Hollywood activist SEAN PENN has a plastic doll of conservative US columnist ANN COULTER that he likes to abuse when angry. The Oscar-winner actor has hated Coulter ever since she blacklisted his director father LEO PENN in her book TREASON. And he takes out his frustrations with Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit, on the Barble-like doll. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Penn reveals, "We violate her. There are cigarette burns in some funny places. She's a pure snake-oil salesman. She doesn't believe a word she says."
I am sure our favorite Apple Annie would like to return the favor.
#6
Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit
And Penn is a dropout, has been, bad actor, and only fame is his marrage to Madonna Has an opinion worth listening to? What he does to dolls spells volumes to his mental state. But hay, I want an An Coulter doll!! I promis I will be nice!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/28/2006 12:17 Comments ||
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#8
If it were revealed that Tom Selleck had a Babra Streisand doll he abused in this way, how long would it take the shrieks from NOW, etc. to burst our eardrums?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 12:46 Comments ||
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#9
"Science does not diminish the fear of the gods."
The ironic part is that Penn is such a doofus, that if Coulter said she had obtained a voodoo doll of him, a *real* voodoo doll, supposedly purchased at great expense from a powerful voodoo priestess, I bet Penn would poop his pants in superstitious fear.
In fact, such is their naivete, that she could get a whole series of Liberal dolls, and have the left in a great superstitious uproar.
(Especially dolls of black politicians in very black districts, who coincidentally are very, very afraid of voodoo and anyone cursed by it.)
#11
Anne Coulter is a succubus who drinks the blood of virgins.
She is an insulting trollop.
Her commentary, though, couched in humor betrays a level of personal elitism not matched since the fabulous forties.
Dhe should be roundly rebuked, doused with holy water, tied securely and thrown into a river somewhere.
However, Sean Penn torturing a plastic model of Coulter isw just anopther example of his own misguided activism and inability to deal.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 15:32 Comments ||
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#13
Naw steve. Methinks jim#6 would like to have Annie tie him down, then she'd dress in leather and crack a whip. Shame on you jim...
Posted by: Tell D Truth ||
03/28/2006 16:02 Comments ||
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No dudes.
I really dislike her .
She is a demagogue.
If you don't agree with her ill though out toss-off insulting comments, you are treasonous.
And she looks like a coke addict too.
A family brewery in the Czech Republic has opened the worlds first beer health centre in its cellar. The Chodovar Family brewery in Chodova Plana offers beer baths, beer massages and beer cosmetics.
To quote the great sage Homer Simpson, Beer! Is there anything it can't do?
The cellar has seven huge Victorian style baths where visitors can swim in beer while enjoying a pint poured at a bathside bar.
I think my brother had a dream like that once...
"Beer can treat a range of conditions, particularly skin conditions, and the health centre should appeal to men who are put off by 'posh' traditional spas. I have heard of some places in other countries where people can swim in beer but it's just a gimmick. We believe in the healing properties of beer and we offer the full range of treatments. We are a fully-fledged beer spa," Ananova quoted Jiri Plevka, the owner as saying.
The guests are charged 80 pounds for weekend packages, and can indulge in a range of health treatments including beer wraps, starting at 12 pounds per session.
#6
This could have potential if they do not Americanize it ... and serve the beer in the baths at 40 degrees. I'm finally seeing a good case for warm beer here ...
#6
99.9% of everything people do is mind-numbingly dull and repetitive. This leads to something called the "prognosticator's paradox."
When asked what the future looked like, the fortune teller responded, "What does the present look like?"
In other words, just by looking at a person, what can you tell about them *right now*. It's not like they have their biography *and* their autobiography stapled to their chest, so you can see what is going on in their life from theirs and other people's point of view. Sherlock Holmes might figure out something, but hey.
Okay, so you are looking at someone *right now*.
What do you see? "They are fat and ugly." Okay, so what do you see in their future? "They continue to be fat and ugly. Eventually they die."
But you didn't really need to be a fortune teller to know that.
Uh, but will I win the lottery and stuff? Oh, yeah. Heck yeah. Win the lottery, highly unlikely. By looking at a person, *right now*, even if you see that an "event" is taking place, what the hell is it?
Some lady over there starts jumping up and down, obviously very happy. What has just happened to her. Damned if I know.
Okay, now on to the *boring* part. Imagine that you can look at a person's future as if it was on a 50,000 hour VHS tape. But you don't have a fast-forward button that works while the tape is running. So you jump forward a minute and take a peek: they are still fat and ugly and sitting on a toilet. Another minute: they are still fat and ugly watching teevee. Another minute: spending about 1/3rd of their life sleeping.
Finally, after doing this a *lot*, you come to a scene where it looks like they have lost 30 pounds. But there is nothing to say *why* they have lost 30 pounds. So now they are less fat, but still ugly. After another minute or two they gain the weight back. Eventually the tape ends when they die. Oh, and no handy calendars to say "On September 27th, 2021". And you probably see their death from their point of view, which is something like "What the f---?" followed by blackness. LOTS of information there, you betcha.
Last but not least, the irony of fortune telling is that people do not really go to a fortune teller to find out what their future *is*. They want the fortune teller to *change* their future.
That is, I want you to make me slender and pretty.
"Lady, I'm a fortune teller, not a plastic surgeon."
Barely two days following accusation of an alleged plan to destabilize the government, three former Generals of the defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia have reportedly been arrested by state security. Although no reason was given for the arrest of the three former NPFL Generals, but family sources believe that the men were picked up based on recent allegation by Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson to the effect that some loyalists of former President Charles Taylor were holding secret meetings to destabilize the government.
This story was printed before Chucky turned up missing.
