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Close shave for Somali prez in assassination boom
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Sonny Nicole Smith's Second Autopsy Inconclusive
"He's dead, Jim!"
"I'd like a second opinion on that, please!"
"Shuddup, you. Lie back down!"
A private pathologist flown in from the United States to perform a second autopsy on the former Playmate's 20-year-old son, Daniel, over the weekend was unable to determine the cause of the young man's sudden death.
"Well, I think I can verify that he's dead..."
"Hmphf. We could tell that by the smell."
"The rigor mortis was a clue, too."
For $600 an hour I'll sign on that.
However, Cyril Wecht, who previously consulted in the investigations of the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Laci Peterson, was able to rule out several possible culprits.
"So far we've eliminated chain saws, trampling by elephants, and possibly bilharziasis."
The 75-year-old pathologist said that his examination on Sunday indicated there was no sign of heart disease, stroke, cancer, systemic infection, pulmonary embolism or "congenital anomaly."
"Matter of fact, I'm not sure at all why he's not up and walking around. Except for the lividity, of course."
"I think that we have a tragic death of a young man, and ultimately the cause is going to be determined," Wecht said.
"It may be that he just stopped ticking."
Shortly after Daniel's death on Sept. 10, reports surfaced that there may have been fatal doses of antidepressants in his system. While authorities quickly dismissed the notion, Wecht did confirm that the boy was on prescription antidepressants at the time of his death. Wecht told the Associated Press that Daniel had begun taking the medication to treat depression that "had to do with a girlfriend" four to six weeks prior to his passing. The pathologist stressed, however, that the dosage was "quite low" and that there was no evidence of a "suicidal overdose."
Well, no evidence except for the fact that he's croaked for no discernable reason. On the other hand, coming to the abrupt realization that Mom was the Anna Nicole Smith would probably kill me on the spot, too, even without anything to overdose on.
Posted by: Fred || 09/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  heh there's always the taxidermist.
Posted by: RD || 09/19/2006 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Who could possibly avoid a sense of overwhelming inadequacey while growing up in the shadow of his mother's two enormous talents?
Posted by: Zenster || 09/19/2006 3:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Exactly why is this in WoT Operations?
Posted by: gromgoru || 09/19/2006 6:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Haven't you ever seen her WMD's?

Heh, of course you have. Everyone has.
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  heh there's always the taxidermist.

I once met a taxidermist who was into bestiality. He'd mount anything.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/19/2006 19:00 Comments || Top||

#6  *rimshot*
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 19:23 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Bottled toads have explosive potential
By way of introduction, Cane Toads are the number one feral pest in Australia. GARDENERS who bought liquid fertiliser made from cane toads have been warned the product may spontaneously explode in storage. FrogWatch NT gave the warning yesterday for people who have bought bottles of their product ToadJus after reports of them exploding.

Co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer said customers who have not yet used the liquid fertiliser should take the pressure off by unscrewing the cap half a turn.

"Otherwise the bottle may explode, or leak, potentially covering the garden shed with an evil-smelling, sticky liquid," he said. "While it's easy to wash off and harmless it could be annoying if the bottle has been placed on a kitchen shelf or in the house.

"We don't need to go to product recall - the ToadJus is fine but the pressure needs to be relieved if bottles are being kept for later use.

"I would particularly warn people against sending the novelty product to friends through the post."

ToadJus was launched at the Garden Festival Spectacular with more than 300 bottles sold this year.

"We were keen to make ToadJus available to garden enthusiasts because there had been a lot of interest," Mr Sawyer said. "But the batch sold was very young and, it now seems, still undergoing residual fermentation.

"We have another thousand or so bottles in storage that have had all their caps loosened, and in future the product will be vat stored for two months to ensure fermentation is complete."
Posted by: phil_b || 09/19/2006 04:01 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Splodeytoads
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/19/2006 8:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought they used them for toad licking.
Posted by: Swiss Tex || 09/19/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  The kookaburras seem to be keeping the cane toads on my property under control. They flip them onto their backs and peck them in the guts. Thus avoiding the poison sacks.
Posted by: Gladys || 09/19/2006 18:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Resourceful, if not noisy, birds those kookaburras. "Toadjus", har-har. At least someone in marketing still has a sense of humor. I'm sure if they had been edible we'd have seen Toadjam".
Posted by: Zenster || 09/19/2006 18:56 Comments || Top||


Europe
France to amnesty 7,000 illegal immigrants as a start
PARIS - French authorities on Monday announced an amnesty for 7,000 illegal immigrants with school-age children after a high-profile campaign to block their deportation, but ruled out a blanket amnesty for tens of thousands more.

The figure fell far short of meeting demands of campaigners, who dismissed it as a token gesture and vowed to fight on against plans to expel thousands of families under a toughening of French immigration policy.
Turns out La Belle France has the same social/leftie whiners we have concerning immigration. Only more of them.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said 6,924 adults -- out of 30,000 who applied for the exceptional measure -- would be allowed to remain in France with their children, in an interview to be broadcast on France 2 television. ‘This is the final figure ... now we will return to the normal procedure,’ Sarkozy said. He did not say how many people in total -- parents plus children -- would be affected.

The French authorities agreed in June to examine residency applications from thousands of illegal immigrant families with children in French schools after parents, schoolteachers, rights groups and left-wing politicians mounted a grassroots campaign in their support.

The Education Without Borders Network (RESF) -- which led the campaign against their deportation -- said the amnesty was a mere ‘bluff’, handled in a ‘totally arbitrary’ manner. RESF spokeswoman Brigitte Wieser said families were treated on a first come, first served basis, rather than on individual merit. ‘This is causing a lot of anger, because people had placed a lot of hope’ in the government, she said.

Cimade, an immigrant support group, said it too was ‘hugely disappointed’. ‘The number of people to benefit was fixed in advance by the ministry, before the prefectures even started examining the applications,’ charged the group’s secretary-general Laurent Giovanonni. ‘This is an electoral choice, not one taken in people’s interests,’ she said.

‘It is too little. It’s a drop in the ocean,’ agreed Fidel Nitiema, a spokesman for a group of hundreds of illegal immigrants who were evicted from a squat near Paris last month.
Boy, that's the kind of waxing indignation you normally get only in the New York Times, or from a Democratic Senator in a sound-bite.
Sarkozy -- who has championed a somewhat, sorta tough line towards France’s estimated 200,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants -- conceded that it was ‘hard to judge’ individual cases, but insisted all were given a fair treatment. ‘In France, decisions are not arbitrary,’ he said.
There's my nomination for the Rantburg masthead!
The minister -- a frontrunner for next year’s presidential elections in which immigration is shaping up as a major issue -- repeatedly rejected campaigners’ demands for a blanket amnesty.

Because no papers are needed to register a child in a French school, the government argued that to grant residency rights to all such families would create a new channel for immigration. To qualify, at least one child had to be born in France or have arrived before the age of 13, he or she must have been at school in France for two years, and have no link with their country of origin. Families also had to show they had ‘a real will to integrate’ with French society, and that their children had stayed out of trouble with the law.
That pretty much blows 90% of the immigration from North Africa.
The government has vowed to step up the pace of deportations to 25,000 this year -- from 15,000 in 2004 -- and recently scrapped the automatic right to residency papers for migrants who have been in the country at least 10 years.

