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Fatah calls for ceasefire
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
nucular plants warnin sirens deemed to loud
Posted by: muck4doo || 02/07/2005 18:33 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  this article's headline deemed to hurt my eyes.
Posted by: gromky || 02/07/2005 23:06 Comments || Top||

#2  It's boldface mucky-ese, gromky. Comes with the territory.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/07/2005 23:10 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Breaking news: Increased sunshine causes climate warming
Posted by: phil_b || 02/07/2005 06:07 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other news, sitting on the toilet for 10 minutes makes the seat warm.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 02/07/2005 7:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd dispute this article's placement in SAST.

The article is discussing the possibility that there are other factors in changing the earth's climate besides CO2, such as the known solar activity cycles.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 02/07/2005 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd like to increase the sunshine 'round these parts. I've had enough of winter already.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/07/2005 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Too late for this. It's already been decided that global warming is Bush's fault. No right of appeal. Kyoto's the only way to go, and besides, we'd all feel real good about it.
Posted by: Matt || 02/07/2005 12:01 Comments || Top||

#5  DOH!
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/07/2005 14:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Phil F, I find the absence of evidence that CO2 levels affect climate striking. A great deal of research has occured and no one has come up with compelling evidence for a causal link.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/07/2005 16:52 Comments || Top||

#7  An Engineer I worked with in Oak Ridge once asked me, when he saw I was reading "Design for a Limited Planet", "What caused the last Ice Age"? I said, "It got cold". He wouldn't talk to me for a week.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/07/2005 18:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Deacon, you may want to read about "Milankovitch cycles," among other things.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 02/07/2005 19:10 Comments || Top||

#9  PF - too hard to blame solar cycles on Halliburton and Bush, so they won't do....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2005 19:16 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Railroad link plan from Red Sea to Republic of Eastern Arabia
MANAMA: Plans to build a railroad linking the Arabian Gulf to the Red Sea were revealed at a Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) investors briefing yesterday. The Landbridge rail project aims to link Saudi Arabia's three largest ports, from Jeddah Islamic Port in the west through Riyadh's Dry Port and reaching Dammam's King Abdul Aziz Port in the east.

The project involves the construction of a new 950km railway line between Riyadh and Jeddah; another 115km line between Jubail and Dammam; the upgrade of existing lines between Riyadh and Dammam; and integrating new lines with Jeddah Islamic Port, King Abdul Aziz Port and Dammam and Riyadh Dry Ports.

Project financing is expected to comprise investor equity and loans from the Saudi Arabian and international bank markets. The land required for the projects will be provided by Saudi Arabia. UBS Investment Bank, Saudi's National Commercial Bank (NCB) and SNCF International of France are providing financial and technical advisory services for the project.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/07/2005 12:16:29 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When he pulled up that Dry Port hill,
He whistled for the camels with an awful shrill;
The gunnies knew by the engine's moan
That the man at the throttle was abu Jones.
He looked at his water and his water was low;
Insallah!
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow;
sotto: My Iman gimme this watch,
He turned to his fireman and this is what he said,
"Infidel, we're going to reach Diammam, but we'll all be dead."
Posted by: 668 Next Door Neighbor of the Beast || 02/07/2005 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it Poetry at Rantburg Day already?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/07/2005 19:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Abu Casey Jones?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2005 19:34 Comments || Top||


Britain
Researchers Uncover Ancient Cave Engraving In England
An engraving thought to be 10,000 years old has been uncovered in a cave, British researchers said Monday.
The series of inscribed crosses — found on the wall of the Aveline's Hole cave in Somerset, southwest England — are believed to date from the early Mesolithic period just after the Ice Age.
Jill Cook from the British Museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe said the discovery gave an insight into an early form of communication.
"The few lines that form this panel are a signature from the period right at the end of the last Ice Age when the present period of warm climate was beginning," Cook said.
"The pattern is comparable with others known from Northern France, Germany and Denmark, giving a wider context for the finds of this time and a rare glimpse of what may have been a rather special means of communication."
The discovery of the engraved crosses at Aveline's Hole_ the site of the earliest known cemetery in the British Isles_ follows the discovery of 12,000-year-old Ice Age engravings at Creswell Caves in Nottinghamshire, central England, two years ago.
Graham Mullan and Linda Wilson of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society, who conducted the search of Aveline's Hole following the Nottinghamshire find, believe more engravings could be found in other caves in southern Britain.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/07/2005 5:41:57 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It said "Kilroy was here".
Posted by: KIllroy || 02/07/2005 18:52 Comments || Top||

#2  It is a warning about the coming global warming and how it will destroy the herds of wooly mammoths.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/07/2005 20:04 Comments || Top||

#3  But no frikkin pictures . . . I want to see the things for myself and am too poor for the cross-ocean trip . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief || 02/07/2005 20:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Lol, Mrs D!

