POCATELLO - To the rest of the country, Scott Stevens is the Idaho weatherman who blames the Japanese Mafia for Hurricane Katrina. To folks in Pocatello, he's the face of the weather at KPVI News Channel 6.
The Pocatello native made his final Channel 6 forecast Thursday night, leaving a job he's held for nine years in order to pursue his weather theories on a full-time basis.
"I'm going to miss that broadcast, but I'm not going to miss not getting home until 11 p.m.," Stevens said. "I just don't have the hours of the day to take care of my research and getting those (broadcasts) out and devoting the necessary research to the station."
It was Stevens' decision to leave the TV station, said KPVI general manager Bill Fouch.
"When Scott signed his current contract, he told Brenda and me at the time that it would be his last contract," Fouch said Thursday. "We knew, but the timetable moved up because of all the attention (he's been getting.)"
Since Katrina, Stevens has been in newspapers across the country where he was quoted in an Associated Press story as saying the Yakuza Mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. He was a guest on Coast to Coast, a late night radio show that conducts call-in discussions on everything from bizarre weather patterns to alien abductions. On Wednesday, Stevens was interviewed by Fox News firebrand Bill O'Reilly.
Stevens said he received 30 requests to do radio interviews on Thursday alone.
Fouch said Stevens wanted to leave as quickly as possible because his "plate is full," and he needs to take advantage of the opportunities that exist now.
Stevens said he's received offers that he's not at liberty to discuss.
Stevens, 39, who was born in Twin Falls, plans to remain in Pocatello, where his family remains. He said his family wishes him the best in his future endeavors.
It costs him hundreds of dollars each month to run his Web site, weatherwars.info, but he said that's a price he's willing to pay.
"There's a chess game going on in the sky," Stevens said. "It affects each and every one of us. It is the one common thread that binds us all together."
Although the theories espoused by Stevens - scalar weapons, global dimming - are definitely on the scientific fringe today, there are thousands of Web sites that mention such phenomena.
"The Soviets boasted of their geoengineering capabilities; these impressive accomplishments must be taken at face value simply because we are observing weather events that simply have never occurred before, never!" Stevens wrote on his Web site. "The evidence of these weapons at work found within the clouds overhead is simply unmistakable. These patterns and odd geometric shapes seen in our skies, each and every day, are clear and present evidence that our weather has been stolen from us, only to be used by those whose designs for humanity are rarely in alignment with that of the common man."
However, Stevens never discussed his weather theories on the air during his time at Channel 6 - an agreement he had with the station management. What the meteorologist chose to do in his off time was his business, said his manager of eight years.
Fouch said he would miss Stevens, whom he described as energetic, easy-going and enthusiastic about the weather, but he is supportive of his decision to pursue his passion.
"His theories are his theories," Fouch said. "But, if you think about it - of all the TV weather people, he continues to be the most accurate. It isn't his theories getting involved with his professional job."
For Stevens, however, the recent attention to his theories has been somewhat of a distraction from work.
"When there has been so much attention, it gets in the way of them doing their jobs and me doing my job," Stevens said.
To learn more about Stevens and his thoughts on
manipulated weather, check out: Stevens' Website
EFL:
HURRICANE RITA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 24A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1 PM CDT FRI SEP 23 2005
AT 1 PM CDT...1800Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE RITA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 27.8 NORTH...LONGITUDE 92.2 WEST OR ABOUT 190 MILES SOUTHEAST OF GALVESTON TEXAS AND ABOUT 175 MILES SOUTHEAST OF PORT ARTHUR TEXAS.
RITA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 10 MPH AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS TRACK...THE CORE OF RITA WILL MAKE LANDFALL NEAR THE SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA AND UPPER TEXAS COASTS EARLY SATURDAY.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED TO NEAR 125 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. RITA IS NOW A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. A FURTHER SLOW WEAKENING IS POSSIBLE BEFORE LANDFALL...BUT RITA IS STILL EXPECTED TO COME ASHORE AS A DANGEROUS HURRICANE.
HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 85 MILES FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 205 MILES. AN ELEVATED PLATFORM ON ISLE DENIERES NEAR THE SOUTH-CENTRAL LOUISIANA COAST JUST REPORTED SUSTAINED WINDS OF 58 MPH. LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE WAS 931 MB...27.49 INCHES.
RITA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 20 INCHES OVER SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS AND SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA AS IT MOVES INLAND. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE OVER SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA INCLUDING METROPOLITAN NEW ORLEANS WITH ISOLATED HEAVIER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. SINCE RITA IS FORECAST TO SLOW DOWN SIGNIFICANTLY AFTER MAKING LANDFALL...TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF 25 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS ACROSS EASTERN TEXAS INTO WESTERN LOUISIANA.
ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE TODAY OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS...SOUTHERN LOUISIANA INCLUDING SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA
REPEATING THE 1 PM CDT POSITION...27.8 N... 92.2 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 10 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...125 MPH.
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 931 MB. THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 4 PM CDT.
FORECASTER AVILA
Projected storm track here. Still looking like Port Arthur/Beaumont area.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/23/2005 08:34 ||
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8:40 a.m.: Dallas television station WFAA reports at least 20 people were killed in an I-45 bus fire, out of about 45 elderly evacuees on board. "The early indications are this is a mechanical issue. The driver did survive the accident," Dallas County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Don Peritz said. "It's my understanding he went back on the bus several times to try to evacuate people.'' He said there were indications that oxygen used by elderly evacuees could have had a role in the fire. The accident caused a 17-mile backup on a freeway that was already heavily congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast.
