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Zambia extradites Aswad to UK
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Man’s testicles snared in a padlock for two weeks
Ouch.
BRENTWOOD - The "family jewels" of one Brentwood man recently were locked up for two weeks - literally. On Saturday, July 30, at about 3:40 a.m., Brentwood police assisted ambulance and rescue personnel with a 39-year-old man with a padlock on his testicles.
Ummmmmm...say again, Unit 1?
According to police, the man, who police are not identifying, was intoxicated when they arrived on scene.
You would hope so...
The man reported that the padlock had been on his testicles for two weeks. Cpl. H.D. Wood IV said the man reported that a friend put the lock on his testicles. He was allegedly severely intoxicated and passed out. He told police that when he woke up the padlock was placed around top his scrotum and his friend was gone.
Hello? Yes. I'm drunk and my friend padlocked my balls two weeks ago. Think you can help me out?
"Never in my 13 years have I seen anything like this," Wood said.
That doesn't surprise me...
The man reported to police that he allegedly attempted to remove the padlock with a hacksaw after the key broke off inside the lock. He was taken to Exeter Hospital, where a locksmith was called to remove the lock.
There's a story that'll keep the free beers coming to that locksmith for the rest of his life.
The hospital reported that the man was treated and released without sustaining lasting injury.
Hey, ya want the lock? You know, for a souvenier?
The Brentwood Fire Department would not comment on the incident, citing patient confidentiality.
But we'll remember the guy, believe you me...
The motive for the incident is still undetermined, police said.
But from now on, remember boys and girls... BOOZE AND PADLOCKS ARE A BAD COMBINATION!
"At this point we are not sure if it was a prank, or if it was an intentional act, or something done during a sexual act," Wood said.
Stick with the gerbils, boys...
The incident is under investigation.
...because we don't have a choice.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2005 08:54 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LOL
Posted by: God Save The World || 08/08/2005 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  allegedly attempted to remove the padlock with a hacksaw

Just thinking about the logistics of what is involved here makes me cringe. And don't even bring up a Dremel tool.
Posted by: Steve || 08/08/2005 9:38 Comments || Top||

#3  That poor, innocent padlock... *sniff* Why? Why, God, why?!
Posted by: Dar || 08/08/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#4  So, um, did he like stay drunk for the whole two weeks? I'm confused, heh. But not as much as the guy with his stuff in stir.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 10:14 Comments || Top||

#5  If you..........then, you might be a Redneck.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 10:18 Comments || Top||

#6  So what are the odds that someone, at some time during this escapade, said "Hold my beer! Watch this!!!"?
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 08/08/2005 11:06 Comments || Top||

#7  "Hold my beer! Watch this!"

"Bob's passed out. Lets see, we've shaved his head, put his hand in a dish of warm water, and taken silly pictures of him, what's next?"
Posted by: Steve || 08/08/2005 11:27 Comments || Top||

#8  On the next episode of Springer...
Posted by: Elmuck Unavimble1883 || 08/08/2005 11:49 Comments || Top||

#9  padlocks...why do they hate us?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/08/2005 12:58 Comments || Top||

#10  I guess this is what they mean by, "Wierd Animal Stories".
Posted by: BigEd || 08/08/2005 13:02 Comments || Top||

#11  Blue steel. Blue Balls.
Sawzall or hack saw,
It still doesn't feel
very good at all.
I broke the key,
Now all shall see.
Oh, if only he had used a combination.
Posted by: Zpaz || 08/08/2005 13:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Since when does the FIRE DEPARTMENT get to cite "patient confidentiality"? Lots of doctors putting out fires in LA county, are there?
Posted by: mojo || 08/08/2005 15:32 Comments || Top||

#13  "Since when does the FIRE DEPARTMENT get to cite "patient confidentiality"?"

If they were called or acted in a medical capacity (rescue squad, as opposed to firefighting), they do have to abide by patient confidentiality, mojo.

Doesn't stop them from having the laugh of the century back at the station house, though. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/08/2005 15:48 Comments || Top||

#14  Shrinkage
Posted by: Poulan || 08/08/2005 15:50 Comments || Top||

#15  Poor locksmith.
Posted by: hey mo || 08/08/2005 15:52 Comments || Top||

#16  Prolly one of those tiny chinese padlocks...
Posted by: DanNY || 08/08/2005 16:08 Comments || Top||

#17  "Never in my 13 years have I seen anything like this," Wood said."

Sending a 13 year old named "Wood" was NOT the right decision in this case...
Posted by: Hyper || 08/08/2005 16:31 Comments || Top||

#18  LOL Hyper!
Posted by: Shipman || 08/08/2005 17:03 Comments || Top||

#19  Send him to Canada as best man to the wedding of the 2 "we're not gay" dudes.
Posted by: john || 08/08/2005 18:52 Comments || Top||


Peter Jennings (ABC News Anchor) Dies at 67
From ABC News - Condolences to his family.
Aug. 7 — ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died today at his home in New York City. He was 67. On April 5, Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23, and his sister, Sarah Jennings.

In announcing Jennings' death to his ABC colleagues, News President David Westin wrote:

"For four decades, Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him.

"As you all know, Peter learned only this spring that the health problem he'd been struggling with was lung cancer. With Kayce, he moved straight into an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones. In the end, he was not.

"We will have many opportunities in the coming hours and days to remember Peter for all that he meant to us all. It cannot be overstated or captured in words alone. But for the moment, the finest tribute we can give is to continue to do the work he loved so much and inspired us to do."

Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  His departure was so sudden, I was fairly sure that he would not return to his anchor chair. Rest well, Mr. Jennings.
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/08/2005 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I my not of agreed with him but I would not wish such an illness on any human being* much less their families

Osama and his ilk don't qualify as human
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 08/08/2005 0:16 Comments || Top||

#3  In the 15 min ABC evening news in 67 Arab Israeli war and maybe 74 I seem to remember him stepping out of press copter in the middle of a huge tank battle in the Sinai. TOWs and the like were running everywhere. Very brave and maybe stupid too but very brave...
Posted by: 3dc || 08/08/2005 0:19 Comments || Top||

#4  RIP Mr. Jennings - Who'd have thought that the MSM big 3 would all be gone from the anchor's chair within a year...
Posted by: BigEd || 08/08/2005 0:21 Comments || Top||

#5  RIP. The weird thing is that these guys were the moderates, as liberals go. The guys replacing them are really, really far left.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/08/2005 0:29 Comments || Top||

#6  God rest your soul Peter Jennings.

Cancer is nothing I woudl wish even on my worst enemy.

Even Osama should die from a clean shot to the head, or lethal injection - or a hanging. Show him up even in death that we are far more human (yes Human, not humane) than him and his fellow Islamo-fascists.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2005 1:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Man you people have some short memories!!
Have you forgotten all the bs he has spewed upon the American public with his dead ducky tales....

As far as I am concerned he is or was an enemy propagandist from Canada.
Part of the enemy within
Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 08/08/2005 2:35 Comments || Top||

#8  He may have been a propagandist for the other side but lung cancer is a horrific way to die. RIP Mr. Jennings.
Posted by: AzCat || 08/08/2005 2:39 Comments || Top||

#9  The old adage that "if you can't say something good, then don't say anything" applies here.
Posted by: mac || 08/08/2005 5:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Whatever we feel about his politics, by all accounts he was a loving father and husband who had a profound effect on his profession.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/08/2005 7:01 Comments || Top||

#11  LHR- Few if any of us here agreed with his politics, but we have some class. We're not like DU or Koszies who seem to wish death on anyone who disagrees with them.
Posted by: Spot || 08/08/2005 8:10 Comments || Top||

#12  bye peter
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/08/2005 10:07 Comments || Top||

#13  He might have been a liberal but he was willing to debate conservatives without "bomb throwing.," which is all I ask.