Sarkozy insisted in the interview that blanket immigrant amnesties in other European countries had proved to be a ‘catastrophe’ and had led to ‘an explosion in demands’ for immigration. Half a million people are to benefit from a Italian amnesty this year, while Spain last year granted residency rights to 580,000 people. Around 80,000 were given residency rights under a previous Socialist government in France.
It's going to be Eurabia sooner than we thought.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do I see tens of thousands of frogs sliding down a slippery slope?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/19/2006 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Half a million people are to benefit from a Italian amnesty this year, while Spain last year granted residency rights to 580,000 people. Around 80,000 were given residency rights under a previous Socialist government in France.


hmmm... the above line - the last paragraph in this article almost makes it sound like France is toughening their immigration policy.
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 0:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Grand Strategy for raising employment by seasonal burning of French automobiles?
Posted by: Snineger Spavitle5395 || 09/19/2006 9:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Exact same shit happening here. Why is everyone so willing to surrender their national borders ? This is totally irrational, yet evident everywhere in Western society. We have been too soft too long. Perfectly willing to give up everything our ancestors struggled so hard to build. I just don't get it. Our grandparents/ great-grandparents would die from heart failure if they could see how we are throwing away their gift to us.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 09/19/2006 12:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't worry the French, Dutch and Italians know that they only have to give residency rights, and the colonists will go to the UK to leach off UK taxpayers and the NHS.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 09/19/2006 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  it sounds like the French are making it more difficult not less.
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||


Violence erupts at protests in Hungary
Protesters clashed with police and stormed the headquarters of state television early Tuesday after setting fire to several cars - an increasing violent response to a leaked recording that caught Hungary's prime minister admitting officials had lied about the economy. Rescue services said at least 10 people were injured, including some police, as security officers fired tear gas and water cannon at rock-throwing protesters, who have been demanding the government resign.

The violence came after a mainly peaceful protest outside parliament attended by several thousand people began late Sunday, when a recording made in May was leaked to local media in which Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitted to repeatedly having lied to the country about the true state of the Hungarian economy to win April's elections.
It's not like anyone thought socialism was actually working. Didn't the Hungarians learn anything from the Soviets?
Posted by: Fred || 09/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Didn't the Hungarians learn anything from the Soviets?

Gyurcsany did. He lied, lied, lied. But sumabitch, it doesn't seem to be working anymore!

Anyhoo, I was rather puzzled by the fact that Hungarians elected socialists. Perhaps they are having the exact goverment they deserve at this juncture. Not that I wish socialists on anyone, not even goulash socialists.
Posted by: twobyfour || 09/19/2006 1:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Sen. John Kerry: 'Take Up God's Work as Our Own'
Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Monday urged people of faith to work cooperatively on problems such as poverty, global warming and reducing the number of abortions - "godly tasks" that transcend the nation's culture wars.

In a speech laced with anecdotes of his own journey of faith, Kerry, a Roman Catholic, told students in a speech at Pepperdine University that "we can take up God's work as our own.
John can serve as an example, just not the one he's thinking ...
"Shame on us if we use our faith to divide and alienate people from one another, or if we draft God into partisan service," Kerry said.
So why did you open your mouth?
"As God gives us the ability to see, let us take up the tasks associated with loving our neighbors as ourselves."

Even with the nation riven over reproductive rights, Kerry said a shared goal should be reducing the high number of abortions. The first step, he said, it to accept the responsibility of making abortion rare. "Even as a supporter of Roe v. Wade, I am compelled to acknowledge that the language both sides use on this subject can be unfortunately misleading and unconstructive. . . . Everyone is worse off for it," the Massachusetts senator said.
Which is why you've voted against every restriction ever proposed in the Senate.
The 2004 Democratic nominee thinks that he is a potential candidate for the party nod in the next presidential election.

Kerry's remarks were among his most extensive ever on religion. He alluded to the 2004 election, saying his past reticence to openly discuss his faith allowed others to "draw the caricature for me. I will never let that happen again."
We won't need it in 2008, we'll have your Form 180.
In the election, a national debate over religion and politics was touched off after St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny the Eucharist to Kerry, who supports abortion rights. Anti-abortion advocates pressured more bishops to follow Burke's lead. Kerry supporters accused Catholic leaders of trying to help re-elect President Bush, a Methodist whose position on abortion is more in line with Catholic teaching.

Exit polls in 2004 showed Kerry losing Protestants by a wide margin; Bush won the backing of six in 10. Among Catholics, Bush also prevailed although narrowly, 52 percent to 47 percent.

Kerry said although he was raised Catholic, it wasn't until years after the Vietnam War that he came to a deeper understanding about his faith.
Was that before or after he dumped his first wife?
"For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings. Indeed, the scriptures provided a firmer guide about values applied to life," he said.
Ah. After. Easier to find direction in life with a rich second wife. "Come, Lovey, it's time for a drive in the Rolls!"
Well, I'm so stupified by this pile of lies that I can't even come up with a coherent snark......
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 11:03 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "God's work", like treason, lying, living in a fantasy world, abusing your station in life, marrying for money...
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/19/2006 11:11 Comments || Top||

#2  "Even as a supporter of Roe v. Wade, I am compelled to acknowledge that the language both sides use on this subject can be unfortunately misleading and unconstructive. . . . Everyone is worse off for it," the Massachusetts senator said. And he specializes in prevarication, which, i think, is using facny language to cover your lies?
Posted by: Bobby || 09/19/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Kerry said although he was raised Catholic, it wasn't until years after the Vietnam War that he came to a deeper understanding about his faith.

He went to Vietnam? Who knew?
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||

#4  "his own journey of faith"

Man, that was a short trip.
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 11:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Excuse me I have to step outside... I think I stepped in something....

And the graphic is approprate:

John Kerry = Chief Shitting Bull....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/19/2006 11:38 Comments || Top||

#6  He was against religion before he was for it!
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/19/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#7  I voted against the Catholic faith until I voted for it....
Posted by: Warthog || 09/19/2006 12:32 Comments || Top||

#8  If he doesn't follow the teachings of his Catholic faith, then why is he still a Catholic? There are Protestant denominations that emphasize individual personal faith.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/19/2006 12:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Because he's "Irish".
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 12:35 Comments || Top||

#10  and he's hoping for a portion of the Catholic vote...
Posted by: Bobby || 09/19/2006 12:43 Comments || Top||

#11  He's come a long way. I remember when he was "fascinated by rap".
Next week he'll be villifying "the religious right". If there's a sane person still left in America that can't see through this guy's bullshit, I'd be amazed.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/19/2006 12:50 Comments || Top||

#12  Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about another way to get votes.
Posted by: DoDo || 09/19/2006 13:02 Comments || Top||

#13  This is the same guy who was refused communion because of his stance on abortion.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 09/19/2006 13:02 Comments || Top||

#14  This democrap is so despirate for a shot at the oval office, he actually has taken a practicle approach. Too bad he doesn't mean it, and his own party will skin him for this.
Let's never forget he is the guy who left VN and stabbed his Navy friends in the back for his own gain.
Once again, he stabs, but this time he stabs the leftists.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/19/2006 13:07 Comments || Top||

#15  told students in a speech at Pepperdine University that "we can take up God's work as our own.

Kerry spoke at Pepperdine? Must have been Pepperdine's attempt at providing a counter perspective to reason and common sense.