Posted by: .com || 02/07/2005 20:50 Comments || Top||


NHS bureacracy wasting billions of pounds intended to treat cancer patients
A report by Doctors for Reform says much of the money has been spent on creating new posts for bureaucrats.
The think tank made up of 900 doctors and consultants said patients are worse off now than they were five years ago and the £2bn invested in NHS cancer services in those years has offered poor value for money.
Director Andrew Haldenby said: "Cancer patients often live in poor health unnecessarily for long periods of time due to a lack of co-ordination of their care by overstretched treatment services."
One consultant, Professor Karol Sikora of Hammersmith Hospital, said: "In theory you could get the best treatment available in the world from the NHS - it just depends how lucky you are and where you live."
He said the two key failings were in the wait for scans, x-rays and radiotherapy, which could be up to six months.
Prof Sikora added: "We are falling behind the rest of Europe and it seems to be because the resources are not being directed where they are needed and not being used effectively."
He said cancer care is being stifled by too many agencies and cash is being wasted on appointing several hundred new administrative staff who are unable to improve the service because of shortages in frontline staff.
Mike Richards, the Department of Health's national director for Cancer, said there have been difficulties in reducing waiting times for radiotherapy because demand has increased in recent years.
And Health Secretary John Reid added: "Literally thousands of people are alive today thanks to the extra money and resources this government has invested in tackling cancer. Mortality rate from cancer has fallen by 12% in the last six years.
"This has not happened by accident. We have invested £570m in cancer services. There are 1,182 extra cancer consultants and 1,100 new pieces of equipment such as scanners since 1997."
...and the radical drop in the number of cigarette smokers has *nothing* to do with it.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/07/2005 3:16:30 PM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Leftist Party Triumphs in Mexican State
For generations, leftist activists have fought the Institutional Revolutionary Party in the southern state of Guerrero through the ballot box and the rifle. After skirmishes, massacres and hundreds of martyrs, they were celebrating victory Monday with dancing and the honking of horns in the state's famous resort, Acapulco.
Official state election results showed former Acapulco Mayor Zeferino Torreblanca with a stunning victory, 55 to 42 percent, over the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has run Guerrero for 76 years.
"After nearly 50 years of social struggle, we have achieved the miracle of the vote," said Arturo Martinez, a former political prisoner and Communist Party activist.
Guerrero's spectacular coastline is dotted with resorts — including Acapulco and nearby Zihuatanejo — that are famed playgrounds for Mexico's elite.
But the state's rugged mountains are rife with impoverished, inaccessible communities dominated by violent political bosses allied with the PRI.
Many of the battles in Mexico's long struggle for democracy, which led to the election of President Vicente Fox in 2000, were fought in this sweltering state.
Sunday's election, too, could help shape next year's presidential campaign.
"It gives us a strong push for 2006, without doubt," said Leonel Godoy, president of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which finished third in the past two presidential elections.
PRD national councilman Cuauhtemoc Sandoval called the victory "a big breath of oxygen" for the party, which won only one of 14 elections in 2004.
The vote was a blow to the PRI and the presidential aspirations of its leader, Roberto Madrazo, who has built a reputation on a series of state-level victories during Fox's term. The wins helped the party recover from its loss of the national presidency nearly five years ago.
The PRI had single-handedly governed Mexico since 1929 before being booted out of office by Fox's National Action Party.
While Guerrero has a well-earned reputation for guerrilla activity, Martinez argued the militants turned to battle only after facing bloody crackdowns on peaceful efforts to challenge authorities.
"The principal guerrilla groups in Guerrero were never alienated from electoral activity," he said in an interview. "On the contrary, violence against the people and election fraud led to formation of the guerrillas."
A state police massacre of students in 1960 prompted the federal government to throw out the state's officials and call a new election in 1962. Repression of leftist activists in that campaign was so intense, some fled into armed revolt.
Guerrero-based rebel leaders including Lucio Cabanas and Genaro Vasquez began as local reformers who were attacked by an often-violent army when they threatened powerful interests.
Martinez himself spent three years in prison after a 1968 massacre of student demonstrators in Mexico City's Tlatelolco square and a subsequent crackdown on leftists.
The federal government's human rights office says that hundreds of suspected leftists vanished after being detained, often illegally, by government forces. Many were apparently tortured and killed.
Torreblanca, Guerrero's newly elected governor, has little in common — beyond a distaste for the PRI — with the gun-toting rural schoolteachers who rebelled in the 1960s.
Torreblanca is a businessman with interests in Acapulco-area supermarkets whose father made prescient investments in property in the growing port.
He attracted so much of the conservative, business-oriented vote that Fox's National Action Party managed to win only 1 percent of the vote in Sunday's election.
With extremely rare exceptions, elections nationwide were the exclusive property of the PRI until well into the 1980s. Those who challenged the party's victories tended to be ignored, bought off — or crushed.
Opportunities for challenges opened as the government grew more eager for international respectability.
In 1988, breakaway PRI Gov. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas forged an alliance with the left that nearly toppled the ruling party. Anger over alleged fraud in that vote led to election reforms that eventually paved the way for Fox and, on Sunday, for Torreblanca.
This place has long been ripe for disaster, with starving peasants on one side of the fence, and wealthy Eurotrash on the other side, enjoying themselves at expensive resorts.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/07/2005 5:38:59 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Its a start. Good for Mexico! Hopefully Mexico's leftists will mature as they handle actual elective power, and look for pragmatic solutions to Guerrero's problems.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/07/2005 19:37 Comments || Top||

