RABAT - Libya has no plans to introduce entry visas for citizens of other Arab nations but will require work and residence permits to regulate its labour market to curb illegal immigration, its foreign minister said on Saturday. We have no intention of imposing visas. I do not know from where journalists were getting such information, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam told reporters in Rabat following a meeting of officials from the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU).
Libyan Public Security Minister Salah Rajab Al-Masmari said last month his country would impose visas for visitors from Arab countries, including AMU states, triggering criticism by officials and the media in the region. What we plan to do is to take administrative procedures to organise the labour market better out of legal and humanitarian necessity, said Shalgam, adding: Any person from Arab countries can enter Libya without a visa but he must have proper work and residence permits if he intends to work and stay in Libya beyond three months.
"But we won't call it a visa, nope, nope."
Shalgam said the high number of illegal immigrants and abuse of illegal workers by Libyan businessmen were behind what he called the planned administrative procedures.
Officials in Tripoli had complained repeatedly about what they said was the burden of more than two million immigrants from Arab and Sub Sahara states. The officials said illegal immigrants caused security problems, diseases and diplomatic pressure from the European Union to stem illegal immigrant arrivals via Libya.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa: Supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe have launched a drive to raise US$1.2 million (900,000) to celebrate his 83rd birthday next week amid the country's worst-ever economic crisis, the state-controlled Herald reported in Zimbabwe on Monday. Critics say the money would be better spent on salaries for impoverished teachers, nurses and doctors, who have been on strike.
Lavish celebrations are due to be held in the central town of Gweru on February 24, three days after the longtime Zimbabwean leader turns 83. The fundraising is being spearheaded by the 21st February Movement, a youth organization set up in 1986 to raise money for the president's annual birthday celebrations, the Herald reported. "We are looking forward for a big day for the youths to share some very important moments with his Excellency the president," Absalom Sikosana, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front secretary for youth told the newspaper.
News of the party plans comes as many Zimbabweans struggle to make ends meet in a deepening economic crisis. Inflation is running at 1,280 percent and there are critical shortages of foreign currency, essential drugs and basic commodities.
Mugabe blames the United States and Britain for imposing sanctions, precipitating the crisis. But critics point to the president's controversial policies including a campaign of white land seizures that has seen agricultural production -- once the country's economic backbone -- plummet by at least 40 percent. Levels of discontent are rising: this weekend a civil servants' union warned that its 180,000 members were "agitated" over low salaries and wanted a minimum 400 percent pay rise. Nurses and doctors at four hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo have been on strike for seven weeks', paralyzing health care.
The weekly Standard newspaper said in an editorial comment on Sunday that it was "ironic" the government "sees absolutely nothing amiss in hosting an ostentatious birthday bash" when doctors and nurses were on strike and thousands of students could no longer afford university fees.
But the ruling party's youth secretary insisted that young people were "very keen" to see the president on his birthday. "That day is a day where he will be closer to them, encouraging them to have good morals," Sikosana said.
The Roman emperors knew that bread and circuses were the way to control the mob, seems like Bob is following their example
Posted by: Steve ||
02/12/2007 08:38 ||
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1.2 mil fir a birthday cake?
planning to use polonium icing?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/12/2007 10:35 Comments ||
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#2
Yo Bob! Where dat cake at!
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
02/12/2007 16:35 Comments ||
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#3
I can't imagine the cake is really for the starving, homeless, brutalized mob. Rather a reward for the blackshirt youths who extracted from the populace some of the pittance thus far hidden from Mugabe and his bully boys.
A month after an emergency saw a military-backed interim government take power, Bangladeshis are in no hurry to restore democracy and want notoriously corrupt politicians punished, analysts say. Convictions of the big politicians would make the common people very happy. They have seen how much wealth they have amassed over the 30 years since independence and they want to get rid of them, Syed Anwar Hussain, a professor of history at Dhaka University, told AFP.
The government has launched a wide-ranging corruption crackdown since the state of emergency was imposed on January 11, winning a level of support that has shocked politicians of all parties, added Dhaka University law professor Asif Nazrul. There is a slow realisation among some of the more polished leaders that if the caretaker government continues to perform efficiently, people will be permanently disinterested in having these parties back in power, he said. He added that the interim government was particularly popular with the urban middle class.
The emergency followed months of feuding between the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the main opposition Awami League over the latters allegations of poll rigging. The dispute brought the impoverished country to the brink of anarchy. Repeated strikes and blockades paralysed daily life and at least 35 people were killed in clashes between supporters of rival parties. Street protests turned the centre of the capital, Dhaka, into a battleground. Opposition activists armed with bombs, guns and rocks fought running battles with riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The dispute appeared set to continue indefinitely as the two principal players each refused to give any ground.
Commentators said the plundering of state funds by members of successive governments meant neither side could afford to lose the election. Golam Hossain, a professor of government and politics at Dhakas Jahangir University, said the conviction of corrupt politicians would be the first sign of significant and lasting changes in the country, one of the poorest and most corrupt in the world. Nearly half the 144-million population still scrapes by on less than a dollar a day, a stark contrast to the lavish lifestyles, funded by graft, of a minority who travel Dhakas streets in luxury cars.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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Bangladeshs third and last anti-corruption commissioner stepped down Sunday, an official said, after the arrest of dozens of politicians accused of graft. The three-member commission, which was formed in late 2004, reportedly came under pressure from the interim government for allegedly failing to pursue graft during Prime Minister Khaleda Zias tenure, which expired in October 2006. Maniruddin Ahmed quit days after two other colleagues resigned, commission secretary Golam Sharier told reporters.
