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Hamas joins Iran in 'united Islamic front'
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
8 00:00 Rafael [3] 
8 00:00 SR-71 [5] 
7 00:00 JosephMendiola [8] 
9 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [1] 
10 00:00 Alaska Paul [3] 
11 00:00 Secret Master [4] 
7 00:00 Glenmore [3] 
12 00:00 Zhang Fei [1] 
1 00:00 Besoeker [3] 
11 00:00 Secret Master [2] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
4 00:00 49 pan [2]
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5 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [4]
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4 00:00 Bright Pebbles [1]
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4 00:00 Leon Clavin [6]
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9 00:00 bad plastic surgery [1]
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Kilt supporters outraged!
JACKSON, Mo. (AP) — Nathan Warmack wanted to honor his heritage by wearing a Scottish kilt to his high school dance. Then a principal told him to change into a pair of pants. What began with a few yards of tartan has sparked an international debate about freedom, symbols and cultural dress. More than 1,600 people have signed an Internet petition seeking an apology for the senior.
Make that 10,000 and yer damn right I was one of em!
Scots in the United States are assembling a traditional ensemble they hope the student will wear to the prom, and his family is trying to change the school’s dress code policy. ‘‘It’s a kilt. It’s going to turn heads, but I never believed it would have become what it is,’’ Warmack said.

Warmack alleges the school principal told him: ‘‘Well, this is my dance, and I’m not going to have students coming into it looking like clowns.’’ The principal did not return phone calls. Warmack said he’s concerned that school officials are just waiting for the situation to blow over, and that the policy won’t be changed. ‘‘This has picked up a lot of steam,’’ he said, ‘‘but it hasn’t really gotten anywhere.’’

On the Net: Kilt petition:
Read the petition, and then sign it! This kid deserves to have the right to be proud of his cultural heritage! Schools are asking us to accept a whole lotta bullshit like ebonics and gay teen clubs, but they can't let this kid wear his kilt, sounds like a wee bit of injustice to me. Oh, and yes I've been known to wear a kilt, and I'm of Scottish and Irish descent ya bastard! William Wallace would be proud of you laddy!
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding || 12/23/2005 12:03 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess it depends upon what he wears under the kilt, if you know what I mean.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/23/2005 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Nothing is worn under the kilt. Everything is in perfect working order.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/23/2005 13:52 Comments || Top||

#3  The f******s probably object to the singh dubh, the dirk and the claymore too! I know they did at my son's school.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/23/2005 14:33 Comments || Top||

#4  As they did at mine Alan.

As it's apparent this school administrator is no longer popular amongst American Scots and Irishmen from the 10,000+ signatures on the petition I hope he finds himself at a celtic heritage festival soon. Twould be a bonnie good time.

EP
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding || 12/23/2005 16:08 Comments || Top||

#5  What they don't wear under the kilt, ya say?

Well a Scotsman clad in kilt left a bar on evening fair
And one could tell by how we walked that he drunk more than his share
He fumbled round until he could no longer keep his feet
Then he stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
He stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street

About that time two young and lovely girls just happend by
And one says to the other with a twinkle in her eye
See yon sleeping Scotsman so strong and handsome built
I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath the kilt
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath the kilt

They crept up on that sleeping Scotsman quiet as could be
Lifted up his kilt about an inch so they could see
And there behold, for them to see, beneath his Scottish skirt
Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth

They marveled for a moment, then one said we must be gone
Let's leave a present for our friend, before we move along
As a gift they left a blue silk ribbon, tied into a bow
Around the bonnie star, the Scots kilt did lift and show
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
Around the bonnie star, the Scots kilt did lift and show

Now the Scotsman woke to nature's call and stumbled towards a tree
Behind a bush, he lift his kilt and gawks at what he sees
And in a startled voice he says to what's before his eyes.
O lad I don't know where you been but I see you won first prize
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
O lad I don't know where you been but I see you won first prize
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2005 18:20 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't fell a bit odd when I wear my kilt (Stewart)
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/23/2005 20:05 Comments || Top||

#7  We're all supp to be reading 1984 and the Communist Manifesto, plus wearing prim and proper Maoist State Worker's uniforms. Amerikan kiltwearers are breaking a sacred Clintonian Lefty-Commie majority mainstream taboo by portraying brave Socialists and People's Waffen Soviet Army soldiers as weak, decadent, immoral Capitalist dress/skirt-wearers, besides of course
threatening the environment by de facto stepping on so much grass and trees everytime they make the "Highland Charge" - Every charge = so much grass ans trees the Party and Army of Clintonian Amerika can't afford to pay for, ya bums.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2005 21:23 Comments || Top||


Africa North
'Fiancee' actually a man
You are going to love this one.
AN Egyptian man discovered on his wedding day that his fiancee of three years was a man who had been concealing his identity behind a veil. The 26-year-old groom-to-be, Tamer Shehata, was notified by a female guest attending his wedding that his would-be wife was a man in women's clothing. When Mr Shehata confronted his fiancee, he broke down and revealed that he was actually an 18-year-old man called Ahmed Abo Zeid.