Posted by: Besoeker || 09/19/2006 16:07 Comments || Top||

#16  Come you knew this was going to happen. Last time they had a “War Hero” candidate and now they have to run a “Religious” candidate. I think Ann Coulter floated this idea during the 2004 season and it seems to be coming true. The dream of the “religious right” turning into the “religious left” and of course that will lead to a Democratic surge. I doubt very much that if someone is Republican and religious will sudden turn to the Democrats because Kerry has finished his “spiritual journey” (?windsurfing?). More likely these attempts will fall short when candidates talk about their favorite Book of Job in the New Testament (Howling Howard Dean).
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/19/2006 16:20 Comments || Top||

#17  "For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings. Indeed, the scriptures provided a firmer guide about values applied to life," he said.

He read Miachivelli's The Prince. What - you didn't think he was referring to the Bible, did you?
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 16:25 Comments || Top||

#18  wish I could get that rich wandering in the wilderness....
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#19  I'm not sure, but I'd bet Tah-ray-za would object to you referring to it as the "wilderness". She probably has it shaved by midget nubian slave girls. :D
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 16:39 Comments || Top||

#20  Kerry is not Irish.
Posted by: Sgt. D.T. || 09/19/2006 17:55 Comments || Top||

#21  #20: "Kerry is not Irish."

But he plays one on TV.... ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/19/2006 18:03 Comments || Top||

#22  lol - fly...he's prolly referring to the first rich wife he fleeced then divorced. By the way, correctamundo! He's not Irish, and has a Jewish background as well. If voting Mormons moved enmasse to the Masshole, I'm sure he could do that one as well...he's a chameleon. A wooden one...with a Lucky Hat™
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 18:28 Comments || Top||

#23  Indeed, the scriptures provided a firmer guide about values applied to life,"

OK John, "apply" some of these "values" to life, since you're so keen on the scripure lately:

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Lev. 18:22

"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." Gen. 9:6

"These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood," Prov. 6:16-17

"...they have forsaken me, and have desecrated this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known...and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents." Jer. 19:4

"It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." Lk. 17:2


So, I take it that you're now gonna vote anti-abortion, anti-homosexuality, anti-sexual predator, eh? Good to have you aboard, John.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 21:36 Comments || Top||

#24  What were once vices are now virtues....

or was it

What were once virtues are now vices

hmmm... maybe

What were once virtues are now vises


... thats not right could it be

Vise Grips are virtues

... no...

Vice grips are virgins...

no no no quit covering me in katsup Tah-ray-za, I mean it...

Vice is 72 virgins in heaven?

Fatwa Fatwa .....

Heave is Vice?

...
Posted by: 3dc || 09/19/2006 22:52 Comments || Top||

#25  "Operation Tough on Terrorists" "Born again Catholic" from now until November 7. Sheesh. These guys are so transparent.
Posted by: GK || 09/19/2006 23:27 Comments || Top||


NYC Mayor Suggests Paying Poor
Welfare, by any other name, would smell just as bad...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Poor New Yorkers who make healthy choices - such as staying in school and regularly seeing the doctor - should be rewarded with cash to help break the cycle of poverty, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested Monday.

The idea, which has seen success in countries including Brazil and Mexico, developed out of an anti-poverty commission's report released Monday. The commission did not specifically propose using rewards but did suggest the city find innovative ways to help its 1.5 million poor lift themselves out of poverty.

The commission, headed by Time Warner's chief executive, Richard Parsons, and the president of the nonprofit group Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada, said many New Yorkers are locked in a cycle of poverty in which built-in conditions trap them into failure. For example, those who fall behind on vaccinations and doctor checkups may suffer from poor health and struggle to keep jobs.

Paying modest rewards might help break those patterns, the mayor said.

"We want to reward those who have the initiative to go out and try to make their lives better, and if the system is stacked against them making their lives better, that's what we're trying to change," Bloomberg said.

His deputy mayor for health and human services, Linda Gibbs, served on the anti-poverty commission and will help guide its recommendations into policy. She said the reward details - such as amounts and qualifications - are still being studied. But she said the city is encouraged by the success of similar programs in other countries, where the benefits endure for years because they create behavior patterns.

New York officials say the cash rewards would not come from government funds. Gibbs said the administration wants to privately raise funds, beginning with about $24 million for programs that reward good behavior in education and health care.

In countries such as Mexico and Brazil, there has been widespread praise for World Bank-supported programs that give financial rewards to parents for sending their children to school and regular doctors' visits.

The City Council said Monday it will examine the commission's report and the administration's proposals. One question will be whether the success of those reward programs overseas could be repeated in America's biggest city.

"The idea of saying to people, 'Look, we want to help you do the right thing for yourself and your kids and we're going to incentivize it,' that's very realistic," said Bill de Blasio, chairman of the council's Committee on General Welfare. "I want to see the details, but I like the thinking."
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 10:31 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The idea, which has seen success in countries including Brazil and Mexico

Remember when it used to be: "We need to follow the social model of Germany/Japan/Canada/France"? Now we're supposed to emulate Mexico? It is to laugh
Posted by: Dreadnought || 09/19/2006 10:46 Comments || Top||

#2  How about paying farmers not to plant crops too :)

Poor New Yorkers who make healthy choices - such as staying in school and regularly seeing the doctor - should be rewarded with cash to help break the cycle of poverty, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested Monday.

That's already in place. Make good choices and later in life, you get paid with better jobs and opporunities. Make bad choices and life sucks. Notice how so many grasshoppers in life who seek immediate gratification end up in poverty? Send the mayor a copy of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, for him to look up "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".
Posted by: Snineger Spavitle5395 || 09/19/2006 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Wait and see in 20 years how those countries are doing. 10-1 they will be in the economic toilet.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/19/2006 10:54 Comments || Top||

#4  WTF? I stayed in school, keep fit, and see a doctor regularly. Where the f*** is MY money?
Posted by: ST || 09/19/2006 11:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe if they worked harder, they'd earn that extra bit of cash.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/19/2006 11:09 Comments || Top||

#6  ST - Fill out this form. It's pretty simple, really, just some checkboxes (e.g. race, ancestry, ehtnicity, gender, party affiliation, sexual orientation - the usual) to "classify" you correctly... You'll hear from us when we have "evaluated" it.

/Big Blue Govt Voter Guarantee "Help the Poor" Program
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 11:17 Comments || Top||

#7  I like this idea better: If you don't stay in school, we won't give your a welfare check.
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 11:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Mayor Bloomberg, I have some questions here...

1. If the "cycle of poverty" and the "cycle of violence" had a race, who do you think would win?

2. Are Brazil and Mexico now the economic model that the city will be following? Believe it or not, I've heard that poverty actually does exist down there. Are you aware of that?

3. Why is it that folks that actually do make the right choices in life are never offered rewards for it? All they're ever asked to do is pay for the rewards for the people who don't. why do you think that is?

4. Are all rich people crazy?

You can answer them ihn any order you want.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/19/2006 12:26 Comments || Top||

#9  "New York officials say the cash rewards would not come from government funds."

Good Luck!
Posted by: DepotGuy || 09/19/2006 18:54 Comments || Top||

#10  #9: "New York officials say the cash rewards would not come from government funds."

That's true.

The government doesn't generate funds - it steals extorts them from taxpayers.

So we'll end up paying for it in the end.

May I suggest what you do with this dumb idea and your end, Mr. Mayor?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/19/2006 19:22 Comments || Top||

#11  Nanny statism at it's worst. Bloomberg's proposal is both stupid and condescending.
Posted by: DMFD || 09/19/2006 19:54 Comments || Top||

#12  I can see lots of 'poor' from Connecticut and New Jersey establishing so-called residency (list an address where their relatives live) and then double-dipping.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/19/2006 21:10 Comments || Top||


Wal-Mart strides into election fray
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest employer, is planning to launch a voter registration and education campaign this fall targeted at its 1.3 million employees in an effort to combat growing criticism from Democrats and labor unions. By doing so, the world’s largest retailer is striding into the national political arena, which until this election cycle it has taken pains to avoid.

