Another stupid Dem picture about "supporting the troops" that shows non-US uniforms. The level of ignorance among many Dems, young and old, about the military is appalling.
The world's first all-female unit of United Nations peacekeepers has been deemed a success, and has had its mission extended for another six months. A 105-strong paramilitary police unit of women from India has been based in Liberia since January, working to help keep the peace in a country which is still recovering from 14 years of civil war.
Initially deployed for six months as a trial by the UN, no-one knew if they would be up to the job. But a UN spokesman said they were impressed by the unit: "They are very committed, disciplined and well trained."
Instead of returning to India in June, the women will now remain in Liberia until the end of the year.
Commander Seema Dhundia, the women's leader, says the unit knew that they were good at their jobs, but were surprised when their mission was extended. "Initially we were not mentally prepared to stay, but now it's settled and we are happy to do what our orders say to the best of our ability."
But it is still hard being thousands of miles away from their families. Many of the women have left behind children, some as young four years old.
Seema, who has a ten-year-old daughter, Stuti, and a 15-year-old son, Ripu, uses a laptop to keep in touch with her children. "I'm missing my kids. Stuti is a very emotional kid of girl. She speaks from her heart, whatever she feels she says it. So is my son but he is a bit shy. I do miss them and get emotional, but it's not good for police to get emotional is it?"
The women had been expecting to return home this month, but instead have 21 days leave to visit their families before they return to Liberia for another six months. Seema said initially her family did not react well to the news. Her husband is also a soldier and has been looking after the children. "They didn't feel very good about it but now they have got used to it."
The women are part of India's Central Reserve Police Force, and were hand picked from across the country for this mission. They are experts in crowd control and veterans of many conflicts in India, including Kashmir and fighting in the north-east of India. For most of the women, the peacekeeping mission took them outside of their "motherland" for the first time.
For the last six months, the unit has patrolled the capital, Monrovia, 24 hours a day. They have kept guard at public buildings such as the foreign ministry and protected the unarmed, recently-trained Liberian National Police officers as they gained "on the job" experience.
According to the Indian women, there is little interaction between themselves and the Liberians. Part of the reason is a difference in culture, part a deliberate strategy. "They try hard to be friends with us, but we don't want to. We just do what the job requires, that's all," one of the peacekeepers said.
When out of uniform the women keep to themselves. Except for going to church or the temple, they are not allowed off the base. Tanushree, one of the peacekeepers, says they do not mind. "For us, the way we live together is like a family, it's a very good relationship. It's like a family where there are mother, father, sister, brother. It is just not possible that at some point I would be bored with them, absolutely not."
But Tanushree likes being out on patrol. "We really like it here, because everything is a lot like India, the trees and plants and the food even, we can get Indian fruits."
The UN is experimenting with all female units because female soldiers are seen as less threatening and more approachable in post-conflict situations, where populations are recovering from years of violence and fear. In Liberia this is of particular importance because the country has experienced an epidemic of sexual violence against women.
Lucia Williams, a midwife who works at a free medical centre with Medecines Sans Frontiers in Monrovia, says rape is on the increase and "has become a sport." As part of the ongoing campaign to end sexual violence, it is hoped the visible presence of female soldiers will empower local Liberian women and encourage them to join the police force.
The Indian women have also given talks to Liberia's female police cadets. Poonam Gupta, the contingent's second-in-command, says it seems to make a difference. "There has been a significant boost in the police, so I think this could be one of the defining moments for the ladies. Once they try their hands at things and are successful, they will become role models for the other women."
But the Indian women are not just good at the softer, more people orientated work; they have also been on drugs raids and supported law enforcement officers responding to crimes. "Men can have more distractions, liquor, women, all sorts of things. But women, I find them more disciplined, more task-oriented and more dedicated," said Poonam, who has commanded both men and women.
So far the women have mostly worked in Monrovia but the UN could send them anywhere in the country, including the east and the borders with Guinea and Cote D'Ivoire.
There things are much more volatile than Monrovia, but these well-trained, fully-armed women are unafraid. "Casualties can happen any time. If something has to happen it has to happen. I could have got killed say, two years back. I'm alive today because God wants me to be alive" said Poonam, a practising Hindu. "We are ready to die, we are soldiers."
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/22/2007 16:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Any pictures? I mean, they may work for the UN, but still . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/22/2007 17:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"and protected the unarmed, recently-trained Liberian National Police officers as they gained "on the job" experience."
That shouldn't be very hard. The government's been pushing hard to recruit police, but most police academy graduates drop out of the force to work for private security firms. Last report I had (3 or 4 months old now) was that of a group of nearly a hundred recruits about 5 were actually serving as police.