Army troops using special emergency powers have launched a nationwide crackdown against allegedly corrupt politicians. Over the past few weeks, they arrested about 60 politicians, including 12 former ministers. Most of the detainees belong to the countrys two major political parties - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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The Valentine's Day bouquet the gift that every woman in Britain will be waiting for next week has become the latest bête noire among environmental campaigners.
Latest Government figures show that the flowers that make up the average bunch have flown 33,800 miles to reach Britain. In the past three years, the amount of flowers imported from the Netherlands has fallen by 47 per cent to 94,000 tons, while those from Africa have risen 39 per cent to 17,000 tons.
Environmentalists warned that "flower miles" could have serious implications on climate change in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from aeroplanes. Andrew Sims, the policy director of the New Economics Foundation, said: "There are plenty of flowers that grow in Britain in the winter and don't need to be hothoused.
"Air freighting flowers half way round the world contributes to global warming.
"You can argue the planes would be flying anyway but the amount of greenhouse gases pumped out depends on the weight of the cargo."
Vicky Hird, of Friends of the Earth, said: "We don't want to be killjoys because receiving flowers can be lovely but why not grow your own gift?"
The figures also revealed that imports of roses from Ethiopia have grown from zero to 130 tons a year since 2003. Kenya is the second biggest exporter of flowers after the Netherlands, followed by Colombia and Spain.
In total, Britain imports more than £315 million of flowers, with the typical Briton spending £39 a year on them. "That's very little when you think what we spend on CDs, coffee and even lipstick," said a spokesman for the Flowers and Plants Association. He said the boom in Third World flowers would help poorer countries to build schools and boost the economy.
#1
Why not stop importing anything? Think of all the CO2 that won't get pumped into the atmosphere from all those ships, airplanes, trains, and trucks comming from foreign countries.
Cheese and rice what a bunch of nutballs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/12/2007 12:01 Comments ||
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I don't want any damned Valentine's Day flowers. They don't taste near as good as chocolate.
#3
the flowers that make up the average bunch have flown 33,800 miles to reach Britain.
I call Statistical Bullshit on this. The Earth is about 25,000 miles in circumference. To get the 33,000 mile figure for an average bunch, I'm guessing they compute 'flower-miles' as the number of flowers times the distance the bunch traveled. Rather misleading since it ignores the economies of scale - shipping two flowers from the Netherlands does not cost twice as much as shipping only one.
Not to imply the enviro-friendly Friends of the Earth are lying enviro-weasels, let's just assume they're stupid.
#5
BUT all the plants on which the flowers grow take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and give off oxygen as a by-product! Seems like Valentine flowers could be a positive or maybe a break even!
Posted by: Jim ||
02/12/2007 13:15 Comments ||
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Bouquets of Flowers are sexist, 'specially since we don't get any.
Posted by: Tell D Truth ||
02/12/2007 13:24 Comments ||
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What have they got against poor Africans?
Why don't they want the Africans to make money?
#10
But-t-t diamonds come from the earth, and everyt ime man takes out from the earth it weakens the earth's magnetic field thus increasing earth'c chances of being pulled into the Sun which arrogantly selfishly imperialistically belligerently refuses to surrender to Nuremburg.
D ***ng it, to save the earth all Male-kind must Must MUST M-U-S-T MMMMMMMUUUUUUUSSSSSTTTTTTT CHOOSE FLOWERS AND CHOCOLATES, OR PIZZAS.
#11
First they came for the DDT. Now they want the flowers.
Someone made a mileage mistake. Africa to Britain would be closer to 3380 miles, not 33800.
Even with an almost 50% drop in Dutch imports, African imports are still less than 20% of the Netherlands. The largest importer remains to be identified, or people in Britain have actually stopped buying imported flowers,
It is clear the New Economics Foundation cannot add, subtract, divide, or multiply. If they cannot do basic math, why would we trust them for environmental science.
Posted by: john ||
02/12/2007 20:25 Comments ||
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President Hugo Chavez's government is preparing a decree that would let officials take control of food distribution chains, possibly including supermarkets and storage depots, if services are interrupted, officials said Sunday.
Industry and Commerce Minister Maria Cristina Iglesias told a news conference the decree would help curb supply problems that have caused severe shortages of meats, milk and sugar in Venezuela in recent weeks. Industry officials blame the shortages on price controls that oblige retailers to sell at a loss, while the government points the finger at unscrupulous speculators, including supermarket owners and distributors, who hoard food or boost prices.
Iglesias said the new legislation would give the government, along with municipal authorities and "communal councils," or neighborhood assemblies, authority over food distribution and sales if private companies such as supermarket chains halt their operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
...if services are interrupted...
Hugo thug interruptions in 5, 4, 3...
Miracle of Socialism™ thingy may take a bit longer.
#5
How do you hoard milk and meat? Would freezing these things before they hit store shelves be frowned on? It does seem strange that supplies would suddenly dry up overnight, so something must be happening. Is it being orchestrated by Chavez so as to provide an excuse for just such a grab?
#6
probably artificially low "official" prices. Nobody can deliver the goods to market and make a profit, so they don't bother
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2007 8:32 Comments ||
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Stock your pantries while you can, look for arrests for "Hoarding" in the near future.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/12/2007 8:56 Comments ||
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#8
And we have a winner!! Frank G has it exactly right. Force the price down so you can't recover your shipping costs and voila no incentive to distribute!! Ergo, shortages.