#2  that's one way to look at it, TW, I just don't wanna see a Chavez, Jr. in charge.....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2005 19:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmm... if that happened, and we ended up with the Peoples Democratic Republic of Mexico, that would pretty well end all travel across the border.

Or should end it, anyway...
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/07/2005 19:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Likely turn it into a flood, along with lots of Chavez's Arab friends.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/07/2005 20:42 Comments || Top||


A Year Since Aristide, Haiti Impoverished
Brilliant. And a year before Aristide, Haiti was impoverished. And a year before Papa Doc, Haiti was impoverished. And a year before Toussaint l'Overture, Haiti was impoverished.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Haiti has been a failed state since 1804. When Toussaint threw out the French,nobody knew how to run a country, and the rest of the world refused to recognize or help the new country, out of fear their own slaves would rebel. Take tribalism plus voodoo plus endemic ignorance and you have Haiti.
Posted by: mom || 02/07/2005 20:34 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect it was a failed state as soon as the French got a hold of it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/07/2005 20:42 Comments || Top||

#3  They inherited "failed state" status from the French.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/07/2005 20:43 Comments || Top||

#4  When Sekou Toure, Marxist leader of Guinea at the time of independence, refused to join the French Community, the departing French trashed the infrastructure, even ripping phones off the walls. The French colonizers have a lot to answer for.

The more I read history, the more convinced I am that France hasn't had a competent government since the days of Henry IV (late 16th-early 17 C). His immediate descendants, Louis XIII and XIV, created the policies that led directly to the French Revolution; and colonization started on their watch and under the direct control of the King of Micromanagement, Louis XIV.
Posted by: mom || 02/07/2005 20:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Arnold Plans to Rock California Again
Today Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will launch a sweeping effort at reforming California, a campaign almost as audacious and ambitious as his 2003 race for governor. Signature gatherers are fanning out over the Golden State to collect 600,000 names on petitions on a redistricting initiative, the first of four measures the governor has submitted to the Democratic Legislature and promises to put before the voters this fall if the lawmakers spurn him, as they almost certainly will.
The battle may be even more expensive and contentious than the recall campaign. Mr. Schwarzenegger showed up at the tony Pacific Club in Newport Beach Wednesday to tell potential donors he planned a nationwide drive to raise $50 million to pass his reform package. One of them would allow merit pay for state teachers and tighten tenure laws. Another mirrors President Bush's Social Security plan by steering state employees into 401(k)-like personal pension plans. A third would allow the governor to make across-the-board budget cuts if the Legislature stalemates on passing a budget. The centerpiece is a measure that would do away with gerrymandering, the process by which politicians draw uncompetitive districts to ensure partisan advantage and, most of all, incumbents' survival...
Jeepers. He is something else.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/07/2005 6:30:55 PM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeehaaaaa! Ride 'em, cowboy! I'm going to make lots of popcorn for this one -- win or lose, Ahnold is going to make them try to justify the status quo, and it cannot be done. *sigh* my hero...
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/07/2005 19:58 Comments || Top||

