#4
4doo0ism preaches that the gawd head is visible in each storm. Thus a fine patch i.e. "I survived Larry" should be made and carefully sewn on your Wind Sash.
A routine check of a shipment at Manila airport turned bloody when a piranha sprung up and bit one of the inspectors. "I was checking one of the boxes when suddenly, something leaped out of it and bit me," fisheries quarantine inspector Mario Trio told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a report published Tuesday. The bite left a V-shaped wound on the inspector's finger, and the 34 piranhas in the consignment he was checking â falsely declared as "ornamental fish" from Peru â were confiscated over the weekend, but died two days later, the newspaper reported. The Filipino consignee faces charges of illegally importing live piranhas, punishable by up to eight years in prison and a fine, quarantine chief Felipe Santamaria said.
A West Yorkshire hospital has banned visitors from cooing at new-born babies over fears their human rights are being breached and to reduce infection. A statement from Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax said staff had held an advice session to highlight the need for respect and dignity for patients. On one ward there is a doll featuring the message: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?" Idiots. There is plenty of research showing that infants respond to faces and soft voices by increasing their neural connections ... i.e. it's how they learn to see and eventually to talk.
But Labour MP Linda Riordan said the measures were "bureaucracy gone mad". She told the Halifax Courier: "All mothers want people to admire their babies because all babies are beautiful. But in a case where a mother did not want to answer questions it should be up to that individual to say so."
Some new mothers have already said they are astonished by the rules which stop people asking questions about their babies or looking at them in maternity wards. Debbie Lawson, neo-natal manager at the hospital's special care baby unit, said: "Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me.
'Infection control'
"We often get visitors wandering over to peer into cots but people sometimes touch or talk about the baby like they would if they were examining tins in a supermarket and that should not happen."
A spokeswoman for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust said the advice was as much to do with reducing infection as it was upholding "rights". In a statement she said: "Staff were wishing to highlight issues of potential confidentiality, especially for young babies and their parents in what can be emotional times. Infection control was also a key part of the message as the unit deals with very small babies with very vulnerable immune systems."
I agree with MP Linda. I'd suggest the people promulgating pieces of gross stupidity like this should be taken out and shot, but that'd probably be a violation of their human rights.
The human rights nonsense, if I recall correctly, started back in the Carter administration. Like most people at the time, I thought it was a good idea, never dreaming that the definition of "human rights" would turn out to be greasier than a bucket of lard. I think the original intent — I could be wrong, since Carter was involved — was to mount international pressure against totalitarian regimes that had no regard for human life, commies of most varieties being the primary offenders at that time, but also a host of lesser dictators and oligarchies.
Here were are 30 or so years later and Human Rights™ has become an establishment. We're not allowed to ooh and aaah and coo over the miracle of life, but we still have people in large numbers being murdered, raped, despoiled, marched off to camps, mutilated, disfigured, robbed, and ground into the dust. Good job, Jimmy.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/27/2005 13:55 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It sounds like random people just wander through British neo-natal units. Infection is a real concern, especially for the special care units, where the infants are already at high risk , whether due to a congenital condition or very premature birth. This seems more like a security issue to me; in the States only the mothers and unit nurses are allowed into the neo-natal units -- all others can admire the baby they are related to from behind a glass window. I suspect the nursing staff used "Human Rights" as a way to shortcut the expected complaints that age-old customs are being changed. Unfortunately it wasn't as effective as they'd hoped.
#6
"I'd suggest the people promulgating pieces of gross stupidity like this should be taken out and shot, but that'd probably be a violation of their human rights."
Only if they're actually human.
Doesn't apply in this case.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/27/2005 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) - A would-be carjacker got away with nothing more than the keys Monday after he apparently was thwarted by the vehicle's manual transmission. The thief was armed with a shotgun when he ordered a 26-year-old man out of his Chevrolet Camaro in a suburban Kansas City parking lot. The driver complied, but when the robber got into the car he was unable to manage the stick shift. The robber fled the scene in a four-door car that someone else was driving. Police are investigating whether the attempted theft is linked to four similar robberies in Johnson County during the past week.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/27/2005 2:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Although no longer a small Madison, Wisconsin publication, The Onion is still "America's Finest News Source". The NYT and WaPo could learn a few things, at least these folks recognize what it is to be a joke.
Posted by: Dick Lynes ||
09/27/2005 8:05 Comments ||
Top||
BERLIN (Reuters) - Italian vacationers admiring the view from a fairground Ferris wheel at the Munich Oktoberfest got more than they bargained for when a porn shoot suddenly began inside their cabin, authorities said on Friday.
"Oh look, Fabio, the moons are rising over .. hey! Cut that out!"
Having settled down to enjoy a leisurely spin on the wheel at the famous beer festival, the group of Italians were quite unprepared for the arrival of two men toting cameras and a woman who started to use a vibrator. Unable to stop the shoot, the Italians informed local police, who promptly arrested the unemployed actress and her crew, a unemployed political scientist and a 25-year-old unemployed student.
"They said they weren't doing it for commercial reasons but that they wanted to see how visitors would react," police said. The three have been charged with public indecency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The polizi should have told Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and the rest of the tourist gang that this was just level three of their 'Mario does Munchen' adventure and sent them on their way to level four - the guzzeling of bier event.
Admiral Fyodor Ushakov who took part in Russiaâs wars against Turkey and Napoleonâs France has been named by the Orthodox church as the patron saint of Russiaâs nuclear long-distance bombers. Ushakov was canonized in 2004.
I guess it's one of those curious Russian traditions
Russian Patriarch Alexii II carried the admiralâs reliquary and icon into the Moscow chapel of the Russian Air Forceâs 37th Air Army in Moscow, AFP reported. âI am sure he will become your intermediary as you fulfil your responsible duties to the fatherland in the long-range air force,â the patriarch told the troops. âHis strong faith helped Saint Fyodor Ushakov in all his battles,â he said, adding that the admiral had never lost any battle.
Ushakov distinguished himself in numerous naval battles in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, most notably in the Russo-Turkish war between 1787 and 1791. But his reforms of the navy were not popular in the upper echelons of the Russian imperial administration and Tsar Alexander I forced Ushakov to retire.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 09:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Good deal. When's it my turn?
Posted by: St. Curtis of Lemay ||
09/27/2005 10:28 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What they really need is a patron saint of submarine QA.
Dmitry Kozak, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, said Friday that his office had finished drafting a bill that would allow federal authorities to confiscate powers from provincial leaders who fail to raise standards in their regions.
Under the reform, leaders of regions whose budgets are heavily subsidized by the federal government would lose their authority to appoint regional officials and decide how regional funds are spent.
Five impoverished regions in the North Caucasus â Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia â received more than 70 percent of their budgets from the federal government last year, while two Siberian regions, Tuva and the Koryak autonomous district, received similar levels of assistance.
The reform would trim the powers of regional leaders and mayors in regions and cities where subsidies account for more than 30 percent of the budget. Dozens of the countryâs 89 regions receive federal subsidies of more than 30 percent.
President Vladimir Putin complained on Friday that huge cash subsidies from the federal budget had not led to any positive changes in the southern regions. âIn the past four years, they have risen to nearly 3.5 times what they were per capita,â he said. âBut the rift between economic indicators of the region and Russia on the whole has not narrowed.â
Putin also harshly criticized authorities in the North Caucasus regions, saying nepotism and corruption were hurting their economies and creating a fertile ground for terrorism.
âAdministrative involvement is excessive,â Putin told a meeting of leaders from 13 southern regions, including Chechnya. âThe authorities are often used as instruments for unfair advantage and, to put it bluntly, are getting corrupt.â
Kozak said the reform did not imply âintroducing federal ruleâ in the regions.
âWe are speaking about symbolic measures,â he said, without elaborating, Interfax reported.
Kozak suggested that decisions on removing and returning powers should be made once a year, saying the worst-off regions should be financially managed from Moscow for at least a year.
âIt is necessary to make the [regional] power structures more responsible for the final results of their work,â he said.
The bill will need to be approved by the State Duma and Federation Council before Putin can sign it into law.
Alexander Tkachyov, governor of the southern Krasnodar region, praised the reform. âI treat my municipal districts this way,â Tkachyov said, Interfax reported.
Kozak, meanwhile, sharply criticized law enforcement agencies in the North Caucasus and said the immediate task was to fight corruption in their ranks and introduce order. Only after that, he said, would it be possible to attract investment to the impoverished region.
âIf people donât feel safe, they are unlikely to invest,â he said.