Mr Abo Zeid confessed that he had tried several times to undergo a sex change but had failed to secure doctors' approval. Mr Abo Zeid, whose face was obscured to Mr Shehata by a niqab or burka (face veil) said he had intended to tell after they were married, and had hoped to convince Mr Shehata to consummate the marriage. Mr Abo Zeid was held for 45 days on charges of swindling and posing as a woman.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/23/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  AN Egyptian man discovered on his wedding day that his fiancee of

didn't notice the equiptment then..huh..

Yyyeeeaahhrrriigghhtt
Posted by: Red Dog || 12/23/2005 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  That's one in the plus column for pre-marital sex I guess. Meaning if he'd gotten to second base he'd have known long before the wedding guests.
Posted by: Gruque Angimble4409 || 12/23/2005 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  To the tune of "Muskrat Love":

Muzzie, Muzzie candlelight
Doin’ the town and doin’ it right
In the evenin’
It’s pretty pleasin’

Muzzie Abo, Muzzie Tamer
Do the jitterbug out in Muzzie Land
And they shimmy
And Tamer's so skinny

And they whirled and they twirled and they tangoed
Singin’ and jingin’ the jango
Floatin’ like the heavens above
It looks like Muzzie love

Nibbling on sheep dip, chewin’ on cheese
Tamer says to Abo honey, would you please be my missus?
And he say yes
With his kisses

And now he’s ticklin’ his fancy
Rubbin’ his toes
Muzzie to Muzzie, now anything goes
As they wriggle, and Abo starts to giggle

And they whirled and they twirled and they tangoed
Singin’ and jingin’ the jango
Floatin’ like the heavens above
It looks like Muzzie love

La da da da da ...
Posted by: Captain N. Tenille || 12/23/2005 8:52 Comments || Top||

#4  ..that his fiancee of three years was a man who had been concealing his identity behind a veil.

I wonder, does Mr. Shehata now think that coverups are a good thing?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2005 9:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Fooled for three years, this guy was a fool.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/23/2005 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  And I must add that the 'fiancee' was either gutsy or stupid to go this far with things. This could have besmirched family honor or something and lots of young women have found that to be death sentence.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/23/2005 10:02 Comments || Top||

#7  That reminds me one of "La verite si je mens (The truth if I lie") one of the few French movies who
didn't need spectators being brought at gun point in theaters.

In it a Jewish businesman saves a young guy and, believing he is a jew gives him a job where he excels. The daughter of the businessman and the young guy fall in love and are going to marry. But she discovers he is not a Jew when teh rabbi asks for the certificate of Jewishness from the guy and he is unable to produce it. They had had sex before but she hadn't noticed something was unusual.
Posted by: JFM || 12/23/2005 10:24 Comments || Top||

#8  So who's gonna take the whip here, the stupid guy or the phony chick?
Somebody's gotta pay...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 10:40 Comments || Top||

#9  tu - The "phony chick" is already paying....

45 days in an Egyptian pokey when it becomes known what crime he did... It won't be pretty...
Posted by: BigEd || 12/23/2005 12:08 Comments || Top||

#10  It may not be pretty, but (s)he might like it.
Posted by: Oops || 12/23/2005 15:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Somehow I doubt that.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/23/2005 15:49 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Mugabe Ally Van Hoogstraten 'behind killing' of rival
British property baron and key Zanu PF financier Nicholas van Hoogstraten was on Monday held responsible by the British High Court for the murder of a business rival - despite being cleared in the criminal courts. Mr Justice Lightman ruled that van Hoogstraten, a close friend and financial backer of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, "recruited two highly dangerous thugs" to murder Mohammed Raja in order to halt a civil action Raja was bringing against him.

The finding is central to a £6 million civil action being brought against the property tycoon by the dead man's family. Raja, 62, was in the process of suing van Hoogstraten over a business deal at the time of his death. He was stabbed and shot after answering the doorbell at his home in Sutton, south London, on July 2 1999.

