vote would bring in more candidates — which the opposition fiercely opposes and the government has appeared to favor, hoping to sideline Yushchenko.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2004 12:34:29 PM ||
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SERBIA'S pro-Western President Boris Tadic survived an apparent assassination attempt when a car repeatedly tried to crash into his motorcade, his press office said today. The incident occurred late yesterday in downtown Belgrade when a black Audi "tried several times to crash" into Tadic's car but was cut off by another vehicle from Tadic's security, the office said. Tadic was unhurt in the incident, and the car fled the scene, it added. No other details or possible motives were given. Pro-Western Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in March 2003 in front of his downtown Belgrade office in a sniper attack. Several paramilitary and gang figures associated with former President Slobodan Milosevic are standing trial in the case. They are accused of killing Djindjic in order to bring Milosevic's allies back to power in Serbia.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/01/2004 4:12:47 AM ||
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The car repeatedly tried to ram his motorcade, yet still slipped away? Talk about lousy security.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/01/2004 4:50 Comments ||
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#2
How Serbia has declined form the days of Gavrilo Princip.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/01/2004 8:42 Comments ||
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#3
Charles:
Maybe he hired former Saudi security forces?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
12/01/2004 9:01 Comments ||
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#4
lol. "We had him surrounded! (Has the check cleared?)"
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/01/2004 9:07 Comments ||
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#5
/conspiracy angle
Didn't Audi's have problems with stuck gas pedals / throttles once upon a time?
Not a France bashing post...just a reminder that reliance on technology has its limits...especially when you're 78 years old.
An elderly motorist driving along a 130-kilometre (80-mile) an hour motorway in eastern France caused an accident when he followed the advice of his onboard GPS computer - and made a U-turn to drive into the high-speed traffic. The man told officers his car GPS had [verbally] told him to "make a U-turn immediately" as he drove along lost on the express way near the town of Nancy in search of a hotel. "It's not the first time we've had a GPS incident," one of the officers said, recalling the time a police vehicle found itself face-to-face with a motorist going the wrong way in accordance with his computer's instructions.
#1
This goes here because seems i cant comment yesterdays posts. This is a correction to the veichle i refered in that Mr Don Sensing request upon looking at it is a M-109 from German Army and not a PZH2000
#5
In the late nineties I read about a guy, in Germany I think, who followed a line on his GPS, thinking it was a road. It turned out to be a pier and he ended up in the water.
I don't think it could have been a talking GPS at that early stage of its introduction to the public. If it had been, it would have said, "Get out of there, you idiot, you'll end up in the harbour."
#14
Ha, a post I can really get into. See I was a digital mapper at ETAK a digital map company that was one of the providers of the maps used by Sony and Bosch for their GPS systems. ETAK was owned by Fox for awhile, then Sony, now they've been bought up by TeleAtlas out of Europe somewhere.
The story about the BMW driver going off a pier is true by the way. Maps in the US add fake streets so that you can tell if another company stole your map, usually these are cul-de-sacs so they are harmless but Thomas Brothers sometimes connected roads that should not have been connected (probably what happened with the pier incident) a habit that I've heard really gets to UPS and others who once depended on Thomas Brothers to route their trucks. Every road is double-checked by aerial photos and ground teams. Someone screwed up on the pier one and everyone in the industry heard about it and hoped it wasn't one of their maps.
The system used by the Germans were always talking systems, the Japanese had a visual system. Bosch has used talking navigators for some time and one of the keys to making their maps was to trick the software to get the right vocal choice (Half right vs turn right when the driver might see a Y-intersection).
Some systems would split the lanes on a split carriageway with each side provided with one-way symbols, others prefered a single highway that would allow u-turns. I'm sure that's what happened in this incident. The system probably said to turn left but there was nowhere to turn so the person continued (or they didn't hear it). Then they passed the left turn so the system told them to uturn to get back to the turn they had missed. A manuever that would be no big deal on a surface street.
In all cases it was assumed the driver was intelligent enough to drive. We hadn't considered the French.
Okay - mapping stories. We had teams drive every road and confirm addresses and no-left turn signs and such. At they time they drew on very basic subsets of our map called plots. We got intersting notes on the plots. Crack house, was indicated. Man flashed gun, won't return for addresses was another. Big dog and crappy food were others.
We had a team of Hasidic Jews working out of NY and they were arrested because someone saw them studying the roads going into the Lincoln Tunnel and reported suspicious middle eastern guys drawing a map. This was before Sept 11 but after the first Trade Center bombing.
After the OK City bombing our people who called to confirm addresses started getting a lot less cooperation from stores when they called.
Damn it was fun working there, I just wish they made money. Sorry to babble down memory lane.
#17
See I was a digital mapper at ETAK a digital map company that was one of the providers of the maps used by Sony and Bosch for their GPS systems.
Heh, I almost became one myself; I took the test at Etak's headquarters over ten years ago and was asked to come back again (for another round of tests?) but I ended up getting offered another job by some other company for more money. A shame - I would have loved to get into cartographical work.
From East-Asia-Intel, subscription req'd.
The Chinese government is negotiating the purchase of the Calgary-based oil and gas firm Husky Energy, Inc. from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported last week. Li Ka-shing is chairman of Huchison Wampoa of Hong Kong, the same company that has the port management contracts with Panama at both ends of the Panama Canal.
The multibillion-dollar takeover talks have been underway for the past several weeks in Beijing and Hong Kong. China wants full control of Husky through a state-owned company, possibly PetroChina Co. Ltd. Li Ka-shing or his family owns about 71 percent of Husky through Hutchison-Wampoa, the same company that successfully leased two ports at either end of the Panama Canal. The Husky bid is part of China's efforts to secure energy resources for its modernization.
China consumes large amounts of oil and other natural resources as part of its modernization drive. China has no known oil reserves, and its lack of energy resources is rapidly pushing Beijing toward expansion, possibly in Russia and Southeast Asia.
Welcome to the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere V2.0
China is also in talks to buy the Toronto mining company Noranda, Inc. through the state-owned China Minmetals Corp. Li has owned Noranda since 1989. How would you like to have a major energy or minerals company in your country owned by the Chicoms? Hutchison Wampoa buys 'em up (fronts) and the Chicoms buy from Hutchison Wampoa.
The Chinese acquisitions have raised concerns among some security officials because the assets could be controlled by Beijing. BSO...no sh*t, Sherlock....
U.S. officials believe China is engaged in a major international effort to purchase ports at strategic locations around the world as part of a plan to control major waterways. Another Blinding Statement of the Obvious. Chicom strategic thinking.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/01/2004 2:06:43 PM ||
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#1
I screwed up the spelling on the title, please fix.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/01/2004 14:21 Comments ||
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#2
China has no known oil reserves, and its lack of energy resources is rapidly pushing Beijing toward expansion, possibly in Russia and Southeast Asia.
