hat tip to Glenn
Much-ridiculed British MP George Galloway, who represents East London for the so-called "Respect" Party, and got elected in part by appealing to radical Islam, is now upsetting some of his friends in Islam by cavorting with a transvestite on a British reality show. Great pic at the link
#3
Both. Honestly, yo'd think they'd look in the mirror sometimes, as they put on their little outfits... and that red is not really Mr Galloway's best colour.
#6
Isn't there a name for cross-expert Hurbris? Just because you can be a successful jackass in one line of work doesn't guarantee or even predict success in another.
#7
Someone is yanking George's chain. It would be fun to know who and why. Whoever it is must have some really good stuff. I only wish I had my hands on those puppet strings, though I have to say that whoever is doing it is doing a great job. I think I would make him moon a glass window and wiggle his butt checks to say, "whose your daddy".
It took more than six hours for anyone to realize that a 64-year-old Brooklyn man had died on a New York City subway train. Eugene Reilly, who died of a heart attack, likely got onto a Brooklyn-bound Q train just before 1 a.m. Thursday. He wasn't found until 7:15 a.m. when a curious commuter touched his shoulder, trying to wake him, the New York Daily News reported.
Reilly, a mail handler, worked the 4 p.m.-to-12:30 a.m. shift and was headed home, his wife said. He was sitting up in his seat, which transit officials said was likely the reason their workers left him alone for so long, the newspaper said. "The policy is that if someone is sitting up, employees are not allowed to touch them," said Deirdre Parker, a city transit spokeswoman. A different transit official said employees probably saw Reilly, who was in the last car of the train, but thought he was sleeping. "People sleep on the train all the time," an official said. "No one thought anything of it."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Dead man rides subway for hours
ghost voter riding all the precincts.
/test run paid for by the hildabeast commitee for pres
#2
Not all that unusual, sadly. At the medical practice where my ex worked, one of the new medtechs had a twenty minute conversation with an elderly lady who had expired a few minutes before - and this was in a building with five MDs and literally two dozen nurses and assorted medtechs.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/24/2006 12:19 Comments ||
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Eight UN soldiers were killed on Monday in a firefight with Ugandan rebels in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN mission to the country (MONUC) reported in Kinshasa. Five others were injured and taken by helicopter to hospital in Bunia, MONUC said. MONUC had previously said that 14 soldiers had been injured. The soldiers from Guatemala had been deployed to the so-called Garamba Park region in the north of the country for days to flush out Ugandan rebels hiding in the area. The two sides exchanged fire for four hours on Monday morning. The rebels were believed to be from Lords Resistance Army (LRA), which has been active in the north of Uganda for 20 years. Some LRA members are believed to have infiltrated northern Congo.
Time to let the Guatemalans have a free-fire zone against the LRA.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I saw the CNN documentary on gangs this weekend and a violent gang member said his dream would to be a Marine, except none of them meet qualifications. He reasoned they could protect America like they do the the 'hood. I was thinking sending the Dirty Dozen after terrorists wasn't a bad idea, nor was putting them on the border to battle the cartels, but maybe serving as UN Peacekeepers is really where they belong.
Men in Mexican military-style uniforms crossed the Rio Grande into the United States on a marijuana-smuggling foray, leading to an armed confrontation with Texas law officers, authorities said Tuesday. No shots were fired.
The men retreated and escaped back across the border with much of the pot, though they abandoned more than a half-ton of marijuana as they fled and set fire to one of their vehicles, authorities said.
The Mexican government denied its military was involved.
The confrontation took place Monday and involved three Texas sheriff's deputies, at least two Texas state troopers and at least 10 heavily armed men from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, said Rick Glancey of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition.
Gov. Rick Perry ordered an investigation.
"It's certainly troubling and unacceptable and a real reminder of how an unsecure border threatens all Texans and the rest of the nation," said Perry spokesman Kathy Walt.
The Mexican Foreign Relations Department issued a statement saying that drug traffickers and other organized criminals have used uniforms and vehicles before. "It is possible that these actions were designed to damage the image of our armed forces," it said.
Monday's incident follows a story in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif., on Jan. 15 that said the Mexican military had crossed into the United States more than 200 times since 1996. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said reports of Mexican incursions into the United States were overblown and most were just mistakes.