#12
You can't get cheaper and larger quantities of food by nationalizing the supermarkets. You've got to nationalize the entire agricultural sector! It worked so well for China and Russia!
#13
At first I thought this would end up on the slippery slope to ruin for Hugo. I santd corrected, there is no slope, this is a free fall, watch out for the suppen crash.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/12/2007 13:09 Comments ||
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Hugo is a big guy, don't mess with his food! lol
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said there will be "no truce and no quarter" in his war on drug gangs following the killing of seven law enforcement officials in an apparent attempt to intimidate the federal government.
Flanked by the commanders of the army, navy and air force, Calderon told troops at a military base that the government will not be strong-armed by organized crime. "We are not going to surrender, neither from provocation nor attacks on the safety of Mexicans," Calderon said. "We will give no truce or quarter to the enemies of Mexico."
Good luck with that.
On Tuesday morning, more than a dozen armed assailants killed five agents and two secretaries in simultaneous attacks on two offices of the state attorney general in Acapulco. The attackers were dressed in military uniforms and pretended to be conducting a weapons check, asking the agents to hand over all their rifles before opening fire.
Police later found a note in a van believed to be used in the attack which stated that the group didn't care about the federal government and "this is proof" - an apparent reference to the shootings. The vehicle was parked outside a house packed with automatic rifles and military uniforms.
Since taking power in December, the president has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas ravaged by drug violence, including 7,000 to Acapulco's Pacific state of Guerrero. He has also extradited four alleged drug kingpins to the United States where they could be given life sentences in high-security prisons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
the government will not be strong-armed by organized crime
Yeah, no kidding. The government will be bought out by organized crime instead. Already has been, actually.
#3
To be a little more specific - the patron ruling families which have operated Mexico for generations to the benefit of their entourage have been the 'professional' gangs, not to be confused with the crass unpolished common criminal gangs. Though elements of the two have worked together at times.
#5
You guys give this president no credit. He's not FOX, he's cracking down and he's got death mark from every gang in Mexico. Of course he's going to fight.
#7
AC, I hope you are right but I had hope that Salines (sp?) would be clean and he ended up robbing the treasury when he left. I had hope Fox would fight the corruption and he started strong and then went wobbley. I've run out of hope for Mexico and am starting to think they need a popular revolution to clear out the ruling families, corruption, and nonsense.
CARACAS, VENEZUELA Police swooped down last week on a grimy central market district, forced open a warehouse and seized 7 tons of a white substance. It wasn't cocaine. The contraband was sugar, and the seizure of at least 184 tons nationwide showed how President Hugo Chavez's efforts to remake the economy are fraying at the edges.
The bust near the Quinta Crespo market came as double-digit inflation and scarcity have hit Venezuela's markets. The seizures were efforts to strike at what one Chavez supporter, Carabobo Gov. Luis Felipe Acosta, said was hoarding by "terrorist capitalists who want to destroy the country."
In the last week, Venezuela's central bank released figures showing that inflation rose in January to an annual rate of more than 25%, twice the national target.
But economists and industry officials describe the raids as the latest in a sequence of hamhanded, politically motivated attempts to rein in market forces beyond Chavez's control. Inflation and the development of a huge underground market in goods including sugar were simply symptoms of mismanagement, they say.
Venezuela is rolling in oil wealth with about $46 billion in energy sales last year, and there is little risk of a financial crisis in the near term. Chavez in recent years has tried to transfer much of the wealth to the poor via welfare programs including cheap or free housing, the donation of cash and government assets to worker cooperatives and free education.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
War Communism was a failure in 1918 and will be a failure in 2007. Expect starvation (blamed on the US) among less loyal populaces.
ASHGABAT - The people of Turkmenistan voted Sunday to elect a successor to their late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, with the gas-rich Central Asian republics interim leader seen as guaranteed of victory. It was Turkmenistans first multi-candidate presidential poll, but acting president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov appeared certain to win.
Oh, I am so surprised.
His five nominal rivals were little-known figures, all members of the ex-Soviet republics sole political party, while any real potential opponents live in foreign exile.
Not quite safe to return home, is it?
The election followed the sudden death in December of Niyazov, who dominated Turkmenistan for 21 years, overseeing a powerful personality cult, banishing political opponents, and tightly controlling the media. Many Turkmens hope that Berdymukhammedov, 49, will draw a line under this era and open the mostly Muslim, desert nation of five million people to the outside world.
A longtime Niyazov loyalist, Berdymukhammedov has recently called for reforms, including an eventual end to the one-party system and allowing widespread Internet access. He has also vowed to provide greater economic opportunity. That message has gone down well with ordinary Turkmens.
A turnout of 85 percent was recorded with four hours of voting to go, easily passing the 50-percent minimum needed to make the poll valid, the Central Electoral Commission said.
This was the countrys first election in which a team from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was invited, although not as official observers. The OSCE is a pan-European human rights body.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
So is he going to style himself as Turkmenbashi? The world can only hope and wait.
#3
.... late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, .... but acting president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov appeared certain to win.
We appear to have discovered where Murat has been hiding. Think of all the fun we will have with a guy named Gurbanguly...it's a wonder he made it through school.
Posted by: john ||
02/12/2007 20:49 Comments ||
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A child sex offender fed vegetables, nuts and "fatty and salty" tinned meat because prison authorities would not provide him with fresh halal meat prepared in accordance with Muslim religious laws has won a discrimination case against the Queensland Government.
