Dinosaur fossils are present in the Paleocene Ojo Alamo Sandstone and Animas Formation in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, and Colorado. Evidence for the Paleocene age of the Ojo Alamo Sandstone includes palynologic and paleomagnetic data. Palynologic data indicate that the entire Ojo Alamo Sandstone, including the lower dinosaur-bearing part, is Paleocene in age. All of the palynomorph-productive rock samples collected from the Ojo Alamo Sandstone at multiple localities lacked Cretaceous index palynomorphs (except for rare, reworked specimens) and produced Paleocene index palynomorphs. Paleocene palynomorphs have been identified stratigraphically below dinosaur fossils at two separate localities in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone in the central and southern parts of the basin. The Animas Formation in the Colorado part of the basin also contains dinosaur fossils, and its Paleocene age has been established based on fossil leaves and palynology.
Magnetostratigraphy provides independent evidence for the Paleocene age of the Ojo Alamo Sandstone and its dinosaur-bearing beds. Normal-polarity magnetochron C29n (early Paleocene) has been identified in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone at six localities in the southern part of the San Juan Basin.
An assemblage of 34 skeletal elements from a single hadrosaur, found in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone in the southern San Juan Basin, provided conclusive evidence that this assemblage could not have been reworked from underlying Cretaceous strata. In addition, geochemical studies of 15 vertebrate bones from the Paleocene Ojo Alamo Sandstone and 15 bone samples from the underlying Kirtland Formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age show that each sample suite contained distinctly different abundances of uranium and rare-earth elements, indicating that the bones were mineralized in place soon after burial, and that none of the Paleocene dinosaur bones analyzed had been reworked.
#2
This is news because dinosaurs shouldn't be in the Paleocene.
The Paleocene is the 10 million year period following the Cretaceous. The K-T boundary, which marks the end of the K (for Cretaceous) era and the beginning of the T (for Tertiary) era. Thus this piece of evidence goes against the current consensus 'big meteor wiped out dinos' hypothesis.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/29/2009 14:34 Comments ||
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#3
Now now now, history and natgeo have been telling me the last month that it was not a meteor but climate change which killed the dinosaurs - which means industrialists killed the dinosaurs. Granted, a meteor strike would cause a bit of climate change, but then why not use fallout instead of turning the program into a binge drinking game so foul you can hear pee-wee herman screaming the secret word 'Climate Change' halfway through the show.
#4
I'm not going to pretend I know squat about geology.
Having said that , just when exactly did Yellowstone last erupt?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/29/2009 17:08 Comments ||
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#5
The meteor idea is quite popular, and like many things that are popular, its not got alot of scientific backing really. The more likely killer is flood basalts, which is essentially a massive scale volcanic eruption that goes on for well, could be a few million years, throwing megatons of dust, sulfur dioxide and other gases into the air.
Matching flood basalt events to mass extinctions doesn't have perfect correlation, but it's pretty close.
#6
OK silentbrick, I thought much the same (poison Gasses), so which volcano blew around that time?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/29/2009 17:47 Comments ||
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#7
Thrown up against these theories is the very plausible notion that the bioload of prions and virii had built up in dinosaurs to such an extent that they were already on their way out when the meteor struck, administering what was a coup de grace on an already moribund clade of animals.
There is plenty of evidence to support this theory, albeit much of it indirect. The most compelling is that the number of different species of dinosaurs had been decreasing rapidly for more than a million years before the KT strike, and this without a concomitant increase in mammal fossils.
Could some dinosaur species have existed in small numbers and widely scattered populations after the KT evenT? It could have happened, there is a modern precedent.
Mammoths existed for a very long time after their numbers were big, on a few islands scattered around the northern hemisphere where there was little chance of human predation and outside diseases reaching them, right up until two or three thousand years ago (into historical times). In fact, many legends of giant monsters in Greek, Egyptian, pre-Celtic, and American Indian mythos may be based originally upon actual encounters with live mammoths.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/29/2009 18:12 Comments ||
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#8
Shoulda, coulda, woulda. There is no perfect to include wiping out the entire population of dinosaurs. Let's remember that presently science traces birds back to them. That means somehow some of them made it through. Crocodiles are believed to be 200 million years old whereas dinosaurs suffered a mass extinction 65 million years ago. So what we see as with other extinction events is a large population drop off which allow other species opportunities to exploit that they previously couldn't because they didn't have the presence to compete, along with radical environmental changes that did not favor species that were optimized in the pre-cataclysmic environment. That some make it for a while beyond the major event isn't unreasonable. The point about the Mammoth is applicable with the last surviving elements estimated to have survived until 1,650 BC on Wrangel Island.
