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Mansour Dadullah in custody in Pak
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
2 00:00 Rambler in California [7] 
3 00:00 RD [5] 
12 00:00 trailing wife [6] 
1 00:00 ed [3] 
4 00:00 JosephMendiola [5] 
2 00:00 eLarson [3] 
9 00:00 RD [3] 
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4 00:00 OldSpook [3] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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6 00:00 USN,Ret. [4]
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2 00:00 Free Radical [5]
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Page 4: Opinion
3 00:00 Mullah Lodabullah [4]
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
5 00:00 RD [5]
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2 00:00 Alaska Paul [8]
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Africa Subsaharan
Emigration a threat to So. African economy. I blame smart folks , says economist.
Chief economist at First National Bank Cees Bruggemans said on Tuesday that the apparent large-scale escalation in emigration intentions among talented professionals and managers is a major threat to the economy, especially when combined with the impact of the electricity crisis.

Along with output losses due to electricity, it could severely strain the spending and output growth outlook over the next few years. Instead of 6%, think 3%, he notes.

"Economic growth comes about through capital formation, labour absorption and technological progress. We are raising our investment-to-GDP-ratio to over 25% by 2010, we enjoy technological progress even when sourced overseas, but our main weakness is limited availability of skilled, educated, talented, experienced people," explains Bruggemans.

He points out that instead of gearing for faster growth, as heralded by every state document, commission and speech, the country seems determined to undermine its growth potential by frightening away its most precious national resource, often by breathtaking "own goals" seemingly played from as far away as midfield (even in soccer a feat equalled by few).

"People from all walks of life are daily deciding to uproot and go elsewhere. That doesn't happen without good reason. Every 30 000 highly skilled individuals who make this step probably reduce South Africa's GDP by 1% or more, starving it of critical support, thereby undermining ongoing employment of double their number," he says.

"And many more than that seem of late to be jumping ship. Wild tales of record car auctions and property market flooding abound. If everybody knows somebody preparing to emigrate, the condition is presumably dire," points out Bruggemans.

"Could it lead to early fiscal and monetary easing? The budget may favour the poor. A June or August rate cut by the South African Reserve Bank is feasible, provided inflation descends as rapidly as expected after the [first quarter of 2008] peaking," concludes Bruggemans. — I-Net Bridge
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/12/2008 04:54 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmm. Why could this possibly be happening? I am ready to put the blame on racism, sexism, lookism, and a lack of concern for criminals - without these prosperous people as a ready source of prey, how will the underclass survive?
Posted by: gromky || 02/12/2008 6:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Think of it as a re-forestation project...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/12/2008 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  When I was there in 2005, every white person I talked to was already involved in planning to emigrate. I don't blame them a bit; all they've got to do is look to their north to see the future.
Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 || 02/12/2008 17:42 Comments || Top||

#4  The old Soviet Union [not to be confused with the New Coke] and the Eastern Block countries had a semi-workable solution for this. I doubt though in forty years there's going to be a large conglomerate of much wealthier countries on your border which lives off of American military welfare to help.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/12/2008 19:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Why would any intelligent person with a family still be there?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/12/2008 20:04 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez says US sending militia to border areas
President Hugo Chavez accused the United States on Sunday of sending Colombian right-wing paramilitary forces into Venezuela to destabilize border areas and arm shantytown gangs in the capital Caracas. With his most concrete charge to date in a months-old diplomatic dispute with Colombia, Chavez said the US ally supported the campaign that also included selling cocaine to buy support in slums. The anti-US, leftist president often charges Washington with plotting his ouster. He rarely provides any evidence for the accusations, which the United States routinely denies. “They (paramilitaries) are working in shantytowns selling cocaine below market prices to win over crime gangs and arm them with military arms,” Chavez said on his weekly TV show. He vowed to take to international bodies his charge that the two nations are “filling Venezuela with paramilitaries.”
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps his buddies in FARC/Drug Gangs are starting to make him nervous (ie, scare) him.
Posted by: Throger Thains8048 || 02/12/2008 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Hes finding busy work for the military. Idle hands and all that.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/12/2008 7:19 Comments || Top||

#3  No Hugo, the Hague Convention covers this when you provide safe haven for a belligerent in a conflict. "a neutral country has the obligation not to allow its territory to be used by a belligerent. If the neutral country is unwilling or unable to prevent this, the other belligerent has the right to take appropriate counteraction."- Hague Convention of 1907.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/12/2008 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Hell, Chavez. We don't need to do anything like that. Seal Team 6 would be enough to blow your stupid and rusting oil infrastructure to hell and then all we have to do is point and laugh and you are finished.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/12/2008 7:36 Comments || Top||

#5  paranoia,did they not offr too sell him any of the cheap stuff
Posted by: sinse || 02/12/2008 10:32 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia surprised by U.S. reaction to bomber flights
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expressed surprise on Tuesday that the United States had scrambled fighter jets at the weekend to intercept strategic Russian bombers, one of which flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific.
That's US territory you are overflying.
Four U.S. F/A-18 fighters were launched after Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers flying south of Japan were detected turning towards the Nimitz aircraft carrier and its escort, a U.S. defense official said.
Messing with us in the UN security counsel is one thing. Messing with a Carrier strike group is totally different. Please learn said distinction ASAP.
One of the Russian bombers flew over the deck of the Nimitz, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.S. fighters escorted the Russian bombers out of the area.
Lucky for you. That was a 'Look Down Shoot Down' episode if I've ever saw one.
"It is standard operating procedure for U.S. planes to escort aircraft flying in the vicinity of U.S. Navy ships," the U.S. defense official said.
That is a nice way of putting it.
The Russian Air Force said the February 9 mission by four Tu-95s was part of long-distance patrols of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans and the Black Sea begun in August last year. It said all flights were made over neutral waters, did not breach international borders and all concerned parties were notified in advance.
When you get whithin striking distance of a US flat-top, you are no longer in 'neutral waters.'
"We are surprised by all the clamor this raised," RIA news agency quoted Russian Air Force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying.
Nice climb-down.
A Russian bomber last flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier in July 2004, when a Bear flew over the USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan, the official said.
They're lucky to be alive.
Russian bombers have ramped up their flights near U.S. territory and U.S. naval assets over the past year, demonstrating their long-range strike capability.
Those 'assets' are known as STATE INSTRUMENTS, and the Russians should be VERY careful about provoking a response to silly challenges.
Posted by: Free Radical || 02/12/2008 06:46 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably just wanted a few hi-res pics is all.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2008 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Get an F-18 to practice touch-n-go landings in the Bear. Be sure to give the landing gear a good workout.
Posted by: ed || 02/12/2008 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this the same incident or a seperate one?

A Russian strategic bomber briefly entered Japanese airspace over the Pacific south of Tokyo Saturday, prompting 22 Japanese military aircraft to scramble, officials said.