According to the National Chairman of the Patriotic Conscientiousness Association, Mr. E. Frederick Baye at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Generals Andy Quamie and Alex Toweh and others, of the defunct NPFL and NPP respectively were alleged to have been manhandled and arrested by plain clothes state security agents.
Sounds like that was a good idea
The PACA Executive also alleged that on February 3, 2006, a former General of the NPFL, Edward Tibbie (alias General High Command) was secretly arrested in Ganta, Nimba where he had gone to visit his fiancée who had just given birth. Mr. Blaye said that up to present General Tibbie's family does not know his whereabouts. He alleged that the security men stormed the homes of Generals Quamie and Toweh and massively ransacked and destroyed their personal effects.
It can be recalled that former Bomi County Representative Sando Johnson of the former Government of Liberia and an executive of the NPP, David Norris, Aide Camp to former President Charles Taylor and Madam Emma Smallwood were reportedly held for questioning by the National Security Agency.
Meanwhile, the Government of Liberia through the Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frances Johnson-Morris has confirmed that some supporters and loyalists including ex-fighters of exiled former President Charles Taylor are holding 'secret meetings' in an attempt to prevent Taylor from going to Sierra Leone to be tried by the United Nations backed War Crime Court for crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed during that country's civil war.
Cllr.
Preparing for Chucky's return to power, I'll wager
Morris said that she was informed of the 'secret meeting' early last week but refused to name the loyalists and where the meetings are being held. However, the Justice Minister said that the government is closely monitoring these meetings and is keeping surveillance on those who are holding such meetings.
Better idea would be to bring them in for "questioning"
Cllr. Morris made the disclosure over the weekend at a news conference held at the Justice Ministry.
The Attorney General of Liberia told reporters that in the wake of this, the government has informed the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) about the information gathered and its intelligence surrounding these meetings and those that are involved. Cllr. Morris called on the general public to remain calm, as the government will do everything to ensure their safety and security at all times. She emphasized that while the government is not overlooking current information on efforts by some Liberians to undermine the peace, it encourages people to go about their normal activities as the security forces are closely monitoring the activities of those who may intend to pose threats to the country's security.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 14:43 ||
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ABUJA, Nigeria -- Liberian warlord and former President Charles Taylor has disappeared from his haven in Nigeria, just as he was to have been handed over to stand trial on war crimes charges, Nigerian officials said Tuesday.
"I mean, one minute he was there, then 'poof!", he was gone!"
Taylor vanished Monday night from his villa in the southern town of Calabar, the government said.
"We are just so surprised! I mean, who'da ever expected that?"
Last week, Nigeria's government agreed reluctantly to surrender him to stand before a U.N. tribunal on charges related to civil war in his homeland and its neighbor Sierra Leone. A government statement said that President Olusegun Obasanjo was creating a panel to investigate Taylor's disappearance on Monday night. The statement raised the possibility he might have been abducted, but did not elaborate.
Or he might have tossed what cash he had in a bag and set off to subvert Liberia again. What's he got to lose? That sounds a lot more likely than being kidnapped, probably by the CIA or space aliens.
A presidential spokeswoman said members of Taylor's Nigerian security detail had been arrested.
For letting him escape, for letting him be kidnapped or just for show?
The presidential statement offered no details on how Taylor's disappearance was discovered or whether he was being hunted.
"We can say no more"
Nigeria's Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that dozens of people who had been living with Taylor in the villa in a walled government compound had left Monday and were flying to Lagos en route to an unknown destination.
Gee, ya think maybe they know where Chucky went?
They left "Monday," and Chuck "disappeared" Monday night. Y'think the unknown destination might be the bush in Liberia?
Obasanjo offered Taylor refuge under an agreement that helped end Liberia's civil war in 2003. Since then, though, the United States, the United Nations and others have called for Taylor to be handed over to an international war crimes tribunal. Taylor is accused of starting civil wars in Liberia and its neighbor, Sierra Leone, that killed some 3 million people, and of harboring al-Qaida suicide bombers who attacked the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing 12 Americans and more than 200 Africans.
And Ollie's perfectly happy to let the festivities start back up again.
Obasanjo initially resisted calls to surrender Taylor. But Saturday, after Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf asked that Taylor be handed over for trial, Obasanjo agreed. African leaders have been reluctant to see the continent's former presidents or dictators brought to justice, apparently fearful they would be the next to be accused of human rights abuses or other crimes.
Since there seems to be a shortage of clean hands...
Since agreeing Saturday to hand Taylor over, Obasanjo had been under pressure to ensure Taylor was sent to the U.N. tribunal sitting in Sierra Leone. Taylor had escaped from a U.S. penitentiary in Boston to launch Liberia's war. On Monday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States has told Obasanjo that it was Nigeria's responsibility to "see that he is able to be conveyed and face justice."
I think Chucky read the tea leaves and put into action a long planned "get out of Dodge" operation. It would be nice if he suddenly showed up, bound and gagged on the steps of the Siera Leone court house, but that's just wishful thinking
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 08:04 ||
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Can't say I blame him, he's promised amnesty, not amnesty until we decide to jug you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2006 8:29 Comments ||
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he's promised amnesty
Nigeria offered him "refuge", not amnesty. No one country can give you a "get out of jail free card" from a international war crimes charge.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 9:17 Comments ||
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#3
How much he owes. Where to now, chucky? Brazil?
#6
The "unknown destination" is probably several different places, mostly not in the bush. Family to France or some such, of course; but he'll be wanting ammo and drug supplies again, so his agents will be spreading out. I wonder if he owns his own supply plane, or if he just hired one.
Posted by: James ||
03/28/2006 13:03 Comments ||
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#7
The "unknown destination" is probably several different places, pieces...
Um how about looking some preditory animal droppings as a place to search for matching gold teeth?
Or is that too much to ask for...
I guess PETA would object to the poisoning of lions...