#10
Flood basalts aren't like a normal volcanic eruption. They are a series of multiple eruptions of basaltic or oceanic magma that can occur during the rifting process.
The flood basalt in question, occured around 68 million years ago in west and central India. It's called the Deccan Traps. It covered 1,500,000 km2 with around 2,000m thick beds of lava. Not exactly you're typical eruption. Volume wise you're looking at around 3 million cubic kilometers of rock.
For contrast, the last full eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera managed to eject about 1000km3. As you can see, the scale is different by several orders of magnitude.
#11
I seem to recall some speculation that a meteor impact might have triggered a cascade of plate tectonic movements and volcanic eruptions - possibly even the millenia-long flood basalts.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/29/2009 21:18 Comments ||
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#14
Recently, there is possible evidence of a Dead Clade Walking: in 2001, evidence was presented that pollen samples recovered near a fossilized hadrosaur femur recovered in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone at the San Juan River indicate that the animal lived in Tertiary times, approximately 64.5 million years ago or about 1 million years after the K-T event.[2] Many scientists, however, dismiss the "Paleocene dinosaurs" as re-worked, i.e. washed out of their original locations and then re-buried in much later sediments.[3] A compelling argument against re-working would be a complete or at least associated skeleton (e.g. more than one bone from the same individual) found above the K-T boundary. As yet no such finds have been reported.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/29/2009 21:22 Comments ||
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[Straits Times] INDONESIAN Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said on Tuesday the deadly swine flu virus could have been man-made, as she urged calm over its spread around the world. The controversial minister did not elaborate but in the past she has said Western governments could be making and spreading viruses in the developing world to boost pharmaceutical companies' profits.
'I'm not sure whether the virus was genetically engineered but it's a possibility,' she told reporters at a press conference called to reassure the public over the government's response to the swine flu threat.
No cases of the disease have been reported in Indonesia, the country worst hit by the bird flu virus which has killed about 250 people worldwide since 2003.
Indonesian authorities have increased body temperature scanners at airports and banned imports of live pigs and pork products, amid World Health Organisation (WHO) warnings of a pandemic.
Ms Supari, a cardiologist, also claimed that the H1N1 strain of swine flu, which is believed to have killed more than 150 people in Mexico, could not survive in tropical countries like Indonesia.
'We have to be alert at all times although swine flu in Indonesia is not a cause for panic,' she said. 'H1N1 survives in countries with four seasons. The type A H1N1 virus hopefully won't be able to sustain itself once it enters the tropical climate of Indonesia.'
The virus has been found in 11 countries including Mexico, the United States and Spain, while several other countries from Colombia to New Zealand are investigating suspected cases.
Ms Supari said the health ministry had prepared 100 hospitals to handle swine flu cases should the disease enter Indonesia.
The minister has refused since 2006 to share all but a handful of Indonesia's bird flu virus samples with WHO researchers, saying the system is being abused by rich countries to develop profitable vaccines which poor countries must buy.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Umm this one's actually a bit simple to debunk. The virus has already been sequenced. They only need to check it against various lab samples and known strains. Creating a supervirus for profit is typical 3rd world fantasy BS.
The probable cause has been discussed here by others far more informed than me, and apparently for more informed than the Indonesian ignoramuses.
Step 1 Avian flu needed only one evolution to become able to infect pigs. Inoculating pigs with live virus could have caused this as well.
Step 2 Flu moves as normal H1 swine flu, from pigs to people. Happens every year, albeit in small numbers Still no human-to-human transmission. But the bird flu alleles may help that.
Step 3 Flu evolves to become type A transmittable between humans. Either corsses wiht Influenza A, or just a "lucky" hit.
Voila! ManBirdPig Virus. No evil pharma company or mad Islamic scientist needed.