#2
The authorities in Texas have been forcing people off of back roads and into the interstates which have become parking lots. A friend of mine tried to cross from Texas to Louisiana in Port Arthur, but the authorities had closed the bridge and sent him BACK to Beaumont.
I haven't been able to reach him on the phone since then.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/23/2005 9:35 Comments ||
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#3
Same thing being reported at NRO and other blogs. How stupid can you get.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/23/2005 10:20 Comments ||
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#4
Wednesday night I tried to take US90 out but was stopped by the police from getting onto it in Dayton; ended up on SR105 to Beaumont, then I-10, without problem. Never heard the logic of it; perhaps part of closing entrance ramps to major routes in order to enhance through-flow, but that is the opposite of Phil's story.
#5
New Orleans 9th Ward Floods September 23, 2005 09:42 AM EST
By Sher Zieve - As Hurricane Rita's rains began to come onshore, Friday morning, New Orleans' 9th Ward has begun to flood again. It is unclear as to whether or not the newly-patched levees will withstand the current storm. The original levees were constructed to withstand a Category 3 hurricane and the Army Corps of Engineers has not, as yet, had enough time to fully repair them. Rita is currently at Category 4 status.
If Rita continues to track eastward, there is the possibility that New Orleans will be hit with enough force to re-flood the city. However, this time Mayor Nagin arranged for buses to transport those still in the city or residents who had returned after Katrina out of the area.
Early reports are that they had another failure on Industrial Canal levee.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/23/2005 10:36 Comments ||
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#6
Phil, this may explain your friends report: BATON ROUGE -- State police issued a plea for Texans and residents of southwest Louisiana to head north, and not east into Lafayette and Baton Rouge, as they evacuate from the approach of Hurricane Rita. State Police spokesman Lt. Lawrence McLeary said troopers are âseeing a big influx (of drivers) from Texasââ and highways in Baton Rouge are âjam-packed.ââ
âThe tendency is for people to come east,ââ McLeary said. âBut lodging is at a premium (and evacuees) will deplete gasoline supplies.ââ
Baton Rouge is now home for many of the New Orleans area residents forced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago.
McLeary said State Police will work with Baton Rouge police and officials in nearby Denham Springs in Livingston Parish to rework traffic lights and other traffic flow to ease a growing gridlock on Baton Rouge streets and highways.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/23/2005 10:39 Comments ||
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Slide down to "track guidance" and look at the projected tracks with the different models. Its a bowl of noodles. I say flipping a coin is just as accurate.
#8
Mobile Alabama, 10:20 CST, overcast, no wind, no rain, all is well here.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/23/2005 11:11 Comments ||
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#9
Bad news in New Orleans: Water Pours Into New Orleans' Ninth Ward NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Rita's steady rains sent water pouring through breaches in a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods in a devastating repeat of New Orleans' flooding nightmare.
"Our worst fears came true," said Maj. Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard."We have three significant breaches in the levy and the water is rising rapidly," he said. "At daybreak I found substantial breaks and they've grown larger." Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over and through a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal levee. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast. Guidry said water was rising about three inches a minute.
The impoverished neighborhood was one of the areas of the city hit hardest by Katrina's floodwaters and finally had been pumped dry before Hurricane Rita struck. Sally Forman, an aide to Mayor Ray Nagin, said officials knew the levees were compromised, but they believe that the Ninth Ward is cleared of residents. "I wouldn't imagine there's one person down there," Forman said.
Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said contractors were being brought in Friday morning in an effort to repair the new damage. The corps had earlier installed 60-foot sections of metal across some of the city's canals to protect against flooding and storm surges. Forecasters have called for between 3 and 5 inches of rain in New Orleans as Rita passes Friday and Saturday, dangerously close to the 6 inches of rain that Corps officials say the patched levees can withstand. Another concern is the storm surge accompanying Rita, which could send water rising as much as 4 feet above high tide. Already Friday morning, a steady 20 mph wind, with gusts to 35 mph, was blowing, along with steady rains.
#13
A surfer off the shore of Galveston, Texas, was arrested Friday for not adhering to evacuation orders and surfing the large waves created by an approaching Hurricane Rita, according to a Local 6 News report. The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody by police after coming out of the surf.
Police said he was apparently not taking Rita serously, attempting to surf off the shore of Galveston.
But, dooooooood, I was like totally serious! This was the Big Kahuna of set-ups.
Our country reeks of trees
Our yaks are really large
And they smell like rotting beef carcasses
And we have to clean up after them
And our saddle sores are the best
We proudly wear womens clothing
And searing sand blows up our skirts
And the buzzards they soar overhead
And poisonous snakes will devour us whole
Our bones will bleach in the sun
And we will probably go to hell
And that is our great reward
For being the-uh ro-yal canadian kilted yaksmen
Posted by: bruce ||
09/23/2005 18:27 Comments ||
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China on Thursday rejected a U.S. call to adopt democracy, telling Washington to respect its communist path. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters he had "taken note" of comments by Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick on Wednesday that China's one-party system was unsustainable. Qin said the country was stable and that communism had brought substantial benefits to China's 1.3 billion people. Zoellick made the Bush administration's most explicit call to date for a political transition in China, where the Communist Party will mark the anniversary of its 56th year in power on Oct. 1. "Closed politics cannot be a permanent feature of Chinese society," Zoellick told a meeting of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York. "It is simply not sustainable." China "needs a political transition to make its government responsible and accountable to its people," he added.