Posted by: James ||
06/22/2007 17:37 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/22/2007 17:42 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Does "success" mean that unlike their male counterparts they didn't rape any children or goats?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/22/2007 18:21 Comments ||
Top||
#6
In Liberia this is of particular importance because the country has experienced an epidemic of sexual violence against women.
Of course! The UN is there, and there are a growing number of muslims. Sexual violence HAS to go up - women in Liberia have two strikes against them, with or without an untrained, unarmed police force.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/22/2007 18:47 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Barbara, unfortunately, and with great regret, I have to agree with you and say you're right :(
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
06/22/2007 18:55 Comments ||
Top||
"US predicts regime change" .... 4 words a prudent dictator wouldn't want to hear. Mugabe's not exactly known for his regular purchases from the cluetrain, tho.
Kinda wish we had predicted 'regime change' a few years ago, and then quietly done something about it ...
It might have been because we've never actually seen a fairly modern state self-destruct all the way. Even Somalia's drawn back from the precipice. I'm curious, in the interests of political science, to see at what point we regard the former Breadbasket of Africa destroyed. Do we have to wait until all the inhabitants are as dead as the economy?
#3
Why don't know what keeps those people from rising up and tearing that miserable toadstool to pieces. It's long past time for a "night of the long knives" in Zimbabwe, I expected it months ago.
#5
Why don't know what keeps those people from rising up and tearing that miserable toadstool to pieces.
Because while the remaining Zimbabwean cultural, intellectual, and business elite know Mugabe is a miserable toadstool, he's their miserable toadstool.
#6
Pappy, it's his veteran goons. They are ones with guns and are still on his side. But once the host is hollowed out, soon, the veteran parasites will turn on Bob and themselves.
#7
Starving people don't usually cast off their chains, because their oppressors usually keep a barracks full of well-fed and well-armed thugs on retainer. Nobody orverthrew Stalin or Kim even though millions starved. Sadaam is a perfect example of a dictator who grew in strength the hungrier that his people got, because Oil-For-Food put him nearly 100% in charge of food distribution. The Ambassador is a nitwit. If Bob leaves, it will be into retirement with a healthy nest egg of specie.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/22/2007 23:04 Comments ||
Top||
An anti-corruption court in Bangladesh on Thursday sentenced a former minister to 13 years in jail for amassing wealth through illegal means, the first conviction of a government leader since a crackdown began this year.
The court also handed a three-year sentence to Amanullah Amans wife for giving false information on their personal wealth to the anti-corruption commission that is investigating scores of politicians for graft and abuse of power. Aman, who was state minister for labour and employment, is the first member of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zias cabinet to be convicted for corruption since the army-backed interim administration began the drive.
The court also ordered Aman to pay a fine of one million taka ($14,500) or serve another year in jail. The couples assets have been confiscated. More than 170 key political figures including Khaledas elder son and political heir Tareque Rahman have been detained in the anti-corruption hunt aimed at cleaning up politics before elections expected late next year. The special court last month sentenced an aide of Khaleda and the owner of a private television channel for extortion.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Venezuela could buy a fleet of submarines as part of its broad-ranging military purchases, President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday, a week after reports his government would buy submarines from Russia.
"People are making a big fuss about how we might buy some submarines -- why not?," Chavez said during a televised meeting with supporters. "I do not know if we are going to buy them, but if we buy them no one should be alarmed."
Defense Minister Raul Baduel last week denied domestic and international media reports that Venezuela was preparing to buy at least five submarines from Russia, where Chavez is scheduled to visit next week. Venezuela over the last year has purchased 100,000 Kalashnikov AK-103 rifles, 24 Sukhoi fighter jets and 53 Russian helicopters as part of a $3 billion long-term arms contract.
Chavez, a former soldier turned leader of an increasingly influential Latin American left, says he is seeking to replace aging equipment and accuses the United States of intervening in Venezuelan affairs by trying to limit its access to arms. In the coming weeks he is also scheduled to visit Iran and Belarus, countries also openly at odds with the United States.
#1
Your Russkie talks big, but frankly we're doubtful of his capabilities. They've been on short rations for quite a while now, and nukes are a non-viewable inventory item, so to speak.
Poland pushes back against German pressure to okay the EU constitution.
European leaders gathered last night in Brussels for a bruising battle over the future of Europe, with Britain pledging no surrender on key demands and Poland evoking losses in the second world war to push for more votes in the running of the EU.
Under the chairmanship of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the 27 EU countries launched an attempt to hammer out a consensus on a "reform treaty" to replace the defunct European constitution.
Earlier, Downing Street said Mr Blair was ready to walk away from the summit and see it collapse if his four central demands were not met. However, Ms Merkel views Poland, rather than Britain, as the main opponent of a deal and the hardest nut to crack
"If Poland had not had to live through the years 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million", rather than 38 million, and would warrant a much higher quota of votes in the EU, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister, told Polish radio.