And a cardiologist is not the person to quote about this - she knows diddly epidemiology. Stick to your specialty or earn the title of Doc Dumbass. I'd trust her as much as I would a Dentist or a plumber - they have pretty much the same level of specialized education in virology.
#3
While it is not impossible that this bug was 'engineered' I am confident it would not have been done by evil and greedy Western pharmaceutical companies. IF (big 'if') it was intentionally created and released, it would have to have been done by a group which does not value life - perhaps a group which professes to "love death." Not likely, but more likely than the pharma scenario.
#5
Egypt has no reported cases of the flu, it is not transmitted from eating pork, yet they are destroying the 300,000 swine there. Most likely any engineering would be be from the anti-capitalist, anti-western culture of death.
The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as the number of deaths in Mexico blamed on the virus surpassed 150.
New Zealand reported Tuesday that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a World Health Organization laboratory in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said. Officials decided that was evidence enough to assume the whole group was infected, he said.
Those infected had suffered only "mild illness" and were expected to recover, Public Health Director Mark Jacobs said. There are 43 more suspected cases in the country, officials said.
The Israeli Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed the region's first case of swine flu in the city of Netanya. The 26-year-old patient recently returned from Mexico and had contracted the same strain, Health Ministry spokeswoman Einav Shimron. Dr. Avinoam Skolnik, Laniado Hospital's medical director, said the patient has fully recovered and is in "excellent condition" but will remain hospitalized until the Health Ministry approves his release. Another suspected case has been tested at another Israeli hospital but results are not in, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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EL PASO, Texas (AP) - U.S. airports and border agents waved people through Monday with little or no additional screening for Mexico's deadly swine flua far more muted reaction than the extreme caution elsewhere around the world. The number of confirmed U.S. cases rose to 48, most of them mild and none fatal. The government said it was shipping millions of doses of flu-fighting medicine from a federal stockpile to states along the Mexican border or where the virus has been detected.
But the American reaction to swine flu, which has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and on Monday led the World Health Organization to raise its alert level, was mostly limited to steps that hospitals, schools and mask-wearing individuals took on their own.
Which is good because that's the way Americans traditionally are. We don't need to wait on the federal government to tell us what to do.
At the main pedestrian border crossing between El Paso and Mexico's Ciudad Juarez, a handful of people wore protective masks and officials handed out a swine flu flier provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there were no extra screenings for swine flu, and it mostly looked like a typical day at the border. Suddenly faced with a new and unforeseen threat, people entering the country who said they felt unwell were questioned about their symptoms. But there were no reports of anyone refused entry.
Jorge Juarez and Miranda Carnero, both 18, crossed the border wearing bright blue masks. "It's just a precaution," said Juarez, who lives in El Paso and drew a smiley face on his mask.
Passengers from a Mexico City flight that arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey said they were surprised customs officials did nothing more than hand them an informational flier. "Everyone's afraid. But when we got here, they said 'Welcome to America. You don't need that,'" said Alejandro Meneses of Fairlawn, N.J., pointing to a paper mask hanging from his neck.
The confirmed U.S. cases included 28 at a private high school in New York City, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio. Only one American case has led to a hospitalization.
President Barack Obama characterized the U.S. cases as a cause for concern but not "a cause for alarm." The federal government said travel warnings for trips to Mexico would remain in place as long as swine flu is detected.
Public health experts cautioned that screenings were not foolproof. People with the flu can spread the virus to others before any symptoms show up. "It's not a perfect solution," said Greg Gray, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, who estimated the screenings would pick up 80 to 90 percent of cases.
Gray said he believed the U.S. response was appropriate given how little researchers know about the potency. "The virus is here in North America, and it's likely to show up on every continent, I think, by the end of the week," he said. "It's hard to stop."
In other countries, precautions were far more stringent. Asian nations activated thermal scanners used during the 2003 SARS crisis to check for signs of fever among passengers arriving from North America. In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers touching down from Los Angeles.
Australia said it would require pilots on international flights to file a report noting any flu-like symptoms among passengers before being allowed to land. And China ordered anyone with flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival to report to authorities.
