I'm having surgery tomorrow morning and I'll be offline for a few days. Steve, Steve, and Dan will be filling in for me. I hope to be back at least lurking by Saturday...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2004 5:51:28 PM ||
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Posted by: Matt ||
04/27/2004 18:10 Comments ||
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#9
Oh, and some advice in case this is a hernia repair: do not-- repeat, DO NOT-- give in to the temptation to "get a little exercise" once you start feeling miraculously better on the third or fourth day. I did; bad, bad, BAD mistake. Instead, take it easy.
Again, good luck and get well soon.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/27/2004 18:12 Comments ||
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#10
Get well soon - in the mean time, hope she can help you!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/27/2004 18:12 Comments ||
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#11
Sam, ROFL...where do you these pictures?!
About the healing, Fred, we'll be here for you, so take all the time you need to recover...but don't forget to take your laptop into surgery! (Just kidding.)
(We're hopelessly hooked on RB!)
Posted by: Jen ||
04/27/2004 18:14 Comments ||
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#12
I hope it's not serious and the hospital is beyond clean! I hope on my next visit I'm wearing a toe-tag. Need somebody to smuggle in some KFC or anything? I have a friend who used one of those generic restaurant delivery services - told them where he was and to be sneaky when he ordered, and they actually managed to get him a steak, baked potato w/kitchen sink, and sauteed mushrooms! Prolly gave 'em a hell of a tip! Just an idea...
#18
Don't fall for that trick where they tell you to count to 10. You never reach 10. I've had two operations and never have gone beyond the number 3. But one day.... (well, I hope not).
Get well real fast. We need you out here.
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/27/2004 18:50 Comments ||
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#19
Wonder which will be worse? The surgery or wondering what havoc is being administered at Rantburg University?
#23
Dontcha wish Antiwar would get punished by her own shari'a tribal council and have her posting hand removed for writing lies?
That's the kind of RBer surgery I could get excited about.
Posted by: Jen ||
04/27/2004 19:24 Comments ||
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#29
"I do not believe God is a Trinity..."
Nnnnnnnn.(Buzzer).
Does your bishop know?
The belief in the Holy Trinity is an integral part of the Christian Faith and certainly required of a "good" Catholic.
(Apostles' Creed, the Bible, Jesus's own words, etc.) 'So I have NOT converted to Islam.'
YET.
Your Muslim boyfriend should shove his AK-47 a little closer.
Rinse, repeat. Why is it that I can so easily get a visual of Antiwar ("Rachel Corrie is my idol") with a suicide belt around her waist?
Posted by: Jen ||
04/27/2004 19:47 Comments ||
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#34
Fred, my thoughts go with you. No complications and a speedy recovery... yeah, that sounds about right!
---------
And ladies, you're as bad as my cats. Alright, kids, knock it off! ;-)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/27/2004 20:21 Comments ||
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#35
LOL, Old Grouch!
This kitty's a Marine with AC-130 gunships, Predators armed with Hellfire missiles and a secret laser death ray!
Meow, indeed.
Posted by: Jen ||
04/27/2004 20:24 Comments ||
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#36
Gawd, not surgery....
I just had my gums sliced open last week for a minor procedure, and now after the stitches are coming out and the pain is leaving my jaw, I somehow manage to get sick, even after this area has just had a mini heat wave. Woe is me...
#46
Best wishes on a speedy recovery! The 'burg is in good (if somewhat unruly) hands.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/28/2004 1:55 Comments ||
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#47
So the first lobotomy didn't take... only joking, Boss - Best of British!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/28/2004 4:03 Comments ||
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#48
i been adding it up. antiwar before talk about paradise on earth and not belief in hell and no belief in trinity and no belief going war for any reason and jews not deserve homeland and always like show up when not wanted and kep coming back. antiwar is jehova witness. ask her if she against birthdays to verify.
#49
Get well soon Fred.You have an interesting website I totally disagree with most of the views here but part of being a democracy is be able to express different views.
#51
INFIDEL???? I am not a Muslim Jen(I assume that is what you mean by Infidel)I am a Christian details: Roman Catholic by baptism though I do not believe God is a Trinity or that people go to Heaven and Hell etc when they die. The soul is part of you and dies when everything else does. So I have NOT converted to Islam.
#52
Jen from the words of Christ himself;"I said go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I." John 14.28 (King James Bible)I go to the Father for the Father is Greater than I"(Douai Rheims Bible)"Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless Your will not mine be done"Luke 22.42(KJB)Father if thou wilt remove this Chalice from me yet not my will but thine be done (DR)
A 15-year-old boy on a wilderness expedition for emotionally troubled youths fought off a brown bear that came into his tent while he was sleeping.
Well, if he wasn't troubled before....
The boy awoke in the morning to find the 181kg bear sitting at his feet.
"Yawn, Lassie, is that you.......ohmygodmommyhelp!"
After he tried unsuccessfully to back out of his tent, the bear bit him on the forearm. But the boy fought back and punched the bear repeatedly with his left hand, according to an account of the weekend incident given to the media by Alaska state trooper Adam Benson yesterday. When the teenager tried to run, the bear bit him again below his ribs, this time leaving several puncture wounds on his back, Mr Benson said. The boy punched the bear again, and again she let him go, but chased him around a nearby stand of trees, he added.
"Feet, don't fail me now!"
Steve Prysunka, the director of the six-week Crossing Wilderness Expeditions for Youth programme said the boy eventually remembered an air horn amongst his equipment, and blew it in the bear's face, waking others in the camp. The bear finally turned and ran after staff blasted her with pepper spray and fired a flare at her feet, Mr Prysunka said.
They're camping in Brownbearistan and they don't have a gun?
Can you imagine the lawsuit for taking a GUN on a campout for emotionally troubled youths?
In Alaska you get emotionally troubled if you DON'T have a gun when camping in bear country.
Later the same day officials found the bear in the campsite area on Deer Island in south-east Alaska and killed her.
Insert poor bear comments from muck here(.........)
The boy, from Barrow, Alaska, was flown to a hospital, where he was treated, then sent home to give his wounds time to heal, Mr Prysunka said.
They grow them tough in Barrow.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2004 10:16:11 AM ||
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#4
So he's fighting with this 400lb bear, and the bear chases him around a strand of trees, and he runs back and gets an air horn, which wakes everybody up but doesn't stop the bear; and all this is still going on when counselors get out pepper spray and a flare gun from their packs to fire at the bear.
Was it dark out? Granted this is Alaska. But this sounds like a good 5-10 minutes of bear knuckled fun.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
04/27/2004 11:06 Comments ||
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#7
Not that's a self-esteem camp. Was this covered in the liability waiver? They had more tricks ready for Ursus than McCauly Calkin. I was waiting for the bear to trip the yarn trip-wire that released the pendulum -like swinging bucket of Sherwin Williams.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 12:02 Comments ||
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#8
The Islamic Republic of Ursustan demands all humans withdraw to south of the Arctic Circle, and provide 6000 Kilograms of Picnic Baskets, and 3000 Kilograms of Honey for the rituals of the prophets, Yogi and Pooh.
Signed,
Bruno Deuclaugh,
Holy Growler,
Nome, Alaska
#15
Yogi was definitely a Bolshevik mole, no respect at all for property rights or the work ethic.
Every right-thinking American knows that Warner Brothers cartoons were the true font of all political wisdom.
From Bugs Bunny's casual individualism and Daffy Duck's heroic fight against the WW2 Axis to Pepe LePew's cautionary tales against friendship with the perfidious French, the Acme Company's ingenuity and sterling entrepreneurshp, and Wile E. Coyote's heroic persistance in the face of adversity, WB symbolized all that was America.
No wonder a lot of their work is censored these days.
LOL! So the bear is chasing him around the camp and nobody hears it. Which actually answers a long standing mystery: if a tree falls in the forest......
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/27/2004 15:41 Comments ||
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#22
I learned something from this post, which is how to evade a wild bear trying to eat you. A Glacier NP ranger told me that the way to differentiate a brown/black bear and a grizzly bear was to climb a tree while it was chasing you. The brown/black would climb after you, catch and eat you, while the grizzly bear would simply push the tree over, then catch and eat you. The ranger didn't tell me to run around the tree. I'll have to remember that.