If Gaul had not had to live through the time of 59 - 51 BC, modern France would have several ten million more Gaul-speakers today.
Under current arrangements dating from 2000, Germany has 29 votes to Poland's 27 in EU councils. The new system,based on population sizes, will give Germany more than double the Polish vote. The Poles are demanding a new way of calculating votes that would diminish German "hegemony".
#3
Absolutely hilarious. Good on the Poles - that's how you tell the Krauts to STFU. Shame Tony can't find his balls.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/22/2007 6:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Do you indeed, my dear 8872? And what do you think should be done to those who work toward the mass murder of the descendants of the remnant of the Jews of Poland? I know you're a little unclear on these historical details, but most of them moved to Israel, where first Saddam Hussein and now Iran financed, trained and armed the suicide bombers and rocketeers aimed so fixedly at killing off as many of said descendants as they can accomplish... until Iran's scientists develop the atomic bomb they plan will render the remainder of said descendants into radioactive dust.
Who was it that said, Europeans love their dead Jews... and hate their still-living relatives? 8872 will no doubt be proud he's achieved such a European attitude.
#5
Sounds to me like the EU needs a compromise like we have in the US: each state has a number of representatives based on population; each state also has two senators. The two houses of Congress have to both agree to pass laws.
#6
Ima waiting for the Germans to invoke liebensraum.
Posted by: ed ||
06/22/2007 9:50 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Sounds to me like the EU needs a compromise like we have in the US: each state has a number of representatives based on population; each state also has two senators. The two houses of Congress have to both agree to pass laws.
Considering that EU apparatchik bureaucrats have no more need for the consent of the governed or what the people want than it appears the US Senate does, it appears the model has flowed the other way. Doing away with classical representative government [vote of the people] and instituting commercial/special interest representation seems to be the post-modern evolution of government. Along the lines of Peoples Democratic Republics of the mid to late 20th Century in one form or another.
#8
Sounds to me like the EU needs a compromise like we have in the US
Something like:
We the People of the European Union, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the European Union.
#9
The problem is that Europe still sees the elite class as the only fit rulers and the working man (peasants) have no business helping run the country.
#11
"If Poland had not had to live through the years 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million", rather than 38 million, and would warrant a much higher quota of votes in the EU, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister, told Polish radio.
And if Britain and its Empire has not stood up to the Nazis, Poland's population would be a) Germans or b) dead and the whole notion of voting would have been replaced with the Fuhrer-principle in any event.
#12
Who was it that said, Europeans love their dead Jews... and hate their still-living relatives? 8872 will no doubt be proud he's achieved such a European attitude.
So I'm a Jew-hater now, is that it? You hate me so that must be true. Rationalize it to yourself any way you must, I don't care.
See, the difference between you and me is that I am willing to stand up to despicable comments and posters here, whether they are friend or foe. You on the other hand lack the courage and honor to do so.
Come down from the cross, pal, we could use the wood.
For your information, Poland was the most hospitable place for Jews in Europe before the war. It was so even going back 1000 years. So it is entirely possible, even if your ego won't let you grasp it, that indeed some Poles like Jews.
#14
Since I married into a Polish family, 8872, it's possible I always suspected that was true. Then there's the fact that I come from a family of Holocaust survivors -- I'm first generation American -- and you clearly don't like me... but we mustn't draw conclusions from such anecdotal evidence.
You see, waxing sentimental over the dead but adamantly opposing all efforts to protect the same class when they are alive -- when they are Jews, at least -- does rather smack of Jew hatred. Those of us who are Jews, who are Israelis (my father and his mother were the only ones of his immediate family to survive, because they'd made their way to British-mandate Palestine while the others had remained; Daddy has a cute little pin that was awarded to him for extraordinary something or other in 1948), whose families were significantly reduced because so many of their neighbors felt as you profess to about the enemies of the Jews... well we notice such things.
Or were you about to say that the world must act to stop those like Saddam Hussein and the Iranian Mullahcracy, who are doing and have done all they can to effect the genocide of the six million Jews of Israel? Choose, my dear 8872: act to protect the Jews by removing from power those like Saddam Hussein and Mullahcracy, or refuse, thus taking on the guilt of the Nazis of your own free will.
No, I don't hate you. You aren't worth energy expenditure.
#15
I do apologize. That should be Polish-Catholic, of course. we wouldn't want 8872 (such a cute little number he picked, to be sure!) to think I'd taken the easy path of marrying into a family of Polish Jews.
#17
adamantly opposing all efforts to protect the same class when they are alive -- when they are Jews, at least
Your imagination is running rampant. Being critical of Rantburg commentary does not equate Jew-hatred, Liberalism, Communism, pro-Terrorism or whatever.
