Are scandals creating a lawyer shortage? One can only hope.
There's been no shortage of city workers ensnared in the federal government's ongoing Hired Truck investigation.
But as more and more folks get caught up in the scandal, could there be a shortage of seasoned attorneys to represent them? Awwwwwwwwwww.
There are a limited number of criminal trial lawyers experienced at defending people in public-corruption cases in Chicago's federal court -- and many of them now are spoken for.
Some of the best were picked off early by city officials who have never been charged and hope they won't be. Uh, wouldn't it be cheaper to just NOT DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL?
So far, 36 people have been charged in the Hired Truck scandal, and 23 have pleaded guilty since January 2004. The investigation continues, federal officials have said.
Once a lawyer is representing a defendant in the Hired Truck case, his or her firm often discourages partners from representing any new defendant whose case could pose a conflict with the first client. It'd be a sticky situation if one defendant ended up having to testify against the other, and their lawyers worked at the same firm.
More heart-wrenching (yeah, right) details at the link. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/24/2005 19:51 ||
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Is this the "culture of corruption" Dr Dean is warning us about?
Posted by: bruce ||
10/24/2005 21:17 Comments ||
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Awwwwwwwwwww.
Uh, wouldn't it be cheaper to just NOT DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL?
More heart-wrenching (yeah, right) details at the link. :-D
LOL Barbara..it is a bit hard to work up sympathy for mouthpieces lawyers and Chicago patronage corruption.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/24/2005 21:34 Comments ||
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Hurricane Wilma, having barreled across Florida this morning with up to 125 mile-per-hour winds, is set to combine with other weather elements to form a "super storm" that will likely bring severe conditions to the Mid-Atlantic and New England states tomorrow.
Meteorologists report that remnants of Tropical Storm Alpha will be drawn north along the Atlantic coast and will merge with Wilma and a large low pressure system that will develop off the Virginia Capes. The result is expected to bring an end to all life on Earth wind, rain, snow and flooding to the Northeast.
Wind and snow could uproot trees and snap limbs, possibly leading to power outages if down trees strike power lines. That's never happened in any storm before.
There are flash flood watches and warnings in effect today from the Delmarva Peninsula to central New York and southern Vermont, and winter storm watches are in effect in the northern half of those states. And moonbat watches to blame this on Global Warming and Bush's failure to sign Kyoto.
Will George Clooney be there? Hopefully on a boat?
Yes, guys - it's a STORM. Never had one in the Northeast before. No wind, rain, snow, or flooding either. Guess that Perfect Paradise of children,™ kittens, puppies, and baby ducklings gamboling among the flowers is royally f*cked now.
I blame Bush. And the Jooooooos. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/24/2005 19:32 Comments ||
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I dunno, Barbara - his brain is leaking, so his boat might not be safe - I've heard he makes others leak, too. Somehow. :)
#3
Is it just me or is the press literally drooling over the fact that hurricanes happen and this might actually suck in a 'Norther?
Gods, I can't stand the completely fatuous media enthusiasm for a "Day After Tomorrow" scenario wherein they might actually get their fool selves killed standing out in a storm on a freakin' beach!
They do it because you watch. If you don't like what the media does, stop watching. They're getting paid to make you look. It's your time being wasted. If you go away, so will they.
#5
.com - Clooney has a brain? Where does he keep it when he's not using it? (which would be 99% of the time)
BTW - my boat reference was to his movie "The Perfect Storm." Which I did not see. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/24/2005 21:42 Comments ||
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it was a good book, Barbara
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 22:22 Comments ||
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Just spent several hours in fairly heavy (but not atypical yet) rain on the NY turnpike. Don't know if the media are hyping the weather expected tomorrow, but I can tell you the truckers are taking this storm seriously - they were all really pushing to get out of the area tonight. Heavy wet snow is moving into in the upper areas of the state, heavy rain and winds in the lower areas ... plus lots of slick fallen leaves.
I got passed by double semis hauling heavy construction materials doing 75-80+ mph right through areas that are usually speed traps where the semis generally go 60-65 max.
#8
So if the storms are as bad as predicted, people will shelter at home, thus reducing gasoline use, general consumer spending... and by midmorning, heartily tired of one another, those that can will turn to doing school or job work at the computer, and the rest will watch tv, a movie on DVD, or play video games. Except those who suffer power outages, of course; they will huddle under blankets in front of the fireplace and play cards or boardgames.
Hurricane Wilma crashed ashore early Monday as a strong Category 3 storm, battering southwest Florida with tornados, 125 mph winds that shook the sturdiest buildings and pounding waves that flooded parts of this area and Key West. At least one death was blamed on the storm. A man in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs died when a tree fell on him, Broward County spokesman Carl Fowler said. Fowler had no other details.
More than 316,000 homes and businesses lost power. More than 33,100 Floridians spent what almost certainly was an anxious night in dozens of shelters across the state's southern half. Virtually the entire peninsula was under some sort of storm-related watch or warning.
The center of Wilma's eye made landfall around 6:30 a.m. EDT near Cape Romano on an uninhabited island of the same name, 22 miles south of Naples in Collier County on Florida's southwest coast, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. But severe weather began long before.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/24/2005 08:57 ||
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Watching a Fox News reporter out in storm telling people to be careful while dodging flying signs. One of these days we'll get to see one of these yahoos decapitated on live TV.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/24/2005 9:05 Comments ||
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I heard an estimated 50" of rain on Havana....I suppose it is wishful thinking Fidel would be washed out to sea. Does anyone know if he spent the weekend as Chavez' guest or what the damages are there?
#4
HAVANA (AP) - Hurricane Wilma drove the ocean over Havana's seawall Monday, spilling water into coastal neighborhoods of aging buildings and forcing rescuers to take to inflatable rafts to pull nearly 250 people from flooded homes.
The seaside Malecon highway was inundated as swirling brown waters spread up to four blocks inland, submerging cars and leaving only the bright blue tops of phone booths peeking out. Waves lapped at the front door of the Foreign Ministry as young men in wooden boats rowed nearby.
There were no immediate reports of casualties on the island Monday, although tornados spun off by the storm over the weekend injured six people in rural areas. Nearly 700,000 people were evacuated across Cuba's west in recent days as Wilma approached, the government said. While Havana's coastal road and adjacent neighborhoods often flood during storms, the extent of flooding Monday was highly unusual.
``We're amazed,'' resident Laura Gonzalez-Cueto said as she watched government scuba divers bring out people in black inflatable rafts with outboard motors. At least 244 people, including some children, were rescued during the morning, municipal official Mayra Lassale said.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/24/2005 16:12 Comments ||
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Sean Penn, please pick up the white courtesy phone...
I've occasionally wondered about that, but never to the point of wanting to give somebody money to find out. I guess somebody else wondered, too...
That maple tree in your front yard may be magnificent this time of year, cloaked in the colorful robes of splendor that herald the transition from one season to the next, but you might want to give it even more respect. It could be a killer.
Researchers at New York's Colgate University have found evidence that the brilliant red hues of autumn aren't just there for our personal enjoyment. They're engaged in a kind of chemical warfare, releasing poisons that could kill off the competition. Thus maple trees, and probably some other species that turn crimson in the fall, join a growing list of plants that don't just beat around the bush when other plants start intruding into their space. They kill them off. Scientists call it "allelopathy."
For years scientists have known that black walnut trees are lethal when it comes to protecting their turf. And more recently, the mighty chestnut tree that once blanketed the Appalachians has come under suspicion. But the maple tree adds a surprising twist. How could anything that lovely be deadly?
It all began when Colgate biology professor Frank Frey and a former student, Maggie Eldridge, started looking into a peculiarity involving plants that turn red in the fall. The predominant colors of autumn break out when chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down and exposes remaining pigments, which are often yellow or orange. But it takes a different process to produce red. That isn't a pigment that is left over when everything else is gone. Instead, it's produced in the fall, at the very time when the tree is struggling to cope with the energy demands of a changing and challenging season.
Why, Frey and Eldridge wondered, did the maple go to all that trouble at a time when it needed its metabolic energy for other purposes, like stimulating the growth of its root system? So they collected chemical extracts from red and green maple leaves and yellow and green beech leaves and poured it over lettuce seeds. Some previous research had shown that wood extracts from red maple and red cedar inhibited the growth of lettuce.
But Frey and Eldridge found that red maple is the clear winner. It "dramatically reduced germination and growth compared to all other treatments," they say in a study that is soon to be published. "When scarlet-tinted autumn leaves are dropped in the fall, it appears that anthocyanins (molecules that produce the red color) leach from the leaves into the soil and protect seedlings and saplings from interspecific competition the following spring," Frey says. In other words, no one but maples allowed.
All of this has a practical purpose. As Frey notes, other research shows that anthocyanins may inhibit the growth of some cancer cells in vertebrates, so eventually there may be a medicinal application. Other researchers see this kind of chemical warfare as a possible pathway to better weed control. And it has opened a surprising window on just how ruthless some species may be when it comes to protecting their turf. More at link...
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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mods! This racist talk has to stop! Be they yellow brown or red, they are still leafs!
#5
In just the last three weeks the terror alert level in my front yard has gone from green to yellow to orange to red. Where will it end? The oaks have already gone direct from green to brown. The sky is falling, I tell you. And where the hell is FEMA? Do I have to clean up all these terror weapons with no assistance from the Federal government? Isn't that why I pay taxes?
A proposal to ban the sale of guns in Brazil has been defeated by a clear majority in a referendum. Sixty-four percent of those who voted rejected the proposed ban, which was backed by the government, the Catholic Church and the United Nations. The gun ownership lobby successfully argued that guns were needed for personal security.
Guns kill one person in Brazil every 15 minutes, giving it the world's highest death toll from firearms. Last year, there were 36,000 shooting deaths. The UN says guns are the biggest cause of death among young people in Brazil.
No word on if people pulling triggers had anything to do with the deaths
The immediate consequence of the referendum is that gun shops will remain open.
The BBC's Steve Kingstone in Sao Paulo says that the result may surprise outsiders, given the horrific scale of gun violence in Brazil.
