nabbed in Guam - I'll expect a full report from the Mendiola Brigade
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2008 19:42 ||
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#1
Boy, PAULA ABDUL's on a roll this morning - SHARON STONE???
"Full Report" > I could for what I know and can discover, but then the Army-INTEL - you know, the Mafia - will either kill you, and or mess wid your records and destroy your personal credibility, in the name of National-Wartime Security.
THE GODFATHER > HAYDEN . "It will be as if you didn't exist" [never met, etc.].
#4
It warms the cockles of my black heart to hear about yet another millionaire moonbat being tossed in jail, there to rub shoulders with the poor, oppressed, and misunderstood whose welfare has been the basis of his career and worldview.
Barack Obama must be the most gaffe-prone politician in memory. Today, he delivered a Memorial Day speech in New Mexico. After greeting the local Democratic Party dignitaries, he began:
On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.
Memorial Day honors those who have died in our nation's military service. Is it possible that Obama does not know this? Sometimes the things that come out of his mouth defy understanding.
What was really offensive about Obama's New Mexico appearance, however, was what followed his very brief, but generally appropriate, tribute to America's war dead. He continued with a town hall-style question and answer period that cast veterans in the only role with which the Democrats are comfortable--victims--and sought to politicize the holiday. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/27/2008 06:14 ||
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#1
He can see dead people.
Posted by: Grenter Protector of the Geats4975 ||
05/27/2008 9:09 Comments ||
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#2
Must be nice to have the media flying top cover for your buffoon ass. I'm sure most citizens of the fifty seven or fifty eight states will never hear of this.
If they covered Bush's ass as much as Obama's, the friggin war would probably be over by now.
#4
Someone last week said Obama was a sock puppet, an empty suit put up to fool the public, and every time he opens his mouth it seems more probable. Nevertheless, his supporters have an almost messianic fervor. I was at the SOCOM Industry Conference in Tampa last week. The conference was in the Convention Center and there was an Obama rally at the Sports Arena about 150 yards away. It was a ticketed event (so Obama could pick his audience) and the crowd appeared to be about 80% black. The 20,000 inside and the 10 - 15,000 watching on big screens outside acted like it was the second coming. There will be trouble later this year, either in August or November if he loses and, God help us, more if he wins.
#9
Not likely. If true at all, more likely and expat commie, like much of the mother's family, that got drafted by Stalin.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2008 13:59 Comments ||
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#10
BTW, Obama's mother maiden name was Dunham.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2008 14:01 Comments ||
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#11
"There will be trouble later this year, either in August or November if he loses and, God help us, more if he wins."
Get ready for the trouble when he loses, RVW, because he's not going to win in November. I'm hoping he wins in August though, because that may save the Republicans from their own mistakes.
What a lousy set of choices we've got this presidential election!
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/27/2008 17:53 Comments ||
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#12
did Obama's mother have a Russian uncle?
I've no idea, Alan; I was just speculating on possibilities. Apparently Candidate Obama is now claiming it was a great-uncle, and it was a Nazi work camp, not Auschwitz. Quick work by his campaign to cover his blunder.
Speculators are largely responsible for driving crude prices to their peaks in recent weeks and the record oil price now looks like a bubble, George Soros has warned. I think he's wrong, but that's just lil ol' me, not the Mighty Soros.
I'd like to know just how much he's manipulating the price ...
The billionaire investor's comments came only days after the oil price soared to a record high of $135 a barrel amid speculation that crude could soon be catapulted towards the $200 mark.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Soros said that although the weak dollar, ebbing Middle Eastern supply and record Chinese demand could explain some of the increase in energy prices, the crude oil market had been significantly affected by speculation. "Speculation... is increasingly affecting the price," he said. "The price has this parabolic shape which is characteristic of bubbles," he said. And after this bubble pops, the price of gas will go down to pre-bubble levels. No, really! You just watch! It'll happen! Yeah. For sure.
George would know more than anyone about tanking the dollar ...
The comments are significant, not only because Mr Soros is the world's most prominent speculator hedge fund investor but also because many experts have claimed speculation is only a minor factor affecting crude prices.
Oil prices stalled on Friday after their biggest one-day jump since the first Gulf War earlier in the week. At just over $130 a barrel, the price has doubled in around a year, causing misery for motorists and businesses.
However, Mr Soros warned that the oil bubble would not burst until both the US and Britain were in recession, after which prices could fall dramatically. What does Britain have to do with it? I say look at China and India.
"You can also anticipate that [the bubble] will eventually correct but that is unlikely to happen before the recession actually reduces the demand.
"The rise in the price of oil and food is going to weigh and aggravate the recession."
The Bank of England recently warned that soaring energy and food costs would push inflation above its target range for most of the next 18 months, making it more unlikely that it will cut borrowing costs soon.
Mr Soros warns Britain is facing its worst economic storm in living memory, dwarfing those of the 1970s and early 1990s, with a housing slump and serious recession. He said: "The dislocations will be greater [than in the 1970s] because you also have the implications of the house price decline, which you didn't have in the 1970s."
The warning undermines predictions that Britain will suffer only a brief and relatively painless recession, unlike the precipitous dives of previous years.
Mr Soros also warned that the Bank's inflation report represents a "Faustian pact", obliging it to keep interest rates high to control inflation, even as the economy is starting to slump. "You had the nice decade," he said. "Now that is over and you are in a straitjacket."
George isn't, however, his life will be fine. His afterlife, I'm not so sure ...
#1
I'd tend to trust Soros, as he caused the Asian financial crisis of 1998 with nothing but speculation. He knows how to irresponsibly bring down economies.
#2
Soros is wrong. It's not possible to have a bubble in a consumed tradeable commodity. Bubbles occur when people overpay for property based on the percieved future gain. Spot oil and near futures will be consumed in the near term. When that occurs they no longer exist and obviously can't have a future gain (or loss).
Soros is talking down the market, which probably means he is on the wrong side of it. I hope he is taking a bath.
#4
Other 'experts' have written that about $60 per barrel of the price is due to speculation. There is a lot of cash floating around that was being invested in real estate (various funds and 'products' invested in junk-grade loans) that has been looking for a new home. Oil futures may have been one such home. At some point those 'investments' mature, but the 'experts' can keep bidding them up until they chicken out, and then they need a sucker to be left holding the bag. One hopes that sucker is the Saudi royal family, but I wouldn't bet on it (check where your union retirement funds are being invested.)
There is increasing belief that the world has already reached 'peak oil', and that future demand curves will be FORCED to flatten to match. If so, futures bidding may actually continue to make profits for the buyers.
#5
Thing is, if he wanted to MAKE it into a bubble, he could start a big short position, and pay off a few key government people in China to postpone and reduce buys for a few months. That, and the short position, and the people speculating on futures woudl cause a panic crash.
Not sayign there is a bubble, but of all people, Soros could create one with his cash and his buying off of influence.
#6
And after this bubble pops, the price of gas will go down to pre-bubble levels. No, really! You just watch! It'll happen! Yeah. For sure.
Working on 'historical' models, the purveyors of your petroleum who jacked up prices daily as the records were posted in the market will argue that the 'new' oil will have to process through the system before the decrease will appear. Never ever answering the begged question that if 'new' oil processing delays a decline why it didn't delay the increases for the same reason.
#7
Aside from that, force anyone with a futures contract to take delivery of 10% of that contract.
That will push the speculators out of the market.
This kind of fiscal manipulation by people whio cannot use the product is a distortion and destroys the utility of the market place for that actual consumers.
Futures? Yes allow them. but make the people bidding and buying prove that they can actually use or store the material.
#8
Phil, not sure about the "consumable commodities" theory - what about the tulip bubble of 1637? That market was supported by a million different futures/options/gamble/hold/shufflereel type market instruments too.
The present bubble cant be accounted for in terms of basic supply/demand, as neither has changed dramatically in recent months. If this is not a bubble, then it must be a correction, meaning that oil has been historically priced too low?
#9
It's not possible to have a bubble in a consumed tradeable commodity.
Oil keeps for decades and the cost of storing it is low compared to the cost of keeping e.g. grain edible. There's room for bubbles of all kinds in oil.
#10
However, Mr Soros warned that the oil bubble would not burst until both the US and Britain were in recession, after which prices could fall dramatically..."You had the nice decade," he said. "Now that is over and you are in a straitjacket."
His words incriminate him. Hope he drowns in a bubble bath.