Russia denied the incursion, but the Japanese foreign ministry said it lodged a strong protest with the Russian embassy in Tokyo.

"We have asked the Russian government to make a thorough investigation into the matter," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

The Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-95 bomber flew over the rocky isle of Sofugan, some 650km south of Tokyo, for about three minutes from 7:30:36, the defense ministry said. The air force scrambled 22 planes, including F-15 fighters and an E-767 airborne early warning and control aircraft, a defense ministry statement said.

They gave "a notice, then a warning and another a notice and a warning," the statement said. "There was no response." The Russian bomber then flew back north toward the Russian island of Sakhalin, it said.

Russia denied the incursion. "Russian air force planes carried out their mission according to plan. Japanese military airspace was not breached," Alexander Drobyshevsky, a spokesman for the air force, told ITAR-TASS.

The bomber flights "were carried out in strict accordance with international rules on flying over neutral waters, without violating the border between the two countries," Drobyshevsky said.

Japan said it was the first Russian violation of its airspace since January 2006.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/12/2008 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Apparently bombers buzzing and fighters scrambling in response happened all the time during the Cold War, without being considered newsworthy. Any thoughts from those who know?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/12/2008 8:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Back then wife, the were considered normal "training missions" for both sides. The Bears opened their bomb doors once the US fighters came up along side to show that they were empty.

However, the MSM is now surprised that an ex-KGB thug is running the country like it used to be when he was a KGB thug and react like it. The Soviet Union is back, but in far worse shape than before. He is trying for an arms race with a GDP that is less than what the US spends on its own military in two years.

samizdata.net has a good snark about it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/12/2008 9:17 Comments || Top||

#6  This is the action of lower primates who flash genitalia to 'impress' others in their hierarchy order.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/12/2008 9:23 Comments || Top||

#7 
Apparently bombers buzzing and fighters scrambling in response happened all the time during the Cold War, without being considered newsworthy. Any thoughts from those who know?


During Cold War there were well defined rules about what was allowed and not allowed in order to not accidentally trigger WWIII. Buzzing an aircraft carrier was one of the not to do things. Also, in times of the F14 who was a real interceptor the Bear would have never been able to close so much. THe F18 is not an interceptor.
Posted by: JFM || 02/12/2008 10:29 Comments || Top||

#8  The F18 is not an interceptor.

No she isn't! And that sad fact is going to cost us dearly in the not too distant future.
Posted by: Angeager McCoy5898 || 02/12/2008 10:34 Comments || Top||

#9  We should have buzz'd them with some AA.
Posted by: Thromosing the Rasher of Bacon5030 || 02/12/2008 12:04 Comments || Top||

#10  one hopes we return the favor. a 117 momentarily appearing over Vladivastok and then disappearing might be appropraite.
Posted by: Thirong Henbane3790 || 02/12/2008 12:28 Comments || Top||

#11  The F18 is not an interceptor.

Ugggh... that is NOT what I wanted to hear. I have been led to believe that the super-hornet is SOTA. JFM, could you elaborate on your statement? If it is long, maybe the mods would allow you to post it on the 'opinion' page. I am certainly interested, and have no first-hand knowledge to contradict you.
Posted by: Free Radical || 02/12/2008 12:35 Comments || Top||

#12  The Navy has a great interceptor - the SM-3...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/12/2008 13:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Don't be getting USN, Ret. riled up about the F/A-18. You know how he feels about Lawn Darts!
Posted by: SteveS || 02/12/2008 13:42 Comments || Top||

#14  The US needs to develop a super-sturdy bumper car plane that can land on carriers. That way when someone gets too close we clip them, damage them, blame them for flying into the heavily congested area around a carrier, and laugh as they now pay to fix their expensive bomber.

The Chinese would get the hint as well and wouldn't pull that nonsense they did in 2001.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/12/2008 14:05 Comments || Top||

#15  can an A-10 land on a flattop?

UACVs could bump all they wanted.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/12/2008 14:17 Comments || Top||

#16  Ugggh... that is NOT what I wanted to hear. I have been led to believe that the super-hornet is SOTA.


The super-Hornet could be all the SOTA what you want it is still not an interceptor. The F14 had greater speed Mach 2.34 vs 1.8), tactical range (500 nm vs a ridiculous 150 nm). Also due to F14's wing behaving as a supersonic delta she had a far greater range at supersonic speeds. That means that in emegencies the F14 can reach the target well before the superhornet. Compound to that the very long range F14 missiles: by the time the F18 gets into a shooting position the F14 has already reached and shot a second intruder tens of miles away. Did I mention the long range radar and its very wide angle? And that I am comparing the latest and greatest F18 versus a twenty year old F14. Now imagine if the F14 had been upgraded too.

It is very possible that the F18 beats the pants of the F14 for the task of dueling enemy fighters but that is not the job of an interceptor. An interceptor's job is to destroy enemy bombers before they get into firing range: a single of the missiles carried by the Bear can literally blow a destroyer out of the water and would do major damage on a carrier. The sooner you intercept the Bear the better.
Posted by: JFM || 02/12/2008 15:22 Comments || Top||

#17  How much is an unmanned drone, could be wroth launching a few and really crapping on the Soviet windshields.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/12/2008 17:13 Comments || Top||

#18  OK Steve S, you called it! The Lawn dart is Not the do all end all the figther attack mafia in DC claims it to be. (that is all)

TW, back during the cold war, whenever an unkniwn was inbound to the boat, fighters were launched to escort the bogie away. the good guys were always between the bogie and the boat.

I would be interested in knowing why the CO allowed the Bear to get that close. sounds a lot like an airborne version of the Chinese sub that snuck up on the Kitty Hawk a while back. Are the boat CO's that hamstrung by stupid ROEs that it is going to get one sunk before we let go of our ankles?????

At Steve's request, i will refrain from any more Lawn Dart bashing. ( Must. Breathe. Slowly.)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/12/2008 18:06 Comments || Top||

#19  So, JFM - we are STILL fighting the last war?

I love to watch Dogfights on the History Channel, and the F-4 used in Vietnam didn't even have guns - they were designed to down Russian Bombers, not dogfight. There were some dogfights in the 1991 war, so apparently, the Lawn Dart is a reaction to that war?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/12/2008 18:12 Comments || Top||

#20  PRAVDA > PUTIN INSISTS ON A NEW SCENARIO FOR RUSSIA. Speech - Putin admits that ONE IN EVERY SECOND RUSS MALE WON'T SEE AGE 60, + RUSS LABOR PRODUCTIVITY REMAINS DANGEROUSLY VERY LOW IN THE LIGHT OF INTENSIFYING GLOBAL COMPETITION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/12/2008 20:24 Comments || Top||

#21  Some WAFF.com Posters are specul that Russ is retaliating for the flyby of a US F16 o'er their carrier a while back.