The European Union's health commissioner urged Europeans to put off nonessential travel to part of the United States, but Dr. Richard Besser, acting head of the CDC in Atlanta, said the recommendation was unwarranted. "At this point I would not put a travel restriction or recommendation against coming to the United States," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Our politicians have been shoveling pigsh*t on us for so long that we have developed some immunity to swine virus.
#3
Natural Selection is our friend! Panic and fear would only waste a good crisis. It must be permitted to fully mature. Only then can government and an emergency national medical programe featuring universal health care become the salvation.
#4
...except for the loss of significant numbers of doctors, nurses, and first line responders downed by the wave of that 'mature' strain. Reading on the net, that's already happening in Mexico DF. I'm sure the bureaucrats will survive to man [or woman] a national health care system, but the practitioners are another matter.
#5
First US death of a toddler reported in Houston hospital, with the best resources available. Got queasy thinking about it--the girl in front of me on a flight from Houston coughed and barfed the whole trip. Have they put those virus-killing UV lights in the air circulation system on planes yet? They make UV wands to pass over hard surfaces that every cleaning crew could easily use. Hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes readily available in restrooms, for trays and shopping carts, the fever detectors used in Asian airports following SARS, etc. Seems like we could do some fairly simple procedures without panicking.
GENEVA, April 28 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation is not recommending travel restrictions and border closures to fight swine flu, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Infected people may not show symptoms at the airport or when they reach a border crossing, so travel limitations like those imposed during the SARS outbreak are ineffective, spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
"Border controls don't work. Screening doesn't work," he told a news conference, describing the economically-damaging travel bans as basically pointless in public health terms.
That's not really true. Travel controls would work, they'd just have to be more drastic than a modern society is willing to tolerate.
Still, the WHO is urging people to think twice before travelling to and from affected areas, and to avoid crowds and public transport in the presence of any flu-like symptoms. "Certainly if you feel that you are ill you should not travel, in any case, to anywhere," Hartl said.
Up to 149 people in Mexico have died of the new swine flu virus known as H1N1, which has caused milder symptoms in other countries including the United States, Canada, Spain, Britain, Israel, and New Zealand. "We don't understand why the disease has been more severe in Mexico," Hartl said.
Some are suggesting that the deaths in Mexico are because Mexico traditionally doesn't see a lot of influenza, so that some patients have little past immunity. Others are suggesting that it's a 'cytokine storm', in which the immune system over-reacts to the H1N1 virus; said reaction then triggering a cascade of problems.
The first victims may not have recognised they were infected with a new type of flu requiring different treatment than normal seasonal flu, they may not have received the required medicines until late, or they may have been infected with other diseases reducing their immunity to the virus, he suggested.
All transmission of the disease so far appears to have been human-to-human and not from animal or other contact, according to the WHO. "There is no danger form eating pork," Hartl said. "If you cook pork well, if you cook all meat well, it kills all virus."
The WHO does not yet know where the outbreak started from. "We are still looking for the origin of this event. We don't know where it is, we don't know where the initial infection occurred."
Likely broke out from a low-level background infection rate.
The WHO's emergency committee will not meet on Tuesday to review the pandemic alert level, which was raised on Monday evening to level 4 from 3, on a 1-to-6 scale.
"If the virus is an efficient virus, if it spreads easily from human to human, it will probably continue to spread," Hartl said. "We are still at phase 4 because we do not have incontrovertible evidence this is an efficient spreader."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"World Health Organisation is not recommending travel restrictions and border closures to fight swine flu"
And yet they just announced they believe a pandemic is IMMINENT.
Do these clowns have to go to Stupid School, or is this a natural talent?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/29/2009 18:59 Comments ||
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An ammunition dump on the outskirts of the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam has exploded, causing a huge fire, panic and the ordering of a mass evacuation.
There's the earth-shattering kaboom!
Kenyan television reports say several people have been killed and a police commander confirmed at least one death from the blasts at a Mbagala army base. Shockwaves were felt throughout the city amid at least three explosions.
The authorities have advised workers around the city to vacate their offices, warning of further blasts. Officials said the army planned to set off another huge explosion in an effort to contain the smaller blasts.
The armoury next to the army camp, which lies 14km (nine miles) outside the city centre, is thought to have contained large amounts of ordnance, including mines and artillery shells.