In a ruling the Government fears could trigger an avalanche of claims from other prisoners denied special dietary requests, the Supreme Court found Sharif Mahommed, who was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in 2000, had been discriminated against. He will be allowed to keep $2000 in compensation and will not need to contribute to a legal bill of tens of thousands of dollars, which will be funded from the public purse unless the Queensland Government attempts to take the matter to the High Court.
Mahommed, now out of prison, said he had suffered stress and lost weight behind bars because he ate more vegetables and nuts to make up for the denial of fresh halal meat. He blamed prison authorities for their "lack of knowledge in understanding my religious beliefs, poor training skills, coupled with a no-care and negative attitude to inmates in general".
The finding on Friday by judge Ann Lyons in the Supreme Court is an embarrassing defeat for Police and Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence. Ms Spence, who has predicted the opening of floodgates "to other prisoners requesting all manner of special diets", had instructed Crown Solicitor Conrad Lohe and barrister Christopher Murdoch in a bid to quash an Anti-Discrimination Tribunal judgment by barrister Jean Dalton SC.
Ms Spence said yesterday she found Justice Lyons's decision surprising. "I have asked Queensland Corrective Services to review the judgment to consider grounds for appeal," she said. "At the moment, Queensland Corrective Services provides diets requested on the basis of cultural or religious needs where possible."
Ms Dalton, who heard the original case, found that Mahommed "received substantially more than his fair share of unacceptable meals because he was put on a vegetarian diet when he was not vegetarian (and) at the time fresh halal meat was difficult to source and extremely expensive, so he was provided with canned meat instead".
The vegetarian diet consisted of salad and a protein replacement at lunch, with hot lunches such as vegetable patties or vegetarian sausages three times a week. At night the vegetarian dinners include lasagnas, curries, pizzas and kebabs. "They'd send me down a salad with chicken in it, they would send me down a pie, they'd send me down a salad with luncheon meat in it," Mahommed said.
While rice and noodles were provided to Asian prisoners and special diets - gluten-free, low-fat and low-cholesterol - were granted to inmates with health concerns, no allowance was made for Mahommed's religious preference for halal meat.
Ms Dalton ruled: "There was evidence that nutmeat was served with regularity. He actively disliked some of it, such as the nutmeat and the sausages. He was served more salad and tinned meat than was provided on the general menu and found this unacceptable. It is not a matter of being fussy, or expecting restaurant quality food; no doubt he had to endure his fair share of poor meals, just like every other prisoner."
A Corrective Services spokesman said yesterday: "Where possible, fresh halal meat is served in our prisons."
#2
I don't recall any law regarding the prison food to cater to the prisioner's whims, only to feed nourishing and wholesom foods, does this mean I can tell jailers that my religion requires me to consume only medium-rare porterhouse steak,
sugar cured ham, lobster, and veal? goodie.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/12/2007 8:53 Comments ||
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#3
I'm speechless at the insanity of this.
What's wrong with 'fatty and salty tinned meat' in jail? Spam or chipped beef are classic fare for jails all over (and for campers, boy scouts, and the 'income-challenged' folk).
When the bulk of their prisoners are Muslim (soon?), then perhaps halal food service is reasonable - but even then, not 'fresh'. The bastard was (and should still be) in jail for some variety of pedophelia (isn't that also protected under religious discrimination laws?)
#11
This really points out how crazy our prison system is. They should all be on vegitarian diets. Let them sip soy-broth from a bread bowl. No utensils at all.
Police have raided the offices of a protest group after two people were killed and two were seriously injured in weekend clashes during a demonstration against a U.N. plan on the province's future, the force said Monday. Officers searched offices of the Self-Determination group in several towns across Kosovo and arrested three people who tried to prevent the searches, as part of an investigation into Saturday's violent protest, said police spokesman Veton Elshani.
During the demonstration, U.N. riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of ethnic Albanians who had broken through a security cordon and tried to march toward a government building in Pristina, the provincial capital. Some 3,000 protesters demonstrated against the U.N. plan on Kosovo's future status, which they say stops short of granting the province independence. Kosovo's ethnic Albanians demand full independence from Serbia, while the U.N. plan calls for internationally supervised self-rule.
Police said they seized computers, CDs, documents and computer equipment in the simultaneous searches on Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, funerals for the two people killed, Man Balaj, 30 and Arben Xheladini, 35, were to be held later Monday. No details were released on the cause of death and NATO-led peacekeepers said an investigation was being conducted to determine the circumstances of their deaths.
Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku on Saturday implied that the fault could lie with aggressive security at the protest, saying that "the death of two citizens is enough of an indication that could lead to the conclusion that there has been excessive use of force."
Two other people remained in serious condition after being injured in the clashes. About 70 protesters sought medical assistance, mainly for the effects of tear gas.
Ethnic Albanian leaders and Western diplomats called for calm on Monday, fearing further violence, while dozens of ethnic Albanians lit candles to pay tribute to the victims.
Kosovo has been run by the U.N. since mid-1999, when NATO launched an air war to halt a crackdown by Serb forces on ethnic Albanian separatists. Chief U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented a plan for the future status of the province 10 days ago, spelling out conditions for self-rule including a flag, anthem, army, constitution and the right to apply for membership in international organizations. Kosovo's Serb minority would have a high degree of control over its own affairs.