ION, GUAM K57/KUAM NEWS > A USN EA6B PROWLER EWS REPORTEDLY CRASHED OFF GUAM's ANDERSEN AFB YESTERDAY, All 4 crew survived and have been success retrieved, recovering. RELATED INCIDENT TO BOMBERS???

OTOH, GLOBALRESEARCH > THE US-NATO NUCLEAR PREEMPTIVE DOCTRINE: STARTING A NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO SAVE THE WESTERN WAY OF LIFE?

RUSS definition of CONVENTIONAL AGGRESSION > broadly includes any [major?] terror attacks agz Russ as originated or launched by Terror group(s) from the sovereign territories of any and all foreign powers/states, and with or without the foreknowledge or consent of the local sovereign Govts. RUSS IS GIVING ITSELF THE RIGHT TO ATTACK TERROR GROUPS OR TERROR-CONTROLLED AREAS IN FOREIGN SOVEREIGN STATES, IN RESPONSE TO ANY AND ALL TERROR ATTACKS AGZ IT, WIDOUT NEED OF INFORMING OR SEEKING THE CONSENT OF LOCAL GOVT AUTHORITIES.

NOT THAT THEY WON'T ASK, BUT AFATAC THEY DON'T NEED TO ASK IFF THEY DON'T WANT TO. RUSS NATIONAL SECURITY = MANIFEST DESTINY = FOREIGN POLICY = MIL/MILPOL-LED ANTI-TERROR, etc.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/12/2008 21:24 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Man arrested for destroying S.Korea's top treasure
SEOUL (Rooters) - South Korean police said on Tuesday they arrested a pensioner who confessed to burning down a 600-year-old gate designated as the country's number one national treasure because he was angry about a compensation payment. The stone and wood structure Namdaemun, or "Great South Gate," was reduced to a charred hulk on Monday, with newspaper editorials lamenting the destruction of an iconic symbol of national pride.

Laborer Heo Eun stood at Namdaemun and summing up the sense of loss and shock shared by many South Koreans said: "It feels like the heart of the nation was destroyed overnight".

The 69-year-old suspect is a convicted arsonist identified only by his family name Chae, said Namdaemun police station chief Kim Young-soo. Chae was taken into custody late on Monday and told police he had planned the fire for several months. "(He said) he committed the crime out of anger because he felt the government did not take enough care with the appeal he filed after being insufficiently compensated for redevelopment in his residential area," Kim told a news conference.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/12/2008 10:46 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the government did not take enough care with the appeal he filed after being insufficiently compensated for redevelopment in his residential area

So, the government kicked him out of his house as a favor to fatcat developers, gave him pennies on the dollar in compensation, and then told him to get lost. I'd set fire to something, too.
Posted by: gromky || 02/12/2008 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The gate can't be as old as they claim. I seen photos of Seoul after the war. Nothing left. Flattened and burned.
A wood gate wouldn't have made it.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/12/2008 14:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Part is stone and roof tiles are ceramic. Major rennovation in 1960s probably replaced all the wood.
http://iain.cx/photos/images/namdaemun.jpg
Posted by: Darrell || 02/12/2008 15:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Wid NOKORS problems, ventures in NATIONAL REUNIFICATION beginning, and no 9-11's yet in SK, SOKOR Radicalists have to get Seoul to spend scarce SK $$$ like Dubya on something, anything???

I SUSPECT, HOWEVER, WID RADICAL ISLAM IN THE ME UPPING THE ANTE OF VIOLENCE AGZ THE US-LED WESTERN COALITION, FROM REGIONAL TO GLOBAL, SHOULDN'T BE TOO LONG FOR A NEW NOKOR CRISIS AGZ US-SK-JAPAN [CHINA?] TO OCCUR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/12/2008 18:42 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Video - Obama Campaign Office, Cuban Flag w/Che Guevara
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/12/2008 09:11 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well...isn't that special.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/12/2008 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Small print below the video (added later?):
The office featured in this video is funded by volunteers of the Barack Obama Campaign and is not an official headquarters for his campaign.
Nonetheless... birds of a feather...
Posted by: eLarson || 02/12/2008 9:35 Comments || Top||


Theft of Space Shuttle secrets for China (ex-Boeing engr)
Posted by: 3dc || 02/12/2008 01:38 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Yo Leonard, yea I know it probably won't produce a hit..... but here are some names & words we can send over to the SIOC to crunch against that data base. Yea, tell'em to use that fancy new word association tool:"

Johnny Chung, Lippo Group, John Huang, Titek Prabowo, Moctar Riady, Bob Hasan, Winkle Paw, Norman Hsu, Wen Ho Lee, Liu Chao-Ying, Loral and Hughes, Sandy Berger....
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/12/2008 4:43 Comments || Top||

#2  There are no "space shuttle" secrets.

Not to say they should be taking things without permission.

Well anyway, that should set the Chinese back by about twenty years.
Posted by: Kelly || 02/12/2008 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  More info

Four arrested in US for spying for China

Four people were arrested in the United States Monday on charges of spying for China in two separate cases, including one involving the US space shuttle, the Justice Department said.

New Orleans residents Tai Shen Kuo and Yu Xin Kang, and Gregg William Bergersen of Alexandria, Virginia, were arrested for passing US defense secrets to China in one case, according to a Justice Department statement.

In a second case, former Boeing engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung was arrested on charges involving stealing and turning over to China Boeing trade secrets, including information involving the space shuttle, the department said in a separate statement.

Kuo, 58, is accused of having worked under the direction of an unnamed Chinese official to obtain classified US defense information from Bergersen, 51, a Department of Defense employee, the Justice Department said.

"Much of the information pertained to US military sales to Taiwan," it said.

Kang, 33, a Chinese citizen resident in the United States, meanwhile was named as a "conduit of information" between Kuo and the Chinese official.

Kuo and Kang both face up to life in prison if convicted for the charge of criminal conspiracy to disclose national defense information to a foreign government.

Bergersen, a weapons systems policy analyst in the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in Arlington, Virigina, is charged with disclosing national defense information to unauthorized persons, which could bring up to 10 years in prison.

Chung, 72, a China native and naturalized US citizen living in Orange, California, was charged with economic espionage for taking secrets involving the shuttle, the C-17 military transport and the Delta IV rocket while he worked at Boeing and, before that, at US defense contractor Rockwell.

The US alleges he had received directives since as early as 1979 from individuals in China's aviation industry telling him to collect specific information.

"Chung allegedly obtained the materials for the benefit of the PRC (People's Republic of China)," the department said.

Chung was charged with eight counts of economic espionage -- each of which carries a maximum possible 15 year prison sentence and 500,000 dollar fine -- and six other related charges.