You notice many things, but Steve's disgusting insinuation flew right past you, didn't it?
#18
8872, the comment was a jest about trying to go back in history to fix things that can't be fixed.
Seven million Jews and tens of millions of others died in a despicable war. We can't bring any of them back. Trying to futz around with politics today to represent people who are dead sixty years isn't likely to work.
Being critical of Rantburg commentary indeed doesn't make one a Jew-hater or commie. Your comments, however, are beginning to make reasonable people wonder.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2007 21:29 Comments ||
Top||
#19
We're all familiar with the conquest of Gaul and its several outcomes for the Celts and for Rome. Julius Caesar was looking for conquest and booty, and found it took killing, maiming and enslaving a great many Celts to accomplish that. In contrast, one thrust of Hitler's long term plan was to completely exterminate the Slavs, including the Poles and the Jews, Roma, and incidental strangers among them. Killing, maiming and enslaving were merely short-term pleasures in pursuit of a greater goal -- fortunately stymied by the Allied victory. But I can think of a great many What If's as I sit here. If Germany hadn't started two world wars, there'd be a lot more Germans, my mother's family included. If England hadn't spent men and materiel so freely to build and maintain her empire, there'd be a lot more Brits in all four constituent countries, but the world would be considerably poorer for it, I think. If the Niger-Congo=Bantu tribes had not conquered much of sub-Saharan Africa in the misty past, there would be a great deal more variety of language and culture than exists is there now.
You do have a point, though, 8872. If I'm confusing you with that odious Canadian twit who posts here under a variety of names, thinking himself so courageous for speaking truth to power, then I do apologize. But then he feels triumphant facing a little, Midwestern, suburban housewife like me. *shrug* Again, if you're not he then some of my vitriol was misplaced.
#20
Darth, you're absolutely spot on mate, and sadly, at least to my mind Pebbles, so are you :(
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
06/22/2007 21:57 Comments ||
Top||
#21
If I'm confusing you with that odious Canadian twit who posts here under a variety of names, thinking himself so courageous for speaking truth to power, then I do apologize.
#27
Potential apology rescinded. I really do not understand this childish need to make oneself so despised. Thanks for the peace of mind, Pappy. I should have felt awful if I'd said such things to a reasonable human.
#29
I salute the Poles irony in a German proposal for population based representation in EU government. Another question might be what percentage of a person does a Turkish resident of Berlin count for the purposes of EU representation.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/22/2007 23:48 Comments ||
Top||
Sarkozy's taking on the bureaucrats directly. Chirac must be sweating bullets at the thought that his bought and paid for buddies might not be in a position to protect him soon.
#1
It doesn't work like that. French civil servants are recruited through exams. Only 1 in twenty make the cut.
Direct appointment for civil servants is very, very limited in number Then there are contractual workers who have fixed time contracts but these are mostly in technical jobs and not in positions allowing to influence Chirac's fate.
There is no spoils syetem like in America. This has positive sides but also negative sides like civil servants hampering governmnental action when they don't approve.
#2
It was my understanding that Chirac protected the bureaucrats from various inquiries into expense accounts etc. But perhaps I'm mis-remembering on that?
#5
"In total 70,000 civil servants will retire between now and next year... so about half of them will not be replaced,"
We call that attrition, only the MSM would call it 'Jobs Slashed". In my humble opinion.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/22/2007 14:09 Comments ||
Top||
#6
work for the State of California and we have to take an exam to get on a list, one on the list you can apply for civil servant jobs, and from that you can get an interview and hired. It also works that way for promotions. All-in-all it's pretty fair because you have to have some competency to pass the test which means that you are qualified for the job. It's not gauge on performance, the tests usually measure basic knowledge.
OTTAWA -- Justice Antonin Scalia is one of the most powerful judges on the planet.
The job of the veteran U.S. Supreme Court judge is to ensure that the superpower lives up to its Constitution. But in his free time, he is a fan of 24, the popular TV drama where the maverick federal agent Jack Bauer routinely tortures terrorists to save American lives. This much was made clear at a legal conference in Ottawa this week.
Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge's passing remark - "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra 'What would Jack Bauer do?' " - got the legal bulldog in Judge Scalia barking.
The conservative jurist stuck up for Agent Bauer, arguing that fictional or not, federal agents require latitude in times of great crisis. "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Judge Scalia said. Then, recalling Season 2, where the agent's rough interrogation tactics saved California from a terrorist nuke, the Supreme Court judge etched a line in the sand.
"Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. "Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.
"So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes."
What happened next was like watching the National Security Judges International All-Star Team set into a high-minded version of a conversation that has raged across countless bars and dinner tables, ever since 24 began broadcasting six seasons ago.
