Freaky the hen spent the first eight months of her life laying eggs and attracting the attentions of a rooster.
But last September the silver-laced Wyandotte started crowing at sunrise and being aggressive.
She has since developed the full comb and wattle of a cockerel. She has put on weight and engages in simulated mating. Only the equipment to produce offspring is missing.
Her owner, Jo Richards, 42, of Saltford, near Bath, said: "One morning, out of the blue, she just started crowing. I have kept chickens for years but never heard of such a thing."
Victoria Roberts, the Poultry Club of Great Britain's honorary vet, said Freaky's condition was "very, very rare - about a one in 10,000 event." She said: "I have been keeping poultry for 35 years and seen it only twice.
"Only one ovary normally functions in a chicken, the left one. If that is damaged, by a tumour, for example, the other one kicks into life. The right ovary can begin to develop as a testis, producing testosterone which influences the male characteristics.
"These include the colour and shape of the plumage and a wattle and comb. Sometimes they even crow, but they can't fertilise eggs."
She added: "Sex change chickens are rare but they have been around for centuries." An old proverb says that "a whistling woman and a crowing hen are neither fit for God nor man."
It was like a scene from a horror film: A 27-year-old man plummeted into a gaping hole that suddenly opened beneath a house, trapping him beneath foundation rubble and killing him. Authorities say the home, built in the 1980s, may have been sitting atop a decades-old underground mine.
Or it could be possessed by demons...
Recent rains could have softened the ground under the home, in an isolated area near Lake Alta.
Or Beelzebub could be using it as a hideout...
"It's unbelievable," Placer County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said. "From the front of the house, it's absolutely normal. Then, in the middle of the house, is this enormous hole."
"And creepy music keeps coming out of the house. And every once in awhile the hole... the hole... it burps!"
The victim was awake and on the ground floor about 9:30 p.m. Friday when the concrete foundation near the kitchen gave way, sending him plunging into to the ground, Erwin said.
He ignored those ghostly voices warning "Get out!" for too long.
1st rule of home ownership, if the house sez "Get out!", leave. Call a realtor from the next state.
Rescuers had trouble reaching him because the ground began to shift, creating an unsafe situation for work crews.
"Dang Ned, it seems like the earth is eating him!"
Authorities returned to the home Sunday to try and remove the man's body, though geologists were still testing the house's soundness. In unrelated news, Halliburton officials have discovered that there is a Mecca in California as well as Arabia.
#1
Did they move the gravestones, but not the graves? Or perhaps the next Hellmouth just popped up.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/24/2006 0:20 Comments ||
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#2
More from SF Gate on the man killed:
He was a substitute teacher at the community's only elementary school. His wife, whom he had met while teaching overseas, is five months' pregnant with the couple's first child.
Chellew's parents, who lived above the garage occupied by their only child, weren't home when he was killed, Erwin said.
"He was a wonderful, standup guy," said a neighbor, who asked that his name not be used. "He'd give the shirt off his back to anyone."
#7
do you have to disclose this when you sell? seems like it'll knock $5K-10K off the asking price
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/24/2006 21:59 Comments ||
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#8
In California you have to disclose everything. The closing binder from the sale of my 3,000 sq ft house is 2 inches thick. The lawyers will get rich on this one. They'll end up blaming it on claim jumpers.
#11
I just got an email from a boyhood friend, now a retired locomotive engineer out of Roseville, California. The 32-year-old victim was the only son of a California Highway Patrol officer. My friend was friends with them.
There are only two things that I can think of for the cause, and that is a collapse of an abandoned underground mine, or a sinkhole due to limestone. I used to go into caves in the area when I was a kid, around Clipper Gap.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 22:25 Comments ||
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sought to allay the fears of the Coptic community after violent communal clashes in Alexandria, in a message published to coincide with Orthodox Easter. "Egypt is strong... and nobody can harm the unity that exists between Muslims and Christians," Mubarak said in the message published in state-owned newspapers. "They (Copts) enjoy all their rights as Egyptian citizens and are convinced that religion is for God and the homeland is for all," he said Sunday.
The Copts — who still speak Egyptian, unlike the local Moose limbs — are systematically oppressed and despoiled. I believe they've noticed that by now. They just can't do anything about it because they live in one of those tolerant Muslim countires.
On April 14, 78-year-old Noshi Atta Girgis was killed by a knife-wielding assailant who attacked three churches in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
A 78-year-old is less likely to be heeled, y'see. That's important to Islamic heroes.
Another person died in ensuing clashes between Muslims and Copts, who account for only around 10 percent of Egypt's population of 73 million but are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. The authorities detained the assailant and described him as "mentally unstable", sparking the ire of the Copts who accused the government of failing to protect them and seeking to cover up the possibility of an Islamist attack.
He could be a nutbag or he could be an Islamist mastermind. The fact remains that either there were three of him or he attacked three separate churches and the cops didn't stop him. One, you can understand. Not three.
"We will punish the culprits, acting with determination and the strength of law," Mubarak was quoted as saying, condemning the Alexandria attacks as "individual actions... seeking to sow discord between the sons of the nation."
Is the guy dead yet?
Pope Shenuda III, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox community, stooped short of directly mentioning the incidents in his Easter sermon on Saturday night. "We wish peace and stability upon our nation under the leadership of President Hosni Mubarak," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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You know, Arabs used to be a minority in the Midle East.
Morocco's King Mohammed has pardoned 48 Sahrawi prisoners as part of Rabat's drive to end a 30-year dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front over Western Sahara. Morocco, claiming centuries-old rights over the territory rich in phosphates, fisheries and possibly offshore oil, annexed it after former colonial power Spain withdrew in 1975.
The Polisario Front launched a low-level guerrilla war against Morocco's armed forces to back its claim for an independent state. The two sides have been observing a UN-sponsored ceasefire since 1991. "No single prisoner held because of the territory's dispute will be left behind bars. Forty-eight, all of what remained of the prisoners, were pardoned by the king," a senior government official said on Saturday.
The pardoned detainees were jailed late last year for between 10 months and five years for anti-Moroccan riots in Laayoune, the main town in Western Sahara. They were sentenced for offences including sabotage of public property and using weapons against public officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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Chimps, why do they hate us you?
Police in Sierra Leone are on the hunt for a group of chimpanzees, who escaped from their wildlife sanctuary after a fatal attack on construction workers. Armed reinforcements are combing the area after a Sierra Leonean died and two Americans were seriously injured. Security personnel said four men were attacked on Sunday after entering the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Angry chimps killed and mutilated the driver. The two Americans are in a hospital in the capital, Freetown. A worker at Tacugama told the BBC that some 24 chimpanzees had escaped, and six had already returned. Armed police arrived after the attack and fired shots which caused panic among local people.