The defeated "Yes" campaign had enjoyed an early lead in the opinion polls, but it was quickly outmanoeuvred. The "No" campaign convinced voters that the proposed ban would have no effect on criminals, on the grounds that criminals do not buy guns legally in shops. It also argued that a gun ban would be a breach of civil rights.
Beni Barbosa, the "No" campaign spokesman, said: "We managed to get our message across that Brazilians have individual rights which the state cannot take away." "Here, people were not choosing whether to have a gun or not. They were voting for their rights to choose."
Amen, brother
Anti-gun campaigners said the swing away from a "Yes" vote was the result of people's desire to protest against the government's security policy.
"We didn't lose because Brazilians like guns. We lost because people don't have confidence in the government or the police," said Denis Mizne, of anti-violence group Sou da Paz. "The 'No' campaign was much more effective. They are talking about a right to have a gun - it is a totally American debate."
He sez that like it's a bad thing
Anti-gun campaigners also accused gun makers and lobby groups such as the US National Rifle Association (NRA) of manipulating people's fears. The referendum has been watched closely by other countries where gun-ownership is under debate. In Washington, an NRA spokesman called the result "a victory for freedom".
Under existing laws, any Brazilian over the age of 25 can buy a firemarm, provided they pass background checks. The referendum rounded off a series of campaigns run by the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to cut down on gun crime. Penalties for unlawfully carrying a gun have been increased, and money has been offered to people who surrender their weapons in amnesties.
The proposal to ban firearms initially had strong public support. But opinion polls in recent days showed this backing had weakened dramatically as campaigns against the ban got off the ground. Some opposition to the ban also came from shanty towns, or favelas, the scene of vicious turf wars between drug gangs.
Maria, a shantytown resident whose sister was gunned down by an ex-boyfriend, said disarmament would make little difference. "If I had the money, I would have a weapon to try to protect myself and my family," she told the BBC. "The police are never going to arrive in time and if they do, they may kill you."
There are estimated to be more than 17 million guns in Brazil, nine million of which are not registered, according to a survey by non-governmental groups.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/24/2005 08:40 ||
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Last year, there were 36,000 shooting deaths.
Ya notice how they never break down the numbers into murders and self defense.
Steve you had your finger right on the trigger with the statement about personal responsibility.
And lastly: socialist government=firearm confiscation, every time. Just like here the Brazilians will be fighting their government for their rights for years to come.
#2
This is telling: "If I had the money, I would have a weapon to try to protect myself and my family," she told the BBC. "The police are never going to arrive in time and if they do, they may kill you."
Brazilians may prefer a socialist state but they don't trust it. 2 of my most favorite firearms were built on Imbel(Brazilian)receivers. They make lots and lots of guns.
#3
I don't post much, but I'd probably be the forum's resident Brazilphile. Violence and corruption aside, it's truly a remarkable country.
That 36 000 number is for murders, but I think that figure is low, especially since Sao Paulo has move than 10 000 a year and Rio has a lot more. You people just can't comprehend the amount of violence that occurs there.
My ex-girlfriend's cousin and wife are cops in SP and some of the stories I heard were pretty scary. I think he's an honest cop because he is a good guy. I never debated him about guns, but even when he was off-duty, he always carried a gun with him, which speaks volumes. I even saw this pic of him at the beach with his wife and he had a pistol shoved in his swimming trunks and his wife had one attached to her bikini bottom. This is no joke. So, that will probably tell you what they think of a gun ban.
#5
You people just can't comprehend the amount of violence that occurs there.
A coworker of mine was carjacked in 'suburban' Campinas-SP back 1997. (Actually he was a passenger, and didn't speak Portugues... he came thisclose to being snuffed for noncooperation as I understand it from the driver of the car.)
The girl I was seeing there never stopped at intersections after dusk. Too dangerous. And she warned that to see a big, black Suburban coming your way was a sign of the Apocalypse. Or something. Maybe not quite THAT bad... but bad. (My own Portuguese was pretty sketchy, too.)
Still, I enjoyed myself immensely and would go back in a heartbeat.
Some more stories. I donât know a single person down there who didnât get their car stolen. One friend of mine was carjacked, but they didnât steal anything. He says they were high on drugs and just left after terrorizing them for a few hours. My exâs cousin (the cop) had his car stolen once. He found out who did it and he and some other cop buddies went and found the guy and killed him. And this is when they were off duty. He said it was good he was âoff the streetsâ.
Yeah, I heard about not stopping after dusk. But then, lots of Brazilians in Sao Paulo or Rio donât even leave their homes at night! My friend wonât drive alone after 8PM, even in the safe neighborhoods.
Itâs amazing how they let crime slip so far. Brazil is a country with loads of potential and could really make something of itself if they got their act together. Crime and corruption are the biggest things holding it back.
Tropical Storm Alpha drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains Sunday, sending rivers crashing over their banks, washing away homes and threatening to set off deadly flooding and mudslides in soaked areas. In Haiti's Port-au-Prince capital, the lashing rains closed the airport and turned main streets into muddy streams and tossed piles of trash and basketball-sized stones into the road. Cars and buses slowly forded through brown, axle-deep water on the main road to the south of the city.
Alpha, which formed south of the Dominican Republic on Saturday, became the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the 2005 Atlantic season, rumbling ashore near the southern Dominican town of Barahona with maximum winds of 50 mph and dousing the region with showers.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted by: ed ||
10/24/2005 20:02 ||
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You don't have to be a defector to agree.
Just a lover of freedom with an ounce of common sense.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/24/2005 20:20 Comments ||
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A cardinal rule of diplomacy ("War by other means"), is that engagement is always more productive than disengagement.
In this case, let us accept the axiom that China's government is unstable. "And then what happens?..." becomes the critical question.
China is a mess in many, many ways. Demographically, environmentally, economically, socially. Anyone who leads China will have to do things the Chinese way, which is pretty much how the communists do things.
It is overpopulated, and the majority of its people are ignorant peasants. By rights, the country should have several governments. One for the rural peasants, one for the urban coasts, probably a third just for Beijing.
It is obviously headed for disasters of incredible scale--disasters that cannot be avoided. So what should the US do about it?
First of all, the US needs to know what is really going on. We can do that much better if we are engaged. Second, we can support sane, reasonable leaders, and withdraw support from unstable, violent and aggressive ones. We can work to, if not alleviate the disasters they face, then to keep them from spreading outside of China.
October 24, 2005: Retired Taiwanese military officers have gone public with a long ignored scandal. The former officers detailed the extent of corruption in the military, and how it wastes money and degrades the military capabilities of the armed forces. Such corruption is an ancient problem in Chinese culture, and it's impact on the Communist Chinese military has long been openly discussed. But the Taiwanese, because they have been trained and influenced by the Americans, were believed immune to the "disease." But in reality, there are all manner of shady Taiwanese deals involving kickbacks and theft. Can you say Lafayette frigate scandal, boys and girls?
But most of the Taiwanese corruption is done quietly, and in ways that are hard to detect. But U.S. military advisors have been urging, for decades, that the Taiwanese military increase their efficiency and readiness. Like stockpiling more than a 10 day ammo supply and having a full AAM loadout for their fighters. Forget about buying new subs. No country is willing to risk Commie Chinese anger and the US doesn't make them anymore. Spend that money on antiship and antiaircraft/antimissile systems. Aquire the capability to attack mainland airfields.
The Taiwanese, however, have come to believe that, no matter what they do with their own military, the Americans will rescue them. Taiwanese believe that their economy, especially the production of electronic components, is too critical to the American economy, for the Americans to risk allowing a Chinese invasion to succeed. If the quantity of electronic imports defined who are America's allies, then we would already be rooting for the Commies, not thinking about how to destroy the PLAN and PLAAF. The Taiwanese better get their rears in gear before Americans come to believe they are just another self indulgent people who think they are entitled to American treasure and lives to keep them free, therefore not deserving of such support.
October 14, 2005: A Chinese oil drilling platform, in disputed waters halfway between China and the Japanese island of Okinawa, is producing natural gas, and maybe oil, despite ongoing negotiations over who owns what in that patch of ocean. The Chinese have spent two years building that platform, in waters claimed by Japan. A second platform is almost finished, as is an underwater oil pipeline for both platforms. China regularly sends groups of warships to patrol the area, to underline their belief that this bit of water is under Chinese control.
Negotiations have gone nowhere, and now Japan has been holding talks with the U.S. over military options. Japan is apparently ready to use force, for they have given a Japanese company a license to drill for oil in the same area the Chinese are operating. Japan would provide armed escorts for the Japanese drilling and construction teams.
Posted by: ed ||
10/24/2005 08:40 ||
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Ed, we're the guys who decided we'd sell them the air-to-air missiles but keep them in the US until the war actually started because otherwise it would be Too Destabilizing.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/24/2005 8:52 Comments ||
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Phil,
The AMRAAM deal (stupid ass Clinton era deal kow-towing to the Commie Chinese) to store the missiles in the US was contingent on the Chinese not introducing a comparable missile. Now that the Chinese have the SU-27/R-77 combo, the contingency is no longer valid. I am not sure if the Taiwan have received their production yet, but it should be about the right time. Rergardless of that, the Taiwanese do not have enough Sidewinders/Sparrows to even load all their fighters once. That's suicide, but the Taiwanese faith in the (US) Force must be strong.
Another item the US should consider selling to the Taiwanese are the Aegis, instead of the Kidd class, destroyers. It is the only ship capable of operating in the heavy air/missile threat of the Taiwan Straits and if armed with Tomahawks, give Beijings generals real heartburn. I don't know that Washington trusts the Taiwanese enough to that all the Aegis tech will not be leaked to China. But I read that China has supposedly already spied much of the Aegis during Clinton's term.
Posted by: ed ||
10/24/2005 14:08 Comments ||
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Good. they are a good ally of ours right now and can offset China's expansion in the region.
Japan is back as a high-growth economy. A combination of positive cyclical forces and structural changes suggests that an upgrade to the short- and medium- term outlook for the country is in order. Over the next five to 10 years, the Japanese economy's growth potential is poised to be close to 2.5% -- much higher than the 1% to 1.5% estimates commonly proffered by economists. This paves the way for the Japanese economy to become an even more powerful engine of prosperity for Asia.
