A California judge sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail Friday for violating her probation, putting the brakes on the hotel heiress' famous high life.
Hilton, who parlayed her name and relentless partying into worldwide notoriety, must go to jail on June 5 and she will not be allowed any work release, no furloughs, no use of an alternative jail and no electronic monitoring in lieu of jail, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled after a hearing. The judge ruled that she was in violation of the terms of her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.
"I'm very sorry and from now on I'm going to pay complete attention to everything. I'm sorry and I did not do it on purpose all," she told the judge before announced the sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#4
Ace notes: 45 days in jail, which translates in Paris-time to roughly three DUIs, two naked v*gina Ferarri shots, and a whirlwind romance/broken engagement with the Detroit Pistons.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 11:46 Comments ||
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#5
At least she has money and looks,
Well, money at least, looks no.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
05/05/2007 11:58 Comments ||
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#9
An Appeal is not automatic. Appeals courts NEVER hear appeals unless there is a controversy of law or fact, and RARELY reverse decisions on fact. It is a fact Miss Airhead was caught driving while under license suspension and admitted same. She is going to jail. I wonder if female cons have "bitches."
#11
I assume the Paris doll, unlike Barbie, is anatomically correct
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 20:05 Comments ||
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#12
Tip for Paris. Martha Stewart says a thoughtful introductory gift for the Boss Dyke goes a long way towards easing the transition into prison life. A lovely velvet fisting glove perhaps...
#4
So the Islamo choked his favorite goat, eh ? I hope he immediately trotted to the nearest moskke and started banging his head onto the floor uncontrollably.
(SomaliNet) The transitional federal government Friday issued an order banning the civilians from driving cars with tinted windows inside the capital giving them ultimatum of three days to remove the colored goblets as the forces deployed in the streets of the city establish the security.
'Pimp My Ride', Somali style.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the new governor of Banadir and mayor of Mogadishu, General Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid the commander of Somalia police said anyone who is found driving cars with colored glasses will be seen as peace killers and will face penalty. We are warning the civilians not to use tinted glass cars inside the city and we are giving them three days to comply with the governments order, added. Three days after, anyone who is seen driving these cars will be punished,
The move he said is aimed to restore peace and security in Mogadishu after 16 years of anarchy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Somalias interim government is planning to include some of the former anti-terror alliance members in the cabinet ministers, unconfirmed reports say on Friday. The reports added that Somalia Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi is planning to reshuffle his cabinet bring in some former warlords in the government.
"One for you, one for me. One for you, two for me ..."
Muse Sudi Yalahow and Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, former warlords but now members of parliament are expected to be appointed for ministerial posts. Other individuals who are expected to receive posts in the government include Nor Hassan Daqlo, former Islamist member and Abdi Nore Siad, one of the founders of the former anti-terror alliance.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that many of the 365,000 Somalis who fled the capital Mogadishu over the past several months are still battling hunger and even cholera.
We don't have these problems in Presbyterian countries.
But a lull in heavy fighting and help from the government would allow the WFP to more than triple the number of people receiving emergency food rations in the coming days, it said. We have to help these people now. Women, children and the elderly are sheltering from the rain under trees and cholera is spreading, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.
The UN agency said it delivered food to 32,000 people west of Mogadishu last week. It hoped to reach at least 100,000 people soon, including 42,000 people in Merka, who were due receive food today. It also planned to deliver aid to previously inaccessible areas. It cited Qoryoley, west of Mogadishu, and Brava, some 220 kilometres to the south.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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One soldier died as local forces ousted national troops to take control of the second largest of the Comoros islands, which have seen 19 successful or attempted coups since independence in 1975, authorities said on Friday.
"What time is it, Mahmoud?"
"'bout that time."
"Yup."
Clashes began on Wednesday when police loyal to the outgoing president of Anjouan island, Mohamed Bacar, attacked national soldiers who had taken over official buildings to install an interim replacement mandated by a constitutional court.
As local forces got the upper hand to keep Bacar in power, a 25-year-old soldier was killed late on Thursday trying to flee near Mromhuli village, Information Minister Mmadi Ali said. "When he was trying to escape by boat with about 10 other soldiers to get to Grande Comore island, they were attacked by forces loyal to the president of Anjouan island [Bacar], and the soldier was killed," he told Reuters.
The power struggle on Anjouan has highlighted rivalries on the Indian Ocean archipelago, whose three main islands share a rotating national presidency but retain autonomy under local leadership under the terms of a 2001 peace deal. The latest trouble was sparked when Comoros' constitutional court said last week that Bacar's five-year term on Anjouan had expired, and ordered him to step down ahead of June elections. Witnesses on Anjouan told Reuters on Friday that after two days of fighting, Bacar had regained complete control of the island, and his police had confiscated the arms and vehicles of a small government army contingent of about 30 soldiers.
