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Suicide Blasts Rock Karbala, 50 Dead Nationwide
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Father burns boys genitals for bed-wetting
[Arab News] The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said on Wednesday it was investigating press reports that a father in Yanbu had burned his four-year-old son's genitals as punishment for bed-wetting.

"This is violence against children about which we will not keep silent," the NSHR said in a statement.
But using them as sex toys is permitted by Sunna and Hadiths, so no need to mention that.
According to the press reports, the child's uncle informed police about the abuse after his sister (the boy's mother) informed him of the injury. The father has been summoned for questioning.
Posted by: Fred || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What a sick bunch of bastards
Posted by: armyguy || 01/21/2011 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The father is a sick bastard for sure. The rest of muzz society is just morally bankrupt for going along with it.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/21/2011 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  It would have been a lot more entertaining if the father had been passive-aggressive. "Because you wet the bed, I'm going to burn my own genitals!"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/21/2011 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  'moose, sounds to me like the father should've burned off his own genitals about 5yrs ago...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 01/21/2011 15:24 Comments || Top||

#5  See also PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > [Stars-N-Stripes]HEARTBREAK IN HELMAND: US MEDICS TREAT CHILDREN WITH SUSPICIOUS BURNS. Possible horrific child abuse, wid US Medics claiming serious inconsistencies exist between the Parents' version of how their children's wounds were incurred, and what modern medical science says the same wounds could only be incurred???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 23:35 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
'Largest Mob Round-Up in FBI History' Nabs 'Meatball,' 'Vinny Carwash' and 125+ Other Suspects
Posted by: tipper || 01/21/2011 19:15 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There goes this year's July 4th barbecue on Long Island...
Posted by: Pappy || 01/21/2011 21:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, youze a nobody in the Mob until youze get ya nickname...
Posted by: Vinny "The Ventilator" Pignitano || 01/21/2011 22:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Step right up and get your Mafia nickname.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/21/2011 22:53 Comments || Top||


New Comicbook Sensation: "Steampunk Palin"
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/21/2011 13:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Borat to play Saddam Hussein
Somewhere in Hell, Adolph and the boys are pointing and laughing at Sammy...
As if his portrayals of Borat and Bruno weren't outrageous enough, Sacha Baron Cohen's next role will be playing Saddam Hussein.

"The Dictator" is inspired by a book the former Iraqi leader himself wrote, titled "Zabibah and The King."
This generation's "The Producers". Only that had actors who knew how to be funny.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/21/2011 12:09 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's not this generation's "The Producers."

The name of the play-within-a-play there was "Springtime for Hitler." Maybe call this move "Springtime for Saddamn."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/21/2011 15:51 Comments || Top||


Experts: U.S. water infrastructure in trouble
Kramer's disaster was just one of an average 700 water main breaks nationwide that experts say occur each day. They warn that this is the latest sign of an aging water delivery infrastructure that results in property loss, inconvenience, and threats to public health.
That's 14 breaks per state on the average. Does that sound right? They must be including little ones.
How much would it cost to fix? Every year, according to the EPA, the estimated price tag for repairing the nation's water infrastructure rises. The best guess at a total cost over the next 20 years has skyrocketed from about $198 billion in 1999 to the latest estimate -- $335 billion.
No problem! We can take a teeny fraction of the savings we will surely realize by implementing Obamacare and buy a whole new system!
To keep prices down, O'Toole suggested privatizing community water utilities. "In the 19th century, almost every major American city had private water companies," said O'Toole. "And then we had this wave of socialization where the government took everything over and mismanaged it so the quality of tap water is lower and costs are higher."
They trust us to build it, but somehow we can't maintain it.

Here's a picture of what the inside of a corroded water main looks like.
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 00:51 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's time to replace the water mains while doing repaving projects. I just had a break in my front yard. It was a mess.
Posted by: crosspatch || 01/21/2011 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Our neighborhood was built in the late 1980s to the mid-90s. At the time, the cutting edge thing in the way of bringing water from the main to the house was something called "blue pipe". Blue pipe, as it turns out, is very good at breaking. For the better part of ten years the water company has had a team that's done nothing but go from break to break, digging up the lawn to replace the broken bit with a section of white pipe. My yard has been dug up twice thus far, and the road in front where several houses tie into the main as well. I anticipate several more incidents before the entire length of my blue pipe has been replaced.

In my case, we're dealing with a brief period when the township made a poor choice of materials during a building boom, not aging mains at all.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/21/2011 5:25 Comments || Top||

#3  It seems like your PW department made a good investment in maintaining their income stream security, TW.

Gorb, that pic looks pretty awful but water mains can be a lot worse than that.

A long time ago I was living in Boston and they were replacing the last of their wooden (you didn't misread that, WOODEN) water pipes in the system. I asked a guy who was working on the project how they looked after more than 100 years underground and he told me that sometimes there wasn't any wood at all, just water running through a pipe-shaped tunnel in clayey soil. The end users had drunk up all the rotten wood, over the years, and were drinking water that had leached out whatever was in the soil as it passed through.
Posted by: no mo uro || 01/21/2011 6:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Just another example of why we need to raise taxes some more - roads, water-delivery, sewer-removal - all falling apart.