His killers, Robert Knapp and David Croke - who were, according to the judgment, van Hoogstraten's henchmen - are serving life for murder. van Hoogstraten, 60, was sentenced to 10 years at the Old Bailey in 2002 for manslaughter, but his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. He was not in court or represented during the civil proceedings. He is in Zimbabwe, where he has business interests, having told Mr Justice Lightman's clerk after an earlier hearing that he was leaving the country and would not be back until next year.

Hoogstraten recently bought into Zimbabwe's tourism sector after acquiring key equity in the Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG). The business mogul, reputed to be an ally of President Robert Mugabe, has swooped on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed RTG following an unwillingness by other shareholders to follow their rights. Last month RTG made a renounceable rights' offer to shareholders in a bid to raise $80 billion.

Van Hoogstraten has courted controversy internationally by describing President Mugabe as "100% decent and incorruptible". He is also alleged to have boasted "the only purpose of creating great wealth like mine is to separate oneself from the rif-raff."
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Van Hoogstraten has courted controversy internationally by describing President Mugabe as "100% decent and incorruptible".

Certainly the minority view.

From the lovely Zanu PF Home Page
http://www.zanupfpub.co.zw/

Don’t interfere, Imperialist told

Zimbabwean have commended President Robert Mugabe for the two great speeches he gave recently, in which he made it clear that nothing, even the British, would stop the government from completing its programme to redress the vestiges of colonialism by equitably redistributing land to the previously marginalized blacks.
In the two speeches, the first given on the 12th of August, 2002, on the occasion of the burial of Dr Bernard Chidzero and Heroes Day Commemoration and the second one at the Earth Summit in South Africa, he explained that the land reform programme was now almost complete and what was left was to ensure that the resettled farmers are provided with inputs in time for the upcoming rainy season.
He added that the government has decided to do the only right and right and just thing by taking back land and giving it to its rightful indigenous, black owners who lost it in circumstances of colonial pilage. This he said was being done in accordance with the rule of law as enshrined in the country’s national Constitution and laws.
He, however, made it clear that no one white farmer would be left without land. The programme is being undertaken under the basis of one man, one farm and loyalty. Most of the white commercial farmers were clinging to more than five farms each, which they grabbed from blacks during the colonial days. Those who do not want to share the land are free to leave the country. The President also dismissed the threats by Britain and its European allies.
“We have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood in defence of that independence, sustenance and protection.
“This is the one asset that not only defines the Zimbabwean personality and demarcates sovereignty but also an asset that has a direct bearing on the fortunes of the poor and prospects for their immediate empowerment and sustainable development. Indeed, ours is an agrarian economy, an imperative that renders the issue of access to land paramount,” the President said.
Below are the full texts of the two speeches.



ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, CDE R.G. MUGABE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE HEROES BURIAL OF DR B.T.G. CHIDZERO AND HEROES DAY COMMEMORATION, NATIONAL HEROES ACRE, HARARE: 12TH AUGUST, 2002.


Vice Presidents Simon Muzenda and Joseph Msika,
Mai Muzenda and Mai Msika,
Speaker of Parliament, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Chief Justice and Mai Chidyausiku,
Honourable Ministers,
Leadership of the Zimbabwe War Veterans Association, It ain't the same as the VFWSpouses and Families of our National Heroes,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Members of Parliament,
Party Representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Comrades and Friends.

Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2005 9:19 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Chinese general punished for nuclear gaffe
[A] Chinese general has been punished for telling reporters China could use nuclear weapons in the event of a US attack over Taiwan, military sources said on Thursday. Major General Zhu Chenghu received an “administrative demerit” recently from the National Defence University, which bars him from promotion for one year, said the sources, who requested anonymity. “He misspoke. But the punishment could not be too harsh or we would be seen as too weak towards the United States,” one source told Reuters.

An administrative demerit is the second lightest punishment on a scale of one to five, but still potentially damaging to his career. The lightest is an administrative warning, while the heaviest is expulsion. “His chances for promotion in the future are extremely slim,” another source said.