#4
Hey! Abdominal Snowman, I resent that! Don't do it again, or I'll sick cryptozoologists on you, they'll hound you down, you know. Besides, I may be short and ugly, but I'm not bald all over, I've got various hair patches, including a beard, dammit.
#8
Ever see that Discovery Channel movie on the chimps? They got a group together and hunted down a monkey in a sudden group hankering for fresh meat. They caught the monkey and tore it apart. Then they sat in the trees, being chimpy and all, munching amicably on monkey meat.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 23:47 Comments ||
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Saudi authorities have indicted 30 Filipinos in Jeddah for alleged involvement in murder, gambling, lottery and money laundering, informed sources told Arab News. They include seven Filipinos who were allegedly behind the killing of three compatriots in the city.
The sources said the cases of the 30 Filipinos would be transferred to a court within a few days in order to issue verdicts on the basis of Shariah and Saudi laws. I don't know where to start, so I'm not going to.
Preliminary investigations proved that the seven, who mutilated the remains of three Filipinos after murdering them and burying them in different places in the Industrial Area of Jeddah on April 4, were part of an international gang engaged in money laundering and illicit gambling, the sources said. I now have some questions for .com if he shows up.
They killed their rival, who was the head of another gang engaged in illegal activities, as well as his assistant and driver, one source said. After questioning some 20 Filipinos, police learned that the murders might have occurred as a result of a gambling turf war.
The gang had been active in the north and south of Jeddah and its operations included an illegal numbers betting game known as jueteng in the Philippines.
A Philippine Consulate official told Arab News that he believed the gambling gangs were part of the network of the infamous jueteng lord in the Philippines, Bong Pineda. So someone in the Philippines, about 1/4 of the way around the planet, was running a gambling operation in Saudi Arabia? And having a turf war with another gang from the same place?
Reports of the arrest of 52 Filipinos in connection with the murder case had sent shockwaves across the Philippines. Saudi Ambassador to Manila Muhammad Ameen Wali reassured Manila that the Kingdom would take care of Filipino workers and provide them with protection and a good working atmosphere.
Wali expressed his desire to end all problems related to Filipino workers as quickly as possible. The crimes committed by a few Filipinos will not affect the situation of other Filipinos, he stressed. Only a small number of Filipinos are believed to be involved in crimes such as murder, robbery, smuggling, gambling and running brothels. And now about these people who always manage to get the bad guys surrounded.
The arrests came after a series of raids conducted by security forces in Jeddah. According to one source, police conduct at least five raids every month with the participation of 1,200 officers from 12 departments including patrol police, special forces, criminal investigation officers, Passports Department officers, traffic police, members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Red Crescent Society and the Electricity Company. I thought the Red Crescent Society was their version of the Red Cross. It participates in police raids there? As does the Electricity Company? (What side of the law is Fargo North on these days? I dunno, I would have figured him for the Rapid Action Battalion.)
Electric Company supplies the Shock Troops, everyone knows that
The article continues with a recounting of how much money, according to official estimates, Filipino guest workers send home.
Posted by: Phil ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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Sixteen-year-old Isma Mahmood was deported to Pakistan last month after serving six months in shackles and handcuffs in a prison in Saudi Arabia. Her crime: being raped by a Saudi man.
Its difficult for me to talk about what happened to me, from rape to prison and from prison to deportation, Isma told AFP in the office of a rescue trust in Karachi where she sat with her sister Muna, 18, who was also deported.
Ismas parents, originally from Multan, were trafficked to Saudi Arabia around 20 years ago. But in Ismas case, being born in Saudi Arabia was no help when she was raped last year in Medina. I was the victim, I was raped and molested but I was named as the accused, and the man who committed the crime was not touched, she said.
He first kidnapped me, dragged me into his car, Isma said. At first he asked me to sleep with him and offered good money. When I refused and tried to resist, he warned me of dire consequences and raped me in the car. The unnamed man warned her she would be imprisoned if she went to the police, and said that the Saudi sponsor who brought her parents to the country through a Pakistani agent would have them all expelled. The sponsor too threatened Isma and Muna, she said, asking that the sponsors name not be revealed to spare her family any additional grief. I and my sister went to the police expecting justice, but after a few hours of filing the report the police changed it, Isma said. Under pressure from the Saudi sponsor, Ismas parents asked her to withdraw her report. My sister Muna tried to help me out but was also arrested and put in prison only because she spoke for me, she said.
Once in jail, their nightmare began in earnest, Isma said. The women prisoners were mostly Pakistanis, Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Nigerians who came to Saudi Arabia through trafficking networks and were charged with prostitution, she said.
When I used to protest against the ill treatment they beat me on my back, Isma added. We were chained all during this period. The only time jail officials removed the chain was during lunch or when anyone went to the bathroom or at prayer time, she said. Once a jail official offered me help and assured me I would be released if I agreed to sleep with him. There was a Pakistani woman who was over 40 years old and developed AIDS in prison, but she remained in chains before she was deported to Pakistan, she added.
Isma and Muna are now in the care of the Ansar Burney Trust. Its pathetic that all this happened with Isma at the hands of a fellow Muslim, the trusts president Ansar Burney told AFP. Burney says many poor women and girls from South Asia are lured with promises of good money working as maids or nurses, but their Arab sponsors and Pakistan agents later force them into prostitution.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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Poor girls. I hope that Karachi rescue trust takes good care of them, and manages to prevent them being imprisoned for having been involved in a crime against the honour of their family, to wit having been raped. I once heard that Indian Hindu girls pray that in their next incarnation they be born as worms -- a step up on the ladder. Muslim Pakistani girls don't even have the comfort of that hope.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and Japan have struck a bargain over a plan to realign U.S. forces in Japan, with Japan agreeing to pay $6.1 billion of the nearly $10.3 billion cost, the Japanese defense chief said Sunday night.
Japanese Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga told reporters after his three-hour meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that Japan wanted to have an appropriate sharing of costs in transferring 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the Pacific island of Guam.
Japan has offered to pay $2.8 billion, and the remainder of its $6.1 billion share would take the form of loans to the United States. Japan would shoulder 59 percent of the realignment cost. ``We have come to an understanding that we both feel is in the best interests of our two countries,'' Rumsfeld said after the meetings.
Lt. Col. Chris Conway, a Defense Department spokesman, said Rumsfeld and Nukaga held extensive discussions, but he did not have specific details of the meeting. He said midlevel officials from both countries were scheduled to meet again on the issue Monday and Tuesday.
Nukaga said both sides agreed that the Japan-U.S. alliance is important, not only for Japan but also for the region. ``I had not expected that such an agreement was possible,'' Nukaga told Japanese reporters, according to Japanese broadcast network NHK. ``Japan and the United States were still wide apart on the issue, and I thought it won't go anywhere unless I directly meet with Mr. Rumsfeld for talks aimed at a breakthrough.''