What can we afford to pay for, instead of infrastructure? Where is all the tax money going, and why can't some of it be shifted to water mains and potholes?

Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three. Ask your politicians why not.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/21/2011 6:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three. Ask your politicians why not


Well stated Bobby, Eisenhower Administration (Republican) set ALL of these programs into action.....yes,the rocket program, satelite program, the interstate highway program, national science education achievement program.... You felt like the country was going some place .... not like now, we took a wrong turn here some place.
Posted by: Goodluck || 01/21/2011 7:35 Comments || Top||

#6  > Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three


I think you just answered your own question there.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/21/2011 7:50 Comments || Top||

#7  The problem with raising taxes for this is that, in many cases, the funds won't get to the projects at a local level (and especially at a state (California) or Federal level).

It all comes down to priorities. Does a city spend funds acquiring new park land (or get that over-priced-and-ugly piece of art the major's favorite artist wants to create), or hiring (or in many cases retaining) more law enforcement / firemen / parametics?

Many cities / counties / states chose the former - hoping that the taxpayers will raise taxes for the later essential services (which they would then try to reallocate if they can).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/21/2011 7:56 Comments || Top||

#8  #4, #5

What went wrong is simple, very simple.

1. Middle class entitlements.

2. Failed "war" on poverty.

3. Hyperregulatory environment on small and medium firms that stifles business and simultaneously creates legions of highly paid public sector lifer functionaries who are loyal democrats but whose "jobs" produce nothing of real worth.

4. Too-large public sector pensions.

5. Too large public sector, generally speaking.

Eliminate these, let those fired useless public sector flunkies take the jobs that are now done by illegal immigrants, spend the tax money we save on infrastructure.

Problem solved.
Posted by: no mo uro || 01/21/2011 7:58 Comments || Top||

#9  @#8

It makes one wonder just what one pays for when one pays their "water bill". If it doesn't include a funds to adequately maintain the system, then I reckon they aren't charging enough.
Posted by: eLarson || 01/21/2011 8:08 Comments || Top||

#10  Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

And don't forget the start of the Great Society Programs and Medicare all of which they did by cooking the books and opening the Social Security funds to embezzlement to pay for it. That's when the IOUs started to show up that would never be repaid.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/21/2011 8:52 Comments || Top||

#11  Much of the problem is "penny wise, pound foolish". It used to be that water and sewer lines were made of high quality pipe.

But then, some Harvard MBA came along with the idea of making super cheap pipe out of PVC or the equivalent. He likely used the sales pitch that, "It is so cheap that when it busts, you can replace it three or four times for the price of the good stuff."

Which would have been okay, if labor costs had remained in the basement. They didn't.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/21/2011 9:04 Comments || Top||

#12  no more uro:

Like this?



(And I'll bet most of you thought coopers just made barrels!)
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 10:46 Comments || Top||

#13  Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three. Ask your politicians why not

We couldn't afford it then, either, not really. It all went into the deficit spending pot, which means that those of us who were children then worked all our lives to pay the interest on the debt, and our children will, too, until the debt is paid off... or we admit bankruptcy.

It's like when the Japanese were taking out 90 year mortgages to buy an apartment, binding their children to the repayment even though the children didn't have the benefit of living there.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/21/2011 13:28 Comments || Top||

#14  I don't know about the other parts, but large sections of the highway system construction binge was a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme based on bond-underwriting authority. What we're paying for *now* is what was contracted for *then*, as they repeatedly paid off construction & government unions with pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye pension benefits in lieu of immediately-bankrupting wage increases.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 01/21/2011 13:59 Comments || Top||

#15  My water-company keeps getting bought up by foreign owners. Currently they bill $135/month for damn near no Chicago Water.
It's a racket.
I'm tempted to drill an illegal well.
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/21/2011 17:32 Comments || Top||

#16  The sleazy water company Link
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/21/2011 21:40 Comments || Top||

#17  Google Deeprock Well drilling in Opelika Alabama I drilled 14 and all good clean water, it's not that hard. takes around two days each.
Cost about $1,400 each piped well pump and pressure tank, turn the faucet and good clean water, In the city they're usualy banned(Sanitation reasons) But many exist. (Quietly)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/21/2011 22:27 Comments || Top||

#18  D *** NG IT, IFF JAPAN'S DEBT-To-GDP RATIO CAN BE 210% COME YEAR 2012, SO CAN AMERICA'S = AMERIKA'S!

Lest we fergit, 1990's NET > CLINTONISM = Among other, good Americans = Amerikans demand to be attacked + bankrupt as per our sacred National Commmunism.

You know - FASCISM!

AND DON'T YOUSE FERGIT WHAT WE NEVER TOLD YOU!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 23:16 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Significant increases in salaries for imams
[Ennahar] The Minister of Religious Affairs and Awqaf, Boualamallah Ghelamallah, in a statement to Ennahar, unveiled a significant increase in salaries of imams. The delay, according to the minister, is due to the public services.