The Justice Department said the Chung case is linked to its investigation into California resident and engineer Chi Mak and members of his family, who were convicted last year for providing US defense articles to China.

"Mr. Chung is accused of stealing restricted technology that had been developed over many years by engineers who were sworn to protect their work product because it represented trade secrets," said US Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien.

"Disclosure of this information to outside entities like the PRC would compromise our national security," he said.

US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said the first case "has all the elements of a classic espionage operation."

"Today's prosecution demonstrates that foreign spying remains a serious threat in the post-Cold War world," he said.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/12/2008 10:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, all that is very interesting but what I really want to know is: How much did they contribute to Hillary's campaign?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/12/2008 14:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Reading Richard Feynman's (PBUH) book tells me there ain't much worth stealing from the shuttle program.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/12/2008 17:14 Comments || Top||

#6  ION SCIENCE, COASTTOCOASTAM > WIRED NEWS - US NAVY RESEARCH PAPER: DISRUPT [ENEMY] ECONOMIES WITH MAN-MADE FLOODS, DROUGHTS.

Well whaddaya gonna do - DENY STRATEGIC/
IMPORTANT PACIFIC ISLANDS TO ENEMY POWERS BY CAUSING THEM TO SINK-COLLAPSE INTO THE OCEAN VIA NUCLEAR SAPPER BOMBS/NUKE DEMOLITIONS, ala 1960's-70's GUAM TAOTAMONAS??? SEE AN ASTEROID/COMET SLAM INTO NEW YORK = NE AMERICA???

And now you know, Virginia chelu', yet another reason for the WOT, a Guam soldier-sailor, GUNS-N-ROSES/MTV HEADBANGERS BALL and the BATTLESHIP OKLAHOMA = SUNKEN RUSSIAN SUBMARINE.

D *** NG IT, WOMAN, I SAID DRILL TEAM, NOT CHEERLEADING - I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY THE GIRLS ARE WEARING SKIMPY OUTFITS AND WHY FEMALE/FEMME PRODUCTS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE - but first, a DAGWOOD DELI SANDWICH!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/12/2008 21:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Huckabee: Contest isn't over
Remember Mike?
Mike Huckabee reminded Virginians yesterday that he's very much alive and not about to back down in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.

A day before Virginia's primary, the former Arkansas governor raced from Henrico County to Virginia Beach, from Weyers Cave to Roanoke. "I understand what it means to get beat, but I do not understand what it means to quit," he told more than 200 enthusiastic supporters at a morning rally in western Henrico.

The Republican drew the biggest cheers by attacking illegal immigration, promising to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and warning that foreign countries want to take over production of U.S. defense industries.

Buoyed by weekend victories over Sen. John McCain in Kansas and Louisiana, Huckabee exhorted his supporters to bring family and friends to the polls for today's Virginia GOP primary.

However, he trails the Arizona senator by more than 500 delegates in the fight for the GOP nomination. "Let's show them that the election isn't over until the people have spoken," he said at the Sheraton Richmond West Hotel.

Huckabee was joined by one of his former rivals for the nomination, Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California conservative, as well as Michael P. Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association. They called Huckabee a religious conservative who would oppose abortion, uphold traditional marriage, get tough on illegal immigration, support the military, and protect manufacturing jobs from foreign competition. ...
Posted by: ed || 02/12/2008 07:28 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Keep it up, Mike, and you definitely won't be part of the ticket!
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2008 8:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah...it is.
Feed the crickets, Mike...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/12/2008 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Try the Howard Dean approach for a job as the head of the RNC?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/12/2008 8:31 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm not an American, but McCain will lose big time against Obama. Huckabee will stand a much better chance.

The thing about history is it doesn't stop, and we may well have enough 'history' between now and November to make a real Conservative a winnable candidate.

A liberal is just a conservative who doesn't have sufficient information and perspective.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/12/2008 8:53 Comments || Top||

#5  It's good! It keeps the press on McCain and Republicans instead of %100 Obama and the Witch.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/12/2008 8:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Before the election: "Let's show them that the election isn't over until the people have spoken!"

After the election: "The people hae spoken--the bastards!"
Posted by: Mike || 02/12/2008 8:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I wonder if Huckabee is bragging about his instat tuition for illegals, hsi leasing a consulate to the Mexicnas for $1 (that was built with taxpaery money), his half a billion dollars in net tax hikes, his taking "donations" from people tht end up in appointed offices, and that he took the drapes with him when he left the Gov's office (amongst a long list of other things)?

Huck is a sham and a liar.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/12/2008 10:55 Comments || Top||

#8  As guitar hero huck said during his stay in kansas, "I didn't major in mathematics, but I did major in miracles."
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/12/2008 14:45 Comments || Top||

#9  phil_b, that is a LINO description--usually ending up as a neocon.

True librul is lacking logical circuitry and thus uncorrectible. Mugging by reality in his/her case results in a variant of Stockholm syndrome.

Huckabee is not electable. Now, Hucklebery Finn would be a different cup of coffee! ;-)

McCain (RINO) has a chance against Her Thighness, but less against Bamboozler-bama, ya' right. Depends, how much mud Hillary is willing to flinch and I bet quite a bit, so we can look forward to some entertainment.
Posted by: twobyfour || 02/12/2008 20:05 Comments || Top||

#10  HMMMMMM, IMO I suspect its NOT over for FRED either, nor for other former Candidates or Politicos. This is 2008, and everybody gener wants to see what going to happen vv USA versus IRAN, IRAN-NK, etc, which will immed affect the geopolitical order. BESIDES DUBYA VERSUS MOUD vv IRANIAN NUCPROGS, they see that RADICAL ISLAM HAS ESCALATED ITS REGIONAL EFFORTS/LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, TO INCLUDE REPORTS OF PLANS FOR A NEW FINAL? INSURGENT CAMPAIGN = "ISLAMIST SURGE" IN IRAQ, + NEWFOUND RUSS GLOBAL BELLIGERENCE VV US GMD.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/12/2008 21:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Voting's done...check the scoreboard Huckster.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/12/2008 23:07 Comments || Top||


Ron Paul Asks Supporters for a Million Man Freedom March™
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/12/2008 02:47 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surprised he didn't ask for a million women instead. With free pap smears and breast exams to go around. What a sore loser!
Posted by: smn || 02/12/2008 3:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Good luck with that, Ru Paul.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2008 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  David Frum @ National Review:

. . . if he quits now, he gets to keep about $5 million cash on hand for use for his own future political purposes. No need for any more of those inflammatory fundraising letters! Yet I wonder: isn't there something odd about Paul's desire to hold onto those imminently worthless federal shinplasters? Maybe there's something about finally laying hands on a great big pile of Federal Reserve notes that makes one think they might hold some value after all?
Posted by: Mike || 02/12/2008 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Great! Get them all in one place. Alert the black helicopters! Load them up with aerial sprayers - L1th1um and pr0z4c mixture.