The shooting of previous days had subsided, but Anjouan locals were braced for it to flare at any time, as the national government considered sending reinforcements to try and remove Bacar, inhabitants said. In a further sign of widening instability across Comoros, national military head Said Hamza was deposed this week by his own officers, apparently for supporting Bacar, officials said.
The African Union condemned the use of force on Anjouan, saying in a statement local police had "seriously threatened the unity and national sovereignty of the Comoros".
First settled by Arab seafarers 1 000 years ago, and later a haven for pirates pillaging ships in the Indian Ocean, the rocky Comoros islands were annexed by France in 1904. Since 1975, Comoros has become infamous for its coups and coup attempts -- four aided by French mercenary Bob Denard, including one in which he and his accomplices arrived at night on inflatable boats. With a population of 670 000, the Comoros used to rely on exports of vanilla, cloves and ylang ylang oil. But a slump in prices for these commodities has left it increasingly dependent on remittances from abroad and donor aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned Zimbabwe's Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly critical of him, that they are treading a "dangerous path", according to reports published on Friday. Mugabe's comments, in the state-run Herald newspaper, come after a pastoral letter was read out by the country's Catholic bishops on Sunday calling for a new people-driven constitution to avert bloodshed and mass uprising. "Once [the bishops] turn political, we regard them as no longer spiritual and our relations with them would be conducted as if we are dealing with political entities, and this is quite a dangerous path they have chosen for themselves," Mugabe told the Herald.
The autocratic 83-year-old, himself a Catholic, is blamed for Zimbabwe's current political and economic crisis that has reduced what was once one of Africa's success stories into a country in meltdown. Zimbabwe has world-record inflation, joblessness hovering over 80% and chronic shortages of foreign currency, fuel and cooking oil. In their letter, the Catholic leaders said that the crisis in Zimbabwe was "in essence, a crisis of governance and a crisis of leadership apart from being a spiritual and moral crisis".
"If I had gone to church and the priest had read that so-called pastoral letter, I would have stood up and said nonsense," Mugabe said, adding: "It is not something spiritual, it is not religious, the bishops have decided to turn political".
Mugabe said he would talk to some of the bishops but attacked one of his outspoken critics, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo. "He [Ncube] thinks he is close to God, that's why he says he is praying for me to die. But unfortunately, God has not listened to him for all this duration. I don't know how many times a day he is saying that prayer: Please, God, take that man Robert Mugabe away from us'."
Mugabe said the church and the state must work hand in hand, but "if this is going to be the partner the Catholics want us to have, then obviously they must know we will reciprocate as politicians".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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The law enforcers yesterday attached moveable properties of former state minister and LDP presidium member Redwan Ahmed from his house at Matadda village in Chandina upazila. Chandina police went to Redwan's house at the instruction of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Dhaka, as the LDP leader did not appear before the court in a case filed against him with Uttara Police Station under the Narcotics Control Act. During the three hours raid from 10:00am to 1:00pm, police attached nine items including furniture. During the raid, no one but Redwan's mother was in the house. Redwan's name was on the second list of 50 graft suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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A local Jubo League leader, who was arrested by navy personnel on Thursday, died at Teknaf Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar early yesterday. Navy men picked up Janangir Alam, 32, vice-president of Jubo League Hnila union unit, from Hnila bus station on Thursday noon on charges of criminal activities and repression on woman. They handed him over to Teknaf Police Station at 7:00 in the evening. "Got a present for yez, Officer Friendly!"
"Wowzers! Wossa motta wid him?"
"Fell down the stairs."
"How many times?"
"Eleven."
"After Jahangir was handed over we took him instantly to hospital as his condition was not well. He was taken back to police station after giving first aid there," said Kamrul Hasan, acting officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station. Signs of torture including bruises were found on different parts of his body. "Cheeze, that musta been a long flight of stairs!"
"Ow."
Confirming that there were signs of torture and clotted blood in Jahangir's body, on-duty doctor Shamsul Islam said, "We suggested Jahangir's admission to hospital when the police brought him for treatment earlier in the evening. As they did not agree, Jahangir was treated with painkillers and medicine for diabetes." "Here. Give him an aspirin."
"Hokay. What's this stuff?"
"Insulin."
"I'll give him some of that, too!"
Jahangir died soon after police took him to the Teknaf hospital for the second time at around 12:00 midnight as his condition deteriorated. "Hey! What happened to him this time?"