I dunno. They've been doing it for 5000 years now.
On Thursday, Qin said the United States had no right to dictate political morality to China. "The internal affairs should be handled by the government and people of each country," he said. "We should respect another country's right to chose its own development road."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2005 00:00 ||
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The US needs to pick the right words if they wish the message to really sting. Suggest that a one-party system is "imbalanced", using several homonyms for the word. The very essence of Chinese culture is that "balance" is good and "imbalanced" is just bad all the way around. Even the universe itself doesn't like it.
Since emperors used to have a four-way balance, they could be really tweaked by implying that they are trying to defy the natural order of leadership. Even the communists are acutely aware of what the old system says they are supposed to be, and still have to pay homage to it.
#2
I dunno. They've been doing it for 5000 years now.
Yah, once every couple hundred years they have a violent change of dynasty.
I'm not eager to see how that works out in an age of nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/23/2005 8:49 Comments ||
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#3
Yah, once every couple hundred years they have a violent change of dynasty.
And usually forshadowed by massive corruption both at the top and in the provinces. None of that going on there now, nah, nothing, not here. Move along.
#4
China already sees the writing on the wall. Witness:
1. No full-blown commie takeover of Hong Kong in 1997.
2. Dramatically increased trade and entrepenurship being "allowed" by the Chinese government, which sustains the whole country.
3. Their war posturing is just that - posturing. Trade is too valuable to toss away for expensive military actions. China can build up their military all they like, but they would be completely insane to act on it. Their actions in 1. and 2. show that they are not lunatics.
Look for communism in China to fall within ten years.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/23/2005 9:56 Comments ||
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#5
Should just go back to having an emperor. Tradition, you know.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/23/2005 10:23 Comments ||
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#6
China would have gone down in short order after Russia and Communism or Socialism in general would have been discredited and crushed forever. Clinton revived the great Socialism as a viable option under some dumb as* idea that if we make thier current system work and prosper they will suddenly drop that system and go to our system. sounds dumb is dumb
They would be like the Norks starving and in desperate state weaker than Tiawan and all free neighbors and their system would be proven as the failure it is.
#8
Apologies for quoting myself... I offer the single man who stopped the line of tanks in Tiananmen Square as the only proof I've seen there's any substance for hope.
"If the Chinese had any trace of honor or justice or guts or gumption or even masculinity left in their genes - after millenia of being yes-men, patsies, servants, suckers, tools, and fools - they'd toss this cabal, this tiny group of a few dozen wankers, into the dog-pits for a snack and get their asses into freedom and capitalism - in a big way. What potential. What waste. Wotta buncha fools. A few dozen wannabee ChiCom dictators holding hostage a billion people. But it's been this way since the dawn of China. An endless stream of kow-tows. This example, China's thousands upon thousands of years of history, is the height of cowardice, the pinnacle of stupidity, the peak of weakness, the pluperfect example of the failure of man's will and sense. China is the ultimate example of the failure of man, thus far. No wonder they're so fucking sensitive. The shame of their perpetual failures is mind boggling. History's perfect losers."
by Olivier Guitta, The Weekly StandardEFL.
You thought Kayne West was bad . . .
. . . the kingpin of rapping French Francophobes is Mr. R. In his latest single--entitled "FranSSe," from the March 2005 album "PolitiKment IncorreKt"--he likens France to the Third Reich, singing: "France is a bitch, don't forget to f--her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man! . . . France is one of the bitches who gave birth to you. . . . I am not at home and I don't give a damn, and besides the state can go f--itself. . . . I pee on Napoleon and General De Gaulle. . . . My niggers and my Arabs, our playground is the street with the most guns. . . . F--ing cops, sons of whores. . . . France is a lousy mother who abandoned her sons on the sidewalk. . . . My Muslim brothers are hated like my Jewish brothers were during the Reich"--at which point Mr. R's video shows footage of Hitler and of Nazi concentration camps.
The video borders on pornography. It shows violent acts supposedly committed by the French Army. France is represented by two naked white women called "Gauloises" (a reference to the ancient inhabitants of France) who perform lewd acts with the French flag while a group of blacks make an obscene gesture. As a disclaimer Mr. R says, "When I speak of France, I don't mean the French people but their leaders. They've been exploiting us for a long time, from slavery to colonization, and they're still jerking us around." Tellingly, in the last words of the song, "France" is replaced by "Europe": "Europe is a bitch, don't forget to f--her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man!"--which suggests that the rapper's grievances extend past France to include much of the West.
Wonder if that violates any EU regulations?
French intellectuals, journalists, and music critics have taken all this in stride. Fnac, the largest French chain of music stores, selected "PolitiKment IncorreKt" as its top featured album. Fnac's fawning review of the CD says: "And what if the subversive spirit of rock had made its way into French rap? . . . Monsieur R: a revelation." On July 16, Mr. R was among the lead performers at the prestigious Francofolies music festival in La Rochelle.
With luck this new phenomenon might turn out to be a fad which peters out, the way anti-police, anti-white gangsta rap did in America after the early '90s. But in the meantime it will be interesting to see if the French will enforce their laws against racism and anti-Semitism--the toughest in Europe--against this homegrown anti-Western hatred.
JFM, your thoughts?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/23/2005 06:21 ||
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#2
On the side of ythe rappers what we have is the same kind of culture who extended between the African Americans: they wear trainers even when obviously have done no sport in their life, do nothing at school because that is "being white"(I have heard this is not the case of Jamaicans who go to America), so they get no marketable qualifications and when later they find no job they attribute it to racism (in case they don't find themseleves the "explanation" the French leftists will be quick to make them think about it).