Jack Bauer, played by Canadian Kiefer Sutherland, gets meaner as he lurches from crisis to crisis, acting under few legal constraints. "You are going to tell me what I want to know, it's just a matter of how much you want it to hurt," is one of his catchphrases. Every episode poses an implicit question to its viewers: Does the end justify the means if national security is at stake? On 24, the answer is, invariably, yes.
But sometimes this message proves a little too persuasive. Last November, a U.S. Army brigadier-general, Patrick Finnegan, of West Point, went to California to meet with the show's producers. He asked if the writers would consider reining in Agent Bauer. "The kids see it, and say, 'If torture is wrong, what about 24?" he told The New Yorker in February.
BG Finnegan is the Dean at USMA. A JAG who served as Staff Judge Advocate, Fort Bragg, before deploying to the Persian Gulf to participate in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Teaching military ethics is under his responsibility at West Point.
He argued that "they should do a show where torture backfires." It's not just the military that's watching 24. It turns out that the judges who struggle to square the Guantanamo Bay prison camp experiment with the British Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 are watching the show, too. It was Mr. Justice Richard Mosley of the Federal Court of Canada who inadvertently started the debate, with his derogatory drive-by slight against Jack Bauer, the one that so provoked Judge Scalia.
In his day job, the Canadian judge wrestles with the implications of torture. Last winter, for example, Judge Mosley ordered an Osama bin Laden associate freed from seven years prison and into strict house arrest in Toronto.
Judge Mosley told the panel that rights-respecting governments can't take part in torture or encourage it in any way. "The agents of the state, and the agents of the Canadian state, under the Criminal Code, are very much subject to severe criminal sanction if they would engage in torture," he said.
But the U.S. Supreme Court judge choked on that position, saying it would be folly for laws to dictate that counterterrorism agents must wear kid gloves all the time. While Judge Scalia argued that doomsday scenarios may well lead to the reconsideration of rights, in his legal decisions he has also said that catastrophic attacks and intelligence imperatives do not automatically give the U.S. president a blank cheque - the people have to decide. "If civil rights are to be curtailed during wartime, it must be done openly and democratically, as the Constitution requires, rather than by silent erosion through an opinion of this court," he dissented in a 2004 decision.
The judicial majority ruled that a presidential order meant that an American "enemy combatant" wasn't entitled to challenge the conditions of his detention, which happened to be aboard a naval brig.
As they discussed torture in Ottawa, the judicial panelists from outside the United States argued that any implicit or explicit sanction of torture is a slippery slope.
Some said that legal systems might do well to enforce anti-torture laws, even if it meant prosecuting rogue agents. "What if the guy is not the guy who's going to blow up Los Angeles? But some kind of innocent?" asked Lord Carlile of Berriew, a Welshman who acts as the independent reviewer of Britain's terrorism laws.
Torture can lead to false confessions, he said. "How do you protect that person's civil rights from the risk of very serious wrongful conviction?" But Lord Carlile, a barrister by training, added that he was also concerned with Jack Bauer's rights. "I'm sure I could get him off," he said.
One panelist deadpanned that saving Los Angeles from a nuke would likely be a mitigating factor during any sentencing of Jack Bauer.
When the panel opened to questions and commentary from the floor, a senior Canadian government lawyer said: "Maybe saving L.A. is an easy question. How many people are we going to torture to save L.A.?" asked Stanley Cohen, a senior counsel for the Justice Department, who specializes in human rights law. "How much certainty do we get to have that we have the right person in front of us?" Then Lorne Waldman, the lawyer for the famously wronged engineer Maher Arar, emerged from the crowd to say that very little of the conversation sounded hypothetical to him.
Mr. Arar was among a series of Canadian Arabs who emerged from lengthy ordeals in Syrian jails to complain of torture. Their common complaint is that Syrian torture - including beatings with electric cables - flowed from a wrongly premised Canadian investigation after 9/11.
A host of security agents, Mr. Waldman argued, acted with utmost urgency against innocents, after wrongly fearing a bomb plot was afoot.
Generally, the jurists in the room agreed that coerced confessions carry little weight, given that they might be false and almost never accepted into evidence. But the U.S. Supreme Court judge stressed that he was not speaking about putting together pristine prosecutions, but rather, about allowing agents the freedom to thwart immediate attacks.
"I don't care about holding people. I really don't," Judge Scalia said.
Even if a real terrorist who suffered mistreatment is released because of complaints of abuse, Judge Scalia said, the interruption to the terrorist's plot would have ensured "in Los Angeles everyone is safe." During a break from the panel, Judge Scalia specifically mentioned the segment in Season 2 when Jack Bauer finally figures out how to break the die-hard terrorist intent on nuking L.A. The real genius, the judge said, is that this is primarily done with mental leverage. "There's a great scene where he told a guy that he was going to have his family killed," Judge Scalia said. "They had it on closed circuit television - and it was all staged. ... They really didn't kill the family."