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Awqaf has indicated that the imams will receive significant increases according to the benefits system introduced by the Department on the Executive Office of Public Service for consideration. According to him, this concerns the introduction of four premiums which will be calculated according to the grade and step.

Ghelamallah said yesterday in an interview with Ennahar that his department did long ago, proposals to the management of the public services, but these have not yet been approved. "We have submitted proposals for significant increases to the management of the civil service, we hope to see them implemented as quickly as possible, may be in next February or March."

On another side, and concerning the social unrest experienced by the country, including attempted suicide by immolation, like the young Tunisian Mohamed El Bouazizi, who set himself on fire, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Wakf think the phenomenon is similar to that of Harraga (undocumented Democrats) when young people lose hope, add to that the drugs phenomenon among the youth who are most likely to suicide. Ghelamallah in response to our question about the role of imams in the fight against the phenomenon of suicide, said the department has sent clear instructions to imams in order to cope with this phenomenon through the Khotba (speech) on Friday. Imams have succeeded, through their advice and sermons, to extinguish the fire of Fitna in the riots, they can also convince youth on this phenomenon of suicide.

Algeria recorded during the last two weeks, 7 cases of suicide attempts by citizens who protest against poor living conditions, related to housing and employment.
Posted by: Fred || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did they unionize?
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 1:31 Comments || Top||


Tunisia interim leaders quit former ruling party
[Maghrebia] In response to protests against the presence of Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) members in the new Tunisian government, Interim President Fouad Mebazaa and Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi resigned from the party on Tuesday (January 18th). The move followed the resignation earlier Tuesday of four ministers named to the new cabinet: Health Minister Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Junior Transportation Minister Anouar Ben Gueddour, Labour Minister Houcine Dimassi and minister without portfolio Abdeljelil Bedoui.

Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) leader and new Regional Development Minister Ahmed Nejib Chebbi said that the national unity government would hold its first cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Ben Ali's 33 relatives arrested
[Dawn] Thirty-three relatives of Tunisia's toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have been jugged in recent days, state television reported.
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Thursday.
They had a good run, taking a cut of everything because their girl married the big guy, but there are always tumbrels at the end of such things.
The problem is, of course, that Pops fled town too suddenly for the rest of the family relations to figure out what was happening and follow suit. I'm sure they could have pawned a watch or two for the airfare to Riyadh.
Television pictures showed footage of watches, jewellery and international credit cards seized during raids on the family members' properties.

Ben Ali decamped the country for Soddy Arabia Friday following weeks of unrest.

On Wednesday, officials opened an investigation against the former president and his family for having allegedly plundered the country's resources.

The charges include illegal property acquisitions and currency transfers.

Those targeted included Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi, her brothers and sons and their children.
Posted by: Fred || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Embarrassed France backpedals support of Ben Ali
Paris -- "There is no love; there are only proofs of love," the French poet Pierre Reverdy once wrote.
No doubt that sounds more romantic in the original French.
I'm sure his ex-girlfriend once loved him...
Now, in the wake of the French diplomatic disaster over its support of Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali until moments before he fled the country, France may owe Tunisia "proofs of love."

So says Moncef Cheikh Rouhou, a prominent Tunisian investment banker and media group owner forced out of the country in 2000 over issues related to censorship and physical threats from the Ben Ali regime, and who is mentioned in Arab expatriate circles as a possible future finance minister in a new government there.

French support of Ben Ali and French silence on the shootings of Tunisians has brought a week of recriminations in Paris. France now admits it was out of touch with Tunisian public opinion, has barred Ben Ali from coming here, and says it is freezing the ousted president's assets.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FRENCH IMMIGRANT WORKERS

versus

* YONHAP > NORTH KOREA OFFERS TO SEND 2000 FEMALE WORKERS TO CHINA: SOURCES, ostensibly to work in laminated timber companies based in NE China.

and

* WMF > [North? Peninsula?] KOREA HAS BECOME CHINA'S SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE FOR TRADE WID DEVELOPED COUNTRIES.

Personally, I think France's backpedaling has more to do wid MRS. ALI'S ALLEGED RAID ON THE TUNISIAN GOVT. COFFERS, which IMO may be indirectly related to the US DECISION TO REVOKE THE VISAS OF HAITIAN OFFICIALS???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 22:42 Comments || Top||

#2  TOPIX > {Christian Science Monitor] DEMOCRACY COMES IN WAVES {Regional], AND TUNISIA'S
"JASMINE REVOLUTION" BE THE ARABS' TURN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 22:45 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Ivory Coast mediator: political impasse remains
[Arab News] The African Union's mediator for Ivory Coast says his two-day visit failed to break the political impasse because the incumbent leader broke his promises.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga concluded meetings Wednesday with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to leave office, and his opponent who the international community says won November's presidential runoff.