President Robert Mugabe's increasingly paranoid regime has gazetted a new Bill to deal with terrorism and mercenary activity. Named the Suppression of Foreign and International Terrorism Bill (2006), the piece of legislation seeks to curtail foreign and international terrorism, including mercenary activity.
The proposed legislation comes in the wake of the recent discovery of a large arms cache with an assortment of weapons and ammunition in Mutare that was linked to a self-proclaimed, terrorist group Zimbabwe Freedom Movement. Several opposition activists who were picked up in connection with the case have since been released after the High Court ruled that they had been wrongfully arrested.
Under the proposed legislation, it would be an offence to undergo training for foreign or international terrorism, to recruit persons to undergo such training, or to possess weaponry that would be used for the purposes of foreign or international terrorist activity. The maximum penalty under the proposed law for such offences would be life imprisonment.
It would also be an offence to knowingly harbour or conceal a foreign or international terrorist or to fail to report such terrorist within 72 hours of becoming aware of his or her presence in Zimbabwe. The maximum penalties for such offences would be a hefty fine or 10 years imprisonment or both in the case of harbouring or concealing a foreign or international terrorist.
Since his ouster in the bloodless Rose Revolution in November 2003, Georgias former president, Eduard Shevardnadze, has lived in old-fashioned elegance in the diplomatic quarter above Tbilisi. One recent morning, his house bathed in shadows, he talked to me about his life, reaching back through the murky events of Georgias recent past to his role as a reformer during the last years of the Soviet Union.
The estate house was totally silent, except for the low murmur of two women chatting in a far-off room as they set a table for lunch. Apart from his security guards and three housemaids of a certain age, Shevardnadze lives alone. Nanuli, his wife of 54 years, died in October 2004 and is buried in the garden. We sit by a low table set with liquor and fruit in a large living room whose walls are covered with paintings by modern Georgian artists. When I ask about them he stares vaguely at the pictures. I dont know much about them, he explains. My wife did the collecting.
I remember a very different Shevardnadze in the late 1980s a mischievous member of the Soviet elite, jokingly interrupting U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlocks welcoming speech during one reception, then making the rounds of Western journalists who until then considered themselves lucky to see a Kremlin leader at 100 paces. On one such occasion, he leaned unexpectedly into our faces and asked cheekily if we had any questions on the most delicate international issue of the moment Afghanistan.
He, of course, was the man who masterminded the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1989, the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and sweeping disarmament treaties. In December 1990 he broke with Mikhail Gorbachev, warning of an impending coup and chiding his erstwhile friend for his passivity. During our conversation, he glided over his less glorious post-Soviet career: president of an independent Georgia that slipped into civil war and corruption, a man who was the target of three bloody assassination attempts and who, according to most enemies and some admirers, was by the end unable to control even his own familys rapacity.
These days, at the age of 78, the former leader is more subdued. He occasionally tripped over dates, then caught himself, but flashes of wit remained. He told me how he and Gorbachev had already been friends for more than 20 years when, shortly after coming to power in 1985, the Soviet leader summoned him from Tbilisi to be foreign minister. I was mind-blown, Shevardnadze recalled, pouring a cognac. I had been abroad three times in my life: Portugal, India and somewhere else. I told them, I dont even know where the ministry is. (Gorbachev sent a driver who knew the way.)
The new foreign ministers contacts with the United States were rocky: Ronald Reagan made it clear that he was talking to the Soviets out of duty, not pleasure. The relationship warmed, though, as Shevardnadze a raconteur himself grew fascinated by the U.S. presidents endless store of jokes. So at our last meeting before he left office, I asked him where he got them all from, Shevardnadze related. Reagan went very quiet, serious, and I thought, What have I said wrong? Finally he answered: You know, something is happening with my mind. I can remember things 30 years ago, but I cant for the life of me recall what happened yesterday.
A couple of years later, Shevardnadze paid a courtesy call on Reagan in California: He came out looking fit and healthy, but his eyes were empty, Shevardnadze recalled. He doesnt recognize you, Nancy said. `Dont be offended: He doesnt recognize anyone except me.
The most vicious battles were fought at home, as Gorbachev and his team struggled to transform the Soviet Union economically and politically, and Shevardnadze engineered the withdrawal from Afghanistan. When I announced to the generals that we were leaving, there was a tomb-like silence, he said. Ordinary soldiers wanted out, but not the generals. They had become millionaires trading in drugs and diamonds. The generals never forgave him, he said.
In December 1990, Shevardnadze stunned the world by abruptly resigning, warning of an impending counterrevolution. He offered no proof at the time, but he had it, he told me. Generals former Afghan commanders were assembling tanks and troops 100 kilometers from Moscow. Asked how he knew this, he answered indulgently. I had between 5,000 and 6,000 people working for me in the Foreign Ministry system, he said. A third of them were KGB. I was very well informed. Gorbachev, however, remained in denial, and just before the real coup was launched in August 1991 he went on vacation. We all knew they would try something, but he went on vacation, Shevardnadze said.
During the abortive putsch Shevardnadze supported Boris Yeltsin, but their alliance quickly crumbled. Back in Georgia, Shevardnadze was sympathetic toward the Chechen war of independence, and remembers the Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov killed in March 2005 as a modest, calm man, someone you could come to an agreement with. Aides have long linked all three assassination attempts on Shevardnadze to Moscows anger at his independent policies. The third attempt was the best prepared, he remarked almost appreciatively. The attackers were pro-Russian Chechens trained for the job in a Russian base in Chechnya, he added. Surely that means that Yeltsin was behind the attack, I asked. He smiled, and moved on.