#11
People tend to forget that oil prices can be manipulated by OPEC countries (none of which have any sympathy towards the US). If you go back to the 2004 US elections, you will see a large spike in oil prices just before the election. That was OPEC trying to get John Scary elected.
Yes the price of oil is artificially high. However the price increase in Euros is not nearly as much.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/27/2008 12:09 Comments ||
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#12
BP identified the primary bubble. Real estate was next.
Oil and higher educationbubble poppings are coming up........I hate to agree with Soros on anything, but I believe he's onto something with oil prices.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/27/2008 12:12 Comments ||
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#13
Another factor that's been bandied about is the recent rise of commodity mutual funds. Funds whose mission is to invest in commodities. There have been big moves already and more money is pouring into these hot bull markets.
The last time we had a serious drop in the price of oil was during the Asian Financial Crisis that caused a worldwide recession that also hit Russia and Latin America pretty hard. Didn't Long Term Capital Management get bailed out around this time? The price of oil almost hit single digits.
I can't see oil coming down until after the dust settles with Iran and their nuclear ambitions.
#14
The article cites Britain because it's a British paper - Guardian or one of the other papers on the online Guardian cluster.
And yes, I agree that it sounds like Soros is talking down the oil market. I'd guess he's long in dollars and looking to prop up the value of his position. I don't know, he's the currency expert, not me.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/27/2008 13:11 Comments ||
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Soros has been betting and talking of the dollar's decline for several years. He's made a lot of money on it. Recently he has been talking the dollar up. You can bet his mouth follows his money.
Unfortunately for the dollar longs, I think those who control our government have figured put that the continued dollar decline (actually inflation) is in the national interest. Over the past 35 years trillions of dollars have been sent out and goods imported that the chance of ever exporting our way to the dollar's health is nil. Instead, by having sustained inflation over a decade or two, the real total value of the external dollar debt will he halved or quartered. A much more manageable problem.
The runup of commodity prices is a foreshadowing of the sustained inflation that will roll through the economy. Expect countries to abandon the dollar peg (e.g. China) as their import bills outstrip the value of their dollar based earnings.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2008 13:45 Comments ||
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#16
A modest and modestly prolonged (lasting a few months) rally in the dollar will drive the speculators out of the market and act to reduce dollar denominated oil prices on two fronts. I expect we'll see a $50-ish dollar per bbl fall when that happens and I doubt we're more than a year or two away.
We're in the business here and folks I know and respect who've quite often been proven correct in their long-term assessments are telling me that it's time to dump all of our production as the combination of increasing liability and production costs, market uncertainty, future tax and environmental policy, alternative methods of production, alternative fuels & technologies, and current historically high prices is such that dumping the business now will be more profitable than operating it over the next couple of decades. FWIW (pure speculation) they see technologies and alternatives having significant market impact beginning ten-ish years out and government taking most of the profit out of the business beginning as early as next year.
will recall that the US economy--dominated by US dollars, where rarely is spent a Euro or Yuan--is insulated from much or most of the pain experienced by a declining dollar as defined by its relationship of comparative value to other currencies.
It will make imports, like oil, more expensive. But for holders of contracts--think China?--it is seeing the value of those contracts contract while the goods it provides remain cheap.
Compare this to the inflation we generated following the first oil shortage of the 1970's. We made dollars cheaper but affected our domestic economy's ability to produce goods cheaply for domestic use or for export.
I actually prefer this new round of dollar expansion to the old. It does have our "friends" in an uproar. The EU countries are seeing the price of their goods vis a vis ours going up. We have worked for decades to force China to "unpeg" the yuan. Given the relative increase in prices for Chinese visitors to Milan, pressure is increasing in China for change. Grousing Politbureau members back from a European shopping trip are more important there than the will of the people, remember.
#19
DK70 - Not as much as narrowly defeated state legislation here that would impose unlimited liability on producers by creating a state funded attorney pool to sue producers whenever landowners choose to complain. Our pet senator whom we helped put in office assures us that we won't be able to derail the legislation when it is reintroduced next year. Personally I'd rather spend my time sitting on a beach than yammering away at the trial bar.
#20
AzCat, what you're saying rings true with me as well. I'm seeing a hell of a lot of stuff being built for exploration. The last time this happened oil was $10/bbl ten years after the oil shock due to increased production. I see no reason to think it won't happen again, although hopefully this time we'll be able to make changes enough to get a lot of oil usage permanently converted to some other form of energy, like nuclear-supplied electricity.
I'd like nothing better than to be able to tell the ME to take their oil and eat it.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/27/2008 18:03 Comments ||
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#21
I'm usually early on my calls: out of tech in '99, out of real estate in '05, etc. The bubbles are easy enough to see but you just never know how far the irrational exuberance will carry the markets.
There's an old saying among the oil guys around here, "When lawyers start buying leases it's time to exit." Over the past six months or so I've fielded inquiries from a number of my closest attorney acquaintances looking to invest in the energy sector.
On the other hand I attended a friend's wedding in December of '03 at which I spent a few hours chatting with a hedge fund manager who told me to back up the truck immediately on Canadian Oilsands ADRs and to purchase every lease I could get my hands on then hang on tight for five or so years. I suppose that's why I'm still working and those guys are making billions. ;)
Environment chiefs from the world's top industrial countries pledged "strong political will" Monday toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in halving their economies battling global warming.
The statement by ministers from the Group of Eight nations, however, stopped short of pledging firm commitments for mid-century or a midterm goal for 2020, which many countries argue are crucial to saving the planet from environmental crisis provoked by rising temperatures.
Aimed at setting the stage for decisive action at the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, in July, the joint communique also recognized rich nations' obligation to provide technology and financing to help developing countries fight global warming.
"The major outcome was on climate change: we strongly expressed the will to come to agreement at Toyako so we can halve emissions by 2050," said Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita. "Advanced nations should show leadership to reach this goal."
The statement cited the need for global gas emissions to peak within the next 10 to 20 years, and it called on developing countries with rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions to work to curb the rate of increase.
The ministers, however, made no mention of a scientific recommendation that rich countries make reductions of between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of warming. European nations, the U.N. climate chief and environmentalists had clamored in Kobe for progress toward such a reduction pledge by G8 countries, arguing that failure could endanger U.N.-led talks aimed at concluding a new climate change pact by the end of 2009.
"Without a mandatory midterm target for developing countries, it will be very difficult to get agreement" by that deadline, said Matthias Machnig, the delegate from Germany. Still, he conceded that ministers in Kobe had "made a step here today a small one, but an important one."
The European Union has pledged a 20 percent emissions reduction by 2020, and has offered to raise it to 30 percent if other nations sign on. The United States, however, has not committed to a midterm goal, demanding commitments from top developing countries such as China first. Japan has also not yet set a 2020 target.
Kamoshita and Scott Fulton, deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, argued that it was premature for them to set midterm targets, and they said such commitments should be the result of negotiations leading to the climate pact in 2009.
"At this point, I'm not sure if it's appropriate for us to cite specific figures," Fulton said.
The United States is the only major industrialized country not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol global warming pact, which commits 37 nations to cutting emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Washington has argued that the pact would hurt its economy, and is unfair because it does not obligate developing nations to also cut emissions.
During a news conference after the concluding meeting of ministers from the G8 nations the U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia and France divisions were apparent between Germany and the United States.
Machnig forcefully described Germany's commitment to cutting gases by 40 percent by 2020, several times turning in Fulton's direction as he spoke.
Fulton, who also called for commitments from heavily polluting emerging economies, defended U.S. action on climate change, citing billions of dollars spent on research into global warming and other anti-warming steps.
"We've not been sitting on our hands by any means," he said.
Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.
The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain's CO2 emissions without penalising the poor. Under the scam scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights. Would this also include a fart allowance?
Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven't used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.
I'm guessing politicans, celebrities, George Soros and Al Gore would have an unlimited supply of credits.
MPs, led by Tory Tim Yeo, say the scam scheme could be more effective at cutting greenhouse gas emissions than green taxes.
But critics say the idea is costly, bureaucratic, intrusive and unworkable.
The Government says it supports the scam scheme in principle, but warns it is 'ahead of its time'.
They haven't had time yet to confuse the public!
The idea of personal carbon trading is increasingly being promoted by environmentalists. In theory it could be used to cover all purchases - from petrol to food.