#2  John Burton has to be wondering how Gray could screw him so bad without ever droppin trou.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/07/2005 20:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Mrs. Davis, for a man who could screw all 35,484,453 citizens of the State of California without breaking a sweat, screwing John Burton is no challenge. Who would have thought that starting each day with a tofu shake could give Grey Davis such stamina. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the best thing to happen to California politics since the golden era of Ronald Reagan. The next best thing would be to put "none of the above" on the ballot.
Posted by: RWV || 02/07/2005 22:14 Comments || Top||


Dems' Week from Hell - in a hole, and they keep digging
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2005 12:09 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The problem with making "Bush Is Wrong" the sole plank of your party platform is that it leaves you ill-equipped to deal with those occasions on which Bush turns out to have been incontrovertibly, demonstrably right. I could imagine Nancy Pelosi's thought process about the Iraqi elections going something like this:

"We're really gonna slam Bush when the elections turn out to be a bloody mess and none of the Iraqis turn out to vote because they're terrified. The guys at the NYT have already shown me the articles. OK, let's get some popcorn and turn on CNN. First reports of light turnout, good, good. Oh shit! Oh shit!They're coming out. They're walking miles and carrying their crippled relatives to vote. They're bringing their kids with them. Where's Zarqawi when you need him, damn it! What's with this blue finger thing? Quick, run a focus group on the blue fingers! Whaddya mean, all the members of the focus group are up on their feet cheering? Don't they know that Bush is wrong?...."
Posted by: Matt || 02/07/2005 15:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Man, it really is like watching a prizefighter punch himself in the face, over and over and over again...

Fascinating, in a sick-making kind of way...
Posted by: mojo || 02/07/2005 17:18 Comments || Top||

#3  This is one of a number of articles lately that really are making a point about the "message" of the Democratic Party. Just what is that message? The monied energy and the true believers of the party are hopelessly mired in the politics of the last century and the world view of the century before last. The party has morphed into a party of extreme leftist intellectuals who still see themselves in their old role as subverters of American efforts in the Cold War. The bulk of the rank and file Democratic voters are certain minority groups, victim groups like the feminists & the homosexuals, atheistic zealots, unions, and a few knee-jerk old-time liberals. The party is hopelessly extreme, and they know it. That is why they must try to fool voters to get their votes and that explains why they try to assume a different identity when it is time for the Democratic National Convention - and presto - you have Kerry saluting, reporting for duty and rambling about hunting down the terorists like dogs and killing them. In truth, they have no ideas. They are modern day reactionaries - "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good ole days."

This country needs two strong parties. It needs a competition of ideas. But it is time for new ideas, and one of the parties wouldn't know a new idea hit them in their collective noses.

Does that sound like a call for the Pelosis, Kennedys, Kerrys, and Deans to step forward? I don't think so.
Posted by: Sam || 02/07/2005 17:27 Comments || Top||

#4  "They are modern day reactionaries - "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good ole days."