Without question we can expect the Russian Far East to gradually be sucked into the Chinese orbit. Russia can't even put down the Chechen revolt south of Moscow; how could they defend Sakhalin? Huge oil reserves there.
#3
there are already more illegial chinese than ethinc russian in siberia..and it is only going to get worse with the declining russian birth rate, chronic illness and russians leaving siberia..as it stands now the russian far east looks to china/japan for ecomomic support and not moscow.
Posted by: Dan ||
12/01/2004 14:57 Comments ||
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#4
China has no known oil reserves,...
The last time I checked they did. Are we supposed to take this guy seriously as a source?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/01/2004 15:25 Comments ||
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#5
and its lack of energy resources Its the world's largest coal producer. Is a big gas producer and has just implemented the world's biggest (i think) hydro project. The Chinese have a problem with security of oil supply, but then so does everyone else.
#6
These guys are buying at the peak of the market. Just like the Japanese. However, the Japanese were actually rich when they bought Rockefeller Center.
#7
Chinese oil reserves vary as the definition of what is China does. Without the dubious off shore "acquisitions" in the Parcels, etc., China has a very limited reserve. Overall, China is trying to catch up to its use. The coal reserves, polluting all the way, aren't yet enough to supply electricity demands, and you cannot burn coal in your car. OTOH, if 50 K Chinese die because it's a cold winter, they don't care.
Florida's 67 county elections supervisors proposed dramatic reforms, including replacing Election Day with 11 days of voting and doing away with voting precincts. The association of election chiefs in the state that was the epicenter of the 2000 overtime election voted at its annual winter meeting Tuesday to present its reform plan to the state legislature. The plan calls for 11 days of voting, ending on the traditional Election Day. snip
This year, voters across the state were able to cast ballots early for the first time in a presidential election, and more than two million Floridians cast early or absentee ballots. But only a few sites were open, compared with Election Day. Election supervisors said the experience showed them they could move away from the traditional Election Day and precinct setup. Mr. Cowles said 11 days would cover two weekends, and the number of polling sites would be left up to individual counties. If reforms are passed, Florida wouldn't be the first state to eliminate the traditional Election Day. Voters in Oregon, for example, cast all ballots by mail. snip
Not sure what I think of this. Certain aspects are very appealing to me. My guess is that this would need to be phased in over a 3 year period. You cannot immediately raise the price of goods when no one has received the income tax benefit yet, that could cause a depression. The $64,000 question is would this change the consumer crazy attitude of us Americans. I actually think not so it might work.
I am also wondering what it would do for lower income people. This can be a burdensome tax on them. Would it be offset by higher wages? I am not holding my breath on that one. Also, how does this affect housing prices? Do you make buying a house exempt from this tax or tax it lower to make up for it and do you tax rent?
I say that if there is a bone of some type to throw to lower income people (either give them money directly or put an additional asset tax or nominal income tax on the rich, with no deductions, to offset any imbalance that may occur). You can't have millions of people starving because of this.
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American ||
12/01/2004 4:50:44 AM ||
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#1
This requires a constitutional amendment to throw out the 16th Amendment. I doubt the state legislatures will agree to that as it will significantly reduce their ability to raise funds by piggybacking off the IRS.
The decline in the value of the housing stock is also a very real issue. But that's what happens when you take away a government subsidy.
Notwithstanding the above, it is a good idea. Your concerns about the low income folks are met by the elimination of the rapacious Social Security taxes they pay but do not receive benefits for and exemptions for food and perhaps clothing. I doubt it will pass if it results in starvation.
There was a thread on this a few weeks ago and one of the commenters was really gung ho. I'm sceptical it will happen, but want to hear the debate.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/01/2004 9:35 Comments ||
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#2
Don't forget that the Tah Ray Sah Kerry's of the world usually pay a whole lot less than you and I do.
#4
One thing I just thought of is I wonder if people will make purchases in other countries when they can due to their being no sales tax. For example large scale purchases like cars and planes etc... similar to how people go to NJ to shop to avoid paying NY sales tax... That could be really bad.
#6
So you're saying we'd could apply the sales tax to goods purchased by americans outside of america and repatriated to america... that might work. You would need to somehow differentiate between things that are meant for resale in the US and things that are meant for consumption. For example a car dealershipi shouldn't be paying sales tax on goods they bring in to resell but a person who bought their car in canada should... it could get complicated but might be possible. Anyone see any drawbacks to that?
#7
Thank's Mrs. D. I do not think that it requires us to throw out the 16th amendment though. We are not making income taxes illegal, we are just not charging any :).
The problem with stripping a subsidy on housing is that you are potentially clobbering the equity value of most families in the united states. But, I actually think housing keeps up in this situation regardless as people will theoretically have more money to buy a house. At the end of the day, I think you will be able to buy a house tax free or at a much lower tax rate if something like this passes.
Putting different tax rates on different items and/or excluding some items can bring back a bureaucracy that we were trying to avoid with income taxes.
#8
DPA,
Not sure how this is addressed in Linders bill. However you are assuming that the purchase in Canada would be less expensive then purchasing in the US. Does Canada have a sales tax?
The point may be moot as some research contends that a sales tax would be price neutral. Basically the cost of an income tax is baked into goods already. Linder's website is a good place to start researching.
http://linder.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.Detail&Issue_id=84
Also www.fairtax.org
#9
I saw a story on this last night and the tax would have to be 15-20%. Also they (the IRS) would have to start some program to supplement the lower income earners that don't pay taxes now. That creaking sound is my back when I think about who the tax burden will fall on after the dust clears. I would be in favor of implementing a combination of both. Lower taxes and institute a small national sales tax. If things work out (or not) when can revisit it in a few years.
#10
A sales tax would be much better than what we have now.I favor a flat tax,evryone pays the same(individuals,corporations,that includes clergy who are tax exempt but live very well off the church,but are tax exempt)and I mean everyone.The Pastor at the local Baptist Church lives in new(less than 5years old)home valued at $173,000,late model vehicles,and pays no utilities,insurance or any other living expenses(even has church paid for ISP)and does not pay a dime in taxes.Not sure if it still holds true but the Catholic Church used to be the single largest property owner in the world and yet is tax exempt.
#11
DPA, I love it, this is another side benefit and will ensure much tighter border controls. Wouldn't want any tax dollars slipping away :).
Domingo:
Thanks, sorry, I have no details. I would imagine services would be taxed as well though, would they not? Does that mean rent gets taxed? If that is the case, it will equalize the removal of the mortgage deduction.
#12
DPA, No repeal, no sales tax. The legislation discussed a few weeks ago did include repeal. If not, I'm against giving the government a new way into my wallet without removing an old one. Permanently.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/01/2004 10:23 Comments ||
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#13
The problem with a sales tax on such a scale is that it is hard to define objectively (see questions above) and inevitably leads to enormous pressure on business to keep track of absolutely everything AND give direct access to that information to the government.