FYI..Research shows that if you stop smoking in a reasonable amount of time, your lung can regenerate, to a point. If any RB's out there is smoking, stop NOW!! Better yet, NEVER start!!! It shouldn't take someone dying to make you think twice about your life. Remember you are not just killing yourself, you are also killing your wife/husband & kids, when you die.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 10:27 Comments || Top||

#14  In all fairness, it is not the manner nor the means of his death we criticize--it is the life he lead. For like a dishonest, but popular politician, his smiling face is what most people remember, never having seen the harm he promulgated on others, and his intent to do so. By manipulating the news as he did, he sewed much anguish among those he disdained. And though he was uneducated, never having completed high school, he pretended to intellectualism and moral superiority, while embracing the lowest order of decay and corruption in his political allies. Perhaps his most annoying feature was that he often implied that in being a Canadian he was somehow superior to Americans. That in being a Canadian, in itself, made him better than the hoi-polloi, the rednecks and crackers, the untermensch that dwell below the border of his native country. So, what is there to mourn with his passing? That he courted the unjust, that he oppressed the honorable, that he used his position to deride the audience he held in contempt, that he attempted to manipulate the political sphere in favor of such as Bill Clinton? I will not mourn for Peter Jennings, I will forget him. For what he wanted in life was in itself his punishment, and seeing his faction brought low surely distressed him more than the opinions of the red state Americans he disliked.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/08/2005 10:32 Comments || Top||

#15  Did you feel sorry when Goebbels died? He is part of the cancer of my country. I can give a big stinky poo weather people agree with me or not with my politics.
Debate a conservative without throwing bomb shells..WTF!! Short memories. We are all gonna die sometime and why should this pinko from the north get any props at all!! He poisoned thousands of American minds. You people make this clown sound like he was somebody. I will grieve when Fred dies, now that will be a tragedy (God forbid any time with in the next 100 years). I identify my enemy and they stay that way until they change or die!
Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 08/08/2005 11:27 Comments || Top||

#16  Peter Jennings was part of the problem, but he was not the problem itself. His death is not a cause to celebrate or an opportunity to further criticize him.
Pete definitely had his moments and he was never a complete idiotarian, keeping in mind that the scale includes the likes of the BBC and Noam Chomsky.
Does anyone remember how he bitch-slapped Wesley Clark for accepting support from Michael Moore last year?

Jennings: Now, that's a reckless charge not supported by the facts. And I was curious to know why you didn't contradict him . . .

Clark: Well, I think Michael Moore has the right to say whatever he feels about this.I don't know whether this is supported by the facts or not. I've never looked at it. I've seen this charge bandied about a lot. But to me it wasn't material . . .

Jennings: Since this question and answer in which you and Mr. Moore was involved in, you've had a chance to look at the facts. Do you still feel comfortable with the fact that someone should be standing up in your presence and calling the president of the United States a deserter?

Clark: To be honest with you, I did not look at the facts, Peter. You know, that's Michael Moore's opinion. He's entitled to say that. I've seen -- he's not the only person who's said that. I've not followed up on those facts. And frankly, it's not relevant to me and why I'm in this campaign.

Clark ’s reluctance to contradict Moore was criticized the next day by the newspaper that started it all, the Boston Globe, which said in an editorial:

"News reports, including some in the Globe , have questioned Bush's constancy as a National Guard airman at the time, but he has not been credibly accused of desertion, a serious charge. Clark should have distanced himself from the remark."


RIP, Pete
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 08/08/2005 11:31 Comments || Top||

#17 
he pretended to intellectualism and moral superiority, while embracing the lowest order of decay and corruption in his political allies.
Death

moose...well said, his 'work' wasn't harmless.
No pretense in death, the final equalizer...and follows as many of us believe, Judgement day.


Spot:
We're not like DU or Koszies who seem to wish death on anyone who disagrees with them.

agreed.
I wish his family well, God bless.



Posted by: Red Dog || 08/08/2005 11:34 Comments || Top||

#18  Long Hair Rep.,

Take your meds, man! I agree with you and Moose. I have had a strong dislike for Pete for many years. But, today is not the day to grind him into a pulp. Wait about 1 or 2 days, and then do it.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||

#19  Jennings was somewhat left-biaised and it showed. However, compared to the average MSM on-air personality, he was remarkably fair to Republicans.

As the network news audience gets smaller and smaller, they have been drifting more and more leftward.
Posted by: mhw || 08/08/2005 12:27 Comments || Top||

#20  Go look up the tapes. He said "oat" for the word "out," but had no trouble correctly pronouncing the word "thousand."

Posturing phony...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/08/2005 13:37 Comments || Top||

#21  How do they say thousand?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 08/08/2005 13:40 Comments || Top||

#22  LHR: We are all gonna die sometime and why should this pinko from the north get any props at all!!

Jennings was a pinko liberal. But the current crop of young journalists is flat-out red (or green, or whatever the enemy's colors are). We are going to miss his relative moderation.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/08/2005 13:47 Comments || Top||

#23  Really, now. I'm not about to say something ill of the deceased, but the last remotely moderate MSM'er was Chet Huntley.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 08/08/2005 13:50 Comments || Top||

#24  I really enjoyed smoking, I still dream about it.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/08/2005 15:52 Comments || Top||

#25  LHR, others - I didn't watch Jennings and didn't like what I knew of him, but THIS WEEK is not the time to say anything but condolences to his family.

They loved him, and had to watch him die an agonizing death. (The fact that he brought it on himself doesn't lessen their suffering one bit.)

I don't expect you to say anything nice about him - I certainly won't - but for THIS WEEK show some class and STFU.

My condolences to his family. The last few months have been a horrible time for them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/08/2005 15:58 Comments || Top||

#26  Shipman: Tobacco, the other weed?
Posted by: 3dc || 08/08/2005 17:58 Comments || Top||

#27  As a professional, Jennings outlived his era. An era where the three propagandists (Jennings, Rather/Conkite, and Broka) could tell us shit that we were ill-equipped to refute.

As a person, I hope Jennings rests in peace and that his loved ones grieve and then find happiness.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/08/2005 18:14 Comments || Top||

#28  Shipman, I still miss cigarettes too after stopping over 22 years ago for good.
Getting pregnant was the only way I was able to quit.
I'm sorry to know that smoking is so glorious to most folks.
Posted by: Jan || 08/08/2005 18:50 Comments || Top||

#29  Gentlemen: A three-day moratorium, please, on griping about Jennings.

I have been taking care of my mother, who has bone cancer, now terminal, for three years now. I know what the family is going through. They need your prayers.

Captain America (#27) said it best. End it here, please.
Posted by: mom || 08/08/2005 20:11 Comments || Top||

#30  mom - I lost my mother and father to cancer. I can't say I exactly know what you are going through, but hoping for peace for you and your family.