And then FDR said we have nuttin to fear but fear itself. And then he set up the WPA, the CCC, the Tennesssee Valley Authority, and Social Security. And then LBJ came along, and we had the War on Poverty, and there was welfare, Head Start, more welfare, and 70% tax rates. And then Nixon won, but we had the Congress, and we had free sex, drug orgies, protesters, and demonstrations, and campus riots, and we won - er - I mean the communists won the Vietnam War, and we put the military and the CIA zealots in place. And then Carter noticed a malaise in the people, and this actor became president, and it has mostly been down hill since.
Posted by: Hank || 02/07/2005 17:54 Comments || Top||

#5  The problem for the dems is that they really have nothing that they really stand for. They are for everything that Bush is against. How can you capture the imaginations of voters and especially young people with these incessant rants and monologues from tired old leftists. A great person has the ability to step outside oneself and look back at what he is doing and where he is going. Lincoln comes to mind. There is nobody in the dem party that has the ability to do it. Nobody with the ability and charisma to lead. They're like the Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/07/2005 22:47 Comments || Top||


No Presidential Run in 2008, Cheney Says
WASHINGTON (AP) - Dick Cheney says he won't be running for anything after finishing his term as vice president, except maybe to the river with his grandchildren. ``I've got my plans laid out,'' Cheney said Sunday. ``I'm going to serve this president for the next four years and then I'm out of here.''

Cheney said he made it clear when he became George W. Bush's running mate that he would never run for president and nothing could change his mind. Cheney tried to put the question to rest in the starkest terms possible. ``Not only no, but hell no,'' Cheney told ``Fox News Sunday.'' He quoted Civil War Gen. William Sherman, who answered similar queries in 1884 by saying, ``If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.''

``By 2009, I'll be 68 years old,'' Cheney said. ``And I've still got a lot of rivers I'd like to fish and time I'd like to spend with my grandkids, and so this is my last tour.''
Posted by: Steve White || 02/07/2005 12:03:55 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  oooh I can see the dem's going into overdrive now trying to nail down who's going to be the repub nominee for 08 and trying to start a smear campaign early.
Posted by: Valentine || 02/07/2005 5:34 Comments || Top||

#2  They already did. It's called the Condi confirmation hearings.
Posted by: true nuff || 02/07/2005 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  I kinda hope he changes his mind so the left can scream "Look! Cheney Lied Again!!" And of course he would then have to win the election.
Posted by: Tibor || 02/07/2005 13:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Has a stading Secretary of State every run for office? It's going to be a tough way to go....
Posted by: Shipman || 02/07/2005 13:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Hoover was a Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge before getting the nomination for the Presidency.

John Quincy Adams was a former Sec of State, for one.
Posted by: eLarson || 02/07/2005 16:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Jefferson
Posted by: Phique Spoluper4664 || 02/07/2005 19:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Some in U.S. finally voting with their feet
Bon voyage, suckers!
VANCOUVER, British Columbia Christopher Key knows exactly what he would be giving up if he left Bellingham, Washington. "It's the sort of place Norman Rockwell would paint, where everyone watches out for everyone else and we have block parties every year," said Key, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran and former magazine editor who lists Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner," among his ancestors.

But leave it he intends to do, and as soon as he can. His house is on the market, and he is busily seeking work across the border in Canada. For him, the re-election of George W. Bush was the last straw. "I love the United States," he said as he stood on the Vancouver waterfront, staring toward the Coastal Range, which was lost in a gray shroud. "I fought for it in Vietnam. It's a wrenching decision to think about leaving. But America is turning into a country very different from the one I grew up believing in."

In the Niagara of liberal angst just after Bush's victory on Nov. 2, the Canadian government's immigration Web site reported a surge in inquiries from the United States, to about 115,000 a day from 20,000.

After three months, memories of the election have begun to recede. There has been an inauguration, even a State of the Union address. Yet immigration lawyers say that Americans are not just making inquiries and that more are pursuing a move above the 49th parallel, fed up with a country they see drifting persistently to the right and abandoning the principles of tolerance, compassion and peaceful idealism they felt once defined the nation.
Nope, nope, no New York Times slant there, nope.
America is in no danger of emptying out. But even a small loss of population, many from a deep sense of political despair, is a significant event in the life of a nation that thinks of itself as a place to escape to. Firm numbers on potential immigrants are elusive.
So it may not be a small loss after all, and less of a loss if they do leave.
"The number of U.S. citizens who are actually submitting Canadian immigration papers and making concrete plans is about three or four times higher than normal," said Linda Mark, an immigration lawyer in Vancouver.

Other immigration lawyers in Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, Nova Scotia, said they had noticed a similar uptick, though most put the rise at closer to threefold. "We're still not talking about a huge movement of people," said David Cohen, an immigration lawyer in Montreal. "In 2003, the last year where full statistics are available, there were something like 6,000 U.S. citizens who received permanent resident status in Canada. So even if we do go up threefold this year, we're only talking about 18,000 people."