Gospel according to Jack
"Tell me where the bomb is or I will kill your son."
"I don't want to bypass the Constitution, but these are extraordinary circumstances."
"I need to use every advantage I've got."
"If we want to procure any information from this suspect, we're going to have to do it behind closed doors."
"I'm talking about doing what's necessary to stop this warhead from being used against us."
"When I'm finished with you, you're gonna wish that you felt this good again."
"You don't have any more useful information, do you?"
The House of Representatives has fast-tracked new legislation to "improve" the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by allowing doctors to now decide who can own firearms. The proposal, H.R. 2640, was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., in the wake of the April tragedy at Virginia Tech, when a gunman shot and killed more than 30 people, then killed himself.
McCarthy, whose own husband was killed in a random shooting on a commuter train in New York City in 1993, introduced the "NICS Improvement Act," which sailed through the House in three days.
The plan is the first congressional effort to curtail gun ownership rights in a decade, but by being put on the fast track was exempted from the ordinary committee hearings and public scrutiny most proposals are sent through. "Millions of criminal records are not accessible by NICS and millions others are missing critical data," said McCarthy. "Each year, tens of thousands of barred individuals slip through the cracks of the system and gain access to firearms. Simply put, the NICS system must be updated on both the state and federal level."
If the Act passes in the Senate, it would provide grants so states can add the names of criminals to the NICS system, which would label them as unable to own firearms, but it also flags those with medical or psychological issues as unfit to possess a gun.
The plan allows names to be entered into the NICS system based solely on a physician's diagnosis or prescription of a medication: adults who have taken Ritalin and soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder would be classified as mentally ill and given the same opportunity to own firearms as convicted felons: None.
Gun Owners of America is one of only a few organizations alerting consumers to the implications. "Under this bill, based solely on a diagnosis of a psychiatrist, an American's name could be dumped into the National Criminal Instant Check (NICS) system," said GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt, who called the plan "conviction by diagnosis."
And it wouldn't take long to be hijacked by trial lawyers. The very first time a depressed person used a gun, they'd go after the psychiatrist -- "Doctor, why didn't you put your patient on the list?" And that would be it.
The organization, which launched a campaign to lobby the Senate to reject the plan, said the McCarthy plan "dramatically" expands the "dragnet" used to disqualify law-abiding gun buyers. "So much so, that hundreds of thousands of honest citizens who want to buy a gun will one day walk into a gun store and be shocked when they're told they're a prohibited purchaser, having been lumped into the same category as murderers and rapists," the organization said in a statement on its website.
The legislation requires states to better share records that would disqualify individuals deemed unfit for gun ownership by inputting those names into the FBIs Instant Criminal Background Check System. "This underscores the problems that have existed all along with the Brady Law. At the time it was passed, some people foolishly thought, 'No big deal. I'm not a bad guy. This law won't affect me.' But what happens when good guys' names get thrown into the bad guys' list? That is exactly what has happened, and no one should think that the attempts to expand the gun control noose are going to end with the McCarthy bill," the gun owners group continued.
"Speaking to the CNN audience on June 13, head of the Brady Campaign, Paul Helmke, stated that, 'We're hopeful that now that the NRA has come around to our point of view in terms of strengthening the Brady background checks, that now we can take the next step after this bill passes [to impose additional gun control],'" said the gun owners. "Get it? The McCarthy bill is just a first step," the group said.
The Act is a response to the Virginia Tech tragedy. Tech student Seung-Hui Cho was not flagged when he purchased guns, although the state of Virginia knew Cho had been ordered to undergo mental health treatment. No evidence indicates that Cho could have been stopped from opening fire on classmates had the new changes been in place at the time of the shooting.
The National Rifle Association has endorsed the plan as a way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable. And how easy is it to get off the list once you are on it?
#1
This is a piece of crap, and needs to be stopped. I've been diagnosed with PTSD - virtually every veteran of Vietnam gets slapped with that by the veterans care organizations at either state or federal level. A diagnosis of PTSD - or ANY mental or physical disability - should never be used to prevent someone from buying or owning a firearm. It should be MUCH harder than this to keep someone from owning a weapon. U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., should be the first to have to visit a psychiatrist, although I doubt they'll be able to do anything about gross stupidity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/22/2007 19:46 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I thought a Republic was supposed to protect the rights of a minority from stupidity on the part of the majority? I have just about had it completely with the current situation where infringing my basic rights is OK.
The full, five-minute videotape touted as "smoking gun evidence" of two felonies committed by Sen. Hillary Clinton has been released to WND.
