HT to Drudge Statement from Ronald Green, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.
The Parties regret that this matter has caused tremendous pain, and they have agreed to settle. All cases and claims have been withdrawn and all Parties have agreed that there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Mackris, or Ms. Mackris' counsel, Benedict P. Morelli & Associates. We now withdraw any assertion that any extortion by Ms. Mackris, Mr. Morelli, or Morelli & Associates occurred. Out of respect for their families and privacy, all Parties and their representatives have agreed that all information relating to the cases shall remain confidential.
everyone gets dirty....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 7:14:32 PM ||
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Best possible scenario for all. She gete money, Bill keeps his job, and his rating SOAR. Look for some 'Adult' section at www.billorielly.com!
#2
Insurance rates go up, lawyers get exorbitant fees no longer characterized as extortion, insurance company gets tapes, and O'Reilly keeps sleeping in the guest room.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 19:46 Comments ||
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We don't even know if Ms Mackris got any money! For all we know, she felt the heat and took the easy way out by offering to drop her case if O'Reilly dropped his. She had Feds investigating her and the $60 million dollar extortation issue. She could have done this to save her own skin.
It's also possible "others" were afraid of being connected to Ms Mackris and told her to give it up. Need more details than "Settled". And the key that makes me think this was extortion is that the article states that Mrs Mackris counsel had no wrongdoing. How does the counsel get exempt from wrongdoing if the were working a legitimate case?
Posted by: Charles ||
10/28/2004 22:02 Comments ||
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This stinks - if she had tapes he was sunk. Either she and her atty tried to extort money (with O'Reilly guilty of despicable behavior for a married man)
or
she had no proof, tries to get $ and the extortion suit by O'Reilly calls the bluff of the "lady" and her atty.
The fact she returned to work for him and was deep in debt skews the odds....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 22:13 Comments ||
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Posted by: Dar ||
10/28/2004 13:41 ||
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The Americanized version of this is also good. First, get sliced boneless pork shoulder, which is cheaper than chops, but about as good, then dice it. Thoroughly brown it in bacon grease, then add a couple of cups of water and a large container of sauerkraut. Simmer for 30-45 minutes, which helps tenderize the pork. (I suggest using some other type of sauerkraut than "Bavarian", which is a bit sweet.) Some low-carb applesauce (it does exist) on the side and low-carb beer(!)(which also exists and isn't half bad (though some would say "3/4ths")). Prosit!
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Afraid a talkative parrot might prove to be a stool pigeon, three thieves returned to the scene of the crime to silence the bird - only to be caught by police, authorities say. After making off with DVD players, computers, radios, TVs and other electronic gear, one of the burglars Monday realized that a parrot in the home had heard him use the nickname "J.J." for one of his accomplices and was repeating it. "They were afraid the bird would stool on them," police Maj. Billy Garrett said. They went back for the bird and were loading it into the getaway car when police arrived, authorities said. The chase ended a few blocks away when the men crashed their car. The light-green parrot, a 6-year-old bird named Marshmallow, flew away when its cage broke open in the crash. Felicia Cobb and her children have not seen their pet since then. Three men, ages 18 to 25, were arrested. Who's the bird brain here?
Posted by: Dar ||
10/28/2004 10:07:53 AM ||
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Doh--this is a dupe of Mark E's post and can be deleted. He just posted just the link, so it didn't show in my pre-post search.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/28/2004 10:09 Comments ||
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I wonder what Korora will think of this article.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
10/28/2004 11:05 Comments ||
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I kinda have the feeling these guys won't be described as "masterminds"...
#4
"Aaaawk! You have the right to remain silent. Aaaawk!"
Posted by: Mike ||
10/28/2004 13:09 Comments ||
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Parrots are great. Way to go, Marshmallow! Hope they find him--or at least that he finds safety out there. The family might not know much about domestic parrots. Usually their wings are clipped.
Better nutrition has helped Americans grow a little taller. But it's been too much of a good thing: The nation is also a whole lot fatter.
Yes. I've noticed my own tonnage increasing...
Adults are roughly an inch taller than they were in the early 1960s, on average, and nearly 25 pounds heavier, the government reported Wednesday.
Whatcha might call "the heaviest inch," huh?
The nation's expanding waistline has been well documented, though Wednesday's report is the first to quantify it based on how many pounds the average person is carrying. The reasons are no surprise: more fast food, more television and less walking around the neighborhood, to name a few. Earlier this year, researchers reported that obesity fueled by poor diet and lack of activity threatens to overtake tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death.
Actually, I put on quite a few pounds when I dropped the gaspers. When I stopped fitting in my favorite chair and was biting people and calling them names for no reason, I took up the pipe, at which point I deflated somewhat, but not all the way...
The Rantburg house doc sez, lose the pipe.
In 1960-62, the average man weighed 166.3 pounds. By 1999-2002, the average had reached 191 pounds, according to the National Center for Health Statistics -- part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- which issued the report. Similarly, the report said, the average woman's weight rose from 140.2 pounds to 164.3 pounds. At same time, though less dramatically, Americans are getting a little bit taller. Men's average height increased from 5 feet 8 inches in the early 1960s to 5 feet 9 1/2 inches in 1999-2002. The average height of a woman, meanwhile, went from just over 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4 inches. The increases in height and weight are both fueled by the availability of more food, researchers say. To reach genetic potential for height, the human body needs a certain level of nourishment, and Wednesday's report shows that Americans have achieved it, said David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center.
There are fewer opportunities for what you might call "normal" exercise. When I was a lad, we walked to the grocery store and we could walk downtown to shop. Zoning laws in most places don't allow for the growth of small towns like that, so people drive instead. We cut the grass with a push mower, trimmed the hedges with clippers, and when we did something around the house we cut wood with hand saws. And most people smoked, which also tends to keep weight down. The workplace has become more sedentary as well; you don't see a lot of ads for laborers anymore, and there aren't many people willing to take the jobs anyway. Even if there were, wages and benefits have risen to the point where it's cheaper to buy a machine to dig ditches.
The net result is that exercise becomes more formalized and ritualistic, and also something that can be put off. That's really too bad, but it's an effect of multiple causes, each of which has a set of benefits that we don't want to give up. A hundred years ago, it was normal for men and women in middle age to become a bit portly; it was a sign of success in life, meaning you could buy groceries regularly, which is something we take for granted now. When housewives first began counting calories in the early 1900s it was to make sure the family was getting enough, not too many. The society we live in today is more prosperous for more people than the society of 1904, so there's more of that particular sign of success. Not quite paradoxically, it's the rich folks today, who have the liesure to devote to the gym, who're slim trim and beautiful. The rest of us, filling most of the hours of our day with multiple desk jobs and food taken on the run, grow more portly.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 6:16:21 AM ||
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Interesting using 1960 as a baseline, why not 1950 or 1900? Maybe because there has been a regular increase in height and weight for an extended period of time and using data before 1960 you can't blame processed food?
Compare two charts drawn over mutlple years. One of the percentage of Americans 'overweight' and the second the percentage of Americans not smoking. BTW, kids would be effected by the use of tobacco in a household.
The next political movement after Marxism, Nannyism. We're doing this for your own good.
Posted by: Don ||
10/28/2004 10:00 Comments ||
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Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
10/28/2004 11:08 Comments ||
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DB's a troll? is that a new development?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 11:13 Comments ||
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No it's a mistake by your humble and troll-button trigger-finger happy Seafarious. My apologies, DB. I sent a note to Fred to fish you out. Again, sorry for the inconvenience.
Yes, changing exercise patterns is a major cause. As is the variety and abundance of tasty prepared foods that are never more that a few steps away. There may also be a genetic connection of fatter people having more children. There are also recent studies indicating that lifetime fat regulation is affected by nutrition in the womb. The problem is complicated.
The good news is that the significant progress is being made on understanding how our bodies are regulated. It is likely that within ten years obesity will be largely treatable.
[ultra mini meme rant]
Now I know how Christopher Reeves felt just before he died, "If only Kerry and Edwards were in office, I'd be walking, running, jumping..."
Bush Lied. Reeves Died.
[/ultra mini meme rant]
Oxymoron of the Day: You Can't Wait For Good Timing.
#12
This increase is attributable mainly to overeating, which probably accounts for more than half the overall effect. I'd bet the decline in smoking in this country also has had a very significant impact.
The decline in walking/exercise cannot account for more than 20% or so of the 25-lb average increase in weight. To put it another way, if you increase your daily exercise/walking by half an hour-- unlikely that most people have enough free time today to increase it by any more than this amount, on average-- you will not shed more than 5 lbs or so.
Likewise, fatty foods consumed in reasonable proportions have little effect on weight. The key factor here is the size of the average food portion, which has become simply grotesque in this country over the last thirty years.
This has been aided by an absolute price decline for most foodstuffs, which allows restaurants today to tout the amount rather than the quality of their food and also allows everyone, even the poorest Americans, to stuff themselves with far more food than we consumed during the days when people still remembered the Depression. Only in wealthy, low-cost, hyper-efficient supersized America are the poorest people also the fattest ones.
#18
Bad science. BMI is lame as a indicator of obesity. Body fat % would be much more accurate. We've got some fat people, yes, but there are also a lot of people with high bone densities and muscle mass that are plenty fit, though their BMI is above 25. BMI is a lazy scientists tool.
HURRICANE-force winds hit Britain last night, creating havoc as people battled their way around flooded road and fallen trees. Houses and businesses were swamped by the sudden deluge, with sandbags and flood boards used as makeshift protection. The south coast bore the brunt of the 80mph storms and lashing rain - caused by a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay - as coastal towns were flooded. Two Virgin trains were stranded after waves crashed into them.
The 10.03am Glasgow to Penzance train was hit and the 16.25pm Plymouth to York express. Passengers were evacuated by buses at Dawlish in Devon. In the Cornish village of Flushing, near Falmouth, about a dozen homes were evacuated as 18 inches of water poured into properties. A spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard said: "Conditions were very dangerous." In Looe, the sea level had risen so high the lifeboat crew could not open the doors to launch their raft. And police were on hand to stop people getting too close to the waves in Penzance and at Porthleven on the Lizard Peninsula. The Scilly Isles were battered and cross-Channel ferry sailings were cancelled.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 6:18:47 AM ||
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police were on hand to stop people getting too close to the waves in Penzance and at Porthleven on the Lizard Peninsula
These aren't accidents.. they're throwing themselves into the sea lemming fashion. If I lived in Cornwall and my sister was my mother I'd do it too.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/28/2004 7:51 Comments ||
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Last time I was in Cornwall, a certain "Joe" spoke very loudly to himself next to me for one hour (in a pub). I gathered his life story was that he had been a dangerous criminal but now would rather drink beer and annoy tourists. he was also worried about aliens taking over and not understanding what Jesus said. Nice landscape, though.