The best solution today would be a flat tax on individual income. As for the "poor" -- let them carry a share of the national tax burden, and soon you may have more popular traction to reduce government spending. At the moment a majority of the American people pay no federal taxes -- hence their self-interest is to keep increasing taxes for government spending.
The ideal solution in a small-government world would probably be fees on contracts. All major social and economic interactions involve a contract, and include the expectation that government will help enforce it. It could even be optional, so that contracts without paid fee will not be enforced by the courts (but you may pick private arbitrators, who will charge you a little something of course).
#14
This tax is very interesting to me. The way it's explained by Rep. Linder (R-GA) of my district is intriguing. Basically, there is a "built in tax" to everything we already buy for complying with IRS regs (again, this is just Federal Income Tax). The bill is supposed to repeal the 16th Amendment and will ONLY tax "new items." Therefore, you buy a used home, no tax. You buy used goods on Ebay, no tax. In theory, the "built in tax" for IRS compliance is 24-26% already, so with a market economy, prices would drop when you do away with IRS/16th Amend. and the 22-24% national sales tax bumps you back up to what you're paying today. The bill allows for a refund check monthly up to the poverty line for necessities (food, housing, clothing, etc.), so it covers the poor. Basically, you'd pay what you pay for goods today (only new goods, at that), the poor get a refund check monthly and we ALL get to keep ALL of our paycheck as far as the Feds are concerned. Take a look at your paystub and see how much is withheld for Fed. Income tax, Medicare and Social Security combined (which this would replace all those withholdings). Of course, passing the bill is another matter. Every time Rep. Linder comes home, I go hear him speak and he's gotten more and more backing for this. It will be a rough transition the first few years, but would be a BOOM for the economy. According to Linder, every single CEO/CFO he's talked with about this says they'd build their next manufacturing plant right here if this were to pass.
Posted by: BA ||
12/01/2004 11:37 Comments ||
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#15
Another reason a sales tax is a nefarious device is that it hides the cost of government. How many people know how much tax they're paying on gas?
I want it to be a painful payment out of everybody's paycheck. Only then will a majority rise and demand that government be restrained again.
#16
I have a suggestion-before anyone lauds this idea, go to each family member in your families, have them calculate what they paid last year on their 1040's (in terms of percentage of income and real dollars) and what they would pay under this scheme (same methods, taking into account the purchasing they did this year.) When I calculated it, I found my taxes went way up, wiping out the breaks made under Bush AND increasing my taxes even beyond that (using the 23% figure being batted around on cable). Many of your family members might find themselves in that same position themselves.
I am glad to see some creative economic thinking, but this idea should be tested out on each income bracket; if that doesn't happen, this passes, and American families subsequently have fewer dollars in their pockets to spend, then no economists can say they weren't warned.
#17
Presumably one of the overarching goals of the flat tax/sales tax approach is to encourage savings. If your family's aggregate taxes go up, Jules, it's likely because, overall, you're very heavy consumers. Granted that we want to continue to prime the pump of our grand consumer economy-- which accounts for 2/3rds of GDP overall-- but with the dollar falling rapidly and the budget deficit swelling we are facing a much bigger problem. As a nation we simply don't save enough.
This renders us extraordinarily, and dangerously, dependent upon foreign creditors. If the Asian central banks change their view of the relative risk/reward profile of US treasuries, and decide to dump them en masse, then we will be well and truly screwed. Interest rates will soar. The housing market will crash. Consumer demand will plummet, unemployment will rise, and the downward spiral will likely continue.
I for one would like to see much greater incentives for saving and disincentives for consumption, esp gasoline. Disruptive? Sure, but a lot less disruptive than a financial crash caused by our inability to save and cover our own debts.
#18
Jules, did you take into account all your tax planning expneses and the tax planning expenses built into all the goods you buy? It may not be so bad afterall. Besides that, you have the bonus of more efficient taxation of the underground economy.
Kallee national sales tax will be closely watched. People throw fits when states raise their's and businesses better keep track of everything it is a tough competitive environment out there. Businesses will not be the ones crying about this bill. That's for sure.
#19
There is a lot of misinformation/confusion in this thread. Far more than I can address. But so far no one has mentioned the most important reason for a value added consumption tax which is it is 'enconomically efficient'. Its cheap to administer, hard to avoid, and does not produce productivity killing economic distortions (and produces lots of unemployed accountants and lawyers).
Australia introduced such a tax (collected by the Feds on behalf of the states) a few years ago under very contentious circumstances. All political parties now support it and the Australian economy has boomed since its introduction.
#20
Lex-Your assumption is incorrect. It's my sister-in-law that has consumeritis. ;)
You make a good general point about savings, but you're off target in my case.
ODA-I do my own tax planning and prepare my own tax returns, so that theory also is incorrect.
All I am challenging you to do, folks, is do the math, not just for yourselves, but for people in tax brackets above and below you. We support empirically-based arguments, right? OK-let's see if this idea passes the smell test.
#21
Compared to a flat tax, a national sales tax is extremely regressive - almost as regressive as a head tax, which is why lower-income people will find their taxes raised significantly. Currently, someone with an income of $12,000 pays $453 in Federal taxes. Assuming he spends all of his income, the Federal tax for him under a 23% sales tax regime is $2760, or about six times his current taxes. Politically, this may be a non-starter.
#22
Not so, grasshoppa. Food, rent, busfare, perhaps clothing as well would all be exempt from the tax, so your hypothetical taxpayer would probably pay no more than 23% of whatever he/she spent on things like entertainment and electronics, which probably don't amount to more than $1000 per year.
#23
Correction - the Federal tax calculated for the previous income level should have been $2244.
For someone making $24,000, his existing Federal tax would have been $2,084. Under a 23 per cent sales tax, assuming he saves $3,000 a year, his Federal taxes would be $3,926 per year, almost doubling his tax burden. Whatever one's feelings about the equitability of a progressive tax system, the imposition of a national sales tax may well swell the ranks of welfare recipients, in addition to the numbers of low-income Republicans voting for the Democrats. The question is whether enough latte-swilling Democrats will consider switching their votes to the Republican Party to make up for the loss of blue-collar Republican votes.
#24
I am not understanding how anyone thinks companies will automaticly "lower prices" because they "save" money not required spend money of meeting income tax requirements? How is increasing the cost of food and energy supposed to get me to save money?
A flat 10% unescapeable income tax makes more sense. Rich or poor you pay. An the 10% is fixed by law no rasing it now lowering it period. If some trust pays you X dollars you pay tax on it. No sheltering income. IF it's income of any type and you live in the US you pay 10% up front. It's QED.