The confrontation on Monday took place near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso, and started when state police tried to stop three sport utility vehicles on Interstate 10. The vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed south toward the border, a few miles away, Glancey said.
When the SUVs reached the Rio Grande, police saw the occupants of a green, Mexican Army-style Humvee apparently waiting for the convoy, Glancey said.
Police stopped and watched as the vehicles began to cross the shallow river into Mexico. Both sides - the Americans and the smugglers - had their weapons drawn.
One SUV got stuck in the river, and another blew a tire on the Texas side. Its driver ran into Mexico.
Men in the Humvee tried to tow the stuck vehicle out of the river. When that failed, a group of men in civilian clothes began unloading from the SUV what appeared to be bundles of marijuana. They then torched the SUV, Glancey said.
Deputies found about 1,400 pounds of marijuana in the vehicle that had a flat tire. The vehicle had previously been reported stolen from El Paso.
#2
I'm sure they were just drug dealers, surely not the Mexican armed forces. It really matters. Heh.
Well gosh, I guess Gov Perry should find some forces laying around to augment the LE guys at the hot spots along the border... the extremely heavily-armed variety - and they lay back a bit so they're not apparent. I prefer Snakes with miniguns, and mebbe some Tow-equipped Humvees, myself. Then they whack a dozen or two of these border-crossers and then, as the corpses cool, determine the identity.
If they turn out to be Official Mexican Armed Forces, then erase the Mexican border state's capitol file a protest. If just druggies, then erase the Mexican Federales post responsible for that section of the border file a protest.
Oh, and return the bodies - airdrop 'em on the Plaza in Mexico City for proper burial.
If you loved the comic books last year, you'll LOVE this...
Mexico's human rights agency says it will give out detailed maps of the Arizona desert, including rescue beacons and water stations, to guide migrants safely through the most popular and deadliest corridor into the United States.
The maps were designed by a Tucson-based group, Humane Borders, which plans to hold a joint press conference today with the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City to announce its strategy.
The maps are the latest effort by activists to aid undocumented immigrants as they trek across the border, helping to fuel a raging debate over illegal immigration in Arizona and other parts of the United States.
Two rights commission officials confirmed the quasi-governmental agency had agreed to print and distribute the maps through its state offices to reach Mexican migrants before they ever leave their hometowns. It has not decided how many copies to print or how much it will spend on the project, the officials told The Republic.
They spoke on condition of anonymity pending the official announcement today. Officials in President Vicente Fox's office said Monday that they were unaware of the project and had no immediate comment. The Mexican Foreign Ministry said it would not be involved in distributing the maps.
The plan's proponents say they are trying to prevent deaths, and they deny the maps encourage people to cross. "This is good information, and it will save lives," said Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Humane Borders. Riiiiight.
But border-control advocates say they fear the maps could embolden people to make the trek. "I'm afraid that maps and water jugs do nothing but give illegal crossers false hope," Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth, a Republican, said in a written statement. "Either we convince potential crossers not to make the journey or, failing that, we stop them from crossing the border."
Arizona has become the most traveled corridor for Mexicans trying to enter the United States illegally. Border Patrol agents in Arizona caught more than 577,000 undocumented migrants, most of them Mexicans, during the 2005 fiscal year. At least 279 immigrants attempting to cross the desert died during that time. That we know of, anyway.
Humane Borders has produced maps for each of the four main corridors through Arizona: Douglas, Lukeville, Sasabe and Nogales.
The maps show mountains, roads, railroads and cities. Blue flags show where migrant-aid groups have left water tanks in the desert. Blue stars indicate Border Patrol rescue beacons where migrants can push a button to summon help. Black lines show how far a migrant can expect to get walking one, two or three days.
The maps use red dots to show where migrants have died during the past four years. Humane Borders used data from the Border Patrol, medical examiners and other agencies to pinpoint each death. At the top of each map, a bar graph shows the number of deaths during each month of the year. At the bottom are several tips including:
"Go with people you know and trust." I guess saying 'don't go with that weasel coyote who will leave you behind to die' was just a bit too harsh.
"Don't cross the desert between May and August, because the temperatures are very high." If they really wanted to be honest, they would have said from March to mid October. But that might, maybe, DISCOURAGE someone from crossing. Can't have that.