Still, that is more than double the population of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "For every one who reacts to the Bush victory by moving to a new country, how many others are there still in America, feeling similarly disaffected but not quite willing to take such a drastic step?" Cohen asked.
More importantly, who the fuck cares? If Kerry had won, I'd be rather disaffected, but the NYT sure as hell wouldn't be writing a sympathetic article about me.
Melanie Redman, 30, assistant director of the Epilepsy Foundation in Seattle, said she had put her Volvo up for sale and hopes to be living in Toronto by the summer. She and her Canadian boyfriend, a Web site designer for Canadian nonprofit companies, had been planning to move to New York, but after Nov.2, they decided on Canada instead. "I'm doing it," she said. "I don't want to participate in what this administration is doing here and around the world. Under Bush, the U.S. seems to be leading the pack as the world spirals down."
See ya Melanie, and don't bothe coming back.
Redman intends to apply for a conjugal visa, which can be easier to get than the skilled worker visa that most Americans require. To do so, she must prove she and her boyfriend have had a relationship for at least a year, so she has collected supporting paperwork, like love letters, to present to the Canadian government. "I'm originally from a poor, lead-mining town in Missouri, and I know a lot of the people there don't understand why I'm doing this," she said. "Even my family is pretty disappointed. And the fact is, it makes me pretty sad, too. But I just can't bear to pay taxes in the United States right now."

Compared with the other potential immigrants interviewed, Redman was far along in planning. Mike Aves, 40, a financial planner in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been active in the Young Democrats, said he was finding it almost impossible from that distance to land a job in Canada. "I've told my wife, I'd be willing to take a step down, socioeconomically, to move from white-collar work to a blue-collar job, if it would get us to Canada," he said.

Many of those interviewed said the idea of moving to Canada had been simmering in the backs of their minds for years, partly as a reaction to what they saw as a rightward drift in the United States and partly as a desire to live in a place they see as more tolerant, pacific and, yes, liberal. But for all, the re-election of Bush was decisive. "Not everybody is prepared to live their political values, but these are people who are," said Jason Mogus, an Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver whose communicopia.net offers marketing services for progressive companies and nonprofit groups, and whose canadianalternative.com is often the first stop for Americans eager to learn about moving north.

"Immigration to Canada is not like packing your family in a car and moving across the state line," Mogus said. "It's a long process. It can take 18 months or even longer sometimes. And if you hire a lawyer to help you, it can cost thousands of dollars."

So Mogus said the response to the Web site, from all over the United States, had amazed him. Some are drawn by Canada's more tolerant attitude toward same-sex unions, he said, and there are a surprising number of middle-aged professionals. "My wife and I have talked for a long time about perhaps retiring to a condo in downtown Vancouver," said Frederick Newmeyer, 61, a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle. "But the election was the tipping point."
Posted by: Steve White || 02/07/2005 12:24:01 AM || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Repost - this was here a while back.

1) His "War veteran" status is in question

2) His ancestry is in question likewise.

But the main thing is for all these people:

Who cares?

If they are such moral cowards as to cut and run when things don't go their way, and so lazy that they will not put forth the effort to workand change things, then we not only don't need that type, we dont WANT that type.

Let Canada have these complacent cowardly lazy losers.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2005 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  This will amount to .00000001% of the population. Most of them will return when they find out they will work much harder for much less in Canada. What ever skills they take with them will be quickly replaced. For those that take this route good luck. The US gains population from Canada every year at a much higher rate. I for one will not miss you.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/07/2005 1:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, compassionate Canada, where the Premier of British Columbia (equivalent to State Governor) laughed during his mugshot snapping, after being arrested for DUI in Hawaii.
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n05ja04a.htm
And where 6 blue pigs (AKA: cops) were convicted for taking 3 street persons to a secluded park and beating them to a pulp, with batons.
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2004/00/p04_0001.htm
I would rather live in Alabama, circa 1961, as a negro.
Posted by: Lemony Smuggity || 02/07/2005 3:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Canada, where disapproval of homosexuality is banned hate speech even when there's no hate involved.
Posted by: Korora || 02/07/2005 8:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe we start a charity like Save the Moonbats where we can sponsor them to move to foreign countries. For only 39¢ a day, you too can sponsor an Ethnic Studies professor in Botswana.
Posted by: ed || 02/07/2005 8:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Seems like ol' Melanie was busy eating the dirt in her "poor lead-mining town in Missouri". Wait till she gets her Canadian tax bill.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 02/07/2005 9:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Small loss. Any chance we can get them banned from returning. BTW: Where's Robert Redford? Didn't he promise to move out too?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/07/2005 9:38 Comments || Top||