The United States had proposed in an earlier round of negotiations that Japan pay $7.5 billion, or 75 percent, of the cost to relocate Marines. Japan had said it would pay about one-third of that amount.
The United States and Japan are discussing the biggest restructuring and streamlining of the U.S. military based in Japan in decades. An outline of the overall realignment plan was announced in October and was to be finalized by the end of March. However, it bogged down over details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
Well worth the cost just to shut up the Okinawin politicos. And to watch the cries of anguish from the businesses there as all those Marine dollars go away.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/24/2006 9:30 Comments ||
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#4
It's a tradeoff. When we have troops in a foreign country this long, there's a tendency for resentment - sometimes justified - to build up. There have been some high profile assaults and rapes by a handful of guys in US uniforms in the last few years. That sort of thing would piss me off if I were Okinawan, especially as the agreement to base them there was made with Tokyo and there is no deep love lost between the native Okinawans and the main Japanese.
A more positive reason for the move is that Japan is working up to modifying its constitution to allow for a full offensive capability. That's a Good Thing, at least potentially, for us and lowers the need for a major presence there of our troops. It would be especially interesting if they took over the facilities themselves but we also had some troops there.
#7
What's the trade-off? We stay somewhere too long it isn't healthy for anybody. Look at Europe. Japan could easily get ugly in the same way, especially if the economy there tanks. This way the Chinese can be blamed for everything, not us. But we keep a valuable and vibrant ally.
Our big problem is Britain. They're going Euro too fast. Maybe we should reach a similar agreement with them.
#8
This is good. Although this was a strategic location for us, we've overstayed our welcome. Also, the Japanese should shoulder their own load for defense. They're ready to do it. We need to pull completely out of So. Korea also. No need to be there. If the fools want to cozy up to the nutcase from the North, let them. A stronger Japanese miltary puts a checkmate on the nut from the North, and will give the Bejing planners something to lose sleep over.
#9
I figure Kimmie would love for us to remove the tripwire in So Korea. He could overwhelm them in about 48 hours and save himself from cannibalistic implosion. I'm sure he dreams every night about those plump little dumplings down south who were born since the "police action".
#12
Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis)
The brown tree snake is a nocturnal and arboreal snake that ranges from eastern Indonesia to the Solomon Islands and northern Australia. After World War II it was accidentally introduced to Guam, apparently as a hitchhiker on military cargo returning from use in the war in New Guinea. In the next three decades the snake spread throughout Guam and eventually resulted in the extinction of 9 of the island's 12 forest birds, half of its lizards, and perhaps some of its bats. It remains the leading cause of endangerment for the few remaining native vertebrates on Guam.
This snake has affected humans on Guam in a variety of ways too. Since 1980, Guam has suffered an average of one power outage every three days because the snakes cross powerlines and short out the circuits. And approximately 200 humans have suffered envenomation from the snake's bite. The brown tree snake lacks fangs, but has a weak venom that can be slowly conducted by enlarged rear teeth. These kind of teeth require the snake to chew on its victim for some time in order to allow the venom to penetrate the skin. Hence, the brown tree snake is not dangerous to adult humans who will not allow such chewing to occur. However, on Guam there have been many cases where the snakes have crept into cribs and envenomated infants (see photo at right), who are unable to protect themselves from the snakes. Several of these attacks have led to respiratory arrest in the infants, though no deaths have yet occurred because of the availability of rapid medical treatment in the hospitals. The island's previously thriving poultry industry has been devastated because the snake crawls into coops and eats the eggs and chicks. Many pet dogs and cats have been lost in a similar fashion.
The brown tree snake population is now estimated at more than 2 million on Guam.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/24/2006 13:01 Comments ||
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#13
Gyrenes won't be hanging around in the local fleshpots...There aren't any.
Where Marines go, fleshpots follow.
Guam is a tropical paradise, given its location, climate, and scenic beauty! It is home to elegant world class hotels, Asian PGA golf resorts, and beautiful beaches. Situated on a strip of white sand beaches known as Tumon Bay, fine business hotels and family accommodations include the Guam Hilton Hotel, Westin Resort Guam, Hyatt Regency Guam, Hotel Okura, Hotel Nikko Guam, Outrigger Hotel and the Ladera Tower - Aston International. uam is also home to a haven of a fantastic diversity of restaurants with worldwide cuisines as Niji, Kurumaya, Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe, Friday's, Capricciosa, Creations, Joinus, Sam Choy's, Tony Roma Ribs and Outback Steakhouse. The island's duty-free status means that name brand merchandise are often less expensive than its country of origin. The variety of retail shops on Guam can satisfy any shopper - from Tiffany's, Chanel, to K-Mart. In addition to outlet shops and malls, the island also offers shoppers with the I Sengsong Chamorro Village, a venue to purchase local handicrafts.
Plus, what they don't mention is the large number of sweatshops on Guam and Siapan with Asian workers tucked away out of site of the tourists. I'm sure you'd make more money as a "hostess" than a sewing machine operator.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/24/2006 13:17 Comments ||
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#14
The brown tree snake population is now estimated at more than 2 million on Guam
#18
Brown Tree Snake or the Habu - no difference to us. We love how much both places suck. All kidding a side, Oki wasn't a bad deal. When I was there the locals wanted us to go so the Japanese would invest more heavily in putting resorts on Okinawa. The rapes were definitely and still are black eyes for us but there are other fiscal reasons for wanting us out - as usual.
I agree w/Rat about N.Kor but IIRC S.Kor is like our #5 trading partner so as much as I'd like to selfishly see the S.Kor students get a real taste of some Kimmie tree-bark soup it prolly ain't gonna happen.
RESIDENTS in the Northern Territory's far north are bracing for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Monica, that means me. I've taped all the windows over and brought in the loose stuff.
predicted to be among the most severe storms ever to strike Australia. The category five cyclone, which is packing winds of up to 350km/h near its core, is forecast to cross the Northern Territory coastline late tonight.
Don't take chances with it. Go visit someplace well inland...
Darwin's Anzac Day dawn service and march have been cancelled because of the cyclone. (Some spokesman said) Monica would be extremely dangerous and destructive when it slammed into the north coastline of Arnhem land, saying it was "quite possibly" the most severe cyclone to ravage Australia. Mr Jackson said Monica would be more intense than Cyclone Tracy, which decimated Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974, killing 65 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
If this one hits the strength it's at now, people are definitely going to die. Darwin has many times the population now it did in 1974, heaps more apartment buildings. plus dodgy building sites with pipes and loose tiles. We're all prepared but this could be the biggest disaster to strike Australia in the making. Hope I don't die but there's no guarantees. I'm going to wait it out with generator, but I am just out of the flood zone so no guarantees no flooding in here.