Several factors underlie this newfound optimism. The country's private sector no longer faces an overhang -- Japan has successfully worked off its post-bubble legacy of excess debt, excess capacity and excess employment. On the supply side, there has been an unprecedented reduction in unit labor costs -- the rise in corporate Japan's profitability and global competitiveness has only just begun.
Meanwhile the demand side is also growing, as more and more Japanese companies begin to reinvest in domestic factors of production (land, labor and capital). For the first time in more than 15 years, Japan's leading companies are building new factories at home. Looking at the period of the next four to six years, Japanese demographics can be considered a structural positive, as asset-rich baby-boomers retire (and spend), and their offspring -- the echo boomers -- land better-paying, more secure jobs.
Furthermore, there is evidence that Japan's monetary policies are, at last, starting to work. The velocity of money is rising, and by early next year, a new bank credit cycle is poised to follow, thanks to the recent reorganization of money-center bank capital structures, which will allow for the completion of long-overdue bad-bank-asset write-offs by March 2006.
The fundamental structure of the economy was such an impediment during the 1990s that whenever the global cycle turned down, the country fell back into recession. That structure has now changed dramatically, freeing Japan to grow. Essentially, the following forces are at work:
⢠Reduced cross shareholdings. Corporate Japan's move away from the old cross-shareholding system has forced unprecedented changes in governance. The country is shifting from "insider capitalism" to "outsider capitalism." So-called "stable shareholdings" have dropped to around 22% of market capitalization from a peak of 53% in 1987. With a narrower definition of cross shareholdings, the corresponding drop is to about 15% from 38%.
⢠More competitive resource allocation. Reduced stable shareholdings and an increased free float effectively raise the cost of capital. This is because free-float investors are much more concerned about quarterly/semiannual corporate performance than stable cross shareholders. Japan's average price-earnings ratio has come down, so the cost of equity capital has gone up. Specifically, the equity-earnings yield is now around 6%, against a historic average of barely 2%.
⢠Increased profits. Over the past decade, the increase in competition forced by the unwinding of cross shareholdings may have had some demand-deflationary effect. This is because inefficient producers and suppliers were forced into bankruptcy. However, in the last couple of years positive demand-pull factors have definitely taken over. Bankruptcies have fallen consistently since the end of 2002, while corporate profitability has surged to new historical highs: operating profits for listed companies now stand more than 40% above the bubble-economy high of 1990.
⢠Improved balance sheets. Structural change in corporate balance sheets has also progressed. The debt overhang has been paid off. For the first time in over a decade, corporate managers are free to use their cash flow to reinvest in the business, rather than just pay back their bankers. As the chart nearby shows, the Bank of Japan flow-of-funds data confirms that total corporate sector interest-bearing liabilities have been cut by about 200 trillion yen ($1.7 trillion) since 1996. As a result, the gearing of the corporate sector has dropped to below 80% of GDP, from a peak of around 125% of GDP in 1996. Japan's corporate balance sheets are in their best shape since the early 1970s, a fact reflected by credit-rating agencies issuing a steady stream of corporate credit upgrades in recent months.
The combination of record profits and successful degearing is very powerful. Freed from the demand drain forced by debt repayment, corporate managers can now use their record cash flow. One manifestation of this is the steady rise in share-buybacks, now running at around 1% of market capitalization. Moreover, dividend payouts are increasing.
⢠The capacity overhang has been worked off. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's index of capacity utilization is now back to levels last seen in 1989, the peak of the bubble economy.
⢠Companies need to reinvest. Japan's productive capital stock has aged. Factories are almost 12 years old on average, versus the historical average of eight to nine years, suggesting that reinvesting in structures -- rather than just upgrading machinery -- is poised to become a major demand driver in Japan. For example, several high-profile electrical machinery companies have recently announced plans to build new factories in Japan.
⢠The big drag from Japan's globalization is over. From a macro perspective there are good reasons to argue that the worst of Japan's "hollowing out" is over. Recall that Japan has long been a champion of globalization. Currently, almost 45% of total global production capacity of Japanese exporters is located outside the country, up from 20% a decade ago. (Although this is considerably lower than U.S. off-shore production of almost 60%.) However, Japanese companies tend to prefer to produce at home for the domestic market, and this has recently been re-enforced not just by the rising profitability of domestic operations, but by increasing problems of supply-chain management, human-resource management and infrastructure, particularly in China.
⢠A job-rich recovery. The most important new dynamic is a fundamental change in Japan's human-capital investment. Where companies build new factories, new jobs will be created. Data on job offers confirms that today more companies are looking to hire more people than ever before. Almost 800,000 new job offers are put on the market every month. However, actual job creation runs at only about 40,000 jobs to 50,000 jobs. This points to a mismatch in the labor market where demand actually exceeds supply. To put it bluntly, companies want to hire engineers or qualified nurses, but can only find unemployed construction workers. However, the fact that demand does exceed supply bodes well for further falls in unemployment and further increases in wages.
Moreover, the quality of jobs is now improving. Over the past decade, most of the jobs created were on a part-time or contract basis only. Cost-conscious managers were afraid to lock in potentially high fixed costs and focused on employing cheap and easily fired part-time workers. By one estimate, almost 42% of employees at companies listed on the stock exchanges are now part-time or contract workers, up from 15% just 15 years ago. In contrast, since the start of this year, full-time job growth is outpacing part-time job creation for the first time in almost 10 years, and several multinational companies have announced that they will exclusively hire on a full-time basis in order to build a better human-capital base.
⢠A structural upshift in productivity. The net result of all this should be significantly faster productivity growth than the 1.5% average recorded over the past 15 years, as the chart nearby shows. Indeed, Japan's productivity baseline over the next five to 10 years will likely be around 2.8%.
The chances of Japan re-emerging as a high-growth industrialized powerhouse are very high. This is based on the tremendously positive private-sector backdrop that has been created by Japan's private-sector managers. The biggest risk to this scenario would be mismanagement on the part of public-policy makers. So far, Japan's monetary and fiscal authorities deserve the highest praise for having coordinated their policies with the sole purpose of increasing Japan's revitalization potential. A premature tightening of either monetary or fiscal policy is always a risk. For now, however, the prospects look good for Japan to once again become a powerful engine of Asia's growth.
Mr. Koll is chief economist at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. Extracted from the October issue of The Far Eastern Economic Review (www.feer.com).
#1
Of course a bigshot for Merrill Lynch is going to tell everyone that Japan's doing great. They're still not having any kids, and let me know when Japanese government bonds pay more than 0% interest.
#2
This is all well and good, but I fail to see how Japan's rapidly greying demographics can be considered a positve. True, retirees will reinject their savings into the economy and their children will get better jobs, but their children still aren't particularly interested in having children. http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c02cont.htm#cha2_2 The speed of aging of Japan's population is much faster than in advanced Western European countries or the U.S.A. Although the population of the elderly in Japan accounted for only 7.1 percent of the total population in 1970, 24 years later in 1994, it had almost doubled in scale, to 14.1 percent. In 2014, their proportion is expected to total slightly over 25 percent, so one out of every four persons is anticipated to be above 65 years of age.
Take a look at some of the charts at the referenced link, the Statistical Handbook of Japan, and you will see that Japan still has serious systemic problems.
But the reignition of the Japanese economy is A Good Thing. Also, a people that decide the future is sufficiently bright to warrant investing savings is also a people that might decide things are good enough to warrant having kids.
It's hard for us here to realize how inflexible the Japanese job market traditionally has been. But until the baby boomers begin to retire, there really has been no significant chance for younger generations to move away from home and start a family.
I found this article on China Daily, which was unusually longwinded and convoluted. Usually, the articles are a few paragraphs and uninteresting. As I have an interest in the "rural unrest becomes spontaneous direct democracy" theme that seems to be breaking out all over in China, I plowed through the whole thing, and then did some web searches. Seems as if the Guardian's reporter made up a story of a democracy activist being killed when he was not. Some relevant excerpts:
In early May, a villager surnamed Liang was elected as the leader of a village group. During the election, Liang promised that if elected, he would distribute each villager 10,000 yuan from land acquisition proceeds and donate a plot of land to the village. After Liang was elected, the villagers demanded that he fulfill his avow, so Liang, together with villager Feng and another villager, went to the Village Administrative Committee which was asked to distribute money. But the three were refused. They then appealed to higher authorities concerning the distribution of land acquisition fees and the finance management of Taishi village several times. The village committee, town and district authorities explained the legal issues attentively to the three, quoting relevant State and provincial policies. It begins. Corrupt local officials stealing money, no surprise there.
Around 8:40 pm on September 8, some Taishi villagers found that Lu Banglie came with two stranger foreigners driving into the village in a taxi. They were stopped near the Taishi Secondary School by some villagers, because Lu Bangjie came to the village very often in that period and villagers were not happy with him. This time, he arrived with two stranger foreigners in straw hats. The villagers warned Lu not to stir up trouble there because they won't listen to him anymore. The villagers told them to leave immediately, but they kept hanging around in the village. The two foreign men, claiming to be reporters working for a British newspaper but refusing to show any identification, excused that they came for a report on orphan adoption in Taishi. Villagers' suspicion over the trio climbed, as there was obviously no orphan in their village. Great cover story there, Guardian. Lifted it right out of the inflight magazine, did you?
Upon realizing that they could hardly entered the village under whatever pretext, the trio then attempted to force their way in and a heated spat escalated to some pushing and shoving. Uh-huh.
Lu Bangjie claimed he was injured. Because he was?
At 8:50 pm, the Yuwotou police received an alert and rushed to the scene to restore order. The three were later taken to the town government building. After questioning, the two foreigners were identified as the Guardian (UK)'s Shanghai-based correspondent Benjamin Joffe-Walt and the Singaporean Tang Guoye, an employee of a Shanghai-based translation company. Since they were not able to show any documents of permission filed by relevant foreign affairs department, the Yuwotou police briefed them it was illegal for them to gather information without the permission of the provincial and city-level foreign affairs departments. What, they couldn't afford a carton of smokes for a permit?