I am completely doubtful, lex, if such a bill came to pass, that food, clothing, etc would be exempt. If that's the plan, then they better do some better marketing--get out front and guarantee those things will be exempt-otherwise, you are looking at MASSIVE opposition to the bill from lower and even middle income people, if Zhang Fei's calculation is right.
#26
Kalle - I'd be interested in your source for "a majority of American people pay no Federal taxes." Every American who draws a paycheck pays 9% (effectively 18%) of SocSec on the first $80K+, income taxes kick in at a fairly low rate, and there are a variety of exise taxes and so on. I would guess an extremely small percentage of adult Americans completely avoid any Federal tax. Most of those are the WSJ's "lucky duckies" at the extreme low end of the income scale who aren't avoiding taxes by means of their political pull, I can assure you.
#27
lex: Not so, grasshoppa. Food, rent, busfare, perhaps clothing as well would all be exempt from the tax, so your hypothetical taxpayer would probably pay no more than 23% of whatever he/she spent on things like entertainment and electronics, which probably don't amount to more than $1000 per year.
From the article: Proponents seek a 23-cent national sales tax on all retail goods, everything from groceries to clothes, cars to electronics.
It looks like services aren't included, but I suspect that'll be a non-starter, since the US is a service economy in such a big way.
#28
Re-For someone making $24,000, his existing Federal tax would have been $2,084. Under a 23 per cent sales tax, assuming he saves $3,000 a year, his Federal taxes would be $3,926 per year, almost doubling his tax burden.
It should raise nothing but a giggle to say that someone GROSSING $24,000 per year is saving $3,000 per year. Let's refigure that using, say, half that figure. Now what's their tax liability?
#30
??? Food would be exempt. Rent would almost certainly be exempt. Clothing probably would be as well. Assume your average $24k per yr income person spends the following annually on each of these items:
Food: $400 per month, or $4800 annually. Exempt.
Rent: $500 per month, or $6000 annually. Exempt.
Bus or metro fare: $100 per month, or $1200 annually. Exempt.
Clothing: ~$80 per month, or ~$1000 annually. Exempt.
That totals $13,000 in exemptions. Deduct another $3,000 in savings as per your example and you end up with only $8,000 that's consumed and taxed, which means taxes paid = 0.23 * 8000 = $1840.
#31
If groceries and rent are not exempt then I oppose the bill wholeheartedly. Taxing these at 23% would of course be massively regressive and unfair.
#32
Jules 187: It should raise nothing but a giggle to say that someone GROSSING $24,000 per year is saving $3,000 per year. Let's refigure that using, say, half that figure. Now what's their tax liability?
In this scenario, his Federal income taxes under a 23% sales tax regimen would be $4207 (vs the $2084 he pays today).
#34
lex: If groceries and rent are not exempt then I oppose the bill wholeheartedly. Taxing these at 23% would of course be massively regressive and unfair.
I don't know if it would be unfair. (The idea that the rich should pay more is generally held to be fair. But why is that? Simply because in a democracy, the poor can gang up on the rich? This is the kind of thinking that brought us the welfare state, where the very poor and the liberal elites ganged up on the middle class). But it would certainly push us back to the system of taxation prior to the introduction of the income tax.
#35
I don't think it really boils down to class warfare. I think it's more a case of people giving up on imaginary thinking and working with the real numbers real Americans would have to deal with.
In my neck of the woods, there's a saying-you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. If a wallet is empty, then it doesn't matter to me how good your product is, I'm not going to be buying it.
I like everything about this except I think the rebate part of it is a bad idea (even though that makes it progressive). The tax rate would be much lower without it, and they gloss over the fact that some federal agency (IRS?) would have to administer the payments, keep track, make sure there isn't any fraud, etc.
Posted by: David Fass ||
12/01/2004 17:34 Comments ||
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#38
Well, it's a marketing job of a sort, Mr. Fass. Thanks for the link, though.
No tax on used goods. No tax on business inputs. With the FairTax, if you choose to buy any new good or service, the sales tax is charged just as state sales taxes are computed today. If you choose to buy used goods - used car, used home, used appliances - you do not pay the FairTax. If, as a business owner or farmer, you buy something for strictly business purposes (not for personal consumption), you pay no consumption tax. So, in deciding what to buy, you get to choose whether or not you pay the federal consumption tax.
No federal sales tax up to the poverty level means progressivity like today's tax system. Furthermore, to ensure that no American pays tax on necessities, the FairTax plan provides a prepaid, monthly rebate for every registered household to cover the consumption tax spent on necessities up to the federal poverty level. This, along with several other features, is how the FairTax completely untaxes the poor, lowers the tax burden on most, while making the overall rate progressive. However, the FairTax is progressive based on lifestyle/spending choices, rather than simply punishing those taxpayers who are successful. Do you see how much freer life is with the FairTax instead of the income tax?
#40
What about the state sales tax we are paying now?
Are we looking at adding that on top of 23 cents on the dollar per item ?
oh the poor shall be poorer .....
#41
Jules 187: Well, it's a marketing job of a sort, Mr. Fass. Thanks for the link, though.
It appears that the 23% sales tax is also in lieu of the 15.3% Social Security / Medicare payroll tax. This changes my calculations drastically. The salary calculation for a $24,000 per year wage-earner was after these payroll taxes had been submitted. If you add the payroll tax back in, then the numbers change drastically. Let's start from the basics:
Current taxation system:
After SS taxes, but before Federal income taxes, no state income tax (as in Alaska, for example), $24,000 in income - pays $2084 in additional Federal taxes, leaving $21,916 of disposable income. He then spends $20,500 of that disposable income, leaving $1,416 in his savings account.
23% sales tax system:
15.3% representing SS taxes are added back in, meaning his take home pay is now $28,335. He spends $20,500 of that disposable income, incurring a Federal sales tax bill of $4,715, leaving him with a savings balance of $3120 for the year.
Current taxation system:
After SS taxes, but before Federal income taxes, no state income tax (as in Alaska, for example), $12,000 in income - pays $423 in additional Federal taxes, leaving $11,577 of disposable income. He then spends $11,577 of that disposable income, leaving $0 in his savings account.
23% sales tax system:
15.3% representing SS taxes are added back in, meaning his take home pay is now $14,168. He spends $11,577 of that disposable income, incurring a Federal sales tax bill of $2663, leaving him with a credit card debt of $72 for the year.
However, the sales tax rebate on necessities up to the federal poverty level takes care of this debt. The poverty level is around $18,000. This means the $12,000 wage earner gets every dollar of the sales tax spent on necessities rebated back to him. Assuming rent is covered, and he spends $450 a month on rent, he will get at least $1242 back, which means he not only pays off his notional credit card, he ends up with a savings balance of $1170, compared to $0 under the present system.
#44
"It appears that the 23% sales tax is also in lieu of the 15.3% Social Security / Medicare payroll tax."
Where did you get that 15.3% figure? That looks like the "matching tax" of the employer has been added in. Let's stick with the employee end of it, if we can. Aren't those taxes 6.2 & 1.45, respectively?