RIP Peter Jennings. May his family find solace and comfort.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 08/08/2005 20:43 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Phone technology aids UAE dating
How infidel Bluetooth technology is revolutionizing how boys meet girls in Dubai.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Such a little thing to destroy the underpinnings of such an ancient culture!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/08/2005 5:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol - I've described how it was in Saudi, at least in Al Khobar, before -- little pieces of paper with phone numbers of the males falling like snow from the 2nd & 3rd floors down through the atrium to the females on the ground floor - young brothers or sisters scampering around picking them up for their older sisters. Bluetooth is a new wrinkle, heh.

"Searching for devices"

Yeah, aren't we all.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 5:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Great. Muttawa will soon be running around with bluetooth jammers.
Posted by: ed || 08/08/2005 6:09 Comments || Top||

#4  If the Moronic Koranic disallowed the paying or receiving of interest payments, wait til the Imams get a hold of this new apostasy.

I feel a massive Fartwwa coming.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 10:34 Comments || Top||


Britain
Bill Clinton offers Cherie Blair support
LONDON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Bill Clinton has offered to campaign for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, should she decide to run for Parliament. The Blairs, both lawyers, each ran in 1983. While Blair won his seat, his wife lost to the Conservatives. She is said to be eyeing the solid Labor seat of Liverpool Riverside, currently occupied by another woman, the Daily Mail said Monday.
Clinton, meanwhile, told a newspaper he hoped Cherie Blair would be inspired by his own wife, now a New York senator who is expected to run for the White House in 2008. "If she ever campaigned for office and wanted me to go ringing doorbells for her, I'd be happy to do it," Clinton said.
Just look at what a great job he's done helping other people get elected. There's.........,er,...?
He also conceded Mrs. Blair could be entirely sick of politics by the time her husband steps down.
Blair has said he will step down as prime minister before the next election and last week his election agent confirmed he was also likely to step down as a member of Parliament.
Posted by: Steve || 08/08/2005 09:18 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely, Tony Blair can't be this stupid. First, he lets terrs Imam's into his country. Now, he is going to let Bill "Shlong Willie" Clinton into his house, to show his wife "under the table" manners.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 9:58 Comments || Top||

#2 
Bill Clinton offers Cherie Blair support
Sorry, this makes no sense.

Slick Willie doesn't give support to women, he gets it.

At least for a tiny portion of his anatomy.

Cherie - if you completely lose your mind and decide to hook up with this clown, may I suggest knee pads? At your age, your knees ain't what they used to be. Might as well be comfortable while you're "supporting" Willie.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/08/2005 15:16 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuelans Vote in Test for Chavez Allies
Voters across Venezuela cast ballots to select thousands of local officials Sunday in elections that could predict how well President Hugo Chavez's political allies will fare in key congressional elections in December. Chavez said the elections marked "one more step in the strengthening of the electoral system" to prevent irregularities. Casting his ballot in a poor neighborhood of Caracas, he said "there is security, there is calm throughout the country."

The elections were to decide thousands of city council and parish board posts, plus two provincial mayors and one governor, in the sparsely populated state of Amazonas. More than 38,700 candidates were contesting the elections. In recent votes, opposition leaders called for boycotts, saying the country's electoral council is stacked in Chavez's favor. But this time only small opposition parties urged a boycott, while the major opposition parties called for participation to demonstrate unity. Some voters complained of administrative problems in the capital of Caracas, where some poll workers failed to show up on time. "There was a great lack of organization," said 71-year-old Teresa Mendoza, waiting in a line that had formed due to a lack of poll workers. Other polling stations had workers in place but few voters.
Posted by: Fred || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jimmuh Carter will endorse Chavez's landslide win in 3... 2...

(If he doesn't, Chavez will sic that killer rabbit on him again).
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2005 1:22 Comments || Top||

#2  A nice little war of annihilation would do much to realign the growing Leftist-Islamofascist alliance.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 08/08/2005 1:38 Comments || Top||

#3  "one more step in the strengthening of the electoral system" to prevent irregularities

Like opposition candidates winning. Is the DNC sending people down to take notes?
Posted by: Jackal || 08/08/2005 11:29 Comments || Top||


Chavez sez DEA agents spying
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents to spy on the south American country. Mr Chavez said his country would sever its ties with the DEA and no longer collaborate with the US.

Mr Chavez said the country would continue to work with other international groups. "The DEA was using the fight against drug trafficking as a mask, to support drug trafficking, to carry out intelligence in Venezuela against the government," Mr Chavez said. "Under those circumstances we have decided to make a clean break with those accord," he added.
Sounds like the DEA was getting some dirt on the Cuban connection ...
President Chavez also criticised the US policy on drugs for concentrating on the supply rather than the demand of drugs.

Last week US Ambassador William Brownfield had said the US hoped to continue collaborative anti-drug efforts in the country. He warned that, without them, "there is only one group that wins, and that group is the drug traffickers."
And Hugo just declared which side he's on ...
Posted by: Steve White || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hugo re-sets the bar for paranoia every week. Wotta machine, heh.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 9:57 Comments || Top||

#2  It's kinda their job, Hugo...
Posted by: mojo || 08/08/2005 11:56 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian regional governor dies
A Russian stand-up comedian who was elected governor of his home region, Altai in Siberia, last year has been killed in a car crash.
Mikhail Yevdokimov's Mercedes hit a tree while reportedly trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle.
You could also say another vehicle reportedly ran him off the road into a tree.
Two other people died in the accident on Sunday - the driver and a bodyguard. Yevdokimov's wife was injured. His transition from show business to politics led to him being dubbed Russia's Arnold Schwarzenegger by some.
Yevdokimov's press secretary said the couple were heading to events to mark the 70th anniversary of the birth of cosmonaut German Titov when the accident happened between Biysk and the Altai regional capital, Barnaul. Yevdokimov, 47, was a first time candidate in the 2004 election. He won 49.79% of the run-off vote, beating incumbent Alexander Surikov.
I suppose it could really have been a "accident".
Posted by: Steve || 08/08/2005 08:34 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mikhail Yevdokimov
Posted by: BigEd || 08/08/2005 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Mikhail Yevdokimov. Inventor of the longest running Soviet joke (outside of Leonid Brezhnev's eyebrows) : "We'll keep pretending to work as long as they keep pretending to pay us."
Posted by: Zpaz || 08/08/2005 13:48 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Koizumi calls snap election
TOKYO – Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi immediately called a snap election Monday after losing a key vote on postal-system reform in the nation's upper house, setting the stage for a possible political realignment and a chance for the opposition to make a grab for power.

Mr. Koizumi pushed hard for privatization, but conservatives in his own party, who garner both funding for public-works projects from the postal-savings system and support at the polls from postal workers, crossed the floor to defeat the bills.

Dissolving the lower house to hold a poll, slated for Sept. 11, may backfire on the maverick Japanese leader. Trends in the past few elections have moved Japan toward a more balanced two-party system, and this vote could finally see the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) booted from office for only the second time in 50 years, say analysts and lawmakers.

"The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will most likely win due to the internal conflict among LDP factions," says Kazuhiko Ozawa, a professor of politics at Obirin University.

Opposition parties are rubbing their hands in delight. DPJ leader Katsuya Okada recently set out his plans for a new, more accommodating direction in Japanese foreign policy as a response to ongoing tensions with China and other nearby Asian countries. On the domestic front, he has indicated he aims to root out graft and end the cozy ties between politics and such industries as construction and road building. He also wants more pro-active child-support policies in a bid to stem Japan's declining birth rate.