Wal-Mart’s voter registration and education programs could be among the biggest in the country, though not as big as those of its labor union opponents. The AFL-CIO, for example, has nearly 13 million members.

The company’s decision appears to be a response to several high-profile Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and four 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls, who participated in a labor-organized anti-Wal-Mart campaign this summer.

Compensating for its lack of experience educating potential voters, Wal-Mart has worked with the League of Women Voters, one of the nation’s preeminent voter education groups, to craft materials to distribute to employees.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 10:18 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Registration is one thing; actually voting is another. What this does is drive down the statistics of the percentage of registered voters who participate in the following elections.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/19/2006 14:08 Comments || Top||

#2  yeaaahhhh, but maybe a few will get interested in what politics does to their livelihood and actually 'vote their pocketbooks'.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/19/2006 16:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Well you made Walmart your target of choice, time to reap the consequence. Yamamoto said something along the lines of - We have awaken a sleeping giant. The Donks made it political/personal, now watch them cry when Walmart practices registration/education right back at them.
Posted by: Shavise Angeamp7988 || 09/19/2006 17:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I hope they register every rusty-pickup-driving, tobacco-juice-spitting, NASCAR-race-watching, singlewide-trailer-living, WWF-following, Pentecostal-church-going, tater-salad-eating, rebel-flag-waving, crawfish-head-sucking, greasy-hat-wearing redneck in the country. Give the dhimmis a big dose of hicks from the sticks.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 17:51 Comments || Top||

#5  actually mcsegeek, the argument is best for the black, latino, and poorer communities that see Walmart as a cheaper consumer choice and source of (non-union) jobs. A good opportunity to strip the donk base of what the Donk leadership considers "safely on the plantation"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 18:55 Comments || Top||


Frist: It's time to secure the border with Mexico
"It's time to secure the border with Mexico," Majority Leader Bill Frist said last night before filing the parliamentary motions to force the House-passed bill onto the Senate floor in a final effort to get a major immigration bill on the president's desk before the elections.
Guess the polling data tells him he'll never be President if he keeps up playing McCain without the war record.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid, said the move "smacks of desperation" and was a "clear repudiation of President Bush's call for comprehensive legislation."
Doesn't Reid repudiat all Bush's policies?
The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was easily approved by the House last week, contains none of the "comprehensive" measures that President Bush, Democrats and some Senate Republicans have demanded. Those include provisions to grant citizenship rights to about 10 million illegal aliens living in the country and a guest-worker program that would usher hundreds of thousands more foreign laborers into the U.S.
All House members face re-election in six weeks. This kind of action makes me wonder if we should make House elections annual. They'd have less time between elections to soak lobbyists and more to make critical votes the electorate would remember.
"Mr. Frist was for comprehensive reform before he was against it," Mr. Manley said.
Where have I heard that before?
On the Senate floor last night, Mr. Frist said he still supports comprehensive immigration reform legislation. But, he said, because no consensus can now be reached on other issues, Congress should move ahead with border security. It's not "enforcement only," he said, but "enforcement first."
I hope he got a good discount when he bought that clue.
"Border security is the essential first step of any effort to enact immigration reform," Mr. Frist said. "Only when we have convinced the American people of our commitment to securing our borders will we be able to reach a consensus on comprehensive immigration reform."
Maybe.
The last time the Senate considered a border-security-only bill, the measure failed, with all but two Democrats and 20 Republicans refusing even to debate it. Since then, several Republicans bent on comprehensive reform have told The Washington Times that they would now consider legislation that dealt only with stopping the flow of illegal aliens into the country.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/19/2006 08:22 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LOL. Um, yeah sure, we're for the "comprehensive" thing, too - you betcha. Fund the fence and plug the holes, putting enforcement first and make it effective... and then we'll talk about that. And talk. And talk.

If it weren't for the House, which has risen to the challenge on every important issue - passing legislation that gives teeth to stopping Iran, doing what counts on immigration, funding security measures of every type, funding the military, revealing pork-barrel political whores, damned-near everything that matters, I'd suggest carpet-bombing DC. The House gets it and has stood up - leave them out of it or, rather, spend some money to help them and get out and vote for the Pubbies in the House.

Now the Senate, on the other hand, is quite a different thing entirely. That is where our wetwork collective ire should be focused.
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  ....83 year old male, chain smoking Lucky Strikes, caughing, hacking, wheezing, phlegm, shortness of breath, labored breathing, suspected acute emphazima you say?

Excellent prognosis Dr. Frist. Next patient please.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/19/2006 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  If it was up to me the length of term for Senators would be reduced to three years, maybe four. And I agree wholeheartedly about where the wetwork collective ire should be focused!

Posted by: Texas Redneck || 09/19/2006 10:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry for the Dupe post Fred.

Sure looks like Frist has finally read some polls.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 10:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Senators should have 2 term limits like the Pres.
Posted by: texhooey || 09/19/2006 11:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Win-win for the Reps. Who will filibuster this? Energizes the base, and puts the Donks on the spot. Hello McCain? Kiss your presidential bid buh-bye. Between the amnesty you proposed ("comprehensive" reform...sure) and your terrorist protection act (interrogation methods reform), you've been smoked out.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 12:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually, Bill, it's about twenty years too late. Which is about the right timing for the US Senate to do anything about anything...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/19/2006 12:03 Comments || Top||

#8  I agree Texhooey. Term limits on all of them.

The House has been good overall.

Apparently the senate for its part has worked all of 90 days this year. (Though I am sure it was worth the $162,500.00 the American tax payer pays each of them per yr.) (sarcasm/off)
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 09/19/2006 12:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Senators should have 2 year terms. That is why the House gets it. Election day for every one of them is fast approaching. If Bush has any power at all, he will push this thru the sphinxter Senate like a dry turd.
Give it hell, Bushy.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/19/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Senators were originally appointed by the Governor of each state, with the consent of the upper body within the state legislature. The 16th Amendment changed that to direct elections. Things have gone to he$$ ever since. The original idea was for the lower house (Representatives) to represent the interests of the citizens (direct elections), and the upper house (Senate) was to represent the interests of the State (appointed). We need to go back to that policy. The direct election of senators has only given us another bunch of bought politicians whose only aim is to get re-elected, and both the citizens and the states have been screwed. Dr. Frist at least is limiting himself to two terms in the Senate, and appears to have finally started reading his email and the comments on his weblog. We need to get the rest of the US Senate online with both email and weblogs, so we can tell them directly exactly what we think of them - politely, of course. As polite as we are here to trolls...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/19/2006 14:40 Comments || Top||

#11  One detail, OP. Senators were appointed by the state legislatures, not the governors.
Posted by: Jackal || 09/19/2006 18:18 Comments || Top||

#12  "The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was easily approved by the House last week..."

Of course they will have to agree on how to fund the damn thing. Something tells me the Dems will be doing some serious spoon-banging real soon.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 09/19/2006 19:04 Comments || Top||


Open your Diebold AccuVote-TS with a minibar key
Hat tip Instapundit.
Remember those guys from Princeton who recently dissected a Diebold voting machine and wrote a serious academic paper laying the smack downon our favorite shady e-voting company? The plot thickens with those Jersey brainiacs: after giving a presentation to some computer science colleagues last week, Prof. Ed Felten was approached by Chris Tengi, a member of the department's technical staff, who pointed out that the key that opens the AccuVote-TS voting machine is very similar to a key that he has at home. Tengi's key opened the voting machine, and upon further investigation, the Princeton posse discovered that both keys are actually a common office furniture type used for hotel minibars, electronic equipment and jukeboxes.