A strong earthquake shook Romania late Wednesday, a Turkish seismology center said. No damage or injuries were immediately reported. The Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory's seismology center said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and hit at 11:34 p.m. The quake also was felt in Turkey and other neighboring regions, including Moldova and Ukraine, Turkey's private NTV television reported. In some Istanbul neighborhoods, people rushed out of their homes in panic, NTV said. The Observatory's telephone lines were jammed with people calling seeking information. Earthquakes of magnitude 6 and higher can cause severe damage if centered in populated areas.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 6:11:49 AM ||
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From Compass Direct. Edited to supplement a previous Rantburg posting.
.... Without explanation, an Islamic court in Riyadh ignored [Brian] O'Connor's previous charge of "spreading Christianity," under which he has already been jailed for seven months. Instead, the Indian national was sentenced on October 20 to three more months in jail, along with a punishment of 300 lashes, for the liquor accusations. But O'Connor refused to accept the verdict, declaring to the court that he was not guilty of any crime. When he refused to accept and sign the verdict, the court granted him 10 days to re-think his decision.
O'Connor again declined, insisting he would not change his decision. The judge then warned him that his refusal would send his case up to the high court. Such an appeal process would delay even further the settlement of his case, he was told, possibly resulting in an even harsher penalty if he was still found "guilty."
Jailed since March 25, O'Connor was first brought to court on September 15, when he was finally informed of three formal charges filed against him. At that time, he was told that the muttawa (Muslim religious police) who arrested him had accused him of having 12 bottles of liquor in his possession, along with evidence that he had sold liquor. A group of seven muttawa abducted O'Connor off a Riyadh street and tortured him severely before turning him over to a local police station. He has been incarcerated at Riyadh's Al-Hair Prison since April 4.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/28/2004 10:13:19 PM ||
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Mr O'Connor deserves to die in the same way that US army think that the Iraqi and Afghani civilians need to die. Told you we learnt from US. We are just, like, uhm, following the trend.
#4
The funny thing about this O'Connor bloke is that "why attempt to spread Christianity there when you know you will most probably die doing so". I think he was just plain drunk when he made that decision- check out the 12 bottles of liquor. Typical Americans. Can never think straight when Budweiser is your ole neighbor.
From Compass Direct
Police in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent raided a Baptist church during Sunday worship on October 17, declaring the service an "illegal religious meeting" and demanding the pastor promise to stop all the church's activities. About 120 members of the congregation of the Bethany Baptist Church in Tashkent's Mirzo-Ulugbek district were midway through their Sunday morning service when eight district police officials appeared at the door. Ringing the bell, the officers demanded to speak with the church's leader. Pastor Nikolai Shevchenko complied, leaving the platform at the front of the church to walk outside and speak with the officers.
According to Shevchenko, who spoke with Compass two days after the incident, the policemen demanded, "What's going on here?" When he stated that he and his congregation were singing and worshipping, the officials asked, "Do you have permission to do this? Is your church registered?"
"I told them no, so they asked me, 'Why not?'" Shevchenko said. "That is also my question," he told them. "Why is our church not registered?"
A member of the Baptist Union, Shevchenko's church has been seeking official registration in vain for the past eight years. Despite a three-year lull in police actions against their activities, the church remains caught in an apparent standoff between local city regulations and the government's restrictive registration laws instituted in 1998.
When the police insisted that paper be brought so they could write up official documents on the case, the pastor led them back through the church sanctuary to a room off the church's inner garden. There they demanded that the pastor list the names of everyone present. When he refused to do this, they told him to write and sign a statement, admitting that he was conducting an illegal religious meeting.
"It is not pleasant for me to persecute you while you are praying to God," one officer reportedly told Shevchenko. "But we have orders, so if you do not comply, we will have to call for trucks and buses so we can arrest everyone and take them to the police station."
With the officers' permission, Shevchenko returned to the congregation to ask if any would volunteer to represent the church by writing a personal statement for the police. Eight of the members came forward to write and sign statements declaring they had been present at the church's morning service.
Although the police demanded that Shevchenko promise not to meet again in the church, he declined to do so. After confiscating samples of literature found in the church sanctuary and classrooms, the officers left, telling the pastor and eight members that they would be called to answer in court over the case.
In repeated attempts to gain legal registration, the Bethany Church congregation has provided the required list of 100 founding members and three pastoral leaders, paid a large registration fee and even secured the written approval of local community leaders and neighbors. But nevertheless, police have twice before interrupted their worship services, assessing fines against the congregation, arresting the pastor and several members and filing criminal charges against them in May 2000 and again in June 2001. In a straightforward plea to be heard, the church sent a letter in March 2001 to President Islam Karimov, attaching 18 documents confirming the history of the church's attempt to register itself legally. Although Shevchenko was told orally that Karimov's cabinet had seen the letter and would "resolve" the case, there has been no written response.
On October 19, Shevchenko told Compass that he had heard about three other Tashkent churches which had experienced similar interruptions from police officials over the past few days. "The clouds are gathering again over our churches here," he said.
Shevchenko, 57, started the Bethany Church as an independent congregation in 1996. With Sunday attendance averaging 130 or more, the church has since started two spin-off church groups in nearby districts of northeast Tashkent. The members are an ethnic mix of Germans, Koreans, Uzbeks, Tatars, Kazakhs and Russians, the pastor said. "We have existed since 1996," Shevchenko said, "so how can the authorities say we do not exist?"
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/28/2004 10:21:04 PM ||
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The world is on the brink of a major flu epidemic — one that could claim more than a billion lives, the head of the Russian Virology Institute, Academician Dmitry Lvov said at a press conference organized by the RIA-Novosti news agency on Thursday. "Up to one billion people could die around the whole world in six months," Lvov said. The expert did not give a timeframe for the epidemic, but said that it is highly probable that it will start this year. "We are half a step away from a worldwide pandemic catastrophe," the academic said.
The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic killed a estimated 50 million people. World is more crowded now, airlines fly everywhere overnight, and millions already have compromised immune systems due to HIV.
The Russian expert said that U.S. researchers possessed data suggesting that if a pandemic hits, up to 700,000 people will fall ill in the United States. He said that the population of the United States can be roughly compared to that of Russia and thus the number of cases will be approximately the same.
Our medical system would be pushed to the limit, but the death toll would not be as bad as 1918. Can't say the same for the third world.
The academician said the pandemic was most likely to be caused by the so-called bird flu stem. "The death rate among those who contract this type of flu reaches 70 percent," Lvov said.
Did ya know China has reported bird flu has jumped the animal-human species barrier?
The expert called for the Russian authorities to prepare for the epidemic. The country will need a reserve of at least 300,000 hospital beds if an epidemic breaks out, he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2004 3:15:39 PM ||
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"The country will need a reserve of at least 300,000 hospital beds..."
Any guesses about what business enterprises Academician Lvov is into?
Posted by: Matt ||
10/28/2004 16:45 Comments ||
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I thought a lot of the deaths from the 1918 epidemic came from the fact that a LOT of soldiers were deployed in less-than-sanitary conditions, with less-than-adequate rations, and as a result had compromised immune systems.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/28/2004 16:58 Comments ||
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A knew a man (born 1900) horribly traumitized by the Spanish flu. Among the people he knew, he estimated that between one and two dozen had died. It was unique that the most susceptible group was of otherwise healthy young men, an odd demographic, who had also been severely culled by WWI and, in Europe, by the still undiagnosed "Brain Fever" epidemic, that killed tens of thousands and left many survivors violent paranoids. When the Spanish flu ended, there was a mass effort to forget it, relegating many of the dead to "non-person" status, and it was forbidden as a topic of conversation. This man, in the 1980s, still had severe emotional trauma from it.
Today, quietly, the US government has been in an utter panic about influenza since the mid-1970s, with the expectation of a lethal pandemic at any time (we are very past due for one, which seem to come in a cyclic fashion). President Ford was advised that the Swine Flu was characteristic, and even though the CDC had carte blanche to produce and distribute vaccine, it was unable to do so in time. Fortunately, the Swine Flu mutated to a less-harmful strain just before its arrival in the US. Since President Clinton, the ability of the US pharmaceutical industry to produce vaccine has severely declined. For updated information about influenza, see FLUSTAR at flustar.com
#8
One billion - that would tend to take a good chunk out of China. If this spreads like SARS then we should start seeing problems in China and Southeast Asia real soon.
I for one do not dismiss the Spanish Flu as an idle curiousity. It would be a tremendous biological weapon, and maybe the Russians have such a weapon tucked away in their storehouse of nasties.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
10/28/2004 18:05 Comments ||
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Latvia's government resigned Thursday after lawmakers refused to pass the 2005 budget that had been proposed by Prime Minister Indulis Emsis. The parliament voted 53-39 against the budget, while five lawmakers abstained Emsis, whose Greens and Farmers Union party has been in power in a coalition with Latvia's First Party and the left-wing People's Harmony Party, were in favor of the budget, along with the Latvian Socialist Party. But lawmakers and members of the Ruling People's Party and right-wing opposition parties New Time and Fatherland and Freedom, along with For Human Rights in a United Latvia, rejected the proposal. Emsis, in Rome for the signing of the European Union Constitution, had no immediate comment. The ruling coalition had just 47 seats in the 100-seat parliament. It came into power in March. It was the 10th government for the Baltic state of 2.3 million since it regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 6:03:26 AM ||
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sounds like another defeat for the socialists *snicker*
Maybe Joe Moschella thought he was playing it safe. The 59-year-old retired transit employee had mailed his absentee ballot too late, he thought, so on Election Day 2000, he trotted down to the polls and voted in person. The only problem was that his polling place is in Staten Island, where he lives, while the absentee ballot went to Florida, where he winters.
NY Daily News: 46,000 New Yorkers were registered to vote in both Florida and New York . Sixty-eight percent of the News' double-registrants were Democrats. Florida and New York officials — embarrassed by the newspapers' revelations — have been playing catch-up.