For the scam scheme to work, the Government would need to give out 45 million carbon cards - each one linked to a personal carbon account. Every year, the account would be credited with a notional amount of CO2 in kilograms. Every time someone makes a purchase of petrol, energy or airline tickets, they would use up credits. A return flight from London to Rome would, for instance, use up 900kg of CO2 credits, while 10 litres of petrol would use up 23kg.
MP Tim Yeo MP, says the scam scheme could be more effective at cutting Britain's greenhouse gas emissions.
Recessions do tend to do that ...
Mr Yeo, chairman of the committee said personal carbon trading rewarded those with a low carbon footprint with cash. 'We found that personal carbon trading has real potential to engage the population in the fight against climate change and to achieve significant emissions reductions in a progressive way,' he said. Climate Change, what happened to Global Warming?
'The idea is a looney radical one. As such it inevitably faces some significant challenges in its development. It is important to meet these challenges.
'What we are asking the Government to do is to seize the reins on this, leading the debate and coordinating research.'
This man is a Tory?
The Government is committed to cutting CO2 emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010. The Climate Change Bill going through Parliament aims to cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. The Government has said it backs the idea in principle, but it is currently too expensive and bureaucratic.
Environment Minister Hilary Benn said: 'It's got potential but, in essence, it's ahead of its time. There are a lot of practical problems to overcome.'
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs report into the scheme found it would cost between £700 million and £2 billion to set up and up to another £2 billion a year to run.
Just suck that right out of the productive sector and hire a bunch more gummint employees to 'run' it ...
Tory environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth added: 'Although it does have potential we should proceed with care. We don't want to alienate people and we want everyone to be on board.'
"And I want to get re-elected!"
But critics say the idea is deeply flawed. The scam scheme would penalise those living in the countryside who were dependent on their cars, as well as the elderly or housebound who need to heat their homes in the day.
Large families would suffer, as would those working at nights when little public transport is available. It would need to take into account the size of families, and their ages. There is huge potential for fraud.
Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said the cards would be hugely unpopular. 'The Government has shown itself incapable of managing any huge, complex IT system.' he said.
HOW THE SCAM SCHEME WOULD WORK
Every adult in the UK would be given an annual carbon dioxide allowance in kgs and a special carbon card. The scam scheme would cover road fuel, flights and energy bills.
Every time someone paid for road fuel, flights or energy, their carbon account would be docked. A litre of petrol would use up 2.3kg in carbon, while every 1.3 miles of airline flight would use another 1kg.
When paying for petrol, the card would need to swiped at the till. It would be a legal offence to buy petrol without using a card.
Once you imprison people their carbon usage goes down. Take this to the ultimate conclusion, go on, be brave ...
When paying online, or by direct debit, the carbon account would be debited directly. Anyone who doesn't use up their credits in a year can sell them to someone who wants more credits. Trading would be done through specialist companies.
That gets the finance industry on board; think of the commissions to be made!
#1
So how much credit does one get for offing fellow Brits, especially the private jet flying, limousine chauffeured ones?
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2008 14:49 Comments ||
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#2
I take it those who 'serve the greater good' (such as Gore, [liberal] Celebrities, the Media and others) would be exempt right?
After all they need to get around to their conferences in exotic locations with their private jets - you don't expect them to rub elbows with mere commoners on commercial flights do you?
They have a mission! They have a mandate which must not be restricted by common requirements.
#4
Serious Question, Have you Brits looked at a world globe recently?
Given the relatively tiny island you inhabit, and totaling every possible "Greenhouse" reduction possible, you'd have to completely de-populate your island to make even an nearly unmeasurable effect on world air polution. (Or whatever the current scam is named)
In short, You're being screwed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/27/2008 20:17 Comments ||
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#5
Hmmm, any political party that tried that here would rapidly achieve unemployment.
#1
This is an ugly turn of events, but it only came to light because of the H5N1 research. The bottom line is that there are 16 different types of "H" (hemagglutinins) variants, only H1, H2, and H3 currently able to easily infect people. But H5 is stepping up to the plate and H7 is in the batter's box. No surprise if others eventually join in the mix.
Even worse is the "N" (neuraminidase) factor. Right now, only N1 and N2 (plus a few isolated N3 and N7 deaths), have made it into the human species. But there are 137 known varieties of "N", so you known there is a lot of potential here.
Ironically, the "H" factor just means how the virus gets into cells, and the "N" factor just means how after reproducing, they get out again.
#2
We're GOING to get one of these sooner or later, and probably sooner. If you're not making preparations already, you should start doing so because when it comes the dominoes are going to start falling very quickly. Life is going to get very interesting.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/27/2008 17:45 Comments ||
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#3
I'm a big advocate of the great question: "And then what happens?"
This is generally how things will go.
1) Town or City "zero" happens. The local authorities will be all over it, and will appear to stop it. Then, just inside of the maximum incubation period, there will be a few outlying cases. After they are taken care of, the assumption will be that it has stopped. Then, at about twice the incubation period, there will be another batch. After that, it explodes.
Critically, you have to assume that it reached your town or city about it week before anyone starts showing symptoms.
2) Right now, you should have about 12 quart sized bottles of hand sanitizer (3 gallons), some 2 oz carry bottles in vehicles, with one carried in purse or pocket. You should also get a few boxes of inexpensive vinyl gloves. None of this will be available in stores after the epidemic breaks. When in public, sanitize hands about six times a day--gloves can be sanitized as well.
3) Try to go to public places, like stores, on off hours, early and late. Avoid people who might be sick without embarrassment. Do not use public restrooms or restaurants.
4) There may be lots of dead birds and animals out in the open, and it is likely both dogs and cats will be affected. A favorite pet can kill you with a kiss, so be careful.
5) Even loved ones may be infected, and this love can kill as well.
6) The epidemic may last from six months to a year. It comes in waves, for unknown reasons, so don't assume if it has passed through, it won't be back.
7) Knowledge about killer flu is limited, and even most doctors have little idea of what to expect. Government response to epidemics is almost universally too late, however. Individuals that know about the epidemic are key to informing the public and government.
#5
See GEORGE WILL's commentary on the agenda of the GREEN LEFT vv the State.
ION IPSNEWS > GLOBAL WARMING CASTS MARINE SCIENCES ADRIFT, + TOPIX > GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS MAY LEAD TO WATER RATIONING.
GOOD NEWS - LESS HURICANES
BAD NEWS - ATMOSPHERIC GRAVITY WAVES may lead to STRONGER, MORE POWERFUL TORNADOES + WATER SPOUT STORMS.
Rest assured that Science wants to make it absolutely positively categorically undeniably intrinsically, crystal clear, Nuns-wid-Rulers clear to any and all IT CANNOT CONFIRM OR DENY ANYTHING.
AND KNOWING = NOT KNOWING IS HALF = NOT/ALL THE BATTLE ...................uh, uh, GI JOE????
Troops in Guinea have seized the deputy head of the army in a protest over pay. The soldiers captured Gen Mamadou Sampil when he tried to negotiate with them at an army base in the capital, Conakry.
The troops, who say they have been owed money for up to 12 years and protested over the same issue last year, also fired shots into the air. Gen Sampil was seized at Conakry's Alpha Yaya Diallo base on Monday.
The protests come the week after President Lansana Conte sacked Lansana Kouyate as prime minister.
The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Guinea says that shots were also heard in two other garrisons in Kindia, north-east of Conakry, and N'Zerkore in the south east.
Following the unrest President Conte summoned senior government officials including new Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare for a meeting that lasted more than four hours. The government then issued a statement calling for dialogue and offering to release soldiers arrested after protests last year in return for calm, our correspondent says.
But it also said it had paid all the money owed to the soldiers.
The dismissed prime minister was appointed as part of a deal in 2007 to end deadly riots that paralysed the country. He was replaced by Mr Souare, a former minister of mines and ally of Mr Conte. The dismissal of Mr Kouyate was reportedly one of the soldiers' complaints, as they said they had no-one left to petition.
The sacking sparked protests in Conakry last week.
Mr Conte has ruled Guinea since taking power in a bloodless coup in 1984.
A Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of nearly 100 former secret police and soldiers over rights abuses committed under General Augusto Pinochet. The round-up is one of the biggest of its kind since the military leader's rule ended 18 years ago.
The 98 detentions are part of an probe into Operation Colombo, a 1975 plot to murder left-wing opponents of Pinochet.
More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during military rule in Chile between 1973 and 1990.