Odinga says Gbagbo broke a promise to lift a blockade around the Abidjan hotel where Alassane Ouattara is confined. He says Ouattara agreed to give Gbagbo's allies a certain number of ministry positions in a new government.

A West African bloc has threatened military intervention if Gbagbo does not step down. Odinga warned: "Time is running out for an amicably negotiated settlement."
Posted by: Fred || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian Duma Panel Supports Final Passage of New START
"The document addressed to the American side is entitled 'On the Position of the State Duma on the Reduction and Limitations of Strategic Offensive Armaments' and has 6.5 pages. It also recommends for the Russian president to add the ratification bill and this statement by the State Duma to the note on the exchange of the ratification instruments," he said.

The document would emphasize that "the U.S. unilateral interpretation of certain provisions of this document does not change the legal commitments of the U.S. side and does not impose any additional commitments on Russia," Kosachyov said.
Posted by: Beavis || 01/21/2011 16:30 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


One Third Of Russian Conscripts Too Sick To Serve
Nearly one third of Russia's latest batch of conscripts were too sick to serve in the armed forces and ended up being sent back home, a top commander said Thursday.

The general added that more than 200,000 Russian teenage boys were also evading the draft because of the army's reputation for brutality.

"We have been forced to release more than 30 percent of the young men from service because of their health," the joint staff's deputy commander Vasily Smirnov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Was it the lack of food or the beatings that mostly led to this epidemic of ill health? Or was it the new, designer uniforms were designed for appearance rather than brutal Russian winter?
"Unfortunately, this figure has not been improving lately," he added.

Moscow newspapers reported in September that the army only managed to draft 550,000 new soldiers last year, bringing its ranks to between 750,000 and 850,000 troops.

The figure is short of the million-man army foreseen in planning.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev complained in 2009 that over 40 percent of those eligible for military service were not fit enough to serve and that draft dodging was becoming endemic.

Smirnov said he was "very concerned" about the number of draft dodgers, but provided no details of how the army planned to deal with the problem.
That's the job of the police, I'd think. It was in the U.S., back when we had a draft.
His comments came amid reports that 63 Russian soldiers had been hospitalized with pneumonia and another recruit had died while being stationed near the Ural region city of Chelyabinsk.

A general prosecutor's office statement said the soldiers became ill due to their commanders' failure to "ensure the protection of the servicemen's life and health," Interfax reported.

The garrison's commanders have been charged with failing to isolate sick soldiers from other recruits as an epidemic swept through the region in late December and early January.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I suppose enforcing some discipline in the ranks and eliminating the brutality is out.
Posted by: gromky || 01/21/2011 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Meh. I'm thinking our friend Pooty-Poot's concluded that he doesn't really need a big, well-trained professional conventional army to get his way in his 'hood. It's cheaper, quicker and easier to just be Michael Corleone sitting on a gas pipeline and some ICBM's.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 01/21/2011 1:36 Comments || Top||

#3  No problem, they can all join the 'international jobs program' and come to Assghanistan as US Contractors supporting FOBs.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/21/2011 3:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Nearly one third of Russia's latest batch of conscripts were too sick to serve in the armed forces and ended up being sent back home, a top commander said Thursday.

Well, at least they can't blame being overweight because they were XBox/PS3 couch addicts. /sarc off

Too Dumb To Fight
Why are so many young Americans too stupid to be soldiers. A fourth of potential American military recruits can't join because they are too fat. That got some media attention. But the fact that a quarter of high school graduates who tried to join failed the written exam attracted less attention.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/21/2011 8:06 Comments || Top||

#5  After all these years, I think the light has finally dawned that only a small fraction of people are warriors. Putting the rest in uniform in a "mass army" just means that you have more cannon fodder to die, not kill, for your side.

Plus, a grand army sucks down resources like crazy and is expensive as hell.

But admitting this is like pulling teeth to senior officers, who still adamantly believe that *anybody* can be a warrior, just like athletes believe that *anybody* can be an athlete. That uniformity will win the day.

Mind you, the non-warriors can still help support the warriors, as long as it is totally non-warrior stuff they are doing.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/21/2011 9:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Putting the rest in uniform in a "mass army" just means that you have more cannon fodder to die, not kill, for your side.

Ah, but Carnot was able to mold the Levee en Masse which allowed Revolutionary France to put off the 'professional' armies of Europe. It took the adaptation of the equivalent in the Landwehr to provide the means of bringing down Napoleonic domination. Till the full effects of industrialization, those without mass armies played at the fringe of world affairs and events. By the late Twentieth Century military systems are cycling back from that push.

What has occurred is that the expense is indeed the issue. Just as the Romans found out in the Empire. There's always an evolutionary cycle of quantity versus quality. Quality can will out for a while but can't afford a significant failure or two because of its own costs. Barbarians don't worry about the balance sheets. Plus there's that historical nagging issue of military establishments ending up running things that put most democracies in the uncomfortable state with uniform professionals. Particularly those democratic states that end up with incompetent self serving political classes.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/21/2011 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  I'll throw in a few things:

Alcoholism or effects from over-use of alcohol.