After that, to get them out of the region ensure their safety, the town government drove them back to the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. The two foreigners were not hurt at all during the incident. It was sheer rumor to say that Benjamin Joffe-Walt was assaulted. The Britain-based newspaper Guardian later learned that their reporter's information collection without permission is against the Chinese law, therefore they issued apology to relative authorities. Toadying to Communists. Classic Guardian. Anyone bet that they'd apologize for a similar error on a story about the U.S.?
That's because we haven't shot any reporters by mistake. For a while.
Investigation and audit work into the Taishi Village committee and its head Chen Jinsheng, by the Panyu District working group, have found no serious economic malpractices, although, the group suggested there are room to be improved with the village committee' routine work and administration. The life of Taishi villagers has come back to normal. The normality of being ripped off by their local officials, that is.
See here for a the original Guardian article (with a correction prepended, but the sensational headline is untouched). And then the Readers' Editor's response when it's discovered that a fraud has been perpetrated, and sympathy is expressed with the reporter's position. After all, the he thought he was "going to die". As if being surrounded by unarmed skinny peasants is the same as having rifle fire whizz next to your head. A weblog post sums up the whole affair. A google search gives a lot more information about the affair. There is a lot of real abuse happening in China, and from now on, every time there is an incident, the government will point to this and say, "see, look people, you can't trust these foreigners, they've admitted lying about us because they're jealous of our claims to the Spratly Islands."
#3
I've heard of this incident, as well as what happened in Taishi before this, and this is just gonna allow for the problem to continue. *sigh* :(
Then again, it "sure beats" (for the PRC government) having to openly deal with local semiautonomy against central government "imposed" reforms, i.e. 'transparency' measures that the central government imposes whether for PR or to shore its legitimacy up but that the local officials refuse to adhere to, even though apparently the people have started to see the disconnect between the two levels of government...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/24/2005 10:20 Comments ||
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#4
And the lefty newspapers wonder why their readership is falling like a lead balloon.
Dead man in car gets parking ticket
By Lester Haines
Published Monday 24th October 2005 12:14 GMT
Melbourne council is unlikely to collect a parking fine imposed on a 71-year-old man for exceeding his alloted time in the car park of the Croydon Market shopping centre since he had lain dead for "several days" in the vehicle when an enforcement officer moved in.
Breathing heavily as he wrote the ticket, he didn't seem to notice the rather large maggots crawling over the driver...
The man had been reported missing nine days previously and was known to be "seriously ill", The Age reports.
The Mayor of the eastern suburb of Maroondah 1, Paul Denham, explained that the "parking officer had not noticed the man when he attached the parking fine to the windscreen", offering: "The parking bays are 90-degree with cars parked nose in. A small garden bed is located immediately at the front of the parking bays. Our local laws officer checked and wrote out the ticket at the rear of the vehicle and placed the ticket from the passenger side on the windscreen. The local laws officer did not notice anything unusual regarding the vehicle, and is extremely distressed to have learned of the situation."
1 Now we know how the town got its name. If you die and are "Maroon-dah" in the town, you will be fined!
A female friend of the man was less than impressed with the explanation. She said: "From what the police had told me, it would have been very obvious he was deceased so I'm really disgusted."
But ticket quotas must be made!
Premier Steve Bracks last week expressed his condolences to the man's family and friends2 , noting: "I think the whole community would be concerned at that sort of development." Bracks added there would be a full coroner's enquiry into the matter and any recommendations "will be adopted by organisations such as councils".
2Now that the town is the laughingstock of the entire world, maybe we will have to do something - only to keep from being embarassed again!
Warsaw's conservative Mayor Lech Kaczynski won Poland's presidential runoff vote Sunday, sealing the rise of a party headed by his twin brother that pledges to uphold Roman Catholic values and strong welfare state protections. Kaczynski, who appealed to older and poorer voters with promises to protect social safety protections that have eroded somewhat in the 16 years since the collapse of communism, defeated pro-market legislator Donald Tusk.
Show me a Euro voter who will vote against the welfare state ...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Show me a Euro voter who will vote against the welfare state ...
If it were only that simple. This election was about getting rid of that rancid scandal-ridden circle of ex-communists that held power for the last 16 years. They did nothing for the country but fill their pockets.
Ironically, Tusk actually fought against communism. So why did he lose? He got the so-called kiss of death: the backing of the ex-communists. Why? Because the other candidate threatens to make life hard for the ex-commies as payback for all those nasty scandals.
On the other hand, this other candidate, Kaczynski, who also didn't like communists, is an economic socialist (in other respects he is a conservative). As the article mentions, he promises a welfare state, and lower taxes at the same time (except for the upper income bracket). He expects the rich to pay for his promised social safety net. Assuming this is a good idea, there's a slight problem with his plan: there's not that many rich people in Poland in the first place. It's also the rich people who tend to provide jobs.
All this is not lost on the Polish people, and the lack of a real choice in this election was evidenced by the lowest voter turnout ever. Even so, I would have given Tusk the benefit of the doubt, on purely economic grounds, and in spite of the ex-commies' support for him. But the people want blood, I guess.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/24/2005 1:05 Comments ||
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#2
Keep in mind, Poland is still transitioning from a planned economy. It is not yet at its full potential. Unlike Old Europe, people here have a legitimate claim for wanting a welfare state. Workers have essentially been left to create their own jobs after communism collapsed. Hard to do when you lack the capital.
Solidarity fought for rights and freedoms, and better economic conditions. Little did they know that the fruits of their labor would leave them unemployed. Its not what they had in mind.
That said, welfare isn't the answer in the long run. I hope they don't get used to it.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/24/2005 3:32 Comments ||
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#3
"Show me a Euro voter who will vote against the welfare state"
The Bush White House is the most corrupt administration in U.S. history since President Warren G. Harding's, said Howard Dean during his first visit to Maine as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.RECORDS SET BY CLINTON WHITEHOUSE
- The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance
- Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates*
- Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation
- Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify
- Most number of witnesses to die suddenly
- First president sued for sexual harassment.
- First president accused of rape.
- First first lady to come under criminal investigation
- Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case
- First president to establish a legal defense fund.
- First president to be held in contempt of court
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad
- First president disbarred from the US Supreme Court and a state court
- Sandy Burglar...I mean...Berger
* According to our best information, 40 government officials were indicted or convicted in the wake of Watergate. A reader computes that there was a total of 31 Reagan era convictions, including 14 because of Iran-Contra and 16 in the Department of Housing & Urban Development scandal. 47 individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine were convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes with 33 of these occurring during the Clinton administration itself. There were in addition 61 indictments or misdemeanor charges. 14 persons were imprisoned. A key difference between the Clinton story and earlier ones was the number of criminals with whom he was associated before entering the White House. Dean's comments Saturday came as top White House advisers are being investigated for their roles in the outing of a CIA operative and Tom DeLay, the former second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, faces conspiracy and money-laundering charges.Dr. Dean...last I checked the Legislative and Executive were separate branches of the government.
"The first thing we're going to do is we're going to have ethics come back to Washington again," said Dean, the keynote speaker at Saturday night's annual fundraising dinner for the Maine Democratic Party at the Lewiston Armory. The ethics of Ted Kennedy, Leaky Leahy, Sandy Berger, Mike Espy, Janet Reno,Harold Ickes, John Huang, Carol Browner, Patsy Thomasson, Bill himself, etc., ad infinitum.
To deal with the "culture of corruption," Dean said, there needs to be an ethics code in Congress and stronger campaign finance laws. Be careful Dean-bat. Thy finger is pointing at thyself.
Dean, a former Vermont governor who was once a front-runner in the 2004 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, alluded to criticism that Democrats have been too timid and vague in their message and have not capitalized on Republicans' weaknesses. Til he blew up national TV and revealed to the world what a dingbat he was.
Dean said that if Democrats don't stand up for themselves, voters won't have any reason to believe they would be well-represented. people of persuasions are leaving the demos.
"We have to stand up and say who we are and why we believe what we believe," he said. You have, and that's why almost everyone but the dingbats and looneys are gone. You know...people who would vote for...Dean.
Dean said if the Democrats were to regain power, the party would be strong on national defense. eye roll.
He said the party never would send troops abroad without telling them the truth about why they were going, and without adequately arming them. double eye roll, just like my teenage daughter.
Dean said that Democrats also would make sure every American has access to health insurance. Yup...read that in the Bill of Rights just this morning. Health insurance.
"If 40 industrial nations can do it and balance the budget at the same time, it's time to have somebody in the White House who can chew gum and think at the same time," he said. 40 nations are alllowing us to clean up the islamo-cockroaches and are spending nothing on the GWOT and national defense. BUT...it's coming back to roost!
More than 400 party loyalists listened as Dean described Democrats as a party of moral values, while criticizing Republicans as trying to divide Americans over race, sexual orientation and country of origin. Last I looked...illegal immigration was a crime.
Dean said Republicans should not have interfered in the Terri Schiavo right-to-life case. "I'm tired of the ayatollahs of the right wing," Dean said. "We're fighting for freedom in Iraq. We're going to fight for freedom in America." Freedom from moonbats? I'm all for it!! Sign me up!
Dean urged Maine Democrats to run for state office in 2006, and to maintain Democratic control of the State House that Gov. John Baldacci needs to push through his initiatives. Heavan help Maine.
Maine is the 33rd state Dean has visited since taking over as chairman this year. He received several standing ovations during a program that also included Baldacci and Democratic U.S. Reps. Tom Allen and Michael Michaud. Standing O from all 600 moonbats.
The purpose of the annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was to raise money and rally the party faithful, and the event often took a light-hearted tone. Allen made one of several DeLay jokes of the night when he said he heard there was a new television show called "Desperate House Leaders." How about "Desparate Prosecuters Trying to Make a Name for Themselves and Get Their Son's Elected to Congress?"
#3
Don't forget to add to the list the fire sale of pardons in the last week of Clinton's presidency. Technically, not a crime, but corrupt nonetheless.
#4
ALL POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT.Including but not limited to our beloved George W
Posted by: bk ||
10/24/2005 11:46 Comments ||
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Corrupt, or imperfect, bk?