Sayful Islam has featured prominently in three national newspapers [in the UK] in which he gave sickening interviews saying things like he wants to see London bombed with nuclear weapons or hit by germ warfare...This week, however, Muhammed Sulaiman, president of Lutonâs Islamic Cultural Society, disowned him dubbing him âLutonâs answer to Osama Bin Ladenâ, and someone who âgives a bad name to good Muslimsâ. He added: "This man is a disgrace...Heâs claiming benefits but undoubtedly uses his income to fund his day-to-day activities against this country. Where in Islam does it say âtake a countryâs money and use it to talk about killing British people?..We donât want him in any mosques in Luton and wish he would go away.â...Sayful - whose real name is Ishtiaq Alamgir - claims the national newspapers exaggerated his views." In a related story, Sayfulâs spiritual leader appealled "to all members of Al-Muhajiroun not to speak to any non-Muslim (Kufr) media bodies following the recent lies and fabrications spread by them"
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/27/2004 21:07 ||
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There is a time for diplomacy. This ain't it. After it's made obvious to everyone that we've regained the upper hand - let's send in the diplomats. Until then I wish they'd take a nice big sip out of my can of STFU Cola.
#2
Do they get special Saudi consulting positions like our retired diplomats soak up? Give in to the dark side...
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 21:58 Comments ||
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#3
Excellent ! These are old school diplomats with vested interest in the status quo, desperately trying to keep decades of failed Middle East policy from being torn down and replaced.
I love to hear the outrage in their cries of "Those were my apples in the cart you kicked over !"
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
04/27/2004 22:09 Comments ||
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A privately-run Muslim school in Scotland has been given six months to comply with a series of recommendations or face closure. School inspectors have issued a highly critical report on the Imam Muhammad Zakariya school in Dundee. They said it was not fulfilling its aim of educating pupils in line with the standards of the Scottish system. The school says it welcomes the report and is confident of meeting the requirements. Effectively, the school has six months from now to address the issues raised by inspectors. The secondary school, which opened in 2001, caters for 20 girls and inspectors found that for two weeks at a time they were confined to the inside of a small building and garden. Quite rightly so.
The report also said;
the management of the school was unsatisfactory
the quality of learning was unsatisfactory in all classes
the resources for boarders were unsatisfactory
and all staff apart from the headteacher were under the age of 20 Three guesses...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2004 8:22:55 AM ||
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#1
Looks like Hatred 101 is going to have to be dropped....
EFL
The head of the [UK] Commission for Racial Equality launched an attack on liberal Britain yesterday, claiming "misguided" polices on ethnic minorities were inherently racist. Trevor Phillips accused council leaders, health professionals, social workers and police chiefs of practising a culture of political correctness which he claimed led to the "benign neglect" of ethnic minorities. Mr Phillips hit out at a number of targets, including Manchester City Council, which he said allowed Bangladeshi parents to take their children abroad during term time. "The reason given is that these trips are part of their children learning about their heritage and culture," he said yesterday. "Rubbish. What better way to say to these children, âWe donât care where you are born - you are brown, you are still foreigners and weâll treat you as such?â"
Mr Phillips then criticised Clive Wolfendale, the Deputy Chief Constable of North Wales, for addressing a meeting of the Black Police Association (BPA) in a rap-style speech. "Presumably this was an attempt to get down with their supposed âcultureâ. How wrong. How patronising," he said. Most members of the BPA were British-born, Mr Phillips said.
He also criticised social workers who failed to intervene in the case of Victoria Climbie, an eight-year-old girl from the Ivory Coast who died in 2000 after months of abuse and neglect by her great aunt and her great auntâs boyfriend. The inquiry into Victoriaâs death heard that social workers believed the girlâs fear of her great aunt was part of her African culture, which emphasised respect for elders. "There is no aspect of African culture that demands that we turn a blind eye to the degradation and murder of a human being," Mr Phillips said. He also used the speech to warn that HIV and Aids infection rates were soaring among African men in Britain, partly because of homophobic attitudes and ignorance among their community about safe sex. He said health professionals should not shy away from addressing the issue, despite the cultural taboos around it. "The argument that we should be sensitive to the culture of this community only makes sense if you are ready to put the right of African men to hold their homophobic views about sexuality ahead of the right of African women to equal protection," he said.
His comments will once again ignite the debate over multiculturalism and race relations in Britain. In the speech to civil servants, Mr Phillips said: "When we stress our foreignness instead of claiming our right to be British, we surrender our place in society. We all know how patronised we feel when people talk to us as though we are foreigners, even though their intent is to make us feel at home. The fact is that we are at home already."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
04/27/2004 7:03:38 AM ||
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#1
Nice one Trevor. You can't please all of the people all of the time. Having taught in a secondary school in ethnically mixed South London, I quite agree. Political correctness does pigeon-hole people to their disadvantage. The alternative? Hopefully not a return to the racism of the sixties/seventies but a more common sense approach - hence the French banning religious icons in schools.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2004 7:31 Comments ||
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LONDON (AP) - More than 50 former diplomats have signed a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, harshly criticizing his policy in the Middle East and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States. In the letter, which the The Associated Press viewed on Monday, they say the U.S.-led coalition failed to plan adequately for the post-war phase in Iraq.
yes, let's remember the Left's plans for post-war Iraq -- er, there weren't any, 'cause Sammy was still in charge.
The letter, signed by 52 former diplomats, including ambassadors, high commissioners and governors, also attacks President Bush for endorsing Israel's plan to retain some settlements in the West Bank and criticizes Blair's public support for the policy. "These things needed saying and have needed saying for some time," Oliver Miles, a former ambassador to Greece, told The AP on Monday.
Sure, Ollie, now stop breaking your pills in half.
Blair's office rejected the criticism. "Our objectives in both Iraq and the Israel-Palestinian conflict remain stability, peace, freedom in the Middle East," said Blair's official spokesman.
Those who signed the letter include two former ambassadors to Baghdad and a former ambassador to Tel Aviv. "We ... have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States," reads the letter. "We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a vote of no confidence a fundamental reassessment."
Miles, who coordinated the letter, said it was triggered by Blair's visit to Washington earlier this month when he publicly backed Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip but retain some settlements in the West Bank. The letter claims that the policy is "one-sided and illegal" and will "cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood."
As opposed to the previous policies.
Turning to Iraq, the letter says there was "no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement."
Remember the Left's plan? How they were going to cope with Baghdad as Stalingrad, millions of dead civilians, millions of starving, disease-ridden refugees?
"We share your view that the British government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the United States on both these related issues, and in exerting real influence as a loyal ally," it says. "We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency. If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure. "
Diplospeak for "we'll be loyal only as long as there's something in it for us."
Blair's office said it would not rebut the letter point by point since no one could keep a straight face that long. "We assume these former members of the diplomatic service welcome the removal of Saddam and it is that that has opened up the possibility of democracy and that is what we are determined to achieve in Iraq," he said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. "We have prepared for the aftermath. Nobody pretends that there are not difficulties."
Don't say "pretend" to the looney Left, it just gives them ideas.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2004 12:41:11 AM ||
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#1
"We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency as we haven't gotten any oil vouchers for several months now!!
#2
The letter, signed by 52 former diplomats, including ambassadors, high commissioners and governors,(along with the usual assortment of bureaucratic ne'r-do-wells), also attacks President Bush for (not being anti-Semitic), endorsing Israel's plan to retain some settlements in the West Bank and criticizes Blair's gutsy public support for the policy. "These things needed saying and have needed saying for some time," Oliver The Weasel Miles, a former ambassador to Greece, told The AP on Monday.
#3
Nice rant, 4052, we should work those into the story!
By the way: with all the anon posters getting numbers, does it remind anyone of the scene in "Zulu" where the Welsh soldiers explain why they refer to each other by number?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2004 1:29 Comments ||
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#5
"We ... have watched with deepening concern (Damnit Blair, you are pissing of the leftist base of your party by using common sense and having a broader view of things) the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States (Why are you ignoring France, Germany, Russia, and Now Spain?)," reads the letter. "We feel the time has come to make our anxieties anal retentiveness public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a fundamental appeasementreassessment."
#8
It's too simplistic to interpret this sort of mass whining from the diplomatic establishment as a conclusive endorsement of the soundness of the Blair approach, but it's certainly a very, very good sign. I'd have given anything to eavesdrop on office chatter in State/NEA or the corresponding part of the Foreign Office in the last two weeks.
#9
The Brits are ARABISTS plain and simple. Sixty years ago Brits and their Arab butt-buddies were in present day Israel shooting Jewish children fleeing the holocaust for the Holy Land, and toasting Allah as they watched the bloody, bleeding bodies bob in the Med....
#10
True to an extent. We were arabist when they were useful to us. Part of our great Machiavellian tradition in world events. We're not quite as bad as the French though.
Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a magical insight into arab society. I would urge all who haven't to read it.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2004 4:26 Comments ||
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One of the world's most ambitious road maps was approved in Shanghai yesterday when China, Japan and South Korea agreed plans for an 87,500-mile network of motorways, bridges and ferry routes connecting Asia and Europe. Beginning with Asian Highway One, which will link Tokyo to Istanbul, it aims to create a modern version of the Silk Road, the camel route by which the occident and orient once traded with one another.
Road trip! And anyone who calls "shotgun", bring one.
The plans were drawn up in 1959, but the divisions of the cold war made agreement and implementation impossible in the following 45 years. A draft proposal was finalised in November 2002. The 32 countries involved accepted the inter-governmental agreement in principle, but each still has to approve it. Yesterday 23 countries endorsed an expanded version of the plan at a meeting of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Under the Asian Highway agreement trunk routes and spur roads will cross China's vast plains, the mountains of the Himalayas and the jungles of south-east Asia. The system will connect South Korea with Turkey, Bhutan with Bulgaria, and Finland with Sri Lanka.
I can see that being a highwayman will become a growth industry.
Kim Hak-su, executive secretary of the commission, said he believed the network would improve communication and understanding between peoples separated by mountains, deserts, water and disparate cultures and political traditions, "the same way it has happened in Europe, because of their road and rail links".
Most of the roads are already built, but many will require extensive improvements to meet international standards in time for the scheduled completion of the network in 2010.
Construction companies are drooling.
China plans to build almost 10,000 miles of new highways, in addition to the existing 7,000-mile stretch of road that is to be included in the system.
I suspect there will be no problems with China's environmental impact study.
According to UN officials, the main beneficiaries are likely to be poor landlocked countries such as Bhutan, Laos, Mongolia and Nepal, which will get improved access to seaports.
The usual suspect organizations will of course protest against these poor countries being exposed to progress and trade.
The cost - as yet uncalculated - is expected to be vast. So far Japan has covered most of the preliminary costs, which it may be hoping to recoup with contracts for its vast construction industry.
Not in China, they still hold a grudge.
Further funding is expected from wealthy countries and international organisations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. "The oppertunity for graft amount will be tremendous," Mr Kim said in a statement. "We propose public-private partnerships to fund this effort if governments cannot finance it.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2004 9:28:49 AM ||
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#1
Tokyo to Istanbul
I count at least one -- and probably two -- big water crossings there.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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Three, if you count the Bosphorus. They sure as hell aren't going to be routing it through North Korea, unless one of the parties is speaking for the NorKs.
Remind me again how much actual commercial traffic uses the crumbling remnants of the incomplete Pan American Highway?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/27/2004 10:45 Comments ||
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#3
Any environmental groups planning on opposing this? I mean, all them cars and all that pollution.....
#5
I have always thought the Japanese and Russians should work on upgrading the transsiberian railroad to become a bullet train. Japanese have the technology and need the work. Russia has resources in Siberia that need to be exploited and can return some contested islands to seal the deal.
Vladivostok to Moscow by train in 8 hours or less would change Asia.
#7
East Asians don't have a political or economic interest in promoting Russian-Siberian integration. As the trends are running, they'll have de facto control of eastern Siberia in another fifty years. Although those trends look most like a footrace between a set of asthmatics where the Russian runner is the closest to dead, and the Chinese runner is just starting to wheeze a bit...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/27/2004 11:22 Comments ||
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#8
Wouldn't be nice to have a well built military road funneling Asia into the Mideast?
#9
What a fantastic boondoggle!And Japan's financing it!What a beautiful plan to finally ruin Japan's economy.Japanese companies will get much of non-China construction(they're financing),but they will have to hire local construction crews,so very few actual Japanese citizens will get any money from this.Japanese banks will tie up all their capital on this,and bonds will still have to be floated,which will fail,wiping out all who invested in them(much of Japan mid-class will invest savings in such bonds out of patriotism).There will be delays caused by Nature,changes of governments(the new guys will want their payoffs)local wars,etc.And government and business grafts will be chump change compared to "protection"money that will be demanded by every 2bit bandit from China to Turkey.(To get your share of the loot,round up some cousins in the village,mount your pony and go shoot up constrution site at night.Couple days later send a message that for a suitable fee,you will ensure safety along this stretch of project.)
Posted by: Stephen ||
04/27/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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#10
Mitch H, it is in the interest of both Japan and Russia to ensure that China doesn't dominate Siberia. If Russia can be helped to develop and populate the area Japan may get inexpensive resources that they always need.
If I were Putin I'd bush for the bullet train I mentioned in #5, and I'd push to make Vladivostok the new Hong Kong to promote immigration from Europe and Western Russia and really make Russia a trading nation in the East.
#11
Oh, what a wonderful road trip whis will be! Imagine the truck stops, and the camp grounds, and spotting all the exotic license plates. I can't wait!
DANDONG, China April 26 â North Korea balked Monday at opening its heavily armed border to relief trucks from rival South Korea, even as international aid groups sought more help for thousands injured or made homeless by a massive train explosion. As a cold rain fell on the devastated community of Ryongchon, relief workers warned that more food, blankets and medicine were needed immediately in the impoverished nation.
Unless they come from the evil South.
Video released by the United Nations showed patients squeezed two to a bed in shabby hospitals, with compresses over their eyes and facial injuries from being struck by a wave of glass, rubble and heat in Thursday's blast. Aid workers said North Korea was short of even basic equipment like sutures and intravenous drips, and that donated goods were being used up as quickly as they could be supplied.
The Red Cross distributed a three-month supply of antibiotics, anesthetics and bandages to North Korean hospitals over the weekend, but "according to the hospitals, they have already used these medical supplies and have requested more," said Niels Juel, an official for the agency who is based in Beijing. "The overall health system ... is very strained," said Brendan McDonald, a U.N. aid coordinator in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Electrical power and water supplies are "all inadequate," he said.
I want to make a snarky remark about the 'worker's paradise', then I think of the thousands of ordinary folks who didn't bring this on themselves.
The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal Monday for $1.25 million in aid for North Korea. "Some families have lost all their belongings," Juel said. "Also, the water and sanitation system in that area would need to be restored."
Days after the catastrophe, details were still only trickling out from the secretive, communist North. Aid workers who first arrived in Ryongchon on Saturday described seeing huge craters, twisted railroad tracks and scorched buildings. Nearly half of the dead were children in a school torn apart by the blast, and the disaster left thousands of residents homeless, the aid workers said. One worker who toured a hospital in the nearby city of Sinuiju said that injured children lay on filing cabinets because there weren't enough beds. The hospital was "short of just about everything," said Tony Banbury, Asia regional director for the U.N. World Food Program, after his visit Sunday.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday the United States will give financial assistance to North Korea in response to the disaster but gave no further details. The Bush administration is working with the United Nations and "we will be making an offer," Powell said.
For which we'll get no credit.
Japan, Russia, Australia are among the countries that have already offered to send supplies. Neighboring China dispatched truckloads of tents, blankets and food across its border over the weekend. But North Korea's border with South Korea remained sealed. At a cargo depot near Seoul, Red Cross trucks loaded with medical supplies, bottled water, clothes and packages of instant noodles were awaiting the green light. But North Korea was hesitant Monday about allowing them across the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the two Koreas for over half a century. The Pyongyang government also didn't respond to a South Korean offer to unload ships carrying relief goods at ports near Ryongchon.
Officials from North and South Korea planned to meet in the northern city of Kaesong on Tuesday to discuss relief operations. "It is most important to have the relief goods arrive in the site of the explosion as quickly as possible," said South Korean Prime Minister Goh Kun. "By land or by sea, a quick means of transportation should be found."
How 'bout Kimmie's train>
North Korea's Communist government relaxed its normally intense secrecy as it pleaded for international help. It has blamed the disaster on human error, saying the cargo of oil and chemicals ignited when workers knocked the train cars against the Dear Leader's noggin power lines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2004 1:04:55 AM ||
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Has the Great PumpKim made an appearance since the big boom?
#2
Yeah - The government decreed that if the person responsible for this survived that he will volunteer for guinea-pig tesing of North Koreas WMD.
Also. Why are we giving $$$ ?. If the name USA printed on something is bad, we can simply buy stuff, and have someone piggyback it on their contribution. Someone who we'd trust IN THIS PARTICULAR SITUATION, eg Australia or Japan
#3
PBMcL - Even if they showed us DEAR LEADER, would we know for sure if it was DEAR LEADER, or simply a double for DEAR LEADER?
Without DEAR LEADER, then there is no leader, just a starved mass of crazed people with a nuke or two.
That is worse than if DEAR LEADER missed his appointment with boom, er. . . doom. When DEAR LEADER joins that politboro in the sky with DEAR DADDY, we got to take out the Nukes at the same time.