But some ethnic Albanians, who insist on full independence, said it did not go far enough. Serbs, who consider Kosovo the heartland of their nation, rejected the plan as ceding too much to the ethnic Albanian majority. The minority has warned of secession in the north of the province, where most Serbs in the province now live, if the plan goes ahead.
The plan needs approval by the U.N. Security Council to come into force, and ethnic Albanian and Serbian officials are to discuss the proposal on Feb. 21.
Kosovo is one of the poorest regions in Europe, with a high unemployment rate and a young population.
PARIS - Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, trailing in the opinion polls and struggling to kick start her gaffe-prone campaign, unveiled 100 proposals on Sunday that she said would make France a more regulated stronger, fairer place.
Termed the laundry list presidential pact, the policies were drawn up from the Socialist Manifesto following weeks of nationwide debates and concentrate primarily on social, economic and environmental issues. The pact contained promises to boost small pensions by five percent, to re-negotiate and consolidate the 35-hour work week, to increase the minimum wage and establish military-type boot camp to deal with young offenders.
More of the same from the socialists, in other words. She could have written this forty years ago. It's the same, tired, stale rhetoric and policy proposals. How ... 1960.
She also included controversial plans to set up Committee of Public Safety citizen juries to evaluate the work of parliamentarians, give parents a greater choice over where to school their children and do more to regulate bank fees.
It's like a Chinese restaurant menu. One from column A, two from column B ...
Today I offer you the presidential pact. One hundred proposals for France to rediscover a shared ambition, pride and fraternity, Royal will tell a mass rally on Sunday, according to the text of a speech released ahead of time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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She could have lifted most of it from Hitler, Mussolini, and Lenin in pre-war Europe. Ségolène, putting a relatively pleasant face on fascism.
#3
Really not different from the Demonrats propose over here. It's just we start off in better shape, but the direction both want to take us is the same.
#9
Don't people learn from the past that this crap just doesn't work?
Well, liberals don't.
It's not supposed to work, it's supposed to make you feel good about yourself. Hell, anybody can work.
#11
[1] I promise to export those Mulsims who seem to dispise the French nation and bring in Latin American workers if need be to work any unskilled jobs left open. After all many Latin Americans can use the work and they share a similar culture and have little desire to implement medieval theocracy upon our state.
[2] I promise to dismantle the French Union and work to gain access in the Commonwealth as an associate state and will encourage all other French Union members to do the same thus creating a worldwide group of like thinking nations to counter the US in a sane way.
[3] I promise to end French involvement in the European Union and instead fall back to a free-trade area willing to celebrate its diversity and ancient cultures.
[4] I promise to remove socialist regulations that make it nearly impossible to start or maintain small businesses in France thus hampering our economy and preventing us from competing with the Yanks.
[5] I promise to create my own foreign policy based on something other than "the opposite of whatever the Americans are doing."
Those are my five promises to return France to greatness.
#12
Damn, RJ! Are you campaigning to be Guiliani's running mate or something? You've got my vote!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/12/2007 19:36 Comments ||
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#13
Unlike Britain, where Radical/Activist complaints that "Britain wants to be/is becoming America" at least has been announced publicly. dare the French demand to be SSSSSSSSSHHHHH Americans but only iff publicly dragged kicking and screaming into desired US Statehood??? MUST BE, cuz iff Les Francais/Paris' can't bury the dead or pay for every Frenchmen's vacation, I fail to see how Segolene's "100", i.e. MORE SOCIALISM-GOVT-ism, is gonna change things.
At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honour killings in 2006, the countrys main rights organisation said today, nearly double the number it recorded the year before. The sharp increase from 287 in 2005 was due "at least in part" to expanded data collection, the privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report. However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.
One is too many, but they don't really know. I bet there are plenty that escape attention, especially in the backwoods of Wazoo and the North-West Frontier.
Many men in deeply conservative rural areas of Pakistan consider it an insult to family honour if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent. Some view attacking or killing the women or their partners as a way to restore family honour.
In the report released today, the commission said at least 475 of last years honour killings followed accusations of illicit relations". Sixty of the dead were minors. Arrests were made in only 128 cases, it said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Pakistan is a prime example of how an islamic world wiould be-Total Chaos and poor economy!!!
#2
There ought be an underground group, that "mysteriosly" causes the deaths of the perpitrators of the "honor killings", or call them as they should be called, murders...
If somehow some of these these fellows would wind up "mysteriously" dead, word would get around, and it would slow down at least...
How did the British colonial powers cut back on the Sati in India, which was the ritual emmolation of widows with their deceased husbands at funerals?
Something should be done about this.
Also, because it seems so rampant, there seems to be a sexual perversion aspect to this, a "snuff" element as it were...
#3
Ed, wasn't Sati the source of one of the best quotes of all time....
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
#1
And of course, today on Drudge, an interview with Czech President Vaclav Klaus who thinks "global warming" is dubious...
"It is not quite exactly divided to the left-wingers and right-wingers. Nevertheless it's obvious that environmentalism is a new incarnation of modern leftism."
He he he ... I like this guy...
Here in SoCal, we had a big freeze that screwed up the Tangering Crop, and I love Tangerines, but not at $2/pound...
Whole article from Drudge below!
President of Czech Republic Calls Man-Made Global Warming a 'Myth' - Questions Gore's Sanity
Mon Feb 12 2007 09:10:09 ET
Czech president Vaclav Klaus has criticized the UN panel on global warming, claiming that it was a political authority without any scientific basis.
In an interview with "Hospodárské noviny", a Czech economics daily, Klaus answered a few questions:
Q: IPCC has released its report and you say that the global warming is a false myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?