The problem here is tax neutrality - they need to collect as much money with a sales tax as they currently do with a whole complex of taxes. The corporate income tax is going away. And individuals are all paying less taxes? Something doesn't add up here. I suspect what they're hoping for is that the increase in disposable income is going to get people spending more money.
#46
jules 2: Where did you get that 15.3% figure? That looks like the "matching tax" of the employer has been added in. Let's stick with the employee end of it, if we can. Aren't those taxes 6.2 & 1.45, respectively?
Under this plan, both sides of it are supposed to be eliminated. BTW, the employer doesn't pay that tax. The employee does. The employee's pay is reduced by the amount the employer supposedly pays for the tax.
#47
WaiIt a second. Aren't you deducting 15% from the taxes the employee pays in your calculations? If so, you are saying that I am paying 15% + a federal tax, coming to a tax rate of 36% of my gross income? I don't think so.
I admit that I am no financial wizard, but as I recall from my payroll preparation days, I doubled those figures to come up with 941 tax payments for the employer.
#48
jules 2: WaiIt a second. Aren't you deducting 15% from the taxes the employee pays in your calculations? If so, you are saying that I am paying 15% + a federal tax, coming to a tax rate of 36% of my gross income? I don't think so.
The 15.3% is the combined employee/employer SS tax. And yes - without the tax, the full salary would be paid to the employee. The employer vs employee pays distinction is only a notional one. The employer doesn't pay for your health care either - he just deducts the cost from the higher salary he would have paid you otherwise.
Not quite. A sales tax is very visible. When you go to Target or whatever, you pay $XX + $YY tax. It's a separate line on the receipt.
Now, a VAT would be a different story. That would be hideable and could be manipulated to punish "bad" products and reward "good" products.
Zhang Fei:
Your calculations forget the Earned Income Tax, which I presume would be eliminated. That helps the very-low income people with a partial rebate of their portion of the SS tax.
#52
Another important feature of a Sales Tax would be that there would be no 1040 and no schedule A B C D E F G H I got a gal...
Eliminating the Income Tax would be a huge victory for civil liberties, too. People who complain about the PATRIOT act should look at the powers the IRS has. All the snooping in bank accounts, fishing expeditions, guilty-unless-proven-innocent burden of proof, asset seizure (well, the Drug Warriors keep that power I guess, but the IRS loses it) would be gone.
#53
With the FairTax, if you choose to buy any new good or service,
To paraphrase Clinton, it all depends on what the meaning of good or service "is".
Here in Aus we have a GST (Goods and Services Tax) of 10%. One of the reasons for that figure was that it was felt that compliance would be reasonable at that figure. Above that the incentive for rorting would increase exponentially. At 23% I can assure you that there would be armies of tax accountants and lawyers only too willing to provide advice on avoidance/evasion. Heck I might even set up shop myself. Even after a cursory examination I can see many areas where you could back a semi trailer through.
The big problem would be cross referencing. If you eliminate income tax, you eliminate a (the) major referencing tool that is used by jurisdictions that use VAT or GST style taxation, to check on compliance.
#54
I didn't make it through all of the comments but there are a LOT of misconceptions above.
All new goods & services are taxed under the Fair Tax, period. This includes food, medical care, clothing, bus fare, etc. BUT you have to remember that all of these services currently include an embedded tax / tax compliance cost of 20-25% so a 23% sales tax would be a net zero in out-of-pocket cost for all of your goods and services (note that this will probably guarantee the continuation of our consumer culture since everyone will take more much more, have nothing deducted, and pay no more for goods & services than they do now).
The Fair Tax is NOT regressive because each and every household that cares enough to sign up willl receive a check from the federal government every month that "prebates" their tax liability for every dollar up to the poverty line. This allows ALL Americans to purchase exactly the same amount of goods and services tax-free each year. Those who choose to live more comfortable lifestyles will pay taxes to support them. Those who choose to (or are forced to) live on little can avoid the tax. Consider the potential positive impact of forcing consumers to make better decisions.
The Fair Tax includes a repeal of the 16th Amendment and the explicit abolition of all other federal taxes except excise taxes on specific goods.
This is a HUGELY good thing. I'd ask those that disagree to please, please, please go read through Rep. Linder's site and the fairtax.org site and do so with open minds. If there are losers here it is those who make and spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per year. The rest of us win, it's not even close.
If you want to debate this offline, if you have concerns, if you think you're going to get screwed, drop me a line and I'll be glad to discuss the matter with you. If you don't like this it's either because you don't understand it or because you're making rock star money.
The United Nations unveiled a timid sweeping proposal to maintain the status quo overhaul the organisation, including the Security Council, in what would be the biggest UN reform since its founding in 1945. After bitter divisions over the war in Iraq, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ordered a high-level panel last year to come up with the blueprint and help the United Nations adapt to the 21st century. The panel's report released Tuesday proposed more than 100 recommendations, including some -- an expansion of the Security Council and a definition of terrorism -- that have eluded UN diplomats for years. "What is needed is a comprehensive system of collective security, one that tackles both old and new threats, and addresses the security concerns of all states -- rich and poor, weak and strong," Annan said in an introduction to the report.
"And we're going to do all that with this here little document," he added.
He said the proposals, which must be approved by member nations, set out "a broad framework for collective security and indeed gives a broader meaning to that concept appropriate for the new millennium." In setting out a blueprint for collective security decisions, the report also takes implicit aim at the United States over the Iraqi war, which was strongly opposed by Annan and many Security Council member states. "There is little evident international acceptance of the idea of security being best preserved by a balance of power or by any single -- even benignly motivated -- superpower," the panel said.
For darned sure, security isn't going to be preserved by the UN, reformed or not.
"The yearning for an international system governed by the rule of law has grown," it said. "No state, no matter how powerful, can by its own efforts alone make itself invulnerable to today's threats." Annan has repeatedly maintained that many people around the globe are concerned about disease and poverty rather than terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and much of the report underlines his core argument.
In that case I guess there's no danger from terrorism.
The report identifies a wide variety of threats to international security today, citing organised crime, poverty and failed states along with war, terrorism and WMD. It outlines three principles for collective security -- that current threats go beyond national boundaries, that no nation is strong enough to defend itself alone, and that not every nation will be willing or able to protect its own people or refrain from harming its neighbours.
Funny, not a word about thugs, dictators and kleptocrats.
Annan, whose term ends in 2006, has indicated that he will devote much of his remaining time in office to pushing for the reforms, which would have to be approved by member states.
As long as it keeps him off the streets at night, but then again, a good dinner would do that and would be somewhat cheaper.