#4
The NorKs don't want supplies; they want cash. Cash they can use to buy more weapons and agents of influence. Medical supplies only let them keep hungry mouths alive.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2004 8:11 Comments ||
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#5
Dunno, RC. I suppose they could take the medical supplies and sell 'em in exchange for cash/weapons, first-release movie films, SK female movie stars, swimming pool chemicals, etc.
#6
"The Red Cross distributed a three-month supply of antibiotics, anesthetics and bandages to North Korean hospitals over the weekend" Want to bet that those supplies were hijacked by the KWP?
#7
North Korea balked Monday at opening its heavily armed border to relief trucks from rival South Korea, even as international aid groups sought more help for thousands injured or made homeless by a massive train explosion.
Why are all these people even bothering? The best thing that could happen is a scenario where no aid is forthcoming and that Kim is apparently on his own. That would be his worst nightmare: no one gives a rat's ass.
In remarks being reported throughout the Arab world Tuesday morning, New York Carpet Bagger Sen. Hillary Clinton blasted the Bush administration as a threat to peace in the Middle East, going so far as to accuse the President Bush of endangering the lives of U.S. troops. Sen. Clinton delivered the unprecedented attack in an interview with the London-based Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Monday, with newspapers from Tehran to Islamabad picking up her harsh words almost immediately. I like how eveyone rallies around the flag in time of war.
Typical was the coverage by Tehranâs news agency Mehr, which quoted Clinton as saying that "the U.S. is trapped in the quagmire of Iraq." "Referring to the Bush Administration policies as arrogant and insolent," Mehr said, "the wife of the former U.S. president further added that Bush is not willing to admit his mistakes in Iraq, the grave mistakes that have endangered the lives of both the Iraqi people and the U.S. servicemen alike." The former first lady said that Bushâs "mistakes have also threatened peace and stability in the region." Gheeez.
In comments that could will only encourage the Iraqi insurgency, the top Democrat complained that "the United States was in trouble because it could not abandon Iraq, nor provide enough manpower to run the country, nor gather world allies willing to provide the necessary assistance for the gigantic task," according to Mehrâs translation. Anyone else care to "translate" her remarks?
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
04/27/2004 11:29:51 AM ||
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At least she has no medals or ribbons to heave.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 11:47 Comments ||
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Mehr probably got it via email from Kerry '04 HQ, just like their other love notes
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2004 12:02 Comments ||
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ya know...the more I think about this the hotter I'm getting. This b*tch, whose husband played with interns and lied through grand jury interviews when he should've been doing his job protecting the U.S., should STFU. She's been trying to appear moderate, supporting the troops, but this shows what a tin ear she has and how she really feels. Our military, to Shrillary, are nothing more than toys to use for social experiments, unless if they (the clintons) have the opportunity to turn it on Americans...what an asshole.
Arrrrrrggghhh!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2004 12:07 Comments ||
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The former first vase-tosser doesn't have the guts to say a lot this for domestic consumption.
#5
So here we have this obscenely ambitious, shameless, lying bitch spouting blatant falsehoods clearly aimed at undermining U.S. foreign policy, to an enemy propaganda outlet in a time of war.
This is treason, and she should face a firing squad for it.
Thank you, Hillary, for reminding me why I left the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/27/2004 12:43 Comments ||
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I hope someone it taking all this down so we can replay the lying bitch's treason when she tries to get the cigar chair in '08.
#7
so I guess the most interesting part of this whole thing is: What was in this for her?
Kerry has shifted to being a war-hawk in the last couple of days as he obviously found it was poltically wise to do so.
So why would Hillary do this? It's not popular and not necessary. Worse, it will be on the record to be dredged up and thrown in her face by political opponents in any future election she enters. Hillary is smart enough to realize that overall, this will haunt her, not help her.
I've seen a desperation lately from some, well I hesitate to say unusual, so let me just say sources whom we've suspect attempt to assist the other side, but have previously never been so blatant. They have at least pretended to be neutral sources. Eg. - those 52 "diplomats" that acted in a non-diplomatic manner to embarrass Blair and now this. Also the WAPO and other media outlets have also become more blatant as well.
My guess is that the puppet-masters are saying, "dance". And for reasons unclear - these people are compelled to do so even at the risk of their own political futures. Money? Calling in favors?? Blackmail?
It reminds me of before the war - how NPR and BBC, ABCNBSTIMENBC all stooped to new lows in an all out effort to prevent the war = and failed. This will fail to, but whoever is orchestarting it doesn't care...they are giving it all they've got.
Posted by: B ||
04/27/2004 13:09 Comments ||
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Much as I dislike the Clintons,on this I would pause and remember the source.The article states the translation says-an English translation is needed for HIllary?Since when does she speak Arabic?What we have are her English words translated into Arabic,then back to English,all filtered by an Anti-American paper.She probably said something along lines of we should have had more troops,we're not going to run from Iraq,Bush's diplomacy could have been a little better,blah,blah,blah-standard moderate Demo line that was wildly overblown by paper.
Posted by: Stephen ||
04/27/2004 13:36 Comments ||
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This is a NewsMax translation of an Arab daily. Given today's press standards, it's hard to tell if this is an actual interview or just wishful thinking somewhere along the way. If, perchance it's the real thing, it's not the smartest thing in the world for a New York politician to be giving interviews to the Arab press.
Could the "smartest woman in the world" be auditioning to be a Kerry replacement at the convention?
#10
this is just disgracefull - worse than hanoi jane..at least hanoi jane was not a sitting senator...what is she trying to do score points with the electorate...still suprises me how politicians still carry themselves like it is pre-internet and mass communications, like they are in a bubble when traveling overseas...
Posted by: Dan ||
04/27/2004 14:12 Comments ||
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Well, when it comes to "arrogant and insolent", the Hildebeest knows whereof she speaks.
#12
It doesn't matter, Stephen. She's smart enough to understand that was a possibility and if she wasn't, she should have been. It matters only what the Arab papers wrote, as that's what can be used in the campaign adds against her. One can quote AlNews agency without suffering a defamation suit.
This is a public relations disater and she was plenty smart enough to have understood that when she went there. The only question in my mind is WHY she was willing to subject herself to this. There is NOTHING in this for her that we are aware of. NOTHING!
Posted by: B ||
04/27/2004 14:20 Comments ||
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Hillary is a lot more hawkish than can be squared with that excerpt. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that either this is a radical case of "telephone game", or else the source is Blairizing. IIRC, Asharq al-Awsat has a rather dodgy reputation.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/27/2004 14:38 Comments ||
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RWW, I hope your right and she somehow replaces Kerry at the convention. Bush would slaughter her in the election and then we won't hear about her again. Modern politicians rarely rebound from a failed presidential run to run again.
#16
This confirms to me further that the left anti-war wing of the Dims is for real in their mainstream of thought. While they say they support our troops in reality the Dim party has descended into their own quagmire of war conspiracies fueled by a hatred of our Presdient and what he stands for. Perhaps, courting the "Nader" vote now they know they can't win mirroring the Presdient's plan so they now have turned loose the far left anti-war moonbats. Of course, the well being of our nation is secondary in this line of thought where party and power is foremost and the defense of our nation is secondary to that goal.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
04/27/2004 20:14 Comments ||
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I find this article so weird,on so many levels. In Australia 80% of "refugees" are still on welfare 10 years after they arrive here. So how are they a lifeline to rescue the locals? Why will they be able to turn things around and do what the natives canât? If anything, they will accelerate the downfall of Western Civilisation, so keep them out. Europe has gone through many increases and decreases in population over the last five hundred years, and they have never needed Islam to rescue them. For an article on why the doomsayers are wrong, see this
The forecast isnât all grim. Thereâs little doubt that Europe, including Britain, will fundamentally change during the next 50 years. But if it turns into what some commentators are calling "Eurabia," the change wonât necessarily mean the end of Western civilization. It need not mean regression to the Dark Ages, the theocratization of secular democracy, or the Islamicization of Christianity. On the contrary, it might bring about the much-needed modernization of Islam.
Perhaps in the manner that the fall of the Roman Empire ended up civilizing the Franks and the Goths. Seems to me there was a dark age in there somewhere...