According to court documents, during Operation Colombo, Pinochet's feared secret police force, the Dina, seized 119 dissidents in July 1975 and killed them. It is then said to have published news accounts claiming they had died in battles between leftist factions outside Chile. The bodies of 42 of the dead were never found.
Most of the arrest orders issued on Monday were for former members of the Dina, others were for soldiers and civilians said to have collaborated with it.
Since the return to democracy in 1990, Chile has put dozens of soldiers, policemen and intelligence agents on trial for human rights abuses. But correspondents say the number indicted at once on Monday is unusually high. Among those listed is former Dina commander Manuel Contreras, who is already in jail in connection with other abuses.
Gen Pinochet - who died on 10 December, 2006 - was accused of fraud as well as human rights abuses, but poor health meant he never faced trial.
#1
Why wait 18 years? Finally got the courage up? Dimwits. You're not preserving the 'rule of law' or what ever rationalization you now have developed to act after all these years. You've forgotten a key principle that you started off with - Don't do anything that if the situation presented itself again to give those who will have power any reason to transition back to civil rule without a lot of blood and tears to be paid.
MIANZHU, China (Rooters) - Chinese soldiers were working around the clock on Tuesday to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake", with plans to evacuate 100,000 people to avert a new disaster, state media said.
China has put the death toll from the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 at 65,080, with the figure certain to rise as searchers account for more than 23,000 missing. More than 360,000 people were injured.
Soldiers and police trekked to the Tangjiashan lake carrying dynamite ready to blast the mud and rubble blocking the flow of water from a river and creating one of 35 quake lakes formed after landslides triggered by the massive tremor.
Some 30,000 people living below the lake in and around Beichuan in the mountainous southwestern province have been evacuated as a precaution, but Xinhua news agency said 100,000 more would be moved. It did not say where to.
"It's better for them to complain about the trouble that the evacuation would bring than to shed tears after the possible danger," Liu Ning, an official with the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying.
The lake had risen to 725.3 meters (2,380 feet) on Monday, only 26 meters below the lowest part of the barrier, he said.
By Monday night, around 600 engineers and soldiers had gathered at the landslip and were taking turns to work through the night.
"Because of the lack of tents, some soldiers had to sleep outdoors on the blockage at night," Xinhua said.
RISK OF AFTERSHOCKS
The Communist Party's decision-making Politburo warned on Monday that the situation remained "grim" and relief work arduous for the "most destructive" tremor recorded since before the birth of modern China in 1949. WTF??? Cf. 1976 Tangshan earthquake, or is the actual deathtoll higher than the 1976 actual deathtoll...?
The massive relief effort, which involves food, tents and clothing for millions, as well as reconstructing housing and getting help to isolate villages, is expected to take up to three years.
The most powerful of thousands of aftershocks killed at least eight people on Sunday, hampering relief efforts and terrifying quake survivors anew.
"There is still a possibility that an aftershock of five to six magnitude will happen in the area," Yuan Hailiang, an official with the Chengdu relief bureau, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying. "But people do not need to be nervous."
The biggest appeal is for tents for 5 million homeless people as the weather turns warmer and wetter, risking the spread of disease. President Hu Jintao chaired another meeting on Monday to decide where resources would be best deployed.
Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang said that within a month, 900,000 tents would be distributed. Within three months, one million temporary housing units would be supplied.
"And we will not just focus on housing, there are also hospitals and schools for which we will find a way to provide 500,000 more units," he said. "We will make sure that these evacuees have a more comfortable place to stay before the cold weather sets in."
#2
What?!? You're NOT suggesting that the CCP might be holding back the truth are you? EVERYONE knows that the glorious Revolution always tells The People the truth; it's only capitalist running dogs that lie through their teeth.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/27/2008 18:12 Comments ||
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South Korean President Lee Myung Bak arrived in Beijing for a four-day state visit Tuesday, China's official media reported.
Lee is scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao later in the day. In summit talks, Lee will discuss with Hu ways to end North Korea's nuclear programs and expand bilateral economic and trade ties, Lee's chief spokesman Lee Dong Kwan said earlier in Seoul.
Lee will also deliver a speech at Peking University on Thursday and visit the city of Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong Province to meet with South Korean businessmen and tour industrial facilities there.
Lee's visit to China coincides with a meeting in the Chinese capital Tuesday between the top U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators.
The meeting could prove to be one of the last steps before Pyongyang submits a list of its nuclear programs as required by a six-way deal.
China and South Korea are parties to the six-way talks on North Korea's denuclearization along with the United States, Japan and Russia.
NORTH BATTLEFORD, Saskatchewan, May 27 (UPI) -- A retired French colonel's second attempt to set records by skydiving 130,000 feet were thwarted Tuesday in Saskatchewan, Canada, when his balloon blew away.
Initially there was cheering at the launch site near North Battleford, about 85 miles northwest of Saskatoon, when the helium-filled balloon floated away at 5:06 a.m., but spectators fell silent when it became apparent the balloon had broken free of the capsule, the Canwest News Service reported.
Michel Fournier, 64, had canceled launch plans a day earlier because of weather. There was no immediate word on whether Fournier will reschedule the Canadian attempt, Canwest said.
Fournier has had bad luck with balloons -- in 2002 and 2003, similar attempts were foiled when the balloons broke apart during inflation, the report said.
His quest is to set records for highest altitude free fall, highest altitude human balloon flight, time record for longest free fall and the speed record for the fastest free fall, as he initially would break the sound barrier.
#3
//channelling the Wizard: " I can't come back, I don't know how it works. Goodby Folks"
//channelling Dorothy: " Now I'll never get back to Kansas."
As five countries meet to sort out jurisdiction to the continental shelf, Canada eyeing area the size of three Prairie provinces
SHAWN MCCARTHY
OTTAWA Canada is preparing to claim an area of the Arctic Ocean seabed equivalent in size to the Prairie provinces as part of Ottawa's aggressive effort to defend Canadian interests in the North, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said yesterday.
Mr. Lunn is scheduled to attend an Arctic Council meeting today in Greenland with four other countries that have significant - and in some cases, competing - claims to territorial jurisdiction beyond the traditional 200-nautical-mile limit.
"We will be reaffirming our commitment about defending and protecting our sovereignty in the Arctic," Mr. Lunn said in an interview yesterday.
"It's a priority for our government. The Prime Minister has said: 'Use it or lose it.' And we're not going to lose it."
Denmark is host of the Greenland meeting, which will also have representatives from Russia, Norway and the United States. All five countries are preparing claims to the subsea continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, although the Americans have yet to ratify the treaty.
The participants will discuss how to proceed with economic and social development in the North, and how to give northerners more control, Mr. Lunn said. In doing so, they are attempting to prevent an unbridled resource rush in which countries stake competing claims and ignore social and environmental problems in their haste to exploit what some believe is the planet's last great, untapped source of energy and mineral resources.
The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that as much as 25 per cent of the world's remaining oil and gas reserves lies under the Arctic Ocean, and access to those high Arctic waters is improving as a result of melting sea-ice.
Russia sparked a furor last summer when a submarine planted a flag on a contested area of the seabed, sparking fears of a 19th-century-style competition for territory among great powers. The United States has sent icebreakers into waters Canada believes should fall under its control.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged to beef up Canada's military presence in the Arctic. He also recently vetoed MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.'s planned sale of its space robotics and satellite technology business to a U.S. company on the grounds that Canada has a strategic interest in maintaining domestic ownership over the firm's Radarsat 2 satellite, which provides surveillance of the Far North.
Mr. Lunn said yesterday that Canadian scientists are amassing evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, which extends under the Arctic Ocean, originates in the North American continent. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was fashioned to prevent territorial claims based on raw force, and has a clear process for establishing jurisdiction. Under the treaty, countries have jurisdiction for 111 kilometres beyond the base of a continental shelf, but that claim can be extended for under-sea ridges extending from the shelf.
Ottawa will spend $40-million over the next several years for scientists from the Geological Survey of Canada to map the Arctic Ocean and provide conclusive evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge is, in fact, part of the North American continental shelf.
If the UN validates that claim, Canada can assert sovereignty over the seabed all along the ridge, although experts expect Canada will claim the area west of the ridge and Denmark will assert sovereignty over the area east of the ridge and closer to Greenland. Russia says it has conclusive evidence the Lomonosov Ridge extends from the Eurasian continent.