(funny spelling for the spam filters)
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/12/2008 10:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Several arrested in Chinese spy sweep
The FBI today arrested a Pentagon official and two Chinese-born residents on espionage charges for passing defense secrets to China, the Justice Department announced.

Gregg William Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, was arrested at his home on espionage charges. Tai Shen Kuo, a Taiwan-born U.S. citizen, 58, and Yu Xin Kang, a Chinese national, 33, both of New Orleans, were arrested in New Orleans on charges of conspiracy to provide defense secrets to China.

Mr. Bergersen worked as a weapons system analyst for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, in Arlington, which is in charge of U.S. arms sales to foreign nations. He held a top-secret clearance.

One official said the case involved the transfer of command, control, communications and intelligence equipment originally sold to Taiwan that was diverted to China.

Court papers state that the three men conspired to transfer defense secrets during meetings with Chinese intelligence officials. “Today's prosecution demonstrates that foreign spying remains a serious threat,” said Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security.

Mr. Wainstein said in a statement that the case has “all the elements of a classic espionage operation: a foreign government focused on accessing our military secrets; foreign operatives who effectively use stealth and guile to gain that access; and an American government official who is willing to betray both his oath of public office and the duty of loyalty we rightly demand from every American citizen.”

Such spy networks “pose a grave danger to our national security, and we should all thank the investigators and prosecutors on this case for effectively penetrating and dismantling this network before more sensitive information was compromised,” he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "arested...two Chinese-born residents on espionage charges"

Kind of explains what FDR was concerned about in 1942 when he established Manzanar etc.

The underlying problem is that we have to use Chinese (and other immigrant) engineers and scientists to do the jobs Americans won't (or can't) anymore. We can't produce enough engineers because we won't teach math - anything with right or wrong answers might damage little Johnny's self-esteem.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/12/2008 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Going into law or finance is easier work and the rewards, on average, greater. Americans are making a rational choice by avoiding engineering.
Posted by: ed || 02/12/2008 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I can vouch for the fact that while engineering provides a comfortable income, you'll never get rich
Posted by: Frank G || 02/12/2008 10:18 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
GHQ recalls officers from civil depts
The GHQ has written to the Establishment Division and the Ministry of Defence, asking them to recall all army officers working in civil departments.
Kiyani would seem to have the idea that officers should concern themselves with military duties, not with looting the civil sector.
Geo News quoted sources as saying on Monday that up to 152 officials in 23 civilian departments had been directed to report to GHQ immediately. It said the military officials had been divided into two categories; some would vacate their posts immediately, while others would vacate them in three to six months. ISPR DG Major General Athar Abbas said the withdrawal would start soon. Earlier, General Kayani had approved the army’s withdrawal from civil departments.
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


International-UN-NGOs
Wheat Stocks at 60 Year Low; Demand 'Inelastic'
Posted by: phil_b || 02/12/2008 16:58 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They left out the disastrous conversion of corn into bio-fuel in the US. This adds to the pressure on wheat. Inflation will be fueled by rising meat and grain prices. The Corporate farmers will profit and the World will pay. It's a zero sum game.

Converting food to fuel is D U M P dumb!
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/12/2008 17:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Few people realize the immense scale of American agribusiness. I took a class on it in college, and about the only thing it can be compared to is the US "military industrial complex", which blankets all populated regions of the US.

For a time from the 1950s-1970 or so, only four countries produced that vast majority of the world's grains for export. The threat that eventually the world would demand to be fed by these four "or else" was a wake up call to the USDA.

They began a program to create hundreds of varieties of food crops that would grow all over the world, to take the pressure off. Companies like Monsanto were subsidized to produce enormous amounts of these seed grains to sell or give to these other nations.

In turn, Monsanto created the Roundup project, to produce a superior herbicide. Once they had done this, they produced hybrid plants that were immune to Roundup, so entire crops could be sprayed at once and only the weeds would die.

Monsanto kept creating better grains than the USDA, which it was subsidized to sell. But because foreign countries would re-use their crops for seed, cutting Monsanto out entirely, Monsanto created the "Terminator" hybrids.

Some of the best, most productive plants ever, but after two seasons, they would not produce viable seed. The third and fourth world screamed bloody murder, demanding that Monsanto continue to give them stuff for free, or at least ridiculously cheap. Ungrateful bastards.

But never underestimate the power of US agribusiness. I still maintain that the Soviet Union fell, to a great extent, because of expensive US wheat sales to them under Ronald Reagan. It drained them dry.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/12/2008 19:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I still maintain that the Soviet Union fell, to a great extent, because of expensive US wheat sales to them under Ronald Reagan. It drained them dry.

you'd be the only one then...
Posted by: RD || 02/12/2008 20:50 Comments || Top||


Obama’s Global Tax Proposal Up for Senate Vote
A nice-sounding bill called the "Global Poverty Act," sponsored by Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, is up for a Senate vote on Thursday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. The bill, which has the support of many liberal religious groups, makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.

Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not endorsed either Senator Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But on Thursday, February 14, he is trying to rush Obama's "Global Poverty Act" (S.2433) through his committee. The legislation would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends.

The bill, which is item number four on the committee's business meeting agenda, passed the House by a voice vote last year because most members didn't realize what was in it. Congressional sponsors have been careful not to calculate the amount of foreign aid spending that it would require. According to the website of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, no hearings have been held on the Obama bill in that body.

A release from the Obama Senate office about the bill declares, "In 2000, the U.S. joined more than 180 countries at the United Nations Millennium Summit and vowed to reduce global poverty by 2015. We are halfway towards this deadline, and it is time the United States makes it a priority of our foreign policy to meet this goal and help those who are struggling day to day."

The legislation itself requires the President "to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day."

The bill defines the term "Millennium Development Goals" as the goals set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, General Assembly Resolution 55/2 (2000).

The U.N. says that "The commitment to provide 0.7% of gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance was first made 35 years ago in a General Assembly resolution, but it has been reaffirmed repeatedly over the years, including at the 2002 global Financing for Development conference in Monterrey, Mexico. However, in 2004, total aid from the industrialized countries totaled just $78.6 billion-or about 0.25% of their collective GNP."

In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, that declaration commits nations to banning "small arms and light weapons" and ratifying a series of treaties, including the International Criminal Court Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol (global warming treaty), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Millennium Declaration also affirms the U.N. as "the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development."