The truth is that France is both very racist and not at all: couples of mixed races are quite common but at th same time there is a complete insensitivity about France's crimes in Africa.
The million dead in Rwanda and the support to the genociders haven't traduced in the loss of a single vote for the French politicians involved. Well, except mine of course.
My thought is that the politicians will cave at the perspective of having to face the mobilization of the MSM and the intellectuals for the 'freedom of expression' (who in rance is something very selective)
#3
There is (unfortunately IMHO) a very active rap scene in France, even if that surprizes you and doesn't fit into your tired anglos stereotypes.
Two remarks...
- This really fits with the truly racists theme of the muslim/arab-african street counterculture : white french men are unmanly "bolos" (that's bourgeois lopettes, lit. bourgeois wimps, designed as "victims" since they're alone and cannot fight) who must pay and apologize for everything they've done wrong in the past and present, while white wimmen are sluts to be sexually exploited (to see an extrem version of this trend, cf. the very Un-PC predominance of white victims and muslim aggressors in rape cases; according to a study, about 75-80% of gangrapists are non-european, while the vast majority of vicitms are ethnic french girls, and the results of similar studies are the same in Netherland and Sweden, by the way).
This is a victimization/diabolization culture that is influenced by "traditional" anti-white racial prejudice from the countries of origin, religious prejudice (the true men are muslims, christianity is the religion of pedophilia and homosexuality), and US gangsta rap.
- This also fits with the "indigènes" movement, that is the leftist movement that states that France has a "colonial" gestion of its migrants, and that the arabs-africans are the true "indigenous population" of France, while ethnic frenchs are colonizers.
Theses islamo-leftists are ideologically preparing themselves for an ethnic war, using the said victimization/diabolization of the street counterculture; while they are very marginal, they have links to more mainstream players, mostly the "antiracist" trotskysts/communists orgs and the far-left (cf. Besancenot'stance on Mr. R).
All this to say this is serious matter, and should not be treated lightly; unfortunetely, the MSM are fully playing into their game, and so is the power : the promoted and enforced (through trials and legislation) ideology is multiculturalism and metissage (always in the same way, one white woman and one colored manb, this is VERY visible in most commercials, movies, tv shows,...).
I'm of mixed ethnic background (asian, mostly, though I look like a swiss, unlike my cousins), my nièce is black, my uncle is nepalese,... but this insistance on "submissive" race-mixing and fascination for islam truly wouldf be enough to make me a white supremascist, lol.... even, if I would do a piss-poor example of the Master Race.
#4
Just to complete my previous assertions: the mixed race couples you see in France, or more exactly in the Parisian region, are about 90% black man and white woman. Also Blacks are non-existant in corporate France (1) and also find that they will have a hard time getting acredit when they want to create their company. In fact I have heard that a number of them are emigrating to the US despite New Orleans and the daily lynchings (or so tells the French MSM)
(1) Some context here: in France your scholar performance is crucial: very, very few people raise to the top who didn't come from one of the top engineer or managerial schools, however in order to enter them it is MUCH better to have been in one of the LEADING post-high school "classes preparatoires" and in order to get into one of the LEADING classes you need to have been a top performer in high school, preferently in a school respected by the staff of the classe preparatoire. And that is how childs of uninformed people end in mediocre classes preparatoires or even worse, at university, who in France is mediocre and not a way to success or even employment. Black parents don't know about all this so even when they don't let their children to fall into the "rap culture" who despise studies their children will not go to the right classes.
#5
JFM - sound like what the leftists in the US want for all the black people here.
And they're working mightely to achieve it (racist bastards that they are). :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/23/2005 11:51 Comments ||
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#6
Barbara
That reminds me my theory about affirmative action. Before it when a black applied for a high position (say engineer) the guy who reviewed him knew he was as good as a white one technically and in fact he had some additional qualities who had allowed him to overcome an unfavourable environment. So if the recruiter had no prejudice our black engineer would get the job.
Thanks to affirmative action our recruiter now suspects our black engineer to not even being able to integrate x2dx so who gets the job? You guessed it: the son of a pro-affirmative action bleeding heart liberal. And IMHO that was EVER THE GOAL.
Europe seems to be pulled by 3 different isms, Communism/Socialism; Fascism; Corporatism.
The one thing that none of them seem to have understood and internalized is the concept of "...of the people, by the people, for the people." They seem to want "...of the elite, by the elite, for the people (but the elite first)"
The guy who resigned was widely seen as a reformer who was pushing the national bank of Italy to allow currency flows and the market to work as they should. We are going to lose an ally in the GWOT if Italy melts down ... not good.
#5
I think TGA is right. People are in a big hurry for a government to be allowed to from. Much talking and wheeling and dealng needs to be done. Gerd is silly if he thinks he can hang on to power. He is out no matter what. Merkel is good at this backroom negtiation supposedly. Wait and see.
With its Democrats deeply divided, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be the nation's 17th chief justice, sending it to the full Senate, where confirmation is now virtually assured. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee listened during a committee mark up hearing on the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. From left, Senators Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont.
The 13-to-5 vote, with three Democrats joining 10 Republicans in favor of Judge Roberts, was a defeat for liberal advocacy groups, who waged an aggressive campaign to persuade Democrats to take a strong stand against confirmation. The groups had earlier predicted a party-line vote, but Judge Roberts's strong performance during his hearings last week left Democrats split.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2005 13:38 ||
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If he could afford it, Ali Nariman would drink beer, he says. But like most Iranians, he is poor, and so takes his solace in the form of a small gray ball of opium...