Separately, Kozak said he was not planning to run for president in 2008. âIâd like for all those fortune tellers ... to leave my name off the list of possible candidates,â he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I read the headline and had to be sure it was not referring to Karl Rove's obvious plan to increase presidential power to prevent inept governors from blaming the President again.
Hmmmm... (somebody's) Law of Parallel Development?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/27/2005 13:28 Comments ||
Top||
China on Tuesday launched major annual war games in Inner Mongolia, pitting 16,000 troops against each other in a mock battle observed by military officers from a record 24 nations.
Code-named "North Sword 2005," the exercise was being held at the sprawling Zhurihe training base amid dry grasslands about 310 miles northeast of Beijing, the Shanghai Daily newspaper and other official media reported.
Now in at least their fourth year, the exercises mark a major push toward integrated training involving the army, air force and other branches of the military in battlefield conditions.
The Xinhua News Agency said the exercises posed a "blue army" engaging in a lightening two-pronged attack on a "red army." The mock assault involved hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles, more than 100 artillery pieces and a helicopter squadron, it said.
It called the exercise an "unrehearsed experimental confrontation drill" involving airborne and armored brigades with no preordained outcome.
"What the foreign observers see and hear is entirely the actual situation on the People's Liberation Army's exercise field," it said, using the formal name for China's military.
Forty foreign military personnel were on hand for the exercise, Xinhua said, saying they represented the largest number of nations invited to watch the war games since Beijing began allowing such observers in 2002. They included officers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Australia, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.
"It will help our practical exchanges, and enhance our mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between China's military and foreign militaries in terms of military training," Qin said at a regular briefing.
China has vigorously stepped-up training of its 2.5 million-member armed forces in the past five years, focusing on Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own territory.
With the settling of border disputes with Russia and Central Asian states, Beijing has been able to save money and manpower formerly deployed on its northern and eastern flanks and focus on its coastal regions.
Rapid economic growth in recent years has also led to double-digit increases in budgets for the People's Liberation Army.
The military has been steadily trimming its vast but poorly trained troops and stressing high-tech warfare. It has ditched Mao Zedong's strategy of "People's war," which emphasized using rural guerrilla forces.
China has become one of the biggest customers for ultramodern planes and naval craft from Russia. Deployment of high-tech Chinese-made computer and communications equipment has also greatly boosted commanders' abilities to direct forces in the field.
At the same time, the PLA is reaching out to Russia, France, Pakistan and others with joint training missions emphasizing both humanitarian and war-fighting missions.
The invitations to foreign military observers, according to state media reports citing military leaders, reflect China's growing confidence in its forces, as well as a desire for more exchanges with other countries' militaries.
"The move is also meant to promote mutual trust and understanding, and deepen friendship and cooperation between China and foreign armed forces," Xinhua said, adding the exercises would be followed by academic discussions between Chinese and foreign officers.
China's navy has commissioned the first in a new class of domestically designed and built warships, official media reported Tuesday. The missile frigate Wenzhou, named after a port city in eastern China, entered service Monday at a ceremony attended by East China Fleet commander Zhao Guojun, according to a brief report on the official Wenzhou Newsnet. The report gave no other details about the ship, but Western military experts have described it as the first in the 054 Ma'anshan class, representing China's most advanced missile frigates.
Along with superior electronics, anti-submarine capabilities and air defenses, the ships boast sloped, covered sides and a special exterior paint intended to make it more difficult to spot by radar, according to the reports.
Sounds like they have been watching the DDX program.
The ships are designed to operate far out at sea, part of the People's Liberation Army's development of a 'blue water' navy intended to assert Chinese claims to Taiwan and other territories and protect sea lanes transporting vital natural resources.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 09:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
More information here. The power plant and most of the weapons and sensors are French designs.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/27/2005 14:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Will the special paint help against Eye in the Sky satellitse?
Russian prosecutors said Monday they had canceled an arrest warrant for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko after she appeared in Moscow over the weekend and was questioned. Tymoshenko had been accused of bribing Russian defense officials while she headed Ukraine's main gas distributor, the now-defunct United Energy Systems. Tymoshenko has denied the Russian charges, saying they were politically motivated. Russia's main military prosecutor's office canceled the international arrest warrant it had issued a year ago because Tymoshenko had provided investigators with necessary "explanations" over the weekend and agreed to show up for questioning in the future, the prosecutor-general's press service said in a brief statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
This guy's outrageous lies about what was going down during the days after Katrina, and the collapse of the force he 'led' has finally caught up with him.
They got Brown, but this guy is surely only the first of the LA clowns to go too.
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.
"I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it's time to hand over the reins," Compass said at a news conference. "I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me."
As the city slipped into anarchy during the first few days after Katrina, the 1,700-member police department itself suffered a crisis. Many officers deserted their posts, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. Two officers Compass described as friends committed suicide.
Neither Compass nor Mayor Ray Nagin would say whether Compass was pressured to leave.
"It's a sad day in the city of New Orleans when a hero makes a decision like this," said Nagin, who appointed Compass in mid-2002. "He leaves the department in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership."
New Orleans evacuees at a shelter in Baton Rouge disagreed over the chief's legacy and whether he should have resigned.
"It's about time," said Larry Smit, 52, who owns a construction company. "Get rid of all of them. They ain't doing anything."
But truck driver James Dordain, 41, said Compass had been doing a good job with an understaffed department and faced with an unprecedented natural disaster.
"They pushed a good man to the breaking point," said Dordain, referring to other government authorities. "When they came, it was really too late."
The mayor named Assistant Superintendent Warren Riley as acting superintendent.
Lt. David Benelli, president of the union for rank-and-file New Orleans officers, said he was shocked by the resignation.
"We've been through a horrendous time," Benelli said. "We've watched the city we love be destroyed. That is pressure you can't believe."
Benelli would not criticize Compass.
"You can talk about lack of organization, but we have been through two hurricanes, there was no communications, problems everywhere," he said. "I think the fact that we did not lose control of the city is a testament to his leadership."
But in fact, chaos reigned in New Orleans as Katrina's floodwaters rose. Gunfire and other lawlessness broke out around the city. Rescue workers reported being shot at.
At the height of the Katrina chaos, Compass fed the image of lawlessness in the city by publicly repeating allegations that people were being beaten and babies raped at the convention center, where thousands of evacuees had taken shelter. The allegations have since proved largely unsubstantiated.
Ronnie Jones, a former Louisiana state police officer and a criminal justice instructor at Tulane and Southeastern Universities, said communication and transportation problems after the storm forced commanders on the ground to operate without any direction from above.
"In the midst of that, I think any chief would have had trouble dealing with things," Jones said. "In a crisis you have to coordinate forces. I don't think he had the resources, the radios, the communications to do that."
Earlier in the day Tuesday, the department said that about 250 police officers - roughly 15 percent of the force - could face discipline for leaving their posts without permission during Katrina and its aftermath.
Each case will be investigated to determine whether the officer was truly a deserter or had legitimate reasons to be absent, Riley said.
"Everything will be done on a case-by-case basis. The worst thing we could do is take disciplinary action against someone who was stranded in the storm or whose child is missing," Riley said.
Sally Forman, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said it is not clear whether the deserters can be fired. She said the city is still looking into the civil service regulations.
"If they are deserters and deserted their post for no other reason than they were scared, then I don't see any need for them to come back," Benelli said.
But the union chief said he believes only a small fraction of the officers will wind up being deserters. "We know there were officers who had to make critical decisions about what to do with their families," Benelli said.
Riley said some officers lost their homes and some are looking for their families, but others "simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe."
Before Katrina hit, Compass already had his hands full with an understaffed police department and a skyrocketing murder rate, even as the rate dropped dramatically in other cities.
Despite more than 10 years of reform efforts dating back to before Compass took office, police were dogged by allegations of brutality and corruption. Several studies indicated that the public's reluctance to cooperate with police was a factor in the city's crime problem.
Before Katrina, New Orleans had 3.14 officers per 1,000 residents - less than half the rate in Washington, D.C.
Also on Tuesday, the state Health Department reported that Katrina's death toll in Louisiana stood at 885, up from 841 on Friday.
Tuesday marked the second day of the official reopening of New Orleans, which had been pushed back last week when Hurricane Rita threatened. Nagin welcomed residents back to the Algiers neighborhood on Monday but imposed a curfew and warned of limited services.
Nagin also invited business owners in the central business district, the French Quarter and the Uptown section to inspect their property and clean up. But he gave no timetable for reopening those parts of the city to residents.
---
Posted by: too true ||
09/27/2005 20:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two officers Compass described as friends committed suicide.
really? Two? How close were they? To give us some idea of proportion, what was the total number of police officers who committed suicide. Why did they commit suicide?
Leave it to the MSM to leave those obvious questions unanswered.