Furthermore, said keys can easily be bought on eBay or from various online retailers. So, all you need to hack Diebold's crackerjack security is to spend a little cash on these keys, bring 'em to your next local election along with a cheap-o flash drive, and you can easily open the lock that houses that Diebold memory card while you're in the voting booth -- good times, hey?

If your locality uses these machines, you may want to write your Congressional representative and your county authorities to alert them to this, erm, "feature" -- better yet, buy them one of these keys and send it along with your letter, inviting them to test it out for themselves!
Posted by: Steve White || 09/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Something so important as an electronic voting machine should have its own special and unique keyed lock, unlike any other mechanism in the industry. This is incompetence writ large.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/19/2006 4:06 Comments || Top||

#2  How about a big magnet?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/19/2006 6:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Only allowed in big (read Democratic) cities, NS.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/19/2006 7:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Paper with an ink print box for your finger mark for future Washington State authentication requirements. Let's go for the middle index finger for the marker.
Posted by: Snineger Spavitle5395 || 09/19/2006 9:17 Comments || Top||

#5  As any tech person will tell you: “One you have procession all bets are off.” I bet there are a multitude of implements that will open a Diebold machine. I would also concede that there are many MANY ways to reprogram the machine to count votes in a funny manner. Prior to the machines it would have been all too easy (See San Francisco, Chicago, et al) to stuff paper ballots with the “proper” votes. Also without having to produce an ID in some states a person can vote multiple times in different precincts. But wasn’t it the LLL Mo0b@+5 that whined about not having these machines after the 2000 elections? I have come to the conclusion that since their (Democrats) ability to cheat has diminished, and they are losing elections, maybe they are trying to turn back the clock so they can cheat and win again?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/19/2006 11:10 Comments || Top||

#6  The whole thing about fraud with these machines is bogus.

When I was living in Connecticut, we were using lever operated gear driven voting machines. They were 50+ years old and they hadn't even made spare parts for 20 years. Occasionally the gears would slip and your vote would be changed and there would be no record of it.

Nobody complained about that. Instead they complained about hanging chads in Florida in a system that wasn't broken.

You can tamper and reprogram these computerized machines, but there will be a record left behind. If the the code is altered, the load module will be slightly different than the baseline, and you can immediately tell which machines were affected.

I do think we should create a hard copy of the votes, so we can recreate the correct result with the unaltered software.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 09/19/2006 14:49 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Warren Buffett: Berkshire-Hathaway in Israel forever
On his first visit to Israel, US investment guru Warren Buffett praised Iscar Metalworking, his first-ever acquisition outside the US, as a model enterprise, while declaring his commitment to Israel and his interest in making additional investments in the country.

"Iscar and the Tefen Industrial Park should be taken as an example... around the world of what can be done against all odds," Warren Buffett said after his visit to Iscar. He purchased an 80 percent stake in the firm for $4 billion four months ago. "I knew Iscar was a sensation but I had to see it with my own eyes, and I am looking forward to going back to the US to tell people about it." He added, "Berkshire Hathaway and Israel will be here forever, as Israel and the US will be here forever."

Charlie Munger, Buffett's partner at the Berkshire Hathaway investment firm, accompanied him on the trip. He said Iscar was "one of the world's greatest companies....With this purchase, we are sending an indirect message to the world for foreign investors to make similar investments," he said.

"Two miracles happened here. The first is Iscar, which is a unique business combination of brains, talent and imagination, and the second is the Galilee and the Tefen Industrial Park, which is very much underappreciated," said Buffett. "Being in Israel has a major advantage of having the exposure to a fabulous pool of talent and brains. When we bought Iscar, we bet on brains."

Regarding the security risk involved in doing business in Israel, Buffett said, "When you invest in Israel you have to take into account a certain risk. We live in a dangerous world as it is and in the long-term, the risk premium in Israel will not be different from the US."

Buffett said he was interested in making additional investments in Israel over the next year.

Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway was interested in places and companies where they understood the culture, and where there was "an understanding of investment capital" and the rule of law.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Mystery Object Delays Shuttle Return
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/19/2006 12:40 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An O-ring?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/19/2006 14:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The 12th imam?
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/19/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#3  could be Pluto, rebelling since the distinguished astronomers took away its' planet status
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 15:26 Comments || Top||

#4  John Kerry's ego?
Posted by: Shavise Angeamp7988 || 09/19/2006 16:55 Comments || Top||

#5 

No. Everybody is wrong. It is an envoy.
He wants to speak at the UN. He wants us to come and get Spirit and Opportunity. They've been roving for 2-1/2 years and ruined too many flower beds.

Posted by: BigEd || 09/19/2006 16:58 Comments || Top||

#6  John Kerry's ego?

Nope; it's not only visible from orbit, it exerts enough gravitational influence on the Sun that aliens have decided our solar system contains only a single, gigantic gaseous ball.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/19/2006 17:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Willie Nelson's backup bag of weed?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/19/2006 19:02 Comments || Top||

#8  It's probably the bolt they lost earlier.
Posted by: Dar || 09/19/2006 20:22 Comments || Top||

#9  looks too large, actually
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Has anyone seen my death ray? I had it out yesterday for a little work on the flux capacitor and then the phone rang.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/19/2006 21:01 Comments || Top||

#11  For that matter, where is my Illudium PU36 space modulator, Earthlings?????
Posted by: lotp || 09/19/2006 21:10 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Military, police seize Bangkok: TV
Military and police seized control of the Thai capital Bangkok late Tuesday in an apparent coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, local television reported. An announcement flashed on national television said the forces, loyal to the king, had taken control of Bangkok "to maintain law and order".

ADDITIONAL: FORCES loyal to Thailand's sacked military commander Lieutenant General Sonthi Boonyaratglin have seized the prime minister's office.

Witnesses said troops had seized Government House with soldiers ordering police inside the Government House building to lay down their arms. At least 20 soldiers had entered the building, according to reporters inside. Armoured units of the Thai military blocked the area around Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra offices with tanks, witnesses said today.

Rumours of a military coup swept the Thai capital after an army-owned television station suspended regular programming and played patriotic songs.
On a government-owned TV station, Mr Thaksin - now on a visit to New York - declared a state of emergency. “The Prime Minister with the approval of the Cabinet declares serious emergency law in Bangkok from now on” Mr Thaksin said.

He said he was ordering the transfer of the nation's army chief to work in the prime minister's office, effectively suspending him from his military duties.
Uh, Prime Minister, he's already sitting behind your desk
Several hundred soldiers were deployed at key points in the capital of Bangkok, including government installations and major intersections, witnesses said.

Army-owned TV channel 5 interrupted regular broadcasts with patriotic music and showed pictures of the king. At least some radio and television stations monitored in Bangkok suspended programming. The cable television station of the Nation newspaper reported that tanks were parked at the Rachadamnoen Road and royal plaza close to the royal palace and government offices. Local radio station Ruam Duay Chuay Kan interrupted its programming just as a reporter was about to give information from Government House, where Mr Thaksin has his office.

The White House said it was aware of breaking news reports about the political situation in Thailand and was seeking additional information. “We've seen the reports, and we are seeking additional information,” national security spokesman Frederick Jones said as US President George W. Bush prepared to address the United Nations General Assembly.