Nariman is 18. And like hundreds of thousands of Iranians turning to harder narcotics at younger ages, he regards drugs as the only alternative to work...
According to the U.N. World Drug Report for 2005, Iran has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world -- 2.8 percent of the population over age 15. Only two other countries -- Mauritius and Kyrgyzstan -- pass the 2 percent mark. With a population of about 70 million and some government agencies putting the number of regular users close to 4 million, Iran has no real competition as world leader in per capita addiction to opiates, including heroin.
When an earthquake leveled the city of Bam in 2003, among the emergency supplies rushed to the scene were doses of methadone, a synthetic drug used to treat heroin and morphine addicts, for the 20 percent or more of the population believed to be addicted. So many Iranians rely on opiates that an influential government analyst suggests the state itself should consider cultivating poppies.
"Yes," said Azarakhsh Mokri, director of the Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies: "A strategic reserve of narcotics."...
...Drugs remain so prevalent that many Iranians describe their availability as evidence of a government plot. After students rioted at Tehran University in 1999, residents of a locked-down dormitory told of drug dealers being allowed in to distribute narcotics for free.
"I believe this is the policy of the state, to make all the youth addicted," said Hamid Motalebi, 22, a police officer on duty in a south Tehran park ...
Junkies with nukes. Iran and NKOR as the axis of White Slag?
#2
Capitalism at its best/worst. And if the MM, with no ACLU to crimp their style, can't stop drugs, and I'd bet they're trying, why do we think we can?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/23/2005 12:03 Comments ||
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#3
wonder if the opium comes with little puzzles, like Lucky beer caps?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2005 13:05 Comments ||
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Dozens of blocks throughout New Orleans blocks are underwater after rain poured over a patched levee, confirming fears that the city's weakened levees would not be able to handle additional rainfall. Water is waist deep and steadily rising on the street that runs next to the Industrial Canal. The Army Corps repaired the section after Hurricane Katrina flooded the Lower Ninth Ward. The Industrial Canal drains Lake Poncatrain into the Mississippi river.
As many as 500,000 people in southwestern Louisiana, many of them already displaced by Hurricane Katrina, were told to evacuate and many jammed roads in a bid to escape. Governor Kathleen Blanco advised those refusing to leave to write their social security numbers on their arms with permanent ink. They voted for a governor and got a comedian.
Forecasts call for up to 5-inches of rain in New Orleans over Friday and Saturday.
#1
The problem is NOT the rainfall (for now). It is the storm surge and high tide. The Gulf is on the canal side of the failing levees, and as the Gulf level rises due to tide, surge, and wind/waves, the water spills over the top of the levees. As water washes over, it erodes the new dirt/sand/gravel/shells the Corps of Engineers placed there, creating a kind of 'canyon' through the levee, allowing ever more water to flow from the Gulf into the below sea-level Lower Ninth Ward (& on into Chalmette).
#2
The Industrial Canal does not 'drain' the Lake into the river, or vice versa. It provides navigational access from the Lake to the river through a lock, which normally drops ships a couple of feet from the river to the lake, which is at sea level.
Gov. Blanco is not a comedienne either - she swiped that quip from the mayor of some Texas coastal town southwest of Galveston.
#3
Someone posted an item here last week or so about Virginia Emergency Services handing out the ink markers to those who refuse mandatory evacuations.
Posted by: john ||
09/23/2005 15:01 Comments ||
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#4
John's got it. There is no way for authorities to force anyone to leave their home, short of true martial law. So they try to scare people into leaving by telling them if they won't leave, at least put your SSN on you so you won't be hard to identify.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/23/2005 15:10 Comments ||
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#5
Sorry for the draining error. I read this The Industrial Canal connects Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. New Orleans was 90% drained. over at the dummocrat blog and apparently misread it.
Burk plans to protest new NHL ad campaign ...having had so much success at Augusta National...
The NHL's new advertising campaign is getting attention, but not the kind it was likely hoping for. According to a report from The Canadian Press, Martha Burk, the professional busybody chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said she intends to write letters of protest to the NHL and NBC over the NHL's new ad campaign, which is set to begin next week.
The first spot, titled "It's Time," shows a player (an actor, not an NHL player) in a locker room, surrounded by candles and accompanied by a woman who ceremoniously helps him don his hockey garb. The ads feature quotes from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" along with dramatic camera work and music reminiscent of the film "Braveheart."
Sounds like the scene from "The Last Samurai" where Tom Cruise is getting dressed for battle
Burk told The Canadian Press that the ad is "offensive on many levels."
"The woman is dressed provocatively and when she asks the player if he's ready, it's a double-entendre in my view," Burk told The CP. "She's in the ad as a groomer, a sex object. ...and the problem is?
"The commercial is clearly selling sex and violence and the last image in that commercial is a young boy watching this, so he's clearly the customer they're after, or it's a misguided attempt to draw in families." "It's For The Children!!"
NHL spokeswoman Bernadette Mansur told The Canadian Press that was not the case. "This ad shows no disrespect for women," Mansur told The CP. "On the contrary, the woman is the spiritual and physical trainer for the 'Warrior' and is his mentor." What he said...
Players, league personnel and media attended the unveiling of the campaign at The Museum of Television and Radio in Manhattan on Wednesday night. The ads were conceived by a company called Conductor, an entertainment marketing company that has contributed to campaigns for "Spider-Man" and Green Day music videos.