A: It's not my idea. Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment. Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses. This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is instantly going to buy such a trick, we have another very good reason to think that the countries themselves, not the Commission, should be deciding about similar issues.
Q: How do you explain that there is no other comparably senior statesman in Europe who would advocate this viewpoint? No one else has such strong opinions...
A: My opinions about this issue simply are strong. Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice.
Q: But you're not a climate scientist. Do you have a sufficient knowledge and enough information?
A: Environmentalism as a metaphysical ideology and as a worldview has absolutely nothing to do with natural sciences or with the climate. Sadly, it has nothing to do with social sciences either. Still, it is becoming fashionable and this fact scares me. The second part of the sentence should be: we also have lots of reports, studies, and books of climatologists whose conclusions are diametrally opposite. Indeed, I never measure the thickness of ice in Antarctica. I really don't know how to do it and don't plan to learn it. However, as a scientifically oriented person, I know how to read science reports about these questions, for example about ice in Antarctica. I don't have to be a climate scientist myself to read them. And inside the papers I have read, the conclusions we may see in the media simply don't appear. But let me promise you something: this topic troubles me which is why I started to write an article about it last Christmas. The article expanded and became a book. In a couple of months, it will be published. One chapter out of seven will organize my opinions about the climate change. Environmentalism and green ideology is something very different from climate science. Various findings and screams of scientists are abused by this ideology.
Q: How do you explain that conservative media are skeptical while the left-wing media view the global warming as a done deal?
A: It is not quite exactly divided to the left-wingers and right-wingers. Nevertheless it's obvious that environmentalism is a new incarnation of modern leftism.
Q: If you look at all these things, even if you were right ...
A: ...I am right...
Q: Isn't there enough empirical evidence and facts we can see with our eyes that imply that Man is demolishing the planet and himself?
A: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.
Q: Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?
A: I will pretend that I haven't heard you. Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can't. I don't see any ruining of the planet, I have never seen it, and I don't think that a reasonable and serious person could say such a thing. Look: you represent the economic media so I expect a certain economical erudition from you. My book will answer these questions. For example, we know that there exists a huge correlation between the care we give to the environment on one side and the wealth and technological prowess on the other side. It's clear that the poorer the society is, the more brutally it behaves with respect to Nature, and vice versa. It's also true that there exist social systems that are damaging Nature - by eliminating private ownership and similar things - much more than the freer societies. These tendencies become important in the long run. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected uncomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago. That's why I ask: how can you pronounce the sentence you said? Perhaps if you're unconscious? Or did you mean it as a provocation only? And maybe I am just too naive and I allowed you to provoke me to give you all these answers, am I not? It is more likely that you actually believe what you say.
[English translation from Harvard Professor Lubos Motl]
Q: Isn't there enough empirical evidence and facts we can see with our eyes that imply that Man is demolishing the planet and himself?
A: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.
Q: Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?
A: I will pretend that I haven't heard you.
Ooooh! the left jab connects!
Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can't.
The right connects!
I don't see any ruining of the planet, I have never seen it, and I don't think that a reasonable and serious person could say such a thing. Look: you represent the economic media so I expect a certain economical erudition from you. My book will answer these questions. For example, we know that there exists a huge correlation between the care we give to the environment on one side and the wealth and technological prowess on the other side. It's clear that the poorer the society is, the more brutally it behaves with respect to Nature, and vice versa. It's also true that there exist social systems that are damaging Nature - by eliminating private ownership and similar things - much more than the freer societies. These tendencies become important in the long run. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected uncomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago. That's why I ask: how can you pronounce the sentence you said?
And the Left again!
Perhaps if you're unconscious? Or did you mean it as a provocation only? And maybe I am just too naive and I allowed you to provoke me to give you all these answers, am I not? It is more likely that you actually believe what you say.
The reporter runs off, screaming "MOOOOMIIIIEEEEEEE!"
#5
Are you possibly thinking of Vaclav Havel, the playwright and first president of Czechoslovakia, Shipman? The one who used to walk from his apartment building to his office everyday? I think Vaclav Klaus was an economist.
#6
Steve Milloy at junkscience.com nicely encapsulates the issue.
... because it's (environmentalism) strictly an artificial construct, one that is purely emotional and devoid of actual value. "Feel good" decisions do absolutely nothing for the world, they only line the pockets of scammers exploiting the gullible and the misinformed. If you really care about nature and the planet then you should concentrate on generating wealth because wealthy societies can afford to worry about aesthetics, the cosmetic puffery of "environmentalism," while the impoverished must devote all effort to food and shelter, viewing their environ through the necessary lens of immediate exploitation as food, fuel or shelter. Only when a society has met the needs of all its citizens and generated the necessary surplus can it make rational decisions along the lines of "that's a mine, that's a timber resource, that's to be leveled for housing and that patch is a set-aside ornament for wildlife/nature/park/recreation/looking at/just having because it sounds cool/[fill in any warm and fuzzy non-reason you like]...". Otherwise it's simply misanthropic bunny-hugging and there has to be something really wrong with those who value bugs or any critters above people.
#8
Private Ownership > NOT a "FREER SOCIETY". There you have it - PC and RINO-ism/CINO-ism all in one. The only thing freer thst Private Ownership is WALKING AROUND TOWN NAKED EVERY DAY-NIGHT IN ONE'S BIRTHDAY SUIT. PUBLIC/GOVT > universal budget write-offs, is what killed the Caspian and Ural Seas in the USSR, Chinese children playing in rivers or streams filled wid huge trash/waste heaps taller than their houses, and massive uncontroled AIDS and other disease epidemics in Africa, etc.