#1
It will just cross the Top End and then go on into the India Ocean. It's the end of the cyclone season. Three or four weeks ago it might have got really cranked up once it passed the NT. It still might.
#7
latest observation is the storm has weakened dramatically (about 50 knots peak winds) and it moved inland to about about 13S 133E. It is moving SW deeper into the northern outback.
"The Bureau of Meteorology said in its 5am bulletin that Monica had weakened significantly from a category five to a category two after crossing the Northern Territory coast."
Germany's BASF-Wintershall and E.ON-Ruhrgas will control almost 50 per cent of the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field that will feed the new North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) from Russia, media reports said Monday.
Agreements on their respective stakes - 35 and almost 15 per cent - are due to be signed with Russia's semi-state gas monopolist Gazprom at intergovernmental meetings in the Siberian city of Tomsk mid-week.
Gazprom will hold the controlling stake in the western Siberian field, which has estimated reserves of 700 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
Meanwhile, the Russian company's share in Wintershall will rise from 35 to 49 per cent, according to the
Russian business newspaper Vedomosti and Germany's Handelsblatt.
The deal reflects close energy cooperation between the countries developed during Gerhard Schroeder's tenure as chancellor.
Gazprom now seeks to expand on the European market as a direct provider to customers rather than as a mere supplier to the EU's borders.
Schroeder's successor, Angela Merkel, is expected to discuss energy with President Vladimir Putin in Tomsk on Wednesday and Thursday.
Due for completion in 2010, the NEGP line will run more than 1,200 kilometres under the Baltic Sea from the Russian port of Vyborg near St. Petersburg to Greifswald on the German coast. It will pump half of Germany's gas imports from Russia and may be also be extended to Holland, Scandinavia and Britain.
The NEGP's operating company is 51-per-cent controlled by Gazprom. E.ON and BASF both hold a 24.5 per cent stake.
Following his exit from office late last year, Schroeder came under criticism for taking a post in the company as chairman of the shareholders' supervisory board, earning 301,000 dollars a year (250,000 euros).
#2
Without control, it doesn't matter what percent of the deal they get. Especially since Russian could take away even that 49% share by changing the rules without notice. I understand it's happened before.
France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been accused of pandering to the extreme right in his campaign to become president by telling those who do not like the country that they can get out. Speaking this weekend to 2,500 members of his ruling right-of-centre UMP party, he appeared to use the language of France's anti-immigrant parties - a move that won applause. "If people don't like being in France they only have to leave. We've had more than enough of always having the feeling that we must apologise for being French. We cannot change our laws our habits or our customs because they don't please a tiny minority."
Surprise meter didn't budge, this is Sarko and I'd expect him to say this.
Philippe de Villiers, the leader of the nationalist Mouvement pour la France party, accused Mr Sarkozy of copying his slogan, France, you like it or leave it. "The Sarko-show goes on," he told Le Journal du Dimanche, adding: "Since he's been in power what has he been waiting for to stop immigration, to expel Islamic extremists, to ban their activities linked to terrorism, to impose a republican charter for the building of mosques?
"How can he propose to finance them [mosques] with taxpayers' money, suggest that foreigners be given the right to vote, positive discrimination and then try to wipe out all that with a catchy slogan."
'cause, just like a good politican, he sees where the voters are headed and is determined to get out in front.
One poll by Sofres predicted that the National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, could finish third in the first round of voting for France's president next year. It put him behind Mr Sarkozy and Socialist contender Ségolène Royal but ahead of the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, who is a man. In another poll by IFOP, more than a third of respondents said Mr Le Pen's party was in tune with "the concerns of the French people". Immigration was cited as a worry for 67% and security for 63%.
Christophe Barbier, deputy editor of L'Express magazine, said: "He [Le Pen] has profited from the riots and the protests. At the same time his rivals have been poaching his political territory with apparent success."
At Saturday's meeting Mr Sarkozy appeared to openly woo voters from the National Front and former Communist party supporters who have also turned to Mr Le Pen. "I hope they identify with us," he said."Why should I only speak to some electors ... people should be happy that someone who leads a republican political party goes to find voters one by one to convince them that Le Pen is a dead end."
Mr Sarkozy is championing tough new immigration laws which would make it more difficult for the poor and uneducated to start a new life in France. He has also announced that those who have spent 10 years in France will no longer be automatically granted the right to stay. During Saturday's speech to new UMP members Mr Sarkozy criticised Ms Royal, who has overtaken him in the presidential polls, berating her for a lack of ideas.
A poll in Le Figaro last week predicted that in a Ségo versus Sarko run-off, she would win with 51% of votes cast against 49% for him. However, 14% of those asked said they were undecided.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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Philippe de Villiers, the leader of the nationalist Mouvement pour la France party, accused Mr Sarkozy of copying his slogan, France, you like it or leave it.
There's some Teamsters who'd like to discuss "slogan copying" with Philippe, too.
#2
Driving de Villepin and his coterie out of government would be worth a good deal, I think. And if Minister Sarkozy can win against the Chiraq machine, however cynical his positioning...
On this subject, that the electorate has moved to such a surprising place that a wily politition has to run to get in front of the crowd bodes well for France -- there is now the possibility that she might have a future, instead of the certainty that she has none.
Good luck to la belle France! Much as she annoys us, I'd far prefer an annoying, but free, France to Paris as the capitol of Eurabia.
The coalition government led by Ferenc Gyurcsany, the Socialist prime minister, has become Hungary's first post-communist government to win re-election. The National Election Office on Sunday projected the Socialists and their coalition partners winning 210 of the 386 seats in the legislature, 12 more than they hold now. The two centre-right opposition groups were seen winning 175 seats, with one seat going to an independent candidate.
Official results in 11 districts where the margin of victory was very small were expected to be announced in a few days - after the ballots from Hungarians voting abroad were counted - but they were not likely to affect the coalition's success. Laszlo Solyom, the president, said that once the results were final, he would initiate talks with the parties in parliament to form a new government as soon as possible."I want to give thanks to all the citizens who exercised their right to vote," Solyom said.
I have a soft spot for Hungary, despite the fact that their language is gargled rather than spoken and they eat galoshes. Maybe it's the ladies' boots. Hrowf!
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Galoshes? Nope, goulahes, entirely different animals altogether. Also szertes-perkelt, but either the proprietor of one of the Budapest's outlets where I ordered it cheated (fragments of pork rib bones wrapped in fat, ördög!), or Hungarians must be nuts! I opted for the first, although the second was not entirely out of the question. ;-)
Outside Budapest, the food was usually excellent. Perhaps the innkeepers were glad some foreigner popped by, as the tourists usually think Budapest=Hungary.
#3
Let's get it right: Porkolt and Gyulas, OK? Kinda sad that they shook the commies off their back only to bring them back with a smiley face. PS: The key political people at the US Embassy were more than pleased with the "socialist."