For the NHL, the team created a series of commercials and print ads that will be released next week. The commercials will be packaged in a five-part story that will unfold through February. So we'll get to hear from Martha four more times. Oh, what joy...
#3
Whatever he's ready for after putting ON hockey equipment, it's not sex.
This is person (woman seems a stretch) who is still proud of getting her elementary school to force a classmate in invite people she didn't want to her birthday party so everyone would be "included". Some nitwits are born, not made.
Hell, the NHL needs all the publicity it can after the lost season. They should pay her to go on a hunger strike or take hostages or something so they get into the news.
What with the last year, all those hockey fans are now playing poker all the time.
It's funny that someone think about donning hockey equipment is a prelude to sex. She's obviously never seen Mike Ricci.
#9
Cue dramatic music, showing a woman complaining about 'sexism', etc, then suddenly out of nowhere, comes two hockey players, one takes the puck while the other 'body checks' the other while crashing into character representing this Ms. Manners here.
The woman disappears on a heap on the floor, and hockey players skate swiftly off camera, presumaly to play more hockey.
Vote Republican for free lap dancing
Gerard Baker
Suddenly the party known for fiscal prudence is throwing money about with abandon
Not sure which of the many papers Gerard writes for carried this article. I was mailed to me.
MANY PEOPLE think conservatives, especially the American kind, are a mean-spirited, selfish bunch of misanthropists, irredeemably opposed to public spending on anything other than tanks and prisons.
They should talk to Abby, bartender at the Baby Dolls Strip Club in Houston. A week after Hurricane Katrina had relocated thousands of New Orleans residents to Houston, Fema, the much-maligned federal agency responsible for dealing with the crisis, decided it would be a good idea to hand out debit cards with a value of $2,000 to the displaced to buy necessities.
There were virtually no restrictions on the use of the cards and so the definition of ânecessitiesâ acquired some latitude. Louis Vuitton did a roaring trade in handbags in the Houston area and a good deal was dropped, as it were, at some of the cityâs finest adult entertainment establishments.
Interviewed by a reporter for the local TV station, Abby over at Baby Dolls said she had seen many clients using their debit cards. She had nothing but praise for this exercise in government largesse. âA lot of customers have been coming in from Louisiana and theyâve been real happy about the $1.75 beers and theyâre really nice.â It was only fair, she added that they should get a little publicly funded help. âYou lost your whole house, then, why not?â she said. âYou might want some beer in a strip club. There are a lot of guys out there that like to do that.â
Indeed. It may not be the kind of relief that most Republicans were thinking of when they voted through $50 billion in spending on the devastated region, but I canât think of a more compassionate conservatism than one that pays for a Budweiser and a lap dance with somebody elseâs money.
One of the more puzzling myths about the US in the wake of the Katrina disaster is the notion that heartless, penny-pinching Republicans have bled the Government so dry that the very idea of public spending, even on disasters, has become impossible. In fact, the Fema sponsor-a-stripper exercise was entirely of a piece with an outburst of fiscal incontinence proudly presided over by government-hating Republicans in the last decade.
When President Bush promised last week that the US would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild the Gulf Coast it was the latest step in the remarkable conversion of the Republican Party from the party of fiscal prudence into the progenitors of the next New Deal and Great Society combined. The rhetoric, it is true, has been all about the virtues of small government. But since 2000 the Republican controlled Congress and White House have been on a spending binge that would make any self-respecting banana republic blush.
Stripping out the public spending that is mandated, such as on pensions, in the last four years, federal spending has increased by more than it did in the previous 17 years. It is not all extra military spending. Take out defence and you find that so-called discretionary spending has increased by one third in the last five years.
And those tightwad conservatives have only just started. Last year Republicans approved and President Bush happily signed a Bill to expand Medicare, the health insurance system for the elderly. It was the largest increase in the role of the federal government since Lyndon Johnsonâs presidency. This year Mr Bush again praised and signed transport and energy Bills that funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into vast public works projects from Anchorage to Atlanta.
In this twisted new conservative orthodoxy, though, this propitiation of Leviathan is fine as long as you donât raise taxes to pay for it. Signing the Transport Bill this summer, Mr Bush actually hit upon a new definition of fiscal prudence: â[This Bill] is fiscally responsible,â he said, âbecause it doesnât raise [gasoline] taxes.â
You donât have to have a degree in applied mathematics to figure out the consequences of this lopsided approach to budgeting: deficits as far as the eye can see, debt piled onto future generations of Americans, a growing dependence on the willingness of the Peopleâs Republic of China to lend money to the US Treasury.
How on earth did Republicans get here? It began some time ago with the high-minded idea that tax cuts were the route to cutting spending: âstarving the beastâ. If you cut taxes, Congress, fearful of deficits, would be forced to cut public expenditure too. A nice idea in theory that never worked in practice. The next justification was an ideological one. You can increase spending, but as long as you cut taxes the economy will grow faster, generating enough public revenues to pay for the increased spending.
There was a word for that in the Middle Ages. It was called alchemy. Of course when tax rates are punitive, as they were in the 1970s, there comes a point where revenues do increase if you cut them, but we are well beyond that point now.
Donât misunderstand me. There is much to be said for cutting taxes. But not for committing the Government to permanent tax cuts matched by permanent spending increases.
As Hurricane Rita tears open the Gulf Coast this weekend, we can expect another heart-warming promise of hundreds of billions to dollars to put it together again, with no suggestion of how itâs going to be paid for.