Poor nutrition.

Substandard housing.

All either prior to or after being drafted
Posted by: Pappy || 01/21/2011 21:34 Comments || Top||

#8  When i enlisted (1966) there was still a draft, the very first thing they did was innoculate everybody and w were all sick(Probably from the innoculations.)
However food was good and plentiful, Living quarters (Shipboard} were somewhat cramped but comfortable, and even the bunks were comfortable.
While it seems unusual the most comfortable Bunk I ever slept in was 4 inches of foam rubber over a steel deck, the locker was beneath the bunk so NOBODY could get in it when you were sleeping, Not even you,(The locker opened by raising the mattress and steel slab) Yes modesty was non existent, but absolutely nobody bothered you sexualy ever, at all.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/21/2011 22:41 Comments || Top||

#9  See also RELATED > WMF > RUSNEWS: RUSSIAN ARMED FORCES DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF GENERAL VASILY SMIRNOV CLAIMS THAT 20.0MILYUHN ELIGIBLE RUSSIANS AVOID MILITARY SERVICE, E.G 13,600 YOUNG RUSSIANS WHOM LAST YEAR RECEIVED THEIR FORMAL GOVT. NOTICE FOR MILITARY SERVICE BUT INTENTIONALLY FAILED TO REPORT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 23:24 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Dupe URL: The Torrid Romantic Life of Kim Jong-il
He doen't sound like a fun date...
Yun Hye-yong was a woman beyond the reach even of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. Yun, the lead singer of Kim's former favorite band Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, was brutally executed after she spurned Kim's persistent advances and fell in love with another man.

Or so claims Chang Jin-song, an author formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers' Party, in "Kim Jong-il's Last Woman." Published in May, it is an epic poem that details Kim's private life and inside story of his regime based on the true story of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble.

According to the book, Kim ordered Yun Hye-yong's songs to be used for the mass gymnastic performance "Arirang," and attended a concert with her on his birthday. Although many women had found the dictator's favor before, none had ever merited a place next to him at a public event. Kim even sent officials to Europe to buy her stage costumes and accessories. Yet Yun loved the band's pianist. When Kim's agents discovered their relationship by tapping her phone, Yun jumped from the roof of Mokran House, an official banquet hall, with her lover. Although the man died instantly, Kim ordered his men to kill Yun after resuscitating her by any means. She was eventually executed at the end of 2003, while still in coma.

Kim Ok, another of Kim's paramours, was introduced in the South Korean media in July 2006 as his fourth wife. However, the woman whom the media named "Kim Ok" was not the woman who features in a book by Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il's former personal chef. According to the June issue of the Monthly Chosun, "Kim Ok was in fact Kim Son-ok, a former aide to Jo Myong-rok, the first vice chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission.

The real Kim Ok was the pianist of Wangjaesan Light Music Band and a graduate of Kumsong Senior Middle School, known for extensively training Kim's private entertainers. Kim loved her more for her bold personality and sharp wit than her looks, and granted her the privilege of speaking informally to him. To Kim, long used to absolute obedience to his authority, Kim Ok's gestures would've appeared refreshing.

Although Kim's former wives Song Hye-rim and Ko Yong-hui were artists, they were civilians to begin with, not women exclusively trained to entertain Kim. But Kim Ok had been selected for such a purpose, and often entertained Kim at the orgies he held with his inner circle. It would have been unthinkable, therefore, for Kim to make Kim Ok his official wife.

Most women with whom Kim was involved were celebrities. It is widely known that he moved in with the actress Song Hye-rim after abandoning his fiancé Kim Yong-sook. Hong Yong-hui, who was bestowed the title of "distinguished actress" at the age of 18, or Woo In-hui, an actress publicly executed for openly speaking about her relationship with Kim, were among many celebrities who had become Kim's paramours.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/21/2011 16:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange life story up for movie
A MOVIE about Julian Assange is being fast-tracked before he can leak his own life story, the New York Post reported yesterday.
This has always had 'Lifetime Network' written all over it...
Assange has said that he is penning a book that could become a screenplay, but Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Productions have stolen the WikiLeaks founder's thunder by optioning an upcoming biography about the controversial Australian.
Don't forget the consensual rape scene...
"The Most Dangerous Man in the World," is by Andrew Fowler, who interviewed Assange, 39, last year.

Krumm said the book would become a "thought-provoking thriller."

Assange signed a $1.54 million autobiography deal in December, with the book being rushed to press for release in April 2011.
Posted by: tipper || 01/21/2011 09:49 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hates Lifetime Network.
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/21/2011 17:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Never watch it, WM. Is it any good?