The British foreign ministry said it was trying to find out more about what was happening in Thailand. “We are aware of reports of tanks on the street of Bangkok, and the Thai prime minister calling a state of emergency,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. “We are trying to establish details of what has happened,” he added, giving no further details.
Posted by: Fred || 09/19/2006 12:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All Thai TV taken down, streets seem normal, public trains running, but traffic very light. Rumors of lockdown at 2400 local and PM's bro (Army 4 star) saying PM will not stand down. A Thai-Mexican (ThaiMex trademark) standoff. Could get ugly but unlikely from my viewpoint. 2335 Bangkok time - BB out for now.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 12:33 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess hopping that the military wants to do something about the Muzzi onslaught is too much?
Posted by: gromgoru || 09/19/2006 12:35 Comments || Top||

#3  I was wondering how long muzzies could kill openly, indiscriminately without any reaction from Thai authorities. Denial now out of style there, eh ?
Posted by: wxjames || 09/19/2006 12:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Bangkok, Sep 19 (Xinhua) The Thai military has declared launch of a coup, Thai military TV Five reported Tuesday night.
Posted by: Steve || 09/19/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Didn't they bag some big shot general a few weeks back for trying to take Thaksin out with a car bomb? As I remember it had to do with dissatisfaction in the ranks with stuff like Thaksin's origami offensive when dealing with the Muzzie cousins in the south.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/19/2006 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Didn't they bag some big shot general a few weeks back for trying to take Thaksin out with a car bomb?

I believe that was Lieutenant General Sonthi Boonyaratglin's driver they arrested with the car bomb. Thaksin had the general relieved and moved to his office, but didn't jug him. Bet he's regretting that now.
Posted by: Steve || 09/19/2006 13:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Apparently the King is supporting the Army coup. It's a done deal.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 13:02 Comments || Top||

#8  It was NOT Gen Sonthi' driver - it was Gen. Ponlop's driver. Thai TV still down and CNN and BBC taken down about 15 min. ago. Trafiic and sky train still flowing.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Bangkok Billy, your on-the-spot coverage is deeply appreciated. Any speculation as to whether army factions were dissatisfied with the relative inaction against southern Muslim incursions?
Posted by: Zenster || 09/19/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#10  But the real question is, what about Nana Plaza -- is it still open?
(Inquiring minds want to know).
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 09/19/2006 13:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Thanks Zen - report # 3 from coup spokesman: Martial law declared, CNN/BBC out nation-wide, troops ordered to report to their bases, cabinet sacked, Privy Coucil still in effect, and constitution suspended. No info on the South but bombings in Hat Yai were big news.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 13:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Soory Scooter - open as of an hour ago. Recent closing time was 0200 - as of Friday night :). Wouldn't be surprised if they close early tonight.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 13:48 Comments || Top||

#13  I have no idea what is going on in Thailand. More importantly I don't know why. I do not know the people of Thailand except those I've met here in the USA. My favorite restaurant is Thai. The men and women I've met from Thailand (all Buddhists) have caused me to think of visiting there someday.

Imagine...just imagine a tipping point has been reached in one of the most peaceful countries on earth. IIRC, some 1800 souls have been slaughtered by muzzis in southern Thailand in the past two years. Christians and Buddhists. Slaughtered. By muzzies. Why? Because the muzzies want to rule unto themselves. No more gov't by the infidel. Infidel get out. Infiedel convert or die.

Now imagine a military coup supported by the people taking down an elected gov't that is seen as not aggressively addressing muzzie terror in it's midst. An elected gov't that gives the muzzies a virtual free pass to practise jihad. An elected gov't that doesn't protect the freedom of it's people to live their lives in peace, free of muzzie terror and jihad.

Europe....you may be watching your future.
Posted by: Mark Z || 09/19/2006 13:52 Comments || Top||

#14  If you have been scoring Thailand, or are interested in scoring Thailand, new score cards will be received from the printer Thursday, 9/28.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/19/2006 13:58 Comments || Top||

#15  Billy, am I wrong to think that if the King ok's the coup it's pretty much a done deal?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/19/2006 14:06 Comments || Top||

#16  Zen - sorry for not addressing your point. From my view, this coup had little to do with the South or the military feeling they were restrained. They've tried the "glove off" approach and that hasn't worked. The military takes casualties on regular basis down there and they do have a high degree of freedom of action. The South is a 100 plus year old problem and the Thais have experience dealing with an insurgency (commies). The Thais problem is that they go from zero to 150 mph very fast - one minute they're hugging you but if you cross them... well they just kill you. They're having a tough time in the South as the muzzzies are a diverse group, entrenched at the very local level and a have a very flat C3 structure - tough to infil and gain info. This coup was more about power politics and the military seeing itself as a protector of the monarchy and by extension the people. I think the military wants to restore a functional gov't so they can address the South in a more effecetive manner. RUMINT has Gen. Sonthi (like our CJCS) being installed as PM - oh by the way- he's Muslim.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 14:13 Comments || Top||

#17  Cyber Sarge - VERY well placed source say King gave the green light. Coup seized Thaksin's building which is a hub for cable and satellite TV transmissions hence CNN/BBC off the air.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 14:16 Comments || Top||

#18  If a muzzie military commander is installed as PM, as suggested by B. Billy in post #16, would the mods please strike the entire post in #13 and send it to the sink trap?

Thanks!
Posted by: Mark Z || 09/19/2006 14:30 Comments || Top||

#19  Update # 4 from Coup TV - Gen. Sonthi installed with PM powers. Poltical appointees at cabinet level sacked with career civil servants taking day to day op con. Queue the Fat Lady in 4, 3, 2, ...
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/19/2006 14:33 Comments || Top||

#20  They're having a tough time in the South as the muzzzies are a diverse group, entrenched at the very local level and a have a very flat C3 structure - tough to infil and gain info.

Hint: The local mosque is probably a combination recruiting center, fundraising center, and armory.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/19/2006 14:48 Comments || Top||

#21  I blame Bush.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 09/19/2006 15:03 Comments || Top||

#22  The Thais problem is that they go from zero to 150 mph very fast - one minute they're hugging you but if you cross them... well they just kill you.

Sounds like a well-honed survival reflex installed by regularly dealing with Muslims.

I think the military wants to restore a functional gov't so they can address the South in a more effecetive manner.

I certainly hope so, but this does not quite jibe with how they've appointed Sonthi, a Muslim, as Prime Minister. I can only imagine he must be some sort of moderate who wants to eliminate the extremist threat. If so, this would be a huge boost for other Muslims to begin realigning themselves away from jihadist Islam. Just speculating.

Again, thank you very much, Bangkok Billy. It's really dynamite to have first hand coverage like this. It eliminates a whole boatload of media spin and their usual trowling of male bovine fecal matter.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/19/2006 15:06 Comments || Top||

#23  Yes, thanks Bangkok Billy. Nice to hear from someone on the scene rather than a talking head who has to have Thailand spelled phonetically.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/19/2006 15:08 Comments || Top||

#24  The situation is a bit more complex than these Rantburg comments reflect:

EFL
"The Thai military launched a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday night, circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king.

Massive rallies earlier this year forced Thaksin to dissolve Parliament and call an election in April, three years ahead of schedule. The poll was boycotted by opposition parties and later annulled by Thailand's top courts, leaving the country without a working legislature.

Thaksin's critics want to jettison his policies promoting privatization, free trade agreements and CEO-style administration.