The last time the LDP was pushed briefly into opposition in 1993, senior bureaucrats in various ministries stymied the reformist policy goals of an inexperienced coalition government. To avert this kind of resistance, Mr. Okada has said he will replace those in public posts above a certain rank with political appointments.

But any DPJ government would face more problems than a simple lack of experience. Because a snap election can only be called for the lower house, the LDP will continue to hold its slim majority in the upper house, leaving the bicameral system hung between the two major parties. The DPJ must win two-thirds of the lower house seats to be able to pass any legislation rejected by the upper house. If the DPJ falls short, they may have to seek an awkward alliance with other parties.

The DPJ comprise an implausible grouping of liberals and right-wing politicians with sometimes extreme views. Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ vice-president, unleashed a political storm in 2003 when local media reported he said that to deter any Chinese threats, Japan could produce "thousands of nuclear warheads" from plutonium created by its commercial nuclear reactors. Analysts say internal frictions in the DPJ would be likely to undermine its ability to govern effectively.

Indeed, a change of government could spark a period of broad political reorganization as parties adjust alliances and lawmakers seek likeminded policy partners.
Posted by: Kofi Annan || 08/08/2005 18:50 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Chinese local officials fired for deception on pig diseases
BEIJING, Aug. 8 -- Four officials have been sacked for deception and failing to do their jobs properly during the fight against the spread of streptococcus suis from pigs to people.

I am shocked, shocked to find deception going on here!

The workers lost their jobs in Zizhong County in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, where 39 people had been killed by the epidemic by noon yesterday.

Only 3 provinces away from Zhejiang this time. Scary.

At least 200 people have contracted the disease. Last night there were still 101 people in hospital, 10 in a serious condition.

Yikes. In Chinese hospitals, no less. I have an M.D. friend who tells tales that will curdle your phlegm.

Between July 15-24, 78 pigs died in Zizhong near Ziyang, the city which reported the first case of the pig-to-human streptococcus suis on June 24. Li Mingzhong, chief of the county's animal husbandry and food bureau, and his colleagues are said to have fabricated a report that the pigs were either deeply buried or slaughtered, or their whereabouts were unknown.

On July 27, State officials inspecting the epidemic asked Li's office to verify the whereabouts of six of the 78 pigs. But Li and his colleagues did not do so. Three days later, reporters from China Central Television, who were reporting the epidemic in the county, looked more deeply into the matter.

China's answer to Woodward & Bernstein?

Li, Liu Wei, chief of the county animal epidemic prevention and supervision station, Jiang Xiaogang, deputy chief of the same station and Chen Bin, chief of the Taiping Town animal husbandry and veterinary station, took the reporters to the homes of six farmers whose pigs had died of the illness. The apparent aim was to see how the pigs were "properly disposed off." But the reporters discovered the truth did not fit with what the officials claimed.

Careful what you investigate, Sam Spade. Someone might get the idea that investigating corrupt officialdom is OK.

After this was exposed, the four officials still tried to cheat a county investigation team. But their deception backfired and resulted in their dismissal, said Wang Minghui, the mayor of Neijiang which has Zizhong under its jurisdiction.
Posted by: gromky || 08/08/2005 12:28 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Bosnian Serb War Crimes Suspect Arrested
A top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, indicted by a U.N. tribunal for some of the worst atrocities in the Bosnian war, was arrested Monday in Argentina. Milan Lukic was being held at a police station in Buenos Aires and was to be questioned by a judge after being arrested in the city on an "international request," according to Argentine Federal Police. Lukic was indicted by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2000 for crimes against humanity. He also has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Serbia for war crimes but has been on the run since late 1990s.
Posted by: Fred || 08/08/2005 15:35 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  was arrested Monday in Argentina.

goddamit. wuz hopen thisn wuz in cali.

>:(
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/08/2005 20:31 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Harry Belafonte Calls Black Republicans 'Tyrants'
Atlanta (CNSNews.com) - Celebrity activist Harry Belafonte referred to prominent African-American officials in the Bush administration as "black tyrants" at a weekend march, and he also compared the administration to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Belafonte, a featured speaker at Saturday's march in Atlanta commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, previously ignited a political controversy in 2002 when he likened then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to a "house slave."

At Saturday's civil rights march, Belafonte said the Bush administration has been "rather dismal" for the lives of black Americans. The march, which featured prominent civil rights groups and labor union representatives, was intended to drum up support for extending and strengthening the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Belafonte used a Hitler analogy when asked about what impact prominent blacks such as former Secretary of State Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had on the Bush administration's relations with minorities.

"Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value," Belafonte said in an exclusive interview with Cybercast News Service. "[If] a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated," he added. When asked specifically who was a "black tyrant" in the Bush administration, Belafonte responded to this reporter, "You." When this reporter noted that he was a Caucasian and attempted to ask another question, Belafonte abruptly ended the interview by saying, "That's it."

Another prominent celebrity marcher at Saturday's civil rights march also employed Nazi analogies to the GOP and conservatives. Civil rights activist Dick Gregory mocked the existence of African-American conservatives in America. "They (black conservatives) have a right to exist, but why would I want to walk around with a swastika on my shirt after the way Hitler done messed it (the swastika symbol) up?" Gregory said in an interview with Cybercast News Service. (The swastika was an ancient symbol generally regarded an emblem of strength and luck before the Nazi Party adopted it in 1920.) "So why would I want to call myself a conservative after the way them white racists thugs have used that word to hide behind? They call themselves new Republicans," Gregory said.

Gregory trashed the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs," Gregory said.
Gregory also accused President Bush of stealing the 2004 presidential election. "They didn't win, and I got that from the white press. At four o'clock [on Election Day 2004], that evening, the white press said from the exit polls that [Democratic presidential nominee John] Kerry had won by a landslide and then three hours later something funny happened," Gregory said of Bush's eventual election victory.

Asked why approximately ten percent of African-Americans typically vote for Republican presidential candidates, Gregory responded, "I have no idea. You have to ask them. That's like asking me about a woman having a baby. Go ask her, I don't know."

And even more goodness, EFL: "They all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves," said Judge Greg Mathis, the star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show." Mathis made his remarks to an enthusiastic crowd assembled in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Participants are launching a two-year campaign to extend and strengthen key aspects of the act when it expires in 2007. "It is indeed criminal to steal an election and within two years run up a federal deficit of half-a-trillion dollars, send our young people over to Iraq to die for an unjust war. What they are doing is criminal," Mathis said to loud cheers.
Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California appeared at the march and noted that minorities may not have had full voting rights in the last two presidential elections. "Some changes have to be made so we don't have a repeat of 2000 and 2004 where there was intimidation and discrepancies at the polls," Pelosi told Cybercast News Service during the voting rights march. "In the state of Ohio, where they had fewer voting booths and long lines in minority neighborhoods and no lines and many voting booths in white neighborhoods, that the balance is not what it should have been," she added.

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) echoed the accusation of many at the march that Bush was an illegitimate president. "The last two elections were stolen. They were stolen and so we will not rest until we reclaim our democracy and this is what today is all about," Lee told the crowd gathered. Lee also called the war in Iraq "unnecessary, immoral and illegal" and added "our nation was lied to in order to justify this invasion and occupation."