Jeffrey Sachs, who runs the U.N.'s "Millennium Project," says that the U.N. plan to force the U.S. to pay 0.7 percent of GNP in increased foreign aid spending would add $65 billion a year to what the U.S. already spends. Over a 13-year period, from 2002, when the U.N.'s Financing for Development conference was held, to the target year of 2015, when the U.S. is expected to meet the "Millennium Development Goals," this amounts to $845 billion. And the only way to raise that kind of money, Sachs has written, is through a global tax, preferably on carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

Obama's bill has only six co-sponsors. They are Senators Maria Cantwell, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Lugar, Richard Durbin, Chuck Hagel and Robert Menendez. But it appears that Biden and Obama see passage of this bill as a way to highlight Democratic Party priorities in the Senate.

The House version (H.R. 1302), sponsored by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), had only 84 co-sponsors before it was suddenly brought up on the House floor last September 25 and was passed by voice vote. House Republicans were caught off-guard, unaware that the pro-U.N. measure committed the U.S. to spending hundreds of billions of dollars.

It appears the Senate version is being pushed not only by Biden and Obama, a member of the committee, but Lugar, the ranking Republican member. Lugar has worked with Obama in the past to promote more foreign aid for Russia, supposedly to stem nuclear proliferation, and has become Obama's mentor. Like Biden, Lugar is a globalist. They have both promoted passage of the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty, for example.

The so-called "Lugar-Obama initiative" was modeled after the Nunn-Lugar program, also known as the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, which was designed to eliminate weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. But one defense analyst, Rich Kelly, noted evidence that "CTR funds have eased the Russian military's budgetary woes, freeing resources for such initiatives as the war in Chechnya and defense modernization." He recommended that Congress "eliminate CTR funding so that it does not finance additional, perhaps more threatening, programs in the former Soviet Union." However, over $6 billion has already been spent on the program.

Another program modeled on Nunn-Lugar, the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP), was recently exposed as having funded nuclear projects in Iran through Russia.

More foreign aid through passage of the Global Poverty Act was identified as one of the strategic goals of InterAction, the alliance of U.S-based international non-governmental organizations that lobbies for more foreign aid. The group is heavily financed by the U.S. Government, having received $1.4 million from taxpayers in fiscal year 2005 and $1.7 million in 2006. However, InterAction recently issued a report accusing the United States of "falling short on its commitment to rid the world of dire poverty by 2015 under the U.N. Millennium Development Goals..."

It's not clear what President Bush would do if the bill passes the Senate. The bill itself quotes Bush as declaring that "We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity." Bush's former top aide, Michael J. Gerson, writes in his new book, Heroic Conservatism, that Bush should be remembered as the President who "sponsored the largest percentage increases in foreign assistance since the Marshall Plan..."

Even these increases, however, will not be enough to satisfy the requirements of the Obama bill. A global tax will clearly be necessary to force American taxpayers to provide the money.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/12/2008 16:38 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Biden and Barack boneheads should not sell out our Constitution for the dictates of the UN. This can't be legal. These Senators are free with our money.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/12/2008 17:27 Comments || Top||

#2  In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, that declaration commits nations to banning "small arms and light weapons" and ratifying a series of treaties, including the International Criminal Court Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol (global warming treaty), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I can think of a lot of good reasons not to pass this legislation.

1. Sells out our soverngnty out to some other body which probably does not have our best interests at heart.
2. Such blind funding most likely will give money to countries unfriendly to us and who support terrorism aimed at us.
3. Goes against the Second Amendment of our Constitution--this is a back door run by anti-gunners to disarm the American people.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/12/2008 17:33 Comments || Top||

#3  this is bullshit
Posted by: sinse || 02/12/2008 17:49 Comments || Top||

#4  V-E-T-O
Posted by: Frank G || 02/12/2008 18:00 Comments || Top||

#5  So what did Hillary give Biden (or threaten him with) to fast-track this bill?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/12/2008 18:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Is he smokin dope again?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/12/2008 19:00 Comments || Top||

#7  This is change all right... Frightening.
Posted by: TomAnon || 02/12/2008 21:35 Comments || Top||

#8  But it appears that Biden and Obama see passage of this bill as a way to highlight Democratic Party priorities in the Senate.

And we sure know what those priorities are too, don't we? They are trying repeatedly to surrender this Nation and her people to our enemies.


First the traitors, then the enemy!
Posted by: Ebbarong the Prolific3554 || 02/12/2008 21:40 Comments || Top||

#9  I really don't like the provisions of this bill however, Obama and the Democrats are not the main people behind this Bill. The provisions of this Global Poverty Act are VERY similar to what Condalizza Rice and Bush suggested congress do. The Republican controlled congress also tried to pass a bill very similar to this.
Posted by: Really? || 02/12/2008 22:08 Comments || Top||

#10  really? Got a cite? Or just pulling shit outta your ass? BTW Condalizza is mispelled....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/12/2008 22:29 Comments || Top||

#11  Was this article written by Pat Buchanan? This article is completely bias and slanted! On the public copy of the bill, there is no mention what so ever about gun control! NONE!!!!!!!!!! Also, one of the sponsors of the Bill, Chuck Hagel has a strong pro gun stance and has been recieved an A by the NRA and the Gun Owners of America, in his entire tenure in the Senate! I also don't really see how this bill gives up our national sovergenty to the United Nations. The Bill seems faily benign and seems to have a lot of Bi-Partisan support. BTW, the Bush administration has given much more foreign aid then his predecessors did. In fact, this administration is probably the most globalized administration this country has ever had!


BTW, here is a copy of The Global Poverty Act. (S.2433)



Congress makes the following findings:

(1) More than 1,000,000,000 people worldwide live on less than $1 per day, and another 1,600,000,000 people struggle to survive on less than $2 per day, according to the World Bank.

(2) At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the United States joined more than 180 other countries in committing to work toward goals to improve life for the world's poorest people by 2015.

(3) The year 2007 marks the mid-point to the Millennium Development Goals deadline of 2015.

(4) The United Nations Millennium Development Goals include the goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, that live on less than $1 per day, cutting in half the proportion of people suffering from hunger and unable to access safe drinking water and sanitation, reducing child mortality by two-thirds, ensuring basic education for all children, and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, while sustaining the environment upon which human life depends.

(5) On March 22, 2002, President George W. Bush stated: `We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it. We fight against poverty with a growing conviction that major progress is within our reach.'.

(6) The 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States notes: `[A] world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 per day, is neither just nor stable. Including all of the world's poor in an expanding circle of development and opportunity is a moral imperative and one of the top priorities of U.S. international policy.'.

(7) The 2006 National Security Strategy of the United States notes: `America's national interests and moral values drive us in the same direction: to assist the world's poor citizens and least developed nations and help integrate them into the global economy.'.

(8) The bipartisan Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States recommends: `A comprehensive United States strategy to counter terrorism should include economic policies that encourage development, more open societies, and opportunities for people to improve the lives of their families and enhance prospects for their children.'.

(9) At the summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) nations in July 2005, leaders from all eight participating countries committed to increase aid to Africa from the current $25,000,000,000 annually to $50,000,000,000 by 2010, and to cancel 100 percent of the debt obligations owed to the World Bank, African Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund by 18 of the world's poorest nations.