Turning to the present and the young ministers who overthrew him in 2003, Shevardnadze remembered fondly Zurab Zhvania, prime minister under the new dispensation, who died unexpectedly a year ago. Zhvania used to call from time to time to ask advice, he said. He dismissed the official government account that Zhvania was accidentally poisoned by a faulty gas heater. He was murdered, he said, adding that he does not know by whom. I asked if President Mikheil Saakashvili ever calls, and the former president seemed not to hear. A final toast indicated that time was up. He said he has just finished a 700-page volume of memoirs. It will be published in Germany, France and possibly the United States. The translation from Georgian to Russian will take time, he adds: Some rather frank formulations will need to be smoothed a little.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 01:06 ||
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#1
The estate house was totally silent, except for the low murmur of two women chatting in a far-off room as they set a table for lunch. Apart from his security guards and three housemaids of a certain age, Shevardnadze lives alone.
You just have to wonder why someone like Shevardnadze would tolerate a pompous, self-righteous reporter like this one. Ah, I see Shevardnadze is willing to do it because he is hawking a book.
#3
When I announced to the generals that we were leaving, there was a tomb-like silence, he said. Ordinary soldiers wanted out, but not the generals. They had become millionaires trading in drugs and diamonds. The generals never forgave him, he said.
#4
So at our last meeting before he left office, I asked him where he got them all from, Shevardnadze related. Reagan went very quiet, serious, and I thought, What have I said wrong? Finally he answered: You know, something is happening with my mind. I can remember things 30 years ago, but I cant for the life of me recall what happened yesterday.
A couple of years later, Shevardnadze paid a courtesy call on Reagan in California: He came out looking fit and healthy, but his eyes were empty, Shevardnadze recalled. He doesnt recognize you, Nancy said. `Dont be offended: He doesnt recognize anyone except me.
...At the conference, the following five major "hostile forces" were announced:
(1) international anti-China/anti-communist organizations;
(2) international hostile organizations (42 international and regional organizations were named);
(3) Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang separatist forces;
(4) cults and anti-China/anti-communist religious forces; and
(5) hostile forces in exile.
...the intentions of the five major hostile forces:
1. Create "the China threat theory" in the international community, sow discord between neighboring countries and China, thereby containing China's peaceful emergence.
2. Increase activity for Taiwan's independence, challenging our country's territorial integrity, thus affecting the country's working strategy, based on socialism.
3. Instigate support for Tibetan and Xinjiang independence in the international community so as to threaten China's sovereignty and interfere with internal affairs.
4. Deliberately politicize economic problems and internationalize domestic problems.
5. Make use of our open policy to infiltrate domains like politics, economy, education, news, etc.
6. Act as the catalyst for social contradictions, seizing the opportunity to spread rumors and stir up trouble.
7. Use the Internet and telecommunications to spread rumors about our social system and leadership.
8. Intensify social contradictions, which become events that oppose the social system and the government.
9. Plan to establish political organizations in China that aim to subvert the current regime, and engage in hostile political activity under the pretence of religion.
10. Bribe overseas students, scholars and new immigrants, so that they will carry out hostile activities when they return to one's native country to work.
...domestic "internal contradictions" are very "thorny," and could be easily intensified. Also, "external hostile infiltration" would not be difficult to manage, as it could be legally dealt with, and publicly exposed.
#1
Okey dokey, the "first tier" goes through the ALeutians to Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines; the second from more of the Aleuts-Alaska thru Guam, the Marianas and most of Micronesia; whilst the third tier includes parts = all of Alaska, Hawaii, and large parts of North, Central and South Americas, exclusive of course of the Chicoms wanting Americans to believe the mass extermination of Americans is good for America. Any war wid the PRC will be a battle/war to the death, for both America and Asia's democracies, no matter the PC diplo-speak, and no matter any periods of seeming inaction in-between opposing campaigns. America and its Allies either rule the world and future OWG, or they will be destroyed, iff only becuz America's enemies will give neither America nor themselves the same choices.
#1
101. Do you admit that Muhammad concocted bis so-called Koran, for the wealth and sex that accompanied his self-appointed "prophet" status, and that sharia is the name for the legal code, cherry picked from Christian, Roman and Jewish doctrine, and was and is used by elites as a means to control servant classes.
#5
Do you promise to drive the Autobahn with such speed, that if you have an accident your remains will be reduced to a couple of handfuls of black dust, which will immediately spread by the wind over neighboring countries, so the German government can pay reparations to them for toxic waste cleanup?
White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten, President Bush announced Tuesday amid growing calls for a White House shakeup and Republican concern about Bush's tumbling poll ratings.
The International Herald Tribune had an approving story yesterday about Laura Bush's staff changes.
Bush announced the changes in an nationally broadcast appearance in the Oval Office. "I have relied on Andy's wise counsel, his calm in crisis, his absolute integrity and his tireless commitment to public service," Bush said. "The next three years will demand much of those who serve our country. We have a global war to fight and win." Card, 58, stood stoically with his hands by his sides as Bush lauded his years of service through the Sept. 11 attacks, war and legislative and economic challenges. Gripping the podium, Card said in his farewell: "You're a good man, Mr. President." Card's eyes were watery. Card said he looks forward to just being Bush's friend. Bush then gave him five quick slaps on the back and the two walked out of the Oval Office together.
The president called Bolten, 51, a man with broad experience, both on Wall Street and in Washington, including the last three years as director of the Office of Management and Budget. "Josh is a creative policy thinker," Bush said. "He is an expert on the budget and our economy. He is a man of candor and humor and directness. No person is better prepared for this important position."
"I'm deeply honored now by the opportunity to succeed Andy Card as White House chief of staff," Bolten responded. "I said, 'Succeed Andy Card, not replace him,' because he cannot be replaced."