[Mail and Globe] Growing pressure from poaching and human encroachment has driven hundreds of elephants to migrate across Zimbabwe's borders and at least one leopard to stalk an upmarket suburb of the capital, conservationists said on Monday.
The independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force appealed in its latest monthly bulletin for more action -- and money -- to preserve the troubled nation's wildlife.
In Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, "humans are encroaching more and more into areas previously reserved for wildlife", the task force said.
As many as 400 elephants have crossed the Zambezi River, which separates Zambia from northern Zimbabwe, in recent months, said Johnny Rodrigues, head of the task force.
Three elephants also roamed into the eastern border city of Mutare this month and state wildlife authorities "want to shoot them before they kill somebody", he said.
The task force and a Zimbabwe animal group received official authority to capture and transport the elephants to Chipinda Pools, believed to be their original home area 200km to the south.
"The problem is funding for the relocation," Rodrigues said.
State game rangers "won't wait much longer before destroying the elephants".
In northern Harare, rangers also wanted to track and kill at least one leopard, which also is suspected of having a cub.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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Poor lellyphants. :( It's a bad situation for them wherever they go.
The owners of an Asian jewellery shop robbed by two men who disguised themselves in traditional Muslim veils have said they will now refuse to serve customers who cover their faces.
Rukhsana Sadiq, who runs Ataa Jewellers in Glasgow, said people wearing the full niqab headwear must remove their veil before entering the store. Ms Sadiq, who was attacked during the robbery earlier this month, said the policy was being implemented for the security of the shop staff. "We cannot afford to be victims of crime simply because we respect what other people wear," she said.
The family-run business, which has been based in the city's West End for more than two decades, was targeted by two Asian men posing as female customers. Dressed in full Muslim female dress and niqab headwear, they carried handbags and asked to browse various items before striking the staff and making off with jewellery worth thousands of pounds.
Ms Sadiq, who described her assailants as "wimps" and "cowards", said the incident had left her with no option but to screen people entering the shop. From now on, women wearing the niqab will have to remove it to show their face, or call the shop beforehand to arrange an appointment. Anyone turning up unsolicited who refuses to remove the veil will be turned away. "At the end of the day, these people were disguising themselves. We respect people who wear devout forms of dress, but this isn't about disrespecting what people wear," Ms Sadiq said.
Hanzala Malik, the family's local councillor, said the Sadiqs were within their legal rights to introduce the policy, and he expressed sympathy with them. "Banks up and down the country take the view that people wearing helmets won't be served, and I think, more and more, issues about identity will arise. There may come a time when ladies wearing the niqab may find themselves disadvantaged," he said
Mr Malik, a Labour member of Glasgow City Council, said he believed the community would support the family's decision. But Madihah Ansari, 19, a student in the city, said: "I just really don't like the idea. It is like prejudice about one type of person. Just because two guys did a crime and they were dressed up in that kind of outfit, you can't prejudice everyone else."
Osama Saeed, the chief executive of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said it was important people did not victimise people who wear veils. "We wouldn't want to see another witch hunt against people that choose to cover their faces, even though most Muslim women do not do this," he said. "People have the right to wear what they wish in a free society. We do, though, have sympathy with security concerns in certain situations, for example in banks and schools."
The incident echoes previous crimes where perpetrators have made use of Muslim clothing. Would-be bomber Yassin Omar escaped from London to Birmingham by dressing in a burka, following the failed attacks on 21 July, 2005. Fardosa Abdullahi had given the plot ringleader Omar her mother's long black robe to help him flee the capital the day after the attempted bombings.
In February, the theft of a £15,000 ring from an Edinburgh diamond shop was linked to a series of raids by a robber who dresses as a Muslim woman. Last year, a man made his way into a locked jewellery store in Birmingham by posing as a Muslim woman before attacking staff with four accomplices, who stole £200,000 of gold items.
#1
"We cannot afford to be victims of crime simply because we respect what other people wear,"
Oh, yes you can. If you weren't Muslim yourselves, the Human Rights Commission would be all over you for racism. As it is, they'll probably still get complaints and be labeled "Uncle Toms".