Oh, no, wait a minute. There will always be those debit cards to fall back on. I can even think of a slogan to promote them: Mortgaging America to the hilt? $300 billion. US dependency on China? $600 billion. A beer and a lap dance at Baby Dolls? Priceless.
#1
Oh, look. Another stupid "TAX US HIGHER" piece of shit.
I agree that less spending would be nice, but making me even more of a tax slave is unacceptable. Actually, I'd like to work LESS to put money into the hands of the bureaucrats and make-works.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/23/2005 12:40 Comments ||
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#4
Ohhh I thought someone got shot in a lap dance, Sea...My bad assumption
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2005 13:14 Comments ||
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#5
As a percentage of GDP, both taxes and spending are lower today than under Reagan. Bush would have to spend another $300 billion a year to get close to Reagan. Not that he couldn't do it, but so far he hasn't.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/23/2005 15:02 Comments ||
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#6
We do have a problem. Its POWER and its not going to go back into the genie bottle. [Ah, Jennie :)]. The Republicans have found that spending leads to POWER, just like their brethern Democrats learned since FDR. The choice is now big government under the Republicans or big government under the Democrats. Small government is just talk for the Truely Faithfull[tm] about on the same lines as bringing back the gold standard to support the currency.
South Africa says it will for the first time force a white farmer to sell his land under a redistribution plan. The decision was announced by the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, set up to return to black people land lost under apartheid. An official said talks to agree on a price for the farm had failed and the farmer has vowed to challenge the move. South Africa's government says it wants to hand over about a third of white-owned farm land by 2014.
The commission on Thursday said an expropriation notice would be served on Hannes Visser, the owner of a cattle and crop farm in North West province. The government offered to buy the 500-hectare (1,250-acre) farm for $275,000 but Mr Visser said it was worth almost twice as much.
Mr Visser told the South African news agency Sapa he intended to fight the decision in court. "Should the courts turn out to be my final recourse, I will go that route," he said. The government argues that Mr Visser's father bought the land from a black farmer through a forced transaction in 1968.
Regional land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela said the seizure was a last resort. But he added that South Africa must speed up land reform or face chaos. Eighty per cent of agricultural land is owned by white South Africans, who make up only 10% of the population - the legacy of apartheid laws. Since coming to power in 1994, the current government has adopted a "willing buyer, willing seller" approach to land redistribution, paying market prices for land that white owners are prepared to sell, and then distributing it to landless blacks.
But Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says the pace of reform should be speeded up - as in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where most white-owned land has been seized by the state. "There needs to be a bit of oomph. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us," she said.
Yeah, Zimbabwe is such a shining example of a successful farm program. Enjoy your slide into the abyss.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/23/2005 08:43 ||
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#1
Next year the headlines will read "South Africa facing starvation as harvest fails". Unless the nations of Africa want to go back to pre-colonization levels of population subsistence farming just ain't gonna cut it.
#3
I be glad to come down and lend my expertise. For a small fee of course. Ya can't just get expereince like mine. Lookin forwid to it. Ita give me sumthin to do.
Lemme know.
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
09/23/2005 9:40 Comments ||
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#4
Unless the nations of Africa want to go back to pre-colonization levels of population subsistence farming just ain't gonna cut it.
That sounds like a good solution to me. Don't forget AIDS and the coming flu pandemic.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/23/2005 10:10 Comments ||
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#5
Population control at it's finest. I'll be happy to send some visas to all the "hardworking" white farmers in Zimbabwe and SA and let them come to the States. Plenty of farmland and opprotunity for hardworking non-racist folks here. The Dark Continent can starve. Lord knows Europe can't help you anymore and we would be fools to try.
#6
Cut off all food aid to any country practicing such racism, right, Jesse? Sanctions and no aid!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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#7
South Africa:
Population: 44,344,136
Population growth rate: -0.31% (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.24 children born/woman (2005 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 21.5% (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5.3 million (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 370,000 (2003 est.)
Combine a low birth rate (for Africa) with the fourth highest AIDS rate, highest AIDS deaths, and highest murder rate in the world and South Africa has seriously fooked itself.
#11
Did the native African poluations get screwed by the colonial European powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries? Sure they did. But its not like they are they only people on Earth who ever got overrun, conquered or dominated by another group or culture. But while the quality of the colonial governments varied with the Belgians most likely the worse to the Brits being on the top of the heap (the Dutch Boers are a special case IMO) they were racist incursions into different culture/s. But the colonial powers also left something behind. A system of laws and justice (although inadequately practiced) along with other legacies. But at the same time reverse racism is not going to solve Africa's problems. If the Zimbob'sway practice of land seizures continues in SA then the white farmers and soon the white population in general will go from being stake holders in a society to outcasts in that society. And Africa can ill afford to lose the skills and talent that population represents. Just my $.02
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/23/2005 13:01 Comments ||
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#14
Cheaderhead:
They don't care about "the skills and talent that population represents." They simply donât think that way. To these people Robert Mugabe is a hero and Zimbabwe is a total success, even though this makes absolutely no sense to us. Why? Itâs not racism in the sense we think of it. Instead itâs all about tribalism. Look at Zimbabwe. Bob is Shona. The first thing the Shona did after the revolution (that got rid of Rhodesia) was kill off the Ndebele. They only live in Bulawayo now. Only after that tribe was driven out, massacred, or geographically contained did Bob turn his attention to the next tribe: the whites. Now there are only 30,000 of them left and dropping.