As WND reported, the tape was submitted as evidence to a California appeals court yesterday in a civil fraud suit against the New York Democrat and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
WND reported in April the tape indicates Clinton despite denials throughout six years of investigation was directly involved with business mogul Peter Franklin Paul in producing a lavish Hollywood fundraiser in August 2000 that eventually cost Paul nearly $2 million.
Clinton's participation in the planning of the event would make Paul's substantial contributions a direct donation to her Senate campaign rather than her joint fundraising committee, violating federal statutes that limit "hard money" contributions to a candidate to $2,000 per person. Knowingly accepting or soliciting $25,000 or more in a calendar year is a felony carrying a prison sentence of up to five years.
#1
I doubt she will server any time or have any real charges brought against her. She has too many liberal judge friends that owe her and her husband their jobs.
However, this may sink her presidential hopes.
Too bad too. So many independents and Republicans hate her she would almost certainly loose an election.
#4
The Clintons are Teflon-coated. Yawn. I don't think much is going to happen although one can be optimistic and hopeful. We are talking about a guy that quibbles about the meaning of the word "IS" during impeachment proceedings. Now if they were Republicans they would probably be heading for the slammer.
#5
Watch Drudge. If he picks up on the story, it's on the agenda. If there's a siren, she's toast.
She usually really good at staying just inside the line; she has shown a life long obsession with it as an art form. And, on principle, she ought to get the same benefit of the doubt we would want for ourselves. Of course, politics being what it is, she can't expect that, and that's too bad.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
06/22/2007 22:19 Comments ||
Top||
#1
And just what percentage of USABLE renewable energy sources does that constitute? I'd be willing to bet that it accounts for more than 50% of what is economically feasible to use. "Renewable" energy resources are usually expensive, and quite a few are destructive. The US needs to return to nuclear energy to replace much of the coal-fired plants currently in use. Trying to tie us to wind, tide, or other "renewable" sources won't work - they're just not capable enough or reliable enough, and they're hellishly expensive in comparison.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/22/2007 19:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
So called renewables (stupid name) are mostly hydroelectricity. Passive solar shows real potential in hot cloudless areas, but has a long way to go.
The unsolvable problem with wind is that you can never rely on it for base load. There must be additional (non-renewable) capacity as back up, which makes it very expensive.
OP, DOE projections out to 2030 show coal increasing and renewables decreasing as percentages.
Czech officials confirmed Thursday the country's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in poultry, at a turkey farm in the centre of the country. "It is confirmed, it is H5N1," the spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration, Zbynek Semerad, told AFP.
Around 1,800 turkeys have already died at the farm at Tisova, near the central town of Usti-nad-Orlici, which has a flock of around 6,000 birds.
Until now, bird flu has only been detected in wild swans in the Czech Republic, with the first case dating from March 20, 2006. Thirteen cases followed over the next months. Health authorities, who threw up a three-kilometre (two-mile) and 10-kilometre cordon around the poultry farm on Wednesday, started to slaughter the remainder of the flock on Thursday, according to Czech television. "All small flocks of birds around Tisova will also have to be killed," Semerad said.
The H5N1 strain has killed almost 200 people and ravaged poultry flocks worldwide since 2003.
"As Tisova was a closed breeding facility and the birds have never been transported elsewhere, I believe that this first case could remain an isolated one," Semerad explained. "The virus probably originated from contaminated straw bedding," he added.
No domestic poultry can be moved within the restricted area. "Strict checks will be imposed, with a ban on the movements of animals, a count of all breeding poultry and a ban on bird shows and markets," Semerad said.
Moves to calm public concern also began on Thursday. "The important thing is that we have a security system that is working," the country's chief hygiene officer, Michal Vit, said on television.
The chance of bird to human contamination was "very low, minimal" he stressed, highlighting the lower hygiene standards and the close proximity of humans and birds in Asia, where most deadly cases of bird flu have occurred. "People living in the area should not fear that it will spread," Vit added.
Nonetheless, Czech health minister Tomas Julinek said that health workers at the turkey farm would "preventively" be given Tamiflu, the drug judged most effective against bird flu. "This is purely a preventive move, there is no risk for people," Julinek said.
Frantisek Bartos, who runs the farm, said that none of the turkeys currently being raised there had been sold, as they had yet to reach their optimum weight.
Only 2 percent of Indonesian Muslims believe their religion allows violence against non-Muslims, a survey showed on Thursday, but organisers said the figure was still a worry in the country of 220 million.
Carry the one, divide by pi, I get....440,000
The survey by private pollster Indo Barometer and the Wahid Institute revealed that 93 percent of Muslims in the worlds most populous Muslim nation believe Islam does not allow militancy. A majority of Muslims said terrorism, violence, violent acts towards non-Muslims and using violence to fight vice is not allowed in Islam, it said.
But it said, the survey also shows there is a group of people that could potentially be recruited to use violence against others on behalf of religion.
About 440,000 of them. Minimum.