Neither Compass nor Mayor Ray Nagin would say whether Compass was pressured to leave.
#2
Not so sure - overwhelmed from the start, may just have found a best time to bail...26 yrs service, looters and AWOLS on board, friends committing suicide? Perhaps best for all considered that new blood came in and kicked ass
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 21:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me."
Lewisburg?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/27/2005 21:51 Comments ||
Top||
#4
At the height of the Katrina chaos, Compass fed the image of lawlessness in the city by publicly repeating allegations that people were being beaten and babies raped at the convention center, where thousands of evacuees had taken shelter. The allegations have since proved largely unsubstantiated.
#6
There's a rumor going around (sorry, I don't have a solid link except to Tony Snow's radio show) that the FBI has been investigating the records of the cops that allegedly deserted and finding that a lot of them didn't exist in the first place.
I've heard numbers ranging from 200 to 400.
I don't know if it's true, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/27/2005 22:00 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Why, Phil - I'm shocked!
Not.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/27/2005 22:16 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Phil; what's that mean?
I assume new blood meant Lt. Gen. Honore...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/27/2005 22:55 Comments ||
Top||
#9
If true Phil that's good old time Democratic politics. That is the reason they are trying to dip everyone else in shit, they happen to be covered in it.
As Supreme Court Justice Stanley Matthews wrote in a landmark case in 1886, the right to vote is fundamental because it is "preservative of all rights." Requiring a photo ID to vote, as the Carter-Baker commission recommends, would have a chilling effect on voter participation. It would block some Americans from the political process. Yes, all the dead ones that keep voting.
The Carter-Baker recommendations are so restrictive that even a valid U.S. passport or photo ID issued by the U.S. military isn't good enough. Voters must have a driver's license that meets the requirements of the controversial Real ID Act, which set strict standards for obtaining state-issued licenses. Good
Such a requirement would disproportionately impact poor people, the disabled, the elderly and people of color, who are all statistically less likely to have driver's licenses. The commission recommended an alternative photo ID be available for non-drivers, but no infrastructure is in place to make those available, particularly for the elderly. In addition, there was no cost assessment in the report. Bullshit. My state of Colorado has ID cards issued by the state at drivers licenses stations. They are just as good ID and you don't need to take a driver's test. You can pick one up at the kiosk at most malls for $15.
According to a 2001 election-reform report, 6% to 10% of voting-age Americans don't have driver's licenses, and requiring them would be a "burden that would fall disproportionately on people who are poorer and urban." Instead of poorer and country?
This burden will increase as states are forced to cover the costs of the Real ID Act, estimated at up to $13 billion, in part by increasing the price of a new license. Bullshit again. Most states have an ID program already and charge to help cover costs.
By adopting the restrictive standards of the Real ID Act, the Carter-Baker proposal also takes us one step closer to a national ID. National guidelines for standardized IDs, and a proposed database for states to share voter-identification information, are the beginning of a "show us your papers" society. While a national ID makes me nervous, there is an upside to some of it. Watch the sippery slope argument lady. Didn't you ever take a logic class?
This proposal is nothing new. The Carter-Ford commission rejected a less restrictive photo ID proposal in 2001. If this commission had used a more democratic process, such as giving the public the opportunity to comment, members may have come to a similar conclusion this year as well. A more democratic process for a committee. That is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever heard. The democratic process comes when it is presented to congress, you buttnugget!
If we are truly committed to improving the U.S. electoral system, there are much bigger â and more common â voting problems to address, such as inaccurate voter registration rolls, malfunctioning voting machines Evil Republicans make them!
and untrained poll workers. Lawmakers should address isolated incidences of Democrat voter fraud, but not at the expense of more widespread disparities in voter access. You need an ID to rent a movie, but not to vote. If someone can't get their ass to the mall to get an ID, sorry, you ain't gonna make it to the voting booth so I am not that sympothetic. What kind of idiot writes this shit anyway? Caroline Fredrickson is director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Office.
Ah, ACLU. Figures. Remember, they can't cheat if it ain't close!
#1
It seems reasonable to me that anyone that wants to vote should be able to obtain or already posseses some form of photo ID since this covers state issued driver licenses and non-license ID's; federal passports, etc. because you need such ID's to function (drive vehicles, cash checks, buy alcohol / cigarettes, filling out W-4's when you apply for employment, etc.), and that an overwhelming majority of voters already possess such forms of ID. Putting it mildly, Ms. ACLU doesn't make a compelling argument that the right to vote should be held to a lower standard.
#2
I am curious on how the vote would be if everyone were required to show a valid ID in order to vote. I suspect that a lot of races would go the other way in what was thought Democratic districts. Notice only the Dems are whining about having to show an ID? That is because they will lose even more elections if this became law. I would also add that ballots be printed in English only. Since you are required to learn English to become a citizen, you should have no problem voting in English. Of course certain counties in Florida will have to have assisted voting for the criminally dumb. I would also like to see thumbprint recognition software at your assigned polling place. The technology isnât expensive anymore and would drastically curtail double dem voting. I would really like to have a camera rolling when one of those voting vans show up and they see the thumb print security. The Dems organizer would break his finger getting the ACLU on speed dial.
#3
Personally I feel that if they are too damn lazy to get off their asses and get valid ID (and just about every state has a non-Drivers License ID card) then they dont deserve to vote.
I also feel that voters should be required to re-register every 4-8 years. And no mail-in voting unless you are disabled or can't get to a polling place. If you are too lazy to walk a few blocks then you shouldn't vote.
Washington state now requires ID. Of course anything is accepted - utilty bills, etc... which is the democrats loophole to allow illegals, felons, the dead, and imaginary friends to vote.
#4
A valid State ID is no problem. The problem is that these boogers always want a valid *national* ID.
And for those of you who shrug that off, you need lessons on how dictators operate. I'm not talking about the 3am knock on the door, I'm talking about government by pinch-faced nanny. Death by duck bites. The never-ending pester.
Believe me, there is no limit to how petty and intrusive the vast amount of people out there who *want* to get into your life, and your face, can get. 20 years ago there was no thought to passing any laws against "identity theft", but now it's looked at as a crime as common as burglary.
A national ID is a license for *institutionalized* identity abuse, on top of illegal theft.
Very soon, you would be denied goods and services based on the same rule that banks use when giving loans: "You can't have a loan unless you don't need it."
This applies to health insurance (Already they had to pass the HIPPO act, so that you can't be denied unless you are not careful and miss having coverage for six months. Then you are screwed.)
But it applies to so many things. Big, thick, corporate dossiers on everybody. Wee.
Unless, of course, you want to try and live without having an ID card. I've seen (white) Americans who do that, too. It ain't easy. You can't rent, you can't get a legal job, you can't do a lot of the things that people have to do to survive, without help from somebody who has an ID card. Their frustration is agonizing. And if you don't have an ID, you can't get an ID without jumping through some difficult hoops.
Ask anyone from what was the Warsaw Pact about having "papers" just to live their lives. They will tell you that 98% of every demand for papers is for utterly trivial, stupid, and time wasting paperwork and dossier compilation. And the demand is constant. Everybody wants information about you, in an almost obsessive, obnoxious and uncalled for way, and you have no choice but to give it or be hassled even further.
#6
American friends be rest in peace, it is a problem easily solved by friends of your country.
Posted by: abu Wit a Loop ||
09/27/2005 18:03 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Moose, we have a national ID. The drivers license. When you get your next one, you have to give your SSN. It is then "checked" against a national data base to verify that it is a valid SSN issued to the same name as the DL. I am sure that whatever non-DL state ID is issued for voting will also require SSN submission for verification and validation against the national SSN database. SSN is on all bank records. That is one way Able Danger and other data minimg activities can tie things together.
Don't do something you don't want NSA to know about with a credit card, cell phone, or long distance phone. It will be interesting to see how soon you need to have SSN for e-mail/domain name.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/27/2005 18:23 Comments ||
Top||
#8
How's come nobody's ever disenfranchized on the 1st and the 15th. Nobody ever has a problem with ID then. And last time I checked 40's weren't delivered door to door.
#9
State ID's should be fine, my paranoid friend, if the states all require valid proof of citizenship and uniform fairly high standards (biometrics or other specializied graphics/info).... The day of worrying about a "nat'l ID" was when SSN's became ID numbers - i.e. long ago. Get over it. Any complaints about proof of ID when voting play into a decrepit fraudulent parties' attempt to cheat their way into power, right Hillary?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 18:49 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Since you are required to learn English to become a citizen, you should have no problem voting in English.