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made it clear who the marchers were directing their anger at on Saturday. "We are here to take on President Bush, [Vice President] Dick Cheney. We are here to take on [House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay. We are here to take on the new appointee to the Supreme Court, John Roberts," Waters said from the podium to cheers from the crowd.

Musician Stevie Wonder addressed the marchers demanding that the Voting Rights Act be extended and strengthened. "Having to demand that we have a bill that will guarantee the voting rights of all American citizens forever is ridiculous," Wonder said. He also read the lyrics of an upcoming song to be released in September. "At this time we have a choice to make. Father God is watching while we cause Mother Earth so much pain. It's such a shame. Not enough money for the young, the old, the poor, but for war there is always more," Wonder said.

The Bush administration was also targeted by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who declared that the president's "record against human rights, civil rights, economic rights, is absolutely terrible."

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said America was being ruled by the "Bush mentality," where "crony capitalism" was supreme.

Jesse Jackson said the Voting Rights Act extension is critical because "the same old enemies of civil rights and voting rights will always keep up their ugly activities. "Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town," Jackson said.
Posted by: Steve || 08/08/2005 08:46 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To quote somebody:
"Shut up and sing, already!"
Posted by: N guard || 08/08/2005 9:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The old black leadership is only concerned with maintaining their position and petty power by delivering up their own people's future. There's a name for that. The three greatest contributors to poverty in America are substance abuse, single female head of household, and blowing off education. Name me those in the leadership who have publically hammered those problems within the community rather than shift the blame elsewhere. They sell the souls of their own people to the one party which literally protect those delivering substandard education because the union buys the party with gold. Before there was an America, blacks sold other blacks to islamic slavers for the Cairo-Damascus trade. The practice may have changed in form, but the substance remains the same.
Posted by: Clomoling Ebbutle1219 || 08/08/2005 9:16 Comments || Top||

#3  What a farce.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 08/08/2005 9:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich
WTF? Get a grip Harry, your ignorance is showing.
Posted by: Spot || 08/08/2005 9:30 Comments || Top||

#5  That is quite the cast of characters, all right. Harrangers, race baters, demagogues, inflammatory speakers, and NOT ONE PROBLEM-SOLVER among them. Heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/08/2005 9:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Harry and Dick Gregory! Wow! There must've been a special on round trip flights out of Bolivian.
I swear, I thought Dick Gregory was dead.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2005 9:33 Comments || Top||

#7  After reading about Rummy and Sinise - this brings back cold reality. Belafonte's insane. He's been insane for quite some time.

Interviewing him is merely mining salt - you know precisely what you're going to get, so this must be what the editor wanted to print. Fuck 'em both.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 9:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Gregory trashed the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs," Gregory said.

Um, so you're saying that we should share our hard drugs more? Tell Belafonte to quit bogarting the joint.
Posted by: BH || 08/08/2005 10:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Oddly enough despite being such a nightmare on Earth the folks sneaking past border guards are trying to get in, not out.
Posted by: RJSchwarz || 08/08/2005 10:24 Comments || Top||

#10  At least Stevie Wonder didn't make an ass out of himself.

Any wild guesses as to Bill Cosby's absence?
Posted by: Raj || 08/08/2005 10:29 Comments || Top||

#11  The campaign commercials, they're just writing themselves!
Posted by: Dreadnought || 08/08/2005 11:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Musician Stevie Wonder addressed the marchers demanding that the Voting Rights Act be extended and strengthened. "Having to demand that we have a bill that will guarantee the voting rights of all American citizens forever is ridiculous," Wonder said.


riiggghhtt. Didn't make an ass of himself? We all know that the eeeeeevil Reps are trying to keep blacks from voting over and over , and asking ridiculous requirements like ID's and no dead voters...
Posted by: Frank G || 08/08/2005 11:13 Comments || Top||

#13  Harry Belafonte's New
"Banana Boat Song"
"I'm So Los'"

Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Go all day on a cup-a jo'
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
It's a-gettin noon, There's a Burga King!
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Walkin' a-roun’ mumlin' to ma self
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Walkin' a-roun’ mumlin' to ma self
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home


Six mile, seven mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Six mile, seven mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Eight mile, nine mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Eight mile, nine mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Come to dis park spoutin' foolishness
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Lotsa people cheer ma' foolishness
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Come Mr. Taxi-man take me back to ma' place
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
I got so'money you can take me back to ma' place
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I ca’ find ma home

Posted by: Ogeretla 2005 || 08/08/2005 11:20 Comments || Top||

#14  "Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town," Jackson said.
If anybody knows about that it would be Jesse.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 08/08/2005 11:24 Comments || Top||

#15  I'm withholding judgment until Mel Torme weighs in.
Posted by: Matt || 08/08/2005 11:33 Comments || Top||

#16  Harry B. is continuing to live large on the Democratic Plantation. Somebody needs to explain to Harry it's okay to leave the plantation and think for yourself. Harry should be reminded that most slave owners were the original Democrats. Oh, never mind...
Posted by: Mark Z. || 08/08/2005 13:10 Comments || Top||

#17  Mark Z: 'fraid not. In the antebellum period, the slave-owners were mostly Whigs, and before that, National Republicans. They were only Democrats for the brief period between the collapse of the Whig Party in 1854 and the collapse of the Democratic Party in 1860. For most of the slave-owning period, the Democratic Party in the South was the "popular" party, of those who both hated the slaves, and the slave-owners. Poor white trash, in other words. Like Andrew Johnson, frex.

Which is all utterly irrelevant to the main point, which is that Harry Belafonte is batshit insane. And Dick Gregory? Walking proof that bullshit and bile aren't carcinogenic.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 08/08/2005 15:34 Comments || Top||

#18  Semi OT, but RantBurg needs a Ogeretla songbook.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/08/2005 15:58 Comments || Top||

#19  What?! Harry Belafonte is black?! Well, whoduh thunk negros could be racist...
Posted by: Hyper || 08/08/2005 16:20 Comments || Top||

#20  When you're a has been you got to do something to get your name out.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/08/2005 17:55 Comments || Top||

#21  The Clintons and US DemoLefties are still playing everybody against the other - America > a Communist-controlled Fascist nation like Russia-China while pretending they are against Dubya's "imperialist" or "warmoner" policies in the WOT, i.e are the alternates to Dubya and the GOP-Right. The DemoLeft alternate to [national] Unitarian, GOP-Dem or GOP= Dem "Fascism", is COMMUNISM except by indirect route, where alleged "Fascism" is merely relabeled as DE-REGULATED COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM. Commie Fascist Russia-China = Commie Fascist/Fascist Commie America. Can a Commie-controlled "Fascist" government still be "Fascist"??? Leftism stands for nothing except politics, and all the amount of relabeling isn't gonna hide an insincere patriot or PC treason - ITS NOT "SOCIALISM",
"COMMUNISM", OR "REGULATION", BUT "NATIONWIDE" and "PERSONAL" "SAFETY" AND "SECURITY", ETC. FEEL-GOOD SURNAMES!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/08/2005 23:54 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Two straight Canadian blokes to marry
From the Register:We're sure that most Reg readers don't object to gay marriage as long as it doesn't frighten the horses, but we wonder if that liberal sentiment extends to heterosexual same-sex union? We'll find out soon enough, because Canadians Bill Dalrymple, 56, and chum Bryan Pinn, 65 have decided to tie the knot, the Ottawa Sun reports.