Revamping the Security Council, the top UN decision-making body, is likely to be the most contentious issue, and the panel itself came up with two competing proposals for expanding the council's membership to 24 seats. One method would add six new permanent members to the council, which has had the same five permanent states -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- since the United Nations was founded in the wake of World War II. That proposal would also add three new non-permanent members to the 10 current non-permanent members, who hold rotating two-year seats. The six new permanent seats, without the veto power that the current five have, would be allotted to two nations from Asia, two from Africa, one from Europe and one from the Americas. The other proposal would create a third tier of council member nations, which would be given four-year, non-permanent seats, which could be renewed. Two-thirds of the 191 UN member nations would have to approve any change to the council membership, which would then take effect if none of the permanent members uses its veto power to block the move. The UN reform panel was headed by former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun. Among the other members are Brent Scowcroft, a shill for old-guard interests former US national security advisor, and former Chinese foreign minister Qian Qichen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/01/2004 12:26:31 AM ||
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#1
sound like a bit of gorbachovian perestroika to me--and will be just as effective
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/01/2004 0:59 Comments ||
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#2
Mostly it's about getting back at the US for going with a colition of the willing without Kofi's blessing. I don't think Kofi is going to last much longer. SOS different day.
#3
We're not trying to be invulnerable, Kofi. Just pointing out the fact that we don't need your permission to defend ourselves. Or to join with like-minded states to whack out obnoxious thugs.
#6
Uh huh.... Get caught smack dab in the middle of the biggest theft in the history of theft and then call for "reforms". Well, the only acceptable reform is to GET THE u.n. THE HELL OUT OF MY COUNTRY!!!!!
Withdraw all U.S. tax dollars from the u.n. PERIOD!! Without U.S. tax dollars the worthless u.n. will cease to exist. The u.n. is nothing without U.S. participation.
#7
I like the idea of putting more dictatorships in the Security Council in order to balance out the hyperpower US from running amok, picking on poor third world nations and stealing their wealth Yep. That'll fix her.
Remember, capitalisim and democracy doesn't work. The reason we are successful is because we steal the resources of poor third world nations. The the UN and thus the World needs more involvment from Dinky Dictatorships in order to become a better place. I love this idea. Let this and graft be Kofi's legacy.
#8
Comissioning a high level panel to make "sweeping recommendations" : $1 Million
Pronouncing the recommendations "meaningful" and promising significant overhaul for the "new millenium" : a couple-of-bucks
Ultimately not having to make any real changes, maintaining our corrupt anti-US-petrowhoring do-nothing-real place in the world while being able to take a swipe at the US in the process : pricele$$
#9
"The yearning for an international system governed by the rule of law has grown"
hahahahaha...Oh please someone make him shutup, he's killing me!
Hey retard, care to guess why? C'mon take a shot -it because you idiots have proven to be the most corrupt, feckless, criminally abusive, self serving whores ever to disgrace the international stage. Ignoring legitimate problems, blowing murderous dictators and funneling illegal payments to family members isn't what the world wants? Who da thunk it?
Its gratifying to see that my distain for all things UN is well founded.
#11
Classic example of avoidance. Kof-ster: the first step is to admit the problem - your whole organization is corrupt, ineffective, and a waste of oxygen. Go away and bother us no more!
#12
You know if this weren't so sad it would be funny.
Kofi the most corrupt politician ever known - responsible for the largest fraud the world has ever known, is trying to divert attention from the food-for-palaces/food/bombs program to this 'sweeping reform' of his criminal organization.
Here is some reform for you: Stop all funding of the UN from the US and form a new organization. Doesn't Japan also pay a huge amount to the UN as well? I bet we can get them to join us. On and kick the UN out of the US.
#13
I expect that the US government eventually will approve of a major reform along these lines. The public and Congress will have a big debate about the details, but I think there has long been a consensus that the UN's structure (especially the Security Council) is obsolete.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/01/2004 10:09 Comments ||
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#14
I expect also that the eventual support for the UN's reform will be very bi-partisan.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/01/2004 10:22 Comments ||
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#15
I think there has long been a consensus that the UN's structure (especially the Security Council) is obsolete.
Cleaned it up for ya, Mikey.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/01/2004 10:26 Comments ||
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#16
and I want a pony for Xmas. Acceptable UN reform will be forced down their kicking and screaming throats. Too many otehr interests want to use the institution to tie down American power used in furthering American interests (like self defense). They will not accept reforms we want, ergo your beloved UN will die, Mike. Sorry for you, Sorry -not- for the UN....a corrupt kleptocracy of unelected bureaucrats from failed countries. Buh-bye, Kofi!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2004 10:28 Comments ||
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#17
Bwahahahahah.
That's why Norm Coleman writes an article in the WSJ calling for KA to go.
He won't. Throws up this smoke scren instead as part of the Lilliputian tie down Gulliver strategy.
Gulliver lies down? I don't think so.
Coleman calls for the truth from Kofi and Volcker.
Gets nothing.
Coleman calls for cut off of US funding for UN until Kofi comes clean.
Nothing.
UN withers and becomes toothless debating society as US directly funds international agencies whose work it supports.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/01/2004 10:30 Comments ||
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#18
that current threats go beyond national boundaries, that no nation is strong enough to defend itself alone, and that not every nation will be willing or able to protect its own people or refrain from harming its neighbours.
You mean these blindingly obvious facts were not central to the original UN Charter in 1945?
The fatal flaw in the UN structure is its fetish of national sovereignty that's implied by the asinine mantra of "the world community." There is no such community. The harsh fact is that the greatest cause of third world misery is the governments of third world nations, at least 80% of which are brutal, incompetent kleptocracies. And many are nightmare regimes. Asking the permission or approval of these thugs for collective action is like asking a wife-beater to judge divorce cases.
#19
It's bad enough when the Neighborhood Beautification Committee is constantly accusing you of needing to change the color of your house, or re-plant the flower beds with something different...etc. It's intolerable when they are holding their meetings in your FAMILY ROOM!!
The u.n. will ALWAYS find fault first, last and always with the U.S. I prefer they do it SOMEWHERE ELSE!
#20
I doubt any UN reform will be of more than marginal significance (not that marginal improvements might not be helpful). Doesnt mean the UN will die (sorry folks) but it wont grow in importance either. UNGA will remain a debating society and diplo gathering place, UNSC will remain useful in coordinating efforts in SOME instances where ALL great powers are on the same side, and the technical agencies will (with some exceptions) do good work. Nothing more.
Baked chicken catered by a well-known polygamist should be boycotted at an Islamic conference being held in Indonesia, a former president's wife said Tuesday. Puspowardoyo, owner of the Indonesian restaurant chain Wong Solo, has four wives and is a vocal advocate for polygamy in the world's most populous Muslim nation. He is supplying delegates at the Nahdatul Ulama's annual congress, in the Central Java town of Surakarta, with his popular baked chicken.
Yummy! Baked chicken with special seasoning!
But a group of women — led by the wife of former President Abdurrahman Wahid — said the poultry has no place at the event.