The Orlando Sentinel found that 68,000 Florida voters are also registered in Georgia or North Carolina (the only two states it checked), 1,650 of whom voted twice in 2000 or 2002.
The Kansas City Star discovered 300 "potential" cases of individual voter fraud, including Kansans voting in Missouri and St. Louisans voting in both the city and the surrounding suburbs.
Technology also makes double voting easier. Some 34 states still don't have statewide voter databases, as required by the Help America Vote Act, a Band-Aid passed by Congress in 2002. Nor is there any national voter database.
"The fact that people are on the rolls in more than one place is not at all surprising," said Sam Issacharoff, a Columbia University law professor and election-law expert. Issacharoff remembers litigating voting-rights cases in Mississippi in the 1980s, in counties where he said the voter rolls outnumbered the state population by 25 percent. "They just never purged the rolls," he said. .
The Justice Department is sending out three times as many poll watchers on Election Day than in 2000, assigning some to Florida and other closely contested states in the presidential election.
The 1,090 observers and monitors will be on duty in at least 86 locations in 25 states Tuesday. In 2000, 317 watched for violations of the anti-discrimination Voting Rights Act and other election problems in the presidential race.
That contest was not settled for 36 days after the vote, when the Supreme Court ruled that George W. Bush had won Florida over Democrat Al Gore.
Personnel from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will be in eight Florida counties this year, including Broward, Palm Beach and Dade, at the center of the recount four years ago.
Federal monitors and observers also will go to Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Nevada. In those states, the race is tight between President Bush and Democrat John Kerry.
Legal challenges already have arisen in several states over possible voting problems, including difficulties with absentee ballots and the handling of ballots cast in the wrong precinct.
Thousands of volunteers from both political parties and affiliated groups are expected to monitor polling places to track turnout and how balloting procedures are performed.
Julie Fernandes, senior policy analyst and special counsel for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said many of the federal officials are going to places where there have been recent or historical problems of voter intimidation or disenfranchisement of minorities and people who speak languages other than English.
"I am happy to see they are doing such a broad deployment," Fernandes said. "The program is useful, in that it has a tremendous deterrent effect."
The 1,090 federal poll watchers break down this way:
_840 are observers authorized by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which ended racial barriers to voting. These observers are sent to states and counties that are covered by that law or are under a judge's order as a result of the law. Areas include six counties in Mississippi, four in New Mexico and Cook County, which includes Chicago.
_250 are Justice Department Civil Rights Division personnel - not prosecutors - who have somewhat different powers from the observers. These monitors will go to the Florida counties and elsewhere.
Separately, senior prosecutors will be on duty in all 93 U.S. attorneys offices to handle any complaints about voting problems and to pursue any allegations of voting fraud or other elections abuses. The FBI will have agents on duty at headquarters in Washington and in each of its 56 field offices to handle such complaints as well.
A SUPREME Court justice just threw a wrench into Democrats' plans to litigate a John Kerry defeat into victory, should President Bush prevail by a narrow margin in next Tuesday's election.
Over the weekend, in a speech at Stanford University Law School, Justice Stephen Breyer cast doubt on his own impartiality when he penned his dissent in Bush v. Gore, the ruling that decided the 2000 presidential contest. "I had to ask myself would I vote the same way if the names were reversed," the justice mused. "I said 'yes.' But I'll never know for sure — because people are great self-kidders."
Like Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, Supreme Court justices are well practiced in the nuances of sending messages. Breyer's comment should be a clear warning to judicial activists that salt the ranks of courts in swing states like Florida and Ohio. The message is: Don't count on me to back up any partisan rulings.
Continued on Page 49
The 2000 Florida election debacle led many Americans to worry about the integrity of our voting system. They're right to worry: the system is haphazard and sloppy. How sloppy? Well, at least eight of the 19 foreign-national September 11 hijackers had registered to vote in either Florida or Virginia.
Election fraud is expanding. This past March, in just one of many recent cases, Texas representative Ciro Rodriguez, chairman of the congressional Hispanic Caucus, lost a close Democratic primary after a missing ballot box suddenly showed up in South Texas, stuffed with votes for his opponent. Rodriguez charged fraud but could never definitively prove it. The circumstances were eerily similar to those that tipped a 1948 Senate race to Lyndon Johnson. Election officials found ballot box 13 several days after the election. It held 203 votes, all but one for LBJ. Amazingly enough, the voters had cast their ballots in alphabetical order.
With nearly 10 percent of Americans now believing that the election system doesn't count their votes accurately, and with new charges of fraud beginning to swirl around the 2004 presidential election, it's worth taking a look back at the nation's long tradition of electoral shenanigans. It's comic—until you start to wonder just how much of it is still going on.
FBI Investigating Halliburton Contracts
Oct 28, 4:43 PM (ET)
By JOHN SOLOMON
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co. (HAL), seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.
The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the Bush administration showed favoritism to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company.
FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer who went public last weekend with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded a Halliburton subsidiary no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraq, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Asked about the documents, Greenhouse's lawyers said Thursday their client will cooperate but that she wants whistleblower protection from Pentagon retaliation.
Here we go again ... NEXT!
"I think it (the FBI interview request) underscores the seriousness of the misconduct, and it also demonstrates how courageous (Kerry Supporter, No Doubt) Ms. Greenhouse was for stepping forward," said Stephen Kohn, one of her attorneys.
"The initiation of an FBI investigation into criminal misconduct will help restore public confidence," Kohn said. "The Army must aggressively protect Ms. Greenhouse from the retaliation she will encounter as a result of blowing the whistle on this misconduct."
FBI agents also began collecting documents from Army offices in Texas and elsewhere in recent weeks to examine how and why Halliburton got the no-bid work in places like Iraq.
"The Corps is absolutely cooperating with the FBI, and it has been an ongoing effort," said Army Corps spokeswoman Carol Sanders. "Our role is to cooperate. It's a public contract and public funds. We've been providing them information for quite a while."
Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said the company is cooperating with various investigations, but she dismissed the latest revelation as election politics. She noted Congress' auditing arm, the Government Accountability Office, found the company's no-bid work in Iraq was legal.
"The old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election," Hall said. "The GAO said earlier this year that the contract was properly awarded because Halliburton was the only contractor that could do the work.
"We look forward to the end of the election, because no matter who is elected president, Halliburton is proud to serve the troops just as we have for the past 60 years for both Democrat and Republican administrations," she said.
Um, if the only countries in tyhe world who can perform certain functions are one French company and Haliburton, who would you trust?
It would appear that Ms. Robin can't keep a job for long. Do we have a repeatedly disgruntled employee issue?
Posted by: Capt America ||
10/28/2004 19:55 Comments ||
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#7
"...the Government Accountability Office, found the companyâs no-bid work in Iraq was legal." [She meant Government Accounting Office.]
And any nitwit who can call up a stock chart can plainly see that Haliburton shares (Symbol: HAL) are worth no more now than when Bush first took office.
And it's a publicly-traded company -- even Democrats can buy shares.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/28/2004 20:10 Comments ||
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#8
There is also the matter of Halliburton keeping about 90,000 Americans employed.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/28/2004 20:17 Comments ||
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#9
"they're outsourcing jobs to...uh...Americans"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 20:36 Comments ||
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#10
Sigh, this is so LLL. The Name Haliburton is "the ebil" to them. Not one of them even really knows the the company does. They are just "the ebil ones."
Fact is Haliburton usally one or two months away from totally being bankrupt. In fact they have been, several times. As the story goes follow the money. Well they usually don't have a hell of a lot as far as corperations go.
This isn't a story for the AP or any of the other MSM. It a story for Indymedia and the anarco-anti-globalist nutters woho seem to eat this sheite up.
EFL - what friggin peach....She'll be an embarrassment to the US - even worse than she is now
Teresa Heinz Kerry called attacks on her husband's foreign policy views "Neanderthal" while meeting with current and former Republicans who said they plan to vote for Sen. John Kerry. "The perpetration of certain myths that diplomacy and alliances are a sign of weakness is Neanderthal," Heinz Kerry said at the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign headquarters in Pittsburgh. "I never heard of teaching a child to make enemies so they can get along in the playground." Heinz Kerry spoke after listening to six people -- including business owners, a retired Air Force general and Pennsylvania mayors -- talk about their disillusionment with President George W. Bush.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 4:19:43 PM ||
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#1
Considering 'Diplomancy and Alliances' (France?) how about this:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
#3
A whole six disaffected "Republicans", eh? Wonder who they pissed off, that they were forced to talk to Heinz-Kerry. Maybe it's some sort of Skull & Bones hazing ritual?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/28/2004 16:46 Comments ||
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#4
I never heard of teaching a child to suck up to terrorists and double-dealing frogs either, but then I wouldn't marry a gold-digger politician, so what do I know.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/28/2004 16:46 Comments ||
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#5
"Neanderthal"
That is sooooo condescending. I intend to urge all Troglo-American voters to protest this insensitive and racist Sapien-centric characterization by supporting President Bush.
(I really dig those Geico Caveman commercials, btw?)
#6
Neanderthals had a larger brain than modern men and a good case can be made they were more intelligent. I tend to subcribe to the theory that they lost out because of bad luck - a major volcanic eruption and abrupt global cooling.
#7
Nice picture, Fred. Was this taken after she passed those brewskis around to the guys?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 17:37 Comments ||
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#8
demonstrating how she got that "translating" job at the UN?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 17:41 Comments ||
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#9
"I never heard of teaching a child to make enemies so they can get along in the playground."
It's not a playground, you stupid sow.
It's the Real World, and some of the people in it are genuinely evil and unless they are confronted resolutely, with force of arms, they do things like slaughter rival tribes and shovel their bodies into mass graves, or manufacture nerve gas and nuclear weapons for use against their neighbors in a bid for plunder and conquest.
The world is NOT a playground, and people like Saddam, or Baby Bashar, or Little Kim, or the Mad Mullahs, are NOT playing. The world isn't Sesame Street, bitch, and it's too damn bad if you don't like it.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/28/2004 17:44 Comments ||
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#10
demonstrating how she got that "translating" job at the UN?
No. Auditioning for Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 17:49 Comments ||
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#11
She's like something in the funny papers.
Posted by: Alley Opp Opp Opp Opp ||
10/28/2004 17:54 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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#17
Let's see, disillusioned, retired Air Force general, hanging around Kerry, sounds like......McPeak! Yeah, he brought in a lot of military votes didn't he, Johnny?