The assumption you put forward as fact is, indeed, universally accepted - a tenet of Conventional Wisdom. However, there are standards that intelligent people adhere to, something of a code of honor. You have stepped over the CW line and stated your opinion as if fact. Hmmm. I'm thinking Dubya doesn't have a need to be "corrupt". I'm thinking he has done, and does do, his gig on the up and up. No need to cheat, when you can win by the rules - and he is one hell of a stickler for following the rules - to the chagrin of many here, including me. So there's something about your post that sorta sticks in my craw -- and in my nose... It stinks a bit. A cheap shot? Uh, yeah, it does have that smell to it.
So, you are now invited to show proof of your assertion, as anymouse did in the article.
Since you are obviously certain, given your post, please proceed. I eagerly await, all eyes, all ears, all a-twitter, doncha know. So gimme the buzzzz, bk.
#6
I hope Howlin' Howard preaches his mantra in all 50 states from now 'till he drops dead. It's the best way known to science to control the spread of Democratic crap.
As for "all politicians are corrupt", we kinda got a good sample of that last week when Tom Coburn's amendment to delete some of the Transportation Bill pork got voted down 82-15. They may not all be criminal in their intent, but there are only a very, very few that are there for anyone but themselves.
Warren G. Harding wasn't a corrupt man, but those who put him into office and literally controlled his every action were as crooked as a ton of pretzels. I don't think there are anywhere near as many crooked men on Dubya's team than there were on Harding's, and it's possible that Clinton even out-did Harding, if the truth were known.
Personally, I believe all politicians should be shot after being in office for ten years, regardless of party affiliation. Where they're shot should depend on how they behaved in office. Good ones, shoot 'em in the knee. Bad ones, raise the aiming point until the proper solution is reached.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/24/2005 19:26 Comments ||
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#7
nice inanity BK. Can't wait to see the prosecutions of Schumer's aides who falsified applications to get the credit report of Maryland GOP Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. . Nor do the Donks want the Special Prosecutor report on Henry Cisneros to come out ($20 million spent and they keep voting not to release the findings) because it mentions the Clinton WH using the IRS to go after individuals for political purposes - a person - by name....Hildabeast?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 20:41 Comments ||
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Whoa, there, OP; you're maligning of My favorite presidents. Harding was not corrupt, nor was he "under control" of some Rove-like shadow figure.
His problem was that he was a little too trusting, especially of Daugherty, a classic example of the fox guarding the henhouse.
Once he found out, he took quick (and often direct) action. He fired the crooks and demanded investigation and prosecution to the extent possible. He went farther with Forbes, shaking him by the neck while shouting "You double-crossing bastard," then threw him down the steps. (Unfortunately, there was no actual probable cause for his arrest until after he fled the country. At least he had bruises...)
The UN is campaigning to take over the one aspect of the Internet that can be controlled centrally, the DNS service. DNS stands for Domain Name Server system. This was one of the key ideas that make the Internet work. DNS is a system of servers that contain the list of web site names, and the twelve digit long IDs that computers actually use to find sites on the net. Since DNS was invented in the United States, the organization ICANN, that supervises the assignment of web site names, is in the U.S. (as an organization independent of any government and staffed by an international crew.) But the UN believes that its American origins makes ICANN the creature of the U.S. government, and believes an international organization should control the DNS system. In reality, governments that would like to control media tightly within their own borders, are the ones that would like another tool to accomplish that, and UN control of DNS would do that. Major members, or groups of smaller members, of the UN, can exercise considerable control over UN organizations. For example, uf DNS were controlled by the UN, China could insure that any site names China did not approve of, never appeared.
Otherwise, the Internet is nearly impossible to control, because the Internet is nothing more than a huge collection of networks using a common set of communications standards to stay interconnected. Thus; âthe Internet.â Some countries deal with that by using filtering and blocking software (usually purchased from U.S. companies, that design it for military and commercial firms intent on keeping their secrets), that monitors how people use the Internet, and helps the thought police track down those who say things the government would prefer left unsaid. Alas for these censors, the Internet was designed to defeat censorship, so all that special software only does a partial job. But if the UN were able to control the DNS servers, well, that provides more opportunities for the censors. There are also potential military applications, if key ICANN positions were taken over by members of intelligence organizations.
The nation that has done the most to try and control Internet use, China, is also one of the major proponents for UN control of the DNS servers. China, it appears, is less upset over âU.S. control of the Internet,â than it is in building the âGreat Firewall of Chinaâ a little higher. As a practical matter, the U.S. has no more influence over ICANN and the DNS servers than anyone else. The UN proposal is all about censorship, and paranoia that somehow, because the Internet basically grew up in America (it was invented by the U.S. Department of Defense, while the web portion was developed, initially, in Switzerland, by a British fellow working for a European research consortium), America âcontrolsâ it. The Internet was built to be out of control, and to survive a nuclear war. It will survive censors and UN takeover attempts.
Posted by: ed ||
10/24/2005 08:52 ||
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Via Drudge.
Three lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives called on Friday for the Internet's core infrastructure to remain under U.S. control, echoing similar language introduced in the Senate earlier this week. The resolution, introduced by two Republicans and one Democrat, aims to line up Congress firmly behind the Bush administration as it heads for a showdown with much of the rest of the world over control of the global computer network. U.S. lawmakers have backed the Bush administration's stance, arguing that a U.N. group would stifle innovation with excessive bureaucracy and enable repressive regimes to curtail free expression online.
Top Republicans and Democrats on the House Commerce Committee sent a letter of support to the Bush administration earlier this month. In the Senate, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman has introduced a resolution supporting the administration's stance.
"The United States is uniquely positioned in the world to protect the fundamental principles of free press and free speech, upon which the Internet has thrived," Goodlatte said in a statement.
New Orleans -- When the Army Corps of Engineers started to design a floodwall on the 17th Street Canal here in the early 1980s, deep probes found what geologists viewed as a potentially weak layer of peat soil about 15 feet below sea level in the area where the wall collapsed during Hurricane Katrina. Yet in building the wall, Corps officials acknowledge that they did not drive the steel pilings -- the main anchors for the structure -- any deeper than 17 feet.
Several outside engineers who have examined the designs say the decision not to hammer the pilings deeper and into firmer ground left the support for the floodwall dangerously dependent on soil that could easily have washed out under the immense pressure from the floodwater.
And members of a team of experts from the National Science Foundation say it now seems likely that this simple failure probably led to the collapse of the walls on the 17th Street and London Avenue canals, which flooded the main parts of the city.
Corps investigators say they have just started going through 235 boxes of the agency's records that could shed more light on why the engineers believed the design was safe. And outside investigators say they would like to examine more of the records before deciding what caused the break. Robert Bea, an engineering professor at UC Berkeley who has examined the soil data for the National Science Foundation, said the decision not to drive the piling deeper was "a design flaw." He said he and others in his group believed it was the most likely reason that the floodwaters broke through, shoving parts of the walls and the earthen levees beneath them as far as 35 feet into nearby neighborhoods.
Walter Baumy, the chief engineer for the Corps' New Orleans district, said, however, that the problem was "a little more complicated than just saying that there's a 5-foot-deep layer of peat in there." "What's probably more important is, how did we account for it in the design?" Baumy said. "Or did we properly address it?" He added, "We need to step back and review our design and see if it was done properly at that time."
The teams from the National Science Foundation and the American Society of Civil Engineers visited the breach sites and plan to release a preliminary report in early November.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/24/2005 09:51 ||
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The Army Corpse of Engineers in LA is just another corrupta hey, it ain't my money, lolhalf-assed is good enough a typical LA institution?
Nooooooo. Say it ain't so.
"We need to step back and review our design and see if it was done properly at that time."
Or you could admit, along with all of the other LA institutions that have lobbied since Adam for Federal handouts, that you are no different from the rest of the bloody political pork project assholes there and nobody in LA really gave a shit and so happily wasted untold billions of tax $ largesse heaped upon your sorry asses for generations to design and address an engineering problem that could be solved by almost any competent CE with .1% of what's been thrown your way.
#2
.com, I'm fairly sure the Army Corps of Engineers is funded and managed at a federal level.
(Although I thought that particular canal was designed by the New Orleans Levee Board. I've lost track of which levees are the responsibility of which agency over the years).
Posted by: Phil ||
10/24/2005 11:30 Comments ||
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Phil raises a good issue that I have often wondered about. The Army Corps of Engineers seems to this civilian like it often doesn't have a lot to do with the Army and that there's probably two parts to it, one that actually does build bridges and fortifications for combat troops and one that acts as a service organization to curry favor with congresscritters by doing pet projects, some of which may actually be beneficial, to help improve the critters chances of reelection and the Army appropriations chances of passage. But it sure does seem like the Corps of Engineers is a lot more involved in the internal workings of the country than the Posse Comitatus Act allows :-).
#4
basic engineering 101: piles have to have adequate side or bottom bearing against stable soil or they don't work.
Licenses should be pulled and jobs lost - this was an entirely forseeable failure
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 12:55 Comments ||
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#5
It was my experience, quite by accident, to come to know the Corpse of Engineers as a fairly autonomous collection of regional specialists. Sure, they deferred to HQ on many things, I guess, but when it came to their area of expertise, such as those who ran the LA & Miss River fiefdom(s), they were not seriously challenged when they put forth a plan in their district.
Consider the monumental task of auditing every single project in the country. No HQ could've checked all of the engineering specs, reviewed the plans in depth, or, assuming the project proposals even contained sufficient detail to do so, thoroughly verified the plan was without error.
Additionally, consider that congressional funding of such plans was usually project-specific. The Corpse, as a whole, received admin funding for HQ and to maintain staff throughout the system, but local politicians pushed for specific funding of their pet projects and such funds were earmarked, accordingly.
So was the Corpse district responsible for LA (Miss River, NO levee system, et al) quasi-independent? You fucking bet it was. And it was the envy of the entire Corpse, too, for it received the mostest for the longest.