President Dmitry Medvedev fired powerful Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin on Tuesday as heads rolled over a lone policeman's shooting spree that horrified the city.
Medvedev has signed an order relieving Pronin of his duties, the Kremlin said in a statement posted on its web site late Tuesday. It did not elaborate.
Earlier in the day, Medvedev fired the head of Moscow's southern police district, Viktor Ageyev, and three of Ageyev's deputies were also dismissed.
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April 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama plans to announce tomorrow that Chrysler LLC will be placed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leading to an alliance with Italian automaker Fiat SpA, people involved in the matter said.
Administration officials are still resolving outstanding issues, and the plan is not finished yet, said one of the people, who declined to be named. Any bankruptcy filing could come as soon as tomorrow, people familiar with the matter said.
Chryslers best assets would be sold to a new entity that would have an ownership structure similar to that envisioned in an out-of-court deal between the Auburn Hills, Michigan-base automaker and Turin, Italy-based Fiat, the people said.
The Italian company would become a 20 percent owner of Chrysler, and a union retiree health-care trust fund would own 55 percent, with the rest of the company staying in the governments hands initially, people familiar with the matter said.
Chrysler has made progress in out-of-court restructuring, including reaching labor deals with the United Auto Workers union and Canadian Auto Workers on new contracts. Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Bob Nardelli said today in a memo to employees that the company is waiting to hear whether its 46 lenders will agree to take $2 billion in cash to wipe out $6.9 billion in secured debt.
Calls and e-mails to Chrysler spokeswomen, Lori McTavish and Shawn Morgan, seeking comment were not immediately returned.
#1
It can't be a Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- what happens to the people, such as bondholders and other creditors, who ordinarily have some standing? Bondholders ordinarily get ownership in a new company. What happens here?
We're rapidly becoming a nation of men, not laws.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2009 18:00 Comments ||
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#2
Ummm, the phrasing "Will be placed into Bankruptcy" Indicates a forced bankruptcy by Obama Government Order. I see this as a very ominous thing.
Who's next on the forced bankruptcy list? certainly no Bailed out Banks (Who should be)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/29/2009 18:03 Comments ||
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#3
Nonsense.
The article says the government is planning to put Chrysler into BK, not operate it by fiat, as opposed to by Fiat, which is ultimately likely. This seems to be proceeding in an orderly and legal, if unorthodox, fashion. If Bush had let Chrysler and GM go BK at the beginning, this problem would be resolved by now. Bernanke, Paulson and Bush will have a lot to answer for in the history books. As will Bambi. But not for this as it seems to be playing out OK.
Who's next is whoever borrows money from the government and can't repay it. Let the lesson be learned that when they say I've money from the government and I'm here to help, they speak with forked tongue. Again, something Bush, Paulson and Bernanke did that Barry is taking advantage of.
The bankers would be next if they had the nads to stand up to the government, but they've gone supine.
#7
It's orderly and legal if all parties sign off. Every BK resolution involves sombebody getting crammed down. The parties get to decide if it's done acceptably. If the UAW thinks it will be better off iwth 55% of Chrysler, more power to it. And Fiat.
#8
Still no word on how they plan to cut expenses and survive on their own. Instead it looks like Obama plans to create a whole class of corporate welfare mommas w/ taxpayers getting the shaft.
Posted by: ed ||
04/29/2009 21:05 Comments ||
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#9
This time America has the right people in place to make socialism work unlike every other attempt universe wise.
Less than a quarter of all voters call themselves Republicans, a number that has dropped precipitously over the past six years, according to a new analysis.
In more than 7,000 interviews conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2009, just 23 percent of voters self-identify as members of the Grand Old Party. That's down from 30 percent as recently as 2004, and the trend shows no signs of slowing.
In the first four months of the year, Pew researchers found the number of self-identified Republicans dropping from 25 percent in January to just 22 percent in April.
But unlike Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who became the first U.S. senator in history to leap directly from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, voters who once called themselves Republicans are not ready to jump into bed with the other side. Though Democratic identification has inched up in the past six years, former Republicans are now largely calling themselves independents.
A total of 35 percent of voters call themselves Democrats, up just two points from 2004. In the past four months, Democratic identification has actually dropped four points, to 33 percent, while those who call themselves independents has risen to 39 percent.