The move cames as Bush is buffeted by increasing criticism of the drawn-out war in Iraq and as fellow Republicans have suggested pointedly that the president bring in new aides with fresh ideas and new energy. Card came to Bush recently and suggested that he should step down from the job that he has held from the first day of Bush's presidency, said an administration official earlier. Bush decided during a weekend stay at Camp David, Md., to accept Card's resignation and to name Bolten as his replacement, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to pre-empt the president.
Bolten is widely experienced in Washington, both on Capitol Hill as well as at the White House, where he was deputy chief of staff before becoming director of the Office of Management and Budget. At a White House news conference last week, Bush was asked about rumors that a shake up in the White House staff was in the works. Bush said he was "satisfied with the people I've surrounded myself with. I've got a staff of people that have, first of all, placed their country above their self-interests," he said at the time. "These are good, hard- working, decent people. And we've dealt with a lot. We've dealt with a lot. We've dealt with war. We've dealt with recession. We've dealt with scandal. We've dealt with Katrina. I mean, they've had a lot on their plate. And I appreciate their performance and their hard work and they've got my confidence," he said.
Bush said, "I'm satisfied with the people I've surrounded myself with. We've been a remarkably stable administration, and I think that's good for the country."
A veteran of the administrations of both President Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush, Card was widely respected by his colleagues in the Bush White House. They fondly called him "chief." He usually arrived at work in the West Wing by around 5:30 a.m. and frequently did not leave until 9 or 10 p.m. Card plans to stay on the job until April 14, when the switch with Bolten takes place.
Associates said that Card, who was secretary of Transportation and deputy chief of staff, had wanted to establish himself as the longest serving White House chief of staff. James Steelman, who was President Harry S. Truman's chief of staff, had served for six years and Card's tenure will have gone not much longer than five years. A recent AP-Ipsos Poll found that Bush's job approval has dipped to 37 percent, his lowest rating in that poll. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a six-point jump since February. Bush's job approval among Republicans plummeted from 82 percent in February to 74 percent, a troubling sign for the White House in an election year.
Mar 28, 2006 (DVB) - The spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and avian flu has become worse in Burma due to draconian restrictions by the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), according to a report published by US medical experts on 27 March. The 80-pages report which was jointly researched and written by Dr. Chris Beyer and six other medical experts from John Hopkins Bloomberg Universitys School of Public Health, details the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and bird flu in Burma.
According to the statistics of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2000, one in 29 adults in Burma had HIV, and between 40,000 and 80,000 sufferers had died within the year. But the SPDC Health ministrys list said that only 800 people died from the disease. Moreover, Burma is said to be among 22 countries which have the worse cases of tuberculosis and there are 97,000 new patients each year, and therefore, 40% of Burmas population could be sufferers of the disease. According to the statistics of the junta, in 2005 there were more than 700,000 malaria suffers and many of them are of the high risk group.
While the public health condition is that dire, the restrictions of humanitarian groups by the ruling junta is posing a real threat of the diseases widely spreading into the neighbouring countries, according to Beyer.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 14:07 ||
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That adds up to more people than there even are in burma.
LAHORE: About two dozen senior officials of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) have either been fired or removed from the department on corruption charges in the last 18 months, sources told Daily Times on Monday.
Honest to Gawd, we don't make this stuff up. We couldn't do it if we tried...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: An Accountability Court (AC) on Monday sent the two government officials involved in quake relief fund scam to jail on a judicial remand. The NAB arrested Saifur Rehman, a patwari, and Mir Dad Khan, a general councillor, on March 9, 2006. They were accused of releasing money from the President's Relief Fund for earthquake victims to their relatives and acquaintances on fake national identity cards in Namli Maira in Abbottabad district. The officials were presented in the AC after the completion of their 18-day physical remand. The NAB prosecutor told the court that the bureau had completed its investigations and the accused were no longer required for investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Countries affected by the south Asian tsunami should have a warning system against sea surges in place by July, the UN's top humanitarian official promised Monday at the start of a UN conference here. The early alert system will not cover every community in the vast area that was devastated by killer waves on December 26, 2004, but should function on a national and regional level, UN Under Secretary Jan Egeland told reporters. "I think we will have a warning system operational from July. It does not mean every villager in every community will have a system to warn him or her, but we will have regional and national systems," he said. Egeland was speaking at the start of the Third Conference on Early Warning, a UN gathering designed to improve how alerts about natural disasters are sent out to authorities and the public.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This almost implies Jan Egeland had something to do with it. And the image conjured, UN - as savior, LOL. Marvelous spin. The actual efficacy of such detection systems ranges from poor to moderate. I note that the article doesn't even bother to identify the type. BPR (Buoy-Bottom Pressure Record) seems to be the most effective available at this point in time, and it's what the US and Japan use. I wonder if Jan Egeland would know a buoy from a boy. Oh, sorry, I forgot I was talking about the UN.
#3
I'm sure it consists of scheduling a luncheon at a 5-star hotel (above the flood area) to discuss the pending wave action - oh and to schedule a conference about the same.
March 28, 2006: The U.S. Navy's new computer network is so unfriendly that many sailors and marines are communicating via commercial email accounts. How can this be?
The navy has spent over $8 billion to connect nearly 400,000 PCs into one large, and secure (all data is encrypted) Internet like network. This will provide high speed, hassle free communications for everyone involved. At least in theory. This effort is called the NMCI (Navy Marine Corps Intranet) project. After six years of effort, users have a growing list of complaints. For example, because the navy found that there were over 100,000 different bits of (previously unknown) software being used on navy PCs, making the new network function at all proved much more difficult than anticipated.. Some of these 100,000 program were created by sailors to make their work easier, but the navy never really knew about this home brew stuff. At least not until they tried to get all navy PCs to communicate as a form of super-Internet. Initially, all the disruption caused by standardizing PC operating systems and software upset a lot of users. In late 2003, some 50 percent of navy PC users were unhappy with NMCI. But by early 2004, 60 percent were satisfied, and as of June, 2004, 80 percent were satisfied. However, the improvement was not all it appeared to be. Users were asked to rank their satisfaction on a 1 (not) to 10 (very) scale. Anyone who comes in at 5.5 or higher, on average, was considered "satisfied." In reality, most users are not happy with NMCI. Users don't like the idea that they have lost some control over their PC (which now has a lot of network standards to conform to), and that their computers are slower now because of all the network software.