Although Pinn is reported as calling the impending nuptials a "hoot", there is good business sense behind the proposal. Pinn adds: "There are significant tax implications that we don't think the government has thought through." Indeed, the pair want to "shed light on the widespread financial implications of the new [gay marriage] legislation and are willing to take it all the way". Well, not quite all the way, because there will be no consummation of this particular union. The two have, though, checked that there are "no laws in marriage that define sexual preference".

Dalrymple and Pinn conclude by saying their upcoming wedding is not intended as a slight to gays and lesbians. However, gay and lesbian rights activist Bruce Walker warned: "Generally speaking, marriage should be for love. People who don't marry for love will find themselves in trouble," although he gamely conceded: "If someone wants to do something foolish, let them do it." ®
I may be wrong, but I think if you get married to another man, you're gay, whether you've ever smoked pole in your life or not. Judges?
It sounds to me like these two are practical jokers who believe the "gay marrige" debate is more about getting government benefits and less about being in love.
Posted by: mojo || 08/08/2005 12:21 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well gee "...more about getting government benefits and less about being in love." ya' think?

That's what this has ALWAYS been about. There is nothing that gays can't do now that married hets can do EXCEPT SOAK THE GOV'T!

This is all about power and getting money for the preferred minority.

Cheers to these two for making it blatantly obvious.
Posted by: AlanC || 08/08/2005 13:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I told my wife a couple years ago that if they passed same-sex marriages, straight guys would hook up for the tax benefits. She didn't believe me. Excuse me while I go perform the "I was right, you were wrong" happy dance.
Posted by: BH || 08/08/2005 13:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Here will be the test:

Two canuck sailors will figure out if they get married, they both get BAQ and can move off the ship to some snake ranch in Esquimalt.

That way, they have a place to take chicks they pick up drinking.

Posted by: Penguin || 08/08/2005 14:52 Comments || Top||

#4  How are these fellas NOT gay ?

Posted by: john || 08/08/2005 15:42 Comments || Top||

#5  How are these fellas NOT gay ?

Look at how they're dressed, for heaven's sake!
Posted by: Elton John || 08/08/2005 16:12 Comments || Top||

#6  BH that's an easy way to turn an ankle.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/08/2005 17:07 Comments || Top||

#7  hmmm, I thought a marriage had to be consumated to be considered legal.
Posted by: Jan || 08/08/2005 17:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Jan--They can just splatter some BBQ sauce on the sheets and hang them on the line for the neighbors tomorrow. Everything will be fine.
Posted by: Dar || 08/08/2005 21:06 Comments || Top||

#9  "The couple are registered at Canadian Tire."

I had been sitting on a blog post for awhile called "What's Love Got to Do with it?" The thrust of it (if you'll pardon the expression in this context) was "what's the officiant going to do? Make you make out in front of everyone?" A few minutes in front of the judge and presto: employer health insurance benefits for your roommate, close friend or whatever.
Posted by: eLarson || 08/08/2005 21:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
CNN's Candy Crowley: Hillary "Goddess"
2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is considered a "goddess" in Democratic Party circles, CNN's Candy Crowley reported Saturday.
"I honestly hear the word 'goddess' attached to her," Crowley told fellow CNN'er Joe Johns, who asked her to survey the 2008 political landscape.
Kali, goddess of destruction, worshipped by the thuggee.
"She's kind of this – she doesn't have to show up in New Hampshire for another three-and-a-half years, because she's such a presence there," Crowley continued to gush.
"Like a dark brooding shadow, draining their life forces, till all that's left is an empty shell"
In the next breath Crowley seemed at a loss for words to explain the awe-inspiring power of Sen. Clinton's charisma. "I mean, she is, you know, again, she, like McCain on the Republican side, they already have – look, they already have names, they already have networks. They don't need to be [in New Hampshire] right now. It's the insurgents that need to be in there now."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/08/2005 09:53 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ROTFLMAO!

Goddess? Of what? Naked raw unprincipled ambition?

Crowley needs meds. And to have her stomach stapled.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 10:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Bias? What Bias? Move along, it's all in the figment of your imagination.

"In the next breath Crowley seemed at a loss..like McCain"

If McCain thought he had snowball's chance in hell before, to run, I ate toooo much Candy Crowley pretty much obliterated any future for the McCain presidency. Being compared to Hillary, all in one weazing breath is definitely not the ticket.

Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  I exploit you
Still you love me
I tell you one and one is three
I'm the Cult of Personality.
Posted by: BH || 08/08/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#4  "I honestly hear the word 'goddess' attached to her,"

Well there's one thing Candy won't ever have to be worried about being referred to as...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#5  "I honestly hear the word 'goddess' attached to her,"

Of course, the "goddess" in question is the Venus of Willendorf.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 08/08/2005 10:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Candy, such an appropriate name...
Posted by: Raj || 08/08/2005 10:45 Comments || Top||

#7  I assume from the designation of "CNN" that MS Crowley is some sort of TV news talking head, but I am only too happy to state that I have no other idea of who this woman is, what she looks like, or why anyone should be hanging on her word.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 08/08/2005 11:05 Comments || Top||

#8  No, no, no.... This is a piece of good reporting. Does anyone doubt that this is correct; that she is regarded as the "goddess" of the dems right now? Or that some dems are so profoundly sophomoric that they would actually think and say something like that?

It just goes to show how little they have going for them... Their most popular candidate for the white house is with a one term carpetbagging senatorial wife of an ex-president, whose only executive branch assignment (health care) was widely and profoundly rejected, and whose record in the senate is largely at odds with her previous thinking on many issues.
Posted by: Mark E. || 08/08/2005 11:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Candy Crowley, my god, all she lacks is a pig nose.
You can believe what she says because her looks always give her away.

Mark my words. We will regret Hillary and the patriot act. Hillary's dirty tricks gang makes Nixon look like a choir boys. There is no law they will not break.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/08/2005 11:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Consort of Cthulhu?
Posted by: Xbalanke || 08/08/2005 11:34 Comments || Top||

#11  Xblanke :

If Bill can have, Monica, Gennifer, Kathryn, etc. etc...

Of course the "looker" of his harem was the ex-Miss America, Elizabeth Gracen



Of course, Vince Foster's suicide?
If she preferred Cthulhu that might explain some things...





Posted by: BigEd || 08/08/2005 11:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Kaliiiiiii shakti dei!
Posted by: mojo || 08/08/2005 11:58 Comments || Top||

#13  Kali? Bah!

Y'all must be completely ignorant.

She seems to match Hera _very_ closely.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 08/08/2005 15:41 Comments || Top||

#14  Damn, is crowley queer for her or what?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2005 16:32 Comments || Top||

#15  That is no moon goddess....

They look very nice until you get closer and notice the batlike wings and fangs.....

...but by then its often too late.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/08/2005 16:49 Comments || Top||

#16  I was a gawd in my time, then I had a weepy moment, then nuttin!
Posted by: Walter Mondale || 08/08/2005 17:10 Comments || Top||

#17  My God, man, Walter "Fritz" Mondale, a RBer!

Haven't heard from you since Coleman kicked yur ass to become senator.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/08/2005 18:10 Comments || Top||

#18  That's not Fritz, It's Eagleton, wishing he were Fritz.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 08/08/2005 18:12 Comments || Top||

#19  I thought being beautiful and ageless was part of being a goddess.