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2004 22:24 Comments ||
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#18
he and wesley, quite the pair?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 22:26 Comments ||
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#3
Truly cruel, not to mention unusual, heh - doesn't that make it unconstitutional? All those confusing signals from the Mother Ship. Very hard on the drones, methinks.
#6
If Kerry wins I'm just going to buy popcorn, sit back, and watch him try to be responsible. He's promised the perfect world if he wins, even the lame will walk...
If you don't sympathize with other people too much, this could turn out to be FUNNY!
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/28/2004 16:33 Comments ||
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#7
"watch him try to be responsible"
You expect him to change his behavior pattern at this point in his life? Phil! You're killing me here! ;-)
#9
There will be many consequences-- including some really, REALLY bad ones-- that fall out of a Kerry victory, but I don't think any of those listed in this article are likely to come about unless Fuckhead can somehow conjure up a Democratic majority in the House and a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate. And that ain't going to happen.
And it will be fun watching him try to simulate a responsible president.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/28/2004 16:59 Comments ||
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#10
AC, "A plague of locusts will devour crops, but only in the red states."
That's a given, there is not much crops in blue states to speak of. Unless you talk about nuts. Yea, plenty of 'em.
#11
AC - Ah, point taken... although I have to admit I thought the Dhimmigogue base was those people who don't have any ailments themselves, being perfect, but were capable of more deeply, more sincerely, more sympathetically feeling on behalf of these groups. And, of course, thus empowered in their cloisters and think tanks and filled with the hubris justifiable righteous indigantion regards the unfairness of life and the evil of conservative thought - they would slay the dragons of BusHitlerites and UN / multiculti critics... Er, something like that, anyway.
Broward to resend thousands of missing absentee ballots
Hoping to avoid another presidential election fiasco, Broward County officials scrambled Wednesday to replace tens of thousands of missing absentee ballots, cut long waits for early voting and beef up a phone system deluged with calls from angry voters. A day after acknowledging that up to 58,000 absentee ballots have not reached the voters who requested them, Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes decided to mail new ones. She will pay extra for overnight delivery of those sent outside Broward in hopes of ensuring voters can return them before Tuesday's deadline. Mailed Friday morning "overnight"... Received Saturday. Post office closes at noon. Roll of the dice if they come in by Tuesday unless someone pays for "Express Mail", or "Fed Ex"
County commissioners also assigned 40 employees to help answer phone calls at Snipes' office and process people in line at early voting sites. More workers could soon follow as Snipes contemplates extending early voting hours and upgrades her phone system to add more lines. Yup. Democrats can't even run an election fraud scheme properly. When there are too many (dubious) absentee requests, the computers break down. Like the "KaKa Explosives" did the ballots even get to the Post Office, or are they so much rubbish in a landfill by now? Oops!
Some of the problems have plagued other Broward elections over the past four years. Long lines of frustrated voters were common in the 2000 and 2002 elections, while 268 absentee ballots were misplaced during the September 2002 primary. A calm and collected Snipes defended her election preparations. She said voters should have confidence in the Nov. 2 balloting. "There's been a whole lot of partisanship about the election, so everything that happens is magnified," she said. "But when we see something functioning like it shouldn't, we fix it immediately."
Not everyone agrees. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference called late Wednesday for Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend Snipes, a retired educator whom he appointed last year to replace Miriam Oliphant. The civil rights group charged that Snipes is making the same missteps that Bush cited in suspending Oliphant. Jeb, you rascal. Appoint a minority female, who may be GOP, in a 2-1 Dem county. Some insulation against whining. Dang! These Bushes are clever rascals. Glad we got one at the top of the ticket!
"I alerted them to these problems, only to be attacked for political reasons," said Oliphant, who lost the Democratic primary in August to Snipes. "I warned them about the poll workers, I warned them about the phones, and I warned them about the absentee ballots." My name is now Madame Sourgrapes...
The breadth of the problems is putting Broward County again in the national spotlight it held during the 36-day recount in 2000. Call out Carnac! We'll know how the undervotes are to be counted!
State officials said the only complaints they've received about early voting have come from Broward and Palm Beach counties. A national hotline set up by a coalition of civil rights groups reports twice as many complaints about Broward than any other community. Snipes said she first became aware absentee ballots were missing a week ago and has been working since to figure out what went wrong and fix it. Her staff thinks many of those missing were in the first batch of ballots mailed after the office began processing requests on Oct. 7. Although there are about 58,000 ballots not accounted for, Snipes said many are actually in the hands of voters waiting to be mailed back and thus the problem will turn out to be much smaller. She said that about 14,000 completed ballots arrived Wednesday and that others had been deposited in the office's drop-off box and at early voting locations. She estimated that she will resend no more than 20,000 ballots. Shoot that's a net suppression of only about 7000...{Snicker}
Where did the Florida GOP fail us?
She pointed the finger at the U.S. Postal Service as the source of the mix-up. She said that all ballots are postmarked the day voters request them and that they are then are couriered to the post office's main facility in Fort Lauderdale for delivery. SONG OF THE FT LAUDERDALE POST OFFICE
Carl Rove has got a mole
E-I-E-I-O
And this mole tossed the ballots out
E-I-E-I-O
With a chad chad here
Chad chad there
Here a chad, there a chad, eveywhere a chad chad
Carl Rove has got a mole
E-I-E-I-O
But the Postal Service says it is not to blame. The agency said in a statement that special employees are assigned to handle all ballots and that those sent locally should arrive in one day. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation into the missing ballots Wednesday but concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing. Postal inspectors also investigated and determined there had been no delays in the agency's handling of ballots. Volunteers began helping Snipes' office package the ballots Wednesday evening. All should be mailed out by Friday morning at the latest but must be returned by the end of business Tuesday. Officials argue that there is no conspiracy to prevent voting but said the number of people seeking to vote is overwhelming Broward's election machinery. Turnout is expected to top 70 percent, with almost 90,000 people already casting ballots at early voting sites and 127,000 requesting absentee ballots by mail. Those waiting for ballots are expressing deep dissatisfaction with the handling of the election. Damn, no fair, GOP wins this state. ACLU. Challenge this please!
Linda Lemle-Goldberg said she requested a ballot in early October for her mother, who is homebound with Parkinson's disease in Pompano Beach, but has never received it. She said officials told her more than two weeks ago that it had been mailed and then promised to send another one, but it also has not arrived. "I'm angry and frustrated and feel like crying," said Lemle-Goldberg, who said she will drive to Fort Lauderdale today to pick up her mother's ballot. I hear violins.
Murray Hirsh of the Century Village condo community in Pembroke Pines said he finally received in Wednesday's mail the absentee ballot he requested on Oct. 7. It was postmarked Oct. 19, meaning it took Snipes' office 12 days to process his request and the post office eight days to deliver it. "Someone is trying to sabotage this election," Hirsh said. See Carl Rove song, above...
Snipes said she will ask county officials for extra money to pay for the new mailing, but did not know how much the added expense will be. County Mayor Ilene Lieberman and other county commissioners said they are willing to give her additional money or staff to ensure the election is successful. The county initially gave Snipes $2.9 million to cover the election's cost and bought her $3.2 million in new voting equipment as part of this year's budget. Commissioners also agreed to loan her 800 employees to help at the polls on Election Day. "I'm tired of Broward being the laughingstock of the nation, and I want to get it right," said Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger, who served on the vote canvassing board during the 2000 election dispute. "All voters need to be assured they can vote and that their vote will be counted. These people who applied for an absentee ballot want to vote." Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger : We couldn't get enough hanging chads for Gore...500 short...I'm still mad.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties expressed concern, but the Democrats may have the most to lose because Broward is such a major base for the party. Charles Lichtman, lead Florida attorney for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, met with Snipes and Lieberman on Wednesday afternoon and asked them to defer finding out what went wrong and concentrate on getting ballots to voters. County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin, a major player in Kerry's campaign, on the other hand, sought to downplay the missing ballots, fearful it could prompt some not to vote. Absentee ballots traditionally are used heavily by Republicans, but Democrats mounted a major effort this year to get their supporters to vote early. To win the state, Kerry will need a heavy turnout in Broward to offset conservative areas in Northern and Central Florida. Not to mention all those Miami Cubans who are coming out to make Mel Martinez a Senator...
"It's disturbing that we have the greatest voter interest in my lifetime, and people aren't getting their ballot," said Mitch Ceasar, chairman of the Broward County Democratic Party.
"Iâm angry and frustrated and feel like crying," said Lemle-Goldberg, who said she will drive (from Pompano Beach) to Fort Lauderdale today to pick up her motherâs ballot.
And why does that stick out? It's ELEVEN FREAKIN' MILES between the cities!!!
The utter helplessness / laziness and crybaby whimpering of some people completely disgusts me.
Please, no Sympathy Meters for my birthday. Ever...
#6
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference called late Wednesday for Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend Snipes, a retired educator whom he appointed last year to replace Miriam Oliphant. The civil rights group charged that Snipes is making the same missteps that Bush cited in suspending Oliphant
"I alerted them to these problems, only to be attacked for political reasons," said Oliphant, who lost the Democratic primary in August to Snipes.
So, basically they democratically elected this woman (without fraud, I assume?) and now they want Jeb Bush to suspend this minority Democrat female from her lawfully elected position before a problem actually occurs? Riiiiggghhttttt
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 22:09 Comments ||
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State Republicans filed a last-minute complaint Wednesday with the Milwaukee Election Commission claiming that 5,600 city addresses on the voter rolls may not exist. The commission will meet at 9 a.m. today to consider the Republican allegation. The Republican Party of Wisconsin checked the addresses of more than 300,000 people registered to vote in the city with a software program also used by the U.S. Postal Service. Republicans found that 5,619 addresses may be non-existent and then visited a number of the addresses. They snapped photos showing vacant lots, a gyro stand, a park and spots between two houses where the address should have been.
A Republican Party spokesman said the GOP routinely checks voter rolls to purge files and was interested in the city of Milwaukee because of the large number of new voter registrations for this presidential election. "George Bush lost the state by 5,708 votes, so these kinds of things do matter," Chris Lato said. A spokesman for John Kerry sharply criticized the move by Republicans, saying it was merely to prevent people, most likely those who lean Democratic, to vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2004 11:10:32 AM ||
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#1
Yup! We just got to disenfrancise the dead and non-existant.