The Defence Ministry declined to comment. In July, Zhu told a group of visiting Hong Kong-based reporters China would have no choice but to resort to nuclear weapons in the event of a US attack over democratic Taiwan, which Beijing has claimed as its own since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979 but remains the island’s main arms supplier and has pledged to help Taiwan defend itself, criticised Zhu’s comments as irresponsible.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2005 00:01 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...would be seen as too weak towards the United States": IOW, in PC Commiespeak and Leftspeak it means being proven right/correct by being proven wrong, and vice versa. Never say never.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2005 0:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Why don't they show us they really mean it and send him to bed without supper.
Posted by: badanov || 12/23/2005 1:50 Comments || Top||

#3  MacArthur, a WWI and WWII war hero, was retired for speaking out of turn. This guy Zhu is a nonentity, and yet they are letting him keep his rank. This is eyewash, meant to mislead China's neighbors into thinking that China's long-term intentions are peaceful.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2005 6:43 Comments || Top||

#4  China says and does a lot but what they don't say is where you gotta look hard. This General is getting slapped for stating the obviouse but none the less something that was not supposed to be mentioned.
Posted by: 49 pan || 12/23/2005 8:45 Comments || Top||

#5  This is eyewash, meant to mislead China's neighbors into thinking that China's long-term intentions are peaceful.

Then it seems to me it will backfire. Seriously, ZF, are the Chinese such navel gazers that they could not anticipate what the foreign reaction to this would be and that it is actually counter productive? Is this an indication of how Chinese they are or how Communist?
Posted by: Pheath Cruling9911 || 12/23/2005 8:47 Comments || Top||

#6  PC9911: Is this an indication of how Chinese they are or how Communist?

I'm afraid this is very Chinese. Two centuries ago, the Chinese emperor rejected Great Britain's request for expanded trade relations with China and urged that the subject not be brough up again, ever. He addressed King George (yes, that King George) thusly: O king, Tremblingly Obey and Show No Negligence!
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2005 10:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Gotta hand it to the Chinks. I like it! An “administrative demerit” is what our US Army RANGERS should have received for knocking around a few terrorist prisoners.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#8  PC9911: Seriously, ZF, are the Chinese such navel gazers that they could not anticipate what the foreign reaction to this would be and that it is actually counter productive?

I think this may be more a sop to Chinese doves than a concession to foreign disapproval. The issue isn't navel-gazing - it's that they don't feel they need to worry about foreign perceptions today, and will have even less of a need to do so in the future as China grows stronger due to its runaway economic growth.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2005 10:26 Comments || Top||

#9  An administrative demerit is the second lightest punishment on a scale of one to five, but still potentially damaging to his career. The lightest is an administrative warning, while the heaviest is expulsion.1 “His chances for promotion in the future are extremely slim,” another source said.

1 I thought the heaviest punishment was a bullet to the back of the head at a packed soccer stadium at halftime...

Posted by: BigEd || 12/23/2005 11:54 Comments || Top||

#10  I'd killed once for a nuclear gaf


/Ted Williams, somewhere off Peru
Posted by: Leon Clavin || 12/23/2005 17:40 Comments || Top||

#11  ZF, Thanks, though this makes Kaiser Wilhelm seem as sensitive as Alan Alda. These guys are dumb enough to start a war.
Posted by: Pheath Cruling9911 || 12/23/2005 17:52 Comments || Top||

#12  PC9911: ZF, Thanks, though this makes Kaiser Wilhelm seem as sensitive as Alan Alda. These guys are dumb enough to start a war.

Well, the Kaiser did say Once, a thousand years ago, the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one still potent in legend and tradition.[3] May you in this way make the name German remembered in China for a thousand years so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German!. The thing is - the Kaiser was in high dudgeon over the Chinese government having tortured a German envoy to death. In contrast, the Chinese emperor's missive to King George was simply over a British request for trade relations.

As to starting a war, I doubt China will do it until it's good and ready. It's not an accident of history that China is one of the largest land empires in the world. It started out as a collection of villages on the banks of the Yellow River. The Chinese empire has endured even as European empires dissolved into their component provinces. That's not to say that its borders remained static. Every time the empire fell apart, some pretender to the throne always found a way to put it back together again, typically adding chunks of foreign territory in the process. China is a peaceful country - during periods of relative weakness.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2005 19:56 Comments || Top||


Europe
Canal body 'was Rwandan minister'
A decomposed body found in a canal in Brussels is that of a Rwandan former minister facing charges of genocide, the Belgian justice ministry has said. Juvenal Uwilingiyimana, 54, a former minister for parks, went missing from his home in the city on 21 November. Eight days later, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania indicted him for his alleged part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days. The charges against Mr Uwilingiyimana included genocide, incitement to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and murder.
Ya suppose he had a sudden attack of grief over his actions and threw himself in? Nah

A badly decomposed, naked body was spotted on 17 December in the central Brussels-Charleroi canal by a passer-by. Belgian lawyer Sven Mary said he had been informed by the investigating magistrate that the body was that of his client, Mr Uwilingiyimana. "What complicates things is that we have not been given any information on the cause of death. We would like light shed on this," he told the AFP news agency.