I thought the Clinton administration did away with the English requirement. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 19:42 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Requiring a photo ID to vote, as the Carter-Baker commission recommends, would have a chilling effect on voter participation.
Damn right! Have you seen some of the pictures of the moonbats at last weekends anti-war rallys. If you looked like that would you want to carry around a picture ID. Me neither ...
(note: pdf file, from whitehouse.gov (the real one))
"The Government Reorganization and Program Performance Improvement Act of 2005"
The purpose of this act is to improve the performace of the Executive branch of the Federal government by ascertaining whether programs work or not and addressing deficiencies in existing programs, eliminating duplication of effort, and abolishing agencies and programs that do not work... This just gets better and better. See section 4 for sunset law provisions.
WAPO via InstaPundit THE NATION is at war. It is mired in debt. It has been hit by floods and hurricanes. In the face of this adversity, congressional leaders have rightly dropped proposals for yet more tax cuts, and some have suggested removing the pork from the recently passed transportation bill. But this spirit of forbearance has not touched the Louisiana congressional delegation. The state's representatives have come up with a request for $250 billion in federal reconstruction funds for Louisiana alone -- more than $50,000 per person in the state. This money would come on top of payouts from businesses, national charities and insurers. And it would come on top of the $62.3 billion that Congress has already appropriated for emergency relief.
Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully. For example, their bill demands $7 billion for rebuilding evacuation and energy supply routes, but it also demands a separate $5 billion for road building and makes no mention of the $3.1 billion already awarded to the state in the recent transportation legislation. The bill demands $50 billion in community development block grants, partly to get small businesses going, but it also demands $150 million for a small-business loan fund plus generous business tax breaks. The bill even asks for $35 million for seafood marketing and $25 million for a sugar-cane research laboratory. This is the equivalent of New York responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center by insisting upon a federally financed stadium in Brooklyn.
The Louisiana delegation has apparently devoted little thought to the root causes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. New Orleans was flooded not because the Army Corps of Engineers had insufficient money to build flood protections, but because its money was allocated by a system of political patronage. The smart response would be to insist that, in the future, no Corps money be wasted on unworthy projects, but the Louisiana bill instead creates a mechanism by which cost-benefit analysis can be avoided. Equally, Katrina was devastating because ill-conceived projects have drained coastal wetlands and caused their erosion, destroying a natural buffer between hurricanes and human settlements. The smart response would be to insist that future infrastructure projects be subject to careful environmental review. But the Louisiana delegation's bill would suspend the environmental review process. Rather than grappling with the lessons of Katrina, Louisiana's representatives are demanding an astonishing $40 billion worth of Corps of Engineers projects in their state. That is 16 times more than the Corps says it would need to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane.
The Louisiana bill is so preposterous that its authors can't possibly expect it to pass; it's just the first round in a process of negotiation. But the risk is that the administration and congressional leaders will accept the $250 billion as a starting point, then declare a victory for fiscal sanity when they bring the number down to, say, $150 billion. Instead, Congress should ignore the Louisiana bill and force itself to think seriously about the sort of reconstruction that makes sense. Katrina has exposed mistakes of policy: water-infrastructure programs that made flooding more likely, and levees and insurance schemes that encouraged human settlement in dangerous places. Now that Congress is getting ready to spend tens of billions on reconstruction, it must seize the opportunity to correct those past errors.
Posted by: ed ||
09/27/2005 13:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Have the Mint print "Louisianna" money (Make it a different color from the standard notes) and see just where it turns up.
Should be interesting to see the Louisianna Govt try to spend it, but not claim it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/27/2005 14:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Louisiana Purchase II
Posted by: abu Wit a Loop ||
09/27/2005 18:04 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Territorial status, loss of representation, no taxation, and federal management till the state is able to raise per capita income and educational standards above the other four lowest rated states.
#4
If Congress added an amendment that the money be given directly to the residents of Louisiana without being filtered through the politicians - the LA reps would pull the bill in about 12 microseconds.
#5
Dont laugh, Adjusting for inflation they want more money than the entire Louisana Purchase. I've heard 25 Billion (with a B) - some for utterly useless pork.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, pouted vented frustration with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) during a closed-door Democratic meeting last week before stunning colleagues and liberal activists by announcing his support for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. Maybe Reid pissed off Leahy and this is retaliation?
A day before his surprise declaration, Leahy expressed his irritation at being blindsided over Reid's position, finding out about it from the news media rather than from the minority leader, said lawmakers who attended the meeting. "I think he clearly wished he had known," a lawmaker said. Reid had made it clear to Democratic senators before Roberts's confirmation hearings that no member should get out in front of the caucus by announcing his support or opposition until the hearings had finished. Leahy may have been upset that Reid appeared to be violating his own rule without telling him or the caucus. Yep - looks like retaliation to me.
Liberal activist leaders who led opposition to Roberts admit they were stunned and perplexed by Leahy's decision, especially after Leahy made what they viewed as compelling arguments against Roberts. Come on, guys, you can't win 'em all..
Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, told reporters that she was shocked, and Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, said Leahy's vote was "inexplicable and deeply disappointing," according to the Boston Globe. Yeah, my local liberal rag representin'!
Two days before last week's caucus lunch, Leahy said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that he did not know how he would vote and had actually written two speeches, "one for and one against" Roberts. Now there's a man of conviction!
"I think his statement is actually quite critical of Roberts," said Aron, but she said she didn't know if a breach of the Senate's arcane protocols may have tipped the balance. "I have no idea." Tracy Schmaler, spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee, scoffed at the suggestion that Leahy may have voted as he did because he was piqued by Reid's snub. "The conflicting theories that keep popping up would make Machiavelli proud," she said. "They can't all be right, and in fact none of them are. The simplest explanation also happens also to be the real one. Two weekends ago he used the technique he used as a prosecutor before a big case, sketching out the arguments for and against on a legal pad, and then he confirmed his decision by consulting his conscience." That actually makes sense! Well, except for the 'consulting his conscience' part...
Schmaler said she did not have a chance to discuss the caucus meeting with her boss. "I know nothing!"
She also said Leahy had said the previous weekend that he would announce his decision Wednesday. She said that there was no rift yet between Reid and Leahy and that before the announcement Leahy and Reid joined Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) for a morning meeting with President Bush to discuss the next nomination. The Reid-Leahy split has opened the door for Democratic defections. Ah, a silver lining!
The New York Times reported that Leahy's decision had "cleared the way for a possible free-for-all among Democrats still wrestling with their decisions." How long does it really take these guys to make up their minds? I'm not buying this schtick.
They're drawing straws to decide which of them will cast the 'no' votes. My esteemed senator, the Honorable Babs Mikulski, has serenely announced her vote against the nomination...
Several Democrats followed Leahy in declaring for Roberts. At least 12 Democratic senators have said they will support him in next week's floor vote. In addition to Leahy, Sens. Bill Nelson (Fla.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mark Pryor (Ark,), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, and Mary Landrieu (La.) have said they will vote for Roberts, according to the Associated Press. At least 15 Democrats have announced their opposition. Democrats supporting Roberts said the nominee persuaded them during private meetings and conversations. Meaning the whole Senate confirmation testimony was a huge dog and pony show.
Remember, kids, there is no "I" in "Senate".
"I found him to be extraordinarily intelligent, and he has assured me that he brings no ideological agenda to the Supreme Court," said Conrad, relating a phone conversation he had with Roberts. "He wants to be a justice for all of the people." Power to the People!
Conrad said Roberts was one of the most impressive candidates he has met in 19 years of interviewing various nominees. His support for Roberts was not influenced by the facts that he his facing reelection in 2006 in a state that Bush has carried with overwhelming margins, he said. Ha ha ha! Good one, Senator!
Ben Nelson, also facing reelection in 2006 in a state that Bush won in a landslide, said he too was swayed by his personal contact with Roberts. "When I met with him in my office before the hearings began, I spent a great deal of time trying to determine whether this helps me politically he wanted to be a legislator or an adjudicator," said Nelson. "I satisfied myself based on his answers to my questions that he didn't want to make law but decide cases." Nelson said that he did not pay much attention to the Democratic leadership's directions to postpone his announced support. "I did it on my own timetable." As soon as the polling data came in.
Posted by: Al Gore ||
09/27/2005 11:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As far as I can tell the Denmocratic strategy at the hearing was to prove that Roberts was overqualified for the position. And they pretty much did.
Posted by: Matt ||
09/27/2005 13:15 Comments ||
Top||
Nation of Islam chief Minister Louis Farrakhan has expanded on his theory that New Orleans' levees were blown up during Hurricane Katrina, announcing Friday that divers working on the levee break have found evidence of explosives. "These explosives are from the government side," he said during a press conference in Memphis held to promote his upcoming Million Man Anniversary March. In quotes picked up by Memphis TV station WMC, Farrakhan demanded an investigation into the Bush administration's levee plot. If true, he insisted: "somebody is guilty, then not only of mass destruction of property, but of mass murder."