Having never watched either, I place it on par with the "Oxygen Network" (is that still on air? why?).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/21/2011 19:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Outspoken Tucson sheriff faces recall bid
Now it's Sheriff Dupnik who finds himself on the public-opinion hot seat. A group opposed to illegal immigration has begun an effort to recall the sheriff in a special election. Meanwhile, a Pima County tea party group is planning on holding a "Dump Dupnik" rally next week outside his office.
If people vote to kick out illegal immigrants, you should really consider upholding that law, Sheriff Dumass.
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 17:26 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He should have kept his damn trap shut.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/21/2011 18:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Blame whoever; my money is on the lead prosecuter(s) - remember dipstik was about to show off all that glitzy evidence to a slobbering press.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/21/2011 21:38 Comments || Top||


California Declares Fiscal Emergency
Democrat Brown’s declaration follows a similar one made last month by his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor.
WTF was the Governator thinking?!
Oh, now it makes sense. We're still not sorry.

The big children Democrats who control the legislature threw a tantrum declined to act on Schwarzenegger’s declaration, saying they would instead wait until the money magically appeared like it always does when Democrats run the show to work on budget matters with Brown, who served two terms as California’s governor in the 1970s and 1980s.

Brown was sworn in to his third term early this month and has presented lawmakers with a plan to balance the state’s books with $12.5 billion in spending cuts and revenue from tax extensions that voters must first approve.
Now both sides are equally pi$$ed.
Brown has said he wants lawmakers to act on his plan by March.
They'll act right after they make sure you have a birth certificate.
His fiscal emergency declaration is meant to underscore that target, an official said.
And also a nice little nod to the Governator. Most would call that a reality check. Let's see what the Dems do with it.
Brown’s declaration, which is largely procedural, says it affirms Schwarzenegger’s December declaration, giving lawmakers 45 days to address the state’s fiscal troubles.
What Brown said: You have 45 days to figure it out.
What the lawmakers heard: You have 45 days to break the news to your union pimps.
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 11:11 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only Nixon could go to China.

Only Jerry Brown can fix California's budget??? (head explodes!)
Posted by: Whusogum Tingle9265 || 01/21/2011 11:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah good luck with that.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/21/2011 11:44 Comments || Top||

#3  several other States are in similar conditions

Illinois
New York
Massachusetts
Posted by: Lord Garth || 01/21/2011 15:36 Comments || Top||

#4  GAS (what we call previous Gov) declared a fiscal emergency years ago and the idiotic elected union thugs did NOTHING. Now they area being told my Mr. SEIU (Jerry Brown) that the state has real problems and the bank is empty. Just about everything he proposes is right from the website of former candidate Meg Whitman (whom Jerry defeated in November). Since he has both sides of the aisle howling at his budget, it must be a good thing.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 01/21/2011 17:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Hello: cutting civil service pension pay-outs would solve everything. That can be done if you recognize that current expenditures are the result of Extortion. That will have to be undone. There is no alternative.

Of course, California teachers get pensions equalling only 1% per year of service. I wouldn't touch those. My aunt wouldn't like it.
Posted by: Varmint Snoluling7830 || 01/21/2011 20:50 Comments || Top||

#6  See also TOPIX > CALIFORNIA TO OUTLAW FISHING?

and

* RENSE > THE US CONSTITUTION IS NOW DEAD |
[Breatbart] US SUPREME COURT ISSUES LANDMARK DECISION: CONSTITUTION IS VOID.

No surprise here, since the infamous US NINTH COURT time back had declared the USA an ILLEGAL + UNCONSITUTIONAL NATION, a decision which directly indic or inferred that the US HAD NO AUTHORITY EITHER TO WAGE WAR NOR MILITARILY DEFEND ITS OWN INTERESTS FROM ANY TYPE/KIND OF FOREIGN AGGRESSION. Ironically, among Other the Ninth's decision IMO voided the authority of the US Ninth including its own existential right as a legal Judge-Arbiter of US Law.

Lest we fergit, AFAIK the US NINTH has NOT formally voided or vacated its decision above, only refused to act on it.

PRE-"GLOBALISM" GLOBALISM???

IN YARN 2011 > POTUS BAMMER = US GOVT. by the US NINTH has no authority to be in AFPAK, let alone giving it any kind of international econ assistance, NOR TO BE POTUS BECUZ ONE CANOT HAVE BE POTUS OF A COUNTRY THAT HAS NO RIGHT TO EXIST.

Correct???

OOOOPPPPPPPPPPSSSIIIEEESSSS, OWG Mighty America = OWG Weak Amerika, USSA = USRoA, YOUR BAD!

CLearly the Fed Judges, etc. Govtcritters whom PROMOTE + PROTECT these kinds of LEGAL, POLITICIZED ABSURDITIES have every right to retire handsomely at PUBLIC EXPENSE, AS OPPOSED TO BEING SIMPLY FIRED FOR SHEER STUPIDITY + MALICE(S) AFORETHOUGHT.


Iff mainstream America = Amerika wants to know why the US DEBT-TO-GDP RATO IS 83-93% AND GETTING WORSE, SEE THE ABOVE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 23:09 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Respect religious differences: Msia deputy PM
[Straits Times] DEPUTY Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called on Malaysians to respect religious differences among the people, saying mutual respect is a prerequisite for a harmonious living.