Mr. Lunn said that, in total, Canada's claim would be equivalent in size to the three Prairie provinces - or about 1.8 million square kilometres. He said the UN body should easily validate Canada's claim, which will be submitted in 2013.
He said Canada needs to extend sovereignty over the region to ensure that any resource development is socially and environmentally responsible.
"We're a long way from resources development, but we need to make sure that no project proceeds unless the proper protections are in place," he said.
New Democratic Party MP Dennis Bevington, who represents the Western Arctic and is accompanying Mr. Lunn to the meeting, said he fully supports Canada's efforts to establish sovereignty over the seabed, but questioned the government's commitment to environmental protection.
Mr. Bevington said the Conservative government is pursuing oil and gas development in the Western Arctic's Beaufort Sea area without proper environmental controls. Exxon Mobil Corp. has embarked on a five-year drilling program in the Beaufort Sea, and the federal government has called for bids for exploration rights over five more parcels in the area.
Rob Huebert, a University of Calgary expert on Arctic sovereignty, said this week's meeting could undermine a broader process for establishing proper governance in the Far North because it excludes native groups and two countries, Sweden and Finland, that have interests but no seabed claims in the Arctic.
"There has been a dearth of any international, high-level discussions with regard to the Arctic per se," Prof. Huebert said. He fears the five national governments attending the meeting could form a "gentlemen's club" and agree on how to proceed with economic and social development without the formal inclusion of native people .
The arctic heats up
The five Arctic nations are gathered in Greenland to discuss their claims to the continental shelf, an area thought to contain as much as 25 per cent of the world's remaining oil and gas reserves.
-Coastal nations automatically have sole exploitation rights over natural resources within 200 nautical miles from their shores.
Lomonosov Ridge
-Canadian scientists are amassing evidence that the disputed Lomonosov Ridge extends under the Arctic Ocean from the North America continent, giving Canada the grounds to assert sovereignty over the seabed all along the ridge.
-The Canadian claim, which will be submitted in 2013, would be equivalent in size to the three Prairie provinces - or about 1.8-million square kilometres.
Posted by: Vlad P. ||
05/27/2008 8:35 Comments ||
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IIRC, RIAN? or RUSSIA TODAY? > THE FORMAL DIVISION OF THE ARCTIC BEGINS??? RUSSIA is also reportedly sending up to eight ICE BREAKERS [read - ARMED, as per COLD WAR SOVIET NAVY?]] to support its claims.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama offered his support to a proposed national catastrophe fund, provided it does not also encourage risky development.
I think that we need a national catastrophe fund, Sen. Obama said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. The key is to make sure that it's run efficiently, that its adequately funded, and that we build in smart incentives to assure that developers are mitigating risk when they're making decisions on where to locate homes or businesses. So he's proposing to have private enterprise do it?
Isn't that concept called, 'insurance'?
Sen. Obama referred to legislation passed by the House to implement a national catastrophe fund as a good start. The legislation, the Homeowners Defense Act, or HR 3355, is currently awaiting action by the Senate Banking Committee. He added that there are a number of ways to encourage developers to mitigate their risks as much as possible, and that the key is to make sure you're not setting up a fund where developers don't have to have any regard as to whether they're building in a flood plain or whether they're creating more risky situations.
The national catastrophe fund is one seen as favorable to Floridians, and the legislation passed by the House was sponsored by two Florida representatives. Sen. Obama compared the situation facing homeowners in the sunshine state to those living in other parts of the country.
The bottom line for the residents of Florida is they need protection in the same way that people in the Midwest need protection from tornadoes or other natural disasters, he said. And I think its important for us to make sure the federal government is playing a role as a backstop in that process. A nice concept, encouraging folks not to live in floodplains. Sort of like the Federal Flood Insurance Program, eh? So why do we need another bureaucracy, O?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2008 16:43 ||
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It certainly fits - Obamalamadingdong is a national catastrophe.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/27/2008 20:07 Comments ||
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After two failed attempts to capture a presidential nomination, Mike Gravel says he is dropping out of politics.
The former U.S. senator for Alaska made his decision after the Libertarian Party denied him its nomination Sunday. Gravel also ran in the Democratic primaries but left the party after claiming that Democrats no longer represent his values.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/27/2008 16:21 ||
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Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic.
Nothing like using the Holocaust to get votes. The man has no shame.
#1
Well, if his uncle liberated Auschwitz, he must have been part of the Soviet Red Army. No wonder he spent six months hiding in the attic. Probably during the McCarthy era.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/27/2008 13:23 Comments ||
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I'm no fan of the Obamanation but it's possible that this was an editorial error since there's no direct quote.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
05/27/2008 13:25 Comments ||
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#3
The Olde Family Legend of BO's attic continues.
#4
Well done, Candidate Obama! In those two sentences he covers the American soldier as liberator meme, the key Jewish issue of the Holocaust, and the soldier PTSD insanity meme. Very efficient communication, hitting hot buttons for the pro-Iraqi war vote, the Jewish vote, and the "anti-war" Progressive Left vote... all without blinking even once. Unless it was an editorial error, in which case the editor did so on his behalf. On the other hand, a CBS article linked by Wikipedia under Auschwitz has this to say:
Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic. Now obviously, something had really affected him deeply, but at that time there just werent the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain, Obama said. Thats why this idea of making sure that every single veteran, when they are discharged, are screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need thats why its so important.
And the Hot Air blog embeds the key section of video ,so y'all can judge for yourselves. Check out the comments thread, too -- it is suggested that Candidate Obama's mother was an only child, and I suspect neither his father's nor his stepfather's brothers served in the American forces in Europe during the second world war. The poor man really is out of his league, and put himself in a position where he can't possibly admit it.
#14
"Anne Frank and my Great Uncle had so much in common - attics, concentration camps...I'm almost related to her, right Zbiggy?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2008 20:38 Comments ||
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It was SEARED in his memory back when his 2nd cousin (twice removed) worked with the Canadian resistance. YJCMTSU How long will the MSM cover for this guy? If Bush had claimed this you can bet that CBS would have 10 experts lined up refuting the story.
#16
The MSM is so ill-informed about our history they probably believe what he said is true, CS. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/27/2008 21:12 Comments ||
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#17
our Jewish Americans had better see thru this half-assed pander. His advisors are all Carter-Lite, except Brezinski, who's full-on-Carter. Besides McPeak (already in the bag), if he corrals Wesley "money men in NY and FLA" Clark, they should vote McCain, or kiss Israel goodbye
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2008 21:23 Comments ||
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#18
Associated Press;
Attention Please, TRUTH TO POWER, Barack Obama + Uncle + WWII + ??:
It just so happens that during WWII I was inserted into Auschwitz by the US Secrete Service to initiate a Long Range OP.
Yes, my mission was to establish my Bona Fides as a Jewish Person and Prisoner at Auschwitz while I was there.
Just when you thought life couldn't get any stranger; Guess who was there?
Well it just so happens that Barack Obama was there* TOO!!!
Proof: Because I needed to establish my Jewish record, Coincedently Barack Obama and I both got circumcised [By A Very Important Rabbi in a special SecretE CircumcisioN RitE at Auschwitz in 1943*] to become Full Fledged members of the Jewish Race!
The OP Reason:
On the very next day as I prepared to leave camp it was reveled to me [by Barack no less] that I was to be his Uncle sometime off in the future.
Then I was exfiltrated from Auschwitz and haven't been in contact in any way with BO or his family since.
*BTW, I needed special dispensation from the Pope to set the clock back to 1943.. AND and a little more dispensation because one half my family is Catholic.
nonsense
Such rhetoric seems to vindicate President Bill Clintons charge that there are purveyors of hate and division on U.S. airwaves who leave the impression, by their very words, that violence is acceptable. Clinton was roundly condemned by right-wing talk radio hosts and their allies for politicizing the Oklahoma City bombing, but his basic point is undeniable: There is much speech on the radio today that advocates or justifies violence.
No one could predict that Timothy McVeigh would emerge from the environment created by talk radio hatred, Excuse me?
which Im quite certain McVeigh surrounded himself with 24/7, "I don't know, but I'm certain anyway"
and take the kind of action he took in Oklahoma City. Hold it, hold it, HOLD IT! Time out!
Can you link me to any example of Rush, or any other conservative radio commentator, newspaper columnist, or blogger who stuck up for McVeigh? You probably can't, because there weren't any. OK, look long enough, and you might find one, but whatever you find will be outnumbered by the legions who were happy to see the bastard get his comeuppance. IIRC, the only people protesting McVeigh's execution were the anti-death penalty crowd on the Left.