This isn't vote supression its vote fraud suppression!
#3
Columbus, OH is in Franklin Co. There are more people registered to vote than eligible voters. A Clinton appointed Federal judge issued a temporary order preventing elections boards in Franklin and five other counties from hearing challenges that the GOP had filed against the eligibility of thousands of newly registered voters.
Resurrection of the dead to vote is a reality in Ohio!!! Not only that, it is blessed by the judge.
#4
My secretary's son had his registration (Franklin County, Ohio, home of the OSU Buckeyes!) challenged because he goofed and put his old address on the form. I'm sure he's not the only one in that sample who made an honest mistake. That said, it is also entirely appropriate for questionable registrations to be reviewed by the proper authorities, because we don't know how many of those registrations are genuine, and how many are fraudulent.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/28/2004 12:39 Comments ||
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#5
Resurrection of the dead to vote is a reality in Ohio!!! Not only that, it is blessed by the judge.
Yeah, but you can get a license for necromancy in Bloomington, IL.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/28/2004 13:20 Comments ||
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#6
John Fund: "The Democrats are the party of representation without respiration."
Opening litany of the things Bush has done wrong, followed by...
... But for all this, if I had a vote on Tuesday I would be voting to re-elect President Bush. It is partly Mr Bush's character. The perils of war really do demand leadership and moral clarity. It is partly, to be honest, the quality of his opponent. The more you see of John Kerry the more troubling the thought of his presidency becomes. Behind a lifetime of careful, calculated decision-making it is clear that he harbours a deep suspicion about the very idea of moral clarity in foreign policy. It is partly what Mr Bush has done. Afghanistan is an infinitely better and less threatening place today than it was four years ago. Iraq, despite the catalogue of errors, is still heading that way.
But above all, in this oppositional sort of age, when it is often easier to be defined by what one is against rather than what one is for, I have to say it is his enemies who most justify Mr Bush's re-election. The list of those whose world could be truly rocked on Tuesday is just too long and too rich to be ignored. If you think for a moment about those who would really be upset by a second Bush term, it becomes a lot easier to stomach.
The hordes of the bien-pensant Left in the universities and the media, the sort of liberals who tolerate everything except those who disagree with them.
Secularist elites who disdain religiosity except when it comes from Muslim fanatics.
Europhile Brits who drip contempt for everything their country has ever done and long for its disappearance into a Greater Europe.
Absurd, isolationist conservatives in America and Britain who think the struggles for freedom are always someone else's fight.
Hollywood sybarites and narcissists, self-appointed arbiters of a nation's morals.
Soft-headed Europeans who think engagement and dialogue with mass murderers is the way to achieve lasting peace.
French intellectuals for whom nothing has gone right in the world since 1789.
The United Nations, which, if it had its multilateral way, would still be faithfully minding a world in which half the population lived under or in fear of Soviet aggression.
Most of Belgium.
Above all, of course, Middle Eastern militants. If your bitterest enemies are the sort of people who hack the heads off unarmed, innocent civilians, then I would say you are probably doing something right.
This may sound petty. It is not. This constellation of individuals, parties and institutions has very little in common other than the fact that it has contrived to be wrong on just about every important issue of my adult lifetime. And so, perhaps for the wrong reasons, perhaps less because he has been right and more because those who hate him so much have been so wrong, I want this President re-elected. Go on America. Make Their Day.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2004 10:55:23 AM ||
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A third, newly discovered Vietnamese war document presents further indication Hanoi orchestrated John Kerryâs promotion of the communist regimeâs 1971 plan calling for virtual U.S. surrender...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
10/28/2004 10:41:36 AM ||
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#1
This is all well and good, but NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION. Why?
Swift Boat 527 ad comiing out? With Corsi involved, being he's co-author of, "Unfit for Command", with O'Neill, there should be more attention paid? Why not? This is more than Kerry's political lies overstating missing explosives in the Ka-Ka compound, this is Treasonous! Is anybody out there? HELLO Hello Hello Hello
#2
Why do you think the NYT and CBS re-posted the 'missing explosives' (13 month old) 'news' and the Kerry folks are making such political hay out of it?
#3
Where is FOX? They debunked the explosive story along with (unbelievably) NBC almost immediately. Who's gonna open this up at FOX? Stable Mr. Hume, or our wild card, Mr. Hannity???
#4
I believe the NYT decided to run early with their "October surprise" because they panicked in the face of two stories: the Monday morning revelation that Kerry lied about meeting with the entire UN Security Council, and the "Hanoi puppet" story.
Conclusion: there is NO OTHER october surprise in store. They released it prematurely and gave honest people enough time to debunk it. Kerry is toast.
My only question is: who will hold the NYT + CBS + El Baradei accountable? how will they be punished?
From Good Morning America today, via Kerry Spot at NRO:
GIBSON: "Well, well said, Curt and Shonda. You both have certainly lifelong membership now in the Red Sox nation. It was a great thing to watch, and I think everybody — whether they were great Red Sox fans or not — had to admire what this team did. It was extraordinary, and one of the great stories of sport. And sport always produces such great stories. Curt, Shonda, great to have you with us. Congratulations."
SCHILLING: "And make sure you tell everybody to vote, and vote Bush next week."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2004 10:56:02 AM ||
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Charlie Gibson had a sick laugh... Heard it on Laura Ingraham coming to work.
Any body watching on TV see if Charlie was squirming as though he was deficating in his britches?
Can we get Kurt Schilling to campaign in NH and ME where we still have a chance and he may help?
#2
Word has it that President Bush called Schilling from Air Force One to thank him. It would be a great idea to do it, Maine is very close. Too many ex-Mass liberals living in NH to do any good, but it couldn't hurt.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2004 11:42 Comments ||
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#4
Lex:
In 1936, the only states in the whole country the GOP won were Maine and Vermont. Now, NE has the most loyal Dem states. New Hampster has been the last holdout, but the margin has been dropping every time.
Probably by 2012, NH will be a solid Dem state. It's still in play this time and probably 2008.
#7
its not just that its a bedroom community of Boston. In the "old days" Boston commuters were pretty Republican too, since many had moved to NH to get away from high taxes. Certainly Nashua hard by the state line was no Dem stronghold IIRC, not compared to mill towns like Manchester. I think this has much to do with the current division being more over cultural and foreign policy issues than economics - its the flip side of Bush doing better with the black vote.
#8
That parallels in some ways the social migration dynamic affecting high-growth sunbelt states like Colorado, Nevada, perhaps also North Carolina and Georgia to a lesser extent. Socially liberal yuppies working in high-tech and other service professions move in and tilt the state toward social liberalism. But I don't see the new immigrants in the sunbelt as any less hostile to government intervention in the economy.
Whichever party can figure out how to win over these crucial voters-- and also the hispanics-- will have a lock on every one of the high-growth sunbelt states, from VA to Research Triangle and Atlanta and from Texas to California.
#9
To these libertarian yuppies and hispanics add military (active and ex- ) and you've got a solid majority in TX FL CO NM AZ NE NC and maybe even California, Virginia and Georgia as well.
#10
Imagine a baseball broadcast from an alternate universe:
"Count is 0 and 2 on Kerry; Schilling winds up, delivers . . . called strike three! Kerry strikes out again."
"That was just perfect pitch selection by Schilling. Kerry is a very nuanced batter, and Schilling threw an eephus pitch down the middle, which is too simple and direct for a hitter like Kerry to handle."
Posted by: Mike ||
10/28/2004 13:34 Comments ||
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#11
Curt, this fellow member of Shadow Mountain High School class of '85 will follow your advice! ;)
Memo to the Yankees......never face off against Schilling in the big games (playoffs/Series).
Still wish he was a D-back.
#14
Despite being a Yankee fan, I really dig Curt Schilling. Slightly OT, but I left this comment late last night on a Sox-related entry:
I can't wait to see Kerry's comments: "I am so proud that my beloved Red Sox swept all seven games of the World Championship of Baseball. They even won the clinching game by a score of 2-0, with Eric Lowe pitching a masterful game. Matt Damon led off the game with a donger, and Tricky Trot Nixon drove in a pair with a double hit. Somewhere, that beloved Red Sox immortal Willie Mays is smiling.
"P.S. - I served in Vietnam with Ted Williams, who taught me how to fly fighters."
Posted by: Tibor ||
10/28/2004 18:48 Comments ||
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#15
Too many ex-Mass liberals living in NH to do any good,
The NH Mass. infestation first started in the mid-80's, mostly scumbags from Lawrence (at least from my personal observations on the existence increase of Hispanic dealers in the general area of Union Street in Manch Vegas), but it's maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get 10-15 miles inside NH to many spots adjacent to I-495 and maybe further inland (I'm talking Burlington, lots of tech co's there) . I think that (Southern NH = Masshole North) coincides with the timeline of tech buildout.
Any state that would elect Jeanne Shaheen (my cousin met her, opines thusly - 'dumb as a box of rocks') has been compromised.
#16
Oh, and three weeks an accounting buddy of mine (lives in Bedford) who's pretty astute politically swore up & down that there was no way in hell that NH was going Democratic. I'll see if that opinion changes.
Sorry folks but please fire your webmaster. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Blocked for security measures? Give me a break!
I can't access the site from Germany.
Oh wait, I can, by using the IP http://65.172.163.222/
You know, I can hear the LLL already... want to make the world safe but can't even make your own website secure.
Let .com handle this, ok?
How do you expect me to convince Americans in Germany to vote for Bush if they can't even access his frigging site???
Posted by: True German Ally ||
10/28/2004 8:00:16 AM ||
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#1
I doubt it's the Bush campaign who blocked the site. Sounds like it's your web access company in Germany making decisions about what is appropriate content for you to see... Maybe you should give them a call.
Especially since you can see it via the IP address, looks like they played around with their DNS server. If it was done by the Bush people they'd have blocked all via your IP address and you typing in IP addresses wouldn't have brought up the site.
You're being censored by your provider... since you're german I'm betting it's partly government owned... which if true means your government is censoring you from political content... welcome to China... oops I mean liberated Europe.
The official campaign web site for U.S. President George W. Bush appears to be rejecting visitors from most points outside the United States, while allowing access from U.S. locations.
Netcraft monitors web site response times from seven locations, including four within the United States and three in other countries. Since Monday morning, requests to GeorgeWBush.com from stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney, Australia have failed, while the four U.S. monitoring stations show no performance problems. Web users in Canada report they are able to visit the site.