The former minister had met several times with officials from the ICTR in the three weeks before he disappeared from his home in the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht. ICTR chief investigator Stephen Rapp said the last such meeting had taken place three days before Mr Uwilingiyimana disappeared. Early in November, a letter purportedly written by Mr Uwilingiyimana and published on the internet accused the ICTR of trying to pressure him into incriminating other high-ranking officials in the former Rwandan Hutu regime.
Gee, do you think that may have any connection with how he ended up a floater?
The ICTR has convicted 22 people in connection with the genocide.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2005 08:17 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sorry mate, no slow burning Cohibas or Chivas Regal where you are headed mate.
Posted by: Thaising Angiter8278 || 12/23/2005 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Should we check that spear for DNA, Sarge?
Yeah. That might be a good idea, Muldoon.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Did, uh, someone, er, uhh, mention Chivas Regal???
Posted by: Ted Kennedy || 12/23/2005 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Chivas and they fished a dead body out of the water. Figured that'd get Ted's attention...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 10:03 Comments || Top||

#5  If the Minister for parks committed genocide, what was the Minister for Defence up to? *shudders*
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2005 11:23 Comments || Top||

#6  No capital punishment in Belgium, so have to take care of things before he goes to prison.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2005 12:15 Comments || Top||

#7  No change from Oscar Hammerstein's original
A verse from "Poor Jud is Dead" from "Oklahoma"
Seems appropriate...

He loved the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. He loved the mice and the vermin in the barns, and he treated the rats like equals, which was right. And he loved little children. He loved everybody and everything in the whole world!

Only he never let on, so nobody ever knowed it.
Posted by: Ogeretla 2005 || 12/23/2005 12:21 Comments || Top||

#8  {Puts hand to Ogeretla's forehead}
You okay?
Blowed up the lyrics.
Posted by: Leon Clavin || 12/23/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Alaska Paul: watch this and your question shall be answered.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/23/2005 16:22 Comments || Top||

#10  Heard about the movie but never watched it. I'll do it after Christmas is over. Thanks Secret Master.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2005 18:27 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canuckstan Takes Time Machine to Irrelevancy
B.C. seeks U.S. apology for lynching
VICTORIA — At a time when Canada and the United States have a lot to disagree about, B.C.'s Lieutenant Governor has launched a campaign to heal a very old cross-border scar.
Yeah that's it, I'ma healer..
Iona Campagnolo is trying to get an apology for the lynching of a young Sto:lo aboriginal boy by an American mob more than 120 years ago. Campagnolo says they can't change the past, but something can be done about it.
What can be done about it? An apology? From whom?
Fourteen-year-old Louie Sam was kidnapped in February, 1884, and hung for murder just north of the U.S. border near the Nooksack River. The Sam Lynching hasn't been forgotten by the Sto:lo and historians, who still recount stories of a murder they believe the boy didn't commit.
What if he did? Does somebody still have to apologize?
Campagnolo believes the U.S.-led lynching now deserves an apology because the American government apologized to its own citizens last June for failing to protect the Americans who had been lynched by mobs in the past.
Thereby confirming my belief in a slippery slope of stupidity.
She chose to act for Sam in September in a speech addressing visiting Washington State Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen.
Surely we won't be troubled with this trival nonsense... Oops.
Owen responded this week by saying he's ready to steer a resolution through the state legislature to issue an apology.
In that case, I stand ready to fling rotted fruit at Owen.
Posted by: regular joe || 12/23/2005 14:26 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  RO:FL!

YJ:C/M;T#S:U
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2005 15:13 Comments || Top||

#2 
Note to MSM: Before publishing a story try reading it to yourself in the mirror. If a giant anus is looking back at you, your story is plain stupid, and you'll prolly look like an a@#hat for printing it.

anyway, that's my advice - take it or leave it.
Posted by: macofromoc || 12/23/2005 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  The Canadians have too much time on their hands.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/23/2005 15:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Didn't Clinton handle this one?
Posted by: Glolush Pherong6200 || 12/23/2005 17:29 Comments || Top||

#5  I want to show my older sister this. I have grievenacnes than need to be dealt with.
Posted by: Leon Clavin || 12/23/2005 17:42 Comments || Top||

#6  I hope the US requests "reparations" from Canada to the tune of some billions of dollars that it has cost us to provide their country with effective health care.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/23/2005 21:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Okay, these are two lieutenant governors who aren't worth their pay. Maybe it should be an unpaid position.
Posted by: Darrell || 12/23/2005 21:39 Comments || Top||

#8  billions of dollars that it has cost us to provide their country with effective health care.