(10) At the United Nations World Summit in September 2005, the United States joined more than 180 other governments in reiterating their commitment to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

(11) The United States has recognized the need for increased financial and technical assistance to countries burdened by extreme poverty, as well as the need for strengthened economic and trade opportunities for those countries, through significant initiatives in recent years, including the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.), the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7601 et seq.), the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and trade preference programs for developing countries, such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.).

(12) In January 2006, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice initiated a restructuring of the United States foreign assistance program, including the creation of a Director of Foreign Assistance, who maintains authority over Department of State and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) foreign assistance funding and programs.

(13) In January 2007, the Department of State's Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance added poverty reduction as an explicit, central component of the overall goal of United States foreign assistance. The official goal of United States foreign assistance is: `To help build and sustain democratic, well-governed states that respond to the needs of their people, reduce widespread poverty and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system.'.

(14) Economic growth and poverty reduction are more successful in countries that invest in the people, rule justly, and promote economic freedom. These principles have become the core of several development programs of the United States Government, such as the Millennium Challenge Account.

SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY.

It is the policy of the United States to promote the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY.

(a) Strategy- The President, acting through the Secretary of State, and in consultation with the heads of other appropriate departments and agencies of the United States Government, international organizations, international financial institutions, the governments of developing and developed countries, United States and international nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, and other appropriate entities, shall develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

(b) Content- The strategy required by subsection (a) shall include specific and measurable goals, efforts to be undertaken, benchmarks, and timetables to achieve the objectives described in subsection (a).

(c) Components- The strategy required by subsection (a) should include the following components:

(1) Continued investment or involvement in existing United States initiatives related to international poverty reduction, such as the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7601 et seq.), the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.), and trade preference programs for developing countries, such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.).

(2) Improving the effectiveness of development assistance and making available additional overall United States assistance levels as appropriate.

(3) Enhancing and expanding debt relief as appropriate.

(4) Leveraging United States trade policy where possible to enhance economic development prospects for developing countries.

(5) Coordinating efforts and working in cooperation with developed and developing countries, international organizations, and international financial institutions.

(6) Mobilizing and leveraging the participation of businesses, United States and international nongovernmental organizations, civil society, and public-private partnerships.

(7) Coordinating the goal of poverty reduction with other development goals, such as combating the spread of preventable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, increasing access to potable water and basic sanitation, reducing hunger and malnutrition, and improving access to and quality of education at all levels regardless of gender.

(8) Integrating principles of sustainable development and entrepreneurship into policies and programs.

(d) Reports-

(1) INITIAL REPORT-

(A) IN GENERAL- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President, acting through the Secretary of State, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the strategy required under subsection (a).

(B) CONTENT- The report required under subparagraph (A) shall include the following elements:

(i) A description of the strategy required under subsection (a).

(ii) An evaluation, to the extent possible, both proportionate and absolute, of the contributions provided by the United States and other national and international actors in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

(iii) An assessment of the overall progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

(2) SUBSEQUENT REPORTS- Not later than December 31, 2012, and December 31, 2015, the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees reports on the status of the implementation of the strategy, progress made in achieving the global poverty reduction objectives described in subsection (a), and any changes to the strategy since the date of the submission of the last report.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES- The term `appropriate congressional committees' means--

(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and

(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.

(2) EXTREME GLOBAL POVERTY- The term `extreme global poverty' refers to the conditions in which individuals live on less than $1 per day, adjusted for purchasing power parity in 1993 United States dollars, according to World Bank statistics.

(3) GLOBAL POVERTY- The term `global poverty' refers to the conditions in which individuals live on less than $2 per day, adjusted for purchasing power parity in 1993 United States dollars, according to World Bank statistics.

(4) MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS- The term `Millennium Development Goals' means the goals set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, General Assembly Resolution 55/2 (2000).

Posted by: Liberalredneck01 || 02/12/2008 22:53 Comments || Top||

#12  It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the best way to reduce poverty is via micro-loans to women setting up or expanding small businesses. The best way to increase poverty, corruption, and war is to throw money at a Third World situation. Or Second World, either, as is evidenced by the worsening situation in those parts of the former Yugoslavia where EU/NATO/UN types are doing what it pleases them to call good.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/12/2008 22:59 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Jesus don't want me for a handcream
WANT to use Jesus handcream? Well, you can't anymore. At least not in Singapore.

A Singapore-based retailer pulled a line of cheeky Jesus-branded cosmetics from its shelves after complaints from irate Catholics, the Straits Times newspaper reported today.

The cosmetics, called "Lookin' Good for Jesus", are made by American makeup company Blue Q. It was sold in three Topshop outlets in Singapore.

Wing Tai Holdings, which manages the Topshop brand in the city-state, pulled the items of its shelves late last month after some customers complained.

"We don't want to offend our customers," a company spokesman was quoted by the paper as saying.

The Straits Times said Nick Chui, 27, a Catholic, spotted the items in a Topshop outlet and then wrote a letter to Wing Tai last month saying that the products trivialised Jesus Christ and Christianity.

"There are also sexual innuendos in the messages and the way Jesus is portrayed in these products," the paper quoted Mr Chui as saying.

Some of the products sold include, a "virtuous vanilla" lip balm, hand and body cream and a mirrored Jesus statuette.

They feature a drawing of Jesus flanked by two adoring women and carry slogans such as "Get tight with Christ", "Get His Attention" and "Redeem Your Reputation and More".

Blue Q also carries other tongue-in-cheek items such as a "Believe in God Breath Spray".

In Singapore, about 50 per cent of the population are Buddhists and 14.6 per cent are Christian.
Posted by: tipper || 02/12/2008 10:49 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What happens to the Smokey Mo's BBQ sauce or Little Aisha snack cakes?
Posted by: ed || 02/12/2008 17:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
House Revisits Oil Taxes
WASHINGTON - The House is going to make another run at imposing more than $17 billion in taxes on major oil companies.
Who will then pass the taxes on to consumers.
An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially said plans were to take up the bill Wednesday, but after looking at a tight schedule it was decided to postpone action until likely next week.
Gotta have more time for more arm twisting and cajoling.
Final numbers have yet to be worked out, but the legislation will mirror an energy tax package that passed the House last year. That legislation was abandoned as part of negotiations in December on a broader energy bill. "Given this week's limited schedule, we wanted members to have more time to review the proposal," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.

The House Ways and Means Committee was crafting the final legislation, including $17.65 billion in taxes on oil companies over 10 years.
Big, Bad Oil Companies. Tax em' back to the Stone Age!.
When pushed by Democrats last year, the tax measures - one that would rescind tax breaks on foreign oil production and another aimed at making domestic manufacturers competitive with foreign companies - prompted strong opposition from Senate Republicans and the White House. President Bush pledged a veto if the taxes were included.