Farrakhan predicted that when New Orleans is rebuilt, it will be "a white city." "It will be rebuilt to the exclusion of the poor who have been dispersed all over the country," he said.
Two weeks ago, the firebrand Muslim leader announced that he'd uncovered the levee plot. "I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach," Farrakhan explained during a stop in Charleston, South Carolina. "It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 11:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Somebody wake me when divers find Farrakhan's sanity.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
09/27/2005 11:43 Comments ||
Top||
#2
25 feet, Louie? 2+5=7. 7, Louie! 7!
I think we all know what that means...or do we?
#3
My, those divers are brave! I mean with all those sharks swimming around on "the government side" of the levee. Ya think maybe Farrakhan is gettin' all this inside info from Hizzoner Nagin?
#4
Makes as much sense to me as the whole evil scientist thingy. I'm buying it all. Nice to hear Louie speak Troof tm to Powah tm. Bet he must be very worried having come out and told the world the hole in de levee Troof tm. The Man tm will surely try to put him down but that's where the Fruit of the Loom, er, I mean Fruit of Islam (FOI) comes into play protecting the profit and whatnot.
ABC insiders deny there's any connection between real-life presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and their new TV show "Commander-in-Chief" - where Geena Davis makes her debut tonight as America's first woman president.
"No, certainly not!"
But it turns out the show's lead writer is a longtime Clinton campaign insider who held a top job in Hillary's press office. "Writer Steve Cohen used to work for her in the 1990s, serving as the then-first lady's deputy communications director," reports the Village Voice. "I have no doubt she is capable, qualified, and ready to be the president of the United States should she choose to run," Hillary's scriptwriter tells the paper.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 10:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Great - we'll get to look at ugly Maoist pantsuits and thankles for at least four years...
#2
This is just a dry run for Hillary's '08 campaign. Get the people of the US used to a female, democrat pres several years ahead of the actual event.
#4
Especially not after its hackneyed first episode. See here for why.
She decides not to resign (thus automatically succeeding to the office) after finding that the Speaker of the House (Donald Sutherland) is anti-Muslim/anti-woman?? She tells the Nigerian ambassador to release a woman from death row or risk the US military grabbing her???
(At least in E-Ring the rescued woman actually had a reason to be worth picking up - being a Chinese spy working for the US with details of a new PLAN sub.)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/27/2005 13:42 Comments ||
Top||
#5
where Geena Davis makes her debut tonight as America's first woman president.
More revisionist history on the loose in Hollyweird. For the record, Mrs. Wilson was the first American president. Exhausted from the war and the failed ratification of the Versailles Treaty, President Wilson suffered a stroke and nearly died. Tenderly nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt. During that time Mrs. Wilson would personally 'pass' papers and instructions 'from' her husband to members of the government. No one pressed the point on the issue of who was really acting as the chief executive. However, due to the condition of Mr. Wilson, it is appearent that he was not in any condition to conduct the business of government.
The new female president makes good on her threat but lax intel leads the commando squad to attack the wrong building where they kill every Muslim, yet fail to find their 'package.'
In the meantime, the Nigerian government kills the woman, while feminists blame the military.
Eleven Nigerian police officers found responsible for sexual misconduct while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo have been suspended, Nigeria's police chief said Monday. Among those who breached U.N. rules on sexual misconduct was the head of the contingent, Chief Superintendent of Police Anthony Okon, according to the statement Monday from the police chief, Sunday Ehindero. Okon and 10 others from the 120-member team, which was recalled to Nigeria earlier this month, have been suspended from the force, it said. No details of the allegations against them were given. "No member of this contingent will ever go on a peace mission or other assignments outside this country," Ehindero said.
The United States said at the outset of global talks on information technology yesterday that it will fight attempts to put the United Nations or any international group in charge of the Internet.
"We want to make sure the private sector leads and the Internet continues to be a reservoir of great innovation, and that governments continue to focus on enabling the growth of the Internet, and not of controlling its use," Ambassador David A. Gross told The Washington Times in an interview.
Major developing nations spearheaded by China, Brazil, South Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and a number of industrialized countries including Norway, Switzerland and Russia would like to see the United States relinquish its historic control of the Internet.
"This situation is very undemocratic, unfair and unreasonable," said Sha Zukang, the ambassador from China, which this week imposed new rules that allow only "healthy and civilized" news to be read by the mainland's 100 million Web users.
China's government will determine which news is healthy and which news is not.
The question of Internet governance is the most politically charged issue in preparatory talks here for the second World Information Society Summit to be held in Tunis, Tunisia, in November.
Mr. Gross, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy, said the role of the U.S. government is "to ensure stability and reliability of the Internet.
"We will take no action that would undermine that stability," he said.
The U.S.-based ICANN -- or Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers -- is a nonprofit corporation that administers the Internet's domain name system.
Massod Khan, Pakistan's ambassador and chairman of the Internet governance segment of the talks, said the issues are difficult and added "there is a will to engage, but we have to wait for the outcome."
Paul Twomey, president of ICANN, said his organization does not want to see "the Internet's technological future politicized."
Britain, which speaks at the talks on behalf of the European Union, also said that governments "should not seek involvement in day-to-day operational issues, nor should they interfere in technical decision making processes."
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/27/2005 04:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
It's our "historic control" because we invented the D*mn thing! but it works - at a technical and social level - precisely because there is no central authority governing it, just the ICANN for coordinating things like IP addresses and the technical standards as developed by open groups.
You or I, if we are qualified, can have a voice in that process. Governments should not. That's why when DOD spun off the ARPANET to NIST, NIST then spun it out of the US government entirely.
#5
What part of DARPA don't they understand? Considering that it was 'international' copyright convention that altered the period of claim from the old U.S. recognition of 30 years to nearly a hundred years, come back to see us around 2070.
From the LA Times, looks like we may have a major media scandle developing. I'll be making popcorn:
BATON ROUGE, La. â Maj. Ed Bush recalled how he stood in the bed of a pickup truck in the days after Hurricane Katrina, struggling to help the crowd outside the Louisiana Superdome separate fact from fiction. Armed only with a megaphone and scant information, he might have been shouting into, well, a hurricane. The National Guard spokesman's accounts about rescue efforts, water supplies and first aid all but disappeared amid the roar of a 24-hour rumor mill at New Orleans' main evacuation shelter. Then a frenzied media recycled and amplified many of the unverified reports. "It just morphed into this mythical place where the most unthinkable deeds were being done," Bush said Monday of the Superdome.
His assessment is one of several in recent days to conclude that newspapers and television exaggerated criminal behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly at the overcrowded Superdome and Convention Center. The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Monday described inflated body counts, unverified "rapes," and unconfirmed sniper attacks as among examples of "scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials." Indeed, Mayor C. Ray Nagin told a national television audience on "Oprah" three weeks ago of people "in that frickin' Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people."
Wonder what Oprah is going to do if she finds out she was used by the Mayor. shudder
Journalists and officials who have reviewed the Katrina disaster blamed the inaccurate reporting in large measure on the breakdown of telephone service, which prevented dissemination of accurate reports to those most in need of the information. Race may have also played a factor.
The wild rumors filled the vacuum and seemed to gain credence with each retelling â that an infant's body had been found in a trash can, that sharks from Lake Pontchartrain were swimming through the business district, that hundreds of bodies had been stacked in the Superdome basement.
Sharks? Did they breach the levee with their laser beams?
"It doesn't take anything to start a rumor around here," Louisiana National Guard 2nd Lt. Lance Cagnolatti said at the height of the Superdome relief effort. "There's 20,000 people in here. Think when you were in high school. You whisper something in someone's ear. By the end of the day, everyone in school knows the rumor â and the rumor isn't the same thing it was when you started it." Follow-up reporting has discredited reports of a 7-year-old being raped and murdered at the Superdome, roving bands of armed gang members attacking the helpless, and dozens of bodies being shoved into a freezer at the Convention Center. Hyperbolic reporting spread through much of the media.
Fox News, a day before the major evacuation of the Superdome began, issued an "alert" as talk show host Alan Colmes reiterated reports of "robberies, rapes, carjackings, riots and murder. Violent gangs are roaming the streets at night, hidden by the cover of darkness." The Los Angeles Times adopted a breathless tone the next day in its lead news story, reporting that National Guard troops "took positions on rooftops, scanning for snipers and armed mobs as seething crowds of refugees milled below, desperate to flee. Gunfire crackled in the distance.
"Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria."
The New York Times repeated some of the reports of violence and unrest, but the newspaper usually was more careful to note that the information could not be verified. The tabloid Ottawa Sun reported unverified accounts of "a man seeking help gunned down by a National Guard soldier" and "a young man run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer." London's Evening Standard invoked the future-world fantasy film "Mad Max" to describe the scene and threw in a "Lord of the Flies" allusion for good measure.
Well, they are British, they have higher standards of prose to live up to.
Televised images and photographs affirmed the widespread devastation in one of America's most celebrated cities. "I don't think you can overstate how big of a disaster New Orleans is," said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, a Florida school for professional journalists. "But you can imprecisely state the nature of the disaster. ⊠Then you draw attention away from the real story, the magnitude of the destruction, and you kind of undermine the media's credibility."
Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss cited telephone breakdowns as a primary cause of reporting errors, but said the fact that most evacuees were poor African Americans also played a part. "If the dome and Convention Center had harbored large numbers of middle class white people," Amoss said, "it would not have been a fertile ground for this kind of rumor-mongering."
I'm glad I didn't say that
Some of the hesitation that journalists might have had about using the more sordid reports from the evacuation centers probably fell away when New Orleans' top officials seemed to confirm the accounts.
Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass appeared on "Oprah" a few days after trouble at the Superdome had peaked. Compass told of "the little babies getting raped" at the Superdome. And Nagin made his claim about hooligans raping and killing. State officials this week said their counts of the dead at the city's two largest evacuation points fell far short of early rumors and news reports. Ten bodies were recovered from the Superdome and four from the Convention Center, said Bob Johannessen, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. (National Guard officials put the body count at the Superdome at six, saying the other four bodies came from the area around the stadium.)
Of the 841 recorded hurricane-related deaths in Louisiana, four are identified as gunshot victims, Johannessen said. One victim was found in the Superdome but was believed to have been brought there, and one was found at the Convention Center, he added. Relief workers said that while the media hyped criminal activity, plenty of real suffering did occur at the Katrina relief centers.
"The hurricane had just passed, you had massive trauma to the city," said Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard. "No air conditioning, no sewage ⊠it was not a nice place to be. All those people just in there, they were frustrated, they were hot. Out of all that chaos, all of these rumors start flying." Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron, who headed security at the Superdome, said that for every complaint, "49 other people said, 'Thank you, God bless you.' "
The media inaccuracies had consequences in the disaster zone. Bush, of the National Guard, said that reports of corpses at the Superdome filtered back to the facility via AM radio, undermining his struggle to keep morale up and maintain order. "We had to convince people this was still the best place to be," Bush said. "What I saw in the Superdome was just tremendous amounts of people helping people." But, Bush said, those stories received scant attention in newspapers or on television.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 12:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Waitaminute! Was this about New Orleans? Or Iraq?
Afghanistan, however, has fallen off the earth, for now.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/27/2005 13:24 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I sense a shift in sentiment about NOLA after Houston demonstrated that a hurricane can be dealt with effectively by a non-corrupt government. I bet the slant on this changes to "We wuz fed lies by NOLA officials." soon. Better to point the finger at Democrats than MSM. But what a sweet choice.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/27/2005 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Is it just me, or does the telling of the "Destruction" of New Orleans sound suspiciously similar to Plato's description of the "Destruction of Atlantis" Which "Disappeared beneath the waves in a single day and night"
Thus are legends born.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/27/2005 14:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Afghanistan, however, has fallen off the earth, for now.
#5
Some other article recounted the gloomy faces on the 34-person Hurricane Rita squad from the BBC, as they realized there were no rapes/murders/looters/chaos to cover following the storm.
POROS, Island of Kefalonia, Greece - The tomb of Odysseus has been found, and the location of his legendary capital city of Ithaca discovered here on this large island across a one-mile channel from the bone-dry islet that modern maps call Ithaca.
This could be the most important archeological discovery of the last 40 years, a find that may eventually equal the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemannâs 19th Century dig at Troy...
#11
It seems the tomb was discovered in 1991 but kept secret because the location of the real Ithaca would take tourists away from the place that now has the name. The full story is quite interesting.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/27/2005 16:30 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Wait until they find out that it wasn't Ulysses, but another man of the same name.
#13
Thomas "Tommy" Ulysses, who was basically a pimp
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 21:02 Comments ||
Top||
#14
The Odyssey was basically a psychological story of the unconscious, if ya ask me. But, where are the Sirens and their beautiful songs? One of the 10 top things to do before one checks out.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2005 23:09 Comments ||
Top||
#15
their songs drove men insane - Ima thinkr Yoko Ono
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 23:13 Comments ||
Top||
#16
NOSTRADAMUS -"...the last but one of many Names, he will choose Odysseus as his namesake". Hey Madonna, they found one of Daddy's tombs!?
#17
Iff they're lucky, the world will find LUCIFER/SATAN's tomb before he wakes up - you know how grumpy in the AM giant Velociraptors of the Apocalypse can get.
When cutting edge becomes bleeding edge: At first it was feted but now it seems flawed - reports have been growing of problems with Apple's mini music player, the iPod nano.
Specifically, problems have been reported with the colour screens scratching or cracking. It seems questions are being raised about the suitability of the nano for everyday pocket use. At time of writing there are 600 posts on the Apple support forums. The thread 'Apple is going to have to do something about the scratching' details numerous complaints that emerged within a very short timeframe.
Some of them have cracked and broken within a few hours of purchase.
'iPod nano is the biggest revolution since the original iPod,' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO at the product's launch. 'iPod nano is a full-featured iPod in an impossibly small size, and it's going to change the rules for the entire portable music market.' Apple has so far declined our requests for comment.
One disgruntled user, reports the BBC, has also set up a website to collate complaints about the nano. He has since been given a replacement player by Apple but remains unmoved. 'I intend to finish what I started and will keep this site going until all users who have cracked LCD's [sic], with no abuse to the Nano, have also been placated by Apple,' he writes on his (homepage.mac) website.
Previously, Apple has faced a class-action lawsuit in the US over iPod battery life. Apple settled in August 2005, to the tune of $15m.
This is why I refuse to be a early adopter anymore. More good customer relation news: Over on Apple's support forums, the company appears to be deleting comments concerning broken iPod nano LCD screens as they appear. Still, one thread dedicated to the iPod nano includes nearly 500 posts chronicling the ease in which the LCD can become severely scratched or damaged. Stock price drop in 5..4..
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 11:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I have one.... The screen is more prone to scratching than other i-pods....
Posted by: Mark E ||
09/27/2005 12:50 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Unlike most other small devices with an LCD screen (and unlike the iPod and iPod mini), the iPod nano has no protective shield over the LCD screen. There's no hard plastic to protect it. Plus, the nano is so thin it flexes a little -- I tried this in an Apple store for myself, and it flexes. LCD screens don't like being flexed.
I love the little sucker, and I'd buy one (white, not black), but the flex issue is enough to stop me. I'll stick with my iPod 4G for now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2005 14:47 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Not true, unless I misunderstand you. There is the very same style white plastic face to the ipod as the old ones. The LCD is not the screen that you can touch; it is underneith the smooth plastic front of the pod. From an angle you can see that the LCD is mounted a few mm beneith the face...I just think that the plastic isn't the exact same one; it just seems much easier to scratch.
Posted by: Mark E ||
09/27/2005 15:02 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"I" before "e" except after "C". I need to work on it.
Posted by: Mark E ||
09/27/2005 15:11 Comments ||
Top||
#6
40G Ipod - no problems - leather sleeve case with plastic over the screen plastic - 8 mos - no scratches
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 16:13 Comments ||
Top||
#7
40G? Damn that's enough for my bridges to no-where collection.
Posted by: abu Wit a Loop ||
09/27/2005 18:08 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Let's hope Apple gets this resolved well before Christmas shopping. It is an attractive little bugger.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/27/2005 18:37 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Sman, I still have a Newton. Little slow, little large, but still works well.
Posted by: john ||
09/27/2005 20:16 Comments ||
Top||
#10
40 Gigs and I have it 2/3rds full - 8000 songs
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 21:03 Comments ||
Top||
Via Tim Blair
Matt Taibbiâs New Orleans rescue adventureâco-starring Sean Penn and Douglas Brinkleyâbegins in a Houston bar:
" Iâm in the lounge of the Four Seasons with Sean Penn and other assorted media creatures, debating the merits of rescuing animals instead of humans in a disaster area. To my left is the eminent historian Douglas Brinkley, a friendly academic whose careful diction reminds me of Bob Woodwardâs. Brinkley is my contact in Houston. Heâs friends with Penn, and when he evacuated his home in New Orleans earlier in the week, he left his cats and his maid behind in the flood zone. Now he and Penn are talking about commandeering private jets, helicopters and weapons for a grand mission into hell that begins tomorrow."