To know what may happen in Europe and why, itâs helpful to recognize what has been happening. Simply put, the Old World has been getting older. Projections show the median age of the countries that currently make up the European Union reaching 50 in 50 years, with about one person in three being 65 or over. These figures come from the United Nations and they factor in immigration. So do the next set of numbers, which show Europe not only ageing but shrinking, in absolute as well as relative terms. Currently the combined head count of EU countries represents about 6% of the worldâs population, which is down from 14% as the 20th century began, and on its way to be about 4% by the middle of the 21st century. Even in absolute terms there will be about 7.5 million fewer Europeans in 2050 than there are today -- and thatâs with current levels of immigration being maintained. To be shrinking and ageing in a world thatâs growing and getting younger (the median age in 2002 was 37.8 for Canada, 31.5 for China, 22.9 for Iran, 19.8 for Pakistan and 15.3 for the Gaza strip) has some inexorable consequences. One is that, regardless of how immigrants may change the character of Europe, or whatever backlash they may engender in what the historian Niall Ferguson has called "the economically Neanderthal right," stopping or reversing immigration is no longer an option.
Nativist politicians such as Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, the late Pim Fortuyn in Holland, or commentators like Oriana Fallaci in Italy, may continue to be in the news, increase their following and even score valid points, but theyâll be butting their heads against a demographic stone wall. Even with continuing immigration, Europeâs taxpayers can only look forward to their steeply increasing taxes buying them steeply decreasing services. Without immigration, one EU taxpayer would soon have to support four or five EU pensioners -- or watch his parents build their last igloo, European-style. Continuing immigration, though, will likely lead to Eurabia. Immigrants tend to respond to their own demographic pressures, and Europeâs fastest growing neighbours today are -- to quote Niall Ferguson again -- "predominantly if not wholly Muslim." The question is, what will Eurabia lead to?
The past is a good (though not infallible) guide to the future. European nations turned their essentially homogenous countries to U.S.-style immigrant societies after the Second World War for several reasons, one being the aftermath of empire. The law of unintended consequences caught up with Britain, France, Holland and Belgium. Their face-saving fictions -- such as "commonwealth" or "metropolitan France" -- obliged these ex-colonial powers to accommodate a reverse population flow from troubled or depressed regions of their former possessions. The trickle became a flood in the early 1960s as immigrants from North Africa, the Caribbean or the Spice Islands inundated the home countries, giving politicians like Enoch Powell grey hair. Another reason applied especially to countries like Germany that needed guest workers as their booming post-war economies quickly outpaced their decimated post-war labour forces. The guest workersâ own reason was that European societies -- even East European societies, after the Soviet collapse --were more attractive in terms of economic opportunities and social benefits, to say nothing of human securities and freedoms, than the prospective immigrantsâ native societies.
A final reason, no less important than the others, had to do with changing attitudes. Europeans started accepting immigrants for they had been dazzled by the American melting pot. In the euphoria that followed post-war prosperity, the seeming triumph of rationality and liberal ideals, people in Europe momentarily lost their fear of demographic realities along with many older concerns of the human condition, from scarcity to salvation. Many felt that such ancient quandaries were left buried under the rubble of empire, leaving them free to concentrate on individual self-realization, or new preoccupations from gender-equality to the environment. In practical terms, in addition to welcoming (or at least permitting) newcomers from such unfashionable addresses as Turkey or Algiers, Europeans expressed their new-found spirit of self-confidence by a) going to church less often; and b) having fewer babies. Both activities were replaced by driving more BMWs for longer distances on wider highways and (contradictory as this may seem) organizing more ecological conferences in stylish resorts.
Nature is said to abhor a vacuum. Itâs hardly surprising that the vacuum left by Europeans in fecundity as well as in religiosity was filled by the Muslim immigrants within four to five decades. In another 50 years mosques may outnumber churches in what by then will be Eurabia -- and, more importantly, believers may outnumber unbelievers. While there are more Christians than Muslims in the world -- about two billion as opposed to 1.3 billion -- nominal Christians far outnumber nominal Muslims. When only luxury cars increase and multiply in a region, the demographic outcome isnât in doubt. What remains in doubt is what the demographic outcome might mean. Europe Islamicized may resemble the four young British Muslims in David Cohenâs Terror on the Dole, a news story recently published in the Evening Standard. The four eat chips with brown sauce while hoping that "Sheikh bin Laden" will bomb London ("I pray for it, I look forward to the day.") Other British Muslims in the same story dismiss such talk as "verbal diarrhea." Influences work both ways. China was never conquered because it Sinofied immigrants as well as invaders. Will Eurabia be the crucible of Islamâs progression from the Middle Ages to the 21st century? I donât know, but just asking the question makes me feel better.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/27/2004 11:13:10 AM ||
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Is this guy nuts? Islam will be the death of Europe, as it has been for every other civilization it has overrun. These people don't want to progress from the Middle Ages. In fact, they probably think the Middle Ages are a bit too complex.
Posted by: Infidel Bob ||
04/27/2004 12:12 Comments ||
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well there's an optimist for ya! Talk about finding a silver lining in a dark cloud.
Of course, I suppose it all depends on which side you look at it. If you look at it as a European who enjoyed the fruits of a free and modern society of the year 2000, perhaps reverting back to ...oh say the 17th Century...in order to pull your Muslim commrades up from the 13th Century - isn't such a great deal.
but hey! Like this says, no need to see the glass half-empty.
Posted by: B ||
04/27/2004 13:21 Comments ||
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The dangers of this are many, the benefits few. I think one of the problems with Islam is that you don't necessarily have to be more religious, you just have to do what the book tells you. Christianity and Judiasm have both gotten past that point, but Islam is still more about the letter than the spirit - and the letter is what's going to take us down unless we smash its world-covering ideals here and now. We allow them, but - well, Bernard Lewis said it best in The Crisis of Islam:
"The democrats are of course at a disadvantage. Their ideology requires them, even when in power, to give freedom and rights to the Islamist opposition. The Islamists, when in power, are under no such obligation. On the contrary, their principles require them to supress what they see as impious and subversive activities. For Islamists, democracy . . . is a one-way road, on which there is no return, no rejection of the sovereignty of God, as exercised through His chosen representatives. Their electoral policy has been classically summarized as 'One man (men only), one vote, once.'"
And that's what Europe gets to face.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
04/27/2004 15:24 Comments ||
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The comparisons with US emigration show how uninformed this fellow is. Until recently the US made a pretty strong effort to assimilate our immigrants. As each wave came in the wave before it disappeared into the collective American culture.
In Europe they had guest worker programs and other dodges to keep the immigrants seperate hoping I suppose that they would eventually leave when they earned enough money and the host country no longer needed them. So Germany has third generation immigrant Turks and Kurds who are not German citizens. In France the Algerians-French are all French citizens but they stay in enclaves away from the population. This is the worst-case scenerio and nothing like the US experience.
If Europe wanted to revitalize themselves because of the aging crisis they should be forcing immigrants to become European, not changing European ways to accomidate immigrants.
#2
Well, first of all, he's in Belgium duh . . . just for a little frolic . . . won't be talking to anyone important . . . just a little shopping, a little tourism . . .
He says: "We do hope that we shall not be obliged or forced (stop tape: "obliged or forced"? ) to go back to those days where we bomb our cars or put explosive belts around our women . . . " Then he goes on about Palestine where "The victims are women and children, and the battlefield has become the kitchen and bedroom . . ." (Freudian slip . . . "the battle has become the bedroom" . . . he's just figuring that one out, I guess)
All is Moslem bullsh*t, like usual--they victimize their women, then complain about it from others--like, it's okay if they do it: "those days where we put explosive belts around our women" vs. (his complaint about Palestine) "The victims are women . . . " Typical Arab "logic" of inconsistency.
All Islamic pseudo-men need to die. And the Marines agree with me!
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday the likelihood of persistently high energy prices would probably help keep U.S. energy use in check and influence energy-related business investments. "The rise in six-year oil and (natural) gas futures prices is almost surely going to affect the growth of oil and gas consumption in the United States," Greenspan said in remarks prepared for a conference on energy security.
In his speech, which did not touch on the current outlook for the U.S. economy or interest rates, the Fed chief said the "dramatic rise" in oil and natural gas prices in recent years suggested such elevated prices would prove to be the norm. "The recent shift ... has been substantial enough and persistent enough to influence business investment decisions, especially for facilities that require large quantities of natural gas," Greenspan said. "Although the effect of these developments on energy-related investments is significant, it doubtless will fall far short of the large changes in our capital stock that followed the 1970s surge in crude oil prices," he said, adding that the U.S. economy was much less energy-dependent than in the past. The Fed chief said the "dramatic rise" in oil and natural gas futures prices in recent years carried the potential to "significantly affect the long-term path of the U.S. economy."