#8  talk's cheap. Interviews should be held only after they actually move (if ever)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2005 9:48 Comments || Top||

#9  "The number of U.S. citizens who are actually submitting Canadian immigration papers and making concrete plans is about three or four times higher than normal," said Linda Mark, an immigration lawyer in Vancouver.

And the number of Canadians moving south is?...
Posted by: mojo || 02/07/2005 10:51 Comments || Top||

#10  Mojo, it's over a 3-1 exchange in favor of the U.S. Seems more of our Northern cousins would rather live in this "hellhole of a nation" than Americans that like the idea of heading north.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/07/2005 11:09 Comments || Top||

#11  "I love the United States," he said as he stood on the Vancouver waterfront, staring toward the Coastal Range, which was lost in a gray shroud.

A lie.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/07/2005 11:35 Comments || Top||

#12  You know, I feel a duty as a conservative to display more principle than what the left does, and so normally I wouldn't want to celebrate this kind of thing, but I'd love to wave these guys off. They hate this country that much, then they can go. No one's keeping them here. And at least they're going somewhere else instead of continuing to make life difficult for the rest of us.
Posted by: The Doctor || 02/07/2005 11:40 Comments || Top||

#13  These people bore me. Good bye, good luck. Please turn out the lights and leave your passport on the dresser when you leave.
Posted by: Jarhead || 02/07/2005 12:09 Comments || Top||

#14  Be nice to Canada, they may become part of the US someday.

I imagine the homoginization of the EU will cause many French and English to emmigrate and I'm not sure fragile Canada has a chance. If Canada splits I think it's likely that some provinces will join up with the US. I'd be happy to have them even if that shifted our political spectrum leftwards.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/07/2005 12:47 Comments || Top||

#15  I think Jarhead hits the nail on the head with the passport issue. Do these folks intend to have dual US/Canadian citizenship, so that they can come back when they have a tough time in Canda or if the US political scene becomes more to their liking (e.g., the emergence of the Communist Party as a major factor in US politics)? Or do they really intend to stand by their principles?

In either event, buh-bye at least for now. Mind the door.
Posted by: Matt || 02/07/2005 14:35 Comments || Top||

#16  Not only the passport, are they going full bore and paying the highre tax rate the Canadian are obliged. I also believe there is way too much ink and bandwidth wasted on these sore losers. Face it they don't have the American spirit! Americans learn to adapt and overcome setbacks, not run and hide. "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pear Harbor?" (From Animal House) Enjoy Canada losers.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/07/2005 15:29 Comments || Top||

#17  "Face it they don't have the American spirit! Americans learn to adapt and overcome setbacks, not run and hide."

-Damn right brother Sarge, damn right.

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pear Harbor?"
-Germans? Don't stop him, he's on a roll.
Posted by: Jarhead || 02/07/2005 15:35 Comments || Top||

#18  #5 Ed - sign me up! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/07/2005 16:21 Comments || Top||

#19  Wait till she gets her Canadian tax bill.

Doubt it. With dual citizenships (or permanent resident status), they will opt to pay the lower US taxes instead...and probably stay in touch with their doctor in the US, y'know, just in case they have to wait a year for a medical procedure.
Posted by: Rafael || 02/07/2005 18:07 Comments || Top||

#20  Be nice to Canada, they may become part of the US someday.

I can probably live with that.

Mexico, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/07/2005 18:50 Comments || Top||

#21  Be nice to Canada, they may become part of the US someday.