Two points of interest here. One: Brinkley has a maid. Two: he left her behind in the flood zone. Remember Pennâs claim that âwe were pulling drowning people out of the waterâ and Brinkleyâs description of Penn as an âAmerican heroâ for ârescuing up to 40 peopleâ? Hereâs Taibbiâs description, direct from Pennâs little boat:
In the end, we spend the whole day out on the waterâuntil sundown, anywayâand bring about nine or ten residents back to shore. One of our passengers is a schizophrenic whom Sean jumped in the water to save when the kick from the rotors of a hovering helicopter forced her underwater.
No word on whether Brinkleyâs maid got out. She isnât mentioned after the second paragraph. http://timblair.net/http://timblair.net/http://timblair.net/http://timblair.net/http://timblair.net/-
#1
Douglas Brinkley is a white guy. Wonder what color the maid is. (Hope it's "is" and not "was," too.) Is this yet another example of how Katrina exposed the horrors of race and class in our society?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/27/2005 13:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You mean this Douglas Brinkley?
Douglas Brinkley, the author of Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War.
And he's got a maid too. Which he left behind. Why doesn't any of this surprise me?
September 27, 2005: India has been emerging as a major power over the last twenty years. The Indian economy is growing at a rate of roughly 6.8 percent a year, and its GDP is currently at $3.13 trillion. It also has a military that matches up well with any potential adversary. But how powerful is India when compared to other Asian powers? There is one major rival that has to be considered in Asia: China. With a GDP of $7.2 trillion (about twice that of Indiaâs), China also has a population (1.3 billion) about 30 percent larger than Indiaâs. These two countries are not on a collision course yet. The biggest cause of friction is Chinaâs weapons exports to Pakistan, followed by a border dispute that last flared into war way back in 1962.
Both countries have made extensive acquisitions of Russian technology, like Kilo-class submarines and Su-30 fighters. Both sides also have made some extensive modernization efforts, replacing old technology with new equipment. Both nations are rapidly becoming regional powers to be reckoned with.
The Indian Army has 2.1 million men, counting reserves. It also has 2,800 main battle tanks (including 1,700 T-72s, 400 Vijayanta, 310 T-90S, 120 Arjun, and 200 T-55s), and 1,350 infantry fighting vehicles (1,300 of them BMP-2s). The Indian army also has a large amount of artillery (including 1,300 105mm Indian Field Guns, 750 130mm M-46 howitzers, 550 122mm D-30 howitzers, and 410 FH-77B 155mm howitzers).
The Chinese army has 2.3 million men, and over 7,000 tanks, 5,000 of which are the obsolete Type 59 (a copy of the T-55), and another 1,200 are the more modern Type 96.
The Indian Navy is probably one of the best in Asia. It has one carrier (Viraat), with as many as three others coming in the near future (in addition to the air-defense ship under construction, and the INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Admiral Gorshkov). India also has 11 destroyers, six of which (the three Delhi-class and the three Talwar-class) are modern, 11 frigates (six of which are the modern Godavari-class), and 16 submarines (14 of which are either the Type 209 or Kilo-class submarines). India has also recently agreed to lease two Akula-class nuclear submarines from Russia. The Chinese navy has a lot of quantity (74 submarines, 25 destroyers, 45 frigates), but many of these designs are old (16 of the destroyers, 30 of the frigates, and 52 of the submarines are state-of-the-art for 1960).
The Indian Air Force has around 670 aircraft. These aircraft have all been heavily upgraded. They have modern aircraft as well, including 50 Su-30MK (to eventually reach 190), 50 Mirage 2000, and 60 MiG-29. Even Indiaâs MiG-21s have been upgraded to carry missiles like the AA-11/R-73 Archer, making them deadly adversaries. Indiaâs pilots also train like Western pilots do. The Chinese air force has a lot of quantity (1,900 combat aircraft). However, many of these are older planes (350 J-6/MiG-19, 500 J-7/MiG-21, 300 Q-5, and 80 H-6/Tu-16 Badger). The only modern combat aircraft in the Chinese air force are the 180 J-11/Su-27 Flankers, 200 Su-30MKK Flankers, and 200 J-8 Finback fighters.
Both India and China are rising powers in Asia. That said, India has a pair of crucial leads â its Navy and Air Force have advantages in training and equipment that enable India to project power. China is nowhere close to Indiaâs level of experience with carrier aviation, and PLAAF pilots are not as good as Indiaâs. The Chinese have an edge in their army, but that would be easily overcome by Indiaâs naval and air superiority, making India the major power in Asia by a small margin.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 09:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
While a good side-by-side comparison of technologies, this neglects the most powerful weapons system of either side, short of nuclear weapons. Raw, endless manpower.
Between the two, their skewed demographics, mostly due to the abortion of female fetuses, has resulted in as many as 60 Million "extra" males, for which there are no jobs, and more importantly, no prospect of ever being married. There are just not enough women for them. On top of that, there are perhaps 300 Million males of "low value" to their respective nations, mostly unskilled rural farm laborers.
And this most definitely skews military strategy. Though both sides have say, 2 Million men at arms each in their standing armies, either can muster vast numbers of "cannon fodder".
So, if China invades India, the Indians can throw endless amounts of infantrymen at them to overwhelm their army, and vice versa.
And yet, neither side can very well support keeping all of these "hot bodies", either as a standing army, or on the offensive. So both sides have relatively weak offenses and terribly strong defenses.
This raises the issue of causus belli, that being, "Is demographic imbalance alone enough to propel two nations into war?" It may very well be. Whatever the official reason, when the two sides conflict, it may boil down to a horrific, two-sided game of attrition.
A game seen before in World War I, but at a smaller scale. Trench warfare. The slaughter of tens of millions of spare males on both sides without permanent gain or loss of territory.
At that point, except to accelerate the slaughter, technology becomes almost superfluous. Both sides would seek to protect their high value professional soldiers from harm, saving them for some coup d' grace that never seems to come.
Ironically, the end of the conflict is even more foreseeable. It will end because of plague.
The great, endless manpower invasion of Korea by China was ended not by technology, but because the Chinese were more than decimated by hemorrhagic smallpox.
Typically, in war, disease kills more than violence anyway. But once numbers of men this vast come into play, death could claim more than a million men a day. And that, more than any other cause, would finally end their conflict. Perhaps by ending the real reason for their conflict.
A coalition of homosexual activists and atheists plan to march on a Boy Scout camp in San Diego next month demanding the organization open its membership and leadership to them. The group Scouting For All plans to march and rally at a Boy Scout camp Oct. 9.
Beside demanding the Boy Scouts open their ranks to practicing homosexuals and atheists, the group also apparently seeks the admission of girls to the organization.
Scouting For All's mission statement say it is "to influence the Boy Scouts of America to serve and include as participating members all youth and adult leaders, regardless of their spiritual beliefs, gender, or sexual orientation."
In previous protests, the group has equated the Boy Scouts with the Ku Klux Klan. The group has attracted celebrities in its cause.
"Institutionalized homophobia in the Scouts or in church or school is the cruelest of all," said Ian McKellan, the actor who played Gandolf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, in an appearance for the group. "It makes life miserable for young gay people and it misleads their peers with regard to the 'truth' about gay people â that they are remarkably similar to the rest."
Support for the latest protest of the Scouts by the group comes from the American Civil Liberties Union and some homosexual activist organizations. Oh, golly. If I had but a platoon of plainclothes Marines with axe handles...
#2
Sounds like a good time for the scouts to pick up the Rifle merit badge to me. These moonbats should be met in the proper way, with HE and rifle fire. Course, I'd add flamethrowers, but I'm partial to them.
I don't know..maybe we should start going to their groups and demand that they open their membership to the Hetero and Monotheistic. Every time they start a lawsuit, start five against them.
#6
"Institutionalized homophobia in the Scouts or in church or school is the cruelest of all,"
What a remarkably low threshold for "cruelest of all".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/27/2005 7:20 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Some evangelical churches sponsor a Pioneer Scouts program which is separate but equal to the BSA, but with an emphasis on Christianity.
If there are so many queers in scouting, why don't they start their own organization? Because of course the activists aren't truely interested in getting a few queers into scouting.
It's all about tearing down the fabric of society and its network of local and civil organizations that Tocqueville so well described.