Ultimately, the Department of Defense wants all the services to be able to communicate with each other quickly, easily and at high speed via a special military Internet. But first, each service has to get all of its own people working together. In the navy, this is not working. This failure has been something of a dirty little secret. No sailors or marines wanted to risk their careers by going public about it. That is, except for a navy reservist who happens to be a member of Congress. That would be Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois. He's a reserve officer, and he made public the "user unfriendly" nature of NMCI, and how sailors and marines use civilian Internet resources to avoid having to use the new navy network. Over the next three years, the navy plans to spend some $3.2 billion on NMCI. The navy says it will make NMCI more user friendly. Eventually.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 08:49 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Fred can start the Navy project just as soon as he gets the FBI systems whipped into shape.
#2
In computing, networking and decentralization have two different functions. The function of networking is communications, the function of decentralization is individual efficiency and security.
In truth you cannot have the best of both worlds, and for a logical reason. People can either focus on the task at hand, or they can focus on communicating something with other people.
You can either bake a cake, or argue with a hundred people about *how* you should bake a cake. Reaching agreements, consensus, approvals, and going through the rest of the "process". This shoots the heck out of efficiency and security.
Invariably, people will know a "better way" of doing something than what is available on the network, and individually efficient, they will use that to give themselves better results. But that will conflict with the network.
In other words, this system is doomed to less-than-satisfactory results.
However, the article is wrong on one point. When you are in NMCI, you cannot use a commercial e-mail account like Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail; the system blocks it. If you want to do that, you'll have to step outside the building and find an Internet cafe.
#4
Wow! You mean that if you encrypt every bit, the processing efficiency goes down? Who would have thought of that? ;)
That's why I have a love/hate relationship with firewalls, or as I call them, LIDs (Latency Introduction Devices).
Anonymoose, if you are talking about bureaucratic process, then I'm in agreement. But if you're talking about technology/communications, I've got to disagree at bit. Decentralization increases processing power and efficiency, but as a network scales upward, standardization is critical to network efficiency. Otherwise, you spend all your resources on maintaining a patchwork quilt of a network trying to accommodate a million one-offs.
Pyscho Hillbilly Network Design Engineer
Slayer of Routing Loops
Buyer of Doughnuts on Fridays
Not just the bureaucratic process, but as you said, "standardization is critical to network efficiency."
But that is network efficiency, not individual efficiency.
I see it as like the old argument of speed vs. maneuverability in aircraft. The more stadardized you make the network, the less diverse it becomes, almost by definition.
Remember when corporations used to inspect for employees who would bring their Macintosh to work, because they could do their job so much better on it, than on a networked IBM? They *wanted* to do a better job than the network would allow.
Even today, many corporations routinely confiscate "non-standard hardware" used by people to do their job better, but that is not compatible with the business hardware and software they use. It is a Dilbert-esque nightmare.
So, in the final analysis, network standardization is great for the people upstairs, who work with a limited number of variables to produce similar outcomes. The people down the chain end up having to be forced to "make it fit", even when it is clearly inefficient and inappropriate. And they know a better way.
#6
Anonymoose sayeth: "Remember when corporations used to inspect for employees who would bring their Macintosh to work, because they could do their job so much better on it, than on a networked IBM?"
Oh, you bet I remember. I'm the guy that took 'em out back and shot 'em. Do you know how easy it was to kill a network with Apple Talk!? :) Same thing with IPX on Netware. Notice how they both utilize IP now?
You make some good points and I don't totally disagree with you. Individual initiative and innovation should be encouraged and rewarded for sure and an oppressive bureaucratic process shouldn't stifle it. But you take the winning innovations and adapt them to be compatible with the network as a whole. If the greatest thing since sliced bread kills the network, nobody gets any bread. How efficient is that? Dicking around with a very large scale network, even on a localized level, can set off a catastrophic event cascade. Believe me. I've been there, done that and got the burnt comm gear to prove it.
TOP Indonesian officials have refused to pay tribute to the nine Australians killed last year helping Nias Island's earthquake victims.
As anger mounts over Canberra's granting of visas to West Papuan separatists, a senior Indonesian military spokesman said plans for Sunday's anniversary ceremony had not been approved and it might not take place.
Officials in Jakarta have also delayed signing a $10 million agreement on Australian assistance to fight bird flu and banned Australian Greens senator Kerry Nettle from travelling to West Papua.
Separately, demonstrators have daubed obscenities on the walls of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in protest, as local police stood by in silence.
Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia last Friday in protest at Australia's granting of temporary visas to 43 Papuans who fled in a boat to Cape York in January seeking asylum.
Nationalist Indonesian MPs have since called for diplomatic ties with Australia to be cut, and for their Government to turn a blind eye to illegal immigrants who use Indonesia as a staging point to get to Australia.
The escalating tensions between the two nations come 12 months after the relationship was heralded as reaching new heights in the wake of Australia's aid effort after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and an earthquake last March.
But yesterday, as family members of the Australians killed in the Nias Island helicopter crash prepared to travel to the site for a memorial service, it became clear how far the relationship had deteriorated.
Military and government officials in Jakarta seemed, at best, uninterested in Sunday's service in Tuindrao village, near the west coast of Nias. It was the Australian Defence Force's worst defence loss of life on foreign soil since Vietnam.