Oh yeah right. Where did that come from? :-)
Posted by: Rafael || 12/23/2005 22:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Rep. John Conyers Wife Involved in Bar Fight
The wife of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers has been accused of punching a woman in the eye during a bar fight. A spokesman for Monica Conyers, a city councilwoman-elect, confirmed Friday that she was involved in an altercation. But he said Conyers merely defended herself after being attacked by another woman. The spokesman said Rebecca Mews became upset Tuesday during a birthday celebration for an attorney, who Mews says was her date. While Conyers was speaking with the man, Mews "came over and literally started spewing obscene names," and shoved Conyers, said Conyers' chief of staff, Sam Riddle.
Posted by: Glerens Glomose5626 || 12/23/2005 13:37 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably pissed she didn't get her turkey. Or her Katrina aid money...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL! More Turkeys! It's that time of year!
Posted by: Leon Clavin || 12/23/2005 14:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Did she win the fight? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/23/2005 18:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Was it a mud pit? Was she covered in baby oil? Or is she just another roller derby queen? It would have only been better if she was knocking the crap out of Hillary.
Posted by: 49 pan || 12/23/2005 18:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Rep. John Conyers Wife Involved in Bar Fight

my girls coud kick her a$$

Posted by: Ric Flair || 12/23/2005 20:15 Comments || Top||

#6  *woops that was my brother in law*

Rep. John Conyers Wife Involved in Bar Fight

my girls coud kick her a$$


Posted by: Ric Flair || 12/23/2005 20:19 Comments || Top||

#7 
Rebecca Mews



Monica Conyers

watch
Posted by: Red Dog || 12/23/2005 21:26 Comments || Top||

#8  Classy people, those Dems...
Posted by: SR-71 || 12/23/2005 21:43 Comments || Top||


Bush-Bashing Black Charity Sits on Katrina Cash
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which slammed the Bush administration for its allegedly slow and racially insensitive response to Hurricane Katrina, has yet to spend any of the estimated $400,000 that it raised for the victims of the Aug. 29 storm. "We are collecting all the way up through the very end of the year and then our board has set aside a committee who is going to administer the funds," Patty Rice, spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday. The Foundation is an offshoot of the Congressional Black Caucus and was founded in 1976.

In the days immediately following the hurricane, with parts of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastline demolished and the city of New Orleans under water as a result of broken levees, members of the Congressional Black Caucus condemned the Bush administration's handling of storm relief efforts.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2005 00:30 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Conyers wanted to use it to buy this year's batch of Christmas turkeys...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 9:15 Comments || Top||

#2  That Christmas Turkey comment had a racist tone TU! Everyone knows the longer it draws bank interest, "all the way up through the end of the year" .... and possibly beyond, the more there will be for the victims.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2005 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL TU of Long Memory.
Posted by: Leon Clavin || 12/23/2005 9:25 Comments || Top||

#4  One more reason why the Salvation Army is the only charity to which I will entrust my hard earned dollars. And another reason why the wave of sympathy for Katrina victims is dissipating against the cliffs of sheer cupidity, sleaze, and ingratitude of Louisiana and New Orleans political organizations.
Posted by: RWV || 12/23/2005 10:53 Comments || Top||

#5  The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation is located in Washington DC and as far as I know has nothing to do with Louisiana.
Posted by: Matt || 12/23/2005 11:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I think they just wanna be ready if Bush orders the Air Force to blow up the banks of the Potomac...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 11:14 Comments || Top||