Over 1,000 Indonesian Muslims from across Indonesias 33 provinces were interviewed for the poll in May.
The Wahid Institute was founded by former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to promote plural and peaceful Islam. Earlier this month, it co-hosted an international meeting of religious leaders to denounce the Holocaust denial.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Indonesian Muslims say violence not allowed in Islam
Irans former reformist president Mohammad Khatami on Thursday vehemently denied breaking Islamic rules by shaking hands with women on a trip to Italy, amid growing condemnation from conservatives.
Khatamis old hardline foes have expressed outrage over video footage circulating on the Internet which apparently shows the former president shaking hands with several women. Khatami officially denied that he had shook hands with any woman and the film circulating is not based on reality, said a statement from his office reported by the ISNA news agency and Ham Mihan newspaper. This film circulating on some conservative websites which shows him shaking hand with some Italian women is a version that has been edited and Khatami wholly denies this.. Whether at home or on trips abroad, Irans officials studiously avoid handshakes with females. Khatamis trip at the start of May saw him meet Italian leaders as well as Pope Benedict XVI.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
No holier than Allan Islamo can shake a female hand, but you can kiss their unwashed ass if you please. Allan says it's OK.
#3
Khatami officially denied that he had shook hands with any woman and the film circulating is not based on reality,
Yo, Khatami dude, it's not the film that isn't "based in reality", it's yer whole damned Neanderthal culture. Exactly how powerful are you when shaking a woman's hand can topple your entire house of political cards? Islam, a religious eggshell filled with corrosive acid.
#5
Here's a link to Khatami's visit in Udine, Italy. At 4:30 into the video, you can clearly see Khatami shake hands with two or three women.
Right after signing an autograph for the young man in a bright green shirt (~4:15), he proceeds to shake hands with a woman dressed in white (slightly obscured), then clearly shakes hands with a woman wearing a black and white striped blouse and, after that, a woman wearing a dark red outfit.
This guy is so hosed. What a crackup that, while on foreign soil, he relaxes for a few moments only to jepoardize his entire political future. After being forced to endure this scumbag's presence in America's National Catherdal on September 7, 2006 it is gratifying in the extreme to see his own fanatical loons drag him down into the usual Islamic crapulence. Whoever invited this filthy terrorist maggot onto American soil so close to the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 atrocity should be begging on a corner with a tin cup.
#1
Around 5 years ago, I read somewhere that nearly all produce crops except strawberries and grapes could be harvested mechanically if the demand was there. These, and probably others, were delicate and had to be manipulated carefully. I'm sure someone could figure it out.
#2
Agriculture is one of several killer apps for robotics. It's not just picking, it's sowing, fertilising, weeding, identifying pests. Robots will revolutionize agriculture.
I remember telling a wheat farmer 12 years ago that he would have robots on his farm within 5 years. He scoffed. OK, so I was a bit out on the timing.
As I recall the problem which brought up my comment was his farm was on the far eastern edge of the Western Australian wheatbelt, where there is just the minimum rainfall required to grow wheat. Consequently, rows of wheat are spaced far apart to maximise the moisture available to each plant.
His problem was that machines spread fertiliser and pesticide evenly over the ground, and as a result most went to waste. A robot would be able to precisely target each plant.
#3
Actually, the machines they use these days are near autonomous. My wife's family runs a large farm and their tractors, spray rigs, etc. have more computers than a F15.
#4
My company does a lot with farm machinery controllers. In the Midwest, there are farmers whose machines self-guide with GPS & beacons. They regularly plant & spray throughout the night. Also, variable-rate seed, fertilizer, and chemical applicators have been in use since at least 2003 on field crops. The application rates are based on GIS-registered nutrient removal data, not the actual real-world observed condition of the plants, though.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/22/2007 9:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
But then we would need an Amnesty Program for the illegal robots sure to come from Mexico to work the jobs the American robots won't do.
Posted by: Howard Nomoney ||
06/22/2007 17:06 Comments ||
Top||
#6
We could engineer Grapes and Strawberries so they can be harvested by machines. It's only a matter of time.
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.
An anti-corruption court in Bangladesh on Thursday sentenced a former minister to 13 years in jail for amassing wealth through illegal means, the first conviction of a government leader since a crackdown began this year. 
Venezuela could buy a fleet of submarines as part of its broad-ranging military purchases, President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday, a week after reports his government would buy submarines from Russia. 
Czech officials confirmed Thursday the country's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in poultry, at a turkey farm in the centre of the country. "It is confirmed, it is H5N1," the spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration, Zbynek Semerad, told AFP.
Irans former reformist president Mohammad Khatami on Thursday vehemently denied breaking Islamic rules by shaking hands with women on a trip to Italy, amid growing condemnation from conservatives.