I thought only the Norns were old hags.

What gives?
Posted by: 3dc || 08/08/2005 20:58 Comments || Top||

#20  DICK MORRIS on FOX was arguing that since he believes Hillary isn't dedicated to her official task/office as Senator by and for the people of New York, that she should just refrain from running for Senator in '06, where she presently stands a either good chance of losing or else to win only by minutae points, and focus wholly instead on winning the Presidency, which is what she wants to be to begin with.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/08/2005 23:28 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
China vows to veto enlarged UN council plan
BEIJING - China will veto a plan to enlarge the United Nations Security Council if the reform measure goes to a vote, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. “To uphold the interests of most developing nations, and to preserve the long-term interests of the United Nations, China will resolutely vote no if the G-4 proposal is put up for a vote,” the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.

The proposal calls for adding six permanent seats without veto powers -- four for the G-4 nations themselves and two for Africa -- and four seats on rotating two-year terms. “The G-4 resolution fails to consider the interests of the majority of nations, including African countries, and has been opposed and questioned by many nations and cannot gain support,” the ministry said.

China’s Foreign Ministry suggested the G-4 nations withdraw their resolution for further consultation among countries and warned against attempts to push through a vote. “Any forceful vote would only sharpen contradictions, affect the unity of (U.N.) member states and undermine the course of the progress of reform,” it said.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well when you bully your way on to the security council in the first place you have to be expected to throw your weight around
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 08/08/2005 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe I missed something, how would expanding the council be bad? Doesn't china always stymie anything we want to do? Doesn't India have a population aproaching china's? Is brazil not considered a formidable first-world economy now? Someone help me out here, I must not be getting it.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2005 1:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Other than South Africa and Egypt, every other nation in Africa in incapable of exerting military power abroad in the name of peace or a diversified coalition - There's a reason why its called the Security Council. A helluva lot of pragmatic considerations/presumptions are going to have to be made and SACRIFICED iff this current proposal is going to work - at best, the current proposal is asking for trouble and its not even accepted or implemented yet.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/08/2005 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  The guys who want on the Sec Council include Brazil (notably anti-american in just about ALL their UN dealings), Germany (I can see the heebee jeebees being raised by Europeans in general here), the Japanese (as much as they're our allies, just about every asian/southeast asian country is gonna have heebee jeebees of the sort the europeans are having about germany on a permanent security council), and finally india which tends to be liberal socialists in there government workings.

Of the G-4 nations we can pretty much be sure of only Japan often siding with us but this also adds an element of a veto cropping up more often, not because of them having the power to veto which they wont have but rather because of the possible proposals or negatory views they might issue via resolutions, thereby negating any binding resolutions effectively. The Permanent seats for Africa is also another no go for the same reasons.

Watching this play out though is quite fun.
Posted by: Valentine || 08/08/2005 4:13 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm sure there must be a bookmaker somewhere giving odds. I'll see what I can find.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/08/2005 4:16 Comments || Top||

#6  No betting I could find on UNSC, but the money sez Bin Laden or Zaqawi won't be captured any time soon.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/08/2005 4:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Sounds pre-emptive, to me. India and Japan, as mentioned, are obvious candidates - neither of which would be acceptable to the ChiComs. This way they haven't named names aloud ("face" is such an interesting game), yet everyone knows who they would object to.

The UN is D.E.A.D. Assuming it ever really did, it long ago it ceased to function in the manner envisioned. Given the way things shape up today, I no longer believe it's better to try to kill it and work to get anyone to go along. No, now, we should just withdraw our excessive funding, keep our UNSC seat, and veto everything that comes down the pike that isn't in our absolute best interests.

I think I almost have enough fingers to count all of the nations that would go along with formally killing it. And the same is true of how many nations I would believe should be involved as founders of a replacement. Those two lists would likely be the same, anyway.

Seems to me that we should reduce US funding to 191th of the budget and stick to bilateral agreements for dealing with the real world... and let this disaster suffocate, scream its bloody head off, go fishing, whatever.

IMHO, about 180 of the 191 (still accurate?) "member states" should have little or no say in the running of a global forum. And I count China in that group, of course.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 5:19 Comments || Top||

#8  India deserves this veto from China. Stupidity deserves insults like this.
It is Karma.

The USA consulted with the USSR in 1955 and offered a permanent seat with veto to India.

India's then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru responded with

"The first step to be taken is for China to take her rightful place, and then the question of India might be discussed separately,"

He was full of love for his commie chinese brethern. He wanted them on the UNSC.

When the Chinese attakced India in 1962 and delivered a serious butt whipping (they still occupy a huge chunk of Kashmir), it sped Nehru to an early grave. He was heartbroken over the end of Hindi-Chini-bhai-bhai ("indians and chinese are brothers").

In another bit of stupidity, Nehru handed over the cocos islands to Burma, as a token of brotherly love.

The Chinese have leased the island from Burma and built a surveilance station and military base there.

Nehru signed the Indus waters treaty with Pakistan, handing over the output of three Indian rivers to Pakistan and giving it more water, even though it was a smaller country. He hoped it would lead to brotherly love with pakistan.

The paks attacked in 1965 and launched a Jihadi terror campaign in 1988 that continues unabated.

Karma.

Vajpayee in 2000, signed an agreement with China where India recognized Chinese control of Tibet.
In response China simply changed a map where it showed Sikkim as non-Indian.
China did not officially acknowledge Sikkim as Indian. It also claims an entire Indian state as Chinese territory.

Karma

It is building all weather roads on its borders with India that can carry heavy armor.
It has stationed SRBMs in Tibet.

Karma.


Posted by: john || 08/08/2005 11:29 Comments || Top||

#9  The icing on the cake was of course the Chinese arming of Pakistan with both nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

Compared to that the chinese veto is nothing..
Posted by: john || 08/08/2005 15:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Good summary, John.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/08/2005 17:10 Comments || Top||

#11  Ima think this John fellow has long memory.
Posted by: Walter Mondale || 08/08/2005 17:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Was that John.....Bolton?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 08/08/2005 18:10 Comments || Top||

#13  You can scrap the army

"We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs." - Jawaharlal Nehru - 1947

"I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation."
Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajya Sabha, 1963


Posted by: john || 08/08/2005 21:20 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Bob sez 'no way' to talks
President Robert Mugabe on Monday rejected calls for talks with Zimbabwe's opposition leader on resolving the country's political and economic crisis. In a clear reference to neighboring South Africa, Mugabe said he is getting pressure to hold talks with opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai from "quarters that should know better." "Today we tell all those calling for such ill-conceived talks to please stop their misdirected efforts," Mugabe told thousands of cheering supporters at the annual commemoration of the war to end white rule in this former breakaway British colony.

Zimbabwe has asked South Africa for a $1 billion loan to pay arrears on its loan from the International Monetary Fund and to buy critically short supplies like food and fuel. South Africa reportedly is pressuring Zimbabwe to make economic policy changes and to take steps to resolve its political crisis as conditions for an emergency loan. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi accused Mugabe of failing to lead the country in a positive direction and said that naturally concerned neighbors like South Africa. "Only someone with his head firmly buried in the sand would not understand why there are calls for dialogue," Themba-Nyathi said. In his speech, Mugabe scoffed at critics of his human rights and governance record, including the United States and Britain. He also said his "Look East" policy toward China and other Asian countries was having "quantifiable results."
I guess you could call a precipitous slide into starvation and anarchy "quantifiable results"...
Posted by: Fred || 08/08/2005 15:50 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Run-er till she drops Bob. But I hope your health insurance is paid up and the chopper has a full tank of gas.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2005 15:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Who's Bob gonna hit up for the money to pay back the billion he'll steal borrow from South Africa?
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2005 17:52 Comments || Top||

#3  ...and the chopper has a full tank of gas.