"Fell down the stairs again. You got any more aspirin?"
"Nope. All out."
"I'll just give him some more insulin, then. That seemed to help."
"Rosebud!"
Family members alleged that Jahangir died due to torture by navy men. Denying the allegation of torture, Lt Commander Mustafa of navy claimed that Jahangir was well when he was handed over to police. "Yeah. He wuz breathing when we gave him to the cops!"
"Wuz not!"
"Wuz, too!"
The body was sent to Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital for autopsy after a three-member team comprising Magistrate Ahmad Hossain and Additional Superintendent of Police Imam Hossain conducted an inquest report. "Another one, Doctor Quincy!"
"Gosh, Sam! I didn't know Rab was working tonight!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeesh.
"OK. Send him back to the police now."
"Why?"
"He's still breathing."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's party risked losing control of the Scottish parliament to a pro-independence rival on Friday and his government also suffered losses in local elections. Thursday's elections to councils in England, the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly were the last chance for 39 million voters to give their verdict on Blair's decade in power.
Blair's popularity has slumped due to the Iraq war and a series of political scandals, and he is expected to announce next week he will leave office by July. Finance minister Gordon Brown, a 56-year-old Scot, is almost certain to succeed him. With results likely to dribble in throughout Friday it was too early to call the Scottish parliament vote but there were clear signs of a swing to the Scottish National Party (SNP).
With 74 of the 129 seats decided the SNP gained 12 and Labour lost seven. Opinion polls had suggested the SNP, which wants independence from Britain, could oust Labour as the biggest party in the parliament. The opposition Conservatives took comfort from a BBC projection that showed its share of the national vote had risen to 41 percent, above a 40-percent threshold deemed necessary to win a parliamentary election. "Not a brilliant night for us but certainly not a brilliant night for (Conservative leader) David Cameron. He's not got the surge he needs to sweep us out of power," said Labour Party chairman Hazel Blears. Blair has been Labour's most successful leader, winning three parliamentary elections in a row. But polls suggest voters have lost trust in him since he took Britain into the Iraq war.
SNP leader Alex Salmond has pledged to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2010 if his party wins control of the Edinburgh parliament.
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05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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LIUPU, China Last year, finally, everyone in Liupu village was able to read and write 1,500 Chinese characters, a census showed. Village leaders threw a big dinner to celebrate, presenting commemorative teacups to the last two adults to make the grade. But ask Zhao Huapu, the earnest principal of Liupu Shezu Girls School, how many people here can actually read and write, and he gives an embarrassed smile. Nearly 30 percent of Liupus adults are illiterate. Thats just reality. ... A lot of them cant read and write, said Zhao, who acknowledged that the census is based on a test that fails to measure adult literacy accurately.
Illiteracy is increasing in China, despite a 50-year-old campaign to stamp it out and a declaration by the government in 2000 that it had been nearly eradicated. The reasons are complex, from the cost of a rural education to the growing appeal of migrant work that draws Chinese away from classrooms and toward far-off cities. In many cases, as in this farming hamlet in Chinas southern Guizhou province, villagers whose education ended in elementary school have simply forgotten basic skills. From 2000-05, the number of illiterate Chinese adults jumped by 33 percent, from 87 million to 116 million, the state-run China Daily reported this month. The newspaper noted that even before the increase, Chinas illiterate population had accounted for 11.3 percent of the worlds total.
The situation is worrying, Gao Xbuegui, director of the Education Ministrys illiteracy eradication office, told China Daily, blaming the increase on changing attitudes toward knowledge in a market economy. Illiteracy is not only a matter of education but also has a great social impact. Gaos remarks echoed concerns voiced by literacy researchers and served as a reminder of the challenges facing Chinas mostly rural population. This country is proud of its traditional focus on education, as well as more recent efforts to raise standards, such as passage of a law that says every child has the right to nine years of schooling. Yet in many rural areas, such schooling remains unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
In 2000, officials announced that the illiteracy rate in Tibet, the worst in China, had dropped to roughly 42 percent from 95 percent about 50 years earlier. From 2001-05, China educated nearly 10 million adults who couldnt read and write, the Education Ministry said in September. Authorities have also boasted of higher enrollment figures in primary and middle schools. Experts, however, contend that official reports are sometimes unreliable. Local officials are pressured to inflate enrollment figures, and students who are enrolled often dont bother to show up, they say. There are also questions about how literacy statistics are gathered. In Liupu, for example, Zhao and other local leaders go door-to-door each September, asking the villages roughly 300 families how many people are in each household and what type of education they have. Those who can show they have graduated from primary school are not counted as illiterate, regardless of whether they can actually read or write.