Posted by: James Beam ||
09/27/2005 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
Beside demanding the Boy Scouts open their ranks to practicing homosexuals and atheists, the group also apparently seeks the admission of girls to complete destruction of the organization.
#10
If there are so many queers in scouting, why don't they start their own organization? Because of course the activists aren't truely interested in getting a few queers into scouting.
It's also about a perverse desire for unconditional acceptance and the tag of "normal" which I doubt they'll ever get.
#11
Beside demanding the Boy Scouts open their ranks to practicing homosexuals and atheists, the group also apparently seeks the admission of girls to the organization.
It's never been about equality or acceptance. It's always been about power. These group, long ago, figured out that in a truely democratic society they can not gain power, so they turned to the one institution that has power and is not accountable to the people - the judiciary. That institution has granted these small number of activists and agitators power far beyond that which any republic could tolerate. As long as the judiciary remains directly unaccountable to the people, these events and their sponsors will be permited to impose their views upon the rest of us.
#12
Fictional homosexual wizards: Why do they hate us?
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/27/2005 9:38 Comments ||
Top||
#13
This whole thing reads like a Karl Rove plot to me because it all sounds so self-destructive... homosexuals diluting their demands with atheists and (ick) girls! no less. The unwitting press latches onto it like a tick on a white dog, and plays it as if we should take it seriously.
Homosexuals are not popular enough! To become more popular, we have aligned ourselves with people even less popular than ourselves! Can we play with you now?
At least ten students were injured in a bomb attack on a procession of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on the Dhaka University campus on Monday. It was second incident of bomb attack on BCL procession on the Dhaka University campus in last three months. BCL accused the ruling partyâs student wing of the bomb attack.
Dismissing the BCL accusation the leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) blamed the internal grouping of BCL for the bomb attack. According to sources, two bombs were blasted at the last part of the BCL procession when it was passing through the street behind the Arts Building at about 12.50 pm on the day. After the bomb attack the leaders and activists of BCL were scattered and later regrouped within a couple of minutes and started the procession again which was terminated at TSC crossing. The general students ran helter and skelter following the attack. The bomb attack created a panic among the general students. According to sources, the JCD leaders were inside the Modhuâs canteen, just four or five yards from the place occurrences.
At a Press conference at the Dhaka University Journalist Association (DUJA) office on Monday evening, the BCL led six student alliance directly accused JCD cadres of the bomb attack. BCL claimed that at least 25 to 30 activists of the organisation were injured in the attack and six of them critically. DU JCD unit President Hasan Mamun said BCL threw the bombs on the procession to make the campus unstable once again as it did in the same way on May 31 in front of Arts Building. BCL president Liakot Sikder said âas per the direction of Hawa Bhaban, the JCD launched the attackâ. DU Proctor Prof. AK Firoz Ahmed visited the place after the blasts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A Christian woman, who found a copy of the Holy Quran outside a garbage dump near New Chauburji Park on Monday, cleaned and secured the Holy Book and handed it over to a family in the area. Perveen Bibi, a garbage collector, while looking for old bottles and other saleable items, saw a sack lying near the dump. When she opened the sack, she found a copy of the Holy Book along with other scraps of paper. Thereafter, she dusted and cleaned the Holy Book and handed it to a family in the area that she knew. The recovered version of the Holy Quran was published by Taj Company Limited, one of the foremost publishers of Islamic books until some years ago. The Company was discredited after its directors were accused to stealing the money of investors.
Somehow, that just seems so emminently Pakistani...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No doubt she will be comdemmed to stoning for daring to touch the holy book with her unclean infidel female hands.....
King Mswati III has chosen a 17-year-old as his bride-to-be, selecting a teenager just a month after retreating from a campaign to encourage girls to wait until they are 18 to have sex.
Again? I'm spending a fortune buying him toasters!
Ntfonjeni Dlamini, in charge of traditional matters for the royal family, told state radio Sunday that the chosen girl is Phindile Nkambule. Students at the private high school she had attended in the capital said they had already heard she was dropping out to marry the king. In 2001, Mswati temporarily revived the ancient "umchwasho" rite, which bans sexual relations for girls younger than 18 in a bid to fight AIDS. About 40 percent of this African nation's 1 million people are infected with HIV.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I make no bones about it: I actually like King Mswati. My fellow Rantburgers may laugh, but the fact that he actually punished himself for breaking one of his own rules (he fined himself a cow, I believe) puts him heads and shoulders above most African leaders. In the U.S. a good cow is worth, what, $1200 on the open market? That must be a huge fine in emalangenis (Swazi money). Add to that the fact he tried to do something (no matter how goofy) about his little countryâs AIDS problem and you probably have one of the continentâs best leaders.
#2
Lemme see them honkers,baby!
Oh, God. I think I need a drink.
AB, a round of fermented milk for Secret Master!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/27/2005 2:58 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Secret Master" is right, the self-fining indicates a strong sense of right and wrong, which puts the King head and shoulders above the rest of Africa.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/27/2005 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
âAs far as we see it, it is a misinterpretation of the ... instructions,â Mayadunne told Reuters. âTherefore, when you misinterpret ... it is a misappropriation. I should not say it is corruption.â
Yeah, they..."misinterpreted" the aid. That's the ticket!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A routine check of a shipment at Manila airport turned bloody when a piranha sprung up and bit one of the inspectors. "I was checking one of the boxes when suddenly, something leaped out of it and bit me," fisheries quarantine inspector Mario Trio told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a report published Tuesday. The bite left a V-shaped wound on the inspector's finger, and the 34 piranhas in the consignment he was checking â falsely declared as "ornamental fish" from Peru â were confiscated over the weekend, but died two days later, the newspaper reported. The Filipino consignee faces charges of illegally importing live piranhas, punishable by up to eight years in prison and a fine, quarantine chief Felipe Santamaria said.
A West Yorkshire hospital has banned visitors from cooing at new-born babies over fears their human rights are being breached and to reduce infection. A statement from Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax said staff had held an advice session to highlight the need for respect and dignity for patients. On one ward there is a doll featuring the message: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?" 
BERLIN (Reuters) - Italian vacationers admiring the view from a fairground Ferris wheel at the Munich Oktoberfest got more than they bargained for when a porn shoot suddenly began inside their cabin, authorities said on Friday.
Russian prosecutors said Monday they had canceled an arrest warrant for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko after she appeared in Moscow over the weekend and was questioned. Tymoshenko had been accused of bribing Russian defense officials while she headed Ukraine's main gas distributor, the now-defunct United Energy Systems. Tymoshenko has denied the Russian charges, saying they were politically motivated. Russia's main military prosecutor's office canceled the international arrest warrant it had issued a year ago because Tymoshenko had provided investigators with necessary "explanations" over the weekend and agreed to show up for questioning in the future, the prosecutor-general's press service said in a brief statement.
As Supreme Court Justice Stanley Matthews wrote in a landmark case in 1886, the right to vote is fundamental because it is "preservative of all rights." Requiring a photo ID to vote, as the Carter-Baker commission recommends, would have a chilling effect on voter participation. It would block some Americans from the political process.
THE NATION is at war. It is mired in debt. It has been hit by floods and hurricanes. In the face of this adversity, congressional leaders have rightly dropped proposals for yet more tax cuts, and some have suggested removing the pork from the recently passed transportation bill. But this spirit of forbearance has not touched the Louisiana congressional delegation. The state's representatives have come up with a request for $250 billion in federal reconstruction funds for Louisiana alone -- more than $50,000 per person in the state. This money would come on top of payouts from businesses, national charities and insurers. And it would come on top of the $62.3 billion that Congress has already appropriated for emergency relief.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, 
Nation of Islam chief Minister Louis Farrakhan has expanded on his theory that New Orleans' levees were blown up during Hurricane Katrina, announcing Friday that divers working on the levee break have found evidence of explosives. "These explosives are from the government side," he said during a press conference in Memphis held to promote his upcoming Million Man Anniversary March. In quotes picked up by Memphis TV station WMC, Farrakhan demanded an investigation into the Bush administration's levee plot. If true, he insisted: "somebody is guilty, then not only of mass destruction of property, but of mass murder."
Eleven Nigerian police officers found responsible for sexual misconduct while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo have been suspended, Nigeria's police chief said Monday. Among those who breached U.N. rules on sexual misconduct was the head of the contingent, Chief Superintendent of Police Anthony Okon, according to the statement Monday from the police chief, Sunday Ehindero. Okon and 10 others from the 120-member team, which was recalled to Nigeria earlier this month, have been suspended from the force, it said. No details of the allegations against them were given. "No member of this contingent will ever go on a peace mission or other assignments outside this country," Ehindero said.
At least ten students were injured in a bomb attack on a procession of 