Pew researchers say a decline in those who identify with both parties is normal following the close of an election. But the long-term slouch in which Republicans find themselves speaks to larger problems for the GOP.
Republican identification has sunk by more than five points in all four regions of the country. Just one in five voters in the Northeast call themselves Republican, the party's worst region, while 25 percent of Southerners say they are Republican, the region where the GOP performs best.
Meanwhile, more than 31 percent of voters in each region say they are Democrats.
The data is based on tens of thousands of interviews conducted every year by the Pew Research Center. So far in 2009, the Center has conducted 7,127 interviews for a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percent.
#1
I've always thought that these so called "neutral" companies, cross reference phone number addresses with voting district results to achieve the numbers their clients want.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/29/2009 18:10 Comments ||
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#4
Telephone polling is getting tough. This Republican doesn't answer the phone if he doesn't recognize the number and if you don't leave a message, it must not have been that important.
#6
Less than one in four Republicans identify as fiscally conservative.
Y'know, I find that to not only be a bit of a gross exaggeration and half-truth, but one that has been very useful to the Democrats' strategy.
Meanwhile, here's the deficit, both historical and projected, in graphical form, from Glenn Reynold's website; you'll notice he's not exactly Mr. Republican:
Kinda makes me wonder what happened between 2006 and 2007.
Posted by: Thing From Communist Mountain ||
04/29/2009 18:40 Comments ||
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#7
Anyway, it kinda looks like a lot more than a dime's worth of difference to me. Maybe 1.4 trillion.
Posted by: Thing From Communist Mountain ||
04/29/2009 18:42 Comments ||
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#8
And I was gonna say something really bad and sarcastic, but I changed my mind. But forgot to change the 'nick back.
Anyway, I'm not beginning to think that a lot of the heavy fiscal argument we've been getting in was counterproductive; I thought that back in 2004. I _know_ a lot of it's been unproductive.
If we hadn't raised such a damn fuss about the Bridge To Nowhere, and picked our battles more carefully, we might actually have a lower deficit now.
Instead we hammered away on earmarks which we thought were worth complaining about at the time, but now we REALLY have something to complain about.
Pretending that all Republicans were basically the same as Arlen Specter was a losing strategy even back when Specter was still pretending to be a Republican. NOW? We may not have winning strategies available to us, especially if it requires the Republicans to have power they don't before they can prove they're 'worthy' of us voting for them instead of the people who gave us the 1.8 trillion dollar deficit.
And as one great capitalist strategist once said, "The Best is the Enemy of the Good Enough."
I voted Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I've decided to marry my horse.
I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't.
I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
I voted Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
I voted Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the bad guys will stop what they're doing because they now think we're good people.
I voted Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
I voted Democrat because I'm not concerned about the slaughter of millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves.They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as IT sees fit.
I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite The Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my ass that it is unlikely that I'll ever have another point of view.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own."
#12
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own."
"A Liberal also believes they can pick up a turd by the clean end."
Gawd, I love Rantburg! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/29/2009 20:32 Comments ||
Top||
#13
When you are a Republican you have to put up with years of ridicule for spelling potatoe with an "e", even when the school's card spelled it that way. When you are a Democrat you have no responsibility when nearly one million are hacked to death while you twiddle your thumbs or have the press repeatedly cover for you while you sit back and relax with Oval Office blow jobs as muslims repeatedly attack and even then the most devastating mass murder in our nation's history perpetrated in our first city is swept down the memory hole by a complicit press. So why would anybody want to identify as Republican? Better to tell the pollster or nosy coworker to fuck off.
Posted by: ed ||
04/29/2009 20:57 Comments ||
Top||
#14
if the GOP got back to its constitutional roots and truly limited govt views I'd identify as a Repub. The house repubs have done pretty well imho of keeping it together. The senate needs some cleaning out methinx. collins/snowe gotta go. McCain's a joke.... and would someone please tell Meghan McCain to shut the fuck up.
In March, the number of Democrats in the nation fell two percentage points while the number of Republicans fell by half-a-point. Democrats continue to have a sizable advantage in terms of partisan identification, but the advantage is smaller than its been since December 2007.