And now the tab comes due. NO was only hit with a Cat 2-3 level storm and, until the levee failed, it looked like it would manage to wiggle out of yet another brush with reality. But it did fail, and so the bright white light of Blame finally begins to pinpoint some of the culprits who played the game.
Most certainly, the LA politicians will throw anyone, anyone at all, to the dogs to save their own hides. The Corpse is both culpable and convenient. I just happen to think that engineering allows for specific determinations, y'know - the hard fact thingys we hear about on occasion, being all scientific and everything, so yep, thar be blame here. So I'm thinking they will burn. Right, wrong, or indifferent - they will get a major measure.
#7
My take as well, .com. back in 1986 I did some architectural work for the Corps. There was NO oversite as far as I could see. The regional manager was as far as it went and that only for the larger projects. Lots of civilians working for them as well.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/24/2005 15:48 Comments ||
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#8
these wall types are pretty easy to design, given adequate soil info. Any competent private firm can do them (and the few gov't offices incapable of doing the design would normally contract out the work). Heads should roll......
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 16:20 Comments ||
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#9
Corps are career beauracrats that let their interns do the shit work like levee studies.
They likes um build bridges, and let the underlings do everything else.
#11
"dependent on soil that could easily have washed out under the immense pressure from the floodwater"
I hate journalists. They don't seem to understand the basics of anything. The water pressure at the base is determined solely by the water depth at the base. There was no "immense" pressure -- just a few more feet of water and a very crappy piling design.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 20:28 Comments ||
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Frank---it was not a bug, but a feature. As long as the water did not rise up on the levee, it was fine and served the city well. If there was no global warming, the piling would never have been overstressed and failed. So it was Bush's fault because he did not sign Kyoto.
QED
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/24/2005 22:37 Comments ||
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#14
my RetainPro program doesn't have a setting for "politics trumps physics".... sorry
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 22:48 Comments ||
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Eggs and baskets. We all know the story. We know that, ideally, we need to spread our risks a little. Placing all our bets on just one number on the roulette wheel that makes up economic life might - just might - bring untold rewards. More likely, though, we'll end up in state of impoverishment.
During this latest global recovery - the one that started following the Federal Reserve's emergency interest rate cuts, in turn a response to the deflationary fears associated with the stock market crash - the world economy has increasingly placed its eggs in only one basket. That basket - or, perhaps, more aptly, that shopping trolley - is in the hands of the US consumer. Consider the facts:
* In 2004, US consumers accounted for more than half of all of the increase in consumer spending recorded globally, even though the US economy accounts for a little less than 30 per cent of global economic activity.
* The rise in current account surpluses in many parts of the world - whether it be the surpluses of oil-producing nations (Opec, Russia) or major manufacturing nations (China) - has, as its corollary, a rise in the US current account deficit. If there's a savings glut in the surplus nations - as Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the US President's Council of Economic Advisers would have us believe - its recessionary effects are only being absolved through excessive US consumer borrowing.
* Within the US economy, companies have maintained their cautious post-bubble spending, for the most part preferring to save: the recovery in demand in recent years owes a lot more to the consumer, fuelled by gains in the housing market. The household saving rate has recently moved into negative territory, a sure sign that the world economy is increasingly dependent on an overly-mortgaged US consumer.
yes - this concerns me too. at some point the baby boomer retirements will start flooding the market with larger homes and the owners may not be able to get as high a price as they now think the home is worth. OTOH younger families will be able to afford homes earlier.
So if evidence starts to mount that the US consumer might be in a little bit of trouble, as Ian Morris, HSBC's New York-based economist is currently suggesting, we all need to sit up and take note. A US consumer slowdown won't just hit the US economy: it will also have a nasty impact on the world more generally.
The biggest single risk to US consumer spending lies with the growth rate of US household incomes. For many years, US household incomes have grown relatively strongly, helped by the productivity miracle that seemed to suggest that the US could have its cake today, eat it today, and then have an even bigger cake tomorrow. More recently, though, productivity growth has slowed and, perhaps more importantly, labour has failed to maintain its share of the rewards that stem from productivity improvements.
For the purposes of economic analysis, household incomes need to be measured in real terms, in other words adjusted for the effects of inflation. Over the past twelve months, inflation has risen rapidly, driven up for the most part by higher oil prices. On the latest reading, for September, the annual rate of consumer price inflation had risen to 4.7 per cent. But because wages and other sources of household income have been unable to keep pace, there's a good chance that, when the data is published, we'll find that household real incomes will have contracted in the third quarter. Indeed, unless energy prices suddenly come down a long way, it's likely that real incomes will also have contracted in the fourth quarter as well.
A second area of concern is the stock market. On this side of the Atlantic, we've enjoyed a rather pleasant rise in stock prices for much of the past year or so. Over the other side, the story has been rather different. In real terms, adjusted for inflation, stock prices are down compared with the beginning of the year.
Admittedly, the US has had to cope with shocks not seen elsewhere in the developed world - notably Hurricane Katrina - but I suspect that something more fundamental is going on. Whether it's stocks or bonds, US assets have underperformed those elsewhere in the world. Investors may still be happy to buy the dollar - after all, the Fed keeps jacking up short-term interest rates - but the appetite for riskier US assets seems to have fallen away over recent months. In other words, the stock market gains of old - the rocket fuel that kept the US economy expanding rapidly in the 1990s - are no longer driving consumer spending.
To date, the housing market has kept the US consumer's head above water. How much longer this story can carry on for is, however, somewhat debatable. Here, I merely have to quote Alan Greenspan, in his closing remarks at the Jackson Hole central bank symposium in August: "Nearer term, the housing boom will inevitably simmer down. As part of that process, house turnover will decline from currently historic levels, while home price increases will slow and prices could even decrease ... an end to the housing boom could induce a significant rise in the personal saving rate, a decline in imports, and a corresponding improvement in the current account deficit. Whether those adjustments are wrenching will depend ... on the degree of economic flexibility that we and our trading partners maintain, and I hope enhance, in the years ahead."
Time, therefore, seems to be running out for US consumers: not enough income gains, not enough stock market gains and, in the future, not enough real estate gains. So why are households still spending? I suspect part of the answer lies in the difference between expectations and (subsequent) reality. It makes sense for consumers to borrow to fund current spending if, for example, they believe that oil and gasoline prices will come back down again. So long as people link higher oil prices to "temporary" phenomena - such as Iraq and Katrina - they might believe that the hit to their incomes is only temporary. It also makes sense for consumers to borrow if, unlike Alan Greenspan, they simply extrapolate recent house price gains into the future.
I doubt, though, that this process of "suspended disbelief" will be forever maintained. US households are facing two threats. First, the Federal Reserve is not only raising interest rates at a rate of knots but also, increasingly, linking this tightening of monetary policy to overheating in the housing market. The Bank of England used a similar approach with some success last year.
Second, the rise in energy prices is not a temporary phenomenon. A reflection of China's and India's emergence on the world economic stage, it's a sign of a major shift in the constellations of economic spending power around the world. From the senior economist of a major bank, this is either sloppy shorthand or fuzzy thinking.
Petroleum costs may not fall easily. That's not the same thing as energy costs, at least not in the mid- and longer-term. High petroleum prices could: result in lower consumption, encourage construction of nuclear power plants, encourage drilling in ANWR, all of the above at once ... It's true that Americans aren't wont to sacrifice ahead of time - but it's also true that the flexibility of our economy and our workforce, while not infinite, has been amazing in the past and probably will continue to be in the future if we insist our kids get a good solid grounding in math, science and other skillsets.
Simply put, the collapse in telecommunications charges and the transformation of the world political order following the disintegration of the Berlin Wall have dramatically increased the supply of labour available to western capital. By doing so, western labour's relative price has fallen compared with the other factors of production, namely capital, raw materials and developing market labour.
So far, this hasn't had much of an impact on the US, where house price gains have masked this underlying loss of household spending power. But the time will come when the housing market does "simmer down" and, when this happens, we'll discover the true underlying resilience of the US consumer and, indeed, of the world economy. The US consumer's shopping trolley may, in the past, have been easy to control but we all know that shopping trolleys have a nasty habit of heading off in entirely the wrong direction.
The roulette wheel is spinning and the croupier is puzzled. "All bets on one number? How bizarre."
Not if it's the only winner in the last decade or more ....
Stephen King is managing director of economics at HSBC
#2
I'm sorta resigned to always be following the baby boomers. I'm in the generational cohort right behind them; we were the generation the Boomers desperately tried not to have. (Reliable medical birth control and Roe v. Wade both came of age just as the Boomers hit their childbearing years). We work patiently through their various enthusiasms, and try to figure out how not to get screwed when they've all retired. I hope *The World* is working on that same question...
#3
Sea, some of us Boomers are working the same issue. Some of us even had kids .... LOL.
BTW, for all that the omnipresence of the boomers is understandably annoying, consider what it's like for us to have been in the largest generational cohort in the world's history. We had the most competition for:
attention from teachers and parents
finding spouses
finding jobs
finally breaking into political and business leadership roles - at a much later age than the generation before us
etc.
Hold the fermi-violins - this isn't a request for sympathy. Just a note that it sucks to be a boomer as well as to be in the generation just younger than us .... ;-)
#4
Oh yeah, on that retirement thing ... a bunch of us expect to work into our 70s. We, at least, will pay our own way and not saddle you guys any more than we can help ....
#5
No doubt, LOTP, no doubt. Even my dad (from the pre-boomer generation) is working, and he's 78 now.
But when the Boomers got into stocks, the stock market went way up (and way down too). And when they got into real estate, well, all I can say is *dang*.
Dave Barry asks us to think about the cocktail parties when the Boomers all get into Death. Heh.
Just feels like I'll spend the rest of time adapting to the boomer breeze ablowin'...
#6
WRT raw materials for manufacturing, I've no doubt that as soon as petrolium prices started their dramatic increase, American manufacturers(and no doubt those in other countries as well) turned to their R&D departments to find adequate, non-petrolium based substitutes (I worked in R&D briefly, pre-kids). And I equally don't doubt that as soon as Katrina's path over the refineries was confirmed, the same manufacturers set about securing contracts for those substitute materials. Even as India and China become more dependent on outside petrolium supplies, the U.S. economy (and First World, overall) will become less so.