"Bring enough water and food." Nice and vague. Tell them how much they actually need to bring. But again, that might convince them not to come. Who will these "activists" represent if they don't have a continuous source of fresh meat?
"Know your route well and the distance well before starting."
"Look for tanks of water in the desert that are marked with blue flags." "And pray someone else hasn't drank it all or left the tap running before you got there."
Large letters say "Don't go! There's not enough water! It's not worth it!" Why do I think this is the only part written in English?
Future versions of the maps will include circles showing cellular telephone coverage, Hoover said. I guess that's just in case they want to make a final call back home before they die. How considerate of the good reverend.
In May, Humane Borders distributed a few maps in Sasabe, Sonora, just over the border in Mexico. But the group decided it needed to get the information farther south, to discourage potential migrants before they even leave their hometowns, Hoover said.
The Human Rights Commission pledged its support in December. The agency is technically independent of the Mexican government, but it is funded by Mexican taxpayers and operates under a government charter.
Critics of the maps said they don't do enough to emphasize the dangers, or the illegality, of crossing the border.
"If you want to tell people, 'Don't go,' then that's an entirely different handout. You don't give people a map," said Rick Oltman, western field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Can't wait for the bodies clutching these maps to start popping up.
#4
I'd just be happy if there was one government attorney who had the guts to go for a reckless endangerment indictment. They are enticing people to go out into the desert and kill themselves.
Dying of dehydration is a horrible way to go. With the exception of Gary Tison, no one deserves that.
Who obviously don't give a crap for basic human rights within their own borders in establishing a meaningful economy and reducing unemployment from the 20s to the lower single digits.
#6
I say we invade and take that piece of Sonora over to Baja California. A whole lotta Mexicans automagically become tax-paying US citizens, the border becomes shorter and easier to patrol, and "beachfront property in Arizona" is no longer a punchline.
#8
The naturalists have been breeding endangered wolves and releasing them into the wild. I think the same should be done in the corridors marked on these maps (surely someone has picked up a copy!). Trumpet the release of the wolves, and retell traditional tales of wolf packs hunting down humans. Dying of thirst is one thing, but being torn apart by ravenous animals? That's the material of nightmares.
Strollers soaking up the sea spray along Havana's famed Malecón waterfront boulevard absorbed an impromptu lesson on America's civil rights movement this week when the US mission began flashing passages from Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech on a giant screen.
In the latest exchange in the US-Cuban cultural war, the electronic tickertape mounted on the fifth floor of the US Interests Section in Havana began beaming King's quotes in 9ft-high red letters. The passages were interspersed with sections from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, promising freedom from arbitrary arrest or exile, and inspirational sayings from anti-communist leaders such as Poland's Lech Walesa and the Czech Republic's Vaclav Havel.
The illuminations so outraged Cuba's president, Fidel Castro, that he called for a mass protest today in front of the mission, which is housed in the Swiss embassy. In a three-hour televised speech on Sunday night, Mr Castro described the signs as a provocation intended to break off what limited contact has survived between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations. "The US government ... is deliberately trying to force a rupture in the actual diplomatic relations," he said. "The gross provocation ... can have no other purpose."
Only three hours? Is he ill? Can I run the vulture pic?
After the scandals about the abuse of detainees at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib prisons, the US was in no position to deliver a lecture about human rights, he added. "They should put those signs inside, not outside."
The US said the messages were an attempt to open a dialogue with the Cuban people.
George Bush, like Ronnie Reagan, knows what it means to give hope to people in a gulag.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2006 00:00 ||
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Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing market.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company planned to roll out a new version of its search engine bearing China's Web suffix ".cn," on Wednesday. A Chinese-language version of Google's search engine has previously been available through the company's dot-com address in the United States.
Free speech? I guess it only applies if you're fighting against capitalism.
#1
Sorry to say that a lot of the mutual funds in my 401K have Google stock because I do believe that it is going to tank with management decisions like this.
#4
China's country and root server, China's rules. You want to play in someone's backyard you gotta play by their rules. I would expect no less from other countries doing buisness here (free speech!)