#7
I think the "costs" the campaign is trying to limit is a "world-wide" attempt to crash the system so no one can view it. Then again, what do I know.
Iâm voting for Bush too. I'm so sick of some of these independents who say, "they still haven't decided". Anyone who hasn't decided yet will go to Kerry. Why? Because if you follow politics at all, and you still can't decide- you are weak and indecisive. Thus it follows that you will likewise be attracted to Kerry's compulsive need to keep all options open, rather than to make an executive decision and move on.
#12
Seafarious, the German press (and others) report that this is a deliberate blocking. And they are poking fun at the fact that GWB is afraid of international visitors etc...
This also blocks out (non military) Americans.
I understand that DOS is a serious problem, but cutting off the world does not seem the appropriate measure. Especially when the IP is still reachable. http://origin.georgewbush.com also works.
Don't forget journalists get their info from candidate's websites, too. Does the Bush campaign want them to go to johnkerry.com only?
I go regularily to GWB to check out new ads or find new "ammunition".
I repeat, this doesn't look good.
Oh btw, BILD, the biggest newspaper in Germany (6 million readers daily) endorses Bush!
#13
TGA, if they're getting a ton of DOS attacks they have probably have no choice. It's sad that it's come to that... but when it comes down to it Bush doesn't need to convince the rest of the world that he should be re-elected... he just needs to convince americans.
#14
Well not to worry Americans overseas from Pa. It wouldn't matter at this point anyway. Your ballots won't be here in time due to our illustrious crooked Governer Rendell, who has in his desire to scrap the miltary vote overseas has also effectively scrapped all overseas ballots due to not extending the deadline to receive them in Pa. Not to worry though, all our convicted convicts get a chnace to vote. Thanks alot Governor fuckwit.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
10/28/2004 11:38 Comments ||
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#15
It looks like the IP is blocked now, too.
Sorry Bush folks, this is very lame. For many reasons.
The US president is not directly elected but chosen through a 538-member Electoral College. In 2000, Florida determined the winner of the election and President George W Bush beat Democratic rival Al Gore by just 537 votes. Each state has between three and 55 representatives. The winner has to get 270 votes in the college to secure the presidency. The system means that candidates must concentrate on swing states where the result is uncertain. The 10 battleground states are:
COLORADO
Bush won Colorado, with its nine Electoral College places, by 145,000 votes in 2000. But this time Kerry senses the Democrats can win it and opinion polls back him up. Eighteen percent of voters are Hispanic and Colorado has lost 80,000 jobs since 2001. The electoral seats could be divided up between the two if a proportional representation referendum on November 2 succeeds.
FLORIDA
The state's 27 electoral votes were the most bitterly contested of the 2000 election. After a recount in one county, George W Bush won by 537 votes. Opinion polls now say that Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry are level. Kerry has been to Florida 22 times since March. Despite four major hurricanes since the start of August, the southeastern state's economy is strong.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 6:09:18 AM ||
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#1
Kerry has pulled staff and ads from Colorado, effectively conceding it to Bush.
Of the rest, the reliable polls show Bush ahead in all but PA and NH.
#2
I hope Bush gets much more than 270 votes. I just can't handle months of "voter fraud" whinings of the Dems. I also believe he'll get the popular vote.
#3
Hey! You forgot NJ!, its tied 46% to 46% as of yesterday. There are 15 electoral votes here and to most of the people I speak to on a daily basis this is solely a vote on the WoT. An awful lot people around here knew someone or knows somebody who knew someone that was murdered on 9/11, and most saw the smoke that day.
#5
Credible. OS is correct as usual as is Jersey Mike. Bush has also been putting a LOT of time in PA. He must Know something I don't because every indication is he will lose there.
There is also going to be voter fraud whining, almost no matter what. I have never seen so much doubt from every side about the integrity of the balloting process. It has almost gotten to the point I would accept national ID cards if they had to be produced to vote.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 9:53 Comments ||
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#6
The National ID card would work...but ANY form of ID to vote would be better than this BS where some states don't require anything. I'd like to say I don't understand that, but then I grew up in Chicago!
#8
Kerry had to buy ads in HAWAII... not a lot of EV, but I previously hadn't believed a state could be any bluer. Buying ads in a supposedly safe state with a week to go before the election... things can't be looking good for the Kerry Kamp when this happens.
#9
There was voter fraud in NM in 2000 and enough evidence to warrant a grand jury, but the Democratic Attorney General refused to initiate an official investigation. While the Dem's whined about Florida, they buried their dirty work in New Mexico.
Posted by: Don ||
10/28/2004 10:06 Comments ||
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#10
Folks, the polls don't tell the full story. This election will not be close.
There are still several million swing voters who, regardless of how the pollsters estimate their numbers or preferences, will not really make up their minds before Monday. These voters will go with their gut, and will vote on which candidate scares them least. In time of war, this is always an advantage for the incumbent. And in this particular war, these last-minute voters will almost certainly tilt heavily toward Bush.
#11
Another reason the polls are BS is that there are at least a million "Closet Bush" supporters among registered Democrats. Certainly many if not most Lieberman Dems will swing toward Bush, especially strongly pro-Israel jewish Dems in crucial swing states like FL (Miami) and PA (Philly, potentially also Pittsburgh). Could have an impact in Cleveland and Detroit suburbs as well.
But this crossover behavior is poorly captured by the polls. In fact, some pollsters actually reverse its effect. When the NYT/CBS pollsters do a poll, they adjust the results to make them conform more closely to overall party registration percentages. This of course assumes that any split-ticket voting by one party's registered voters is exactly offset by the other party's. However, we know that that will not happen this year because:
1) for the last 18 months at least, many more Dems have (very quietly) crossed over to vote for Republicans like Schwarzenegger (got 60% of the Dem vote in liberal Calif!) and Jeb Bush in Florida, and
2) support for Bush is far higher among Repubs (ca 90%) than is support for Kerry among Dems (ca 70%).
So here's why Bush will win by 4-6 points:
If you assume that Dem and Repub registration is now roughly equal; that Kerry and Bush will split the independents 50-50; and that maybe half of the 10% of Repubs who dislike Bush will actually swing to Kerry and that maybe one-third of the 30% of Dems who dislike Kerry will swing to Bush; then in a two-man race you come up with a 5-point advantage to Bush. Which is amplified slightly by Nader.
So my prediction is Bush by 4-5.5 points in the popular vote and by a very large margin in the electoral college.
#12
The Democrats big problem in Minnesota seems to come down to one thing: snowmobiles
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2004 11:06 Comments ||
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#13
Michigan could definitely be in play, even despite the overwhelming Dem advantage conferred by the AFL-CIO machine, because of the pro-Israel Jewish swing vote in the Oakland county suburbs of Detroit. Note that even though Arab-Americans in Michigan outnumber jewish americans by 2:1, many of those arabs are kurds and Iraqi Chaldeans who are more likely than not to favor the war and Bush.
The jewish swing vote, which is 5-6% of the overall vote, can tip this election. If, as in 1972, there's a 15% shift away from Dems by Israel-focused jewish voters (ie 65/35 Kerry/Bush instead of the usual 80/20 Dem-Repub jewish vote split), then that gives Bush an extra 0.82% and Kerry's vote is reduced by an equal amount, or a 1.62% differential. And the effect of this shift would be magnified in Florida and Pennsylvania.
Now, there are at least twice as many non-jewish as jewish Dems who also will vote for Bush on national security grounds, so it's easy to see a nationwide swing of about 5% from registered Dems to Bush on national security issues alone.
Any way you cut this election, it will not be close. Had the Dems nominated a true national security candidate (as opposed to a guy who plays one, on TV), this election would have been theirs to lose. But a man who promises to give nuclear fuel to the mullahs, who would have unilaterally scrapped our (and now Israel's) bunker-buster deterrent against a nuclear Iran, who grovels before Kofi and Co., is not a man that national security Dems can take seriously.
#14
OT, but what direction will RB take if Kerry does win?
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
10/28/2004 12:16 Comments ||
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#15
a harshly critical one
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 12:18 Comments ||
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#16
Is that a change?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 12:24 Comments ||
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#17
Simple Steve. Since Kerry & Co. have established perfection as the standard to judge a sitting President, they will be extended the same bar to meet. Copious parallels will be drawn from the Dem's propaganda methods this season to connect the 3 degree of separation between individuals and events and Kerry. They have basically poisoned their environment they will have to live within for four years.
Posted by: Don ||
10/28/2004 12:26 Comments ||
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#18
Trust me, a Kerry victory won't happen. I split my ticket this Tuesday and I guarantee you, a few million other Democrats will do so as well. There will not be anywhere near the same number of Republicans who swing for Kerry. If the independent vote is split 50/50, then it's game set match for Bush.
#20
Lex:
Are you from (or still in) Michigan? Just curious; I grew up in Dearborn Heights and Livonia.
Anyway, from what I've seen, Oakland county is going to be the key to Michigan. Large jewish population, lots of upper-middle class families (Soccer Mom -> Security Mom).
#21
Yes, Birmingham. If I could get away I would fly back there this weekend and knock on a thousand doors in Oak Park and Southfield for Bush.
You are correct that Security Moms ie white married women are the key to this race. They would normally lean Democratic but are now leaning 53 to 42 for Bush, acc to Republican pollster Ed Goeoa (?sp).
#22
Most polls listed in RealClear Politics have Bush ahead today--except for a few of the liberal left newspapers such as LA Times.
A billboard on top of RealClear Politics said that 8 out of 19 of the 911 hijackers were registered to vote in the U.S. Hey there is something seriously in need of correction in our registration process if that is true.
#23
The LA TImes published their own poll's results the day before the Schwarzenegger election that showed Arnold and what's-his-name in a dead heat. The next day, Arnold won by 17 points, getting some 60% of the Democratic vote in the most liberal state in the Union.
Do not believe the polls. They are vastly understating the number of Closet Bush supporters, the educated liberals who dare not tell their colleagues, neighbors, friends, even family that they are indeed going to vote for Bush.
#24
Just get out and vote. Don't worry what color your state is. Just go do it. At a minimum you would be helping prevent a "lose the popular vote/win the e.c. vote" scenario. At the max, you'll contribute to a 40+ state Bush win.