#7
Petroleum price rising? Gas is down to $2.19 here. After this horrible hurricane season is over, higher interest rates take effect here, all the low mileage SUV's are returned to dealers' lots, demand slackens in China and Global Warming gives us a mild winter, I would not be surprised to see crude back at $30 per barrel next March. Life on the bubble.
As to boomers, you cannot beat the book Generations not only as a personal forecast but as a way to look at history. Sea, you'll be happy to know that the book forecasts the boomers will die in poverty as Social Security is redirected to pay for the coming crisis. Unfortunately so will the X'ers like you. But the latest Greatest Generation fighting in Iraq will get back on the gravy train after they successfully overcome the crisis.
#8
If the Boomers are impoverished, their children will have to take care of them. An economic wash for the nation, but a blow to a generation that prizes its independence.
#9
If they think that consumer spending can bring about growth, they deserve what happens to them. Trying to boost consumer spending has never worked to end a recession or extend a boom (though it can make a bubble).
And surprise! it's one of his close advisers. I'm not an economics expert...anyone here in the 'Burg have some analysis?
President Bush on Monday selected Ben Bernanke, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman, according to an administration official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nomination had not yet been announced. An announcement was expected at 1 p.m. EDT. Greenspan, who took over in August, 1987, wraps up his term as chairman Jan. 31.
South African churches have had to give up trying to take a shipment of clothes to victims of President Mugabe's slum clearance campaign, after weeks of battling with Zimbabwe's import authorities. They are now giving the clothes to Zimbabwean migrants living in South Africa instead.
The Rev Gift Moerane, South African Council of Churches (SACC) provincial organising secretary, told ZimOnline this week about the bureaucratic hurdles which have overcome their humanitarian effort. âThe paperwork and all the procedures at the border were strenuous. In a meeting last week, we agreed that it was better to focus on Zimbabwean refugees who are based here because they are also living in dire straits,â declared Moerane, as he handed over the clothes to the migrants at Yeoville Recreational Centre in Johannesburg.
Which will encourage more refugees.
More than 300 Zimbabweans were at the centre to receive the clothes. Six thousand blankets and 37 tonnes of food raised by the ecumenical SACC for the slum clearance victims remained stuck at Beitbridge for several weeks.
Harare customs authorities first demanded duty for the goods, despite the fact that Zimbabwe theoretically does not charge duty on aid. When the government finally agreed to waive duty, after heavy lobbying by Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations, it still would not allow the food into the country, saying it first wanted proof that it wasnât genetically-modified.
If you didn't know better, you'd say that Bob was trying to starve his people out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo has warned that 200,000 Zimbabweans could die of hunger over the next few months because of food shortages resulting from government policies.
Speaking at the launch of a new film on Operation Murambatsvina, the regimeâs recent massive demolition programme, he declared: âI think Mugabe should just be banished, like [Liberian president] Charles Taylor.â
The archbishop claimed that food security in Zimbabwe was now so precarious that he estimated unless there was a dramatic change of policy malnutrition could contribute to tens of thousands of premature deaths by February 2006. Ncube said that this was a personal estimate based on his estimate of the effect of severe food shortages on a population ravaged by HIV/Aids and extreme poverty at a time of hyperinflation and mass unemployment.
According to Independent Catholic News the archbishop added that 700 people a day were already dying of Aids in Zimbabwe and the present rate would certainly increase with malnutrition.
The Rt Rev Rubin Phillip, Anglican bishop of KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa and the co-chairperson of the Solidarity Peace Trust, a group of church leaders committed to human rights and democracy, said Zimbabweans âwere living lives of desperation with no glimmer of hopeâ.
In May 2005, the government destroyed informal settlements and the kiosks of traders without warning. The United Nations says at least 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods in the campaign â one it called a clear violation of international law.
The new film, âHide and Seekâ shows President Mugabe saying that the slum clearance operation would move people into new and better homes built by the government. But church and human rights activists say the reality is that tens of thousands of people have simply been dumped in rural areas where they are unknown and unwanted. Nearly all those impacted have no jobs and no money. Eighty percent of the children have not been able to return to school. "The amount of suffering is beyond imagination," commented Archbishop Ncube.
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#1
I think it is much more important that we focus all of our attention, 24/7, on the fact that two American soldiers burned a dead body that stank. It's far more important and newsworthy.
Posted by: NotMike Moore ||
10/24/2005 0:34 Comments ||
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#3
When is the civilized world going to revoke Mugabe's oxygen consumption license? Having this sack-of-sh!t address the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization is like inviting Pat Buchannan to a formal reception at the Venezuelan Embassy, only less funny.
#5
sometimes I ponder on the fact that one bullet could alleviate so much suffering.
Am I right or wrong? Before you say wrong - pause for a moment to consider the millions...millions... whose suffering you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
#7
The good of the many is the concept that all forms of govt are based on. Since the fall of feifdom, that is. Killing this ass-clown would be a gift to the world, much less his people that he has taken such a lead role in subjecting to endless anguish. One maniacal autocrat would not be missed.
#8
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo has warned that 200,000 Zimbabweans could die of hunger over the next few months because of food shortages resulting from government policies.
#9
The thing that truly boggles the mind is that Mugabe's abolition of property rights and subsequent land grab that precipitated this disaster is being used as a template by South Africa and Venezuela.
#10
at least Archbishop Ncube is pointing the finger where blame lies, unlike Desmond Tutu and Mandela.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2005 15:27 Comments ||
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#11
Genocide is genocide, no matter how it's carried out. Bob Mugabe is taking a page out of Stalin's book and starving his nation into submission. Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious that the world hasn't learned from its history, and will allow him to get away with it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/24/2005 18:01 Comments ||
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#12
Although God makes his sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the Just and the Unjust, he's not obligated to plot the fields, plant them, or harvest them for anybody. He gives us chances, but won't shield us from the consequences of our perversities.
Young Singers Spread Racist Hate Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement Oct. 20, 2005 â - Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans. They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate. Known as "Prussian Blue" -- a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes -- the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine. "We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white ... we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."
Maybe you should spend a little less time thinking about race and a little more time thinking about right and wrong? Or even social utility?
Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. "They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening," said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins' father. "I'm going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would."
And see if I can make a few bucks off of them since their Pa split.
Mom making bucks off the kids' singing careers? Where have I heard that before?
April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April's father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs -- specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he's even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification. "Because it's provocative," explains April of the cattle brand, "to him he thinks it's important as a symbol of freedom of speech that he can use it as his cattle brand."
The mere fact that it's provocative, of course, makes it good. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to comprehend the fascination some people seem to have with Nazi regalia and philosophy. If you're a hunnert percent purebred Merkin, why would you find the Thousand Year Reich anything more than a horrid curiosity? A bunch of boneheads tromping through the streets of Baltimore belting out the Horst Wessel song is as foreign as 700 Tibetan monks tromping by banging gongs, and approximately as likely to cause people to want to join in. If you want to be a racist in this country you should either buy a sheet or turn black and join the Nation of Islam.
Teaching Hate
Songs like "Sacrifice" -- a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy Fuhrer -- clearly show the effect of the girls' upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up."
"It really breaks my heart to see those two girls spewing out that kind of garbage," said Ted Shaw, civil rights advocate and president of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund -- though Shaw points out that the girls aren't espousing their own opinions but ones they're being taught. On that point, April Gaede and Ted Shaw apparently agree. "Well, all children pretty much espouse their parents' attitudes," she said. "We're white nationalists and of course that's a part of our life and I'm going to share that part of my life with my children."
"We don't have any use for that Thomas Jefferson fellow, or James Madison or any of those other American guys. That's 'cuz we're Aryans. Our ancestors invented the chariot. Then they got nifty uniforms and held torchlight rallies and beat on kettle drums. That's what important in life, by Gar! Kettle drums! And uniforms! And... And... And chariots!"
Since they began singing, the girls have become such a force in the white nationalist movement, that David Duke -- the former presidential candidate, one-time Ku-Klux-Klan grand wizard and outspoken white supremacist -- uses the twins to draw a crowd. Prussian Blue supporter Erich Gliebe, operator of one of the nation's most notorious hate music labels, Resistance Records, hopes younger performers like Lynx and Lamb will help expand the base of the White Nationalist cause. "Eleven and 12 years old," he said, "I think that's the perfect age to start grooming kids and instill in them a strong racial identity."
Gliebe, who targets young, mainstream white rockers at music festivals like this past summer's "Ozzfest," says he uses music to get his message out. But with names like Blue-Eyed Devils and Angry Aryans, these tunes are far more extreme than the ones sung by Lamb and Lynx. "We give them a CD, we give them something as simple as a stick, they can go to our Web site and see other music and download some of our music," said Gliebe. "To me, that's the best propaganda tool for our youth."
A Taste for Hate
Gliebe says he hopes that as younger racist listeners mature, so will their tastes for harder, angrier music like that of Shawn Sugg of Max Resist. One of Sugg's songs is a fantasy piece about a possible future racial war that goes: "Let the cities burn, let the streets run red, if you ain't white you'll be dead."
"I'd like to compare it to gangsta rap," explained Sugg, "where they glorify, you know, shooting n****** and pimping whores."
"And they make an delightful counterpoint to that idiot that wrote about "exterminating Whitey. There's not much difference, is there?"
Sugg shrugs off criticism that music like his should not be handed out to schoolyard children, arguing that "it's just music, it's not like you're handing out AK-47s."
"I got that line from an apologist for some rapper. Works pretty good, dunnit?"
Perhaps not, but Shaw says it's the ideas in the music that are dangerous. "When you talk about people being dead if they're not white," said Shaw, "I don't think there is much question that that is hateful."
Thanks for that statement of the obvious. On the other hand, I'd say that when the claptrap gets that egregious, it'll put more people off than it brings into the Sooper Dooper Soopermen fold.
A Place to Call Home
Despite the success of Prussian Blue and bands like Max Resist within the White Nationalism movement, most Americans don't accept their racist message. Like many children across the country, Lamb and Lynx decided to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina -- the white ones. The girls' donations were handed out by a White Nationalist organization who also left a pamphlet promoting their group and beliefs -- some of the intended recipients were more than a little displeased. After a day of trying, the supplies ended up with few takers, dumped at a local shop that sells Confederate memorabilia.