However, let this be a BIG lesson to what would happen if the UN and their cronies ever got a hold of the Global root servers. China can do what they want with their country root server, but they can never have the global ones. Free Speech lives baby!
#6
I am calling bull shit on the "won't help governmet in child porn investigation."
The facts. Google will not give the government any unindentifiable global info on searches performed by it's search engine just because the DOJ asked. They don't have to. They don't have to give trade secrets and neither do you or your employer until a court of law asks. Then that info will be submitted under seal. Got it? Thats has nothing to do with a "child porn" investigation.
France has agreed to pay Britain as much as £140m to develop and construct an aircraft carrier based on the design of those being built for the Royal Navy. It is the first concrete step towards what would be the biggest joint military programme in a generation.
The deal, hammered out in London by John Reid, defence secretary, and MichÚle Alliot-Marie, his French counterpart, would see France pay Britain as much as £100m in three instalments over the course of this year for the rights to the UK design.
In addition, France has agreed to put in another £40m towards the development of the carrier, which remains in the final stages of the detailed design work needed before construction can begin.
Mr Reid said any decision on whether to move forward as a bi-national programme would be made at the end of the year, when the UK is expected to sign a construction contract.
But it appears unlikely France, which has invested financially in the programme and has invested considerable political capital towards an agreement, would back off in 12 months.
Senior British negotiators sought to portray the deal as a victory for the Ministry of Defence. British procurement officials have already committed to spending £300m during the development stage of their two-carrier programme, and the French payments have suddenly cut that budget nearly in half.
In addition, senior negotiators said Britain would retain full control of the programme despite the French participation. Sir Peter Spencer, head of the Defence Procurement Agency, said: "There is no joint decision-making."
British officials have been insistent on such control, hoping to avoid disputes that sank earlier joint programmes, particularly the Horizon frigate, a warship Britain was to build with France and Italy until it pulled out in 1999 following bitter recriminations.
For the French, the deal allows them to jump approximately two years ahead in their efforts to build a partner ship to their current carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, since their programme, codenamed Project Juliette and developed by the French shipbuilder DCN, is far less advanced than the Royal Navy design drawn up by Paris-based Thales and BAE Systems.
The French decision comes after nearly three years of fitful negotiations, and people involved in Tuesday's meeting emerged surprised and giddy that a deal was completed.
"We did not expect such a fruitful result," said one French official. Both sides said the final talks were also unusual in that both Mr Reid and Ms Alliot-Marie were personally involved in detailed and sometimes heated negotiations.
The first £30m French payment for the Royal Navy design is expected to come when the deal is officially signed, which Ms Alliot-Marie said could be in a few weeks. A second £25m payment would be mandated for July, but the final £45m year-end payment is to be conditional on France making a final decision to pursue a joint programme.
The additional £40m payment will cover about one-third of the development work common to the two UK carriers and the additional French ship, which Britain estimated at £115m.
#1
The last joint Anglo-French naval enterprise was the sinking of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in 1940. Given the efficacy of the Charles De Gaulle, this may lead to the same result.
This is VERY cool - what a find!!
A WARTIME bunker used by Nazis to bombard Allied troops during the D-Day landings has been unearthed untouched after 60 years.
British treasure hunter Gary Sterne found the base exactly as it was when German troops fled after the Normandy invasion in June 1944.
Gary, 41, said: Its truly incredible. Apart from damage to the radio room, the whole place seemed to escape bombing unscathed.
The bunker sprawls over 20 acres and is thought to be the hidden German battery that decimated US soldiers at Omaha Beach, seven miles away.
The encampment contains 40 buildings including a field hospital.
Some of the offices contain army papers as well as radio equipment.
Amateur historian Gary found it in dense undergrowth after buying a German army map at a French car boot sale.
The dad of two, from Manchester, kept it secret for three years so he could buy the land near the village of Grandcamp-Maisy.
He now plans to open it as a tourist attraction this year.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/24/2006 11:44 ||
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#1
Way, way cool. And there's an outfit called TIGHAR that is investigating the possibility of intact Luftwaffe bunkers - with their aircraft - in Eastern Europe:
http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Opsep.html
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/24/2006 12:24 Comments ||
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#2
Excellent Sam - great find!