Opposition to Thaksin gained momentum in January when his family announced it had sold its controlling stake in telecommunications company Shin Corp. to Singapore's state-owned Temasek Holdings for a tax-free $1.9 billion. Critics allege the sale involved insider trading and complain a key national asset is now in foreign hands.

Thaksin also has been accused of stifling the media and mishandling a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand that flared under his rule.

In Thailand's mostly Muslim south, separatist insurgents have waged a bloody campaign that has left at least 1,700 dead, mostly civilians, since 2004."
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/19/D8K821J80.html
Posted by: Darrell || 09/19/2006 15:32 Comments || Top||

#25  Fred, I hope they pay tou well for this annoying add for that kid friendly war movie.
Posted by: Mike N. || 09/19/2006 15:32 Comments || Top||

#26  Use Firefox with the Adblock extension and you can make it go away.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/19/2006 15:41 Comments || Top||

#27  Thanks D.
Posted by: Mike N. || 09/19/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||

#28  Billy, thanks for the on-scene reporting. Stay safe.
Posted by: Mike || 09/19/2006 17:11 Comments || Top||


Rumors of a Coup Sweep Through Thailand
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared a state of emergency Tuesday night from New York as rumors of a military coup swept the capital. An army-owned television station suspended regular programming and played patriotic songs. Shinawatra went on a government-owned TV station to declare the state of emergency.

"The prime minister with the approval of the Cabinet declares serious emergency law in Bangkok from now on," Thaksin said on Channel 9 from New York, where he was attending the U.N. General Assembly. He said he was ordering the transfer of the nation's army chief to work in the prime minister's office, effectively suspending him from his military duties.
Posted by: Fred || 09/19/2006 12:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Article via Drudge

Whilst the premier is away, the generals will play!
Posted by: BigEd || 09/19/2006 16:52 Comments || Top||


Coup rumors widely spread in Thailand: Xinhua+
(Kyodo) _ Coup rumors were widely spread Tuesday night after the 3rd and 5th Army areas moved their four battalions out, China's official Xhinhua News Agency reported, quoting a military source.
But officers from the two army areas were quoted as saying the forces were moved to be stationed in the three southern border provinces as part of personnel rotation there.

The 31st Infantry Regimen also moved out its personnel as part of the rotation with soldiers in the deep South, officers was quoted by the Thai multimedia group the Nation as saying.

The 23rd and 24th Cavalry Battalions and the Second Cavalry Division also moved out their personnel to rotate with soldiers at the Pha Muang Task Force in Phetchabun Province, Xinhua reported.

Some officers said the massive movements of the soldiers apparently led to the coup rumors, according to the Nation.


Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 11:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PM declares state of emergency. Tanks on the streets
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 11:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I live in Bangkok, and there is definitely a coup ongoing - after 10:00 pm here - evidently by parts of the Army against the sitting Taksin government (while he's out of the country).

I'm way out from city center - but all Thai TV stations (about seven of them) are showing old Royal family photos, and playing soothing music - which is the standard formula for what happens during a coup here.

Reports of ten or so tanks moved into the Government House area. No reports of any violence yet.

Tomorrow morning should be interesting!
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 09/19/2006 12:00 Comments || Top||

#3  thanks LR - stay safe
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Fox is showing video right now of tanks at Govt House. They are reporting that the Army is telling the Police to back off...
Posted by: flyover || 09/19/2006 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  So is this good or bad? I'm not sure...
Posted by: Charles || 09/19/2006 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  with Thaksin's ineffective (remember the origami airdrop?) response to continued muslim terror, IMHO he's better replaced. Time for Thai counter-terror is now
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 12:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Lone Ranger - stay safe. Can you give us any idea of why this happening and what it means?
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 12:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Thailand leads the way. This is good. Keep us informed please, Lone Ranger.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/19/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#9  WXJ, sorry but I doubt that I agree with you. There are (should be? LR do you know) other ways to effect a change of government in a democracy which is what I thought Thailand is.

This is NOT a good thing.

Even assuming that the military does combat the terrorist more effectively there should be better ways to accomplish that goal.
Posted by: AlanC || 09/19/2006 13:54 Comments || Top||

#10  AlanC, you are an optimist. Democracy is a great form of government, but slow and inefficient. There are times when emergency measures take precedence, like fire or riot. You are either part of the problem, part of the solution, or get out of the way. The government of Thialand was not one of the first 2, so they are now out of the way. Tough turtles.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/19/2006 14:05 Comments || Top||

#11  so I guess we are making the assumption that the new government intends to get tough on islamic crime?
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 15:31 Comments || Top||

#12  Just watch - and read.
Posted by: newc || 09/19/2006 17:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
US Treasury Sets New 1-Day Tax Receipt Record Of $85.8 Billion
But....but....I thought 'tax cuts for the rich' would trash the economy and....and....raise the deficit....and stuff....
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. government recorded record-high overall and corporate tax receipts on Sept. 15, which was a quarterly deadline for tax payments, the Treasury said Monday. Total tax receipts were $85.8 billion on Friday, compared with the previous one-day record of $71 billion on Sept. 15 of last year, the Treasury said.

Within the overall figure, corporate tax receipts Friday were $71.8 billion, up from $63 billion in September of last year. Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Randal Quarles said Friday's numbers provided a "continuing demonstration of the strength of the U.S. economy."

"In fact, Friday's gross receipts were the largest in a single day in the nation's history - 20% higher than receipts on the same quarterly tax payment date last year," Quarles said in a statement.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 10:42 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All Bushs' fault!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/19/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  As a tax payer I am not celebrating.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 09/19/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Think of all that money that could have been used on in-effective government programs! --Democrats
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/19/2006 11:22 Comments || Top||

#4  This indicates that corporations are doing very well. This does not equate with American society doing very well. If you consider these numbers, plus the unpaid taxes due, either thru manipulations of balnce sheets and/or the relocation of named headquarters offshore, you can grasp that the power is becoming highly concentrated here. No wonder there is plenty of cash to buy Congress, state Governors, state Legislatures, local Mayors, etc. Best goevernment money can buy. Somewhat explains why there is total disregard for national borders.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 09/19/2006 12:07 Comments || Top||

#5  SOP sounds like something out of the pages of a hundred years ago with robber barons. Most corporations today are held by institutional funds = like pension funds, like union funds, like university endowment funds, like state and local government investment funds. Instead of JP Morgan calling up his Senators and telling them what to do or how to vote, today we have an industry of lobbyists who negotiate. That is at least some progress.
Posted by: Shavise Angeamp7988 || 09/19/2006 17:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Dupe entry: 'Frist Reversal: 'Time to Secure the Border with Mexico'
Looks like Frist has finally read some of the polls....

The Senate, which has been the major obstacle to strict border-security legislation this year, will take up a bill this week that calls for constructing 700 more miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"It's time to secure the border with Mexico," Majority Leader Bill Frist said last night before filing the parliamentary motions to force the House-passed bill onto the Senate floor in a final effort to get a major immigration bill on the president's desk before the elections.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid, said the move "smacks of desperation" and was a "clear repudiation of President Bush's call for comprehensive legislation."

The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was easily approved by the House last week, contains none of the "comprehensive" measures that President Bush, Democrats and some Senate Republicans have demanded. Those include provisions to grant citizenship rights to about 10 million illegal aliens living in the country and a guest-worker program that would usher hundreds of thousands more foreign laborers into the U.S.

"Mr. Frist was for comprehensive reform before he was against it," Mr. Manley said.