Last month, the girls were scheduled to perform at the local county fair in their hometown. But when some people in the community protested, Prussian Blue was removed from the line-up. But even before that, April had decided that Bakersfield was not "white" enough, so she sold her home, and hopes that she and the girls can find an all-white community in the Pacific Northwest.
#1
Why are they a surprise? A logical conclusion to the race baiting the GOP has been playing in the South for the last 30 years. Anyone remember the "Southern strategy?" Haley Barbour a/k/a big fat Boss Hogg gets elected Governor of Miss--lol he sure cares about African Americans after runnning his GOP culture of corruption
Posted by: NotMike Moore ||
10/24/2005 0:21 Comments ||
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#6
But-t-t, the Lefty US Ninth a'sezzes that all Amers are still Brits, all Brits are German, and all Germans are Chicoms-Asians, over and besides America being an illegal and unconstitutional nation. Hitler was a Germanist and true Germans are mostly dark-haired, not blonde-haired, and always had been.
#7
Ala CLINTONISM,.....KATRINA-GATE, these little girlz are mere misguided, delinquent Fascist Rightist Limited DeRegulatory Conservatives living in Commie-LeftSocs, Traditional Conservative =Totalitarian/Prefectarian Conservative Amerika - time for CINDY to once again demand for nation-wide Left-led Anarchy, Civil War and Revolution - eeeeerrrrrr, I mean Clintonian anti-Unitarian Unitarian = Unitarian Anti-Unitarian? PURGE-EXTERMINATION of the FASCIST MINORITY by the COMMIE MAJORITY. Time for "Good Girl" Hillary to have MARTHA-NACHT and DOMINO'S PIZZA HALL PUTSCH where Herman Goering like any good, proper, mere Man gets himself shot in the groin for the FNC.
lots? Great reporting. Lots as in 12? 120? 1,200??
While I'm sure their are lots of pedophiles that think they are just neat, I would guess that those fans could care less if they sing of Hitler in the Spring Time or the Star Spangled Banner. I would imagine that other than the peds, their following is about the only thing that falls beneath Air America on the charts.
#16
Wonderful. White power freaks now have the new twin kiddie star soft sell for racial hatred. "We just wanna be hourselbs agin." It ain't about hatred and killing or wrong or right - the Himmler twins just want us all to be "white." It is indeed sad just what parents will do to their children in the name of idiotic beliefs. Where is CYS when needed anyway.
#19
Frankly, why does the MSM give them publicity? They're just a side note of a very fringe movement, it's not like they're representative of anything except themselves and a few hundred, perhaps thousands ideological freaks in a Nation of near 300 millions... I suppose it's because it fits in their agenda/worldview?
And yes, two underage petite blonde identical twins with AH smiley tee-shirts who sing white power songs in front of an adult neo-nazi public, it's creepy in so many ways I feel like reporting it to an anti-pedophilia org.
#22
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to comprehend the fascination some people seem to have with Nazi regalia and philosophy.
Neither am I. Can't for the life of me understand why anyone finds losers in history so interesting. Maybe toys and technology are worth some examination, but the Darwinian nature of behavior/history indicates that as a social/political order'IT DOESN'T WORK'. Just like communism. Remember it is the National German Socialist Workers Party. Note >Socialist<. Look elsewhere for inspiration.
#24
*Ahem* Speaking of drivel... The Party of the first part
and the party of the next
were partly participled
in a parsley-covered text.
Were you partial to a party
who has parcelled out its parts
to the party of the second
in your polly-tickle heart?
So parlay all your winnings
on a horse that's running dark
With the lights out
you may triple in
a homer in the park!
-Churchy La Femme
[/JM channeling]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/24/2005 10:08 Comments ||
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#25
MSM giving them WAY too much publicity because racist white people is the only definition of racism they feel safe to criticise.
You can't criticise racism in other cultures in multiculti dominated MSM because that entails making a value judgement and assuming Western worldview is superior to the traditional racist culture.
So they go to town when it rears it's ugly head in the white world but remain silent when Indonesians attack Chinese or Japanese hate Koreans or Blacks discriminate against Whites.
#29
Meh. These brats are certainly from Oildale not Bakersfield where I was born and have spent most of my life. There is a sizable Punk/Neo-NAZI underground that has been in Oildale since the 1960's. The "NWS" was a group of racsist NAZI loving "surfers" when I was in jr high. There are also plenty of lightly cloaked racists in the "Dale."
Oildale is refered to a "God's Country" by many who live there. Lot's of these folk are mentally "poor white trash" and are direct decendents of dust bowl refugees who settled "north of the river." Someone says Bakersfield = Alabama. No that is certainly wrong. Oildale does however have the decendents of lots of Arkies, Oakies, Kentuckians and Texans. Those from the "deep" south are not that prevalent. They learned their racisim at their parents knees.
The a joke in my town 35 miles away from Bakersfield is that "When People get money they move to Olidale." We also have a small group of punks who subscribe to Neo-NAZI ideology. There a a fairly constant exchange of people between Taft and Oildale. Lots of these people work as routabouts and the like in the oil patch for service companies.
This is a problem we fight locally and local law enforcement is on it. These folks break the law.
The sooner these 2 little skanks are out of my county the better.
#32
Elsa Lamb & Lynx, She-Wolfves of the SS 7th Grade.
(shudder)
Posted by: Mike ||
10/24/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#33
So we'll all be elaborately kind when the girls go through their rebellious adolescence stage -- getting tans and converting to Judaism -- right? ;-)
#34
Based on "Springtime for Hitler"
from Mel Brooks' The Producers
The Aryan Nation was having trouble, what a sad, sad story
Needed inspiration to restore its former glory
Where could we find hope? What could inspiration be?
We looked around, and then we found, the duo for you and me,
And now it's ...
Springtime for Lynxie and Lambie too,
Fascists are happy and gay.
We're marching to a faster pace,
Look out, here comes the master race.
Springtime for Lynxie and Lambie too,
Winter for those Olsen twins.
Springtime for Lynxie and Lambie too,
Come on, White folk, go into your dance ...
I was born in Bakersfield, and that is why they call me Fritz.
Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the brainless party.
Springtime for Lynxie and Lambie too,
Goose-step's the new step today.
Lederhosen in all the stores once more,
White folk on the rise again
Springtime for Lynxie and Lambie too,
Pick-ups are rolling once more
Springtime for Lynxie and Lambie too,
Means ... that ... soon they'll be singing
They've got to be singing ...
The twins are singing again!
#37
hey. lookin at em url for prushian blue ima posted. thisn prussian blue band ben owt sense em 80's. aint there sumthin bowt taken em nuthers name? thawt it were ilegal or sumthin?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
10/24/2005 17:34 Comments ||
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#39
How come we don't see articles concerning other groups of hate like "Black Fist" and other minority hate groups? Yeah this sucks to know end. I mean I hate California Nazi's. But there is a certain group of people who propel ignorance and hate and it does not come from the Republican party. (You know who your are, you bunch of Jackass's)
Both these young ladies need a lesson in what being an American is all about.
MULTAN: Khanewal Civil Judge Muhammad Iqbal Goraya has rejected the plea by Mazhar Waheed, deputy superintendent of New Central Jail Multan, that alleged that Ijaz alias Chiri, an under-trial prisoner, had sewed his lips shut and summoned Mr Waheed and his abettors Habib and Zafar Kamboh tomorrow (Tuesday).
"But, yer honor! He dunnit hisself! We seen it! It wudn't me!"
Earlier, the deputy superintendent submitted his comments on the report of the court on Saturday. The court asked the state attorney that how could a person sew his lips on way to court from the prison.
"He wuz all alone in the back o' the paddy wagon, yer honor! We thought he was darning his sock!"
The court did not agree with the inquiry report prepared by Mian Farooq Nazir, the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons for Southern Zone, which alleged that Ijaz himself sewed his lips shut.
"You guyz want to try another story?"
Ijaz Chiri alleged that jail authorities were torturing him for reconciliation and threatening him with dire consequences if he stuck to his statement.
"Yeah, Ijaz! You better... ummm... button yer lip."
He asked the court to allow him to keep pen and paper so that he could write about the excesses by the jail staff.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm sure Waheed's testimony kept the court in stitches.
MUZAFFARABAD: A 90-year-old woman was found alive under the debris of her house on Sunday, 15 days after the devastating earthquake that struck northern Pakistan and Kashmir. Doctors at a surgical centre set up by the Jamaatud Dawa said the woman's condition was stable. She is currently being treated at a field hospital.
Sweet Cheezies, she's a tough old bird...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Five people were killed in Afghanistan in an earthquake near the Pakistan border on Sunday, as fresh aftershocks rattled Kashmir. An aftershock with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 rattled Pakistanâs quake zone, but there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries. The quake was centred about 140 kilometres north of Islamabad in Kashmir, according to the United States Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, AP reported.
The aftershock was also felt in Srinagar, but there were no reports of casualties, police said. People rushed out of mosques and homes as they felt the quake, AFP reported. A tremor measuring 2.5 was also felt in the Defence and Clifton areas of Karachi around Iftar time.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Warsaw's conservative Mayor Lech Kaczynski won Poland's presidential runoff vote Sunday, sealing the rise of a party headed by his twin brother that pledges to uphold Roman Catholic values and strong welfare state protections. Kaczynski, who appealed to older and poorer voters with promises to protect social safety protections that have eroded somewhat in the 16 years since the collapse of communism, defeated pro-market legislator Donald Tusk.
Oct. 20, 2005 â - Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans. They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate. Known as "Prussian Blue" -- a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes -- the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine. 
"We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white ... we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."
Five people were killed in Afghanistan in an earthquake near the Pakistan border on Sunday, as fresh aftershocks rattled Kashmir. An aftershock with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 rattled Pakistanâs quake zone, but there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries. The quake was centred about 140 kilometres north of Islamabad in Kashmir, according to the United States Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, AP reported.