Greenspan said the U.S. must expand global trade in natural gas so further price spikes donât harm the worldâs largest economy, adding that high oil prices "presumably" reflected concerns over the potential for long-term supply disruption in the Middle East. He noted that market forces were as important a determinant of prices as the oil-producing OPEC cartel. "Although OPEC production quotas have been a significant factor in price determination for a third of a century, the story since 1973 has been as much one of the power of markets as of power over markets," Greenspan said. "The signals provided by market prices have eventually resolved even the most seemingly insurmountable difficulties of inadequate domestic supply in the United States," he added.
Crude oil prices have been above the $22 to $28 target price range set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for all but one working day since last November, with U.S. crude prices hovering near $38 a barrel in recent days. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told the conference earlier experts had underestimated oil demand in the first quarter. "There are signs that worldwide inventories have begun to build but no one really knows for sure," he said. At a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations over the weekend, Greenspan had said precautionary stock building was partly behind surging energy costs, according to French officials. In a statement at the conclusion of their talks, the G7 ministers heralded a building global economic recovery, but said further oil price rises posed a threat. He noted that worldwide imports account for 57 percent of global oil consumption but only 23 percent of natural gas consumption, meaning trade has room to grow in natural gas.
As for the rise in natural gas futures prices, Greenspan pinned it on North American supply-and-demand issues. "Dramatic changes in technology in recent years, while making existing natural gas reserves stretch further, have been unable, in the face of inexorably rising demand, to keep the underlying long-term price for natural gas in the United States from rising," Greenspan said. "If North American gas markets are to function with the flexibility exhibited by oil, more extensive access to the vast world reserves of gas is required,ââ he said in his remarks.
As he has on numerous occasions, Greenspan said the United States should increase the number of port facilities that can handle liquefied natural gas. "Without the flexibility that such facilities impart, imbalances in supply and demand must inevitably engender price volatility," he said. Greenspan welcomed signs that a "major expansion" of U.S. natural gas import facilities was under way, but said: "The near term, however, is apt to continue to be challenging."
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
04/27/2004 6:24:33 PM ||
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The U.S. natural gas supply is nearly all from domestic sources. A very small portion of US natural gas consumed is imported from Canada. An extremely small proportion is liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG importing facilities are extremely limited at present. The increase in LNG import facilities needs to be "vast". These natural gas facts are little known, and always omitted from discussion of energy prices and whether or not to allow more domestic well drilling. This article hints at the situation, but doesn't state it well.
#2
Because of the difficulty of transporting it (You need a lot of infrastructure), natural gas can be purchased for close to a zero price in many (most?) places in the world.
EFL - hattip to WSJ Best of Web
Democrats began a weeklong attack on Vice President Dick Cheneyâs record yesterday, with party chief Terry McAuliffe calling him "the last guy who should be lecturing John Kerry" and a Democrat-leaning group suggesting that Mr. Cheneyâs wife became pregnant to help her husband avoid serving in Vietnam. Mr. McAuliffe, speaking at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, called Mr. Cheney "the Bush campaignâs attack dog in chief," and questioned whether he had the credentials to make his speech yesterday criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerryâs voting record on defense â policywise as well as personally. "When he was secretary of defense, Dick Cheney consistently proposed massive cuts to weapons programs that our troops are using right now in Iraq," Mr. McAuliffe said, pointing to Mr. Cheneyâs support while defense secretary in the previous Bush administration for cutting the M-1 tank, the B-2 bomber, AH-64 Apache helicopters and the F-16 fighter. Mr. McAuliffe then questioned Mr. Cheneyâs personal qualifications. "You remember Dick Cheney," he said. "When John Kerry was risking his life for his country in Vietnam, Dick Cheney was getting deferments because, in his words, he had âother priorities than military service.â "
The vice president has become the go-to man when President Bushâs re-election campaign needs an authoritative voice to challenge Mr. Kerry on defense. In a speech in Fulton, Mo., yesterday, the site of British Prime Minister Winston Churchillâs 1946 "Iron Curtain" speech, the vice president said Mr. Kerryâs voting record is a long trail of supporting defense and intelligence cuts. The Kerry campaign said yesterday that Mr. Cheney was "smearing John Kerryâs patriotism," and Mr. McAuliffe said Democrats have learned from past elections that they must answer such charges instantly and forcefully. "We shockingly saw what they did to Max Cleland in 2002," Mr. McAuliffe said of the former Democratic senator from Georgia, who lost his seat after a barrage of ads criticizing him for supporting a filibuster to delay creating the Department of Homeland Security. "We remember how their ads put Max Clelandâs face next to Osama bin Ladenâs and told America that a triple amputee who fought in Vietnam would not defend the security of his country," he said.
Meanwhile, Democrat-leaning political organizations took up the charges yesterday, with one group suggesting that Mr. Cheneyâs wife, Lynne, became pregnant to help her husband avoid serving in Vietnam. Mr. Cheney received five deferments, the first four because he was in school. But the Thunder Road Group, a consultancy working for America Coming Together, one of the Democrat-leaning "Section 527" political operations, said Mr. Cheneyâs fifth deferment came when his wife became pregnant. The group noted that the rules governing the draft changed Oct. 26, 1965, to allow married, childless men to be drafted. Mr. Cheney received a deferment three months later on the grounds that his wife was pregnant. The Cheneysâ first child, Elizabeth, was born, the group noted, "nine months and two days after childless men were deemed eligible for the draft." The accusation that Mr. Cheney used the pregnancy to avoid serving in Vietnam was made in the 2000 campaign, and resurfaced in a March opinion article on Slate.com and several Web discussion forums, including one sponsored by Mother Jones magazine.
Every time I think the Democrats have gone as low as they can go, they go lower. I shouldn't be surprised.
But as Mr. Cheney has raised his profile on defense issues, Democrats said the charge is worth examining. "The facts are out there, and weâre just presenting them. It looks as if a little bit more went into the Cheney family-planning decision, but who knows," said Sarah Leonard, a spokeswoman for the Thunder Road Group.
"We're not smearing the man, we're just presenting facts. We'll next present facts on the question of whether or not he's stopped beating his wife."
"For Dick Cheney, who did everything he could to avoid serving in Vietnam, to attack John Kerry, a man who had the courage to put his life on the line, is a new low," she said. The Bush campaign was outraged at the pregnancy charges. "This is an outrageous and despicable attack, and Senator Kerry should repudiate it," spokesman Scott Stanzel said. It looks to me as if Max Cleland and Kerry are/were being attacked on their voting record. I read Cheneyâs address and see nothing in it concerning Kerryâs military service or his time escapades as a war protester. It seems as if Kerry is accentuating the negatives in Bushâs record and the GOP is doing the same. How does that qualify as a personal attack?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 6:49:27 PM ||
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Jeez, John, what ever happened to "Bring! It! On!" eh?
Anymore, that has to be classed as an understatement: in all my 55 years, I have never seen a candidate for public office less inspiring than John Kerry, nor a political campaign more ineptly run than his.
I was a Democrat for three decades, until last year; but even if I were still a Democrat, and even if we were not in a fight for our survival against militant Islam, I don't see how I could possibly work up the energy to vote for this fool. What an utter, farking idiot.
Bill Quick, at dailypundit.com, has been saying for months that the Democratic Party is toast; I'm beginning to think he may be on to something.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/27/2004 20:50 Comments ||
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Dave, when you voted DNC, you still didn't buy this type of bull. The GOP criticizes Kerry's record and Kerry complains that the GOP is attacking his service in Vietnam. It's a shell game. I think most of Kerry's VN firestorm is being fed by Vets and/or Pundits.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 22:13 Comments ||
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#5
Are they playing a game where they accuse Cheney of making a statement he didn't make figuring that most Americans will never look at the transcript to see what Cheney actually did say?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 23:30 Comments ||
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Just too delicious not to post, sorry for the diversion from the WOT $1000 HAIRCUT? KERRY FLIES IN HAIRDRESSER FOR TOUCH-UP BEFORE âMEET THE PRESSâ
**Drudge Exclusive**
On the Friday before his MEET THE PRESS appearance, Dem presidential hopeful John Kerry flew his Washington, DC hairdresser to Pittsburgh for a touch-up, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Cristophe stylist Isabelle Goetz, who handles Kerryâs hair issues, made the trek to Pittsburgh, campaign sources reveal. "Her entire schedule had to be rearranged," a top source explains. "Her schedule? Donât you know who I am?"