Literacy in China is defined according to an exam taken in fourth grade. Even if villagers pass that exam, they frequently do not pursue further education. Having no reason to read and write, many forget the skills. This is especially true of ethnic minorities, rural women and young dropouts, according to researchers. Its undeniable that theres a relapse, but what the number is, is hard to tell, said Guo Hongxia, a scholar at the China National Institute for Educational Research. Hu Xingdou, a sociologist and professor of economics and China issues at Beijing Institute of Technology, suggested that the problem is related to the perceived benefits of education.
Farmers dont see a bright future from receiving more education, he said. Many believe it wont help them much in making money. They also cant afford to send their children to university, and a university degree no longer guarantees a job after graduation. When career advancement depends upon insider connections, what you know is of little worth compared to who you know. Farmers are expected to learn at least 1,500 characters, according to state education regulations. Urban residents should master 2,000. Teachers in Beijing often tell students they need to know 3,000 characters to read a newspaper. College graduates are tested on 7,000 characters or more. In Liupu, located at the end of a three-mile-long, potholed dirt road, many of those who cant read and write are older, homebound women. Members of the Shezu ethnic minority, they speak their own dialect and have had little formal education. Researchers say that illiteracy is not confined to older generations, an assertion borne out in Liupu.
Zhao Xianghua, 15, said half of her friends cant read. She boards during the week at a county school that charges $50 a year in tuition, but she has friends who dont have the same luxury. Several are already out working, she said, and when they come back to visit and we hang out, I can feel the distance between us. The main test of literacy in China will be officials ability to follow up with students and cement any gains, said Hu, the professor, who complained that adults are often taught only how to pass a test. Its like planting trees to make a forest, Hu said. Many people plant trees, but few take care of them, and finally the trees die before becoming a forest. Chinas reliance upon a complex and archaic ideographic alphabet is only part of the story. High illiteracy rates are the direct result of a government more focused upon military ascendancy than improving the daily life of its citizens. This is the true downside of elitisms inherent corruption and graft. Communism takes its toll in so many different ways. A system that relies upon an ignorant, untaught population to be more pliant and tractable is essentially committing a vast crime against humanity. Be certain that towering Chinese pride will obstruct any possible shift over to something so logical as English as a primary language. Imagine the huge drain upon resources that accompanies teaching, learning and using a vocabulary of between three and four thousand individual pictograms required for basic literacy.
China is only beginning to pay the piper for its monumental incompetence and ham-fisted mismanagement. Massive bad bank debt arising from insider networks is an economic millstone to the potential tune of one trillion dollars. The worlds worst medically caused AIDS epidemic promises a vast plague to come. With 16 out of 20 of the worlds most polluted cities, massive ecological damage is beginning to take its toll in respiratory disease and low quality of life. Ill-conceived and shoddily built civil engineering projects like Three Gorges Dam posing the unnerving prospect of manmade disasters on an unheard of scale. Copyright infringement, copycat theft of technology and institutionalized piracy of intellectual property stifle real innovation. Transfer of previously state-owned industries into the hands of PLA insiders with zero management skills has proven an economic disaster as well.
All of these horribly corrupt and avoidable catastrophes promise China one disaster after another in the near term. International corporations obsessed with bottom line profits continue to shutter their domestic industries in favor of steering jobs into Chinas cheap labor pool. By flaunting sound management practices, manipulating its currency and avoiding even a pretense of ecological stewardship, China gains a hugely unfair economic and competitive advantage. The penalties for such sloth and mismanagement are not felt amid the higher echelons of the privileged elite, neither in China nor elsewhere. The shift of so many previously industrialized nations over to service based economies bespeaks a profound loss of manufacturing ingenuity and productivity that will be exceptionally difficult to re-establish once Chinas bloated bubble economy finally implodes.
#1
It must be mentioned that Red China uses a significantly simplified character set compared to classic Chinese, and yet cannot manage to educate a significant number of its people. Contrast this to Taiwan, which uses only classic Chinese, and yet according to the CIA World Factbook has a literacy rate of 96%.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 20:14 Comments ||
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#7
btw - I meant no disrespect to you, Jackal, just teasing :-). I've had more than my share of misspellings, especially with "teh". For some reason my brain/fingers wanna type "the" out of order. How hard is "the" to type? Jeebus
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 20:19 Comments ||
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#8
It is, as Seafarious says, Lysdexia. I have a similar problem, and teh or hte are among my worst...
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/05/2007 21:11 Comments ||
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#11
Ditto for RUSSIA vv Gubmint failures in local mass-education efforts for citizens; + waves of LEGAL + ILLEGAL Muslim + Chinese + Norkie-Other Asian immigration, ala KOMMERSANT + GAZETA.RU.