#6
Hungarian Gulyas is a lovely, spicy soup, not the stew by the same name we find here. If anyone has a good recipe, please post it in the O-Club -- Mr. Wife fell in love with the stuff while working over there. I've been able to indulge his similar loves for Greek and Indian things, but thus far gulyas is beyond me. (I've also troubles with Egyptian bread (lavash?) and lentil soup, but apparently a healthy dollop of good Egyptian grit is needed to give the proper taste and texture to those. And the occasional bit of overripe flesh causing dysentary really enhances the experience, or so he tells me. He hasn't asked for anything Saudi, oddly enough...)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 15:06 ||
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#1
Article got away from me before I could finish the headline. Should read "Alaska" at the end of the headline. Please fix, editors. Had people contact me to see if I was involved. No, I wasn't, but it was a tragedy, especially with 3 kids killed. It happened about 7 miles north of my airport at Birchwood, Alaska. Always be humble and keep your head on a swivel if you are a pilot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 15:11 Comments ||
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#7
RD---Wasilla airport is only 10 minutes by air from Birchwood. When I leave Birchwood heading west or NW toward the Alaska Range or Fairbanks, I always climb up to 4500 ft if the weather permits. Altitude is your friend unless you are on fire.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 20:16 Comments ||
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#8
Paul,
I've been buy Eagle River many times on the way to Shannon's place from Anchorage. Hiked a little bit of it after lunch one day 7 years ago during a salmon run..
That whole area from Palmer back to Eagle River is a beautiful home base, if you try real hard [hard not to explore every minute] you can rest up and launch the next outbound trek...Course why am I telling you, you live there!! lol
#9
Right-O, RD. I live 6 miles up the South Fork of Eagle River. We are 2 miles from the trailhead going up the valley. Chugach state park is literally in our back yard.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 22:51 Comments ||
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#10
I just got a call from M'Lady, and she said that one of her colleagues saw the crash, which occured at about 800 ft altitude. The family with the 3 kids had an older boy that decided not to go on the flight and stayed home. The mother was coming back from a trip to a college that they were considering for an older son. M'Lady's principal at her school was up calling kids' families till late last night so they could be told before they went to school this morning. Very sad events.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/24/2006 23:27 Comments ||
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Mayor Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, beginning a monthlong run-off campaign for New Orleans mayor, will be fighting over the white conservative voters who favored other candidates in the primary.
Nagin, in a complete reversal from four years ago, scored heavily with black voters and was practically abandoned by whites, while Landrieu scored some black voters and did well with French Quarter residents.
Slightly more than half of the overall vote was attributed to black voters, who favored the top two candidates, according to a consulting firm analyzing demographic data for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority.
In predominantly white precincts, Nagin trailed behind several other candidates with less than 10 percent, according to GCR & Associates Inc. In 2002, Nagin got most of his support from white voters and business leaders. This time, many of those supported third-place finisher Ron Forman, a nonprofit executive.
Nagin will have to win back their confidence for the May 20 runoff, said political analyst Elliott Stonecipher. "His one shot is to get enough of the whites who liked him four years ago to forget about his incompetence during Katrina like him again," he said.
Roughly a third of the city's voters participated in Saturday's election, some traveling hundreds of miles to help decide who will lead one of the biggest urban reconstruction projects in U.S. history after Hurricane Katrina.
"It was normal, natural to expect some such expression" of frustration against current officeholders after Katrina, Stonecipher said. "Instead, we got the opposite."
The election, in which 36 percent of the 297,000 eligible voters participated, was an unprecedented experiment in democracy because fewer than half of the city's pre-Katrina residents remain in New Orleans. That forced nationwide campaigning and led civil rights activists to question whether the election could be fair.
Nagin, a cable executive who first ran for office in 2002, said the overall results were an endorsement of his plans for the city's future and his four years in office. "I just feel we're on the right track, and people have verified that to me," he said.
Forman did not endorse another candidate Sunday. Many conservatives dislike the Landrieu family, and neither candidate in the run-off was likely to take all the Forman voters, political observers said.
Landrieu, who has held office in Louisiana for nearly two decades and is the brother of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, has trumpeted his ability to attract a diverse group of voters. His father, Moon Landrieu, was the last white mayor of New Orleans in the 1970s, and is well-liked in the black community for opening high-ranking City Hall jobs to black professionals.
No major problems were reported at polling places, but the Rev.
Jesse Jackson said Sunday the low turnout should be a mandate to further encourage participation among voters unable to return. Jackson said the election would be challenged in court regardless of the outcome because voting rights need to be protected. Where Jesse is, the Rev Al can't be far behind....
Stonecipher, however, said the turnout may not be a sign of disenfranchisement, but rather an indication that many registered voters don't plan to return.
Nagin led the mayoral field with 38 percent or 41,489 votes, falling short of the majority needed to secure a second four-year term without the runoff. Landrieu had 29 percent, or 31,499 votes. Forman followed with 17 percent, or 18,734 votes.
#2
Why stay in Louisiana which has a deadly combination of a) too close to sea level, b) bureaucratic incompetence, and c) the opportunity to vote for a Democrat candidate of your choice, when you could move somewhere they have real elections?
Posted by: Phil ||
04/24/2006 9:51 Comments ||
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#4
Ironic that for the white guy (Landrieu) to win he has to carry the black vote, and for the black guy (Nagin) to win he has to recapture his white 'base'.
Strange as it may seem, this outcome is probably the best of all possible outcomes for New Orleans - the national media and politicians will have a hard time claiming fraud and disenfranchisement etc., and will be less likely to alienate the national cash flow that is sustaining New Orleans.
Plus, no 'good guys' will be destroyed trying to administer an impossible situation.
#5
Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta is... doing all it can to help, media, website, chartered busses, etc. Too bad they could not have chartered a busses few BEFORE the storm.
#6
The only parts of New Orleans that means anything to most of the country are back in operation and the rest of the city, the welfare recipients, is spread across the country. Why bother with pouring any more money into New Orleans. This election indicates the thieves are still there ready to plunder any federal money sent their way. Keep it in Washington or spend it on something useful like a new wing to the Lawrence Welk museum.
#7
The only parts of New Orleans that means anything to most of the country are back in operation and the rest of the city, the welfare recipients, is spread across the country. Why bother with pouring any more money into New Orleans. This election indicates the thieves are still there ready to plunder any federal money sent their way. Keep it in Washington or spend it on something useful like a new wing to the Lawrence Welk museum.
You know, it used to be there was more to New Orleans than the Uptown Theme Park and the French Quarter Theme Park... there used to be more to the city than the very rich and the very poor. It used to be an industrial center, too.
Posted by: Phil ||
04/24/2006 11:55 Comments ||
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#8
I know, Phil, I know. But the parts that are important to the rest of us most of the time are the refineries and the port.