'Tolerance should continue to be practised so that the country can continue to enjoy peace and stability,' he said in a statement in conjunction with the Thaipusam festival on Thursday. Saying that tolerance was a two-way process, Tan Sri Muhyiddin reminded Malaysians to understand and take into consideration the sensitivities of other races so as to reflect the genuine spirit of tolerance.

'I am confident that by practising the 1Malaysia concept, which is acceptance and openness towards one another, we will be able to strengthen relations among the races and enhance understanding among us,' he said. Tan Sri Muhyiddin and family also extended greetings to all Hindus and wished them a Happy Thaipusam.
Posted by: Fred || 01/21/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Unions see sharp membership declines again
The nation's labor unions saw another steep decline in membership last year, even as the economy showed signs of recovery and job losses slowed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that unions lost 612,000 members in 2010, dropping the unionized share of the work force to 11.9 percent from 12.3 percent in 2009. That follows a loss of 771,000 workers in 2008, continuing a steady decline from the 1950s when more than a third of workers belonged to unions.

The news comes as union officials are pressing President Barack Obama and other leaders to invest more money in infrastructure projects like repairing highways and bridges to help stimulate the economy and create new jobs. That plea is meeting stiff resistance from Republicans intent on cutting spending sharply to pare back the rising national debt.

Union membership in the private sector fell from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent, a low point not seen since the infancy of the labor movement in the 1930s. The steepest decline was seen in the construction industry, where unemployment remains around 20 percent.

Public employment unions saw a 1.2 percent decline, mostly from job cuts among state and local government workers. Those unions could see further declines this year, as states eliminate jobs in an effort to make up multibillion-dollar budget deficits.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out, you goddamn crooks. Now we know why they are suing Nikki Haley so quickly.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/21/2011 13:07 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  even as the economy showed signs of recovery and job losses slowed

Yeah. Right.
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 13:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Public employment unions saw a 1.2 percent decline, mostly from job cuts among state and local government workers.

That will get worse, because the states can't let budget imbalances go on as long as the feds. And with the House Republicans' plan to reduce federal employment by 10% or something, those union jobs will be lost, too.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/21/2011 13:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Now you know why the unions want Card Check so much.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/21/2011 16:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Unions are a lot like medieval guilds. By demanding wages higher than the going rate they limit the number of folks hired in those industries, eventually making the industries uncompetitive.

It's not rocket science and its causing fiscal implosions in state after state right now.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/21/2011 17:12 Comments || Top||

#5  in related union news, the governor of South Carolina has been sued by the IAM becasue of her anti union comments relative to the new Boeing 787 plant there. For those that aren't aware, Boeing purchased the old Vought plant and established the initial 787 Dreamliner final assembly plant there rather than Everett, WA due to wage issues. Everett is an IAM plant. The union up here has its panties in a severe double slipknot over S.C.
Posted by: USN,Ret || 01/21/2011 18:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes, but employer-employee contracts are increasing in numbers. And most workers do well in these arrangements.

Let's not pretend that every company is seeking to pay minimum wage across the board. That is not what is happening in America.
Posted by: Varmint Snoluling7830 || 01/21/2011 20:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Hawker Beechcraft was prepared to move from Kansas to Louisiana because a brand new facility would pay for itself with the increased efficiency and ability to hire/fire workers - that is no union. That boggled my head that even with today's expensive construction prices and everything extra the plant would have to do for OSHA, flight testing, FAA etc...cheaper than continuing its current labor situation at a paid for facility.

Remember Russia, Israel, Australia fires? Don't like those, thank a rural volunteer...but better do it soon - FD Unions are doing all they can to phase that out.

Unions - your actions defeat your arguement
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/21/2011 21:57 Comments || Top||


Breakthrough Laser Could Revolutionize Navy's Anti-Missile Weaponry
The Navy has passed a major milestone in its quest to build an incredibly powerful new anti-aircraft gun.

Scientists with the Navy's Office of Naval Research have demonstrated a prototype system capable of producing from thin air the electrons needed to generate ultrapowerful, "megawatt-class" laser beams for the agency's next-generation system.

"The injector performed as we predicted all along," said Dinh Nguyen, senior project leader for the Free Electron Laser (FEL) program at the Los Alamos National Lab, N.M. "But until now, we didn't have the evidence to support our models. We were so happy to see our design, fabrication and testing efforts finally come to fruition."

He said the group is hoping to set a world record with the futuristic new weapon -- which could be the Holy Grail of military lasers.

FEL technology generates powerful laser beams by passing a stream of electrons -- those tiny, charged particles of matter -- through magnetic fields. Using electrons means avoiding the hassle of chemical fuels that are required for ordinary gas lasers, and bypassing the heating issue of electronic lasers.
Producing a laser without the energy required to heat up the gas is a major breakthrough. They can get more bang for the electric buck, shoot faster and adjust the beam better than the old versions. If this works out, old school missiles like the Harpoon and Silkworm are instantly worthless (unless fired in the thousands at one target). This will take a huge advantage away from Iran in trying to close the gulf with their Chinese silkworms.