#25
Lex/Jackal - my home of residence is still in Redford where the wife & I both voted absentee for Bush and then libertarian & republican for everyone else. I wish I was able to get up there over the weekend to help you dudes out but they got me busy here in Lejeune right now. As a military guy I can't endorse a particular party while in uniform but I've had some success w/undecided voters while in civilian attire.
#26
I'm not in Michigan anymore. I called the Oakland County Bush-Cheney HQ to offer to fly up and help but only on condition that they furnish me a list of fellow Lieberman Dems whom I'm sure I could persuade to vote Bush on a split ticket. The kid runnning that effort doesn't have such a list but said he'd look for one and call me back. No word yet. This is crazy. Lieberman won s.t. like 27% of Oakland County Democrats in the Dem primary; Bush could poach at least on-third of these, probably half or more.
btw They do have a "Jews for George" coordinator, but there's one slight problem with that: I'm not jewish....
#28
thanx jackal, but everytime I see MI in the kerry column makes me want to dry-heave. I sit here in NC and think how stupid can people in my home state be? Then I remember all the union guys like my dad and their handlers pushing the party line, just dissapointing is all that they don't get the straight scoop from the guys that know what's really going on overseas.
#5
I agree with Steve too. If the Dark One sends forth his spawn he would make him palatable as to gain converts. Maybe he is the idiot half-brother of the devils spawn?
#10
Hey! Makes sense. Heinz 57. 5+7 =12 plus the numbers in 2004 = 18. There are three 6s in 18. Yup, I'm convinced. He's the antichrist. A vote for Kerry is a vote for the devil.
#21
Face it: Kerry can't lose. Forget the polls: new voters aren't polled as pollster lists are based on prior votes, and they overwhelmingly support Kerry. Add that 2% addition to public Kerry support and add the traditional election day shift to the Democrat candidate.
#22
Well, gee, long-string-of-anonymous-numbers-on-a- website, I guess we'll just take your word for it and not show up next week. I mean, why bother, right?
#3
What this tells me is that GWB is just a regular Schmoe like myself, not one of those stuffy elitists that end up looking awkward when they try to look like a regular Schmoe.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry refused to honor United Nations Day, even as President Bush signed a U.N. proclamation, because doing so would be inconsistent with the governor's views, his spokeswoman said. In his proclamation, Bush also had urged governors to "honor the observance of United Nations Day," which was celebrated Sunday around the world to commemorate the date the organization was founded in 1945. "It was a conscious decision to not issue the proclamation out of concern over the lack of support the U.N. has shown for United States efforts to bring freedom and democracy to the world," Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. The president of the Texas division of the United Nations Association called Perry's decision an embarrassment to the state and a slap at an organization that is focused on eliminating unequal treatment of women around the world, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.
I must have missed the UN condemming the treatment of women in islamic countries.
"We're very disappointed and embarrassed that the governor would do something like this," said Beth Weems Pirtle. "Rick Perry is trying to make the United Nations a political football, and it's not a political football. It is a nonpartisan organization that helps people all over the world."
Then her lips fell off
The Republican Party of Texas has long been hostile to the United Nations. The party platform has stated that the GOP "believes it is in the best interest of the citizens of the United States that we immediately rescind our membership in, as well as all financial and military contributions to, the United Nations."
I knew I liked them.
Pirtle said she believed the governor would sign the U.N. Day proclamation after she submitted it more than a month ago. Walt said there was never any promise to issue the proclamation, though she acknowledged that Pirtle was given wrong information that it had been sent out by the governor's office.
"We meant to say thrown out."
"That employee of the governor's office is not involved in deciding whether to issue proclamations. That may be the source of the confusion," Walt said.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/28/2004 3:31:32 PM ||
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#1
Republican Gov. Rick Perry refused to honor United Nations Day,..
Can this guy be a future prospect for the WH?
"It is a nonpartisan organization that helps people all over the world."
Oooooo, such lofty-sounding words. Too bad the reality is something far less.
#6
Mid-Town Manhattan has always required additional convention/hotel resorts. The UN complex would be perfect.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 17:01 Comments ||
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#7
Damn... I knew there was another reason why I liked living in Texas, besides an amusing Legislature and breakfast tacos, the food of the gods. Even far, far away from it, they recognize the UN for what it is!
#9
BTW, what in the hell is vim? (yes I know something to be found in the dictionary) but it could be a plural... vims... or an only past tense vimed...
#10
You know i am leaning towards moving to Texas after reading this. I am STRONGLY in favor of dumping the entire un and tossing that bunch of kooks out of our country.
If its synonym is vigor then is one with vim said to be vimous?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 18:15 Comments ||
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#13
Governor Perry sounds like a total dude! - just checked his website, he doesn't wear a cowboy hat :( but looks very young so he could be a contender for the Oval Office BAR...
As for Ms Pirtle, well just admitting to being a member of the United Nations Association is enough to make me guffaw!
What's an 'open shop law' .com?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/28/2004 18:21 Comments ||
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#14
Tony, you got home ok? Open shop has to do with unions, I think...
#15
Tony (UK) - It is also known as a right to work law. An example of the language is this excerpt from Tennesee - the one I found first when looking it up:
It is unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or association of any kind to deny or attempt to deny employment to any person by reason of such person's membership in, affiliation with, resignation from, or refusal to join or affiliate with any labor union or employee organization of any kind. Therefore, as a "right-to-work" state, enforced total unionization of the work force is prohibited.
And in some states (dunno about TX, today), where unions do insert themselves into a workplace (getting some employees to sign up), non-union employees of that shop can get (from the union) all of the benefits of union membership - but they do not have to pay dues. Rather punishes the union, no?
Use "right to work" in searches and you'll get more hits. Open shop is the term in use when I was a youngster sorting pkgs for United Parcel and the toadies of the Teamsters tried to recruit us. Told 'em to piss off (voted them down) 4 times while I was there.
#16
actually (Federal) Beck vs Electrical workers union decision allows all members of unions which disagree with the political activities of the union to withhold those dues above and beyond legitimate negotiation, admin, representation costs. Nationwide. I do so
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2004 18:43 Comments ||
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#17
So, if the union is politically active, they effectively open themselves up to the same punitive situation as exists in open shop states... Lol! Love it!
#18
Yes Seafarious, got home fine (to grim grey weather, but what can you do about that? :) and slept like a log. DC was a fine place, and for the last days events we went to George Mason University having been bussed through Fairfax which looked like the quintessential American town (I did notice a Bush-Cheney sign on someones lawn which brought a wry smile to my face! :) Thanks for the dinner offer SF, I'll do my best to give more notice in future (why I didn't before going, I dunno...)
.com - yes, it all makes sense now. In my younger days I worked for British Rail (BR) for a while, and can still remember the shop steward from ASLEF (the train drivers union) standing in front of all us new recruits saying that it wasn't *them* that demanded we joined the union, it was BR and that if we didn't join the union it wouldn't be ASLEF that was sacking us, but BR. The fact that ASLEF had made BR a closed shop through previous strike action wasn't mentioned...the logic was not lost on this young shaver!
I should have guessed from 'open shop' - I guess I had blotted out that time in my life! :)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/28/2004 18:52 Comments ||
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#19
No state income tax, open shop law, and concealed carry permits.
.com, you are correct, but our property taxes are confiscatory, as they effectively double every seven years. Perry (and the rest of the Republicans in Texas) was pretty slow to address the issue until a Houston radio station formed a PAC and stormed Austin. Perry is not WH material, for this and other reasons. (Besides, in Texas the lieutenant governor has all the power.)
Posted by: John L ||
10/28/2004 21:20 Comments ||
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#20
Our Guv is quite the raconteur. And speed-freak.
As I recall, his State Limo was pulled over by a DPS trooper for speeding! And, he was also clocked by Austin PD on his Harley at over 100MPH.
Oh, and he does have a pair of boots (required in Texas).
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has banned soccer players from sporting camel tails ponytails and sculpted beards as part of a campaign to prevent the spread of Western culture in the Islamic state, a soccer federation official says.
"Ewww, icky. Infidel icky."
The federation said on Thursday those who defied the order ran the risk of being banned from the game. "Soccer players with ponytails, hair-band and sculpted beards will be banned from playing or will be fined," Navid Majd, head of the federation's public relations office, told Reuters. The ban does not apply to long hair. "The Prophet Mohammad had long hair. We have no problem with it," Majd said. Aren't they talking out of both sides of their turbans? Maybe I missed something, but don't you kinda need long hair to make a ponytail?
Some newspapers reported recently that at least two soccer players in the Iranian professional league had received warnings because of their "inappropriate" hair style. But Majd denied it. Many Iranians are obsessed with soccer, and soccer players are considered role models for younger fans. "We should respect our culture, especially our sportsmen," Majd said. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, conservatives have continually tried to hold back the tide of Western cultural influence and keep the population compliantly under the thumb of the mullahs promote Islamic values. A crowd of 110,000 watched a match between Iran and Germany in Tehran earlier this month. Iranian women were not allowed to see the match after the football federation upheld a ban on them entering stadiums even though women are the Islamic country's most passionate fans.
#1
"Iranian women were not allowed to see the match after the football federation upheld a ban on them entering stadiums even though women are the Islamic countryâs most passionate fans. "
And this made the mullahs even MORE popular with the women of Iran . . .
....although I do have a an extra-cool "Yosemite Sam" mustashio that I wear with my pony tail. I guess I wouldn't be allowed to play soccer in Iran, huh?
I just do not get how some Americans cannot see Kerry for the hypocrite he is!!
October 28, 2004: Senator John Kerry keeps telling us that "the rich" need to pay more in taxes, and he proposes to raise the marginal tax rate that Americans with earnings in the two top tax brackets would pay. But the small amount that Kerry and his wife paid last year in taxes demonstrates the error of this approach. Under Kerry's own plan to "tax the rich," his and his wife's average tax rate would increase to only 15.2 percent, far less than many small-business owners and middle-class earners would pay. This discrepancy is an artifact of today's convoluted tax code. In short, the Kerrys' own tax return makes the case for fundamental tax reform.
Delta Air Lines Inc. has a tentative pilot deal on concessions and much-needed breathing room, but hasn't detailed the progress of its crucial debt restructuring efforts. Delta's CEO cautioned Thursday bankruptcy remains a possibility. Until the airline's roughly 7,000 pilots ratify the $1 billion in contract concessions and Delta learns if all the pieces of its transformation puzzle fall into place in time, there is still much uncertainty for the nation's third-largest carrier.