And despite the tragedy having last year brought the two countries and their governments close together in grief, Indonesian defence department's chief of international relations Colonel Wahyu Suhendar said last night: "We don't know if we are sending anyone yet."
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last night the Australian Government had no indication from Indonesia about there being a problem with the ceremony.
But in Jakarta, the deputy spokesman for the military, Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki, added that the whole event was still under a cloud.
"At the moment the event has not been cleared," he said. "There is no certainty on whether it's going to be held or not, and that's all I'll say."
Following a massive earthquake on the island on March 28 last year, the ageing navy Sea King helicopter, codenamed Shark 02, was flying a rescue mission with 11 medical personnel and air crew from HMAS Kanimbla when it cartwheeled into the ground and burst into flames.
A crash inquiry has heard a bolt fell out of the helicopter's flight control system. Only two passengers survived, communications specialist Shane Warburton and paramedic Scott Nicholls, who were dragged from the wreckage by villagers.
Still-grieving family members of the victims will travel to the dusty football field where the crash occurred on board an air force C-130 Hercules and HMAS Tobruk, before joining local Indonesian officials in Tuindrao to dedicate a memorial.
Letters requesting senior Indonesian brass to attend were sent several months ago by the Australian Embassy in Jakarta to the chiefs of the navy, air force and army, as well as the foreign ministry.
#2
Indonesia is doing its level best to isolate itself from the rest of the world. They had better think very hard about what they're asking for, or they might get it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 22:12 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Indonesia is doing its level best to isolate itself from the rest of the world. They had better think very hard about what they're asking for, or they might get it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 22:12 Comments ||
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Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Monday the government aimed to produce more armaments to reduce the dependency on foreign imports, but he was quick to add that it had to be realistic with the nation's capability. He said the government had a dream of creating a defence industry with high capabilities in the weaponry and maintenance sector.
"We must be realistic, in other words, whatever that we wish to do and produce must be based on viability. If for instance, we want to manufacture fighter jets, certainly it is beyond our means and reach. But what we can do is, we must take into account the elements of viability," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) in the Dewan Rakyat, here Monday.
Najib, who is also the Defence Minister, said companies which were capable of producing armaments in the country would be given the opportunity to develop the defence industry more systematically. He said the development of the national defence industry would not be a threat to western nations as the capability of the local defence ministry was currently more geared towards activities of installation, production of basic equipment, supervision, maintenance and overhaul.
"The nation is still dependent on foreign suppliers for military hardware such as submarines and fighter aircraft," he said.
Najib said through the defence industry development plan, several medium and small companies were encouraged to be directly involved or they could take part through the vendor development programme. He also admitted that the involvement in the defence industry would generate income and provide good returns for the economy.
(2006-03-27) After a House-passed illegal immigration bill sparked massive protest rallies in Los Angeles and elsewhere over the weekend, Senator Hillary Clinton today introduced legislation that would grant all illegal aliens a new, less judgmental status.
My plan will help pre-legal Americans escape the unfair stigma thats placed on them just because they broke the law, said Sen. Clinton, who last week criticized the House bill which she said would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.
Sen. Clinton, wearing her WWJD? bracelet (the acronym means What Would Jesus Do?), said her bill would make it a felony for employers or border patrol agents to discriminate against people who have not yet been granted immunity or guest worker status.
#4
I've never been a fan of hers, quite the opposite. But this seals her fate. Espousing this shit means the end of her ambition for Prez. Over. Done. Kaput.
#7
shameless, absolutely shameless. I would ask Mrs. Clinton to come down to Southern California and live here for just 3 years and then ask her if she still feels the same way. These greed-infested politicians (Republicans and Democrats) are not going to help the West, not as long as they can achieve power by further allowing it to be raped and plundered. If this problem is to be solved, it will be a grass-roots, Minutemen-styled solution with the help of like-minded Mexican-American cooperation. Bottom line is the Southwest has to solve it's own problems. If D.C. looked like East L.A. then they would tell us it would be "every American's duty" to get involved, but since it doesn't, it's our problem. So, let's deal with it. Are there any Westerners with good ideas?
#8
You don't need to go to California to see illegal aliens.
I live in NEw Jersey.
They are everywhere. Standing on corners providing cheap labor.
We don't need that cheap labor. The jobs these men do are fillable with American Citizens. However citizens expect to be paid a reasonable rate.
Beyond the obvious labor and employment ramifications there is
a major problem here.
As a citizen of New Jersey and a born-here American, I am required by law to carry valid ID at all times. I must carry my drivers license even while walking.
If some part of my auto documentation is off or out of date,
the police take my car away.
Illegal Aliens,by definition do not possess valid ID.
They all have fake ID's and at ;east one county in NEw Jersey had it's county records office closed for selling birth certifcates.
If you were born in Hudson County, your birth certificate is worthless.
Somehow though, enough heads are turned that these illegals are driving cars and owning homes and working with false documents.
This is supposed to make me happy because supposedly they are paying taxes which I will get as Social security payments. That is a laugh.
Their children suck away my child's education by channeling more and more resources to teaching their children english and how to live in a cvilized society , which frankly most claim they are uninterested in and will tell you flat out that they only want to make some money and go home (after 20-30 years at the US teat)
Thus the second largest money making enterprise in Mexico is payments sent in form illegal workers here in the US.
This is an enourmous drain on our economy.
When they get sick they go to a hospital and get treated in an emergency room, the highest priced medical treatment for which the rest of us get the bill.
When found out, they are quite willing to abandon everything and start again in some new location.
Why should I feel sympathy for them?
My ancestors waited in line, came in legally and expressed their LOYALTY to their new nation and their desire to be American citizens.
Their loaylty to our nation runs strong in our immigrant family values.
This is not an attitude promulgated among the ranks of illegal aliens.