#7  I wonder if they'll beat the UN tsunami relief overhead rate (see adjoining story). If they're really skilled they'll get the overhead up to the full 100%!!
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2005 12:21 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Third of tsunami funds go on overheads
Surprise, surprise, surprise...
A year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, up to a third of the $590m so far spent under the United Nations’ $1.1bn disaster flash appeal appears to have gone on administration, staff and related costs.
Hey, it's a stressful job! Reliving that stress with the local hookers costs money! Lot's of money! And have you ever tried to have filet mignon flown into Bander Aceh? Fresh?
A two-month investigation by the Financial Times has also found that several UN agencies are still refusing to disclose details of their relief expenditure in spite of earlier pledges of transparency by senior UN officials.
Kojo hasn't given us the okay yet...
The unprecedented international response to the tragedy that struck on Boxing Day last year killing more 220,000 saw governments, companies and individuals pledge more than $13bn to help affected countries, according to UN estimates. The flash appeal covered the money donated by governments to the UN in the first weeks after the disaster to fund the early aid work. Spending details from that appeal obtained by the FT from UN-affiliated agencies such as the World Health Organisation and the World Food Programme show 18 per cent to 32 per cent of the expenditure related to staff, administration and other costs.
The local servants know they have us over a barrel, so they screw us for top dollar. What other choice do we have but to pay?
There is currently no accepted standard on what constitutes reasonable overhead costs for aid organisations.
...whew! Thank God for that...
Agencies such as the German development ministry say non-profit aid organisations should claim no more than 10 per cent of project funds for administration costs.
They expect us to live like animals?! Or worse, locals?!
The figures can be difficult to compare, however. Some UN agencies will not disclose staff costs and others account for items such as transport and equipment differently.
Should I have that "aid worker" Mercedes airfreighted home, or shipped by boat?
Even the most basic overhead breakdowns can be sensitive in the relief world where highly paid consultants are often a significant expense for the UN and its agencies. Details of such costs are usually absent from public material.
Manolo! Bring the documents! And another gin and tonic!
Alex Jacobs, director of Mango, a non-profit group that aims to improve financial disclosure by aid agencies, said many also regularly reported either rosy or “meaningless” assessments of their administrative overheads. However, senior UN officials insist its tsunami relief operations have been the most open.
Well, yeah, compared to, like, Oil For Food...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 11:21 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  this really sucks. Makes me wonder about the Katrina deal as well.

(shakes head)
Posted by: Jan || 12/23/2005 12:19 Comments || Top||

#2  tu3031, brilliant comments. Made me laugh.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/23/2005 13:14 Comments || Top||

#3  The assassinated Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi commissioned a study on the poverty relief programmes run by the Indian Government.

He was curious as to where the billions of rupees of Indian taxpayer funds were going. With the amount of money being spent, indicators such as illiteracy and childhood mortality should have fallen much faster.

What he found was that less than 16 percent of every rupee in assistance to the poor finally got to the intended beneficiaries.

Posted by: john || 12/23/2005 14:38 Comments || Top||

#4  The Vampire Vulture Elite strikes again. I guess it takes a lot of money to get the 5-star hotels running with 24hour catering. (All before feeding any of the starving victims of course - the UN has priorities!)

I'm sorry but I don't get it. WHY are the most basic overhead breakdowns can be sensitive in the relief world ? This isn't the military. There are no 'state secrets' involved. In fact there is absolutely no reason these budgets and expenatures should be anything by absolutely transparent and public.

We should expect the same with all the UN organizations.

I think we should deduct 1/3rd of the U.S. contribution from our contribution to the UN budget. Or at least 23% (one third less 10% 'reasonable' overhead).

Oh and since the UN is claiming credit for the efforts by the Abraham Lincoln and USAID during the initial weeks, include the cost of these efforts as well when computing the amount to withhold. Give it to the Salvation Army instead.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/23/2005 15:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Were this a non profit organization operating like this in the US, these guys would've been run out of buisness, long ago. I'll bet it's a whole lot more than 1/3 going to overhead.

Uh, hello, give the UN ditkas, nada,nothing. Let's see how long they survive without us.

Jees

EP
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding || 12/23/2005 16:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Jan, you are right to be wondering. I long ago learned that the one that spends the most of what it gets, arrives on the scene first, spends its time helping people instead of tooting its own horn, and sees that its money is spent wisely, is the Salvation Army. Nobody else comes close.
Posted by: Greager Thavimp2748 || 12/23/2005 17:47 Comments || Top||

#7  I won't contribute to a charity that spends more than 15% on admin and overhead. Salvation Army and Catholic Charities satisfy that...others may as well. Check before you donate
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2005 17:58 Comments || Top||

#8  I give to the Salvation Army, Spirit of America, Rantburg, and Michael Yon. I do not give money to the UN. That is Ted Turner's job, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2005 19:12 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm shocked!

A third?

Is that all?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/23/2005 20:16 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Quelle surprise: Celebs deserting Sarkozy
France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has discovered that calling people louts and rabble and threatening to "clean them off the streets" has won him few friends in celebrity circles.
Mr Sarkozy, whose injudicious use of language was partly blamed for exacerbating the recent urban riots, is now being abandoned by his friends in high places. Worse still, many of them are lining up to publicly put the boot into the man who hopes to be president in 2007.