Mike - I've heard about those aicraft bunkers - weren't some located under E. Berlin airport? Fueled and bombed up (possibly) last I heard.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/24/2006 12:47 Comments ||
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#3
What an incredible find! The one time I was in Normandy and saw several of the pillboxes and underground passageways, I saw a lot of them had been vandalized with spray paint or were strewn with garbage and--judging from the smell--human waste. To find such a large complex so well preserved would be a military historian's dream!
Posted by: Dar ||
01/24/2006 13:00 Comments ||
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#4
The dad of two, from Manchester, kept it secret for three years so he could buy the land near the village of Grandcamp-Maisy.
He now plans to open it as a tourist attraction this year.
#7
Rex-
There were a few bunkers at the old Luftwaffe base at Rechlin, which was their equivalent of Wright Field. However, my understanding is that those bunkers were cleared and demolished after the war.
It's still a wonderful thought though that someday someone is going to open one up and find a 190D, or even an Me 262, just waiting.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/24/2006 20:37 Comments ||
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Canada took a tentative step to the right in yesterday's federal election, ousting the Liberals after 12 years in power and voting in a fragile minority Conservative government, television networks said. Preliminary official figures at 11 p.m. showed the Conservatives winning or ahead in 122 electoral districts compared to 103 for the Liberals of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
The result was a personal triumph for Conservative leader Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who forced through the creation of the party in December 2003 by uniting two squabbling right-wing movements. "It shows that Canadians were looking for change," deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay told CTV.
Support for the Liberals shrank amid voter fatigue and a major kickback scandal that brought down Mr. Martin's minority government in November. How long Mr. Harper can stay in power is open to serious question, since he will have nowhere near the 155 seats he needs to hold a majority in the 308-seat House of Commons. The Conservatives have no natural allies in Parliament and will have to govern on an issue-by-issue basis with the backing of other parties. "Minority means we have to be constructive, and we have to be working together and finding common ground," said Mr. MacKay.
Analysts think a minority Harper government would likely last between a year and 18 months. Preliminary data showed the Conservatives had won 36.4 percent of the vote, up from 29.6 percent in the June 2004 election. The Liberals slipped to 31.3 percent, down from 36.7 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2006 11:46 ||
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#1
The libs shouldn't lament: the dog always licks up his vomit...
#3
Probably not -- that would just fuck him over due to insecurity on both sides about the idea of federalism versus nationalism.
It seems to be 129 seats, meaning that he needs 25 seats from other parties in a coalition. They might include the Bloc Quebecois, but then again, Jack Layton of the NDP helped kick off the campaign by siding with Harper... wonder if that means that he wants in? :P
Canadian election update, with predictable seething, back-stabbing and ankle-biting by angry partisan liberals. Congratulations to the Canadian electorate and good luck to incoming PM Stephen Harper!
With Paul Martin's hopes for a second mandate in tatters Monday night, and Liberal party recriminations well underway, the Liberal leader's closest advisers were indignant at suggestions they might be responsible for a campaign gone wrong.
I? We? Are you mad? Certainly not! Never that! Absolute nonsense.
They've long blamed the Jean Chretien administration for the sponsorship scandal that dragged them down throughout their 25 months in office. Now, the news media and the RCMP are the latest additions to their black list.
Oooooo...they have a List. Does Shipman know about this? Scary.
Martin's senior aides are privately fuming at the Mounties' decision to abandon a standard no-comment policy right in the middle of an election campaign. Liberal election strategy was knocked off kilter by the RCMP's stunning - and very public - announcement of a criminal probe into alleged insider trading at the Finance Department.
"And we woulda got away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling loudmouth Mounties...who do they think they are, cops or somethin'?"
The RCMP equivalent of a perp walk ...
And advisers accuse the media of an obvious bias in favour of Stephen Harper's Conservatives. They say Liberal promises - such as a $4-billion plan to reduce tuition - went virtually unreported while the Conservatives scored a daily hit with their announcements. "How many Canadians have even heard about our tuition plan?" one senior Liberal sobbed into a mug of Molson's lamented.
This like a bad scene from "The West Wing", when the staff has to fly somewhere and whines on the plane for days about their pet projects...