No chicken? Then why go?
"All Nahdatul Ulama congress participants should reject the food provided by Wong Solo restaurant," said Sinta Nuriyah Wahid. "The restaurant owner practices polygamy, which is disrespectful to women. Polygamy is equal to slavery and causes suffering to women and their children."
But what's he do that's disrepectful to chickens?
Puspowardoyo, who goes by one name, dismissed the controversy. "These women are just overreacting because they don't agree with polygamy," he said from his office in nearby Solo. "They have a right to disagree with me. But I've also got a right to practice polygamy based on Islamic teachings, as long as I can love and take care of my wives equally and fairly."
"I feed them chicken regularly. That's why they all love me!"
Despite the protest, delegates said boxes of Puspowardoyo's chicken remain a popular lunchtime favorite at the congress. A survey earlier this month by the U.S.-funded Freedom Institute found that 39 percent of Indonesians support polygamy.
I don't approve of polygamy, but I don't see what it has to do with baked chicken. Maybe I'm not sensitive enough.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/01/2004 12:46:56 AM ||
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#1
Most (all?) men cannot continously handle/afford/satisfy 1 wife. Then when the daughters arrive the poor yutz is our numbered as well as out gunned. Why on earth would you want to be outnumbered from the start? And don't give me any nonsense about them bickering with each other. They'll all turn on you at the same time.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/01/2004 1:11 Comments ||
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#5
When asked about the scheduled entertainment at the conference, Ms. Wahid replied, "Oh, everybody will have fun tonight. Everybody will Wang Chung tonight."
#6
Puspowardoyo seems like a plucky fellow, but any guy who lives with that many women is bound to be a little henpecked. If you're going to egg people on like he does bragging about all the chicks he has, don't be surprised when feathers fly, the chickens come home to roost, and you end up in the (chicken) soup with egg on the face.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/01/2004 11:15 Comments ||
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#7
Unless he is ok with multiple fellow husbands, he is nothing more than an hypocrite.
The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, announced on Wednesday that it had arrested about 100 people suspected to be Rwandan troops, amid persistent reports of their incursion into eastern Congo.
"Stick 'em up, youse guys!"
"It's the UN! We give up!"
"According to the head of office of MONUC-Goma, a patrol of blue helmets [UN] soldiers found about one hundred soldiers who were spotted in Rutshuru [in the east] and suspected of being Rwandans," Patricia Tome, the MONUC director of information, said on Wednesday. "MONUC is trying to confirm the identity of these soldiers."
Has anyone confirmed that the UN really did arrest them?
In the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, the government of President Joseph Kabila has asked the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the "situation in the east where the Rwanda authorities and the presence of the Rwandan army pose a threat", Kudura Kasongo, Kabila's spokesman, said.
Hmmmm... Yasss... There's an invading army in the eastern part of your country. I'd call that a threat.
Wednesday's discovery of the suspected soldiers comes as diplomats, Congolese authorities, humanitarian and religious sources have reported that Rwandan soldiers had actually crossed into the DRC.
But there wasn't any confirmation, so it didn't count...
Tome said MONUC was concerned about the prevailing situation. She added that the international community would consider it unacceptable and unjustified if any decision was made counter to previous decisions to restore peace in the country. "MONUC is surprised by this announcement [by Kagame to send in his soldiers into Congo] at a time when recent developments were in favour of a speedy repatriation of foreign armed groups on Congolese soil," Tome said. MONUC is continuing its patrols by air and by road in the area, and has deployed 2,500 and 500 mighty Uruguayan soldiers, respectively, to the provinces of South Kivu and North Kivu. Another 433 UN soldiers, including 244 Pakistanis, would soon be deployed in the area, Tome said.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/01/2004 12:03:48 PM ||
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HT from Polypundit - this is a blog from a NC native who is studying in Jordan
....Sally and Malik haven't been dating for very long and I won't go into the details of their relationship, but she really did like this guy, and I liked him as well. He seemed very Western, spoke English well, acted respectably, dressed nice, came from an affluent and well-off family. He even lived in Europe for two years and had relationships with girls there. They went out to eat last night and she brought up the subject of honor killings. Malik nonchalantly said that he would be willing to kill his sister or support his uncle or dad if they killed her if she had sex. This really upset Sally. They were holding hands and she immediately jerked away. He looked at her quizzically and asked what was wrong. She said she couldn't be touched by someone whose hands would kill his own sister for doing things that this guy enjoys fairly often with females. Malik just didn't get it. He said it was just his culture...
And you're welcome to it, Sally.
Athena has also posted comments about how PhDs in the Arab world believe in the "the Mossad did it" theory of 9-11 and how the same PhDs believe the Protocol of the Elders of Zion myth, etc. Its quite horrible especially since these are the most enlightened people in one of the most enlightened Arab countries.
Posted by: mhw ||
12/01/2004 10:00:12 AM ||
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A group of about 100 Rwandan troops has been spotted inside the Democratic Republic of Congo in a first sighting by United Nations observers.
"Y'got one, Rupert!"
"I dunno, Jean-Claude! He coulda been Mozambiqui. Best hold off confirming."
"But there's hundreds of corpses lying around!"
"Only 'hundreds' doesn't qualify as genocide. Take your time. You're new to this, aren't you?"
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing renewed fighting in the east. The Congolese say more than 6,000 Rwandans have crossed the border and are attacking and burning villages. Rwanda's president had threatened to send troops across the border to engage Hutu rebels inside Congolese territory who have not been disarmed. A UN spokesperson said a team of peacekeepers had seen about hundred soldiers, who they thought were Rwandan, near the border town of Goma.
"Yup, those appear to be Rwandan soldiers, we'll have to get closer before we can......wow, look at the time! We're late for lunch. We'll come back tomorrow, or next week."
"Infiltration is nothing new but this is something else, it has the appearance of an invasion," Monuc's chief in Goma, M'Hand Djalouzi, told journalists.
"But it doesn't rise to the level of genocide, not by a couple hundred dead people, so don't worry about it too much."
Last week, the UN warned Rwanda not to use military force, saying such a move could undermine international efforts to stabilise the region.
"We're warning you! Invade your neighbor and you'll undermine international efforts to stabilize your region! And then where will you be? Riddle us that, hah?"
Rwanda has consistently warned that it is prepared to take military action because of the threat it says is posed by the group which include fighters who took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. But some Congolese analysts say that the real reason behind Rwanda's threats is that President Joseph Kabila has recalled the governor of North Kivu province, based in Goma, who is from the Rwandan-backed RCD former rebel group. They say Rwanda wants to ensure it retains control of the border area.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/01/2004 9:09:15 AM ||
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At the risk of breaching Internet civility, a European Web portal is offering its visitors a weapon against spam: a screensaver program that tries to choke spam servers by flooding them with junk traffic. As of Tuesday, about 65,000 people have signed up for the controversial tool from the German-based Lycos Europe, whose sites get 20 million users monthly.