A Muslim immigrant working on contract for Microsoft filed a complaint against the company last month, saying he was interrogated about his Muslim-inspired, anti-war Web site, then abruptly fired.
Two former Kentridge High School students, whose Bible club was denied a charter at the school in part because it required members to swear allegiance to Jesus Christ, are awaiting a federal-court decision in their lawsuit.
And 14 months ago, the Red Robin restaurant chain settled with a server it had fired from its Bellevue restaurant for refusing to cover up wrist tattoos he said are part of his ancient Egyptian Kemetic faith.
Here and elsewhere across the country, complaints alleging religious discrimination are up dramatically, with confrontations arising over how people publicly observe their faith, when and where they pray, how they dress, what hours they work and generally what they believe.
Between 2002 and 2006, the number of religious-discrimination complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) nationally rose more than 30 percent from the previous five years.
For Washington state, complaints rose 60 percent for the same period. In fact, religious complaints in the state for 2006 were the highest they've been in at least 15 years.
"We're seeing an increase in religious charges involving all different faiths across the board," said Kathryn Olson, supervisory trial attorney with the EEOC in Seattle.
Among the factors fueling the tensions are fallout from the war on terror, the growing convergence of politics and religion and an increasingly diverse population.
"I tell my [employer] clients all the time: Nothing will spread more quickly in the workplace than religious harassment," said Rick Liebman, an employment attorney in Portland.
"Where a person may not even think about making a joke about a co-worker's race or sex, they seem to have no compunction to picking on other people over their religion."
Not surprisingly, a majority of the complaints have come from Muslims. But the numbers also reflect growing tensions around the Christian faith.
Flora Wilson Bridges, an associate professor at Seattle University, said she believes those tensions are arising in part because conservative Christians have become more provocative less tolerant of those with whom they disagree and more determined to impose their values on others. As they have become more emboldened, they've also become more inclined to take their battles to court.
Helping them do that are groups like the Alliance Defense Fund, which mounts legal battles on behalf of Christians nationwide. It argues that people of faith should not have to leave their religious beliefs at home.
"Christians are being treated as second-class citizens in schools, city council and on the streets," said Greg Scott, a spokesman for the group.
Its lawyers represent the former Kentridge students who sued the school three years ago after their Truth Bible Club was denied a charter. Club organizers had been asked to remove the word "truth" from the club's name and give up the Christians-only criterion for membership and refused.
Religious disputes can arise over anything from working on the Sabbath to the use of a company lunch room for prayer meetings.
Last year, a man complained to the city of Seattle's Office of Civil Rights after he said he was kicked out of a blood bank for talking about religion there; the blood bank said he was being loud and obnoxious.
In another case filed with the city, a resident of a Catholic housing complex said he was told to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary from a common area of the complex by a manager who had a Buddha statue in the same area. Both were ordered to take them down as part of a settlement.
The Rev. Joe Fuiten, pastor of Cedar Park Assembly of God, said concerns have arisen within his church, coming from a teacher who couldn't keep a Bible on her desk and a child told by a teacher that he was not allowed to say "Merry Christmas."
"Separation of church and state has suddenly become separation of church and public life," Fuiten said.
Federal, state and local law prohibit discrimination based on religion and other characteristics like race and sex.
Additionally, governmental bodies from school districts to Uncle Sam are obligated to respect such constitutional rights as free speech and expression. That means a government employee has broader rights than someone employed in the private sector.
"There's this joke labor attorneys share ... that when you go into the private sector, you check your constitutional rights at the door," said Joseph Marra, a Seattle labor attorney.
Khaled Mohamed hadn't given such issues much thought when he took a contracting job at Microsoft last year.
A week before his contract was to expire, the 39-year-old was questioned about an anti-war Web site he maintains and how often he accessed it and other Web sites while at work.
He was subsequently escorted from the premises, he said, and told he'd never do work for Microsoft again. An immigrant from Egypt, he filed a religious and national-origin discrimination complaint with the EEOC against Excell Data, his direct employer, and against Microsoft.
Microsoft declined to comment on his case, but within days of his complaint made him eligible for rehire. Excell said Mohamed's contract was terminated because he violated Microsoft policy against using company resources for personal reasons.
Mohamed said in his six months at Microsoft, he'd only twice accessed his own site, waronislam.net, which harshly criticizes the U.S. presence in the Middle East. The site characterizes the war on terror as a war against Islam and features graphic photos of the dead. "I think they believed my views were too extremist... ," he said.
In another case, the EEOC sued Ellensburg restaurant Starlight Lounge last year on behalf of Angela Harper, a black Muslim woman who wore a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarf. She said she was denied a promotion to lounge server because, she was told, she didn't fit the "hot white girl" image the restaurant sought for those jobs.
Restaurant owner Doris Morgan said she never made the comment and never would. The lawsuit blindsided her, she said, because she'd hired Harper, nurtured her and "was good to her."
"If something like this can happen to someone who's open and embracing of differences," she said, "what will it do to those [employers] who are not?"
Clear policies needed
Labor lawyers and human-resource experts say employers should establish clear policies and an atmosphere that does not tolerate harassment.
And they are required to accommodate, within reasonable limits, the "bona fide" religious beliefs and practices of employees.