Currently, 38.7% of Americans say they are Democrats. Thats down from 40.8% a month ago. Its also the first time the Democratic total has slipped below the 40% mark since the Republican convention bounce last September.
Prior to this months result, the Democrats have been over the 40% level 10 times in the previous 13 months (see history from January 2004 to present).
In March, 33.2% of American adults say they are Republicans. Thats down from 33.6% a month ago. Over the past year, the number of Republicans has ranged from a low of 31.4% in April to a high of 34.4% in September.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Organization of the Islamic Conference expressed concerns about a videogame showing figures of Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Buddha engaging in a death struggle.
A spokesman for the OIC Observatory on Islamophobia said in a statement that the site metro.co.uk announced "the launch of this computer game titled 'Fight of Faith' (Faith Fighter), representing the characters as Prophet Jesus and Mohammed (Muhammad) engaged in a death struggle." "This game has provocative and offensive content for both Christians and Muslims (...) and would only encourage intolerance," he added.
He called on the managers of the Web site that houses the game to "take immediate measures by removing the game from the Web."
The Web site reported later that "a computer game which features God, Muhammad and Buddha beating each other up has been taken offline after Muslim protests."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#4
Test your might, Test your might,
Test your might, Test your might.
IMMORTAL KOMBAT!
FIGHT!
IMMORTAL KOMBAT!
(Excellent)
EXCELLENT!
Muhammed, Jesus Christ, Budda, Barack Obama,
Ganesh, Zoroaster, Odin.
IMMORTAL KOMBAT!
FIGHT!
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is asking Congress to close the big gap in prison sentences for dealing crack versus powdered cocaine, a law that critics say is unfair to blacks.
Such sentencing reform efforts tend to focus on lowering the mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine possession, but in prepared testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer did not spell out exactly how the administration hopes to make the law more fair.
"The administration believes Congress' goal should be to completely eliminate the disparity in prison sentences between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine," Breuer said in written testimony to be delivered Wednesday.
Continued on Page 49
#1
This is a rare case where I actually tend to agree with Zero. Not because I believe it's a racist thing, but because I agree that the comparative mandatory sentences are not fair.
#3
I don't get it. Are white people supposed to be evil for pushing crack cocaine on black people (as per all the Konspiracy Theories) or for putting crack dealers in jail?
#5
Perhaps whoever wrote the mandatory sentencing regulations/laws thought that selling cheap crack to poor Americans is worse than selling expensive crack to rich Americans?
#9
I'd prefer drug dealers get the death penalty. You could even do 3 strikes and yer dead. Just to lessen the tiny risk of an innocent 'holding' drugs for someone gets the chop.
One things for sure. A dead dealer (be he white, black, green, purple or demonrat) will never EVER sell drugs again.
I favor a life-sentence, but, a true life-sentence, incarerated untill death or so an advanced age that the cullprit has only bittersweet memories of a very misspenth youth.
I actually find this to be crueler than outright killing them.
#13
Sparong, you're right it's more cruel, that's exactly why I advocate death, end the shit once and for all.
As my grandmother said "Scare them White".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/29/2009 18:20 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Isn't death is a little overboard for drugs -- something a fair number of people have tried? I can think of many crimes which should carry the death penalty, but selling drugs is not one of them.
Honestly, there are shows on TV that do more damage to more young people than drugs.
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.
[Straits Times] INDONESIAN Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said on Tuesday the deadly swine flu virus could have been man-made, as she urged calm over its spread around the world. The controversial minister did not elaborate but in the past she has said Western governments could be making and spreading viruses in the developing world to boost pharmaceutical companies' profits.
The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as the number of deaths in Mexico blamed on the virus surpassed 150.
An ammunition dump on the outskirts of the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam has exploded, causing a huge fire, panic and the ordering of a mass evacuation.
[Mail and Globe] Growing pressure from poaching and human encroachment has driven hundreds of elephants to migrate across Zimbabwe's borders and at least one leopard to stalk an upmarket suburb of the capital, conservationists said on Monday. 
Less than a quarter of all voters call themselves Republicans, a number that has dropped precipitously over the past six years, according to a new analysis.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Organization of the Islamic Conference expressed concerns about a videogame showing figures of Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Buddha engaging in a death struggle. 