Oh... and I have to say it.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/21/2011 12:57 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if such a laser beam couldn't be used to "steer" a dumb projectile to a target by affecting the atmosphere around the projectile.
Posted by: gorb || 01/21/2011 13:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder why they are calling it a laser? It sounds like a Charged Particle Beam. CPBs use lased electrons, alpha particles, or hydrogen ions, instead of lased photons as in typical lasers.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/21/2011 15:12 Comments || Top||

#3  No,
The electrons change direction in a magnetic field and thus release coherent photons with a frequency related to the velocity of change.

So light still hits the target.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/21/2011 15:43 Comments || Top||

#4  What if they mirror-plate the missiles?
Posted by: Lowspark || 01/21/2011 17:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, according to a few remarks Dr. Lowell Wood made back during the SDI heyday, all making your missile shiny would do is cost you a lot of money. Lasers would still punch through it and having a mirror shiny enough to actually reflect lasers isn't going to survive launch or being struck by a weapons grade laser.

While any point defense system can be overwhelmed, there fast becomes a point of diminishing returns as the sheer amount of resources to kill one or two ships is simply going to be too much. Yes, you can build 200 missiles to launch at a single target, but remember you must also have crews to launch them, launchers, maintenance so that they are ready when the time comes and some method of directing the missiles to the target. And if you want to harden them so a B-2 doesn't carpet bomb your launchers with cluster bombs, the price tag goes way up.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton || 01/21/2011 19:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Reliable + accurate GMD-TMD capability is the future for all of the USDOD Armed Services, besides also Unmanned New Technologies + "Battlespace" INtegrated Warfare.

Gaaawd I miss Aberdeen + DARPA.

* "Avoid the hassle of chemical fuels" > IMO read, ANTI-"PEAK OIL" + OTHER.

Ala BP DEEPWATER HORIZON + GULF OF MEXICO, hopefully the USDOD + US-World Perts are double-triple-checking their Math + Models, etc. as per "PEAK OIL/ENERGY/RESOURCES".

BECUZ, AMONG OTHER, "GLOBALISM" + BY EXTENSION THE OWG-NWO THAT NO AMERICAN HAS YET VOTED FOR WILL DE FACTO FAIL 2030-2100 IFF THE SAME ARE WRONG.

But I digress ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/21/2011 19:55 Comments || Top||

#7  hmmm I think the first 19:55 comment may be a fake, but the second 19:55 comment bears all the hallmarks of a Joe M rant. Ima thinkrn Joe's been cloned, but the clone hasn't been named yet
Posted by: Frank G || 01/21/2011 19:59 Comments || Top||

#8  NORTH KOREA may also have a RESERVE NUCLEAR SITE in case of outside attack by US-ALLIES, like IRAN.

* WMF > DEFECTOR: NORTH KOREA"S INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AT HUICHON/XI CHUAN USED FOR BOTH HYDROPOWER + MANUFACTURE OF URANIUM CENTRIFUGES, + CAN EASILY BE CONVERTED AT ANY TIME IN FUTURE INTO A SECURE ALTERNATE SITE [besides YONGYBON] FOR THE PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

----------

The USAF-DOD is already considering developing of LR UNMANNED ABL DRONES - the real worry for Russia + China, etc. would be iff the US puts reliable BMD Lasers up in relatively slow but heavily protected UNMANNED, NON CONUS-BASED ORBITING DIRIGIBLES, IN "FIXED" = ROUTINE PATROL AREAS HIGH ABOVE THE EARTH'S SURFACE. Russia + China consider same as DESTABILIZING COMPARED TO CONUS-BASED, MANNED OR UV DRONE, "RE-CALL CAPABLE" AIR, SEA PLATFORMS ALA GLOBAL MISSLE DEFENSE + "GLOBAL PROMPT STRIKE" + future SPACE STRIKE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2011 0:20 Comments || Top||



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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.
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In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2011-01-21
  Suicide Blasts Rock Karbala, 50 Dead Nationwide
Thu 2011-01-20
  15 dead in Iraq suicide attacks
Wed 2011-01-19
  Nigerian troops given shoot to kill orders in Jos
Tue 2011-01-18
  Al-Turabi arrested in Khartoum
Mon 2011-01-17
  Prosecutor submits Hariri assassination indictment
Sun 2011-01-16
  Yemen Government Loses, Regains Control of Habilain
Sat 2011-01-15
  Benali flees Tunisia
Fri 2011-01-14
  Sudan nationhood vote confirmed valid
Thu 2011-01-13
  Drone Attack Kills 3, Maybe 4 in Pakistan
Wed 2011-01-12
  Hezbollah Topples Lebanese Government
Tue 2011-01-11
  Spain's ETA in permanent ceasefire
Mon 2011-01-10
  Yemeni Court Sentences 13 Somalis for Piracy
Sun 2011-01-09
  14 headless bodies found in Acapulco
Sat 2011-01-08
  AZ Dem Rep Gabrielle Giffords Shot
Fri 2011-01-07
  Church bombing foiled in north Iraq


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