Edited for relevant information. Two federal agencies are refusing to turn over a mountain of evidence that investigators could use to indict the nation's burgeoning work force of illegal immigrants and the firms that employ them. The Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration routinely collect strong evidence of potential workplace crimes, including the names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records and the identities of those who hire them.
But they keep those facts secret. The two agencies don't analyze their data to root out likely immigration fraud -- and law enforcement authorities can't do so because the agencies won't share their data. Privacy laws prohibit that, they say.
The agencies also don't use the power that they have. The IRS doesn't fine employers who repeatedly submit inaccurate data on workers. Social Security does virtually nothing to alert citizens whose Social Security numbers are being used by others.
Evidence abounds within their files, according to an analysis by Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Charlotte Observer. One internal study found that a restaurant company had submitted 4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers. Other firms submit inaccurate names or numbers for nearly all their employees. One child's Social Security number was used 742 times by workers in 42 states.
The potential crimes are so obvious that the failure to provide such information to investigators raises questions about Washington's determination to end the widespread hiring of illegal immigrants. An estimated 7 million unauthorized workers are employed in the United States. They're picking crops, building homes and tending yards. In some cases, they work for the government on public projects that pay them with taxpayer money. They've built roads in North Carolina and military housing in California and even helped rebuild the Pentagon after 9-11, until law enforcement found out. They also work at airports, seaports and nuclear plants.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has asked Congress for access to earnings reports, sent by employers with money withheld for taxes and Social Security. The reports contain workers' names and Social Security numbers, and when they don't match Social Security records, the information is set aside in what's called the Earnings Suspense File.
Created in 1937, the file contains about 255 million unmatched wage reports representing $520 billion paid to workers but not credited to their Social Security earnings records. The incorrect worker files mushroomed during the 1990s as immigrants poured into the United States. Almost half the inaccurate reports come from industries such as agriculture, construction and restaurants.
"We believe the chief cause of [unmatched] wage items ... is unauthorized work by noncitizens," Social Security Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll told Congress in February. Particularly disturbing is that possibly millions of the Social Security numbers belong to other people. In Utah, after Social Security provided data for one criminal inquiry, investigators discovered that the Social Security numbers of 2,000 children were being used by other people.
#1
The two agencies don't analyze their data to root out likely immigration fraud -- and law enforcement authorities can't do so because the agencies won't share their data. Privacy laws prohibit that, they say.
"Privacy act" between gummit agencies? The stuff of 9/11 after action reports.
#3
The don't WANT to identify people who are having income and social security taxes withheld on false numbers; there is zero chance of having to give tax refunds or pay Social Security benefits on those numbers. It reduces the national budget deficit.
MUMBAI: A top leader of Indias opposition Hindu nationalist party who was shot and critically wounded by his brother at the weekend has improved slightly, a hospital spokesman said Sunday.
"He's not dead. Yet."
The condition of Pramod Mahajan has slightly improved but still remains quite critical and he is on life support measures in the Intensive Care Unit, Anupam Verma of Mumbais Hinduja Hospital told reporters. Mahajan showed signs of consciousness, such as moving of fingers, he added.
The 56-year-old Mahajan, a senior general secretary of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was shot early Saturday. According to police, Mahajans younger brother shot him in the abdomen three times following an early morning argument. He was rushed to hospital for emergency care, with specialists discussing a possible liver transplant. Doctors said in their latest update that three bullets lodged in Mahajans body could not be immediately removed because of massive blood loss. The bullets shattered the liver, the pancreas, the intestines, they said.
"Hello?... Yes, this is Dr. Quincy... You do?... Sam! Do we have room for another stiff?... Okay. Can you keep him on life support for another 24 hours? We're kinda crowded here..."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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MULTAN: Rape victim Qureshian Bibi of Chak No 61/SP in Arifwala tehsil has filed an application with the Pakpattan district police officer for registration of a case against a local jury of Punchayat members who allegedly solemnised her nikkah with the brother of the alleged rapist. Qureshian told reporters on Sunday that her cousin, Muhammad Aslam, raped her at gunpoint two months ago. She said he had threatened her with dire consequences if she breathed a word about it. When I got pregnant, I told about the incident to my sister, Razia Bibi, and father, Nazir Ahmad, who tried to report it to the police, she said and added that an influential landlord convened the punchayat, which solemnised her nikkah with the brother of the accused, Muhammad Ramzan.
However, she has refused to marry him. She said that she had insisted on registering a case against the accused. On this, she said, punchayat members Habib, M Zaman Wattoo, M Sharif Wattoo, M Tufail Wattoo and Maulvi Yaqoob also solemnised the nikkah of the daughter of the accused, Saadia, 3, with her brother, Muhammad Ramzan as vani. She said the punchayat members had also threatened that her familys lives would be in danger and their household articles would be confiscated if they did not accept the decision. Qureshian and her father filed a petition in the Lahore High Court to register a case against Aslam and the punchayat members, but they were asked to file the same before the ASJ Arifwala. On this, the police registered the case against Aslam, but not the punchayat.
Arifwala Saddar SHO Syed Shahid Abbas Shah has registered an attempt to rape case against two brothers and a brother-in-law of the rape victim on the statement of Ume Kalsoom, the wife of Aslam, apparently in an attempt to stop them from litigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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MIANWALI: Daudkhel police arrested six people in a vani case and forced two people to divorce their would-be wives whom they were to marry under vani. Arrested people include the two vani grooms and their two brothers, vani girls father and her uncle under Section 310A of the Pakistan Penal Code. Both grooms divorced the girls on Sunday.
Earlier, the girls had got divorce through a civil court but could not marry to other grooms as clerics had refused to perform nikah and said that courts could not cancel nikah. The father of the girls had paid Rs 170,000 on April 5 through a union council nazim to the grooms in exchange for divorce, but the brothers of the grooms demanded more compensation. Sixteen years ago the parents of the girls had paid Rs 220,000 and pledged two daughters hands to a family as compensation in exchange of pardon in a murder case.
Daudkhel police booked vani grooms Shafaullah and Ikramullah, their brothers Asghar and Lateefullah, the son of Attaullah who was killed in April 1985, Amanullah, the alleged killer of Attaullah, and his brother Sanaullah, on Saturday. After staying one night in police custody, the groom agreed to divorce the girls. The SHO in presence of notables and District Coordinator HRCP Khalilur Rehman got verbal and written divorce from the two men after paying them Rs 170,000.
In April 1985 Amanullah Khan had killed Attaullah Khan over a land dispute. Amanullah got death sentence from the sessions court. Before his execution, a Punchayat decided that the convicts family would pay Rs 250,000 and two girls as compensation.
Kalsoom Bibi was to marry Ikramullah and Nusrat Bibi to Shafaullah. The grooms were the sons of the deceased.