A Kerry campaign spokesman refuses to clarify if Goetz flew by private jet on April 16 or on the official Kerry For President campaign plane. The total expense for the hair touch-up is estimated to be more than $1000, insiders tell DRUDGE. One source suggests the hairdresser was flown to Pittburgh on Teresa Heinz Kerryâs âFlying Squirrelâ, a Gulfstream V private jet. [The âFlying Squirrelâ is worth about $35 million. A deluxe model; plasma TV, two bathrooms, fancy mahogany and burlwood paneling, gold-plated fixtures.] "Senator Kerry thinks Isabelle does a superb job," a campaign source said. Goetz grew up in a small town in eastern France. She also does Hillary Clintonâs hair.
Developing... LOL - A man of the little people
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2004 1:32:20 PM ||
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Flying the Gulstream Jet $2000
Haircut by Hillary's Hairdresser $1000
Limo Ride to Good Morning America $750
Being Blindsided By Charlie Gibson on "The Medals"
PRICELESS
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/27/2004 14:10 Comments ||
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classic sam....
would really be interested if she flew officially...especially after the bashing ashcroft was given on whether he and his wife flew on govt planes or not by 9-11 dem witch hunt
Posted by: Dan ||
04/27/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#7
an instance where Clinton held up an airport (LAX???) so he could get a haircut on Airforce 1 or something?
Yup, and it was Cristophe himself, the same stylist this gal works for.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2004 16:21 Comments ||
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Steve - that's what popped into my mind the minute I saw "Cristophe" (is that a phony name or what?). Self-centered losers think alike, apparently.
Yosemite Sam: ROFLMAO!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/27/2004 17:09 Comments ||
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He's getting royally screwed if he pays $1000 for that haircut. I bet the girls at the local Supercuts could do as good for about $7.
Fifteen years after the first controversial claims hit the headlines, cold fusion refuses to die. A small cadre of die-hard advocates argues that experiments now produce consistent results. The physics establishment continues to scoff, but some scientists who have been watching the field carefully are convinced something real is happening. And now the U.S. Department of Energy has decided that recent results justify a fresh look at cold fusion.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 6:36:50 PM ||
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This post is brought to you by TokaMate--your personal fusion device.
Use it at the cabin, in the camper, even on your boat!
#2
Read the comments at the end of the article. Some interesting stuff. I won't rattle on about the West needing to wean itself off imported oil, but just possibly cold fusion might provide an answer. If it does it will be as revolutionary as the semiconductor.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/27/2004 20:33 Comments ||
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Osama, the first film to come out of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, is about a 12-year-old girl who must shave her head and dress like a boy so she can work to support her widowed mother and grandmother. It is not about Osama bin Laden; "Osama" is the boy's name the girl adopts. But who fears whom most? Could it be that the men, who must forbid the merest expression of female sexuality, fear the women even more than the women fear them? Is not fear of women the basis for the punishing, the covering up, the locking away, the banning of them from public life, that reached its most extreme under the Taliban but which is still common throughout the Middle East?
It's what makes Islamists the stunted creatures they are. What would we — men, I mean — be like without our daily treat of the sight of pretty faces, bosoms ranging from dainty to lasciviously full, comely thighs, and lovely smiles? Life would be flavorless at best, sour at the most likely.
I am sent a newsletter from a women's rights group in Pakistan, which lists items from Pakistani newspapers. The following is a recent selection (I checked the items on the newspapers' websites):
Lahore: A girl, Kauser, 17, was strangled by her elder brother because she had married of her own will. She returned home and asked her family to forgive her but her brother strangled her with a piece of cloth. - The Daily Times.
Ghotki district: Two women were killed over Karo-Kari (honour killing). One Nihar Jatoi tied his wife to a bed and electrocuted her. One Bachal axed his wife Salma to death and fled. No arrests were reported. - The News. What chance of this woman becoming an international symbol, as has the boy who lost his arms during the invasion of Iraq?
Sargodha: A woman is in hospital after having both legs amputated because of severe injuries inflicted by her brother-in-law and mother-in-law, who clubbed her for her alleged illicit affairs. The woman, who was fighting for life, said the real reason was that her brother-in-law was trying to force her to arrange his marriage to her younger sister, but her sister had instead eloped with her paramour. - Dawn.
Why is international public opinion not outraged at the treatment of women in Islamic fundamentalist societies? Why is it easier for millions of people around the world to see America as the great evil, rather than the countries in which governments ignore such horrific abuses of women?
Wot an excellent question.
My guess is because they're part of The Masses™. To the left they lack faces, personalities, human feelings — they're an abstract, on the other side of the world.
Yet if there is ever going to be a peaceful world there are few things more important than lifting the status of women. And as a United Nations report notes, a large part of the reason so many countries in the Middle East are overpopulated, economic basket cases is the repression of women. The birth rate in Saudi Arabia is 6.1. Germany's is 1.3, Spain's 1.1. You would think EU countries would be doing everything they could to help Iraq to set an example as a decent, democratic state in the Middle East.
"Democracy" doesn't rhyme with "appeasement" in Zappie's dictionary.
Thousands of women in Arab countries are legally murdered every year in the name of honour, little girls are forced into marriages with old men, women are stoned and beaten for reasons that would be unheard of in Western countries. The freedoms of Western women, their open sexuality, are a large part of the hatred the Islamist men feel for the West. They would, if they could, spread their joyless, sex-denying, life-denying version of religion over the world. They've said, many times, this is what they want. They would, if they could, have all our daughters in burqas. More than any others, it was American feminists who during the time of the Taliban were agitating to try to get governments to take action against Afghanistan over the treatment of women.
Actually, I think I missed that...
If there's a war on, we should be clear about who is the real enemy of civilisation. Despite the reservations any liberal would feel for some policies of the present Administration (and the doubts about its competence), the enemy is not America.
The author will now be hounded to hell by the LLL who will be as effective as any Taliban milita group in terrorizing her.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2004 4:23:35 PM ||
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#1
Everybody already knows where I stand on all of this.
Sure hope the author has a second career to fall back on when the sh-t hits the fan. She's a brave soul. At least some journalists are doing their jobs.
#3
I salute her.....she's a braver woman than I am.
Although I'm not a fan of Madonna's, I remember once that she said the perfect punishment for the Ayatollah Khomeini would have been to make him live under his regime.....as a woman.
EFL - I was kidding about 7-11 âThe Zionist Jews are Behind All the Violent and Terror Operations that have Occurred Everywhere In the Worldâ
"If you want to know the real perpetrator of every disaster or every act of terrorism, look for the Zionist Jews. They are behind all the violent and terror operations that have occurred everywhere in the world....Their most recent operation was the bombings in Spain. Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said a videocassette in Arabic was found ...Actually, it is they who are behind the events of September 11. Proof of this is what was broadcast by the Canadian news agency on September 17... an article in the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya titled âThe Secret Israeli Weapon,â by deputy editor Abd Al-Wahhab âAdas
#1
two jews run into each other in the park. One is holding a copy of an antisemitic newspaper - "why do you read that crap??" says his friend.
He responds "when i read the jewish paper, i hear how some synagogue is in financial trouble, how the UN is condemning Israel, and Israel is losing support in Congress, how Jews are being attacked in France, and other depressing stuff. When I read the antisemitic paper i hear how we control all the banks, all the big companies, all the goverments, and how we're all rich and powerful - Id much rather hear that"
#2
Blaming them for 7-11... boy, talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar ||
04/27/2004 14:35 Comments ||
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#3
Since we wet nurse Egypt to the tune of $2bn each year, shouldn't we force them to change their op-ed a bit? If it aint the jews in it's the U.S. I say cut off the aid and let them eat mud! BTW: LW VERY FUNNY!
#4
And just who are the chosen people if the Jews have unlimited influence in the world and the Islamofascists have almost none? Sounds like the cry-baby Islamofacsists should change teams. Of course, there is that circumcision issue...
Posted by: Tom ||
04/27/2004 14:56 Comments ||
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#5
I know Arabic culture is very fond of conspiricy theories but blaming the Jews for everything is somewhat pathetic. The Arabs outnumber the Jews by a significant number. If I was an Arab I'd start saying the Indians were behind all the failures. They are far away from the Arabs, not one of the peoples of the Book, and there are enough of them to credibly cause all the trouble the Jews are currently accused of causing.
Either that or I'd blame the Brits and French, the ex-colonial powers and say that they protect Israel from behind the scenes.
But blaming the Jews all the time is like Mike Tyson saying Woody Allen beats him up and harrasses him. It just doesn't work.
#9
I know Arabic culture is very fond of conspiricy theories but blaming the Jews for everything is somewhat pathetic.
It's not only the Arab culture. Have you visited Europe recently?
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/27/2004 16:17 Comments ||
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#10
MWH, hilarious title!
Being from Dallas, the home of 7-11, I happen to know that the founders were good Catholics!
(My grandfather was a part founder and he was a Southern Baptist.)