The tentative agreement with the pilots union - reached Wednesday night after nearly 18 months of intermittent talks - includes a 32.5 percent wage cut effective Dec. 1 and no raises for the rest of the five-year pact. Delta pilots are currently among the highest paid in the nation. They earn an average of $100,000 to $300,000 per year, according to the company. Among other concessions are revisions in the pension plan and work rules. In return, pilots get options to purchase Delta stock that would give them an equity stake amounting to 15 percent of the company.
Delta's other major work groups, including flight attendants and gate and ticket agents, are not unionized. The company has cut the pay of its other employees, including executives' salaries. Delta has lost more than $6 billion since 2001, during which time it has also cut 16,000 jobs. Delta plans to cut up to another 7,000 jobs in the next 18 months. Last week, the struggling airline reported a $651 million loss in the third-quarter. Delta had only $1.45 billion left in cash at the end of the quarter.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 8:34:34 PM ||
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Anticipation of slowing demand from China complements build in inventories to pressure prices again. Oil prices tumbled again Thursday as traders anticipated lower demand from economic powerhouse China on the heels of an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. crude inventories. U.S. light crude for December delivery dropped 74 cents at $51.74 a barrel in early trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest price in two weeks, extending the previous day's $2.71 slump. London Brent crude sank 95 cents to $48.50 a barrel after peaking at a new high of $51.95 Wednesday. Light crude reached an all-time high of $55.67 a barrel Monday. ...
However, global demand might slow after the Chinese central bank lifted its interest rates for the first time in nine years in an effort to gently cool its red hot economy, Mueller noted. Oil is nothing if not voilatile. Interesting timing none the less. Be even more interesting to see how far down it goes.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/28/2004 12:12:53 PM ||
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#3
Maybe Soros is running out of money to game oil derivatives.
Also, note that another famous billionaire-against-Bush, Warren Buffet, has followed Soros' game-book and been betting billions against the dollar since early this year.
#4
Volatility, Mrs D? Check this out for oil volatility history.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/28/2004 14:57 Comments ||
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#5
What soars so quickly on speculation can not be sustained unless the underlining causes continue. 'Profit taking Friday' could extend the bearishness. This is a classic example of energy profit taking prior to the next storm.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 17:16 Comments ||
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#7
For the last 80+ years, oil has been the NO-SHIT lifeblood of the world. It paid my bills for the last 30 years - and all I did was write software - a mere voyeur in the game. What, exactly, is the problem with Mark having bona-fide oil market expertise, lex?
#8
The current high prices are certainly partly caused by a speculation bubble but the fundamentals speak against oil ever returning to under 40$, let alone under 30$ a barrel. Unless demand drops significantly (unlikely, even if China cools down a lot) or significant new ressources are found and exploited (possible but not in the near future) oil will stay up.
The real trouble will start when we learn about the true figures concerning the Saudi reserves...
#10
TGA - The stories about the 6 main fields declining are true. Not alarmingly precipitous, but it's there, alright - I know this from the engineers who manage the operations planning for their refineries. As for new finds, I'll bet Mark knows more than I do. I wonder about that - because they have largely shifted focus to their natural gas finds.
#11
A little lighter on the call side, on paper, but not on the put side ;) Hop on to the petrol-roller-coaster.
.com A friend England, with vastly superior knowledge than I & most others, timed this ongoing oil reversal so, so perfectly at the beginning of this week, that by tomorrow he shall most likely reach his downside target.
Check out the linked news. The best expertise during the last couple of weeks has been & shall be geared in the currencies, What a ride it's been...thus far.
Your comment on the oil being lifeblood of the world is so true. Maybe soon you too can test the waters so to speak. Winter as yet to knock at the door.
The Hub is once again the center of the universe! :)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 18:01 Comments ||
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#12
I'm guessing the True Believers chasing the Infidel engineers out of SA doesn't help with the oil prospects either...
#13
Well, I know how to model peripheral flooding and banking (sand, not money, heh) and top-drive rigs and the effects of the ultimate heat-sink (the ocean in offshore drilling) on the caking of hot muds in the return annulus - but I don't know dick about the markets, heh. Went right over my pointy little head, bro.
#14
True German Ally & .com, right on observations.
They should be asking the question, is there an abundance of (cleaner) 'light sweet crude oil', the type Nigeria produces. We in here know the answer ,,it is a resounding no!
Here is a quote: "Oil shortage or surplus? Ask shortage of what oil?
Many refineries are not set up to process abundant heavy crude oil because it is more difficult, expensive to refine into products."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11417
In relation to a few days of oil trading trending up or down, when prices have either hit rock bottom or have attained dizzying record highs. The old standard rule is what rockets up plunges down and the reversal. Market charting gravity. In addition, the root supply causes of the energy complex' dramatic climb are still with us. Will the world's most booming economy, Communist China, begin to cool off some, due to higher imported energy costs? If so, to what degeee?
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 18:23 Comments ||
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#15
Seafarious. The al-Qa'ida monster the Arabian Wahhabi oil clan created will get hungry once again. If the enemy really wants to cause a world-wide economic panic, the removal of Saudi oil from the world market would do the trick overnight.
See link on the largest oil field in the world, Arabia's Ghawar field, well within range of Iranian missles....
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 18:32 Comments ||
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#16
The coming oil scare...from within.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 20:18 Comments ||
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A totally blind woman has regained her sight after a pioneering transplant of retinal cells into one of her eyes, scientists revealed yesterday. However the American operation has provoked controversy because the transplanted cells were taken from the eyes of aborted foetuses. Dr. Josef Mengele would have approved
While Elisabeth Bryant's vision is not perfect, she can see well enough to read, check e-mails and play computer games. She assumed she would never see again after being blinded three years ago by an inherited progressive eye disorder that has afflicted four generations of her family. But according to New Scientist magazine, Mrs Bryant, 64, appears to have permanently regained her sight. Six other patients with either advanced retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration, have received similar transplants.
Dr Robert Aramant, who developed the technique at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, said: "We have shown the way. It is possible to reverse these incurable diseases." The surgeons removed a layer of retinal cells from an aborted foetus and implanted intact two millimetre square sheets into the diseased eye. Using intact sheets preserves the circuitry between the cells. Foetal cells are better tolerated than adult cells and mean patients do not have to take drugs to suppress their immune system. Although the operation shows promise, it is unlikely to become widespread. Foetal tissue is rarely donated for transplant. If further trials are to be successful, there will not be enough tissue to meet the demand.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 6:32:58 AM ||
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#1
Here is the area where there is the most controversy.
How do you deal with this to be sure a fetus is not aborted for transplant cells?
Do you get into why a fetus was aborted?
Personally, I feel that using cells from the aborted fetus where the cause of the abortion is anything dealing with a genuine mother's health issue, rape, incest, or DOA genetic defect (e.g. anencephaly) would not be immoral, but a child aborted just for inconvienece it would cause is immoral... But that is just my opinion...
I just don't know, but I am glad this woman can see now, and I am sure that if they perfect this procedure so that you going from blindness to 20-20 then we are in a whole new ballgame...
This is truly a dilemma...
But, if they can blood type and match tissue just as they do for other types of transplants this is truly miraculous...Anti rejection drugs are taken for all other transplants, though and why not this? Reserve this procedure for tough to match cases like; the baseball player Rod Carew's daughter who died from leukemia because her parents were of different races, and she couldn't find a marrow transplant donor to match...
Call for lots of make-up!
A Muslim woman who always wears a veil told a New Zealand court on Wednesday she would rather kill herself than show her face in public.
No skin off my fore...
Fouzya Salim, who was born in Afghanistan but has lived in New Zealand for nearly 10 years, said she had never left her house without wearing the traditional burqa which has only a small slit to reveal the eyes, Radio New Zealand reported. Salim and another woman Feraiba Razamjoo are fighting an application in the Auckland District by lawyer Colin Amery to remove their veils when they give evidence in an insurance fraud case. The pair are witnesses in the case and Amery, representing the defendant, is arguing that he would not be able to assess their demeanour and body language if they were allowed to testify wearing their dress. Salim's husband told the court his wife did not wear her burqa inside their home but none of his male friends or extended family were allowed to see her.
"She's mine! All mine! And you shall not see her charms!"
(This could be an ugly situation)
"Hokay. So she's got a nose like a potato and only four teeth, but she's still all mine!"
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 5:27:29 AM ||
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A Muslim woman who always wears a veil told a New Zealand court on Wednesday she would rather kill herself than show her face in public.
The proper response?
"As witnesses, you are of no value whatsoever. You are dismissed."
A fire at an Iraq chemical plant has caused the largest recorded man-made release of sulphur dioxide, experts say. The fire, which broke out on 24 June 2003, produced more of the polluting gas than most volcanic eruptions. On average it generated about 21,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide a day, which is half the daily emissions of the gas produced by the United States.
The plume of smog was detected by a Nasa satellite, the researchers say in Geophysical Research Letters.
The fire, which was probably started deliberately, broke out at the Al-Mishraq state sulphured plant near Mosul. It burned for almost a month. Scientists monitored the blaze using satellite images. They calculated that a total of around 600,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide was released by the fire.
To put that figure in context, the giant eruption of the American volcano Mount Saint Helens in 1980, belched out about one million tonnes of sulphur dioxide.
Although the team, from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, believe the fire will not have a long-lasting environmental impact, they say the fire caused about $40 million of damage to local crops - along with respiratory problems in local people. The scientists used two instruments to collect the data - the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer - which are located on Nasa's Earth monitoring satellites, Terra and Aqua.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/28/2004 4:51:09 AM ||
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If the amount of SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is in the same ballpark as the Mount Saint Helens eruption then it will be cold day for the global warming crowd. This large of a quantity of SO2 will probably cause a measurable decrease in global temperatures for a couple of years.
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.
State Republicans filed a last-minute complaint Wednesday with the Milwaukee Election Commission claiming that 5,600 city addresses on the voter rolls may not exist. The commission will meet at 9 a.m. today to consider the Republican allegation. The Republican Party of Wisconsin checked the addresses of more than 300,000 people registered to vote in the city with a software program also used by the U.S. Postal Service. Republicans found that 5,619 addresses may be non-existent and then visited a number of the addresses. They snapped photos showing vacant lots, a gyro stand, a park and spots between two houses where the address should have been.
The Hub is once again the center of the universe! :) 