On the Senate floor last night, Mr. Frist said he still supports comprehensive immigration reform legislation. But, he said, because no consensus can now be reached on other issues, Congress should move ahead with border security. It's not "enforcement only," he said, but "enforcement first."

"Border security is the essential first step of any effort to enact immigration reform," Mr. Frist said. "Only when we have convinced the American people of our commitment to securing our borders will we be able to reach a consensus on comprehensive immigration reform."

The last time the Senate considered a border-security-only bill, the measure failed, with all but two Democrats and 20 Republicans refusing even to debate it. Since then, several Republicans bent on comprehensive reform have told The Washington Times that they would now consider legislation that dealt only with stopping the flow of illegal aliens into the country.

Among the most adamant supporters of comprehensive reform have been Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who helped form a coalition earlier this year to derail any legislation that failed to grant broad citizenship rights to illegals and create a guest-worker program. The group of Republican defectors also included Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia.

Mr. McCain, Mr. Warner and Mr. Graham also have bolted party leadership by opposing Mr. Bush's proposed legislation for handling the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. The specter of a showdown this week over both the Guantanamo detainees and immigration had some Republican staffers on Capitol Hill wondering whether the trio could wage a two-front battle against their own party during an election season in which control of both chambers is in question.

By filing last night a cloture motion that will limit debate and let the Senate vote on the bill, Mr. Frist hopes to get the measure to the floor by week's end. If Democrats stall, they could push the debate well into next week. And if, as is expected, Mr. Frist introduces the bill so that amendments cannot be offered, the battle in the Senate likely will take even longer and could end in yet another stalemate.

But the House's approval of the bill suggests that Mr. Frist might see some converts on both sides of the aisle in favor of a bill that deals only with border security.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/19/2006 10:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Gore says tax pollution, not payrolls. IRS jails gore for being a polluting gasbag.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Monday suggested taxing carbon dioxide emissions instead of employees' pay in a bid to stem global warming.
Note to Al: I would tax the volcanoes, too. And Cattle as they are the top producers of Methane...a more efficient greenhouse gas than CO2. And you...you mindless gasbag.
"Penalizing pollution instead of penalizing employment will work to reduce that pollution," Gore said in a speech at New York University School of Law.

The pollution tax would replace all payroll taxes, including those for Social Security and unemployment compensation, Gore said. He said the overall level of taxation, would remain the same. "Instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees it would discourage business from producing more pollution," Gore said.
Which would discourage hiring. Amazing how that works. It's called, 'economics'.
Gore, a longtime environmentalist, also proposed that the United States re-join any successor to the U.N. Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming beyond 2012.
I wondered how long it would take al reuters to bring up the discredited Kyoto treaty.
A number of but not allScientists believe global warming is caused by the trapping of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, in Earth's atmosphere. The consequences of this climate change might include rising seas, stronger storms and intense heat waves. Under the Kyoto global warming treaty, 35 industrialized nations -- but not the United States -- have agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions to below 1990 levels.
Which none of them have actually done.
President George W. Bush withdrew from the Kyoto pact in 2001, saying its caps on greenhouse gases would cost jobs."The absence of the United States from the treaty means that 25 percent of the world economy is now missing. It is like filling a bucket with a large hole in the bottom," Gore said.

Gore's proposals may be too radical to gain much support and are likely to be opposed by some business interests. Many power companies are watching the U.S. government's every step on global warming. Any future national plan in the United States, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, to regulate such gases could force many companies to shut down coal-fired generation or add expensive carbon-capturing devices to their equipment.
Al, AL, Al. Why don't you take up drunkeness and carrousing like Ted Kennedy?
Posted by: Clitch Slavising3387 || 09/19/2006 01:07 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That would be the Global Warming that isn't happening. CO2 levels continue to rise at a record rate. Meanwhile global temperatures peaked in 1998.

Correlation does not prove causation, but the absence of correlation is categorical proof of the absence of causation.
Posted by: phil_b || 09/19/2006 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  This seems an unfair tax on the rich to me. Limosines and personal Jets put out so much more CO2 than your average SUV. Plus heating the 9000+ sq foot house. pool, hot tub, empty guest house and slave maid/gardner quarters.
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 4:01 Comments || Top||

#3  gardener
Posted by: tabd || 09/19/2006 4:02 Comments || Top||

#4  "Instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees it would discourage business from producing more pollution," Barry Goldwater Gore said.

He's finally flipped. This has as much of a chance as - no, way less than - a flat tax. He's just throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks. Hillary'd be proud.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/19/2006 7:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Al Gore: Environmentalist, Zinc Miner

On his most recent tax return, as he has the past 25 years, Vice President Al Gore lists a $20,000 mining royalty for the extraction of zinc from beneath his farm here in the bucolic hills of the Cumberland River Valley. In total, Mr. Gore has earned $500,000 from zinc royalties. His late father, the senator, introduced him not only to the double-bladed ax but also to Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp., which sold the zinc-rich land to the Gore family in 1973.

It also seems that zinc from Mr. Gore's property ends up in the cool waters of the Caney Fork River, an oft-celebrated site in Gore lore. A major shaft and tailings pond of the Pasminco Zinc Mine sit practically in the backyard of the vice president's Tennessee homestead. Zinc and other metals from the Gore land move from underground tunnels through elaborate extraction processes. Waste material ends up in the tailings pond, from which water flows into adjacent Caney Fork, languidly rolling on to the great Cumberland.

Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Frank! You dirt-digger!

You makin' that up?

If not, you ought to e-mail it to Jimmy Carter's peace foundation.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/19/2006 9:57 Comments || Top||

#7  check out the link - it's true and Gore couldn't deny it in his 2000 campaign
Posted by: Frank G || 09/19/2006 10:47 Comments || Top||

#8  This is a sensible idea, it's silly to attack the messenger.

If there were a market in CO2 reclaimation and the money raised from taxing CO2 (as a proxy for real pollution externalities) only went there then the tax would be recycled away from the government, where it does most harm. It would also move the west away from subsidising wahabist oil.

It would be an excellent idea to move away from taxing income (punishing job creation and working).

A small tax on the value of property ringfenced for the police, army and judiciary who defend it's value via property rights could also be justified.

For the rest of the socialist taxes the bin should held wide open.

P.S. CO2 is not a pollutant and is a lagging track of the global temperature as #1 said.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 09/19/2006 12:39 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2006-09-19
  Close shave for Somali prez in assassination boom
Mon 2006-09-18
  Afghan boomer targets crowd of kiddies
Sun 2006-09-17
  Mujahideen Army threatens Pope with suicide attack
Sat 2006-09-16
  Somali cleric calls for Muslims to hunt down and kill Pope
Fri 2006-09-15
  Muslims seethe over Pope's remarks
Thu 2006-09-14
  General Udi Adam resigns
Wed 2006-09-13
  Law, order restored to outskirts of US Embassy in Damascus
Tue 2006-09-12
  Bush rallies nation to ‘struggle for civilization’
Mon 2006-09-11
  Five Years: Never Forgive, Never Forget, Never "Understand"
Sun 2006-09-10
  NATO troops kill 60 Taliban in Afghanistan
Sat 2006-09-09
  5 more suspects held in Danish terror probe
Fri 2006-09-08
  Blasts near Indian mosque kill 20
Thu 2006-09-07
  Iraq hangs 27 on terrorism charges
Wed 2006-09-06
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Tue 2006-09-05
  Peace deal signed in Wazoo


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