No one can predict what psychopath is within earshot of whatever manages to make it into the mainstream discourse, and what that psychopath will feel vindicated doing by the mere fact that others feel free to escalate the words beyond any definition of decency. So, if someone tries to kill George W. Bush or Condi Rice or General David Petraeus, you'll immediately condemn the extreme antiwar rhetoric ("Bush=Hitler") that Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell and Keith Olberman irresponsibily leaked into the mainstream discourse and inspired the psycho to pull the trigger, right? Right? Isn't that right, Tim?
Why are you looking at me so funny.
Heres the latest manifestation of the discourse which Hillary Clinton has seen fit to create.
The fact that Fox News intentionally wants people to confuse the Illinois Sen and Presidential candidate with the terrorist Osama Bin Ladin (someone whose capture and death many Americans have fantasized about) and then, on public airwaves, openly wish for violence against the Senator - Are they trying to encourage someone to kill Obama? Are they openly inciting violence? Isnt that against the law - like yelling fire in a crowded theater?
Under no circumstance would anyone make such a statement absent Hillary Clinton deciding to invoke the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason for staying in this primary. Those who wish to claim there could never be any causal relationship between Hillarys comments, and the horror that might become some psychopaths new mission, are missing the point. Certainly there is no proximate cause - just as certainly, there is a but for cause. But for Hillarys rhetoric, a Fox News commentator would never go there. But for a Fox News commentator wishing for someone to kill Obama, some psychopath might never go there. . . .
Approaching June, my prayers for Barack Obamas safety have indeed become a daily plea. Im not a big prayer guy, but I had no idea Hillary Clinton would make that necessary for my own peace of mind. Not in March, and not today. But she has. And she, and her supporters, are complicit in this because of their silence, their apologia, and their utter tone-deafness.
None of us are surprised that a Fox News commentator would be this irresponsible, the surprise is that Hillary Clinton would make such irresponsibility not only possible, but likely, through Hillarys own actions.
BLAMING HILLARY IF OBAMA IS ASSASSINATED: "Approaching June, my prayers for Barack Obamas safety have indeed become a daily plea. Im not a big prayer guy, but I had no idea Hillary Clinton would make that necessary for my own peace of mind." I think that's unfair, as is blaming Rush Limbaugh for Timothy McVeigh.
Getting linked to by Instapundit is always a creepy feeling. You want the traffic - his minions click on whatever he tells them to, like brainless link zombies. The problem is that the minions are, in fact, brainless zombies. . . . I mean, Id like to engage with a blatant GOP blogger, who says he voted for Bill Clinton twice, on an issue that any self-respecting law professor would have some intellectual thought on, but it appears that Glenn Reynolds has no intellect, or thought, to provide. Hed rather parrot whatever Fox News tells him to, an example which his readers follow, largely because its the only way these people have ever learned how to engage in political discourse. He leads, they follow. Which I guess proves the point of my original post, doesnt it?
In case you trackback here, Tim, let me state clearly, and for the record:
-- I don't think Obama is the best available candidate for president. I will not vote for him.
-- I also don't want anyone to harm him. I wasn him to lose the election, go on to live a long and happy life, raise his daughters, and have plenty of grandchildren to spoil.
-- If anyone does harm Obama, I want them to meet the same fate as McVeigh.
-- You see, Tim, it's possible to disagree with someone, vote for their opponent, and not descend into seething hatred. You should try it sometime.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/27/2008 10:28 ||
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Well, actually, if Obama is shot, it will most likely be either by a Hillary supporter, or an Obama supporter who thinks that Obama has "failed" by not being kooky enough.
I base this on the fact that the overwhelming majority of presidential assassins in past have either been leftists or certifiably insane. And often a combination of the two.
Posted by: Big Arugula ||
05/27/2008 12:19 Comments ||
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I love the idea that a link from Instapundit is vile and evil. He might put a snarky comment up but he pretty much lets the readers decide for themselves (thus the link).
Barack Obama has called for the "special relationship" between the US and Britain to be "recalibrated" to make it a fairer, more equal partnership, the Guardian has learned. Senator Obama, who leads the race to be the Democratic candidate for the US presidency, made the remarks in a telephone address to a fundraising event attended by American expatriates in London.
He has long been seen by British officials as the most anglophile of the three remaining presidential candidates, but these latest comments are his first public suggestion that the relationship is unequal and ripe for change.
Is there any part of our foreign relations he won't upset?
"We have a chance to recalibrate the relationship and for the United Kingdom to work with America as a full partner," Obama told more than 200 American expatriates gathered at the Notting Hill home of Elisabeth Murdoch, the head of Shine television production company and daughter of the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
The UK has been more than a full partner: that's the point of the 'special relationship'! It means we listened to the Brits more than we listened to anyone else.
The event, which raised more than $400,000 for the Obama campaign, was intended to be confidential, but several guests have since confirmed the senator's remarks. A foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign said the remarks on the US-UK relationship reflected the senator's general foreign policy approach. "It's no longer going to be that we are in the lead and everyone follows us. Full partners not only listen to each other, they also occasionally follow each other," the adviser said.
The general opinion among the Obama foreign policy team is that Tony Blair got very little in return for his support of the Iraq invasion, in terms of promoting his agenda for multilateral action on global issues and for a Washington-led push towards forging a settlement to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Prime minister Gordon Brown's foreign policy team agrees with that assessment, arguing Blair put too much emphasis on Britain being a bridge between the US and Europe.
First, the Israeli-Paleo conflict is constantly sabotaged by the Paleos. They want one thing: Israel destroyed. Does Obama propose to deliver that?
Second, what in the world does 'multilateral action on global issues' mean? I'm just guessing, bu I think it means global warming and a reach by international organizations into our wallets.
"The trouble with being a bridge is that people walk over you," one senior British official said recently. Brown has previously had close relations with the Clinton camp, but his first meeting with Obama, in Washington last month, was said by both sides to have gone very well.
The event in Notting Hill brought together some of the most prominent and wealthiest American expatriates in Britain, particularly from the arts and media, who were served miniature hot dogs and pecan pies before the telephone linkup with the candidate. Co-hosting the event alongside Murdoch were Kay Saatchi, an art collector and former wife of Charles Saatchi, and Josh Berger, the head of Warner Bros in the UK and Ireland.
Gwyneth Paltrow was due to attend but opted instead to appear on a New York television talk show. She sent a message that was read out at the event explaining that one of the main reasons she was supporting Obama was that he had a multiracial background, "a name like Barack Obama", and had lived outside the US. He therefore had "experience of other cultures" and was aware that the US could not operate as a lone global policeman, Paltrow said, according to guests at the event.
We don't pay entertainers to think, Gwyneth ...
Obama drew on the same theme in his remarks, saying: "I was brought up by an expatriate [his mother and him lived in Indonesia when he was a boy] and I know what it's like to look at the world differently."
"He has created an enormous amount of interest among Americans here, because he represents real change," said Berger. "I have not organised one of these events before, but I took it upon myself to get involved because I feel strongly about change and about Barack." He said Obama had far more support among US expatriates in Britain than Hillary Clinton. "He is someone who is going to be much more mindful about the rest of the world - certainly more than the current administration, which is not hard."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought on Monday to distance himself from President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war, telling veterans on Memorial Day he was "sick at heart" at mistakes made in the conflict now in its sixth year. "As we all know, the American people have grown sick and tired of the war in Iraq," McCain told hundreds of veterans and their families gathered for a ceremony honoring U.S. service members killed in conflicts. "I understand that, of course. I, too, have been made sick at heart by the many mistakes made by civilian and military commanders and the terrible price we have paid for them," he added.
The war is unpopular with voters, and in anticipation of facing Democratic front-runner Barack Obama in the general election in November, McCain has increasingly sought to disassociate himself from the administration's Iraq policies. "We have new commanders in Iraq," McCain said to applause.
He continued with a veiled swipe at Bush: "They are following a counterinsurgency strategy that we should have been following from the beginning, which makes the most effective use of our strength and doesn't strengthen the tactics of our enemy."
Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton have promised to withdraw all 155,000 U.S. troops serving in Iraq as soon as possible.