"I tell employers to go the furthest step that a reasonable person would ask you to go and then go one step further and you'll win," said Liebman, the employment attorney in Portland.
Determining what's bona fide can get tricky.
In 2005, the EEOC settled a case against Red Robin on behalf of server Ameni Rangel, who said he was fired after refusing to cover a religious inscription tattooed on his wrists. Workplace policies at Red Robin forbid tattoos.
Less than a quarter-inch wide, the inscription was a verse from an Egyptian scripture and part of the 28-year-old Rangel's Kemetic religion; to intentionally conceal it would be a sin, he said.
Rangel said managers knew about the tattoos when they hired him, but that after the restaurant moved to a new Bellevue location, a new manager told Rangel he'd have to cover them because tattoos didn't fit the company's image.
"They made fun of what I believed," Rangel said. "They would say things like the Tasmanian Devil is my religion. They thought I was just silly."
The restaurant declined to comment.
It paid Rangel $150,000 to settle the case and agreed to train managers so they better understand religious discrimination.
#1
It is so easy to have an anonymous website I can only imagine that the contractor specified Microsoft on the site. I am sure that Microsoft has a policy about any blogs (porn, antiwar, pro-Apple) by employees that may reflect on them in some way.
I would also bet Red Robin has some grooming codes regarding tattoos. Religious or not. If you're a rastafarian you don't have the right to go to work stoned. Religion doesn't give you a pass. Make the effort to cover them up if the dress codes say no visible tatoos.
The Jesus club... Swear allegiance to Jesus Christ? Why would anyone join a Bible Club if they weren't believers anyway? Would a non-believer have any trouble falsly swearing allegiance? Considering anyone can now discriminate against Christians this club should have known better.
#2
Not surprisingly, a majority of the complaints have come from Muslims.
Seething whiners
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2007 18:03 Comments ||
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#3
In another case, the EEOC sued Ellensburg restaurant Starlight Lounge last year on behalf of Angela Harper, a black Muslim woman who wore a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarf. She said she was denied a promotion to lounge server because, she was told, she didn't fit the "hot white girl" image the restaurant sought for those jobs.
The Starlight Lounge is a restaurant and bar. This Muslim was serving alcohol, and claims to have been kept from a position which would require dress less than what we're told is required of Muslim women *AND* serving alcohol primarily, rather than primarily food. From a review of the Starlight Lounge:
The cocktail waitress dress like cocktail waitress in the lounge. The Starlight is both a lounge and resturant, but I haven't ate at the resturant before. Usually people go here to drink some hard alcohol and mixed drinks before going over to the Oak Rail to dance and have beer.
So in Minneapolis we're told Muslims aren't even allowed to drive cars that have alcohol in them. In Florida we're told that a completely covered face is a religious requirement for Muslim women. Now we have a Muslim woman complaining because she's not promoted to a position requiring "cocktail waitress" dress and serving alcohol -- and that it's because of her race and religion.
She wore a hijab to work; I'd take that as a sign she's religious enough to have a problem with serving alcohol and wearing a cocktail waitress outfit. If an Amish woman decided she wanted to maintain her traditional dress while serving drinks in a strip club, I'd not give her the job. Same thing here.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/12/2007 20:20 Comments ||
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#4
As much as I hate it, it would seem that the "At Will" employment model is what is called for here. You can be terminated at any time for any reason, or, no reason. Goodbye! C Ya! Wouldn't want to B Ya!
WOMEN may be able to undergo a "natural" form of breast enlargement using their own stem cells and fat.
The technique, pioneered in Japan, results in breasts that look and feel smoother than conventional cosmetic surgery using implants.
Stem cells, which have the potential to change into any cells in the body, are found in embryos, but the most plentiful supply [of stem cells] in adults is from body fat. When body fat [stem cells and surrounding fatty tissue] is transferred to the breasts, the stem cells enable the fat to grow its own blood supply, thus becoming an integral part of the breast rather than a foreign object...
[there is a downside in that breast cancer may be less easily detected]
So... all things considered, the solution to all my problem is either :
- Euthanasia;
- Liposuccion;
- Conversion to islam (or scientology, or whatever);
or, now :
- Stem cells.
So WHICH horse do you want to bet OUR TAX MONEY on NOW?
Expecting Screaming from the Euros that Bush's refusal to federally fund new embryonic stem cell lines FORCED them to back the wrong kind of stem cells in 5, 4, 3...
#11
As I understand it, a very important medical problem with embryonic stem cells is that, subsequent to requiring immuno suppression, they go cancerous easily.
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.
The Valentine's Day bouquet the gift that every woman in Britain will be waiting for next week has become the latest bête noire among environmental campaigners.
President Hugo Chavez's government is preparing a decree that would let officials take control of food distribution chains, possibly including supermarkets and storage depots, if services are interrupted, officials said Sunday. 
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said there will be "no truce and no quarter" in his war on drug gangs following the killing of seven law enforcement officials in an apparent attempt to intimidate the federal government.
ASHGABAT - The people of Turkmenistan voted Sunday to elect a successor to their late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, with the gas-rich Central Asian republics interim leader seen as guaranteed of victory. It was Turkmenistans first multi-candidate presidential poll, but acting president 
At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honour killings in 2006, the countrys main rights organisation said today, nearly double the number it recorded the year before. The sharp increase from 287 in 2005 was due "at least in part" to expanded data collection, the privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report. However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.
WOMEN may be able to undergo a "natural" form of breast enlargement using their own stem cells and fat.