Both girls went to college and graduated, while their childhood grooms did not go to school. In 2001, the girls got divorce through a civil court under the Khula Act.
On March 20, the girls were going to be marry someone else, but a cleric refused to solemnise nikah.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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Military researchers believe the tongue could be key in their quest to create the super warrior of the future, giving soldiers sensory powers similar to owls, snakes and fish.
Army Rangers with 360-degree unobstructed night vision, Navy SEALs sensing sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater scientists at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are turning sci-fi into reality.
By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses.
The question is that while animals' brains can process the extra stimuli, it is unknown whether human brains can adapt, said institute head Ken Ford. His facility specializes in "human-centered computing," fitting technology to people to make machines more user-friendly.
"Pit vipers, that's one reason they are so dangerous. They have heat detectors, infrared as well as natural vision," he said. "We know brains can do this."
Dr. Anil Raj, the project's lead scientist, envisions Navy SEALs incorporating sonar into their senses much like dolphins or whales.
The research is designed to create superior troops, but Ford said the same technology could restore sight or hearing to soldiers wounded in war.
The device, known as "Brain Port," was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people's backs and later discovered the tongue a superior transmitter.
In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be commercially marketed soon, has restored balance to those whose vestibular systems in the inner ear were destroyed by antibiotics.
The Florida institute is the first to research military uses of sensory augmentation.
Raj began his research using Navy divers for one simple reason "These guys don't think anything about sticking something in their mouths to do their jobs."
A narrow strip of red plastic connects from the Brain Port to the tongue where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bluky-hand-held sonar devices, the divers can processes the information through their tongues, Raj said.
Michael Zinszer, a veteran Navy diver and director of Florida State University's Underwater Crime Scene Investigation School, took part in testing using the tongue to transmit an electronic compass and an electronic depth sensor.
He likened the feeling on his tongue to Pop Rocks candies.
"You are feeling the outline of this image," he said. "I was in the pool, they were directing me to a very small object and I was able to locate everything very easily."
Underwater crime scene investigators might use the device to identify search patterns, signal each other and "see through our tongues, as odd as that sounds," Zinszer said.
Raj said the objective for military usage is to keep Navy divers' hands and eyes free.
"It will free up their eyes to do what those guys really want to, which is to look for those mines and see shapes that are coming out of the murk."
Sonar is the next step. A lot depends on technological developments to make sonar smaller hand-held sonar is currently about the size of a lunch box.
"If they could get it small enough, it could be mounted on a helmet, then they could pan around on their heads and they could feel the sonar on their tongues with good registration to what they are seeing visually," Raj said.
Raj and his research assistants spend hours at the University of West Florida's athletic complex testing the equipment at an indoor pool, where the trio frequently attract attention from onlookers curious about the computers, wires and underwater radio, which can be heard throughout the Olympic-size pool. Raj does the diving himself.
They plan to officially demonstrate the system to Navy and Marine Corps divers in May. If the military screeners like what they see, it could be put on a "rapid response" to quickly get in the hands of military users within the next three to six months.
The research is being funded by through the Department of Defenses' Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The exact amount of the expenditure is unavailable.
Work on the infrared-tongue vision for Army Rangers isn't as far along. But Raj said the potential usefulness of the night vision technology is tremendous. It would allow soldiers to work in the dark without cumbersome night-vision goggles and to "see out the back of their heads," he said.
Understanding how the Brain Port works has to do with "sensory fusion," Raj said, picking up a pair of scissors he uses to cut tape to secure a piece of diving equipment before he plops in the pool for another test.
"There's a lot going on when I'm holding these scissors. I'm using them, I'm looking at them, I'm talking about them. Think if I had to have all that information displayed on a screen in front of me instead of just doing the task. The brain is doing the fusion here," he said.
"If we put sonar into the head, you would know instinctively 'I should be looking over here because something is coming out of the murk'."
He returns to the pit viper as an example of how, ideally, such a system should work.
"The snake just knows where the heat blobs are relative to its head," he said.
Posted by: ed ||
04/24/2006 20:00 Comments ||
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#3
You got that right ed. Especially cold ones. You ever make an IED from the heat pack in one?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/24/2006 20:19 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe the USDOD got their inspiration from one of Courtney Love's performance photos, where she sticks out her tongue. See what ex-strippers from Guam could do iff they put their tongue to it - ole' bandanna-head Kurt liked to follow Courtney around the clubs like a love-sick puppy.
A brothel in Cologne was forced to black out the flags of Saudi Arabia and Iran from a huge World Cup soccer-themed advertising banner after angry Muslims complained and threatened violence. The 24-metre-high by 8-metre-wide (78 by 26 ft) banner displayed on the side of the building features a scantily-clad woman and the slogan: "The world as a guest of female friends," a variation on the World Cup slogan: "The world as a guest of friends."
The flags of the 32 nations taking part in the month-long soccer tournament which kicks off in June are shown below. Those of Saudi Arabia and Iran have been covered with black paint, according to a worker at the brothel who would only give his name as Peter. "Some people turned up and demanded that we remove the flags," Peter told Reuters. "First they were sensible but then they became threatening. The management here decided to do it so that we didn't get any more trouble." "They didn't want these two flags to be associated with this go-go girl on the banner as it's a brothel and it offended their religious feelings," said a spokeswoman for the Cologne police. "The owner removed the flags even though he wasn't legally obliged to as no crime had been committed."
Move over Britney Spears, Cynthia McKinney's oops! done it again.
The flap-plagued congresswoman, who has been in the media spotlight since she scuffled with a Capitol Hill police officer last month, was caught bad-mouthing a senior staffer Saturday.Unfortunately for McKinney, a DeKalb County Democrat who is running for re-election in the 4th Congressional District, a TV microphone she was wearing picked up her indelicate grumbling.
"Crap!" an irritated McKinney is heard saying after ending an interview with CBS 46 in which reporter Renee Starzyk repeatedly asked about the fallout from the police dust-up. "You know what? They lied to Coz and Coz is a fool."
McKinney, apparently realizing her blunder, then returned to face the camera and tell the reporter that comments about her communications director, Coz Carson, were off the record. But the TV stationed aired the footage Saturday and the story later was picked up by CNN.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/24/2006 00:09 ||
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#1
I had assumed the Rantburg graphic of Mckinney was photoshopped.
Then I saw her on TV.
Gawd...
Posted by: john ||
04/24/2006 0:31 Comments ||
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#2
"But the TV stationed aired the footage Saturday and the story later was picked up by CNN."
What shocked me about the interview I saw on TV was that the hair was the same, as were the large bug eyes.
She goes about normally looking just like this
And she talks nonsense, really crazy conspiracy stuff...
Posted by: john ||
04/24/2006 6:43 Comments ||
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#8
one day. that's all I give her before she decides to badmouth the station and call their actions racist.
no doubt her followers will then send money in her defense.