Immigrants, migrant workers, and illegal aliens are three different things.
Sneaking in is not immigration.
That your father snuck in , is not an impressive credential.
Meanwhile I need a passport to renew my drivers license.
#9
Very well said 6. The United States offers legal citizenship each year to more immigrants each year than all other countries combined. Why can't we just follow the rules and the law and get'r done.
#10
Non-Mexican migrants 'rent a family' to avoid deportation
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 24, 2006
Migrants sneaking illegally into the United States from countries other than Mexico are renting families -- mostly small children -- to ensure that if they are apprehended, they won't be deported, but released back into the United States, a top immigration official said yesterday.
The "rent-a-family" scheme, said John P. Torres, director of the Office of Detention and Removal at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is being used by alien smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border -- mainly in Texas -- to circumvent a new expedited-removal program for non-Mexican aliens, whose arrest under existing deportation policies had become known as "catch-and-release."
"They are passing themselves off as a family, paying to have children smuggled with them across the border, because the smugglers know we're not going to break up a family for the deportation process," Mr. Torres said. "They're renting babies -- the younger the better -- including those not yet of speaking age.
"They get processed as a family and released together, under the law, pending an immigration hearing," Mr. Torres said.
He said the cost to the migrants for renting a family is in the "thousands of dollars" -- in addition to the $1,500 to $2,000 they are paying per person to be taken across the border.
Mr. Torres said the children are being rented out by families along the border, and authorities are not sure how they are being returned after crossing into the United States. But, he said, some of the children are being rented more than once.
He said immigration authorities also are concerned that as the summer months approach and the temperatures in the border areas climb, the children could be in increased jeopardy.
Because of a lack of detention space, most of the other-than-Mexico migrants, known as OTMs, caught illegally entering the United States are given notices to appear at immigration status hearings and allowed to stay in the country legally until their hearing.
OTMs must be flown back to their home countries, a process that often takes months.
But only about 12 percent of OTMs who receive the notices show up, with U.S. Border Patrol sectors in Texas reporting no-show rates as high as 98 percent. The expedited-removal program, as mandated by Congress, is available for non-Mexican migrants apprehended in this country within 14 days of entry and within 100 miles of the border, providing they have no criminal record.
Mr. Torres described the expedited-removal program as a legal process that allows ICE to remove illegal aliens without a formal hearing before an immigration judge if they have no credible claim to asylum or any other relief from deportation. He said non-Mexican migrants who are detained are placed into streamlined proceedings, allowing the government to deport them in an average of 32 days, nearly three times faster than the previous deportation process.
Illegal aliens from Mexico are usually returned across the border within hours if they have no criminal record, and while U.S. immigration authorities -- facing a flood of illegal aliens -- have not been hesitant to subject individual OTMs to the expedited-removal process, they have been reluctant to break up non-Mexican migrant families because of a lack of detention space to house them as a unit.
"This rent-a-family scheme is simply an effort to defeat the expedited-removal program because it is working," Mr. Torres said.
The numbers of OTMs illegally crossing into the United States has increased steadily in the past several years. More than 160,000 were apprehended last year, Mr. Torres said, compared with 75,000 in 2004. He noted that ICE has about 20,000 detention beds to house the aliens, each costing the government an average of about $95 a day to maintain.
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.
A family brewery in the Czech Republic has opened the worlds first beer health centre in its cellar. The Chodovar Family brewery in Chodova Plana offers beer baths, beer massages and beer cosmetics.
ABUJA, Nigeria -- Liberian warlord and former President 
was creating a panel to investigate Taylor's disappearance on Monday night. The statement raised the possibility he might have been abducted, but did not elaborate. 
Since agreeing Saturday to hand Taylor over, Obasanjo had been under pressure to ensure Taylor was sent to the U.N. tribunal sitting in Sierra Leone. Taylor had escaped from a U.S. penitentiary in Boston to launch Liberia's war. On Monday, State Department spokesman 
...At the conference, the following five major "hostile forces" were announced: 
Mar 28, 2006 (DVB) - The spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and avian flu has become worse in Burma due to draconian restrictions by the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), according to a report published by US medical experts on 27 March. The 80-pages report which was jointly researched and written by Dr. Chris Beyer and six other medical experts from John Hopkins Bloomberg Universitys School of Public Health, details the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and bird flu in Burma. 
LAHORE: About two dozen senior officials of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) have either been fired or removed from the department on corruption charges in the last 18 months, sources told Daily Times on Monday.
PESHAWAR: An Accountability Court (AC) on Monday sent the two government officials involved in quake relief fund scam to jail on a judicial remand. The NAB arrested Saifur Rehman, a patwari, and Mir Dad Khan, a general councillor, on March 9, 2006. They were accused of releasing money from the President's Relief Fund for earthquake victims to their relatives and acquaintances on fake national identity cards in Namli Maira in Abbottabad district. The officials were presented in the AC after the completion of their 18-day physical remand. The NAB prosecutor told the court that the bureau had completed its investigations and the accused were no longer required for investigation.
Countries affected by the south Asian tsunami should have a warning system against sea surges in place by July, the UN's top humanitarian official promised Monday at the start of a UN conference here. The early alert system will not cover every community in the vast area that was devastated by killer waves on December 26, 2004, but should function on a national and regional level, UN Under Secretary Jan Egeland told reporters. "I think we will have a warning system operational from July. It does not mean every villager in every community will have a system to warn him or her, but we will have regional and national systems," he said. Egeland was speaking at the start of the Third Conference on Early Warning, a UN gathering designed to improve how alerts about natural disasters are sent out to authorities and the public.
March 28, 2006: The U.S. Navy's new computer network is so unfriendly that many sailors and marines are communicating via commercial email accounts. How can this be? 