Posted by: Jen ||
04/27/2004 17:10 Comments ||
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#11
now how can 3 million+ people scare upwards of a billion muslims.......... if the arabs ever got their shit together there would be no issue!
Posted by: Dan ||
04/27/2004 19:09 Comments ||
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#12
Wait until they find out Simon Bar-Jonah is guarding the gates of Heaven.
From Ali one of the 3 Iraqi dentist bloggers April 25 entry
1-He should not be a cleric.
2-He should be at least 84 years old with life expectancy of no more than 90 for his family.
3-Should have no criminal record.
4-He should have at least 2 chronic illnesses (organic) with no possible cure.
5-He should have NO sons.
6-He should not be able to make a speech longer than 15 minutes.
7-He should have an IQ that can be measured
8-His birthday should not be known.
9-He should not have been seen wearing a military uniform.
10-He should have no interest in nerve gas, mustard gas, abdominal gasâŠetc.
11-He should have no experience whatever with guns.
12-He should NOT be a war hero.
13-He should not have a history in using words like conspiracy, historical, mother of all âŠ., the day of daysâŠ..etc.
14-He should speak at least 6 languages beside Arabic AND English (French, German, Russian and Chinese are NOT needed)
15-He should feel comfortable with living in one house for a long time.
16-The applicant should show documents that prove that heâs hated by the majority of Palestinians, Saudis, Egyptians and ARABS in general.
17-He should have been criticized severely by Arab media, especially Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
Anyone who thinks he can meet the above standards, please e-mail us with attached CV.
Posted by: mhw ||
04/27/2004 8:20:38 AM ||
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Fred, I think Ali's ready to become a assistant editor.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2004 8:51 Comments ||
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#2
He'd be welcome.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2004 21:32 Comments ||
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#4
No mention of 'suicide'? Grrr. How dare Aunty try to be sincere. Grrrr!!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2004 9:09 Comments ||
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#5
BD and Howard, I don't see a problem with what the BBC has done in this case. That said, wouldn't the victim have made an interesting story rather than just a picture?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2004 12:24 Comments ||
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#6
Phil B., I don't see what's misleading about the headline. The only kind of bombs killing Israelis are bomb belts and car bombs. For the BBC actually had something semiaccurate and relatively nonantisemitic to say about the midEast.
EFL
An Indian tribe has forced distributors of an Arab studies guide for U.S. teachers to remove an inaccurate passage that says Muslim explorers preceded Christopher Columbus to North America and became Algonquin chiefs. Nice try assclowns.
Peter DiGangi, director of Canadaâs Algonquin Nation Secretariat in Quebec, called claims in the book, the "Arab World Studies Notebook," "preposterous" and "outlandish," saying nothing in the tribeâs written or oral history support them. Wow. A Canadian doing something worthwhile.
The 540-page book says the Muslim explorers married into the Algonquin tribe, resulting in 17th-century tribal chiefs named Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik. Yes. And today they are on the leading edge of technology, industry, and research and development.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
04/27/2004 6:38:10 AM ||
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Quebec, the 2,347th Holiest Place in Islam.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2004 8:49 Comments ||
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#2
Muslims preceded Columbus to North America. And
Eskimos founded Rome.
Posted by: Mark ||
04/27/2004 8:58 Comments ||
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#3
Actually, there is something to this, though the Algonquin chief claim is truly silly.
Still, if you read Columbus' journals as well as those of others who were considering sailing at the time, it is true that they had researched the issue and there were accounts that Muslims had sailed West from Morocco and found something though the journey was thought too dangerous to sustain. This oral evidence is corroborated by Ottoman maps that show a vague outline of an American continent.
There is also evidence that the Chinese sailed the world before shutting up shop.
No idea where Great Chief Abdallah Ibn Malik came from. I wonder what they thought of a Chief named Slave of God, Son of the King.
#4
Except there's no archaeological evidence of Muslim or Chinese pre-Columbian contact. There is definite evidence (from multiple sites!) of Viking presence in North America; where is the equivalent of L'anse aux Meadows for the Muslims or Chinese?
BTW -- which Ottoman maps are those? Some of the supposed evidence is, well, either fake or very generously interpreted.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2004 9:42 Comments ||
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#5
Actually, for anyone who has studied the evidence, not dreamy djinn droppings, there is zip zilch nada nothing to this.
Not a single "authority" even entertains this nonsense as a joke. Period. America. Australia. Tierra Del Fuego. The far-flung Isle of Langerhans.
Wotta a load and wotta buncha dipshits. Lame pseudo-science attempts to distract from the fact that Islam was cast in amber on Day One. It is the intellectual Black Hole of mankind; the freak, the disfunctional bottom-feeder, the most regressive and absurd of all mankind's ooga-booga creations to survive longer than the insane founder. 14 centuries of unrelenting hatred, barbarism, brutality, and violence.
I got your vague outline of reality right here, sucker.
#7
Assuming all these other folks did discover America first it takes nothing away from Columbus, it just shows that these folks had no follow-through.
Saying you made it to the Americas first and then did nothing about it (and barely kept records of the fact) is kind of pathetic.
#8
I have no problem believing that pre-Columbian sailors wound up in the Americas largely by accident for the most part. In the early 15th century the Chinese had the most advanced naval technology on the planet and were regularily sailing the Inian Ocean. The Arab trading cultures of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea were accomplished navigators in the Indian Ocean. That does not mean that they were purposely sailing the world at large. But that does not mean they didn't either. Our past as a species is often much more complex and interesting than we realize. Perhaps one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated was the burning of the Chinese accounts of the Voyages of the Treasure Fleets by the Mandarins one the death of Zhu Di the third Ming Emperor
#9
Columbus' own journals contain references to reported Moroccan ventures west into the Atlantic. That doesn't mean that those ventures really took place, or weren't hyperbolized, or resulted in native contact/settlement of any kind. It's just true that Columbus believed they took place and embarked on his journey in part because he believed the accounts. It's also not unreasonable to suggest that explorers sailing west from Africa had more of a chance to succeed because they had the astrolabe first and had a shorter journey to the Brazilian coast that the Spaniards had to the Indies.
I have honestly forgotten the source of the Ottoman maps but remember reading it in a reputable place - which doesn't excuse the possibility that they were forgeries.
As for the Chinese evidence, it's my understanding that they've found the wrecks of a few Chinese dhows and they also have fairly detailed accounts in Chinese. The Chinese certainly had the capability for such a venture. Wasn't some major book put out recently to this effect.
And I agree that we don't give Columbus or Cortes enough credit for sheer ballsiness, a trait we don't place much stock in these days. Regardless of intent, the instant European diseases hit this continent, the people living here were doomed.
I'm just saying there are legitimate historical 'conspiracies' and then there are stupid ones. The question of the Sphinx's date is a legit question. So is the possibility of non-Viking pre-Columbian journeys.
#10
the European disease (at least for south America) bit is in dispute, there seems to be a strong correlation between weather patterns and population evidence, the weather patterns that heralded lower population also occurred when the Spanish appeared, it may just have been good timing on their part
( eh I read this like 5 months ago, so am sketchy on the details)
#12
The only reason mooslims are trying to say this horseshit is so they can try to claim Canada as a holy site. Same shit, different century. It's been shown many times that most "muslim" accomplishments were either stolen from previous cultures or were done by their slaves (or dhimmi's as the case may be). Islam is nothing if not a regressive, repressive, stealing culture of moon-god, pedophile followers.
Sawt, give some references to your claims. Oh, and if the references are muslim in origin forget it.
#14
Sawt al-Shebaab, "Chinese dhows" The Arabs used dhows, the Chinese used Junks. A dhow is a smal coastal vessel, a junk is a large vessel with compartmentalized interior (take on water in one section and you don't lose the ship). Chinese Junks were way, way ahead of their time.
#17
Didn't they have a 'King of the Hill' episode along these lines? Texas fractured history or something like that? This sounds so like it. Any primary Iraqi child knows that Saddam invented Electricty. All college students in North Korea know that 'Dear Leader' expored space long before the American, Russians, or Chinese. So I am skeptical that Arabs INTENTIONALLY explored beyond waters of the North Africa. Their Naval technology wasn't up to the task. Maybe Allah created a great storm that sent them accross the ocean?
#19
Actually, the greatest sea-faring people were the Polynesians (distance-wise). They went as far east as Easter Island on nothing more than catamarans.
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/27/2004 21:45 Comments ||
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#20
And even more impressive the Polynesians went against the winds the entire way, that way if they didn't find anything they knew the trade winds would bring them back. Very clever folks.
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.