This is a total success in all regards as the Shona now control Zimbabwe. Africans donât do âmulti-culturalismâ if they can possibly help it. Failed states? Famine? Crime? None of the people currently in power in South Africa care about these things even a little. You might as well be speaking in Chinese to them. First the Zulu and Xhosa will work together to get rid of the remaining Boers. Doesnât really matter to them how they do it. Drive them out, murder them all; whatever, so long as they are gone. Then the black South Africans will go to work on the âEnglishâ South Africans in the cities. When they are done with them the Zulu will turn on the Xhosa. After the Zulu are done exterminating the Xhosa they will polish off all of the remaining smaller tribes until they achieve total success themselves!
So it begins. The lights have gone out in Africa, and we shall not see them re-lit in our lifetime.
Posted by: N guard ||
09/23/2005 13:08 Comments ||
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#16
SM: Itâs not racism in the sense we think of it. Instead itâs all about tribalism.
Tribalism = nationalism. The problem was that the European powers gave their conquered territories independence based on imperial administrative structures instead of the original boundary lines between different nations when they showed up. Each African country is in effect, an empire dominated by one nation trying to keep the other nations under its thumb. Imagine if Africans had gone to Europe and welded Austria, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary into an administrative unit, and subsequently made them independent, but as a single country. Each region would constantly be fighting with the others. Imagine if - after the Cold War - the Soviets had let their East European satellites regain their sovereignty, but as a single country. That is what happened in Africa.
#17
Zhang Fei, you are spot on (as is usually the case). IMAO it seems that there is only enough room for one tribe in each "empire." Federalism would be a healthy concept for African nations to embrace but I think it very unlikely that they will.
#19
ZF, you re-created the Austro-Hungarian Empire there, and we all know what happened to that. I think you're exactly right -- the Euros screwed the Africans once by coming and again by leaving.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/23/2005 15:05 Comments ||
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#20
SM, I did not mean to imply that the Native African population in SA will be able see the overall stupidity of this. Granted some will and and when things go to hell in a hand basket I hope they had the brains to get out along with any of the remaining whites still there. And yes ZF part of the problem in Africa is in the old colonial boundries still in use today. But I don't see any movement on the part of the different countries to change that.
#21
However unprepared the USA and its Allies are, its clear many of the African nations wish to organize themselves along the lines of the Euro Common Market or NAFTA, and are working to achieve it. Despite the WOT, any surreal threat of new 9-11's, the USA and our Allies can't afford to let our guard down and lose Africa to Radical Islam or Communism.
MULTAN, Pakistan - A Pakistani man cut off the nose and lips of his 19-year-old sister-in-law after she went to court for a divorce in a tribal area of the central province of Punjab, police said on Thursday. Mohammad Hasan Abbas first shot at Amna Abbas and her brother, causing them to fall off a bicycle, as they headed home from a court in Dera Ghazi Khan, a town 125 km (78 miles) southwest of Multan, police said. Abbas then attacked the girl, hacking off her nose and slicing off her lips. âHe bravely ran away fled after the incident and we are searching for him. The girl has been admitted to hospital,â police sub inspector Mohammad Shafiq said. A doctor treating the girl said her nose had been cut off from the bridge and her lips partially severed. âShe says her brother-in-law had told her he would not leave her fit for any other man, while committing the savage, inhuman act,â Dr Farhat Hussain said.
Wonder if the doc gets thumped for describing this accurately.
Shaista Bukhari, coordinator of a womenâs rights group in Multan, said that until courts handed down death sentences for such crimes, violence against women would continue. âSuch crimes are common in tribal society where male honour is offended on the slightest pretext,â Bukhari said, commenting on the attack on Amna Abbas. Sub Inspector Shafiq said the girlâs attacker, once caught, would be tried in anti-terrorist court, which are meant to deliver justice rapidly.
Maybe Pakiwakiland needs the RAB.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/23/2005 00:01 ||
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#1
Step #1: remove testicles.
Step #2: ask victimized woman if that is enough.
Step #3: if "no", then remove something else, and
return to Step #2
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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#3
"Step #1: remove testicles."
Better pick another body part, 'moose.
Anyone who would do such a sick thing is a coward who hasn't got any to remove.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/23/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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#4
âSuch crimes are common in tribal society where male honour is offended on the slightest pretext,â Bukhari said, commenting on the attack on Amna Abbas.
He said it all, I wish someone would cut this guys lip, spoiled assholes.
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.
China on Thursday rejected a U.S. call to adopt democracy, telling Washington to respect its communist path. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters he had "taken note" of comments by Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick on Wednesday that China's one-party system was unsustainable. Qin said the country was stable and that communism had brought substantial benefits to China's 1.3 billion people. Zoellick made the Bush administration's most explicit call to date for a political transition in China, where the Communist Party will mark the anniversary of its 56th year in power on Oct. 1. "Closed politics cannot be a permanent feature of Chinese society," Zoellick told a meeting of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York. "It is simply not sustainable." China "needs a political transition to make its government responsible and accountable to its people," he added.
MULTAN, Pakistan - A Pakistani man cut off the nose and lips of his 19-year-old sister-in-law after she went to court for a divorce in a tribal area of the central province of Punjab, police said on Thursday. Mohammad Hasan Abbas first shot at Amna Abbas and her brother, causing them to fall off a bicycle, as they headed home from a court in Dera Ghazi Khan, a town 125 km (78 miles) southwest of Multan, police said. Abbas then attacked the girl, hacking off her nose and slicing off her lips. âHe 