McCain criticized these plans, saying, "It would strengthen al Qaeda, empower Iran and other hostile powers in the Middle East, unleash a full scale civil war in Iraq that could quite possibly provoke genocide there, and destabilize the entire region as neighboring powers come to the aid of their favored factions."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Yet another "All The People Who Wanted To Fight The War Are Idiots EXCEPT FOR ME" electoral strategy.
It led Hillary! to her defeat in the race for the Democratic nomination.
#2
"As we all know, the American people have grown sick and tired of the war in Iraq"
Because Bush and others failed to stand up to the press and its slanted narratives, sliming and lying that continues to this day.
Problem is McCain will never complain about the press, since that wouyld mean he had to go against his his main constituency the past few years: the MSM press.
For McCain to simply stipulate the appalling and pathetic weakness and unserious attitude of so many Americans towards the war, and try to use it to boost your campaign, while ignoring the terrifying lack of understanding and horrendous disservice the media has done to civilization and the good guys, is yet another depressing moment. Does he realize that leadership is required for the job he seeks? How about, uh, CHALLENGING some of the b.s. that passes as conventional wisdom? How about some intelligent commentary, instead of cheap-shot blather?
And as I've whined for a long time, things are much worse than most people think. There's no "counterinsurgency strategy" needed to prosecute the Iraq mission - common sense would have always sufficed. And since much of the recent progress has been almost an exogenous development - Sunnis turning on AQ, for their own reasons - I fear that the "lessons" of '04/'05/'06 will be missed. I'd love to hear McCain's top 5 list of "mistakes" that have cost us. Same for the bulk of the punditocracy, or even military officers. Losing the initiative, failing to demonstrate will, failing to crush the will of our adversaries to resist, failure to neutralize external support for our adversaries - these are the obvious keys, yet to mention them would almost certainly leave McCain, his advisers, and a surprising percentage of the serving officer corps slack-jawed and confused.
Ya see, "counterinsurgency strategy" sounds so much more, more ... sophisticated. We've always been destined to prevail in Iraq, we will win ugly, but I see no reason to believe that the real mistakes of the first 3 years are recognized or understood, at all.
Still, as OS notes, important to elect the unappealing McCain rather than allow the unimaginable alternatives (and their armies of clueless deputies) anywhere near a real job.
#6
BH6 - sad thing is the answers were taring them in the face. Had State and Bremer not hosed things up, we'd likely have come to the counterinsurgency tactics in use now sooner, including rehab of Iraqi Army for security use, Sunni reconciliation, etc.
#7
OS, and don't forget the Mass Warfare aka Central Europe good o'boys that dominated the Army well past the fall of the Berlin Wall who were outright hostile to the movement of attention and resource to insurgency warfare, along with the culture at the Pentagon to keep operating in a peacetime mode rather than focus on fight at hand. That's amply demonstrated by continuing using box checking for promotions rather than battlefield performance.
#8
OS - in no particular order or scale from tactical to strat level - some things I think we could've done better:
1) engaged the tribal leaders much earlier. A lot of our head cheeses still don't get arab culture.
2) followed Patton's example of maintaining the folks that run infrastructure & Iraqi army together no matter the party affiliation. (this would've been completely un-p.c. and unpopular but necessary) We could've selectively "liquidated" those officers/leaders no longer needed for duty.
3) kept the media embedded longer after the invasion phase or blacked out.
4) W.House should've been doing weekly/bi-weekly press conferences and counter attacks of incorrect/slanders from msm - esp from late 2004 to present. Still W's biggest failing as CnC imho.
#9
Had State and Bremer not hosed things up, we'd likely have come to the counterinsurgency tactics in use now sooner, including rehab of Iraqi Army for security use, Sunni reconciliation, etc.
What OS said.
OS, and don't forget the Mass Warfare aka Central Europe good o'boys that dominated the Army well past the fall of the Berlin Wall who were outright hostile to the movement of attention and resource to insurgency warfare, along with the culture at the Pentagon to keep operating in a peacetime mode rather than focus on fight at hand.
And what Procopius said too.
We talk a lot about Bush derangement syndrome. What goes undiscussed is the degree to which senior Army officers suffer from RDS (Rumsfeld derangement syndrome).
#10
I liked Rummy, he had cojones and I've no doubt some former brass have legit bitches about how he conducted busniess - life in the big city as it were. Rummy was for the lighter faster force - which is great and as a Marine I'm with that but every situation requires it's own strategy & dictates, hence when it was suggested on here a couple years ago about putting in more troops into Iraq there was a huge flame war for anyone supporting that initiative - thus using the rationale that it would just make more targets - funny logic in contrast to the mass principle of war. Now that the reverse has happened and the surge works many act like it was a forgone conclusion.
I keep hearing about all the mistakes made earlier on about not engaging the warlords earlier than we did.
In my business (and my wife's) there is the concept of a "teachable moment". Or, you have to let them fail before they'll understand.
How do these apply? I have this picture that the Anbar Awakening only could take place after they had experienced exactly what AQ had in mind. That nothing we could have done before that would have made friends and/or partners of them.
The US Army has/had selective memory. The establishment within the organization has a fixation on the 'good times' re:WWII and only wants to fight the 'good fight'. It has, and to a certain extent still, ignores the first hundred years of its history when dealing with nation building, dealing with tribes and insurgents, of civil military government. It wants clean lines defined and be 'apoltiical' to the point of antiseptic, though sterile is more the case and hates if not resists being dragged into an area in which can not control that self defining and exclusion ability. In doing so, it quickly sheds the responsibility for actions to agencies that while politically give a better cover to actions, it none the less gives power to said agencies that lack the skill or the competence outside of a con man to actually accomplish something. In doing so, it creates just as much of the potential for disaster or later having to take actions and casualties that could have been avoided in the long run.
Have they paid attention or just lip service? Sending Petraeus to Headquarters to oversee promotions is a start, but knowing the stubbornness of embedded bureaucracy and its historical resistance to change less a revolution or purge, the jury is still out.
#14
Actually, the Army and Mariens both have sources that told them how to operate in this environment - the Marines had the "Little Wars" histories to draw on, and the Army (at least my favorite line unit) had stuff going back all the way to the frontier Indian wars and the Philippine insurgency (2nd Cavalry).
Problem is most officers wre not interested in that. Except Petraeus. And this Colonel who read those same histories when he was a 1LT and CPT with the 2nd ACR - COL McMaster and the 3rd ACR. They did a "beta" test in Tal Afar, and it worked.
Its that old "Dragoon" Spirit of the 2ACR in action: ride to battle, dismount to fight.
And it worked.
As for nation building, we didn't have much choice unless we wanted a "Somalia" in the middle of the middle east, sitting on oil supplies and as a crossroads from Iran and Syria.
#16
how many of you think that "Nation Building" wasn't a mistake?
Let's observe our own opinion on so many 'liberal' approaches to problems. If you just want to show rather than fix then you don't need to nation build. It never gets fixed and the problem remains festering or simply gets redefined as no longer a problem with newspeak though the consequences down the line are out of your control or influence. If you are more concerned about actually fixing something rather than just putting on a show or just feeling good about yourself cause you did something no matter how ineffectual, then you nation build. The presence of a viable prosperous and militarily strong republic in that part of the world is a knife at every dictator, every oligarchy, every mullah who blames their failures and wretched poverty on everyone else other than themselves. Short of nuking far too many cities or mobilizing too much of our own population needed to cover every den of inequity in which the enemy inhabit, its a strategy that exploits our unique abilities against their weaknesses.
#17
The presence of a viable prosperous and militarily strong republic in that part of the world
Is
(a) Impossible in the sense that you mean---no Arab country ever will be any of these things. In fact, none of them are nations.
(b) Israel is viable prosperous and militarily strong republic. Has been for 60 years, and remains so despite everything that the rest of the World (including our friend USA) doing to change it. Just how strong, you shall see once, how shall I put it, Israel stops accepting American guidance.
#22
Ok, opinion pool---how many of you think that "Nation Building" wasn't a mistake?
I think it's a mistake and we need to cut off all our massive aid to middle-eastern countries. Especially those that think they're so powerful that we're only holding them back.
#23
You & Obama Puppy: he has uncle who liberated Auschwitz, you write bills of lading.
Amateurs study tactics. Professionals study logistics. And anyway, that was three duty assignments ago. I train marines and corpsmen now.
Hope you can match your bravado when the time comes. I've the sick feeling the Democrat front-runner isn't going to have the same warm-and-fuzzies as most of the last ten White House occupants had.