#23
It's not about votes yet, it's about money. I don't imagine she gets boodles of cash from corporations, so she has to appeal to the constituencies of Brother Jackson and Brother Sharpton for her war chest. Every time she gets publicly dissed by The Man, her cash register jingles.
Execution by lethal injection may cause excruciating pain, contradicting its reputation as a humane and thus publicly acceptable way to impose the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said.
Y'know, it's a funny thing, but murder also sometimes does that.
Executioners fail to take the steps needed to ensure a painless death and use a drug that veterinarians have deemed too cruel for putting down dogs and cats, the group said in a report released on Monday. However, a leading death penalty proponent dismissed the report as blind speculation, saying there was no evidence of someone being conscious and in agony during lethal injection.
I always thought they were put to sleep before being put down. That's what all the descriptions I've ever read have said. Maybe they lied to me.
1) An opiate, barbital or benzodiazepine to induce sedation.
2) A paralytic agent (e.g., pancuronium) to stop all skeletal muscle activity, and thus respiration. Pancuronium was used by veterinarians for euthanasia until recently, but the rule is you can't do that anymore -- you need to sedate the animal first. Hence the reference in this story.
3) Potassium chloride to stop the heart. Over to you, Dr. Quincy.
Human Rights Watch, which opposes the death penalty in all cases, issued the report amid increased scrutiny of lethal injections across America.
Does that mean they want murderers to stop inflicting the death penalty on their victims? Or they just want the state to stop putting murderers down like dogs?
A North Carolina man was executed by lethal injection on Friday by officials who, following a judges order, used a brain wave monitor to ensure he did not suffer undue pain.
I think we're jumping through a lot of hoops to make the departure of the depraved from the gene pool comfortable. I'm not in favor of cruelty, but I'm in favor of cleansing the body politic by disposing of those who can't control their impulses toward violence.
In other states such as Florida and California, executions have been delayed while courts consider whether the lethal injections cause agony. An execution in California was halted in February after the prison failed to find anesthesiologists willing to certify the inmates death was painless. There is mounting evidence that prisoners may have experienced excruciating pain during their executions. This should not be surprising given that corrections agencies have not taken the steps necessary to ensure a painless execution, Human Rights Watch said.
I've done plenty of euathanasia on lab animals using very similar methods, and never once was it painful.
Human Rights Watch does not endorse any alternative method but said as long as the death penalty is legal in the United States it wanted to enforce international human rights laws requiring the least possible suffering.
Just send them to the vet, then. They've got lots of experience.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I hear a bullet to the base of the brain works.
#2
Human Rights Watch does not endorse any alternative method but said as long as the death penalty is legal in the United States it wanted to enforce international human rights laws requiring the least possible suffering.
Demonstrations before the Saudi and Chinese embassies in 3,2,1...
BTW, China has been seeling the organs of the people sentenced to death to foreign buyers, something who creates a financial incentive for the regime... Expect HRW to scream sky high about it.
#5
I agree with WC R. If we execute poeple then it should be a punishment and hanging is both traditional and not a nice way to die. The death penalty is not supposed to be nice and painless.
#7
The problem with the current death penalty is that it gives 3-time losers no incentive to show leniency to their victims. I wonder whether moving to, say, a 3-tier system (hanging, firing squad, lethal injection) could allow one to apply the death penalty in, say, rape cases, while giving the rapist an incentive not to kill his victim. Of course, there's always torture, but I fear that this would be found unconstitutional even by the most conservative of jurists.
#8
When Mr. Wife was doing cancer research, he always petted the mice before killing them. Perhaps the Human Rights Watch people would like to engage in analogous actions? (And no, I do not wish to speculate on what vicious murderers would consider analogous.)
#9
Convicted murderer, Gary Gilmore's final words before being put to death on January 17, 1977, by a volunteer firing squad were --
"Let's do it!"
The countdown began. Gilmore appeared calm. There were three distinct shots. His head went forward into the strap, his right hand delicately lifted, then dropped. The spectators he'd requested to witness the event watched as blood flowed from his heart down his shirt and onto the floor. The doctor went forward to listen, and said that he was still alive. In twenty more seconds, it was over.
The sentence was carried out six months after the murders: on Monday January 17 1977, a few minutes after 8am local time, Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in a disused cannery in Utah State prison.
#10
The good people of Utah generally tend to be much less than sympathetic to criminals, particularly murderous ones. I'd say it's about 80-20 solidly in favor of the death penalty. I'm sure that doesn't hurt in keeping the murder total down.
Posted by: mac ||
04/24/2006 17:50 Comments ||
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#11
Demonstrations before the Saudi and Chinese embassies in 3,2,1...
They can't raise funds using China and The Magic Kindgom.
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.
It was like a scene from a horror film: A 27-year-old man plummeted into a gaping hole that suddenly opened beneath a house, trapping him beneath foundation rubble and killing him. Authorities say the home, built in the 1980s, may have been sitting atop a decades-old underground mine. 
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sought to allay the fears of the Coptic community after violent communal clashes in Alexandria, in a message published to coincide with Orthodox Easter. "Egypt is strong... and nobody can harm the unity that exists between Muslims and Christians," Mubarak said in the message published in state-owned newspapers. "They (Copts) enjoy all their rights as Egyptian citizens and are convinced that religion is for God and the homeland is for all," he said Sunday.
Saudi authorities have indicted 30 Filipinos in Jeddah for alleged involvement in murder, gambling, lottery and money laundering, informed sources told Arab News. They include seven Filipinos who were allegedly behind the killing of three compatriots in the city.
Sixteen-year-old Isma Mahmood was deported to Pakistan last month after serving six months in shackles and handcuffs in a prison in Saudi Arabia. Her crime: being raped by a Saudi man.
France's interior minister, 
The coalition government led by 
Mayor Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, beginning a monthlong run-off campaign for New Orleans mayor, will be fighting over the white conservative voters who favored other candidates in the primary.
MUMBAI: A top leader of Indias opposition Hindu nationalist party who was shot and critically wounded by his brother at the weekend has improved slightly, a hospital spokesman said Sunday.
A brothel in Cologne was forced to black out the flags of Saudi Arabia and Iran from a huge World Cup soccer-themed advertising banner after angry Muslims complained and threatened violence. The 24-metre-high by 8-metre-wide (78 by 26 ft) banner displayed on the side of the building features a scantily-clad woman and the slogan: "The world as a guest of female friends," a variation on the World Cup slogan: "The world as a guest of friends." 
Execution by lethal injection may cause excruciating pain, contradicting its reputation as a humane and thus publicly acceptable way to impose the death penalty, 
![Birchwood Looking North across the ["big Muddy"] Knik at part of the Palmer Hay Flats](http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/COOKSU/BCV-c.jpg){kind=link}