The company insists the technique is legal — it says the culprit servers are simply choked a bit, not completely asphyxiated — and dismissed concerns that its "Make Love not Spam" offensive can further clog the world's digital pipeline. Still, computer experts are worried. "You don't stop a bad thing by being bad yourself," said David Farber, former chief technologist at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites). "The idea of somebody coming and hitting you and you hitting back, you both end up very hurt. It just aggrevates an already serious problem."
When a computer with the free Lycos screensaver is idle, the program sends junk commands to Web sites identified by Lycos as selling products pitched in spam. When done in masse, this eats up precious bandwidth, causing the sites to overload and slow down. The goal, said Lycos Europe spokesman Kay Oberbeck, is to "show the owners of such spam Web sites that there is massive interest of thousands of users who are not willing to just give up against more and more spam each day."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
12/01/2004 4:34:53 AM ||
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I'll be back afterwhile, I have 120 machines running SETI@home that need new screensavers.
#2
"Dateline: New York City. Nigeria's UN ambassador today accused Germany of launching a surprise attack on her country's Internet systems. Ambassador Miriam Abacha charged that a German website had launched 'a cybernetic Pearl Harbor, without warning or provocation, that threatens Nigeria's historically low mortgage interest rates and penis enlargement industry.' Nigeria introduced a resolution in the General Assembly calling on Germany to provide bank account numbers . . . ."
Posted by: Mike ||
12/01/2004 8:31 Comments ||
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Kinda like rigging a shotgun to cover the front door while you're away...
SENIOR Congolese officials claim Rwandan troops have crossed into eastern Congo and are clashing with militias there. UN officials said they were investigating the unverified claims.
"Pooh. If we don't see it with our own UN-issued eyes, then it didn't happen."
Reminds me of the Bud Light commercial from a few years back: "There I was ... there I was ... there I was ... ... in the Congo."
The allegations came as Kagame told his country's parliament that Rwandan troops "might" already be in Congo, pursuing Rwandan rebels based there. Congo's government protested, while a Congolese Cabinet minister on the scene in the east, Mbusa Nyamwisi, said: "We are on a war footing". Speaking yesterday from the eastern town of Beni, he claimed there was fighting nearby - "We are being attacked by the Rwandan troops," he said.
If the UN didn't see them, they're not there. Sorry.
Lawless eastern Congo was the scene of the worst fighting in a devastating 1998-2002 central African war, and remains home to numerous, vying militias. The region is the site of frequent clashes, which residents frequently blame on Rwanda and its one-time Congolese rebels allies. Yesterday, local officials, Congolese commanders, priests and other community leaders told UN officials and journalists that Rwandan forces were in the area. Villagers reaching Beni told authorities that communities north of Goma, near Congo's border with Rwanda, had been attacked, with at least three villages burned, Nyamwisi said. The displaced reported 15 people killed at one village, Ikobo, he said. Nyamwisi claimed two brigades of Rwandan troops were fighting alongside former rebel forces that had been allied to Rwanda during the 1998-2002 war. He gave no evidence.
Who the hell needs evidence when your citizens are decomposing? Or do they think he's lying?
Richard Sezibera, a Rwandan special envoy to regional peace talks, denied the allegations today and said Rwandan intelligence reports indicated that the Rwandan rebels were marching toward Nyamwisi's stronghold in Beni and were responsible for the violence. "That is obviously false information, all the areas mentioned are occupied by ex-Far/Interahamwe," Sezibera said, using the catch-all name for the rebels. Sezibera said he was surprised that Nyamwisi didn't mention that he himself had fallen out with the rebels and they were threatening him.
Okay. I take it back. Let the obfuscation continue while the women and children and granny ladies and grampaws are slaughtered.
Congolese "intelligence services" also reported Rwandan troops north of Goma, the regional military commander, Colonel Etienne Bindu, said. Rwanda invaded Congo in 1996 and 1998 to pursue Rwandan Hutu forces responsible for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, when extremists from Rwanda's Hutu majority orchestrated the slaughter of more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The 1998 invasion sparked a five-year war that divided resource-rich Congo, drawing in the armies of six countries and killing an estimated 3.2 million people, most of them civilians who died of war-induced famine and disease.
Slaughter, rape, maiming and looting. Another UN triumph. Let us know if it gets confirmed.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/01/2004 4:09:12 AM ||
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AMMAN — Jordan's King Abdullah's sacking of his half-brother Prince Hamza as heir to the throne consolidates his power and paves the way for his 10-year-old son to succeed, analysts and palace insiders said on Monday.
"Happy birthday, son."
"Gee, t'anks Dad! A Kingdom! And all I was hoping for was a concubine!"
Prince Hamza bin Hussein, 24, the eldest son of the late King Hussein's fourth wife Queen Noor, was told of his removal in a meeting on Sunday at the royal palace attended by the family and chaired by King Abdullah, officials said. King Abdullah justified his surprise move as the restoration of a Hashemite tradition under the 1952 constitution that gives the succession to the eldest son.
He's lucky the King didn't decide to revive the older Hashemite tradition of lopping off the heads of any contender to the throne. I'd avoid any sudden helicopter rides if I was him.
In 1965, when the constitution was changed to overturn the principle of primogeniture, the Middle East was in turmoil, King Abdullah was an infant and Hussein had escaped several attempts on his life. The change formally seals the rift with his stepmother, US-born Queen Noor, palace aides said. The premature death of King Hussein, before Hamza — already groomed to take over as king by his mother — was old enough thwarted her plans by forcing Abdullah, then 36, into the spotlight, palace insiders say.
Noor might have to become an American again.
While palace insiders expected King Abdullah to redress what many aides saw as an imposed succession at some stage, the speed with which the monarch moved, just five years after coming to the throne, reflected his strengthened position. Political observers said it was almost certain that Prince Hussein, 10, the eldest son of Abdullah and Queen Rania, would be named heir to the throne soon.Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/01/2004 12:01:03 AM ||
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#1
I'd personally like to offer Prince Hamza a consolation prize. There remains a throne belonging to the Hashemites that is "vacant", and could use a strong monarch to do some house cleaning in the Kingdom. All he'd have to do is get rid of a few odds and Sods, as it were. I'm certain he could rent a division of paras from one of the old Soviet republics on spec.
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.
The forbidden marriage between a handsome young Marine and a gorgeous Arab princess — which sparked headlines and a splashy TV movie — has crashed and burned. 
The United Nations unveiled a 
"The yearning for an international system governed by the rule of law has grown," it said. "No state, no matter how powerful, can by its own efforts alone make itself invulnerable to today's threats." Annan has repeatedly maintained that many people around the globe are concerned about disease and poverty rather than terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and much of the report underlines his core argument.