And wasn't manufactured in Ukraine.
Posted by: Raj || 08/08/2005 18:28 Comments || Top||

#4  and I say no way to talks. One bullet, one sniper and lots of lives saved. Sounds fair enough to me.
Posted by: 2b || 08/08/2005 19:21 Comments || Top||

#5  If that happens, it'll come from someone outside of Zimbabwe.

Bob's got most of the populace where he wants them: cowed, starving, and displaced. What non-Zanu PF elite there are oppose any action that would change the government, as the MDC wanted to do originally.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/08/2005 21:27 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Internet Agency Grants Iraq the Right To Manage Its Own Domain Name: .iq
Posted by: DanNY || 08/08/2005 08:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Magic Lantern...oops Did I say Magic Lantern?

Alex, spyware for $1000 please.

Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 10:15 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope the don't let it become a nest of spammers and and muslim hate sites.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/08/2005 11:30 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Man swaps daughter for unopposed win in polls
ISLAMABAD - A candidate in Pakistan’s Northwestern Frontier Province gave away his 11-year-old daughter to his opponent in exchange for latter’s withdrawal from next week’ local elections, a news report said on Sunday.
But she had the body of an eight year old ...
Daily Times quoted an unnamed election official as saying that Ajoon, a resident of Kohistan district, more than 120 kilometres northwest of Islamabad, made the offer considering his opponent Vilayat Noor politically stronger. The two men were the only candidates for the post of nazim, or chief administrator. “He wished to get elected unopposed ... that’s why he also paid him (Noor) Rs. 200,000 (about 3,358 U.S. dollars),” the official told the newspaper.

In Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions and rural Punjab province, girls are also given away in marriage in the settlement of disputes though the custom called Swara or vani, already been declared illegal by a higher court.

Human rights groups and religious scholars also oppose the practice, describing it as un-Islamic.
Un-islamic? Pshaw! The great Profit (PTUI) sez it's okay, why he married a nine-year old hisself. How can that be wrong, riddle me that!"
Meanwhile, tribal elders and politicians have barred women from contesting the elections in some conservative districts of NWFP. “It doesn’t suit our traditions and culture,” Ayaz Khan, a provincial cabinet minister, said after signing an agreement banning women’s participation in elections as candidate.
"It ain't Islamic. Never saw the Profit (PTUI) sponsor a woman for an election, didya? Didya?"
Such agreements have been signed among local elders and political parties’ leaders in Dir, Batgram and Malakand districts. Human rights activists demanded the election commission postpone polls in those areas.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What animals. This sickens me to no end.
Posted by: Jan || 08/08/2005 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Carpet bomb the bastards unless they give us Osama and Omar's heads on silver platters...

They aren't human...
Posted by: BigEd || 08/08/2005 0:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Un-islamic? Pshaw? The great Profit (PTUI) sez it's okay, why he married a nine-year old hisself. How can that be wrong, riddle me that!"


Really, It's OK, It says so right

here>¨·°☺¶Q'u'r¤a'a'n¶/☺°·¨
Posted by: Mullah me that! || 08/08/2005 0:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Even though, intellectually, the depths Shari'a and Islam plumb are apparent, it still surprises me at times in practice. This is one of those times. The "scholars" are no more than a quilting club - only they don't produce quilts. In practice, it is tribal / village based and interpreted on the whims of the insane self-serving cretins running the show. Even if there is a law against buying and selling elections, Shari'a will trump it. That's the only thing I am certain of in their bizarro world.

Disease. Pathogen. Fatal.
Posted by: .com || 08/08/2005 5:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Paki democracy tribal style.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 08/08/2005 9:32 Comments || Top||

#6  "tribal elders and politicians have barred women from contesting the elections.....“It doesn’t suit our traditions and culture,”

But, Mohammed's tradition of pedophilia suits us just fine.


Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/08/2005 9:49 Comments || Top||


Dhaka sends team to UAE to repatriate 104 child camel jockeys
DHAKA — One hundred and four children, who were trafficked from Bangladesh and employed as camel jockeys, will be repatriated from the United Arab Emirates soon.

A three-member delegation left for the UAE to bring the children back, said Shadullah Khan, an assistant superintendent of the police and head of the monitoring cell for combating trafficking in women and children in Dhaka yesterday. The United Nations Children’s Fund is supporting the repatriation process.

About 500 children, who had long been used as camel jockeys, have recently been rescued and taken to the government’s shelter home under the UAE interior ministry, said an official of the home ministry.

Sources in the foreign ministry said the Bangladesh delegation would identify Bangladeshis among the rescued children. The number of Bangladeshi children may increase as there is no exact figure, said the official. He also said children, who had grown up, might choose to stay back, but minors would be repatriated with the assistance of Unicef in phases.
Great, they can stay in the UAE or return home to ... Bangladesh.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you were in the UAE would you really want to go back to bangladeath? UAE must be like Disneyland compared to bangledesh.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2005 5:01 Comments || Top||

#2  When the choice is between Bangladesh and a UAE orphanage?

How many of these children were taken from their families at such a young age that they don't know their true name or where they came from? Will their choice then be between a UAE orphanage and a Bangladeshi one?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/08/2005 5:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Goddamn robots! Put me out of a job!
Posted by: Kamal Jock-kay || 08/08/2005 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Robots shall one day rule the world... ;)

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Posted by: BigEd || 08/08/2005 12:57 Comments || Top||


Man killed by friends
Hmmm... Usually they kill people they don't like...
LAHORE: A man died of his injuries in Mayo Hospital on Sunday. Imran Mughal (20), a resident of Shamasabad in Gujjarpura police precincts, owed Nadeem and Saleem Rs 5,000, which he borrowed around two months ago. On Saturday, Nadeem and Saleem had a fight with Mughal because they demanded their money. After an hour, both went to Mughal’s house and stabbed him and fled.
"Imran, we want our money back!"
"I ain't got it! I pissed it away on holy men and hookers!"
"Imran, you're a friend of mine. I can't kill you. Saleem, you do it!"
"Howzat gonna get us our money back, Nadeem?"
"Hmmm... Yer right. Don't — "
"Aaaaiiiiieeee! Rosebud!"
"... kill him."
Neighbours admitted him to hospital where he died early on Sunday. The body was sent for an autopsy.
"Another one, Dr. Quincy!"
Posted by: Fred || 08/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for the tip. Now I have a answer when one of my friends asks for a loan: "Sorry man, can't do it. I loan you money, I'd most likely end up having to kill ya. And we don't want that."
Posted by: Steve || 08/08/2005 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Knife? Obviously there was no padlock handy. Sand in the tumblers or on the inside of the shackle would have been an unpleasant expereince to contemplate.....
Posted by: USN, ret. || 08/08/2005 14:59 Comments || Top||



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Mon 2005-08-08
  Zambia extradites Aswad to UK
Sun 2005-08-07
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