#13
Some of the money quotes from xbalanke's superb link. Be sure to read the whole article. It's one of the best I've seen in ages.
But Chinas success is, at least in part, a mirage. True, 200 million of her subjects, fortunate to be working for an expanding global market, increasingly enjoy a middle-class standard of living. The remaining 1 billion, however, remain among the poorest and most exploited people in the world, lacking even minimal rights and public services. Popular discontent simmers, especially in the countryside, where it often flares into violent confrontation with Communist Party authorities. Chinas economic miracle is rotting from within.
The Partys primary concern is not improving the lives of the downtrodden; it seeks power more than it seeks social development. It expends extraordinary energy in suppressing Chinese freedomsthe media operate under suffocating censorship, and political opposition can result in expulsion or prisoneven as it tries to seduce the West, which has conferred greater legitimacy on it than do the Chinese themselves.
The Communist Party is no less mendacious when it comes to Chinas AIDS epidemic. The problem is gravest in the province of Henan, where vast numbers of poor peasants contracted AIDS during the nineties from selling their blood plasma (a trade generally controlled by Party members) and then having the blood, sans plasma but pooled with that of other donors, reinfused, absent HIV testsa recipe for massive contamination. The AIDS sufferers of Henan are now dying in the hundreds of thousands, trapped in their impoverished villages with no one to care for them.
The governments initial reaction was to deny any problem, isolate AIDS-affected areas, and let the sick die (a pattern that initially repeated itself when SARS broke out in the country).
Police barred entry to the contaminated villages, and new maps of Henan appeared without the villages, as if they had vanished into thin air. But after the international press became aware of the growing crisis, the Party banned the blood trade (though it enforced the prohibition fitfully) and in 2000 at last officially acknowledged the existence of AIDS on Chinese soil.
Villagers often told me that it wasnt the local Party secretary whom they most hated but rather the family-planning agents. To ensure the proper implementation of Chinas single-child policy (in some provinces, the limit is two children, if the first is a girl), the agents keep close watch on childbearing women, often subjecting them to horrific violence. In 2005, a family-planning squad targeted the city of Linyi and its surrounding rural area, in the Shandong Province, because the population had far exceeded the Partys child quota. The agents kidnapped 17,000 women, forcing abortions on those who were pregnantin some cases, immersing seven- to eight-month-old fetuses in boiling waterand sterilizing those who werent. The agents tortured the Linyi men until they revealed the hiding places of their daughters and wives.
Many goods that China produces are worthless, Mao Yushi reminds meespecially those made by public companies. About 100,000 such Chinese enterprises continue to run in the old Maoist style, churning out substandard products because theyve got to hit the targets that the Party sets and provide employment to those the Party cannot dismiss, not because theyre responding to any market demand. Most public-sector firms dont even have real accounting procedures, so theres no way of ascertaining profitability. China is not a market economy, Mao says bluntly.
The Party gives the banks lists of people to whom loans should go, and the rationale is frequently political or personal, not economic. Indeed, in many cases, banks are not to ask for repayment. That investment decisions obey political considerations and not the law of the market is the Chinese economys central flaw, responsible at least in part, Mao Yushi believes, for the large number of empty office buildings and infrequently used new airports and an unemployment rate likely closer to 20 percent than to the officially acknowledged 3.5 percent.
Another factor that is rarely discussed involves the disparity between urban and rural wages. For first world nations like the USA, this gap is usually around 1.2:1 or 1.5:1 at most. China's has been assessed at anything from 3:1 to 5:1. Earlier sources addressing the 1990s have protrayed this key economic indicator at as much as 10:1 to a whopping 17:1. Even 3:1 competes with such economic hell holes as Zimbabwe or Middle East tyrannies.
It is this sort of income disparity that betrays China's dirty economic secrets. The 200 million citizens who enjoy a Western lifestyle do so at the detriment of the other ONE BILLION Chinese peasants. Many of that 200 million achieve their status only due to government paid expenses and subsidy for their services as political "aparatchiks".
China's image as an economic powerhouse is a vast facade in danger of crumbling at the least bit of destabilizing force. The West continues to prop up this monstrous regime and must share in the blame for its crimes against humanity.
Airbus said Friday it has once again raised the break-even point for the troubled A380. In 2005, Airbus was saying that it would need to sell only 270 of the planes to break even. Last year, that jumped to 420 planes as a result of costly wiring problems that delayed delivery of the A380 by up to two years.
Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois said Friday at the annual shareholder meeting of parent company European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. that the break-even point for the A380 has been raised, but he did not disclose to new figure. "Clearly because of the difficulties of the A380, the break-even point has increased," Gallois said. EADS for now isn't giving specific targets on the number of A380s it needs to sell to break even on the project, he said.
France risks violence and brutality if right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy wins Sunday's presidential election, his Socialist opponent Segolene Royal said on Friday.
On the last day of official campaigning, opinion polls showed Sarkozy enjoyed a commanding lead over Royal, who accused the former interior minister of lying and polarizing France.
On the last day of official campaigning, opinion polls showed Sarkozy enjoyed a commanding lead over Royal, who accused the former interior minister of lying and polarizing France. "Choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice," Royal told RTL radio. "It is my responsibility today to alert people to the risk of (his) candidature with regards to the violence and brutality that would be unleashed in the country (if he won)," she said.
Pressed on whether there would actually be violence, Royal said: "I think so, I think so," referring specifically to France's volatile suburbs hit by widespread rioting in 2005.
A relaxed Sarkozy laughed off her comments.
"She's not in a good mood this morning. It must be the opinion polls."
"She's not in a good mood this morning. It must be the opinion polls," he told Europe 1 radio.
Royal went on the offensive during a fiery television debate between the two on Wednesday night when Sarkozy, portrayed as ruthlessly ambitious by his opponents, questioned whether she was calm enough to become France's first woman president. Sarkozy's performance buttressed his lead in the polls and a TNS Sofres survey published on Friday showed him at 54.5 percent, compared to 45.5 percent for the Socialist. An IPSOS poll, the last of the campaign, put him even further ahead on 55 percent to Royal's 45. "It is hard to imagine the trend being reversed," TNS Sofres deputy head Brice Teinturier told a news conference.
British bookmaker William Hill said bets on the election had been pouring in, with big money going on Sarkozy; one man had put 18,900 pounds ($37,660) on him winning the presidency.
This article starring:
Nicolas Sarkozy
Segolene Royal
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Sark is a dastardly pro-USA Fascist Male Brute he is, as proven by WORLD NEWS > NO MATTER WHERE THEY LIVE, MEN CHEAT THE WORLD OVER.
#9
Tony Essono, 32, an unemployed economist whose parents emigrated from Cameroon before he was born, said that despite years of anger and discrimination, people in La Courneuve were willing to put their faith in the ballot box "because they understand they can change something" by voting. But, he added, "if Sarkozy is elected, it means we haven't been heard, and we'll trash everything."
Full debate in youtube format, tantrum in the 12th segment; note that she doesn't really meltdown, she gets all obessive and weird and aggressive. Anyway, she's a mean bossy enarch b*tch, people who worked under her, not basic employees but upper management and all, have either sued her for harassment, or even written a book for one woman (long interview in french at Dailymotion) in which she's described as an incomptetent bully. IIUC, her "mommy knows best" public image is partly due to the coaching of an US PR firm that is close to, tadda!, the clintons.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/05/2007 14:40 Comments ||
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#15
Royal, who accused the former interior minister of lying and polarizing France.
A France that is polarized against Muslims might have the barest chance of survival. Immediate measures need to be taken to reverse the damage done by Eurabian Pact politics. Any absence of such strides will pretty much doom the French.
#17
Ah, te unemployed economist! Xhanxces are he is a first year dropout. Context: In France you can enter university meraly by completing high school.
So your unmployed economist spent ayear in university doing far left politics and in exams at end of first year had not single note above 5 (in France notes go from 0 to 20) so he was cast out along with the 80% of fake students who plague first year classes (being student allows getting lower prices in theaters and a lot of other things).
#21
yep a rioting economist. Where's .com's cognitive dissonance graphic?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 20:03 Comments ||
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#22
It might actually be better if Smego wins, then France will go down the tubes more quickly and it might alert the rest of Europe about the perils of Allan.
Turkey's ruling party has formally submitted a package of major reforms to parliament, including a proposal to elect the president by a popular vote, following a political crisis that triggered mass protests. Officials from the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) said Friday that the raft of reforms was backed by a small opposition party, the Motherland Party, which has long advocated the popular vote.
The reform draft was submitted late on Thursday and followed a crisis sparked by parliament's failure a week ago to elect a president, amid widespread secular opposition to the sole candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist. The fallout forced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bow to opposition calls for early general elections. Parliament Thursday approved bringing the polls forward to July 22 from November.
AKP officials say they would like to rush the reform package through parliament, so that the first-round of a popular presidential vote could be held simultaneously with the legislative elections. Other proposals include modifying the presidency to run for a once-renewable, five-year mandate instead of the current single, seven-year term, and the holding of general elections every four years instead of the current five.