After passing the House in August, the tax package was finally abandoned to get a major increase in automobile fuel economy and other energy measures approved and signed by Bush in December. But congressional Democrats believe the oil taxes have a better shot this time, given the huge profits recently reported by the major oil companies for last year.
Huge profits don't have anything to do with record sales. Nope, nada. We gotta make em pay!
Exxon Mobil Corp. earned $40.6 billion in 2007, besting its own record for annual profits. Chevron Corp., No. 2 U.S. oil company, also had its best year ever in 2007, reporting a profit of $18.7 billion.

The new tax revenue would be used to pay for a wide range of tax breaks for the wind, solar and biofuels industries as well as to support energy conservation measures.
Make the Consumer subsidize pie-in-the-sky projects that have questionable outcomes all the while claiming the Economy is hurting. And we all know how good the Government is at managing our money. Alternative energy sources are desirable but this is not the way to go about it. I'm working on a synfuel project that has no government strings attached.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/12/2008 19:53 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of Chevron's record $18.7 billion profit, $14 billion is being re-invested in new projects, with only $4.7 billion distributed to investors as dividends - that's less than 3% immediate return on investment, the other 9% will only be paid if the projects 'work'. The total of about 12% is only 'average' compared to other kinds of businesses.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/12/2008 23:25 Comments || Top||

#2  And one of the oil companies (probably ExxonMobile) pays $27 billion in taxes already. More than the lowest income 65,000,000 people combined.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 02/12/2008 23:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Arizona’s economy adjusts to outflux of illegals: Dems worried who will vote
PHOENIX — The signs of flight among Latino illegal immigrants here are multiple: Families moving out of apartment complexes, schools reporting enrollment drops, business owners complaining about fewer clients.
Good
While it is too early to know for certain, a consensus is developing among economists, business people and immigration groups that the weakening economy coupled with recent curbs on illegal immigration are steering Hispanic immigrants out of the state.
It's the later dudes
State Representative Russell K. Pearce, a Republican from Mesa and leading advocate of the crackdown on illegal immigration, takes reports of unauthorized workers leaving as a sign of success. An estimated one in 10 workers in Arizona are Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal, twice the national average.
Hum so house cleaning works
“The desired effect was, we don’t have the red carpet out for illegal aliens,” Mr. Pearce said, adding that while “most of these are good people” they are a “tremendous burden” on public services.
McCain to protest
On Monday, state lawmakers, concerned about shortages of workers and the failed revamping of immigration law in Congress, which was pushed by Senator John McCain of Arizona, pledged action.
Oh Gawd here it comes
Bills were announced that would create a state-run temporary worker program, though it would need Congressional authorization. And last week Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, offered to help the United States Labor Department rewrite regulations designed to streamline visas for agricultural workers, who growers say are increasingly hard to find.
So now the state is importing them
“You have many people moving out, but they are not all illegal,” said Terry Feinberg
Terry did ya catch the 1 in 10 numbers....?
Juan Jose Araujo, 44, is here legally. His wife, however, is not and is pressing for the family to return to Mexico because of the difficulty in finding a job and what the family considers a growing anti-immigrant climate.
Violins...
Property managers report that families have uprooted overnight, with little or no notice. Carlos Flores Vizcarra, the Mexican consul general in Phoenix, said while he could not tie the phenomenon to a single factor, the consulate had experienced an “unusual” five-fold increase in parents applying for Mexican birth certificates.
Surprise. If the Fed don't do it...
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/12/2008 07:37 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The desired effect was, we don't have the red carpet out for illegal aliens," Mr. Pearce said, adding that "while most of these are good people they are a tremendous burden on public services."

Which means the Big Government Donks won't have the usual excuse to raise taxes! Oops, there goes their clientèle dependent class. I'm sure Governor Janet Napolitano's ears are ringing with those stirring words of Governor William J. Le Petomane: We've gotta protect our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/12/2008 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, as long as the dead are staying the Democrats still have a fighting chance
Posted by: Kelly || 02/12/2008 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Arizona's economy has been good. There was much trumpeting by the Arizona Repugnant about job-surpluses and a 'labor shortage'. The state's economy will take a hit; somehow the idea of recruiting from other states hasn't crossed employer's minds. In fact, expect to see employers pulling a temper tantrum.

The Democrats have a good chance of taking control of the state government. They're terrified that, just as they take office the economy will evaporate and they'll face budget problems, an angry group of backers, and a po'ed electorate whose legendary short-term memory they’ve been quite happy to exploit before. Kinda ruins the dynasty-making.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/12/2008 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  All the pissing and moaning is strictly from LaRaza and the employers who can no longer count on slave labor to undermine legal competitors. The self-deportation works. Every state ought to follow this model. Even Rhode Island is going broke because of illegals. As far as labor shortage, What a joke! Pay competitive wages and you'll find a plentiful supply. They won't work 18 hour days without overtime. They'll expect some level of insurance coverage, just in case they fall off a roof. They may want a couple of days off each week. They won't want to live with 59 other slaves in a rundown 2 bdrm. shack. But it can be done.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 02/12/2008 11:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, as long as the dead are staying the Democrats still have a fighting chance

Don't forget the imaginary friends!

If you must insist on having a temporary worker program have it for the workers only - not their families. This both relieves the pressure on schools and other public services services as well as gives the workers an incentive to go back home.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/12/2008 11:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Living in the Phoenix area, this is pretty invisible, so much of what is said is anecdotal.

What I have seen so far is a big jump in the underground economy, with "mixed families" with both legal and illegal members, adjusting themselves for the new law.

For example, some "legals" are holding down several jobs, yet look a little different from their IDs, being illegal brothers and sisters of legal aliens. If anyone noses around a business, then the real employee shows up to prove they are legal.

In some cases jobs are created for a legal worker at home, where he does two or three times the usual amount of work.

The most visible group are those that work cash only jobs.

Ironically, the police had chased away most of the day laborers from their gathering spots before the law came into effect, but the end result is that people who buy day labor provide *more* stable jobs to workers who show up, instead of just taking who is handy.

I have also noticed that a bunch of successful small businesses run by illegals have shut down. These more middle class types have left the State because they won't go back to working cheap labor jobs.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/12/2008 13:06 Comments || Top||

#7  State Representative Russell K. Pearce, a Republican from Mesa and leading advocate of the crackdown on illegal immigration,

Has Mr. Pearce considered a run for the U.S. Senate?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/12/2008 14:32 Comments || Top||

#8  Good for Arizona. Now for the other 49 states...
Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 || 02/12/2008 17:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Illegal Immigrants and their US Slave Master Enablers

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.

Thomas Jefferson
Posted by: RD || 02/12/2008 21:15 Comments || Top||



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