But many within Liberal ranks feel no sympathy for those complaints, saying Martin's campaign was dysfunctional from the start. He hammered away on the Kyoto accord without putting forward a plan to meet its clean-air targets. He talked about national unity but offered no new ideas for bringing the country together. He used same-sex marriage and abortion to paint the Tories as rabid right-wingers - while conveniently ignoring the dozens of his own MPs who sided against his policy.
The press spent eight weeks pointing out those glaring inconsistencies while ignoring many of Martin's attacks - or worse, dismissing them as fear-mongering.
One Liberal MP said his leader should have projected a more positive and prime ministerial message by focusing on his economic platform. What are we doing talking about the notwithstanding clause?" one he asked rhetorically Monday. "One-third of your caucus voted against same-sex marriage - so get off your high horse." Liberals are also wondering why they delayed so many of their policy announcements until the second half of the campaign. The strategy was supposed to unfold like this: draw attention to Harper's weaknesses before Christmas, and kill any momentum he might have had by unrolling Liberal promises in January. It didn't quite work out that way. "We began our campaign after Christmas and, by then, it was over," said one well-connected Liberal. "We were constantly on the defensive, constantly reacting to Harper's announcements." But of all the things that grated on Liberal nerves, one thing reined supreme. Many of the Chretien-era Liberals who helped the party win three majority governments say they were essentially forced to the sidelines. "I have never been so disconnected from party headquarters in any campaign in my life. And it's the same story across the country," said the Quebec operative. "They pushed aside our most experienced organizers and replaced them with young guns who didn't know their butts from their elbows."
Of course, the Chretien-era Liberals were radioactive from the Gomery scandal.
One of the country's best-known Liberals used more diplomatic language to express the same grievance. He said the party must now reach out to the hundreds of grassroots organizers who were sidelined during - and after - Martin's leadership run. "In this campaign we had 60 per cent of our people sitting on their hands," he said. "We need to reunite the big Liberal family." One longtime Quebec organizer spent Monday working the phones, co-ordinating rides to polling stations - and planning the ouster of Martin or, at the very least, his entourage. "We have to clean house," said the party operative, who asked not to be named. "This campaign was one bungle after another."
#3
And advisers accuse the media of an obvious bias in favour of Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
What?!? That was all part of the Liberal plan. Put Harper in the spotlight and hope he looks scary. AND IT WORKED!! Again! Toronto and the 905 went solidly Liberal, even though polls suggested a Conservative lead. So did Vancouver. The Liberals actually picked up seats in Vancouver.
This was an urban vs. rural vote. And the result is an unstable parliament. No party holds the balance of power.
Martin got spanked. He's already stepping down as party leader. Good riddance.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/24/2006 3:49 Comments ||
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#4
In IRC tonight predictions of a new election in 24 or less months most saying way less.
All the major cities went with the Liberals. This will not be a stable government.
With Martin gone, I'm sure Belinda has her eyes on becoming Queen of Canada. She does encompass all the Liberal qualitites we've seen over the years.
New leader and back to the polls. With luck, that strategy will backfire before the Paris Hilton of Canada takes over.
But it will be back to the polls within 8 months. Sooner if Iraq heats up.
The collective stupdity of Torontonians never ceases to amaze me. I don't fancy the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will take place around the coffee machine today.
#6
I don't know enough about Canadian politics to know whether the Conservative govt will last long, but I do know a little bit about demographics. Since the cities (which voted Liberal) are all breeding at below the replacement rate, the Conservative countryside (which tends to breed at or above replacement rate) will continue to gain proportionally more votes in the long term. The Roe Effect, it's a beautiful thing.
#7
Replacement via immigration makes up for any losses. Canada is very much a growing and attractive destination. They all settle in the cities. This was not a huge victory for the conservatives as much as a bitch slap for the scandal plauged Libs.
#9
SPOD has it -- the Roe Effect concept does not take into account immigration or urban migration and political conversions (i.e. conservative rural person moves to big city and turns liberal, or turns liberal despite being in a red state, or immigrants voting for handouts), since all it does is make unadjusted demographic assumptions based on birth rate in geographic areas.