This article starring:
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
Justice and Development Party
Motherland Party
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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RIA Novosti) - Russia's upper house voted unanimously Friday to retain a Red Army banner for ceremonies like Victory parades. The Federation Council approved a law, which retains the red banner with the hammer and sickle - the world
"Our fathers and grandfathers fought with the red banner with the hammer and sickle. It was hoisted on the Reichstag, and the symbol of Victory must be preserved."
famous symbol of the former Soviet Union - like the one Soviet troops hoisted on the Reichstag following victory over Nazi Germany in May 1945.
The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, proposed red banners with white five-pointed stars for ceremonies to commemorate the victory in a bill adopted April 6, overriding the upper chamber's veto. The Duma, dominated by the Kremlin-backed United Russia party, adopted an amended bill April 25 after President Vladimir Putin rejected the original version. "Our fathers and grandfathers fought with the red banner with the hammer and sickle," Nikolai Ryzhkov, a Federation Council member, said. "It was hoisted on the Reichstag, and the symbol of Victory must be preserved." Long live the neo-Soviet Union!
#1
A'Mighty Fascist of dem dar Communists - okay, I'll bite, who forgot to put Adolf + Leibnitz, plus Washington + Jefferson + Reagan + ....+ Rush Limbaugh, etal. on the flag???
In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol: Homeland security upgrades, a higher minimum wage and student loan interest rate cuts all passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. But now that initial progress has foundered as Washington policymakers have been consumed with the debate over the Iraq war. Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them.
"We cannot be a one-trick pony," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who helped engineer his party's takeover of Congress as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "People voted for change, but Iraq, the economy and Washington, D.C., [corruption] all tied for first place. We need to do them all."
The "Six for '06" policy agenda on which Democrats campaigned last year was supposed to consist of low-hanging fruit, plucked and put in the basket to allow Congress to move on to tougher targets. House Democrats took just 10 days to pass a minimum-wage increase, a bill to implement most of the homeland security recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, a measure allowing federal funding for stem cell research, another to cut student-loan rates, a bill allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, and a rollback of tax breaks for oil and gas companies to finance alternative-energy research. The Senate struck out on its own, with a broad overhaul of the rules on lobbying Congress.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2007 15:47 ||
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#1
"People understand the Democrats in Congress are doing everything in their power to move an agenda forward, doing everything possible to change direction in the war in Iraq, and the president is standing in the way," he said.
That's right! Even with control of both houses of Congress, you still can't get past the dumb cowboy! After all, he vetoed - what? - one bill this year? So how has he blocked all the rest?
WaPo, front page, Saturday, too.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/05/2007 16:05 Comments ||
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#2
In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol: Homeland security upgrades...
WTF? Can someone please explain to me how attempting to eviscerate the PATRIOT act, block legislation protecting passengers making reports to law officers, etc. constitute "homeland security upgrades"?
#3
Well, there is Nancy P. going to Syria. That takes time. And then there is Harry. He's go to try to convince us that we have lost the war. That takes time. Don't forget the time it takes to bash Bush for everything from Katrina to the Kansas tornado.
#4
FREEREPUBLIC Poster > RACE TO THE LEFT > RACE TO USA's SELF-DESTRUCTION > GOP-DEM DEBATES IS BETWEEN LEFT VS FAR/ULTRA-LEFT, NOT Right vz Left, GOP vz Dem, etc.
PEARL HARBOR > akin to Amers waving in celebration at Japanese attack planes, i.e. "Thank you for sinking our battleships, Thank you for killing and wounding our soldiers sailors, and civilians - make sure you come back and attack us tomorrow where we'll have more people, more ships and planes for you to shoot at, bomb and destroy. Iff you do enuff damage or casualties to us, we'll have a big fiesta in your honor. DON'T FORGET TO BOMB WAKE, MIDWAY, SAN DIEGO AND SEATTLE ON YOUR WAY HOME".
Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that disasters such as worldwide famine and an obesity epidemic could destroy the U.S. health care system unless politicians begin to look ahead and cooperate.
Clinton, speaking at a forum sponsored by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said governments fail to act even when disasters are anticipated because leaders are distracted by fulfilling campaign promises and scrambling to respond to immediate emergencies. Big-picture planning gets "crowded out," he said.
"This is coming," Clinton said. "And I know there is no great political constituency for it, but we can avert these disasters for not very much money if they can be put into the public debate and people understand clearly what's going to happen."