Alberta - maybe, Ontario or Quebec- HELL NO
Posted by: DMFD || 02/07/2005 21:18 Comments || Top||

#22  Hey, it's a big country. At any given time you'll find a few people considering moving to Canada. Some of them might even be feeling alienated because of their political views. Who cares?
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 02/07/2005 23:29 Comments || Top||

#23 
Hit the road, Jack
And don't you come back
no mo' no mo' no mo' no mo'
Hit the road, Jack
and don't you come back no mo....
Posted by: eLarson || 02/07/2005 23:46 Comments || Top||

#24  The Yukon will round out the shape of Alaska. Only trouble we will have to deal with the moonbat bureaucrats that that moved to Whitehorse from the Soouth....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/07/2005 23:52 Comments || Top||

#25  For yew, eL, lol!
Posted by: .com || 02/07/2005 23:54 Comments || Top||

#26  Repost - this was here a while back.

1) His "War veteran" status is in question

2) His ancestry is in question likewise.

But the main thing is for all these people:

Who cares?

If they are such moral cowards as to cut and run when things don't go their way, and so lazy that they will not put forth the effort to workand change things, then we not only don't need that type, we dont WANT that type.

Let Canada have these complacent cowardly lazy losers.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2005 1:06 Comments || Top||

#27  Repost - this was here a while back.

1) His "War veteran" status is in question

2) His ancestry is in question likewise.

But the main thing is for all these people:

Who cares?

If they are such moral cowards as to cut and run when things don't go their way, and so lazy that they will not put forth the effort to workand change things, then we not only don't need that type, we dont WANT that type.

Let Canada have these complacent cowardly lazy losers.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2005 1:06 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Dissident slams Togo power transfer
Togo's main opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio has criticised the military junta for ignoring the constitution on the death of president Gnassingbe Eyadema, which calls for free elections. Eyadema died on Saturday after 38 years in power and Togo's army chiefs immediately invested his son Faure Gnassingbe as president. The military has suspended the constitution, which stipulates the head of the national assembly should assume power on the death of the president with elections held within 60 days. The influential African Union (AU) condemned the move and its President Alpha Umar Konare called the installing of Gnassingbe's son by the army "a military coup".
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistan better for outsourcing than India or China, says Aziz
That's because their call centers are armed...
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...the hourly labour rate is only $0.37 in Pakistan, lower than India ($0.58) and China ($0.67)..."
Okay, China is clearly over-priced and you can get your head cut off in Pakistan. I'll take India for sure the next time I want to let greed triumph over patriotism and export more American jobs.
Posted by: Tom || 02/07/2005 8:41 Comments || Top||


Basant takes its toll, 17 die
Seventeen people, including four children, were killed and more than 600 injured during the annual kite-flying festival of Basant in Lahore on Sunday.
Pakistan's the only country I've ever heard of that has a corpse count associated with playing with toys...
The two-day festival marking the start of spring began on Saturday evening with thousands of revellers perched on rooftops. The dead or injured fell victim to a variety of accidents. Some fell from rooftops, while others were electrocuted by metal wire they used to fly kites, hit by stray bullets and run over by vehicles while trying to catch stray kites. City police chief Aftab Ahmad Cheema had warned that police would take "stern action" against using metal kite strings and having gun sex firing in the air. However, the bursting of firecrackers and firing in the air continued late into the night. Lahoris danced with joy as rival kites went down amid chants of "Bo Kata." Loud drumbeats and music could be heard late into the evening. Police detained 103 people for various offences. Over the past 24 hours 600 people were admitted to hospital with a variety of injuries. Some had severe head injuries. Others had broken bones. Seventy one people were admitted to Children Hospital, 39 to Services Hospital, 65 to Mayo Hospital, 32 to General Hospital, 18 to Jinnah Hospital, 17 to Sheikh Zayed Hospital, 23 to Suriya Azeem Hospital, 43 to Ganga Ram Hospital, 26 to Ittefaq Hospital, 47 to Shalimar Hospital, 58 to Mian Munshi Hospital, and Adil Hospital and 15 to Doctors Hospital.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought they banned kite flying/fighting last year? These are some wicked fighting kites complete with razor blades, one reason for the metal wire in place of normal kite string. A total lack of sanity about this sport in Pakland.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/07/2005 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  17 Less to worry about.
Posted by: Rightwing || 02/07/2005 10:17 Comments || Top||



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Mon 2005-02-07
  Fatah calls for ceasefire
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