The tennis player turned pop star Yannick Noah, actor and comedian Jamel Debbouze, who starred in Amélie, rapper Joey Starr and film director Luc Besson - of Subway, Nikita, Big Blue and Leon fame - are among those attacking Mr Sarkozy, who has been compared to far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and Napoleon.

"Calling people racaille, I've not heard anything so violent since Le Pen and his hatred of anyone who is different," Besson told the film magazine Premier. In an interview with Paris Match, Noah - recently voted France's most popular personality - declared: "If Sarkozy succeeds [in 2007], then I'm off."

Even Debbouze, who had previously expressed qualified support for the minister, condemned him. The comic described the minister as "a bourgeois who arrives, cameras in tow, looks at the little rebels and tells them: 'I'm going to clean you out, you bunch of rabble'."
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/23/2005 01:01 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Noah is now France's Alec Baldwin, promising to leave. As for Besson, regardless of what a politician does or says, if he starts getting attacked by film directors, then it's a sign that they are doing something right. The bien pensants' self-righteous moral preening is sickening no matter what country.
Posted by: Monsieur Moonbat || 12/23/2005 3:55 Comments || Top||

#2  The comic described the minister as "a bourgeois..."

Because being a member of the middle class is worse than being a rampaging criminal gang member. No wonder the French dislike America.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2005 7:13 Comments || Top||

#3  If you think your celebs are bad wait until you see our celebs whose revenue is at 75% or so, is stolen from the tax-payer through scams like exception culturelle, defence of francophony (1) and subsidies to the movie industry.

(1) curiously this movement for protecting minority languages does not apply for say protecting wolof or swahili against French.
Posted by: JFM || 12/23/2005 8:02 Comments || Top||

#4  So, where do French celebrities threaten to go if their candidates don't win?

America? ;)
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 12/23/2005 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Quebec.
Posted by: Thrineling Throlurt7548 || 12/23/2005 8:51 Comments || Top||

#6  I thought French Celebrity was an oxymoron!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/23/2005 10:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Real impressive list of "celebrities" ya got there. Was French sex symbol Gerard Depardieu too busy stuffing his fat face when the phone call came for a comment?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2005 10:20 Comments || Top||

#8  The tennis player turned pop star Yannick Noah, actor and comedian Jamel Debbouze, who starred in Amélie, rapper Joey Starr and film director Luc Besson - of Subway, Nikita, Big Blue and Leon fame - are among those attacking Mr Sarkozy, who has been compared to far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and Napoleon.

Wen I think of the above, all I can think of is "louts and rabble" and a dire need for "street cleaning." YOU GO Sarkie!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2005 10:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Yeah, yeah, the celebs hate him. The people who vote may have a somewhat different opinion.
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2005 10:37 Comments || Top||

#10  (Yannik Noah) declared: "If Sarkozy succeeds [in 2007], then I'm off."

Sounds like Babsy Streisand, or Alec "Stone Henry Hyde" Baldwin...

Talk is cheap...

Unless you are talking about a Bob Hope-like celeb, even the "most popular" celeb has more people who dislike him or don't care. His threat may actually get ol' "Nasty Nick" some votes!

Keep talkin Yannik...
Posted by: BigEd || 12/23/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||

#11  My opinion of Nicolas Sarkozy just increased dramatically.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/23/2005 16:37 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2005-12-23
  Hamas joins Iran in 'united Islamic front'
Thu 2005-12-22
  French Parliament OKs Anti-Terror Measures
Wed 2005-12-21
  Rabbani backs Qanooni for speaker of Afghan House
Tue 2005-12-20
  Eight convicted Iraqi terrs executed
Mon 2005-12-19
  Sharon in hospital after minor stroke
Sun 2005-12-18
  Mehlis: Syria killed al-Hariri
Sat 2005-12-17
  Iraq Votes
Fri 2005-12-16
  FSB director confirms death of Abu Omar al-Saif
Thu 2005-12-15
  Jordanian PM vows preemptive war on "Takfiri culture"
Wed 2005-12-14
  Iraq Guards Intercept Forged Ballots From Iran
Tue 2005-12-13
  US, UK, troop pull-out to begin in months
Mon 2005-12-12
  Iraq Poised to Vote
Sun 2005-12-11
  Chechens confirm death of also al-Saif, deputy emir also toes up
Sat 2005-12-10
  EU concealed deal allowing rendition flights
Fri 2005-12-09
  Plans for establishing Al-Qaeda in North African countries


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