#27
....
(a) Impossible in the sense that you mean---no Arab country ever will be any of these things. In fact, none of them are nations.
(b) Israel is viable prosperous and militarily strong republic. Has been for 60 years, and remains so despite everything that the rest of the World (including our friend USA) doing to change it. Just how strong, you shall see once, how shall I put it, Israel stops accepting American guidance.
I would like to see Israel "DOING Strong"!
As long as "Doing Strong" doesn't include any American Lives or Assets.
Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr was nominated yesterday as the Libertarian Party's candidate for the U.S. presidency, defeating a crowded field in a raucous convention vote that went to six ballots. Mr. Barr, a conservative standard-bearer who switched to the Libertarian Party less than two years ago, defeated Mary Ruwart, a biophysicist and longtime party activist, by 54 percent to 46 percent in the final ballot. Delegates late last night agreed that Wayne Allyn Root, a celebrity sports handicapper, would be Mr. Barr's running mate.
The party's 600 voters delegates eliminated the other eight registered candidates in earlier balloting over the course of six hours at the Libertarian Party National Convention, held here at the Sheraton Hotel.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Here's my 2 cents. Say what you will about the Libertarians, at least they haven't saddled us with an interminable primary season. Inasmuch as all political parties are private entities, I see no reason for the public to finance all these primary elections. Let each party hash out it's own way of determining a candidate, without public money being involved.
KATHMANDU (Rooters) - The Nepali government warned on Tuesday that it could use force to throw unpopular King Gyanendra out of the royal palace if he refuses to leave voluntarily after the 239-year-old monarchy is abolished.
A special assembly elected in April is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Wednesday and formally declare an end to the monarchy, a key part of a 2006 peace deal with Maoist former rebels that ended a decade-long civil war.
"The king must leave the palace immediately and move to the Nirmal Niwas," Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said, referring to Gyanendra's private home. "If he does not leave the palace then the government might have to use force to vacate the palace," he said. "This will not be good for him."
There was no immediate comment from the palace.
Many Nepalis think that the king will quietly go after the assembly vote. Gyanendra has been living in the Narayanhity royal palace in the heart of Kathmandu since ascending the throne in 2001, but he has made no public statement over his plans.
The government has banned demonstrations around major royal sites and the assembly. But Maoists and other main political parties say they are going to take to the streets on Wednesday to celebrate the monarchy's end.
The government that includes the Maoists took over control of the royal palace after Gyanendra was forced to end his absolute rule following weeks of street protests in 2006. Anti-monarchy Maoists emerged as the largest party in elections to the 601-member assembly in April.
Authorities posted more police outside the International Convention Centre, the venue of Wednesday's assembly meeting, after a pro-Hindu militant group set off two small bombs outside the building, officials said. Monday's blasts did not cause any injuries but raised security concerns ahead of the historic meet.
The BBC notices what we've been talking about the last three years.
Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.
Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children. After research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity said an international watchdog should be created to deal with the issue.
The UN has said it welcomes the report, which it will study closely.
Save the Children said the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to speak out. A 13-year-old girl described to the BBC how 10 UN peacekeepers gang-raped her in a field near her Ivory Coast home, and left her bleeding, trembling and vomiting on the ground. No action has been taken against the soldiers.
Course not. The UN complains it doesn't have jurisdiction and therefore can't deal with the problem directly. The countries providing the soldiers don't really care: the tots and women raped and abused aren't their citizens. The UN can't push those countries because no one else is willing to provide 'peacekeeping' troops. Simple.
The report also found that aid workers have been sexually abusing boys and girls.
After research involving hundreds of children from Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity said better reporting mechanisms needed to be introduced to deal with what it called "endemic failures" in responding to reported cases of abuse. It also said efforts should be made to strengthen worldwide child protection systems.
Oh yes, better reporting will solve the problem. Criminy ...
Heather Kerr, Save the Children's Ivory Coast country director, says little is being done to support the victims. "It's a minority of people but they are using their power to sexually exploit children and children that don't have the voice to report about this. They are suffering sexual exploitation and abuse in silence."
Save the Children says the international community has promised a policy of zero-tolerance to child sexual abuse, but that this is not being followed up by action on the ground.
Again: who's going to enforce it?
A UN spokesman, Nick Birnback, said that it was impossible to ensure "zero incidents" within an organisation that has up to 200,000 personnel serving around the world. "What we can do is get across a message of zero tolerance, which for us means zero complacency when credible allegations are raised and zero impunity when we find that there has been malfeasance that's occurred," he told the BBC.
Except the UN doesn't care, is complacent and offers impunity to all the peacekeepers. Again, simple.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Problem is, when you hire soldiers from 3rd world, and there is a true industry of renting soldiers to the UN, then you hire behaviors from 3rd world militaries.
For what it's worth... Back in 2003, I read in the IHT, of all sources, about the abuses of women and children from UN "peacekeepers" - this is not exactly a "new" issue, as a cursorary glance through RB archives will tell you... and in the article, the author recounted a charming anecdote, occuring in congo-Zaïre (or was it in congo-brazzaville? Can't remember, shamefully), with a contingent of purple helmets from an african nation having at its disposal the "services" of the local refugee women, including very young girls; when an another contingent of (african) purple helmets arrived and proposed a better remuneration to the prostitutes, the message of the first one to the girls was very simple and very clear; the beheaded corpse of a girl prostitute, with her head between the legs, was left near the refugee camp.
I don't know if the anecdocte truly is authentic, and I don't remember all the details, including the important ones, but I'm 100% affirmative in havoing read that in print from the IHT (that is, the NYT). Not all 3rd world soldiers are barbarians, most probably, but their armies simply, aren't what we expect of a western army.
#2
How long have we had that graphic because that's about how long I've been reading these stories here. Probably longer.
Maybe I should work for the BBC? I could get 'em all these swell scoops...
Get the truly democratic republics to join to fill the role. No need for dictators and third world juntas to apply for mmbership, but they are welcome to pettiion for aid if they pay the price (institution of the rule of law, and the primacy of the rights of the individual).
Myanmar police on Tuesday detained about 15 members of the pro-democracy political party led by detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The members of the National League for Democracy protested against Suu Kyi's house arrest in front of party headquarters in Yangon and marched toward her residence, about 4 kilometers away, in the former capital.
They carried a large picture of Suu Kyi and a large banner saying, "Release Suu Kyi immediately."
The protesters were stopped by plainclothes police about halfway there and told to turn back. But on their way back to party headquarters, police forced them onto a truck and took them away.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 30, 2003.
The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election, but the military refused to honor the results and has since insisted the country needs a new constitution before handing power to a civilian government.
The military government held a referendum for the military--drafted constitution this month and according to state media, the constitution was overwhelmingly approved by voters.
Police in Myanmar have detained more than a dozen members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party.
The members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy were marching Tuesday from the party's headquarters to her home when riot police shoved the group into a truck.
It was not immediately clear where the truck was headed or exactly how many people were detained.
Suu Kyi has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years, mostly under house arrest.
Security was stepped up around Suu Kyi's home as the military junta faced a deadline to decide whether extend her current period of house arrest or release her.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Compare wid IPSNEWS > SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE LETS CHINA OFF THE HOOK. On BURMA/MYANMAR AID, and LACK OF AID OR ASSISTANCE TO SAME INCLUDING EVEN BEFORE THE QUAKE???
IOW, CHINA demands major, even dominating, pro-Chin influence in Myanmar widout having to provide significant levels of Chin aid for Myanmar-specific national-econ development???
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.
Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say. 
Environment Minister Hilary Benn said: 'It's got potential but, in essence, it's ahead of its time. There are a lot of practical problems to overcome.' 
Troops in Guinea have seized the deputy head of the army in a protest over pay. The soldiers captured Gen Mamadou Sampil when he tried to negotiate with them at an army base in the capital, Conakry. 
By Tyra Dempster
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama offered his support to a proposed national catastrophe fund, provided it does not also encourage risky development. 
Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought on Monday to distance himself from President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war, telling veterans on Memorial Day he was "sick at heart" at mistakes made in the conflict now in its sixth year. "As we all know, the American people have grown sick and tired of the war in Iraq," McCain told hundreds of veterans and their families gathered for a ceremony honoring U.S. service members killed in conflicts. "I understand that, of course. I, too, have been made sick at heart by the many mistakes made by civilian and military commanders and the terrible price we have paid for them," he added.