This article starring:
Bill Clinton
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
COASTTOCOASTAM > alleged photo near moon of PLANET X??? Last nite > guest DAVID BOOTH still holds to his dream/vision of a massive planetary object passing between Earth + Moon. D *** ng it, anuther space object refuses to surrender to OWG Nuremburg Enviro crimes trials - sigh, iff only humanity will unilater or voluntarily kill off or eliminate 5.0 Bilyuuuhn-plus of its own!
#7
I can see him now, walking the streets with a sandwich sign on that reads, "The End is Near!" and handingout tracts. "Gloom, Despair, and Agony on ME. Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery!"
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/05/2007 11:04 Comments ||
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#8
wanna lose 150 lbs of ugly fat? Divorce her
heh
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/05/2007 11:05 Comments ||
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#9
Bill's telling the truth, a second "Clinton Presidency" would indeed be a earthshaking disaster.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2007 11:09 Comments ||
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Slick willy must be warning us of the all the dire stuff that will happen if Hillary gets elected.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Transportation Security Administration has lost a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employees.
Authorities realized Thursday the hard drive was missing from a controlled area at TSA headquarters. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley sent a letter to employees Friday apologizing for the lost data and promising to pay for one year of credit monitoring services. ``TSA has no evidence that an unauthorized individual is using your personal information, but we bring this incident to your attention so that you can be alert to signs of any possible misuse of your identity,'' Hawley wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press. ``We profoundly apologize for any inconvenience and concern that this incident has caused you.''
The agency said it did not know whether the device is still within headquarters or was stolen. TSA said it has asked the FBI and Secret Service to investigate and said it would fire anyone discovered to have violated the agency's data-protection policies.
In a statement released Friday night, the agency said the external - or portable - hard drive contained information on employees who worked for the Homeland Security agency from January 2002 until August 2005.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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I worked in downtown DC for six months for a large, quazi-governmental agency. After a couple of days in my office, I noticed an old laptop in a pile of papers on the bottom shelf of the back bookcase. I left it there, in cast the previous owner came back for it.
Months later, the IT department was looking for several unaccounted-for computers. The laptop on my office had a serial number waaaay older than anything they were looking for. I responded to the e-mail with the information on the laptop, but no one responded.
Maybe it had secret stuff on it, too? Scary, eh?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/05/2007 7:51 Comments ||
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Where I work, the security folks twice in 6 months lost a laptop with SSNs and other personal date. Management sprung into action, punishing everyone who didn't do anything by forcing us to take training on private data.
#3
Greetings to my fellow employee, Jackal! I seem to recall it was HR, not security. But no matter. To work in either department you have to fail a basic logic/intelligence test. Total morons, top to bottom.
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 California judge sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail Friday for violating her probation, putting the brakes on the hotel heiress' famous high life. 
(SomaliNet) Somalias interim government is planning to include some of the former anti-terror alliance members in the cabinet ministers, unconfirmed reports say on Friday. The reports added that Somalia Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi is planning to reshuffle his cabinet bring in some former warlords in the government. 
(SomaliNet) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that many of the 365,000 Somalis who fled the capital Mogadishu over the past several months are still battling hunger and even cholera.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned Zimbabwe's Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly critical of him, that they are treading a "dangerous path", according to reports published on Friday. Mugabe's comments, in the state-run Herald newspaper, come after a pastoral letter was read out by the country's Catholic bishops on Sunday calling for a new people-driven constitution to avert bloodshed and mass uprising. "Once [the bishops] turn political, we regard them as no longer spiritual and our relations with them would be conducted as if we are dealing with political entities, and this is quite a dangerous path they have chosen for themselves," Mugabe told the Herald.
A local Jubo League leader, who was arrested by navy personnel on Thursday, died at Teknaf Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar early yesterday. Navy men picked up Janangir Alam, 32, vice-president of Jubo League Hnila union unit, from Hnila bus station on Thursday noon on charges of criminal activities and repression on woman. They handed him over to Teknaf Police Station at 7:00 in the evening.
Airbus said Friday it has once again raised the break-even point for the troubled A380. In 2005, Airbus was saying that it would need to sell only 270 of the planes to break even. Last year, that jumped to 420 planes as a result of costly wiring problems that delayed delivery of the A380 by up to two years.
France risks violence and brutality if right-winger 
Turkey's ruling party has formally submitted a package of major reforms to parliament, including a proposal to elect the president by a popular vote, following a political crisis that triggered mass protests. Officials from the Islamist-rooted 
RIA Novosti) - Russia's upper house voted unanimously Friday to retain a Red Army banner for ceremonies like Victory parades. The Federation Council approved a law, which retains the red banner with the hammer and sickle - the world 
Former President 
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Transportation Security Administration has lost a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employees.