Former President Gerald Ford was out of bed, chatting and eating well as he remained in the hospital for a 10th day, a spokeswoman said Monday. Ford, 92, was admitted to a hospital near his home in the California desert on Jan. 14. He was initially expected to be released five days later. ``The doctors are assessing him for discharge on a day-to-day basis,'' his chief of staff, Penny Circle, said in a statement. ``He's not quite ready for release from the hospital.'' His condition is not life-threatening, she said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Air France standing by, ready to whisk him off to Mal-de-Mer at a moments' notice...
A 20-year-old hacker admitted Monday to surreptitiously seizing control of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers, using the zombie network to serve pop-up ads and renting it to people who mounted attacks on Web sites and sent out spam. Jeanson James Ancheta, of Downey, Calif., pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to four felony charges for crimes, including infecting machines at two U.S. military sites, that earned him more than $61,000, said federal prosecutor James Aquilina.
Under a plea agreement, which still must be approved by a judge, Ancheta faces up to 6 years in prison and must pay the federal government restitution. He also will forfeit his profits and a 1993 BMW. Sentencing is schedule for May 1. Prosecutors called the case the first to target profits derived from use of "botnets," large numbers of computers that hackers commandeer and marshal for various nefarious deeds, their owners unaware that parasitic programs have been installed are being run by remote control. Botnets are being used increasingly to overwhelm Web sites with streams of data, often by extortionists. They feed off of vulnerabilities in computers that run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, typically machines whose owners haven't bothered to install security patches.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"I'm thinking of something amusing, involving hot needles or molten lead..."(I want to cite "the Mikado", but I'm not sure)
Perhaps an Auto da Fe? Suggestions, anyone?
Posted by: N guard ||
01/24/2006 0:43 Comments ||
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#2
"Auto-da-fe, what's an auto-da-fe?" "It's somethin' that you shouldn't do but do anyway!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/24/2006 6:48 Comments ||
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"Suggestions, anyone?"
Life imprisonment. Solitary confinement with his only company a 25 MHz 386 PC (4 MB RAM, EGA display, 200 MB HD, Windows 3.1) connected to the outside world through a 1200 baud modem.
Give him a choice: that, or have his testicles gnawed off by rats.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/24/2006 7:23 Comments ||
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#4
Put him in an electric chair on "trickle charge".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/24/2006 7:40 Comments ||
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#5
I vote for Dave D's suggestion, with the added feature that the electrical power supply be very dirty with fluctuating power levels and the comms link go up and down at random intervals.
#10
Virus writers and felony level hackers should face long-term or lifetime bans from employment in the IT industry and even from accessing the web. To date, hackers use their worms and destructive forays as "street creds" when seeking a job with technology employers.
This is a practice that must be stopped. It encourages criminal activity and is exceptionally detrimental to society as a whole. Just as teenagers who are arrested on DUI charges suddenly find their license revoked for several years, junior hackers and virus writers must face exclusion from IT career paths and prohibition from holding ISP accounts.
America, alone, is losing BILLIONS of dollars per year to this sort of internet piracy and intrusion. Every day, I clear some 100 spams from my inbox. The loss of productivity is profound. With IT companies hiring these underage scumbags, it creates actual incentive for others to pursue such destructive goals.
Felony charges with mandatory hard time imprisonment, lifetime IT industry employment bans, expulsion from internet activity and even barring of computer ownership must all be put in place as potential penalties for disrupting the processing facilities of individuals and commercial enterprise.
Oh, did I leave out the part about being dragged through thumbtacks and being dipped in rubbing alcohol?
Islam : the religion of the never-ending fatwas.
KUALA LUMPUR (AP): The National Fatwa Council ruled Monday that Black Metal music is unacceptable for Muslims, saying it can cause listeners to rebel against religion, the Associated Press reports.
Black metal is akin to hard rock music, but often uses occult imagery and lyrics. It emerged in Europe in the early 1980s and has made inroads in South-East Asia in recent years, though its popularity has remained limited to underground rock fans.
Some Malaysians have urged authorities to clarify whether Muslims should shun the music after police on New Year's Eve detained some 380 revelers at an alleged Black Metal concert in Kuala Lumpur for suspected drug use and other offences. - AP
#2
IIRC, in 2003-2004 there was a witch hunt in Morocco, a relatively "moderate" muslim country, against black metal/death metal/trash/... local afficionados, based on the same accusation of satanism, with added drug abuse charges (which is pretty funny coming from a country that produces about 80% of the cannabis consumed in Europe, with high level complicities and involvement of gvt officials).
The islamic powers-that-be just don't like rock music.
Note I don't listen to black metal, my musical tastes are as decadent (The Cramps rulz!), but not as noisy.
#5
I'm sure Ozzie really cares what these pinheads think...assuming he understands it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2006 15:43 Comments ||
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#6
Given what most metal sounds like . . . this is one fatwa I can actually get behind. While you're at it, can you add Kanye West and Britney to the list?
He comes out and fatwas Nickel Creek or Eastmountainsouth or Ollabelle, and that's another thing entirely.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/24/2006 22:07 Comments ||
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#7
Nickel Creek is a San Diego band, guess they ARE making it big
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2006 22:35 Comments ||
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#1
I saw one at an air show last summer (Quonset Point, RI). It didn't land, but made a couple of whisper passes over the airfield. Too cool for words...
#2
A couple of years back we're at a cookout on July 4th and look what makes a pass over the house. It'd done the flyover at the Esplanade concert and we were on the flight path on the way out. About 2000 ft. Jaw dropping.
Schadenfreude and Denial - what a combo!
The New York Times Co. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter earnings fell 41 percent from the same period a year ago, weighed down by charges for staff reductions and an accounting change. nothing to see here....has nothing to do with distaste for their BS..uh huh
The Times, which also publishes The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune, earned $64.8 million or 45 cents per share in the three months ending in December, compared to $110.2 million or 75 cents per share a year ago.
The earnings included a charge of 19 cents per share for staff reductions and an accounting charge of 4 cents per share. The earnings came in above guidance the Times gave in December, which the company attributed to stronger-than-expected growth of 8 percent in advertising at its flagship newspaper for the quarter. so who's left? MoDo, Pinch, Liar Krugman, and.....?
However, advertising revenues fell 3.8 percent at the Globe and other New England products in the quarter, which the company attributed to sluggish demand for auto, home furnishing and other ad categories as well as consolidation of key advertisers. how about ads not placed = revenue lost? Keep whistling....
Overall revenues rose 3 percent to $931 million in the quarter, or 1.1 percent if the acquisition of the online company About.com is excluded from results.Oooooohhhh - google's worried
The Times also said it would raise home delivery rates by 4 percent effective Feb. 6, resulting in new revenues of up to $8 million this year. In the fourth quarter of 2005, revenues from circulation fell 2.3 percent.
raise rates - that'll bring in the subscribers and ads. Typical and consistent with their editorial board, I like it!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2006 13:23 ||
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#1
They need to consult the famous economist Paul Krugman.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/24/2006 14:08 Comments ||
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#2
I didn't realize they bought About.com. That's been one of my reliable sources of general information -- I hope the NYT busybodies don't mess with it.
#5
I realize that the NYT has come in for a lot of criticism in these and other quarters as of late, and I think it is high time that their great contribution be acknowledged. When you're traveling, or stuck in a dumb meeting, there is nothing quite so entertaining, stimulating, and discrete as a NYT crossword puzzle.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
It took more than six hours for anyone to realize that a 64-year-old Brooklyn man had died on a New York City subway train. Eugene Reilly, who died of a heart attack, likely got onto a Brooklyn-bound Q train just before 1 a.m. Thursday. He wasn't found until 7:15 a.m. when a curious commuter touched his shoulder, trying to wake him, the New York Daily News reported. 
Eight UN soldiers were killed on Monday in a firefight with Ugandan rebels in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN mission to the country (MONUC) reported in Kinshasa. Five others were injured and taken by helicopter to hospital in Bunia, MONUC said. MONUC had previously said that 14 soldiers had been injured. The soldiers from Guatemala had been deployed to the so-called Garamba Park region in the north of the country for days to flush out Ugandan rebels hiding in the area. The two sides exchanged fire for four hours on Monday morning. The rebels were believed to be from 
Canada took a tentative step to the right in yesterday's federal election, ousting the Liberals after 12 years in power and voting in a fragile minority Conservative government, television networks said. Preliminary official figures at 11 p.m. showed the Conservatives winning or ahead in 122 electoral districts compared to 103 for the Liberals of Prime Minister Paul Martin. 
